1066 Cruisers

        Buying a hot rod is a major investment and should be thoroughly researched. However many people simply head to the newspaper, trade magazines or internet listings without knowing anything about the process of buying these classic dream machines. There are many resources available for finding hot rods for sale and this article will touch on a few of those.

        Before you determine where to start looking, it is important to determine what kind of car you will be buying. Are you considering an old school rat rod from the 30's and 40's or are you looking for muscle and performance from the hot rods of the 60's and 70's? Since many car lovers and collectors would prefer to own every rat rod and classic muscle car out there, and spend way too much money, the savvy car collector and buyer knows this in advance: Buying a hot rod should not be a split second decision.

        The research portion of your buying experience will be the most tedious and fun part of the process. If you are like me, flipping through the trade magazines or browsing the different websites in search of these classic street rods will send chills down your spine!

        Additional things to consider are this: Think about whether you should purchase a less expensive used project, or go with a newly customized car. Is the custom rod really worth the price that comes with it? Can you afford to spend that kind of money, and even if you can, do you want to? Would you be better off starting from scratch with a project car? You should begin by researching what others are getting for the exact same kind of car that you are looking for. Be sure to take note of any extra custom features which have been added to the car as this can affect the actual value. Are you looking for the original factory parts? Or can you settle for replacements?

        Another good place to find your dream machine for sale are specific car club forums. They are literally endless. Just about every classic car, rat rod or street rod has a passionate following of fans that either love to buy, build, sell or talk about their rods. A simple on-line search can point you in the right direction. You can also find a place in these forums where people post their hot rods for sale.

        Before you ever go shopping, take some time and really think about your options, after all, you are preparing to make a huge purchase. In addition, some things that you can do to help ensure you get a good deal, take along any stats of the make and models that are currently for sale to show the seller. Do these stats match up with his?Just because he has the dream machine you want, does not mean you should pay the asking price! The bottom line is, if you do your research and have fun doing it, you won't make a mistake buying your new hot rod.

        For a good half-century now, the hobby of hot-rodding typically meant taking a cheap car, taking out any body part that didn't matter (i.e. roofs, hoods, bumpers, fenders, seats, and other such nonsense), modifying the engine and/or dropping in a bigger one for greater performance (often protruding upwards from the hood), and fattening up the tires for extra traction.

        The term is still as accurate as ever. In fact, not even the cars in question have necessarily changed: one very typical image of a hot rod is a muscle car straight from the 1960s (the so-called muscle car golden age), restored to all its glory and then some. It's not uncommon to take the great ancestors of cars we know today (Mustang, GTO) or ones forgotten by all but a few (Plymouth Barracuda), and send the output of its V8 soaring to 600 horsepower and above. Hot rods can be just as much about customizing as weight-saving (think of flaming paintjobs), and price isn't necessarily an object: one notable Barracuda ("Hemi Cuda" in hot rod speak) on the cover of a major-name hot rod magazine had every body panel and interior item customized to its owner's desire. For $340,000.

        As for hot rods' relation to American culture, the link is quite strong. Nearly all hot rods are American and almost always rear-wheel-drive. In our culture, quarter-mile times make the man. Enthusiasts who spend as much time in the present as the past also pay close attention to modern-day production cars like the new Mustang, and the upcoming 2009 Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger are currently headline news.

        Of course, no rule ever said it had to be a car, per se. Muscular + American seems to add up to enough; Jeep's Grand Cherokee SRT-8 seems to be a hot commodity, no doubt due to the street cred of its 425-horsepower modern-day Hemi V8. Even the new Chevy Tahoe gets attention.

        But some define the genre on their own terms, creating the occasional aberration. One individual dropped a turbocharged-and-NOSed Buick V6 right under the hood of a Geo Metro, for crying out loud. If you can burn through the quarter-mile in 9.3 seconds at 147 MPH, who cares how you get there? If hot rods are to be defined as speed on the cheap, count on it being a part of our culture as long as Planet Earth has fuel.