ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates individual choices made by two hot rod builders as they customized their cars, and shows how these choices reflect not only their values but also how they related to hot rod culture as a whole. The early hot rodders chose Fords because of the wide diversity of performance parts and their availability in junkyards across America. The region’s temperate weather and low average rainfall created an environment in which auto racing could be a year-round endeavor. The origins of automotive aesthetic enhancement date back further, to the 19th-century tradition of custom coachbuilding. The coachbuilding industry survived the transition from carriage to automobile, but was nearly extinct by the time postwar hot rodders began modifying their cars. The dry lake beds were attractive to early hot rodders because they provided a safe space to exercise their machines, free from speed limits and the police officers who enforced them.
