So what is this page all about?

Well, its about what we make in our spare time for fun.

I’ve been a hot-rod fan for as long as I can remember. You can keep your overpriced Ferrari, or your far to common Porsche. Give me an old Ford or Chevy with a V8, clean paint and a nice set of wheels any day. I don’t care if it wont do 200mph or go round corners like its on rails. If it don’t look cool then it ain’t cool.

This leads to a dilemma. We don’t charge enough for the trumpets to go to *Boyd Coddington and say build me a killer ’33 in red please. So, what do we do on a limited budget that is fun to build and even more fun to drive? (yes, a moderate sized adult can drive two of these). We build half size hot-rods. They are all about 2 metres (6ft 6ins) long.

* Look up his work and drool.

These cars have Honda 160 or 200cc Go-kart engines, a sliding clutch and a large disc brake on the rear. They will accelerate quite quickly to around 40 m.p.h. and with the exception of the ‘T’ Bucket will handle well. They have a multi-tube and triangulated very strong chassis (except that ‘T’ again, more on that later) to make them as safe as possible. After all, the young lad drives these like he’s some kind of stunt driver!! Credit to him though, he has the cars under control, most of the time, even sideways (with a crash helmet on).

In the UK these little rods are called ‘Tot-Rods’ and have their own classification at rod shows and runs. They even have their own races, against the clock round a track, or short drag racing.

The ‘T’ is a pure ‘little’ hot rod. It has a ladder frame chassis, a heavily chromed engine, chromed drop tube axle, chromed brass radiator, hydraulic brakes, aluminium wheels, tuck’n’roll interior, working lights, a removable roof and a pearl and candy paint job. This is the latest one we have made and decided to pull out the stops and see just how cool we could make one of these cars. As we can do most of the metalwork and parts fabricating ourselves this was not to much of a stretch to make. It was a lot of fun to see the car come together and to see people admiring it when it goes out anywhere. I wish I had a buck for every picture that’s been taken of it!!

These cars are a joint effort of myself along with the guys who work here (the cars are pretty infectious. Every one wants some input into them). Their time is often voluntary. Other people will often lend a hand to when they see them and this in turn leads to good community spirit and teamwork. This pays dividends with the trumpet making as well as the team can pull together more effectively.

These cars are a hobby and not part of our business. They are not a production item and do not affect the trumpet making at all. However, we do really have to many of them now and need to thin the number down a bit (so we can build another ‘even cooler’, ‘even more radical’one).

I might be tempted to sell the ‘T’ bucket, but only to a very serious offer. If you had that car built by a professional rod-shop then I’m sure the bill would resemble telephone numbers!! I’m not being greedy, just realistic. There is to much time invested in them to give them away.

Well, that’s the little hot-rods. Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures. One day if I get lucky and my numbers come up on the lottery I’ll get me one of those full sized ones…. if I can find Boyds phone number! (I have his number really, just in case).