Recessed The Right Way: A Cool New Look for '50 Pontiac Taillights.
Street Rodder Magazine, July 2004.
By Jason Walker. Photography By Brian Brennan.
In the pursuit of going above and beyond the "norm,"
some ingenious hot rodders have come up with fantastic concepts, many of
which involve executing innovative bodywork. For quite a while now Hot Rods
& Custom Stuff (HR&CS) of Escondido, California, has been turning
out some of the coolest and most innovative cars we've seen. You could even
say that much of the work coming out of HR&CS is reminiscent of the
great coach builders of days gone by. If you've been reading STREET RODDER
over the past year, you've probably noticed many such tech stories involving
HR&CS and their not so everyday custom tricks.
The latest trick we are about to show you involves taking
aset of Bob Drake Reproductions' '50 Pontiac tailights (showcased in our
March '04 issue in the story titled, "The Other Hot Rod Taillight")
and installing them within HR&CS's new '50 Pontiac taililght recessed
buckets.
In this day and age, to stand out in the crowd of unending
amounts of beautifully built hot rods, you have to take things a step further,
even if it means taking a well used hot rod part like '50 Pontiac taillights
and creatively coming up with a totally new way to use them.
For now, these buckets are being hand-formed using good ol'
muscle and sweat, as well as a special wood buck and body working tools.
The heavy-gauge sheetmetal is pounded into shape and smoothed off into perfect
form. As the accompanying photos illustrate, these buckets are quality pieces
that will require no metal finishing or work of any kind. Very soon, however,
HR&CS will be punching these buckets out with a machine.
These kinds of ideas are what inspire and motivate us all
to come up with unique concepts. We hope that after reading this story (and
many others just like it featured in the pages of SRM) you will keep
the diversity coming, whether it's in the form of a high-tech gadget or,
as in this case, simply a new twist involving a classic hot rod taillight.
Whatever the case, this is what it's all about, and we love it. SR.
Hot Rods & Custom Stuff, 2324 Auto Park Way, Escondido, CA.,
1-800-HOT-ROD-5.
Hot Rods & Custom Stuff - builds, restores, paints, services
and sells parts for classic autos, cars, trucks and street rods.