If you had to define what a hot rod was, how would you define it? Is it a fenderless Deuce roadster? A chopped merc with a hopped up flattie and side pipes?
     Whatever it is, it’s a question that every gearhead ponders at the beginning of a project and the answer will come the first time you fire it up and hit the streets. In fact, maybe it’s the reaction of other gearheads to your ride that best defines whether you’ve achieved your hot rod visions.
     For designer/builder Tom Langton of Rumble Customs Chop Shop Studio the true essence of hot rodding is gathering up somebody else’s junk on the cheap and whipping and welding up something cool.
     “Building a traditional hot rod is all about recycling old parts, rebuilding, restoring...it’s definitely not about seeing how much you can spend,” he says.
    It’s hard to believe that the Cornfield Cadillac featured on these pages is his first stab at building a hot rod. But it’s not like he got lucky.
     This rock-a-billy hot rod buddha based in the village of Delta, ON first busted his knuckles building and designing bikes. He’s done pretty well doing that becoming the first Canadian builder to win the coveted ‘America’s Most Beautiful Motorcycle’ in 2001, and ‘Bike Builder of the Year’ in 2003, from Easyriders Magazine. Pretty good.
     But after more than 12 years of bike building, Langton decided it was time to put his considerable skills to work building a “traditional” hot rod.
     He wanted the truck to showcase his fabricating skills but he didn’t want to spend a lot of money so he started scrounging and bartering for parts. “The whole idea of building a traditional hot rod out of castoff parts to me became an adventure,” says Langton. “No catalogues. No new parts. No bullshit. Why buy it when you can build it?”
     The cab was discovered in nearby Smith Falls, ON and purchased for a paltry $200. He had his choice of a GM or this 1947 International KB cab. While the International had a pretty bad water line, after careful examination Langton realized it would give him more leg room. 
     “With the chop I wanted to do, with the GM I would have almost had to lay down to drive it,” says Langton. Once home, he sectioned the cab 14 inches and rebuilt the bottom and chopped the top 5½ inches.
     “The top chop really got me going on the build,” says Langton. “I phoned my friend Johnny Vasko (aka Johnny Chop.) with some reservation about the technique and his advice was ‘just chop the f*&#ker right now and get at it. It’s easy.’“ A heart condition claimed Vasko last year at the age of 33 and Langton used his words as inspiration. While not entirely easy, the build was completed in eight months at cost of about $3,500.
     The lone major expense of the build was a 1939 Columbia 3-speed rearend purchased on eBay  for $1,950.
    The underpinning of the ’47 Studebaker is a Model A chassis, but to get the low profile he wanted it was piecut in front 8¾ inches and z’d in the rear 11 inches. He traded a Mustang II front end he had lying around for a set of ’40 Ford brakes, steering wheel and column. The rad shell came from an Allis Chalmers A-Series tractor and the same farmer coughed up the gas tank from a junked Massey Ferguson combine. Again, the price was around $200. For motivation, a 1949 Ford 239 c.i. flathead was mated to a 1939 Ford three-speed top loader tranny. The pickup rolls on 19 inch Model A wire wheels.
     Langton fabricated the box after abandoning the idea of using the quarters from a 1950s car. “I thought that would look groovy and I still might do it someday, but then I thought your average guy  with average skills isn’t going to take the time to section a car and make it fit.”
     The more he got into the build, the more important it became to build the car as if he was just an “average” hot rodder. Looking through all the photos taken throughout the build Langton started to think he might have a how-to book in the making.
    “I wanted to tell other people what it was like,” says Langton. “The people I asked for advice along the way either knew nothing because they bought their cars or were full of knowledge and more than interested in helping someone who was genuinely interested in getting their hands dirty and learning.”
     His idea for a digest style how-to publication (think late 1940s/early 1950s hot rod mags) is in the drawing board stages but his new career as a hot rod builder seems ready to take off.
     When the truck was finished Langton took it to this year’s 55th Annual Detroit Autorama. The Cornfield Cadillac was promptly awarded “The Outstandig Traditional Pick-Up” trophy and “The Charles Jones Award for Outstanding Design and Fabrication.”
     He’s come a long way from his days as a university geology major and long haul trucker. Yep, that’s right, long haul trucker. Shortly after he graduated with an honours degree in geology, Langton moved to Alberta, bought a rig and spent five years long hauling throughout Western Canada and the U.S. It was during this time that he made a lot of his contacts in the custom bike building industry. It also gave him a chance to salt away cash so he could do what he really wanted — build bikes.
     While he still builds bikes, the Cornfield Cadillac experience has pushed him big time into the world of hot rod building. He has two other projects on the go and says the Studebaker will never really be done. 
     “The No. 1 question I get asked is ‘what colour are you going to paint it?’ I’m not. At least for now,” says Langton. “The names of at least two previous owners are still on the doors. That’s history, character, tradition. You can’t buy that. I just had Rollie slap my name over theirs, that’s cool in my mind.”
     So, is the Cornfield Cadillac finished?
     “In my mind, it will never be finished,” answers Langton. “It may take another 10 years to see it completed. The great thing about this hot rod is that I can change the headlights or anything without changing the overall look of the car.”
     Future changes may include a Scott’s blower he picked up or will definitely include a box bed to make this former work truck a current work truck.
  For Langton, building a traditional hot rod is all about “recycling old parts, rebuilding, restoring. It’s definitely not about seeing how much money can spend. It’s about how much you can learn. In a sea of six figure hot rods, traditional cars stand out because they display the true owner’s taste and style with no design confines.”
     We couldn’t have said it any better.