Street Rod Quick Start Learning Guide
Get started on your race car project today with this Quick Start Learning Guide to help you choose books that will provide the best initial value, information and guidance.
Tips On Choosing Street Rod Books
Building a street rod (or hot rod or pro-touring car) is generally a mix of restoration, performance and styling modifications. Having a basic understanding of handling is important to ensure that modifications to the suspension/wheels/tires do not result in an awkward or poor handling vehicle. Having an appreciation for drag racing suspension design princples also helps for straight-line acceleration performance. We suggest starting with a book on vehicle dynamics (and a companion drag racing book as well if you intend to race your rod)
Next, we suggest books that cover general hot rod design and builds, restoring the chassis, body and interior, metal fabrication techniques and then specialized books on different aspects of the vehicle if need be.
| Book Category | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bodywork |  Automotive Bodywork & Rust Repair  (4.5 / 5)Provides instruction on repairing damaged and rusty bodywork. Covers tools, preparing/cleaning sheet metals, fabricating sections and patches, welding options, fitting and smoothing, metalworking and finishing. Get "Automotive Bodywork & Rust Repair":    | |||
| Chassis |  Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling (4.5 / 5)Chassis Engineering is a great introduction to race car design. In a practical and down-to-earth way, it covers the fundamentals of how race cars handle and the requirements for designing and constructing a car. The book includes chapters on chassis design, suspension design, frame construction, aerodynamics and tuning. Overall it provides the reader with the foundation of how the key components of a race car work and interact together. Get "Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling": | |||
| Chassis |  Hot Rod Body and Chassis Builder's Guide  (3.5 / 5)Focused on the chassis and body of the hot rod this book. Includes guidance on restoring or building a chassis, suspension, body construction using existing, fabricated or aftermarket bodywork, body finishing and tools. Get "Hot Rod Body and Chassis Builder's Guide": | |||
| Fasteners/Joining |  High Performance Hardware: Fastener Technology for Racers and Enthusiasts  (4 / 5)High performance hardware provides both theory and extensive practical information on hardware and fasteners. It covers material properties that relate to fasteners as well as pretty much every type of fastener used on a race vehicle. Get "High Performance Hardware: Fastener Technology for Racers and Enthusiasts": | |||
| Interior |  Custom Auto Interiors (4.5 / 5)Step by step guide on creating custom auto interiors. Includes over 800 color photographs and instructions to guide builders through the process and techniques. Get "Custom Auto Interiors": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Fiberglass & Other Composite Materials: A Guide to High Performance Non-Metallic Materials for Race Cars, Street Rods, Body Shops, Boats, and Aircraft. (4 / 5)Forbes Aird's guide to composites. Includes sections on (FRP) fiber reinforced plastic basics (Fibers/Resins), basic layup techniques, advanced layup techniques as well as molds, plugs, tools and equipment. Also includes a chapter on FRP sandwich construction. Get "Fiberglass & Other Composite Materials: A Guide to High Performance Non-Metallic Materials for Race Cars, Street Rods, Body Shops, Boats, and Aircraft.": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Metal Fabricator's Handbook (4 / 5)Teaches welding techniques, metal forming, hammerforming and practical metal fabrication projects. Project include forming custom body panels, tanks, roll cages/safety cells and exhaust headers. Get "Metal Fabricator's Handbook": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Sheet Metal Fab for Car Builders: Make Panels for Cobra, Lotus, Hot Rods & More  (5 / 5)Information, tips and techniques on how to fabricate complex sheet metal panels in the home workshop. Includes many photographs which demonstrate the techniques of metal shaping and fabrication. Get "Sheet Metal Fab for Car Builders: Make Panels for Cobra, Lotus, Hot Rods & More": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Welder's Handbook : A Guide to Plasma Cutting, Oxyacetylene, ARC, MIG and TIG Welding (4 / 5)Teaches the essentials of fabricating with metals including metal properties, welding equipment, jigs, welding safety, brazing, cutting, and forming. The book goes into details on types of welding as well as consumables, fluxes and sample projects to practice with. Get "Welder's Handbook : A Guide to Plasma Cutting, Oxyacetylene, ARC, MIG and TIG Welding": | |||
| Powertrain |  Boyd Coddington's Hot Rod Engines, Drivelines & Chassis (4 / 5)A comprehensive book on the planning, design and construction of hot rods. Covers engine selection, inspection and assembly as well as transmission, final drive, front and rear suspension, steering, brakes, shocks, springs, engine and transmission installation and wheels/tires. Get "Boyd Coddington's Hot Rod Engines, Drivelines & Chassis": | |||
| Powertrain |  David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower (5 / 5)A guide to designing the engine as a system and constructing it to produce maximum horsepower. The design aspects use the airflow through each part of the engine as a basis for instruction. Provides detailed information on how to select, modify and tune each component to work at peak efficiency with others in the engine. Get "David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower": | |||
| Suspension |  How to Make Your Muscle Car Handle (5 / 5)For fans of muscle cars, this book explains the handling and vehicle dynamics of muscle cars and how to improve them through modifications that work as an integrated whole. Included is front and rear suspension geometries, springs, shocks as well as aftermarket solutions to improve handling/cornering. Some later model american RWD vehicles (80s/90s) are also included. Get "How to Make Your Muscle Car Handle": | |||
| Vehicle Dynamics/Handling |  High-Performance Handling for Street or Track: Vehicle dynamics, suspension mods & setup (4.5 / 5)Provides advice on planning modifications, installing components and tuning the handling characteristics of street vehicles. Includes an overview of vehicle dynamics and advice on selecting aftermarket components such as brakes, wheels, camber adjusters, anti-roll bars, springs, shocks and bushings. Also includes tire and wheel selection. Get "High-Performance Handling for Street or Track: Vehicle dynamics, suspension mods & setup": | |||
| Vehicle Dynamics/Handling |  How to Make Your Car Handle (5 / 5)Teaches how to improve vehicle handling through suspension and chassis modifications and understanding vehicle dynamics. Includes basic suspension theory on roll centers, roll axis, camber change, bump steer, anti-dive, ride rate, ride balance as well practical chassis modifications. Get "How to Make Your Car Handle": | |||
| Whole Car (Customize/Upgrade) |  Detroit Speed's How to Build a Pro Touring Car (4.5 / 5)Guide to building a high performance handling muscle car--the pro-touring car. Includes chapters on chassis modifications, front and rear suspension geometry/components and modification, tires and wheels, powertrain, wiring and plumbing. Several example Pro-touring cars are showcased as well. Get "Detroit Speed's How to Build a Pro Touring Car": | |||
| Whole Car (Design and Build) |  Building Hot Rods: 30 Years of Advice from Fatman Fabrication's Brent VanDervort (4.5 / 5)Compilation of advice and best practices on building hot rods. Includes tips and techniques from Brent VanDervort on fabrication, component installation and troubleshooting. Get "Building Hot Rods: 30 Years of Advice from Fatman Fabrication's Brent VanDervort": | |||
| Whole Car (Design and Build) |  Hot Rodder's Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Machine (4.5 / 5)Advice and tips/tricks from hot rod experts on planning, designing and building hot rods. Provides information on finding a donor car, chassis and suspension mods, selecting and installing engines/transmissions, interiors, and body/paint work. Get "Hot Rodder's Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Dream Machine": | |||
| Whole Car (Design and Build) |  How to Build a Hot Rod (4.5 / 5)Teaches the planning, construction and assembly of a hot rod. Covers defining the project concept, planning and costing, part selection, mockup/layout, restoration and fabrication, assembly, finishing and upholstery. Step-by-step illustrations for all aspects of construction. Get "How to Build a Hot Rod": | |||
| Whole Car (Design and Build) |  How to Build a Winning Drag Race Chassis and Suspension (4.5 / 5)This book explains how to modify a street car chassis and suspension for drag strip or high performance street use. It includes theory on handling, chassis fabrication, front/rear suspension, shocks and springs, brakes, rear axle selection, steering, and wheels/tires. Safety information is also included. Get "How to Build a Winning Drag Race Chassis and Suspension": | |||
| Whole Car (Design and Build) |  How to Build Period Correct Hot Rods (4.5 / 5)Describes how to build a hot rod that is consistent with its era. This book includes guidance on various eras (1950s through 70s), East Coast and West Coast, and the attributes that make hot rods from these eras faithful to their period. The book shows how to choose and locate parts which match these eras, and which frames, suspensions and interiors are correct for particular eras. Get "How to Build Period Correct Hot Rods": | |||
| Whole Car (KitCar) |  Build Your Own Kit Car (5 / 5)A guide on how to plan, manage and build your own kit car. The first half of the book is devoted to the history, the types of kit cars, how to choose a car and how to set up your workspace. The second half includes the build of a car including chassis, suspenion, brakes and interior. Get "Build Your Own Kit Car": | |||
| Whole Car (Plans) |  Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and Race It! (5 / 5)Whether you are designing a race car from scratch, looking to build from plans or simply trying to understand what it takes to build your own race car, Ron Champion's book is a wonderful resource to have. While the book focuses on building a specific type of road car (A Lotus 7 replica, these days referred to as a "Lowcost"), it offers many insights into the components, design and fabrication of a race car. Get "Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as £250 and Race It!": |
More Information
For complete information on the design and construction of the Street Rod race car type and a full listing of books and learning resources, see our Street Rod race car type article.