DALLAS — Time stands still at Bass Kustom in Old East Dallas, stirred only by two industrial box fans.

On a recent warm weekday, the one-man shop housed eight emerging hot rods, among them a fabulous fenderless 1930 Ford coupe still showing scratches on its bare body from a major top chop.

Dozens of well-worn car parts hang on the small shop’s faded brick walls, hovering over dusty, long-silenced V-8s from the ’50s and ’60s.

It’s a gritty black-and-white portrait of hot rodding’s surprisingly bright future.

“I may be a little deeper into it than most, but I know a lot of guys my age who are really into these traditional cars,” said shop owner Brian Bass, 35, who works six- and seven-day weeks to build hot rods that look as if they just rolled out of 1959.

Twenty years ago, hot rodding’s rebels were growing gray and soft.

Although the hobby had evolved into an enduring culture, spawning a $30 billion business in the U.S. today, most of its adherents were middle-age or older.

The Goodguys Rod and Custom Association marked the 20th anniversary of its car show this month, and hot rodding is full of fervent youngbloods who are anxious to keep it going.

Many are going back to the future, building ’50s-style hot rods with rough, original bodies, ancient bias-ply tires and drum brakes.

Digital and high-tech don’t spin the wheels in this world.

“Some of my generation are attracted to these old cars because they’ve been around and have permanence,” Bass said. “They’re real. They’re survivors.”

Previous generations of hot rodders tended to leap forward, borrowing engines and styling cues from contemporary cars.

This group of Gen X and even Gen Y enthusiasts, born decades after hot rodding’s presumed heyday, looks back for inspiration.

“These young rodders have sparked a real strong enthusiasm for these old cars that’s been good for the hobby,” said Gary Meadors, 73, founder of Goodguys, which stages 22 car shows nationally. “I think hot rodding is in a good state right now.”

The Goodguys association, which has 70,000 members and reaches 700,000 more or so through its shows, is now being run by Meadors’ son, Marc — another symbolic passing of the torch.

Hot rodding is “more vibrant, more alive than ever,” said California hot rod author and historian Pat Ganahl, a regular contributor to the highly regarded Rodder’s Journal.

“And with social media, these young rodders network and spread the word in ways we couldn’t,” said Ganahl, 65, the author of 13 car-related books and a veteran hot rodder himself.

Moreover, the infidels have finally scaled the castle walls.

Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.’s 50-year-old global marketing chief, is a passionate old-school hot rodder whose primered 1934 Ford coupe has graced the cover of Rodder’s Journal.

Born in the 1930s on the deserts and back roads of Southern California, hot rodding roared to life after World War II.

Some of those early hot rodders and their parts companies later founded what is now the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association, which later this month will open its annual enthusiast-oriented trade show in Las Vegas to more than 100,000 visitors.

“What’s cool is this industry — which was kind of grass-roots and underground for a long time — has become a huge, serious, billion-dollar business,” said Peter MacGillivray, vice president of communications and events at SEMA. “Our business has grown 30 percent over the last decade.”