Starting at 5 p.m., Ken Fuhrman's flathead Ford will be available for viewing in the museum's Sculpture Garden. Informal discussion with Ken Fuhrman following the feature. Feature preceded by shorts:Kustom Kar Kommandos (Kenneth Anger, 1965). To the strains of "Dream Lover," a beleathered man polishes his roadster with a powder puff. (3:30 mins, Color, 16mm, PFA Collection).Hot Leatherette (Robert Nelson, 1967). A car races along the palisades and then plummets in perpetual ecstasy. (5:30 mins, B&W, 16mm, PFA Collection)That Really Obscure Object of Desire (Kelley Baker, 1989). How long can you store a ragged '28 Ford in your sister's garage? The brother finally 'fesses up. (5:25 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist)Many of the earliest hot rod films had a preachy point. It wasn't that hot rodders were delinquents (that would come later), but dragging in the streets was causing too much carnage. Like The Devil on Wheels (1947) before it, Hot Rod is wrapped around a campaign to get the rods off the road. The crusader in this case is stern daddy Langham (Art Baker), an anti-jalopy judge, whose son David (James Lydon) has been lobbying for a supervised dragstrip-if you can't beat 'em, time 'em. Eventually, David comes before the court when he is framed for a not-very-moving violation, but vindicates himself by chasing down a "real" criminal in his flathead Ford. Hot Rod is a gow glimpse of '40s car culture-the teen rivalries, the street racing, the junkyard journeys to look for parts. To further the authenticity, the opening credits feature some early timing runs at southern California's El Mirage dry lake.-Steve Seid