Thread: Loosing faith!!

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I'v thought about selling my '67 Falcon and using the funds to finish my '51 Chevy. I hung up the wrench in the fall, taking a break from it, I never really picked it back up, and now I have no desire to, on that car at least.

After reading through the replies, there is a common thread through out. Someone shows their car, someone receives a snide remark, ( and it wasn't likely deserved) someones feelings were hurt, and then to exact revenge, and feel better, the same thing is then dished out to the next guy. None of it is right, but dickheads will be dickheads. The people who are ready to pull back and quit the scene for awhile are trying to stay on the high road and not perpetuate the situation farther. At least that's my take on it. There has been a large influx of new (and younger) people involved. Could be they just don't realise it's not required they whizz in the other guys cornflakes to make themselve's feel important. Hopefully, they grow up, or get lost. What's the real answer? Darned if I know. I like all cars, I like this site, and I hope the people that are in a bit of a funk, can rise about it and get back the feeling for their ride and enjoy it. Leave the dweebs and dorks to themselves, they deserve each other. If this sermon helped, please feel free to leave a little something in the collection plate. Sniper.

Hotrod, the best build any one of us could do would be a Time Machine! Then we would discover that the same old debate was always there. In my High School, it was the racers vs low riders. Later, in my off-road days, it was rear engine VW power vs 4W/dr. More recently, I've had my fanny handed to me on this very forum for being historically incorrect. I think I did something shocking like misspelling Lions! The only builder community that does not do this is the aviation guys. If your machine gets off the ground, great. And if no broken bones result, you've proved your point.
Don't let fools and know-it-alls push you around. We are all in this because we have a vision and the stones (no offense J) to see it through.

In the immortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"... Or how about Barry Maguire's philosophy, "It doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl or what kind of vehicle you like, we're all 'car guys'!"

Deriding someone just because they have a different kind of car is divisive and detrimental to our hobby. The people who do that are generally small-minded, consumed with jealousy, and suffer from a sort of inferiority complex. The mouthy false bravado that some of them spout is a cover-up for their lack of real knowledge and experience.

After 40+ years in this hobby I build what I like the way I want it. My coupe looks pretty traditional at first glance, but wait! My car is a mixture of eras: the stance is traditional (50's), it has torsion bar front suspension (80's), front disc brakes (70's), NASCAR inspired rear suspension (90's), slotted rally wheels & baby moons (60's), and 60-series radial tires (80's). When someone pays me a compliment, I thank them ; when someone makes a negative comment I just shrug it off . We don't all like the same things, but some people don't know when to be quiet... Don't let 'em get ya down.

Might I suggest remembering why you do it? You do it for you, right? You're a car guy and that should be good enough for you. Some others always have and always will try to belittle the work of others. It's just the way they are. You'll never change them and by you withdrawing, you only punish yourself, they'll still be that way the day after you quit. You'll never get them to "get along" they have to make that decision for themselves.


May I also suggest that you:

Don't punish yourself by withdrawing. Just go out have as much fun as you can, because that's what you want to do. Realize that just like any other activity in the world, there will always be a real jerk who ruins it for others. Realize that they're beneath you, not because you are by some divine right "better" than them; but, because they choose to be lower than you by their actions, remember that when you overhear what they say. Pitty them, it must be difficult to be that stupid and rude. Don't allow them to make you lose any sleep over any of it.....believe me, they won't lose any sleep over it.

If you can do those things, I think you'll find that you hold all the power with regards to how you view the "sport" and they hold none, and as such, you'll be much happier.

Regardless of what you choose to do, Good Luck!

Dutch

I'm one the guys that bought a finished car, for a lot of reasons, the two biggest being that I don't have enough skills to do the majority of the work, and even if I were to start one now, I'd likely be in the next world before it was finished. I won't go into the other many reasons. However, I wanted something that I could now afford and could begin enjoying right away. I don't have big bucks or I would have spent $50k more. I have done the rod shows for many years, small locals to the Association events, always dreaming of one day having my own. I'm as tickled as a little kid on Christmas. I like all the rods in all the classes, and have met a ton of great folks. My car is glass, and I have been the recipient of a couple (that I heard anyway) of snide remarks about it being a toy instead of a real rod, because it wasn't steel. Bothered me for awhile, but I'm over it, have thick skin, and just blow it off now. I'm still envious of you that can do your own, and appreciate that you are willing to share your knowledge. Sorry......didn't mean to ramble on so long!

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Yep Pat, it is. I think I'll have a boilermaker to toast you for that comeback.

Don

Im not up for toasting Don, (Im a real Pittsburgh Boilermaker)...lol But yeah its a Burgh thing...

Harmon

I just find a lot of enjoyment in taking a derilect heap that hasn't run for decades, putting my own personal touch on it and getting it back on the road. I'll drive them for a year or two and start over. I've built everything from trucks to musclecars to 50's cars and now a low buck rat rod (dear Lord I used the word I swore I'd never use) and the building process was unique and fun on all of them. I have a friend who will build nothing but 67-69 Camaros. A little boring for my taste but he seems happy. It's your money, your time, build or buy what you like. You're still a car guy (girl).

Originally Posted by DennyW

I have been asked, Don't you get tired of working on cars every day, the same old stuff ? My answer was, no, because no 2 cars are the same, even if they have the same name, so you are not working on the same thing, or problem every day.

Nicely put, Denny. Let the church say "Amen."

hotroddaddy- as soon as you become involved with ANY official club you will encounter what you described. If you join a marque specific club where everybody owns Mustangs or Corvairs you will find people trying to project their values on you and your car.

This is part of why younger guys don't care to join clubs because all the old farts mill around and say stuff like, "you oughtta do this or that to your car if you wanna have a class winner." Because old Joe retired from paint and body and put a zillion coats with wet sanding and all the rest over a few months he thinks YOUR car should have $8,000 dropped on paint too cause that's HIS thing. Some quack in a roadster club says the only whay to make a hot rod is to take the entire hood assembly off while another says Hi-Boy style is the way you should rebuild your car.

That's the reality of it. Everyone you meet with another car has a bunch of usually uninvited comment on what you should do with your car. And just like on forums when people ask questions there's lots of people ready to spend your money with their ideas. Most critiqing your car simply list a bunch of ways money can be spent whether it will look or run better is unimportant to them.

Rodders built cars differently in the 40-60s than they do now. Some people choose to copy that style, some don't. We didn't call them rat rods back then but most folks didn't have the money to complete a car all at once over a few months of either sustained labor or check writing.

There were hardly any hobby cars as such. The "hobby" back then was not building a car dedicated to that role only. People worked on their daily driver cause that's all they could afford. Guys bought a car and began smoothing out the body which resulted in primer spots. A 20+ year old interior was usually rags by the time some young guy got it. Often only the front seat had a blanket over it and the rest was stripped out in anticipation of upholstry.

There were no aftermarket wheels and we made do with hubcaps from other vehicles. Cars were completed over a few years as guys drove them. Primer and a stripped interior was not a rat rod it was a car in transition. That's all.

Back then you could find the same bitching and moaning between traditional rodders and customizers. It was simply a question of style and creativity all subjective to the viewer- just like today!

It is very easy to build a roadster apropriate to the guidleines used in 1962 for example. Same for a 30s fendered car or a post war car too.

If you want the tru answer get ahold of era car magazines. Look at cars in Hot Rod and you'll rarely see a full blown radical custom. Most are mild near-stockers. Different hubcaps, naugahyde= (cheapass vinyl) upholstry, some pretty paint and maybe an aftermarket intake manifold with dual carbs. Some cars took to improved looks by lowering and chrome removal. That's it for the most part. There wasn't much aftermarket anything except for the engines and a few chrome goodys like spotlites.

If you wanted something it was either impossible due to lack of technology at the time or you had to do it yourself of explain it to someome who could.

I encourage you go back and study the roots of modifying automobiles and look at the examples. It has nothing to do with prestegious auctions and $100,000 '56 Mercs. It has nothing to do with being able to build a "new" 1937 Ford replica out of a kit, but those cars do have their places. It has nothing to do with 700 HP for a street cruiser, nitrous, blowers, turbos or any of that. People swapped stock engines. It was a time when Chevy V-8s were new so how could there be an aftermarket in selling them? If you've heard of Fordillacs or Studillacs you know that Cad V-8 engines were used in applications of all types. Used Olds V-8s were good for power. Buicks were used and Pontiacs not so much till the late 60s. There was a lot of bolt on stuff for Ford & Merc flatheads and every shop knew how to work on them. The Chevy crate of today represents all the V-8s of all brands used in the old days, period. Not using disc brakes and a dual master cylinder on a rod with a 60s nostalgia look is dumb. By the mid 60s Chevy V-8s were finding their way into rods so......?

In the 50-60s cars from the 20s-40s were just old cars1 No one called them vintage. The true classic car was not found in a barn. They were Duesenbergs, Pierce Arrows or V-16 Cadillacs. Classics were expensive, with custom coachwork built in limited numbers so only the very rich could own them. A '33 Ford was not a classic in 1958 or in 2008. It was just another old car. And who the hell wanted to be seen in an old car? No one except kids who thought 40 Fords and 29 Chevies were cool. Regular people in the 50s were concerned with keeping up with the neighbors trading cars in every 2-3 years. A very tiny minority of wack jobs thought that pure stock old Nashes, Hupmobiles, Oaklands or Essexs were neat. Abandoned cars from the 20s and 30s littered the nation. When they quit running most of the owners walked away from them being they were already 15-25 years old. And in 1950 that was real old.

Owning a dedicated hobby car was not the average thing it is today. I can walk my 8 sq. block neighborhood and see upwards of 40 vehicles over 25 years old that are obviously kept for nostalgia and not transport. In 1958 no one had 20's-30 cars they were building, rebuilding or even leaving sitting around decaying in cities of any size. There were no local clubs or shows and the term cruise-in was not yet born. If you did have a really prefect 1926 Marmon so what? It was just an old car that no one else was interested in. You were an oddball.

Only the kids and the very few men who had the creativity to produce custom cars like Barris, Starbird or Roth and the rest championed the cause along with the guys who like Marmons and Oaklands.

The fact that anyone under 30 is interested in any aspect of the hobby or collector market is amazing really cause all the old farts do is usually negatize them and make them feel unwelcome. Just cause I was fooling with cars in 1962 has nothing to do with anything. Yeah someday rat rods will die out and people will "finish" them. Just do you cars for you and forget what anybody else thinks.

WOW, very well said, being that Im 28 and have owned and drove a classic of sorts since I was 16 I can understand this to a T...Ive always got alot of negative feedback from old timers and purists....

Ive never really had a problem with the old timers, they have mostly been supportive, my problem is with the guys my age, this we hate anything that ends in billy/traditional crowd, all the guys who were rat rodders 2 years ago.