Hot Rods Is the traditional "fad" over where you live?

I suspect what you're seeing is a result of the same demographic trend that drives nearly every fad in the U.S.: the baby boom. While youngsters may have seen the most press, most traditional hot rods were purchased and built by baby boomers, who were impressionable youngsters when traditional hot rods were new and popular among their parents' generation. What the baby boomers remember and covet becomes all the rage in our country simply because there are so many of them as a percentage of the larger population. Even when a small percentage of baby boomers get into something, it creates a boost in demand and drives up prices.

Over the past couple decades, baby boomers have been inheriting their parents' wealth, and their parents, having lived through the boom years after world war II, are the wealthiest generation ever in the U.S. With freshly flush bank accounts, the Boomers created a spending spree on any number of items that they coveted since childhood. But now the reality of retirement, declining health and ridiculous cost of unregulated health care is catching up to the big-spending Boomers. They are starting to pinch pennies, realizing that they may not make it through retirement financially intact. The baby boomers have never been savers like their parents were.

As time goes on, you're likely to see a downward trend in the prices of everything the Boomers have been collecting recently. With no retirement savings, they will begin selling off their toys as they spend down their resources on a steady path toward Medicaid qualification. As that happens, the market will flood with items that have been popular among Boomers. Look for traditional hot rods and dolled-up street rods alike to flood the market, along with muscle cars and other antique cars generally. Starter-castle homes will flood the market as well, as Boomers move into nursing homes. Prices for those items are doomed to decline tremendously, though that's a great trend for those of us who are a bit younger, and will be at our peak earning years as the Boomers flood the market with goodies.

The downside for those of us who are younger than the Boomers is that our tax burdens are going to increase enormously as the Boomers come to depend on Medicaid. If they don't, we'll see Boomers starving in the streets. Given their voting power, that won't happen. The same generation that has demanded lower taxes throughout their working years will begin to demand tax increases and more welfare spending to help them in their retirement.

 

I don't believe the traditional fad was ever here. Car shows here are now are loaded with new Corvettes, Mustangs and Dodges.

 

Yep, and elitist attitudes is usually what does "popular" movements in. It's just how things work.

 

Hey.I am an old fart 63 and I still love messing around with old cars.You can keep your fads but here on my mountain top old cars are still the king of the road. I rather be driving my 56 Chrysler and watching the gas gage go down and be safe if I am in a wreck with it then drive a smart car and be buried with it in a wreck. Just my 2 cents.Bruce.

 

Fred,You nailed it perfectly...That's all I will say for fear of pissing someone off...but remember,Its better to be pissed off than pissed on

 

Hate to burst you bubble but modern cars fold up like a tin can so your organs, like your brain, don't come to a screeching halt on the inside of your skull when you are in a accident. I will take my car being a pile of mush before my brain is any day of the week.

 

Never really noticed a fad here, either. It's a case of surrounding yourself with auto enthusiasts with the same taste & ideas you have, becoming friends, then keeping the good ones until you die. Along the way, the new guys, young & old, with the same mind set, will find you, and it becomes your job to show them what's right & why.

 

Honestly, I think that cable TV drives a lot of things that are considered "cool". I live in the same town as all the Street Outlaw guys and that is what is super huge here. Every kid in town has a boosted LS powered something.

 

Yep, the traditional rat rodders moved on to being Street Outlaws with turbo LS motors. It's hard to go fast on 7.00x16s.

 

I'm with you, Bruce. I'll take my old tuna boat any day. But ya gotta watch this one. My car is essentially the same car as this '59, and I never thought it would be decimated like that. There's another one where a smart car hits a Jersey barrier at 70 mph, and the passenger compartment is still intact! (Also, I'm horrified someone wrecked a solid '59 Chevy!)




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I have struggled with the same decisions about some of my cars and Harleys. Should have sold them all 10 years ago . Now I can not give them away. But at 62 and haveing lost a sizeable investment when the bottom dropped out, like countless others. And not seeing any kind of rebound in my area. I will not have much choice but to sell most for 20 cents on the dollar. Larry

 

I don't think a fad ever happened. Fads don't last 70 years. What I think did happen is that hot rod owners and builders kept it alive and are the ones who are keeping the tires rolling with car shows, racing and cruising. The traditional rod is and will always be around. The market is still strong for parts and the cars. Because one area is experiencing a slow down does not mean the "fad" is not going away anytime soon.

Like 302GMC said in a nut shell, People surround their selves with what they like and hang out with others with the same interests.

While I am just sitting in my garage drinking a soda, I will have kids and teens who will stop at the sidewalk and talk to each other about my coupe. They ask for permission to come up the driveway to ask questions about it and ask about what I have done to it and to take photos. They love the flathead motor! The kids will ask me to put air in their bicycle tires just to have an excuse to look at it. HAHAHAHA, they like what they see and a couple of kids have asked me to talk with their dads to build something because they say that their dads are not interested in cars like they are and also tell me that when my garage door is open that their dads will drive slow to look at it. I told one kid that maybe his dad wants to build one but the wife says no to him. You know what? Turns out that I was right....

So far, there are only three of us in my neighborhood, that I know of, who have cars and one of the guys has a shop in Ontario, CA. and is the guy who built my frame. We are at most of the shows, cruises and swap meets. I can go to Riverside and the can of worms is opened on the streets. The rods come out of no where. Go to Hemet and can see several more rods for a small town. On a nice weekend I can see plenty of rods on the free ways. I guess it depends on where you live or where you go, for the enthusiasm to be there.

 

Wow, bummer.

I never invested in any of my cars, I did spend a lot of money.

 

It was a fad. Just like pro streeters & billet rods, those that were "really" into the trad rods still have them. There are always those in the hobby that are hard core for the style they like. And they'll keep that style alive 'til the next influx of fad builders of the style.

 

How come your Police Department can't find those races? Bob

 

What's "old school"? I'm almost 73 yrs old and truthfully have no real idea what it is.
I grew up in SoCal in the heart of all the 50's manufacturers of engine performance parts and went to all of them. Every "town" had speed shops and mufflers shops who could do the work you wanted. Machine shops were everywhere, my father was one and was a wind tunnel model maker and I learned right from wrong with construction practices from him.
I know when a car looks good at least to me. I also have no clue what "stance" is when it's said about a front lifted "gasser" or a front lowered 57 Chevrolet. .
I like 30's-40's-50's & 60's cars a little low in front....a rake.

 

Even the bossman here acknowledged it:

"The traditional renaissance of the 2000’s had little effect at first. It was as if the people with enough money to compete were slow to react to the fad and so the AMBR award cars remained stuck in 90’s. Every now and then a relatively traditional car would make the lineup, but it seemed to only as a nod to those in the know and not as an actual contender. And then… 2013. A car with bias ply tires actually won the AMBR award."

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=29681

 

Never was a fad around here, or a movement. Local car shows have newer cars, muscle cars, "traditional" cars, and of course my patina style rides. Everyone gets along just fine. There are more organized "rat rod" style shows around here than "traditional".
I look at the traditional thing like the corvette thing, nobody is going to tell me what parts to use or how to build my cars. Much too restrictive for me but I respect the work it takes for those who want to go that way.

 

Where's falcongeorge when you need "another opinion"?

 

Okay....

 

Actually it was not my cars . It was my retirement investments that I trusted to people who where suppose to know what they where doing. And the 20 cents on the dollar is base on what my cars and bikes would have sold for ten years ago verse's today. I will come out okay on the cars , But sometimes you think what if. The market is over loaded with nice cars and bikes for sale, it is a buyers market . It is just that there is getting to be less buyers. At least up in my area. Larry

 

I have heard they moved it a couple hours east.

 

That's what I see too. I'm 36, 10 years ago it was like an arms race to scoop up project cars, now most of my friends have a few and don't need anymore, we still like our stuff, we just don't need to buy two new projects every year to back-burner. I know I personally have bought some of the cars I never dreamed I'd own ('34 Ford coupe, '51 Merc coupe, '70 Judge) and I just want to focus my time on what I've collected, not buying new projects.

I don't think it was a fad that people have moved on from, I just think most of the guys my age who love this stuff bought what we wanted and now aren't looking for more. Everyone I talk to says that, they want to get rid of excess shit and work on their good cars, that and a lot of local hoarder auctions putting stuff on the market makes projects hard to sell.

I personally know a lot more guys under 50 that love this stuff than over 50. And I have yet to see all the good stuff getting given away dirt cheap from old guys dying off, which I have been promised since I was a teenager but always seems to be 10 more years over the horizon.

Me and my friends don't have the money now to buy 30-40K finished cars, but we didn't 10 years ago either so that hasn't changed.

50's pickup trucks seem to be the hottest thing now. Younger guys than me, that's what they all seem to want.

 

Never really caught on around here. I'm thinking the late '60s style may be next. Wild paint wild engines that sort of thing.

 

"I'm thinking the late '60s style may be next."
I hope so ... I still got my 517 Levis cords & a jug of English Leather.

 

If you are asking about the scene, yes it has died down in so. cal. what´s left is the car guys. As clubs , we still get together and have small events and enjoy the friendship we made over the years. Blame it on the recesion, a lot of guys had to sell their cars , projects and most of it went overseas . We and some other clubs started charters in Europe and the scene is alive and well. Alot of the guys got married , had kids and bought a house so their priorities changed. Will they come back, probable so, but the economy has to improve , so for the guys in their forties, the interest is still there. As for the baby boomers , those guys are gone, I have always said that the L.A. Roadster Show is the themometer of whats going on with our hobby. The baby boomers won´t even walk the swappmeet any more and are trying to bail out of their easter egg billet rods. As for the generation X , they are still going to be around.
The biggest problem are the guys in their twenties and thirties, those that like cars are into the fast and furious shit and at least some of them like muscle cars. or moved to the vintage bike scene. but the great majority are new age hippies, they are into man buns , hugging trees, eating tofu , don´t have jobs and ride bicycles. Politics aside , thats what they were taught in school, shopp classes were dropped and replaced with organic vegtable growing and that cars are evil and we should all ride the bus.
The other reason is city and county code enforsement. Guys like me that sold model A bodies and hot rod parts finaly got fed up and sold and shipped all our stuff overseas. Thats why the scene has grown over there . The problem is that they are no more project cars. so you have to buy a older restoration or one of those easter egg cars and degay it.
The computer has been a double edge sword, on the one hand , it has made our hobby popular all over the world. The Kiwis and Auzies have always liked tradional hot rods as well as the Sweed´s, but now they are clubs in the Neatherlands, France , Germany, Spain , Italy, Japan and even Mexico. But the down side is that E-Bay killed the swappmeet , were people went to buy a project car.
So If you have a young kid ask you about you´re old car,take the time to show him and pass the torch.

 

I agree and traditional customs.

 

Bring back Patsels and graphics!... I have 20 litres of salmon paint left over, it's even too ugly to paint the outhouse with! Oh, and big shiny wheels too....

 

Metal man, you gotta remember where you are!
And about the "trad cars" getting turned into street rods, yup.
The A I built and sold is slowly getting changed into a street rod.
The guy has shown it a bunch of times and gets very little response.
Every once in a while someone will mention "the old school look", not seeing the OLD parts.
But there is hope, there are a couple of kids down south building an A sedan, he bought my blower stuff a while ago and seems to know what and why he's building.
You have a coupe for sale maybe?
(Gotta finish the '57 first......)





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Been a mechanic for over 20 years...and ain't that the truth. It's freaking pathetic what the charge vs what they pay. When I was younger it was a "skilled trade", now it's just a "laborer" job.