Art & Inspiration At what point does it stay in the garage

Been there. Done that. Great fun. It becomes part of those old memories!

 

I'm on the same page as a lot of your fellers. I built my Ol' Furd F100 as a driver to REPLACE my late model pick-up. Reliability and fuel economy were driving forces. So, it get driven nearly every day.
However, I'm feeling the need to build in some sort of security system. If someone knew what they were doing, this thing could be gone in less than 60 seconds. I just need to make it a bit more difficult. If someone really wants it, they're gonna get it.
Plus one of the reasons for doing a classic, I reckon, is it attracts attention. Both good and bad. My late model truck was just another vehicle in the parking lot.

 

I suppose it's a double edge sword. Yes, be aware of weather and traffic and be reasonable about where you go. Two friends of mine lost cars while in the garage. One was a fire after a lightning strike and one was a tree through the roof during a significant wind storm. So the garage isn't necessarily a guaranteed save. I would either enjoy it, or sell it. Some guys enjoy the working on it and looking at it as much, or more than the drive. So, what's your enjoyment based on? Again, I would enjoy it, or sell it.

 

I try to avoid rain for the most part but I also don't really care if I get caught in the rain from time to time. The main reason for that is that my cars are huge and they're a lot to clean, so I try to avoid the extra work. That said, if it's dry, I'll drive them year 'round. I have heat, so even when the weather is real cold, and even if the roads are brined but dry, I'll take them out. For my personal situation, I work in the city, so driving classics I care about here is not an option in my opinion, though I have done it if I'm going directly to a show afterwards. The last time I did, I bought 2 spots and parked in the middle to give me some more room and peace of mind. Here it is packed in behind the Hudson County Courthouse.


That being said, the majority of the driving I do is just general use, not back and forth to shows. In fact, I don't catch anywhere near as many cruise nights as I'd like to, but I absolutely will grab one of my classics and go to Walmart, Wawa, the grocery store, the Diner, to a hockey game, or whatever. I probably put 12-15K miles on them a year of just "non-daily driver" use like that. I put my cars together to be used, and they should be able to go wherever, whenever.

 

Good point on using these cars as transportation and not just to and from events. I actually do almost no events and use them more as daily type transportation stuff running errands, back and forth to work, etc. I could likely count the number of events I typically attend each year on one hand or so. The funny thing about some of my driving is that since we host a few 100 mile reliability runs, I might put 500 miles each way on my car to do another 100 or so while there.

 

I've never owned any car that I was worried to drive. I live close to Boston where driving is quite dangerous and downright scary at times. I still drive both cars often and sometimes quite far away for a show/cruise.
After a paint job on one of my Novas years ago I found myself becoming one of those "stay away from my car" guys and it definitely stressed me out. Big belt buckles, unattended little kids and dogs at car shows all worried me. I've relaxed a bit as I've aged a bit. Next build will have nice paint etc and I plan to enjoy it just like the others.
Now, if I owned a super rare, 1 of a few, special order, etc. . . . . Awww nevermind, that'll never happen

 

yeah, I make sure that never happens, by buying really crappy old cars and building them in a way that any damage to them really isn't noticeable

 

Due to our short driving season, I'm out everyday except bad weather. Sprinkles, who cares.....thunderstorms no thanks.
Todays drivers are a terror to me. I have been almost rear ended several times due to their lack of driving skills. Not paying attention and distractions from whatever and the fact that my old 4 banger A is in their way.
Some days, it's just not nice out there but........that won't stop me!

 

If your car(s) bring you happiness, whether they are sitting in your showroom, on loan to a museum, daily drivers or sunny day rides, who cares? Build more cars.

 

Miami Fl. has been always,if you don't like the weather,stay put for a few min.= it will change.
I didn't even have a folding top,to my 28A Roadster ,for a very long time<when I was younger.
At 80,I'm not much into getting wet any more,me ,not the hotrod. I had built it,with the idea;Rain was going to happen........
Age of my body,moved me to add a folding top a number of years back. Helps keep me out of so much sun and some of the rain.

I drive too what ever n when ever shows,or just to take a ride. Not just weekends> now days hotrod an I do stay inside more then before.

If your wishing for a folding top,well stop wishing,an make your self one;
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...top-a-how-too-do-it-tech.857951/#post-9479688

 

keeping it tight for the next guy....

 

Never, while I have no problem if someone else is happy looking at their cars and not driving them, I prefer to drive them everywhere.

Hell my car is in the McDonald’s parking lot right now while I have lunch with my five year old!

 

I guess it depends on your bank account,

I drove mine today to Napa, the driveshaft shop, and the paint supply. I walked out of the shop to leave and he waved at me, he said "hey man, can I go to?" So I walked back in the shop and grabbed the key. We had a good time

 

Getting the focus right while driving is difficult...it'll focus on the steering wheel, so you have to make sure to frame the image so that doesn't happen. Not that I have any experience taking pictures while driving, because that would be dangerous.

 

not only is it illegal to drive a fenderless car in the rain here, it kinda puts a damper on the fun quotient.
that or if it involves hauling anything bigger than a bag of groceries the daily is the choice.

yesterday about to run some errands:

 

When then introvert anxiety passes, and I can drive. Garden of The Gods.

 

I’ll try to do better next time @squirrel not that I was driving either…

 

Unless of course you are trying to focus on the dash which I also wouldn’t know anything about. I don’t have near the scenery you guys have.

 

Looks pretty similar to the landscape where I live

 

I drive my stuff. Both of our old vehicles have regular plates and insurance on them.

I build my stuff from piles of junk. I figure I, or anyone else, can't hurt it any more then what it was when I started. I've had a couple reduced back to piles of junk before. When it happens, we do whatever we have to.

Up until last year, my coupe sat outside year around, so weather wasn't much of a decision maker concerning using it or not. It was sitting in the crappy weather either at home, or out and out and about was more fun. It has heat, defrost (very effective I might add) and wipers, but it isn't very comfortable in cold weather. When the truck got built, I did a better job making it more comfortable in bad weather. It is a year around driver, and was built to be so.

That said, we live in a smaller town (under 20K people) so heavy traffic pretty much doesn't exist. I prefer State highways to the Interstate, but I do use the Interstate if I need to. We average pretty close to 10,000 miles a year on our hot rods. Smiles from the miles is a great payback for the hours invested in the builds.

My stuff is daily driver quality, but my wife and I are both retired. That means if the weather is really bad, we don't have to go anywhere. We do have my wife's more modern car (it seats more then 2 people), I hate driving it. The 49 does better in snow then her car does and is a lot more fun to drive.

 

I live a mile off the Highway on gravel. No fear driving my stuff. The 51 GMC is being built as a daily pickup.

 

I’ve got one I haven’t driven since 2010. I do uncover it a couple times a year and admire it though. Nice thing about not driving them is they don’t break down.
Seriously though if I were the only one on the road I’d drive it all the time, it’s the other 90% texting away waiting to slam into you because they didn’t see a third brake light.” Oops Sorry, I didn’t see you stopped”.

 

Agree and like, to a point. There's shades of gray here. Location, storage amenities, and destination play a role.

I'd have no issue driving my nice old car to work any time it's nice out, except a co-worker will park next to me and smack up a 15K USD paint job with his car door. Because: people don't pay attention. We've also had a car parked right next to my just-really-nice-regular-summer-only car keyed.

So neither the '65 nor the '08 is a 'museum piece' but I think critically before putting either of them where they are likely to be harmed. Plus after 30+ years of fighting corrosion and rust, I'm done with it on old cars. Garage. No rain or snow.

 

I guess if you have a 15k paint job, then yeah, there would be a point that you don't want to park your car just anywhere. Bummer. I guess that's why I never paid more than a grand for a paint job.

 

One of my favorite cars in Jay Leno's collection is his Mercedes gullwing race car

Original paint, all scuffed. He lets people get right up to it, no sweat

 

That's my kind of car.

 

When I rode motorcycles I would say I might come home in the rain, but I am not leaving house in the rain. Same thing with my old cars more or less.

 

I was the same way before I got wipers. If I knew it was going to rain, I stayed home. I got caught out a couple of times, no fun driving when you can’t see. I always used rainx on stuff before, but it didn’t do squat on the flat Lincoln glass, guess the aero wasn’t right. Got caught out with my new wipers, mucho better. Now to get the glass sealed a little better so the wife doesn’t yell that she’s getting wet…..

 

The purpose of a car is to go down the road. If I'm afraid to drive it there's no point in having it.