Art & Inspiration Thoughts on the future of the hobby

We were pulling an engine from a 92 dodge at school. Students said they liked these “old” trucks.
I grinned.
One asked what I was smiling about. I said I was working on these when they were new, and that old is relative to the beholder.
I mess with em when they use to term “OBS” or old body style. That could be a mid 90s truck.
The future is out of our control. Worrying over it seems illogical
Enjoy the ride
But I’ve got a pre 65 100hp electric motor just in case

but out of the hundreds of students I’ve had, 2 had a ride I could post here.

probably a greater average that the daily commuters on the road.

 

Gas may be available long after I'm gone. But as I mentioned, who will be able to afford the price per gallon, and enjoy our old hotrods?

 

I will be 84 tomorrow but I am still finishing up my 32 4 door sedan. .It is somewhat stock other than juice brakes and a merc 50 flathead. There is no telling what will occur in the next 10 years. I still love the hobby but obviously will not live forever. We need to see others jump in . When I started the club I was in you had to have a pre 48 car or a repro that matched that description. Now the bar has moved up which I think is great. Maybe we will need to accept others that relate to later models to keep the ball rolling. Just a thought

 

The fact that there were recent reports of all major manufacturers severely backpedaling and and reducing efforts to swap to ev makes me think there will be a resurgence in popularity for old iron. Many people were under the belief evs were so impending they weren't sure if the next tank of gas they bought was going to be their last. So like I said give it a year and there will be new blood

 

Said this before.
In the early 90s we went to plastic repair training for GM. (Not bumper covers) Was supposed to be the future. Even Ford had an all composite/plastic prototype sedan.
The gm plastic cars faded away.
I’m still straightening steel 30 years later
We’re on our 3rd go around or eras of water based paints. Still shooting solvent primers and clears. Lots of shops have switched back to solvent colors.
Went to CNG (compressed natural gas) training 12 years ago. We even had a hydrogen powered ride in that class.
Those still haven’t come close to predictions.
So when I see these “carbon neutral” dates I just kinda giggle.
The automotive crystal ball is very foggy.
Wanna help this hobby, drive your rides.

 

See that's the cheap joke I've been making about the ev craze. Large scale version of plastic bodied Saturn lol. Even to the point where in the report manufacturers were trying to pay dealers to put evs on the lot and mostly failing

 

Chang is constant
Forcing change can be problematic
I like the future predictions from the 50s.
Some got close
Some did not

regardless, if the old car hobby ended tomorrow, we’d probably wished we drove our old rides more.
So drive em like tomorrow is the end

as far as young people are concerned, I can show ya movies and headlines of issues with that times younger generation from the 20s up
Even this hobby we enjoy was called a problem in its golden era by some.
So as things change, some things remain the same

 

Luckily I know of at least four kids(possibly five but she is more into princess stuff lol) that will be into old cars. All of my nephews and at least one of my nieces. The other niece will at least hunt a car guy. I'm the favorite uncle and all of them get excited when something old and loud pulls in front of their house. My oldest nephew already tries to copye at fourteen. Does a pretty good job considering we have fairly similar tastes.....to the point where he has a crush on my wife roflmao

 

It's very unsurprising for me that the students you see rarely have HAMB-friendly vehicles. Probably most of them have no idea where to start with that stuff. Especially when they grew up with EFI, ABS, air bags, remote door locks, etc.

I think that's interesting. In my high school I had one of the oldest vehicles, it was about 20 years old at the time. I've always heard the adage that "you are attracted to the cars that were new when you were young."

While that's true for older generations, for me most of the stuff I like was still old when I was a kid. My experience was going to car shows or seeing them dead in hoarder collections. My dad had a couple collector vehicles as I grew up, but my exposure to these cars is not from when they were new.

As this stuff gets older, the exposure and why people think they're cool seems to change. The feelings they evoke in people change. People gravitate to the hobby for different reasons, but as long as they're still interested in the hobby, that's good enough for me.

I'm building a car that's 95 years old. My interest is because it's cool and something I don't see much locally. I've always gravitated to cars I don't see frequently, which is what my collection consists of.

 

They don’t have em cause they don’t exist in their world.
They probably only see em in my class from time to time.
I’m one of the few in our area that drives old rides for something other than shows.
I’m fine with students turning wrenches on whatever they have. I just post the stuff that kinda sorta fits here.
The 283 in a 51 merc swap that we are doing gets posted but the 12v Cummins doesn’t. Nor will an upcoming LS.
luckily, most young folks don’t see the year cutoff issues or 4 door stigmas many older folks do.
That’s not a dig for this place. It’s designed to fit a very narrow focus.
So when threads pop up about fears for the automotive hobby here, I smirk a little.
Outside the HAMB perimeters, young folks are doing a lot of cool stuff.

 

I’m trying to do my part to even ruin my almost 2 year old grandson. Just this past Monday I needed to go borrow some woodworking tools at my folks house so took my grandson with me. I was walking out to take the boring daily and he pointed at the hot rod. So…we took it instead. He smiled the whole way.

 

Agreed.

Back ~20 years ago I was looking for a 62-64 Chevy 4-door or wagon because nobody was doing them in my local area at the time. I wanted something different than all the two-doors you saw at the time and luckily the people around me helped me with my quest and I got a good one.

 

We have a huge car community where I live in Nor Cal. lots of show and shines and just get togethers. Whenever a youngster brings his car by I always make sure to go out of my way to engage them about it, I don't care if its a Subaru or a Honda, or a rotted out whatever. I always have them tell me about what their plans are for it ect. Some folks won't give them the time of day.
I'll never be that guy. I grew up with an auto shop teacher in high school, that no matter what POS someone showed up with, he made them feel like they had a jewel. All of those kids are still car enthusiasts 45+ years later.

 

Old cars are just cool and will always attract attention. It’s just plane old fun driving one. I always seem to get lots of thumbs up from young and old.


I use my roadster when ever I get a chance to pick my kids up from elementary school. Something different than the sea of grey SUVS. My boys love it and my 9 year old told me it gives him “Cred” to ride in a cool car.


The boys also enjoy showing the neighbourhood kids how the roll up windows work in the back on my 40 sedan. Having everyone pile in for a ride around the block is lots of fun also trying to explain what an ash tray is.


Worried about future? Do something about it take some neighbour kids for a ride if they show interest . Just make sure to ask the parents first. We don’t want hot rods associated with child abductions like those no window white vans everyone is afraid of.

 

Thats what makes the United States so great each state has its own government if one state makes gas illegal anther wont . Hear in North Dakota Ev's don't sell they sit on the lots theres a push for natural gas powered cars there burning it off in the oil patch.

 

Next year will be the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation.

In 10 grade, I was enrolled in our school's power mechanics class (auto shop), 10 grade was the earliest stage you could enter that course.. Our auto shop teacher was on the cutting edge of automotive technology, one of the interesting things he was teaching the upper classmates that year was this thing called electronic fuel injection. He had a functioning system directly from VW that was going it install it on their cars with the 1973 model year. EFI was designed and built by and American, but he couldn't sell the system to any US manufactures, but VW bought it. The current crop of under 20 year old kids have never seen new production vehicles with carbs and point ignitions, but many here can't understand why these young folks are not building cars that use them.

The young folks are doing a lot of cool stuff, outside of the HAMB perimeters. Anthony is correct.
He was also correct about the statement that if you are concerned about gas for your hot rods going away, you should be driving them everyday, just in case it might be your last chance you can buy some gas.

 

Hot rods that are considered "traditional" were born out of hard times with no support, making parts from scratch, scrounging junkyards to make something work. Worst case scenario, everything in our hobby will be forced back to being "traditional" instead of the "restomod" garbage. Could actually be good thing LOL.

 

I think a lot of 'kids' are still into cars, it's just harder to see because our 32 ford is their 85 Camaro. Some are still into building cars, it's just that everything in the world has continued to move on and 32 fords aren't affordable project cars for teenagers anymore. But some still do the same things with the relatively newer cars. So as far as the mentality of the hobby goes, it will live on just fine I think.

 

They ( meaning stupid career politicians without going all political) are trying like mad to illegalize "fossil fuels" (I hate that term as it inaccurate to the distillation process) and the internal combustion engines but from everything I have been reading for the last few weeks that pretty much goes with my original prediction from 4 or 5 years ago. Those who wanted a battery powered car have all bought their cars, a lot of these people have owned their electric cars for a long enough time that it is now trade-in time for another new vehicle and they are not going back and buying a second cordless vehicle because of charge times, depreciation, lack of infrastructure, lack of range and a guaranteed death sentence because batteries go bad. They are going back to ICE (internal combustion engines). I think all this idiotic legislation in Europe at North America is getting ready to hit a brick wall because people just aren't going to buy garbage cordless cars any longer You add that with really high inflation, a lack of consumer spending and a lack of consumer confidence and really high interest rate auto loans and I would imagine you are going to see a lot of the battery powered vehicles disappear from the new car lots manufacturers are going to quit making them Ford has already admitted they lose money on every single "Mustang" Mach E they sell and GM can't give away their electric vehicles nobody wants them. The only electric car that is really doing okay with sales is the Tesla and that's because it is like an iPhone It's trendy and hip with those people that have blue hair nose piercings that think they are doing something good for the environment even though they are driving a new car But I digress.

As for our hobby and the future of the pre 1964 Beatles invasion automobile lifestyle (It really is a lifestyle for most of us revolving not only around the Hotrod scene but the furniture, the music, the finned cars, the mid century houses the crazy atomic age styling and all the other cool stuff of the post-war period from around the western world had to offer. the biggest thing that all of us need to do if we have kids or even if the neighbor's kids like to come over and look at our cars is get the kids involved in the hobby, If they want to hear the engine rev up rev it up, That's music to a future gearheads ears. If the kid has a "dream car" and it's a 35yo mustang Don't poke fun or give a kid shit about wanting a 30 or 40-year-old car (Even though we may think they are garbage) support them because a portion of them will eventually move into the street rod world (when I say street rod I don't mean the 1990s billet rods, but the really nice street driven hot rods which is a more accurate term for any car built after about 1952 or 1953 since they were all street driven hot rods). Speaking of Hot rods at this point they are 90 plus years old most of them it's going to be hard for anyone under 30 to afford one even more so if the rat rod scene is frowned on although thankfully (I think) I think the rat rod scene has finally ran its ugly track course and is now mainly in memory, so no more Cummins 1946 Ford pickup cabs on 2x3 tubing but anyways unfortunately In the early days of the rat Rod scene you had a lot of young guys building cars (That weren't deliberately mad Max looking hot rods but very cost effectively built hot rods out of extra parts that were laying around which I can appreciate for anyone under 30 or not making any real money because it's all about having fun and building shit) most of those guys are now my age group (in their 40s), They aren't exactly young anymore.
Even though most of us on this site like vintage Fords the price has gotten pretty expensive for a decent starting point and the good cars are getting farther and farther between, everyone needs to be a little more open to the oddball cars and Just like back in the 1990s pushing the dare to be different movement and As for the future of the hot rod hobby as a whole I won't lie I don't see a major resurgence anytime soon happening. I remember when I was 11 or 12 (late 1980s) and a hot rod was a pretty scarce thing at a car show even here in Southern California. I mean of course you had your occasional '32 Fords and your Model A's I mean those cars transcend time but they were still sort of scarce at the local Friday night cruise scene. It was probably Pat Ganahl (RIP), That probably helped hot rodding get back on its feet and arguably it was probably the Shifter's car club and the Burbank Choppers that made it truly cool again. Will it have it's 3rd revival it's hard to say and will the post World war II period be so revered as it was in the early 2000s It too is hard to say... I will be honest I would be totally okay if the mid 1960s through late 1970s styling came back although not necessarily my particular thing I can appreciate it for what it was and is I don't even care if the billet street rod comes back I just want to see the hobby survive because again trends come and go I just want the old car hobby to stay around but is the cars get older and older and more beat up and rarer, It's going to get harder and harder for somebody to participate in the hobby. If you have kids get them involved, start them building their first car, They may get bored with it and want to trade it off when they are 15 or 16 But if you install a building work ethic and an old car ethic they won't end up with other old cars in their lifetime.

 

I absolutely agree with you as much as I hate stanced cars there is a good chance that kid eventually is going to build something way cooler and not so in the moment Trendy obnoxious.
I became an adult in the 1990s Honda civics with fart can mufflers, dropped to the ground on 18-in wheels, bagged mini trucks and big stereo

The first girl I was serious with as an adult (2000ish) (It was a relatively old car for her and my generation). I met her because of my car. I had a 1973 Lincoln Continental four-door triple black car. It was slightly lowered (I still have that poor car it has been through hell but that's another story). Anyways I had iron cross door locks, a stuffed dog sitting on the armrest in the backseat and two leopard print pillows and the car was insanely loud because it was straight piped with no crossover, she came up and started talking to me because of the car. That car was sort of an extension of who I was It wasn't exactly what I would have chosen if I could have afforded something different but I made the best out of the situation I had and it was going to be an old car because that's my personality.
Having an attention getting car is part of the fun of driving an old car let's be realistic If it wasn't all of us would be driving much later model mundane cars that could blend in in day to day life but be a terror out on the street when we wanted it to In other words we would all have street race style sleepers.
Some of us such as myself may really like wrenching on a car And if you're real weirdo like I am you might actually like the thrill of the hunt finding that elusive part or driving halfway across the country to get a car or just some of the people you meet at the local car swap meets but the reality is if it wasn't partly the positive attention we enjoyed We wouldn't be driving these cars let's be realistic 28 to 48 Ford product wasn't exactly a great riding, great handling car And by the mid-1950s was pretty damn outdated not only in its powertrain but every which way. We also would not paint our cars bright red, bright yellow, sometimes Skittle orange or some other in your face look at me color. We drive these cars because they are an expression of who we are and we all occasionally like the pat on the back when somebody says nice car what year is it I never heard of that.

 

You are welcome to your thoughts, but please be aware, I am not one of your 'all of us.'

 

Except early '30s cars are 90 plus years old now They are full of rotten wood full of cancer and generally are just in terrible shape if a young person can afford them. It is much easier for a young person that is getting into the old car hobby to buy a complete and running early 1990s vehicle whether it's a 1994 Ford Mustang with the legendary 302, t5 and a 8.8 or a kid that is doing a 96 Civic (arguably the Volkswagen bug of its day) or because pickup trucks today are all the rage with everybody and they are V8 and rear wheel drive They could be doing a 1990s Ford or Chevy or Dodge or even a "vintage" mini truck.
I love my hot rods I think that goes with everybody on this website but we have to be realistic It is way easier for a young person to get into a 20 or 30-year-old hand me down beater That is still drivable verses looking for some very old at this point American iron That is either really expensive or it's so wore out broken they can't afford to fix it especially with the skill set most people have in their teens and twenties. Not to mention a 1990s or early 2000s vehicle, generally speaking has a pretty good drivetrain, great brakes, climate control and all those little things that make it daily driver truly drivable. Most young people can't afford to have more than one car so not only is it going to be their hot rod But it is also going to be their commuter.
I remember in 1996 My First Car was a 1980 pinto My next car was in 1977 Granada then a 73 Volkswagen beetle then my 73 Lincoln Continental (that I still have) when I was younger I viewed every one of those cars as an old car but the reality was they were just used cars They weren't classic by any stretch of the word They were just outdated cars. The Lincoln was the first car I really started to mess with because it fell out California's stringent smog checks about 6 minutes after I bought it. I did not buy my first hot rod project until I was in my mid twenties and when I did buy it shortly after I got it it got stolen not that it matters It was beyond my skill set at that time anyways.
A hot rod is definitely not easier to build in today's world than a early "OBD II" car.

 

I hear what you're saying about you, about liking the attention and atta boys, but please don't make that assumption about all of us. I know what Ryan feels like too, as my wife is an extreme introvert, and I have a similar daughter. Some guys thrive on the feedback from others, but some definitely do not. I'm somewhere in between, a smile or thumbs up is nice, but I don't want to spend every gas up hearing about someone's brother-in-law's Granada. I always say if I were in one of those Sci-Fi scenarios where I found myself as the last man on Earth, The first thing I'd do is go breaking into garages to find the coolest old hot rods to drive, (Not a new Mclaren) because these old things are what I like.

 

This is gonna kill the purists, but to your point on the condition of 90 year old projects out there; don't overlook the thousands of fully restored all stock early cars that are slumbering away in guy's garages in disuse. The majority of them will change owners in the next 20 years. A very nice Model T can be had for less than $7,000 if you are patient. No rust, and the paint and upholstery part is done.

 

Exactly. Like a model A older restoration that’s been sitting for a while. There’s one near me. Price wise is very similar to a c10 or f100 in the same shape.
Simple stretched axle, drop springs, add juice brakes, some f100 steel wheels and you’re ready for engine of choice.
Not very difficult.

 

I kinda disagree with that. But I’m ok being in the minority here.
Simplest suspension ever is traditional hot rod suspension.
Engines? Swapping in a sbc is much easier than some of the popular EFI swaps.
The 283 we’re installing in my 51 has been the easiest swap I’ve ever done. And stupid cheap.
When I was at a pro shop, stuff like a roadster was very simple compared to muscle car builds.
Easier is a relative term.
Easier on the wallet?
Easier in terms of difficulty?
Easier to source?
It was easier to find a nice 32 grill shell than a nice Cuda grill.
It was easier to fabricate repair panels for simpler bodies like pre-war cars than the same for uni-body builds.
Labor is labor. But there’s more of it in post war cars compared to pre war cars.
I’m just talking in terms of big 3 common man vehicles.

 

Chang? Who the hell is Chang?

 

The man of constant sorrows?

 

If the old car hobby or lifestyle was worthless this would have never happened:

Now granted, this is at the very top of the scrotum pole, but a dozen years ago this car was worth maybe ⅓ of that.
Reeling us back into our slice of the pie, 16" Ford wheels were in our way, we didn't give a shit, 10 bucks anywhere you look. $100 today for nice ones, EACH. More for the really kool versions. What's a 32-3-4 3W worth? How about a 36? I once sold a 36 3W that would give any HAMB member wood from Detroit to Miami for $3,850. But that was in the late 70s (fuckin eh, wish I still had it). Juice brakes, 39 trans hung on the back of a 283, copper n white tuck n roll, 59 Impala wheel, SW gauges, a stance that would nearly bring a tear to your eyes. And black. Deep nice black paint that needed nothing.
Perspective plays. I got a license when all the primo badass muscle was relegated to the back line of used car lots. Remember the oil embargo? Couldn't give away a 454, 455, 429, 440 anything. The best of was always revered and saved, so yeah the L-88s and Shelbys were pampered and kept, and still expensive for the times. The general market had me driving something hot from about 76 thru the late 90s. Today, well not so much but what are they worth now? Watch a Mecum and get back to me. That was my era, my time to grow into it,but also at 14yrs oldmy dear ol Dad said "You drive son...", a 1934 Packard 8 club sedan. Smitten, taken aback, and still hold the splendor of that moment today 52yrs later. But I have a GTO and a 39 std tudor as my gotta-have-its.
Exposure and inclusion breeds new interests. I liked modern Street rods for a minute, then they all started looking the same,and some still do. No thanks, but always a tip of the hat for those guys and their will to build em and enjoy it. Big biz too, yes?
Last thoughts, legislation. Says who? Last I looked WE RUN THIS BITCH, not legislative mooks suckling the govt teat. And before you mods get your hackles raised that thought is as pure to the HAMB/Jalopy Journal as it gets. So the message there is pay attention and speak up. We have folks on our side, we usually win. The future is bright, everyone grows into it, and mostly it runs in the families. And that offspring has friends who see it, and the usual cliche stuff about being nice to the youth applies, but in moderation. Hand up vs hand out. I posted this pic in the Hershey thread:

All of em well under 40, the 2 in front shared my space. They had this couple come back for some quicky repairs. The number of youthful folks stopping by talking old stuff was impressive and welcome all week. Quit worrying, we're fine, the future is bright, and fuck legislation. I'd still like to know where that 36 3W ended up.

 

Parts availability and not having to make every single component makes our hobby more accessible and also safer without cobbled junk. I fail to see how things going backwards is good for the hobby.

On the points of finding a project as in the above two quoted posts, I think there's still lots of opportunity. In 2013 a friend of mine had a 29 Roadster Pickup for sale. It was sweet but needed a lot of rust repair, and he wanted a good amount for it. I couldn't get it out of my head, so in 2015 I made a post on a local classifieds site. A guy contacted me. He had one he wanted to sell in storage at his friend's house. He hadn't listed it because of the logistics of it being at someone else's property. I went and looked at it, it was a 1928 and shockingly solid. The price was less than half of what the other truck went for.

The seller was a restorer who had gathered a number of projects that he wanted to eventually get to, so he was hoarding good projects for himself and had realized he wasn't going to get to them all so he was letting some go. So I lucked into a better project vehicle for less money. They're out there.