History Where is this hobby headed?

It's heading were ever I'm driving to.

 

I go to Back to the 50's and neither my 28 A PU or my 57 vette can be shown here . The Vette has Centerline wheels ( it's getting magnesium Americans soon ) it and the original body A has a IRS .
( sorry but it's staying)

A lot of the Back to the 50's cars can't be shown here. There is a lot of street rods with non HAMB wheels or suspensions

I respect that this is a site about traditional rods but it's a very narrow part of hot rodding . It's also why I come here .

I'm looking at a very well built 37 Chevy Sedan with IRS front and about everthing else non HAMB friendly . Quality work is quality work and is to be respected.

There Is a lot of crossover in this hobby and I suspect many here have non HAMB cars in the garage as well.

For me to build a traditional car I need to fund one that's affordable and enough left to build on.

I found this site looking for ideas on a old fiber glass body ( speedway kit) I'll build it in a traditional ish style but to be honest there is not likely one real part other than maybe a few dress up parts that's pre 64 .

Hot rodding is alive and well .
This site has certainly made traditional early hot rods more popular and respected. It made me want a traditional roadster pretty damn bad.
So the internet and high technology is actually growing the hobby of traditional cars weird if you think about it.

 

A 20 year or old kid I follow om Instagram, his current project is a 32 Tudor with a 401 Nailhead and 6 x 2bbls.

 

Did he give details on how it was purchased?
Edit: The reason I ask, was he funded/helped out and what struck his interest in a ‘32 vs an import thing.

 

All I can say at this point in this thread is, GET THEM OUT THERE GUYS! If you go to a show you do not have to sit in a chair. My coupe is a outlaw crazy piece of old school hot rod in my part of the world. And gets more attention at a show then any new vette, or classic that is only driven 50 miles a year. Show your stuff! Let the civilians see what a old hot rod is. I will being doing that very thing tomorrow, and having a BLAST! Burn rubber, have fun, Life is short. End of my 2 cent rant.

 

At the LARS ....by the looks of it, hardly anyone there under 35.....yea it's pretty bad. Lots of deals to be had because nothing was selling. Most people were at "make me an offer" because stuff was just sitting. Lincoln Zephyr geared '39 trans sold for $100.... yea it's been like that.

 

Traded his 53 Ford that he put a 401 Naihead in.

Most of you guys are almost 25 years behind, that import thing was a fad never happed from when I was in high school in between 96 to 2000.

The guys who read the Tuner magazines when I was in school didn't do any work or own a tool and after they graduated high school and started college haven't given any more thought to cars.
A few have stayed with it but is a very limited number.

It's was replaced by the lifted 4 wheel drive Diesel trucks trend which has basically died!

 

Lucky I'm driving the panel........sounds like there's parts just waiting to be given to me.......

Wait, I'm 25 years behind..................AGAIN...... damn public skews.

 

Naw, ya have to go back further. In the 80’s I lived in phoenix when that movie came out with Bigfoot truck. Soon street were filled with the lifted trucks. 2 or 4 wd.
Why the need for a 4wd in phoenix? Maybe to cross the aroros? During the flooding to say ya did it

 

It most be So-Cal because around here that price would be sky high and someone would buy it, I can tell you it wouldn't be me!

You are buying a pig at a poke, yes it has Lincoln Zephyr but how are the synchronizers and bearings? Is the case cracked? You could very easily be buying an over priced piece of scrap!

$100 sounds more in line with what someone with a blue collar job, a family and a mortgage could afford.

I wheel, deal, and sell at swapmeet it's not retail! I am there to make a little side money, and offset the cost of my projects not to make a killing off the next guy!

 

I am at least 75 years behind (and I am only 42!) I only build Blueflame Chevy 6s, I still run points, drums, bias ply tires and refuse to put a radio in my 53 Chevy.

 

Agree 100%

 

Younger guys are taking up the skill of pinstriping and doing a great job. Here's Lincoln doing his stuff.

 

Hot Rods and classics scene downunder....

 

What does that matter? I’m so sick of this BS. “Where is our hobby going?” “None of today’s kids are into old cars? “ “There’s no way a 21 year old can build a 32 Ford on their own.” I bought my 32 sedan when I was 21. I’m 42 now. I paid $3000 for it. I’m currently helping a 21 year old kid with a 32 sedan that was found in a barn. He bought it himself…

Get out in the garage and do something. Stop complaining on the internet.

 

The high school in Oceanside NY has an auto tech class that has a lot of custom car influence. I think they build a different car every year.

 

I don't need to convince you that the days of fetching high prices for stuff are gone. I saw that trans, it was premium ready to run. I watched for 3 days as people marked stuff down each day to almost give away prices, this is at a premier swap meet. The guys asking $65K for their glass roadster are in a fantasyland..... that stuff is never going to sell. The only people buying were the hoarders, who will die with it.

 

I don't think so, for both accounts.

Internal combustion engines will be around for a fairly long time even though they're typically horrible for the environment. ICEs can run on various fuels. I doubt anyone is running their HAMB hobby car on ethyl.

Voting isn't going to prevent technological and environmental advancements.

 

I went to the Gas Up an antique machinery show in Gallupville NY.

Lots of young people there with their own on machinery display, and giving demos.




Yes, this little girl was driving this Model T!

 

I’m trying to do my part in passing it on down

 

By the way the young man kneeling splitting wood owns the T-Bucket in the background.

 

I'm trying.......but I'm running out of room.

 

What's health insurance?

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/steve-magnante-gofundme.1317399/

 

There are many people who would be willing to be if the prices other's were asking weren't 5 times what the parts are worth!

A great example of this the Frankland Super Cover. Until about 5 years ago they were at oval track in the $20.00 to $75.00 range no one wanted them.
The only reason to run one was if you were running a speedway (mile or bigger) oval track and needed and rear end pump and cooler. A few years ago, the street car guys discovered them and because they looked cool started giving stupid money for them and jacked the prices which in turn jacked the prices of all Franland/Winters 10 spline Q.C.s

Which again aren't that rare almost every short track car from the early 1960s until very resent times used one.

It's because of the hoarders the stuff isn't out there it's locked away out of the public eye along with so many of the cars!

Do you know how many times I have been at an event an asked someone with a period correct car or a survivor about driving to an event and I get told we trailer (usually enclosed) because it rides rough, it's uncomfortable, it doesn't have A/C.

You can't get people interested in something if they never get to see it!

 

all of this. I'm 24, I keep floating in and out of this segment of the hobby for all these reasons.
It's more than just parts that I as a young guy am getting priced out of, its the cars themselves. I made a lot of people in a certain Facebook group very mad by pointing it out with a local listing of a Ford F1. When a car that doesn't even run is going for Half of my annual salary its hard to enjoy that sort of vehicle, that's before I even try to get into speed parts.

the hoarding thing, that's what really made me want to make me comment on this. I've had too many time I've gone to buy parts I need for building my truck only to have the parts sold to someone else, and if I somehow figure out who it gets sold to its usually someone that's just buying these parts just to sit on them and think about how they'll use them in a "future project" It doesn't annoy me that I miss these parts (even if I get pissed because the seller tells me they'll sell me the part beforehand and then doesn't) it's more that I know they're probably never actually going to do anything with the parts.

That last point too, drive your shit if you want us young guys into it. no car achieves that badass status by sitting in a parking lot all the time.

 

I'm of the opinion that car crazy people will be around for a long time, or till the government finds a way to ban them or make it impossible for us to modify them. People want to personalize there cars, weather it be a BMW or 57 Chevy. Americans LOVE their cars!!

 

Since I make my living trying to figure out the answer to this very question, I can tell you that the future of the hobby isn't here with us on the HAMB. And maybe that's OK: we love these cars and when we take them out, we make the world a little better, but we do 'em because they make us happy and we generally don't care what the rest of the "industry" thinks (and I'm making big, sweeping generalities here because I have to).

On the other hand, I don't wanna settle for that. But I also know that the future of car culture depends on a few universal truths:
1. Ease of entry
2. Sustainability
3. Community

If cars, parts and tools are too expensive or too hard to find, getting into a certain strain of car culture is a non-starter. All things being equal, the market will tell you that a 30yo Miata or F150 is a lot cheaper than a Model A roadster.

And then, where do you keep it? Do you have to park it outside your apartment? Do you have a place to keep your tools and parts? Can you actually use/drive it in your daily life?

Once you have it, do you have friends who are doing the same thing? Buddies you can share parts, tools, tricks, parts and weekends with? Can you go have fun with it and them as a reward for all the hard work? Are you a willing/active participant in the culture around this thing you own?

This is why motorcycles, OBS pickups, 90s-era imports and late-model muscle are all so popular right now: ease of access, availability of cars and parts, huge support by way of community and events.

So, what does that mean for us? It's the coolest strain of car culture ever created, but in very general terms, the hot rod revival that I came up through in the '90s is now getting close to retirement. And while I'll stop dead in my tracks for a Model A roadster on the street, a '96 Impala or a Silverado overlander build will get a zillion views on YouTube. And that means a lot more to the future of this "hobby" than we want to admit.

But I don't wanna settle for that. We need to get these cars out of the parking lot and plop them down in the middle of a Porsche-infested Cars & Coffee. Drive them through rush-hour downtown. Park them in front of a club at 11pm. Throw the keys to a kid with 50K followers on TikTok and tell 'em you don't wanna see either one of them till Monday morning. Look, if we really wanna see hotrodding continue, we gotta take 10 steps toward them before they take 1 step toward us...

 

If our car hobby/obsession is dying, it is doing it in a strange way. Back when I started, car shows were a once a year indoor event. From there it went on to become rod runs. Now it seems like every weekend there is some local car show happening. Went to one 30 miles away on Saturday. There was supposed to be one on Sunday so I showed up at the seniors center because I know their president. I was the only one there due to the rain forecast. A lot of these car shows are put on by the non car crowd. Are we having fun?

 

Good luck finding an affordable 32-3-4-6 3W cpe. 3½" wheels are $150 each. Some cast off flathead speed stuff is now worth as much as a whole damn car in some cases. Yup, we're doomed...

I came back for a quick edit. While there's still a notable measure in such classes, what I see tapering off is massive 7-figure builds for GNRS or Ridler contention. Sure they're still there but not nearly the en vouge genre they were. And too, notice the effort to try and get these uber expensive builds more in line with the tried n true decades old ways. @Stoner mentioned some great points too, but I see a lot of "us" on IG since I follow that stuff. Guess what? A lot of those great folk aren't COBs like a lot of us (crabby old bastards). A generation or 2 younger is quite evident. Start playing outside the boxes you're in. It's not what it seems to be thru a single lens.​