History Where is this hobby headed?

I know some dope smoking hippies that went to Nam.
Learned a lot of metal shaping from a long haired, dope smoking hippie.
Dude built some killer rides.

 

Still waiting for Edwardian Era, and Brass Era, cars to be popular again.

Generally, people want what was cool when they were growing up.

 

I was directly behind the Woodstock generation. For the sake of discussion let's say they're 10 years my senior. I graduated in 75. Now I could easily crop dust that smoke pot burn draft card socialist ideal. The ones most active in the old car life? 50s to 80s age groups. I'm in the middle. Some are way more of means than I am. They can afford more. Of course I only know them because we share the same social spaces and activities. No end in sight, bigger crowds, higher prices/values, more stuff coming out as the even earlier generations go off to their heavenly rewards. Those folks hung with and educated us. Anyone who thinks this chosen life will ever be stocked up with 20s, 30s and 40s types is smoking too much of that same pot spoken of above. News flash, this was NEVER mainstream. NEVER. Yeah, I said it. I had the only 30s hot rod in my graduation parking lot. When I posted it in another thread I said it seems more hip now than I thought it was back then. So fuckin eh, it was to me. The 2 or 3 who laughed at me? Probably boring office types now who do as their told to maintain their massive house payments and property taxes. Drones. Never ever could "get it" like we do. Kool. Fuck em. Show of hands, who wants them in this life. Anyone? No? Just what I thought, me neither. Does that make me sort of a snob? Ask me if I care. Love the smell of gas fumes...

 

Back to our regularly sceduled program..

 

One thing that will help is when young dudes realize chicks still dig old rods. Contrary to popular people every female human I've met gets a lil giggly around a vintage car. Even the ones that claim to hate them. When I first got my 53 in fact there were to women who didn't like dudes that made a point to hang out while I was tinkering lol

 

Not that I have a lots of money but I have never considered buying ,working on all old cars , ,a investment etc. I,m 80 ,reliving great times in the 60,s all the fun,friendships,chasing girls with my old cars. I don,t care about the future. My kids have no interest in the hobby,when I,m gone .Maybe someone will get one heck of a buy So What ??? Gene in Mn

 

Smart man.
Too many think life is all about numbers. This is how they keep score.
Their hobbies have to pay for themselves, and everything has to be sold at a profit.
All about the Benjamins.

 

Tell ya what, I'm fairly happy with my gig having an element of self sustainability. Until it becomes some social revolution that makes selling extras for profit illegal I will continue. I always had a personal issue using "rent money" to pay for the fun stuff. Instead it had to be majority "hustle money" so the home doesn't falter. The hot rod hunter-gatherer in me has something to sell to attain what I need. I never understood why so many frown upon it. I had to pay for what I needed. I don't care if who I got it from actually got paid to have it available and got paid again from my purchase. I'll be even more candid, I think that hustling and trading is fun and a good measure of this life. Am I unworthy of participating because I made a notable profit on some parts to get $$$ and build my car? Should I have sacrificed grocery money? Should only your monthly wages be used? If this sounds like one of the related topics that, in my opinion, picks a scab that's correct. It does. Like I'm one of those who deserve scorn because I got lucky on something, or realistically provide a service to help my fellow car addicts with shit they need. All about the Benjamins? Show me a car that was built without em. Oh wait, telepathy isn't totally viable yet, sorry. Yes, I'm a dick...

 

Working on old cars takes passion and skill, just like major league baseball, one without the other you are just another sport's fan sitting in the stands. Working on old cars, you sure don't receive a "big bang for the buck", but it is all worth it the first time you drive it down the street.

 

Yep. As far as making some side money- this hobby wouldn’t be what it is if at some didn’t make money, and as long as the money making is honest who cares. Me - I buy high and sell low lol
Dan

 

I dont give 2 shits if this hobby continues after I die. Im not sure why so many are concerned about that. If the next generation is into it cool, if not oh well...
Its all been documented,
So our history wont be lost.
Participation is up to those who are interested & resourceful enough to choose this lifestyle.

 

I have always enjoyed cars and always will....imagine the first man who invented the wheel...he must of been thinking.......I sure hope someone invents the internal combustion engine..........just sayin,,,,

 

Wherever its going, you guys will still be arguing when we get there.

 

It’s not arguing It’s discussing lol
Dan

 

See that's where I actually wised up early on. Best way to make a hobby self sustainable money wise for yourself is to pimp out skills you develop. Shop fees and waiting lists are high and long. So someone who obviously did the work themselves on their own ride offering to do someone else's for a fraction of the cost and very soon.... sometimes even same day.....is very appealing. I made a killing doing car stereos in central Arkansas in the early 2000s. Average stereo shop wanted $150+ to install a head unit. I charged $40 or $20 and a case of beer. Was installing so many I tended to keep crimp connectors and wire strippers on me lol. And considering my average daily expenses at the time were less than $15 if I did two in a day one day would nearly cover a week. And I typically did 4-5 a day. And each install took me about 15 minutes on average. $160-200 for around an hour of work is crazy $ even in 2024 dollars lol. And I didn't even have to sell any of my toys....often theyd offer more than my old stereo was worth after i upgraded to put my old junk in their car lol

 

Start off with syphoning gas and taking hubcaps quietly at night. Next street racing and cutouts, and finally romancing in the front and back seats. That's about it, they'll be interested. In short it's going where we lead it, they will follow.

 

I was trying to make the point there are two completely different mind sets within this age group, and while you and I don't always see eye to eye we can have a respectful difference of opinion. You and I have known each other a long time and I have never known you just to spout whatever ridiculous thing that comes to mind and will take all things into consideration as I will do if someone proves they knowable on the subject.

There are some of the Baby Boomers who have who may not have dodge the draft but have the "Woodstock" mentally "We don't have to listen to anyone" "We know more about it than those who came before us" "We know more than those who have dedicated their lives to studying the history, talking to pioneers listening to their stories."

The old timers tested us young guys before they shared their knowledge or let us in their shops, and now that traditional hot rods and customs are the cool thing and everyone who had to have a splashed graphic, tweed, and billet wagon have invaded, and the problem they see no difference between the two styles of car, and have come in started tell those of us who have been doing these before it was trendy or in some cases the legit old time hot rodders how they are doing it wrong or don't know it at all.

A great example my dad is 75 (born February 1949) he has been going to the races his whole life, started going in the pits as soon as he was allowed (18 years old 1967) he started working with Bill Roese who is ten years older later that year. Dad help work on the car helped Bill build a car, dad built his own car when he was 20 and has built several over the years, he also worked with Jack Miller and a few others.

This was in the era when you built cars out of the junkyards, Timken foalters, Buick backing plates/drums, some 9" Fords etc...and in that time he only remembers seeing a few old stock cars, and the where mostly sitting behind old garages, speed shops stripped of all useable parts for the next car, but yet there are people who claim despite being his age or a little younger to have seen hundreds of ruined early bodied stockcars in junkyards, they do the same thing when it comes to hot rods and customs.

I saw a post were someone was ranting about the Moon Rocket T-bird and how it should have a hood and that all customs "Back in the day" ran hoods.

We have the "A photo or it didn't happen" people but when a vintage photo surfaces that proves their point wrong, they continue to argue or make outrageous statements as to why the photo is wrong.

Obviously, I am partial to stock car racing, and I have said there was some god-awful stuff out there in the early days but there was also a lot of very well built, well-engineered cars.
The same goes for Hot Rods, Customs, Drag Cars, and Lakes racing, you have to look at history as a whole, you can't just pick and choose the parts you like or don't like.

Now can you have an option absolutely, can you not like the same things as me absolutely, it's when someone tries to pass their option off as a fact or tries to back their option with false or bad information that myself and other's object to.

I don't want to be around that or those people, and even though I take cars they supposed to be fun, it's not supposed to be a cutthroat dick swinging contest and that is what it has turned into and it is chasing many younger people off!

 

I've run into plenty of the "that 70 year old photo(s) wrong" crowd often here

 

As time goes on we won’t be here, but the rides we built will live on and hopefully be passed on to another person who has an appreciation of the history and effort to build them.

 

How many people here are into the '08 to teens-era Model T and other wooden wheel vehicles? You could probably count the number on all your fingers and toes. Years of interest move with the times. It doesn't mean the vintage automobile hobby is dying.

Someone else pointed out that a 1990 Mustang is the equivalent to today's 20 year old (born in 2004) as a 1955 Chevy is to someone who is to someone born in 1969. Why would anyone expect a Gen Z to be interested in the same cars as a Gen X (or Boomer)?

 

Here's something I just thought about thats hurting the vintage rod hobby. How much more common revolving inventory junkyards are becoming compared to long term yards. Places like picknpull that crush cars that have been there two months vs yards where some cars have been there 40+ years. One overlooked thing I often talk about is the amount of on topic rods and customs in Midwest junkyards up till the late 90s early 2000s. Both the east and west coast had far more coverage in magazines etc so those yards tended to get picked clean. Meanwhile myself I got into old style rods by coming across many "survivor" rods in junkyards. In fact I nearly ended up buying a custom 53 Victoria when I was 13.....owner of the junkyard and the body shop it was connected to was going to all but give it to me but at thirteen I was too airheaded to figure out how to offer to work off the purchase price in place of cash. Those type of yards were also setup so you could easily Walk in and poke around yourself. So up to the early 2000s many kids did just that. And those yards had no issue selling cars whole with a usable title. Sure American graffiti and moonshine highway etc already started a lean towards vintage rods but actually sitting in a 53 Ford customized around 1960 sitting on the dirty tuck and roll and seeing the multiple Strombergs through the crack in the open hood solidified it. On top of everything as they were considered junk I was able to actually crawl all over it as opposed to coming across one at a show or on the road

 

I attended a fairly large show 400 miles away, there were a lot of younger people driving in in all types of cars. We drove ours there. Can’t say how many thumbs ups, waves, yells etc we got. Only saw one other old car on the highway in the 800 miles we drove.

 

Surprised this is still going, honestly. I regretted posting it not too long after doing so. What is different between this and the "weekly post about the death of hot rodding"? Looks like it's spurred some good conversation, so all in all I guess it's been good.

Was out again on Saturday evening filming a new video for my youtube nonsense. Zero old cars on the road beside mine. Lots of looks and thumbs-ups from all types. What I've been noticing is local guys only seem to get out to the handful of cruises (parking lot car sits) left in the area, but not much in the way of just using their cars as transportation. Then lo and behold yesterday as I put my lawn tractor away after cutting the grass, a turquoise and white 55 Bel Air Sedan rumbled down my street and stopped in front of the widow's house a few doors down.

 

Once the initial bash comments that come on any of threads are out of the way the meat and potatoes of it starts popping up and you end up with a decent conversation lol

 

Someone is on the pull.

 

More power to them, she's had 2 husbands die on her (say what you will but she is a really sweet lady) and hell at that age we should all be so lucky!

 

OLD CARS WILL ALWAYS BE AROUND. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CAR SHOWS AND CRUISES. THE REASON IT'S FADING AWAY IS, THE YOUNGER GUYS DON'T HAVE THE SAME PASSION FOR OLD CARS AS WE DO. MANY WERE BORN WAY AFTER THE BIG INTEREST IN OLD CARS AGAIN AND THERE WERE 5-10 SHOWS EVERY WEEKEND. AND I MEAN REAL SHOWS, NOT ALL THESE CARS N COFFEE CRAP. SO MANY OF THE GREAT SHOWS, ESPECIALLY IN SO CAL, ARE GONE.
MANY WILL DISAGREE WIT ME , BUT IT'S TRUE.

 

And there is your indication of where things are heading...