Hot Rods I have no desire to drive my just finished Jalopy....

I drive old stuff every day, I do have a 99 Town Car for if I have to go somewhere really far or in an emergency, but the best views of my old stuff is from behind the wheel to me. Be that stuck in traffic or cruising the open highway. Makes the work worth it to me.

 

To be fair I've seen you making similar posts on various forums for a good number of years. Which is to say that it's clear to me that you've been trying to re-evaluate how the hobby works for you and you haven't yet landed on it.

I enjoy the garage time but nothing beats time behind the wheel for me. The reward for me is in having a blast with something that was once left for dead. I stopped entering almost all car shows because the joy is in the drive for me. These things can be time machines that melt away the stress of life.

I understand not feeling safe in traffic, it's the same reason that I don't have a motorcycle. Are you not building the right cars for you to enjoy, or is driving simply not an important piece of the hobby for you?

I have near limitless paved country roads around me, so it's easy to take a short or long jaunt that gets me away from people. If I didn't have that, I'd be missing something as driving in stop and go traffic every time I go out is not my idea of a good time. Sure sometimes it's fun to take off hard from a traffic light, but that's once in a while.

If you had no limitations of traffic, money, or time, what speaks to you about the car hobby? If that's not where you are now, is there any way you can move in that direction to better enjoy the hobby?

 

On a second thought, I had that happen to me once, not too long ago. There´s a build thread on here, where I finally got a chance to buy my dream 34 Ford HotRod. Of course it was in worse shape than expected, but they mostly are, so restored it to what I thought it could have been a better version of it. And it turned out perfectly and was exactly what I had dreamt of, until I drove it and tried to get the 312 Y-Block dailed in. That thing fought me, I hated it and it hated me. So I tried to sell the car but of course every person interested recognized what piece of sh*t I thought the motor was. I´m not a good lair. I finally pulled the 312, built a 283 Chevy for it and never regretted it since. Now it´s mine.

Drive it, see what you don´t like and fix it. It´ll come around. If you don´t go that route, just sell it. But if you ca identify what´s wrong, change it. Just my 2 cents.

 

My dirt modified stock car needs to get out on the track , but I'm closing in on 84 years and my legs are giving out ! I sit and look at it and still dream of taking it out to the local dirt track . Now and then I'll take out the 37 Ford for a drive , but nothing is better than throwing dirt !

 

Gosh, Hank....find a driver you trust and take it racing! Not as good as wheelin' it yourself but still very satisfying. Beautiful car!

 

IDI!

 

When I was a young man in my late teens, I did auto repair as a job to pay the bills. At the same time, I was into dirt track racing. At our track, in our class, rubbing was racing. I also had this thing to have a go fast car on the street. Between the job, the dirt track racing, the fast street car, and keeping transportation under my wife and myself, I had a lot of opportunities to build and work on cars.
By the time I was in my mid 30s, dirt track racing became very expensive and I'd out grew the dirt track thing. I was also a bit wore out replacing broken stuff on the fast street car. My wife was involved and was part of all that stuff. When we quit dirt track racing, and at nearly the same time quit street racing, we redirected our attention towards street rodding (I loved the old cars). That provided me yet another direction in building cars. I really liked driving the old sedan I'd built from the ground up. we, as a family started driving all over the place (13,000 miles each summer the sedan was road worthy, the first 4 years it was on the road). Then, my kids were grown up and didn't travel with us, so I built a pickup from the ground up. Then my son wanted a hot rod, so I guided him in building one. Then things snowballed. between me, my son, and a few friends I was building a hot rod about every 2 years, while still putting nearly 10,000 miles on our hot rod.
i retired in 2018. Since then I have built a new hot rod truck that turned out too small, so it was sold. I rebuild my 48 Plymouth coupe (which is still here), and built my 49 Dodge pickup, which we started driving in the summer of 22. That pickup has nearly 28,000 miles on it already.

I've been building stuff since the mid 1970s. I'm getting pretty tired of building and would rather be driving.
We live on the very edge of a town with a population of around 25,000 people. Past the rail road tracks and across the river from my back fence is country. In 3 minutes I can be a mile out of town. Another mile down that road I have the choices of getting any place I want to go either by 2 lane highway, 4 lane divided highway, or old hard surface back roads. If I lived in a big city, I probably wouldn't like driving so much, but being where we are, I really like driving my old heaps. I've been pulling wrenches long enough to know that a break down isn't the end of the world, its merely an inconvenience. For the record, I carry very few tools with me anymore. Plastic money and AAA will begin a new adventure, or get me back home. Fixing something along the side of the road is dangerous!

 

I will also say if it makes you happy to go look at it in your garage then let the fucker sit there and enjoy walking by.

 

“Quoted for truth.“

 

Yard art....

 

Correct me if I am wrong but the car looks like a old dirt track race car like what was popular here in the South back in the 1950's, did you build the car to be driven on the streets, would it pass a safety inspection?

I'm not knocking the car just asking questions. HRP

 

I guess the question is whether you are not confident in the build or not comfortable driving in traffic now in anything. The only way to gain confidence in the build is drive it and make improvements or fixes as needed. I like to avoid traffic so drive my Cad early on Sunday when few people are out.

Having a AAA membership provides assurance that you will get a ride home. Building and fixing are part of the old car thing. Building and not driving seems like preparing a meal then not eating it. Driving an old car I built or improved provides a much better driving experience for me than in my o/t, and makes it more into something I want to drive. Sure, it may not have all the modern bells and whistles and that is the fun part, the enjoyment of what it is.

 

My 1st car was a 1954 ford. Personally, I always have enjoyed, not disliked, having to pop the hood and file the points or other various small repairs. Sure, a new to me car needs shake downs and to putsy around town a bit before venturing farther but small parking lot/side of the road repairs (and sometimes bigger ones) have always been a fun and challenging part of being a car guy for me. I do also make sure I have roadside assistance like hagerty or aaa just in case cause it doesnt always work out... driving a time capsule is about the experience, thats why I have never been into modern 5 or 6 speed transmissions or radial tires in old hot rods. If I want something easier or safer then I drive something newer

 

It was owned and driven by Will Cagle from Florida . Will raced it mostly at New York dirt tracks . He won many races with car .

 

Just saying….

We had a man in his 80s racing with us flathead powered car too.

 

I watched the build process of this car on a different forum, over a 2 or 3 year process. It may have been his writing style, but no place in the build did he give any indication of having much trust in his ability to build a safe driver. It really read like he really didn't care if it ever ran out not, but he did put a lot of effort into it, and he did seek assistance with things he was not sure of, through out the entire process. His last post on the build was that he was pretty concerned about driving it the 250' length of his driveway, but would have been content if he could get it running and drive it out of the garage, so he could take pictures and sell it.

All the way through his build, I expected him to throw in the towel at the end of each post, from about the middle of the 1st year on. But then he would put up another post with more work done. His perseverance of continuing on rather impressed me. He did some pretty good rusty sheet metal welding, but then paid someone to weld the roll cage. no place through the build process did he give an indication this was his first go around, in fact he stated that this one took a lot longer then most of his builds. As you read through the build process, it really isn't hard to believe he has no desire to drive it, I would say he didn't from the start.

Judging by the number of uncompleted builds across several hot rod sites I visit, and those local unfinished rides locally, this guy is not alone. At least he gets them finished to his original vision.

I sort of get it, but my mind can't comprehend putting all that effort into building something you don't want to drive.

 

In essence, it seems he has built a 1:1 scale model.

 

“A man has to do what makes a man happy” or something like that, there are no rules in hot Rodding and customizing
Dan

 

Yes it should pass inspection...lights and horn works...has windshield glass in the front too...
A 5 point racing harness is also mounted to keep my boney butt in the seat if needed...
Thanks for asking...
MikeC

 

The beauty of being a Squirrel is the Worlds expectations on you are low and loose................

Good Lord Man stop thinking and just hit the button. Everything else will come into focus right after you stop giggling from sheer elation and after your brain says "AGAIN!".

- Tim