Hot Rods Are you seeing any young bloods in hot rods

I'm 13 and am building a hot rod with my dad, 1929 Model A sedan, There are some of us our here, we just hide because we are the most unsocial generation ever for some reason.

 

I would have to agree with this statement more than anything else I've read in a while, It took me 25 years of spending my extra money on tools to truly be able to build a car that at this point is older than dirt, welders, acetylene torches and a tool chest full of hand tools wasn't cheap and more than once I bought really cheap harbor freight stuff from years back and had to replace it. Also when it comes to the buy in of an early car, You can buy a Model A for as low as four or five grand still if you look around but you're not getting much of a car at that price, realistically when you are in your early twenties you don't really have the skill set yet to take on a major project and you don't have the pocketbook to buy a clean starting point.

 

I can't speak for anyone else but if you ever have any question about the Model A in general or your model A Don't be afraid to ask me if I know the answer I will tell you. I was 12/13 when I started getting into hot rods, I used to talk to a girl on the phone (back when the phone had a cord) and while talking to her I used to flip through my father's 20ish year-old Rod & Custom magazines, (this was in the late 1980s until 1991). That got my spark for model As and Ts going and My only regret is not building one when I was a teenager.

 

Two of my friends have boys that started high school this year and they are both in to cars. Not the sort of cars I’m interested in but they’re heading in the right direction.
One of them is in a very tech heavy program and is already a better welder than his dad.

They’re building a straight axle drag car from a ‘70’s BMW and asked me for help with body and paint. I agreed to help on the condition that they do the work. I’ll show them how to pound out dents and patch the rust, how to apply and sand filler and how to primer and block and spray paint. The car will get painted and they’ll learn a new set of skills.

I had a lot of great people help me learn how to work on cars when I was young and it’s only right that I pass along as much as I can to the next generation.

My own son is 8 and we just finished this years Cub Car (pinewood derby car for my neighbours to the south) so he’s on his way to being a hotrodder too.

 

This is Sad! I can remember counting down the days til my 16th birthday to go get my Driver's license. A lot of kids today have been spoiled rotten by their parents never busting their asses when they should have meanwhile telling them that when they grow up they are gonna be the bank president and most of them can't even spell "Bank" Not to mention a good amount of them Play them stupid ass video games and live with their parents way too long! I will say one thing for sure! God help them if the internet ever goes down as almost all of them could not find their ass in a corn field without GPS. Just my 2 cents

 

There's a few of us around.

 

I am 43 now, now exactly young but I see a fair number people in their early to mid 20s with hot rods but more with or involved in vintage oval track.

You also have to remember many of these guys who are so concerned about the “Young Blood” aren’t the ligament old time hot rodders and racers of the 40’s, 50’s and the 60’s or the 70 something guys like my dad who were building in their young and encouraged the guys our age when we were young.

Much of this sudden concern is coming from the trend chasers who 25 years ago who were looking down their noses at the young people building and driving cars in primer with vintage speed parts and loud exhaust.

 

We had a cruise spot that basically got shut down about 25 years ago, with tickets getting handed out if you drove through too often. Maybe 5 years ago a friend of mine organized a very unofficial "takeover" of that street once a year and the amount of people and cars that came out for it was great, it was really fun for a few years. Was a solid mix of ages, not just us 40 somethings reliving our glory years. 2 years ago the city re-did that road so it's basically impossible now.

 

I will also ask how much effort did any of you take to get the young blood interested and involved hot rods or cars in general?

For me there wasn’t a time cars and racing weren’t a part of my life!

When dad came to the hospital to pick mom up and me up he had flowers for mom, and a teddy bear, a Matchbox Indy car and a set of 7/16”-9/16” Snap-on wrenches.

I was born December of 1981 and in the pits at my first race half mile dirt Hartsville-Darlington March of 1982 and in the grandstands of my first Winston Cup race the Southern 500 Darlington Labor Day weekend of the same year!

Although there wasn’t enough money growing up for a race car or a hot rod they were always there whether it was dad working on or building race cars for people, going to the races or selling at swapmeets, and it was always a family affair.

Dad made sure I knew the history and I met many legends Richard Petty, Cale Yarbrough, David Pierson, Ronnie Sox etc…

I grew up in the grandstands of Fonda Speedway Fonda NY weekly dirt track racing, it wasn’t until I started school I realized not everyone went to the races every Saturday night!

While my dad was doing this many other his age were asking him “Why?”

They took the attitude that their children would develop an interest later, but none of them did because they were ’t exposed to it, and many of them developed a dislike of cars and racing because they were left at home!

A very good friend of the family who is a Fonda Hall of Fame member’s children are all race fans, but over his career in racing he sat out a few years because in his words “The kids weren’t going to eat Macaroni and cheese so I could have a race car.”

When I am at a show and I saw a kid taking an interest in my car I let them sit in it, I did the same thing with my unfinished vintage race car project the few times I had it out.

This is how you get “Young Blood” interested in cars, by exposing him to it, making interesting, being helpful, answering questions and making it part of their lives!

Not standing back 20 years later and asking “Where are the young people?”

 

I listened to many old time modelAers worried that the model A culture is dying
the fact is the model A is cool, stock, modified or hotroded and it’s closing in on one hundred years.

Hotrod’s are cool, and they will always be around, maybe not the way some believe they should be built, but hey builders choice.

Im simply a car nut, haven’t always been able to do what I like with cars because of family work and such, but the fever never died and now that I’m retired I can truly live the car life.

remember it’s all about the car and the people you share it with
No DO NOT TOUCH SIGNs on my car

 

Holy shit guys.

do we have to repost this garbage every month?

I made a thread. look at it. HERE showing a bunch of young guys in the sport.

If you wonder why kids don't post here, your thread is one of the reasons.

you ever think that bashing on "young kids" and lumping them all into a broad shitty stereotype might be part of the reason younger guys don't talk to you?

Go build stuff.

Show kids.

Don't be a Jerk.

.

 

I met William (drivers seat) back in 2022 at a local show with his parents and he took a shine to my T so i talked about it and what he wanted to have later, he sat in the car and that made his day along with his parents. I then met him again 2 years later at another show and that's the photo below just after i did some dirt drags. I met him again at The Jalopy Dust Up NZ where i raced my T and noticed how much he had grown, he will be looking for his own car soon. I let kids sit in my RPU at show and their prent take photos, it's good PR. As for younger Hot Rodder's, there are a few in NZ coming up but most have confused builds and many look at traditional builds as Rat Rods. JW

 

Alex Taylor is on YouTube, spreading the good word. She jsut got a '34 sedan project.

 

I have seen the uninformed refer to even shiny paint trad rods as rat rods hahaha. It's our duty to correct gently and not be snobby...

 

If you make it fun for them and let them join in they will show an interest that may endure…

 

You have to start them young and they will have hot rod in their blood !

 

Adding on to this, i dont know if im young anymore, in my mid 30s now, for all of the younger guys, guys my age and and in the early 40s guys that i end up around or see at shows, alot of us, not all, theres alot of dummies in any bracket, are pretty well rounded builders, diving into mechanical, metal fab, paint, body, electrical, etc and can be pretty resourceful. I have shop space in a building that also houses " one of the oldest continuously operating clubs in the country" but these threads and their revisionist history/ rose colored nostalgia glasses where everyone was proficient in all aspects of building a car, and they werent just do-nothings back then too, always really irk me . The amount of older guys in the club next door and just in my general dealings, who are just full of stories about the good old days and how stuff was done, but couldnt get a SBC started and idling if their life depended on it, or cant stick two pieces of metal together is astonishing. They are great at sitting around a card table talking shit and drinking., while watching their cars collect dust and bashing some of the younger guys in there that are just trying to figure their cars out. It amazes me that anyone under 40 joins their club at all. There are definitely some good guys over there, but i've also made some good money off some of those old guys with stories, when they need something welded or figured out, and their BS stories didnt magically make them an expert at something.

These threads always really annoy me.

 

OK!!!
High school shop teacher here!
I coach Football (DC) and Head coach Baseball... I dont have a winter sport and started a hot rod club after school... Ive got 16/17 kids out of 120 kid high school showing up to build a little modified, 3 days a week after school.

 

2 of my nieces are motor heads 1 has a '53 belair the other a '70 c10 they rock

 

Any pics of the 53?

 

there's definitely a shortage of young people.... I have always been interested in hotrods since I was a kid. my grandparents had a ton to do with racing in Spokane Washinton. deer park drag strip and Spokane raceway park also ran with others the auto boat speed show. my dad has built a few cars and definitely gave me a desire for traditional roadsters, he has competed twice for AMBR with homebuilt cars! now that I am 15 for the past year I have bought and gathered parts for my 27 ford model t with hopes of running for AMBR. with the help of my dad and his great friends I have come a long way since first having a thought about building a roadster and it has definitely gone a lot further already than I thought it ever would. I will hopefully start on my chassis within a few weeks only needing a rear leaf spring! this is my first post and seeing this made me want to start too consistently!

 

I'll have to dig some it's a powder blue white top aluminum slots 4 door she does all her own work .

 

I think this is wonderful and wish I could have done this with my father when I was young. Enjoy for you will have a lifetime of great memories.

 

I've been thinking about this thread....

We can debate the problem all we want. The fact of the matter is, these cars are not accessible for kids.

When hot rodding was in it's hay day, these cars were 25-30 years old and easy to find parts for. Those days are long gone. It costs a lot of money for most people to build one of these cars and in the end, you likely have something that is barely usable on a daily basis(by modern standards.)

Now...think about what kids are building these days...20-30 year old imports. Why? Because these cars are cheap, easy to build, and are accessible. Just like hot rods were in the 40s and 50s. If you can only afford one car, what are you choosing? Something you can daily drive and have fun with? Or something you're afraid to leave parked on the street at night?

It's pretty clear what the issue is.

 

@G_Don is one of the most hardcore young hot rodders I know. He is absolutely deep into early Fords and old style rodding

 

You're right. As a guy that that's been involved in the hobby since he was 16 and now nearly 40, I've encountered those types a lot. Either the ones that try to discourage you (because it isn't their cup of tea or can't do it themselves), or those who spew "knowledge" without actually knowing anything. Liking to bash others rides, discourage people, and just emanate an air of exclusivity seems to be too common among older types that often don't know as much as they let on.

I had (what turned out to be) a fuel delivery issue and asked several people for help. I did get some help from a few different guys I know. Some were a big help, others I quickly learned that they didn't actually know as much as they let on.

The other issue I've had as a young guy trying to learn and grow his skills in the hobby is promises of help or "we can do that", then when you get into the project the help disappears or wants to shortcut it because they don't actually have the skills they gave the impression they did. Which is where the internet is great, I spend a lot of time in the garage by myself now because it's easier to learn and figure out things by myself than rushing the wrong way with "help". That's been a bit of my experience.

I wouldn't be as into cars as I am without the influence of my dad, though.

 

Before the rockabilly revival thing took off here in California (I'm going to say this was 1993 maybe 1994 until 1995) I was close friends with one of the guys from the Shifters car club (he still is my friend actually) Anyways I remember people in my father's age group (today they would be 75 to 85 ish) All had a bad attitude about young guys building primered cars and heated/chopped coil customs, This was in the era of billet street rods that probably had literally 100,000 plus dollars dumped into them. I just remember how those guys would look down at the guys in the shifters car club, there was a car show back then called the Blessing of the cars and they were total jerks So much so that the shifters made a show called The anti Blessing at the Orange Circle. It was a huge hit, The same goes with Paso Robles (there used to be a car show there, It is now in Santa Maria), every one of those guys would shun the younger guys that had the white white walls, The Red rims and obnoxiously loud V8s. What's funny is at the time those cars drew such a crowd compared to the billet Street rods that you would see in rod and custom. By 2002ish the rockabilly Hot Rod revival was really starting to pick up steam and to remember the billet Street rods getting fake patina, and all the billet getting removed for a set of steel wheels and white white walls... The cars looked so terrible lol, It was so obvious they were street rods faking the funk.
At any rate I was at that age where being an outlaw or rebel was cool So the more they hated on the traditional style cars the more I liked them and The more fun it was to go out with a bunch of guys and crash a street rod show especially the Friday night burger stand car shows and then when the "gold chain wearing muscle car dickheads) started copying The Budget Hot Rod and building deliberate "rat rods" (I despise deliberately built cars that look like trash, It's not the same as the young guy that just put everything together with what parts he could find with little to no money) I think it was even more of a laugh but I could see how people got out of the pre war hobby because it wasn't exactly inviting in that era and a traditional car was the equivalent of the punk rock movement to the vintage car world.

 

I always liked Hot Rods which started cause of my dad, I just couldnt ever afford one until I was mid 20s. Didn't have a welder so had to get 220V put into my house and buy a welder. Didn't start having fun in the hobby until I started boxing my A frame for a sbc and learning to weld. (Started a thread on the hamb and had a lot of guy saying I needed a frame jig and being negative). A few guys, especially Lumpy63, told me I didnt need to get a fancy frame table and I could just weight down my frame on jacks and keep it square, which worked.

I think its a money issue. Its pretty daunting to spend money on an 220V for a house you bought (which isnt cheap) and hopefully your house has a garage. Or good luck finding a place to rent in SoCal with a garage. lol