Hot Rods People. They're the worst...

Did you ask someone what kind of chip was in their laptop, and when they answered (factually) did you say “Nuh Uh!!!”?

That is a textbook example of a dumbass. I don’t know why you felt like you were being called out, but not everything is about you.

 

A middle-aged "chick" in jeans and a black vinyl jacket at the gas station pumping gas into her pos HR. (correction: HHR) I was driving my '46 Ford Business Coupe. She calls over to me, "Hey, my car looks kind of like yours." I just smiled and went back to pumping my gas. I looked up and she's still looking at me smiling and she adds "...doesn't it?"
What's that old saying? You shouldn't ask questions you don't really want the answer to.
She insisted on an answer.
I said........."No, not really."
Ooh... she was pissed.
I ended up in line behind her in the store. Figured I'd try to smooth it over a little. I said, "I'm sorry, it's just that most hot rodders make fun of the PT Cruiser and the HHR."
That certainly didn't help at all.

 

In regard to that question of, "do you know what kind of chip is in your laptop computer" ?
Just get a serious look on your face and tell them that the chip is a
" ZAPP'S QUANTUM MARK V"
Third edition ( 3G), they were tested and perfected in New Orleans!

​

 

Ive got a nice old chevy 4x4 truck, owned it for 45 years. Got a mild built sm blck chevy.

I get alot of the local Idaho Hillbillys youngsters come up to at store parking lot etc. " Hey, you gotz a big block chevy 454 in that?".... I tell 'em no, its gotz a 392 chrysler hemi in it........... "Oh...." their eyes get glazed and that blank stare

.

 

I’m sure you’ve heard this one. ”All Bel Air’s are hardtops. That one is a post model so it can’t be”.

 

Yes, we certainly are! A saying I like to use is that "People are messy". This includes every human being that is currently consuming oxygen, including me, and everyone else that has responded to this thread. We all have a sack of rocks that we are carrying through life and nobody is perfect, not one person.

I try to remind myself of this when I am confronted by someone that rubs my fur the wrong way. I fail pretty often and end up thinking the worst of people, but I would say that I am getting better at extending grace to others as I get older.

I am definitely a work in progress...

 

I had a guy come up to me at a gas station while I was pumping gas. He looked at my 57 Plymouth and said, " I don't care what my wife would say, if that was mine it would go in my living room". Not exactly what you guys are talking about, but I thought it was funny. The guy did know what the car is.

 

It's been a long long time since I've "corrected" or tried to educate someone. There's a difference in someone youthful asking questions vs some licknob magazine educated mook trying to "educate" me. I could bore y'all to tears with stories mired in wivestales and urban legends about Packards. I've done and serviced a shit load of em (that's an official measure ya know) and while I'd never claim to know it all I know enough to have given my clientele a shit load (also official) of provenance-level awards. Mrs Highlander was shocked I wouldn't tell someone they were wrong. "Why hon? I've had enough and there's no margin in it." The truth is the invisible devilish smirk is for me. ("Fuck that guy Jocko, who is he? Why does he deserve what you spent a lifetime learning") is the little voice in my head. Especially after a snobbish approach trying to correct me or my work. Yeah, yeah, I know, now I sound like the snob. But after nearly 150 of those aforementioned awards for my peeps, doesn't "...if you can back it up..." play? My favorite will always be the reaction to the time it takes where he said, "Well I dare say, wouldn't that pay for a few college educations?" as a critique. "Fuck yeah, paid for mine." More recently someone at least 10yrs my senior had to educate me that a 32 Packard V-12 isn't called a Twin Six (it is, Packard Twelve was 33 and later). "Twin Six was in the teens, you're calling this car the wrong thing." "Even if it says Twin Six on the trunk rack emblem I should call it a 12?" He walks away saying to his buddy "Some people just don't listen." So today I say "Hey thanks I didn't know that." and let em marinate in their individual folly. Work a Hershey table in October. Makes you wonder how some of em found their way to the meet

 

A few years ago, while I was on a run in my roadster, a very good friend of mine came up to me with a couple of beers in his hand and asked me what I was doing on my "dune buggy". I was putting in a new bolt into my coil over shock that had broken on our way there. After that run and 2 months later, I had swapped out the coil overs for hydraulic shocks, transverse spring and got rid of the "skinny brakes" for old drums. Best advice that I had got from someone that knows what is what. Some of you fellas may know him, Squeek Bell from Bakersfield. The way I see it is that if someone has taken the time to give me their input, ether good or bad it's up to me how I handle it. I've given up on trying to un street rod that car and recently chatting with Squeek, he reminded me it's all about having fun with cars. Cheers

 

I was at a car show with my dad, looking at a '49 Buick Roadmaster sedan. Dad's helped me remove and install the 263 in my '53 Special, so I was pointing out the differences between my 263 and the "big" 320 in the Roadmaster. The owner, who was probably in his 70s, overheard me and said that I was wrong...it's a 248. Now, the Roadmaster came standard with the 320, and his car clearly had it. But regardless of the urge to say something, I just said "Oh." And we walked away. But man I really wanted to talk more about it.

That guy's probably telling his friends about the dude who doesn't know the difference between Buick straight eights.

 

It was mid 70's. I'm at a gas station in Miami, A kid(a few years younger than me) pulls in in a model a coupe. I was blown away: hadnt seen one except in magazines. It was perfectly hideous; had a ,I think, corvair front end, Even so I thought it was cool. I said "Is that a 30 or a 31. He says, It's a 32. I said "what about the visor?". He looks at the visor and says " It says 32 on the title"

 

Good one Petejoy!

Ben

 

HEY!! That's my line! LOL.

Ben

 

??

Ben

 

I can forgive ignorance but I cant forgive the attitude that usually goes with it

 

...fuck heads.....fucking geniuses.

 

When I got my 62 Bel Air 4dr sedan (original paint barn find) as an 18-year-old I would get that all the time. "My brother had one just like but it was a blue Ford convertible." I would usually respond something like "Cool" and leave it there.

The joke is on you, these people also don't read.

As others have said, when they're insisting you're wrong and they're right but clearly have no clue what they're talking about, that makes them pretty ignorant.

Yep, all the time.

When I was in university two decades ago, some buddies and I were studying and the other (non-car guys) started talking about their favourite classic cars. They settled on the 66 Monte Carlo as being the coolest and their collective favourite. I studied car finder books and specs as a kid, and knew much more than the average kid. I said nothing.

I like "How are your parents related?"

Seems like you mean HHR? At first I thought you meant Hot Rod

In the opposite way, I've been told by a few people that there wasn't a Bel Air in 1962, because the only Bel Air they know of is 1957.

I've also learned online (said tongue in cheek) that Chevy didn't make the Nomad after 1957, and 28-29 Model A's all had the step in the cowl, so any 28-29 Murray-bodied A Fordor is a 30-31.

The people that spew this stuff want to demonstrate their knowledge, and (generally) don't like being educated so it's not worth the effort. If it's written online I might post the right info in case someone impressionable is referring to it later, but otherwise it's like trying to educate a dead horse.

 

I heard the comment “nice Rambler” about a ‘62 Studebaker Lark that I had. I told him that no, this is a Studebaker. He replied “same thing”…
Heard a dad tell his son that the only thing original about that car (‘23 T roadster), is the body…

 

I like your response. My guess is the windshield and radiator shell threw him off.

Often now I just go with "okay", and walk off.

More and more when I'm at a local cruise night I park my vehicle away from my friends, go over and chat with them, then get in and leave when I'm done chatting. I hang around my cars less and less, but I watch for an interested kid or young guy so I can choose who I interact with.

 

One time back in the 80’s my dad took our 51 Tudor to an inside show in a shopping mall (remember when….) and some guy pointed at the flathead and said “Look at the Hemi”

 

I have parked my car at a show, and walked away to look at the other cars. When I come back, if there are other people around my car, I just mingle with them and listen to what they say. Some of the comments are priceless. Some are correct about the car and others are so off the wall to be ridiculous. I never let on it's mine, or get in it until the group leaves.

 

..I often do the same. It's fun to listen to the comments. Sometimes when someone has a complaint about a paint flaw or steering wheel or something they would have done differently, or most anything, I always agree.. The looks on their faces when I later drive off is priceless.

 

2 Hersheys ago, another guy older than I comes up and asks about the T we had for sale (21 center door). In a moderately condescending tone, "Hey, why is this called a center door?" I stuck my right finger in my nose, and with a crooked left finger pointed at the car, "Uh, cuz da door in da center of da body...?" His buddy does an NCIS Gibbs tap on his head and his other buddy laughs at him and they walk off. As we've seen here as well, sometimes I can't help myself. I had to, ya know?

 

Summer of 1980, our local car club did a small informal car show in the local bank parking lot. A couple of young guys are walking around loudly criticizing all the cars, finding lots of "faults". Visually, they looked like 20-something year old unemployed construction labor...

They eventually climbed in a early 1960's Mercury Comet and drove off. The Comet had severely sun faded paint and the headliner was tattered and hanging down in the back window.

Russ

p.s. Sierra Vista, AZ - Before @squirrel moved to town

 

I try to not waste time or energy on this kind of conversations.

 

If you get a divorce, is she still your sister?

 

From 1934 through the 1970s, the Offenhauser engine dominated American open-wheel racing, winning the Indianapolis 500 27 times. From 1950 through 1960, Offenhauser-powered cars won the Indianapolis 500 and achieved all three podium positions, winning the pole position in 10 of the 11 years.

 

Over a decade ago I was at a weekly cruise here when 4 guys walked up to look at my old Austin. I'd just got it on the road then and it was still in it's original black paint. One guy began to tell me how he'd seen the old "Anglia" run at Woodburn Dragstrip back in the 60's. I told him , yes , anglia's were very popular back then...

 

the design of the hr was from the 46 ford...

 

I love it when people say "Nice Nomad" when I'm in my '57 210 two door wagon.