"That's a cute dune buggy"

You should actually be insulted, but that's only if you give a crap what some asshat says about your car. In the "hood", a hoopty is basicly a piece of crap car that won't pull the honeys or women or.... ho's. If someone called your car a hoopty, consider the source and roll on.

 

Was at a cruise with my 52 Buick sled and after explaining to one guy it wasn't a Mercury, it's a Buick, he asked if it was one of those "Electrolux's".. He must of thought my car sucked.

 

I was working on the convertible. The body was off the frame on a cart. An Avon lady came over to see my wife. She walked by and said "Is that a boat your fixing?"

If only you could see through their eyes, with their brains to experience what they are seeing!.

 

well for the last 5-6 years i have been driving my uncles hot rods for the summer. the 34 sedan, 29 RP never fails pullin to get gas and some one walks up sees me get out and ask's whos car i'm driving:-( saddly i can't say mine. thats cuz mines not done yet.

 

Somewhere in here lies the answer to All heated discussions and blonde jokes!

 

A couple of years ago I owned a 63 Chevy pickup with a 350 Oldsmobile for motivation. I needed to replace the fuel pump so I stopped in at the local AutoZone. The guy behind the counter looked to be in his 50’s so I thought that he might be able to help me. I told him that I needed a fuel pump for an early 70’s Oldsmobile 350. He said that he needed more info to put into the computer and asked what vehicle it was for. I grinned and said a 63 Chevy pickup. As he entered in the info he reminded me that I had just told him it was early 70’s. To his surprise 350cid was not an option that year, let alone an Oldsmobile one. I tried to explain to him that it was a custom application and that I had put the 350 in the truck. He was sure that I was mistaken! After what seemed like forever of me trying to explain the situation, I told him to forget it. I then told him that I also needed a fuel pump for a 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass with a 350. The computer accepted this and my truck got its fuel pump. As I was paying out he told me that he had never had a customer with so many vehicles that all need fuel pumps and that I should have them check out at a garage to make sure.

 

Hmmm... That explains the Auto Zone radio commercial that USED to play on the air here. The voice is making fun of people for not changing their own oil and then tells how to do it. Except he leaves out the part about changing the damn filter! Ya gotta love it!

 

Today, I was goofing around and made a VERY short trip to the gas station on the corner of my street in my unfinished T Bucket. i was putting a couple dollars worth of gas in my temporary fuel tank. This old couple pulled up and the guy was really stoked to see my car. His wife said that it looked like the car from the Munsters! I had to smile and thank her. To me, it was a compliment because I loved that car growing up,

 

Ive gotta get in on this.

I'd love a dolla for everytime someone asked me "what year Pontiac is that??" (1960 Caddy)or "how do you afford to run that" I then explain that the $100 per week they are paying for there shitbox shopping trolley puts alot of gas in my Caddy!!

my favourite is when they ask me what those chrome things are on my bonnet (appleton spots) I then try to explain that "its akustom thing" then Ijust give up and tell them "You can never have enough chrome titties on your car!"

 

I just wanna know why every old car is called a "roadster" around here. even my 37 ford slantback.

 

I had a guy offer me $4,000 bucks for my Mustang. too bad I was driving a Barracuda.

 

I get that a lot too. I always want to say yeah idiot it came primered with no door handles. I enjoy that people are so ignorant.

 

We had a local saturday night car show going here by the house. Lots of trad cars and muscle cars. This rich guy pulls up with his "Mister T" starter kit around his neck in his very pretty blue Lamborginia{I can't even spell it}. Everybody is uhing and aahing and I stepped up and asked him if it was a Fiero. He nearly went in to cardiac. Beginning screaming and throwing his hands up. I just laughed and walked off. He even put out the old show car stands and trophy's. I still think it was a kit car.

 

That's the female version of that car.

 

A mate of mine had a GT Falcon a while back. So this guy we knew walks up and says,
"whats been done to the engine?"
This guy has an 11 second ricer, so he ought to know his shit, yeah?
My mate," Its a 351 Clevo with 4v heads, lumpy top Venolias. 6.2 inch Chev rods....." when he gets cut off.
" Mate- I'm a fuckin concreter! "

Another time I'm selling the engine out of my car. Were standing next to it running. The guy asks a few pertinent questions, compression test, oil pressure etc. Then he asks with a dead straight face, " Is this a side valve or a DOHC? "
It was an SBC.

 

I'm actually usually surprised how good people are when it comes to my pickup. Though I get alot of those "my dad had one just like it stories), people usually get it's a ford, and most people guess between 63 and 70, its a 65, so that's not bad I guess. Its worse with my dads fiero oddly enough, people ask him if it's a kit car all the time....The thing is bone fuckin stock.

 

Mine was in the "Monster Garage era". I'd just completed my bike after a lenghty build and on it's first week of being on the road. Loads of thumbs up's and compliments. At a light someone comments about it being a bad ass bike. I say thanks, waiting for the light to turn green, then nice guy grates my nerve, INSTANT ASSHOLE. "Did Jesse James build it?"

Remembering a line of his, from his own show, and one of his lines that added to the reasons I don't like the guy, I replied "Nope, I did!" For this very reason I proudly have a sticker displayed on the back of my hemet that reads, "Jesse who?"

 

My Duece coupe sits in front of my office building every day, as it has for the last 8 years, so it's become kind of a landmark and a point of information when giving directions. It get's lots of attention, people come in to ask questions, every bike week someone will come in to ask if I want to sell it (no!), and invaribly the "Is that your roadster out front?", or, "Is that your green thing out front?" The one thing that really intrigues people is the Moon tank on the front. Nobody knows what the hell it is. I've got my coolant overflow plumbed to it, but the usual statement is: "You sure aren't gonna' get too far with that tiny gas tank!"

The one that makes my neck hair bristle the most is: "Is that a kit car?" That one goes right thru me! I had a young guy clerk at 7-11 ask me a few months back, after I come rumbling in there as I do most every week for a cool 6 after work, "How fast will that go, like 40 or 45?" I gave him a look like he had 3 heads and some old guy at the counter just cracked up and says "shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit fire" as I walked out......

 

As you can see on my avatar I used to drive street legal tank (armored scout car) gun turret et al and some lady told me it was "cute" . Eeeeek !!!

 

people: you are going to get a lot of money at the scrap yard, how much you think?
me: nope i am going to rebuild it
people: What?
me: you have to have a vison.
then they walked away like we were on drugs.

 

I bought a 47 Ford pickup from a friend 20+ years ago and it had been previously registered as a 40 Ford pickup. He had started with a rusted out 40 and it was registered with the SBC serial # as they coldn't find a VIN #. He got a chance to buy a cherry 47 with a NOS nose and rear fenders w/o a driveline so he merely swapped in the SBC and never changed the registration and sold it to me as the 40 Ford it was registered as. Not wanting a hassle at the motor vehicle department I decided to have it registered as a 40. The young inspector who was going to check the truck asks the old inspector who is siting there where he could find the VIN # on a 40 pickup so it could be registerd on that rather than the engine number. The old guy claims to be an expert on 40's and tells me he had 3 or 4 40 pickups and knows wher to find the VIN #. I assume my goose is cooked due to the significant differences between a 40 and a 47. After crawling all arround under the truck he finally finds the VIN#, where I knew it was, and starts reading it to the young guy who is writing it down. While reading the numbers he tells the young guy that "those digits mean 1940 the year of manufacture and these mean-----". So much for an expert.

I sold that truck to a guy from out of state was a bit of a drinker and so I purposely did not print my name, but merely signed my normal illegible signature on the bill of sale. A mont or so later he stopped at my friends's businees where he had seen the truck for sale and wanted to know what kind of engine was in it as he wanted to get tune up parts. My friend told him it was a hi-performance 327. The guy's response was, " what kind of motor ford, Chevy, dodge, What?? The valve covers were early Corvette which should have provided him with a clue

I have also driven a 48 Chevrolet convertible regularly since 1975 and get all the comments about "my father had one of these except it was green and had four doors and said Plymouth on the name tag". One guy told me it was a 47 contrary to the license plate which says "48 CHEV". I told him it was a 48 w/o the "T BAR" on the grille and his reply was it was "stupid to leave it off as it made the car look older".

 

I regularly drive my T-bucket on the street and have had similar experiences. When we are moving in traffic, we get a lot of smiles, honks and thumbs-ups. When we stop to eat or get gas, people call it anything from a dune buggy to a jalopy but hardly ever a hot rod or T-bucket. Around here it is very rare to see a hot rod on the road and the about the only time I see another one is at a cruise-in or show. It is true that most people don't know what a hot rod is, but they are usually friendly and some of them will ask questions.

 

I was filling up my '53 Chevy one evening last year, leaning against the side of it and and old guy does the complete walk around of my car, nodding every now and again, face against the window etc. I was expecting a compliment, or a question of something as he asks 'Son, is this the original color of this car?' (it was DP90) and I say (very politely I may add) 'No sir, it was baby-blue and rust colored before'

'Well, it's a shame you had to go and ruin it like that'

...wow, thanks man :/

 

just this evening at Sheetz (regional 7-11 type joint) in my '65 Impala Sport Coupe...

dude: "yo, man, sweet. thinkin' 'bout sellin' it?" (i KNOW he's thinking how it would look with hydraulics...)

me: (grin) "nah, not anytime soon."

dude: "whadizzat, like, a '83?" (points at fender script) "oh, and it's even an Impala..."

me: (rolling in reverse now, cranking up window) "um..."

--rick

 

I was in Monterey, a stupid, small, tourist trap old man artsy town, and suddenly a '27 Chevy rolls up, musta' been freshly restored, just a great antique car. I say, "That's a 27, ain't it?"
"Now son, this ain't no T-Bucket. I don't know why this would matter to you though, asking a man about his car.."
before I could say anything, my spunky older sister says,
"I bet it's an original owner car, too."
Never seen someone blast off as angry as he was. (I coulda walked faster than it was going, though.)

 

It may have been. Was it orange? I have a friend in Pearland who built one some years ago and used a LT-1 for motivation. He made a setup to hide the LT-1. Dummy Lambo carbs and everything. He used a lot of factory Lambo trim pieces and it used to fool everybody. In fact, it was featured in KitCar magazine.

 

love this post
it's like the people who come up to us and our dog and ask if it's safe to have a dingo as a pet.
since when did dune buggies leave such an influence on the public
I guess were wasting our time with hot rods

 

Several years ago, I stopped for breakfast in Lewiston, ID in my 65 Excalibur. As I walked out after paying the bill, some dude insisted he used to have an MG just like it. I just nodded and told him to have a swell day - I never argue with a guy in a pair of overalls and a Yosemite Sam baseball cap. Especially about cars...

"in the land of idiots, the savant is king"

dj

 

I know this ain't a bike forum, but the funniest one of these stories happened recently with my bike. I was bringing it home the day I bought it from Massachusetts on the back of my Nissan pickup when I stopped for gas. These sportbike kids were there and started making fun of my bike, since I got it with the most god-awful paint job, looked like something Wonder Woman would ride. So they're sitting on their Ninjas and GSXRs, laughing and making fun, when I tell 'em it was one of the original stunt bikes for Evel Knievel. They totally bought it, then got off their bikes and started checking it out and asking tons of questions. I totally played it up. Here's a pic of the ugly bike, thankfully doesn't look like that anymore:

 

I forgot who had a story about the worlds oldest mustang, but something happened to me today like that. I was reading a hot rod magazine in the middle of class, when a girl sits next to me.
"Hey, what're you reading, Nate?"
"Oh, Hot Rod magazine.."
"I didn't really like that movie.."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rod_(film))
"Oh.. Yeah.. Not really a movie.."
"What is it then?"
"A car, like this one." I point to a three window coupe.
"Oh, what is that! Like, a 1950's mustang?"
"... Yeah, how'd you know that? It's actually a 1954 mustang.."