Yes, both young and old. Youngsters with superb fabrication skills, and old timers who diagnose a problem properly with one reply. I swear I follow some of these other forums just for entertainment. It is laughable, some of the things you see and hear.
It seems to me that each generation gets further and further away from being able to think out a project, and actually build it with their own two hands. Hell, many parents can't even assemble their kids toys. As our economy becomes more service-orientated. I see it getting worse. Allot of high schools don't even have shop classes anymore. If kids aren't exposed to building something, and enjoying the satisfaction of the accomplishment, they will be content to twitter and text their lives away. If we can pass this hobby on to future generations, we have all done good.
Holy crap! Duct taping cardboard to your car as a modification? Seriously? Pretty soon you will literally find a shoebox driving down the road- sheesh!
Shit man we are the recyclers. I build everyone eleses junk. I use as little new stuff as I can man, and as far as fuel mileage goes thats why my 38 driver is running a fuel injected 4 cyl. If it were easy everyone would do it.
Thanks for the confidence is all the members here. When I was thinking on how I was going to make my '32 5 window "my own" and still keep it traditional I often wondered if I had gone too far... or not far enough. I stayed true to the original design and I'm glad I didn't go overboard with all kinds of doo-dads.
The last time i washed it before a Goodguys show I had to hire 10 illegals from the Home Depot lot just to wipe off the water spots....
I think that the guys on here who are really skilled and post threads and photos of their projects tend to raise the bar a bit and push others with like skills. In turn they push many of the rest of us to hone our skills and strive to do a better job then we may have before. A lot of us have subscriptions to threads just so we can go back and see "how did he do that now?" Many of us have albums of saved photos on our computers for the same reason. A full screen photo of how a window corner might not look like much to some guys but for some of us here it is a life saver that will help make our projects turn out ten times better. We begin to take the time to finish off a panel or gusset that no one will ever see just for the satisfaction of knowing it's done the best we can do it and pretty soon the whole car gets just a lot better in fit and finish than it would ever have been before.
Very true, my son is 40 and when he was 18 I thought I was talking to a brick with lips, but I kept talking. He is just now beginning to have Ah Ha moments. So dads, keep yapping at them, it'l sink in sooner or later.
I can see that. Some kids also will just go off in their own direction. Above all else, you gotta let them do their own thing.
I think the hamb raises the quality of builds across the US. I know that what I would have considered acceptable 15 years ago, is no where near what I deem acceptable now. After I see the quality of craftsmanship on this board, it makes me wanna set fire to my projects.
Our breed is specific and special. There is a sort of "price of entry" to be one of us. Anyone can go buy a vette or a Ferrari, and it will get you noticed, and you may even be a car guy, but somehow it's not the same. You can't buy your way into our little "club" or whatever this is. Sure you can "buy" a hot rod but that doesn't automatically mean you're "in" you know? You kinda gotta earn it, some guys build their own stuff and others are just obsessed hotrodders, you can just tell who loves this stuff. The downside is rust and grease permastain on your jeans and fingers, the upside is you outclass ANY car at a stoplight. I find it fun to explain this stuff to my fiancees' friends' boyfriends...a bit frustrating and hard to explain, but there always seems to be a crowd of jockish, polo wearing, frosty haired meatheads gathering around me when I start going off about hot rods. The interest is there. Everyone loves em, but few are willing to go through what it takes to figure out how to create something like that. And I'm kinda glad not everyone does this, you know? It's our thing. I dunno, maybe I'm just rambling..
When I asked around for pointers to rebuild my carburetor ten years ago, the old farts weren't just reluctant, they were downright negative and thought I was just another punk. Their bashing was nasty, but in fact it really fueled my endeavors. Today, I am turning and slotting my own throttle shafts, and retrofit carb throttle bores with sealed roller bearings. Craftsmanship on the HAMB is truly amazing. Some of you guys even fabricate whole bodies and frames from scratch, and usually you bring cars back to life that have been exposed to severe garage fires or suffered extensive collision damage - cars that would be parted out and sent to the crusher on most other message boards on the internet.
For no particular reason I include this check-it-out shot of a haul- ass front end. Maybe fuel economy could be the reason. Beats cardboard air dams .
I could see using cardboard for a mockup to see if it would warrant making the real thing but siding....that might be pushing it, especially if it's vinyl siding, and your not supposed to lose shingles going down the road either. Yeah alot of the guys here rock when it comes to fabbin, big time. I was about ready to give up on messing with cars but I got the fever all over again. The craftsmanship doesn't end with the cars. some of the guys on here are incredible artists with the computer, I'm just a noob. somebody said something about kirk's avatars, here's a couple gratuitous ot but fresh screenshots just for avatar fun:
The Jalopy Journal
