FUCK the "GAME",hahaha! My two close buddies are like that with football and basketball. They're like zombies,when a game's on. I don't invite them to ANY car events anymore.
You can volunteer to come teach me "old stuff"! I'll even feed ya and give you a place to sleep! With copious amounts of money. It's broke? Pay someone to fix it. Can't do it? Pay someone to build it. Don't understand it? Pay someone to explain it. It's sometimes sad, but it's true.
Couple of Prius driving guys at work ask why I drive "that old car" instead of a modern one thats reliable & safe.... I tell em, its been going for 60 years so far...thats pretty reliable.....and as for safe, it weighs 4000lbs & has more metal in a fender than most of your car!
most people dont have a clue because they simply don't get it. They don't understand the simplest of things invoving cars today (new or old). Why do you thinkt he majority of them feel the need to lean into your car or put their hands all over it at the shows? they could care less if their kids do it too. They do it because they have absolutely zero idea of how much invested time and money we have into our projects. My boyfriend and i did every ounce of work on our '50 ourselves. Nothing was hired out and no one else had their hands in any of it. If anybody realizes the amount of hard work it takes to produce a beautiful car; its those who have a large amount of time invested in doing it themselves. the general public doesnt have a clue. When we tell people how many hours we have into the car or how much the paint job (and its a simple one) cost us....we get blank stares and dropped jaws. I feel that its our jobs to educate people about these matters. they may have stupid questions but despite that; they are interested and they find them interesting. They may not love the cars as much as you do but they are curious. there is a reason why people stare at a passing hot rod or old car and there is a reason why there is a large turnout at cruise nights. People enjoy them and a lot of them are afraid to ask questions. its frustrating to those that know them well; to have to deal with the clueless...but be happy theyre somewhat interested. i work on a dairy farm that makes its own ice cream and sells it onsite and you'd be amazed how many clueless idiots show up. Its amazing how far removed from their food source people are....its pretty much the same deal.
A friend of mine ask me every couple of months if I have completed that car that was in primer, I have had just about all of my cars in primer at some point so I really never know what car he is talking about and every time I ask which car he is talking about he doesn't know either. It's been a couple of years now so I just say yes but I'm working on another.
My biggest problem with Non car people is they vote and their lack of understanding of the hobby, which equates to people voting on legislation that affects our hobby or way of life. This is my biggest concern, I try and educate non car people as much as I can......
I used to laugh at my wife and her sisters for their love of shopping and how they could spend hours and hours wandering through isles of stuff and picking it up and touching it or remarking to each other how great it was......until she pointed out to me that this is exactly what my dad and I do at swap meets several times a year. She has a good point.
Finishing high school in 55, we car guys were in a minority. We were the greasers, the miss fits, the out casts in every class. We were categorized the same as the Harley riders were back then, think "The Wild Ones" movie and all of the old Hot Rod movies. People thought we were bad, just try to date someones daughter after they found out you were a "Hot Rodder", one date was all they allowed because in their eyes you were a louser, you would just end up being a blue color worker, someone not good enough for their daughter. Back then everyone was being steered into a College program in high school which is still going on to this day. Just luck some of us resisted and learned to use our hands to build or fix anything that needed done.
Amen brother. I wish I had resisted the damn college-at-any-cost thing. I ended up with a degree in chemistry and it's provided a living for my family, but I know I would've done better and been happier doing something with my hands.
I hink i have OCD although it has never been confirmed If i have an interest in something i totally imerse myself in it, and try to find out any and all that's related. I like many here am in to vintage stuff of all kinds, ie. pedal cars, vintage bicycles, furniture, signs, cars, hell anything with cool lines and style from the 60's down. When i get into something and someone asks a question about it and i don't know the answer, i tell myself that will never happen again and find out the answer and file it away in my mind. I always have some sort of parts or car project in my shop and when non car people stop by they will walk out in the shop and find the most obscure thing to comment on. Something can be in mockup stage and they point to a cheap finger tight bolt and say, that nuts loose, or you're not going to use that bolt are you? Nothing about the old car being built, nothing about the hours of custom fabbed pieces usually in polished bare metal. Last night i had barbeque get together with a mix of friends, some non car people. One said while staring at all the axles wheels and rusty early sheet metal, " you sure have alot of junk around here" I just replied, thank you
This is very true. If there were no old cars any more to fool with, I'd probably have not much interest in my new truck I drive to work every day. Well, I'd probably lower it, and change the wheels, maybe shave the emblems...but I wouldn't touch the engine.
Drew, you're in BIG ORANGE country. The two most important things there are football and religion. Wait a second- they're kinda the same thing there. And, for the record, THE GAME is an important thing to me, too. It makes my decision on what radio station I tune to in the shop.
Here's a funny thing. We're two car guys, but I couldn't spend more than five or ten minuites in a shop with a game on the radio instead of music. I'd be like, "We're not even WATCHING sports, just LISTENING to sports?!?! Kill me now!" Different strokes.
One of my brothers-in-law owns a used car lot, he pretty much thinks I'm an idiot 'cause I love the old stuff and would never, ever pay for a new car. Whatever! There are very few pics by the members here of the dragstrip for the same reason as the dealerships, people were busy taking care of business not admiring it!
I have a small TV and CD player/AM/FM radio in my garage. The only thing that's ever on that TV is racing and only music comes out of the radio. A car guy (although non-HAMB) friend of mine has a wife who wishes he would quit "wasting" his money on all this car junk and take up golf instead! Like that's better?
Originally Posted by Richard D Some people are just like that. My dad is in his early 60s. He was a gearhead as a kid, but now has no interest. None at all. He sees my '65 parked in my driveway whe he comes over, and I've driven it to his house several times. He shows no interest at all. Only comments he has ever made are, "When are you going to quit messing around with those old cars?" hey richard, maybe the fire died out?i watched the fire die out on my grandpa.it took me getting my hudson from him to kinda spark it back up,he used to call me ask questions about things-which i know he knew the answers to,but he needed/wanted to talk shop,[on the sly]he alway jokingly made fun of me working on 'junk' BUT he was the first to back me when some else decided to blow me crap! maybe he needs ya to relight the flame.. chuck......
No, he still has hobbies. He is into boats; big, expensive ones. Right now he is building, with the help of H.A.M.B. member Louie S.(I am helping design), a 50'+ aluminum pontoon party boat, 16' wide, two stories high with a hot tub on it. He has two yachts, (one a 72' with twin 800 H.P. Rolls Royce engines!) and a 25' center console fishing boat he's had for 30 years. He also has a BBQ cooking team with a couple dozen trailers, some of which I designed and helped build, and does a lot of charity work with them. He is far from sitting on his ass, just doesn't care about old cars or Harleys any more.
that's a good point only if you speak estrogenese. only a woman could even think there is any comparison between a swap meet and shopping at the mall.
Remember in my post I mentioned that there are some people that just don't get it, even on this site? here's an example: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=615144
We can all laugh at the ignorance of those who cannot or will not understand our love of cars and other ancient machinery, but there is a danger for us in that ignorance. This story even reached us here across the pond. A few years ago a professional restorer in Oregon (I think) had just completed a Model J Duesenberg and took it out for a test run one afternoon with his family. He was driving along the highway when someone in a new Volvo sailed out of a side road without looking or stopping to check for traffic and rammed him amidships. There were calls from politicians, the media and road safety campaigners (all the usual suspects) for old cars to be prohibited from using public highways as they were clearly dangerous. Luckily, these calls were ignored, but how long will common sense prevail? No-one bothered to mention that the crash was entirely the Volvo driver's fault and no-one suggested that instead of old cars, perhaps Volvos should be banned.
One of my OT cars, a 71 Buick GS convertible, got that response once from the secretary at the insurance office. I was getting it insured with an appraisal. I hand here the forms and she says "$50,000 for a junky old car?" I swallowed my pride and just said- "It's a very rare classic", to which she replies "well all I see is a junky old car." I struggled to maintain my frustrations, I succeeded, barely. FYI, the car has been over 50 magazine articles, 4 books and has been used in a TV ad for PowerblockTV magazine, it is show-quality resto-mod that I drive regularly, not even a car that anyone would ever consider a "junker". Some people just don't understand.
Here's a thought. Do you think anyone building cars back in the 30's, 40's, 50's would have ever imagined that any of them would be special enough to restore or Hotrod 80 years later? They were just produced for transportation to be cast aside when newer models came out.
I would have a talk with my agent about his secretary's unprofesional attitude. Even if it were "junky", which it clearly isn't, she should never say that to a client.
Maybe, if he leaves me enough money to fuel the damn things. He's in better health than I am, he'll probably bury me!
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