I was curious to see who heads out onto the streets when its raining or threatening to rain. I'm guessing that the daily drivers are out there but when it comes to the non-daily drivers, do you shy away from dark clouds or hit the streets, clouds-be-damned?
Have got caught comming back from shows in the rain and no wipers, didn't stop but just kept going. Not sure I would start out if I knew it was going to be a down pour.
In late summer here you can look towards the mountains and see thunder heads. Itll be 90-100 degrees but i see those cloads and sometimes i just gotta head up there and pray to hit a little rain to cool off. Sometimes I jump in my RPU and go throw some mud on my dirt track or just go around the neighbor hood for a bit of fun. SO i do it on purpose but not when its cold rain.
I can't begin to count the number of times I have been caught out in a thunderstorm or worse in the '51. I have had to seek refuge in a car wash on at least 3 occasions for tornadoes (part of the fun of living in the Great Plains), and a number of other times for hail. I once ran down I-94 between Valley City and Fargo at 85-90 mph to try and get ahead of a thunderstorm. The poor bastard on the Harley behind me, stayed tucked in about 2 ft off my tailgate to try and stay a bit drier. No one has ever ever laid on there death bed wishing they had spent more time in the garage looking at their hot rod. Get out and drive.
I do, it makes the day/trip more exciting with the cheater slicks. Its fun fun to watch people try to follow close(no fenders).
I have been caught in the rain several times with my fenderless Model A truck. It's not too bad when its warm out. I don't have door glass and have louvers both sides of the rear window so it tends to get damp inside if it's a prolonged trip or heavy rain. I left drains in the floor so the water just runs back out and the door panels are marine vinyl so no trouble there.
Sept of 2006.....Frankenmuth show. I headed out in my Flathead powered roadster with Fast Eddie right behind me in his SBC Roadster. Raining preety good....We lost one guy due to a puddle and the low crab dizzy on his early flatty but Eddie and I pressed on. We found the faster we went, the drier we stayed. Rode the whole 25 miles in a torrential downpour. Yes, we got wet. Yes, we were cold. Yes, it was fun. Yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat..... Don't get me started on roadsters in the snow.
Us guys who were rodding in the 60's didn't have a choice. We had one car. We never thought a thing about driving in the rain. When my Model A panel was new, I doubt the owner in 1930 stopped making deliveries because it was raining....
Windshield wipers dont work too well but waxing the windshield works great... been in the rain many of times.
my old 49 Chevy had a leaky back window gasket right above my speaker, not to mention poor performance of the vacuum wipers. I avoided rain at all costs. if I ever get the one I have now back together the plan is for shiney black paint. with any luck, it will never see water of any kind once it is on the road. ... even if I cheap out and paint it with satin black rustoleum I will be avoiding rain.
Very funny. This ain't no So Cal here fella, we aren't afraid of the weather Have a go in this all year around
I went around a couple of times but I could not get my buddy to coordinate the picture with the huge rooster tails that occurred when I went through the puddles.
Absolutely, I even have a windshield wiper - well, sort of. The rooster tails are something to behold, however.
For years my 27 roadster was pretty much used daily and if you know Florida, it rains every day in the Summer and we are talking about DOWNPOURS !! I have driven in rainstorms where I couldn't see the car in front of me and the raindrops felt like bullets hitting me in the forehead. One year I came back trom Turkey Run in Daytona in 5 hours of a torrential rainstorm. I had to stop and buy one of those yellow hooded rainsuits and must have looked like a big yellow banana driving that thing. As soon as I pulled in my garage I ran for the bathtub and filled it up with the hottest water I could stand so I could soak and thaw out. Anymore I avoid the rain, mainly because since building my new motor the car is traction challenged and even gets squirrelly in high gear when the roads are damp, even just touching the gas pedal puts it sideways a little...........or maybe I have just gotten older and wiser. Don We even drove my old 23 in the rain with slicks. Roadster guys are just NUTS.
I drive my galaxie every day no matter what the weather, but since it's so modern(1962) it's not a big deal. Last winter due to a problem with my beater and the wife being out of town, I even drove it for 3 days in the snow.
I drive a roadster. No hood, top or fenders. NO traction in wet conditions. I've been caught in the rain a couple times. I don't look for it, but it happens.
It's rather comical in that a lot of guys in my part of the State of Wa won't pull their car out of the garage if weather looks the least bit threatening while rain hardly slows down the guys in the Puget Sound region of the state. The Corvette guys are worse though as the Corvette brigade on this side of the Cascades won't pull the car out of the garage if there is a cloud in the sky while the Corvette guys in the Seattle area use them as daily drivers 365 days a year without a second though about it. One of my friends couldn't enjoy his last street rod because he got it in his mind that he didn't want to have to wash it so he just didn't take it out when it might get wet.
Seems like everytime my brother and I start out for a distant show it downpours. It has gotten to be a running joke with us. In 2000 coming home from the Nats in Lousiville we went through a fierce storm near Ft. Wayne. Found out the next day that storm spawned tornados in that area. Not bad for me in my 46' coupe with stock windshield height and good wipers, but not so much for my brother in his '34 ford P.U.: six inch windshield and one wiper...one six inch tall wiper....
What's a "non daily driver"? No winshield wipers on the Plym, but that's what they keep making Rain-X for. Now, I did drive it back from El Paso Tx in December of '97 when the top was still cut off in constant 40 degree downpours... That was mildly agrivating...
Florida driver here as well.....wet happens and I don't shy away from it....you find that rainx on the inside and outside of your window does wonders for visibility.... No matter how hard I try I have never gotten a windshield gasket to seal 100%... Plus with this build the truck is now totally sealed up and painted inside and out, top and bottom, frame, everything so I really don't have an excuse....and it will have functioning wipers!
if I open the garage door and it's raining, probably not. If it starts raining while I'm in the drive way.....Keep going
rain dont scare me if the wiper is woking that day. damn vacum job. swithced to electric. however now i still working on the engine rebuild...i guess i could push it in the rain. i ride my OT sporty alot. as long as its not raining when i leave i dont care.
The Jalopy Journal
