When I was a kid ('50s) and went to Bob's Big Boy on Friday night, a typical group might include all of the following: '40 Ford Tudor '50 Olds coupe '57 Chev BelAir HT '56 Ford PU '56 Corvette '32 Ford 3W (rarely any roadsters, though) ...and nobody would have thought it unusual. Hot rod guys and custom guys had somewhat different priorities, and didn't much hang around together, but their public gathering places were the same. Actually the great majority of the cars wouldn't have been characterized as Rods or Customs at all; a lowered shoebox with shaved hood and deck and twice pipes would just have been called a car. Sports/import cars and restored antiques, for whatever reason, didn't much show up at the drive-ins or on the cruise streets, but I think if they had that the regulars would have found them mildly interesting. Nowadays, if I go to a local cruise night or car show, it might be the same '40 Ford/'57 Chevy bunch. The difference is that back then, most of the cars were nearly new, and now they're all 30+ years old. Furthermore, although the rods and customs seem to get along reasonably well, the greaser vs. gold-chainer rift is painfully obvious. Sports cars are still somewhere else, and Import Tuner cars are banned, while restored American Iron occasionally shows up with the R&C bunch. Why is all this necessary? Useta be that hot rods were hot rods, even after some of our heroes like Tom Medley and Tex Smith invented the term "Street Rod" to keep the culture alive. Now it's assumed that a Street Rod belongs to a rich guy who trailers his pro-built car around, while the Traditional Hot Rod belongs to a working stiff who would drop his own axle if he had the time. I like looking at a restored '50 Olds, a Ferrari 250 PF coupe, or a vintage race car nearly as much as I like looking at rods and customs. Maybe I'm just missing the fine points that make them all different categories, and make it necessary to keep them separate.
I am too young to have lived the era, but, I lived it through the magazine writings of Baskerville,Tex Smith,Terry Cook,Lee Kelley,and Pat Ganahl. I allways have liked cars, period. I have seen such diverse vehicles up close such as Hemi Daytonas, the "Blue Flame" rocket car, ZZ tops collection, the original Batmobiles, and many early and late model customs, it seems a car lover and mechanic could respect and gleen something from everything. I guess people need the argument over which is which and what is what. Almost as old as the East Coast/West Coast argument. Who Cares? Enjoy cars and allways check outside the box for new ideas! Maybe that Honda motor would be awesome in a T bucket!
Well, I probably ought to wise up and let this go - but what the hell - I'll give it a shot..... The biggest reason (as far as I can tell) really ISN'T the cars themselves, but the mindset of the people driving them. For instance - when I first started to cruise my Rambler - there was ABSOLUTELY no one who wanted me in "their" group - my car was loud - it wasn't painted very nice - it wasn't mainstream - the only thing I had in common with any of the groups was we both had four tires on our rides. Gold chainers - is a term (IMHO) that is used WAY too broadly & often used to describe someone who has the means to build a high end car. And often "high end" is anything that is nicer than our own. Now granted there's a certain amount of logic that the segregation - surely we have different problems than the "gold chainer" his bitch list might be how long the rod shop - painter - chromer - welder etc is taking to get his stuff finished while a hands on guy's problems might include running out of welding rod - or getting bent over when buying tungsten for the TIG welder - or having the nearest killer junkyard get crushed becuase of some useless polution credits. Different walks of life - yield different problems. BUT!!!!!! it's the times when your INTERESTS above all else find the COMMON ground that allow you to rub elbows with those who you'd normally not get the chance to. Here's my personal example of that - while building my dragster I was given assistance by a VERY famous dragster builder - now keep in mind this guy's a millionaire - he don't know me or any of my friends from atom, but he goes OUT OF HIS WAY to help me AND reassures me to call him ANYTIME I need any additional information. He is amoung the very TOP in his corner of the hot rodding world and yet takes the time to help a no one. Holy crap!!! - now THERE'S the power of Hot Rodding - those who are so short sighted to ignor or ostracize the "other" groups are often gonna be the loser in the end. The sport is ALWAYS a heartbeat away from being legislated out of existance - we need to be smart about things and band together. ok ok - yeah - I am pounding the podium pretty hard - getting out of hand - but am trying to make a point. I sure as hell don't like the rice burners, but walking around at Detroit - you just couldn't help but appreciate some of the paint on those cars - truely masterpieces. I give them credit.
I agree it's more about the people than the cars. For instance, I could talk for hours to a Mustang owner about how he did this/that while a guy who "bought his car from a catalog" wouldn't be very interesting, even if we had similar rides.
IMHO, we catagorize so we can be better than someone else. The gold-chainer (whoever the hell that is) didn't build his own car; that kid with the baggy pants' car is front wheel drive; that guy's P.O.S. has peeling paint (likely mine!) - you get the picture. I had a really shitty looking '69 Valiant (with a 383) that I took to a meet sponsored by a club my best friend was in. The car really looked like hell, and was sputtering badly on the convoy to the track (we tried out a different carb - learning experience!) and nobody would even make eye contact with us, let alone talk to us. But, at the track, we met some other MoPar guys who were pretty cool. Well, as luck would have it, we took street class that afternoon (63 car field - yeah baby!!!). Now all the same fucks who wouldn't give us the time of day all wanted to talk to us. People judging me & my buddy by the appearance of the car we were in. Moral? Don't have one - just like to brag. But I've owned a really good looking lowered 'j62 Beetle, a decent '70 Road Runner, and currently have a '54 NY'er and a '54 Dodge 1/2T (under repair), but drive a '79 300SD. I think I'm pretty much the same prick no matter which of these I'm in . As for me, I judge every hot rod I look at; just sometimes, I gotta' remember to keep the verdict to myself... -bill
Because greasers think gold-chainers are douchebags and gold chainers think greasers are scumbags. One of them is right, just ask them.
Not always so my friend. My car is a beater/driver so I should fit the group here. But I'm always in shorts, sometimes with a flower shirt. ( I've lived on a coast, the gulf, a lake or an island most of my life) I use a credit card when I want to, build it when I can. (more often than not). I believe I , like most don't fit any group, don't want to, ain't going to.
I think the need to catagorize cars comes from groups wanting, or not wanting, to be associated with one another. Take your example, nowadays, those cars would be owned and built by like minded people. Same interests, same eye for what they find attractive. people would drive by and say... "look at those hot rods"... Have some new guys pull in, in mid '90's Boydster 'guise and see what happens. It'd be like a HS dance. with the "street rods" on one end and the "hot rods" on the other. The guys might talk, but, ask them what is what and they'll dissisociate themselves from the other group because they belive their cars to be of a better "class". My hot rod is better than your street rod. My street rod is better than your hot rod. Meanwhile, more people drive by saying, "wow, look at all the hot rods"... Then come eek, gasp... rat rodders. They didn't make the name, the Street rodder and the Hot rodder that didn't want to be parked next to them at a show called them that. Disassociation. Yet even more people drive by. Now saying "oooo... look at all the Hot Rods..." discussing amongst themselves which hot rod they like the best. the black '40 ford... the red '57 chevy... the pastel '32 or the rusty '27. Then the Muscle car guys show up making all their noise, then the custom guys. And the people drive by telling everyone they know, "There's a hot rod show at the local burger joint." Do you see it? While we're arguing over rat rods and street rods, muscle cars and customs, everyone else, ma and pa average, with their average kids on an average day driving by and looking at the cars, only see "hot rods". We make the distinctions. We make the categories. We seperate ourselves from one another in the name of competition and acceptance. A slicked up street rod is built by someone with a completly different set of ideals than a rat rodder. Same goes between the custom guy, and the muscle car guys, and so on and so on... No one wants to be part of a group that doesn't share their general ideals. It's primal instnect to form a pack and protect ones way of life. Disassociation to protect our piticular ideals is why we catigorize. That says it all. Personally I think the sports car guys don't get out because their cars are built with parts that are nearly impossible to find, were hand built to begin with, or are so expensive they don't want to take the chance that some fool might bump into it while he's oogling over a nova with a chili dog in his hand and some brat kid banging her barbie against everything she sees....
"nice dune buggy!"..... In the end it all comes down to personal preferance and prejudice. To bad, but that is the way it is...
No shit. I worked four years in the field (away from home, out of state) to make enough money to build my car the way I wanted. So I'm sure I'm a gold chain guy huh?
Personally i don't think of a gold chainer as a guy who has a million bucks to throw at a hotrod project. to me a gold chainer is the guy who buys a model car and has someone else put it together without knowing a thing about the car, except its glass w/350/350 combo. if we all had the money some of us would buy an old mill and some would buy a crate motor. my 1 1/2 cents
this is a very interesting post for me. im fairly new to this whole "kustom kulture" [or whatever]. the reason its interesting is that im not a greaser or a rockabilly, etc. but i have traditional rods on my brain day in and day out, i spend long nights working on my rod , and just live and breath this stuff. but when summer comes i show up at a billetproof show without sideburns and a pair of dickies and get a strong feeling that im not "accepted" or something. my point id like to make is that you guys who are in this mostly for the cars are awesome and definetly a inspiration. especially you old timers. your the only ones i get advice from and can talk to it seems like. most guys my age{23} are so into being a rat rod dude, when they see me drinkin a bud light, not a blue ribbon, they look though ya. but i want to admit there are some cool ass rat rod dudes out there. no offence.
thats the way i feel 99% of the time when i go to 'car functions' .. where i live,(a shit hole ,gossip fest),i have been to local car cruises,,(usually 1 or 2 a year) only as soon as i get there only to rember 'why' i havent been back since last year,,,no matter what im in,,i get the COLDEST sholder because im not a part of "there group" ,,its pretty GAY cuz in my line of work i deal with alot of car guys daily,,this one guy with a SUPER nice 54 was bragging in front of the other customers the other day about how his 54 won a 'BEST of SHOW' at the pumpkin festival,,and MAYORS choice at the local rinky dink car show on the town square,,,then a few minutes later he asked me what my dad was building NOW,,as if it was some kind of 'CHALLANGE',,,,.....fuckin idiot,,, .. thing is,,,i know that most those cars there are either bought that way ,,,or they had them built,,,so in all actuality,,,I could care less about being a part of their GAY LOVE circle jerk,,,,i go for the cars,but i am always quickly reminded of the bullshit ploitics invloved,,,
i like to pretend i am someone different now and then....i have a s10 i built when i was 15 and take it out when i want to pick up chicks (shinny, big wheels, airride...the things that make chicks THINK you have money) on sundays i get greasy and drive the 50 studebaker to a cruise in and everyone there likes it now i am building a 37 ford that i probally won't go to either place with to me it just makes sense that some cars should be at some places, but i wouldn't bother me a bit to see restored cars, hot rods, customs, street rods, and maybe even a couple late models thrown in all together some of the coolest people drive cars that i wouldn't be caught dead in, but i don't care.....where i am from it seems that if you work on and build cars, other will apreciate them
Why do we categorize??? Because in our desperate need to attain some sort of "cool" identity, it helps us to feel like we have some degree of exclusivity. We're part of the "in crowd" and they "just don't get it". In his book about transactional analysis, Dr. Thomas Harris's describes four life conditions, and this would probably fall under the heading of "I'm OK, you're not OK". Some of the typical things I hear in regards to this topic are the "I'm a loner, I'm a rebel, an outcast". The funny thing is that although I hear all these stories of rejection, I've experienced the exact opposite. Before my 65 Riviera Riviera was wrecked, I had everyone from musclecar guys to tuner guys give me nothing but compliments and respect, and invite me to their events. So what gives? I think a lot of guys just want to create some sort of "lone wolf" persona in order to give credence to your narrow viewpoints. The reality is that we're not breaking any new ground here. Everything we're doing has been done before by guys with way more balls and ingenuity than us, and we're just trying to fill their shoes. A lot of guys around here like to bash musclecar guys, "ricers", vette guys, etc, but the fact of the matter is that we have more in common with each other than we have differences. In fact, the tuner crowd probably has a lot more in common with the original hot rodders than we do. How so? Well think about it, both groups basically started out as a bunch of hooligan street racers that for the most part have/had no money, and took the cheapest, lightest cars they could find, and used what little money & whatever they have/had to make their cars as fast as possible, and then take/took them to the streets to prove themselves. If you can separate yourself from your preconceived notions you'd probably see that it's an almost identical movement Some guys around here proclaim themselves as "real hot rodders" in one breath, and then shake their finger at "irresponsibe street racing" like a bunch of old ladies the next. Unfortunately, suburbia is closing in on everyone, and it's chasing dragstrips away. And for me, hot rodding is not, and never will be about sitting around at car shows in lawn chairs with my wife with our matching windbreakers and that whole thing. If that's your deal, cool. To me, hot rodding is about cars that haul ass, and driving them like they're fucking stolen. I just think we should get off our high-horses and respect each other's trip. We'd probably be having a lot more fun if we weren't so busy playing "cooler than thou". We're all car guys, and we should just let it go at that. I do my thing, you do yours. This whole "us vs. them" mentality is pathetic and gay.
Categories mean nothing. Goldchainers come in every crowd. Open OSR and read the articles, easily half of the "rat Rodz" were built by some rod shop, which negates the whole point. The "top rat kustom" at Lead East 2 years ago was some pro built 39 Chevy with flat paint. Conversely, a guy with a Camaro or Honda who is true and turns his/her own wrenches is more in line with the philosophy or traditional rods than someone who plunks down 40G for a chopped Merc and likes to profile at the local watering hole. I think the tie that binds is mutual respect for someones work, even if that work is into a car we wouldn't be caught dead driving. There is nothing duller then trying to talk to someone about their car at a cruise night, and having them tell you that they don't know anything about how the car was built.
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