Hot Rods The FUTURE is in front of our faces!

My 7 year old son loves Hot Rods and drag racing. He has been going to car shows and the race track since he was 6 months old. He is so pumped up about my current 32 5 window build he can't think or talk to me about anything else. He is out in the garage with me at all times tinkering with this or that, make headers for his bicycle, mimicking what I am doing to the car. The other night I was block sanding and he comes over, "Dad can I help you do that?". I say, "Of course you can!"

The FUTURE of Hot Rodding is right in front our faces my friends. We need to embrace it, Nourish it, teach it. Hopefully it will grow into a full blown Hot Rod enthusiast and keep our small part of this big world ALIVE.

 

Riser you are one very lucky guy to have a son like that, glad you shared this pic with us

DND

 

Keep those brain deadening electronic devices out of his hands and he should be off to a great start. You're a lucky Dad

 

Great teamwork. Envision the day of the first ride. A smile that will make his ears hurt.

 

Right on

 

That's awesome. I couldn't get my son to go out into the garage to help me. He was too busy playing video games. Your a lucky guy.
More pics of your hot rod please.

 

Here is my 7 year old, photo taken last night. We are learning about cleaning up old wiring from the 1963 belair. Close inspection (yellow thing) shows a "home" grade wire splice nut. He knows this device does not belong in a car. The PO could learn a thing or two from my son.

 

All you Fathers out there,,Attn: You are complaining about all the electronic devices that your kids are playing with..my question to you,WHO THE HELL IS BUYING THEM for them??They don't have the money to buy for themselves. duhhhhhh..

 

That's a fantastic post and good for you to encourage your son to help and having the patience to teach. What's sad is that it's not the norm anymore. You should be proud and you and your son keep up the good work! Look forward to more progress pics

George

 

My eldest son disliked mechanic work. didn't like getting dirty. He helped me a lot fixing stuff when he was growing up. And now he is a Park Supt and a lawyer. Has the funds to pay others to do stuff. And since he has the know how no tradesmen can pull the wool over his eyes. My middle son was ate up with the bug. Born to turn wrenches. He died in a car crash 24 years ago. My youngest like the eldest can do stuff. But he is ate up with the video game electronic bug. Now he has three sons. The 4 years old grandson Chris is my shadow. He stays with us more than with his parents. At this very moment he is setting on my lap. If I go to the shop he is right there. yesterday we where swapping tires on vehicles and after I loosened them up he used the lug wrench and took then off. He put them back on and I tightened them. He asks a gazillion questions about everything. We have a 55 chevy 150 two door wagon out front. He tells everyone (See that 55 chevy? That's mine and Im gonna fix it up someday. He likes the Drag Races at George rays also. As the old saying goes different strokes for different folks!

 

Actually video games like anything else aren't all bad or evil. Its excessive participation of anything to the exclusion of everything else that can be a problem. I know a guy ate up with stock car racing. years ago after a 17 year gap the local stock car track was going to reopen. He came home from work and his wife gave him the good news. He owned a Pk. She had a really nice Chevy car with a 350. He immediately went out and started stripping out her car! worked all nite and had it ready for roll bars to be welded in the next day. To this day he spends every extra dime on his stock car addiction.

 

Still married?

 

Yes he is still married to the same woman. He is old & no longer drives. His son,s and grandsons have the same addiction. I shouldn't throw rocks. I have a hoarder addiction. My wife is here reading this. She stated its the parents fault. They are aways on their cell phones Yakking,Texting or playing games. My wife and I don't own a cell phone. I had one when I drove truck. When I quit driving I got rid of it.

 

The times are a'changing. Our society is cranking out less and less "car guys" than in the past. New cars today have evolved into bubbles of comfort and safety but no longer inspire any passion. And the amount of digital tech that is added on is just about all that gets a grin from most folks these days.
Us old timers remember drawing pictures of our dream cars in study hall instead of cracking a textbook and saving up money in cigar boxes from after school side jobs to buy something we believed would make a sweet ride. Our "car radar" was constantly turned on; we could spot 'em from a quarter mile away, even at night just by the shape of the lights. We could name 'em all, make model and year. We opened our hoods for any excuse just so we could see, touch and hear the mechanical bits.
If you can instill a degree of that car/hot rod passion in a youngster, I'd like to think that your angel wings will be waiting for you in car guy heaven.

 

Good point. Also, we are all staring into some "electronic device" RIGHT NOW! Each and every one of us. Just gotta get used to the fact that it's as much part of life as transistor radios and walkmans were....

 

Clunker, I agree, BUT, it's all about self control, my oldest is 45 and can fix anything, is going to put a Kenworth cab on his F350 chassis cause his cab is falling off, but is an electronic texting junkie. My daughter has a 72 gm pickup waiting for spring to start on, has to work with electronics for her work, but abhors them, and I only use my computer for research or to talk to hamber's.
The difference is that cars aren't driven anymore, you don't have to be proficient at all, just point and go, I had to learn on bias ply tires, parallel parking? Pull up, look, shift into reverse, turn the manual steering while clutching it, get it into the spot after jiggery poking it without stalling it, then get it back out the same way. Bias ply tires let you know you were going too fast, you paid the price if you didn't listen, now, pull up, push the button and relax, park like a pro, I taught both my kids to haul trailers, my daughters truck backs up a trailer without her help, see, we had to learn to drive, learn to understand what was going on, that component is missing now.
Same in the shop, nobody but us fixes anything now, just get another one, it's difficult sometimes to source parts for cars, nobody carries parts like the good old days, not enough demand, too expensive to warehouse, times are changing, but not because our children aren't interested, but because the opportunity to learn the basics is slowly going away. Pretty soon it'll be a desired option to be able to actually drive a car, an option that will have to be purposefully built into a new car that you have to pay for with strict controls as to it's use, watch and see.

 

I STILL cant back up with a @#$%&*! trailer!

 

As Pogo said in about 1952, Hot the Rod and spoil the Child." Good work!

 

I encourage my kid to use the computer, but to broaden her mind, not dull it down. If she asks me a question, I encourage her to look up info on the internet, and then we talk about what she finds out together. We don't use facebook or instagram, and we don't play computer games, and we spend literally hours a day engaging with each other, and our surroundings. We go for LOTS of nature walks, we only watch non-commercial TV, and we read and listen to music a lot, and she plays music. I encourage her to think for herself, to question dogma, and to only engage in activities that require active participation on her part, either mentally or physically.
I haven't pushed the car thing on her AT ALL but she likes it, and I can see that exposure is really starting to foster an interest in her. She is coming to me and asking me about parts and stuff, and what they do, and what I am doing when I work on stuff. The reality is, this stuff is dying, and I don't really care if it plays a role in her life in the future, but the interest is there, and I support that, I wont actively discourage it.

 

Trying to keep him away from TV.Too young for computer so far.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Y blocks and a FE! 1956 truck. yep he has a golden opportunity to get greasy and lean by doing. I like our puter. I watch a lot of U Tube. There is a Guy in N Carolina Johanathan Winans. Im watching his videos at present. He builds his own wreckers and hunts for old settin and rotting stuff.

 

I did not think I would need to make myself more clear to the quoting audience. What I mean is to the effect that some use electronic devices to pacify children like baby sitters. A la: "Give Johnny a gameboy to shut him up of keep him out of our hair." Taking selfies of you eating a pork chop or how good your ass looks in tight jeans. Complete waste of time. Of course computers or other electronics are not bad, it's how you use them. Too many fat kids running around with loss of hearing from headphones and lack of social skills from being holed up in a dark room chugging Mountain Dew.
Now someone who can program a CNC machine or even know how to use a analog dial-indicator correctly gets my respect. The reason the hobby is dying out to some extent is the new generation there are not that many "Craftsman". Mostly fat cat buyers. You been to the silly circus called Barrett-Jackson. Most people don't even know what they are looking at.
To the parents with a plan: You Rock!

 

Agreed, video games are the devil!!
Here is my boy,always lending a hand


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Alky- Your boy is a Superman and so are you!

 

My 7 year old loves cars.....she helps any chance she can.





Her younger sister is getting excited about cars as well...

 

Chucky- I didn't get my first Tattoo until I was in my 20's. Yours is only 7 years old and sporting ink? I think Dad might have some too huh?
Coooooooool!

 

Ha! No tat's for me, I'm not that cool.
My son got his from some guy he met on Craigslist!
(Calm down, I'm joking)...

 

Actually I had him pretty interested in watching southeast gasssers for a while.It was a faze but he does like the straight pipes on the 56 so it's a start...

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

My son has been around this stuff since birth. He is a good boy he is 13 now and saving for parts for his 1st project. A lot of guys he has met from here have donated parts to his project.

He does a lot of stuff on computers and his ipad and cell phone. Right now he wants to be an engineer dealing with robotics and some days he wants to be a marine both are good professions and I will support him no matter what.
you can see pics of some of our adventures in the thread that is linked in my signature.