Holy Crap, are we considering a traditional dress code now? Any body have a good zoot suit connection?
Hey I was just showing some pictures of a period of time that some guys are bringing up and want to be following in a traditional manner but I wasn't seeing much in the form of pictures to show anyone that wasn't there what it was like in the period that they wanted to follow, then the clothing thing happened so I just posted some pictures showing the cars of the particular period in time and the clothing of the same all in one. It's easy to tell a story but alot of people don't get it unless they can see it. But no matter what the post subject might be there are always the one's that have no input at all until they see a opportunity to complain about something that alot of time has nothing to do with the subject anyways. Moving On...........I know the periods probably are not correct. Sent from my SM-T387V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
^ I was just being a smart ass towards an earlier post. In reference to your post, people dressed different then. People showed up for dinner, church, even blue collar work looking their best. Dress to impress. Good thing, bad thing....debatable. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that it seems most of the really fast cars were owned by nerds(lack of a better term). The smart, bookish guy got it done. Not many people want to emulate that. They get their clues from the movies. I’m with the earlier post......as long as your junk is covered and you take baths who cares.
It's all good ,but best with a little crap mixed in, just think what it would be like to be all the same ? Boring. If you notice in the pics that I posted the drag racers and such are a little more "unkept", or normal to me, than the guys with the more refined Hot Rods, with the prep ,nerdy , owners. Myself I fell more into the unkept , carburetor head type , in school I always worked and my money went into my cars, didn't date, didn't go to dance's, no sports, that stuff cut into my hot rod funds. In stead I always had cool and fast cars and lived for the week ends so I could go drag the streets or go drag racing at the track. I did dress well but I didn't mind getting dirty when needed , actually things in some ways haven't changed much, still a unkept and single carburetor head that now lives to just stay alive a little bit longer. "Hot Rodder till death" after that ..well we'll see what happens. Sent from my SM-T387V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have noticed some-of-the-guys strolling around with their starched and pressed.. certified GM mechanic shirts or the FoMoCo logo on one side with their Fred or Robert name patch sewn on their "cool shirt". Shirt tail out and unbuttoned. The old "hey-i'm -a-car-mechanic" just got off a work look.......I guess. No grease or stains on the shirt OR nails!! I just sorta giggle-to-myself. 6sally6
Please note, I don't remember any 70+ year old rodders in the 1960 era. Today, it's not possible for us older guys to look like a 20 year old rodder, no matter how traditional we dress. Phil
They were all dressed in western chaps, ten gallon hats and wild embroidered shirts......trying to look traditional.
Sears blue jeans and a T-shirt, probably both a little dirty, was my uniform of the day. Sent from my VS500 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not really....there are just way more folks today willing to spend the money or time to get good craftsmanship on their rides.
Remember before the internet when people didn't worry about half of this shit and just went on about their day? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
For a while, I was interested in making Pennsylvania flintlock rifles (Kentucky Rifles). It's the same deal there, the ones being made now are so much more detailed and precise than the old originals, but that's partly because guys are using modern equipment and jewelers loupes and power tools and computer programs. To me, the super detailed modern ones, while absolute works of art and wonderful examples of the possibilities of human achievement, usually lack the "feel" of the originals that were made by hand, using the naked eye guided by sunlight or lamplight, hand tools (often homemade), and primitive technologies. It's also human nature to progress, I think. The current generation of guys building these perfect cars (and rifles, and...) are standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. They have picked the ball up from the previous generation and advanced it to the best of their ability. Me, now, I'm just a hack slapping shit together in my back yard. Cool thing about this site is that both approaches get respect.
my high school days were the mid '60s, and the poor guys drove flatheads; the rich boys had chevvies. the saying was you only needed a vacuum gauge on a flathead because they suck. my 4-door olds 98 was a big step up. a common theme--which i never liked--in the '70s was having those big, wide tires that stuck out from the rear fenders by a foot or so!
dan c said:"my high school days were the mid '60s, and the poor guys drove flatheads; the rich boys had chevvies. the saying was you only needed a vacuum gauge on a flathead because they suck." This is the truth. The fun part was that flathead speed stuff was obsolete and, therefore, cheap. Sometimes it was free.
I was born in'54. I was a car and bike nut in elementary school. I'm old enough to have caught the tail end of the days when penny loafers, white socks and rolled up jeans were tough guy cool. No one would believe that today. There were a lot of primer paint jobs in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Yes Earl Scheib was cheap but taxi cab paint jobs were extremely uncool. Sorta like mag hub caps were cheap but very uncool. Plain wheels were cooler than that and so were primer paint jobs. Few of us had garages to work in no less garages suitable for painting. The laws also had an effect on cars and the laws changed or were enforced more in some areas than others. Some HAMBers criticize a '55 Chevy jacked sky high as an nontraditional street freak but when your State law reads "No Altered Fenders" how do you get the meat under the car. Air shocks are criticized now but were handy for beating the 18" bumper law. You could let the car down when pulled over for measuring. You hoped the cop pulled away before you did or you feigned a no start 'caused the tires were going to shred with no air in the shocks. Some States had a 2/3rd tire coverage fender law too. Factory cars probably didn't always meet that but it was selectively enforced.
I remember cops busting guys for lake pipes and side pipes. You couldn't have them if the car had a back seat. Exhaust had to go over the rear axle if their was a back seat.
Hood scoops were a frequent bust too. From your line of sight you had to be able to see the whole front edge of your car with no obstruction.
My obscure point was that they were born in the 1890s. About the time of the Oklahoma Land Race and the Wounded Knee Massacre. The only flat head was a European name given to some Indian tribes in Montana.
Everyone's point of reference usually dates back as far as they can remember. I remember the cars of the 60's decade. You had the purists, who kept muscle cars original, and those who weren't afraid to remove a factory fuel injection and replace it with a 4 barrel Holley, or replace the factory wheels with a set of Cragars. You could tell the designers in Detroit were more obsessed with the cars, rather than the shareholders. I find it ironic that some of the best selling cars today have similar styling to the cars of the 60's and 70's. Today, your family car has a turbo, carbon fiber and technology that NASA didn't have in the 60's. Some will disagree, but we were more creative in the "old days", we had to be because Amazon was only a word we learned in geography class. We made what we couldn't buy.
The Jalopy Journal
