Projects Hobby or ??????

A different thread brought this to mind.

We all have a different take on rods and customs. Hobby, investment, lifestyle and etc. May make for an interesting conversation.

So I'll start. I like to go fast. I long ago came to the conclusion that I am not going to break any records. Speed costs money.

I also like to get from point A to point B. I have never been wealthy, I have had money a time or two in my life. I usually do not keep it very long. I figured out a long time ago that getting from point A to point B was more fun and easier if I was not walking. I also figured out that a non running roller was often cheaper and I could have more vehicle for the same money if I found one I liked and slammed a drive train in it. It does not cost much more and some times it is cheaper if I buy an old car rather than a late model one.

So this is not really a hobby for me, nor is it a life style. Unless of course one considers not being wealthy to be a life style. For me I screw cars and bikes together out of necessity. I prefer older ones so that is where I am at.

So Hobby, Life Style, Living? Where are you coming from?

 

Been around racing and hot rods all of my 53 years so I do not know any better. It WAS a lifestyle the years I worked in the shop, now it is a hobby. Been riding road and mtb since 83, it has been my vocation and avocation throughout my life, it will always be a lifestyle

 

For me, it started out as a hobby in the 70s. Something fun to do because I loved old cars. Then so many people got into this "hobby" and thought these old cars were made of gold, so that it got so expensive that now its a money pit instead.
But....still just a hobby. I quit every so often.

 

This subject has rolled around for awhile. Because I am older, started out with an "old" car because it was all I could afford. Kind of kept it up off and on for years as a car would peak my interest, and then I would sell it. Now it is just something to do in my retirement years but I wouldn't consider it a hobby.

 

I just like old crap

 

Can't narrow it down myself.

When I was young, it was drivetrain, not looks,paint, popularity but what was under the hood.

A 100% riddlers winner hotrod is cool and all but if all it does is sit and look pretty had no interest in it.

Then kids, mortgage etc, hot rods were gone and family cars became the norm, but again, when starting my 31 it was all about drivetrain, the rest is just window dressing, if it can't live up performance wise got no interest.

So I guess sometimes it's a hobby, in my youth a life style and working on many hot rods etc at the shop it has also been a living..


..

 

LOl

 

It's a lifestyle for me. I like old stuff, the Hamb is an imperfect Niche I fit into. I have little money so I work with whatever I have. Sometimes I sell and make money, often I lose. I get many freebies and reciprocate with my skills . I have only had 1 vehicle professionally repaired in my life, because I was in vacation and had no diagnostic tools

 

Like any other interest, hot rodding if carefully nurtured can become an all (well money and time anyway) consuming compulsion. But unlike certain other compulsions, it doesn't act to destroy one's health.

 

Don't think it's a hobby for me, just something that got interrupted a long time ago and I want to get done before I croak. Hell, Beaner, as far as "not being wealthy" a lifestyle, consider yourself a trend setter and I'm going right along with you . That's coming from a guy who had two close friends with the same size feet as him. If one of us had a school function, he got to wear the best pair of shoes out of the three and that's no BS. Nicely finished cars belonged to the businessman's kids. Mine were rough but they ran.

 

I am currently working on the 12th edition of my last car. I guess I could analyze until I was paralyzed but I think that it's just a combination of ego and relaxation. I like the comments I get from the cars and I also enjoy being alone in the garage working on the cars. Sometimes I get mad because I do something incredibly stupid or doing something that hurts really bad and gets blood all over the place, But all in all ...
I don't have an answer for you.

 

at first it was out of necessity, old cars were all I could afford.
then I found I preferred owning, driving and working on the old stuff too.
then I needed something more reliable to commute to work in.
I still drive a twenty year old truck but
now the real old cars are more toys than tools and have become a hobby.

 

As a kid growing up in the San Joaquin Valley, I had the distinct pleasure of the huge influence of my dads wrecking yard and car and truck repair business.

I was born in 53, co chronologically, I caught the tail end the good old days of wrecking yards and great cars from the 50's, my first car was a 57 Plymouth 4 door with a 318 and a typewriter transmission!

I remember going with my dad in our 59 Ford tow truck on many tow calls and also being in the pits with him in the tow truck as we would go to the Saturday night races at the Merced fair grounds.

Because of my dads business, there was always a group of interesting gear heads and Hot Rod enthusiasts that hung around our shop.
As far as the variety of cars in my young life back then, I never truly had what is considered to be a hot rod, I was always drawn to vehicles that nobody else had, it was the long haired hippie in me that just had to have the most outrageous vehicle in those days, hence the reason for the user name I choose for the
H.A.M.B. ( 41 GMC K-18 ) that rig was what got me started at age 17 in this crazy world of cars and trucks.

I really miss the simplicity of working on the older cars and trucks, seems to me that the world of automotive products after 1971, with the element of planned obsolescence firmly in place, always made me go back to tinkering with older cars and trucks.

 

A lifestyle without a doubt! I was born into it! I was in the pits at my first race when I was three months old, family trips revolved around a race and or swapmeet usually to off set the cost of the trip.

Racing runs deep in the Kellerhouse (My paternal grandmother's madden name0 family! From my great uncles, cousins, my dad to me! Mechanics, Officials, Public Relations, Builders, and Drivers!

My Great Uncle Don Wyle (married to my grandmother's older sister) crewmen not driver


Great Uncle Leslie Kellerhouse (on right my grandmother's younger bother) Chief Steward Fonda Speedway.


My father Willard Palmer building his first racecar


The finished car-


My Cousin Edward "Doc" Docskalik (Son of my grandmother's younger sister) 61 T-Bird late model


My Cousin- Paul Kellerhouse (Far right son of Leslie Kellerhouse) P.R. at Albany-Saratoga (Malta) speedway.


To me



My mother's father was a body man


Even my interest outside of racing and building are automotive related, I enjoy photography as well-

 

To me a hobby. A hobby of over 40 years but still a hobby.

But i respect those who genuinely adopt a lifestyle aproach. Lifestyle is not something you can purchase your way into.

 

Porknbeaner, It was like you were describing me in your opening post. It became a hobby for me once I had disposable income and a spouse that much prefers luxury cars over hot rods. My screen name A2B was actually assigned to my subconscious by my wife who always said my cars were only good for getting from A to B.
It stuck.
Today, totally a hobby, one of many. I started to downsize 22 years ago when I retired but still had to have a truck, a spouse approved ride, a Harley and a hotrod or motorcycle project underway. I suspect I will have an ongoing project of some kind till the end but not necessarily anything HAMB approved.
Its just nice having the project there when I get the urge to get off my ass and implement the ideas/plans stored in my head.
My projects never seem to stay within HAMB boundaries for long. Not that I don't "get it" or appreciate those who strive for era correct builds but because my wants and needs tend to overlap to the dark side. That said, I still have a keen interest in most of the outstanding builds presented on these pages and mostly see myself as an interested spectator, not a participant.

Great thread idea Beaner!

 

How about ailment?

this is a non voluntary obsession. I like all of it. Researching, hunting for parts, building driving fixing. The buddy’s and the history.

it eats at my brain.

post script.

I think they consider being wealthy a life style so being broke should be as well. I guess what makes the difference is weather it was intentional

 

I just wanna be cool.

Not all joking, either.
There's definitely that.

But I've begun to recently accept that my being cool times are pretty much behind me by virtue of my old freaking age.
LOL
It's a good thing that it's deeper than that.
Hot rods for me are...
Gilded chariots
Time machines
Americana to the utmost
An engineering exercise
Art
A worthy challenge
A hobby
A pastime
A respite from the modern f.u. world
A respite from the modern f.u. people
And, as @porknbeaner alluded to, it can be a way to have a quite dependable and easy to work on vehicle that's also different and interesting.

EDIT:
I forgot one.
In the indelible words of the late great Bill Burnham...
"Hot rods are an E-ticket ride."

WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!
Bang gears, mfs...

 

I don't know , breathing the isocynates in paint, bondo dust, the numerous cuts, gouges and several infected ones. Not to mention the number of metal specks dug out of my eyes (yes wearing eye protection at the time). The welding fumes, etc.

It might just have an detrimental effect to one's health but I still ain't giving it up !!

....

 

For me it’s always been a hobby ( possibly a habit, addiction that is) . The whole reason I got involved in the first place was to have fun with cars. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy making friends and meeting people who are like minded ( ya know somebody should start a message board like that, sorry @Ryan couldn’t resist) but the whole point is to just enjoy it all.

 

Yeah, what Rickybop said!

 

That I can identify with.
We called the businessmen's kids Sosches, short for Social Butterflies. They called us Hoods, short for Hooodlums. Some of the Sosch kids were posers they didn't have much money either but they wanted to be considered to be acceptable.

I have been on my own since I was 14. Long story. I can identify with the shoes deal. One year there was this girl that invited me to a thing put on by her church. It was not at the church it was at a fancy restaurant and I had to be dressed up. They called it the Sweethearts Ball. I had a buddy that was religious, he loaned me a sport coat a white short and a tie. He was shorter so his slacks and shoes were not gonna fly. But I had a friend in The Barrio that was taller and wore the same size shoes as me so I borrowed shoes and slacks from him. I got dressed at his house, his mom tied my tie for me and he said, "Bato mang, Jou look tan cheeto!!!" His dad tossed me the keys to his Impala and said that I had to cruise by with the girl. I did.

I think the reason that I am not wealthy can be summed up in a song. "I get by with a little help from my friends . . ." That seems to go both ways.

 

For me its definitely a hobby, i wish i could daily drive an old car, or lived back when they werent old. currently i daily drive a wrecked and clapped out ex cop car. but saving old things? thats a lifestyle. a random old fan from 80 years ago? who would see value in that?

i sometimes wish i could have experienced the golden age for these cars.

debatable... motor oil and most everything in a car is a carcinogenic, aswell as co2, etc.

better for you than smoking or drinking though.

 

I thought that smokin and drinkin went with the territory.

Lots of things in the practice that will ruin your health. Some of it has been outlawed but it was too late. I can remember cleaning parts in dad's shop that made me tingle to the elbows. LOL

 

Great thread Beano, with me it's a life long obsession and has been since I was 12 years old,. HRP

 

I remember reading the magazines and building models and somehow becoming aware that hot rodding was actually almost dying in the late '60s due to the great surge of interest in muscle cars.
And I remember thinking, "Cool... I'm gonna be one of the only guys around with a 1932 Ford 3W Coupe. Cuz nobody likes them anymore." (lol)
I had seen a couple guys here and there rumbling around in their old hot rods and decided that I really wanted to be that guy.
Then Pete and Jake built their cars and everybody took notice and the whole damn world took off without me!
Suddenly, 1932 Ford 3W coupes were $30,000 instead of $3,000.
It was frustrating and I gave up on the dream for years. Fuck it. Impossible. Way beyond my means.
But eventually, guys like Pat Ganahl got it through my thick head that a Model A is a good alternative. And if you really want to have a hot rod you very likely might need to build a hot rod rather than buy a hot rod.

Okay. Got it.
Working on it.

Bottom line...
I guess I just really like 'em.

And I'm quite inspired by the hands-on can-do type of people who build them, too.
That's who I want to be when I grow up.

 

My experience was a bit different than many here. I got my driver's license in 2002. About 3 years prior, my dad and I started looking for my first project. My dad already had a 64 Impala SS and an 41 International hot rod pickup, and when they were just used cars had a smattering of muscle cars and trucks pre-kids.

My dad had his own automotive repair shop, and maintaining, building, and modifying cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, bicycles, etc. was our pastime. It stayed that way for me. My dad was crew for a modified stock car when I was young, then as a teen we were crew for a Bonneville car. I met Bill Burke and heard a lot of stories from him before I knew who he was. I grew up going to car shows, the drag strip, and with life revolving around stuff with engines.

Now in my later 30's I have modern fuel injected daily drivers and I have a collection of 5 cars of various vintage that I'm slowly making changes and improvements on (one is a project). For me it's not connected to my day job so it is most definitely a hobby, but I'm expecting my first child and none of my cars or desire to work on them will go anywhere. Cars have been a huge part of my life as long as I can remember, so it's not a passing activity for me.

 

Yeah, Carbon Tetrachloride out of the fire extinguishers that my dad brought home from work for degreasing parts. Nothing like it now.

 

No doubt in the 70's and 80's it was a lifestyle thing. I worked as a mechanic and then taught Auto mechanics and just about every weekend from spring until early fall was taken up by going to a car show/rod run.
In the 60's I wanted to drag race on a serius scale but that didn't get far after I got married and just didn't have the extra money to campaign a car.
In the early 70's I was around a lot of dirt track guys in Central Texas and spent a lot of Friday nights at Heart-O-Texas speedway, I worked for the guy who was the guru of local racers back then. One thing that made me decide that I wasn't going to race or even get carried away on my hotrod or custom was seeing friends kids live on Beans and weenies so the car could have parts to race on Friday night and the kids might get a hamburger at the track if they won that night.

I lived and breathed hot rods and custom cars but also had other interests, I hunted, fished, played a little golf and followed football and baseball teams.
The one thing that learned years ago what if you are a single focus person with only interest no matter what that interest is you are a very boring person in real life. I probably was that boring person in the 1970's and 80's but hopefully outgrew it. Now a lot of people who somewhat know me think of me as the guy with the little saiboat or the guy who posts sunset and mountain photos on FB.

 

Hobby for me although it has been a big part of my life, I would not say lifestyle. I think my friend, 41woodie on here, said it best when one of his neighbors who had just sold a boat, came by while he and I were working on his 39 coupe, and stated that he was thinking about getting into a new hobby. Mike replied " this is more like a religious experience than a hobby". It does require much more commitment than many hobbies to build a hot rod.