Projects Hobby or ??????

Vocation vs Avocation....... similar but different.

An avocation is a hobby or any other activity taken up in addition to one's regular work; it may especially refer to something that is a person's "true" passion or interest.
A vocation is one's principal occupation, often used in the context of a calling to a particular way of life or course of action.

 

Pretty much sums it up for me.

 

When I was young we went to antique tractor warm ups, I think that's what really set the old iron in my life...
My spring break of my senior year of HS was spent with my grandfather swapping out the motor in my car at the time... That is one of the best wrenching weeks I have ever had. I wished we could have wrenched more together but I have all his tools and that's the best I can do these days.

My 56 has been my daily driver for months on end when I needed to cut back and save the house and family bottom line, she did it without a hitch. Can I drive her every day, yes, do I want to, not as much anymore as the vintage air in it just sucks and 105 degree days here are brutal this year. I am really considering downgrading my daily driver to another old truck with a bit more room and easier parts accessibility.

I do all my own work except for interiors, I wear it as a badge of honor and accomplishment. At the point where I am right now in life, yes I could spend $ and have someone else do it, but then its not my work and the fear of not knowing if they did it right.

This is my side affair for making money, my shop motto = build, sell and repeat... I don't take on customer work at all. I don't like being told to not fix something wrong but to add chrome this or that for looks. I want vehicles that function better than new, drive 100%, and will be bulletproof as I can make em. Making old 30s stuff be at its top notch is hard to do, but its all traditional to the best of my ability. That's the passion of it for me.

 

I am from a blood line that knew nothing but sawmills and farming. So mechanical anything was just genetic I suspect.
Along the way some of us went and got degrees/and specialist /etc and did other things for a living I guess so we would live longer or so they thought.
I am a 67 model. I never remember my father not trying to piece back together something from our farm or saw mills. Child of the depression in him was a tightwad and he would either fix it /or put my brother and me on it. That’s ok because my brother and I seemed to excel at it. And he knew it. So he did what any father would do. He used it to save money and pay the way. No I am not mad. It is Probobly the one thing that he gave me that in my eyes was above all others. He screwed up on my 11th birth day and took me to Blue Mountain Drag Strip ( defunct now) -was just between Ripley MS and Blue Mountain.
Add to the fact that I found out that before my time he while in Columbus and Starkville had a 57 ford that had many engine combinations. And not all of them Ford. It spent a fair amount of time at the drag strip /and the air base there. Little details that my father left out until mother spilled the beans.
My first ride was a 56 Chevy pick up that Probably should have been left in the field I drug it out of. My father was not amused but it was on my time and my dime.
It led into the racing world/building and eventually to where I am now. Like so many after a few degrees I made my living in another walk. I have no regrets it was good to me. I retired two years ago. Not wealthy but comfortable/family is well / and accumulated a lot of stuff and tools and above all true friends /most of them all older a decade plus than me. Most of them are gone now. Down to two. We were once an even dozen.
It plays a huge part of my life. Retirement has allowed me to work/build as I choose. We’ve raced on the big scene and been successful but as time goes on I am back at the small tracks and shows that I started at. I would say it’s played a major part of my life. So the answer is the same as others. It would really depend on what part/time frame in my life you ask that.

 

Hobby? No, lifestyle? I don't think so, the only thing left is obsession! HRP

 

For me it's definitely an obsession. I started by helping my father build a 29 Model A pickup back in the 70's and after collecting several piles of roadster projects only to give up and start another pile, on about the fourth pile, I finally made a car out of one with a lot of help by my father. Since then I've been collecting parts and was building cars with my father until he passed a few years ago. Since then, I've kept buying parts and building cars or just putting together projects that I can build later if I retire. I have to keep my day job to support my car habit. I almost never sell anything so I feel like I'm definitely needing to pump the brakes on buying any more projects. I can't have my wife be the voice of reason though. I've found that if I take her with me to look at a project car she insists that I buy it.

 

Does she have a sister?

 

Yes but they are polar opposites and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

 

It runs in my family...my grandfather had a service station back in the 1940s and 50s....my dad loved to tinker with his own stuff from being exposed to it at his dads garage...and not go broke so he did most of his own work...

My dad got me started at age 4 years old when he took me to the local stock car track...I was hooked from that day forward...building and rebuilding older junk...hobby only for sure...

Not sure I would want to do it for money tho...I am broke enough just buying parts for the heaps that pass thru my hands now...

So still a expensive hobby and that is it...still better than camping in the woods...

MikeC

 

'I just like old crap.'
anthony took the words out of my mouth.

 

All of the above. Love all things automotive from bone stock Ts to the latest Vette. I grew up in the 60s and 70s loved muscle cars - still do but to me the ultimate hot rod is 32 ford next a T bucket then tri 5 chevys and fords. I haven’t owned a traditional hot rod yet I’ve owned a fair amount of cars some warmed up a little , never had the money or time to devote to one of my favorites. Working on an OT car now that has significant sentimental value to me - when I finish I will tackle something I always wanted maybe a T

 

Let me see? obsession? Hobbie? or just Love'n all old car stuff ? I think that I was just born a car NUT! My mom said that I made car sounds before I could even talk. I got my first car at 4 years old. I loved building model cars, go karts, and playing in junkyards. The most Fun for me is driving or cruising with friends. So Yes, it's Obsession !!!

 

IMO it’s hard to call it “just a hobby” if you’re logging in here on a regular basis.
I was buying “little pages” from the drug store in 6th or 7th grade and noticed anything with wheels that was “cool” long before that.
I have many interests but the hot rod world I’m in will always be #1.

 

Life long obsession. HRP

I was in the 7th grade and reading everything I could get my hands on written by Henry Gregor Felson and that year I got my hands on the October issue of Hot Rod magazine, Dean Lowes red roadster was on the cover, I was hooked! HRP



This photo could have easily been a snapshot of my sister & I on that faithful Saturday morning at Bryant's Corner Drug Store in 1962, I had sit down in the floor and picked up a Hot Rod Magazine, The red Hot rod on the cover caught my eye, I was 12 years old and knew nothing about hot rods and had just started reading and mom told me it's time to go, I pleaded with her to buy me that magazine.

She bought me the magazine and I was hooked on what I was reading about, later on my granddad bought me a subscription and I started learning, I told everyone that would listen that I was going to build a hot rod some day.

I always subscribed to Hot Rod Magazine and do to this day - but this is not the end of the story and I have told this several times in the past, That HOT ROD MAGAZINE my mom bought me back in 1962
featured Dean Lowe's Red Model A roadster pickup.

Who would have thought that I would eventually know Dean as a fellow hamber!

Believe it or not there is another twist of faith, recently our daughter got a divorce and moved back home, so we started cleaning out a spare bedroom that had become a catch all for almost 50 years, as you can guess we found a lot of lost treasures but in a old box of books & magazines I found THE VERY SAME HOT ROD MAGAZINE with Dean Lowe & his red roadster pickup on the cover.

After all these years I still have the very magazine that got me involved in the life long obsession with Hot Rods, now that I have found the magazine and Dean graciously offered to autographed it for me. HRP

 

WOW

 

Lifestyle born out of necessity ,I'm right there with you .

 

Danny, {HOTRODPRIMER} Love your story. It could almost be my story too but without the sister, and some other stuff. Lol I'm also a big Dean Lowe fan! There's lots of my Heroes here on the HAMB. Here's a photo of my little RPU kinda like Dean's.





I've always gotten the Hot Rod mag too it's a great bargain!

 

Ditto @porknbeaner! Necessity... product of a below the poverty line, single parent family...no male influences but obsessed w cars from right outta the chute!... my Gramps was going to give me my first car then Mom was, but they needed the money so they didn't...instead I worked for a body shop and bought their "loaner" Maverick Grabber it was all down hill from there...never been in an actual drag race... got over 100 mph once in my Falcon...never even had a speeding ticket ... haven't had an old car daily driver since '05... got 10 cool old cars in various states of completion but drive a Nissan... at first definitely necessity now just a dreamer...

 

Dreams are what hotrods are made of. I still work my dreams. It takes longer, but when the time comes I'll need a car, hopefully the weather won't be too bad, and another one will be on the road. Less than perfect, in my world less than perfect is a hot rod. They rattle, they are noisy, the wind blows you even with all the windows closed. Not nearly as comfortable as a Neon. But every time you stab the loud peddle you grin. Grinning is good, I don't care what anyone says.

 

Very well said Beaner, I agree with all my heart. I was grinning yesterday raising some hell on the street with the coupe. I instantly felt happy and content. That is hard to come by some days.

 

Too expensive to be just a hobby, it is cheap therapy for me. Keeps me sane and married.

 

It's not a hobby, it's not a choice, it's an obsession from my earliest memories. From the time I got my grubby little hand on my first hot wheels, it was already set. I had a subscription to hot rod from the time I was 5 in my parents efforts to help me read. I could identify nearly any car on the road from an early age. I passed on a very good colleges to take Auto tech at my local JC, to follow that into the field for most of my working life. I'm not into anything else, aside from a little dabbling in music, no sportsball, fishing, hunting, golf, any other typical male hobbies. Cars is all I do. Do I mow my yard? Yeah. Do I maintain my house? Yeah. I do the things that need done, but for pleasure, there's nothing but cars.

Devin

 

Hell yeah @porknbeaner ! I took that rotted out 20 yr. old Ford with it's blue smokin' 6, slipping trans, and bias ply tires and promptly slammed it into a curb! when it understeered (instead of fishtailing as I had planned) going around a corner course my teenage buddy telling me to gun it had nothing to do with it...it was the gravel! so I did what anyone would do... I bought another car....this one was first year, Grandma driven 2 dr. white w a red PLAID interior & had a freshly rebuilt 6. The owner had given it to her son who also drove a last year 4 dr. model w a V8 and had decided to swap the rebuilt 170 into the 4 dr. for gas mileage but still tote his 5 kids!!! We did the swap right in his driveway! I drove off in a V8 2 dr. with no exhaust because they were virtually unchanged over 7 yrs of production so it was a bolt in except the exhaust!! Then I proceeded to slap all the Grabber parts on it and found a donor for the V8 discs and 8" and had me a car that I had built entirely myself from scraps and leftovers...lots of happy miles and smiles...then I got my license
It will happen again someday...
P.S. as a side effect of my beater somewhere around my town there was a '74 w a '70 170 6 and also a '77 w a set of '70 9" drum brakes and spindly rear axle driving around

 

Hobby, although hopefully more than that one day.

(Yammering alert)

From day one I always hated "modern cars" (90's-present in my book). I remember the first car I ever wanted was a 1947 Ford Super Deluxe Sportsman Convertible I saw in a classic car magazine as a little kid. I spent hours reading about classic cars (mom got me a Hemming's subscription) , books on mechanics and engines, etc. Mom's still impressed when I can point out a random classic driving down the road and know what it is. I spent a lot of time around a motorcycle shop when I was a little kid. I still spend plenty of time at that shop, I used to hang out at an old man's garage (he moved away) and he showed me a thing or two, (can't learn everything from a book) and of course I'm still learning. I'm never happier than when I have a wrench in my hand and something to do with it. When it got around time that I had some money saved up (had 2 jobs at the same time for a while, and deposited the checks immediately) and was nearing driving age I would spend hours every day going over Hemming's and a few other websites, keeping tabs on various cars for sale, getting used to mom saying no when I'd show her a car, eventually I found a Craigslist listing for the car I own now. I pulled my life savings out of the bank, bought the car, and ever since I've been monkeying around with it, and I finally got around to driving it. I know a handful of people my age who share my hobbies (kid from across the street has a 1962 impala) so at least I'm not completely alienated.



Or in other words;

Blah blah blah me like car

 

My first car was as old as I was, but it wasn’t really as old as it is now, just like me. I had a late 60’s o/t car as a daily driver up into the mid-2000’s. So really up until that point they were lifestyle cars. Thence they became hobbies because of family and work requirements and I could work on them as projects, but I got tired of having to sell them off when life got in the way. I held off for a while and saved money and I think a whole bunch of aggravation in buying a completely running and driving car. I guess I’m a goldchainer now. But the car is a stocker so a few mods will be a bit of a salve there. As for investment, I basically think that investors ruin everything they get into; they artificially jack up prices for everything for greed, there’s no passion for the car. Die in a fire.

 

Great thread!! " If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand"!! I have tried to explain my love for this obsession, and it is true, if you don't get it you never will.... I know you guys DO get it!

 

As a kid I could spell Ford before I could spell my first name, what more can I say?

 

It's been 50 years since I raced in California and there are a lot of Friday and Saturday nights in the summer, just around 8:00 P.M., that I have the feeling that I should be lining up for the trophy dash. It may sound weird, but it's true.

 

Me too, Aloysius is a mouthful for a little kid.