Featured Hot Rods Are you seeing any young bloods in hot rods

Correct. A lot of us on IG.

 

Not sure this is the right place to mention this. My relative rents space at a shop on Gasoline Alley in Indianapolis. He said shops there, need welders and fabricators. Supposedly they have trouble filling those positions. That's all I know, maybe it's all BS.

 

I know this has been beaten to death already, but another point I would like to make is, how many young people have shop space and a shitload of tools to use, or even a garage to keep a finished car in? Plenty of us on here can whip up a driver for a few grand if we really try, but that's taking for granted a space to work on it with a large collection of tools and loose parts and hardware. You're not going to scratch build a roadster in the parking lot of an apartment complex with a leatherman and a claw hammer.

 

100% fantastic point! Which brings us back around to....help the youngins out! How many of us had a mentor? An old mechanic, older kid, shop teacher, whatever...the kids need guidance, experience, tools, space, HELP! We can all be that life changing mentor, many of us already are

 

I think the biggest thing people can do is to "talk" to them at rod runs and ask about their cars........you may find that once they know you they will also ask you questions. Its just like the situation where old farts say they won't attend the Street Rod Nationals because they have too many (or even 1) newer cars there...........if someone can't see an updated version of themselves in the making, then bridge the gap, or we will literally "become history" rather than living on.

 

Unrelated to actual craft, but a childhood memory just came in.
Before age eight,, We lived in the sticks of Bucks County Pa on Grandpop's 22 acres.
( hardly sticks today, more multi-lane asphalt ) Any how on the back end of the fields was a straight road ( Upper State rd. ) Summer times with open windows one could hear guys in contest of speed. Dragging with dump pipes and glaspaks until the wee hours.
More often than not, I'd fall asleep before they all went home.

 

My son is in his early 30s and is into hot rods. I don’t think there’s any way he would have been if it were not for my influence. I once had a red headed step child, about five years younger than him. It was virtually impossible to get any interest out of him. Hot Rod and custom cars are not part of popular culture like they were when I was a kid. Just about the only thing we can do is drive the hell out of our cars and be nice to kids. Maybe the impression will stick.

 

I was hooked on hot rods by hanging out in the garage next door to my house when I was in junior high watching them work on stuff. They would let me torque head bolts, etc. when building engines or whatever. Anyway, that and a ride in a T bucket with a blown SBC and I was hooked for life. Well, that and riding in the back of my dad’s vettes when I was real small and going to Bloomington and swap meets regularly also helped me get the disease. But, if it weren’t for people making it fun for me, I wouldn’t likely be in the hobby at all. It’s about exposure and fun. To be honest, it is somewhat amazing that I even like cars when I consider how my dad at times made the cars seem more important than I was. That’s why I go out of my way to not do that to my kids and try to just keep it fun for them. Many of their fondest memories growing up revolve around car shows and road trips in old cars.

 

Not hot rods but still along the same lines: when I was a little boy of 10 years I watched the local heros on their scrambling bikes every saturday. Once I got a ride on the pillion I was hooked and asked if I could help just to stay near those guys and their bikes. I was called to clean the bike or help loading/unloading and finally found myself spending all my sparetime in the little workshop of a talented motorcycle builder. So by the age of 15 I had already learned how to build a crankshaft or modify a cam for more lift or different timing. Fast forward 15 years - I opened my own shop in 96, working full time on british motorcycles. In the first few years I always had a young one cleaning tools or the workshop just to be around and grab advice how to be the fastest bike/rider in the area - exactly as I did. In the last ten years I was offering money for workshop cleaning and advice if the "fastest scooter in town" was desired - no takers...
When I bought the 34 Ford a couple years ago and started to modify it and drive around, its only the old people that give me a thumbs up or start talking to me. The young blood around here is not interested in this stuff at all.

 

When I was in my teens in the late 50's we didn't have a lot of money so we learned to scour the wrecking yards, frequent the three local gas stations (Cheveron, Moble, Shell) which all had repair bays, and vie for jobs there. These things, along with required shop coures in HS, were a big part of our hot rod education. Wrecking yards with old stuff are almost non existent and most of the ones now don't keep anything over ten year old. Gas stations no longer have repair bays, they are convience stores. Auto shop classes have been deleted in many schools. Times change. Interests lay other places for the younger generation. I have 18 grand children, mostly boys, and none of them took any interest in rods once they hit their teens. Life is much different now. Not just in the hot rod arena but in general. I can now hear my dad talking so I had better quit.

 

Not likely....Public schools eliminated shop classes and now we have the last 2 generations of men who cant turn a screw....Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky...

 

Not all schools have eliminated shop class. Lots of them, sure, due to lack of interest. But that's where we come in, to keep the interest going...my hometown small high school (we graduated a little over 60) still has welding, small engines, and auto shop. There's art class, too, which is where I learned how to airbrush, and pretty much every free thinking project I did was automotive based. My senior year (1998) I was already done with my required curriculum (english,math,history), so I was in the shop 6 out of 7 periods..... here's my friend's son's senior picture from 2022 in his "bomb" he built for a little more positive thinking...I'll try to find some pics of younger guys from work I've had help me on my cars if I can find them on my computer at work (never owned a computer myself)....and it's off topic, but a female friend of mine just bought a '69 Karmann Ghia I'm helping her 14 year old son with, because he wants something old but she wants him in something slow before he steps up to the Ranchero of his dreams. If the sky is falling, let's do what we can to hold it up.

 

Kiddo sent me this a couple days ago. She was so excited that drew it. She’s drawn more complicated stuff though in CAD. Told her she now had to draw my speedster in 3D. She says she will. We’ll see. lol!
She starts her summer co-op working at a gold mine 5 hrs from my place in a couple months. Her mom would be proud.

 

Some public high school auto body students were helping chop this car over the weekend. A friend of mine is their shop teacher and is a “good” influence on them.

 

Take them to quality swap meets and
walk the rows with them - there is a
sleeper swap meet in Duncan, Oklahoma
March 20th - 22nd that has been happening
for 19 years now - the main crowd is
customs and hotrods - this year a separate
section has been added for the prewar folks
who used to attend Chickasha Prewar Spring
Swap Meet for decades until the venue
rental pricing closed them down.

The organizer was a fireman for
35 years who just retired and does custom
auto upholstery work
(what fireman doesn’t have a second job).

Last year there were 600 to 800 vendors

He heads the local fairgrounds and event
facility - that means you have a car guy
planning the swap meet every year.



I started a thread here on the HAMB

@ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-swap-meet-19th-year.1331015/#post-15506290

Jim

 

My neighbors grandson (under 30 with two kids) has what was originally his grandpa's 50 Chevy coupe that he bought after coming back from Vietnam. The car morphed from a street racer (even had a Hilborn unit at one time but as his son grew up he seemed to be destined for trouble (and liked racing) he offered young Jerry a deal we'd all have liked. Stay out of trouble and we will race..unless you don't. Young Jerry did well as they tried different combinations and he did stay out of trouble.
Life moves on. The car had been garaged for years, and young Jerry was finally getting set up with a garage and a place to work on the car when cancer struck and in a few weeks time he was gone. His son then inherited the car, it's been on the street and more importantly made some fast trips down the strip. Yep, there are young guys out there with interest in old (and fast) cars

 

HAHAHAHA exactly, I didn't really kick anything off......but I was there. No mentors, no space, no cash and hardly any tools (not to mention no skills). Just looking at those cars back then in person helped me out. Time marches on............

 

That chopped Olds coupe is bbbbbbad to the bone..Glad to read it's a shop class...

 

Most of the 25 and under group I know don't even have their driver license or the desire to get it. The ones that do think 4 door Acuras and Teslas are cool.

 

They werent cut for lack of interest around here...they called it a budget cut lol stripped em out of every single school. They also turned the speedway into a "nature preserve" even though the tracks still there, the bums do meth and live out there and somehow walmart has purchased parts of the "preserve" to expand their parkimg lot....they shut the drag strip down too... then they started running junkyards out of business, we now no longer have any that have vintage stuff in em. They closed the gut and passed laws about not being seen driving someplace more than 3 times in 30 minutes to eliminate cruising too.... shameful. Theyre shaping ol eugene into exactly what they want. No hot rods, loads of homeless, drug use, crime, not enough cops to begin to deal with it all... no skilled labor

 

Sorta related I see a lot of “maker space” type of coops opening the last half a dozen years. You buy a pass just like the gym but it gets you access to work space, tools and mentors.

I also see stuff like this photo where local bike places, library’s, and other small businesses host small clinics more or less on car care or even just normal home maintenance stuff. Those are all good ways in towards getting people involved such as taking the hot rod as a demonstration instead of driving a late model and pointing photos.

The key to not just bringing new people into the fold but finding existing people is communication.

if you aren’t in the apps they use, if you only go to the 6 am old fart cruise in at the breakfast spot that’s had the same crowd for 25 years you aren’t ever going to even see them.

you don’t meet young guys at the retirement home because they aren’t there.

 

There are plenty of young hot rodders around. And they modify cars they can afford. They don't dress like rockabilly 50's throwbacks but they are out there. They are just building Honda Civics, Subaru WRX's, Nissans and throw in some Mustangs and old Chargers. Todays Mustangs are yesterdays 55 Chevys. The days of buying a 55 Chevy for $185 are over, but used Civic's are a dime a dozen. And it's previously been said you don't need a fully equipped shop, just a few hand tools. You go with what you can afford. Plus today's young guys don't have any nostalgia for hot rods or muscle cars, they can't relate. Life goes on and as long as we realize we are the last of a dying breed let's enjoy what we have. Gasoline Forever!

 

In the 90s a bunch of young guys who were into Volkswagens and Mini trucks redefined Hot Rodding to suit them. Many of the older crowd disliked this trend. Now these younger guys are the older crowd, and a new group is into cars. These kids don't know how to tune a carburetor, but can tune computer, and LS swaps and Diesel performance are the norm, as well as imports. I never owned a VW or Mini truck like many Kids my age, and was also not alone. I lusted for a 50s Chevy and got one when I was 33, after playing with all sorts of cheap cars, 50s and 60 s stuff. Our Hot Rod Era will end. There will be fewer new entries, but their will be. Done cars lurk in grandpas garage all over the country. Done cars won't be getting junked, but may get re powered or updated. It's the circle of life. There are many you tube channels out there reclaiming old junk and driving it home. Everybody wants to be a star right. My young neighbor has a channel, and messes with OT stuff, but recently got an old 55 Gasser, real deal, and is playing with it online. We as lovers of old time hot Rodding will be relegated to the annals of History. Many lesser examples of our work will be modified or scrapped. Some things will become cheaper, as peak interest has passed. I will be pushing up Daisies in the next 25 years, but someone will want my car, maybe really cheap. Many parents take their kids to shows and swaps. Let the ones who show interest get behind the wheel and make motor noises. Buy a handful of hot wheels to give to the kids. Don't be a get off my lawn hotrodder, be interactive. Sure we are dinosaurs, but who cares.

 

I think the downturn in rods, and cars in general, is only natural. I find that there is a difference in mindset between the older generations, that had to be mechanically inclined in order to own homes and cars. They had to have a basic set of tools and be able to perform simple repairs in order to have these things. Later generations have enjoyed a more prosperous society, where things are discarded and replaced when they are worn out as opposed to repaired.

My wife and I had a good laugh about this recently when discussing some minor plumbing issue an acquaintance was having. He had mentioned that he, "needed to call a man" over to his house to fix this issue. Later my wife and I laughed about how emasculating it would be to say such a thing, "Why would he need to call a man? He IS a man!"

I'm 40, and it seem that the mechanical knowhow that my grandparents generation had seems to have not been passed down universally. One of the major premises of rodding is the DIY spirit of getting some old jalopy and making it better running, faster, nicer looking, etc. yourself. So it would only seem natural that a demographic with no skill and no tools would find it more difficult to participate in this hobby.

On the other hand, for those who are active in the hobby, the access to parts, information, and resources has never been better.

 

I'll bet that if you could go back in time a hundred years, you would find a bunch of old farts bitching about the fact that kids today don't have any interest in horses.

 

I have both my in-progress coupe and my AA truck sitting out at my shop during the day. "Kids" (under 30s) are always all over both. Young people don't know how accessible this hobby can be. I answer the same few questions over and over again every day hoping one of these people gets hooked after touching & feeling it - that's what it took for me.

What are you doing to spread the sickness?

 

My grandson Matthew is in his early 20's loves the old cars & trucks so I gave him my '65 Ford pickup that I had planned to help him rebuild but he and his wife relocated in Michigan and he is now on his own.



The truck needs a lot of work but I know he is capable.

A couple of months ago Matthew informed us we were going to be greatgrand parents in June and sent us a a ultrasound of the baby, Matthew said he thinks the baby just might have inherited some of his grand daddys genes. HRP

 

My son is 36 and drives his hot rod we built. Recently we were working on a Ford flathead and he remarked how he liked working on hot rod stuff. Like many, he got turned off to this site years ago when it was more argumentative.

 

I was 21 years old in 1999 and definitely into the rockabilly / traditional Hot Rod revival. You got to remember That was 26 years ago I'm 46 years old now going on 47 You can't exactly say people in my age group are young blood anymore. Heck a lot of us have kids that are adults. Myself I'm on this website because I'm actually into the early era of hot rods and custom cars most of the people that were into that scene once it started dying off around 2010 They became normies.

When it comes to young people that are into cars I think there are still a few that are in their '20s around it's just not as common as it was 25 years ago. The turn of the century revival was a very weird time I don't think there's ever another time in American history where young adults dressed up like their grandparents and built the cars of Grand parents and great-grandparents generations.
When it comes to going to a street rod event like good guys I have to say I'm not into it. I struggle with organized car shows in general. Sitting in chairs that look like they're a director's chair from a movie or in webbed lawn chairs to shoot the breeze after paying 30 or 40 bucks to get inside the event just doesn't seem fun. Nor does looking at a million cars that all look the same.
Obviously I'm a middle-aged guy now but since I was a teenager and since everyone on this site was a teenager no matter your age we were all into cruising and probably still are I got a feeling if cruising was brought back you would see a resurgence of younger people into cars because they are out there even if it isn't 95-year-old cars.

 

What You don't like the same conversation on this website that happens every 3 months for the last 20 years? Lol