Featured Hot Rods People. They're the worst...

And she's probably a helluva lot better looking!

 

You did really well.
It's a dominance thing; it's the same thing as a dog hiking his leg or a ship shooting over the bow. The way the interaction started was potentially narcissistic. The friendly question was maybe a ruse for the purpose of a show of dominance via intellect or whatever.
It's potentially aggressive and it's best not to engage. There's an old saying, you have proven nothing when besting a fool.
In scripture.....Don't cast you pearls before the swine.

What is accomplished by engaging? At best it's a waste of time. At worst, maybe the unthinkable.

We live in an uncivilized time. The reason for being civilized is the alternative. Every person you interact with is a potential threat. It could turn and can turn quickly.

I will always remember witnessing this as a teenager.

I was sitting in my 1955 1st GMC 100 in front of the Food World where I was a grocery sacker. This old man came up to the door very friendly like.
He wanted to talk about my truck. I told him that my old truck came original with an automatic transmission.
He said that it did not. I said that it did and that's why is has "Hydramatic 100" on the hood.
Suddenly this friendly little old man flew into a rage and told he did not give damn what the hood badge said and that none of these damn trucks came with automatic.
The guy was slobber mouthed, and he was yelling in a high pitch going into a rant.
I said Yessir......OK. I nodded and turned my head and looked out the windshield.
He walked off.

It was not about the truck. It was all about dominance. I unknowingly challenged his dominance. Because of that he was willing to commit the legal definition of assault. What else was he willing to do in that fit of rage? What was his motivation? Was his intention from the start an altercation?
I don't care.
It does not matter.
It was worth me taking that because what was the alternative?
Sometimes the best thing to do is shut up and walk away.

Always try to be a light in this world and do not forget the big picture.

 

We were about 5 hours from home and an elderly guy comes up and says” aren’t you missing some parts?” Quick as a flash my wife says “ no we have everything we need”

 

I've had so many people comment on my Austin with things like, "Nice Anglia", or something about it being an Anglia, but never an issue when I told them it was an Austin. I finally got tired of the Anglia comments, so when I had the body pinstriped I asked the pinstriper to put "Not An Anglia" just between the rear window and top of the trunk lid in gold to match the pinstriping. Having this on the rear panel has really been fun as I watch people walk around it telling someone with them all about it being an Anglia, and how they were used a lot in drag racing in the 60s and 70's. Then they work there way to the back and see the signage, and suddenly stop what they're saying, and correct themselves. One particular time a guy was telling his wife, and she saw the signage first, and asked, "If it's an Anglia, why does it say Not An Anglia here? That was really priceless as my British rear license plate frame and the grille emblem both say Austin if they'd care to look closer.

Not knowing what a particular car is isn't the problem. I wont ever be cruel or debate somebody who doesn't know. It's the guys who think they know, but wont listen when you try to tell them what your car is. Those who think they know, and don't think you know are the problem, especially if they wont listen when you try to set them straight.

 

My early Indy car....

 

There is a local guy with a ‘66 Corvette.
If you ask him if it’s a split window it will ruin his whole day and he’ll fold up his lawn chair and go home.
My dad makes sure to ask him that at every car show

 

A young woman asked me what year my GTO was, and I said, "It's a '64". She said, "It's nice! Did you buy it new?"....I was born in 1960.

 

“This looks just like the Ferrari that James Bond drove”

 

Cool Dude

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People are people, sometimes they are smart and nice, other times they are neither.

Generally, old cars baffle most of them, then we, as car guys, tend to modify them from their original stock condition, that doesn't help. Your car/truck might be the first one they have seen in real life in many years. It probably tripped a memory of something they (or a friend or relative) had in their past, or maybe a memory of the car or truck they always wanted. Sometimes that sudden dive into our memories doesn't revel a clear picture of what it really was. If you try to tell me your memory has never provided inaccurate or incomplete information, your lying to yourself and everyone else.


My stuff was all pretty much junk when I got it, there really isn't very much of anything original that you can see on it. Few can tell what it really was, but most will try to name it anyway. Instead of correcting them, I tell them I got the ride (car or truck) out of a junk yard, and most of the original stuff was gone, or in very bad shape, so I had to make a few modifications to make it good enough to drive again. Those modifications make it really hard to tell what it was. Once you take away most of the details, most of the cars (or trucks) within 4 or 5 years have the same basic body shape. This ride (car or truck) started life out as a "name and model year of your car or truck," but I can see where it could easily look like "what ever they called it" (even if it doesn't, does it really matter?)!

That takes the pressure away from everyone. Now we are free to talk about the car or truck my ride tripped the memory of, or we can talk about my ride. After all, isn't part of the reason we build this stuff is to bring back memories of better times?

I give them all a pass. Just the idea that they know what you have is from the past, and that they noticed it, is a huge step. If you are friendly towards them, it often makes thing easier. If they are still jerks, I tried, time to walk away.

We have had years of looking for our specific car or truck, then years of building it just the way we wanted it. We are fully aware of the subtle and not so subtle differences between our loved ride and those from the same era from other brands. Somehow we expect the guy at a car show that hasn't seen one in 40 years is suppose to know what we know, and that gives us the right to slam him for his opinion? Maybe the car he is describing is exactly what the car was he remembered, you were not there, you don't know. If the guy was part of a club that all built the same cars with the same modifications, every one of those cars had the same stuff on them, he may have thought all of those cars were built the same way from the factory.

When I'm at a show and an old guy tells someone something entirely wrong, about my ride, I'll ask them if they had one of those cars when he was younger, and ask them to tell me about it. I believe most of those guys are just trying to relate with an old memory.

 

What if they were talking about the one in the background?

 

Yea man, it sure does! Bond's car was just like that, except his didn't have the same wheels. Bonds car didn't have the hood scoop, or the roll bar, or the side pipes either. Bond's car had a roof on it, and was a different color, but it was just like the one in the picture.

 

@gene-koning Good points about just conversing with folk.
Standing at a show is one situation, running a grocery pickup can be more problematic.
( 'specially if ya forgot the list )
I often run into folks who feel that since we shop the same place we are associated somehow.
I need to 'git an split' before somebody passes their viral maladies to my weakened immunity.

 

Hey Don -
Nice Mercury, lol!

 

OT vehicle ,but on topic .
I have an Early Bronco. I'm used to hearing " nice Scout " so I just smile and say thanks . but one day I was in a parking lot getting into it at the same time a lady was getting out of her car . she said "nice JEEP " I was a lil offguard but said "Thanks! " she then said "we have a 94 wrangler at home."
Many years ago my Dad had a nice 56 Nomad. He was at the gas station and a man and woman came up to him admiring it, "the man said "I had one just like it , except for it was green,..and it was a 4 dr. but it was just like it " (the Nomad was red & white)

 

We drive our 49 Dodge pickup all over as a daily driver (8,000 miles a yer). There are times we just have to get in or out of someplace quickly, so I do understand. On the other hand, my wife and I are both retired, usually we can spare a few minutes to talk with someone. We don't do a lot of car shows anymore.

For years we drove our 48 Plymouth coups that looks like an old dirt track car all over the country on vacation (90,000 miles worth). Nearly every time we stopped someplace, our car reminded someone of a when them or a close family member used to dirt track race. Most of those old memories brought huge smiles to peoples faces, and a story to tell. We sort of got used to that experience. We enjoyed it a lot. Some people had great stories of those memories of the good old days.

 

...Trust me Steve, I do get that from folks!

 

I tell them, no , I bought it old. I like to confuse mouth-breathers, like when they pull up at the lights and ask "What year is it?". I answer "2025", or whatever the year is. You can usually tell the calibre of the question or comment by having a good look at the person carefully- "Normal" people, even non-car people, get a normal correct response. Questions or comments (usually dumb) from Dumb-arsed halfwits get a sarcastic response, with a straight face, most times agreeing with them when they say that their "dad had one of these, except it was a sedan and it was RHD and it was an Austin".
Kids get the correct answer and dogs get a pat. I like dogs better, I have never had a dumb question or comment from a dog.
We have kept the best comments about their cars as our sort of I.D.- Friends '28 Dodge RPU was called a "tricycle" once- so that is known as "the trike". I was told by a bloke that he "loves Studebakers" and another that "it's a Hillman" (36 Ford ) so now it's known as the "Hillbaker".

 

Two friends nearly came to blows last weekend when one of them insisted that he used to own a ‘32 Model A.

my friend’s mom insists she learned to drive in a ‘62 Mustang.

Neighbour swears his first car was a stock 1985 396 Malibu.

 

The Germans are the rightest thinking people in the world, just ask us!!

 

I learned a long ago not to pass judgement on someone’s ride if your junk is a project at home, in or behind the shed. I recently bought a 15 footer- runs, drives, safety checked, plated and insured. This thread is a good primer for this summer, as I plan to share it with those in the know, and those that don’t. Let the education begin…

 

This is not AI, its a couple of photos that I shot at two different car shows, and then I just took scissors and cut the printed pictures and simply taped them together, purely as an exercise of, "What If ?"
I would never waste the time and money on butchering a T-bird and cool 37 Studebaker coupe express, but it would be cool to fool the public with such a radical rig!
"Everyone's results may vary greatly"

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Wait! He didn't tell you what it was? Now we'll never know.

 

I worked with a guy that said POSITIVELY, the first production Corvette was made out of steel, prototypes don't count.

 

Try asking a young parts pusher if their store has petcocks.

 

Studebird, hmmm. STUDEBIRD! Ya know, it does have a certain sense of "Je Ne Sais Quoi" to it, the feeling that something cannot be adequately described. I think more wine is in order.

 

One of the best comebacks that I remember was Bea Arthur in an episode of The Golden Girls.

“Don’t you have a cousin you should be dating?”

 

I hear it alot, makes me think, Stupid is stupid does...