Hot Rods Are you seeing any young bloods in hot rods

Met a college young fellow today...He told me non of his friends are into restoration of vintage cars....They like foreign cars...Just a sampling I guess..

 

Hot Rod Magazine Summer 2025

Kayleigh McEvoy

 

Hello,

There is one last auto shop in the local school district, but it is on one campus and other high school campus location students, if their vocational choice is auto mechanics, are allowed to take the classes at the rival high school. Usually, that causes a problem, but the one thing that draws the attendance up is the learning process for auto mechanics in the area.

Back many years ago, the shops classes all closed. I was interested in my old high school in Long Beach. They too, closed the shops due to the push to get more kids into college courses and so, the auto shop classes got moved to the nearby city college (JUCO) campus. Luckily, it is/was allowed for high school students to enroll in some college classes while still going to high school.

So, those few were able to go to the local college campus where the auto shop was flourishing. If they had closed the auto shop during our high school era, the college buildings were about a mile down PCH to the facilities, today. But, I would have been able to drive to the campus facilities. Today, it is one of the top auto shop curriculum course level work available, anywhere. The classes are full and doing well.

Jnaki

But recently, a friend told me that our old high school in Long Beach just got a $450 million dollar grant from various sources. So, the city has approved the total reconstruction of the old campus. We thought it was old when we were going to school there in 1959-62. But, it had a history back beyond the total destruction of the campus during the 1933 earthquake. Since then, it has looked the way we saw it daily for our teenage high school years.

The front entrance that many students have walked through since 1950’s… The most popular parking place was on the street directly across the street and if one was in the first spot, this was the view and most of the students/friends walked by to go to school. Great memories… I drove by back in 2019 when I went to see the new addition to the Lion’s Dragstrip Museum. Two things I learned… you can’t go home again, as I drove past our old house and several old hot rod shop locations. And two, the old school looks just as bad as when we went there.

What does $450 million pay for in this new build? One of the main things is a total reconstruction of the campus. The old buildings we were in back in those days and still active, today will be gone. In their place will be totally new buildings with A/C… yes, those crank out windows were there for a very long time… but, no more.

The most exciting thing is the creation of a modern auto shop with new facilities never before seen on a high school campus. Yes, a new pool, academic buildings, a larger two story gym, training area+ equipment, and football fields will also be added into place. So, the drawings of the proposed project soon to get started, were amazing. I could see us going to school in the new constructed buildings and new facilities, including the latest in auto shop technology. Dreaming, of course…
1962 Auto shop driveway
It is a good thing old photos and memories will hold up for a while longer. After 2026-27, it will be the most modern high school campus in California. (Let alone the USA.) And will have a modern auto shop as part of the curriculum, again… but, it will not be the same… YRMV

Note:

One of the best auto shops in education is located a mile or so down PCH. But, it is on the 2nd campus of the LB City College. The latest stuff for the curriculum is in place. And some of the high school kids were allowed to go to that campus in their junior and senior year. But, now, they can just stay on their own campus auto shop that will rival other higher education programs and technology. This time it is a good thing for young automotive teens to get the latest in technology for students.

 

Seldom But There Are A Few With The Spirit...

 

The local cars & coffee usually has a 100+ cars from the Four Corners area. The youth turnout is driving Land Cruisers, Subarus, Datsuns and Hondas. Lots of Japanese cars we've never seen in this country with the OK to import cars 25 years old and older.

 

I was at Goodguys Des Moines. Pre-48 cars are driven exclusively by gray beards. There are tons of young car guys but few of them like the old stuff. Affordability is probably a big reason.

 

Yeah liking them and being able to afford one are two totally different things. When the old ford stuff goes down I always see younger guys have an up tick in building thrm

 

The future Hamb crowd (if any) will be (as now) a small subset of the larger mechanically-oriented crowd.

So to my mind (and addressing many of the comments in this thread) one avenue to pursue is enlarging the "mechanically-oriented" group that the car enthusiast and HAMBer will come from.

I got my mechanical "bent" from a variety of inputs:
Hot Rod, Car Craft and R&C magazine covers on the newstand (I dunno how to recreate this influence);
Driving a quarter midget crewed by my dad (why aren't simple go-kart races ocurring?);
Watching/"helping" my dad work on his Triumph m/c and various '50s-60's import cars;
Watching a grandfather repair and flip pleasure boats;
Rebuilding / painting my bicycles;
Watching my buddy build up his mini-bike;
Magazine reading - hot rod mags, Popular Mechanics etc. I used to buy back issues at Goodwill for $0.05 ea
Observing all the choppers and old bikes drawn to Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and OB in Sandy Eggo (Maynard's Bar anyone?);
Easyrider movie 1967
etc.

To show kids another way besides vegetating behind a screen, get them involved in activities:
Rebuilding / personalizing bicycles;
Flying / building model airplanes and radio-controlled cars and boats;
Building model cars or model anything;
Simple wood-working and metal-working projects (Home Depot has some of these on Saturdays);
Helping with projects around the house (my son helped with every one);
Build a simple basic minibike from some of the old plans available free online (we rebuilt a junker);
Engage in target practice and gun maintenance, etc (my son ate this up);
Learn basic machining on simple projects with a small hobby lathe like a Unimat, Sherline or Taig (or heaven forbid - BUILD a small metal lathe from free online plans);
Start a club to build "$3500 T-Buckets"
...and so-forth...

 

The little guy in the back driver's side was rubbing my Merc's hood at the show yesterday....I told him politely not to touch the cars in the show, which made him tear up and hide behind his dad that was there with him (I'm kinda scary looking, honestly)...told him I wasn't mad at him and said hey buddy, do you want to sit in it?....about 4 other families around with little kids so told em all to get in the car so we could all take pics, didn't know any of them....start em young.....especially if mom is alright to look at at

 

When I'm attending car events I see lots of young people attending, and the majority are interested in old hotrods. But any who own one inherited it from a parent who passed away. 99% of those who have old hotrods at these events are gray haired.

 

Didn’t the stray cats and all the billetless shows drive the last up tick in the early eighties? If those aficionados were 20 then, they have grey hair now.

 

I work with a bunch of 20-30 year olds and all are into cars in big time but all their stuff is Jappa go faster shit. When i started buying old stuff (Willys) they were only 39 -40 years old and that seems to the same for most of them and that means 1985 or newer. I see them at car shows and they don't get the old Hot Rods and they defiantly don't get it unless they have exaggerated proportions and over done bling (think trailer queen show rods etc). I try to explain traditional Hot Rodding and all love my T RPU, my Wife's bone stock 64 1/2 Mustang and my Belly Tank but they just can't get it.
I have met some younger ones that are keen and one is around 12-13 now who is collecting parts for a chopped A Coupe with a Hopped Banger and then proceed to fit a Flattie 8 when he can, that is cool. I met young William at local car show he was at with his Parents, he loved my RPU so i let him sit in it (he was about 9 then) and i now see him at all the bigger shows all over and now swap meets.
There are some but not as many as we need to take over and the Rat Rod scene is taking a few. My 30 year old Step son will takeover the RPU one day but he has a long way to go to understanding it.
JW

 

I was into mini trucks right out of HS.
Still dig em.
Nothing wrong with folks building tuner stuff. Just adds to the overall hobby.

2 of my students got awards this past week at shows.
One for best bagged. The other for best POS.
We pulled his frame last week at school and got the front sheet metal lined up. It’s a beater rollover and he digs it.

I see young folks all over this hobby.
I visit custom shops that most of the employees are younger than me.

The hobby will last and continue to change until people are stopped from owing personal transportation.

Just had a former student wave at me cruising a slammed s10. He’s got a cool 56 “gasser” with a healthy sounding sbc and a 4 speed.

bout the only “doom and gloom” I see are values leveling off or dropping for the rides allowed here.
That’s only bad for collectors.
Great for future builders.

out of the thousand or so students I’ve had, only 2 have rides I could post on the main board.
That’s above average for the demographic of drivers on the road.
Traditional is a small nitche. That’s what makes it cool.

 

You're right. But being exclusive and elitist about what is and isn't traditional is not going to help the younger generation find this thing of ours. But that's exactly what I see constantly, not only here, but at other shows and events. Cars that are not "strictly traditional" are looked down upon or excluded from participation because they aren't traditional enough.

The success of the O/T forum here is proof positive that even among our own group, there are lots of folks who enjoy cars that are either traditional in aesthetic only, have some mix of new and old, or are of an entirely different genre. And again, this is on a captive audience of people who really like traditional hot rods and customs.

I've never understood why strictly traditional cars and traditionally-inspired cars couldn't peaceably coexist. There is probably 80%-90% overlap between the two. They both need bodywork, chrome, paint, engines, wiring, interior, glass.... the biggest differences for the most part seem to be wheel and tire choice, choice of suspension, and carbs vs. EFI.

And FWIW, "strictly traditional" cars are also seemingly at odds with other factors of modern rodding. It goes without saying that the quality of the modern build is light years ahead of the typical traditional build in terms of fit and finish, quality of details, and so on. Pushing the envelope of car building, as we have seen so many people like Brian Bass, Cody Walls and others do, almost puts the car outside of the traditional realm. Additionally, having a car that is legitimately usable on today's roads and in today's conditions is also at odds with a traditional build. There aren't many guys signing up to drive 65 in the right lane. Cars need to be able to stop and steer, have real wipers, run reliably, have heat at minimum... these cars here are damn near 100 years old.

 

I’ve put more miles on drum brakes, no AC, no PS….. in todays modern traffic than I have with all the fancy stuff.
Driving 65/70 is dang near perfect.

I’m in a minority
And I’m ok with it

but I don’t see any of that being built at the shops I visit.

 

Man I was seeing @Evel aka Piero @Lucky Burton and there whole crew out this last weekend with a bunch of cool early T’s, combined with @BigJoeArt tearing up the roads coast to coast with his and thought man you can get a T body that’s “good enough” for less than you can buy a single garnish molding for a 32.

With the magic recipe and the keep it simple stupid logic of these little hot rods I could really see them , again, becoming a pathway into old car ownership. Even if you havnt got all the fab skills necessary you just need to have the right social circle.

I comment often about lots of early builders and even car clubs building the cars almost communally. If you watch the new shifters documentary you see that they do it the same for the most part.

You don’t have to be able to do it all. Joey can stitch your frame together, Austin can build the snotty motor, Ben can paint it and Eddy does all the interiors.

of course even with that your still gonna have to do a shit load of work yourself and that will put “your stink” all over it. They’ll be no mistaking that it’s yours.

On top of that the T’s are so small that you could feasibly build one in an apartment sized garage.

very accessible. Seeing those group shots from Ventura if I wasn’t already piecing a T project together I would be starting this week!

- hopefully the guys tagged can add photos apparently the photos shared on Instagram were in the stories section witch only shows them for 24 hours

 

Saw this the other day. If my hands weren’t full, I would snap this up. This is CAN$. lol!

 

This is also making the assumption that Joey, Austin, Ben and Eddy already have all the tools required to do all that to build a car. Anyone new to the hobby doesn't and that is another significant expense adding to the total cost of building a hot rod.

 

Yup, that’s exactly why I said you have to have the right social circle.

you’re gonna have to go outside and talk to people and make some friends. I guess that could be more intimidating than learning how to do it all yourself but either way, it’s an option.

 

The economics is a big factor with getting into old cars. Even the $6,000 for the A pictured would buy a good transportation car for a young person. Let alone the prices for running and complete HAMB era rides which equate to many new cars. This can be an expensive “hobby”.

 

But that's kind of the crux of the whole problem. If there is no interest in the hobby with young people there are no young people to add to your social circle that have the tools. There is a reason the vast majority of young people in the car hobby are into things like tuner cars. You don't need a welder or a compressor or a sewing machine. You need a laptop, that everyone has, and some hand tools and maybe a couple of specialty tools that you can borrow from the parts store when you need them..

 

This belongs to my good friend Carter. He's 16 and just got his driver's license. We've been working on this for a couple years now. It started as a rusty pile of parts. Will be running a flat head v8, 5 speed and a banjo rear

 

That would probably cost a 16yr old close to $9000 a year to insure here if he could find anyone to do it.

 

Can't speak for Canada, yall do things a bit "different" up there.
I have really enjoyed working with this young man and watching him learn. He tried his hand with the spray gun shooting primer this weekend. Not bad for a first try, he got one run.....but I got one also. LOL

 

It's the same in the US. The average cost for a 16yr old male is $9400 for their own policy. That would be the equivelant of $12,000 here. It another reason young people don't drive.

 

Whatever. How about looking on the positive side instead ?There are some young folks who want to do this stuff! They need our help and encouragement

 

(Maynard's Bar anyone?);

El Cajon CA. The EC Harley dealer was down the street and owner was a member of the Spring Valley Rotary Club. Went to Maynard's a couple of times with him.

 

I substitute teach at our local rural school and have a few students who regularly follow what I'm doing with my '29 Model AA truck. One works on a '56 Chevy with her grandfather; another is more into mudding trucks. While working with a kindergartener who is on the spectrum and wouldn't engage with me, I asked if he wanted to see my hotrod. Instantly got his undivided attention as I played a 20-second video of the truck with its lights on and blowing the aaahooga horn. Made a new friend!