I'm sort of new to this term...I don't get out much. From what I gather, it is stuff that a guy would have added after he brought it home from the dealership. Bolt on stuff. Sidepipes, valve covers, air cleaners, traction bars, mags... etc. This was my generation. I was there when my rich neighbor took delivery of his brand new black and red Z28 Camaro. I had never seen a real life new car, much less one that was gifted to a 16 year old. David was 4 years older than us and his dad owned the local steel yard. I remember abandoning my Schwinn to drool over this car. Then his dad let him buy a brand new set of Cragars for it. Man, he was the coolest.... Do you think those guys hate the term "Day 2" as much as we hate the term "rat rod?"
Back then we did not think of “day 2” the cars just got personalized as soon as they were delivered. When I special ordered my Comet GT, ( not the avatar) by the time it arrived at the dealership I had already ac***ulated a bunch of aftermarket parts to make it mine. When I picked up the car I drove it home, it did not leave again until I changed the wheels, and added some aftermarket parts. I didn’t even show my friends the car for a week. I did same thing when I purchased my everyday drivers, they weren’t used until I did my thing to them.
Besides old Fords, I'm a Chevelle and early Corvette nut too. I don't hang out on any of those forums near as much as I do here, but I've heard and used the term in those circles and never perceived it as a cringe term. I think it's fairly well accepted....or maybe I'm just a hot rod **** looking in from the outside.
When I see the restored musclecars with poverty caps at shows or on the auctions, it gets me thinking. How I'd be driving that Hemi Road Runner right down the tire shop for Cragars & meats. ''Just put the stock wheels in the trunk'', I'd say. The date codes will make those stock parts gold one day...
Some guys get carried away with the day two stuff. All the parts have to be date correct or at least the “old” version of intakes, wheels etc much like the numbers/dates on the stock parts. On my 68 Chevelle i just used a current intake, headers and cragars. Along with a lot of parts that don’t really show. The way i would’ve built it if i could’ve afforded to do it when i was young in the 80’s
I did not participate in the muscle car 1960-1970 as a new car owner but I remember custom wheels, "mags" was the most popular item that guys purchased. "making it mine" custom wheels was something I did on all of my cars, starting as a kid, black wheels, narrow whites, baby moons, chrome reverse with and without the baby moons, then Cragars,, American Racing, all of my vehicles through the years I did this until the factory wheels got to be good looking IMO. My pickup trucks, Kustom van, then Suburbans all had mag wheels. I never heard the phrase "day 2"
I like the style, but it wasn't used back then. It's just a way to differentiate a car that's "as delivered" from one that you actually saw on the street. To me, a muscle car looks weird with factory skinnies, and every BBC needs a pair of headers.
The term "day two", is a newer term, but is understood, and appropriate. As Hot Rodders it's what we do/did....doesn't matter if it was a new car, or a used car. "Making it your own"
I agree the term “day2” did not exist back then, we were just Hot Rodin’. In my experience, when I got my ‘69 X back in 1973; it HAD to have its AP aluminum slots, L60’s out back, air shocks, Walker gl*** packs, three spoke foamy steering wheel,tach on the column, extra gauges, and of course an 8 track player.
Labels are relevant, coming from a blue collar environment it was never a new car thing nor was it a muscle car thing per se but both of those things did come later. The "formative" years (1960-70) for me automotive wise was due to me having my every waking moment glued to magazines like Car Craft, Rod and Custom, Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding, etc, a cross section running from the earliest T-buckets to new Z/28's. I was "endoctrinated" due to my grade school pals' older brother leaving for Viet Nam without locking up his magazine collection, many hours were spent absorbing any and all things cars, this usually happened after tiring of chasing each other's H.O. cars around a race co**** layed out on the living room floor. I guess the closest thing to a "day 2" deal was putting speakers in the door panels of my first car at fifteen in 1969, a 61 Impala (348/three speed), this was before I could even drive it (legally). I borrowed my older brothers' reciprocating saw and barely managed to get finished before burning up all his saw blades. I had driven it about a week when the three speed column shifter "had to go", I found a used Hurst Syncro-Loc shifter for sale in the local Nickle Ads and borrowed the saw again from my brother, he knew I was just getting started so he said he purposely didn't buy new blades because I needed to find out first hand how much money they were, that was realized half way through cutting the hole in the floor for the shifter. I got my drivers license and only had the 61 a short time when I bought a 57 Chevy, it had a later 283 (tired) and a Fenton shifted three speed, remembering all those magazine ads....... You guessed it! Yep, this was my entry into real hot rodding and a life-long love affair with four speeds. The first real true "day two" for me was the three speed giving way to my first four speed, a used Borg Warner T-10 and new Hurst Compe***ion Plus"C" shifter. It didn't require nearly as many saw blades either! The seed was planted, numerous four speed changeovers and new Hurst shifters followed.
Yeah, the Day 2 label is a fairly recent name they have created to describe a certain era. I ***ume it refers to the second day you owned the car and the things you did to modify it to your tastes. Don't get too wrapped up about the term, it is mainly just a topic starter.
The list..... 1. Take off the stock carb and cast iron manifold. Bolt on a Aluminum manifold and bigger carb. 2. Take off the OEM Coil and bolt of a Accel Yellow Jacket coil. 3. Take off the OEM Distributor and bolt on a Mallory Dual Point distributor. 4. Take off the OEM exhaust manifolds and bolt on some ****** Headers. 5. Bolt on some Lakewood Traction Bars 6. Take off the OEM tires and mount Mickey Thompson N50-15's in the rear and G 60-15's in front with Number 7 7. Cragar Mags 8. Take off the OEM rear shocks for Gabriel High Jackers air shocks to clear the rear wider tires. 9. Add Hurst Shifter if it didn't come from the factory. 10. **** can the A/C Compressor and Smog pumps and lines if they had any. ( now worth a fortune) 11. Add Mickey Thompson Finned Valve Covers and Chrome Air Cleaner. And finally.... Add a Kenwood or Blaupunkt stereo with 6X9 Kenwood Speakers. That cover it ?
I think your stereo choices might be a bit modern With my current 68 chevelle project day 21,268 i have a completely hidden bluetooth sound system
And a great one too! Most of us have had a bit of a "bubble" that we found/find ourselves in at different periods of our lives but yeah, that term is not new. Two huge contributors to broadening my scope on cars were when my high school neighbor/cl***mate sold his 57 two-ten (four door) wagon, had a real 283/270 hp/T-10 four speed, (not original to this car), by the way, he is the one that put the four speed in my 57 on Thanksgiving day when I wrenched my back laying on a frozen gravel driveway. Get this, I drove him to buy his second car, a 68 Z/28 in 1971/72, my first ride in it was a real eye opener. The other was not long after when I was asked to shuttle a car for an acquaintance, his girlfriend wrecked her Fairlane and he thought it might be hard for me to steer it so he had me drive his car, do I have your attention? It was a 1970 Chevelle SS, 454 (LS-6), four speed, Google that one for an eye opener. They were hard to steer but only when you matted the gas pedal!
My deal with my Dad was, I could do what I wanted but no altering the engine; for him to let me buy the car. Luckily the local mopar guru Al, was willing to rework my distributor, and modify the AVS Carter, to bring the 440” to life! As far as stereos , I wore out my Lear jet 8 track; and stepped up to a c***ette KP500 in about 1977.
These are what i remember having. The chrome ff/rw knob-lever would break so we would flatten out a piece of tubing that would fit over the shaft and turn it
@Moriarity probably has a **** load of everything that’s been listed, NOS in the boxes. Priorities….. But doesn’t have a crumb of food anywhere, nothing, refrigerator, stove… Nothing. Ask me how I know. Visited a few times and not even a cracker.
Here is my day 2 car Headers Hurst comp plus shifter 8 track supertuner MT valve covers Edelbrock C396 intake Cragars and Polyglas L60's on the back and F's on the front
What’s there to hate? Are you one of the numbers matching all date codes line up guys? EDIT: you meant the phrase “day 2”? I get that! Using it just gets the point across quickly tho
Pretty sure my Chevelle is way past day two...like maybe day 33,000 or so? However, trying to get it back looking closer to what day 2 might have been...or, maybe more like day 100 or so. As far as the term, it isn't near as bad as what folks call worn out looking hot rods.
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