This is great for a quick Monday morning read to get the week started off right. I can certainly relate!
Wow, you absolutely described the whole purpose of this thing we do. Many didn’t understand when I took my Dart for its first few test drives. No windshield, no hood, no dash, no headlights, a seat with a spring sticking me in the ***, April in Wisconsin and no heat. It was ****ing great. Killed the winter blues instantly. Dan
A Hot Rod is an automobile rebuilt or changed for high speed, defined by Merriam-Webster. 45 minutes of Hot Rodding seems like the perfect antidote for many things including “ Moving Funk”. Drive On, Young Man!!
Ryan, you have just generally described my 53 year on on/off love affair with my raspy POS ‘32 three window. Fix her , go rip around like I’m 18 again, either break something or it ****s on its own. Then either, fix her there and then; or push her in the corner… till I get the urge again. Rinse and repeat! With sometimes months or years in between. Definitely food for the savage soul! Rod on my friend!!
It’s a conversation we mostly avoid because if you follow it far enough, you eventually run into some uncomfortable truths. And once you start talking about it out loud, you have to admit those truths to everyone else too. The simple fact is that every one of us accepts unnecessary risk every time we climb into an old car and head down the road. We can rationalize it, engineer around it, and pretend otherwise, but the risk is still there. And if you dig deep enough into this ****, you start noticing that the same theme runs through more than just hot rodding. It runs through life. Fear destroys things. It kills opportunity before you ever get a chance to fail. It smothers potential, drains the fun out of everything, and convinces otherwise reasonable people that standing still (or thinking still) is somehow safer than moving forward. Hell, we're learning in real time that enough fear can even destroy civility. So **** fear. Keep your eyes open, understand the risks, and then decide for yourself which ones are worth taking. An open mind is a hell of a lot more fun anyway.
I'm loading the trash in my 5-window to take it to the waste transfer station up on Hunter mountain.The road up there p***es thru some of the most beautiful sights in the Catskill mountains. Monday morning, no weekend sightseers to get in the way and time to ring it out scare the **** out of my self on some great curves in the road. What ever the outcome is, it will be worth it.
Great reads this morning, Ryan. Glad you are getting settled in. Get that Model A to Colorado as soon as humanly possible. It is the antidode for whatever might give you remorse for moving.
Yeah, I really need to get it here. Gas prices what they are, transport companies are crazy expensive right now. Hoping to find a buddy something heading this way that needs his gas paid for... If not, I will probably bite the bullet and pay a company...
Seems like a on-way plane ticket and a drive to remember would be a helluva lot more fun and risky As that wise sage Dennis Hopper said in Easy Rider, "What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about."
I hear ya Ryan. After my move and even before getting my garage organized, I had both cars that moved but had issues. Brakes, charging issues, electric shorts preventing them from hitting the road. I needed to get my release and so I spent two weeks getting to that point. All is done now and life is good. I hope someone can help you out.
Sittin' here thinking about that tingly feeling I used to get when I drove the T bucket. I have the A, but that feeling isn't the same. Maybe I Need a fenderless, noisy hot rod again. Anyone looking for an A coupe?
Maybe the trick is to have a home warming party that friends from Texas can’t resist attending and they’ll have to bring the coupe along? Hopefully something will pop up to get it to you easier than not. Maybe someone headed to Mcphail’s shin dig in September could bring it that far? In other thoughts on your post, that’s exactly why I call my cars old cars. Really they are high school hot rods, or even early street rods. But the roadster build? The car with no planned windshield, headlights or interior? That one’s gonna be a hot rod.
Several years ago, I found a running, driving '46 Merc 4-door (don't flame me) for sale in the HAMB cl***ifieds. It belonged to George Fields, @saltracer, in north central Texas. I wasn't familiar with George, other than the few comments he made on here, but those made him sound interesting. I grabbed the trailer and headed for George's place. Got there early morning; it was a huge building out in the middle of nowhere. Banged on the door and after a time, he answered. Looked at the Merc, made the deal, and then he asked me if I'd like to look at his toys. George builds buses into luxury motorhomes and there were a couple of those, then a SBC powered Model A coupe. Over in another part of the shop, I was absolute blown away by his E/BFCC Fiat Simca salt car. George is a Bonneville 300 MPH Chapter member. I was standing there drooling over that and he told me to look over in the corner. I hadn't even noticed the 98" wheelbase altered sitting there. He told me that every once in a while, he liked to take it to the track just to scare the **** out of himself. I'm pretty sure George would understand Ryan's post. This video of the Simca crashing is scary:
One of my first post responses after joining the hamb was a dude chastising me for my car having door poppers and no seat belts. Said it was dangerous. I thought hell, you should see me drive.....
Me too, it never goes right. I hate it. For a home that was suppose to be all operational so far I had to replace the stove, microwave, fridge, hot water tank , have the generator serviced and the whole damn 8000.00 HVAC unit! I have shower leaking into the ba*****t that I have put off with a bucket now for 3 months. Ryan, I can’t imagine the stinky filthy **** you have to deal with in there.
Your post made me think of P. J. O’Rourke’s Driving Like Crazy. Disparaging the “fun ****ers”. As to the plumbing, what we on the electrical side used to say “S**t goes downhill, and Friday is Payday. Full education.”
The three important rules of plumbing: (1) **** runs downhill (2) Don't chew your fingernails (3) Paydays on Friday. This one doesn't apply to you
Mine is called “adventure driving” Don’t go fast but white knuckles still show up the brakes are always good but the rest? Will that used U-joint make it? Watch out for the mud splashing thru the floor holes. Wipers? What’s that Heat? Did I bring extra points? Is that 40 year old alt gonna give out?
Ive replaced many of those, we usually go whole hog and just do the whole house. Any horizontal cast can be eroded on the bottom of the pipe.
I told ya about this a while back. Yep, age 50, manopause ….. life…phase 2 reset. You reflect on what you’ve done and then faced with what you haven’t done. And you ponder it for a while. Fortunately you have a spouse that already knows your bat **** crazy. Most older normal and abnormal fellas already know about it and you’re in for phase 2 now, every morning that you’re looking in the mirror. But with Texas in the rear view mirror and front windshield planting seeds in Colorado…… “ To explore strange new worlds, To seek out new life and new civilizations, To boldly go where no man has gone before.” And the everyday reality making damn sure keeping your wife happy. Sound about right ?
The Jalopy Journal
