"That's a cute dune buggy"

You know, a lot of the people in these stories are the main audience for a lot of the hot rod shows on television. They catch a few shows and think they understand what's going on. So much so, that they will argue about it with you.

 

The question I hate more than the dune buggy one is " Will it even go the speed limit ?"
NO, it weighs 1700 lbs with a V-8 and 4.11's
"Well it just looks so old"
freaking morons

 

My Dad used to stick a little "Peterbilt" embossed sticker over the stock emblem on his 1938 Plymouth. People would walk up and see Peterbilt, then go on and on about not knowing they had built cars, etc..

Used to be good for some laughs. That was in the late 70's.

 

When I still had my Cavailer (ya ya shut up), I showed it at an all Chevy day with the little window information thing you fill out at entry. I wrote in "454 BBC, 9" inch rear end, drag radials"

Walkin around the show and came back to my car to find two old men, halfway underneath my car. One shouts to the other, "Hey, this is front wheel drive!"

 

In my 58 Apache,
I have had the Sanford and Son theme song hummed to me many times

 

it works both ways too. A few years back a mate and me went to another city here in OZ to pick up an early poncho engine. At the guys house were several really neat cars parked up his drive in a very suburban neighbourhood. The engine was under the house and we had to drag it out and in doing so I spotted a alloy sumped ,water pump in the heads,flatty V8.
Me.." thats early '32 isn't it"
Owner ' yeah,probably one of the 1st in Oz ,I bought it in the 60's,probably get it running one day,"
In the back yard amongst the flower beds was a car under a tarp cover.I could see 18" wires and I could see the side rails of the chassis..
Me..."So whats that ? an old Chev?'
Owner ' No,it's a 1932 Ford and so is the other one behind it..."
Me.." Duh... "

 

Doodlebug..Wasn't that the name of a Rod in a movie in the 50's ?

My younger brother built a T roadster in the 70's and when the feral kids next door saw it for the 1st time ,one of them yelled.." hey ,they got a Ritchie Cunningham car..."

 

A lady at work saw me driving my '55 in one day. So she say's her son is into old cars too and just finnished resoring his car. so i ask her what he has. "oh, he's got an '85 Honda CRX."

 

I have a 63 Corvair 4 door cruiser...After researching the car i have found out it is a High Performance 110 monza built by Baldwin...I hear that makes it rare...so anyways... When im striping at a show I usually get the "Does that have the stock four cylinder in it? Or does it have the 6-or 8?"... Corvair only had a flat six..."Nope my dad had a four cylinder in his" ok have a good day!!! moron!

Im working the Lakewood car show and this dude walks up and starts telling his wife and kids.."look at this pile of shit chevy made for a few years...The Corvair was built for all the people who couldnt afford a Corvette!"
So I ask the guy
"Wasnt every Chevy cheaper than the Corvette?"

 

Ive gotten many compliments on my volkswagen/ratrod/streetrod/duece coupe/etc... I just smile and say thanks. Hey a compliment is a compliment. Only thing that pissed me off is when they say 'why did or didn't you do so and so to it'. Or 'how much you want for it.......everything has a price.'

 

OMG...TOO Funny!!!

 

Around May 2005 a buddy and I went on a road trip to pick up a couple of Model Sedans. From <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on">Florida</st1:State>, <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Rapid City</st1:City></st1lace>, SD here we come. Got the first &#8217;29 sedan and headed back across SD and then down to <st1:City w:st="on">Genoa</st1:City>, NE. Picked up the second &#8217;29 <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Sedan</st1lace></st1:City>. Now I am stopping to get fuel in Pacific Junction, IA and this older lady approaches me. She is at least upper sixties maybe early seventies. She asks if those were 28 or 29 A&#8217;s. WOW!!!!!!
She started asking if I was going to restore or Hot Rod them? WOW again!!!!! She begins telling me how she would love to have one, just like the old beat up black one I had. Her husband, whom had passed, had one when they dated. It was a farm truck and they would just beat around in it. She said senior prom was so dull that they left with some of her girlfriends and went back to the farm and just all took turns driving it around and clowning all over it while driving. Said she hadn&#8217;t though much about that night in many years. Seeing the bodies I had reminder her of that night. We talked a long while it seemed. About 15 minutes at least. She was a wonderful nice lady.
Get 1836 or so miles back home and a guy chases me down, whom everyone believes is the Model T expert for our area. He has a few of them. A couple are real nice, original. So, before his door is even closed he asks in a very curious tone, where&#8217;d you get the Model T&#8217;s??????????? Amazing, this is the expert!!!!!!!!!!! He din't even act like it bothered him to be wrong.

 

Around May 2005 a buddy and I went on a road trip to pick up a couple of Model Sedans. From ffice:smarttags" /><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comFlorida</st1:State>, <ST1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Rapid City</st1:City></ST1lace>, SD here we come. Got the first &#8217;29 sedan and headed back across SD and then down to <st1:City w:st="on">Genoa</st1:City>, NE. Picked up the second &#8217;29 <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1lace w:st="on">Sedan</ST1lace></st1:City>.

Don't know what happened to my text when I sent it. That was wierd.

 

So I'm at the local auto shop where some guys I know work and my Henry J gasser is up on the lift. Some guy walks in and says," So and so built this car" "where'd you get it". I said" I got it in PA and I built the car, So and so didn't build it." Guys say " oh guess it's not the same car, what year is it?" I said," its a 52" guy says "oh, that other one was a 49." He sure knew what he was talkin about, especially since they didn't start making them till 51.

So I drove the car to school one day. A girl at school says. Your car is weird, it's kinda scary. I'm thinkin cool, scary isn't bad. I ask her why she says that. She says, it's like 2 ft. off the ground. I said, yeah its a gasser. SHe asked if it had hydrolics and that if it didn't, I should put some on it. She made some other references about the primer and such , which irritated me more.

 

You know, I have never had a car called a dune buggy, and then a few days ago my wifes friend comes over with her sports crazy zero car knowledge husband and asks how my dune buggy is coming. My wife jumped at him before I could, "You idiot, its a roadster!" Funny to see this thread appear again.

How someone can confuse a 31 roadster with skinny tires with a dune buggy boggles my mind.

 

I just got some of the fancy little factory Peterbilt emblems. They are the same size and shape as the "Ford" emblem on my '29 Coupe. I can't wait for the confused looks and/or comments. (My first name is Peter so I guess it really is Peterbilt)

 

This is a great thread. Some of the short stories have made me laugh out loud....

I really don't want you guys to think I am a horrible person, but when I am approached by a person who I think will start in on me with an entirely dumb line of questioning about the car, I have found two things that work very well.

I have pretended to be deaf, and on separate occasions I have pretended to not know English. The reactions I get to the deaf skit (especially from women) sometimes make it hard for me to keep from cracking up. The not knowing English bit works great here in Illinois, but not so good back home in TX. My Catholic wife says I will serve some bad time for those things when I die. Oh well, it does work to keep a lot of people out of my face. But Lord I still try to be nice most of the time -Jeff

 

Back in the early 70's I had a T-bucket with a Rochester FI unit on it. When asked what it was I would tell them in was the hotest new thing on the market, a side draft one barrell.
Once when I was building the T-bucket some neighborhood girls came by and I was showing them the car, one made the "thats a neat dune buggy" comment. After all the blood sweat and tears that had gone into the project (I was 18 or 19 working with virtually no tools) it was as if someone had knocked the wind out of me. I remember thinking all this work on this hot rod and everyone is going to think it is a dune buggy.

 

My son and I took my truck and his restored 70 Opel Gt to a car show at a mall, and some kids, about 14 or so, came over and asked what his Opel was, and I laughed and told them, it's a Corvette, we washed in with hot water and the damned thing shrunk. And as they were walking a way one of them said..See, I told you it was a Vette.

 

How bright could he be... He married yer sister. LOL Sorry man, I couldn't resist.

 

As we got lost in L A on our Rt 66 and tried to get back on track, a wino yelled "Nice Cadillac" my buddy KuztomKlaus yelled back "Thank's man, It's a Lincoln". We rode in a -58 Bel Air..

 

My car has vintage headlight eyebrows with ruby glass balls in them. I've had two people look at them and ask if my car used to be a police car.

Now I've never figured out how they came to that conclusion but eh, who cares? It's certainly not worth getting upset over. I have people make comments all the time that are incorrect. I usually just nod at them and go on.

 

Or the guys that wanted to look at my "Jeep" (Hummer)

 

When I did my 74 Dodge BLUESMOBILE , I finished it to appear as if it would have looked like as a new "in service" patrol car, slick top, no light bars but black and white, door decals, etc.... At one show, even with all the Blues Brothers memorobilia, newspaper clipings, Mt.Prospect Police on the doors, "ELWOOD" personalized plates, etc....a mid fourties dude yells "HEY ROSCOE P. COLTRANE !"...I just said, "no...wrong show" ...he looked puzzled...and intoxicated.

Derek

 

yeah, like some one says about my 68 New Yorker..."Nice Dodge", Uh no, it's a Chrysler. They say, "Well, same thing."

Right.

 

I get tired of the &#8220;what color are you gonna paint it&#8221; too. Is it stock?? How come you put a Ford motor in it? Is that a SBC. For the most part people have been great but its funny some people just have to say one sentence and ya know you want to get away from them. One guy like that asked me what the truck was. Real snide like I said it was the first Toyota ever made. OH he says and walks away, It&#8217;s a 1947 Dodge&#8230;go figure&#8230;chuckle

 

I get annoyed with the unknowledgable asking "how much money do you have in it?" That annoys the crap out of me. none of their damn business.
Otherwise, I have never had a car guy ask me that question. Thankgod.

 

I have a '57 Chevy 4-dr wagon. I've had a few people ask "Is that a hearse?" ....hell it's not even black. Oh well.

 

Man aint that the truth.

Although I do admit to being curious what they paid when someone posts a "barn find 32"

 

1927 T roadster body in garage. Front suspension in pieces alongside. 2 x 4 rectangular tubing bought for frame. Plans for a different-styled highboy track T in mind.

For TWO YEARS, my boss kept asking "how that kit car was coming".