Some of us are now "that guy"...

You know the guy in the neighborhood whose light was always on in his garage...always working on a cool project...the guy who would take the time to be patient with us and answer our stupid questions and show us how things were done and maybe give us a stack of his old car magazines so we could learn something (maybe eliminate a few of the stupid questions)...for me it was a combination of my Dad who could fix anything and insisted on doing it all himself and my next door neighbor growing up named Jim Myers who always had a hot rod and was always building something...he had a bad*** 55 maroon chevy with the word HUSH (remember the old deep purple song) on the doors in engine turned gold leaf lettering. Used to take it to the local drag strip and kick *** with it and would haul a few of the snot nosed neighbor kids, myself included, out to the strip with him and his boys.

Not sure if I am "that guy" yet but I want to make sure I am like my Dad and Jim in that I will try to be patient and a bit of a mentor. Thanks to those guys for hopefully teaching me how to be "that guy".

 

My dad liked to cuss and throw things.

Our neighbor would get liquored up and paint each piece of his engines different colors.

Man I wish I woulda grew up in your neighborhood.

Hug me...

 

Being "that guy" is sometimes cool....it all depends

 

That guy lived on the other side of me...remember one of his kids dropped acid and dove through the big window in their living room...it wasn't all Brady Bunch and Happy Days...

 

hehe yeah acid and cars dont mix.. well maybe in the desert.... one of the neighbor kids moms asked if her boy could help with the rebuiding of my chevy the other day. i told her, "sure, but i gotta warn you, i cuss alot when things become difficult!"

 

im not that guy as i live in the country but my dad is , when i was a young the neighbor kids used to come hang in his shop 24/7 if he would let them , damn now i gotta go call the ol *******

 

I'm not "that guy".

Most of the young guys I've worked with, I end up wanting to hit them in the head with a baseball bat.

'Course, I could be "that other guy".

 

Oh, I thought you meant the other "That Guy". The old ******* driving the cool hot rod while the young guys drool and dream and think "That old ***hole is too old to have that cool car".

I was one of those young guys. Only now I understand why the old guys have the good cars. Like me they started working on cars when they were young, bought a house, had a family, worked hard and, Oh ****, I'm old. Not real old but 20 years after I started playing with old cars, I still don't have a really nice one.

I'm going out to the shed.

Pete

 

My Dad had cool cars before I was born. After he started a family (I'm the second born of 5), it was family cars. He use to tell stories of his cars, the last was a roadster p/u, when I was a baby. When I turned 11, my Dad would tell me to fix his car. All he would say was, "God gave you a brain, go figure it out!". That's how I learned about cars.

 

I went to the garage with the lights on to check it out and "these guys" came out. I'm not going back.

 

I'm one of those young guys. My dad is pretty much my only mentor because I live in the sticks.

 

These guys babysat(their words) me all through my teens. I got all the ****py
jobs and ruined some good stuff. Let a punk 15 y.o. go with them to Indy in 75 racing Super Stock and I haven't been right since. Your right,I need to pay this foward...

 

This "thing" of ours originated as a gr*** roots movement that still has it's soul in the suburban garages of the world.

 

Excellent, would make a great sig for someone. I had a That Guy neighbor though he was into foreign sports cars. Everyone around my neighborhood who was older then me were into hot rod rods. My Cuz, as well as the small pages turned me onto cars at about 10. My first project and car was built when I was 15.

My door was always open to the neighborhood kids. Thankfully I never got ripped off. One out of ten maybe stuck with it.

One of the great things about today is the information highway and forums such as the HAMB where these "kids" can get an educations and You Guys fit the bill to teach them.

 

I am the only one in the neighborhood with neat old cars and the only one in the garage late so I could be thay guy but there are no young kids around here interested in the old stuff that come over,when the light is on and the doors open there are usually people my age or older hanging around so nothing is getting p***ed on here. Jeff

 

i always thought it was cool to p*** the house that had the neat race car or hot rod in the drive way or garage....the one i would always look for when we were going to town.....it made the trip so much cooler when i saw a race car or such.... now i like to leave something out in the drive way for the kiddies...yeah , i guess i'm that guy now....

 

Yep, I'm trying to influence the rest of 'em w/ rod's and training!

 

Id be that guy if some kids were interested im always in the shop late and got a shop full of cool stuff 41 willys g***er 51 henry j 2 a's 41 fiat a j/f fed and a 71 vega funny car and not one kid shows a intrest. A old time gas station full of hot rods hell you wouldent be able to make me go home if i was a kid. DAM RAP MUSIC AND COMPUTER GAMES

ROCKY by my self in nj

 

these guys look like the opened up for black sabbath in 75 ...

 

They would have hit the big time if they had just added a little more cowbell

 

I never said I didn't ever pick up any bad habits from those guys.
Plus,they're looking more like the Rolling Stones these days...

 

I was out in the shed late last night with the light on. Only thing that came in was these big ***ed Christmas beetles...and my dog.

 

The neighborhood kids are always inside on their computers or playing video games. Even if they were to come outside their parents would not allow over to our house. My girl's boyfreinds are even afraid to come in the shop, maybe it's me. Grumpy old *******? Nahhhh.

 

that guy does not exist in The Bronx, unless you're talking about me or my brother.

 

I can't be that guy untill the current that guy moves or p***es on.

 

only thing that comes into my shop are big *** wolf spiders. in this neighborhood as bad as it's deteriorated thats a good thing, my wife doesn't even like the spiders.

 

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The mid 70's was the the greatest era of super stock in my opinion. This photo was taken by a friend of mine at the inaguural SPORTSnationals, Bowling Green Ky. in '74. I was 17 and we drove 9 hours to be spectators. Met so many cool racers of that time, and most were camping at the campgrounds next to the track. To this day hands down, the best event I've been to. Made the trek from '74 - '77.
It seems most kids have no interest these days unless it involves computer games. I hope I'm wrong.

 

I just found out I have a new grandkid coming too,hope this one is a boy, maby in a few years he can help gramps out in the shop. dam i feel old.

 

They guy on the far left is "that guy" to me. Tom Culbertson is pretty much my second dad and took me under his wing when I was about 12 years old. My dad is still my number one guy and I learn more from him than most guys would learn from their dads' in all their lifetime. But Tom is cool and I now work at his shop at night, he lets me use the shop well into the morning hours working on my car. Now, I'm getting to be "that guy". Funny how things come back around.
This pic was taken at the Viva Las Vegas show back in 2004?? He showed me how to stripe when I was 13 and this D.J. guy (the guy in the middle) wanted his boxes striped. Tom did one and I did the other.

 

the kool guy was my dad. all my brothers friends came to him to lower there cars.
this reminds me of a story i read in a mag along time ago the guy was talking about when he was kid he used to love to watch his kool *** neighbor across the street. he said the koolest was to watch him pull out these long boards and lay them out on the grown from the driveway to the street just so he could drive his car out onto the street cause it was so low. that kool kat was Larry Watson. i asked Larry if was true and he just laughed and said yup. i have to agree that would be pretty kool to see that as a kid especially when your neighbor is Watson