-->Traditional --> why's it do it for you?

The post on the 58 ford got me thinking. Why do I like old style cars. Why do the majority of people try and turn them into something close to a brand new car? I understand that the idea of hot rodding all along was and is to modernize your older car. But what is it about the traditional (30’s to 50’s or +) style cars and bikes that does it for you? For me it’s the challenge of finding the parts – the way they look – and ultimately getting a feel for what it was like back then, like when my dad was a young hot rodder on the streets of LA in the 50’s.

Also what started it for you? For me it was putting together a mid 1950’s correct 40 coupe to surprise my dad with. Up until that point I kind of leaned toward the “newstalga” style look

 

If what I liked about old cars was the challenge of finding parts for them, I suppose I'd be a gold prospector instead.

Like the shirts say, "If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand."

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

The history... the signs of the struggle. I like the idea that a car has had another life before I got to it, that someone else drove it, wrenched on it, bounced around in the back seat. I was dissappointed when I got my 49 that it was too clean, nothing under the seats or in the glove box.

Wrinkles, rust, dents, scratches all just add to the 'life' of the car. I really feel that cars that have been too over-built or over-restored have had the soul ****ed out of them.

My 2¢.

 

I dunno...i just like old syle stuff i guess..
No bling-bling....just simplicity.

 

[ QUOTE ]
I like the idea that a car has had another life before I got to it, that someone else drove it, wrenched on it, bounced around in the back seat. Wrinkles, rust, dents, scratches all just add to the 'life' of the car.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree completely.

That's why I married a tired old ****** with stretch marks and bullet wounds.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

 

Modern life is rubbish....(kinda, except for the 'net!)

 

Stuff was simple, you don't need computers to work on this stuff...they are the way our forefathers did it and I dig the hell out of that. Plus, they just plain look cool...stuff has personality and a soul....new **** just doesn't; most stuff looks alike.

Greg

 

This is just a small thing, but I think about it every time I take something old apart. I've had a few cars that have never been dis***embled and the thought always occures when I put a wrench on a bolt, wonder what the guy was like that put this fender on, was he just doing a job, did he enjoy putting 'NEW' cars together. What did he do in his spare time? Did he have a family, you know, wife, kids, what did he do for "fun". And for those cars that were new in the 40's and 50's I wonder if he is still around, does he ever think back on the days he spent on the ***embly line? I've worked for GM at one point and I can't imagine someone 20-30 years from now wondering about me or my life. It's kind of freaky sometimes but it only occures when I know I'm removing something that's been in place since the car was built. Anyone else ever think about this or am I the only wierdo?

Frank

 

i like the way the cars looked
the cars changed every few years not like today when the same body is used for years,70-85 camaros for the most part used the same body .they had a few changes mainly grille and bumpers ,but there are all the same .and i like the chrome and all the trim.i also like to think about the car, who was the first owner ,how many family trips did the car take.our cars where a piece of the family .now they are like bic lighters drive them until the new model comes out and drop it.and they had style look at the curves,very few square lines.and when i drive mine to the store everyone looks .well some laugh !but then they get into there plain jane boring plastic,bic lighter.

 

history always did it for me, might have to do with old WWII movies at an early age. i got into lowriders and read about the history of lowriding in a magazine and it talked about early hot rods and customs as well. i was aware of traditional stuff, didn't really recognize it as that, but new billet stuff didn't do much for me either, lack of soul. bought a 50 pontiac, and thought it would be cool to build a lead sled or what have ya out of it. then i remember finding the jalopy journal again, saw it in 99 but hadn't looked at it till then, didn't even know the HAMB existed till the second time around. pontiac isnn't done yet, but the HAMB ****ing BUILT my 65 impala. kinda late model, but i tried to do it appropriately for a mid sixties era car. i didn't realize how much today ****s till i found traditional...

 

"Why are ****s good?...They just are!"

 

You guy's got me thinking about it now...
I've alway's been onto old things.Music, cloths, car's etc.
I've spent a lot of time with my dad, hearing about all the stuff they did when they were young, looking at his old pics of cars and stuff.
It all kinda sunk in early for me. I was listening to 50's tunes when my buddy's were into Van Halen and stuff like that. Not doing it to be 'cool', that was just the stuff i was into.
I have also alway's liked history as well..which adds to the desire for things old.
As far as cars, old ride's have style and cl*** that the new, or newer stuff will never have period.
In addition to the style, like someone else said, i personally wonder what the history of a cirtain car is too. Who owned it, what they did with it (or in it )..ya know, it's past.
The mystery of having something that is that old keeps me interested.

I spend a lot of time a while ago just trying to track the ownership of my '57 when i got it..For no other reason than to just see what it's life was like..

I guess i do know why i like traditional, or old stuff in general.
It just make's life a little more interesting for me.

To me there's no inside feeling's when i see a 'new' car..the thought's don't say "man, i wonder where this thing has been, or where it came from"..
Dig?

Rat...

 

For me, Its all about style. I'm 24, so I've grown up with ****py engines, bland styling and tree huggin issues all my life. I know other decades had these issues, but it seems nowadays styling has taken a back seat to safety and political correctness. I'm not saying safety isn't important, but at least i know that its a Comet, or Bel Air coming down the road. Back in the day, cars were all about beauty and style, now theyre all about ergonomics.

 

I like to think things were better back in the day. none of this bottled water, same *** marriages, people sueing mcdonalds for their own stupidity kind of ****. and same with the cars, and the music, for the most part things were simple, functional, cool. not over done and gaudy like they are today, and thats not just cars, thats clothes, music, everything. My friends often tell me i would like living in the 60's more than today.

"todays music ain't got the same soul,
I like that old time rock and roll"

 

I just like the old style. Always have but my friends hijacked me for a few years.

The old stuff seams stronger. Like they built them to last, not like now. They seam to make stuff to last just past warrenty then break. I feel like they made stuff for a reason back then other than just trying to make money!

The only thing I like about the present day is how people have acctually accepted ***uality. It makes watching TV alittle nicer (more hardly dressed women! ) Sorry ladies

 

I like the ingenuity of building an old car. The challenge of making what's available fit your application and the challenge of making something without just ordering parts from a catalog. building a traditional car relies more on your brain and skills than your checkbook.

 

it gets me laid

 

You're a weirdo Frank [Fab 32] but you're not the only one. I also wonder about the history of my old 41 Pontiac coupe. I was at the local annual Pontiac owner's show last weekend and this guy comes up to me and told me he was the guy that arranged the sale of my car to the guy I bought it from. Said it usta belong to this guy in Missouri that he knew and the guy just stopped driving it. I asked him if it was there that the goats climbed all over it but he just looked at me funny...I saw him later on that day but he didn't speak to me again....musta thought I was some kinda wierdo.
I ofter wonder if my car got driven during the war years or was it parked, waiting for some GI to return from the war? Did the guys that originally built it on the GM ***embly line all go to war or do ya suppose they stayed in the states to build war vehicles, tanks, trucks etc?
How many guys got laid in the car? Prolly not many, it's pretty narrow and has no back seat.
Did some enterprising small business owner or salesman actually use it in his business in the 40's and 50's? It IS a business coupe, after all.
Myabe I can get Spock to do a Vulcan Mind Probe on it to find out WTF..I'd really love to know it's history.

 

I enjoy the personality, and the lines of older cars. The feel and sound of vintage tin compared to the 2 liter queens running around in m***es. Hearing my dad talk about his 41 buick with a 421 pontiac and a borg 4 spd cheater slickins the back, and 8 ply truck tires up front.. I hate living with the norm of things, I enjoy walking in the puddles when everyone else uses the side walk, Thats what old cars are for me. It is a sense of ones self..

Sorry for the ramble.

Jonney

 

These threads always turn up some interesting introspectives. You can usually tell how old the person is by how he sees the "traditional" style. Older guys seem to want to relive their younger hell-raising days; younger guys want to relive their father's hell-raisin' times. Some folks get real hung up on "period accuracy" others just throw together what they can afford and get on with it.
From my owm personal viewpoint...I have lived the days when we built hot rods outta anything we could find that was cheap. Nobody gave a damn whether your car was a 32 Ford or a 33 Olds, flathead or overhead, just as long as it was loud and fast! The girls who loved your cars where the girls you loved to love...a lot like your car they were loud and fast too. The more your parents and the "establishment" hated your car, the cooler it was. Smokin' the skins in front of the local police chief's house with his niece in the front seat of my rod was one of the highlights of my teen years. Of course I paid for it but I'd do it again if I had the chance!
"Traditional" for me doesn't mean the same thing as it does for many...I see what was in the hearts and minds of the guys who built these cars in the 50's and 60's...fast and loud. There was no such thing as "traditional" to us in those days. We built what we could afford, if we had a choice between a set of headers or a gallon of paint...well you know how that decision got made.
Today I follow many of the old ways; build what you drive, make it fast and loud, and **** anybody who doesn't like it. "Traditional" for me today is holding true to the values we had "in the day", I don't need a "period correct" car to be traditional, I don't need to nurse along a car built from worn-out s****s and hope that I can get to where I'm going without a serious mechanical misfunction, I do hold true to the individuality of the car and it's owner and keep buildin' them load and fast!

 

Well Im only 21, but I grew up on the farm in the back end of my grandpa's 2 50s dodge pickups. We also had a collection of old cars on the hill that I grew up playing in. I made my first fort out of a 53 chevy truck cab, so its only natural that I got my '49 Chevy pickup when I was 13.

I took it for a ride when we got it home and I came home and told my mom, "Its slow, it rattles, no power steering, and it rides like ****." She just looked at me and said, "Well what do you expect, its a old truck" and I just looked at her and said, "I wasnt complaining, I love it"

2 weeks after I got it home, my dad had a guy from Chicago that owned a chrome plating business, he told him about my pickup, and the guy offered me $2500 and said when I got my next project he would do any chrome plating I wanted done. I got this thing for $300, and I knew I would never find a deal like that again and have been turning down offers of 2K plus ever since.

As far as liking the traditional style, whats not to love, its not about being all fancy, showing off your pocket book, its showing off your skills and having something to drive thats cool. People can keep all that shiny **** and their detailed ch***is and ****, give me something rusty that I can actually drive around and enjoy.

 

For me it's always been about the fat greasy tattooed toothless chicks.....(nothing weird like Fab32)

 

Traditional does it for me because of all the reasons already mentioned, but most important is the history. I wasn't around for the birth of hot rodding or anything like that, but I sure want to keep some of these cars on the road like they were back then.

-jeremy

 

I'm a design junkie. I like shapes, styles, and different eras, that's why I like traditional things. To me, traditional is just something that is correct for what ever time period it represents. A 50's traditional car isn't going to have billet wheels, and etc. But some cars can be traditional for different decades... take for instance the 32 Ford. 50's traditional is a flathead and WWW, or narrow blackwalls. 60's traditional is chrome and a nailhead or SBC, 70's traditional is wild paint or resto-mod (newstalgia rehash anyone?). That's all tradition is too me... correct for the time period it respresents.

That being said, I like cars from pretty much every time period. But to me, it seems like car designers kinda lost their edge in the mid-70's, and never got it back. There's very few post-1970 cars that I like... and it all comes down to styling. There's no love in it, no p***ion. Maybe cars used to be a statement along with being a means of transportation...

 

well,i don't know.....if i were true to what's traditional for me,it'd be 70's and early 80's rod's,cause that's what i grew up around....but i kind of think they're gay and that's not my cup of tea ...i don't like fads,so i don't want to sink a bunch of time and money into something thats's gonna go out of style,i like cars that are timeless...something you won't grow tired of

 

[ QUOTE ]
For me it's always been about the fat greasy tattooed toothless chicks.....(nothing weird like Fab32)

[/ QUOTE ]
Second vote for the orcabetties

 

Someone said it earlier, but I too would like to think times were better back then. *****in cars and rock n roll. The looks... the history. Knowing that my grandpa was driving the same cars, sanding down some paint to find different colours... I like that my car is metal and that you're completely in control of everything. There's no idiot lights or stupid buzzers that tell me my key is in the ignition or my lights are still on. It's not only traditional cars either. Everything about the styling of the 40s 50s and 60s is, for lack of a better word, just plain cool. And don't even get me started on music...

Deke

 

one word really sums it up for me "style"
seriously for me its about taking something and adding a bit of my personality and taste to it (prob why nothing ever gets finished or is broke) - esp. over her in little old NZ there not a common sight - u see more jappa 4wd turbos (WRX and EVO) running around - occ***ionally u see something old - theres a few 64 impalas around now but they all look the same - cut springs, shinny wheels (and thats it) - no individuality

 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For me it's always been about the fat greasy tattooed toothless chicks.....(nothing weird like Fab32)

[/ QUOTE ]
Second vote for the orcabetties

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course readhead orcas right?

 

I wasn't around "in the day" but the traditional style just seems to have soul. the new production line cars can be fast, are safe, and are more economical but to gain all that they gave up heart and soul. Trad rods can be made using the same body and drive train, but still be completely different. They portray the individuality of the owners/builders. They are built with a simple purpose in mind be that speed, power, at***ude, or all of the above. They have a simple integrity and what they lack in bling or flash is made up in heart and soul.

Reminds me of the guy who climbed mt everest and was asked "why", "because it was there" it's not something you can explain it's just a p***ion.

That's my reason wrong or right.