Zen and the Art of the Hot Rod: The philosophy of wabi-sabi

you guys are getting too deep for me.

i'm gone,got to get to work.

-danny

 

In my previous life I was a Six Sigma Black Belt project manager. Some of the concepts are pretty darn good, the Taguchi Curve vs the Bell Curve and the concept of pushing the edges of specific process with an accurate goal in mind is a good thing. If you apply it to your whole life, 3.4 defects per million opportunities, which is the statistical definition of Six Sigma, you find that you can drive your search for excellence into areas you may never have seen or imagined. Or you can drive yourself crazy like I did and have a stroke or two and lose most of your sight. Its all good. Make no mistake though, this process has gone on since the dawn of time, has been called different things, but has been a force that has chosen what succeded or failed. It wasn't dreamed up by some egghead, it has only been quantified and observed as a repeatable concept that will lead to repeatable results and is scalable from failure every time to an infinity of success.

Everything you do has the opportunity to succeed. Failure or success always has a root cause, finding it as a quantifiable value makes it repeatable, or, in the case of failure, repairable or preventable.

I like Indian Larry's belief too, of all the gee gaws stripped away, the simplicity, and the lack of need to hide the fact that this is a mechanical thing. An elegance of its own aesthetic appeal as a machines function being visible. We lost him way too young. I really think he had just begun to find himself.

 

There you go making us think again...and so early in the morning.
Thanks!!

 

Thanks for your post #1, Mike, and your follow-ups. It's nice to know that centuries ago, somebody had already sensed, studied and codified this concept we've instinctively felt.

As an aesthetic, when it comes to acknowledging and celebrating imperfection and aging, r*t r*dding would come closest to hitting the wabi-sabi mark were it not for the jarring, grotesque surgeries and for the silly adornments welded on that ought to remain on the dirt floor of the garden shed.

Outside of that realm, it's fun to appreciate the signs of life evident on machines: the exhaust scorch on a airplane, curved by the slipstream. The exhaust scorch on the side of a hot rod. The wear on purposeful vehicles by the hardened hands of purposeful people. It's a different kind of beauty, no better, and imho no worse than the beauty of the restored shinniness of a vehicle that's been rubbed on for countless hours.

A wabi-sabi tea bowl is formed, glazed and even pre-nicked to fit the aesthetic from jump and to age well. Cars aren't made the same way. From what I've gathered, only time and use can bring out the wabi-sabi in a car.

I see only irony and no beauty in a faded and peeling abandoned kustom.

 

Do you plant them up to their necks so they can breath or do you cover em up like a tulip bulb?

 

Wow I didn't expect to wake up to this. Some heavy*****! I couldn't agree more though. I like to call it "perfect imperfection." Not sure if I made that up or read it somewhere. A good example are the Tornado headlight brackets on my roadster. Rough pitted castings. I wouldn't trade them for anything. The cars I admire most are the ones that have been pulled out of a storage somewhere after many years cleaned up some and driven to an event. I spend the most time with them. Those perfect cars I just pass by.

 

Well..Grass Hopper you have learned your lessons well you are now free to go out into the autoworld and reap its rewards...........

 

Good stuff. Thanks for bringing this up, Mike.

 

What happened to the kool picture of the old shack and the model T?

 

I deleted it. I thought I got too wordy.

This is a cool thread. I don't want to muck it up.

Here's the pic again. .....is it Wabi-Sabi?

 

...so now what? I killed the thread?

 

We are all meditating. The picture is awesome.

 

The building, and some of the features around it may exhibit Wabi-Sabi.

 

And now....



I love wasabi...

All of a sudden I'm in the mood for Sushi rolled on the cowl of a traditional hot rod.

Thanks Mike...

 

The tilt on the porch roof and weathered signs are sabi... the stacked rock supports underneath the porch are wabi. I vote wabi sabi. Or maybe it's just hilli-billi.

 

If it's dead I don't think your picture did it. Koolist picture I've seen in a long time. If it's still there it needs to be preserved in just that condition.
There is an old mining ghost town just off highway 395 in California, Bodie that is being preserved as it was found many years after the people left when the mine played out. All they do is prop up the buildings and fix the roof's.
Maybes we just need to get it back to cars.
A few years ago I bought a 48 Ford moor door that was sitting out in a walnut orchard for 30+ years. Took it home and installed a 50 Cad engine and started driving it. I've had a couple of friends tell me not to touch the body. I find it funny that those two people would be the last two people to drive an unfinished rod.

 

See, I was wondering if the building would be more hilli-billi because I'm pretty sure the owner just made it out of whatever was "a layin' around" at the time. I would bet there was no thought put into it at all.

I was wondering if in order for an object to be Wabi-Sabi, if the builder would have to conciously place the components....like would be the case in a zen garden.

Its a very thought provoking thread.

 

The fact that he used found materials is actually kinda wabi.

One of my favorite examples from hotroddom is Steve Wertheimer's "Waco Kid" roadster, purpose built in the 50s by an enterprising and talented serviceman. So many cool simple details created by constraints that I could contemplate it all day. Plus 50+ years of character-enhancing patina and aging.

 

I'll throw this one at my wife, since she's a self professed Buddhist and doesn't see anything but "rusty junk" when she rarely enters the garage. Anything to knock her off her high horse.
"See Babe, by being a hot rodder I am embracing the zen aesthetic, whereas you have lost sight of your spiritual path by being satisifed with that Toyota Rav-4."
I might get my**** kicked, but it would be worth it. Notice I said, "self professed."

 

interesting thread - the HAMB never ceases to amaze me. . . Great stuff!

 

Now I have all the answers!!! LOL Nice!!!! This explains what is wrong with my addiction to my Rodz!!!

 

Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect..makes me want to heave a huge sigh of relief..Aahhhhh...Thanks Man...now if I could just get my wife to embrace that sort of thinking..it makes alot more sense than that Fang Schway stuff...

 

Actually the simplicity and elegance are a Zen statement. The stones on the ground lead into the frame, and once you are there, it invokes a curiosity. The roof pitch, the proportions of shape make it very utilitatian. It could be standing there like that until the skeleton that supports it rots away.

On another level it has a yin and yang with the gas pump out front. A center of service or propogation, or a means of destruction. It is a balance, nearly perfect. The car in the back as a means of escape is much further away than the balanced purpose of the gas pump. Nothing in the picture is truly dependant, nor is it mutually exclusive. The walls need the rocks, the car needs the gas, etc. But each can be individually quantified as a "thing" of its own, that in composite makes a bigger "thing". Its order is in its elegance and simplicity, and with that we come full circle. It is Wabi-Sabi in that nature has had its hand on it, as well as the vision of its creator. A balance in elegance with its perfect inperfection.

 

Very cool.
I really dig your interpretation of the different elements of the pic. Thanks.

 

Hippy mumbo jumbo, Hong Kong Phooey!

 

thanks mike and thanks nads for my inside outside thoughts fro the day

 

Haha, yeah let us know how that goes!

 

Guys are bringing tears to my eyes..........

 

And all this time I thought it was just mustard!


Zenor strikes the bullseye again!