Hot Rods Are you seeing any young bloods in hot rods

Where there is a will, there is a way, but prices I’ve found are just crazy. I’ve been looking the last few years fairly regularly on FB. I see stuff that hadn’t sold in over a year with little to no change in asking price. This is an example of folks smoking dope…

 

yup. this hobby is doomed. not only are young folks not interested but all the vintage tin has dried up, I have the Rod Action Magazine from 1978 to prove it.

 

My 8 year old nephew loves to go to the cars and coffee and his favorite ride is the 34 Chevy.

 

Trying to do my part and get my grandson started in the right direction early

 

My wife and I were talking about this at the local cruise get together in Northwest Tucson last Thursday. The average age of the customers at the Freddy’s that hosts the event must have been right around eighty or so.

 

Isn't that the average age in Arizona in the winter?

I used to know a lot of retired Canadians that went down there for the winter.

 

Here is a great example of people putting in the effort!

@NJ Don is young man was asking questions about hot rodding and hot rods so Don told him to hop in!



Wayde Seaburg the tech inspector for the Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modifieds owns The Jokers 44 a historic stock car from western New York he often paces the field at Fonda speedway.

He added a second seat a seat belt and there was a free raffle open to all kids to ride with Wayde during the pace laps before each of our three class features.




This young man got the best show Mike Gray pulled up in the Bill Koller K-71 a real Fonda car, Mike revved the engine and ended up shooting a giant ball of fire out of the exhaust.

Wayde said all the kids were over the moon, but the last kid was hooked!
Those kids are likely to be race fans and cars guys for life!




Instead of condescending and acting as if young people don't belong, people should be trying to get them involved, and be willing to share their knowledge with the next generation so the car hobby lives on long after we are gone!

 

I believe Little Truckdoctor is hooked.

 

My son is 23 now and has been into everything with wheels since birth. I made sure of it. Mini bikes, 4 wheelers, go carts & dirt bikes. Now he's momma's worry on the Harley. We built his new engine for the El Camino shortly after I gave it to him on his 21st birthday.

 

Hello,

There is a 40 Ford truck in our neighborhood. The kids were growing up and now they are away at college. The truck does not see daylight unless the dad opens up his garage. It is a nice truck. But, the kids were into dirt bikes and not cars. So, another generation goes in their own life pattern. Yes, they both had modern 4x4 pick up trucks.

The theory of a dad owning a hot rod and spreading knowledge to the kids works in some families and not others. We all have our own lives to live. The young generation has their own way to get around and it seems like building hot rods is not one of the choices. Surfboards piled into the back of trucks, tied to the top of station wagons, and family sedans… that seems like the old days, but no cool 50s Plymouth Station Wagon with boards on top waiting for “the bell.”

There are a lot of old hot rods on the street when my wife and I are on our weekly or monthly errand runs. We always have our digital camera with us to take a photo or two or at least a digital movie of some action when we see those old cars moving to their destinations. But, the folks behind the wheel are usually older folks with their creations, having fun going to various places.

Running errands, going to work, to the grocery stores, and even daily/weekly surf spots where we takes walks or sit and watch the surfers doing their thing on the waves, they are out there... YRMV

The local young teenagers are mechanical, but in different ways. A nice truck for hauling bikes or surfboards is obvious. But, there is some hope. The local high schools shut down all automotive shops. The teenagers from other areas can enroll in the automotive school at the nearby old high school.

The classes are pretty full and the lot is always jumping with activity. There are no actual hot rod(s) sitting in the lot or in the open garage area being worked on during class hours. Motors, yes, other projects, yes, so, tons of knowledge is passed on to the students.

In the parking lot nearby are some station wagons, more trucks and small sporty sedans. There is a nice blue off topic, Chevy Nova with flashy wheels and sound to go with the look. So, I am sure he is in his own future.

Jnaki

Of the old hot rods and custom trucks we see when driving around doing errands, they are mostly 30-50s age appropriate. More money than teenagers and had developed a liking of hot rods from an early age. Of course, the oldest grey haired guys have plenty of time and old school skills, so that is always a plus.

For us old hot rod folks, who does not like the sound of a high performance motor going through the gears on the local, nearby, empty industrial street far away from prying eyes? He/she has not missed a shift so far in the multiple times we hear that fabulous sound of full acceleration on this particular neighborhood road, late at night, about a mile or so away.

If one is in the quiet moment of the dark night, the sound of some hot rod sedan is usually heard weekly on the street far away from the prying eyes of grandma peering out of her window. So, no harm, no foul… YRMV

 

Now days, a drive thru town elicits very few acknowledgements... unlike 25 years ago when the same trip would have a majority of onlookers giving a thumbs up. I believe the crap most youngsters got when they went the rat rod faze turned them away from street/hotrods. Don't get me wrong, I am not much on ratrods as well, but I saw plenty of youngsters building them mainly because they couldn't afford a decent streetrod, show up at a car show and immediately get dissed by the older crowds...don't blame 'em...built my first hiboy in the early 70s when I was mid 20s and was pretty proud of the accomplishment, however, I didn't take me long to figure out I was NOT one of the "older crowd" and had a hard time fitting in with the established hotrodders due to my age...so, I scuttled the hiboy and got into MOPAR muscle cars, 3 Roadrunners, a GTX and a 340 Duster and was immediately accepted into this crowd...20 yrs later and I was back into hotrods and, tho I now fit into this crowd, I could actually care less about what others think and now frequent very few streetrod shows...hopefully, the youngsters that tried getting into hotrodding by building what they could afford and left, due to unsatisfactory reactions to ratrods will come full circle and find their way back to hotrods, as I did...although it's tuff when a carcass costs 10gs, not to count what a nice paint job and chroming costs are now days all the while trying to buy a home and raise a family at todays prices...I feel for those who want, but can't afford.

 

19 months I'm prepping him my great nephew!

 

I sold my 1951 Chevy a little under 10 years ago to a 16 year old girl from Florida who was visiting my neighbors. She restored the car

 

I’ve watched I don’t know how many of these threads come and go such as “Is our hobby dying” “ How do we get young folks involved” and the list goes on and on. I’ve come to the conclusion the answers are like comparing apples and oranges. A more fitting question in my opinion is “Why would young people want to get involved” To a kid graduating from high school the cars we like pre 1965 and including pre WWll are now 40 to 75 years old and I would think hard for them to identify with. People tend to like cars they wanted as young adults but couldn’t afford or other reasons so even muscle cars from the late 60’s 70’s might be hard for them to identify with. So that leaves cars from the 80’s 90’s that people our age probably turn our nose up to.

I live close to a large high school with an enrollment of probably 1,500 plus. The road I take often, parallels the student parking lot which is telling. The cars parked there I see from the road are mostly late model SUV’s sports type sedans, lifted late model trucks, Forerunner's and a lot of Jeeps. I would think these are well beyond the budget of most students. If you are given a nice car to drive theres not much of an incentive to work on an older car to drive as I and friends did in high school. I was told early if I was to have a car I had to pay for it as well as expenses. I’m 78 and the very small student parking lot at my high school was a hodgepodge collection of old cars from the 50’s and hot rods in various states of progress. To support that work or even have a car to drive just about everyone I knew had a part time job in a gas station, grocery store, etc. It doesn’t appear that kids work part time jobs anymore you’re more apt to find a senior citizen in stores or fast food places. I guess I’m saying young folks don’t have much interest cars because they don’t have to. They are given cars, credit cards for gas, maintenance is paid for and they drive them similar to using a kitchen appliance.

The kids I see with an interest in cars are the ones driving the lifted trucks, Jeeps and late model factory hot rod Mustangs, Camaros, Chargers. They have very little in common with the gray hairs like myself with the old cars. A lot of the shows don’t even allow a lot of the late models younger folk like and have year cut offs. Another thing is these young folks have to be exposed to the car hobby. I have eight grandkids I’ve tried to involve and they show some interest but but cars to them are only a way to get from point A to point B. I know there are exceptions but if we are waiting for a lot of young people to take over the traditional hot rod hobby I don’t think it’s going to happen. Enjoy it while it lasts. Your mile may vary.

 

I'm ruining entire blocks of kids

Brought the cars down and did a 30 min history of custom cars and hot rods for my daughters 3rd grade classes. This was leading up to engineering and stem week. They asked me back to do the 4th and 5th grades because they said their excitement and interest in building stuff spiked after this.

Yes I let them climb in and out and touch without getting bent out of shape about it. I did explain that you should always respect and not touch because some folks get all weird, but go ahead and knock yourselves out because just because

 

I'm 25 years old... born in 1999. I have been interested in hot rods since I was 4 years old but I didn't get one until I was 24 years.
I got a T-Bucket with a small block Ford and a non-HAMB car which is some old BMW built like a pro street that has a small block Chevy. To this day, I'm only 80% done so far... and it's only possible because I stay with my parents which helps keeps my monthly expense down and also because they're generous enough to let me use the garage.

I ask fellow young car people and even non-car people what they think about traditional American hot rods... some say it's interesting and some say it's ugly which I totally get it... I bet even back in the days when hot rods were at its prime, there were still people calling them ugly.

Since I'm a newer generation, I think I can shed light on why some people don't own a hot rod even if they are interested:

1. They don't have extra money to play around with cars (have you seen the economy?)
2. They're discouraged by people seeing these cars as investments
3. Even if they can buy it, you need a fat wallet or knowledge, skills, time, decent amount of money, and strong obsession
4. They're too used to safety features like airbags, crumple zone, ABS, and they really need A/C as well as power steering...

Hot rodding isn't dead, it just simply evolved. Traditional hot rods, however, is actually dying. Car people like cars that they grew up with and can relate to them... which is why you don't see much Ford Model T's anymore.

As far as whether I will go to a classic show/meet that consists of HAMB or non-HAMB cars? I only go to the ones where the cars look like they have been driven a lot and not just once a year.

 

The average cost for an 18 year old with 2 years of a clean driving record to insure a run of the mill car here is $616 a month a sports car/hot rod would be pushing $750 A MONTH. I bet most of you dont pay that a year for your hot rod. I know I dont. And people wonder why young people are not interested in owning an old car or any car for that matter.

 

Lot of youngsters like me (72) are leaning toward the old tractor hobby. Loads of fun, and they don't need to be perfect...

 

The kids are all right.

 

Little Truckdoctor last weekend.

 

When I was 22 with $3k in unpaid traffic tickets along with a suspended DL I managed to get an insurance quote on a 29 Ford model a truck. Full coverage with my driving record was $27 dollars a month. And I believe that was a low level of full coverage too. Way I was explained to the number of wrecks your particular year make and model is in each year plays a significant role in insurance cost....at least stateside. There were far fewer 29 Ford pickups wrecked in 2002 than 99 f150s. Along with the fact the average 29 Ford drives far fewer miles per year than said 99 f150

 

The demographic of the driver plays way more a role in the cost of insurance than the type of vehicle being insured. The vast majority of insurance cost is liability and young drivers are far more likely to get into accidents than older ones and young males are the worst risk. Adding a car that would be considered an added risk factor of a young person having an accident like a hot rod or sports car will only increase the cost.

 

Seems like I've read a lot of writings and heard a lot of discussion on this topic over the years, both on the HAMB and elsewhere, and the conclusion I've reached is that there's still a fairly healthy proportion of car enthusiasts who are both young and into traditional hot rods. But what people are noticing is the overall diminishing enthusiasm for the automobile in American culture.

 

1938 hood, 39 grille

 

I always thought the 38 39 was ugly but I've driven mine every day for 17 years and I guess I got used to it. It doesnt seem as ugly as it used to

 

I was about that age when Cushmans came down the street making that wonderful sound. I put a new tire on my 1959 Super Eagle yesterday.

 

This isnt true in Texas. I have spent years looking for windshield frame 35 Ford truck, rear fenders 1934 Ford truck. I went to 10 swapmeets in Texas one year. Also Oklahoma and Arkansas. for the first time in my life parts for 1930s Fords are not showing up

 

Took me about 2 minutes to find both at CW Moss. Pretty sure that's what @57JoeFoMoPar meant.

 

Young guys around here, it's either farts cans, or coal rollers.

 

That's exactly what I meant. What a time to be alive when you can hop on the internet and get whatever it is you need from virtually anywhere on the globe, some of it being delivered to your door next day. Such availability of parts and resources was unheard of even 20 years ago.

And even if the parts mentioned were more expensive at an online store like CW Moss, think of the money spent on gas, tolls, food, admission, etc., going to those swap meets, plus the value of your time. It's probably enough to have bought the fenders and windshield frame 3 times over.