Hot Rods Are you seeing any young bloods in hot rods

Typically people who complain about the younger generation aren't doing anything to change it... You complain about fart cans and foreign cars, but don't get to know kids and encourage them to keep doing what they are doing. My son Cal went from BMW’s to hot rods. (and still loves them all) He was drifting, doing donuts, and driving junk BMW's like he stole 'em. His stories of driving to the drift tracks in California, hanging out with his friends, working on their cars mirrored exactly what I was doing in the 80's with my friends. Only we had '55 Chevies, Camaros and Mustangs. Well, the cars you despise that kids are into today are the '55 Chevies and Model A's of yesteryear. Cal slowly warmed up to the idea of old hot rods... and now enjoys researching the history and is HOOKED. He bought my Coupe, built a Model A Speedster (was his daily driver!) and is now building another Speedster. He also bought a ‘68 Firebird 70’s survivor. He has a '72 ElCamino he bought as a roller, put a FBM 350 in it, and is flipping it. He’s 23. I’m very proud of him! I guess what I am most proud of is that he has done it financially and while living on his own. He's 23 and has owned a hundred plus... yes, 100+ cars. Mostly BMW's he's drifted, junked or flipped. He buys, sells, parts them out. All the while going to college to become a teacher and working as a para at a school. Another thing that Cal is doing is infecting his friends with the old car bug. His buddy Heavy D who is into bugs and BMW's now has a '66 ElCamino. Just remember... there are leaders and there are followers... which one are you?
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I raced in TROG this past Oct. Plenty of young bloods running hot rods and hot bikes at that event.

 

My cousin's son.....hanging with "Uncle Lucas" (that's me) and helping his dad.....He'll be 1 next month and absolutely loves cars

 

There’s a 16 year old I try to help out in my town building a 31 roadster, another with a banger powered 29 roadster, some kids in Denver with hot rods. Old guys with money are killing it for the kids, when I was 16 I’m only 35 now I bought my first minimal rust two door sedan body for $50, rollable coupes were $2,000 with a pile of good parts. Now all those guys doing it because it’s “cool” have priced the kids out of it.

 

This is a sentiment I don't get, nor do I agree with it. The things you say, well gas was 79⁹gal when I was fuckin around. My 1st house was $20k, today that house is more like $90k. $12/hr was a good wage. I paid my bills and fed a family of 4 without living like a poverty case. Today everything related is double plus. Not my fault. The market speaks and we don't have to like what it sez. Now well into my 60s I too have to pay up to get good shit. I thought an Ardun top end was ridiculous money at $8k, now it's what, $25-30k? I didn't do it, and it costs more to either find the real or pay thru the snot locker for the new stuff. Is it worth it? Probably. I could buy a really nice Packard in the 80s for about $45k, now add $100k. It's not encumbant upon us to sell at loss because "...those poor kids..." so if they want it bad enuff they can forgo the $1,200 iPhone and get some speed parts. They can stop doing door dash and stop eating drive-thru. They can get a side hustle going. I painted cars and did woodgraining. I flipped muscle cars while they were my daily drivers as well. Sorry, nothing personal, just perspective. I thought a cool million for a Duesenberg Murphy Roadster was crazy but...

Like I said, perspective...

 

I was looking for steel rear fenders when I bought my A back in 2015. Went to swap meets and stuff trying to find used. New steel was $800 for the pair through a local vendor. By the time I gave up trying to find used and bought a pair in 2022, it cost me $2K for them brand new. If I had bought the parts and pieces I needed for my truck when I bought it back then, I'd be money WAY ahead.

 

I think you are right. The money I spent in gas and motels would have been better spent on $685 each fenders from Howells

 

The trope that young kids get priced out of this hobby is a tired one. I don't think that's true at all. To begin, "kids" make more money today than they ever have. I remember working jobs in junior high school and making $4 an hour in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Now that's $15 an hour. The reality is that the price of everything has gone up, across the board.

Additionally, it's not like parts for other types of cars are cheap either, and we see young people able to purchase them without issue. Same thing for the car itself. A decent old car that you can get in and drive costs the same as a 5-6 year old Toyota sedan. And while pre-war stuff has stayed up in price, post war stuff has plummeted, and everyday my FB Marketplace feed is loaded with great cars that would make great entry level cruisers for young or budget minded people to get into the hobby that wouldn't break the bank.

To prove that last point, I made a thread for a car I bought a couple years ago. The goal was to put together a HAMB relevant, traditional, 2 door car, that isn't a total shitbox, that would be safe, reliable, and capable of handling serious miles, on a reasonable budget.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/needed-like-a-hole-in-my-head-55-ford-mainline.1273763/

I was all in on that car $11,000. Immediately on selling it, my father in law drove the car from NJ to Maine and back, 1200+ miles. And 2 years later, my father in law still has it, still drives it and really hasn't done anything to it. So the myth that this hobby has been priced out of the young demographic has been debunked. If the youth want to, they can participate.

 

Things are crazy expensive across the board these days, but my kiddo sent me this today. Local burger joint…

 

Ill be 30 this year so I don't see myself as the "young kid" building hotrods anymore but comparatively I'm still young for this hobby. We're out here. Ive got a whole group of friends between 20-40 y/o that also build hotrods and customs local to me. I see a lot of these threads pop up from time to time but I think the big reason why older guys don't see the young guys around is we (or at least me and the guys I run with) don't go to most parking lot shows anymore where you have to walk past a sea of C10s and plain muscle cars to maybe see 1 hotrod. If you go to a more focused less parking-lot-ish event like TROG or similar, you'll see tons of the younger crowd. I was at an event last month called the Hot Rod Showdown and Ide say about half of the attendees both in the show and spectators were under 40.

 

They are probably all too busy trying to figure out if they should solder or crimp wiring.


You guys need a project.

 

Hell I'm 26 and I've been in the hobby my whole life through my dad. Been trying to get me an old hot rod for a while, built a 78 Mercury Zephyr fastback with my dad when I was 19/20 that I'm trying to sell to fund a shoebox maybe. But here in the midwest there are lots of young guys like me building traditional hot rods and stuff still.

 

Hello,

There is a 1946 Ford truck in our neighborhood. The kids were growing up and now they are away at college. But, 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 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. At least some of the other friends come over in their hot rods for a visit which gives the neighborhood a different look. ha!

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 high school. The classes are pretty full and the parking lot in the automotive section is always jumping with activity. Although, there is no hot rod sitting in the lot or in the open garage area being worked on during class hours.

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. But, as most classed have 36 students, one out of 36 is low on the comparison, measuring stick.

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 to see them rumbling around on errands.

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? 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 far, no missed shifts as they are rather smooth going into all of the gears.

But, the sound echoing in the still, dark night is music to our ears, but, it is probably a different high performance hot rod… So, no harm, no foul… YRMV