When I was a kid, I used to be able to identify every car that passed by make, model and year. My friends and I used to marvel at the custom cars in our neighborhood (West Haven, Connecticut) - 49 Fords and Mercs that were chopped and channelled, skirts and lake pipes; most just primered black, but sometimes a wonderful Candy Apple Red or outrageous flame job. My first car was a 10 year old '54 Pontiac (piece of*****, as I recall now, that I had to push down a hill to get started every morning) and my second was a '57 Chev Bel Air (another piece of*****, too, but what do you want for $100?). If only I knew then what I know now! I've spent the past 20 years working in Information Technology and pretty much took cars for granted, although I've always been firmly in the General's camp. But the when the 1984 Monte Carlo I bought for my wife off the showroom floor turned 20, some long sleeping desire to have a hot rod was reawakened in me and for the past 2, nearly 3 years now, I have been slowly "personalizing" my 84HotWheels. Since when I started this project, I knew nothing more about cars than how to drive them (I don't think I ever even changed a tire! - well maybe once), I began using the internet to learn what everybody else was doing and to then find out how to do it myself. The "do it myself" phrase, really means I'm trying to grasp the theory, because I have no mechanical abilities (although my work with computers and model railroads helped me to successfully rebuild my instrument panel), I depend on a couple of shops in my area. One does great work in chassis, sheet metal and engine building and the other does all the maintenance chores, exhausts and wheels and stuff like that. Recently, I've started going to the local "Cruises" to see what everybody else is up to. There is really quite a good range of cars in this area (Greater Toronto Area - population about 4 million, I think), but hardly any G-body examples, that I've seen yet. It seems my '84 is a bit too "new" for the shows and most of the cars I've seen are pre-80. I figure by the time I have the car ready to show, it will be old enough... So I'm in the HAMB as part of my continuing education but I'll be sure to contribute where I can.
The Jalopy Journal
