I haven't had much time to browse this thing lately, but I am interested in how the March Meet went...it doesn't sound like it was all that great a time for the "gr*** roots" hot rodder. The point I'd like to raise is, why is everybody so pissed when mainstream culture makes it hard on the sub-cultures? Do you not expect it? Do you think that you're extending the flat black chalis of love, understanding and enlightenment to the ignorant vanilla m***es by buying a ticket to hang out with them? I feel as if I am taking the crazy pill. Guess what...A CHOPPER these days is a safe motorcycle that has the ease of electric starting. They have mega inch billet motors and other crazy expensive parts to "make them bad." BUT, anybody with the money to buy it can start it and ride it. ANYBODY with the cash can have it. The guys who SELL THEM THE BIKE are the BAD***ES. If I had a nickle for everytime I heard some old school biker in the mid-eighties say "These damn yuppies'll get spanked by their new EVO in about 6 months, then we'll all get great deals on Harleys! HA HA HA!"...yeah. Well, so-called "nice upstanding folk" take things they like and then spend lots of time and money streamlining all the SPOOKY s**t out of them. They make their own clubs like the Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) or THE GOODGUYS. They make rules to exclude behavior they don't want to be around. Their total focus on becoming say, a doctor, keeps them from honing other skills like mechanics or welding. These nice folks are guilty of nothing more than creating a hospitible world involving things they like. Sure, secretly they may troll ghetto areas scoring crank or having *** with she-males, BUT you will never catch them doing it...or talking about it. SO...Too many of the "take no **** bad*** hot rodders/bikers/poodlegroomers/whathaveyou" spend a lot of time shmoozing these dollar signs when they choose to make a living chopping tops, then talk s**t at the same time. It becomes a circle of life kind of thing. Myself, I don't have to pay anybody to do a damn thing on a piece of machinery unless I want to, and neither do you. Street Rodding is a multi-million dollar business because of people PAYING for things. The consumer is king, and you ain't one. If the Goodguys don't represent your idea of hot rodding don't PAY THEM MONEY to tell them. Tell 'em at a !@#$ing stoplight. Just don't feel bad if they don't want to hang out with you. In the end, if you're a human being you're mostly the same as everybody else...you may like motorcycles, cars, saving little puppies from certain death or cruising for crack 'hos late at night. It doesn't matter if you're a doctor or a welder at a muffler shop. Wanna be the "real" thing? Just what the F@#$ is that? I do know this, whatever it is, it costs a helluva lot more than a 200,000 dollar street rod.
Nice observation! I have to agree with a lot of what you said. I am SOOOOO over this "real hotrodder" thing. I am sick of getting at***ude from newbie rodders who think they are the **** but don't know **** about the history of the hobby. These people range from rockabilly costume wearers to gold-chainers. Hot rods are are a fashion accessory for all of these wannabees. If you are the "real deal" then you don't have to say it at all. I just want to hide in a garage in the boonies somewhere and build my **** in peace. Enough with the hot rod politics, just do it!
"These nice folks are guilty of nothing more than creating a hospitible world involving things they like. Sure, secretly they may troll ghetto areas scoring crank or having *** with she-males, BUT you will never catch them doing it...or talking about it. " Hey, who told you?
Yeah! I just love it when the crowd spends more time around my POS than that $100k bomb next to me. And when they ask me a question about it, I can actually answer it, because I built the damn thing from the ground up. I just enjoy the building and the cruising, even if it is by myself.
Excellent reading....I personally couldn't give a rats *** what anybody does or thinks....just leave me alone to build the stuff I wanna build.....I don't need to prove myself to anyone but me.
Good reading conder. One observation though. The "sub" culture created The "scene" that the mainstreamers are enjoying. Maybe they would appreciate someone that worked on their own stuff if they busted their knucles acouple of times instead of bustin out a c note. When I am riding, I pull over to help a fellow scooter tramp, I always have. Yet I have had heards of bikes fly past when I was pushing my Iron barrel or shovel head. I happen to ride an evo now and never had any problem like that(although I havent had to push my evo, yet.).
i dont know how you guys put this **** into words so well.. but i dont see the problems most on here do. i have a very nostalgic satin finished merc, i go to rainbeck every year and dont have any problems with anyone. weather its goldchainers, ****abillys whoever.. i go check out the cars that i like,have a few beers sleep in my tent, and go home.. yea its a little pricey but so is taking the kids to the movies.. they even selected my ****box for the killer custom award last year, although i couldnt stay that long to accept it..im a relatively young guy 34 and im into the old look always have been , its all in the at***ude. any show can be fun with a few cold beers and couple cool peaple to hang with..sorry to ramble and still not make my point..dave
The same thing has happened to the HAMB...... as it has grown, the priorties have changed. There are more and more people trying to fit in so the guidelines have been expanded to include them. Things that were the norm are now considered unsafe... etc. Details that made the Hot rods of 5 or 10 years ago rule, are now forgotton for the general look. Everything has been generalised. Now we have an aftermarket for traditional style parts that rivals the days of billet dodads....What's the difference? There are traditional street rods, cars that capture the old time look, but lack the soul of vintage parts and the knolledge to find them....... then there are the ****box rat rods.... that also capture a basic look, but lack all the thought and engineering that made these cars cool in the first place. Both these types of cars completely miss the boat as to what the excitment over these early style Hot Rods was in the first place It has become watered down. Progress is strange.
I'm really on the verge of telling everyone to **** off and stay, and I never want to go to a car show ever again. Or a concert, or even watch television. I'm sick of my '54 Chevy, I'm sick of newbies, I'm sick of poseurs. I wanna spend more time with my wife and kids. This car ****'s getting me down.
I'm sorry I thought this site was about people that build their own rides sharing information, but, lately it appears to be a forum for personal *****ing or soap box grandstanding. Nads I'm with you, I'm about to give up all the car **** and work on my Farmall.
I just like the smile it puts on my face and the giggles that come from my kids in the back seat when I drop it down and smash the peddle and those tires lite up.
Just this morning, I was sitting at a light in the left turn lane waiting to go down Pacific Coast Highway to the marine hardware to get some varnish to recoat the bed on the blue truck, when I saw out of the corner of my eye this middle-aged Filipina in a Voyager aiming her cellphone camera at my truck. she took a picture of the front and then ained it at the cab at which point i smiled and waved, which surprised the hell out of her so she smiled back and clicke off the picture, while talking to someone at the same time. As long as I don't get a summons in the mail from OSHA or DMV or CA-BAR I'll figure it was just an admirer...! Ya know, you park your jalopy at a car show and it's just another old car in a sea of old cars. You park it a****st all the beige sedans and SUVs in front of Safeway or Albertson's and it's always the star performer.
Guys u gotta try harder, people are gonna feel like this is a splinter group. I get tired of explaining things over and over, but most people remember what they heard better than reading. On top of that popularity is a fleeting thing. I was told about this site by someone who thot this was a r-billy ratrod site, because they saw the jalopy word. If enough people quit then the unlearned will never know what this garage is all about. All orginizations are top heavy with a lot of shifting base. If its worth doing its worth doing rite. Just my for what its worth.
I am just a FNG but have been on this earth since '53 so i guess I have a little experience in life. I never got into hot rods, harleys, muscle cars or anything else to be cool, to impress or be liked by anyone. I've done it to have fun and escape the daily rat race and the stress and strain it brings. If I don't like a group, organization or person then it's my choice not to ***ociate with them. That doesn't make others that do, people that I don't want to ***ociate with, it just means I'll see them at another show, cruise or some other function. Everybody has their own reasons for getting involved, different strokes for different folks. I'm not going to let something piss me off for long and ruin something that I enjoy.
Most of you guys are ****yzing this **** too much. The guys who eat, **** and breathe hot rods will continue to eat, **** and breathe hot rods (not to be confused with eat ****, notice the comma) the folks that consider this the "latest" thing will come and go. It has always been that way and will continue to cycle into the future. You can argue all you want "yeah, but the gold chain crowd drives the price of this stuff up too high", maybe so, but everything that goes up, usually comes down (ain't gravity a *****?). Don't sweat it, there is a whole craftsman side to this thing, if making a bracket turns you on as much as the finished car, what's to stop you from doing just that. You know, keep on keeping on. As usual, I find myself somewhere in the middle. There are elements from both camps (hard core "traditional" scene vs. Street Rod crowd) that I despise more than mere words can say, yet there are elements from either group that I can appreciate. Do you people hate John ****era because he made billet parts acceptable or do you love him because he MADE the billet parts? Stupid debate if you ask me. Oh, by the way, I heard you can by cloth covered wiring at Autozone.... whatever.
Man, that's well put. We don't have a good time because of the GGs, we have a good time in spite of them sometimes, but we bring our own perspective with us. Kinda like sneakin' the brews in, huh?
you got a problem with poodle groomers? i've had lots of cars, different styles, different levels of 'finish', and while my tastes have changed, the basic love of mechanical mayhem has remained. trends come and go, and i've been influenced by 'em, just like most of you guys probably have been. if you haven't changed, you WERE a pariah at one time or another. just think, turqouise and pink monochromatic paint jobs were THE **** back in the late 80's...perfect for hauling around a poodle around the fairgrounds. i pay my money, i go to the show, i get my moneys worth. if you sit in a lawn chair staring at your own car, you're only wasting YOUR time and YOUR money. i can justify spending money, but time is a commodity that is precious and irreplacable. use it wisely...
There a lotta good points here. Owning a hot rod doesn't make you a hotrodder-it's state of mind and building or modifying your ride makes you a hotrodder. Some guy likes billet?- why should I care. I don't want it on my car-why should they give a damn? So far, it'sa free world and I can build my ride and be happy it's mine. One thingt tho'-you old guys don't have to get so down on the new guys. Everyone was a new guy once. Being a new guy just means you found the right hobby,or way of life and were lucky enough to find the HAMB. I've been into cars since I rode my bike out to look at the new '59's at the dealers, but family,22 years of education, starting a business and working 12 hours a day kind of put a big hold on things. Wasn't until 3 or 4 years ago I could renew my interest. It doesn't mean I don't want to learn to do it myself or build my car as I can,when I can. Not all of us want Speedy Bill's cookie cutter deuces. So I hope you old timers will give us new, but serious guys some slack-we're here to learn, mostly, and contribute when we can.
Tim, could you please draw us a picture to clarify your meaning? Thanks! (Just kidding, I just like looking at your drawings)
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