Hamb Board Double Standard

There seems to be quite a dilemma on the board lately. If you build a really nice car, i.e, Ridler quality, and choose to drive it sparingly, you're derided and called a gold chainer. The general opinion here shouts out loud and clear, "Drive the shit out of it, drive it like it's stolen," or some other colorful phrase.
BUT... and here comes that double standard part.
The remarkable "Barn Find". The car has been sitting unmolested for 50, 60, 70 years. While it is well documented that the car has been sitting that long, and the documentation is hailed as the topper on this holy grail, isn't this just the opposite of what this board seems to yell about? The owner of the barn find isn't called a chainer, even though he clearly didn't "drive the shit out of his car" all these years. Instead, he is praised as a good caretaker(as he should be). And this board gets the collective "woodie" over such finds.
So, instead of spouting off everytime a high dollar, show winning, rod/custom gets pictured, why not take a step back, and think this might just be the next great "barn find", cared for by a good caretaker.

 

i dont know, but if i was a gold chainer i would not put my ride in the barn

 

no dilema.........i drive my cars...........i dont carry a polish rag and a bottle of wax to whip out every time i park. i keep my cars presentable, but you can tell they are driven, here a rock chip there a scratch.

 

ditto, RJP

 

Where'd you get coconuts?

 

since this is a "traditional rodding" forum i hardly think a car with 10000$ a pop one-off wheels qualifies.

 

If you car is a barn find you should wear this





get it?rust not gold lol




damn its 8 and I'm already drunk.

 

museum artifact versus reproduction artifact
Original 50's Fender strat vs. reissue
Original rare L.P. vs. cd reissue
same thing right?

 

I think you are confused as to what a double standard is. I see nothing hypocritical in what you're talking about. and if you back and read there are quite a few of those barn finds that got put back on the road and people drove the shit out of them...

 

What the????
nevermind I got it wrong again with a martini in hand

 

I enjoy looking at all the cars, however no traditional hot rods have won the "riddler" for many years.
And this is a traditional hot rod forum.

 

Drama Momma

 

DON RIDLER

 

wasnt the Riddler ,Batmans arch enemy............

 

hmmmm... sorry.. I'm not seeing it. most of these barn finds were never high dollar show cars. they were cars owned by regular car people that were driven back in the day, then put away for whatever reason.

the gold chainer cars are cars that were never meant to be driven other than on and off the trailer to shows and such. at the price these cars cost to build i doubt very few will be forgotten in some backwoods garage and left to rot, to become the barn finds of the future.

 

Doesn't "Barn Find" imply that someone else didn't drive it, and it was "Found?"

"Oh, THAT"S where I put my hot rod! Damn, I coulda been driving the shit out of it for the past 40 years had I not misplaced it in this barn!!!"

If the fella above hadn't misplaced his car and HAD driven it the past 40 years, it's called a "Survivor"... Which gives us collective wood also.

I think yer talking apples and oranges.

 

There's no double standard. A car that was left in a barn or whatever structure (not a museum) was usually done so for various reasons. maybe the death of the owner/builder, it just stopped running and the builder went on to something else, etc. The golden chainers STORE the car. They keep it up, waiting for the next photo shoot that may or may not come. It's apples and oranges in my opinion. Two totally different circumstances.

 

what are you talking about?

just build and drive cars man. that's what it's all about.

 

really?

How much would it cost me to build a traditional hot rod today. I mean really traditional. Not a unpainted thrown together POS.

 

The barn find is only cool because it was found and saved by someone who plans to use it.

Most times these cars are found because the owner past away and the family sells it. No one ever thinks it's cool that some guy hid it away for all that time, what's cool is that it's back on the streets.

The guys that put the cars away and don't drive them are losers, they gave up on life with excuses like, well I got married, or I was raising my kids, while they were sitting around on the couch watching TV. I mean how much time does it take to keep a car running and bring it out once a week to cruise night.

 

LOL I move that the HAMB come up with a yearly award for an old showcar that pops up. Make it the "Porn Shop" award in honor of the Roth car that was recently found in front of one.

A small trophy with a roadster parked in front of a porn shop. Sounds good to me.

 

Seems like most "barn finds" (if you will) were put away for a reason aside of the "trailer queen" idea. More times than not it's a widow, or an old man that hasn't driven in 10, 20, 30 years. Eyesight, illness, age, family, that't typically the reasons behind the 30's 40's 50's cars being found in a barn, or back yard, or climate controlled garage.

Sadly, these quote unquote "nice cars" are not driven because the owner is too up tight about damage or anything of that nature. He would rather be good ol' Rico Suave next to the car in a gold lawn chair with italian leather seat back straps at the car show.

Just my take. It's two completely opposite realms of not being driven.

 

Attending too many goodguys show will induce this mindset...... Ridler cars are not ordinary in any sense, Yet ivaribly they are "included" in the circles of BOTH type cars you describe... the difference is a damn nice hot rod or god forbid -street rod- will not even garner a notice, in its company.
these typ car have no place on this board or at any automotive event EXCEPT a show such as the Autorame or what used to be the Oakland show.
By that I simply mean that a car [if it could even be called just a "car"] -costing 1.5 million dollars OR MORE, in either dollars invested OR labor and dollars combined, simply cannot be compared to either end of the quality spectrum you have outlined.....
confused yet?]Ha!

 

I personally dont see a lot of similarities between a old Hot Rod that hasnt seen daylight in 50 years, and a Riddler that hasnt been driven much in the couple of months it has been together.

If that means there is a huge inconsistency in my way of thinking, I can live with that...

 

I think barn finds are the essence of Hot Rodding from an era and we should learn from that. Yes someone kept the car for years untouched except for time changing it, I can thank them for preserving an era so I can learn how they were really built. $.02

 

How about the tupperware plastic cars that are registered as Fords/chevys/etc?

lets get this can of worms open

 

only thing I found in a barn is a pile of horse shit, just like the horse shit this post is............. there is no double standards here

 

I hear ya!

The standard I see is set by the great Dollar bill!

See, (I'm gonna use 3W LARRY as an Example.) Larry built his car, and we all know that because he documented it quite well here. We have all seen the "1500 Miles, My ass is killin me" posts from him, so we KNOW he drives the piss out of it.
However...

If Larry popped up on the board tomorrow as a guy with THAT car, he would immediately be branded as a Goldchainer, most would assume the rubber never sees the outside of an enclosed trailer, and that he bought it built that way...I say this with confidence, because I have seen quite a few fellas get thier asses handed to them on thier first few posts here if they have a really nice car (Unless, of course, it's bare metal, in which case, let the arse kissing begin!)

on The other hand, The Barn find, for all of it's authenticity, seems to have a "I got it for cheap and abuse the shit out of it" Mantra...Even though that is typically miles from the truth. Those cars can get real expensive, Too!
on a side note, when the ORIGINAL OWNER of the car and Barn "Finds" his 32 roadster again, it's less than remarkable to me. I'm more inclined to the "You parked that bitchin' car for HOW long?" camp. it's like the recent rash of "found" race cars that wetre never really "Lost" to begin with...they were 1 step away from discarded!

I chock it up to our general common denominator of most of us being Middle class guys (and gals-gotta stay P.C. whilst peeing in cheerios) and we kind of naturally assume the "barn find" was purchased for a modest sum of cash and plans are for it to remain virtually unchanged. Therin lies the rub.

look at what is sitting in your driveway. Technically speaking, we are all under the curtain of "barn find" guys-how many of our cars, as a whole, were bought and kept as just the way we found 'em? I would bet less than 10 percent. and of those cars, how many were "original cars" rodded or not, that saw daily duty since thier birth? probably less than 5 % Most of us have "found" a car in some state of deterioration, and exacted our own forms of punishment to them. be it Newer drivetrain, suspension, interior, paint, 12 volt conversions, and on and on.
Point is, we can't all be Steve Wertheimer. (and even then, I know what he had to do to make the Waco kid run again...He didn't just change the oil, top it off with Premium and drive it back to Austin, after all.)

for me, the most remarkable part of the real "barn finds" is not that they were found...it's that they were lost to begin with.

as far as a seriously built car-Personally, I see more passion in a car someone built (or hell, even paid a large sum of money to have built FOR them) for thier own personal enjoyment than one found in so-and so's garage. if someone takes great pleasure in only pulling thier rod out of thier garage long enough to rub a diaper soaked in Virgin Boob sweat on it, then roll it back in before the sun comes up, peachy. it's not My car. People do stranger things for kicks (just ask Charles Manson) If someone wants to buy a cherry Shelby Cobra from the Marotz car museum in Vegas and promptly drive it to the equator (recently happened!) knock your freakin socks off, man! It's not MY car. I drive mine...but soon enough, I too will fall into the masses of owning a car that spends most of it's days in the garage. I have the luxury of being able to build some nice stuff, and I know the though of driving it over my "o.t." car every day...well, let's just say it probably ain't gonna happen. but, when the day comes that my "o.t." car get's it's day in the shop, I am sure it will see daily duty for a while. why?
Because these ARE My cars!

 

I'm putting my Boydster I in my dad's barn... for the grandkids!