How do we convince the public it isn't junk?

People just. do. not. get. it.

A while back I put a picture of Bass' hot rod on the wallpaper of our home computer. One of my daughters friends was over and wanted to surf the net. So she picks up my laptop and says, 'Why do you have that junky old car on your desktop. I'd rather walk than drive something that looked like that.'

Obviously she is the product of a the typical American household based on other exchanges I've had with 'non-car' people.

 

Yes....gone are the days when you could pick up a rusty pile in exchange for hauling it away.

 

I disagree with this to an extent. I know what you're getting at but...
I'm 35 and on the edge of two generations. I enjoyed things like the early versions of Grand Turismo and the first of the Fast and Furious franchise in college. My parents were never into cars other than enjoying the nostalgic aspect of the occasional antique show, tho my father, who is a scientist, tinkered a bit out of curiosity in his teens and 20's. I, however, thru no outside influence, have always modified my daily drivers which were intentionally always Toyotas and in the early '00s had a fairly successful run owning a shop that specialized in traditional hotrods and muscle cars. I've owned Corvettes and Datsuns, a couple Novas and a few Camrys to name a few.

These days, my daily is a heavily modified supercharged '06 Scion tC and my projects are a '51 3100, '76 Town Car, '87 Power Ram and a '74 CB750. Likewise, all my friends, some younger by almost 10yrs, who stared out in the import scene either have vintage Japanese restorations or race cars under way or are building some sort of American muscle car and a handful have gone vintage Euro or have managed to save/earn enough to restore truly beautiful original antiques. Most of us are just car guys who like it all. We enjoy what we enjoy down to the details of whatever it is that is sitting in front of us at any given moment.

I think the real gap you speak of is due to the fact that our culture is made up of increasingly poorer quality disposable junk and the current generation is being raised on the idea of replace rather than repair. No one fixes stuff anymore. BUT, there are still a few of us out there who understand the value of a dollar and long for a forgotten time when pride was found in quality and longevity.

...hell, even my home theater is powered by several rebuilt tube amps. The glow alone makes me smile.

 

never going to change public opinion, that's just the way it is. i looked at the pics of the remains and saw this: they were packed in tight near each other with little space to work in even IF the intent had been to save them. there's a reason salvage yards use orderly rows to store cars in; it's so that picked over hulks can be removed easily and new donors slotted into those spots. getting to one of the cars in the middle of that cluster meant moving up to four others, from what i could see. if they'd been separated in that fashion, maybe some of them could have been dragged clear before becoming infernos. keeping weeds and grass down among them would have helped as well. hindsight being 20/20, that's kinda obvious now.

 

The same way the "public" is going to convince US that their ten year old Saturns aren't junk because they get thirty-something miles to a gallon...
IT'LL never happen.

Opinions are formed through either upbringing or experience. If they didn't grow up around a big 'ol gasoline suckin' V8 that sounded like thunder when you got on it, they ain't gonna understand no way. If they tried to own one of the afore mentioned machines but it kept leaving them stranded on the side of the road on a hot summer day, or if they couldn't comprehend $100 a week to make it move, well, then they've made up their mind. And they will then in turn raise a brood of hot rod hating offspring, lined up at the Kia dealerships as soon as they get their licenses.

 

had a customer ask about prices for plain stock shocks for a z71 pickup yesterday... "cheap ones" he said, because it's a "junky old work truck"...

sitting outside was a fairly nice but O/T z71.....

frame of reference. that thundering V8 sound we love, Flowmaster can put on ANY shit box these days. brand new V8 trucks that sound like Nascar racers and get 30mpg are a dime a dozen (figuratively).....
we are fighting a losing battle against this sort of thinking.

 

More valid points. I work at a parts store as well. Saw an almost new Dodge pickup painted flat black with red wheels, and chrome bullets around the grille the other day. I guess it is a lost cause. But, as I stated earlier, maybe we can all learn from this. Keep our yards neat and mowed, and don't play with sparks in dangerous areas.

 

I completely understand the "traditionalism" that is shared and preached on this forum. I think we're moving in the wrong direction as far as what is considered a hot rod or custom anymore. Scares the shit outta me to think that someday everything will look like it could have been cast in "Mad Max"...

 

I've been doing my part by crushing all the S10 pickups I can find. The other thing I have learned from this post is... Junk is clearly defined by who owns it. If all of the cars that burnt had been pre 65, instead of just 4, there would have been a lot different responses.

 

It is very simple: The masses have been and will always be asses.

 

I have a few thoughts. As an aircraft mechanic, I have a buddy that works for delta. H told about one of their planes that had problems and had to burn fuel before it could land. The reporter said that they were dumping fuel. Can not dump and have not been able to since the '60's. Another mech told the reporter the she was wrong and why, she continued to report the wrong info. The public is so dumbed down that htey can't understand the truth for many things. The media wants ratings/papers sold, that is one reason why they dumb things down.

As the saying goes "A place for everthing, and everthing in its place". That goes with the placement of the cars, all willey nilley. An organized mess is easier to clean/understand/find something than the way those cars were "tossed" in the yard.

Mark

 

So you don't see all those 460’s, 454’s, 350's 302’s, c4’s, c6’s, ford 9's
And turbo 350's and 700r4's burning?? You run an electric car or something? Guess you want the good mills to be hard to find.


Shame you trivialize someone's tragedy in such a manner just because
You don’t value what was lost...
And even though you are such a scum bag to do so I’d never
Wish the same on you.
Same goes for the rest of you who think and say such and he
Does.

 

I just ran across this post and it was like Deja Vu. 15 years ago my neighbor had a big streak where the grass died in front of a tall hill nearly three quarters of mile long and 100 yards wide where it began tapering to 50 feet wide toward the bottom of the hill. We blamed it on a plane dumping fuel to make it over a 750' tall hill. Now I guess we should have looked for a spray plane with a broken spray tank.

 

It's odd someone can blame everyone they put in danger when a few gallons of Roundup, Tordon and Banvel would have saved all the cars since he was to lazy to mow the vegetation.

 

Saturdays should be the official "old post revival" day.

That's outta the way but on topic, just ask yourself how many things you find worthless or silly or a waste of time. Beanie Babies come to mind for me, not to mention a host of other things that seem to be quite valuable to others. Imagine driving a restored Duesenberg Murphy Roadster down the road and most people not even noticing. Yes, it happens all the time. Packards, Duesys, big ol V-16 Caddys, the mopes around them seldom notice unless you're right in their rear view or right in front, and even then it's like "...ugly old car..." based on the sour looks as they pass. Yet we notice the nods of approval and the raised thumbs becuase they're less prevailent. Enjoy your uncommon and exclusive status as one who truly respects and appreciates the history of the automobile. Running or not, parts, the equipment to build em, all precious to an obvious precious few.

 

The media pukes do the same thing when people are out racing on the street, otherwise known as "street racing". BUT, when the media gets involved in reporting the story, the kids were "DRAG racing down the road", when gives a bad connotation to a perfectly LEGAL activity when done on a strip.

BTW, those burnt cars were valuable to someone, even if they are NOT your particular cup of tea. Remember, plenty of people out there see the loss of vehicles through fire, flood, crushing, etc, no matter what year they are, as no big deal.

 

Since this got drug out again, I have been busy. I did salvage the burnt Falcon convertible, and pieces of a 58 Ford big window pickup from the pile. As I stated earlier, it just depends on who owns it, as to whether it's junk. The lady who runs the store in the front of my building sells some antiques, and a lot of what I call junk. She doesn't understand why I spend my free time dragging in burnt Falcon convertibles.

 

Future classics. Just as back in the 50s cars from the 30s were nothing more than junk.

 

I have to say, being 34 myself, anyone who modifies their car instead of just buying a newer/faster one is looked upon as a weirdo nowadays. The guys modifying 10 year old jap cars are hotrodders just like the ones who modded 30's cars n the 40's. I hate to see any old car that could have been repaired go up in flames. But the longer it has survived the worse it is

 

Bottom line. Those cars were owned by someone who, for reasons of his own saved them for the recyclers. They were lost in the fire. If you don't or can't feel at least a small amount of sympathy for him then your place in this hobby, or better yet in the human race, could be called into question.

Frank