Chevy3755 said: I'm 62 and i think im loosing the drive............thats the part that really scares me........... Toast explains it: Gets better every time I walk into the shop! Just wish I was younger so I could do more! My next will be 70. Your "want to" outruns your "can do" by a good amount. One just has to settle for what one can do at this stage.
Its a personality type..look around and you will see the same thing in whatever you do to some degree. I am sure things you do that you feel are so-so, others see as great. I enjoy working on cars, but no longer into the "look at me" car shows. Once the hard part of a build is over, I noticed I start to loose intrest now.
No,,just like with old bikes,,all the new folks into the hobbie just to be cool. The yuppies who think dressing up like a biker or motorhead on weekends with to much money to spend have ruined it all. I use to get cars and bikes for $500 and less ( running at that ) ,now parts are crazy $$,,also most parts places only have stuff for newer cars. I mean don't get me wrong ,it is fun still,just that many aspects have been ruined. I see far to many cars that all look the same,,like they just dressed it up with a CCI catalog ya know, and the old timers who had the knowledge and shared it seems to have been replaced by "know it alls" who think themselves all high and might hot rod god . Everyone standing around cars in there car jackets, pants goatees and the outlandish overkill stuff done to some cars just for attention,,please.. I mean yeah if its inovative and craftsmanship that one thing but most is just BS. Way to much competition for the spotlight and coolness,,with much though of the actual car left out..I don't think much of anything old is sacred anymore
You bet it's as much fun as it once was. Still wishing for more money, but things aren't looking too rosey at the moment!
I went from working my**** of with 2 jobs building***** to finally having enuff cash to build really nice cars then disaster set in with the loss of my job of 31 years... Now somewhere in the midst of watching the economy taking a***** and loosing some interest in the hobby I sold my last car a 32 roadster.. I kinda got bored going to shows all the time and the wife and I were riding the hell out of the harley so I made the decision to sell.. As of right now I can see me never having another hot rod . Its hard to do with no job and i see no jobs available (there may be a possible thursday but its iffy). Im not quiting the hobby as I have friends that have rods and ocoassonally need work done so they come to me .. Im keeping myself entertained working on the harley and thinking about spring and sprint car races... Ill find enuff to do... Ive been doing the hot rod***** since the 70's and ive been without before ... You can get bored and you can run out of money .. Dave
Too much money, too much pain and too damn old! Less stress, More patio time and sipping Jack Daniels Building cars are for young guys. Driving them and having fun is for old guys! 1940 Willys Coupe
A buddy of mine once bought a used Chris Craft Constellation with a fly bridge. He was so enthused it was all he talked about for a month, finding a marina, planning the first cruise, on and on. First time he used it, he said he was pulling out of the harbor, and went past a REALLY big yacht. Standing at the helm in the flybridge, he said he was looking in the galley window of the other boat. His big boat didn't feel quite as impressive or fun. The moral is somebody will ALWAYS have a bigger boat, or a shinier, faster, lower, whatever, car. I'm having way more fun since I quit caring about what other people might think and just do what I like and can afford.
i really dont care what other people think.....i have a friend that has a shop and he showed me the car he is building for a client....97,000 $ so far and is not done yet......thats ok....not MY kind of car ...i would be affraid to drive the thing....yea hes gonna trailer it.......MY point is its getin harder and harder to craw around on my car.......plus the emotional drive.....getten tired.....alot of gold chainers at Goodguys.......my just stop going.........no i dont want a pitty party.....just some other OLD guy to say yea i know how you feel........
I guess I'm really lucky. I retired before the***** hit the fan at work and put my money in pretty conservative markets so I didn't loose it all. Now I have the time (and some limited funds) to spend all winter building my 32 5W. It was a blast and I'm already thinking about what project I'll do next winter. So is it as fun as it once was??? You bet it is!!!
i have been in and out of the hobby for years, sounds like you need to take a break for a bit and come back to it in a month or so, this is what i do when i think its not going right......... as far as others and their standards......screw them!!!!!!! build it your way, how you like it. lots of people will laugh at you but when you are driving it down the road and having fun they will be on the sidelines looking at you grinnin from ear to ear
No, but then nothing is as fun as it once was when it was a new experience. Working on stuff is still satisfying and beats almost anything else I could be doing ('cept playing with my grandkid). Off to the shop. Larry T
personally, it still fun and gets more fun all the time. My 23 year old son just joined me in the shop and wants to learn. But, for me, it's never the end that makes things fun, but the journey there. I have enough money that I could pay someone to do it, but the creation is what is fun, doing it with my own hands and seeing my God given gifts put to work and come to fruition is the fun factor. It is satisfying seeing a project complete. It is fun doing it. At 50, the backaches aren't fun, the soreness in the knees after squatting for an hour isn't fun, but the personal success and internal satisfaction of building with my own hands is the true reward. Perfection, glitz, glamour, shiney new paint can all be bought but the buyer will never know the true fun of building and creating.
Terry good post, I don't know what happens to us but I don't think its a simple as the weather, I use to drive my old tub in rain, snow, hot or cold it didn't matter it was just a******in thing to do, today I think***** if I take the woodie I've got over a hour cleaning it up when I get back, so I think I'll take the roadster but its got on its grey pajamas so the car cover's got to come off, battery reconnected clear every thing from around it so I can get it out of the garage just for a blast to the parts store, just to be cool, then bring it back wipe it down and throw the cover back on.....I just realised that's the problem it's now a pain in the**** to do all that for a ride, when before I got old I'd bust my**** to take my car any where...who needs a shrink we've got the hamb
Never have been one to pound my chest about stuff I build-but some honest wood once in a while is OK!
Sure is, got a warm shop, projects to do, love my job, love my family, warm house and some ice cream in the freezer.
Thank God for the HAMB. There is a niche for me here. Old hot rods built or maintained at the standards of the late 40s-50s. At least for some of us. Perfection is a moving target. Just when you think you get there something else comes out that you covet and your work is no longer good enough. That part took the fun out of it for me. I finally bought a beater and started to have fun. the dreaded "R.R." is nothing but an extension of the beater movement. I enjoy the craftsmanship of the pros but I have no desire to own one. My mythical builder that I'm trying to emulate had a torch, a buzz box welder and a body grinder. You can do some pretty nice work with those tools. It's not that hard to reach the goal of a hot rod built in a backyard garage in 1951 albeit a perfect reflection of a 51 hot rod build. I'll never shoot for an NSRA or a Goodguys top 25. I'll look at them but not really envy them. It's easy to get dragged into that culture little by little. You see something you like and try to duplicate it. Then again and again. We can feel inferior because we don't have stainless steel brake lines. Give me a break! I bought a cheap mill and lathe trying to keep up back in the early 80s but they are unnecessary to build a car emulating a 51 backyard build. The hard part is finding the parts but there is fun in the search and the ecstasy of the rare find. Yes it's still a real blast for me but my expectations and desires have been kept in the realm of reality for me. I actually leave some blivets that prove that it is an old hot rod and not a megabuck piece of perfection. If it's not fun anymore it's time to reevaluate your goals and the reasons for those goals. It's better in a beater! Envy is no fun... contentment is bliss.
Its just as much fun for me, just different. It's easier with resources like the HAMB and stuff. Harder with insurance, traffic laws, idiots, etc... to have fun on the road.
Terry---Its called getting old. No, not old and frail and sickly, I mean the old of having experienced so damn many new things, rode the high till it tapered off, and went on to the next thing. Ask the guys who have been married 20, 30, or 40 years. Do they still love their wife?---Well, of course!! (Or at least I hope so.)---Do they still love her the way they did when going out with her and the first few years of marriage?---Naw, probably not the same. Hotrodding ain't all that different. I love the sport/hobby.---Have since the mid 1960's. Do I love it with the same passion now as then?---Naw, probably not.--I still get a burst of pleasure if I'm driving somewhere and see a neat hotrod in traffic. I still enjoy all the "Wows" and "Cool car, Dude"'s that I hear when I take mine out for a run in the good weather. And I still enjoy the summer Saturday night "Cruise ins" at the local Burger King. Do I obsess about hotrods 24 hours a day like I did when I was 25 years old?---Naw---But I still enjoy it.---Brian
Just Have Fun!!! building Cars is just like playing the piano (golf, pool ect.) the better you get. the more you realize how little you know. It will always be a challenge to raise the bar. 67 years of practice doesn't make you better than the first time you tried to remove lug nuts with a cresent wrench (I really did try it) I feel sorry for many Pros that look at it as a JOB and have lost all feelings for the joy of an old car
It has to be because it is really all I have. I left my band back in IL., Left my friends in IL. (including my car friends), so really all I have is hanging out in my garage and fooling with my car and what not, or reading on this forum and hunting for stuff online. So if I ever get tired of that, what else is there?
Amen. If it's not fun, forget it. There is more than enough serious stuff to deal with in life and work. I never improve vehicles past the point they are fun to drive.
I've been tinkering on cars close to 25 years now (a long time by some standards -a drop in the bucket by others) - last year was my best year ever. I fully expect this year to be better. Sure there were some up's and down's along the way - that's life. See it, build it, enjoy it - what's not to like??? Keeping up with the Jones's - seems like a destiny for dissappointment.
It's all pretty much been said by everyone here, but my .02 cents worth is.......don't invest a lotta money, but a lot of individuality and one-off innovation.....that's what makes (and keeps) things fun to me. I still get really excited when I strike a deal on a piece of junk that my mind is already projecting "how I'd do it up". Funneling tons of money on a car, especially when it's above and beyond what it's worth....is just the worst IMO. When the rich boys come out to play......I'm already out. I'm in my late 40's and just tried my hand at doing the body work and my first paint job. (outside, even) Everyone was talkin' sh**, saying I'd regret it......that it would look like a "stucco job"......but after I wet sanded it, it looks just fine. I dig still learning new stuff. Next will be the straight axle installation on my Henry J. I agree with Brian above......it's not exactly the same feeling as when I was a teenager.....but it's still just about the one thing I can get the most enthused about. BTW, me and a high school buddy are shootin' out to Phoenix this weekend to trailer back a thrashed out '61 Corvair Rampside pickup truck. Awesome!
If you are trying to keep up with the Jones's, I feel sorry for you. I'm one of them and there is not much to keep up with!! As far as it still being fun, yes. This whole thing is my therapy. I work a 12 hour shift and flip from days to nights, this is what I look forward to each day off. When I go back to work, I'm planning what I am going to do on my days off and 75% of that revolves around cars. This is probably the only thing that keeps me from going ballistic at work and getting fired. I agree with the build what you want and if no one likes it, so be it, as long as I am satisfied with it. Robert
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