Is it just me, am I getting too damn old and intolerant? Lately I seem to hear the term old school used to death. Used to be I really liked the phrase and it conjured up pictures in my mind. Now every time I turn around there's somebody out there selling this or that old school item or doing something an old school way. Unfortunately I don't remember anything back in the day being made of billet and coming wrapped in plastic. I do remember some of the guys finding a chunk of metal and carving a part out of it through the sweat of his brow and blood from the various holes he would end up putting in himself. Parts like this were highly personal and given life through the vision of the builder. A good example showed up here recently where a Hamber took some chunks of aluminum and carved out some adapters to mount some carbs to his intake. Very cool. Then on the other side I see many things on evil bay touted as old school and there are nothing more than foreign knock offs and gadget ****. Ah hell maybe I am just a sour old fart..........Alright gonna jump down off the soapbox now................. (Soapbox, reference to old days when a person would step up on a soapbox to talk to a crowd.)
im young and if one more guy with an OCC hat driving a 350 4 speed powered car he calls an "old school rat rod", or if one more 35 yr old guy on a brand new blacked out "old school style" harley talks again i will stab them in the damn cheek!
I wonder how many of today's "bikers" would be able to pilot a real "old school" Harley--that is, kick start only!
While not much was made of billet ( or at least, polished billet), a lot of things came wrapped in packaging, if you got it from J.C. Whitney or any number of speed shop vendors in the back pages of R&C, Hot Rod, and Car Craft... I don't remember that everyone made every part of their cars, or modified their cars because that was the way it was done decades before them.
Name one term or thing that used to be cool that ISN'T done to DEATH... C,mon.......???????? We used to have to build things. Now the only thing it takes is money. You can buy everything to build an "old school" rod BRAND NEW, from CHINA. "Real" early rods looked the way they did because THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE TO WORK WITH. Not because some guy stood behind the builder and said "no, you won't be accepted if you do it that way". That's why I like supermodifieds. I can still build em like I want, and if mine's faster than the next guy, that's all that matters.
No, it's not you......all these doofi (pronounced do-fy, plural for doofus >1) on tv have spawned a whole new set of doofi (see above for definition and pronunciation guide) that think it's cool to have their trucker hat on sideways and drive a flatblackoldskool® 2006 Silverado on '24's. I cant wait till all these stupid shows go away and all the real car guys can go back to being anonymous.
most of the younger *****s probably don't know what a real motor is anyway much less the idea of actually having to kick start a Harley or any other bike with a kicker only.
Kick-starting isn't hard, if you take the time to learn how. I don't think a lot of new riders care to learn. All that techno-stuff like "TDC" to master...
not me, i LIKE my electric start, efi e-glide. i've done my time kick-starting ****. i'm with ya guys, "old school" is getting old, bad enough we got stuck with "ratrod".... i'm gonna puke..
Recently, This Kat Uses The Term "ol' Skool" To Describe Something I Was Doing. I Told Him That I'm So "ol Skool" That I Don't Use The Term "ol' Skool". I'm Glad That Magazine Generally Stinks Too, Because I Can't Stand The ***le. I Get The Same Skin-crawlin Feeling When I Here The Guy With The Cap On Sideways Or Backwards Use The Phrase Gitr Done. Ugh! But Hey, I'm Sure Even I Do Things That Annoy Somebody........if Not Everybody.
Funny When I Worked In The Many Auto Parts Stores Anything That Came Shrink Wrapped Had To Be Opened And Examined To See It/feel It/sniff It Firsthand ... Then The Customers Would Not Want The One That Had Been Opened Cuz It Was Not New Any More??? I Was Able To Get Alot Of Discounted Speed Parts This Way As They Were Now Unsaleable /unreturnable????
There's a club in my town called Old School Rides. Fine, they're all American 60's Chevs and Caddies. Not so fine, they're ALL bagged and running billet wheels and rubber band tires. I'm old school, being 58 y.o, and I dont recollect airbags and billet wheels being used back in the day...... or mebbe I'm just an intolerant old fart... yeah, that's it.....
Yup - I'm with ya Chief, the problem (as I see it anyway) is that the meaning of any of these phrases is all subjective. Old School, Ol' Skool, Rat Rod, Hot Rod, Street Rod, Back in the Day, - which I currently despise the most - all mean different things to different folks. To you 'back in the day' might mean the fifties, to the kid with the sidewayz hat it was last week. It's all in the perception. What is 'Old School' - who's to say? Even the word Traditional gets folks all riled up. I think most of us here agree on what it means to us, but look at some ot the recent 8 - 9 page drama packed threads about VWs or bagged RatRods and you'll see that everyone can't agree 100% on things. Like I say I agree with you, I just don't understand why so many people feel the need to label or pigeonhole everything into a neat little box that meets THEIR approval. I can only guess that it's the 'Us versus them - Holier than thou - exclusivity' mentality.
Whatever the name, what I dread being around is the predictable. You know the guy... He's got two or three cars being built and they all look the same. To me, if it looks like something Jethro Bodine would feel comfortable in, then I start to yawn. I can overlook everything though, if you are having fun. That really brings a smile to my face.
I build using the old style approach. Yes, I still box model A frames. I make cardboard templates and flame cut my own brackets with oxy acetylene and grind the brackets smooth with my own home made vertical stationary belt sander. I still use my old Lincoln stick welder that I bought new in 1971. (although I did break down 2 years ago and buy a mig for sheet metal work). I build my own engine mounts, weld in my own patch panels (or make the patch panels) and do my own bondo/primer/finish paint work. I still prefer dropped axle front ends with transverse springs. But---I buy Lokar shifters, Ididit steering columns, and billet aluminum dash panels. Sure, I could get them out of a wrecking yard---I've done that for the last 35 years. Now I have the money to buy a bit of bling, and I don't see one God damned reason not to!!! I generally build with the much derided, generally despised chevy small block.-WHY---cause they're one of the best engines out there in terms of cheap, powerfull, easy to install, and easy to get over the counter parts for. I am 60 years old, and I've done every old school thing that there is to do with hot-rodding. In the sixties I ran a rail dragster. In the seventies I buit a custom F150 with a 390 Thunderbird engine in it. In the eighties I built an all steel Desoto coupe. In the nineties I built a gl*** 27 roadster. In 2005 I built the roadster pickup in the avatar. A lot of people out there are really confused---they somehow think that building 'old school" means building some scabby looking rag ***ed pile of **** with rust, no paint, no gl***, and no interior. Let me tell ya bunkie---I been there in the "old days"!!!!--and the only people that possibly buit cars that way were the Saturday night circle racers at the local stock car tracks---and even they could afford paint.
In defense of todays young folk. The craft of building cars and putting cool parts together isn't being p***ed down. Its nothing more than a picture in a mag or tv show and the Big conglomerates are cashing in on it.
I think Gator said it best... ".... the meaning of any of these phrases is all subjective. Old School, Ol' Skool, Rat Rod, Hot Rod, Street Rod, Back in the Day, - which I currently despise the most - all mean different things to different folks. To you 'back in the day' might mean the fifties, to the kid with the sidewayz hat it was last week. It's all in the perception. What is 'Old School' - who's to say?" Call it whatever you want, when the term gets over-used it becomes "cliche" and we get sick of hearing it. You can call my car whatever you want... I call it a ****box
You guys all have to remember...our old school may not be another person's old school because of their time period growing up....and stabbing someone in the cheek because of a hat or a bike they drive??? wow, this board has lots of tough guys... I remember the "old school" hamb.....haha
I use the term old school to describe my pedal bikes and my 53 bel. It is only becouse i am 26 and most people around this area my age are building honda civics with a 55 gallon drum for exhaust. So i have to admitt i may be one of the offenders of saying old school too much but is there a better way to describe it?
well I didn't like the "Old School" the first time I heard it about ten years ago. but I have to admit I like it better than "Grey Beards" and "Old ****" so I don't have a problem with any terms that refer to our hobby. Even trailer queen is cool. keep those cars nice till a real rodder ends up with them. it took me 64 years to get where I am today and hope the next 30 years I'll learn a new vocabulary! everything changes and stays the same. I coined a phase many years ago "I want to be different, just like everyone else!" also observed that that "I've never changed, about every 20 years I come back into style"
You gotta be "wired" for 2 20 chiefbobber...it's just you. Let em all go. Do YOUR thing and **** everybody else. That's the true spirit of this whole board. Even the newest hot rod is actually "old school" or "traditional". It's just all grown up. The posers and wannabes are readily apparent aren't they? If I had my choice of a plasma cutter or 'cety torch I might go plasma. If I had a chance to get a jumbo deal on a new frame for a project I might do that too. I'm probably more of a custom guy so not too much choice there anyways, but mig, tig, or cety to do sheet metal? The easiest way is it for me. Better product, less work. I won't "suffer" doing something in an outdated manner just because. Now to do it in all steel or aluminum, no lead or filler, all hand formed and welded with whatever...what would that be? Just remember, you know it when you see it.
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