Is the 70's/80's the next craze? Where were you in 84?

History repeats itself. I have to admit that I dig cars from the 70's and early 80's since that was my era. I am a 68 model and grew up around hot rods and the drag strip. The recent post about being burned out on a project made me think......he said nothing grabbed him about the cars being built. I'm just curious if the newness has worn off for you?

I had my first "nostalgia" car in 1989 when I restored an old 60's altered.

In high school I drove a 36 Ford pickup, which I still have and it is undergoing some rebuilding as we speak. I find myself wandering away from the gospel of traditional cars, even though I still love them. I am about half tempted to build the 36 back the way it was in high school sans a few safety features.
It was bright silver flake with US mags on the front and M/T on the back.

It had a 327 with a solid Engle 95 cam ( which I still have) and a set of Cal Custom Valve covers. It was overcarbureted with a 735 Holley off of a 429 Ford. It had ram head exhaust and a set of 18" glass pack mufflers. The year was 1984 and gas was .89-.95 cents. Regular was starting to be phased out.

Here's a pic from 1984. I'm just sentimental.

 

In my best Mitch Hedburg voice:

I'm for it!

 

In '84??????


Cruising.......but I was in the Army stationed in DC and restoring a 52' Chevy De Lux 2 dr.....driving a 56 Buick Century as a daily driver.....and jumping in to the mini-truck craze wit a '76 Chevy LUV pick-up on the floor......

I remember listening to Panama cranked up on the ghetto blaster......." Reach down between my legs...and ease the seat back.."

Anybody remember those lazer disc videos....supposed to replace VHS????


My first project I built in '82....

 

Root -

In '84, I had a '63 Rambler 990 Cross-country Wagon; 327 4bbl, BW trans and torque tube posi. Buckets, air conditioning with 'desert ONLY' setting. Car hadda fuel feed prob; would start to misfire a bit at a buck fifteen on the open road.

I miss that car

<snif>

 

In 1984 I was fifteen.....

 

I was figuring out how many lawns I had to cut before I could afford another GI Joe vehicle.

 

i was 14 in 1984-had a 67 chevelle delux 300 283 4spd

 

80's, eh...hell yeah, I was crusing around in my "targa" converted Impala.

Jacked up in the rear, slot mags, and listening to Eye of the tiger...

 

This was me in 1984!

Ha Ha...today I'm not far off. I, too, found myself drifting back to my beginings recently and decided to have some FUN doing a car exactly the way I wanted to do one back in the 80s, so that's what I'm up to now.

(And after I get my fill of it and wring out the new motor/drivetrain combo in it's CURRENT home, I'll "hide" it all in another early 50s Chevy! Things always tend to come full circle eventually!!)

You hit it on the head, though...I am SO tired of "rat rods" and street rods hidden under flat paint parading around under the "traditional" banner that I found myself going back and flipping through old (80s) car magazines. That old Excitement came rushing back as if it had never left, and before I knew it...I'm "Livin Like John Travolta" ha ha ha!!!

 

in 1984 i had 3 kids and driving my 57 wagon and 40 ford that i am still driving today. what? it's 2006. kids are grown, now i got grandchildren that's riding in the 57 &40

 

HAHA, I was born in 1984.

 

me too

 

1984... had my HOT ROD 73 datsun pickup with bigs and littles with moon discs. low, louvered and loud. had my 49 chevy i still have now...prolly had something else but I can't remember what it was.

as for the next craze. I have no interest whatsoever in the next craze. I'm rebuilding my 49 for me. no flake. no satin black with red wheels. no C-notch frame with booger welds and airbags. no skulls, tiki's or other trendy stuff.

I would like to see the next craze be nice cars with shiney paint and quality bodywork.

 

I discovered jerkin off...

 

I guesss I shouldn't call it a craze.....maybe a trend? I may build my 80's hot rod the way it was. It's not too far from there now.

 

I was 18 and i really dont remember really!

 

Here's something that is funny. This is an article out of our school newspaper from that same era. Check out all the hair.

 

I had perfected it by then... Almost got married, worked full time at the Home Depot when it was still fun, took 9 credit hours and drank the rest of the time (after the engaement was off). Had a '76 Rabbit with a BIG Weber carb, headers and 15" Eagle GTs that I "found" on Dodge Daytona (statute of limitations is WAY over) . Blew that up and transferred all the parts to a '77 Scirrocco. Still had my '66 Starfire though.

 

At college fightin,fuckin,and learnin and not exactly in that order. Oh yeah I forgot drinkin as well.Really enjoyed being away from mom and dad for the first time and never looked back.

At the time I had me a prostreet 64 valiant and a 70 442 w-30 and they were badass for the day.
Dont have any pics scanned to post up though

 

My uncle, Sam, had me spend that year in a couple of third world shitholes.

 

This is not mine from then, but a dead ringer in most aspects. It's to this day, the only car I owned that I really miss. Mine was blueprinted with a "cheater" cam and all tricked out in the suspension dept. Had Konis all around, TRW adjustable ball joints, and Boss 429 front suspension, and argent Magnum 500s. I'd routinely shift it around 7400. I truely loved that car.

 

a friend of mine's dad brought a copy of this car back from cali , 2 falls ago....as for me......would have been in the 7th grade.....ended up with a 71 nova after workin for my dad all summer at the used car lot.....307 / powerglide ....pea green paint that was so faded ....it made the large quantity of bondo just seem to disappear.....fast forward about 4 years....a local cop pulls me over in it , now with shiny white paint.....for passing a car....then tells me he used to have one......ends up being the same car....then tells me about how it was totaled twice....and probably had a quarter million miles on it....made for a interesting conversation.....and no ticket....lol brandon

 

I had built and my daily driver was a 64 Riviera (ahead of a trend?) I still have it..I built the 425 GS engine with all Kenne-Bell stuff..Painted it black and did a perforated black leather interior..it has a 140 speedo and would bury it till the windows rattled(with the AC on,almost Chisenhall)....Rick...rixrex...Austin/San Antonio

 

22 in 1984. Ran a shop at 601 N Meridian. Drove a 78 blazer and a 62 mercury monterey. Hanging out at the local dirt track was just about my favorite thing during the summer. Nickel beer, free pussy, and big brother.
Cool article, you freakin hippy!

 

Working on my second job out of college at N.C. State U. and burnin' up $400 a set Pirelli's with my new '83 VW GTI. Damn thing had a 3.9:1 final drive ratio and better skid pad specs than some new Porsche models.

Yee Haw!


I was still 4 years away from buying my first pre-war car.


Later,

 

well i was born in 89 so i guess im a bit out of the picture on this one. haha

 

I was at a college in East Texas skipping meals to save gas $$$ for my.... Uh... 78 Camaro. There. I said it.

 

1984, I was trying to make some money racing BMX hauling my bike in the back of a '69 Camaro ragtop and trying to buy a '59 El Camino. Most of my car friends had muscle cars but I was interested in what their dads had in the garage. Model A's, Henry J's, T-buckets, 32-36 Ford's and F-100 pickups.

 

Tht's funny 'cause a couple of years ago, I bought mine from an Ebay guy in North Carolina for $1900 and drove it back to California. I put a round of tires on it, flushed the fuel system, added a water and fuel pump, two baby seats, and a small U-haul trailer to bring more of our stuff that we'd left behind, and cruised the 40 in the middle of January.

I'd like to see a pic of your dad's buddy's car. The original B1 blue is a hard color to come by. They are always green, tan, or brown.

 

I haven't seen a LOT from the 60's yet. A lot of clapped out stuff to mimic the 40's-50's (kinda simple/BORING), but not too much of the 60's. With the 60's came a lot of great speed parts and wheel/tires selection. A little more color. Sorry, it's just this was prevalent when i got bit by the bug. A lot of young guys are building cool stuff from the 40's-50's from research. And that's GREAT. But, i was THERE in the 60's and just is what i like. I'd like to do a "drag" inspired Deuce 5-window. Crazy color, Radirs, fat white cheaters, tri-power, "mag" fired 389 Pontiac, 4- speed (with SYNCHRO's), etc. I know, there's stuff like that out there, but NOT as much as the aforementioned style. No shortage of that. Oh yeah, where was i in 84? Just finishing up an almost 10 year serious, hard core street racing stint. Non-racers were coming to the race-place earlier than 2AM, and doing stupid shit, pissing off the cops, i got busted, wrenched a big shot street racers fleet for a little bit, and it just got silly. Idiots racing 3 wide, 8 o clock at nite, in residential areas. So, they (Police) couldn't cut "US" anymore slack without getting in trouble with their watch commanders. So, i quit