Very well put! I feel the same about the "Lil deuce coupe" because of my connection with it and my old friend Chili Catallo. I feel the same about the El Matador, because I owned it at one time. I sat in the El Matador the night I got it and imagined the fellow hotrodders that had driven the car before me. Cushenbury, Bud Anderson, Larivee, Carl Casper, and more. Souls are God given, but old cars have something that really can't be described. Someone else here mentioned the smell of mohair. As a kid, many of us have smelled that smell and lain down in the seat on a warm summer day in some old car,and listened to the quiet. That memory is instantly new again. Instead of arguing, it is nice to share some of these thoughts. I hope you never cease posting because of flamers. I think as time goes on, we know who the real guys are that understand.
I've thought about that with some of the cars I've owned, you might know some of the car's history but can never know all of it. It was somebody's new car, maybe even their first new car. How many first dates, weddings, funerals, etc. has it seen? Maybe it brought somebody's firstborn home from the hospital? Then 'one of us' finds it, spends way too much time / money / effort into getting it just how we want it, bringing it back to life. Just because some wannabe with deep pockets comes along and buys it doesn't diminish that history, which I think, yeah, is the cars soul.
thats what i was talkin about. i understand its his car to do with what he wants, but it just bums me out to see a greasers beautiful creation get ****ed with by someone who just has no respect for the art form. its his and i know that, but how bout a little respect for it. you ever have someone come up to your car and say something stupid like " some dubs would look tight"
not even. i have tools from the journeyman i apprenticed to ,to become a concrete finisher. He sufferd a dehabilatating stroke several years ago. tools are an exstinsion of a mans hand.do the tools posess some mystical power? to me they do.
Cars do have souls. Not new cars, the soul has to grow. It grows with the owners as it is p***ed down the line. Working with cl***ic cars everyday I often find myself driving a car down the road wondering what the car I am driving has seen, done, and transported. I completely agree/understand what Harms Way is saying about caring about cars so much because of the people. When a person builds a rod, they put some soul into it. When they are gone the rod is still usually a healthy, "breathing" object to remind us of those who have p***ed. I would even hazard to say that some of the cars I have owned are haunted by the owners of the past! Who ever says cars don't have souls must never have driven, worked on or owned an old car.
I definatly (sp) think old cars have some type of soul. Ive sat in both of mine and wondered what they have seen, Sit in a old car and you can feel it. I get in my daily driver grocery getter and I feel nothing. No nostalgia no love Old cars have a soul more than most Humans Id imagine
To me soul and history tend to go together, with history come dents ,scratches, repairs and improvements. I think all these are contributors of soul and are an extension of the owner at the time, I see some fresh cars that have soul but many don't. To my mind "dubbing" up an old car masks any soul it may have had, but curing fuel leaks and the like are just improvements. Ooops rambling again
just realised I forgot to add the smiley face to my post...I was funnin'... and I think Dr.J was too, cause he added a roll eyes face...
Just adding to the sprinboard some of you have set up... I honestly believe when you take something and make it yours you are giving it soul, or should I say you're adding soul to something that has a soul. The first person who purchased your car obviously liked the car when he/she bought it. Maybe it was there first car, went to the drive-in in it, met their significant other, maybe even lost their virginity in that car. Then, that car is p***ed to someone else. They liked it, they had a good time in it, they cleaned and took care of it and worked hard to keep in running condition because they needed to get their family to work or school or they needed to get their own **** to work everyday. Now, you buy the car, you put all your blood sweat and tears in it to make it "yours". You cannot EVER take away the history behind that car. You can only ADD to that history. Even if you melt the car down and reform it, it will have a history. The history will be everything I just mentioned. So, I don't know how some of you would define soul, but I tell you what, cars have them and it has everything to do with the history of the car and it's owner and everything that is going on with the owner and what's going on his/her soul. Been working on this Model A for awhile. It's almost taken over my life at this point. My entire soul and about 75% of my daily brainwave output gets put into my car. It trully is blood, sweat and tears. Good times and hard times, I'm working on this car. Right now it's life therapy for me because of some things I'm faced with in life. It's the only thing keeping me from losing my mind and sanity. The f8#king car IS ME! It's an extension of EVERYTHING going on in my life!! If my car doesn't somehow reflect on all the bad and good that has happened during it's life of construction then I am NOT putting my heart and SOUL into it. You better ****ing believe a car has soul! Cars that don't have soul are owned by ***holes who could care less about what they drive. Even the ***hole with two much money can put soul in that car. It's just a different kind of soul (for lack of a better description). Taste is a whole nother topic. The guy may just have different "taste", but the guy bought it because he liked it for some reason. Doesn't mean we have to like what he does to it... he has his own vision. As long as he's putting his heart and soul into that car it will have soul. Love for cars goes deep. Some just love different types of cars. In my opinion the only time a car will NOT have soul is when no real soul is invested in the car. For example. Maybe you build something that goes agains everything you would do and hate every minute of the build and take nothing away from it that would not benefit you or offer any type of self expression whatsoever. Then maybe a car would not have a "refreshed" soul. Aww... screw it. You get what I'm saying. Just my worthless $.02.
this car had a lot of soul i've always seen cars as being alive(when running of course), maybe i had one two many brownies but think about it. they need o2 to breathe, need water to keep cool, the oil is the blood and gas is the food it needs. oh, the exhaust is the ********. just a thought. and i agree with tommy 100%, cars have souls, but you gotta be tuned in to the right frequency.
Cars have souls AND a sense of humor. Don't believe me? Just try bragging, I mean REALLY bragging on how good your old ride is running to a bunch of your buddies. I guarantee the POS won't start first try when you go to leave. As for the one that thinks they have no soul....... almost 80 posts in a month?! Damn, I'm still trying to get there after nearly two years. I'm jealous.
I'm a firm believer that cars have soul and agree with many posts, especially the one from Harms Way. Part of my car's soul is it's sense of humor...a friend of mine was talkin' trash about my car. Nothing bad, just a friendly ribbing. But, shortly after when he was taking a wire-wheel on one of my inner fenders, a battery cable bracket flew off nailing him right in the sack. Sent him to the floor with that stomach-ache we've all had the unfortunate luck of experiencing. Last time he talked trash about my car Bryan
Does a car have a soul? Hmm, good question, I suppose if it could talk it might be able to give you a hint. I think the longer a car is alive and operational the more it becomes imbued with the essence of the owner and the longer a particular owner has it, the more it becomes his. That is why the one owner car is so prized. I can only relate to you my own experience. When I found my '54 Chevy it was a derelict sitting in someone's yard, it had been there for years, in all that time it was just a car, a bone stocker. I bought it and dragged her to a garage and customized her. That was 16 years ago, that car is now mine, it is truly mine. If someone buys it, it will still be known as Nads' car unless the new owner changes it completely. If I sold her I would miss her terribly, but will she miss me back? Probably not, but there's a little bit of me that wishes it were so. As for my '34 Ford, that thing's been around a lot longer and its life story is far more mysterious and that's why I can feel auras of her previous owners everytime I sit inside her. I guess you could say I'm spiritual (although I'm not much for organized religion), and that's maybe why I believe there's something that's embedded deep into the pores of her metallic body. I did build this car, but it once led a life as a drag car and therefore was subjected to far more than any stocker ever was. Punishment, time and love are what I'm talking about, it is those three things that make a person and perhaps it's what makes a car too. I really don't know, all I know is that I truly feel that my '34 is haunted, pleasantly so, not in a creepy demonic way, but almost as if she's trying to tell me something, and I listen to her and she makes happy.
This is funny. I brought a car with PLENTY of soul back to life after an over-40 year slumber. But never washed it. It still had all the old dust, dirt, grunge and mouse poop from the long storage. I finally washed it for the first time before taking it into the Midwest Deuces meet this summer. It WOULD NOT start, we had to jump it. And it has ran the battery down ever since. It's angry at me for washing it. But I will never wash it again.
Wasn't that a red Model B Tudor? Great car. But she must be like a French *****, and would rather douse herself with perfume than take a bath.
i know my car has a soul, bought and loved by an old woman, didnt sell till she went to the nursing home. the guy i bought it from lost his wife 42 years ago, in a car just like mine. he was gonna fix it but he said every time he looked at it "it made him think about stuff" the cars going together real well and it looks better every time i work on it. same thing with old wood surf boards, wood also has a soul.
Does a car have a soul? At the very least, a car has an iden***y, and an aura that could loosely be defined as a soul, or a mystique. It's what makes a Westerguard, or a Valley Custom. It's that car's claim to fame. Jim Mcneil (I think) doesn't own a Merc, but rather takes care of the Hirohata merc. It never will be his. Don't get me wrong on this, but that car owns the man, not the other way around. This is what that car's soul is. On the same note, Jim Street, the keeper of the Grabowski T, had better hope there is no such thing as a soul of a car, otherwise he's in for one hot trip down the stretch. The soul is still there, with Franco recapturing it, recently. Look at his car. You'll know what I mean. The same goes for that old fart from the LA Roadsters who's owned his Deuce for over 60 years, or that one car from your youth that you remember to this day...........
It's probably been said already in this thread (I just noticed it and read through pretty fast), but I think a hot rod, or a street rod, or a custom is a type of art form. It's a sculpture in four dimensions (the fourth dimension being function). Building or reworking a car uses multiple media, multiple skills, usually multiple "artists". Rare is the builder who builds every last piece of his car. (When was the last time you poured your own engine block?) If the car is looked at as being a sculpture with a function, I believe it has as much "soul" as any other piece of artwork. And like any other type of art, there are many styles, periods, eras, etc. and each one of us has our own bias in what we like. Who's to say what type of art is best? In the style of the renaissance(sp) artists? The impressionists? The cubists? Native or tribal styles? The same is true for cars-everyone is en***led to their opinion, but we should respect those who differ from ours-even if their opinion ****s! LOL! I gotta say, the HAMB is great! Practicle advice, and philosophy, all at the same location, and for one low price!
I dunno about soul, but I talk to my car...like, for instance, when the throwout bearing decides to die about 30 seconds before I'm going to play with the Camaro next to me at the stoplight. I have quite a few things to say at moments like that. Yeah, cars have soul. And, sometimes, pissy senses of humor.
Well my car knows when I get a little extra spending money, because that's when it breaks down. Also, I've had cars call to me when I'm walkin' down the street, tellin' me to buy 'em and get 'em off the used car lot and on the road . . . Spirit, then, if you don't like the word Soul in this context.
VERY ****ing well said Nads. Recardo you ***hat if you don't get it by now pack your bags and move in with Boyd. Not only do you impart you own soul in your build, so to do your mates that helped build your car. The greatest mate I have ever had helped me with the build on my 28 and a lot of him remains in my car. He was killed in action a few years ago so what he did to the car can not be replaced, its soul buddy. Yeah, think of the person that first sat in your car new and said "I'll take it" he saw something in that car too. My A came out of a paddock in western NSW, man if it could talk think of what it had seen. Soul man, you gonna tell me soul music is wrong now because its just music?? Yup, **** YOU. Seriously. Angry little ******* aint I?
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