Most of ya know I do interiors on pre '60 vehicles (yes, sculpted billet wagons included!) and today I answered two phone calls and turned work down (Hatch will chuckle cause he knows we get an unplanned vacation for a week or 3) on a few cars. One was a '72 Caddy interior that had fire damage...and needed a Vinyl top and the other was an '87 Monte Carlo. Hope it doesn't sound funny, but those are "new" cars when applied to what we specialize in... anyone else have to DEFINE what an old car is when talkin' to guys who try to relate to what kind of CaR GuY you are???? Hell, I'd upholster a Vdub Bug before I did a headliner in an '81 Saab !!! Any related stories??? You know...the old car a friend of a friend has that has to be a '40 Ford and ends up bein' a '78 Cutlass!?!!!
I know what you mean. I work on '20s and '30s cars. Every once in a while I'll work on a Late Model, which a mid '60s car in my world...
<font color="green"> There used to a crazy bastard that lived across the street from me. He came over one day when I was working on the 41 and says, "You're an old car guy and I have a friend who has died and his wife wants to get rid of his car." So I say, "Hmmmmmm, what is it?" He says, "It's an old Ford, A Mustang, convertable? Yeah, it's a 67 Ford Mustang Convertable. She says she'll take $500. for it." Now, I'm a Chevy guy and have never liked Mustangs but DAMN, a 67 Convert for $500.? So we went to look at it, I was pumped. It was a '76 Maverick with a vinyl top. It got to stay there. He was committed soon after.</font>
I see crappy 80's Camaros in the "Collector Car" section of the local classifieds all the time. Pffft.
Two things... why is 1948 the cutoff? Why not 1950? Why not 1945? Why not 1960 or 1961 1/2? I'm just curious why the line was drawn at 1948. Is it because of the OHV V8? And... At a local cruise night last summer, I actually saw a guy with a 1982 Caprice parked in the "show" section, with a For Sale sign on the seat. The guy was selling it for around 3 or 4 GRAND because it was the rare 2 door option. WTF? Take that shit somewhere else. At the time, I HAD a 1983 Caprice, but no way would you catch me pitching it as a collector's item.
[ QUOTE ] They quit making old cars in 1948 [/ QUOTE ] NOOOO WAY! They quit making "old" cars in the early 60's... (they made ME in the early 70's) A car thats 10 years older than when YOU were born is an "old" car..... of course that means that for some of you, a horse and buggy is an "old" car.... In the wilds of Tennessee as well as other climates where old cars are harder to find, "old" takes on a different meaning. In West Virginia (where I grew up) there really are no old cars to speak of. Most are rotted into the ground and scrapped out. Early 60's cars are ANCIENT there. Its similar around here...IMHO. I asked an older fella at a car show last summer where I could pick up an old car for my wife to have for a project. He says "I got one I'll sell ya"...I go "oh yeah, what?" He says, "An '85 Monte Carlo".....I said, "We're lookin for an old car". Of course technically a 20 year old car is old. But it doesn't count unless you were born in 1995....
Speaking of Mavericks...a dumbass I work with told me today that after he rebuilds the (piece of SHIT) six cylinder in his '75(?) Meverick, and repaints it orange with black racing stripes, he will be able to sell it for $12,000. No fuckin' joke. Then my boss thinks he's Billy Badass because he has a '78 Trans Am with a SBC that smokes, but as long as he has the air shocks in the back with that precious stinkbug stance, he's cool because he drives old cars. Damn, even I'll admit MY car is on the verge of not being really old, and it turned 40 this year! These guys will shit their pants when I drive up in my modified someday and tell em it's a 1927 Ford.
You now what really get's me mad is when an ol'timer asks, "WHAT YEAR IS THAT CHEVY". man it's a buick, or "that's a nice 57 Chevy, I used to have one just like it"
I hear that, Chucklehead, people do that "Chevy" shit to me every now and then, and mine's a FORD. I met a guy (probably around 45 years old) one time that saw my Ford out front and I started talking about how I like older cars better than newer stuff- for alot of reasons. He agreed and started talking about the old car he just picked up so that he can have a project and wrench on. A 1982 Toyota MR2. He was serious.
EVERYTHING is a '57 Chevy to John Q. & his friends. According to some dude today, my pop's 59 Cad is a nice "IMPALA HOLMES". -r
Walk out of the mini mart last summer and this guy is looking at my A. He says"my dad had one just like this" I said "Cool, your dad had a fenderless Model A coupe?" and he looks at me all weird and says "No...it was a 69 Camaro" I also like "Nice roadster" too
It's all about whatever your passion happens to be. The guy who calls my coupe a roadster could take me out to the golf course, he is an avid golfer, and I would be as totally stupid about golf as he is about old cars. But at least he shows an interest in my passion and does not totally ignore my old car passion that drives me 24-7 like a lot of my friends do. I take it as a complement when anyone shows an interest in any of my cars. and 50 trips to see an "old car" that is for sale might turn up 76 Mavericks but # 51 might be a "barn find" 32. Just my humble opinion.
[ QUOTE ] Deyo- '48 was the last year of detachable rear fenders, '49 up they're integral. [/ QUOTE ] Fords, yes. Chevy & Plymouth, no. Was going to set up a 50 Chevy coupe I was trying to buy with a set of stock fenders for street and a pair cut out for big-sticks-out-the-side-slicks, but the deal fell through. Cherry little Chevy though. Ended up radiusing the 50 Ford coupes slab sided sheet metal for the slicks and it still looked good with the Rader 5 spokers and the big rear tires when running the streets. My thinking was that the 48 cut-off date was due to the solid axle Fords going independent in 49, but I seem to remember that it had something to do with a car show and that Tex Smith had something to do with it. More than likely it was a proclamation in a magazine, it caught on and ever since that's the way it is. (Really hate to criticize my favorite photographer, but.... )
1948 was the end of pre-WWII car designs and the real beginning of the postwar designs for the big manufacturers. A few of the smaller makes brought out new lines a bit faster than that, muddling the picture some. I think the public notion of "Olde" is getting shorter and shorter. Around here, there are virtually no cars made before the current bar of soap styling trend left, and cars made after the muscle car period, the non-collectable barges of the 70's and 80's, are utterly gone from the roads and even from the junkyards. Anything older than your dog, say, is gone except for the cars that are already in collectors' hands. The few kids who consider themselves greasers are driving like '87 firebirds with towering piles of JC Whitney fiberglass scoops on the hood. Older cars on the road are almost invariably street rods or muscle cars on a Sunday drive, and I have not seen a Pinto, Vega, or Maverick in probably a decade.
[ QUOTE ] In the wilds of Tennessee as well as other climates where old cars are harder to find, "old" takes on a different meaning. [/ QUOTE ] In the wilds od NE Tenessee lives a salvage that closed in '62 I don't have an exact location but do know that it has plenty of late models....
But wouldn't that only apply manufacturer to manufacturer. I mean my 49 Chrysler is nothing more than a 47 or 48 made in 49. As such is then the argument that the whole "old car" status is defined by one car company? Or only a few companies? Maybe state DMV's? Personally I think - it a new century, anything over 1965 is an old car. Prior to 50 - vintage. prior to 20 - antique. But thats just me.
"Old" is, and always will be a relative term! I was driving a 77 Granada when I worked with a couple of kids at a service joint maybe ten years ago. When one of them asked what year my car was, their response was "WHOA! Man I was BORN in 77!". It struck me as odd...I answered you couldn't have been born in 77, you'd be like six years old! Didn't dawn on me that he was 18 at the time...and so was my car! Ha Ha...I can REMEMBER 1977 clearly...right down to the big blizzard! Anyhow, stand a corner near a busy intersection today and snap off a bunch of photos at random of the traffic going by. Then look at those pictures carefully...what's the oldest car you see? Maybe an odd mid 80s car or two? An OCCASIONAL late 70s "survivor"? "Old" is getting "newer" all the time! Ha Ha...but people STILL think my car is a Plymouth, Ford or Hudson for some reason! And they ALL ask... (say it with me) "What year is that thing?"
I think it depends on personal experiences and if they grew up around older cars and if they appreciate them or not. I pulled into the car wash with my '65 Plymouth and the kid washing his ricer came over and stared at that car like Bigfoot and Elvis just pulled up in a UFO. I swear to god it looked like he had never seen anything like that in his life. To him that thing was an antique. To me it's about the newest "old" car I would want to own.
Bruce, the funny thing is that I was reading you post and had forgotten where you were. When you mentioned the Street rods and Muscle cars, but only on Sundays I was thinking to myself, "That sounds JUST like New England." Only one state away!
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