Car shows are not the only problem. Its dumbasses in general. My wife invited a couple over for dinner, as they pulled up my shop door was open and my just painted 41 Willys pickup was sitting inside. The husband opened the passenger door to look inside and then slammed the door closed as hard as he could. He then walked over to the right front fender and started beating on it with his college ring. Fortunately no damage was done. How dumb can you be and why do non car folks think you need to slam the doors? My 63 Impala is a recently completed nut and bolt frame off restoration with a show quality paint job with absolutely no imperfections. Why is it necessary for people looking at it feel the need to run their dick skinners all over it or even open and close the gas flap as they say nice paint job? Is it just me or does the calibre of some folks at car shows seem to be at the lower end of the food chain? Sometimes it appears to be the whole trailer park has shown up in mass with baby carriages, wagons, strollers, dogs on chain leashes and 5 or 6 kids. This happens more often then not at car shows that don't charge admission fees. Shows with admission fees weed out cretins.
Gman0046: Why? Because non-car people are ignorant of what it takes to restore what they still consider a "nice old car". Wonder how your dinner went?
Similar to post #84 turdmagnet. Back in 70's,first Father-in-law buys a new Charger, Mother-in-law takes it to Northridge (huge shopping mall, now gone) shops, comes home. End of Day, Ed comes home and looks at Charger, asks Betty, who's Charger in the driveway. Car was same, few very minor details different. They call mall security, took car back to mall and exchange cars with fellow Charger owner. Odds ? Around 2002/3/4 wife and I went to new car auto show downtown, parked in structure next door, come out to go home, unlock my Suburban and notice several nice jackets in my Sub, WTF, thought about it for a minute or two and remembered Charger deal. My wife and I carried jackets back to Wisconsin Center Lost & Found, they took my name, ID, Thanked us and I assume jackets got picked up by someone who went to their Suburban and said WTF, wheres our jackets ?. Again the odds ? In the 80's went to Eagle River snowmobile races, took my new sled,(just picked it up, no personal markings or reg stickers yet) parked in sled parking area, we got there early, did't pay much attention to my parking spot, end of night, 1500/2000 sleds where I parked, it amazed me how many were just like mine, went back to bar area waiting for sleds to clear out, snowmobiler's generally don't go home until the bar closes, now thinking (definitely impaired) thought would use my key to determine my sled, rather than trying to read serial #s on tunnel (had my paperwork in pocket) Find one. use key, spins over, Buddy says, can't be yours, I'm parked next to you. This was the first time it dawned on us, we should be looking for his sled, OK we find his and mine, we made it back to motel, Odds ? Cat made 2 keys A & B.
En masse at swap meets... The new 'Sunday stroll' for large families. Rudeness is the rule, not just an option. They have 'rights'. (grrrrr...) Huxley was right...Brave new world. My F100's not painted, it's still in primer. But it's a 'target' for curious onlookers. Jerks standing on the steps (running boards) one guy tugging on the drivers door handle, "Old truck, door must be stuck" (that a$$hole got an unexpected 'hug' and looked all surprised!) Sun tach, Moon pedal, 4 spoke Bell...What was so intriguing? I'm uneasy parking it anymore, as the primer looks reminiscently like my grammar school blackboard; My tightly-stretched bed tarp suspiciously resembles a black trampoline!
Reading this thread reinforces my teaching to my children. Never touch a car for 2 reasons: 1)It isn't yours, treat it thusly. 2)There's a lot of psychos who will turn to violence as a reaction to perceived injury. Brandishing firearms? Kicking people in the face? Because they touched an inanimate object? I'm thinking a lot of these stories are BS. If not, I hope my children never make a mistake around car guys. Sent from my LGLS992 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not a " people looking", but my ol man tied a goat to the door handle of my 67 Impala to graze . Had goat horn scratches in an arc all over the door. Thank God for Imron, they buffed out. Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I can definitely say it's not you and it's nothing new. In the early 70's our biggest shopping mall invited a handful of local drag racers to display their cars, and two of my friends brought their newly built Maverick and Pinto, both tube chassis gas/altered cars. We had set them up with the glass hoods on the roof and the doors closed, there weren't any barriers like you had at shows, we went back later in the day to check on things and walking up we could see the driver side door open on one of the cars and a guy standing there, his kid is in the seat playing "Ricky Racer". My friend says what the hell do you think your doing and this dork dad goes he's just playing, I thought that's what they're here for.
Here's a question for the old timers. Back when Hot Rodders were "bad guys" or hooligans, was this invasion of property a problem? Were people scared to screw around with a Hot Rod back then, for fear of an ass stomping? I've never seen anyone screwing with someone's motorcycle. Maybe the old biker image keeps the average person at bay. Or not?
People need to respect others property! If some one asked I’ll let them sit in my car and even take them for a ride, but they have to ask. My dad takes his roadster to a small car show at the centre for special needs children. He lets the kids sit in the car and blow the horn, if they can, many are in wheel chairs. The kids get a real kick out of it and everyone is super appreciative. Last year one of the kids messed up the door handle and Dad didn’t realize until he got home and couldn’t open the door. He’s not a small guy and couldn’t climb out on his own. Mom had heard the car pull in but dad didn’t come in the house, so after an hour Mom went out to the garage to see if dad wanted a sandwich, and found him still sitting in the car waiting for someone to come help him get out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
LOL I jumped in a '34 Coupe and took it for a spin once. I thought it was an old friends car. I was set up, there were two of them side by side. My buddy said to take his coupe for a spin, his was the red one. The one I took for a spin was brown. No one got upset except for me, they all thought it was funny as hell. Now stories aside no one should use your car for a place to pretend that they are cool. It happens, sometimes they end up screwing something up. I got to guess that it is something you learn to live with. I hate it when someone opens my hood, I have had people change my plug wires around and even caught a guy with my air cleaner in his hand before, that didn't end well. Back when I was a kid and rodders were still hoodlums it was still like guys with bikes. People were afraid of rodders. Now it has gone main stream and everyone who was afraid to won a car back then owns one now. Our world has changed.
As I returned to my '53 Dodge panel after searching my favorite wrecking yard I found two guys had my hood up. I asked them wtf they were doing and the reply was they wanted to see the engine. I promptly shaved the external hood handles, problem solved.
I remember going to the auto show in Grand rapids and it seemed like a lot of the higher end cars had their shifter knobs either removed before hand or stolen
For the most part people are respectful at shows but some just don't get it or care. We went to Hot August Nights for many years but quit going a few years back. In the evening there were all types of people wandering the shows but some were disrespectful and did not care about leaning on/sitting on/getting in cars. It got out of hand-no more for me. Came out and found people sitting on the fenders to take pics, opening the hood,sitting in the car etc etc and some were the folks who were in charge of the show! One time there was a group of gang types leaning all over our car. We asked them to please not fool with the car. They got salty and threatened us and said they would come back and screw the car up! Moved the car to a different location.
In 1982 I bought (ordered) a new black S-10 p.u. lowered it, wheels, tires, etc. and just had the hood louvered and repainted. Went out to a club for an hour, came outside for some fresh air to find some dude cutting coke on the hood, he puts the straw to it and goes "there's a toot for ya", thanks ya fuck'n loser. Had to have the razor lines buffed out.
It’s not just old cars either. When I worked a jaguar in 2004 the new xj8 and vdp’s where at the auto show Pre production cars When the show was done there were upwards of $15,000 dollars in damage on each car Shift knobs missing wiper and turn signal stalks snapped off Logos and emblems peeled off the outside Reverse sensors etc damaged Just nuts! After that jaguar had a wrought Orion fence around there display and it was invitation only! Had a 69 Lincoln and always caught people opening the black doors cause “ wow so cool!” Drove me nuts My vw story was in my late teens, first car I built from the ground up. More violent then also. Still think it’s funny hitting that walrus in the gut. Would I do it now, probably not.
Another time we were at HAN and my friend and I were sitting behind my 40 and his 55 at the Peppermill. I didn't see these two smartass guys who were leaning on both cars etc. He said something to them and quickly had one by the collar getting ready to throttle him-he is no one to trifle with. Security was close by and came quickly to break it up. I'm sure that we would have been asked to leave but for the fact that he and his wife had Platinum players cards. It always got worse after dark as a different crowd showed up in the evening. This was but one of the many situations we saw or encountered there over the years. And NEVER park downtown on Virginia Street! Lots of drunks and other weirdos-beer poured on your car-drink cups/cans inside or on the roof-etc. Came out of the Nugget in Sparks one afternoon and there was a fight of some sort going on-guy was stabbed lying on the sidewalk and don't think he made it.
WOW! I had a guy close the hood on my 61 Galaxie, "Because I wanted to see how it looks". I asked him if he had an extra hood hinge, he closed it from the side, natch. I had a '56 Pan, I come out of the store, and some knuckle head had parked next to it. "See what I did there"?
That's a lesson I learned the hard way. Never left the convert unattended unless the top was up and doors locked. Came back once and of course the top was cut and door opened because I must have some good stuff inside. Now, $1K poorer, I leave the top down and the glove compartment open. No more problems. Should add, except at shows, a friend covers his with a car cover if it's left alone, never has a problem.
No lie, I was at the local watering hole one night BS'ing with the guys when someone walked up and asked me if I gave permission to the girl lying on the hood of my car doing an impromptu photo shoot! I can't post the pictures here, A. because she wasn't wearing a top and B. because the car is totally OT (77 Bandit TransAm). She left some nice scratches in the screaming chicken decal and a few in the fender that I polished out. I was pissed and let her know about it. To paraphrase Buford T. Justice "What we're dealing with here is a total lack of respect for other people's property"
That happen to me one time, only with no people, walked up to what I thought was my car, opened the door with my key, got in , the key won’t work in the ignition. Sit there for a minute, pissed, looked around, realized it wasn’t my car! My car was two cars on down the row. Luckily no one saw me, scared me though, as I was out of state at the time. Bones
The prior owner of my Hudson lived in Hollywood. He had the car parked on the street and when he came out a 200 pound lady was sprawled out on the hood and her friend was taking photos of her.
My grandkids were taught from birth not to touch somebody else's cars at shows. Amazing how many parents are the problem. Doing an All Ford Power show once. Looked up to see a bunch of cowboys riding their horses between a bunch of Shelbys. 3 Shelby GT500KRs with horse shit all around them. Kind of lost it. They got a good chewing (I was club president at the time) and they slowly walked their shit factories from one end of the show grounds to the other. Spitting, crapping, finally had to get the cops out to get rid of them. Same show a few years later, kids on bikes racing between show cars. Bad day for the kids and the parents. Used to do a lot of indoor shows in the winter to promote local dirt tracks. I have returned to our dirt late models and stock cars to find them moved, parts missing, dented, people sitting in them, people sitting on them, etc. Idiots. Even had a competitor jack a stock car up one night after the mall closed to measure how our rearend was set in the car and take pictures of the under side. Bar owner told us about it when we showed up the next day. Had a cop friend go talk to him in uniform and scare the crap out of him. For indoor shows we always put tape over the top of the intake under the carb so somebody couldn't drop crap into the engine after somebody else stole the air cleaner. So sad you have to do this stuff. Almost never return to one of my old trucks without a pop cup, can or bottle lying in the bed. Had a guy drop the tailgate once and was holding court from the back impressing his idiot friends. When I walked up to it I said "nice truck, you build it?" He replied "no, not mine". I screamed "THEN GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OFF MY TRUCK YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" He and his court moved pretty fast after that outburst. I blame poor toilet training for these people. SPark
Most kids are cool with cars in public. Its the fucking adults that are the problems. I don't do car shows at all, rarely even to spectate. It brings out the bottom-feeders for some reason. Probably 'cuz admission is $5 and kids get in free. It should be $20 per head and it would weed out the dick heads. I go to a busy Friday cruise night that draws a huge crowd on hot nights. There are a couple of ice cream trucks and a food truck once in a while. That brings out the husbands that their wives know more about cars than they do. I ask the foxy ones if they want to sit behind the wheel... gives their old man the slow burn...
The Jalopy Journal
