What's most funny is the hotrod/rockabilly wannabes on car shows, swap meets and such. Walking around in their rockabilly uniforms and talks like they have like 250 years of hot rod experience, and of course know exactly what's "wrong" with YOUR car.
I had some fun with my 38 Standard Coupe while I was in the Army. I was in the barracks HQ building for some reason and the Barracks Sergeant asked me it that was my Chevy parked out the front?? Being a Ford I asked quite innocently, you mean the red car out the front? "Yup, that one" I answered, "Yes its mine, but its a 38 Ford, Searge" He then became angry with me calling me every name under the sun and threatened to charge me with insubordination!!! He even called up my Sergeant to complain to him about my arrogance! I'm lucky he was a good mate who was into cars as much as me (He would look after my car when I was on Ex or Deployment) he set him straight and ever since then I had a barracks inspection every third day for a year. Then one night I was pulled over in Wagga by the cops, the guy was giggling like a little girl trying to tell me not to drop burnouts. Turns out another car saw me do it and called over the radio that a ZZ TOP car was driving recklessly!
Sorry, off topic here but IMPORTANT. Uncle John was LRDG?? Mate two thimbs up to him, he was one tough customer! For they who dont know The LRDG was the fore runner to the Special Air Service Regiment, started by LRDG member David Sterling (Sir) while operating in the Western Desert. The SASR IS the basis that all contemporary Special Forces are modeled from. Your Uncle was someone who not only lead this world in the right direction but did it from the pointy end too! He helped to lay a foundation for all us latter day Regiment guys to follow.
Not a matter of spelling Mr. Staleg (you did perfectly fine), I've just never heard of having to have a reason.
I was walking at a local car show recently with my 8 yr old son looking things over, having a great time, when we hear two guys talking about a '56 chevy wagon. "That's a real nice Nomad there, I had a sedan in those colors back......", you know the drill. My son chimes in, "that's not a nomad". Both guys stop talking, look at him, then me, "how would you know little guy?", says Mr smartypants. " The windows arn't slanted, it doesn't have any bars on the tailgate. and the roof is smooth". says my son. "Oh yea, and they only made two door Nomads". Both guys walked away with raised eyebrows after being schooled by him. I could not have been prouder of him, 1, for having the courage to speak his mind and correct someone who was wrong, and 2, for listening to me and my father inlaw explain to him the differences between tri 5 models. Of coarse my father inlaw having a real '56 Nomad helped to explain things.
Damn! I can't believe there's another 34 Hupmobile out there! A FoMoCo buddy of mine built a barn-find 34 Hupmobile coupe a few years ago, and left it pretty much stock other than the Ford 302/C4 drivetrain. That coupe was virtually rust-free the day he found it. After adding 16 inch chrome-plated early Caddy wire wheels and driving it a couple thousand miles, he sold it to a local "street rod dealer", who pulled the Ford drivetrain out and replaced it with a Vette AOD drivetrain! He spared it from a "billet wash" though! It's still a beautiful build today, and is in the Springfield, Illinois area today. That's the 1st and only Hupmobile coupe I had ever seen before. I thought it was really cool!
Saw a Hupmobile in Bakersfield last year, Sedan though IIRC. Cool ride, done understated, no billet, but the brightwork and paint were shiny.
Love the stories. I had a friend come by once with his brother. When his brother seen the 40 ford coupe, he then punched his brother in the shoulder and said "Punch Buggie, no return" LOL. My friend called him a fucking idiot and corrected him on what it was. He still said that is looked like a bug. Pure clueless. I told him to stick with his import ricer crap.
my dad's old Rambler used to confuse ppl. Since its got two sets of numbers (440 designating it as a hardtop, 290 cuz it was a 290 V8), people used to go, "i never knew Dodge put 440s in Ramblers!" or the guy who looked under the v8 and said, "wow you can really get to the spark plugs!" as if a factory V8 rambler wasnt that impressive as getting to spark plugs .
ohh....i get accused of putting pontiac script and letting on on my 55 BUICK all the time. people do not beleive me when i tell them that it's a pontiac. they want to argue that i put the lettering and emblems off a pontiac onto a buick. heck one guy even told me that my car was a 58 impala !!
Years ago a friend of mine, a knowledgeable but young, car guy was telling me about a 53 chevy pick up he had seen at a show that had the hood shortened and "deepened" with a flatbed on the back rather than a standard bed. It took me a minute but then realized he was talking about a c.o.e.!
I love this stuff. Takes me back to a job in an auto parts store off of Ft. Lewis. Guy needs a trans filter kit. Ask him the usual, year, make, model. He says "I think it's a Buick". Then he tells me that it is "blue". Of course it ends up being one of those GM got caught putting anything in most everything. Finally got him covered, but what a pain. We did have some guys in a car club on base that were OK. About 1/3 knew what they were talking about or would ask the right questions. The rest tried real hard. Never did figure out how the one guy snapped all of the intake valve heads off of his 318.
you say in an even but enthusiastic voice while looking them straight in the eye ..." why , I'm hoping to paint it last year"
While towing my '54 Triumph TR2 home last year two kids at a gas stop asked me if it was a Studebaker... the Stude...
This just happened to me just a couple weeks ago..... the guy actually knew what my car was (a 54 ford) and then proceeded to tell me how it is one of the low end customs and that i should have ...... i dont remember what he said i should have had cause i started to ignore him. I found out later that my girlfriend used to be friends with his. She found out that he doesnt have a car, never has had a car, and wont ever be able to get one, cause he is too stupid to actually hold down any kind of decent paying job and literally has five kids to support. but he sure had "THE LOOK" down with all of the cliche "greaser" stuff, right down to the cry baby tear tatted on his cheek. What an ass hat, I should have told him to go swallow a knife.
just like most other olds owners ,my 56 is ofton confused for a chevy. but i have had lots of problems with my 64 GTO, since all goats have stacked headlights, so it must be a chevelle.
I can't believe that nobody ever caught your Henway joke! A person was to ask Whats a Henway? And the answer is "Oh a hen weigh about 2 1/2 pounds".....
I was out in my 53 chevy one night and some ghetto looking guys in a honda pull up next to me at a stop light and one hangs out of the window and yells over at me"Hey dog that is a tight 64".......... Ya I could totally see how you could get a 53 chevy and a 64 mixed up because they look so much a like
Just before I was going to do the subframe/engine swap on my '56 Plymouth, I had it at the car wash. These two guys in their early twenties walk up and one of them says "Bad ass Chevy, bro" to which I respond (I get this all the time) "It's not a Chevy". So his bud gets kinda animated, points at the Belvedere printed on the side trim, and tells him "See, man' I told you it was a Buick!". Priceless......
Since I put the spinner in place of the bullet on our shoebox, I get the "What year Benz is that anyway?", or the "I didn't know Merecedes made a flathead!" I tell them its a 50,, and thats the original motor.
My dad and I were in his '29 Model A and puttered into a gas station for a beverage and this big black woman walks up and goes "MMMMMM...is dat a fifty-one or fifty-tooo?"
Met my Brother in-law in South Dakota one year for a local rod run. He is from Missouri. He came up in a S 10 suv. In the window sticker He had wrote 1930 model a coupe customized to look like a a 1995 S 10. ( you have to know Butch) Anyway a couple walk by and said get this, Nice Job! we laugh for a long time on that.
Try owning a '55 Studebaker Coupe, most people at least recognize the shape and think it's a '53 or '54 but then they walk around front and see that catfish mouth grille and it completely throws them off so I tell them it's a '55 and try to explain where it fits in the line up. That doesn't bug me, heck I'd never seen a '55 Coupe before I went to look at this one. Then they ask if it has a 350...... OK that bugs me a "little" I bite my tongue and tell them nicely that it has a 289 out of a '56 President or Sky Hawk and they give me a look like I'm an idiot and firmly tell me Ford didn't make a 289 in '56. I reply, "You know what? You're right!" and return the "you're an idiot" look. I love it!
Yesterday I was in the AACA museum and overheard a dude 'spainin' to his woman that thishere car is a SS Chevellcamino.It's the top o' the line.
Quite a few years ago my brother had a Red ,White and Blue Stars and Stripes Studebaker drag car. A young friend of mine brought his current girl over to the house for a picnic. She was one of those 20 year olds that you could stare at for hours and not find anything to complain about. Unfortunately she was a couple of nuggets short of a happy meal. When it was time to leave she thanked me for everthing and said ,"I hope to come to the races sometime and watch that Rutabagga car.'"
My Mom told me when I bought my Stude that my Dad's cousin had a Studebaker pickup when I was a little kid and I used to call his a "rudabegga", partially how I came up with my user name........
Abuddy of mine had a Sunbeam tiger and he rearanged the letters on it to read bunseam. Made for lots of great comments. His dads daily was a '52 stude pu with a 455 Olds/th400 combo. Ran like a striped ape. He redid the letters stamped into the tailgate to read STUDERACER. A great disply of metalwork there, it looked factory.
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