"That's a cute dune buggy"

What an amuzing thread. And it seems like I have heard most of em. I just try to say Thanks!! and move on , when they start telling me what my ride really is, I just say Thanks for the info and excuse myself and leave. I get a great laugh from it all. The part that always feels good to me is that people get buzzed from old cars. People dont approach you and say, hey nice watch, shoes or pants. But the car brings out the need to yap at a total stranger, not at all a bad deal in this to fast paced life. Viva Hot Rods & Hottrodders that are keeping them out there!~Sololobo~

 

I drove my flat-black, twin straight-pipe, raked '46 Ford business-coupe yesterday, the first time this year...pretty nice day after the sun melted the "black ice". I was filling my tank at the gas-station, and the only other person there was a woman about my age. (I'm 52). She was looking semi-hot (in an old kind of way) in her black leather and jeans, etc. She was driving a silver PT cruiser-lookin' thing. As she's heading in to pay, she's saying something to me...couldn't quite make it out, but finally realized what she was saying and I called back, "Oh!...you're saying your car looks kinda like mine!" She said "Yeah!" I hesitated, smiled and shouted back, "No it don't.!" She was still at the counter when I went in to pay, and I sensed bad vibes...she's pissed. So I said to her, "No offense intended, at least you noticed the old car." (I,m being gracious here, because she never actually complimented my car...she was extolling the virtues of her car.) Anyway, she ignored me, giving me the cold shoulder treatment, and left. I strongly suspected that I had just had an early-morning close encounter with a S.B. I went to the door, opened it, and called after her, saying, "Oh, did I offend you?...It's just that hot rodders tend to laugh at P.T. cruisers." She called back, "It's not a P.T. cruiser!", and I believe she added, "You moron!"...I found out later from some young
friends of mine that it was probably a G.M. product called an HHR.

 

Time to bring this ol' one up again. A bit of a delayed reaction really. I was working on my car today and thinking about a conversation i had with my neighbour yesterday. First up, this is my car pretty much as it stands at the moment:



So we were talking at the fence and he asked what I'd been up to. Told him I was hard at it with my project of 4 years. He was surprised to hear I had said project. I'm obviously not noisy enough. So he came in for a look.

First he says, "Ah, your making a bit of a rod out of it"

Out of what. Like there was something there before.

Then he looks at my nailhead and says: "That's a Chrysler isn't it?"

No, it's a Buick.

Then he looks across at the RPU body and says, "So you're putting a Coupe body on it?"

Oh, ah, no a roadster body.

He has another look at the nailhead and says, "they're zoomies, aren't they?"

I explain what zoomies are. We chat a bit more and he leaves. Didn't give it another thought until I was working away today and thought, " Wow, most people really don't have the first clue about what we do."

Pete

 

^ i dont know thats alot better than most ppl would do ... at least he knew names of stuff even if it wasnt correct

 

i get that too.

 

It's good to see a lot of things don't change in this hobby. Some of those first comments on this keep coming up years later. I guess as long as there are hot rods there will without a doubt be morons...

 

I've gotten the dune buggy thing a few times, but the best was when my '29 roadster was outside of starbucks on my way to work, (10 years ago) and this girl asked her boyfriend what my car was, he looked at it with a disgusted smirk and said "Fuh.. that's a Munster's car-"

 

My friend drove his O/T car to starbucks and some guy says nice kit car. He says thanks and walks inside. When he comes out the guy is now jumping up and down and waving his checkbook in the air saying he could buy 2 of those cars. My friend says 'Man, I wish I could!' and drives off.

Aside from that, most people mean well, and I just try to be agreeable. Why correct everybody when it doesn't really matter.

What I always get is 'did you chop the top?'.

I didn't, so when I tell them no it kinda ends the conversation.

The pisser is that they're kinda rubbing salt in the wound since I don't like the chop and I had to do a bunch of finish work on the doors and pillars, etc.

I intend to tint my windows eventually to be a little more low key.

 

heres a dune buggy and the aftermath damn webber carb

 

I've got a 1960 ranchero with a 9 inch chop. I of course get the "nice el camino" all the time, 9 times out of 10, people don't believe me when I tell them the Ranchero actually came first.

literally had a guy trying to fight me about whether or not it came like that stock, even had a friend with him telling me about how much this guy knows about cars..... guys probably get their oil changed at jiffy lube. had another guy swear up and down the windshield was split from the factory.

the doors are shaved so I get asked how do I fit through the window? I'm 6even, 240lbs, and the fuckin' side windows are probably 6 inches tall.....

I've got a decently hot 170 I6(currently building a super hot 200), been asked if it's a V6. had a brotha ask why I put a honda motor in a ford. always get asked if I'm going to put a 350 in it, like making it like 80 percent of the hot rods out there makes it cooler or something.

had a dumbass from a local gas station ask if it was a dodge avenger.... after correcting him, he stated, "hmmm, I'm pretty good with cars...." ...... 1960 ranchero, dodge avenger.........

I swear to god the only person I've had approach me and get every detail about the car right was a 60+ year old lady that had me take a picture of her with it to show her grandkids. just walked right up and said, "I just loved those old falcon based rancheros... my husband had a 60 as well, did you chop the top down?" I almost couldn't believe it

 

Hey, nice duece!

 

Two bad boys in a BMW shouted over to me, 'Hey, is that a Jaguar....?'

 

Had a guy tell me that my 36 ford truck was a 1939........he said he had one in the sixties........I just nodded with him........Ya...I even lost a couple of years in the sixties too.......gotta love us old people....

 

i had a glass body 32 ford and all i ever heard was KIT CAR ! so my new answer was man you should have seen us getting it out of the box and breaking of the shipping tree big tube of glue 2 hours later and where riding.......just as much work and just as fun.

 

I was once asked why my VW Bug was so much bigger than the others.................1938 Ford Coupe.

Doc.

 

When I got my chopped 51 merc on the rode it was so funny watching people pass by and try and guess what kinda car it was !!!! Everything was shaved and frenched !!!Was at a cars how and a woman asked how I got it to the show because it sat so low ,,when I responed DA" DROVE IT she looked pissed and walked away !!!

 

I put together this 27 Bugatti replica with old Model T, A, BB, Dodge and Chevy truck parts powered by a VW. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “I had one just like it” or my favorite “I learned to drive in one just like it”. Really… Really! you learned to drive in a fake vintage European Race Car!!! Hehe, I love it.

 

A guy thought my 33 ford pickup was a jeep, I will never figure that one out.

 

don't get to much of this here , hell we evean have a state ran coast wide car show here in Mississippi, "called crusin' the coast", lot's of people here know their shit.

 

"What kinda valve covers you gonna put on that Flatty?"

 

My Grandson and his friend were shooting their water pistols near my 56 Bel Air 2 door post. I said "Harrison please don't shoot those water pistols near my car". He said "why not Grandpa"? I said "because I don't want to get any rust on the chrome bumper". He said " Grandpa, didn't it rain back in the days of your car"?

 

Working the parts counter at a Mustang parts vendor about 15 years ago, we noticed lots of people would come up and start shouting what their car was: "1967 Mustang Coupe, 2 DOOR".

My coworker, Bill, who hated Mustangs and those who drove them, would say, "Oh, as opposed to the elusive four door Mustang!"

My high school Algebra teacher walked to school when the weather was good, since he only lived a few blocks away, and one day we got some unexpected heavy rain and he asked if he could get a ride home in "my buggy"!! I could understand if I was driving some prewar Ford, but a '57 Chevy?

 

That is sweet! Any more pics? Or a build thread?

 

Being 15 when I started building my 54, doing alot of work on it in a high school shop class, I had alot of spectators who didn't "get it".

The boy next door told me he could help me build a wood seat to put in it to make it look "old timey." Now I realize he was trying to help, and maybe even learn something, but then I just told him it was a hotrod, not a stage coach!

When I was 19 or so, me and a buddy were cruising the local mall in the 54, yellow primer with purple and green pinstriping, 250 with a little cam and head work, split manifold, burping and loping along. We hear somebody yelling, and we trun around to see this fat nasty bitch in a ketchup stained Tupac shirt, eatin a corndog, and she's yelling "White Trash!" at us. Guess somebody in her family must have a truck like mine and she was just mistaken.

Was in class talkin to another boy about my set of rally wheels I had just bought for the truck. Another boy (Honda Boy) chimed in tellin me how stupid that would look, especially in a 15, and that he didn't think they made em in 6 lug anyway. Then showed me a pic of what he thought he was talking about in a magazine, and they were the "ricey" racing style, "rally" wheels...

 

You can tell this type of know it all person anything you want, but as soon as they leave the first thing they say to themselves is "That guy's an idiot, he doesn't even know what kind of car he owns".

You'll never set them straight, it's just a waste of time to even try.

I've given up on trying, I just say "yeah, you're right" and drive off.

 

My grandma was born in 1937, and swears that my 1961 Suburban must be a Scout, that they didn't make Suburbans back then, did they? And "Wow, that thing is HUGE! I don't remember Scouts being that big!"

I can't get it through her head that it is in no way related to a Scout.

Lots of people ask me where did I find my 54. I tell them it came from a barn in Crittenden County. Then they ask me if it looked like that when I found it:


And of course, I get the Rat Rod comment. I like rat rods, I like the shit out of them, but I know that it's not a Rat Rod.

 

I also hear people tell other people "that truck is a 53 (or 52, or 48...), that's the only year they had these windows in the corner of the cab."

And no, that really is a Chevy truck grille, it came on the truck.

No, it's not "just like" the Old Navy truck, but you're close.

 

Here's the reference shots... (ps involves dirt!)

 

Over here in England,"I really like your Chevy"
"oh yeah, I remember seeing this on pimp my ride"
"what's it like on fuel?"
Paul

 

A couple more...