Any memorable tales of stupid car comments? Share 'em.[/QUOTE] Had a 40 standard tudor sedan years ago, and was filling it up at a station in Orlando. This kid in a Mustang pulls up next to me and says, "Wow, what year Vovlo is that"? VOLVO!?! No, they look like this:
A few Buddy's and I where taking a cruise up north for lunch. My buddy's where on bikes and I was driving my 23 T-Bucket. We stop at a light and I hear someone dumb~ass say nice tryke I just laughed.
Several years ago our club took our cars to a old folks rest home. A 90 + year old lady came up to my buddy's car and leaned down to check out the side from the front and said " bodywork sure is straight" . Blew us away. Must have been a bodyman in her earlier years. hahahah. Pat.
Had a 40 standard tudor sedan years ago, and was filling it up at a station in Orlando. This kid in a Mustang pulls up next to me and says, "Wow, what year Vovlo is that"? VOLVO!?! No, they look like this:[/quote] if anyone ever said that i would probably hurt them in a serious kind of way I HATE VOLVOS
The first time I brought my 40 Deluxe Tudor home, the neighbor across the street said: "That's the biggest Volkswagen I've ever seen." One time while parking my 66 Studebaker Commander at a strip mall, a guy comes up and asks what year it was. I said it was a 66 Studebaker. He said it couldn't be, as Stude went out of business in 64. I said Stude ceased production in South Bend in 64 but Stude of Canada kept making cars for 2 more years years. No, he said, a guy at work bought a Stude Avanti in 64 and they stopped making cars after that so it couldn't be a 66. I just said "OK" and walked away from MisterCantBeWrong.
I had a guy tell me his first 56 ford truck looked liked my 2003 Toyota Tacoma. I resisted asking him what planet he was from.
I Get a lot of Ghost busters comments when I drive my hearse. they are a bit off since mine is a landau and there are no windows, there are no fins since mine is a 65 not a 59. I guess the white color fools them. I had a guy aske me what was under the hood? I told him a 429 he asks why I put a Ford engine in it? no it is a Caddy engine I say while opening the hood and giving him a look at the Cadillac script on the valve covers. Next question how did you get Ford covers with Cadillac script? I gave up and told him I bought em from JC Whitney. Dawg
I had a good one today. I am moving. The moving men were at my hangar picking up some stuff. Before they arrived I pulled my 55 out and parked it between the 60 Catalina, and dead Suburban. Off to the side was my flat black 68 F250 parts chaser. There are other cars around the lot and is not obvious I own most of them. One moving man tells me; mover: "I'm into old cars too. I have a 77 Thunderbird" Me: "..." Mover: "I don't believe in driving a car unless it is nice -ya know, all done. For example that pickup (pointing to my truck) -That would be nice if it was done, but the way it is now, I would be ashamed to take a piss on it!" Me: "..." Mover: "ya know!" Me: "..., that air compressor weighs 450 lbs, why don't you load that up next." Mover: " Yes sir." ...I wonder what he was thinking when we left the airport and I jumped in the truck he was too good to piss on, and led the way to my huge fucking house. It's good to hear these stories. Sometimes these ignorant, and sad, people get to me.
I get the batmobile shit all the time for my '59 coupe deville too...drives me nuts... I've got Appleton dummy spots on the car...people are always asking "Did this used to be a police car?" I get the Model T and Deuce coupe references to my '30 Model A coupe... People ask how my roadster's doing...I ussually give them a puzzled look, and then correct them.... The best ones come from my girl though...she knows better, she just finds it neccesary to make fun of everything I hold sacred....which is actually good...it keeps me from getting anally serious about stuff..... When I asked her if I should put a Moon tank on the front of my Model A, she said no, because it would make it look like a Saint Bernard.... She took one look at the brake set-up on the front of my Model A ('40 Ford brakes with '63 Buick finned aluminum drums) and asked me why I had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on the front of my car.... I chopped the Model A 4 inches, and channeled it 4 inches...now she says it looks "squished".... And she thinks the the 2 door '50 Merc I'm currently working on looks like a hot dog... She puts the humor back into something that's supposed to be for fun anyway!
I have a 2000 Kawasaki Drifter that is fashioned after the 50's era Indian Chiefs. Was stopped one day and this guy comes up and asks me what year it was. I told him it's a 2000 and he follows up with "how long did it take you to restore?" DW
When I used to Build shiney sparkly cars... I would "Kringe" every time I heard the words "Kit Kar"...! But now that I have a fenderless, hoodless, topless Roadster..., I'm already hearing people call it a "RATROD"... !!!!! And when my friends (ditzy) girlfriend asked if the picture on my refridgerator was my "Cool Dune Buggy"..., I said why yes it is..., and I'm building it so that I can ride it around on the sand dunes of the Wisconsin Desert.... !!!!! "She still doesn't get it..., never will I guess"....!!!! "Shoot low Hoss..., She's riding a Shetland"...!!!!!!
I've gotten the dune buggy comment before in my roadster. Most people seem to call it a coupe. And everyone has a relative that had one just like it. Then there's the guy in town who's going to build himself a model A sedan with a "mild" 400-500 horse flathead.
Whenever my old friend Marc drives his primered '55 Poncho powered by a BBC, I love to antagonize him with this zinger uttered by a little kid who was commenting on the loud gear drive - "Hey, mister - I think the bearing is going out in your water pump!". Gets him madder'n'hell every time!
Sturgis last year had one astute fellow ask my bro if that was a 348 or a 409. He got a really puzzled look on his face when Tman called it a 358. As we were driving away he wondered if we shoulda told him that it was a bored 348.
For the most part, when someone has complimented me on one of my cars and doesn't quite know what it is, they just say "nice car!" and I thank them and move on. My automotive persuasion runs the complete gamut of all years, some of my favorite rides can't really be discussed here, but suffice to say, they're now "old" and you don't see them everyday- at least here in Michigan during non-summer months... When I had my Chevelle, I got all the usual "so and so I knew had one just like it except..." that drove me nuts. Last year in my '77 something, a guy at the gas station asks if I was the original owner..."yeah, I bought it when I was 2" was all I could say. (I'm 30 - and I didn't think I looked THAT old...) In the same vein, people at work for the most part can't fathom that I am combining an '88 Town Car with a '51 Mercury body. The puzzled look is priceless. "How?" is the first question. "Nothing a welder can't fix..." is usually my un-detailed response. Someone once said it best- "If you are combinging the two cars and you get in an accident, won't the body of the one car just fall off the other one?" The crowner was this one guy we were discussing cars with once when I was in high school. My buddy had just bought a '67 Mustang, and this guy proceeds to go into great detail about the "awesome" Mach 1 Mustang his buddy had years ago...it went like 150 mph, but wait, it wasn't a Mach 1, it was a "Mach 2". Because the Mach 1 obviously wasn't cool enough, and he thought we were morons...We could hardly keep from laughing as we ended the conversation and walked away from this obviously well educated individual.
Several years ago (94-97) I had a '47 chevy fleetmaster sedan. I needed a tie rod for it, because the original one was shot...wheels would do all sorts of funny things while driving 25mph on nice roads...anyway, I drove it to the NAPA store here in town hoping they had nitwit Ned busy doing something other than working the counter that day..no such luck... I see the evil grin on the owner's face as I sit on the stool there in front of the counter, Ned asks me what kind of truck that is..."uhm, it's not a truck, it's a '47 Chevy fleetline 4 door sedan...car...see? no bed? I need a drivers side tie rod for it." "oh, okay...(seconds go by as he taps away at the computer, blank stare on his face)...is that a four wheel drive?" Wayne, the owner of the place, is standing behind the other counter snickering and shaking his head...I should have just left Ned in his folly and went to the other counter instead...but no, I'm a nice guy and a glutton for punishment... "No, it's a two wheel...rear wheel drive, 6-volt 216 inline 6, one barrel carter W1 carburetor, non power brakes, vacuum assisted three speed manual CAR, C-A-R..." "oh, okay...(taps on keys some more, same look on his face)...it will be here in the morning" good...I assumed he had found the right thing since he didnt ask me if it was for the inner or outer piece...went back next day to retrieve my new tie rod, oh yay, ned again...the part turned out to be a tie rod end for what must have been a mack truck. When I told him it wouldn't fit, he argued and said that's what the book showed... "follow me out here for a minute, will you?" I told him to look the car over and see if he noticed anything strange..."is this the same truck you drove yesterday?" ever want to castrate someone so they can't pollute the gene pool? so much for the nice guy thing...sometimes my temper is shorter than the attention span of the people I have to put up with. I went home, took the thing off the car, brought it back and talked to Wayne instead, he got out the mic and started helping me find ends that I could make work with a lil old fashioned inginuity (original ones cut off, new ones welded in their place with rod ends the proper distance apart), and work they did...happy ending I suppose. Ned doesnt work there anymore, miracles DO happen
Sounds like the mickey's right up the street. Il bet you were just a few blocks away from me! No im not the special needs kid Dave
i still like when i get the "nice 54". im like "no, im sorry its a 53", "no its not, i had one just like it".in fact this might be my old one" no, this one came from washington. no, im pretty sure its mine. leave me the hell alone. or the other good old classic. is that your dads car? no, its mine, your too young to know anything about cars. and then they laugh thinking im supposed to. i hate people like that. JR
One in reverse Early 70's and i 've just become initiated into rods. I'm at a gas station and a kid pulls in with a model A coupe , fenderless, hoodless with a corvair front suspension. I'd never seen one in person only magazines. I say "what year model A is that" He says "It's not a model A, it's a deuce".Then I said "What about the visor?".,pointing to his car. He looks at it for a moment and replies "It says '32 on the title".
Was it an A body on a '32 Frame? That could be the very good and probably the most legal reason for the '32 reg. I don't know if you do or not but if you don't still have the '53 grill or other trim on it, hows a person to tell a '53 from a '54? If you don't want to talk to people, move to Central Nevada... Yesterday I was coming out of Trader Joe's with a cart full of groceries when three girls, maybe 8 to 16 years old, with their mom, and grandmother, were checking out my truck and the teenage girl was trying to line up a shot with her cell phone camera, so I just stopped back out of the way and let them play. The adults wanted to know if they were holding me up, not really knowing that it was my truck so I just said I wasn't in a hurry, but I didn't want to ruin the shot by getting in it... The girls seemed to know what they were looking at too, asking Grandma if she had one like that.. MOST people just want to be FRIENDLY... if YOU just give them half a chance!
I know through a friend a guy who works in a small-town (3 stores) Napa franchise. We can't figure out how it stays open, he's the only intelligent guy in the place. To the point where when he once quit over the mismanagement of the owners, several large contract customers pulled out and had to be convinced he'd come back before they'd order their parts from this chain again. The inventory system is so screwed up and no one stocks anything right, so he has to go actually look to verify if they have or don't have your part. Other guys just run it in the computer, they don't want to bother to look. I think they hire the first guy who walks in when they need someone. I'm just glad it's not the closest one to me so I don't have to try to get parts there. I hear so many cracks about my current beater because it used to be a school bus (it's a Suburban) I'm ready to stick some railroad maintenance truck decals on the doors. Once in a while I talk to some of these "knowledgeable" people too, but I usually let it go. Especially if you're trying to sell something, it's not worth ticking people off trying to correct them. The ones that I hate are the guys who tell me what a POS I have there and how worthless it is, even though I found where three more just like it sold for more than the asking I put on it. Someone wants to make an offer, fine, but if I have a $5000 price on it don't even waste my time telling me thats a "parts car" and telling me it's worth $200. I've had guys send me 5 and 10 e-mails bitching me out about the price on a car. Real strange. You'd think they'd understand that pissing me off is about 150% guaranteed to only drive the price up... for them.
I'm lucky ... I only remember the good ones ... #1- I'm sitting in a '62 Catalina 2 door sedan, Safeway parking lot in Dillon, Montana about 12 years ago ... old cowboy, maybe 70, obviously on his way back to work at the ranch ... walks slowly by the car, pauses, turns his head and smiles ... says, "That a 421 ?"... #2- Traveling thru central Idaho into Montana, driving a '56 Plymouth Suburban (nosed, shaved tailgate, Magnum 500s, duals), we by chance hit a car show in Wisdom, population in the low 100s ... there's maybe 2 dozen cars, half of them jacked up Chevelles, the rest are Ts & As in various states of preservation or restoration. Got asked if we'd like to show our car, so we pull 'er in the parking lot. An old couple in their 70s walk slowly around the car several times, glancing at each other from time to time with puzzled looks ... after a few minutes, pop says to mom, "Well, they put a Plymouth dash in it". 302
Sitting at a bar with my 65 Mercury Cyclone parked out front. BIG guy walks up to me and asks if it's my Mercury. I say,"Yeah". He then asks, "Does that thing gotta HEMI?" It took all I had not to laugh and get pounded. I'm sure the other gassers here have heard these from everyone under the age of 25, I sure have! Does that thing got the switches? Make it jump! Does the back end go up as high as the front! Why don't the front wheels match the back ones?
This post is great! People are stupid. I always had people asking if my '59 caddy had hydraulics cuz it sits pretty close to the ground. They get all goofy lookin' when I tell 'em no, it just sits that low all the time. This is usually followed by "Well then how do you get into steep driveways?" And their faces seem like they want to self destruct when I tell them you don't! Most of this kind of stuff just makes me laugh...
The Jalopy Journal
