Hot Rods The Utilitarian Hot Rod, stone chips, beaters,.. what happened ???

I dont have the money or space for more than one old car, so that issue doesnt apply to me.

however, the second issue does. I last had a Packard, that I put maybe 50 miles on over 6 years

I'm planning and starting my coupster now, but I'm inspired by this thread to make sure its a driver, and put some miles on it when done!

(you cant take it with you!)

 

Reading through this thread I believe we all can see your point,,using the hot rods for what they were intended,,transportation and fun.

My beater 1932 Ford truck is sitting outside in the parking lot today,exactly the same place my 32 sedan was sitting yesterday and is somewhat of a drivable fun project.

I recently finished up the 9 year project "Ranch Wagon" to a much higher standard than ether of my 32's and it is driven a lot,,but the truck is considered above all to go to work,hardware store,dump,cruise ins,runs & shows or the grocery store.

Even hauling Christmas trees.



After almost 6 years it's starting to show signs of age,,rock chips,scratches and a extra dent or two,,and if the truth me known it's still my favoritr hot rod! HRP

 

what a great thread. i too, came to my senses about 4 years ago. what is the point of all the time and money if you don't drive it. really. you spend every night tinkering, polishing and what ever so you can drive it to the cruise in sat. night? not anymore. i've had a few nice late model trucks that came with late model payments. i figured if i wasn't paying $450 a month on truck payments, i could spend more money on the old cars. i was right.

i too am cursed with wanting one of every car ever made before 1959. there inlies the problem. you can only spend a dollar once. so i have ended up with a bunch of **** that i can't get finished. my 50 merc i've had for 12 years keeps getting moth balled every time the newest thing rolls in ,why? beets me.

right now i've got, a 57 chevy, two 50 mercurys, and a 72 C10 truck. the 72 i am finishing a frame off right now, almost done. why not the merc? well, the new has worn off. thats why. it's been sitting around covered in dust so long it's almost invisible to me. stupid huh?

i drive my newest 50 merc every day. it's a real piece of ****. the floors are rusty the side windows are cracked and the interior is almost non exsistant, but, i really enjoy it. makes me feel good in the morning driving to work and in the afternoon driving home. it's great. to me thats what old cars are supposed to be, fun.

 

Since wreaking my 68chevelle in the beginning of this year my 31 coupe is our family's second car, I drive it over the hill, 40min. to work everyday. Talk about "Stone Chips", my radiator was holding water pretty good at first, but after hard daily driving it has developed several leaks. It's all good though, I carry TWO gallons of water with me now. Every friday I stop by Ruby's on Whittier in Whittier for their weekly car show. It real cool, kind of funny how the leaky, puddle of water in front of my fricken A draws in the people & it's that leaky ****ed up radiator that brings them back to "The Good Ol Days" when people simply checked their fluids.

 

This thread has really got me thinking - some really good points have been made here. I have 4 now, a 40 Ford Std coupe and my avatar are on the road now, and a 40 p-up and 32 5-window are up next and in that order. Not many for most here but alot for me adn I've worked really hard to get them (which includes a very understanding wife of 37 years). I'm thinking of retiring at some point and I hope to drive my 40 p-up every day, to be that utilitarian vehicle as in days past. Hell, I don't have that far to go to get anywhere and you can always rent something if you really needed something newer. But I wonder how much will I drive the other 3 and how many do I really need and/or can afford to keep, time to maintain, insure, etc.? I was thinking of selling off one at least since I have everything I need for hte p-up but I do not have any funds, at least at this time, to complete the 32 5-window, but I'll be damned if I know which one to get rid of. Plus, my grandson is starting to show an interest (my last hope since no one else in the family even cares about the cars) and he really likes my avatar, throwing another something to think about. I'm hoping we can make many memories in it together and that it will be a keeper for him but he is only 6 - time will tell there. As for the other 2, I will just have to wait and see. I've always said I would never get rid of my 40 coupe but you know, I've been told you should never say never ...... I think at this point in my life, whatever one I get rid I will kick myself for doing so regardless ... it will be the one I let get away from me.

 

Wife and I decided to grab something to eat and p***ed this Bar-B-Que place with a bunch of old cars out front, not a show but as we found out a car club cruise .
Any way we're sitting off to the side at a picnic table eating and two guys walk up to check out the 49 Merc sled and the one guys said he mustn't think much of it, it's dirty and look at the bugs smashed all over the front and the other dude said no that just shows he drives it.

 

I can identify with you in every aspect. I got back into hot rods after the kids finished college (translate that to being broke from education). Now that I can afford more I have the problem of buying more than I can deal with in the time I have left, especially since I don't work at full speed any longer. I finally got a decent shop with some storage and now it is filled to the brim. Eight projects and only one just got finished and driveable and I plan to sell it so I need to get another one on the road before spring.

I think guys like us do have an addiction. There are so many cars I would love to build. At my advanced age I finally got a 32 sedan project that I've always wanted and I'm thinking I should slide it to the front of the line before my health goes south.

You probably have the right idea to have a driver and a project. BUT, which project? I like them all. Best of luck with your decision.

 

No but with age....you think a whole lot differently than when you were 20.....at least I do.

I have three.....my '32 pickup will be finished first.....then my '29 roadster....lastly my '19 Dort (what my Grampa had but not this particular car).
It was a very tough summer this year not having one to drive but I survived knowing next summer I'll be out a****st them again.

For now, I have to have something unfinished in the garage.....keeps me busy doing the thing I like to do.....but man....I gotta have one to drive!!!!!!!!

 

This thread really struck a chord with me. I bought 63 Chevy pick-up (I know, not exactly on topic) that the previous owner had painted flat black & had pin stripped in a traditional style but was otherwise stock. I figured get the mechanicals sorted ( 454 auto, power disc brakes, power steering etc), drive for the summer as a shake down, then paint & body this winter. Now I am having trouble spending the $$ on a repaint. It looks ok from 10 feet but I have 2 other projects waiting, it's fun to drive & I don't need to worry about chips. I made a trip to the dump with it & scratched the hell out of the inside of the tailgate just before a local cruise in. Quick touch up with some aerosol spray & looks a good as new, or at least as good as it did before the trip to the dump. If the truck was painted there would be no way I could do that.

 

I can understand babying a car to some extent, keeping it clean and shiny, but I can't imagine having a cool car that's ready to roll and not driving the wheels off it. If it gets bugs on it or a little road rash, that's part of the game, cars were made to drive, not to stand around and look at.

I mean my beater now is totally O/T but I love driving it - a couple weeks ago I took it 800 miles from home for a week, even though it's old and worn and the gas milage is a steady 15 at best. And loved every minute of it, I even made sure to get pictures with it at some of the places I visited. When's the last time I washed it? Well... it rained Saturday, I think....

The only thing you want to watch is that salt spray. That **** eats cars up like crazy. Mine was hit with a Ziebart treatment at some point and wasn't bad but still some of the doors were rotted out when I got it. Meanwhile, while I was down south I hit a junkyard and the same thing, same year, sitting out there with not even a bubble of rot on them. Three times as many miles, but no rot. When this one is too rusty to keep going, the next one is coming from down there.

 

What got me thinking about this was the Hank Negley Roadster, But also this...

I have had a number of parts laying around that I do a lot of moving from place to place, and tripping over,... I had bought a old used and abused Hot Rod Deuce Ch***is from George DeLorian back in 07',.... He and his brother (Yes,.. Those DeLorian Brothers) used to mess around with Hot Rods way back in the day,... and there's no telling how long this ch***is was buried in the back corner of his garage.

The Body I have had for a long time, and the flathead came in with a bunch of other stuff on a trade 10 or 11 years ago,.... it's a little grungy, but it runs pretty strong. I bought 3 or 4, 39' Transmissions a long time ago from Frank Mack. And a bunch of left over junk that has been collecting dust in the barn for years,...

Well it all started innocently enough,.. I literally tripped over the flathead several months ago,... and later that day, I was looking at the pile of transmissions, steering box & column, gauges, spools of wire, dented gas tank, and a number of other parts, not really desirable, not worth a ton of money,... but just stuff that was ac***ulating.

A day or two later, I was over at the barn, and just happened to have the trailer hooked up to the truck (I had hauled another car over to the barn),... so I load up the old Hot Rod ch***is that I got from George, and took it back to the shop,.... I was mounting a Hemi in a Deuce ch***is I'm building for a friend,... The cherry picker was right there and so was the flathead. ( You can see where this is going ,...huh? )

Well, I have only tinkered with it a few hours here and there between other projects over the last several months,.... But it's starting to get me pretty "Durn" interested ! I am really thinking, this might be the new parts chaser / shop truck / back and forth to the shop beater, Utilitarian Hot Rod,..... That is, if I can only keep the some momentum going,... But I kind of like this little ****** !

nothing really exceptional,.. Just on it way to becoming a fun beater with a heater,..... or not ? We'll see how it goes .

Unfortunately the last picture was it on the "rolling stretcher" to go back into storage in the barn last February...... But a few of my friends have been riding me pretty hard about bringing it back to the shop....... This might just fit the bill........

 

BUILD IT & BEAT IT....real hot rod sh*t!!!

 

I drove a 67 GTO, tiger gold, dual gate, 400 / 411 posi, tiger gold in high school. Only car, spring , summer, winter! More into bikes these days......

My dream bike would be.............one twist of the throttle, so fast you can achieve "instant death"

but unfortunatly, all my old junk is only half fast

Ok....back to the old man ramblings! LOL

 

Do it, HW! Times-a-wasting! I'll tell ya...I would kill for some of the cars/parts some of you guys are "wondering what to do with"...lol.

Still would love to come up and see your old gas-station/shop one day. Thought maybe this summer, but had a heart attack instead. Feeling better now...maybe next year.

Have fun!

 

Here's the pile o' junk that I drove for a couple of years. Hot, loud, rusty, chipped, dented, problematic...and I loved it. You can bet that I had the wipers and heater workin' pretty good, though...lol.

 

What are you talking about....that's beautiful !

 

Thanks very much, 48FF...but pictures can be deceiving. It looks a lot better than it really was. The previous owner knew that there's nothin' like a bunch of Tiger Hair fibergl*** and primer to hide serious rust. Plenty of mechanical issues that I had to fix too. I think it was the only car I ever bought that caused me pangs of buyer's remorse. My fault. Pretty cool anyway though, 'cause I didn't have to worry about it much. Gravel roads, snow drifts, muddy boots, parking lot dings, bird poop...no problem...lol. Main problem, was when it came time to sell it...had to be honest, and took a loss.

 

That's trure. I had a 1930 Roadster in high school and that was my only hot rod. Drove it year round as long as there was no snow. Used Mom's car then! I remember that the hot rods in my area of CT. were painted. Primered cars were in the process of being completed. Some never made it, true. But we all wanted to get there.

 

Man I can see where you are coming from. Whe I was 16-27 my family had so many cars. After a while they became way to expensive to insure and drive on a daily basis that most of them sat in the garage like works of art. I got out of the hot rod muscle car thing for a while and then came back about 8 years ago when I bought my 55 project. I knew right from the start that I wanted to keep it simple so that I would drive it, and drive it I do. This summer i just drove it to california with my wife! So my idea now is:

To Keep It Simple

I no longer need a garage full of toys. I have my daily driver for the winter and the 55 for the summer. Too many projects and cars means for me that I might be spreading myself thin. Why do that? I think a lot of guys here have the same idea!
J

 

I am going to add to my first post. In September 30 of my closest friends that I don't know drove to the Reno Air Races. 1100 mile trip in our hot rods. We hit some rain but not to much. The key thing was we all drove!! We met some boys from Canada who drove down for this event. It was a great time. There were cars in this group that were 100K cars and they all drove them. Driving is what it is all about.

 

When you get to be my age, you finally start to get a handle on your limitations. I can't keep anything nice. If I have a nice object, I ultimately ruin it. I have nothing against beautiful shiny things, but I decided to build my hot rod to enjoy it & not worry about it. After spray bomb paint job in the driveway, I achieved my goal. When I go to a show, I literally dust off the spider webs & drive the thing with no particular regard to what the hell I do. I don't beat it, however. The funny thing is, the most questions I get is about the damn paint job. Go figure. I will wipe off the mud or even wash it if it gets too bad & will vacuum the scratched metal floors...don't get me wrong. Anyway, I'm personally better off for adopting this Wabi-Sabi philosophy.

 

I've just read this thread all the way through and what an entertaining read it makes.
But a few posts on here have left me a little confused. On a couple of occasions the phrase "too nice to drive" has been mentioned.
Can someone please enlighten me on when the car becomes "too nice to drive"? It seems to me this has less to do with the vehicles condition and more to do with the owners state of mind. I got my custom absolutely as nice as I could, but I've never been scared to drive it, park it, go away and leave it and generally get on with my life. It's my only driver and if **** happens, then **** happens, I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
To me, "too nice to drive" is all in the owners head.
Paul

 

EXACTLY My point !,..... Jay Leno has a philosophy that I like (But will probably get the numbers wrong) Build them up to 100%,.... DRIVE them down to 80%,.... Then bring them back up to 100% again.....

Like the old saying goes "Are they ever really DONE ?" Just about every famous car that we all know of was owned by the same guy for long periods of time,... and I would say a large majority of them kept being conserved, changed, modified, maintained, and repaired by the original owner / builder.

It would seem that today the majority of guys build them to 65% and say OK DONE !,.... or build it to 100% and are afraid to use them for fear of natural deterioration...... Like I said.... I don't think anybody ever cried out on there death bed...

" I WISH I WOULD HAVE DROVE MY HOT ROD LESS !!!!!"

Just an observation
​

 

A real old post to answer but I'd have to say that a lot of us older guys want a rod that is a bit more comfortable and is a bit easier on the driver and p***enger on long trips.
When my wife and I were in our early 30's we loaded two kids in the 48 and set off to visit her family in Texas (1981) with no windows in the truck and no ac. Here it is a couple of hours after we arrived at my Inlaw's house in McGregor Tx.

She and I will probably make the trip in the truck in another year or two depending on when it gets done but have windows, AC and heat and some seats that are comfortable for more than 100 miles. I have a lot of serious road trips planned for the next few years and the last thing I want is to beat myself to death or be hell for uncomfortable because someone else might think my rod has too many comfort items to be a real rod.

Back to the original subject of the thread. From watching one of my friends for the past 30 something years build rods and cruiser cars I think that a lot of guys all the sudden start thinking that the rod is too valuable to drive on a regular basis. Think of it for a minute and count guys you know who have a 25/35K rod that they are afraid to drive because it is too valuable to drive but their daily is a 40/50K pickup with all the bells and whistles and their wife's daily cost around the same. I Know one guy who has a fairly nice hot rod that might sell for 30 K on a good day but hauls it everywhere with his 50K dualie and 10K enclosed trailer because it's too valuable to drive on the roads. That is in his wording.
The "it's for show only" at***ude translates though the whole car spectrum though. Watching Corvette guys around the state of Washington is interesting. The guys on the dry side over here in the eastern part of the state primarily view their Corvettes as pleasure only cars and only drive them when the weather is perfect and many only drive them to club events. On the other hand many of the guys with Corvettes in the Puget sound area have them as their only car, drive them 365 days a year every year and don't see it any other way. A lot of rodders are the same way and only see their rod as something they can drive to shows or special events and not as something they can drive to work or down to the market or parts house. They always seem to have a list of lame excuses for not driving the car on a regular basis too.

 

There is a lot of truth to this thread. But, I don't encourage anybody to get rid of their projects or excessive parts stash and actually you should keep buying. By doing so you keep the hobby alive, the swap meets going strong which of course helps the economy, and when the time comes that you do p*** on, we all get to come to the auction and talk about all the **** you have am***ed over the years. It's a win for everybody!

 

Not sure how to deal with this one. I have never untill recently, ever had a car that wasn't my hot rod to drive everyday. And even today me "too new so I'm sort of embar***ed of it" daily driver is a '71 Maverick. In '98 when the company I signed on with gave me the keys to a company car, I handed them back and said "Thanks, but I don't do late model cars". I then proceded to drive the Plymouth everywhere I could including runs back to Cleveland for work. When I left that job and did insurance for the R.V. industry, my daily commute for most of the year was about 450 miles per day, all in the Plymouth. Summers in the same industry were always spent running around the state of Washington in the same car. We're talking a 400 horse, 5 speed hot rod who's only real creature comfort is an air conditioning system, 'cause here in Phoenix without it you just don't drive for 8 months out of the year. Driving your hot rod everyday isn't some sort of compimise, it's just what I do, and I can't wait to rehang the sheet metal and be back in the business of driving the type of cars I love - hot rods. There will be a nice shiny low milage V8 Maverick for sale this spring...

 

this thread has mad me sad. i already knew that i wasnt going to get to all my projects. ive just finished my wifes ot impala. i have so many that i really want to do but my health is going down pretty quick.last yr. my wife bought me a old chopped harley trike project for christmas.id love to get that one done.then i got my 41 gl*** willys that i havent touched in 2 or 3 yrs.i got a couple cars i really want to re-paint. im so mixed up i just go to the shop and stare at what i should be workin on. no energy left to do much. used to work 12-14 hrs a day,last yr.now i get tired puttin away wrenches that i used last week.lol well seeing all this in print has made me see that. im gonna ahve to pick one thing and stay with it. and let the rest go, and there is alot to let go of.now im even sadder, damn im gettin to be a wussy.....lol ive been buildin cars and bikes for almost 40 yrs. i dont know much else.what i knew about the cars and bikes im starting to forget.so i better make up my mind fast,before i forget what i was doing just a few minutes ago. im only 57 but after a bad bike wreck in 05 that left me crippled up and with some brain damage and bad pain 24/7 im not gonna be around too much longer im gettin a ergent need to get something done. but what. ah hell im gonna take a long road trip and go meet ******!! aint been to missouri in a long time!!