History Was beater culture a thing in the past?

I was going to mention you, I know you call it “a beater” but many would give a body part to have it!

In California where I’ve lived most of my life, it was never a thought (no road salt, etc). till the 90’s or so we looked for economy cars to commute with.
Beater? I dunno, never thought to beat on an Escort or Civic. Took as much care of them to keep driving them.

 

In the 60's anyone who drove a car with a crappy looking paint job didn't have guys telling them how cool it was. They were simply waiting to save enough to have it painted.

 

I was going to say, in the rust belt winter beaters were pretty common. Regardless of how much work your car needed winter would send it to its death.

 

If your ride was one colour, had 4 tires that held air, fm or cassette with a pair of 6x9’s, was insured and had a half a tank of gas you were good to go. You knew the girls that rode with you weren’t in it because of your car. This allowed us to work on and improve our hot rod project. In the winter you drove the beater or maybe back to your parent’s car. Oh how we enjoyed the seventies.

 

Where I grew up primer covered cars either stayed in the garage or parked off on a side street as to not be seen. People were embarrassed to be seen in unpainted or half finished cars. We usually upgraded out cars during the winter and if needed would be painted by spring for the big reveal. If you had a nice car you also had a winter beater with a heater and a/c. The beater was used for daily stuff, like going to work or grocery shopping. When it dropped dead it was replaced. When you got drunk and accidentally cut the roof off for a summer convertible. It got replaced with the next $50.00 or $100.00 car you found. There is no such thing as beater culture or scat rods. It is a made up California phenomenon. If you showed up at US30 Dragstrip in Gary IN. In a primer covered car or with primer spots bigger than a certain area you were shown the way back out. No primered cars on the track, must have shiny paint!

 

I'd say that this was about as close to the real world as far as "beaters" went as you could get.
The people who drove beaters were those who usually couldn't afford much else or had a beater as a work car due to either finances or where they worked.
My 48 Came as a 75.00 running and driving beater in 1973 with a brushed on green paint job. It would probably have stayed a beater if I had had my T bucket running and driving and was able to drive it to Tulsa in 1973 but I did a three month work on it and drive it to work deal to get it ready for Tulsa and that is how it became the family hot rod. It's still been a beater that had to earn it's keep over the years more than it has been what you would call a show rig.

When I was in my late teens I had a buddy who drove a 50 dollar beater to school and work while his "good" car stayed in the garage at home most of the time. He was working on that car so much he decided to buy a beater to have something to drive every day and that let him work on his project without having to put it back together to drive to school and work the next day.

For the non AG area guys the term "field car" that John tossed out at Falfa about the 55 referred to beaters that farm workers drove out work in the fields because a beater was all they could afford. The beaters that the true migrant workers often drive around this area are just a later model version of those cheap old beaters from the 60's. Cheap clapped out car that hopefully gets you to work and back and often gets scrapped when it dies rather than being fixed.

 

Back in the 70s/80s, we had a lot of beaters (Rust Belt NY).
It's what all the kids drove. Mom or Dad got a new car and the kids got 6-8 year old rust buckets.
Game was to find the well-preserved "Grannymobile" Low mile 6 cylinder version of the "Popular" cars and drop in the engines/trannies out of rotted muscle cars or land yachts.

 

In the snowbelt/Midwest/salt country we all had "beaters".......lots of people still do. In the 1970's I had a 1958 Chev pickup with a 235 and 4spd. I drove it to work every day.....hauled parts in it during our dirt track stock building. I left my really nice original 1969 GTO at home, clean and ready to go for the weekend.
I drove a 1962 Chevy II Nova with a 4cyl beater. Splurged and put two new studded snow tires on the back for two winters. The beater allowed me to keep my 1963 Corvette split window builder at home and ready for fun.
In the 1960's, I asked my dad if I could have an old car to drive to school......he said "sure".....there was a 1953 Chev station wagon behind the barn.....two tone brown with a green tailgate.....didn't run. I got it running and used it for a year.....then used it as my beater when I got a pristine 1951 Chev black two door sedan for my "date" car.

My brother and I own a small warehouse bldg. We have several customers who put their "good car" in for the winter and drive an old front wheel drive beater or old pickup truck for the winter.

Our town even had one "starving" farmer who drove his older pickup out to his farms every day on the gravel roads and kept his new Mercedes in a rented garage in town. Have a good friend who drives an old Pontiac 4dr. front wheel drive that he takes out to the farm every day......and has two late model Corvettes up on four post lifts in his garage. Hope these examples helps your research. Have fun

 

Defining "beater" would be key to this thread.

Years ago, maybe in the 80's Rod&Custom or some other hot rod type magazine did an article on what they called "beaters". To sum up what I remember from the article was that a beater was a hot rod that was put together to use regularly.... not-so-perfect fenders or other body panels, maybe some used, stock sort of engine and drivetrain (maybe think 283 with a 2 barrel Rochester), perhaps a Mexican blanket for a seat cover, not to be cool, but to at least have something to keep the seat springs from poking you in the butt, and on and on. Maybe a current term would be "driver"? I'll just say I have ALWAYS wanted a "beater" as I described above. My chance might be coming up soon, but more on that when and if it materializes.

Lynn

 

I have a '64 Belair with 82k orig. miles on the odom. People always ask me when I'm going to get it painted.
I just tell them that this is as good as it's going to get. Doesn't prevent me from driving it anywhere I want.

 

The Rocky33 tm was a beater. And probably the most fun of any vehickel I have owned

 

This was my $30 beater that I drove to school in 12 grade; it was called many bad names.

 

Wasn't P-Wood's car considered a beater when it was built



Heck I still drive a winter beater here in Buffalo NY, the other day after grocery shopping I smirked at the rust chunk that fell out when I shut the door. I see people at the traffic lights looking but I don't care, I'm not going to rust up my good car lol

 

I think it all comes down to whether the car is going to be a true driver or not. I have seen many builds end up at an end point where the owner just can't bring themselves to use the car as cars are intended, simply because they got too carried away with the "pursuit of perfection" thing. If you know one of these guys, check out their lawn. It will be a dead giveaway.

Notice I said 'true driver'. Something you would be happy to drive any amount of miles on any given day. Let's be honest here. True drivers are all a beater to varying extents. The defining factor, as others have said, is usually money.

There are always the few who will deliberately buck the system and build rough cars purely for the shock value. The mentality of "You can't tell me what to do!", known as 'psychological resistance' in the world of psychology.
There you go, rat rodding is actually a disorder........

 

Possibly a lot of the cars that younger guys see in old car photos and think are beaters were actually rolling project cars. In the late 40's, 50's and 60's having fresh primer spots on your ride to show that you had had or did some body work on it was a badge of honor in some circles. A guy spotted your fresh primer spot on the front of the hood and you got to tell him about taking it to_______ to have it nosed and be able to say that the next payday you were taking it back and having it decked. The guy with the local independent body shop made a fair amount of side cash from kids who wanted the holes where chrome had been welded up and slicked off. I think he got a buck or buck fifty a hole to weld them up and grind them off and primer the spots. I know that a buddy with an early 50's Pontiac paid more to have the trim holes filled than he had paid for the car and had to have a few of them done at a time. That and shooting a couple of coats of primer on your car that you had sanded and taped off for 10 bucks in the early 60's was his under the table cash in pocket money. He would have you roll in around 4 in the afternoon, park in a certain spot and you had to tape it and have it ready and he wiped it down and sprayed the primer and you pulled the tape and paper off and drove it home.

 

'Culture?'

 

Quick answer.........Any of you fellas remember RE-fined motor oil? Burnt oil that was filtered and sold.
I bought it 5 quarts for a dollars many a day!
There's your answer!
6sally6

 

Beater was never a Culture or a "thing". It was an affordable means of transportation that sometime's didn't look so nice. It was not a look that anyone ever strived for , it's just what we ended up with! Some of us drove them into the ground and some of us tried to make them look better.

 

The term Shot Rod, and Jalopy were common in the early days. I believe Henry Gregor Felson even referenced them in one of his book. I have always believed the goal is shiney. The current trend just allow my broke ass to hang with the cool kids. My 59 was not ready for paint, but I threw a cheap backyard paint job on it to seal it, and preserve it until I could do it right.

 

It seemed to me as a younger kid, the rougher looking cars were the fastest in town because their owners spent their money at the speed shop instead of the body shop.

 

Don't mess with a primered car with shiny wheels

 

Ask the Gate Keepers C.C. to define the undefinable. Matte Clear is not a new punk band.

 

Yep, it was always in those glass "milk bottle" style quarts with metal spouts out near the pumps. Bought
a lot of it in the '60s, haha.

 

That has got to be the best explanation for the hate of street rods around here by some folks I've ever read. Must be jealousy on some of their parts, they couldn't afford the high dollar fancy stuff so they were jealous. Not all, but some of them. I couldn't afford the high dollar stuff either, but didn't begrudge anybody that could. Not that I liked everything that was done in that time period or now either for that matter, pastel colors and tweed interiors come to mind as yukky then and now. Thanks Squablow for putting that into words, it really makes the picture clear.

 

I drive a beater every day. 1956 Chevy pick up. Wipers work , heat and defrost work. Has a 350 sbc now because I wore out the 406. Still has a Tremec tko 600 and can get 20 mpg on flat ground @ 2200 rpm. I constantly get offers to buy it , one guy offered 25 grand.... but what the hell am I gunna buy for 25K that leave's a smile on my face whenever I park it?

 

so the "counter culture" is what kind of became what the HAMB started with, a spite to street rods with efi and such. but the ones who took a step further, became what we know now as "rat rod" culture. It's really quite amazing how the different branches of car modification all kind of date back to the traditional hot rods.

 

Pretty much.

Although I think most of us here take a "live and let live" attitude toward the people building modernized street rod style cars or even rat rods, the "spite" part really doesn't come into play except in extreme situations (a truly historical car gets hacked up, someone wants to look down on old technology, does something truly unsafe making us all look bad, or tries to force their new shit onto this board where it doesn't belong)

I've been following along with you working on that '57 Ford and you're doing it the right way. Digging into problems one step at a time, learning as you go, and working on the functionality parts first. If you get it running and functional and want do drive it around as-is once you do, I say go for it and don't let anyone shit on you for it. You're doing it exactly the way some of the people above did 50 or 60 years ago, with stories of their first car. If that's as far as it ever gets, fine. If you decide you want to customize it further or learn some body work on it, all the better. Just don't clearcoat over it, slam it to the ground on an S-10 chassis with an LS swap and 20" wheels and you'll always be welcome here.

 

No beaters except for work clunkers folks drove. Younger guys wanted nice paint but many had primer spots on hood and decklid after molding until they could afford paint. Did do a few early Fords(36-39) in primer with a color mixed in. Cat yellow in white primer, purple in white primer etc.

 

I would give her a full paint job, but there's something pretty about it showing a bit of its age, even if its "patina", I'm definitely stripping some bondo, doing some small bodywork patching holes, making sure its not going to leak water inside whenever it rains, but otherwise, I'm hoping to get her on the road before anything else.

 

In my neck of the woods they were called 'work cars'. You used them to get back and forth to work so you could earn the money to spend on your good car. Salt, foundry dust and even brand loyalty played a part. If you worked at AMC/Ford/GM/Mopar you drove one to work so you could park in the 'close lot'(and get 'backdoor' parts was also a plus). Or it was the car you left in the parking lot at the train depot when you caught the daily rail commuter. If it wasn't there when you got back you were pissed, but not out of pocket much. Sometimes a nicer 'beater' could be had by sharing the ride. Sometimes 2.3.4 guys who worked together would step up and buy the same car and split the upkeep cost. 'Work cars' were something you used till they were used up then you threw them away and got another. Soap and water, and maintance were optional. A good heater/air, a real good battery, and 'top rack' used tires were the only requirement. They weren't treated as cars, they were just transportation.