Where are their brains???

I just came from the little car show that the Eastside Rods put on here in Westport every year. I was talking to a guy about his 47 Plymouth and a girl about 16 walks up an puts her hand on the side of the car and looks through the window right by the sign that says "Your hand should never touch this car" The owner didn't see it but I pointed it out and sure enough great big hand print on his beautiful dark purple paint. I must say he took it better than I would. He reached in the trunk and got his rag and cleaner and removed the print. I think I would have completely lost it were it me. Gumpa

 

How bout kids riding up on bicycles, not getting off but leaning over to look inside with the handlebars feeler guage close to custom pinstriping the door?

 

i cant relate...never had anything nice enough to not touch!! just ask the wife!!

 

These are the perils of having a nice ride out in public. You gotta learn to expect it but it still doesn't lower the pucker factor when the cowboy with the manhole cover belt buckle leans in for a closer look.

Kinda makes me glad all my cars are in the POS class. I'm sure my attitude will change a littel after I've spent 100's of hours doing body prep and paint rub out.

 

I don't see any harm done by the young lady who touched the car.

That's the price you pay sometimes.

I guess you could always keep the car at home in the garage under a parachute or sumpin....

 

She would have stuck her hands in bird shit or bug splatters on my truck. Must suck to have to get out a rag, watch over your stuff so closely that you can't even enjoy being there...I'd imagine the paint company figured out some way to allow the paint to hold up to people touching it.

Mootz

 

It could have something to do with the sign that was less than 4 inches from her hand and in the way as she was looking through the window. Gumpa

 

The fact is that some people are idiots, and if you can't deal with this fact then you probably need to find a hobby that does not involve being anywhere near other people....or at least not putting your pride and joy in a place where idiots can damage it.

I'd rather have to wipe off fingerprints than have to rebuild the car because the girl was driving badly and crashed into my car.

 

True story.....I was once at a show and one of these rockabilly chicks, about 18-19 strolls up to my shoebox and says "i just love your car, would you mind if i sat in it?"......I had no problem with that so she gets in grabs the steering wheel and while just sitting there looking straight ahead says to no one in particular "i just came"...................Geez

 

If you don't realize that people are stupid and can't read plain English, then you should stand by your car fully armed and shoot everyone that touches your car. Most of us realize that people are stupid and can't read plain English. Not trying to be a dick, just pointing out the obvious. Common sense left the building long ago.

 

I have to agree about the wiping fingerprints rather than rebuild but I just felt real sorry for this guy. You could tell he was really upset at her and so was I. I had been asking him about his car because we are building the Dodge and I wanted some info but she just ruined the entire mood. Gumpa

 

Folks don't always see the little do-not-touch signs on the cars.

As well as people that are not in the hobby don't have the etiquette part of taking a close look at a nice car down pat.

Next time, open the door and invite her to take a closer look.

It's good for you and good for the hobby....

 

Good point! Plus you could educate her about the sign in a polite way so she never does it to anyone elses car!

 

also most folks consider cars to be just a transportation module.....they have no concept of how we feel about cars, how much work and thought we put into them, etc.

 

It's amazing that some guys wanna make excuses for these idiots. They need to keep their fuckin' hands off shit that isn't theirs. Period. The fact that a vehicle is parked in public doesn't give anyone the "ok" to touch it without the owners permission. Doesn't matter if it is bright and shiney or a POS. This is a good example of why we have so many people in this country who refuse to take responisbiility for their actions....there is a huge line of people ready to make excuses for them and explain why the problem is someone elses fault.

 

It goes both ways. I was at the local cruisin hot spot last weekend and a young (maybe 16 to 19 years old) girl was standing by me saying how she doesn't know how the guys with really nice cars can take 'em out in public with all the idiots around!

So...it's not just the young ones, or just the older ones...stupidity knows no age boundaries...that gal understood what the cars mean to their owners, where others her age have no clue!

Some older guy felt perfectly comfortable leaning on my 49 last summer while talking to his buddies, until I leaned on his gleaming Camaro and set a bottle of water on his hood! His buddies laughed because he wasn't in a position to say shit about it!

 

You can run your hand over my car if I can run my car over your hand.

 

Some reasonable points, but there are folks who are inclined to be tactile and I don't think a lot of them realize they are touching something.
It's just the way they are.

Sweetie and I had the 32 sitting in the General Sherman parking lot up in Sequoia National Forest.

We were having a picnic lunch a couple hundred feet from the roadster.
A bus load of Japanese tourists got out and several of them wandered over to look at the roadster.
They were polite and stood back, but there came a point where they had to touch the car.
Just lightly and only on the upholstery, but we found it interesting and no big deal.

I don't touch other peoples cars, but the cars with the little signs make me wonder sometimes.

Maybe they oughta buy some of those velvet ropes and brass stands like theaters use....

 

That, and her mom be single and a real hottie too!!!



Geez, I'm so lonely....... (sniffs - wipes away tear)

 

How about the totally dumbf**k that stood his little kid on the lower wing of a restored Stearman biplane.......................

I was 100ft away washing my plane when the owner cold-cocked him


.......................nobody saw nuthin..............

 

Wow, that's a bit extreme, don't you think? I understand the incredible expense and time that a repair would take, but abject violence?

 

I look at it like this...Local car show, it is gonna get fondled. it's almost too "homey" for it not to happen. if you really don't want anyone close enough to touch, you need a velvet rope. and let's face it, it's a little ridiculous for a car to be sitting in a grass field amongst dozens of other cars with a rope around it. I have a different approach. the stickers (which are usually quite small) don't always catch the eye of the untrained casual observer. but the same observer is naturally going to be curious enought to want to see the guts,so (and this wasn't my idea-but it was a good one)the last car I saw that was "blockaded" did it very tastefully-various parts,tools,and stuff were painter to match the car,and laid in a tight perimiter around the car-and the drivers door was open, but the door latches were connected with a fabbed peice to keep it open,and folks out. the "billboard" was attached to the support,to keep the little ones out of the car.it was cool-like a line of salt drawn around a slug,no one crossed the barrier, and no one had to hop in...
and it was alot less pretintious than the velvet rope.

personally, I don't give much of a crap. my car became the worlds biggest parasol during the round up this year. (nothing better than a wagon full of hot chicks,ya know...well, except mabey good looking ones.)

 

I agree. I hate it when ugly hot chicks sweat all over my upholstery.

 

Gumpa I don't know about the North West anymore but the average highschool graduate around here doesn't read or understand English and no I'm not talking about the Hispanics.

I gotta laugh though, about 3 years back I took my old hooptie galaxie to the Goodguys show here in town. At the suggestion of someone way more influencial than myself I powerparked all weekend. I was hopeing for the Best Use of a very old Earl Schieb job award.

Anyway I parked early on Saturday morning and one of the local Chebby Clubs pulls up and starts parking around me. I offered to pull down a bit and they said not a problem. Really nice resto type rides all glitzy and shinny(sp).

I boggied off to wander and I didn't come back 'til afternoon. I see these guys rubbing and wipeing all over my old car. I wander over and say what's up? The leader looks at me and points;there are handprints and smuges all over the doors and tops of the fenders and then appologozes. He said that he was sorry they should have been paying more attention. I told him to forget it it was just an old beater. but it wouldn't do they basically cleaned and waxed my old car.

Ya just never know I guess most folks just think its an old car and what's a hand on the door gonna hurt. They probably touch the cars they drive or ride in all the time.

 

It always has and always will happen. As I stated before I have an extensive restoration background and that has taken me to so many venues I can't recall them all. I do remember exhibiting a Packard (my specialty at one time, or still?) at the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village. It was in July and there was a foreign family looking at all the old cars. I only noticed them as they were dressed as if it was 40deg out, yet it was in the mid 80s. While trying to get a pic of that one the dad decided to pic up the lil boy and have him stand ON THE FUCKIN FENDER RIGHT NEXT TO THE HEADLIGHT!! I stopped them before he got him up there and in some european garble they were telling me "what's the big deal?" for lack of a better understanding. Perhaps they would know if they worked those panels over as I had, and it certainly wasn't done to allow some little fuckers shoes to stand on my finished product!! When security came by (they got them) I explained the deal and they explained it to them...some fuckin how.

At Pebble Beach in 91 some oriental visitors were lookin at one of my Packards. As in every sterotype you've seen they indeed had a camera hangin around their necks. Wanting to see inside they leaned in way too close and were it not for my hand the lense woulda bashed the door. I was polite enough, asked if they'd like the door opened for a pic or a better look. Believe it or not the lil fuckers shined me on and DID IT AGAIN!! Not so polite I asked them to watch the camera. As if not enough, after trying to get me to believe thay didn't understand English, THEY FUCKIN DID IT AGAIN!!! When I told em "Do you understand, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY CAR?", they seemed to speak English very well.

So yeah, it happens. I saw a kid using a Duesenberg front fender as a slide at Auburn Indidana one year too. Best I could do was help the guy polish out the scuffs the lil prick left on his fender.

The reality is, present company excluded of course, very few people have even a the least amount of respect for a finish, finished product, or what it took that owner to get it that way. We may as well face the fact that they never will.

 

There were words exchanged prior to the violence, that's what caught my attention, and the owner was a little dude......but in damn good shape!

 

Like was said, most people don't realize how much work goes into building a car. Lord knows none of mine are nice enough to worry about!

 

As its turns out COMMON SENSE isn't so COMMON.

 

upholstery?!? oh you must mean the rubberized seat backs in the wagon.
I was much more concerned over the rust that was sure to grow after the sweat puddled in the spare tire well...

 

I work retail. I know this ALL too well!