In my neck of the woods, the young guys/gals are driving Mustangs, MoPars and the still Illegal "Carolina Squat" full-size trucks/SUV's.... Where are the fresh faces out there to carry the hobby into tomorrow? I figure OFF TOPIC as good a place as any to ask....
There are none! We’re all doomed! Doomed I tell ya! Hot rodding is dead and over. Let’s all go home! It’s dead and over! Are you happy now? Instead of complaining start building and teaching!!!!
Speaking from a relatively young background in terms of this niche (40 years old) it’s too expensive for most kids, these mustangs and chargers are ‘affordable’ and plentiful fun for them, here in the uk it’s small engined turbo European hatchbacks (Vw golf, ford fiesta etc etc) I was well into my thirties before I could afford anything resembling a HAMB suitable vehicle. I see posts on here daily from guys that are 70+ already with multiple projects buying up more vehicles. Are they realistic going to ever be finished? If the cars aren’t out there for kids to find and ‘get into’ then they won’t bother. It was mentioned on a thread the other day that perhaps attending some meets where these kids are, they might show interest and perhaps want to join in on a project or learn new skills. just my tuppence.
I'm kinda hoping this thread would flush out some "Young Guns" and their o/t builds. I'm almost 59 and on disability, if you're wondering. I know the economy is ROUGH, I'm trying to stay optimistic that there IS fresh faces building something. With print media steadily dying, and reading how infamous shops have went under these last few, it's a honest question.
Im still on the "young" scale at 32, but I have grown up in and around hot rods, customs and muscle cars as I went everywhere with my grandparents who traveled alot with their cars. Plus my grandfather always had something in the garage he was working on so I have always been into pretty much anything pre 1972. I have to agree that if you like the old stuff and wanting to stay very true to a traditional theme, it can get expensive in a hurry for someone in their 20's. Another thing is most guys my age are just not into Model A's, 32-34 Ford, etc. If you didn't have a neighbor or family member into them you were never really naturally exposed to them much. With video games and tv the oldest things you were constantly hit with was muscle cars so that's why the younger group still has an interest in them. I have gone to some of the tuner/import meets before and can say while the kind of car is not what we like, they typically have the same passion and drive that we do for their cars and they are going through the same issues we are with prices. Those little Nissans and Hondas values have shot through the roof as well, pricing people out. I think the only skill set being lost with the new stuff is customizing, since most view "custom" as "insert brand" bodykits and such. Not much of swapping lights or canting quads or shaving door handles or even looking at one car and seeing what parts could be pulled off for another car. There are still some youth's out there messing with the old cars, just not many doing it the "traditional" way.
People generally gravitate toward the kind of cars they rode around in when they were very young, under 5, or what the cool kids were driving when they were a teenager.
There will likely be a glut of old cars up for grabs that nobody wants. Maybe in 5 to 10 years is my guess. I have passed up great deals on "geezers" that were heading to Florida for good. Maybe then the young guns will show some interest in them.
I have been saying that for over 10 years! Still no $1,500 Deuces. The heirs all want their inheritance money.
I think the prices of our Hot Rods are loosing value every day due to the younger ones that aren't interested or can't afford them. My son liked my Hot Rods and liked to drive one whenever the opportunity came up but not interested in owning one. On the other hand his son has taken ownership of the one in my avatar and calls it his Hot Rod. So maybe just maybe there is hope! lol (he's 9)
There are still young hot rodders out there. I have seen some very young builders interested in the stuff we talk about here every day. Heck, my oldest son who is 20 is talking about building an early 30’s Chevy coupe drag car now instead of the late model (2000’s) vette he was planning on. The only reason he is thinking old is because he grew up riding in old stuff. Just yesterday, he was commenting on just how influential my 52 Chevy, 68 Chevelle, and 56 Ford were on him growing up. Kids want to build what they can afford and what they have fond memories with. We are the ones that can pass this hobby on.
Apparently Kansas City. Car culture is massive here from 5 year olds to 500 year olds. One of my favorite things about the city
My grandson is 24. He would love to have a hot rod, but being married with a 3 yo and a 1 year old, hot rods are not at the top of his priority list. Paying the house payment for the needy house he just bought, buying food, and currently paying his heating bill are his highest priority. He has a good job as the #3 ranked line mechanic at the dealership he works at pays well, but with 2 small children, his wife takes care of the kids and things at home, so they are a single income family living in today's world. He does have a mid 70s Dodge pickup that isn't running, that he has managed to hang onto for several years. One day he would like to build it, he does have a vision of what it might look like, so the dream is still alive, it just on hold for now. The hard reality is, if he was building it now, you probably wouldn't be reading about it here. Posting a built thread is a pain in the rear, and simply documenting it for a future build thread probably doubles the build time, most younger guys don't have the free time available to document the build, let alone writing the descriptions of it. I suspect the reputation of the HAMB board deleting off topic subjects probably keeps a lot of younger guys away. The word of this "Off Topic" section still hasn't gotten out to most of them yet. It hasn't even reached most of the guys on the main board yet.
Lots of young guys running around in the Valley of the Sun are into the old stuff. Just did a run last Saturday, must of been 20 or so kids running old junk. Some street rods, some rat rods.
I got into old cars/hot rods growing up among my older cousins who in my eyes were KOOL! ,they all drove what was called souped-up jalopy's, I was only like 9 yrs old and they would take me for rides once in a while, and the cars were loud and fast and they didn't drive like my father, they listened to rock&roll on the radio's!!! They were KOOL!! I wanted to be kool exactly like them. But the straw that broke my back my couisn Sonny took me to the New York Colosseum to a CUSTOM CAR-HOT ROD show put on by the Drivin Deuces. I was hooked for life of Hot Rods and Rock & Roll. Where are those KOOL cousins and friends to influence this younger generation? Let's face it we're not KOOL to them(we're probably there grandfathers) Old guys who sit in front of their cars in parking lots, LOTS of fun.......They're influenced by Fast and Furious movies, and what kind of cars the girls like.I've said it before some of the these tuner cars have just as much work into them as we do in our Jalopy's.. Good for them they're expressing themselves in the generation they live in, not ours,!
I'll be 31 in March. The reason I'm into the Early stuff has a lot to do with my Grandpa. I have been helping him since I was 10 or even earlier. I helped him with a '36 3-window he was building. I think that is what really got me in to it. From there him and I built a '51 Ford F-1 together. I still have that truck and drive it as often as I can. If he didn't take me under his wing and guide me. I most likely would have never had interest in the Early stuff. While my friends were buying diesel trucks and tuning them. I was playing with a flathead in a '39 Ford. Even though we had cars in common, It wasn't the same. I'm not sure how to explain it... It still isn't the same. There is no one in my area that is my age that builds anything early or traditional. ( At least not that I know of). Most of my friends have snowmobiles, motorcycles, or diesel stuff. And that is very few as well.
I just turned 24 and ive been into hot rods and kustoms a my life. But they are just to expansive and rare to me. Im from the Netherlands so you dont see a lot of good projects. So for now im building my more modern car and having fun doing that until i can afford a pre war ford.
In my opinion, the tuner cars ARE the new hot rods. What were hot rods back in the day? Cheap, old cars that some kids modified to go fast, right? Same thing with tuners, except a lot more can be done with programming than part changes. There is still a lot that goes into suspension work, part and engine swaps, body work, paint/wraps and engine presentation. You could argue the same thing for lifted trucks. I still prefer old cars, but I appreciate tuner cars for what they are. How many new/current hot rod builds have 90% of their parts ordered from a catalog anyway?
There are a lot out there. They are building cars that are easy to get parts for, or are buying factory hot rods they can go to the bank for. They have old hot rods. They are just waiting for their pop or gramps to stop driving. That way they don't have to built it.
Many of the HAMB and retro rod legends started out building mini trucks or VW's! This IS the Off Topic board, and I for one am hoping to see the young blood both shine AND grow HERE! Even the late Gray Baskerville equated those Honda tuner rods with the original dry lake bangers.....
The Jalopy Journal
