Where is the custom car & hot rod life the strongest???

The North East is pretty happening
We have...
Hershey..the best swapmeet without a doubt!
The Jalopy Showdown...more fun than you'll ever have in Cali!
The Road Agents show...just a good show!
There are plenty more traditional shows.
Then there is the street rod shows..
York is second only to Louiville..
Hershey got off to a good start..

There's hot rods and street rods all over the place around here. I would bet within a 5 mile radius of my house there are more than a dozen cars...and I live in the country.
Clark

 

I was joking, Florida sucks, nobody cares, I love Florida but the young guys down here couldn't care less about hot rods or customs. They just care about getting wasted and talking about the car they're gonna buy.....sure.

California was, and always be the center of what we call sacred.

I blame it on the weather.

 

The place people LOVE to HATE... California.

And more specifically... Los Angeles.

Check out DRD57's web page... http://donshotrodpage.net/events.htm

Except for the Lone Star Round Up... all those shows are in California.

You've heard of a few of them... but the rest are just little events...

Those little events will attract more cool cars than do most the big shows that are held all over the rest of the planet.

See for yourself, check out the links on his page to the Donut Derelicts cruise in or the Twilight Cruise. Those aren't big named GOODGUYS shows, or shows that recieve a ton of media attention or promotion on web sites... just car crazy guys having a gawkin' session...

There is virtually something going on every night of the week during the summer months...

Plain and simple, LA has it going on.... is the grand poo-bah... the biggest, car craziest area on the planet.

Sam.

 

Just make the trip to the roadster show ,any of the so-cal swaps ,paso ,etc and that should answer yer question .Though i have seen in my travels old rides just about everywhere , cali has the bulk of them .I also have been to show in other states where alotta the plates where not from the home state.Just don't come to arizona too many peple here already .

 

Nad sack, you need to live here man.

 

Bald Knob, Arkansas. Smackover runs a close second.

 

If it wasn't for weather, I think Detroit would be THE place. Being as we gotta fit it all in during our 3 week summer, we don't stand a chance against SoCal though. But man, we sure get a lot done in those 3 weeks.

 

Ive been seeing more and more traditional rods around here in the past few years. From what Ive gathered at shows, everyone thinks old hot rods are cool as hell, but no one knows anything about them. If you tell someone your putting 6 carbs on your car, they look at you like your speaking Portuguease. I think it could really catch on here in the next few years though. Just in the past year Ive already convinced about a dozen people that primer is the coolest color!
-Dean

 

i saw this in Tennessee yesterday! you guys like 'em jacked up!

 

In between my ears.

 

Ga...........'cause they told me so.

 

It could be true.

I read a thing from the National highway something that next to California, Ohio has the most registered Historical vehicles. Meaning cars older than 72.

And there are soooo many weeknite cruises that you can choose a different one each week almost for each day.

 

Not far from you in SE Ma. there used to be a lot of cars and the local industrial park was for racing every weekend since the 50s.
People in this area actually do speak Portuguese, paint thier houses in pastel colours, and love to put brass lions at the end of thier driveways.
Haven't been there in many, mnay years but I would expect a there are alot of old cars still around.

regards,
Doug

 

hey, hey, hey, now. where's the love? wait, miami sucks as far as a hot rod 'scene'. no, it really sucks. put it this way, i have the "Hot Wheels" logo tattoo'd on my forearm. there used to be a roller skating place down here called, hot wheels. when people see the tattoo more than anything i get..."hey, kool tat, did you used to skate?"

the place you are looking for is not at the dickhead of the country.

 

There's one reason I wouldn't live in California, earthquakes.

 

and maybe those horrible windy thingys that come over florida once in a while is a reason maybe not to live there?

naturals disasters suck!

 

I think you're right.

I don't know about Michigan and Minnesota, but the Wisconsin laws (or enforcement, thereof) has been allowing us to build and drive some pretty hairy cars. With the freedom to do it, why not do it?

Besides, we have all the yuppie Hardly riders, from the 90's, realizing they're still gay and searching for some instant cool click to jump into...


JOE

 

www.cruisintimes.org lists most of everything going on around cleveland

 

That’s funny, that old myth is still working.
In my 45 years iv felt one earthquake.

 

Well I experienced one in Glendale in '87, it was enough to scare me forever.

 

Lots of stuff going on in the North Mid-west, but it can be wherever you live. Get busy.

 

Midwest contains some pretty good hotrod areas -- Twin Cities, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit. Naturally handy people, long winters mean time in the garage, and enough summer to justify it.

But when you talk about "custom car & hot rod life" there's still really only one place that really matters -- California. The only thing remotely comparable is the what's been developing in Texas in the past ten years.

 

I have to agree with Sam..., I've lived all over the U.S. and So Cal has it in spades...!

What is most interesting..., there are a bunch of "Good Deals" there as well!

I would take a short drive away from the coast into the desert and find reasonable deals and bring them over to the coast and make a few bucks...!!!

My biggest problem of So Cal is that I couldn't work on anything outside or it would get towed away....!!! ((Shitty Neighborhood covenants!!!)

The midwest is the host of many silent "Hoarders" and it's amazing what I've seen in this "Goofy" area..., from C-130's Cargo Planes in a pole barn..., to a barn full of Vintage Indy Racers from the 20's, 30's, and a couple from the 40's....!!!!!!

But the midwest only shines for it's one week of summer and then it's back to the shop or storage...!

 

Same goes for Pittsburgh. In PA the place to be is out around York where the So What crew is. In OH, the Youngstown area seems the place to be.

 

I'm from west virginia, I was shocked at how many pre-75 cars there are on the road here in the desert. Not uncommon to see a unrestored 50's car chugging down the road, quite a few 60's cars out, not many 70's it seems. I honestly believe there's more elcaminos and rancheros out here than anywhere else, it's crazy, they are all over the place. People are more willing to drive old hotrods out here more often, probably because of the weather.... I see this one really sweet bucket sometimes (body is as tall as the tires), there's about 8 different 30's cars I see on a weekly basis. And the hording... holy cow, i'd lke to take some pictures of the fenced off areas out here, just so people from other places would understand. I've seen areas out in the raw desert that would put most junkyards to shame, amazing collections of old cars, trucks, and industrial equipment... There's lots of land, no real reason to scrap anything.

 

Back To The Fifties in Minnesota draws 10,000 cars. It's not run by GoodGuys or NSRA either. That must count for something....

 

So Fritz, are you moving...or just wanting an opinion?

If you're just asking, I'd say anywhere in the mid-Midwest...80% of the population of the US live east of the Mississippi...that means on any given spring/sumer/fall weekend...there's more shows, events, cruises then you could ever possibly attend.

Having said that...let me follow that with the west coast...Cali seems to get all the attention...be that from the quality of cars that are there to the out-of-the-box thinking/building, to the mag coverage (and most of the major mags are Cali-based) to events large and small...and you can do all the events you care to drive to 365 days a year...can't do that in all locations in the US...

Forget about Denver and ColoRODo...it's all tree-huggers around here and mis-placed Californians and Texans...if you're not into sports, skiing, bicycling, hiking, climbing, four seasons in four days and mountains in general, then this environment is not for you...but, I wouldn't live anywhere else.

Just MHO...and you asked for it.

R-

 

Id say Kansas-Nebraska- Missouri- Illinois- Iowa ,as this area has lots of hot rod bussinesses and runs/shows annually.we really have a serious amount of participants/builders/clubs......

 

40stude, yah im always thinking of getting out, I live on an island (long Island NY) and to get past the city it takes on average 1 1/2 to 2 hours and evey time i get invited to a show its a min of 10 hours to dive there so i figured my shop would do better where all the "action" was, Like Nads said about florida its dead here matter of fact we used to say florida was like long island but with palm trees. so Yah first chance i can to suport my wife and i out of the ny metro area Im gone
FRITZ