Why do we love these cars? (research)

self expression ...oh and the girls just love it.

 

I'll be 65 in a few months.

Around 12-13 I started noticing girls were different in a much different way than at an earlier age. Doing my paper route on a bike I started noticing guys picking up girls walking home from school. No schoolbuses back then. Being an observant type I noticed that the guys with out of the ordinary cars were very successful getting seat mates.

Around the same time, 1953-4, the first rod and custom books came out. I bought all I could and was hooked. At that time I was living out in Nassau County, NY and it was already a hotbead of car action.

At that early age I much preferred customs over rods, they had so much more style and individuality. You can only do so much with a fenderless Model A coupe and room was totally unsatisfactory for getting laid.

By 1955 my best friends dad and uncle had the premier auto body shop in town, a pair of old world Swedes who could fix anything. They also ran a couple of stock cars at Freeport and Islip. After very little pleading I was hired part time, working on Saturdays and vacations.

Those 2 Swedes were hard taskmasters but bent over backwards to teach me their trade. In about 6 months they suggested I buy a car and practice on it. That arrived in the form of a $40 49 Ford 2dr, a decent and straight runner. I was still 18 months from getting a drivers license.

Altho the shop was known for high dollar work fixing customers smashed Cadillacs, Chryslers, etc, they dabbled in custom work and did not balk at what I wanted to do to the Ford.

By the time I got my license that Ford was chopped, 54 Merc tails, DeSoto grille, shaved, louvered, etc, a full race 286" flathead and a red and white tuck and roll interior. I did all the work (over and over until they were satisfied) except for the upholstery which was done by one of their customers who sent them a lot of work and vice versa. I paid for only materials.

It was fast and sexy, the back seat was regularly being used.

At 17 I also started driving one of their stock cars at Freeport and moved up several classes as I got experience and a reputation for being smart and fearless. Got my 1st broken nose in a pit fight!

Over the next few years I built another custom, a 49 Olds coupe and dabbled with a 34 Ford roadster which I came to hate for its archaic mechanical features. I upgraded it to juice brakes and a 59A engine and dumped it at a steep $400 for about a $200 profit. WOW!

After that it was one custom after another, usually with an engine swap or at least some speed mods.

By 1964 I was more interested in speed and plunked down $2700 for a new GTO convertible with a 389 tripower, 4spd and 4.10 posi rear. That turned into a money pit over the next 3 years but it also came within 3 hundredths of a second of the B/FX record.

In 67 I got married and the GTO plus my 327 powered 57 Chevy ragtop were sold so I could put a decent down payment on my first house.

Not too many months later I bought a 68 Camaro 327 ragtop for me and a 63 Impala SS 327 ragtop for the missus. Nothing fast but no 6cyl 4dr clunkers either.

Fast foreward over the next few decades, job moves around the country and opportunities to see ideas from different areas. Some more customs, a 36 Ford coupe to the very first NSRA Nationals in Peroria, a love affair with 30's era Buicks, more customs, rods, Corvettes. I never stopped enjoying the fun of building, driving and the looks I got. 99% of everything I had was home built, sometimes in a gravel driveway.

Oh, forgot to mention, my jobs were all RF electronics and some fun with early computer companies. Working on cars didnt pay for the groceries of a growing family.

In 1999 I moved to my current home which sits on 5 acres on a hill at a dead end. Plenty of room to start a part time car biz. After 9/11/2001 the hi tech industry in this area shit the bed and I went to my first love full time as the money was now there from all the yuppies around here. The shop is now in the next town in a converted barn and I have 3 workers, one is to become a full partner when I turn 65 and eventually the owner as I phase out and start collecting Social Security.

I have several very low mile 50's- 60's originals in storage as my 401K. Recent auction prices shows that they are worth some very serious money. Maybe my kids can fight over it.

Regular drivers are a 53 Ford Victoria done up as an early 60's style custom with a 286" flathead; a 54 Ford F350 with a warmed up 292 Y block and a 68 Impala SS-396 ragtop. Personal in process projects are a vintage wrecker; a Y block powered A roadster vintage drag Altered; and a 43 Ford 1/2 ton (B&M Railroad WW2 yard truck) Olds Rocket powered, 38 LaSalle tranny, shop truck.
I told the wife I want one of the pickups as my hearse if I croak suddenly. There may also be a 48 Buick 2dr fastback in my very near future; that would mean selling the 53 and building a real sled.

So it all started over pussy and just kept evolving.

My older kids, all boys, never had an interest in cars except asking for gas money. The one remaining at home is 18 and he may become a gearhead; he has been building and riding ATV's and dirt bikes since he was 12.

Thanks for listening.

 

Going down to the new car lot ,plunking down a large sum of cash, making payments for five years, driving the piss out of it and doing it all over again all on a car that every other Joe is driving, no way!!!!
Finding an old rust bucket tucked away in the corner of someones' yard. Haggling with the owner for months trying to get it to sell it to you. Dragging it home and tearing into it in your driveway. Spending hours working on it with your son. Finally firing it up and taking that first spin around the neighborhood.

This is why we love these cars

 

the thing i like about old cars is that they reflect very deliberate design decisions. because of the nature of the manufacturing process, if a line or curve is there, it's meant to be there. the cars nowadays are so cookie cutter and full of diluted design; it's easy to do this, to throw random lines that don't make sense on a car because it's so easy to manufacture, given the new technology. only very recently has really great design come back into play, but usually only on the higher end stuff — 350z, bug, etc. (few exceptions, the xb). i like rods and customs because they take those deliberate designs and try to make them better. or give a whole different spin on it entirely. it's our chance to play god.

 

I gotta say that all of the parts I like about cars are the parts you dont get to stare at. For me it is all about the machine. and thier own personalities.
all of us have "old faithful" or "the bitch" or "the beater"
and all of them seem to act as they are treated.
I know alot of guys who call thier car by a given name as if it were a family member or a close friend.

and I guys who would sooner sell thier mothers than thier cars, regardless of how small of a ball its rolled up into.