chopdtop
01-07-2007, 04:42 PM
I joined a while back but only browsed the boards a little here and there.
I'm in Southern Colorado, a town called Pueblo. Kind of a small town but there are quite a few people into cars here.
I remember my dad taking us to car shows all the time. My favorite shows were the Concour De Elegance shows that were held at The Broadmoor. I always wanted one of them cars, but quickly realized they were out of my price range!
The three cars that I've built and owned weren't well received around here because they didn't fit the mold of what is popular. But who cares, I had fun with them anyway. My car in high school was a '69 El Camino. The price was right. After buyign it I slightly lowered it, shaved the door handles, frenched the antenna and put Moon discs on it. People didn't like it because I didn't give it a "muscle car" look. But I thought shaving the door handles cleaned the lines up and made it look smoother. And the selection of rims at the time didn't have anything that caught my eye.
The next one was a '74 Datsun,It was what I could afford at the time and at the time parts were cheap and easy to find.This one I radically chopped, smoothed and lowered it. Again people didn't like it because it was a little truck, not an American hot rod. Who cares, I had fun in it and did a lot of the work myself. Friends did the chop and the upholstery and the 1rst paint job. Drove it to Cali. and back for a truck show and didn't see another one like it the whole trip. It ended up getting totalled and I drove a normal car for a long time. Accidents will mess with your head. And that one still messes with mine.
Got a deal on another little truck that I helped build when I was doing mine, a '76 Datsun king cab. The owner started it but never did much too it other than when we lowered it, made a walk-thru bed (turn around from the drivers seat and get directly into the bed of the truck), windowless shell and moon discs. We put the truck in primer and he never figured out a color to paint it so it was left in primer. Again, people didn't like it because it was primer and not an American hot rod like theirs. But I still had fun hauling parts and drove the piss out of it.
Now I've got a 1937 Ford pickup that I'm trying to get on the road. The truck had the chop started in the late 70's, but they got as far as cutting the top off , removing some metal, tacking it back together and that was it. Then it sat in a field until I got it. They fiber-glassed the firewall smooth at one point but by the time I got it the fiber-glass was falling off.
It's taking me a long time to get things done on the truck for a few reasons. First and foremost is that I've got an intestinal condition that makes it hard to find and keep a job. And in Pueblo, good jobs are hard to come by anyway if you don't know people. So doing merchandising and mystery shopping, because they usually allow me to set my own schedule, is how I try and make ends meet. Besides that I make a little money buying things wholesale and re-selling them. Not a lot of money doing that, but every bit helps.
Secondly, progress is slow on the truck because of my wreck. Mentally, I find it hard to work on the truck sometimes because it just seems like a waste of time and money when it can all be gone in a second like the chopped truck.
And thirdly, when I do get working on it it's slow again because I don't have a lot of spare money to spend on it because of my employment situation.
But with the help of a good friend I started working on it a little more lately. getting the things done that don't really need too much money, just time and labor.
Hopefully I'll get the truck on the road soon and get to enjoy driving it.
Sorry for the long read, but that's my introduction.:)
I'm in Southern Colorado, a town called Pueblo. Kind of a small town but there are quite a few people into cars here.
I remember my dad taking us to car shows all the time. My favorite shows were the Concour De Elegance shows that were held at The Broadmoor. I always wanted one of them cars, but quickly realized they were out of my price range!
The three cars that I've built and owned weren't well received around here because they didn't fit the mold of what is popular. But who cares, I had fun with them anyway. My car in high school was a '69 El Camino. The price was right. After buyign it I slightly lowered it, shaved the door handles, frenched the antenna and put Moon discs on it. People didn't like it because I didn't give it a "muscle car" look. But I thought shaving the door handles cleaned the lines up and made it look smoother. And the selection of rims at the time didn't have anything that caught my eye.
The next one was a '74 Datsun,It was what I could afford at the time and at the time parts were cheap and easy to find.This one I radically chopped, smoothed and lowered it. Again people didn't like it because it was a little truck, not an American hot rod. Who cares, I had fun in it and did a lot of the work myself. Friends did the chop and the upholstery and the 1rst paint job. Drove it to Cali. and back for a truck show and didn't see another one like it the whole trip. It ended up getting totalled and I drove a normal car for a long time. Accidents will mess with your head. And that one still messes with mine.
Got a deal on another little truck that I helped build when I was doing mine, a '76 Datsun king cab. The owner started it but never did much too it other than when we lowered it, made a walk-thru bed (turn around from the drivers seat and get directly into the bed of the truck), windowless shell and moon discs. We put the truck in primer and he never figured out a color to paint it so it was left in primer. Again, people didn't like it because it was primer and not an American hot rod like theirs. But I still had fun hauling parts and drove the piss out of it.
Now I've got a 1937 Ford pickup that I'm trying to get on the road. The truck had the chop started in the late 70's, but they got as far as cutting the top off , removing some metal, tacking it back together and that was it. Then it sat in a field until I got it. They fiber-glassed the firewall smooth at one point but by the time I got it the fiber-glass was falling off.
It's taking me a long time to get things done on the truck for a few reasons. First and foremost is that I've got an intestinal condition that makes it hard to find and keep a job. And in Pueblo, good jobs are hard to come by anyway if you don't know people. So doing merchandising and mystery shopping, because they usually allow me to set my own schedule, is how I try and make ends meet. Besides that I make a little money buying things wholesale and re-selling them. Not a lot of money doing that, but every bit helps.
Secondly, progress is slow on the truck because of my wreck. Mentally, I find it hard to work on the truck sometimes because it just seems like a waste of time and money when it can all be gone in a second like the chopped truck.
And thirdly, when I do get working on it it's slow again because I don't have a lot of spare money to spend on it because of my employment situation.
But with the help of a good friend I started working on it a little more lately. getting the things done that don't really need too much money, just time and labor.
Hopefully I'll get the truck on the road soon and get to enjoy driving it.
Sorry for the long read, but that's my introduction.:)