Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Christine: Our cars have a soul... Continue reading the Original Blog Post
I was one of those guys in high school: into 1950s music (always on local AM radio and Saturday mornings on KOFY TV from the Bay Area), culture and cars. My friend, at another high school, had a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. And after a couple years of drooling over other Cadillacs I found in the weekly Pennysaver classifieds, I found my 1958 Sedan. Fixed it up and took my driver’s test in it. Drove it daily to high school; took my date to the senior prom. Joined a local car club and took it to Graffiti Night in Modesto and Goodguys in Merced. Finally had to sell it in college when it was too expensive for upkeep and continued restoration. I miss it, but really enjoy early Ford hot rods now.
She had the smell of a brand-new car. That's just about the finest smell in the whole world "cept maybe for .....
My first car was a 57 Plymouth 4 door Savoy, with a 318 and a typewriter transmission. It was cool to cruise up and down 17th street in Merced back when I was in high school, little did I know back then, that cool MOPAR would be the beginning of a life long obsession with all things automotive and mechanical, land, sea and air !
The only cars with soul are the cars that are loved by their care takers. Those are the cars with blood and sweat that have permeated the molecules of the paint and brought breath to an otherwise inanimate chunk of steel.
Many moons ago when there was Swap Meets, I was walking the isles at Pomona and happened up guy selling a pair of fenders that appeared to be for a Fury,, but they looked funny. Had to ask. Welllll it seems he worked for special effects for Hollyweird and the fenders were off Christine,,, and they made of rubber,,, many of the parts of the car were built that way,,, way before good computer work,,, and what they did was remove the air from the fender to crush and dent, then reverse the film to 'remove' the dents. The fenders were the last of the project,, kool but what to do with them, no shop at the time, onward we moved,,,, cost???? $100.00
With all the prequel movies of late, I'd say we are due for a prequel Christine movie. Christine, the early years. With special guest my asshole brother.
man i wish my first could have been one, but at least my second car is a classic. since i needed something reliable to get me to and from school/work. i wanted a project to bring back to life, even as just a ratty old car.
Some cars have soul , some don’t. my first car was a shitter at the time ( 80 Z camaro) Now it’s a classic that get some serious money for a clean one
I say it's beyond our cars having a soul. If you built it it has a part of your soul! That's way I can never understand selling a car you built I view it as selling a child.
For the guy who thinks he missed out on a model of this.... https://www.amazon.com/Plymouth-Christine-Model-Horror-Molded/dp/B00B5DN54E
Of course cars have a soul! .....,Or should I say, did have souls.... Around 1977 I finished rebuilding, kind of restoring, a 1970 Cougar Eliminator that I picked up for 650 bucks. When I got it, it already had a Boss 351 transplant in it that was sorely in need of a major rebuild since she was rode hard and put away wet most nights, as the previous owner admitted to me when I picked her up. My parents were pissed! "Get that junk out of my driveway!" Dad finally calmed down when a co-worker at Ford told him my engine was worth more than what I paid for the whole car and he actually let me keep it in the garage where I could properly "restore" her. Well, I tore her down, repaired the rust (the wrong way of course), rebuilt the four speed top-loader (hmmm, Dad got me all new bearings and synchros for that), pulled the engine a piece at a time right out of the engine bay and rebuilt it the same way! (Hell, I didn't have an engine hoist), put in a special grind Crower mechanical cam and downsized the carb from a sloppy 750 double pumper to a more reasonable 650. Man, she drove a lot better1 I didn't know how to paint so I got her a nice $99 special at MAACO. The guys there spent extra time on her and actually taped her off, finished some of my less than stellar body work, and didn't charge me any extra. She was grateful. I'd jump in, pump the pedal twice, hit the key and she always fired right up. At least for me. Anybody else that tried to start her, always had a hard time and she'd give them all kinds of excuses why she wouldn't start. We always outran the cops, always impressed the ladies, and won many street races, even when we came up against a big-block Chevelle that had nitrous. That damn Chevelle couldn't hook-up, he kept spinning his skinny little tires until the next light. He caught up to us and passed us by then but she and I were laughing so hard it didn't matter. Or the time we were blasting down the road, we just passed the little shack that used to be "Gapp and Roush" (the precursor to "Roush Performance Engineering") and flew over the railroad tracks listening to "Radar Love". I have to tell you she never felt better than that cool fall day. I started out as a "paid mechanic" at the age of 14, started to get my shit together by the time I was 18 and have been working on cars, boats, and motorcycles ever since. Over the years all of these machines have slowly been losing their souls. anybody can jump into my newer truck, start her up, and have their way with it. It's just not right. MY Cougar, she always started for me, always ran better with me in the drivers seat and still tugs at my heart. I mean, why else do you love these old hot rods?
My coupe sold its soul to the devil! All new rebuild, nice car to drive but........ Massive oil leak due to new heads not having one rockerbox cover bolt hole threaded all the way. Oil then baked on polished exhaust system so they have got to come off and be repolished. After six months paint starts to sink. So stripped and back to the paint shop. Only managed to put 220 miles on it after a three year build! Wonder what is next.... Whiff.
Moparboy that reminds me of the car that Ben Chrysler had that lived down the street from me when I was in high school. Yes his last name was Chrysler and he had put two slit scoops in the leading edge of the hood and it looked cool.
Had an El Camino that was the spawn of the devil. Solved the problem by burning it to the ground. Figured I'd just have to fight fire, with fire. Swore I heard it scream a little....
I think a lot of us sympathizthe with the relationship between us and our cars. We learn the sounds and feel, and can tell when something isn't right. Good memories about the adventures and knowing what could be nursed home vs needing to stop and fix before moving on. Haven't had any cars that seemed contrary to me. Certainly had some head scratching problems to solve though.
If you believe your car has a soul, it probably does. If you believe your car doesn't have a soul, it probably doesn't. I think we have the ability to interject what ever we want into a car, good or bad. That said, it sure seems some cars take better care of us then other cars do. My old coupe sure has taken care of us. The poor old car has only let us down 2 times in nearly 100,000 miles, both of which were within a mile of home, not the 200 miles away the day before the first time, or the 2,000 miles from home the week before on the 2nd time. It has been the ultimate "Take me on that long drive, I'll be sure to get you home," kind of car. On the other hand, I built an old truck once that just didn't seem to like me (or it really liked the extra attention). It seemed that about every couple of weeks, something went wrong with it. Even though nearly everything was new, things kept breaking down. The truck drove great, and was a lot of fun, except when it decided not to work properly. The guy I sold it to has had a couple of breakdowns with it as well. He loves it more then I did, he enjoys fixing it. I guess that was what he was looking for, something that gave him an excuse to work on it. The truck was the ultimate "Let's have another fix me date," kind of ride. When I was a younger man, I had a car that was pretty evil. It ran hard, fast, and could get out of control very easily. You had to really pay attention to what you were doing when you drove it. I drove it hard, fast, and beat the crap out of it. It rewarded me with some really fun experiences, some really scary experiences, and some horrendous, expensive breakdowns. It was the ultimate "How wild do you want to be? I'll take you past the limit, if you want to go there," kind of car. People say cars like these have souls, I think its more like the cars have the personalities we inject into them. We expect them to do certain things, but sometimes the parts we built them from do not interact with each other as we think they should (or maybe they exceed our expectations), and we apply that that we don't understand into something the car has (or hasn't) or does (or does not). My expectation with a vehicle is a long trouble free ride. If it meets that standard, its with me a long time. If it doesn't, its gone pretty soon. The soul or personality I interject into a vehicle is dependent on how it meets my expectations. Gene
An all time classic. Was just thinking the other day that I hadn't seen it in a few years... guess I'll have to dig out my copy with Halloween around the corner.
Wore out a couple copies of that Tad Burness book. People talk about spending hours looking at the old Sears catalogs, that was me with that book.
I'm starting to think the one I'm building has a soul and don't want to be finished! Been working on it about 7 years. Of course, it's been pushed to the back corner multiple times. I've run into all kinds of problems building this car. It has a soul and that soul don't like me!
Not many people understand. We do. I don't know about cars having a soul, but they're definitely part of mine. Kind of a dichotomy. Old cars have ruined my life... keeping me from other things. Old cars have saved my life... keeping me from other things. All I know for sure, is that my soul is better fulfilled and even the air that I breathe is better with a project or two sitting here ready for my attention.
“I was indeed a hopeless nerd, but someday I would drive a cool old sled to school, maybe even one that was slightly evil. Something about the cars of this atomic era had energy, emotion, passion. It’s like they were indeed alive. The way an old car interior smells, the burble of a early V8 exhaust, and the warm hum of a tube radio… It’s just magic. You gotta respect that, love that. Arnie did.” Hello, What a cool story. It was a time of exploration and admiration. The cars of the late 50s just hit the scene and everyone of them was rather cool. For us, we were ready to drive and our friends’ parents had plenty of variety of family cars and “only dad” cars. So, when we were ready, it was a wide variety to choose from mellow cool looking sedans with fins or a fast sedan with tons of character and sound. Our world was just opening up. Luckily, our dad had his line of Buicks, as staid as they were. His 1957 blue Buick Roadmaster was a cruiser for sure and he felt secure in his daily drives to work and play. My brother jumped into the scene by selling his cool custom 51 Oldsmobile Sedan and got a new 1958 Impala. “the burble of a early V8 exhaust” Then the drag racing scene happened and we knew the Impala had some soul with the way it ran, gave us all it was worth and never let us down on the street. it was thousands of happy cruising/racing miles of tuning/maintenance, but no major repairs or replacements necessary. It did its share of burbling through the drive-in restaurant parking lots and down quiet streets. Jnaki Our love for the 57 Plymouth came with an article in Hot Rod Magazine about the exploits of their custom build and high speed runs. We all liked the Plymouth, but for some reason, none of our friends from 56 to 66 ever bought a Chrysler product. There was something in the air that prevented us from doing so. So, jump up to the second season of the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” series and check out the cool cars of the whole time period. (disregard the attention to the fine details of a studio car for the scenes. Alignment counts in finished products.) 1957 Plymouth Convertible “As for the show’s vehicular tour de force? This gorgeous 1957 Plymouth Convertible. The hue is sort of like Revlon’s Cherries in the Snow meets Fire and Ice, and it just works, on every single angular level. It’s all lines and beauty and sharp edges. We see it on full display in season 2, as the ride of Midge’s smitten new beau.” My wife’s version of Christine, without the after effects… but, plenty of soul and soul searching. YRMV
100% YES! Cars have souls. Cars and trucks are born, live, retire, die, and get resurrected. Some take on a male form and some are girls. I believe I am just a caretaker and part of me will be imprinted in every car or truck I build. My favorite thing to do is rescue old iron from the the depths of hell, re-birth its paperwork, and pass it on to someone whom will resurrect it from the dead. Everytime I walk by my avatar, the 35 Ford Dump, I'm reminded of it's story, the people who drove it, the roads and homes it built. I would like to think even in it's state of decomposition, that it is resting peacefully after years of hard work and abuse. These cars and trucks have stories and families and hell yes they have a soul. SAVE EM, DON'T CRUSH EM!
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