The DO NOT TOUCH!!! Guy

I went to the Street Rod Nationals a couple of years ago. Around noon, I decide to head back to the air conditioned motel room and come back at dusk. Some guy runs up and asks if he could talk to me, so I stop. He rubs his paws on the roof of my Model A and says, "I love your patina". I say thanks, where's your car. He points to a high buck '32 Roadster so I jump out, run over and run my paws over his cowl and say, "I really like your paint". He then apologizes for touching my car. I ask him, "Just curious, what makes you think you can touch other people's cars if you don't let them touch your?". He couldn't get away fast enough. He kept saying "sorry". Don't think he'll do that again.

 

I was talking about my car, not yours. I don't get upset about my stuff. Life's too short.

 

I was talking about my car too...

 

"Gold Chainers" I thought they were called velvet ropers. lol

 

I paint my cars with spray cans......obviously I don't give a fuck. Life is to short to worry.

 

I usually have a sign that says something to the effect of "Go ahead and touch, you can'y hurt it". Mind you, my paint job consists of about $100 worth of spray paint. It might be different if I spent $4000-$5000 on it. I usually don't mind letting people sit in it, but when they start digging through the glove box trying to steal CD's and whatever else they can find, or riping a handful of wires out from under the dash "trying to unlatch the hood" it gets to be a bit much. Incidently the hood release is in the center of the hood, not in the cab. Sure, there are a few morons out there, but MOST people are more respectful than that.
-Chris

 

My dad once pulled a '35 Ford pu out of some raspberry bushes. The thing was sitting there for years and had them growing up through the floors and engine compartment. The paint was wasted , had rust and moss growing in spots. He got her up and running and took it to a Goodguys show. He took a couple of those "Do Not Touch" signs and cut them up so one read "Please touch, but do not look!". One of the mags (Street Rodder I believe) came along and took pics of it. It made it in the next issue with a caption stating that it was a "project in the works". Joke was on them, it was finished!

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Are we talkin' good touch, or BAD touch? Obviously this is the latter.

 

Some people don't respect other people's property.
Some don't even respect their own.

 

Oh man that's one that pisses me off. Parents of snot noised brats touchen, rubben, sitting on bumpers, etc.etc. and you tell them off and the parent has the nerve to say that plus don't talk to my kid that way. To the parentI say, your just a pcs. of shit.

 

Funny thread.

The guy with the "do not touch" sign(s) doesn't bother me NEAR as much as the fat guy with the chain drive wallet leaning on my front fender, or the women bashing strollers into my door ,or the people smoking a cigarette and hanging on the side of my door dropping ashes on my tuck and roll, or the bunghole rapping his metal ring on the roof while making a stupid comment regarding how the paint looks like "ceramic" (no shit, do you know how much work it took to make the paint look like that??)

If you drive a piece of crap and don't care if an idiot fingers it, good for you.

If you have enough money to have a nice car that you don't mind re-doing all the time, good for you.

In the old days, hanging on someones custom got you an introduction to the owners brass knuckles...

Personally, my problem has way more to do with the idiot spectators that show up thinking they are at the circus, Disneyland, or a used car lot. Screw THEM.

 

"If you're leaning on my car you better be naked"

Seriously, we all know what mannerless jerks some people are but if the owner is with his display and you ask reasonable questions he will usually be happy to show it off or talk about how it was done or who did the work.

 

Many, some of you guys might need to switch to flower arranging before you blow a blood vessel. I thought hobbies were suppose to be enjoyable, not full of tension and drama.

 

I had my old rigid Triumph at a cruise night it had a pretty intricate flame job and a ton of striping. I go to get an ice cream and when I come out this douche is draggin' his fingernail across my tank. I say "WTF dude!" and he says " Relax I just wanted to see if the stripes were real" I look right at his tarted up old lady and say "Is it ok if I squeeze your old lady's tits to see if they're real?" (they weren't). He didn't like that much!

 

Then explain to me how I got my ass chewed out as kid when I pulled a flower from next door. I pulled it to show how nice it was to his wife, well he was growing it for a flower contest .

 

Ive been that guy, You cant fault a guy for reminding the morons to keep their hands off. Some people have no Idea what it takes for money and time into a project. I dont fault a guy for not wanting another dudes grubby dick beaters all over his car, of a kids paw prints all over his ride. As far as him not wanting to talk to you, Oh well. walk on brohter

 

...so because I let people sit in my car, I don't respect it? Maybe the guys that are paranoid about having people around their car at shows should leave the car in the garage.

 

Need to stay away from the competitive flower arranging.

 

Come on guys. Back in the 60's I installed a Model T coil
with a chain on the frame of my 55 Chevy down to the ground. Anybody ever grabbed an electric fence? Didn't have remote start back then but I do now. Set back in your chair with the controller and let the fun begin.

 

I was at the racetrack last year with my 64 cutlass, and a father was walking by with his son (about 9-10 year old) - the son had obviously been instructed on why you dont touch stuff. I respected that to the point that I opened the door, told the kid to get in, and then proceeded to put the 5 way harness on him. His eyes were huge, and the smile was ear to ear. Then I fired the bitch up and popped the throttle a few times. I will never forget the kids face as long as I live, he was in heaven. The father was almost in tears, seeing his kid thoroghly enjoying himself.

When I finally unbuckled the boy, I told him that I expected to see him back here next
year. The father said you can bet on it.

Now if the kid had come by and started abusing my car, I'd have slammed his dad's head in with the trunklid.

 

My solution is to just not enter the car in shows. When I have a nice car it's for me to enjoy and I don't give a shit what anyone else thinks.

 

I was raised with the rule "Look with your eyes, NOT with your hands". Mom said I was as graceful as a bull in a china shop...

 

I was raised around cars, my Dad taught me to respect people's property. now I'm passing that on to my kids, and they know the deal, look, admire but don't touch. They get fired up if they see some other kids touching someone's car, "Dad that kid shouldn't be touching that car."

 

I let people sit in my car too.

But I'd like them to wait untill I say its OK...


Maybe I've misunderstood what a car show is, all this time.

If its a place where I'm supposed to bring my stuff to have it messed up, without even being alowed to say something about that,then you are right...

I should stay at home.

 

Really? In years? This is just like any other thread written to rant about something that no one has any control over. The only reason it's still going is that it's Sunday and the mods are with their families.

I can understand the DNT signs. It's a ton of money and time for people to screw up.

 

You sound a lot like how I am with my stuff. I have a couple of really obscure cars, so I put a quick note on the windshield explaining what the car was. I also put at the bottom "Please don't touch without asking, this is a very rare car and the parts are difficult to find, it took me 9 years just to find this car, if I am around I will be more than happy to show you around the car, thanks!"

Worked like a charm, most of the time. Came back from getting beers with a friend of mine at Old Town once to find a kid jumping up and down on the driver's seat, hanging on the steering wheel while his mother was laughing and egging him on.... all the time with his wet and dirty shoes on (It had been raining earlier).

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY CAR!"

Mom turns around and starts screaming at me "How dare you talk to us like that who do you think you are you can't act like that in public, you must have mental problems.. blah blah."

I responded with "Look you illiterate moron, the only problem I have with you is that your mother got pregnant".

Shut her right up

Funny thing is, I always had a blast showing the car off and talking about it, and I was pretty generous with the car, let friends of mine from England drive the car in the cruise when they were in town, once I couldn't make the cruise and let em borrow it for the night. They were into old Vauxhalls back in England so I knew it was safe. Also met a guy from England who had one in the mid 60s, he was there with his wife, they had dated in the car and used it on their honeymoon. As the cruise was starting I threw him the keys and he and his wife drove it through.

Shoulda seen the look on their faces, I think I made their vacation!

Like others have said, I think that it's our job to preserve these cars so that they will outlive us and live on, and part of that is using them and showing em off, but dammit show them some respect.

 

3,453 people have clicked on this thread since 8:00 AM with 115 comments while event photo threads and other cool stuff disappears to the 5th page.

good to know where peoples HOT ROD priorities are

 

If you go back and read my post, I put a sign on my car allowing people to sit in it...that was me saying it was OK.

I never said a person shouldn't be allowed to say something about it...you're putting words in my mouth...again.

I don't really understand why you are singling out my posts about my point of view over others here...well yeah,...I do.

 

I really dont care if someone touches my car. I think it's been touched many times since 1962. Now if they touched it with a baseball bat at full speed, then I would be kinda mad. But I can also see that if someone doesn't want you to, you shouldn't. There are limits to everything. Yes you may open the door and peek or sit inside, no your kid may not get in with an icecream cone. Both sides are flattering, The fact that you want to see my car says that you like it, the fact that you don't touch says you respect me. Really one of those things that depends on who you are. It's not just an old car, it's my old car and I worked hard for it. Old or new, respect what the owner wants.