Art & Inspiration it was just my car.

sometime in the early '70's my dad and uncle took me to a baseball game to see the yankees play the Oakland A's. we drove down in our '66 chevy and we had those tasty, dirty water, hot dogs they sell. i brought my baseball glove with me for two reasons, one in case a foul ball came our way and two in the case of an injury and they had no one else, i could fill in and save the game. i was a just a little kid.
our seats were so high that after the game it took us a long time to get back out of the stadium but when we did the exit put us in front of the A's bus. my uncle grabbed my glove went over to a window and passed it inside to one of the players and asked if they would sign it for me.......they all did and passed it back out to me. Vida blue and rollie fingers signatures were on it. valuable? probably
this was my only glove and we did not have money for another one so i played with the glove, would show other team mates coaches etc....i had fun playing with it but the glove got old and the autographs became hard to read....... it was just my baseball glove.
while talking with my dad about his hot rod back when he was a kid, i asked him where he parked it, stored it for the winter, wether he covered it, etc....
he said, it was just my car, he parked it in the driveway, parking lots, and he never thought about covering it. he tells the story of when he drove it down a street and some guy backed out of a driveway into the side of the front fender. the guy told him to drop it off at his buddies garage and they fixed it for him. mad? annoyed but it was just his car and they did a decent job fixing it.
so as i am getting the car done, build thread here; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...or-a-cool-change.863287/page-26#post-10940982.
can this car ever be just my car? hard to think it could, as i have more money in it than i had spent on my first four years mortgage payments back in the 80's. even tho i had driven it in high school, took it on dates, travelled all over it was never just a car.
so does anyone out there treat their car......as just a car?

 

The daily driver is "just a car". The workhorse F-250 is "just a truck". But the hot rod and the other "special" cars we have could never be "just a car". There's too much time, effort, and what little money we can spare that has been spent on them to be thought of so casually. They are cared for, protected, and pampered. Driven? Yes, sure, but never thought of or treated as "just a car".

 

I don't even treat my OT cars as just a car!
Of course I am OCD when it comes to my things in general.
I guess I would not be the best person to ask.
I am so OCD I had to leave CT, the other drivers made me crazy!
KK

 

Avatar is my daily driver parked where it always is. Studded tires on the back. Driven since 1960.

 

I keep saying "It's just a Race Car" about my Falcon, but truth be known I don't treat it that way.... ofcoarse when it's finished and I go to the Cruise In's I do plan on letting little kids sit in it if they show an interest in it.... Now my Off Topic Mach 1 is a different story... aint nobody going to touch it...

 

must be nice to have something that cool as just a car.
nothing built after 1980 excites me, so these cars are just a car. so if i want something cool it has to be something old and i find it hard to treat it as just a car maybe that is the appeal of the dreaded atray dray.

 

Your dads car was probably a late model not some decades old classic. My dad drove his 57 vette year round and to the steel mill it it was just a used car back then

 

I guess if my 33 was "just a car" then it would be parked outside and my wife's suv would be in the garage. Luckily the suv is outside!

 

Wondering what 1979 models "really excite" you?

I'm probably a bad person... But I love treating my cars (and trucks) like cars and trucks. I have some quite valuable cars but Christ man, I'm not some curator- I'm a driver. If I can't use it, I don't want to just be in charge of polishing it.
Of course, that doesn't mean anything to the effect that I think great cars are the same as other cars, just that I can't let them sit.

 

Maybe because we look back on some of those "justas" with such fond memories that we look differently now on our rides. Not sure I am making myself clear but when I look back on some of the vehicles we had on the farm and so on I wonder things like what if or should have. I guess if everything was saved none of it would be special? I wonder what the folks in Cuba are thinking re their cars.

 

poetry.

 

my dads car in '57 was a 33 chevy 3w check the link i posted for details.

 

i had a 79 firebird years ago that i enjoyed. t-top car white with a red gut, no spoilers, ground effects or puking chicken on the hood.....i keep looking for one.

 

i misunderstood, i thought that was your new car not your dads old car.

 

the history makes it hard to just use up. although we plan to drive it.

 

I don't consider my vehicles as "just a car", but most of the public does. I was at a show once and someone was leaning up against my car and I asked them to please not do that. Response? "It's just a car."

 

was he leaning like the guy in your avatar?

 

same with dads vette, back then it was just a car. now, to me, it's priceless.

 

My daily drivers are just cars but certainly there are special cars in the collection. My 1910 Overland for example was purchased new by my great grandfather. It was given to my grandfather in 1929 and stored in a barn. In 1953 he brought the car home from the farm and started restoration on the car. Its the reason my family became involved in the car hobby. That car will always be special. Over the next 60 years the collection grew to 8 cars.Its hard to not be sentimental about the rest of the cars Dad and Gramps collected over the years but ending up with so many it is a little overwhelming at times. I feel guilty for not giving some of them any more attention that they need. Every one of them needs something. There is a fine line in my opinion between special and just being cars. I have been working on the coupe so much I haven't touched some of the other cars in years.

 

My daily-just my car-is 41 years old. I've had it for 20. It is a beater and although I maintain it mechanically, it is pretty rough cosmetically. I am always kind thrown back when some body says something like "cool car".

 

That's so cool. There are several crimes I would at least consider committing to have my great-grandfather's car.

 

LOL I have never had a hot rod that was anything more then my car. Yes I have had some that I really liked and some that I really cussed but they were just my car. I drove 'em parked 'em worked on em and even neglected 'em.

here is one of the many faults I find in modern hot rodders, they are afraid of anything happening to their car. I read of guys that only drive when the weather is good, won't park it out in the elements, are in constant fear of it breaking down on the road. End of the day it is just a damned old car, maybe it is precious to you, but it is still a car. It doesn't feel the elements, it doesn't care if another car gets too close it has no fear, and unlike the kids you can fix it if it gets broken.

 

They're all "just a car". But "just a car" means something different to me, than it means to most people..

I love cars.

 

This one is just that. It spends entire winters outside, I drive it to parking lots and my kid spills his drinks on the seat. I love this car, but I built it to be just my car.

 

LOL Good one.

 

My first car was my dads, one of his colleague had it before him, both worked at the same fire/rescue/towing company, who earned a lot of respect in my community, and they are both well respected.

So that car has a lot of sentimental value to me, and I treat it like it's secret, and drives like needs to be driven. I love more then my house, but it will never be "just a car"!
But a car non the less! I have to just cars, my first car (ex-DD), 3 project cars, 1 project Truck and 1 hot rod project, on top of that 2 small kids, 1 wife, one house w/garden, a full time job, then there ain't much time the 2xDD are defenetly just cars!

 

imo, anyone with the attitude that it's "just a car" wouldn't be on this web site.

 

A story told to me by my Graddad. In the early '60s he had a '49 Merc' that he'd had for years. It was about worn smooth other than the drive train. With his family growing, and the Merc' rusting, he decidided it was time for new wheels. He struck a deal on a '53 Ford wagon with a good body and blown engine. Graddad work at a steel warehouse and pretty much had the run of the place. One day he flat towed the Ford to work with the Mercury. After work he pulled the engine and trans out of the 'Merc, put 'em in the Ford, removed the wheels and tires and used a loader to squash the 'Merc flat with a sheet of steel. He then picked the car up with the same loader, droped it in the dumpster and drove the Ford wagon home. I almost cried when i heard this story "YOU CRUSHED A '49 'MERC!!??" He said "son, it was just a rusted old damn car".............

 

Be prepared to deal with this if it's a daily driver.

 

That got to hurt, for all the right reason!

Is it fixed? Is it yours?

To me what makes a car "just a car" is: if I break it will, will I just throw it away, chuck my shoulders and by another one.

Or will I morn for three days straight, cry me to sleep, only where black and get to work and fix it!

The only cars I car about, will never be "just cars". But the are very much cars.