Where's the next generation of rod n custom builders?

art is plagiarism or revolution. what is everyone here building?

 

Here he is. Off for the holiday week from school, this young man was helping dad on the roll back today

He asked enough questions that his dad kept shushing him, thinking he was annoying me. He wasn't, far from it. In fact he was answering the exact query this post is raising. This is the golden child. They are out there, seek them out and cultivate their interest. Reap what you sow.

 

Cause parents don't teach their kids anything anymore, haha.

 

Just look at that group of drones. Looking at this should make birth control mandatory. Easy to see that mankind does not have to make robots, he/she are creating them in the bedrooms of America. I can say this because I have 2 grandsons of this age. They do however drive pretty cool tuner cars.

 

It they think that's great have them spend a weekend with any of us..... We'd be like gods to them

 

Actually, that's a small clip of a performer doing a "performance art" piece by artist, Natacha Stolz. Here's a link:

https://www.snopes.com/woman-struggles-to-open-can-of-spaghetti-os/

And that post is ANOTHER reason why a lot of the younger generation doesn't give a fu*k about old cars or the aging dinosaurs who build and own them. It's because when they try to get involved, some old shit with the sound track to AG playing in the background is right there to tell them what they're doing wrong and how it was done 60 years ago and laughing at them the whole time. When the fact of the matter is, those dinosaurs are so damn one dimensional, they don't know what's going on around them.

It's a little late to be asking why they don't care. A lot of old birds ruined the new crop of builders a long time ago. With prejudice, an isolationist attitude and just plain being assholes. Perhaps a better question for a thread would be, "Will the new corp of youngsters crush my shit when I'm gone?"

 

I hate this sign, no wonder a generation of folks could care less about old cars

 

I agree with Many of your points , the last one not so much , SF and every other metro area has more than its share of drug/alcohol abuse and teen pregnancy also... Just camouflaged with all the people stacked in a small area...
I was raised in the Midwest , I have lived in , rural Minnesota ,Chicago area and different areas of California including the Bay Area , outskirts of LA , San Diego and Modesto , sounds like your brother lives in Modesto !

you are on point about living in metro areas cost of living and room to do things
it feels to me car culture is dying on the west coast probably for that reason, but it's alive and well east of here !I went to South Carolina last year ,people that can work with their hands are still celebrated in other parts of the country, believe it or not I can make 30% more there than so-cal and less than 200k will buy a place with acerage lot of youngins working on cars

 

350-425% higher where I grew up now, than it is here, now. That is three-and-a-half times, to four-and-a-quarter times hire on all counts. That's a really big difference.

 

Wow.... just going to throw this out there but if you look around there are plenty of people who keep the sprit alive when it comes to hotrods and not all have grey beards. I’m in my mid thirties and have been building and driving hotrods all of my adult life. (Thanks to my grandparents who were into the car scene).

I have a close knit group of friends that are all in car clubs for the most part and none of us act like gangsters nor do we dress like its the 50s and we are located all over the country and throughout the globe even. Our ages range from teenagers to retirement age....... We all have one thing in common and thats building and driving old hotrods and customs and none of us view them as investments!

One thing I want to key in on and that is.... NO hotrod should be considered as an financial investment. They’re built to enjoy and be fun, not sold and locked up in air tight garages to the highest bidders. Now I can understand historically significant vehicles being in a museum on display but thats a different story.


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The next generation of hot rodders are out there, you're just not looking in the right places. Try attending trog, the hot rod hill climb, the h.a.m.b. drags or the StrayKat 500 and you'll see people of all ages represented. Everytime I take my '29 out, I see kids of all ages, from 8 to 80 checking out my traditional build and asking questions! Just take the time to stop, look and listen, you'll see them. My 13 year old grandson is building his first car, a '69 El Camino SS and his 10 year old brother loves the '29! This traditional stuff is alive and well, the future is out there if you know where to look.

 

Many times when I have been stopped in my ride at a light or crosswalk a parent with very young kids will walk across. The kids will grin, point and shout, "Cool car!". It's great that, in their world of lookalike pod cars, that small kids "get it" and enjoy a weird car. Maybe somewhere in that response lie the future rod builders.

 

Im 28 and own a 37 ford and a 55 victoria. Here in NC it seems theres a good crowd of guys between 21 and 40 that are building some seriously cool hot rods and customs and keeping things traditional and fun. Hot rodding will never die, it may not be the most popular thing but itll never go away. The rat rod and air ride craze is killing off some good stuff around here but eventually thatll fade off and be forgotten, but real deal cars wont ever leave the history books.

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My boys got barked at by one of my old timer buddies asking me why I let them sit on the Buick. And then lectured them on how they need to take care of old cars. I'm like really. Now if it was nice that would be another story.

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It is hard to say and the answer to that question might have different answers depending on where you live. I know having grown up in Southern California and then now living in central California I can definitely see where things have slowed down in regards to the traditional sense. I'm not sure if I'm still the young guy now that I turned 40 last month but I struggle to get stuff done. Growing up I was lucky to have a father that was a car guy but he was by no means a fabricator. In fact we didn't even know anybody that had a mig welder let alone a tig or even a sand blaster back in the early 90's when I was a teenager. I had desperately wanted a 30's hotrod back then but they were out of reach. Even the 55 Chevy gasser I dreamed of owning was to much. Like wesleyoldham my first car was a practically free 67 chevy truck. It was fun but definitely not a coupe or 55. With that being said I was always a little sour torwards the young guys who's daddy bought them a coupe/roadster and had all the equipment to build it. But with that being said I'm working on doing the same thing for my kids because that is the only way I see them being able to do it. Getting back to the question of where is this going. It's not an easy hobby. Like I said I struggle to keep my stuff moving along. When I was just out of high school I worked for a parts store. Didn't pay much. I was around cars all day long but couldn't afford to do much. After I joined the service my car projects semi went on hold even though I bought my 57 and my roadster while there but once again couldn't afford to do much. After the service there was college for 5 years, then a house, then kids, now work. And this is a guy who is willing to starve a little bit to buy that flathead part. I guess my point is for us "younger guys" it is expensive and challenging and I haven't even got to all the other issues like HOAs that dont allow working on cars, certain states that aim to eliminate gas cars all together in the up coming years, insurance etc and etc. And that concludes my rambling. If that didn't make any sense it's because I had 15 different things flying at me in the should have been short time it took to text all that.

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I missed the photo of the expression on his face as he ripped the wheel loose from the tire at age four. He'll make a fortune off the snowflake idiots than can't open a can of soup. Bob

 

Hell, I'm 71 and it's still expensive and challenging. My goal is hanging around long enough to see the project done. It really isn't an age thing, it's the desire. Fell in love with tinkering with cars when I was around 10 (my old man was into sports cars and had an old MG), 60 years plus have passed and the sound of a well tuned engine still makes me smile. As long as there are some kids that get the grins hearing a lumpy idle and the bark from the exhaust our passion will live.

When they outlaw hotrods, only true hotrodders will have them, but as long as one of us is breathing they will live on.

 

I feel there are young guys that will take over. The problem I see is that some of the old generation just wont let us evolve. I work in a shop and I am the youngest(24) with my boss being in his late 40s and its a family run business with a the previous generation before my boss being involved. The problem I see is that they are stuck in their ways! No input is welcome, no promotion for the hobby being done, and no will to change or let us young guys do our thing. Im a diehard traditional guy and I constantly hear its dying but god forbid I say "lets build a traditional rod from the stuff out back with quality work". That's blasphemy to them cause no one wants it which i see otherwise. I will say I know quite a few of the older generation that are will to pass on the skills and tips and tricks. I guess in the end its a 50/50 split. I think it will continue on.

 

Next generations won't be able to afford $30,000 32 bodies or $10k model a bodies.like old days of grandpa telling us how he bought 32 fords for $100 or 57 Chevys for $1000.

 

There may be multiple factors but the crazy high price of certain things definitely contributes to it. Pictue this scenario "Hey young man you should really get into this hobby, granted you probably won't be able to afford much and maybe if you are lucky someone will die and you might inherit something!" I can see young people lining up at the door as we speak!

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This topic comes up repeatedly. If WE don't inspire the passion in younger generations, the hobby will die out over time. If you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, neighbors, etc engage them in the hobby.
I do every chance I get.
Take a kid to school in a hotrod and watch the look on his/her face when they see the look from their friends. Everybody wants to be the kid in the hotrod.
Buy your kid a gokart instead of a game system or iPad.
Simple inspiration goes a long way.

 

Couldn't agree more, there isn't a kid around my neighbourhood that hasn't ridden in a hot rod, usually mine. On cruise nights, I offer to take anybody interested for a ride, I pick up hitch hikers in my hot rods, but not in my daily driver. To maintain our hobby, they must have some exposure, just like we got from whoever it was that inspired you.....

 

If it wasent for my neighbor taking me for a ride at 16 in his 51 buick convertible chopped with a 455 Buick I wouldn't be here.

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I just turned 20... started driving my '62 biscayne to high school. Me and dad and grandpa built it. I've started on an altered wheel base a/fx chevy II. When it's done, in probably 3 or 4 years, I'll probably be looking into building a model a.


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Well kids, and young adults, are spending the money. They are driving 30,000 dollar 2016 mustangs. The only thing is they're taking out loans for them. I don't see someone my age taking out a loan for a hotrod though


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I wish others would realize how ludicrous that is. New cars depreciate like crazy. In a few years, most will continue to perpetuate that cycle of debt never to get ahead. Most older cars are appreciating. Another thing is insurance, before I turned 20, I paid $100/month for liability on an older pickup. Can't imagine what most pay. Another benefit to old junk is that taxes on my truck are only 63 cents and I don't have to pay registration fees with the historic plates. My tires are $125 each vs $200+ for a nice set of what's on newer cars. I also only have to buy 6 quarts of oil per oil change vs 8. Ironically my 140hp pickup also has a higher top speed than a lot of new cars. 120-ish and I'm out of rpm. Passed a lot of newer cars limited electronically to about 100. Not that that's actually useful.

 

The next generation of "hot rodders" can't afford the costs of traditional hot rods. Why spend $10k on a clapped out Model A when you can go buy a clean 4th gen LS powered F-body for the same price, daily drive it, and run 12s stock on the weekend? Go to a car cruise and it's old guys in lawn chairs as far as the eye can see with their "investments", it's just not an inviting or interesting scene. Cheap thrills are what it's all about.

 

Agreed,

I'm sneaking up on 60 years old at an alarming rate. One of my early rides was a slammed Chevy Luv in the late 70's, did the "older" guys look down their nose at the Luv a bit? Yep, did I care? Nope. was I having fun? Yep. I guess what I'm trying to say is car guys will continue to be around for some time. It's a great hobby with a lot of great people involved we aint doomed. Times change, people and their taste change I went from that lowered Luv to muscle cars and Harleys and now hot rods. The photo is of my soon to be 20 year old son and one of his buddies hanging the exhaust under my beater Willys. Those two and some more of their friends have spent many a late in my shop busting their butts working on their hot rods [imports] tackling shit that scared me just looking at it! With a cute girlfriend or two hanging out bored and texting adding to the ambiance , oh to be young again! The Willys is up and running with a BBC, turbo 400, 4:30 gears and a spool. It has some violence! Still some bugs to work out but it's coming along. Took junior for a test spin nailed the throttle real good, kid says "Dad can I race it too?" You bet your ass you can son! We'll be fine. My two cents, for what it's worth.
John

 

Back to my previous point. If we don't fix this by engaging younger generations in our hobby , our "investments" won't be worth shit.

Take a kid to a show
Buy kids mini bikes and gokart instead of electronics.
Let any interested kid make motor sounds behind the wheel of your hotrod.

I drove my T roadster to homedepot and a young family parked next to me. The 3 little kids and father were glued to the car, the mom couldn't give 2 shits. I asked the youngest one (about 4yrs) if he wanted to get it it. Of course he said yes and before the mom could say no , he was in making motor sounds. Then the other 2 had to get in. My 15mjn trip to homedepot turned into an hour but it was worth it.
They all got photos taken in the car and the best part was the oldest one asked if they can sell their minivan and get one.

I don't go to many car shows, but I drive my hotrods every chance I get and my kids age 4 and 9 always want to go along if I'm driving a hotrod.

 

I'm 25 and I've had my '63 Fairlane since I was 17. I also have an appreciation for modern imports that many of you may not understand, but I knew even as a teenager that stylistically pretty much nothing could challenge the designs of the early '60s and before. I'd wager that a good majority of car enthusiasts feel similarly, but are too deterred by the impracticality and costs of owning a classic. I make this hobby work by dedicating most of my paychecks to it, and that's not a sacrifice I'd expect many people my age to make, because you have to REALLY want it. All the guys I know love the old iron, but can barely afford to fill up their '98 Honda while making rent. Even a budget 350 build is beyond the threshold of what some of them can afford. But I've no doubt that when these same people get older, or have more stable income, they'll jump at the opportunity to own a classic. I'm young, I didn't grow up around these cars, I wasn't raised in a "car family", and I still discovered the hobby. It's not dead.

There's another thing, too. I don't attend car shows really, at least not for showing my own car. It's my hobby because it gives me personal satisfaction to build something, or modify something, or work with my hands. And it's a hoot to blast down a country road at full throttle with an engine I know inside and out. But I don't really do any of this stuff in view of the public, so you'd basically never know I did it. I'd imagine there's MANY young people just like me who are very involved in the hobby, but you don't ever see them slaving away in their garages, which is where most of these cars spend their time: being worked on.