Art & Inspiration Lowriders & Business Suits

The only time I have worn a suit past grade school was for Halloween
I dressed up like an adult to scare my students.
Oooooooohhh house and car payments ooohhhhhh parenthood ooooohhhhhh

 

I've seen threads (no pun intended) on here that talk about how tats and ink don't make the person but a suit does? I have more suits than most of you do jeans. They are my work clothes just like other's Carharts and levis. It doesn't make me more and it certainly doesn't make me less. Under the silk neck ties and cufflinks, I bleed 20/50 like the rest of you.

 

I grew up around that area (south county) in the '80s/'90s, TRUST me I've always been the odd man out. There was something seriously wrong with you if you didn't want to be a corporate man and upwardly conscious. Being a stupid kid that liked 30s-50s music, 40s-50s hot rods and black and white movies was interesting....but I didn't care, the small books memorized me.

 

Been at that intersection too. In both roles. Maybe except for the wifebeater.

 

No suit but another day of drawing construction drawings for viewing-platforms for the rich ...

 

Cool story, Hate wearing suit my self, next time I need to wear a suit to work for a presentation think I will drive my Hot Rod truck to work !

 

I do not wear a suit very often anymore and I will not get rid of my everyday HHR.

 

Been wearing work uniform, kind da like cheap Dickies for over 20 years. Once or twice a year I put on a suit and it looks and feels great. Wouldn't want t to wear one every day. I'm a stain magnet!

Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

cool read. sparked my imagination this am also while reading, as you mentioned what would a guy in a car like that be doing at 8am and so happy. my thoughts are he probably just got done grabbing some coffee/doughnuts, after a long session with a rich bored house wife down in Newport, figured he roll the pch for a few miles and gather some crisp clean air, before he hooked a right and headed back over the 405 into his turf of santa ana, or fountian valley. i maybe totally wrong, but that thought but a smile on my face and warmed my heart, to get outta my office and get to into the shop....

 

What makes a person comfortable...or not...is not the clothes they wear..it's what goes on in their head. And that can range widely......if you are not comfortable there, you won't be comfortable anywhere.

Ray

 

I don't think it's about the suit, gents. It's about being in one world and looking into another world and realizing where you really belong. At least that what it means to me. I work at a computer all day designing things, solving problems, etc. This past week a co-worker and I left the office to walk down the street to pickup some lunch. She was chattering away about something and there was a Model A hotrod parked at the curb with the owner standing next to it. As we walked by it captured my complete attention. I was aware of my co-worker chattering on in the back ground but I have no idea what she was saying. I was checking out the car and met eyes with the owner. I looked at his car and mouthed the word "Hemi". I believe some part of me wanted him to know that I knew what I was looking at, that I was not the "office worker" I appeared to be. God help me, it felt like a plea for deliverance.

 

Thanks for posting the thread. I don't remember reading it before and it was worth the bump.

For many years I drove a mild kustom to work everyday. If I was going to own an old car I had to drive it everyday. Being a banker for many years I spent most of the time in a suit driving around town on a daily basis. I miss those days. Since it has cooled off I've been driving my older cars to work. Its kool therapy.

 

Daily driver is an OT. Squarebody C10, being resprayed Cool Mint (Seafoam Green) and Antique White (same as old Mopar Chilean Beige/Desert Sand). Work in jeans and a polo shirt.

Project is a 49 Dodge B1b truck. Being painted as a 51 Spring Special 2 tone. Have an assortment of same era suits, prefer jeans, jackboots and a t shirt. As long as my 1930s Henderson (bicycle) can fit in the bed, and the 1910 12g can ride in the cab rack, I’m happy with it.

 

I almost always feel out of place at work, it is a large fab shop about sixty employees in the shop. I am the only real car guys.
They are guys with cars and motorcycles but they are not car guys.

I view being a car guy (or girl) as a life style an all consuming thing. I do not want to talk about Football, or play golf or hear how your last check up went. I want to talk cars, go racing, or build.

As I said there are guys with cars and motorcycles but it is just a passing fancy, some thing to do when there is no football game to watch, golf to play or party to attend!

I really P.O.ed one of the machinist a about 7 years ago...

On a Monday morning he was complaining how he did not have to time or money to get his 63 Impala finished.
That Wedsday he said he would not be in on Friday. He was going to a N.Y. Yankees home game (The third one he had been to that year!)
I said "If you sent less time and money f#cking with that baseball bullshit and more time focused on your car it might be finished by now!"

The car is still nowhere near complete and he has been to countless Yankees games since then.

 

Interesting read...

I took a position in the sales side of the company I work for in 1999 and came from the engineering department. Our engineering department was very relaxed... jeans and tee shirts are no worries. A few years into my Technical Sales gig I started doing the "dog and pony" shows for the company at various design firms in our market and I vividly remember the first trip to an office that I had done a lot of over the phone business with over the years. I was suited up in my best and being obsessive had every detail covered. Then the customers started dragging in to the lunch presentation in jeans, tee shirts... man one of them was in flip flops! I learned that day that I better get to know who I was working with a bit better.

I am blessed to work in SW Missouri, where even the most uptight of us isn't too worried about that corporate appearance. I left the suit behind about ten years ago, but I still have a couple of nice ones just in case!

Old cars on the job... my company provides my ride which is a huge benefit. I did spend a lot of years driving all kinds of old stuff to work and used to do the early sales stuff in the classics as well. A concrete plant is hard on cars though, so now I rarely bring an old one with me. It also distracts a bunch of plant folks, which irritates our GM.

 

Ryan - you owe it to yourself (hell - you owe it to all of us) to find that guy! Likely he's still around. He's done you and, by extension, all of us a world of good. Would love to read more about him... When you find him, please extend my sincerest gratitude...

 

Hey Ryan,

Comfort or being comfortable allows one to get to the point and expound on a topic or two with valuable history. When you know what you are feeling or have done in the past memories, then it is how you put it down in writing that shows character.

Your philosophy: “My favorite aspect of hot rodding has always been the “punk rock” side of things. Screw social norms. Let’s go fast. Let’s go loud. Let’s hot rod the world.” It comes from the present day aura of being comfortable and secure in your portion of the publishing world. It is a great philosophy to follow.

In So Cal, or actually anywhere, there are people that just follow that philosophy and have been doing their own thing for ages. Think back to the early hot rod guys and gals, then beatniks, then the flower power /summer of love generation, etc. They were all doing their own thing. Sock the social mores… (The essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a society or community. ‘an offense against social mores’)

Even though the hot rod world is small compared to the rest of the world’s events, is is to our liking and comfort zone. I have not seen a suit since 1968. Last year, it was a different era, sandals, t-shirts, and shorts for 365 day attire in So Cal. (a first.) Philosophy? “Be nice, let the good times roll, don’t sweat the small stuff…”

Jnaki

Just recently, we were on the road to the freeway in the afternoon. A guy and his wife cruised by with a huge Chevy 2 door sedan. It had seen its glory days, but was still distinctive on the road. The faded purple paint, the altered ride levels, the interior, etc. It all led one to believe this was a fancy cruiser in its heydays. (besides taking up the whole driving lane.)
Not Skylarks, but straight spoke Cragars.
What really stood out besides the custom wire wheels (Original wire Cragars) was the driving/seating style of the man and wife from the past. They were in the socially acceptable cruising form with as comfortable as today would allow, in the busy afternoon, car commute home.

Cool back then, comfortable and stylish, today.

 

Hi, my name is Billy. I'm a moderate cigar smoker, 10 Handicap, gainfully employed, professional male. Enjoys travel, long weekends in the garage wrenching, cool cars and expensive booze. Seeking long term relationship with a new project. Must be pre '64, non-judgmental, willingness to be manipulated a plus. Must enjoy being driven hard and put away wet. Engine bay large enough for a hemi preferable. Send picture.

 

Ahh man, this story reminds me of living in socal a few years ago, id run up to a concert or show in Hollywood on my chop sometimes, wouldn't make it home until the next morning, it was always fun to run into all the regulars at a stoplight the next morning , you could tell they where always wondering where you came from....

 

I stand corrected.
I do own a suit

 

Glad that wasn't your birthday suit!

 

This is my chauffeur outfit
Took a bunch of students to the prom
Gotta look good for that

 

Lookin good! The red all stars tie it all in

 

Those are 20+ years old
Made in USA

 

Everything is relative. The iconoclastic anarchists (and adolescents) among us can only exist as such because the 'regulars' go about their boring, dreary daily functions ...providing the support system the rebels sorely depend on for all life's essentials.

Water, sewers, electricity, grocery stores, a banking system, telecommunications, etc., etc., that are indispensable to their daily lives come from the efforts of the 'regulars'....except for maybe the pot and other recreational 'chemicals'. If the rebels actually lived in real anarchy they would have an entirely different existence. In short, the 'regulars' can get along fine without the rebels, but the reverse is not the case.

To their credit, rebels are consumers so they contribute to the economy and also add some color, texture, amusement, and a few problems to society, but there is room for all of us within reasonable proportions.

Next time you are tempted to sneer at a 'regular', instead smile, nod or wave...or at a minimum, be silently thankful for things you take for granted that he/she provides.

Ray

 

Tattoos up and down both arms.

I have 14-suits, and wear them regularly.

I have to work along side CEO's, COO's, presidents, vice-presidents, investors (often foreign), as well as members of the board-of-directors, of the 5th largest global auto maker.

The ballet, the symphony, the opera, and private museum shows all have standards of attire.

 

My tats have to be hidden by my work attire. I don't think that makes me a sell out. A capitalist maybe, but not a sell out.

 

That's what I'm talking about mate. Like Popeye said, I yam what I yam. Don't judge a magazine by it's cover.

 

Mine don't. Most of my team is heavily tattooed.

Probably 10% of the division has visible ink.

 

I don’t have or desire any tats. But do not own a suit
I drive a slammed short bus daily
I hang out with the suits from the county and state BOEs and talk to business owners regularly

Hmmmmmmm
Man life is crazy