Art & Inspiration Whats the draw of 50s cars that......

@exterminator Did you get a satisfactory answer to your question?

So what's the deal... with 50s cars?!

 

I was born in 85. I bought my first car at 14, a 68 mustang convertible I bought after saving up the money I made doing tile with my uncle. Second car at 16, a 67 mustang fastback with the money I was saving to make the 68 how I wanted it. Also had a 67 C-10 that belonged to my moms dad that I just gave my brother. Currently I have a 51 Chevy fleetline that was Father’s dad’s car I bought a few years ago. That car changed everything. There’s something about the lines of the late 40s early 50s cars that I find really cool. I love the power and sound and smell and driving experience of the 60s muscle cars but the 50s cars bring people back to a time when life and cars were simpler and classier. I find all the American cars from those years really cool, stock or Kustom, they just look great and are simple to work on. Mines all original and a 4 door and I’ve heard all the things guys say about the 4 doors being old mans cars but I like being able to throw a bunch of people in it on a Saturday night and cruise around.

 

I never thought of the tail lights on the 59's as inspired by jet exhaust - cool, it works.

 

Because that's what my wife wants!

 

You have to wonder about this? Really?

 

Not everyone can afford a 32 Ford.

 

I think the best part is that we are allowed to talk about these neat old not-really-hot-rod old cars, here. Keeps the place lively.

 

I hear ya on the wagons. My OT '94 Roadmaster wagon is really in pretty nice shape and I can't take it out without a 20-something wanting to buy it.

 

50s hood,burger and fries along with a 4 speed and 4.56 gears. It don"t get any better than that.

 

Had one like your aunt's when I was living in So. San Gabriel, CA in the late 60's. 4 bbl car that got really good gas mileage. Driver's seat was wallowed out from some lard butt that owned it before me. I could barely see over the hood. Guess that would make me one of the original low riders

 

My parents first car as a couple was a 1941 ex-Army four door still painted OD Green which they, appropriately enough, called Old Gangrene. I would hate to think that I had been conceived in the back seat of that but it could account for my strange way of looking at life. For instance, I actually like the looks of the Oliver tractor grille

 

Nice, both times

 

You could ask this question about a Duesenberg. One could ask it about a 61 Cadillac Coupe DeVille or a 61 Ventura. You could ask it about a 65 Impala or Riviera. A 53 Packard Carribean, or a...

Get it? Older car that sparks an aesthetic or personal interest be it nostalgia or just simple enthusiast desire. It's a pure intangible element of this life that really needs no explaination. Or does it?

 

Some of it might be cost. Especially the less desirable models. More doors are reasonably priced. They also remind us of what mom and pop drove when we were kids.

 

In the 60s you could buy a hot car In the 50s you built them.

 

Byron Nelson, father of Johnny, my best friend in the 50's, drove a 1950 Chevrolet 4-door. Byron would take Johnny and me fishing and to the stock car races. I'll always remember the good times we had, and that Chevy, as far as I was concerned, was the best car in the world because Byron owned it. That's why I named my car in my avatar, "Byron."

 

Like oldsman41, I was born in ‘47. I got my drivers licence in my dad’s ‘58 Chevy. ‘50s cars were what most of my friends owned since they were cheap and plentiful in the ‘60s. I guess we all want to relive our youth, and having a 50 something Car is one way.


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And cause no one expects a 33 year old to pull up in this haha.

 

When I was old enough to see out the windows of cars I was riding in the majority on the road were 50s cars plus I was in 50s cars,my family did not get 60s cars until the late 60s.

 

in 50's we' had fords plymoth and chevy's, i always thought the buick's and cadillacs were BIG cars. in january my buddies and i went to CUBA and rode in a lot of 50's cars. then we took a tour in one of what i thought was a BIG car, 1953 BUICK convertable WOW! it was so small, only good thing is i sat in back with a good lookin "girl' guide between two of us, arm pit to arm pit. couldn't bolieve how many 40-50's cars were there, heard there were alo but wow. saw ONE 59 chevy and one 59 thunder bird. Castro took over dec. 1958 so these were brand new when he took over. my hi sch. class of 59 was going to go to CUBA on our class trip but Castro stopped that.i finally got there only 60 years later. another off my bucket list. just started another on list, 1934 rdst w/331 cad ing colum shift OD , etc, like i would have built in 59. prices shure have changed....

 

Oh brother , if u don't know, then u don't know.

 

Besides all the knowledge contained in this forum, I enjoy the different points of view. I'm glad I had the nads to finally log in after years of just looking on.

 

The Northeast winters aren't kind to auto bodies. By the time I was a teen in the late '70s, any vehicle with a rounded roof really stood out. This made it old, and therefore cool in my book.

 

As the population increases and the availability of old cars decreases, these are the only ones left !

 

They remind us of what was a much different time in America.

 

I was born in 56 over here in the UK, all I can say, man you guys are spoilt, as a kid I used to watch American films mainly for the cars, loved most from the 40s to70 but mainly 50s
there were only a handful of English cars I liked but they were American styled, top 3 were Vauxhall PA Cresta inline 6, Ford Zodiac inline 6 and Ford Pilot V8 flathead, then most Jaguars
The rest were crap 4 cylinder rot boxes
I owned a 70 Plymouth wagon in the 80s and now a 59 Edsel which a lot of people over in your neck of the woods still look down on, but I use it daily from spring to the start of winter and love every minuet I drive it, there are only a handful of top English cars of the era that drive as well and this is a base model
I still look at all the stuff that's still lying around in the USA with envy

 

I guess you need to go for a drive in a good car, to see what you're really missing!

(actually the 59 edsel is a nice driving car, but the suspension is a bit mushy, and the little motors don't move something that large very well)

 

Did drive a mates 465 Buick wildcat back in the 80s for a big car that had some guts
Hopefully be next year I will have the 351W and C4 in the Edsel on better suspension , it will keep me happy anyway

 

I think it will be fine with the upgrades

 

"Cool" is tremendously over rated. Actually it is a lot like a Unicorn. If you chase it you will never catch it. If you are working at it you are a freakin dork.

What I learned from the old guys when I was very young is to just be yourself and let the chips fall where they may. If someone don't like it you don't need em anyway.

By the way my current project lacks the cool factor. I mean hell who really wants a Crosley sedan on A chassis. All the really cool guys are drivin tri five chebbys.