Hot Rods Went to a car show today....

My friend and I were just talking about that same subject the other day. His son went to look at a 55 Olds 4 door for a driver project. It was rusty as hell, interior in rags, no drive train and the top was caved in .ONLY $4,500.
How is a young guy with a growing family and a average pay check going to build a car at these prices. I know there are still decent cars out there for more reasonable prices, they are just few and far between.

 

Prices are astonishing, so much greed and ego involved, trying to make it an exclusive club . Just look at the ads on eBay, there was a 57 Chevy the other day that was listed for $700k , really ? It’s such a shame .

 

I don't mean to help spread the "doom and gloom", but I too share the sentiment of the OP. Things have changed.

I'm 29 this year, and with a couple exceptions, don't generally get along with folks my age. Thank goodness the older guys still tolerate my presence. But, this is what I see.

The attitude towards cars in general has completely changed. With the popularity of the computer increasing, and cars and equipment becoming more computerized, they are now "consumables". Drive it till it's DEAD, and go get another. Just like a cell phone. Not much thought is given about what came before. What's in the parking lot at your local high school? Likely not a full row of cars built out of the junkyard.

I'd also venture a guess that 80% of folks just out of school today couldn't figure out how to drive a " HAMB Car".

Second, another formidable obstacle, a dollar is NOT a dollar anymore. Figure that any way you want, but it's fact.


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Funny because I think most have had or have these thoughts. I am 42 and into 50s cars. Mainly Kustoms. Tough to find local people that are into older cars in general within my age range anyhow.

The older gentleman I have ran into with cars are normally into factory cars/trucks. Yes there are exceptions.

I normally just drive my cars and every once in awhile I run into someone that loves my car and appreciates the work and knows what I have done to it. Normally I would say in there 80s (brings back memories) as most have said.

Now 25 or 20 years ago I can remember at least 1 local spot for every day of the week where cars would be. Always a mix from 30s-70s. Yes majority 60s/70s. But never the less older cars were there as well.

Now a few weeks ago I decided to go to a local show and man I was surprised. There were 90s trucks, some muscle cars and hell most of the vehicles there in my mind didn't belong. I ended up just driving through to be honest.

Now at 42 I understand things have changed and are going to keep changing. Kinda sucks for us "younger" people whom are into the older cars. I used to enjoy talking with everyone who would take the time to chat with me about there cars/trucks. Its how you learn. Shit now just look it up online. Lol

I agree with a dollar isn't a dollar anymore. Seems like what used to cost a few dollars cost $100 these days. But then again people are not making $1.50 a week either. Cost has went up and people think there stuff is gold.

I have seen many old time junkyards go out of business and their children just come in and scrap the whole place out for pennies on the dollar.

Life will continue to move forward. Just teach what you know to people whom are willing and wanting learn. That's how I look at it.

 

My wife and I attended a show close to the cottage yesterday. We were about an half hour into it when she grabbed my hand, snuggled in close, and said "We're some of the youngest people here". And we're in our mid fifties. Even the guys with the mean chevelles and chargers with blowers bigger than a house were so old they could hardly get up from their lawn chairs without taking a shot of nitro. Kinda felt good knowing we still have a lot of years ahead of us.


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The Craigslist where I live has plenty of affordable drivers in the ten thousand and under range, and the car shows in town seem to be a fairly even split in age, a third older guys, a third middle age, and a third younger. As long as gas is available these cars will be around. They still have a huge steam powered threshing machine festivals around the country.

 

You guys are bumming me out, but I hear you. In my opinion, young peoples wages today aren't keeping up with inflation. Too many CEO's keeping the money for themselves instead of paying a decent wage. Coupled with too much debt, student loans from a degree in interpretive dance, cell phones (needing the latest greatest iPhone), cable/sat bill, high cost of housing, HEALTH INSURANCE, their's not a whole lot of money left for kustom cars. Some of the financial issues are self inflicted, some of it is being fleeced by higher costs in all directions from God knows who. It cost too much money to buy a completed car and too much money to fix one up. I'm 46, I have zero close friends into cars. On a weekend nite until about the year 2001, here in Eville, the traffic from cruising was insane, now it's empty streets. Cruising died from technology.

 

I was eighteen when I started bringing my car to shows. It's not like it was where we would go to hot rod campouts for weekends and meet people from all over. I always looked up to and respected the older guys and listened to all advise. It's like my grandfather used to say that you can never learn anything when you are doing all the talking. I was always grateful when they would help me with my car and accepted me. A while back I met up with some of my car buddies I've had for thirty plus years at a show. We all looked around and we all came to the conclusion that like it or not we are now the old car guys.

 

Have to agree on Cars/High School parking lots. Back in my day, I graduated HS 1966, myself and the kids that had a car were patched up 50's car, some pretty nice, but mostly junk, we all worked part time and did not have much money, very few lucky ? rich kids with new cars, when my kids hit High School it was already changing, my kids worked, bought their own cars, many of their peers were driving late model cars of their own or parents new cars.(with no job) Now when I drive by our local High School, All late model nice cars/trucks, No junk, the kids parking lot has nicer cars/trucks than the teachers parking lot it appears to me. Yet, here you see very few young people, (teens), working at any of the jobs we all had as kids, mostly older people employees, ask any business owner you talk with, he/she will say, kids today do not want to work, all the tourist businesses have help wanted signs all season, many restaurants have gone to 1 10 hour shift because they can't get any help. Times have changed, " It IS What It Is "

 

Remember when you could build an engine for less than what cel phones cost.

 

Here's a perspective... When I was a little pud, the coolest guys had hot rods. My favorite style of hot hot is just post war. Then, I was a high schooler and if I had all the money, I would have had a 409 Chevy or 413 Plymouth. I didn't have all the money and settled for a raggedy '40 Ford. I think nowadays if a young guy is a cool car guy, he has a fast and furious tuner car. The younger guys who are into traditionally styled cars are like the Model T dorks from when I was in high school (1960-64). Not the coolest dudes, but you know what? There are still stock Model Ts and the people who love them.

 

As a young whipper snapper I'm doing my part, eventually, to keep the old iron running

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I will be 65 soon and recently retired. I got my first car before I turned 13 and have loved/hated and worked on cars/trucks ever since. I don't have a "project" now but hope to get another one soon. I occasionally go to a daily coffee/liars club at the local McDonalds. All old car guys. I'm the youngest one there, with some of the guys in their 80s. Most of them are/have been into street rods, classic muscle cars, Model T's and A's, and Hill Climb cars. These guys have forgotten more about cars than I will ever know. Around here, except for a few 30 - 40-ish aged guys who are into 70s - 90s cars and trucks, all the car guys I know are my age and older.
I hope the next generation steps forward...

 

I don't think there is as much interest...but there is some. Today I went back to Atlantic Iowa where "Heads Up Drag Racing" has borrowed the airport to race 1/8 mile there. At least 175 cars there today. One of the participants was late 30's and a female. She was driving a 39? Willys pickup gasser that her husband had built. She keeps the bills paid and does the wiring. This was a four speed car and she's a pretty good driver. I think there is hope. I raced her. Got the win light because she red lighted

 

I am gonna be 50 in a few days and quite often the wife and I are the youngest ones at car gatherings -there is always exceptions. The older guys have forgot more than young guys have figured out yet and it’s always been this way. It’s impossible to know where the old car hobby is going. This summer was the first summer I haven’t gone to 1 car show - except I parked outside of deuce days and walked around for a few hours and believe me the car hobby was alive and well at deuce days. I couldn’t bring myself this year to park my car and sit behind it for hours on end in a lawn chair. I used to go to all kinds of shows and do the lawn chair thing and I just can’t stand it anymore. Driving the old cars and working on them is so much better than lawn chair hell!

 

I wonder if there is a correlation between the disappearance of
high school auto shop classes and the interest in hot rods and fixing up old cars?

Kids today are tied to their I phones. Heck, many don't even want to drive.
Yes, times are rapidly changing.

 

Over and over I am told that an older person has owned there car a long time. Then I ask and they say something like 10 or 15 years. They had always wanted one and had no time or money for one. Never could understand that. Still got my first car. Gonna attend an event called the Ice Cream Cruise in a few weeks. 1500 cars show up. Roughly 75% of the people are younger than 35. Which I am not.

 

Here in West Texas there are lots of younger folks interested in the car hobby. Some are building hot rods, some early muscle cars, some hot rods that cross line into rats, lots of pickup trucks of all ages. The ones I talk with seem to have an appreciation for traditional HAMB friendly vehicles even if not having funds to buy in. Once they have raised their kids and become established I have no doubt they will be buying those old timers' rods. All is not lost

 

I think that the younger crowd who are into older cars are gravitating towards "Rat Rods" (I know that's a bad word around here) and stuff like that. They just don't have the $$ to spend on a 12k paint job or true vintage speed equipment. I see a lot of young families at shows around here with their clapped out 50s four doors with 'patina' paint jobs and red painted rims/wide whites.... and other cars that get scoffed at by the higher end hot rod guys. I think the interest is still out there, it's just changing some.

 

I'm going to be 63 very soon. I don't do many car shows anymore, most are pretty boring! If I feel that way, how would you expect the younger guys to feel?
When we get old and die off, our cars will get bought up by other old men, until they too die off. Once all the old guys are dead, the younger guys might be able to afford to buy our nice older cars at a price they can afford. My 18 year old grandson would love to have a 40s car, but he is lucky to be able to put enough gas in his beater to go to work and school. Give him 10 years, and a steady income (if that is even possible these days) and he might be able to pick up a nice older HAMB friendly car, but it likely wouldn't stay HAMB friendly. Very few of the current generation of kids have ever seen a carburetor, let alone try to rebuild one and make it work. Anything these kids will buy will be updated to what ever is current for their time.

I think the car hobby will survive, it just won't be very HAMB friendly, and the cost of our old cars has to come back down. Very few of us could have bought HAMB friendly cars when we were 19-25, the kids these days are in the same boat.
Want to see more young people involved in the old car hobby? Quit hording all the stuff, and sell the stuff at prices they can afford. Gene

 

Well now that sure would be a happy ending to this whole thread... then they’d be ripe for the pickins for us next-geners! Abandoned and forgotten means cheap and accessible to me (see other thread about finding shit in barns ). Just don’t crush it!! I promise I’ll try real real hard to get my kids into it. Off to a good start I think...




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I have been watching some videos overseas in England there is a huge following for the Morris Minors...they treat them as part of the family...they are little and from what they are saying very affordable to rebuild...so there seems to be all ages getting involved with these little cars and the newest one made I think is 48 years old now...stock, altered..ratty and everything in between too seems to show up at their shows...

my 2 cents

MikeC

 

Lol yeah right Ben, old man belly hump just doesn’t quite do it for me like a pair of fat fenders with headlights peeping over the top. But you know, to each their own

Or did you mean curves of the Mae West variety?? My bad...


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When the younger people retire, they will be in the car scene...

 

all you really have to understand is that there will always be tribes......won't matter if its deuce guys or low riders, slammed customs or just good ol' jalopys......Some time down the way, it'll be late in the evening some warm summer night, and somebody is gonna stop turning wrenches on what ever he's building, and walk out into that evening, listen....and somewhere in the near or far distance he's gonna hear.....WHOOMPA!!!.... some big -ass V-8 sounding off.................Don't matter how bad it's gonna get as long as the iron exists there will be folks to find it.

 

I’m 36 and have been into cars forever but with a wife and three kids my cars tend to be on the not quit finished side but I still take them out and enjoy the car and family together but I usually just laugh at the reaction I get by my older peers who I catch looking at my 46 ford calling it a rat rod but it doesn’t matter to me I fun in it and I’m sure most people my age can’t justify spending 30 plus thousand dollars on a car that isn’t functional for everyday use


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Exposure.....That is what it’ll take to perpetuate the existence of Hot Rods. I’m 55, there was a whole doom/gloom re: Hot Rods long before I came into existence. That’s how the L.A Roadsters came to be.
They looked for like minded individuals who shared an interest in these types of cars. That was 1957. Them being in Hollywood meant that these cars were built and out in the world to see, best of all because of their prime location meeting @ Weiand and photographed an extremely famous iconic Drive-In Venue “Tiny Naylor’s” & it doesn’t hurt that many of those early members got their cars in shows like 77 Sunset Strip-Peter Gunn.
Some on album covers and so many in nation wide magazines which continues to perpetuate their existence by many enthusiasts posting those images.
We now have the restoration of these icons and social media getting the word out (just like we’re doing right now guys).
Without the likes of McMullen Roadster (Which was on Life of Riley with its previous owner) The California Kid and so many others. One thing they all have in common was/is “Exposure”.

So let’s take a Kid to a car show, get a neighborhood kid in the driveway with you “In Plain View” and any family member that shows a slight interest in mechanical objects. This being the PC era, it has never been easier to get someone interested,

I invite 20 Family and friends to a yearly picnic that I have attended and been a member of a club 35 yrs.

Since exposing them, they all want to build a car. So let’s keep the ball rolling. .

 

The easy solution to this is to have the young people just go start their own company. Then they could be be in charge and pay themselves a bundle. I wonder if these "young people" ever thought of getting a second job to help out like most of we older folks here have done in the past. Probably not. It's easier to blame the guy in charge that probably has an MBA and years of management experience.

 

Man I think about this everyday . The end is growing faster than I care to focus on . Before fifty , I worked hard if not harder than the kids on the crew with me . They would tell me old timer you better slow down , it will cost you later in life . Well later in life has hit me hard . CHF is a real bitch to deal with , brought on by the low term effects of chemo therapy . Make the best of what you have and dont fret the littles stuff , plenty of big stuff will take its place . I was at dinner last week end with my wife , there was a band at the watering hole we ate at . An Oldies Band , they played all 80s stuff , I knew not one song . My wife loved it . We were in the parking lot looking at a couple Harleys parked . One younger guy says
“ did you ride ? You probably remember this one , it’s a 90 model ! “ I told him “ that is way to new for me to really ride.” I ride one that is a kicker , he looked at me and asks “ why ? “ Brothers we are getting fewer and fewer , it’s a great hobby and a great ride . Be thankful for everything we have or have experienced , there is good in everything enjoy it . Someone once said if you don’t enjoy it , it’s your fault. We have been granted a gift of living in the best country on the face of this old earth , enjoy what time we have it’s a short ride , on a one way street . My kids could give a good crap about what tools , cars and guns I have collected in my life . I told my wife offer it to them if they don’t care about it sell it off and by yourself a car you want and start the process all over again .