Art & Inspiration When You Go To Shows Or Gatherings, What Attracts Your Eye?

Man, I agree with Reidy!!!

 

When I'm walking around a car show I'm looking at anything that's HAMB era. Newer cars just don't do much for me. I do like survivors, but I really like talking to, and looking over the cars guys build themselves. Nothing disappoints me more than a conversation with a car owner who doesn't know squat about the car he owns. I'm more interested in cars built by their owners, or mostly by the owner.
And things done outside the box on a build are really interesting. I love seeing work arounds guys come up with to make something work better, or work for themselves.

 

Swap Meet area and Baltimore Pit Beef Sandwich

 

Can't put it into words but I know it when I see it!

 

I like cars that are driven, and maybe a little rough around the edges, like mine. I walk right by modern cars and older cars with big wheels and skinny sidewalls. LS and other modern engine swaps in older cars is a turn off for me, too.

Gary

 

Only one word applies to that car: Slick!

 

I’m with Denny, it’s like obscenity, can’t always describe it, but know it when I see it!

And like Anthony, I have wide tastes, anything from 1978 back could get my attention if I like it.

 

I chose them all as I'm pretty open minded within the Hamb era of Hotrod Custom and all in between...

Within the last 2 years the Hamb has been my Carshow...as I've been lone wolfing it basically...

 

I am quickly attracted to cars of the same models I own and vehicles with great paint jobs. It might sound patronizing but I walk past the street rods and linger around the HAMB styled cars. I think a chopped plastic 32 3window with a sbc is sheer boredom.

 

Stance and wheel/tire choice. I'll see a car that could be really cool, but it sets wrong and and has yard sale wheels and tires.

 

Dream on buddy!!

 

I would say for me it would be all the above except the outrageous. To me that defines a rat rod and I WILL NOT stroke a guys ego by even looking at his pile of shit! Having two nostalgic flathead powered cars(one that is a glossy primer and one that I haven’t painted yet) I get the rat rod comment almost every time I’m out driving. Depending on my mood that day the person either gets a friendly response of this is a nostalgic hotrod not a rat rod or this isn’t a fucking rat rod there’s no saw blades or log chains hanging off it!

 

At a lot of car shows these days, you tend to see a lot of versions of the same cars, maybe different colors or different wheels. For a car to get my attention, it has to be different/stand out among its look a likes. If there are 5 32 coupes but other then the color or a few little details that separate one from the other, I'll probably walk by the whole bunch. If one of the 5 doesn't look like the others, I would probably at least take a few minutes and look at it. The other 4 may or may not get a quick glance. After one attracts my attention, then I will decide what I like, or don't like about it.

I have a pretty wide interest, but I prefer driven cars over trailer queens, home built over bought, used / original over the paint dot restored, and hot rods over survivors. Dare I say it, not all rat rods are scary junk. Some are well built and well planned out but just don't fit into those nice defined classes people think cars should fit into. Many of the rat rods have a very high amount of effort and ingenuity involved, many have moved past the shock rod or art junk of 10 years ago. Gene

 

when not checking out the young hotties I like customs the best. in a parallel universe somewhere I build custom cars for a living. CHOP THE TOP, TUBE THE GRILLE, AND TWICE THE PIPES.

 

My primered 31 Plymouth Coupe gets called a rat rod on a regular basis. What I have learned is that the majority of people have no concept as to the difference between a unfinished/unpainted hot rod and the "drag a magnet through the scrap yard and weld together whatever stuck," look that is associated with "rat rods". So I always cut them plenty of slack.

 

Anything that's not an obvious pro built $150,000 car or rat rod.

 

Engines for sure. Without one the rest of the car will be just "Yard Art".

 

If it catches my eye I'll usually take a picture of it. Could be most anything though.....

 

I enjoy talking with any car nut !! ,but even more so ,with those that own Survivors{ I own one my self} look for well kept,an those that are new as well, are right about representing hotroding in the 1950 n 60s. Look extra close at those.
I do look at those cars that are not perfect,with things off the mark a little to me,being I was hotroding in the 50s n 60,an know what was real vs new bubble of BS about the times. If asked,I'll say what's off. But try too complement what is really right !
I like clean workmenship n good engineering, shiny paint,a little chrome in the right places.
I had built both hotrods n customs late 50s an early 60s. Was in many indoor car shows all over Florida.
My custom "J" was in Car Craft in Jan 63.

 

Fat girls trying to squeeze into dresses they shouldn't be wearing laying on cars that don't belong to them while their fat friends take photos.

 

any hot rod that has not forgot the hot part extra points and time looking if you can show me a time slip from the last year or two

 

At least you shave your legs.

 

Alien aircraft and rovers definitely get my attention as well

 

On the poll at the top, I guess I'm an 'other'.
I look longer at something one of the "cool" guys would have driven back when I was still a pre-pube, grade school squirt, trying to hang out without getting stepped on. That would be early 50s iron. Late 50s was more like "new cars" to my young, impressionable mind, and so could be nice but not classic-cool. I'm a curve-man, not an origami-man so Tri-Fives are my personal tipping point.
I'm attracted to good, overall designs and the details that make them click. You pick any time frame and usually one manufacturer got some design feature better than the rest. These are the things that make me stop and gaze. If I have my camera along, half my photos will be of a portion of a car, not a whole car every time. I like long legs and curves on the young ladies, and long hoods and curvy fenders on the cars. My tastes have developed by looking and learning what was iconic for the time period of the cars, and thus iconic for all time.
I prefer survivor mohair (not torn and worn) with naugahyde coming in a distant second place. But that doesn't mean I like all things "survivor". I don't get any warm fuzzies from patina. You give me something with 'patina', I'll give it back later with primer. When I was a young shaver, nobody who gave a hoot would be seen driving dilapidation if they could help it.
A light touch of some nice detail is usually a winner and more is not always better.

 

Some have mentioned unfinished cars and pro-built, big $ cars. I look at pro-built cars for ideas to steal. And unfinished cars because they prod my imagination. One other thing, I prefer car shows run by car people. Last thing I want to look at is art cars and gaudy paint jobs. But they do well at shows run by non-car people.

 

Keep in mind why some shows exist. I belong to two small local clubs and we donate our show profits to local non-profits and scholarships. The more money we take in, the more we can do. So we don't have any sort of 'restricted' entry, we get everything from restored 'teen cars to late-model muscle cars and everything in between, and try to have awards to fit this variety.

 

Easier to specify what I avoid looking at: ratty rat rods, and anything with disc brakes, crate engine, adjustable steering column, and/or ghetto wheels and tires. I also have little interest in those cars that shout "Pro built.".

 

Vintage engine tech draws me like a moth to a flame.

 

Admittedly I'm getting jaded in my old age. After 50 years of hanging around most every aspect of the old car hobby, I'm finding that I'm truly impressed less frequently. Sometimes I have to catch myself and make sure that I take time and appreciate the cars for what they are, what they mean to the owner, and the effort that has been put in to it.
Things that catch my eye at a show?
Something very rare and exclusive always gets my attention. Not rare because nobody wanted it then or now. Rare because of limited production or something like that. Cars with the highest trim level attract me more, versus the cheapest stripped down model. I like to see cars with nice wheels/wheel covers versus poverty caps.

If it is a car with a basically stock body, I'm attracted to cars that were generally good looking when they were built. Nice lines, nice proportion. It's hard to define but I know it when I see it. If it is a hot rod or something with a highly modified body, the same thing applies. Proportion, lines, stance, continuity so it all looks right together. Everything on the car following the same theme, the same vintage, or at least with non-era correct upgrades applied discreetly.
Also I like to study cars with ingenuity, good workmanship, good fit and finish, nice smooth ripple free body work and paint. I was at the turkey run at Daytona and I was really surprised that of the hundreds of cars I looked at, very few had really straight bodies with nice paint. But those that did really wowed me.
Engineering and craftsmanship on the chassis, nice welds, everything looking like it belongs there, absence of warts, all make for an impressive package.
I'm attracted to cars with non mainstream vintage engines. Especially if they have really rare vintage speed equipment.

Nice looking cars with nice lines should be displayed at least part-time with the hood shut. The trunk should never be open. If the hood is shut, it's nice if the owner is nearby to open the hood occasionally, or open it for an hour then close it for an hour. Cars photograph much better and look much better with the hood shut. But if there's something really good to see under the hood, then it's nice to have it open. Owner should put their lawn chairs far enough from the car that a guy can get a good picture without the chairs and coolers and whatever other stuff they have.

 

Well thought out, sanitary builds with lots of attention to little details.