History Was beater culture a thing in the past?

The infamous Rod and Custom “beater” issue will be 50 years old later this year. All depends on one’s definition of the term I guess.

 

All my stuff are beaters. I owned a "nice car" once, that was enough of that crap. Give me something I can drive any where, any time I want to go, and not have to be concerned about getting a paint chip. I won't own anything very long that I can't drive 1,000 miles 2 days from now (after a quick oil change and a quick inspection). 250 miles requires a trip to the gas station to top off the gas before we leave. Go on a road trip? When are we leaving? I'm taking the beater, its ready. Which one? Any of the 3.
After I reached the age of 19, I have always had a hot performance car. It didn't take too long to figure out I also needed something that could get me to work every day. Some fool broke the hot rod a lot. That work car was also my winter beater. It was a cheap car that was mechanically functional, and had good tires on it. Body work of any kind was never a concern, but it better get me to and from work, or it was replaced, and it became a parts car. That was my "beater".
The good car was the one the wife drove. Not only did it have to be mechanically perfect, it also had to look pretty good. My wife and kids rode in that car.
The hot rod was a toy. Its point in life was to make this young motorhead happy. Fast, powerful, good handling, good brakes, and good tires were all requirements, looking good was a secondary concern, it pretty much had to be one color without rust holes. Body damage was not acceptable, but it didn't have to look as good as the car my wife drove. It was a hot rod, I was a locally known motorhead, it had a reputation to stand up to. Hot rods came and went pretty much on a 4-5 year cycle. it was easier (and often cheaper) to replace them then it was to repair them. Cars tend to deteriorate after 4-5 years of abuse.

 

Every body knows what a beater is. But, beater culture? Yogurt is a culture….

 

Beater culture in the military was very strong. We would buy a beater/hooptie for $50-$300 and drive it until we were transferred to another duty station and then we would sell our beater/hooptie to another soldier who needed a car. They either ran good or needed minor repairs short of a rebuild. Some smoked, some creaked and some you had to keep dumping oil into but we had transportation. We would load as many soldiers as possible to go into town. Alot of soldiers didn't have cars. We would loan our beaters/hoopties to our buddies.
Some guy's would run JP-4 if their beater/hooptie was not good enough to re-sell. They ran great for couple of minutes...
As long as they passed the post safety inspection, it was good.
So, I don't give a rat's ass who is offended when I call a beater a beater. I know what I'm talking about.

 

I think you're romanticising and making a bigger deal out of every day life. Not everyone could then or now afford a new car, the 'old car' or truck was used for the rough and tumble of work, some climates make new cars very old very quickly, lots of practical reasons why beaters exist. And many times a young person's car was their only car and was a work in progress as money allowed. It's not a culture, just reality.

 

Gay.... I said it!

 

That's the answer

 

I have around $27k in my Ford and it looks terrible. I believe I invested $16 in one can of primer to touch up a few spots on it.

Back in the day, we bought cars from the Buy Lines, Pennysaver and just driving around the 'hood. Also got a few decent cars when I was junking cars for a living. Or buy 2 junkers and make 1 out of it.

My latest junkyard gem was a '79 Chevy wagon I bought for parts for $60 in 1994. I put a $100 used transmission and sprung $120 for a set of (matching!) cheap tires and ran it for 5 years.

Lots of people I knew ran beaters, we had zero money most of the time and I was in a group that helped each other out with fixing our relics. Back in 1973, you could get a good car for $100... spend $300 and get a GREAT car.

 

And nobody ever knocked or made fun of someone else for driving a beater. Like said by others sometimes it was all they could afford. You did however help them fix it up or turn them on to a better car if they were looking and you weren’t. Seems people were more polite and looked out for others more back then. Sure you has the assholes who were the used car salesmen of the neighborhood. You knew who they were and stayed away from them. If you were looking for an engine or transmission you talked to the guys who worked at the steel mills. Their cars were always covered in rust. Top to bottom, inside and out even the plastic pieces were rusting. They almost always had almost no miles on them. Seems people were more polite and helped each other then. At least where I grew up.

 

I am reminded of the Rambler that 4 or 5 of us bought together to drive to Rankin Trade School in St. Louis back in '71-'72. We all shared an apartment together and it was about a 15 or 20 minute drive to school. Rankin was in a BAD neighborhood in those days and almost every week a car would be stolen off the fenced parking lot.

Well, we drove the Rambler to school 1 day. At the end of the day it had a puddle of brake fluid at all 4 wheels. We topped off the brake fluid at the school's automotive trades shop and got it back to the apartment complex where it collected parking tickets for not being licensed. Finally one of the guys took the car to his parents farm and I never saw it again. You might have thought that of the 4 or 5 of us being auto mechanic students that we might have fixed the leaky brakes, but it sure didn't work out that way. Evening "cocktails" seemed to be our major concern.

Lynn

 

I could care less if they were or not. I love ‘em.
However, poor folks drove what they had, kids drove what they could scrounge up.
Jalopies we’re common in “movies”
According to the boss here, Howard Hughes had one.
But sometimes a kid with a “beater” was his best attempt at building a something that wasn’t a beater by our modern standards.
If it goes and stops safely, I’m happy. The rest of the loose ends can dangle.

I’d imagine then like now, some folks looked down their nose wondering why. Now just like then, I don’t care if ya dig it or not

 

Being a Wisconsin resident all my life and living in the "salt the road" capital of the world, many people had winter cars trying to save their nice car. I never had 2 cars until my first wife started driving and will say I never had a winter beater. I had a 4x4 for winter and as my driver, a nice car for the wife, I did not get into hobby cars (only driven in summer) till my 40's (retired from racing hobby) and still have a few left now I enjoy. I was willing to pay the freight on driving nice 4x4 trucks/suburbans and they rusted out long before wearing out, I made my choices I did not want to drive junk. I threw $$$ away with the depreciation on this subject, my money, my choice. I would have bet the farm that a new dressed pickup or a top line SUV would be 80-100 K in my lifetime, 3-5 year depreciation on these alone would buy a top shelf Hot Rod which rarely depreciates IMO. I've played with hobby cars/race cars all my life, no regrets and Memories Priceless !

 

On a side note: I spent the bulk of my career building nice rides for other people. Most were expensive European cars. I don’t like wearing gloves to work on or touch my personal rides. I got enough of that at work.

 

No, 50's kids drove what they built, usually a nice car bought from older folks and then add a new set of solid wheels and hubcaps, hopped up engine, and Raco seat covers. Remember cars were still nearly new still had good paint and upholstery. Juice brakes dropped axle and engine adapters were the hard part to get for kids money. Sometimes they cost as much as the car did.

 

I sometimes live in more "modern" circles, in which people are like "look what just broke on my shitbox" or "look how little options my car has" and such. I was wondering if there was a similar following like modern day in the past.

 

In a brief overview NO... Todays expectations on society are higher but the world still has the same problems as back in the day. People just getting by, No work, take home pay that dont take them home. People refer to their cars in certain company as SHITBOXES... CLOWN CARS etc, because they feel they are being judged by friends or coworkers. When they are on their own, they just pray for some more time that their car wont let them down. We have all been there at some point in our lives.

 

That’s not how I remember US30 Dragway in the early 70’s, so something must have changed.

I remember more primered, or partially primered cars than painted cars.

 

one difference is that some of us drive crappy cars on purpose, now. Even though we could be driving something better.

 

When I was 17, I bought a '62 Chrysler Newport from a used car lot for $60. No rust, coupla small dents, and a 383 missing on one cylinder. The car salesman told me it needed a "valve job". Drove it home and put a new set of plugs in it and it never missed again. I guess you could have called it a "beater" cause it definitely wasn't a cool car. Did shut down a couple of 289 Mustangs with it, and burned the tread off the rear tires in about 1,000 miles...

 

Poor folks have poor ways. Always have, always will. There are still a lot of folks that drive beat up old vehicles. I might be one of them, my pickup is 23 years old. I don't want anything newer, it suits my needs, still looks decent, only costs me gas, insurance, and tags. I could afford a newer one, but I don't want payments. I'd rather spend that money on other things like my 47. Some people don't have that option, they drive what they can afford....

 

When I was a kid, the fastest cars were "beaters". All their money was spent on things that improved performance.

There were a few really nice fast cars but they never raced much, they pretty much just cruised around at 20mph so people could see them, we called them "posers".

Back to the old saying "put up or shut up", the posers just shut up and rumbled along, the beaters are the ones that put up and the ones you had to watch cause they'd hand your ass to ya.

I guess it boiled down to how much disposable income you had and what you considered important, looks or speed.

.

 

I’m glad that I have the luxury to drive junk.
It’s nice when it’s a choice.

 

I don't think the OP was talking about "winter beaters".

Maybe a lot of you guys have forgotten (or weren't born yet) but there WAS a hot rod "Beater Culture".

In the late '60s/early '70s, Rod & Custom spurred on the rebirth of hot/street rodding.

It was during those early years that the term "Beater is Neater" was born...basically saying, get that hot rod out and DRIVE IT.
Sure we all wanted to have magazine quality cars, but it was more important to just drive them and participate in rod runs...even if they weren't "show quality".

You were still part of that "brotherhood" of guys that drove a hot rod.

1969, 17 years old, '48 Chevy 283/3spd. It was a "beater"...but I was hot rodding

 

I remember scraping the inside window of my buddies car in the winter on the way to school. It wasn't a culture. It wasn't we set out to do. It's what we had.

Funny thing is, it was a car that would bring really good money today but back then it was a $600 beater.

 

77 on up me and my friends were not allowed to race because we wrecked our junk or replaced a fender and had not had time to paint it yet until 83. After that until they closed in 84 they would let run what ever junk showed up. Ben Crist told me people payed good money to get in and watch and he was not going to allow junky looking cars into the show. Come back when it’s all shiny.

 

Beater?

 

I remember cars with primer spots. Usually found under the Packard tailight that was grafted on.

 

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/culture

 

^^^THIS^^^
There is something about driving an 'old' old car (beater?). I guess it would be called "nostalgia".
A 'new' old car (fully rebuilt) is great, but it's just not the same...........

 

The thing I've noticed is, today's Shitboxes resemble a well used Cadillac of yesterday, and I sure as Hell wouldn't be embarrassed to drive either one of them! I guess this comes from having to Duct Tape my junk back together, back then... Thankfully, things have changed since then.