Most Car Show Have Lost It.............

I don't really care who or whats around at the shows, I go, drink a shit load of beer and have fun regardless.......it sure beats the hell out of being @ work. See ya, JOKER JASON.

 

I here that turners can be quite the elitists. Don't even thick about showing up with your "electric" powered lathe! LOL

 

Ha! LOL.. Don't forget to tell everyone you only used handplanes and scrapers or you'll get shivved in the parking lot. Shivved with a chisel. Ouggghch.

As far as the OP, maybe a better way to look at it is you are upholding what you love. The fact that you are representing a minority at this show should make you feel better about yourself and the kind of car you built. The other people at the shows love their cars too, but can probably walk right past your car without getting angry if they don't care for it. Nothing is going to die after you are gone. Don't worry.

 

I avoid car shows any more. Got burnt out when I was snapping pics and writing about them.

Car shows have always been about the latest and greatest. Before trad was trad we had the latest and greatest. That's just a fact of life.

There are a lot of fellas on this board that are a lot younger than I am that are building some very rightious rides. I imagine they'll still be building long after I'm gone. Even if they are not still building I won't be too worried about it.

I guess its a pretty damned selfish thing but I really don't live for future generations. When I'm done I'm done stick and fork in me and forget it. Live your own life be be happy because I sure as hell lived mine.

 

There are a few shows that are a must go to. Round Up, DOTD, Autorama, BilletProof, Korsairs Hot Rod and Kustoms Extravaganza.....ect. Sometimes you have to drive 3 hours to get to a specific style of car show. Sometimes you have to make your own car show. Friday nights at the burger hut or drive-in, spread the info to like minded rodders what time and where. It will catch on, or it wont.

We as a club decided to throw a yearly get together. Its alot of fun, and some work too. Plan out a year in advance and put flyers in the cars you want to show up and participate that you see at other shows. Skip the muscle cars or the billet chariots if you do not wish to hang out with their crowd.

And if I remember correctly most of the coolest custom cars of the 40's and 50's were cars that somebody took to a custom shop (barris, alexander bros....ect) and PAID for those guys to do work on them. I am sure that will ruffle a few feathers, but the core of the whole hobby is that all of these guys like cars.

My only complaint is people commenting on how nice your "rat rod" is. Or how they had an uncle with a "rat rod" just like yours back in the 60's.

 

Our rod run up here in Maine last weekend was mostly old sch stuff and the count was around 300. It was a great time.. Us old farts are for the most part alive and well...and having fun
Pontiac Slim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-p15EWs4N4

 

I can always appreciate a well built car. Whether or not it was built by the owner or not. Put me in a parking lot with all of the minivans and skittle looking cars, and let a fiberglass street rod with wheels that cost more than I'd need to build a couple of cars pull up, and I'll chat with the guy who paid to have it built. Take me to a show where there's a variety, and I'll walk right past that one to get to the cars and guys who are my type.

Of course, I gravitate to the shows that are more suited to my likes, but I'll go to one that is open to everything, too. Heck, you see cool things at those shows, too. I was at a show last month where I had to walk past a DeLorean to get close up with a Muntz for the first time.

Now, of course, I'm speaking as a car show ATTENDEE, not as a a participant. But, when the Chevy is done (ha! let's be honest- when it's done enough to go to shows) I'll stick mostly to shows that are more traditional, but I'll do some of the others, too. When I go, I'l stick mostly to my own kind.

 

Like a moth to a flame....

I enjoy it when I see the street rod guys finally get up from their chairs and mosey over to see my A about 3/4 of the way through the show. My patina rust survivor sits there getting the attention it deserves, (not me) and to the hotrodders that built it.

Keeping traditional hot rod roots alive, in the midst of a sea of billet and bling..

 

If you were at a show with 200 cars and only a couple of traditional cars I'd say you were at the wrong show. Your car is the one that didn't fit. I like the variety of cars at most of todays shows. I prefer traditional cars myself but the tide is turning to a certian extent. Not much real steel left anymore and the stuff that is still around is pretty pricey. I like the old traditional cars above all else but at the end of the day, I just like cars.

 

amen

 

there are plenty of us young guys to keep it up. as for the ricers/tunners thats "our" (us younger folks) time and cars for hotroding whitch will be triditional in another 60 years. i dont mind them.

 

Times change. There are shows where with 200-300 cars in Toronto. Of that lot, 1-5 of them are traditional kustoms at any one time. There is now a whole section of PT cruisers, new Camaros, Mustangs, tuners and a field of muscle cars where the model A club used to hang out. I don't worry about it. If I want to see kustoms, I have to go to a KKOA meet or Carlisle.

What pisses me off is when the organisers give a prime spot to a guy in a '77 Granada 4 dr or an '82 Chevette diesel (true story) forcing the guys showing up later in 30s or 40s cars have to park with the daily driver crowd.

 

If shows have lost anything it's the grasp on reality $$$ wise. How many $100K cars did you see in decades past? Go to Goodguys and they have a whole mini-show dedicated to them. My Dad just got back from visiting his buddy who put $150K into a '66 Nova. I thought it was a beautiful car before...now it's just a statement that won't get driven.

Hence the welcome return to "roots" and traditional rodding. I personally think the hobby is making a comeback.

 

Here's my observation on the wide variety of cars at the local shows around here; Yes, I sometimes walk past the 2010 Dodge Ram with Hot Wheels style rims, a monster lift kit, and a vinyl applique instead of a paint job and wonder: "What the @#$% are you doing here?". But when I look around, it's the cars that guys [and girls] have built themselves that have crowds around them. People just walk past the obvious store-boughts. Anyone can bolt plastic on a tuner car - it only takes money, but even joe-public recognizes the skills and effort that drew us all to this hobby.

As a side note, I've also noticed that it's the flatheads and inline 6s that have been hotrodded that draw the crowd, not the endless chromed up 350s, etc.

But back to the original point, the bottom line is; You'll see what you look for - if you look for the things that piss you off, you'll find them - if you look for the cars you appreciate, you'll find them too.

 

You live in Wisconsin, why weren't you at Symco 2 weeks ago or Cheaterama last weekend?

You could have overloaded on Trad cars there. Look around, there are all kinds of show with Trad cars.

Sounds like you like to stick too close to home, most local show that are put on by the chamber of commerce or the Elks have no cut off date so you will find almost anything there.

How can you be a regular here and not be able to find a show that suits you?

BB

 

Leevon, folks who had cars built by the Barris bros, Valley Custom or the Ayala bros spent the equivalent of that. Show cars were NEVER cheap. Back them cheapskates drove stripped down stockers. Back then Cheapskate was considered an insult.

 

What's better - Maple or Pine?

 

I hear ya. I guess big money cars are like millionaires, there's just so many more of them these days. My thought was that the traditional movement has opened the door to so much more. Cars that would still be rotting in the past are being resurrected and driven.

I'm a lover of most anything on wheels that has a bit of class though!

 

You are clearly a loner and a rebel.

 

Ding!

 

I think its good to bring your Trad car to these shows..

show the other "types" what its really all about..

but i agree, i think you are going to the wrong venues

 

Don't worry about that, Avenger... hot rodding will be fine. Hell, I'm not worried about what will happen to it after I die off, because I know it's going to exist in some form or another. Yeah, the ricers are here to stay, but so are traditional rods and customs, and all the other little rod and custom sub-genres they've spawned. And for the record- I'm in the 'ricer age group', but they really aren't my thing. Yeah, a teeny tiny four cylinder making 500 hp is pretty cool, but I'd rather have the big-forehead, knuckle-dragging, primal scream of a good ol' American pushrod V8 or (God help me) Inline sixer!

I love going to my local car shows... after I get sick of seeing the same 600 late '60's Chevelles I looked at last year, or walking past a brand new special edition Mustang or Monte Carlo (If I wanted to look at one of those, I'd go to the dealer, thanks), I go to the outskirts of town, where the out-of-towners are parked and see what they brought. Sure, quite a few of them drive your typical, modern, soulless FWD crap, but many take out the old 'hobby car' for a cruise to see the show, even if they don't enter it in that actual show. I've found more cool stuff on the side streets and parked at the restaraunts than at the actual show, in most cases. When I had my Impala, I never once showed it- I'm not interested in a trophy or some cheesy-assed dash plaque, but I'd drive it on my way to the show, and even though it was parked off in the alley, there'd still be a few people hovering around it when I went to leave.

Most car shows, like my local cruise-ins, are too general- if you'd like to see more tradtional rods, the best thing to do is seek out those type of shows. You may have to drive a little further, but you won't need to walk past row after row of neon-glo imports and red Camaro g-machines!

 

I know that some areas are better than this one for traditional rods (GA), and I think there are two reasons for this. One, on the high end of the scale, all the decent 30s and 40s cars that hadn't been restored were built into street rods in the 80s and 90s, and the same guys who threw out all the trim (or painted it!) and put in the godawful tweed interiors and ripped out every trace of character still own them. They think people still want cars with dated billet wheels and fuschia paint, and the ridiculous prices still on them basically take them off the market. Whos going to pay 20-30K+ for a starting point? Not me. Most street rods I would toss everything but the body, and maybe the suspension if it was done right.
On the other end of the scale are the rat rods. Guys took all the leftovers that the restorers and traditional guys turned their noses up at, screwed it up worse than when they found it, and basically took the entry level cars that someone with skill and determination could have fixed, right, and want big bucks for it. Case in point: recently I sold some parts to a guy at another shop who does lots of traditional stuff, and he had an A sedan rat rod in one of his bays. It was badly chopped (not even finished, with tons of filler pieces tacked in here and there), and the doors wouldn't even close because the builder didn't brace it before he started hacking. It looked good from a distance, but would take more metalwork to fix than it was probably worth. It had a peanut-port 454 in it that looked like it was straight out of the junkyard. There were a few nice parts there, but when I asked what the cutomer paid for it, the guy said "16". "hundred?" I asked. No, 16,000. For a POS that would need another 10k worth of metal repair, not to mention suspension, brakes (which didn't work), etc. You'd have 40k in that car, just making it safe, reliable and presentable, doing it all yourself.

Honestly, I'm surprised whenever I see a real traditional rod, even with their renewed popularity.

 

I kind of like Oak myself.

 

What? You built that coffee table out of maple?????? EVERYONE knows that cherry is the only traditional wood!!!!!!!

 

So am I, to tell you the truth. And they can get pricey, but it seems to be all about the challenge. Build a car the way my grandfather did in 1957... or order one out of a catalog? Hmmmm.... second route seems way more gratifying to me. Seems like a lot of rodders (at least the ones I know, personally) have that mentality- yeah, I'll spend more money and time, but mine won't look like every other street rod kit car! Most of the trad rod owners I know say that's why they built the car the way they did in the first place.

 

MMmm, traditional if you are from what tradition? Spain, Spanish Oak, England , English White Oak, France, European Cherry, Post Columbian Spain, True Cuban Mahogany (extinct) (Spanish Armada used a lot of it) India Teak, Rosewood, Jatoba Japan, Maple. Africa, Black Ebony( Cites Endangered species) Osage Tribal American, Osage Orange (Superior Bow stock) The coffee table originated in Ceylon, although that is argued fiercely. Coffee originated in Babylon or pre Mesopotamia. The coffee cup is a product of the Han Chinese, who took it from the tribes of the steppes who drank fermented mares milk from it.
Tradition: take the best ideas from any place and any one, market those new ideas as exciting and new to your bored and sottish friends, make lots of money, count and repeat.

 

Stratification and classification is only dividing people and cars more all the time. Used to, folks built a car and modified them sort of individually to suit their tastes. It was just your souped up or modified car. Now there all these classifications of modified cars. Hotrod, streetrod, tuner car, tuner truck, prostreet, muscle car, retro rod, bagged, Kustom, custom, ratrod and probably a couple more devised while I have been yammering. Hell there's so many it's impossible to keep up with anymore. And if you stray from one of the classifications you can be ridiculed (mostly by newbies that can't fabricate anything or hop up an engine). Always hear these guys that say, "I'm building so and so cause there are too many 32's", "or this and that is boring". But they are busting their ass to build something that fit's into their idea of the currently coolest classification. There are some really imaginitive people into cars these days, but there are a lot that seek acceptance into a niche group. It's just human nature, hell I find myself doing it at times. But I just feel all the stratification has lead to some really strictly defined niches and is stifling some of the creativity in cars and in the process is making each group within a niche smaller. Thus the reason I say it is dividing people. Rather than a large group of car guys (e.g. when I was in school all car guys hung out) now each group has a smaller bunch that only likes other folks that fit their types of cars. Not just cars though, this seems to permeate most other activities also. Is this good or bad? Don't know it can keep one from having to associate with other people that don't see things as they do. But you are further defined even more narrowly as result. To some that is a good point, for others it seems bad. Nothing can be done about it though, it's just going to continue to progress that way. Always has and always will I guess. So just do what you want if that makes you happy or follow the herd if that makes you happy. It's what makes us humans. And what the hell does this long ass post I just did have to do with traditional rods. Nothing. Moderators, please feel free to delete, it's kinda stupid but I spent so much time on it I can't not post it.

 

True that. Why worry about cars that other people build, or the way they build them? And put the popcorn away. This is a non-issue.

Bob

 

I bet it was a great experience to walk over to your car and give it a good looking over, I pity the poor fool who so much as itched his ass near it.