Actually you reminded me of something that my nephew told me about... My brother in law is a corporate pilot and couldn't care much less about old cars and hot rods. He doesn't DIS-like them, just not interested. My sister is a bit of a "car guy" but nowhere near the way the rest of my family is... But my nephew must have had it in his blood because he is definitely mechanically inclined and LOVES messing around with cars and other mechanical things. He's into more of the tuner stuff, but hey, at least he's turning wrenches. He used to brag about his friend's two liter powered cars to me until I took him for a ride in my (OT sorry!) 71 Road Runner with a 440 in it and explained that it worked out to being over a SEVEN liter engine! (Yes, the jaw dropped!) He also tried talking me into putting straight pipes on my 49 truck (with the stock 95 Dodge Dakota chassis and V6 under it) until I sent him a YouTube video of someone driving a stick-shifted Hemi powered straight pipe'd 5 window around their neighborhood (search for it, it's awesome) and he got religion. Now at least he understands the significance of the V8 engine and rear wheel drive. If I hadn't shown him the way, he'd still be in the land where they're impressed with 2.0 Liter "dual overhead camshaft, direct port injected whateverthehell it is...." The "cars in the blood" definitely comes to the surface though. (This will explain the "quote" above concerning the model car kits...). He picked a robotics class for an elective in his senior year of High School (wish I had that opportunity!!!) and they were each given a box full of gears, motors, servos, remote control actuators, etc. and were assigned to "make something interesting" out of them for their final project. HIS project definitely raised eyebrows because instead of making something that would, say, pick up a tennis ball or flip someone else's robot over, his had a can of WD-40 and a cigarette lighter attached to a small boom at the front of the thing. A few careful pushes of levers and buttons and the thing shot flames about 2 feet long!!! The split second after his teacher saw it spitting fire at the other robots on the field he said to my nephew "My office NOW!!! and bring that thing with you!!!" Funny thing was that when the teacher closed the door to his office he actually smiled and patted my nephew on the back and said "That is the coolest damn robot that I have EVER seen! Now take it apart, PLEASE or I'll get in trouble!" There IS hope for the future of "car guys"!!! He got an "A".
Posts 76/77 scare me . I shudder to think that our future would be like that. Personally I have worked with todays youth. I donated my time (2007-9) in order to help an autoshop teacher that I looked forward (in 1977) to having when I was young and impressionable. I 1st saw this teachers car. It was a maroon 40 Ford DeLuxe with a small block,steelies that would get "Moon Discs" some days and had an attitude. Yes, kids have changed as has the world. These cars are not unobtainable, I remember hanging around a Monrovia,CA. fabrication shop that built rods in the late 70's and early 80's. Those guys always said that "This stuff isn't built anymore, It's worth such and such $". They made me feel like I'd never be able to afford a 34 3W Coupe. Well, I had one by 21 yrs old. That statement was made when I was 18 yrs old. I figured out a way, looked in the recycler, found one and brought home a basket case. I remember all of the Doom/Gloom that was in all of the Car magazines. We were on Odd/Even days for fuel. It had doubled in price and if we still wanted to get around, we had to 'Step Up". 10 yrs before that was Vietnam, many Hot Rodders lost their lives, heck, they were just kids too! They loved cars and life even as chicks were burning their bras . When they returned, if they were into the scene, they mostly jumped right back in. Jobs weren't as plentiful as kids today think they were. Industry was changing (Do most people remember Nixon going to China?) Which brings me back to what I heard when I taught Autoshop. The kids initially were not interested in learning about cars,sure there were some that read tuner mags,but most were tuned out-until they were exposed to it 1st hand!. My former teacher handled the lab assignments. we took the kids and every other student participated in a hands on job in the shop. I would make it fun by speaking their language, basically learning from them as well. This is what was needed. They now had opportunity to show me and I had opportunity to show them. They said on more than one ocasion the "Why should we learn this, we'll never be able to afford a car" Wow, That's Nuts! Things are much less expensive now! Just look here even on the H.A.M.B. I see many deals and I'm not even in the market, (I even bought one a few years back). In the late 90's I bought not one but 3 3W's w/in a 3yr period for what one would be paid @ a Target store over the course of a yr. working full time. My brother found us a 32 BB 131 & 1/2" WB Stake Truck for $600.00 big ones,It didn't want to be bought, We left with a $2450.00 29 Tudor,running w/current tags. The same guy called my brother back and sold him a 30 Briggs 4 Dr. Registered,I made it Run,but still needed a complete rebuild of the body. It's now what we call his Lakester. He paid $1500.00? Perhaps less.While we're there picking up the 4dr, the seller says "for $275.00 take the 32BB as well,I even lend you my truck/trailer). Of course we did! I still have it. The next year a guy comes by my brothers house. he tells him about a Old Ford body under this house/porch that needs to go. That was under $300.00 as well and it came with a good frame. The body isn't perfect, I built that car on the cheap, It made me lots of friends (Including Ryan),has been in movies,was called a Gow Job by Uncle Wally. and is even a Tom Fritz painting. That's an honor! Those are just several examples of what has been found, I see em more and more everyday. If kids are reading this, please never get discouraged, It will be coming your way if you obtain a love for the Life of Hot Rods . "Keep looking,this tin is in your backyard"
alot more teens and alot less old cars. any idea how many cars were crushed for ww2.millons.how many is there to go around.then the rest had to survive rust and wrecks. that put the #s down even more.everytime scrap goes up old cars sitting in feilds goes down. i watched at least 30 old ones that could have been brought back go to the crusher not long ago.i couldnt save them all.but i did get a few new homes.they are still out there but not in the #s they were and it gets less and less every year.so in 20 more yrs. how many more are gonna go away.time is running out on this old iron.like it or not thats just time marching on. if these young guns want old iron they are gonna really have to pay for it.one way or another its gonna cost and its gonna be high.lots more teens alot less jobs. something has to give and i have no answers.ricers seems to be about the only way a kid can get involved in cars today unless some one cares enough to help him.id be glad to have a kid hang out with us in the shop. but there isnt anyone who wants to.ive tried to get some ivolved and they just didnt have the drive to do what it takes to get one up and running.but ill keep my doors open and hope some lonely kid shows up and wants to look around maybe hang around.
I think the "old cars" idea has to be kept in context... My 20yr old kid has an 88 5.0 Mustang he's building...it's 23 years old. My first "project" was a 1966 Plymouth Sport Fury...in 1984. It was 18 years old at the time (I was 17). I think it's more a matter of wanting to do something with your own hands and show pride in it, as opposed to buying some new rocket off the lot. He's earning it...his own money and sweat, as most of us here did (or do). But the problem still exists...percentage wise, the number of young people actively into cars and hot-rodding (of any sort) is falling.
Hay guys most of our soldiers in the military are young. Busting there asses, living in unbearable situations and dieing to protect our country. I have to say thank you to them !
Two days in a row I am provoked into posting... Not sure what I did "right", but my 14yr old daughter and I started an OT build this winter for her first vehicle. At her request we are in the process of fabricating a crawler on "full width axles" and now she wants a "Joe Dirt" Camaro to go along with it. Maybe not HAMB-friendly stuff but I get a little misty eyed when the Princess of Excessive Texting wants a pink welding helmet for Christmas. One thing I know I have done is try to keep my negative comments/judgements about her generation to myself and I try to include her and her "slacker-buddies" in our recreation. Seems to be working... Now I could use some input on how to keep my 7yr old son OUT of my tools/garage... every time I have to hunt down whatever he moved/hid/lost I smile with pride.
That's awesome to hear, and as for your boy...how about locking your tool box and getting him a nice cheap starter set...I had one at that age just cause my dad was soo cool
You guys are missing the real root of the issue...Cars were the social media of the old days, if you wanted to know what was going on, and your buddies weren't at home by the phone, you had to go find them on main street. These days you just text them. Chasing girls was a contact sport back then (we all hoped)...these days you just text them, or get on facebook. Sure, for some of us cars have always been at the center, but even though some of you guys like to think it was that way for everyone in the old days, cars were just the neccessary social media of the day.....not any longer. It's really no more complicated than that, I bet close to the same percentage of young people have a passion for cars as in the "golden years", to the rest, they're just not as important to their social lives as in the past.
You are absolutely right. We need to shut down the Internet! You heard it here first. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter! Wait....
you guys mentioning how kids are lazy these days reminds me of this article i just read a few days ago. http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation/ thank god i can do something physically meaningful that i have something to show for all my work when im done..... like fixing a car.
Dang.. I thought I was a rare breed.. but theres a few young'uns here Im 18 years old, Always been fascinated with the 50's and 60's. I grew up around old cars. Love workin on em and drivin em. Worked on over many cars ranging from Chevys, oldsmobiles, pontiacs, Hudsons, Fords, Caddys. And Yes, I love my xbox.. but I'll take a wrench over a controller anyday
i do not tweet and refuse to do facebook.. even tho family members are trying to push me to get on there.. i just do not get facebook.. and who the hell cares what i had for lunch.. so no point tweeting.. im just not that important of a person to tell the internet my every single action.. tweeting has to be the worse of them all. chis.
I'm young and love old cars. I also love reading about them and seeing pictures, so the internet is quite helpful in that way.
Ha ha ha! Rustmonkey just had a baby back in October, and as a baby gift my wife and I sent a Target gift card and a 9/16" Craftsman wrench just to get her started!!!
It's not just the internet that has dampened automobile enthusiasm. I think we can agree that the popularity of Hot Rods and Muscle Cars started to decline around 1973 with the first gas crisis and serious emission control standards. By 1979 the icing was on the cake with the second gas crisis (the year I got my driver's license!) and we were then destined for the terrible 1980s automobile models being cranked out by Detroit. So, we suffered from about 2 generations (Generation X and Y) of kids that didn't grow up in a time during America 's love affair with the automobile. Cars became basic transportation to America's youth. Car Guys are a special breed and quite rare. My brother's in-law are all sports-heads and couldn't change a tire. My nephews couldn't care less. My only hope is my 10 year old daughter who has said she wants to be a mechanic. Question is, in today's world do I encourage my child to grow up to be an auto mechanic?
My sons grew up around my addiction to cars their entire lives. The oldest had a '47 Chevy pickup as his first vehicle at age 13, and my younger had a longroof, a 1979 Chrysler woody wagon. Both have had at least four more vehicles each since. The older has a mid-'80s El Camino and my youngest has his '96 Honda Accord. They have what they like to drive. I do not "force" them into what we consider old cars...hell, they HAVE the "old cars" at their high school! I drove late '50s and early '60s cars in the mid-'70s. They actually drive older cars in relation to their ages than I did then! It's all relative, guys and girls! I grew up in the heyday of the musclecar era. I remember hanging out at the local Chevy and Dodge dealers, both were on the way to school. My Dad knew the Chevy dealership owner well, and he knew all my brothers and sisters. I'd walk home from school and stop by the showroom, gazing longingly at the new Chevelle SS 396, the 427 Corvette Stingray ragtop, or the big-block Nova they just off-loaded from the transporter. He'd actually let me hang out occasionally in the showroom and sit in the cars, dreaming the time away when I could get one myself! The Dodge dealer was a little farther away, but I'd check out the new Hemi GTX, or the 340 Dart GTS, and dream... I did not really get around hot rods until the early '80s in OKlahoma. With the weather here, it is hot rod season nearly all year around. Here, it's easy to find cars and parts, mostly. There are a few kids (25-younger) running around with neat hot rod builds, but for the most part, pickups and ricers are what the kids are into here. It's a generational thing, really. And that is OK.
That reminds me, I heard a lot of people in school waiting to get their licenses/permits because either they failed or they didn't feel like getting it. The day I turned 15, I went straight to the DDS and got a 98 on my permit test and off I went. I knew a guy last year that waited until he was 17 to get his permit, and only because he had got a job. And in Ga, you have to keep the permit a year and a day from the time you got it minimum to get a license, so that kid won't beable to get his real license until 18 or so. Like I said, some just don't care or see a need too.
The Jalopy Journal
