Cookie cutter cars

I understand what your saying and I like the overdone by everybody car but it just doesnt make me look real hard at them. I prefer something that not many if any have done just because it takes guts to build what the public thinks is a ugly vehicle. I say bring them uglys out and try to make them look cool

 

I think I get where this is coming from but there's not now nor ever will there be an answer, a "fix". Personally, I wouldn't walk across the street to look at a 69 Camaro. Don't care if it's a gennie ZL-1 or a cross ram Z/28. Nor would I cross the street to see a 32 3W in Viper red with a 4" chop, 18 and 20 inch wheels, and another one of those fuckin winged billet steering wheels. But that's just me and those folks with those cars are 1 up on me too. They're having more fun than I am because it's done. All of mine are unfinished right now.

So, what would I cross the street to see? Believe it or not, a well done 67 Camaro, a Model A of near any variety, and almost any "X-frame" GM car. I also tend to gravitate to 67 and older muscle cars of all varieties, and of course just about any make/model year Packard (go figure, right?). In my best Forrest Gump impression, "...that's all I got to say about that..."

 

See my signature

 

People are influenced by what they are exposed to-car magazines, TV shows, Car shows, etc.
The more you see of a certain style, the more you will continue to see it, for a while at least..snow ball effect.
Then when someone comes out with something deemed new and extraordinary, the trend will shift again.
People always will want the "latest and greatest"..human nature.
Remember the eighties, and nineties when Pro Street, and Pastel colors, with tweed interiors, were the cool thing to do?..Where are they now?
Traditional is, and has been here for the long haul..well after the "latest and greatest" trend has vanished.

 

40PU, right on. Now it's "pro touring" instead of "pro street". What we all find so satisfying here, the truck in your avatar was as welcome and pleasant to see in 1962 as it is right now. Some things never go away, and for all the right reasons.

 

I did kind of like the street rod trend of pastels,tweeds,billet,etc......It made the "old junk" parts I liked then much more afordable than now.

I bought a fully chromed front end set-up,drilled dropped I-beam axle, split & drilled wishbones,shocks,tie rod,drag link spindles,hubs,rotors,calipers for $550 when a rod shop talked a guy into a Heidt's IFS for his 34 highboy!!

He also replaced the "junk" original 34 frame,but I didn't buy that!!

 

I see things that are cool on each handmade car,even if I don't care for its over all look.
If ya don't look close ya miss them details. Very hard to see much with your nose in the air!

 

Well, maybe everyone who has a car that looks like another person's car just happens to LIKE that look. Not everyone wants to have the unusual car.
Its their car so its their choice.

 

Care to expand on that?

 

I'll chime in on that one. Excellent quote.
Too often, I see guys just "assemble" cars. They slap together whatever they have around with no idea that if they took a little time to finesse the details of that same part, it would look 1000% better.
-Example: I see seats that are way too tall and the driver's head is touching the headliner. A few minutes with a tape measure, an hour with a welder and a grinder, and the seat fits better and looks right. COST: $0
-Simple ergonomics. Maybe a simple column drop, move the pedals, position the seats better. COST: $0
-Panel fit, consistent gaps, well-placed brackets and clips, cleanly routed wiring and hoses. COST: CHEAP
-Cleaned parts, rattle canned with an attention to detail. COST: CHEAP

Anybody can assemble a car. It takes someone with a plan, a vision, and attention to detail to "build" a car.

I have to agree that many of the cars at today's show are starting to look the same. Hot rodding has always had a portion of the builders with a "Monkey See, Monkey Do" mentality, but it's getting more and more prevalent. It explains the black suede/red steelies/white wall tire look you see at every show.

Don't let it get you down. Actually, I think it's a good thing if you're really wanting to build a car that'll be a groundbreaker and will blow people's socks off. So what if "that group" doesn't show an interest in it. Plenty of people will, and those who do will be the guys who "get it".

 

There are different styles, technics and taste. But building and assembling are basically the same thing. Anyone can do both. It's how you do it that defines the outcome.

build·ing (bldng)
n.
1. Something that is built, as for human habitation; a structure.
2. The act, process, art, or occupation of constructing.

as·sem·ble (-smbl)
v. as·sem·bled, as·sem·bling, as·sem·bles

1. To bring or call together into a group or whole: assembled the jury.
2. To fit together the parts or pieces of: assemble a machine; assemble data

 

I agree that a lot of cars look similar. I walk by red deuces at a show without a second look.

On the other hand, I don't understand why some folks care so much about those cars similarities. It doesn't bother me at all, I just don't waste my time looking or thinking about them.

 

I guess I'm not as particular about these "cookie cutter" cars as some. I don't mind seeing the 350/TH350 combo in a 30's roadster. I'd much rather see that than the endless rows of muscle cars, and fiberglass Cobra kit cars.
I can go to a cruise and look at 5-6 '32 Ford roadsters, and even if they all have a flathead Ford, or a SBC, I still enjoy seeing little personal touches guys do to make them their car. But I was at a show this week and their were 6-8 Cobra kit cars parked right behind me, and of course all built to look like original Cobras, with only paint color as a varience. One owner took offense when I referred to them as "kit cars" and corrected me by saying they were not all kit cars, and some were "replicas". I asked if any of these "replicas" had aluminum bodies like a real Cobra, and he said they were all fiberglass. I told him they weren't very good replicas if they didn't build them the way Shelby did. He wasn't too happy, but somebody needed to bring him back down to earth.

 

I,m more a custom guy but lately i see alot more flatheads in cars up to 36,s and small hemi,s with the rest being new style drive trains which is cool just shows that there are always trends

 

I like to look at them all for the little details,etc. Not crazy about seeing the replica cobras,etc. but will always take a closer look at nicely done muscle cars and clean 30's and 40's cars done in a timeless fashion that are driven. Will walk clear across a show ground to check out a 49-50 Olds or nicely done 48-53 Chevy pickups .

 

The biggest difference is fabrication. With enough $ you can pretty much do a put tab A into slot B car. If you assembled you kids bicycle for Christmas would you say you built it. There's sure nothing traditional about it.

 

Is it a car hobby......and all are welcome?

 

I didnt expect this thread to blow up so quick. But as so many of you have said there are trends and people like to copy those trends. I have never understood that in the car culture because there are about 1 million different ways to build an old t-bucket or a 32 deuce coupe but it seems as if I am seeing only one way that they are being built. I mean identical down to the gauges and shifter knob unless this is some weird car edition of punked where there are really only 4-5 of the identical cars and they respray them every week.

I have always strived to do something original even if it is with a traditional rod something like using period parts is not a cookie cutter car but to buy all of the billet crap and bolt it on shows a lack of originality. I even have some cars from the 70's that are getting restored and one idea I had was to make the concept drawing of a 4-door car a reality but since I cant get it drawn or have someone else draw it to where it wont look like an afterthought I havent started it yet.

I have gone as far as to machine my own parts while I am in college just so my ride doesnt have the same set of gauges that everyone else has. But thats not to say that I dont like the sw curved glass gauges.

I guess my thing about the original post was summed up in some of the replies. It is nothing to get worked up over but at times it is annoying especially when you are at a car show that has a vw transporter truck, delorean, dodge bros touring car, 1928 essex, bricklin, panther pink hemi cuda, and a real mercedes 300sl gullwing and the most unique car in the entire show was a 1980 iroc camaro but this was according to the judges. The owner of the iroc actually had a mullett and a wife beater on. But it is stuff like that that makes me say to myself WTF and makes me scratch my head.

 

Irocs rule.....

 

seems like every 57 chevy ever made was red

 

well said!

 

This thread needs pictures posted of "non cookie-cutter" cars/trucks to start our own virtual car show. Let's see em, boys and girls!

 

Why do you give a rats ass what evryone else is driving? To each his own! Drive your car and don't worry about anything!lol
JimV

 

To my way of thinking , Sunbeam nailed it... Fabrication ! Dreaming up a part & making it w/ your own hands.

dave

 

Tradition means doing it the way someone else already did it, and was accepted by others as the proper way of doing it.

 

I've been going to car shows since the 70's and yes, I do start to blow by a lot of cars that look just like 1000 other cars I've seen before. The LARS is coming up next weekend. They have a section for just "shiny paint" roadsters and there will be a ton of beautiful roadsters parked there. I usually hit the swap section first, then specialty parking, then vendors and the roadster section last if I get to it at all.

But, if I see any one of those same roadsters in a parking lot by itself or better yet, driving down the road I will go out of my way to check it out. I guess it's like hot chicks, at the end of a night at a titty bar they all start to look the same but if you see a naked chick all by herself you tend to have a different attitude!

What I don't get is brand news cars at a show. Why would I want to see new Camaro, Challenger, Vette, Mustang, etc at a car show when I can just go down to a dealer and see the same thing?

 

i have problems with this too. were even starting to see this in the kustom scene. oh well, this just means you get all the attention when you roll up in your own hot rod thats different!

 

+1000 ! I've been saying this for years now...

 

Sweet.