Are you guilty, too?

I sure bet a lot of us here are guilty of having that "Too new / Not traditional" hotrod. I guess my issue is with my ProStreet 78 Malibu. I started putting the car together in High School. Went through 2 small blocks & three different transmissions. Backhalf'd the car. All that was while I finishing highschool & then into my college years. All that was done on petty anny jobs, Wendys, bartending....low buck jobs.

Now I'm 35 & my interest has changed to older cars. So now I'm up to three hotrods / projects & collecting for a 4th.....and just don't know what to do with the Malibu.

I mean it took me too many years while growing up pretty much investing every extra dollar. Now...the engines tired......and I just can't seem to bite my lip & let the car go.

I mean my interest are now elsewhere....but I do still have a soft side for the Malibu.

Carl Hagan

 

I've had a bunch on non trad car's...including a couple 4 speed 79 malibu's.....time's change, interest's change....for me, the money was NEVER there to have the deuce i had wanted...my first car was a 57 chevy at age 14 i bought for a grand, which i still have, so my interest in old stuff was there but it sure wasn't easy building it so young..
I'm 34 now.......and still appreciate most car's..but my taste's have gone straight to the old stuff now that it's a LITTLE easier for me
Keep it.

 

keep the malibu and give it some time, go out on friday nights to your locdal drag track to play with the high school crowd that think their billy bad ass with their pony cars

 

i still have my monza in the back yard. it would be tough to let that one go. i`ve had it for around 13 years. it was backhalved and had a small block in it in 1981 before it was even paid off. my 10 year old is gonna drive that car to school.

 

Hey man, wanna let that malibu go cheap I'll give it a good home next to my full-on but not tubbed 81 elcamino. I'm not shy about loving ugly ducklings or having a half dozen cars (even if some of em overlap themes). Maybe you just need a bigger yard or garage. PS- monzadood, I'm at 22 years with the same 383 stroked H body.

 

Working on my 76 malibu from highschool now... couldn't get rid of it when I left. Have the 53 gmc pickup sitting back home for when I'm finished with the bu.

If you are asking for the answer to whether you should get rid of it or not, you aren't going to get it from me. If you do decide to get rid of her... take her out and slap her around like the dirty girl she is, and make sure to take plenty of pictures, and try to find someone who will love it the way you do.

 

I've always been a performance guy, and I keep up with the latest performance technologies. Lots of that won't fly here on the HAMB, but I love where hot rodding came from as much as where it's going. Maybe even a little more.

My '50 Buick custom project will have many traditional mods, with some newer stuff hidden underneath (disc brakes, O/D trans, 12V electrical system, stereo, etc.) and is HAMB-friendly. But, it's been on the back burner while I finish up my wagon project, which could be defined as Pro Touring. That's not to say it's totally high tech, since it's built with a strong '60s theme, but it does have 17-inch wheels and 13.5-inch 6-piston brakes...not HAMB style. But, I love it and I've gotten a lot of its styling ideas from here, and when I've posted pics of the styling mods they've been generally well-recieved here too.
I've also got a '65 LeMans Pro Touring project that's on the burner behind the Buick (I guess that'd be the back back burner) and its 601ci traditional Pontiac V-8 was shared here, to an enthusistic response from the Poncho guys here. The rest of the car will be closer to street-legal NASCAR than anything seen on the streets when the car was new, but how it'll all work remains to be seen.
Lots of HAMB'ers have other interests, but they respect the nature of this board to keep the info true to Ryan's original vision...which is what makes the HAMB what it is.

Check my link below to see my other stuff.

~Scotch~

PS- I've got a soft spot for Monzas too - I want to build an LS1/6-speed Mirage for handling someday. I think it'd look awesome on 17s or 18s and would be a riot to drive.

 

This is HotRodding...not so much about what you have, but about what you DO with what you have. It's a given that you're a car guy, and car guys get to do what they want. If what you want is "traditional", the sell the Chevelle to someone that will enjoy it, and you go find something that you will, in turn, enjoy. Maybe even find someone that gave up on a true hot rod (pre49) and is interested in your "muscle" car....some kind of swap. I try not to worry so much about what "they" may think about my cars. I just do what I like, and to heck with the denigrators. I'll bet there's somebody in your town that would just love to get their hands on your Chevelle....put it on your local Craigslist, put it on here....put it on "that other auction site". I've had about a hundred cars....liked all of them...loved some of them...but invariably sold them to get the next 'affair' started. By the time you're buried up to your wallet rivets in the next project, the Chevelle should just be a treasured memory.

"the older I get, the faster I was"

dj

 

For me it was blessin that I sold my pro street nova, my taist had changed and it was time. The nova was a curse to me, always a problem. The money I got from that car suported me gettin my 64 cady and 33 pickup. The only regret is the fact that the new owner lost the car on Pinks. I wished he had a little more love for it than that. Dumbass gave the car away just so he could be on TV. Oh well, I got alot of good memories, fun times and lots of stories from that car, but I dont really mis it.

 

One of the things I always here from the old guys(no offense anybody) is keep your first hot rod never let it go. If you can keep it just keep it you got a lot of blood, sweat and gears in it.
Thats my 2 cents

 

keep your baby, then build something that truly reflects your taste.
it's ok we are car guys, and we understand.

 

Oh yeah, don't forget the world is not HAMB centric. This is a cool place but spending a lot of time here will make ya think some very cool cars are extremely gay. True HAMBrs wouldn't give my elco the time of day, but at the gas pump strangers line up 2 deep to worship it's lowered black street/strip badness. My bone stock 1975 "gayest corvette ever", gwaddamn you gotta beat people off it with a stick.

Just dunno how you one and two car guys do it. I couldn't cope without some variety.

 

Keep it.

You will instantly and perpetually regret selling it, and no matter how hard you try to recreate it (either with a 'new' one, or after the new owner 'improves' it) it will not be what you sold, ever.

 

LOL...Listen: "What goes around comes around." Hear that...??? Keep it long enuff and you'll be ahead of the pack when those old Malibu's gain popularity again sometime in the future.

I had a kustom in high school (late 50's/early 60's)...and guess what, it's back around...may take a few years of storing it...but the style will be back.

R-

 

Now you know how the old guy feels when you go asking about his "project" covered over behind the barn.

 

The fact that you're up in the air about it means you really want to keep it, right. Sounds like a pretty cool car, (in non- HAMB sort of way). Like somebody else said, don't forget, traditional hot rodding is only one piece of the automotive pie. There are a world of people out there to whom the car you described is the very pinical of cool. Including you at one time in your life. I vote keep it but, keep it in running condition because the regret of selling it isn't as bad as the regret of having to haul the rusted hulk to the crusher someday. Besides in another decade or two a tubbed '78 Malibu will be traditional LOL!

 

I still have my 74 Laguna that I bought right after I graduated high school and now it is a half finished project and has been that way for about eight years, I always think about ripping out the drivetrain for something else but I just don't know if I could.

 

AMEN!!! I've had a lot of cars in my 63 years. The only one I should have hung on to was the first. We'd have been to geather 50 years if I wasn't so stupid. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. You don't want to be saying those words in 50 years. Hang on to it!!!!!

 

A couple years ago I bought a 46 Ford sedan.....ever since then I've been regretting spending money on a post war car......
It seems since my interests lie strictly in the immediate post war era that I need to restore this car for it to fit in?

so it just sits there

i know its not exactly the same cituation.....but i dont know what to do with the car, i hate to sell it, but i hate to keep it
who knows...........

 

I'm guilty too. I have a 408 cubic inch, LS2......computerized,injected high tech, high zoot, non-HAMB engine on my engine stand right now.......and it's sitting right next to the wife's 8BA powered roadster. You CAN have both.

 

It really shouldn't be like a 12 step meeting where we apologize for having once(or currently) loving an off topic car. I am totally guilty of it. My first was a 71 442 that I worked my ass off to buy when in high school. Never had the money to make it reliable or legally tag it but to this day it's sitting in storage and I keep thinking "one of these days" I'll do something with it. Hell, I've had countless 57 and earlier vw's and had a blast but like others have said our interests change. My VW's and lowriders have been replaced with Model A's and customs; scooters have been replaced with early Harley's.
Traditional hot rodding isn't really vehicle specific.

 

wait until 2011, 25th the anniversary of the street machine nationals moving to duquoin. everything from 1986 will be back in style. it's gonna be totally rad!

 

I get some grief for my '67 chevelle around here from some of the hard core rockabilly types around town. Whatever. I've had that car longer than most of them have even been able to drive. I will never sell that car. I'm not as into the chevelles like I used to be... that much is true. My Dad and I are down to 5 decent chevelles now. But we have been playing with them my whole life. The '36 Fords are taking over. Hahaha!

 

I have no idea what you are talking about.... Thats my "kid" checking the oil so we can go for a spin. I did cut my mullet and threw out all my neon colored clothing though...

 

nothin wrong with muscle cars, they just dont fit here.id venture a more than half of us have hade or built a musclecar a some point, shit me and pops still restore the occasional mach I. nothin wrong wid it..... if you got room for it keep it!

 

so you mean i can drive my juiced samurai with the gold daytons that stick out again!!!

 

My taste in cars have changed also at 20 years old I built a 1972 rs camaro, nice street car, nice paint and a 383 stroker. Now I am 32 years old and have a 34 chevy 5 window coupe and a 54 chevy 2 door. Sold the 72 camaro 6 years ago and regret it. That car was part of my personality and was treated as a family member. I even tried to recreate it and built a really nice car but it wasn't the same. I sold that car 2 months ago and dont look back. I love my 54 but the camaro will always have a certain place. The sad part is the 72 has not been out of the new owners garage in 5 years and he won't part with it, the car is just as I sold it.

 

Still looking for the nicest S3 survivor I can find to transplant a turbo GN 3.8 into and daily for 3 years. Already have the powertrain. Those are some heavy duty cars.

hot rodding is a sickness, and traditionalism is only one of many symptoms

 

I have a 1999 S-10 that has full air ride that his sat for three years. I bought in college so that I could have something to drive to school everyday and now all I want is for it to turn into a pile of cash so that I can rebuild my hemi. Although I really should drive it since it's 2.2 probably get better gas milage then my Silverado.

 

I am guilty! I still have my first car from high school, a 1970 Chevy Nova. I have done a lot to that car. It now has a 383 stroker and is pretty much a fast little street/strip car. I don't want to let it go because of sentimental reasons. Oh well, I am guilty but I don't car, I love that car.