Art & Inspiration cars are built for car guys then there are cars built for non

Last weekend at lonestar my friends and I made some observations about some of the cars.
The cars that are built for shock or attention grab non car guys attention and not the car guys and then the mild cars don't grab the attention of regulars but do car guys.
This ugly plexi glassed window over the top A with 80's parts had reg people walking up to it and very few black t-shirts but the mild 55 merc had the car guys checking it out not the collared shirt, khaki short guys.
Non car guys will never understand mild lowering, steelies and dog dish caps faded original paint.
Car guys don't understand r+t r*ds with 2 ton rear ends and crap welded all over it. 80's graphics and mono chrome. Trailering to and from shows.

I never really paid attention but we sat and our chairs and saw it first hand.sure you others have seen this
Just my 2 cents.

 

It's always been that way,,don't waste time worring about it. HRP

 

No it was more an observation than anything. I was chillin with my friends and 2 boys. I had a great time. I didn't see as many cars as usual and stayed in our spot but never really paid attention to who looked at what before

 

It's easy to get the public's attention, especially with goofy, ratty, outrageous crap.
But I tell the guys I do cars for...if you impress the "real" car guys, you've done your job well! That's the only thing that's important. Popularity is for Britney Spears and Lady Gaga.

 

Correct,,prime example is Nick's (Malcom)roadster picked for the Rodders Journal award.

 

You're right the crazy goofy stuff gets the attention of the civilians.

 

When i'm at a car show and i see that i look at it and say to my self "what a pile of crap" and keep walking.

 

truth be told, i get more of a kick from "non car people" checking out my car than I do car guys....sometime car guys can be assholes too....

 

I look at it like this

Just like when little kids are learning to dress themselves. They aren't quite sure what is appropriate, what matches, which shoes to wear, or even if they are on the right feet. The other kids are in the same boat and think its cool when one has light up sneakers.

 

That is now considered archival documentation that people used to have hair in the nether regions.

 

I don't even go to cars shows anymore, full of trailer queens, I go to events where people actually build there own cars and run and drive them and fix them sometimes right there on the spot. Plus we can have beer there!

 

So why is it bad to build a Boyd style smoothie instead of building a patina finished car with a flattie and Mexican blanket interior? Both are affectations of a style of rodding from different periods. Just because one is popular at this moment doesn't mean everyone out there should be building the same car.

Build what you like and screw everyone else.

 

Went to a show a while back and there was a huge crowd gathered around a 5th gen Camaro with gullwing doors and a couple mini trucks. Did the supercharged Studebaker not far from it get any attention? Nope, people just walked right past it.

 

Sign me up!

 

I've had thoughts like this based on some shows I've been to over the past couple years. Honestly, I'd rather the trailered street rods & silly rat rods over the flood of Stereos-On-Wheels that keep infiltrating the floor space. Oh, I still scoff a bit at mirror finish on a brake rotor and such but...

...if your car needs flashing lights and brown note pantcrap-inducing noise coming from it to get attention at a car show, your car sucks.

 

My wife thinks it's funny when I run up like a lone bone head to look underneath some "boring" car. Kinda like kindergarten and the teachers dress.

 

X2. Something cool and original I can totally appreciate, like that guy that had a willys or whatever pickup with the deutz engine on it. Since the engine was air cooled the whole front end of the car was bare frame rails with just an engine. That's a cool rod!
But the guys just flippin through a magazine picking out the most expensive, brightest,loudest of everything.. yea that's just bs

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

And after these observations did you and your friend interview the people to find out if they were "non car" "regural" or "hotdamn real car" people? or did base your observations on how they were dressed. there are a shit load of real car guys that don't wear black t shirts and saggy baggy shorts with half of their crack exposed..

 

You read my mind. I do have a few black T shirts, but when I'm not in the garage all dirty, I usually look like I'm on my way to a volley ball game. If fat men played volley ball.

 

the other real car guys wear blue jeans with their black t shirts!

 

I have to agree with 62Ragtop (Build what you like and screw everyone else.)
I have both, Shiny with Boyd wheels and patina Mexican blanket rods. I build them, drive them and enjoy them. Yes sometimes I have to trailer to farther events but only because Im cheap and dont have gas gauges in my rides, not because they wouldnt make it or that Im affraid of the rain.
I too notice that there are guys/glas who build their cars and then there are the guys who buy them. Both can be very critical of your ride. The ones who buy them are fast to point out the flaws in your ride, and the others can tell you how they would have done it and how you did it isnt right. But then there are the people ( like me) who just enjoy the thought that someone built this with thier on two hands. Doesnt matter if they made evey part by hand, or if they bought it off the shelf, its what they like or can afford and its the vision the have in their head. At some shows I'll wear a black T shirt and jeans, but when its hotter then hell out Ill have on a white T and some board shorts with flip flops! ..Just my 2cents

 

Just what I was thinking. And I wear khaki shorts to car shows. But then, when you been involved for 40 some-odd years, you dont really have to worry about whether or not people will id you as a "real car guy". Sometimes, I'll just stand around and listen to the groups of "real car guys" babbling buzzwords and spouting bullshit in loud voices making sure that all the passerbys know that they are "real car guys", and laugh to myself before I move on...

 

NOW THATS how you id the "real" car guys. Just look for the old fat bastards... And a total lack of eye for fashion is a good indicator as well. I usually go for the "socks and sandals" look. "Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!!!"

 

HAAAAA! Yep, that's it.

 

Don't base your opinions of a guys bona fides on how he is dressed. I'm not a fan of the "Hot Rod Lifestyle"tag, and don't have a tattoo, greased hair or any of the "carguy' style cues. I'm basically a fat, hillbilly car nerd. Doesn't get me any invitations to car clubs or car shows, but my cars do attract the black shirt crowd, and the khakis, and the hawiian shirts, and the 8 year old boys, and the cops.

 

I build stuff to impress ME, not some dufus setting in a lawn chair at a car show who doesn't get off his duff. And, I like to wear shirts with collars, and khakis happen to be comfortable, as opposed to black t-shirts and dirty jeans. If that's your definition of a car guy, maybe you're judging too soon...

Brian

 

You gotta shake your fist at those whippersnappers to really get the point across.

 

I thought this was about cars and their build styles.

Seems I may have been misguided in my orignal thoughts and now this seems to be about fashion choices equating to being a car guy.
So now I'd like to ask a question -
What comes first and influences the other ?
Is it the attire , is it the ability, the stride, the attitude, or the knowledge ?
Maybe it's the skitzoid and antisocial personality that makes those guys stay in the garage to be the "real car guys"

There's something just flat out wrong with socks and sandals

 

I was just thinking about this while I was driving to work, and suddenly I realized who my subconcious fashion mentor was. Swap the sandals for flip-flops, and my look is the TRUE traditional hot rodder look, as invented by our ol' dad. Baggy shorts, ray-bans, a well broken in golf shirt stretched over a rather corpulent belly, and flip-flops. I'll coin a phrase for it, here and now, before one of the other guys beats me to it. The "Baskerville look".

 

Shit I must have missed the memo on dress code...I go to the shows to see what people are working on / have built. I don`t want to get a tattoo, put goop in my hair,and wear the uniform of the day or listen to 50`s music all the time. Can I still be a car guy ? Who the fuck are you and where do you get off sitting in your lawn chair passing judgement on people ? Asshole