Compliments.....what happens when you drive your car?

When I drive my 40 Chevy I get lots of smiles and tons of thumbs up from people driving by. Driving my Chevy also gets me smiling. There is something really fun about driving or riding in a hot rod...
Now my wife's 37 Chevy is on the road and she is smiling too..

 

Yeah, no kidding. When I drive my '47 Chevy around when I'm home, old people love it and kids too. Construction workers seem to like it also. But everyone else tries like hell not to look. It's comical actually. It's like "I don't want to justify your cool ride by looking at it." Everywhere else I've been people are more down to earth and give the thumbs up or a great conversation starter. People in Seattle are so uptight. It's strange.

 

Within 5 minutes of picking up my bright yellow full fendered 4" chopped (glass) 34 coupe I had a passenger in a car next to mine at the lights literally half out the window giving me both thumbs up and yelling "COOL CAR DUDE!!". It shocked me a little because his face was like 2 feet away from mine! I also remember his buddy holding him by his belt so he wouldn't literally fall out of the car.

Hot rods in traffic are society's visual lollies. We owe it to our communities to drive them as often as possible. I love (loved - I have since seen the light and sold my glass) driving mine in traffic during the week, in the rain too so that people can not only get a visual treat but they can see that hot rods are meant to be driven. Many of us have a car that blew our minds as youngsters so I like getting out there and collecting thumbs up.

 

I get that from the Corvette guys with their comb-overs. The funny part is their girlfriends or wives always stare and SMILE and even WAVE...which really steams the disco-daddy "Vette driver....

 

The number one comment I get is cool car...wheres the hood?

 

How a local cop follow me and my T-Bucket for about 10 minutes. Finally he turns on the lights and pulls me over. He said "you didn't do anything wrong, just want to look at your car". We sat there and talked for about 15 minutes and he even asked about our local T-Bucket club and when and where we have meeting if could he attend even if he didn't have a T-Bucket ... he wants to build one, but would like to talk to guys who have one or have built one.

 

I'm shocked at the compliments the car is receiving since I have yet to paint it. Slapped the flames on one evening in the garage just to see if it was something to consider. Figured on blasting the car clean when I get the chance to paint it. I've gotten enough thumbs up to put the flames back on once it's black.

Several rodders who's opinions I respect said it looks cool the way it is like it was done a long time ago. Think I'll wait till I do laps at the jalopy Showdown before throwing fresh paint on it.

Being an Olds and having no identification on it, there's always some creative guessing going on. One guy was trying to impress me that he knew something about the 50's cars, but then asked me if it was a Nomad. "Yep, hellava custom job!

 

Last summer while driving thru Yosemite nat'l park, there was a guy standing up thru the sunroof of a BMW suv taking videos of us in my roadster. My friend from ILL. who came out for the trip said "that's probably the first time that I've ever been filmed while riding in a car " . Most people in general are all thumbs up !

 

I've had little kids call my RPU a "hot wheels car" I'm guessing that 99 cent die cast models is where they've seen the hoodless, fenderless thing. Once in a while I take or pick up one of my kids from grade school and a bunch of kids always run up to the fence for a closer look.

 

No shit. South King County sucks.

Most often i get asked "is it street legal" I always say, " street legal enough"

I guess im just the wierdo that drives the loud fast car doing burnouts down the street.

 

I always get "what color you gonna paint it" Tri 5 guys hate a un finished 57.

 

Once a woman was hanging out of the passenger door, while on the freeway, while a friend of her's was driving thier car, so she could get a good picture of my pickup, at 75-80 mph.

 

I drive a red 1965 A100 Dodge van and I am a one-man parade (so it seems) ... I get stuff like "I had one just like it , only it were a pick up and a Ford... teenaged girls giggle/laugh when they see it ? most of the guys love it (Although there's that one guy that says it's cute ?!) At times there will be a very young child waiting with his mom at a bus stop who will tug on his mom's skirt and point as I drive by and that is the best shit ever - I can't imagine for the life of me what that little kid sees as I drive by or what he says to his Mom, but it puts a smile on my face like no drug has ever put !!!!!!!!!! The comment that makes me cringe more than most is the-"Looks like the Mystery Machine"

 

The police seem to like it. They keep stoping me, But by far my favorate of all time was when a guy who said his name was G stopped to look at one of my Impalas . When I lowered it to the ground with the remote from 20 feet away he dropped his tall can and yelled "OH SHIT ! I AINT PICKIN THAT UP FOR TWO WEEKS!!" I still don't know what the hell he was talkin about.

 

I burn a gallon of high test gas every 9 miles.

 

"Hey Toad, is that you in that beautiful car?.......Geez, what a waste of machinery!" (from American Grafitti)


Seriously, I've had people look at my dove grey car and ask what color I'm going to paint it.

Jim

 

Them 'Bet that costs a fortune in petrol....'
Me 'Well it's a cheaper night out than when I go drinking..'

Them 'Is it a Cadillac...'
Me 'Almost....'

Them 'How come you've got California plates on that...'
Me 'Cos the ugly British ones are in the trunk...'

Them 'How much is that worth...?'
Me 'It's priceless compared to your Ferrari....'

 

It's a mixed bag... from guys, especially older ones, always the nods of approval or thumbs up. If i'm sitting still i get , can I look inside/ under the hood thing (my old truck is mostly stock). From the SUV driving soccer moms, I get the "why is that thing on the road ?" look. One of my goals in life is to be able to park my rusty, smoking , oil leaking favorite thing next to a certain uber-liberal's hybrid in front of the coffee shop....maybe it'll even backfire when i turn it off..........

 

Over here Joe'n'Jane Q Public 'n' their kids generally love my 54 ford panel the 'Kripple Kart',even tho most people think 'cause it's American it's automatically a Chevy!But I am reminded of my favorite incident parked in a retail park. This grey,business suited square comes outa PC world,eyeballs the Karts Red Kandy flake job,shakes his head in disgust and climbs into his bland silver BMW,without realising he's been seen,causing me and Jane to just about bust a gut laughing.There are types out there that make you glad they don't 'get it'.
Paul

 

On the way back From the WA. Billetproof I had an old man at a truck stop almost break into tears as he was telling me his life story and his 41 ford like mine.

But my favorite was in my wifes 67 Galaxie convert. 500. Our cars are not the super nice show cars, But at shows we let little kids (And some big ones) sit in our cars and dream. At one show two little girls sat in my wifesWifes galaxie and one of the girls said " We Are just like princesses" I thought that was pretty cool .

 

I went for a cruise up PCH through Malibu and got a thumbs up from Peter Fonda

 

I get the exact same thing as well when I have the T on the road, the cellphone people make me a bit nervous sometimes....especially when the picture taker is the one driving

Like a friend told me while on a ride in the T: "It's like being in your own parade..all the time"

 

Last Saturday, a truck driver laid on his horn, slammed on his brakes and tried to buy my car from me in the middle
of the street.....there's something about an unfinished 55 chevy that makes people want to ask how much do you
want for it right now....

 

My old wrecker gets a lot of looks, with the faded flame job & 5" blue-top stacks. Probably has nothing to do with the fire, rolling out the pipes.

Ask Harry. He's lit cigars off my pipes.

 

My 55 Lincoln is a great unifier, all different kinds of folks dig it and let me know.

It is a regular old driver, nothing fancy, a long way from perfect, but people like it, and I kind of dig it too....

On average, I probably have at least 2 people talk with me about my car even when taking just a short drive.



Old cars are the coolest.

 

I have an O/T sportscar - gets a lot of attention from guys.
When I drive my roadster I get a lot of waves and smiles from the ladies....





....I'm going to be selling the sportscar

 

That is cool.

 

Being a girl who loves & drives older cars, i always get a ton of looks... most guys always thumbs up or honk & most females smile & wave. to have someone acknowledge your love of the history in these cars/trucks is awesome!!

i always wonder what happened long ago, when the people who drove them before me, experienced in them!!

 

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much!!!