Event Coverage FUNNIEST THING OVERHEARD AT CRUISE OR SHOW?

We took Dad's Coupe to a show this weekend that was part of a large Man Show event. We are basically just eye candy/entertainment/ filler for show dedicated to everything MAN!



Our favorite part of any show is just hanging and talking with the fellow enthusiasts that come by and having good natured fun with clueless spectators. As you see we had a little fun with the name on the door. Dad lived on Caledonia Street for 50 years. On the second day of the show a guy is looking at the car while talking overtly loud on his cell. This what we here: "...yes there are some cool cars including the CALIFORNIA KID! It most certainly is I am standing right in front of it! ,I told you, you should have came. No it is THE car. Black coupe, flames, name on the door...

Then he took a photo and texted which was quickly followed by apparent confirmation on the other end including an agreement for which door to meet. Then he was off.

I turned to Dad and said if he comes back I am introducing you as Martin Sheen! What funny thing have you heard?

 

That's funny.

 

I'm sure we've all heard the ...." My Dad had one just like it yrs. ago" story, but what really gets my goat is when they look at my '40 and ask...."Are you the original owner?" Geez, I may be old, I'm 65, but do the math for Christ's sake!

 

I was selling my OT 66 chevelle years ago that I had rebuilt to my tastes. It was originally a 6 cyl, 3 on the tree bench seat car. I put a 396, 4spd, and buckets in it. I left the stock hood, and the Malibu script on the rear quarter. I had the car at a local show with a sign that advertised the car as a Malibu, not an SS, with build pics included but the very first person that stopped to look at it asked me if it was a real SS and if it had the original motor! Sheesh!

 

you mean you aren't the original owner ? imagine that

 

Deuced Up:

When I looked at your post the other day, I noticed the lettering on the door, but quickly dismissed it being "the kid" due to the car being a 32. However, the lettering is styled so good, I glanced and in my mind read "the California Kid"! Never even thought twice about it being a different spelling, or wording. Nice touch.

 

Runs in the mid 9's.

 

When I first saw the spelling I just though that like me you did not pay attention in school!! My spelling so bad spell check has a tough time figuring out what I wrote!! Pete

 

I was at a cruise with a bunch of friends years ago with my OT 68,442, which I still have, anyway a guy walks up eating his ice crème talking to his I guess wife with a young boy of about 10 I guess. They are looking at the car, she say's how much she likes the color, then he blurts out I had a Barracuda exactly like that when I was in High School! I look at my buddies and we all just bust out laughing! Barracuda? Now I have had the car misidentified as a Chevelle, a Buick, usually a GTO but a Barracuda? I just couldn't and don't see the resemblance, couple buddies still ask me every now and then how my Barracuda is running! Joe

 

But it was bought by the original owner right? Or do ya think they stole it! Joe

 

Deuced up, I love subtle stuff like this, that really is very clever, and hard to spot the difference at a glance.

I put Ford logo stickers on my front fenders of my old GM Holden Ute, a few years back.
Came outer a pie shop, to an older bloke waiting for me.
He proceeds to tell me, quite seriously, that the Ute was not a Ford.
I thought he was messing with me to begin with, but he was serious, so once I got my head around that, I told him he was wrong, and it was a Ford.
This guy totally believed, that I believed it to be a Ford.
He walked off, shaking his head.

Edit: not at a car show, but along the lines of the ops thread, kinda.

 

I've got lots of stories like that, I've heard over the years. One was when guys were checking out my chopped custom 55 Olds. You could see they didn't know what it was, until one genius looked at the registration card in the windshield, with my name and car's info on it. So he then informs his buddies " it's an Olds. You don't see many of them around any more, because they didn't come with door handles, and people didn't like that!"
Another concerning door handles: at a different show, my GF had enough, so was taking a nap in the back seat. A little kid comes up and asks how do you get in the car? My buddy, a big kidder, tells him that the lady in the car stays there and opens the door whenever I have to get back in. So the kid confirms that there is a lady in the car, and asks "How does she eat?". He tells him "she goes to a drive through restaurant!"

 

I enjoy the people at shows, cruises and answer their sometimes silly questions remembering that they are not car people it does not cost anything to be nice. I take it as a compliment that they want to talk with me and about cars AND always let well behaved kids sit in car so parents take pics. The occasional "experts" usually loud, obnoxious guys, with that magical perfect rod back home in the garage are the hard ones to put up with, I walk away smiling and thinking about how lucky and fortunate I am. Repeat story, was at a show w/ friends and an real old timer was telling us about his 70 Vette, special counter rotating BBC, 800 HP, Street tires, ran in the 9's. We all smiled and said KOOL ! Hoping when I'm old and confused, people will put up w/ me, hope to be hanging out w/ cars till I expire.

 

Later that same day another guy came up and said, "Man I really love your car."
Dad - "Thanks."
Guy - "So is this a '32 or '34?"
(I am thinking well at least he is in the neighborhood.)
Dad - "It's a '32"
Guy - "Ford?"
(well there goes the neighborhood!)
Dad - "Yes it is Ford."
Guy - "Roadster?"
(check please) LOL
Dad - "No, this one is a coupe."

 

"Oh look at the rat rod, cool." (There is nothing ratty about my car) or "They haven't buffed it out yet." ( it's semi gloss on purpose) or "I had one just like it." (insert totally wrong year and make.) Some people just don't know but they want to identify with it in some way.

 

I was at a show several years ago with the coupe, when two guys came up and were checking her out. Then they ask me what dirt track do I run and how do I keep it so clean. I politely told them, this is a drag car from the 60s, and I dont think drag slicks would do to well on a round dirt track. We still crack up about that one.

 

I did the same thing but instantly thought, thats not the cali kid car....and then read up and looked again

 

Another one I get alot is, IS IT A KIT CAR? Yea it came in boxes, and you just screw it together!

 

When I was younger I always messed with Corvairs.
I would always get the comments about Nader, my dad had one of those, is it a spider, etc etc...
My favorite was, I had a puppy, about 4-6 months old and she was getting hot and wanted out of the sun. I put her in the trunk where it was cool and out of the sun (trunk was open). I had a father and son come look at the car... Walk all around the front very puzzled. "Where's the motor". I replied back saying. This is an economy car. The dog wakes up and pulls the car where ever you wanna go. I don't have much power right now but when she gets bigger it will be fast....
The dad laughed, the kid stared at the puppy for a while and goes... Wow cool...
P.S... A keg fits perfectly in the trunk with tons of ice around it... Even has a drain in the trunk to drain water when finished...

 

After 40 plus years there are many I hate to remember, many I've forgotten on purpose..Some extremely critical and agrumentive, some very dumb, most time mild compliments...On a couple different occasions some one in their 30's will ask how long I've had the car, I tell them...Then they tell me that they saw the car when they were very young [one guy claimed 4] and it has been stuck in their heads ever since and so nice to see its still around....

 

I'm 77 years old and I was there in the day so I have an idea how fast cars were on the street. My favorite comments, not necessarily at shows, are the stories about the Corvettes, muscle cars or whatever that went 180 mph on the street in the 60's and 70's. Just didn't happen

 

Well, I almost hit the guy who was telling his gf all about my T, it apparently came in boxes like a model, so easy anyone could put one together, pointing out to her all the "wrong" stuff on the car, how it should be....was all I could do not to hit him from three feet away.
I just finished last year a 28 Chrysler coupe, it was at the trim shop when the new owner called and told me the trim shop owner was knocking the car bad to him. It was in for a basic upholstery job, he wanted something simple so he could take his dog with him,(110# pit bull), so down there I went, 45 minutes from my place. He didn't know me, proceeded to show me this piece of shit in his shop, (body was in need of some work), but everything else on the car is top notch. Asked him if he'd looked underneath, or driven the car, no he said, short silence.......looked at me and swallowed hard, more silence, I said, "this is what my customer asked for and got" Apologies all over the place, a short discussion about running a business and making customers happy, tricks he might want to pay attention to. Haven't seen him since.

 

Yeah, I get that rat rod shit all the time with my avatar, gett'n tired of trying to explain what a traditional hot rod is.

 

That's funny. By the way Don, you don't look a day over 64 1/2.

I always get the "when you going to finish it" line.

 

was at the GoodGuys Swap Meet in Pleasanton yesterday - at 8 o'clock in the morning - "all of the good stuff has already been sold"

 

Moved back to Pa. back 2012 from Arizona ( long story ). I had bought a Thermador car cooler out there to use as a prop on my 63. My old High School buddy and I went up to a weekend show up in Rhinebeck N.Y. ( really like that show. In fact we're going up this May also ) and we had more fun with that Thermador. Most people on the East Coast have no idea what its for because they only work in dry hot air so not much use for them here and you can only imagine some of the comments we heard. The best was this young guy early 20s Id say looked that thing over for quite a while and finally strolled over to me and says " I know its old time AC but where does the Freon go ? " I about pissed myself laughing.

 

Person at local cruise-" nice Studebaker ".
Me-" thanks, but it's not a Studebaker ".
Person-" are you sure?".
Me-" yes, it's a 1962 Plymouth valiant ".
Person- " they didn't make this body style in 62!".
Me-"ok, thanks for the info".

 

I am laughing so hard I'm crying. Beautiful man, just beautiful ...

 

Well Don,at least they don't ask the same question when you are in the roadster. HRP

 

Back in the late 60's early 70's I was asked if my chopped and channeled 32 five window was a "Dune Buggy"