Hey Alberta Hambers!! Time to pull your socks up!!

Ok so explain to me whats going on here. I see lots of local people on the hamb everyday however I never see any of you guys out at shows or even just cruising around for that matter. Ok your if your anti-social I undertsand, however we have a major problem here in Alberta and its up to us to fix it.
I dont know if any of you guys have noticed, but there is very very few traditional hot rods and kustoms running around town. Here in Edmonton I can think of them all on one hand.
Why is this? Why does nobody here cares or builds or even buys traditional syled hot rods. Edmonton has over 1,000,000 people living here including the suberbs so dont give me excuses saying we dont have the population. Also Edmonton has a very large automotive scene. Borden park car show brings in several hundred cars, however 90% of them are full on street rods, or muscle cars.
Were too far north? Bullshit, go 12 hours west to Vancouver and there is a ton of badass traditional styled cars running around. Go south a bit to Washington, full of traditional styled cars. I've been to lots of the big shows in the states and as far as I'm concerned Washington has the best Traditional car scene I have ever seen. On the east coast of the US (also cold and crappy climate) there is still big shows and a large traditional scene.
So whats wrong with Alberta? Why are we stuck in such a rut, a rut full of street rods, muscle cars and trucks. And what are you doing to help?


Anyways I'm just throwing this out there to see what you guys think. If there is any chance we can improve and promote the Traditional hot rod scene in Alberta, and if any Albertans even care.
Because in my opinion things have to change. It has gotten to the point where I dont even enjoy myself at car shows anymore because 90% of the other car owners are either calling my car a rat rod, calling me an idiot for running bias ply tires or asking me when I'm going to put a small block chevy in it and put disc brakes on it.

 

I see lots of 'Traditional' rods at every show and shine i go to--seems active enough to me

 

i Dont know too much about the local Calgary scene, however I was at the Diablos show and was not too impresses with the turnout. Yes there was lots of cars, however alot of them were street rods painted flat black, lots of late 50's early 60's sedans lowered and painted flat black and alot of rat rods. I will admit the rollers cc had a few real nice cars there. Out of the 50 or 60 cars that showed up I think I only took 4 or 5 pictures.

 

I agree with you about Northern Alberta. St Albert just did it's Rockin' August event (562 cars registered)and few if any traditional rods and customs there and to be truthful not a whole bunch of street rods either. Mostly restorations and muscle cars. I didn't get to the Borden show this year so I can't speak on it but it is usually better but not great.

I also don't think that traditional guys support the shows as well as they could. Rockin' August has been running for 13 years and there seems to be fewer hot rods and customs every year I go and as less guys attend I think fewer feel it is the type of show for them and they just don't go and it snowballs.

I think the vast majority of special interest car owners are muscle car guys. I'm not really sure why but my guess would be most of the guys in this province with money are of the age that muscle cars were what was cool when they were young so that is what they are either building or having built. You go into most hotrod/restoration shops and 90% of the builds are muscle cars.

You may not want to admit it but I think the climate does play a very large part as well. We get about 3-4 months of really good car weather here and about 6-7 of good snowmobile weather so thats where guys extra cash seems to go. I know 5 or 6 guys that own sleds and one that owns any type of classic car and they are all muscle cars. Guys spend money on $60,000+ new trucks here not hotrods ans customs. We live in a northern redneck area of the world and we get pretty much what I would expect.

I would love to see more as well but I am not holding my breath.

 

Bingo. I think it's a problem that spans all forms of hotrods, not just traditional. Look at the Three Hills show. When I was a kid it was all hotrods/muscle. Now it's almost completely muscle/import/dumbass rig pickups. I would love to see an increase in hotrod activity period, and if it's more traditional then thats all that much better.

Alberta is kind of a cultural black hole...we'd have fewer headaches if we sold off our hotrods, bought new pickups, jacked them up 10" and bought a bunch of UFC shirts. *shudders*

 

EEEWWWWW. New Stuff .. I have been bad in going to events this year.. Car problems, Money problems.. Same old .... Maybe a Get to gether would help... I would like to meet all of you HAMBrs here in Alberta and Also whos beyond the Border..

 

This is definitley the vast majority of male Albertans take on what is cool especailly younger guys! I think if anything it is going to get worse as I see very few young guys with any interest in Hotrods in this province.

 

I don't think climate has anything to do with it... because those muscle car guys & street rodders aren't driving their cars year-round... it's all seasonal, and a little more boring than it needs to be.

It's unfortunate that most car guys around here seem to look at traditional rods as a novelty rather than an entity.

... and I kinda think that 'street rods' ARE muscle cars... at least closer to muscle cars than they are to hot rods.

 

I'll also add that there seem to be a lot of young people interested in traditional music... garage rock & rockabilly... but not so much in the cars, which go hand-in-hand as far as I can see.

Kinda odd.

 

Rock and Roll goes hand in hand with hotrods, no doubt. But they are two different scenes, capable of supporting themselves without the other. I always get pigeon-holed by people who see my car. They figure I'm into rockabilly the second they see me, lots would rather talk about what I listen too then what I drive Not that I don't like rockabilly, but I'm more of a garage/classic/punk guy myself. But I digress, this isn't about music.

A lot of our problem stems from the general lack of knowledge that Joe Public has. They have been fed the Ol' Skool Rodz/Rebel Rodz/Bad boy bullshit for so long, they think they are paying you a compliment. They don't know any better. It's up to us, in a way, to be open to educating the people who stop to talk to us about our cars. Sometimes it's hard not to roll your eyes when they call your car a ratrod, but if you take the 2 minutes to try and explain to them, they may get it right the next time. At least they aren't telling you to "get that bag of shit off the road!"

What doesn't help though, is the guys who should know better and STILL fucking argue or try and tell you what it is you've built. Yeah, my car may not be the most refined machine on the road (and it isn't! haha) but I'm working on it. The difference between what I'm building and a ratrod is that I don't WANT my car to look like a bag of crap. Ratrods are built to look the part. I want to be driving a car I can be proud of, and someday I will be but it's going to take some time.

I think an Alberta HAMB meet would be pretty cool, myself. Getting the ball rolling on something like that would be great. Theres strength in numbers, after all.

 

Yes but there are not as many of those guys either compared to warmer climates because most guys spend their money on other things that can be enjoyed for a longer part of the year. You go to BC and you don't see a whole lot of jacked up mega dollar new pickup trucks that guys are spending their money on in Alberta. Just like you don't see alot of Japanese Fast and the Furious type of cars here either because they are not practicle in this climate. So if fewer guys are building hotrods/muscle car/streetrods then logic dictates even fewer are going to building traditional cars.

 

I stopped going to Rod Runs . the arogance in the air is to thick for me and very clickee. My car does not fit in with Antiques.. My car does not fit in with the $60.000 Hot Rods.. I drive my car lots.. and put many miles on it for being a Non Rebuilt motor from 1956 . when it breaks, I fix it.. . Now if I had someplace to go, instead of a great big circle..that would be great to meet Fellow People just like my self that have Interest in the same thing..

 

If you start an anti-social group nobody will join because they are,well....anti-social.

 

I do agree with you and I admit I am one of the guys who has stopped going to local shows. I have not entered a car in Powerama since 2004. I do not go to the local cruise spots or most of the local shows. The reason I do not go is because I always felt like an outcast due to the fact i'm not driving a 69 challenger or a 70 nova and my Model A still has a straight axle and drum brakes. Most of the people there were not interested in what I was doing, and I for the most part was not interested in what their doing.
I am now realizing that by not going to any shows and prompoting traditional hot rodding the popularity of muscle cars and street rods is only going to increase and traditional hot rodding in edmonton will never earn the respect it deserves.
At my shop we try to only work on pre 64 cars however there is the odd muscle car that does sneak in. I have worked at a few other local hot rod shops in the edmonton area and for the most part 80% of what we worked on was from the late 60's right up into the 80's
Edmonton used to have a real strong hot rod scene in from the early 50's right into the late 60's and has produced some very influential people for the sport, including Graham Light from NHRA (from the rodents CC) Terry Capp, Bernie Federley and hell even Stu Hillborn is from Sylvan Lake Alberta (even though he moved to cali at a young age)

I think the only way were going to get Alberta out of this is if we stand together and make more apperiances at shows and hell even put on more pre 64 traditional shows.

 

If your talking about a UNION you can count me out! Dirty Commies!

 

Sounds like an Alberta Hamb meet is just the thing to do. I dont know how far you guys would want to travel but if you all are willing to come to Edmonton LG Kustoms would be willing to open the shop up for a good o'l fashioned Hamb Hangout.

 

Or, if Edmonton is too far out of the way (I'm up there almost every weekend it seems, so I have no problem making the trip) we could organize it somewhere in the middle. Red Deer/Olds area. Theres literally 100's of campgrounds we could take over for an afternoon, have a good 'ol cookout.

 

I know of a few groups , but they are selective on who they bring in to there groups.... being anti social is not what I like to be.. But its a problem when you say to a person.. Nice car.. and all they can say is ( I know ) and walk away..

 

I don't know about other areas but I find most of the car guys around here pretty nice. They may not understand what we are doing but they seem nice.

I really think if we want presence in car shows someone needs to get the ball rolling. I think if a guy that likes traditional cars goes to a show right now he sees noone he has no one to talk to about their car and no motivation to bring his car out to the next show.
It may kind of suck for the first couple of years but if we could get even 3 or 4 guys out it would be a start. I wish my truck was ready to take to a show but I would definitley come by to check out the cars. Maybe next year (fingers crossed).

Jalopy Kid I think you idea of having guys at the shop is a good one. You see posts all the time about it happening in Cali but never here. I may be biased though as I live about 15 minutes away

 

fuck 'em

 

I wonder how much of it is born out of guy having to listen to how cool their Rat Rod is more than plain ignorance. If it is ignorance I agree with Old Soul. Fuck 'em!

I do think however that some guys are more receptive if you have a car in a show rather than just a spectaor which I think is a shity attitude that will never encourage more people to show up.

 

It's not unique to Alberta. I live in TO proper and work North of the city and the whole truck/UFC deal is huge (no pun intended) here too.

 

You guys in T.O are behind the times the whole Truck UFC...Tattoo guy has been here for ever!!!!

 

HAHAHA the difference is here and probably TO they are the vast majority.

 

The problem with it all is everyone is selective in their own way and so can appear arrogant to onlookers.
I dragged my rusty project to a charity show and shine this weekend (its a kids charity) and was stuck between 2 $150-200k trailer queens and had to listen all day on how badly engineered old parts are and they shouldnt be allowed on the road etc etc..
I only ever asked one question-----if your car is so well engineered and perfect why the fuck do you trailer it---moron

 

Where is a good place to meet.. Im up to the Drive to meet you all.. I only do 55 , 60 Mph.. It maybe slow, but safe..

 

Where are you?

 

It's definitely not just Alberta. Manitoba is pretty much the same. I wanted to organise a HAMB BBQ out here and got almost no interest. My ride really doesn't fit anywhere, although it's currently more street rod than a traditional hot rod. That will change eventually when I can get the funds to rebuild it.

I dislike local events as well. When did it become PC to include EVERYONE with a vehicle in shows?? Whatever happened to the days of pre-48 or 54 rod runs, or even pre 64? I like all types of cars, but once in awhile I'd like to attend an event with JUST hotrods, so I don't have to wade through all the PT Losers, tuners, muscle cars and such to see a half dozen cars that I really like.

 

There's some good ideas here;I think you could count on a few Sask. rods to show up and help out.

 

Soooooo, that's why you left TO for SoCal? It all makes sense now!