Event Coverage I think I'm getting numb to the hobby

I miss Gray more than any other writer. It's probably just as well that he is not around to see the destruction of Hot Rod magazine and the other former Peterson publications. He would have liked it here.

 

People watching is one of my favorite pastimes.
Threads like this is kinda like sitting in the food court at the mall.
Cars shows stink cause:
Street rods, newer stuff, hot, expensive, cars too nice, rat rods, someone said something bad about my ride, attendees too old, too young, loud music, I didn’t get a prize, I saw an LS engine……
I get it.
Still entertaining to read.
It’s good to take a time out away from things sometimes.

 

This is a life, not a hobby, get in your car and ride around, if it's not your favorite car sell it and get your favorite and go somewhere new. Going to the big shows will give you a headache, way too much too see that you don't dig.

 

Gray was one of a kind for sure. We met in 1972 in DesMoines, in the following years every time we saw each other he made the visit memorable. His writing skills were unequaled, his love for the hobby was obvious. I agree he would not think today’s Hot Rod Magazine is “Bitchin”.

 

Of course, you do realize that it isn't you, @Roothawg
It's when people take a unique form of expression and tone it down for the masses. Homogenized. Safe.
Sorta like when Pat Boone would record a Little Richard song... and take an otherwise exceptionally exciting toe tapper and turn it into something that'll just numb you right out.

I haven't gone to a lot of car shows. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was tired of looking at other people's cars. The belly button aspect didn't help. Then I came here. Much better. But now I'm tired of looking at you guy's cars. Not really. Totally kidding.


But I really need to build something of my own.

So I'll tell you what,
@Roothawg
I'm gonna do my best to make sure this project I'm collecting parts for will be just different enough to cure that numbness.

 

This has been an interesting thread to say the least.

This is Mr. John Bianchi, a well known car collector and enthusiast here in Seattle.

Now indeed, none of us have the deep pockets and resources that John has, but the cool thing about him and this car is, you never see him and the car at car shows. Instead, he drives it from time to time all over town, and he and the car IS the car show !



I totally get that and respect that element !

John doesn't do it for the attention, he drives the car for the sheer love, of driving a vintage piece of automotive history !

Every time a car owner / gear-head / hot-rodder, takes their car out for a drive, and people see it and give a thumbs up or a wave or a smile to the driver, that is really whats it all about, in my humble opinion.

For a number of years, I was part of a group that went to the California Hot Rod Reunion at FAMOSO down by Bakersfield, and it was always great to see a myriad of cool vintage dragsters, and hot rods.
What I really appreciated about that event was the amazing diversity of what showed up, a lot more cool older vintage machines than what shows up at car shows these days, and a cool swap-meet as well, out in the middle of no where, rather than at a city street blocked off or at a fairgrounds.

Granted, that may not be everybody's cup of tea, but events of that magnitude, to me have never been boring.

I had never heard of a "GERBER" open car, till I saw this one at FAMOSO a number of years ago.



I hope this will help to alleviate that visual boredom, that so often happens at car shows. These pictures are good reasons to smile @Roothawg !

 

Unless you are seriously selective about the events you up and to to the best I can offer is just walk on by what you don't like while looking for what you do like.
When I spotted Old Dad's 32 at Pismo beach another guy and I were taking photos of it while trying to stay out of each other's shots and the guy with him couldn't understand why we were so caught up in this faded old red roadster with primer spots on every corner. The other guy explained the guy with him that this was the car that had belonged to one of the guys who's writing and photos got him into hot rods and why we thought it was one of the more special cars out there. We didn't expect to see it, it wasn't power parked in a prominent spot for everyone going by but instead was rather hidden in rental rig row a few cars down from the one I was driving. Sitting back and watching later a lot of hot rodders walked right past it without a second glance but every once in a while you saw that neck snap double take and the phone or camera came out to record the event.


As many photos as you see in my albums of events quite often you don't know that I may have walked by ten cars to get to one that I took a few photos of. I've hurt a few guys feelings in the past because I took a lot of shots of the car next to theirs and not one shot of their car. I just flat don't do mid 60's rust bucket sedans no matter how proud you are of them. Most all of the little one day events locally are free to spectators and most of them are fund raisers for something and are open events. It's not unusual to see a new right off the showroom floor on Friday afternoon super car at one of these events on Saturday around here and may be a rite of passage for the guys in the late model brigade. A lot of those guys followtail with some of the guys with the coolest traditional cars in the area. Still, I'll go to a 250 car event to see 50 interesting cars and 10 cars that really spin my wheels any day rather than sit home and pout because those other cars had the audacity to be there. If their owners weren't there to support the event there wouldn't be an event in most cases the East West Flathead run being one of the very few that doesn't count on entry fees to pay the bills simply because the guys putting it on keep the bills to an absolute minimum.

 

These statements although I know are true for a lot of the Country baffle me. Our State pretty much stayed business as usual. In fact, some of the best cruise nights in decades started up over the last couple years. Fairly impromptu gatherings like they used to be.

 

This thread rings true. At my age I've seen every car and truck in all their variations. My thing is talking to owners. I'll know within a minute if they are a "Let me tell you all about ME!" type, or someone with a real story to tell. Like mining gold tho. Recently an old time drag racer at Back to the Fifties had some interesting stories to tell about nitrous use in the early 60's by a very well known Chevy guru. Nuff said.

 

I’m not the guy to talk to.

 

Thanks for this, I thought it was just me. I went to Back to the Fifties and Goodguys heartland nationals this year and took 0 pictures. I saw a lot of great cars but it seemed like the best traditional cars there were being shown by shops who want to make money building them for you or by groups of hipsters who were too cool to talk to a non tattooed flip flop wearing old guy in cargo shorts. I showed up around 9am and by noon I just wanted a nap.
I love the HAMB and the traditional look but it reminds me a lot of the when I had a corvette and belonged to a corvette club. It was all about numbers, codes, and fitting into a perfect mold. People just wanted to find what was wrong with someones car instead of appreciating it for what it was. Building car to emulate a certain time period, like on the HAMB, limits what can be done. Eventually just like having SBC's in every street rod, in time all traditional cars will have a multi-carbed nailhead Buick and steel wheels. But that ok because we like that look and remember people stepping out and being different gave us "rat rods".
Just a quick side question why all the hate for 1-800 stuff? Technically isn't something like the Hirohata merc a 1-800 build? Bob Hirohata paid Barris to build it for him, but you can't argue that it isn't a traditional Kustom. There aren't any salvage yards near me that have older stuff and most of the time its the only way to get things up and running. I have never bought a part from some aftermarket company and not had to modify it 7 ways to Sunday to make it fit no matter what they claimed. If you can build a car without using a credit cards, using only 100% vintage parts, and no outside help you have my respect, but I bet most of us can't.
Covid for me was a unique time, for the first time in my life I had both the time and the money to build a car the way I wanted without limits and now all I want to do is drive it. I also learned about hot rods reading Gray Baskerville and I would love to see his 32 in person someday. Always admired how hot rodding wasn't something he did it was who he was. Keep building those awesome traditional hot rods and Kustoms, drive them as hard and often as possible, and treat each other with a little grace and kindness.

 

I order stuff all the time. Most of mine are internals.

I guess the point was that if I saw one I saw 500 sets of Chinese Cal Custom knock off valve covers. I love original Cal Customs, I put them in everything. I saw maybe 2 sets of originals. They are still out there. I bought an NOS set just a few months back for cheaper than the repops.

Even if I decide to build the 327 over the Cadillac, it will have a vintage feel to it. I will scour the swap meets for some odd air cleaner and paint it up, make it a little different than the next guy. It may not float everyone’s boat, but it will not be an off the shelf part.

I generally look at the popular color of car and go to the opposite side of the color wheel. Years ago, I painted my 36 a medium gray. It was an odd color and never saw another one like it. Then fast forward 40 years and there are 80 or more this color.

Time for a change…..

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the cars and the people. I actually spent an hour talking to a guy that had a late model power train and hydro boost brakes on a 65 Impala. It was interesting to me to see how he modified it to fit his application.

 

That's what I'm talking about right there.

 

I don't do shows anymore.... Would rather spend money on parts and things than show registration.. the way the world is now don't feel safe in crowds anymore.... Who needs to pay to set in the sun all day... Just do local cruise deals....I was involved in a minor accident which could have been really bad and now the car stays parked most of the time... I really don't know if my car fits the HAMB specs....It has a few billet parts on it because they were cheap and work....I just built it how I liked it....I often wonder what the A model guy said when that new 32 V8 came out,,,Man that's not traditional....

 

I recently went to a show and only looked at one car, hahaha. Not really for the 1-800 reason as there looked to be a variety... but I saw this pulling in and I needed to see it close up.



However, I could see a neat old car in any random old parking lot and it'll grab my attention.

 

I had my RPU out yesterday just to drive around and visit with a couple of friends.

On the way past one of our local shopping centres here
there’s a huge paved parking lot left over from when they tore down a Target store.

I noticed a car show with a lot of tuner cars and a section of Mustangs along with another section of Lamborghinis Ferraris and Bentleys.

I decided to cruise through up and down the lanes just to pass through slowly and have a look before carrying on my way.

There was one other HAMB friendly Coupe doing the same thing.

As I idled through I turned into the section where the Bentleys and other exotics were and part way through a guy placed himself in front of me and asked if I wanted to park.

I said no that I was just passing through having a look.
He said Okay well this isn’t a area you can drive through.
Just back up and you can go out where you came in.

I thought well F*** you ! snobby SOB.(Inside voice)
I said I don’t think so I’ll just carry on and leave on the other end.
And I did continue driving through without backing up, then left and continued my day.
And it was a good one.

 

Thats the way I did my engine in my merc.Kept it simple.

 

Here are the 4 pics I took. There may have been 3 or 4 more cars there that I didn't take pics of out of the close to 400 that were there.

 

Root, I feel ya. I don't even log onto the HAMB much anymore these days, and its even more rare that I post. I've never lost the love for old cars, but the build styles, scenes, and car shows have lost their luster for me. I don't know what it is. My taste changing? Me getting older? Whatever it is, I'm still in the garage building what I like with zero intentions of building it for other peoples approval or any sort of validation or recognition. Keep truckin'.

 

Every thread like this has the 'walk by the ones you do not like'. So, why not allow the same mindset here? K. Here, take the 'nationals; theme and have a Hoodlum Nationals in each section of 'merica! Southwest. Northwest. Midwest, ect. But, FUEL (taboo topic?) prices are likely to kill that pipe dream.

 

This has been an interesting though somewhat predictable thread...
.



There have been a couple of good suggestions as to how to improve the situation, however. I made one of them: "build and drive beaters." The word "beater" being used in the Gray Baskerville sense of the term - "a nicely built hot rod that's intended for everyday use." Gray lived it, and so do I.

And so can you. I will guarantee your point of view will change from burnout to getting turned on by driving your car again. But you've got to be courageous and not be put off by bugs in the radiator, stone chips in the paint, a less-than-pristine motor and stretch marks in the upholstery. They's gonna' happen. Wear 'em like a badge of honor.

Fortunately most of the crew here at the HAMB "get it"...but some still don't. Your choice, of course, but don't be raggin' on the guys in the lawn chairs if you're one of them.
.

 

Summing Up...

 

My numbness started with my dick

 

I started collecting parts for my first Model A when i was 27. I am now 52. I remember wanting to be the first through the gate at any swap meet. I would spend $$$ on the hot magazines at the time (street rodder, rod & custom , custom rodder etc) not to mention hitting every show that came around. Now, i would rather be in the garage building, or adding to an existing project, then head down to the local hangout on Saturday night, for some BS with other guys. I don't spend any significant amount of time looking at any one car. i thought i was the only one starting to "slow" a little

 

I'm definitely feeling it too. But I still tinker with various projects, I'm into the third engine this year, so all is not lost.

 

I think we should all look at the negative of any car show rather than the positive. then stop going to shows all together, and in a few years post about how there are no more shows at all.

I could be burned out on shows as well. this August I will be found selling at the swap meet at the giant Goodguys show in Pleasanton that I have only missed once in 30 (?) years. there was a time when I didn't even go to the swap because I wanted to see every car there and take hundreds of pictures

 

did anyone post photos of Santa Maria here?

 

Wait, what?

I have heard half of this board go on and on about how things were, or were not done back in the day, and about what is and is not traditional, and now we're on page 6 of people complaining about not seeing cars that they are impressed with at shows?

Traditional means repeating the same thing, over and over.

For me those are, and always have been "walk past" cars. Zero interest.

I want to see what someone who is pushing the envelope is doing.

I have about 30-renderings of my Model A that are in the reject pile, because I have now seen ten examples of each, or more. I am just not interested in making the 11th clone at the show. If I do that, it's not my car. I have no interest in cosplaying 1959.

That is why I am building it the way that I am, few would, and there will not be another at the show like it. I am not concerned if people love it, or hate it. They, for sure, will remember it.

Just like my Falcon, you won't see it here. It will be at the show, probably in the outside parking lot.