Hot Rods It's pays to strike up a conversation at the gas pump

A guy I went to high school with & haven't seen in years started talking to me at the gas station and ask me if I still had a old car and I told him a few, he remembered the wagon that belonged to Brenda's grandmother and I told him about my Deuce and my recent purchase a 1950 Ford.

He started telling me about the Mustang he had wrecked and all he had left was a set of valve covers, I really didn't think much about it and then he said the car had a 351 Cleveland that peeked my interest.

I ask would he sell the valve covers and he said he wasn't going to use them, so yeah.
20 minutes & 20 bucks later I own them. HRP

 

One thing I learned when someone says "Nice car". Always ask if they have one. If your car piques someones interest you may have a new friend

 

You'll probably auction them off to help some Hamber...

 

Just a question, why do most all ford covers say ford racing or ford motorsport. Sort of rubs me the wrong way. If I wanted to put some on a race car that's fine but you see them all the time on hotrods. Doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Pretty cool............for a Ford

 

So ford can cast the basic cover once and sell em with 4 different names on em. Makes cents to me and 'enry.

 

Oh, and nice score HRP. Them there's good swap meet fodder!

 

You must go to that gas station often.....been about a year since you posted about it last and your latest find/buy.

 

But.....but....Hot Rods ARE a form of Motorsports.......

That said......I can see preferring the same cover with just the Ford logo.......Ford would probably not want to make ‘no name’ covers......

 

I go to THAT particular station at least once a week,they have ethanol free gas and when your driving a hot rod people are always curious.

As for the pickup I did finally see it and I passed, he thought more of it than I did. HRP

 

My rocker boxes do not have "Ford" on them...
maybe because they are 61 years old.

 

Good score, Danny.
I was gassing up the 34 last summer and a lady comes out or the store and says "Nice coupe". We struck up a conversation and she says she's Rogers daughter...Roger being the neighbor who died a year ago. I asked if all those old car bodies are still at the bottom of the canyon at the end of their pasture and she says yes...come over-you can have anything you want off them. I've already grabbed all the 54 chevy grille teeth a couple 58-59 Impala steering wheels etc but there's still a few parts I want.

 

I was in Harbor Fright and was walking back to my Ford after I was done. Some guy in the lot stops me and we talk about my car, he's local and is building a '58 Chevy.

Then he tells me he has a neighbor with a '59 Ford covered up down the block from him. The car was under a car port that collapsed and now has a car cover over it. I found the house and have it filed away for future reference. It pays to talk to friendly people now and then.

 

Guess I've been talking about the wrong subject - Thanks HRP - Let's go git some petrol and gabb


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meeting up with others that have an interest in old cars is "just a gas" - the "in the right place at the right time" scenario

 

I would rather see those on a hot rod than sbc in one.

 

{HRP} Danny, you did good. I like to talk to people at the gas stations too. They'll tell me they like my Hot Rod, and I'll say thank's. But I really have to watch, and not give them the whole history of it! lol A lot of the time, they will have a cool story to tell me also. So I'll stop most of the time, because I need coffee, and I like adding a little fresh gas too. But mostly, I'm hopeing to just start up a conversation. One of these days, some sweet little old lady, is going to tell me about her old 1932 Ford, that's in her garage, and how she wants it gone! Ron...

 

I hope that happens for you Ron. HRP

 

I think talking to people after the car becomes the introduction is the best part of this hobby. I also find that the best conversations are at gas stations, church, hardware store or some parking lot. Some of the more challenging conversations occur at shows when all the experts show up.

 

You got that right, especially when they know more about your car than you do. HRP

 

Sometime back, a young California Fireman posted from a town near ours...he has and drives a '32 Vic, anyway spoke of talking to a young man in a gas station about his car. The young man said his family had a car just like this one, but the 'trunk was longer'...same everything else, but 'not all fixed up'...
A dozen or so scoffed, asked what he was doing on this site, blah, blah, blah...
I HAD to speak up then, as this young fireman is the son of a late friend of mine from Santa Clara, knew him for eons. Always a hot rodder, his father Bob had a red steel 'T' bucket, neat '30 'A' pickup with SBC, couple of '56 F100s and some more.
Fireman son Ryan has a young family, and they go to events around here and Fresno... always in the '32. (It's Kelly Green.

Well, it turns out that the 'mystery car' in the old garage wasn't a '32 'just like Ryan's... It had a 'longer trunk', all right; It was a '32 Five window Deluxe Coupe!
Very little rust, BUT very little $$. Ryan bought it 2 days after posting.
Funny, just before his Dad died in 2005, his Dad Bob called me and asked if I remembered the old man with the stock black Model 'B' 5 window Coupe he'd drive to town. I could have it for $4k, old fellow wanted cash. Period.
That was when there was no savings. Darn.

 

I can’t even tell you how many gas station conversations I had while we were on our RT 66 adventure,enjoyed every one and hopefully left the impression they were a large part of what made the trip so gratifying to us.

 

Have a similar story. I attended a GSL model car show in Salt Lake City in 2015. During a lunch break I saw a guy sitting alone at an outside table so sat down and struck up a conversation. Turned out he was Mike Scott who build a lot of the parts for a Mysterion reproduction that Dave Shuten is credited for building. And at that time I was in the process of building my Mysterion reproduction so we had a great visit and he helped me with a lot of stuff for the book I wrote on the Mysterion.

 

Actually I piss off people at most gas stations. My car is long and the filler is over the back bumper. So I either pull way up and block people trying to exit from the other side of the pumps or I park shallow and it blocks up the pump in front of me.

 

Being new to my neighbor hood (the town of Monticello Indians) almost every time I take the 48 to town, I meet somebody else with an interest or an interesting story. Met a guy with an Internatinal P/U at a local hardware store. Tells me about his truck, YAK, YAK, YAK----- Couple of days later, the trucks behind the 48 honking and flashing his lights. Pull over----Damn the truck is as NICE as he said it was. Got a new Hot Rod buddy. OH, By the way Danny, your right again---- Good Thread!! Bill

 

about 20 years ago i pulled into a station and the guy next to me had a cardboard sign with a string around his neck and it said 331 hemi 300 bucks. we talked and it was all apart but completely machined. even had the dopy trans with it. he was going to swap meet that day. naturally i bought it.

 

It's a small world sometimes, our car hobby seems to bring interest/questions/conversation, I've had many interesting conversations at gas stops, sometimes talking with someone from my past, can say, never made a parts buy and have learned, always be nice, you never know who you are talking to, the exception being the annoying "Expert" explaining how it should be and what I did wrong on my ride.

 

Done that! It totally works...

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We all have that dream....

And I am a Mopar guy... Shhhh... Don't tell anybody will ya?

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I am guilty of that... A time or two a guy buys a car, claims he built it, then later finds out that I was the actual builder for the previous owner. Oops! Ego and pride gone. But I don't rub it in. I am not a dick. I just want to see the cars driven and loved.

Now that I stopped building cars for other folks, it's going to be my turn soon... Can't wait to finish my workshop!!!

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