I joined a while back but only browsed the boards a little here and there. I'm in Southern Colorado, a town called Pueblo. Kind of a small town but there are quite a few people into cars here. I remember my dad taking us to car shows all the time. My favorite shows were the Concour De Elegance shows that were held at The Broadmoor. I always wanted one of them cars, but quickly realized they were out of my price range! The three cars that I've worked on and owned weren't well received around here because they didn't fit the mold of what is popular. But who cares, I had fun with them anyway. My car in high school was a '69 El Camino. The price was right. After buying it I slightly lowered it, shaved the door handles, had the antenna frenched and put Moon discs on it. People didn't like it because I didn't give it a "muscle car" look. But I thought shaving the door handles cleaned the lines up and made it look smoother. And the selection of rims at the time didn't have anything that caught my eye. The next one was a '74 Datsun,It was what I could afford at the time and at the time parts were cheap and easy to find.This one a friend radically chopped for me, we smoothed it and lowered it. Again people didn't like it because it was a little truck, not an American hot rod. Who cares, I had fun in it and did a lot of the work myself. Friends did the chop and the upholstery and the 1rst paint job. Drove it to Cali. and back for a truck show and didn't see another one like it the whole trip. It ended up getting totalled and I drove a normal car for a long time. Accidents will mess with your head. And that one still messes with mine. Got a deal on another little truck that I helped build when I was doing mine, a '76 Datsun king cab. The owner started it but never did much too it other than when we lowered it, made a walk-thru bed (turn around from the drivers seat and get directly into the bed of the truck), windowless shell and moon discs. We put the truck in primer and he never figured out a color to paint it so it was left in primer. Again, people didn't like it because it was primer and not an American hot rod like theirs. But I still had fun hauling parts and drove the piss out of it. Now I've got a 1937 Ford pickup that I'm trying to get on the road. The truck had the chop started in the late 70's, but they got as far as cutting the top off , removing some metal, tacking it back together and that was it. Then it sat in a field until I got it. They fiber-glassed the firewall smooth at one point but by the time I got it the fiber-glass was falling off. It's taking me a long time to get things done on the truck for a few reasons. First and foremost is that I've got an intestinal condition that makes it hard to find and keep a job. And in Pueblo, good jobs are hard to come by anyway if you don't know people. So doing merchandising and mystery shopping, because they usually allow me to set my own schedule, is how I try and make ends meet. Besides that I make a little money buying things wholesale and re-selling them. Not a lot of money doing that, but every bit helps. Secondly, progress is slow on the truck because of my previous wreck. Mentally, I find it hard to work on the truck sometimes because it just seems like a waste of time and money when it can all be gone in a second like the chopped truck. And thirdly, when I do get working on it it's slow again because I don't have a lot of spare money to spend on it because of my employment situation. But with the help of a good friend I started working on it a little more lately. getting the things done that don't really need too much money, just time and labor. Hopefully I'll get the truck on the road soon and get to enjoy driving it. Sorry for the long read, but that's my introduction.
That's the kinda story that makes you look around and say umm maybe i don't have it so bad. welcome to the H.A.M.B. CHOPDTOP. RAFA.
Thanks ARCHANGEL and Stewed47. Stewed47= Yeah Pueblo isn't too bad, it's nice to be able to take things a little slower than the big cities. We just need some good jobs around here. If city council and PEDCO (Pueblo Economic Development Corporation) would quit running off the prospective businesses, we'd be doing okay. ARCHANGEL= I just look at things this way. There is some reason why I've got this intestinal problem. Just can't figure it out though! LOL. A couple friends says it's so that I can stay home and help take care of my aging parents. Which may be the reason now. But why did I have the problem since my jr. year of high school? Oh well, someday it will all be clear as to why I've got it. Until then I do whatever I can do to get by. With the help of friends things haven't been rough. It would just be nice to be able to pay everybody back for the help they've given me, besides just helping them when they need manual labor help. Thanks again. Hope I can learn more on here and be able to give helpful input from time to time.
The Jalopy Journal
