The evolution of our taste in cars as we mature

being born in 70 and being around musclcars more then "hot rods" as a kid i grew up wanting a musclecar in particular a 69 roadrunner like my uncles i finnally bought one in 1993 just sold it 2 weeks ago........id still own musclecars happly but i really like mid 50's-64's now

the only car i was around when i was akid that could of been concidered a hot rod was my dads 55 chevy hardtop primered gray (he scrapped it) why i dont know

so yeah ive got a soft spot for 55 chevys

 

Ever since I was old enough to know what a car was, I thought the '49-50-51 Ford Convertible's were just the absolute Holy Grail !!
I am now 68, and still have not owned one... and still hope to some day..
However, now I appreciate most any classic car, but am always drawn to the older '26-34 jalopy types..
Good thread,
Cheers,
Bob

 

Always liked muscle cars growing up. Had several early Novas and one 71 SS with a 383 stroker in it. Got married had kids and now 18 years later am driving a 66 Lincoln. I know, I know it's not HAMB friendly but I'm the type of guy that likes to study and read before jumping into something new and am really starting to take a liking to 50 type customs, especially chopped and lowered. Always liked my cars low, thought they looked faster just sitting there. Tried to chop an early 60's Nova wagon once but didn't even know how to weld. Friend told me he would help me and then didn't after the lid was off and lowered. Ended up a metal cube after hauling it around for years. Maybe I'll try that again, Nova wagon, blown SBC with a chop. Should be pretty cool.

 

My initial taste in cars were early '60s cars - back when they were new and I was just a little kid! By age three, I could tell you the make, model and year of anything built post-war as it went past the house...convenient, since my family lived along a four-lane boulevard and there was always a lot of cars going by at any given time! My Dad always drove Chevrolets when I was a kid, it seemed, but he was actually a Ford guy! I've always been a Mopar guy first and foremost, due to the really cool Mopars my brother-in-law owned when I was younger.

I've always been a fan of musclecars and always will be, without apologies to anyone! I've owned my '66 Dodge Coronet 500 for 32 years now, and will probably be the lead car in my funeral procession!!! In the past dozen years or so, I've owned quite a few Hudsons, which has steered me (pun intended) towards basically anything built by Hudson. What fine-driving cars they are! Sometimes I'm actually glad they are not a popular car among most rodders...more for me! Mopars, Pontiacs, and Hudsons trip my trigger.

I've got this '46 Hudson four-door that is just begging to get built. I've had kind of a half-assed effort to sell it, but it will hopefully get on the road this year; if nothing more than a drivable shell with working brakes!

But, after a few years on the HAMB, I really want to build either a '30s coupe or pickup. Got the drivetrain for a build, along with wheels, seat, steering wheel, and other bits; just no axles, frame, or body! We'll see what happens, but I really need to get the '46 on the road before I tackle a full project.

 

The cars themselves have not changed, more the style it is built in.
Though there is one 'oddity' that crept in for my car preference itself, happened in 1980 thanks to a guy called Dick Johnson, then in 1983 the ruined me forever. The 1980 Ford XD Falcon............
Tru Blu, did it but the '83 Greens Tuff.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpNqdpVebMY&feature=related

I remember standing in front of the TV crying after this(I was all of 11yo).
Turn it up.................until 1.40........

Made me build this, XD Falcon 590hp sleeper.


Gawd I love and miss that car!


Doc.

 

Our little town has a dirt track raceway. From the time I was 3 or 4, my family spent every Sunday evening at the race track. I remember as a little kid watching those old coupes go around that track. My father was best friends with a guy that was a racer. That guy had older teenage boys and when they were old enough, they had their own race cars. I spent many a Sat afternoon "helping" with those race cars. By the time I was old enough to be able to ride my bike around town, I had gotten to know several local racers and spent my Saturdays visiting all the racers. By that time, most of the race cars were "late models", 60s & early 70s performance cars.

By the time I was driving age, old performance cars were cheap, and I had a bunch of them. Dirt track racing was still in me. By the time I was 19 a couple buddies and I built our 1st race car, a 69 Plymouth Road Runner. It was the 1st of many Mopar race cars in my life. Racing was my passion for 15 years, plus I usually had a pretty nice performance Mopar street car.

Dirt track racing became too expensive for me, so I found a major project a 35 Dodge sedan and built my 1st street rod. There have been a few 50s trucks along the way, and a few 40s street rods, and I have helped out several racers along the way.

As I get older, those early dirt track coupes keep turning up in my head. I tend to check out any old dirt track race cars I see. I like most anything before the Camaro invasion of racing occurred in the 70s and 80s, but those old coupes get me going.

My current build is a street version of an old dirt track car. Its a full fender version of an early 60s era, unfortunately, its more street car then race car, (too many practical compromises have been allowed) but it will look the part. Maybe some day I can build one that is more dirt track racer car then street car, time will tell. Gene

 

Guys use to say 4 doors were a old mans car,and I guess it may be true cause the older I get, the more I like em. 60s back tho.
Alot of the cars from the 70s I like in a 2 door but were just plan ugly in a 4 door.
like novas chevelles mavericks etc.

 

Right on

 

Here's my personal car evolution:
1956 age 9 : older cousin gives me his leftover Hot Rod mags. I'm hooked on hotrods
1965 : I graduate from HS and buy a bone stock '57 BelAir 2 dr. hardtop 283 PG Hop it up a little .Get hooked on the new muscle cars.
1968 - 1994: I own,drive and rebuild (many times ) a '65 Malibu SS convert 327 4speed .
1990: Join local car club with members who have 32-40 hotrods. Start spending more time with the hotrodders than with my Chevelle.
1994 : sell the SS and buy a nice '40 Ford coupe hotrod
AND I've never looked back. Still hanging with the other hotrodders (now with grey hair) and am on my third pre-1948 car.

I love most cars and always have but technology has gotten way to complicated for my feeble brain and ,so I stay with the simple stuff.

 

I'm only 25 so I'm sure my tastes will continue to change, but I seem to like the same cars now as when I was a elementary school aged kid. I grew up around 50's and 60's mild custom cruisers like galaxies ad shoebox fords and 60's gm cars. I don't like 4 doors but for some reason growing up my uncles and cousins and parents had a handful of cool 60's wagons so i still love them. Model a's and pre war fords are dream cars and I love any and all customs.

I have noticed that I appreciate the fit and finish of these same cars more as I get older. I no longer really care for cars that never make progress. I don't mind primer but I hate seeing the same car in the same stage for several years on end. I appreciate little details now like proper body gaps, and nicely polished trim, and interiors that are nicely finished. I like cars that are very mild to the point tht a non car guy would think it may be stock. Muted colors instead of bright reds and graphics or flames.

 

Grew up hanging around a gas station from age 10 my grandfather owned and sold. My dad was a chevy guy so I became a chevy guy, still am. My dad bought me a 32 five window channeled body and frame when I was 15 and we worked on it for a couple of years and had a ball. He use to tell me "best damn car ever built". With all of that said I'm still a chevy guy who loves the 30 to 34 old traditional metal. Guess I've been in a rut but
when you're brought up on this stuff it becomes a way of life. A good life.

 

I was born in 1985 so im not that mature yet i have always been a big chevy fan b/c of my dad he loves the muscle cars but his fav is a 50 ford (chevy powered of course) my fav was an 1985 monte carlo ss when i was 8 to 14 (dont hit me too hard)but the older i get the more i love any 30's-60's pontiacs

 

When I was 9 or 10 I rode my bike out to a junk yard and sat and played in their "front" row cars. None were newer than the early 30's.
Jump forward 20 years and a whole different country where I did my tri 5 Chevy thing with a '59 Ranchero as my parts/tow car.
Jump another 25 years and back to my native country.....it's back to late 20's early 30's Fords.
Full circle?

 

Agreed 100%

 

I was waiting for that!
Tom

 

Well I did actually say...

so maybe not actually 224 MPH... but way faster than I could safely see, & the 472 would burry the speedo long before it reached top speed.... it's a wonder I made it through my teen years

 

Funny how that works...I am admittedly a Mopar guy , but I'm not so sure my Dad was.

He was a mechanic his entire life, and seemed to change cars as often as he changed socks. Pure ecstasy for a car crazy kid like myself.
He owned and drove Ford, Chev, Pontiac,Buick and Cadillac, besides Mopar.

 

i have been diagnosed as terminal with it

 

I guess I never matured ...


the roadster in The 1970's ...


Currently along with a 3W coupe.

I have always been a 1932 Ford guy. I cannot explain it.
My father and my uncles never had a 32 Ford.
From the time I built my first AMT 32 Ford model car ... at 9 or 10 years of age.
I have ALWAYS wanted a 32 Ford.

Disclaimer :
I have been side tracked by other vehicles ...
but have owned at least one 32 Ford since the 70's.

 

young turds don't understand just how popular Tri 5 Chevys were (still popular, hence the high prices) They were so popular that everyone either had one or knew someone who had one. Many original owners held onto them for a long time that Chevy took notice and developed the Chevelle to try and recreate that loyalty (notice how the early Chevelle models are similar to the tri-5 models? Including the wheelbase)
And Tri-5s have been everything from Stockers to Hot Rods (Street Machines/Gassers) to Lowriders to Customs. My first car was a 55 Nomad and after selling it 30 years ago, I still kick myself over that. There are many cars I like but my loyalty is to Chevy. The only thing is that I believe the prices the old cars go for now days is dumb.
Here's a few examples of what those cars went for once upon a time. When I sold my Nomad back in 82, I was asking 3,000.00 and people thought it was too much. I sold it for 1,700.00. Now days they ask 10,000.00 for a junk one. My dad in 72, bought a 63 Impala S.S. for 200.00. My brother in 78, bought a 69 Chevelle S.S. 396 for 800.00
Both cars were one owner original.
Now this is a true story, I am not making this up. When I was 14 in 1976, my dad had a friend who had a 57 Speedster and everytime we would visit, I would check it out. One day I asked him if I could sit in it. So he said ok, so then he asked me if I liked the car, and I said yeah. And right there and then, he told me if I wanted it, I could have it (free). But my Dad said we didn't have any room for it, which was true because we had a 56 Corvette and a 31 Model A coupe in the garage. A 60 Apache, 2 57 Chevys and a 61 Impala, all in the driveway.
Well that's how things were for us, living in Whittier, Ca once upon a time.

 

I'm still young and minus two or three, every car I have is older than me. My favorites really have always been luxury makes and the sportier performance models. I've come to appreciate other makes and models like Auburn, Nash Healy, Studebaker, Pontiac, etc and 30s hot rods.

 

My dad may have been a Chevy guy but when my buddies would come over and help us on the 32 or they needed some help on their cars (mostly Fords) he would jump right in and I remember him saying "what a neat car it was and what a great job they had done on". He may have had tunnel vision on brand but he sure had a broad view on the hobby. I owe him big time for that.

 

When I was a teenager (early 70s) I loved T buckets as the NZ Hot Rod Mag was building one as their project car at the time. Forty years later Im onto my eighth one with a blown big block as I found drag racing....

Always liked the pikkys in R&C etc of the Early Times cars and they just looked right to me, so Im still stuck with the 60s look and chromies and whitewalls. Got a fat fender car as I got older and fatter myself & 17 years later its still not done. Cant see it being done any year soon.

And I always liked the Winged Express - the perfect mix of T bucket and drag car.

Never quite got past the 60s look (have a need to build a bucket like the Leg Show Tee) but have matured?? enough to also want a FED with a blown Hemi. And an open trailer of course

 

Nice!

 

Me likes!!! ...
How about some more pictures of it???... Thanks!...

 

I too was a BiG early Camaro fan.. Having owned a '68 convertible and 3 '69's.. Then I got into a sting of '69-'74 Novas with small and big blocks in them.. Now I want a '55 or a '57 with a home built 302 small block.. I just don't have the roughage..($$$)..

 

Never liked '57s but loved and still love '55s.

My car tastes have changed the more I learned about them and every build seems to be a couple years older than the prior. I wish I had the space to keep everything I have built but most end up released in the wild at some point.

The only thing that has stayed strong is my dislike for muscle cars with very few exceptions - and that is the most pleasant anyone will hear me talk about them.

 

Back in the day I was a Tri5 fan and had a 56 Bel Air two door post, replaced the 265 with a 283 with cam, solids and tri power Rochesters. Then a 58 black Impala hardtop, 348 with factory tri power 280 HP, three on the tree. Next was a brand new 63 Bel Air two door post, 327, 300 HP and three on the tree. Still can't believe I didn't spring for the extra few bucks for a four speed. Money was a little tight in those days. Was out of cars as my kids grew up and then restarted with streetrods. Now back to a clone of my 56 Bel Air and my 62 Impala wagon. Fifties and sixties cars were what I grew up with. Kinda went full circle.

 

I still say I've never changed but about every 20 years the fads return and I'm cool for awhile till the next fad starts
the big shift (pun intended) is automatics and air conditioning. I haven't gone that way but I'm running my first disc brakes and am even thinking of power steering (for the autocross fad) getting old ain't for sissies!!!

 

I was always a 55 chevy man! I'm not sure how many that I have owned.

I had a yard behind our welding shop in Houston that was full of them.

But you burn out over time with the same thing.

Now I'm into what looks to be it at the time. Model A's, Late 40's and early 50's chevys.

I still have a couple 55's and I'm building a 37 .