Car culture
As much as I loathe working on my own ride that I might make it to work on monday, I often think how much I’d love to build a custom car. The skills are there, from fab and design to build and- well, everything but paint. I’ve often thought I’d love to take something like an old 914 and chop and channel it, make a car with a body about 14″ tall and bulgy fenders to contain the slicks, or even a classic Tbucket or a chopped and channelled Tudor.
I’m certainly not unique in this, there are loads of guys who have made wonderful hotrods, and even the folks who take “regular” cars and make them pretty have a good time with it; partner’s brother Rich is ressurecting a Mustang and doing it right, and I’m mixed between happiness and jealously for him.
I often think in the October of our lives, the Ogwife and I might take weekend car trips around the country in a nice restored or rodded ride, and then I wake up. I think about the work involved in making/keeping such a ride, and then I think of taking those trips in a modern, quiet, air conditioned car with all the amenities, and I decide that this is a better idea. We can more easily purchase and pay for a nice Mustang ragtop and it will always be ready for use, and not require 4 weeks of prep for every weekend of driving.
Yeah, I’m old and tired of fucking around.
Postscript: This came up part because of seeing a piece of the Barrett Jackson auction, part because last weekend I sat down and watched “Tales of the Rat Fink” online; yes, you can now watch the whole movie, and if you’re a car geek, I reccomend it.
“Yeah, I’m old and tired of fucking around.” – Og
Ditto.
I’m with ya, Og – especially with original style rides, such as pony cars. Drum brakes all around, lousy steering and handling – just all of the older tech experiences get annoying. Particularly carbs – people forget how you have to continually adjust during the year to compensate for the seasons, how hard starting they could be and so on. Setting dwell and timing. Changing plugs all the time.
Yeah, you can update all of that and have an old looking rod with all high tech goodies, but even that is no guarantee that the thing will be reliable.
I bet you could paint well enough, too, if you put your mind to it.
Ain’t none of it rocket science, so to speak.
(And, that said? The solution to “hot rod that’s modern” is to buy a modern-made one, and pay someone else to do the work.
Expensive, but if the result, rather than the process, is what you’re after, it works.
People will sell you an entirely new turnkey ’57 Chevy, for instance… in a “modern luxury” configuration, which I’m reckoning includes a raft of modernizing, quieting changes.
And a modern drop-in engine with fuel injection.
Problem is, even the base model costs $180k.)
There was a guy in the subdivision in which I grew up that had a side business hot-rodding 914s.
His business card was his own 914, which sported a roll cage, massive IMSA-style fender flares, and a 911 Turbo mill.
I grew up watching that snorting beast catch air over the tiniest hills on our subdivision streets, blue flame crackling from the exhaust tips…
One of the car dealers around here reps corvettes. They are 57, 62, 67 and about any other old year you like on 2006 and up chassis.
Only money. One the things I might buy should I ever win the lottery.
Oh well. Time or money, neither one I have much of.
Gotta disagree with ya Og.
I’ve ’54 Jag, XK 120 in my garage & have had it for 21 years now. It was my Dads before me, since ’60 when my mother bought it from a local MD.
When properly done, the elderly / classic cars are almost as reliable as modern cars. BUT they do not require a computer to diagnose, nor a $50,000 machine to evaluate.
Yes the elderly clssics need maintenance, but it ain’t like what the new ones need. Change the oil & filter once a year (13 qts dont’cha know) and points & plugs occasionally and you got it. Think simplicity, simplicity and then simplicity.
Lest you think that the restoration costs will kill ya, my Jag is NOT restored. Just maintained, cared for & driven.
A properly built rod or classic will not demand weeks of maintenance or care. Just do it right to begin with & then take it out & play with it!
Roger
Roger: When you drive that Jag 120+ miles a day for 390,000 miles, and have no fear of driving it 2000 miles on a whim, then we’ll talk.
Points? no thanks.
Ya know, even with points, at least you didn’t have to guess which $100 module might be the reason your car won’t start.
Then again, my car hasn’t not started in years, either.
Exactly, Ed. The electronics are brutally durable, and incredibly reliable.