JESUS BUILT MY HOTROD!

Hotrods they are a'changing! I have a modest little Honda S2000 daily driver that is pushing around 265 HP. It is my every day drive to work car. It is fast, not like break your back fast but damn fast. It was made in 2005... way back when 265 horsepower sounded impressive. Since then I have seen the average horse power of consumer cars climb and climb. There are freakin' boring ass family cars running 300 HP from the factory. Now, would they beat mine in an honest street race? Probably not as there are about a billion and one things that contribute to who crosses the finish line first and most family cars ain't got em. BUT, with the new technology pushing the boundaries more and more every day hotrods have to be absolute monsters to even get noticed anymore. It is not uncommon for a hotrod to hit 600 - 800 or more horsepower to seem respectable. Hell, my friend Murder Stang is shooting for above 1000 horsepower on his vintage mustang. It is no wonder, Hellcats come stock with 707 hp from the factory and every other major car company is racing (literally) to beat that number.

Hotrods with outrageous horsepower are not surprising as the true hotrod culture has always taken the lightest and fastest and made it part of their car. Some of the purists out there bitch and complain if you bolt anything new on an old car but the harsh reality is hotrodders increase power and speed any way possible. You can keep your "Pre-blah blah blah or nothing" bullshit along with numbers matching and patina. With the modern horsepower war ramping up from all sides how will the garage tree mechanic or wannabe hotrodder keep up? I guess the same way we always have, run what ya brought until you can beg borrow and steal the next performance part. 

So, if you are sitting at the light next to a goofball 4 door accord don't laugh too hard as the kid driving it tachs the engine and cranks up his Skrillex CD. It just might make a fool of you unless you put the pedal all the way to the metal and ride out every gear. In traditional Wannabe fashion I will continue to dream and scheme all the ways my car WILL be the fastest... that is until I own my hotrod and it isn't. Till next time keep the rubber side down and rev it loud.

Swap Meets Ain't What They Used To Be!

 

Beach Boys - 409

So, went with a friend we shall call "Murder Stang" to a local auto swap meet. Both of us were filled with hopes and dreams of finding our every auto whim. Spoiler Alert... we both left disappointed. This was a very grand affair with an auto auction, a "car corral" in which you tried to buy cars directly from the owner and of course row upon row of swap meet goodies.

Here is where my head scratching came into play. It had the usual tables of tools bought from the local Harbor Freight then broken apart and sold per piece for profit. Eh, i gave up that level junk a while ago. Then it had table after table of various odds and ends parts, you know like an oil pan from a 73 pinto and a broken ford mustang emblem. And we all know no auto swap meet would be complete with row upon row of "automobilia." The crate upon crate of common license plates for sale for large sums of money. Gas pumps that cost 5 times as much now than then did back when they were actually selling gas from their nozzles. And various fake reproduction and authentic road signs (like a STOP sign... like from the end of my street and every street in America).

I get it, supply and demand. What i don't get is when did swap meets become like Ebay in that they are a "buy it now - at this set price" style commerce? Olden days of yor people haggled and traded or "SWAPPED" if you will for goods and services. Prices were merely suggestions as to where to start arguing over price. Good times man, those long gone days were good times indeed! Now it is a confusing world of $2k roadrunner gauge clusters and used AC Delco display boxes for $80 each. So much like my fading memories so are the hopes that any auto swap meet will give me my hotrod. Alas i am STILL a wannabe hotrodder, maybe the next swap meet will save me? Nah... but a man can dream.

Some Inspirational Pictures from Big Daddy Don Garlits

Click Picture for Inspirational Music

We took a trip to the Famous Don Garlits Museum a few months ago. Rather than overwhelm with a million pictures I will just be dropping a couple in from time to time to inspire and highlight some of the wicked cool collection they have rocking over there. if you have never been there and live in Florida I would suggest it. Here is a link to the Museum - http://www.garlits.com/

- and yes, that is the wannabe hotrodders big melon in the way of the awesome car in the 3rd shot.
just DROOLING!

Saving For A Hotrod Is A Lot Like A Long Boring Diet!

 

Classic Hot Rod Music to INSPIRE!

   So, saving up for a hotrod is a lot like going on a diet. At the beginning of the diet pounds are falling off and progress is fast. Your mind is filled with thoughts and dreams of activities you are going to be doing and cool clothing you will be fashionably showing off. After a couple weeks, the drudgery sets in. You are still loosing weight but it is much slower and commands a lot more dedication to make even the smallest goal. In your heart you know progress is being made... just not FAST ENOUGH!
  That is EXACTLY what saving your money for a hotrod is like. In the beginning you start the savings and put in a lump of cash, immediately your pea brain starts dreaming of the bad ass 32 hiboy you will be rattling the neighbors windows with. Dreaming of the color scheme that is going to turn heads, dreaming of the huge motor that is gonna crush all those that dare oppose you. But then slowly you realize the winning scratch off is never sold at your grocery store, and the reality of how long you are going to be eating ramen noodles and selling plasma hits you. Each week a little of my check goes into a secondary savings account. Every week i try to sell off something that is just collecting dust and every week I look at the bank account. I take a deep sigh, and get my ass back to work.
  Doing the right thing is tough, but in the long run sticking to a diet and saving up for your dream hotrod might suck in the dog days of summer you just gotta keep your eyes on the sweet sweet honey that awaits. Oh I will be rattling windows, not today or tomorrow... but soon.

Who is the Wannabe Hotrodder?

So here we are... a wannabe hotrodder making a blog.
What is my story? Why am I here? here is my story:

    I was lost, but found my way… hopefully. I am not your typical hot rodder, sadly I fall into the wannabe category but not due to lack of desire or heart. Sadly I strayed from the path and was blind to my true self for many years.

   When I was a young lad of 15 men and women’s hair was big, America looked like a bright neon color-gasm and I had a 1969 Firebird. Truth be told I didn’t DRIVE this glorious example of Detroit muscle I looked at it sit and waste away every day as I jumped on my little Yamaha 80 and drove off to the bus stop. My father was a truck driver and saw this old beast sitting behind an industrial complex getting snow plowed into it as it sat motionless begging for life. He told me about it and I eagerly expressed my joy. I wanted to build the Firebird into an asphalt destroying beast.

   My friend who came from a well to do family just down the street had a 1965 mustang father/son project and I was jealous. See, me and my father were not what you would call “close.” At that time I was a troublesome punk youth and he was a shall we say angry ex-marie truck driver that things weren’t going so well for. SO we butted heads quite often, not that we didn’t love each other it was just teen son versus father stuff that many families endure. Present day we are best friends. But I digress, I knew how to work on cars as we were often laying under $500 beauties in the mud swearing and rigging things to enable us to get to work the next day. But I didn’t  know how to “work on cars.” I loved driving fast and I knew enough knuckle busting to get by but neither of us had the time, money or patients to dedicate to making an engine-less very rough project car a running driving hotrod.

   Time passed, things changed. College and a lovely girlfriend (now my wife) took center stage and the sad old Firebird sat and rusted into a rats nest. My wife and I moved to Florida after college and my parents brought the old car down as I still had the dream of restoring the Firebird. I could still see the beauty hidden behind dust and rust, at times I think I was the only one that could still see the beauty. This time I managed to get an engine running and put it in the car but still didn’t have time, money or true know how to dedicate. Finally dejected and broken hearted I had to part ways with her, it is a realization that to this day stings. That is the way of the world for a wanna-be. Days fly by as cars come and go, the fire and passion of speed gets replaced by modern convenience and tepid grey cars that seem to be powered by boredom. Each car more boring and soul-less as the last.

   Flash forward to 2013, life takes a change. My old truck was feeling its age and I needed to find some wheels. I shop around and find a low mileage well maintained 2005 Honda S2000 roadster. Not a hotrod by any stretch of the imagination but fast, real fast. Slowly like a character from Steven Kings Christine novel my true passion started to take over again. The tire burning speed loving part of me that died all those years ago awoke with a vengeance. Something that had changed was my mind set and my skill set, strangely age provides wisdom and clarity if you let it. Over the years I restored pinball machines and worked with metal blacksmithing and welding in my spare time as hobbies. I invested in high quality tools and learned tricks to help my restoration projects yield better results. I also grew as a person learning to plan and approach things analytically and logically. Finally it clicked in my little pea brain that all the things I WAS missing with my feeble restoration of the Firebird are now part of me and well within my means.

   Every day I read magazines, watch youtube videos and try to learn everything I can. I am the wannabe on the outside looking in, hungry and burning with desire. Every day I squirrel away every cent I can. I am still a wannabe hotrodder driving a car most true hotrodders wouldn’t even spit on but I won’t be soon. The dreams are ever present, my resolve is strong and soon I will have a fire breathing dragon that rattles windows and scares children. So for now, I am a wannabe but not for long.