Wannabe Hotrods Excuses Excuses Excuses

Finally got back to laying under that beast of a Nissan Pickup. Lets just say that the "record breaking" temperatures that I heard about on my local TV station day in and day out severely stunted my front end repairs. I am thankful to get back on track... but part of me thinks I might not be able to cut the mustard in the Hot Rod world. What am I talking about? let me explain....

I am not sure if I have what it takes to build a hot rod frame up, that is thousands of hours and probably hundreds of problems. I let that truck front end replacement that should by all accounts have taken me MAYBE 2 weekends end up taking me months! Now there were many things that kept me from getting out there but those are all just bullshit excuses. Reality is I lacked the motivation to get my lazy ass up and get laying under the truck. So how am I going to build a bad ass hotrod? Good question!

In my defense mustering up the desire to work on a Nissan Pickup in the dead of summer while grieving the loss of my father is quite a bit different than wrenching on a 32 highboy or building up a kit shelby cobra. Right? Maybe, but maybe not. The country is filled with garages housing cars that were ripped apart and left laying in pieces never to see the light of day again. Hell, my first attempt when I was a kid ended just that way (see blog post like 1 or 2 or something like that). I am a much different person than I was back then... or am I?

I will say one thing I do very VERY well is fix things. Without sounding arrogant I am pretty sure I restore things very close to the level of Ricks Restorations (see reality TV show that may or may not still be on the air, great show but like all reality shows got a bit to goofy focusing on shenanigans and taking away from the awesome work being done). That is what makes me think my best course of action will be to get a running driving car and just restore it section by section. But after years of cleaning up and fixing what others have done to the machines I restore I would be lying if I didn't say I would be apprehensive. I got so tired of fixing broken pinball machines I bought one new from the factory just so I could see what it is like to have a machine that is actually CARED for, it is glorious. So maybe a Factory Five kit car is the way to go. Sadly this debate will not end here but I do have major concerns about my gumption, my drive, my sticktoitiveness! The last thing this world needs is another beautiful Hot Rod rotting away in a garage with shit piled all over it. THAT I cannot create, so what am I gonna be? Builder or a Loser?

The 900 Pound Rusty Gorilla In The Room

 

Rust In PEACE

Okay, as noted my last entry we need to talk about the current trend to take over the hotrod world... RAT RODS. Now, I beg you gentle reader please realize my opinions are not meant to be hurtful or flame worthy. Just my observations as seen through my little pea brain and expounded through the garbage heap that is the internet.

Greaserama car show in Kansas City last month really filled my veins with gasoline and lit the fire under my butt to get working on my hotrod plan. To be fair the "Hotrod Plan" consists of me saving money to buy a hot rod but "hotrod plan" sounds a bit more cool. The other thing I took away from the trip was although Rat Rods are very cool, much like everything else too much of a good thing kinda becomes a bad thing. What? has the wannabe hotrodder lost his mind? Please... read on...

For many many years car shows were basically fields upon fields filled to the brim with super shiny trailer queen cars that were basically kept behind glass. With sign after sign warning the attendee to not touch said trailer queen. That might float for a one of a kind Ferrari or Super Bee that truly is rare, please don't touch my "rare" 1967 Mustang not so much. Not hating on Mustangs but as I pointed out a few posts ago I am pretty sure you got a free Mustang with a large slurpee purchase in 1967. So as with most things the absurd brings a backlash. So much like punk music came along to murder disco, rat rods came along to murder the trailer queen. Just as punk then itself became the bloated joke of itself so too has "Rat Rods."

The first time one lays eyes on a true rusty ass wicked cool rolling work of art Rat Rod it turns your brain upside down. They are cooler than the other side of the pillow... from the cliche Jack Daniels radiator overflow bottle to the Pabst Blue Ribbon shift they are wacky cool fun. You walk away from that first exposure realizing you have been told a lie and hot rods can be unique and different and they don't always have to be perfect with that little time out dummy leaning against the overly shiny chrome bumper. The first exposure to a Rat Rod excited the car lover and changes your perspective. Fast forward a couple years and you start to realize that first Rat Rod you saw wasn't that innovative and was in fact bound by its own subset of rules for it to be "cool."

My hope is that the market re-adjusts itself back again but lands right in the middle. See, I dream of a world in which you can have a nice shiny hot rod AND drive it too. Imagine that world everyone, you can make a car fast and loud AND not worry about keeping it pristine. That is the happy medium, a car can be beat up and rusty and still be cool but creating fake patina or purposely wrecking something to make it look old and destroyed on purpose is kinda the same as buying a "relic'ed guitar" the hand made scars are fake corporate bullshit conceived to sell an image.

So for the sake of the hotrod world and car lovers everywhere... build your car and do the best you can. If your car gets a dent or scratch so be it, show your scars with pride but please don't ruin your car for a fad. Fads are cheap and soul-less.

So Many Options, So Many Choices... So Much Indecision!

 

When scheming to break into the world of hotrodding how you go about it makes all the difference. See, when shopping for “your hotrod” one way is to just save up some money and go out into the market with an idea of what you like and don’t like. Then you buy a hotrod. Fix it and drive and fix it and drive it, then sell it and wish you hadn’t. That is the most common way people get their hotrods.

I am taking a bit of a different approach. I am trying to narrow down what my goal is long before I make the actual leap into hotrod ownership. By goal I mean like what do I want to do with said hotrod. See, you can buy a car for looks or performance or to show up your neighbor or to get chicks. You can buy a car for just about as many reasons as there are cars, but when it comes to a Hotrod that is often a bit different that just buying a car.

The majority of trouble I have in seeing what my future hotrod is going to be is exactly what the hell is my goal? After driving my current Honda S2000 I can’t see my car having a solid roof anymore. The joy of owning a convertible roadster as a daily driver has forever changed my perception of what is an acceptable car. So first goal is it must be a convertible.

Another major goal is my hotrod has to be FAST. This one is a bit tricky because as eluded to in one of my earlier posts we are in the middle of one of the biggest horsepower wars in history. There are no less than 10 cars being put out right now that are faster than 80% of the “fast hotrods” out there. So how can you aspire to have a super fast hotrod when there are honda Accords out there that routinely smoke older heavier cars. One of the other drawbacks to aspiring to have a FAST hotrod is it is an unattainable goal, you can never be the fastest car out there. There is ALWAYS someone faster. So my goal needs to be realistic. So for my second goal by saying fast I mean, faster than 90% of the common cars out there. Will I be able to beat the crow or the murderstang? No, never but I will be able to put down the next civic with a fart canister muffler that thinks he is a race car driver.

So to review, Goal One needs to be a convertible. Goal Two needs to be fast. The third and final goal I am going to review today is a bit of a sticky situation. I restore a lot of things, old machines and old arcade stuff. After seeing what most people do to their possessions and how they “care for” their stuff I think trying to fix up an old car that has been beaten to shit might be a bit too much for me. I always wanted to buy a running car then work on it as I go to save money but that might not be possible. I am also a bit of a control freak in that I want things done RIGHT! By right I mean by my impossible standards. So that leaves me with buying a high end kit car and building it myself. That is actually the way I am leaning. Top contenders for this are Factory Five’s Shelby Cobra replica or a rolling chassis 1932 ford (there are like a million makers of these). The rub is a kit car is always just gonna be a kit car. But I guess going that route will appease my 3 major goals. But there are still a million options out there, and a million decisions to be made. Until next time, keep the rubber side down!

Make A Model Or Buy A Model?

So, as i trudge along in my tiny pea brain mulling over what will turn me from WANNABE Hotrodder to an ACTUAL Hotrodder a couple prime candidates continually pop into the first few spots. Obviously to right the wrongs of my past a 1969 Pontiac Firebird comes up in the top 5 picks. The 2 that continually flip flop between the top and the second spot are a 1965 Cobra Replica and a 1932 Hi-boy Ford Roadster.

One of the problems with both of these choices is they would have to be KIT CARS. If you don't know what that is please casually look slightly above this sentence to the pile of parts in the image above, not imagine those are sitting on the floor in front of you. BAM, that's a kit car. It is basically a model car in life size form that you can like drive when you are done. There are numerous pros and cons to a kit car... lets look at them shall we? Sure, why not.

I would love to own a steel bodied 1932 ford or a true 1965 Shelby cobra but as reviewed in one of my earlier posts I didn't see any uncashed million dollar checks in my name laying around so that is out. I had originally figured on buying someone else's running driving car then just fixing and customizing as I go. That is a very nice economically sound way to do it, gets me into a car for less money. Biggest problem with that plan is I am a bit of a fussy control freak that needs everything to be perfect or it is completely wrong. That is still not out of the question but I need to be sure the project is right for me.

My other choice is to go with a brand new kit car from a really good maker and build it myself. This seems like it would be the best option BUT it would add quite a bit to the hotrod build and most definitely cause me to lose money. It would ensure that the car would be perfect for me because I would be making every choice every step of the way. One of the biggest issues is at the end of the day, after you drop $30k - $40k+ you have a kit car. No matter how nice, no matter what components are used you have a kit car that commands $18k at best in the used market.

That's the rub, do I want to buy in at the used market price and just fix and drive someone else's kit car? Do I over invest and build my own kit car or do I buy an actual car from an actual car company and make a hotrod? I don't have the answer... this is the part where you have to like turn off your brain and forget what makes sense and follow your heart. Hmmmm... where does my heart lay?