real car guys

Down at the local parts emporium today the talk turned to paint jobs and the cost of the same. While all us grey hairs there have painted at least one of our rods, age, dexterity, or time constraints had a few get paint work done. The consesus was a presentable paint job runs in the $8,000 to $10,000 price range. This is not for a multi-color, metalflake, or candy paint job, just a nice one color job. Everyone there could remember building several rods earlier in life for less than that in their lifetime. I know I myself put together a pretty nice 40' coupe from the ground up for around $2,500 in 1969.

Then the bench rancing starting in earnest. In the early days of the hobby, if you owned it, you built it. There where no kits around for suspensions, engine swaps, rear end conversions, wiring and so on. You just tackled the problem when it came up and moved on to the next step. At most car shows and cruises today maybe 1 in 10 could honestly say they built their own car. They don't know horsepower, cam duration, rear end gearing, camber settings, interior materials, or even exterior color, unless the person who built it told them when they bought it. If they break down by the side of the road they call the motor club on their cell phone and wait instead of get the tools out of the trunk and fix it. But because they can afford a couple hundred thousand dollars for a car, they get all the attention. Which makes us real car guys happy because that's not what it's all about. It's about the cruise, the seat of your pants driving experience you can only get in a 60 plus year old, split windshield car. It about the sound of the exhaust, the whine of the rear end, and the wind in your face, and the real car guys know this. That's why when you see us driving down the street we're grinning ear to ear in the pouring rain getting soaked and living life. And we remeber when sex was safe and hot rods were dangerous.