The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Changing Attitudes

I've been attending the local cruise nights for about 10 years with different classics, all unrestored drivers. 99% of the people wouldn't give me the time of day, let alone have a look at/talk about my car/truck. Even as little as 2 years ago, dad and I took the '51 and nobody hardly laid an eye on it. All of the sudden, last year everything changed. We took the '51 to 2 cruise nights and was busy all night talking to people. I really enjoyed hearing their stories as well as telling mine. I was just wondering if anybody else has noticed this, or if its just a local quirk. I also wonder what this year holds...

I've had the same sort of experiences with local cruises... you have to be in the cliques, or you are just someone passing through...

That and you need to have lots of bling hanging off your bumpers to get a second look.

I usually gravitate towards the mostly stock vehicles myself... and ignore the shiney cars.

You know, I don't go to many "cruse ins" just because the vast majority of vehicles you see there are somebodys "ratrod" or other "hotrodded" version of a classic.. or a bunch of '57 chevys with fiberglass front ends.

I like unadulterated classics.. i come from the school of thought that teaches these cars and trucks were built right the first time around, and probably havent been built that well since.

I know if I left my 91 Jimmy or 95 Exploder out in a cow pasture for 30 years, there wouldn't be anything left of it, let alone being able to drag it home, dump some WD40 in the cylinders, put in some fresh gas and have it start and run.

Everytime I see a classic truck with the top chopped or a blower hanging out the front it turns my stomach. These old vehicles need to be respected.. you wouldn't put your grandpa in a dress and high heels, but people don't have any problem taking a nice '51 and choppin' the top, lowering the frame, slapping on some fancy chrome wheels, and painting it metalflake purple.

And i'm absolutely sick of '57 chevys.. they're like the SUV of the classic car world.. everybody has one.

So thats why I don't frequent cruise-ins.. but if I were to pass an old A&W rootbeer stand or Dog & Sudds and see a bunch of stovebolts or "stock" vintage vehicles, i'd definately check it out.

Fab 51, I think alot of it is that trucks seem to be finally becoming a popular "main-stream" item. I believe for years, everyone has put all of their effort into the coupes, sedans, tri-5 chevies, not to mention the Model A, T, & B Fords.

Pick up any hot-rod or street-rod magazine, and all you see is those high-dollar Boyd and Foose type rides. As such, there really hasn't been a "niche" for the old trucks. Don't you get tired of seeing the old stuff done over again and again.

The other side of that coin is the guys that don't want anything to do with something that isn't 100% original or a 100-point restoration. You know the type, when they do look over your truck, they tend to point out everything that isn't exactly perfect or didn't come with that model.

We have been introduced in the last couple of years to a new craze known as the "rat-rod". Where it is more and more acceptable to show-up with a less than perfect trailer queen. (probably fiberglass to boot!)

I also believe the Big-3 have done us some favors by going Resto on some of their designs the last few years. I know the release of the SSR certainly didn't hurt the value of my 52. Fact is, it probably increased the general publics interest in it, as they're not very likely to plunk down 50K.

Lastly, alot of us baby-boomers are finally getting to the point where we have a little bit of disposable income to spend on the days of our youth. Yeah we may have drooled over that 32 5-window, or highboy as a kid, but we lived in the stovebolts.

Those of us that were bright enough to "pick-up" (No pun intended) one of them for little or nothing, and nurse it back to health are going to be sitting on a nice investment.

Fab51,Yeah trucks are coming into the limelight now,more and more people interested in them.I have been taking my 55 to cruisins for 2 years now and it has always drawn a lot of attention.It has updated running gear and lowered.The stock trucks are also getting attention.Around here the stock vehicles and hot rods all seem to be popular.

When I take my 52 to a show she draws a lot of people. Unrestored, fading paint and all. Usually have people wanting to take pics of their kids in front of "the neat old truck".

Fred,
When Peggy and I took the '39 to the cruisein night, the folks would walk up and say, "Wow, is that the original paint? Are you gonna repaint it?" And I had just finished a frame off resto on it and painted it myself.

Guess I'm not a painter...

John

I feel the same way as Fumblin. Every once in a while I will strike up a conversation with an owner and at some point they say " Oh, I don't work on it. I pay someone to do that!" That leaves me speechless and also terminates the conversation!

I happened on two really great cruise nights this past summer. At one of them, they were mostly folk in their fifties or older. What a pleasure that was. Lots of casual conversation about the cars and trends over the years. Sometimes the conversations are better than the show.

In the '80's, I took my '66 Dodge Coronet to a show every weekend from the end of April until the end of October, hit all the cruise nights, and cruised the local strip. Had a great time doing that.

After coming back from three years in Germany in 1992, all that had changed somehow. When I was in Germany, my wife and I were the only Americans in a German US car club that had maybe 40 members. If it was an American car, it was welcomed! Big Caprice wagons, early '80's Montes and Grand Prix, my Dodge pickup, and a '56 Chrysler New Yorker, among many others. We just had fun as friends that happened to have American cars! Our club went to an all-American car show in EAST Germany after the fall of the wall in 1990, and we were the only Americans there out of over 800 cars and trucks! We met people from all over western Europe, and many from Eastern Europe and even Russia, all with their American cars. Even got followed by the East German Volkspolizei (vopos) for a couple of days...could've been the US forces tags on my truck, hmmm? But that whole trip was an unbelievable amount of fun, and made my wife and I very grateful to be Americans. Especially after meeting a few Russian troops on their weekend pass in the city we were visiting!!! Poor bastards hadn't been paid in several months, uncertainty reigned as to what they were going to do next as Russians, and they were selling their uniforms, rifles, and whatever else people would buy, just to eat! Think about that next time you think Americans have things bad, it sucks here, etc!

But these days, I go to maybe three shows a year. I like participating in car club activities that don't involve a lot of waxing the car and sitting around thinking "I better get a trophy!" or some such garbage. I own the cars and trucks I like, and when one goes to shows, there is always the [censored] with some stupid comment that ruins the day. Our Hudson chapter is part of the national club. We don't do judged shows with our cars. We just go, display them, talk about them, drive them, buy and sell parts, and just enjoy ourselves. None of the judging BS, no trophies, no stress, no worrying about if the car has the original air in the tires, none of that crap. And that's fun!!! My philosophy on judged shows and trophies is: If you need to walk away with a trophy that bad, go buy yourself one!!!

I take my cars and trucks out to enjoy them for me. If someone else happens to like my cars and trucks, cool. If not, too bad for them.

Car shows suck these days, for the most part, with the 5,000 watt noise systems pumping out what passes for music these days ruining the day for everyone else, why put up with that nonsense?

Cudo's!!! We have a cruise night locally here and sometimes come up with over 100 cars and trucks. Everything from a 1930 F-rd to a Big Mack truck to a 2005 Lambordinni(sp??) would come to the shows. We give out 5 Plaques to cars which are generally "judged" by the cruise sponsors. That way different cars are picked by poeple with different tastes. If we have to "judge" them, we try to pick a rod, a truck, an original antique, a muscle car and maybe something unique, and preferably someone who hasn't won already that year. No clubs: just a bunch of car people looking at and talking about cars. You can come and go as you please.
We get many compliments about the lack of pressure.
Just my 2 cents.
Jim

By the way, this comes from someone who IS a trophy dealer.
JR

You know guys I built a 1963 Impala Conv't from the ground up. Restored it to perfect condition. Drove it for 5 yrs had it in 2 shows. Both times I got dinked for having the angled antenae on the back and a chrome molding around the gas fill door. I had to hear "thats not an honest 63 that stuff belongs on a 63 SS Impala Conv't. Bull Crap I liked the looks.

The car tho was in many parades hauling big shots, high school kids borrowed it for Homecoming parades (King & Queen Courts) Do not know how many times I used it to take presidents and such of companies for golf outings, and the police even borrowed it for a drug bust. But people would point out the 2 things I liked because it wasn't orginal equipment for that make. Lost interest in the show & tell.

I am now doing "the truck" the way I want it because of Maws and I life style we need some of the newer equipment. I do not want to use a 235 for Hauling a Harley, I want heated bucket seats, AC, PS, Auto, tinted windows, for the guys that want orginal thats great, but I want comfort and I think we deserve it. Ben

popcorn The Truth is Out There (The kids and their parades was really proud of that old car and so was I)

Popcorn to restore one to original condition and enter it in shows is a real job.They are supposed to be original right down to the last bolt.I enjoy looking at these vehicles,but when it comes to building or fixing one up,I would rather moderize or streetrod it.Course thats just like anything else.Its all a matter of personal taste.

Dale: I did this in 1980 when you could go across the street and pull orginal parts off a vehicle. To be totally orginal you still need the orginal air in the orginal tires. It was a fun back then you still had Mom & Pop junkyards, walk in with a part and the owner would look at it and say "you got a buck"!!

Never had to order a part out of a catalog, I'll scan my pictures some day of it and show it off. Ben

popcorn The Truth is Out There (Good old days but now its a TRUCK Oh yea)