Funny Car Interaction

I had just finished putting the final coat of primer on my Bugeye and was cleaning my paint gun outside my shop when a young guy walked by. He looked into the shop and saw all the old cars, including the BE being worked on.
He said "That is bad-ass...What is that, a Shelby?" (to be fair it was partially disassembled, but still, a Shelby?)
I smiled and said "No, it's an Austin Healey".
He looked at me blankly, obviously not having ever heard of the marque.
Then he said "I'm into classic cars too". "I just picked up an awesome '79 Malibu... It's all original". "It needs a little restoration, though, I'm going to paint it".
I proceeded to give him some advice on the use of a long board.
But he said "No, I mean I'm gonna pay someone to paint it".

I decided not to have a conversation on the cost of paying someone to paint a '79 Malibu vs. the value of the car. After all, we all fancy LBC's, which generally don't have a great payback either.

Anyway, I didn't want to be nasty, and I like young guys to take an interest in auto restoration so the hobby doesn't die.
I had to chuckle though.

Fred

Yeah, it's hard for me to imagine a '79 Chevy as "classic", but I suppose it's all about your age and perspective.
Both of my sons-in-law are mad for football. But I'm slowly getting them more involved in my car stuff. One wants to got to an autocross (I still have to teach the other one how to drive a stick...LOL).

Many of my college students (engineering....mostly male) "talk" about cars but most have very little hands-on experience with actual repairs or modifications. But there are some.....especially the Honda guys with the lowered Civics.
Interestingly, one of my female students is probably the biggest "gearhead".....she owns a 1000 HP fuel dragster (her Dad got her into drag racing).
And I've seen others here and there.
I had a student a few years back enter his street car in the "Grassroots $2007 Challenge" and do pretty well (6th overall I think). It was a Mitsu DSM with a giant turbo off some sort of truck. And one of my current students street-drives a first-generation RX-7 with a 350-LS1 and six-speed. The car is used for track days and has been at Summit Point, Pocono and NC Motorsports Park. And some of the guys get more involved in cars later on (I have a ton of friends who got into cars later on in life).
I have a feeling you and I may have started with cars earlier (I raced an old A40 around the woods behind my folks house when I was 15).

The other thing is that is seems like all cars at my local cruise night at the local McDonalds are "checkbook hot-rods". Most of the owners are guys my age. They talk a good game, but they can't spin a wrench any better than the young guys.

aeronca65t said:

The other thing is that is seems like all cars at my local cruise night at the local McDonalds are "checkbook hot-rods". Most of the owners are guys my age. They talk a good game, but they can't spin a wrench any better than the young guys.

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I like that term - "checkbook hot-rods". The last car show I went to in Dallas had a beautifully restored TR-3. The owner had sent it to a shop in England to be restored.

David_Doan said:

I like that term - "checkbook hot-rods". The last car show I went to in Dallas had a beautifully restored TR-3. The owner had sent it to a shop in England to be restored.

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My friend calls them bought rods

When the "rat rod" stuff first started I was sort of impressed. I mean that was kinda what hot rodding was originally meant to be. Put something together that looks kinda neat but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Can't get into purposely trying to make something look like junk though as many now seem to want to do.

Kurt.

nomad said:

When the "rat rod" stuff first started I was sort of impressed.......

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Yeah, I was sort of the same way. I liked the fact that the owner actually built the thing.

I still appreciate real, owner-built rat-rods.

But now, you can even buy pre-made rat-rods with fake patina. Ugh!

David_Doan said:

I like that term - "checkbook hot-rods". The last car show I went to in Dallas had a beautifully restored TR-3. The owner had sent it to a shop in England to be restored.

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I tried chasing down a nice red TR-3 in Flower Mound about a week ago. He was driving it like he stole it and I got held back by traffic so I never caught up to him. Probably not the same car, but you never know.

mrsprite said:

I tried chasing down a nice red TR-3 in Flower Mound about a week ago. He was driving it like he stole it and I got held back by traffic so I never caught up to him. Probably not the same car, but you never know.

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this one was green, setup for racing.