Backseat drivers license, know someone who needs it? Print them a copy

Chauvanist news from the 1900-1910's

Hard to believe that women were regarded as such incapable drivers.

I got a letter from Brian that is funny, and he's let me share with all of you

Once I discovered your blog, I went to the first post in 2006 and worked forward. You do post a lot! But I likey the car porn. About 3/4 through 2008 I discovered I've been overlooking posts.

So after I finish 2008 I'll restart at 2006. Yeah! More car porn to drool over.

Here's a story which illustrates how naive I am regarding this hobby.

I have a 1966 Mustang convertible that I want to hotrod. I paid $8,500 for decent shape project car. I've enjoyed puttin around town for the past few years.

I love the early Stangs, but they handle like crap, the stock 70hp I-6 is toooo sloooow, and the convertible frame is too weak to handle decent power.  So I want to channel the body over a Morrison chassis, drop in an injected 351W, and get instant modern coilover disk brake goodness. I've restored an early Stang back to stock and taken a welding class or two, but I've never tackled extreme mods.

So on a whim, I email the owner of a California hot rod shop who has an awesome web site... http://www.hotrodscustomstuff.com/ 

Their web site is much nicer now. Back then, it looked like a small Mom-n-Pop outfit. But their project photos were awesome.  So the owner personally responds to my email. He is a very nice guy. He covers the major challenges in such an extreme mod, and then asks why I haven't contacted two builders in my area that he knows personally.

Well at that time, I never heard of Ridler Awards.

I've heard of Barris, Gene Winfield, Von Dutch, Boyd, and a few others, but I'm not really up on the modern hotrod scene. Turns out the owner of HR&CS has a couple of Riddlers to his credit. How many people have the cajones to customize a 300 SL roadster?  Or a perfect Chrysler 300 B?

So the "guys he knows" in my area are Bobby Alloway (about 4 hours away in Knoxville, TN) and Bob Johnson (about 2 hours away in Gadsden, AL).

Never heard of them. But since I'm within easy driving to both shops, I'm really excited and think my project may be achievable. I decide to email both and descibe my project. I want them to do the floors and fab, and I'll finish the rest to save money.

No really. I did.

Needless to say, Alloway never responded. About a year later, I learned who he was and what kind of money he plays with. Big face-palm moment for me.

 I expect my naive email was a big joke around his shop. How embarrassing.

But get this, Bob Johnson actually called me. We talked for about 20 minutes. What a nice dude. Way too expensive for me of course. I had no concept. This guy builds cars valued at more than my whole house, much less the half I still owe on the mortgage.

So nowadays I figure I'll cut and weld everything myself. If I screw it up, I'll just part out what's left and take up a less expensive hobby like crystal meth or heroin.

Brian

More great old ads from the "Centuries of Advise and Advertisements" Tumblr

if you've enjoyed old cars, old ads, steampunk, magazine clippings and old catalogs, this is the cool tumblr you'll enjoy! http://questionableadvice.tumblr.com/

Little kid catching a ride the hard way, Boston 1909

found on http://edwardianera.tumblr.com/

Vanpyr

He actually drives this in public... yikes

I actually found this a couple years ago when driving through a neighborhood, and thought it was lawn art

Great variety of old advertising from QuestionableAdvice.tumblr.com (Centuries of Advertisements and Advice)

It's like Shorpy for advertisements! Very cool collection, enjoy more at http://questionableadvice.tumblr.com/

Having a camera with you at all times is a sure way to capture the odd things in car culture

found on http://www.ifitsgotanengine.com/

times are tough, Frank has cut his asking price twice, down 6500

It's a sure bet that Frank wanted to make a profit when he sold, but that hasn't happened, and I'm sure he has tired of still having to make payments, and just wants to stop losing money

Tikis and beer

Stereotypes=3 - minding it's own business at a car show Pontiac LeMans=0

 Nice as they come, looks great, just having a fine car show

 Then out of nowhere comes a Lexus at full speed into the car shop parking lot, right over the curb and through the shrubbery

 The Lexus plows into the LeMans so hard it pushed it into the 39 Ford parked next to the LeMans

Found at the loacl FM radio morning show blog http://www.sandiegojack.com/story/15074421/how-to-ruin-a-so-cal-car-show

taking the pretty girl for a ride, 1911. She is a airplane passenger pioneer

her name and the circumstances at http://www.shorpy.com/node/10200

notice they don't have seatbelts, but her dress is carefully tied around her legs so her ankles will remain demurely out of sight. The look on their faces is terrrific

Motor Mania, the Disney cartoon of how Goofy has a reckless-dangerous alter ego when driving

Found on http://1320ft.blogspot.com/

Donald Duck was a hot rodder: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/donald-was-hot-rodder.html

Some of the cool stuff in timmytimow.tumblr.com

from timmytimow.tumblr.com but beware, it's NSFW