Re: Restorations, Street Rods (no kidding), and young people in the hobby

Posted by Larry Jenkins on February 03, 1998 at 15:04:31

In Reply to: Restorations, Street Rods (no kidding), and young people in the hobby
posted by Scott on February 03, 1998 at 12:10:54

: It has been interesting for me to see all of this debate and comment about rods and restorations. In the viewpoints I've seen here it looks like no one sees any comprimise...if you dare make a street rod out of a precious Model A may you me damned, but if you are restoring one you are saving a precious part of automotive history. I have been blessed by growing up in surrounded by old cars, and have seen many rodded and as many restored...and I've done the same myself. I've seen an absolutely pristine town sedan roll into the light after god only knows how many years in storage (a wall had to come down to get it out), perfect interior, beautiful original paint, low miles and all. I would cry if I thought someone had since turned that into a rod...but I've also dragged a roadster out of the woods and hauled it a thousand miles home to make a rod...AR chassis, rare parts and all. (Incidentally I didn't...that chassis now sits under an AR p-u my dad is building), and the body was put on another running chassis and sold to someone with dreams of a restoration. This was not out of guilt but of changing goals...Another street rod focus, this time a 1928 Essex, no, not an A, but a solid, running (gasp)original car...a long way from being an easy paint and detal restoration, believe me. The only body mods were to the firewall (to fit in that big block chevy)...A chop might be nice, but I can't even bring myself to touch any more of the sheet metal...and I never will.
: I have seen my dad restore and rod many a car over the years...a '27 Dodge bone stock (and you thought that A was short in power!)...but the '26 that came with it...street rod. A glass roadster with a 283 chevy, a '30 pu assembled from parts on an original chassis...driven daily to work for a number of years....then one saturday the roadster became stock, the pu a rod....as the chassis were swaped beneath them. Those cars are all "gone" now, though. Now it is a solid town sedan to replace that one he wished he never sold...paid more for this fairly solid but no interior car than he sold the pristine one, but this one isn't going anywhere. Lucked across a building full of chassis and rusty sheet metal and got back into the A's, sold some, pieced together a '29 roadster pu from some rusty sheet metal and a vision, and that '28 AR truck from the mess...bone stock...he won't use a repo part if an original can be found and reconditioned. He's got a friend with a nice '28 tudor, '29 open cab p/u, and a '31 pu on the way, who never would have helped us find the Essex if he know whatwas in stor for it, but won't think twice about ordering some foriegn replacement part for the A when the original could beredone and better in the end.
: Amidst those stockers, my dads next project is a '30 tudor...stock sheet metal, planning an accurate interior, probably hydraulics, but basically stock...except for that '53 flathead 8 lurking under the hood...my god, how dare he?...because as much as he loves the sound and feel of a stock A, he has hot rods in his blood, too. I guess I'm the same way. I'd love to build a nice highboy...a good '29 or '30 on some deuce rails, a flathead under the sideless hood...maybe from a real A, maybe not. But at the same time I'd love to have a stocker, too...since my dad is building insert engines with big valves and milled heads (and also gathering the necessities to do babbit) It might be completely stock, it might not. He's been a machinest by trade, and hot rodder & stocker since his days of rebuilding engines in his dads service station in the '50s...I think the thoughts of the cheap AR special coupe that was cherry at the time, but wound up with a flathead and then a 283 still makes him cringe...but at the same time he had a stock, original, '29 p-u that is still stock and was last sighted living somewhere in Florida.
: I have been an occasional commentator on this page and enjoyed the commentary and advice almost since its inception, I've been interested and intrigued by A's for longer than I can remember, and this page has been great for that...keep up the good work, but cut those rodders some slack...a lot of them aren't so bad....and they're not so young, either...I took the Essex to a thing called Americruise, put on by Rod & Custom Magazine...a national gathering with approaching 3,000 cars...they had a special section for those 25 and younger...there may have been 25 of us...most of the people were were at least past there mid 30s if not considerably older...the street rodders, too are worried about keeping young people interested in the hobby of old cars.
: I also met several couples there who were retired, or nearly so, with a nice group of street rods...who also happend to be MAFCA, active in their local clubs, in driving their stock A's as well as their street rods.
: I think thatthat is one of the most important things we can do in the hobby...get out there and drive those cars...the only shows my dads cars have been in are the groups that gather around the car when he parks it somewhere...they all get driven on a regular basis, that is why he loves them...to drive them.Either restored or rodded they might as well just be hacked up for parts if they are not going to get out where people can see them...that is what will draw people to them, the hobby, and the desire to preseve them. I'm not just talking about the model A club functions...unless you draw in people who aren't already interested..it does no good. Don't just scream "get the @#$% away from there" as some unknowing kid almost steps on your runningboard to peer inside this strange machine...show them around, let them listen to that sweet sound of the model a...the now unusual note of the horn...If younger people aren't interested the cars we all work so hard to preserve and keep up will die out with the ageing generations....
Well Scott, ya won the prize for the longest post..
All kidding aside, and if I may, I would like to give you my humble opinions.
In my Modification article that will be in the Model A Trader later this year, I talk about the mods I have made to my 1930 coupe.BUT, I believe every one can be reversed by the next owner who may want a show car rather than a driver.
I think most will agree that some mods, like hydraulic brakes, makes the A safer, and others make it more reliable with better performance and sometimes even makes the car look better.
Mike Flanagan and some others may not agree with this, but to each his own..
Larry Jenkins

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