Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[buzzy bee]

Hi

I was in the pub the other night, and was asked what I did, I mentioned blacksmithing, and classic cars, and then I was aked if I drive, I told them all about my obsession with old stuff, including classic cars. They just couldn't believe me, " you like classic cars at your age !!??"

Is it really that strange??

Cheers

Dave

P.S... I get this damn debug notice every time I post now, I wish I didn't tempt fate before, just like I regretting tempting fate with my bees!

[Scotty]

I have found over the last 5 years or so (in Scotland at least) young adults are less inclined towards classic vehicles and more to modern ones tarted up with fart cans, Carlos Fandango alloys and sound / video / Play Station systems.
Style doesn't seem to come into it any more, tio me it feels like how much cash can I throw at the car and will it show.

Now after saying this, remarkably I quite like what some of them are doing, but far too many of them its all about "look at me", not "check out how cool my ride looks". And I think it will get worse as western governments actively promote environmental issues that will have a knock-on effect on our hobby regardless if its a old Mini or a V8 Chevy.

[buzzy bee]

Hi

Yeah, I supose a good majority of my mates my age have these souped up cars, it has never really appealed to me, allthough I did get a big exhaust as my first purchase for the sidewalk, when passing my test, then driving home it was so noisy!! I felt I have to keep it as it cost a fair bit and it is a stainless one, so will last an age, I would have had to have a load of normal ones during the time I have had that one.

Big speakers and spoilers don't do anything for me, neither does going fast, I much prefere doddering along. hehe

Cheers

Dave

[Uncle Joe]

I suppose that its a little different here. Though we do have a lot of the 'Bean Can Kids' we have quite a few that are into US iron. These are just the same as you Buzzy, more interested in restoring old stuff.

The look at me syndrome with these comes when they dress in time typical clothes at meetings, and prefer to dance to rock'n'roll that destroy their ears with too much bass in their cars.

UJ

[chimpchoker]

Buzzy, You are a throw back..... like someone who has skipped a generation but yes I would say you are an anomaly in being so young and into such old tin. Mind you I would take my hat off to you for that as it is always in hands like yours that the past will live on.

What scares me is that there is a tendency now for folk to embrace the modern technology. It was on R4 last week about selling digitised books on the net. No need to go to the shop to buy a hard copy as you can download a copy and read it on your computer.

What happens if the digital revolution goes apeshit??

Anyway, going to play with the jag on Saturday.........

Alan

[Brian M]

I think us parents have a job to do to encourage the younger generation to take an interest in classics.

I had never really spoken to my daughter about old cars, but was delighted when just before her 17th Birthday I offered her one of my company ex-fleet 3 year old Vauxhall Astras and she refused as she only wanted a VW Beetle. We found a one owner 17 year old example that she learned to drive in, and kept for four years before it was passed on to her younger brother, who ran it for another four years.

My son always read my classic magazines and bought his first car when he was only fourteen - a Standard Pennant that he totally stripped and between us we did a lot of restification and up-dating. He went overseas to Uni before it was completed and so it was sold on, but in his mid 20's he bought firstly a Porsche 912 that was soon replaced with his current 914.

So perhaps thare is an inherited gene that needs a bit of nurturing.

Just last night I was at a local car meet that had a lot of Americans and classic rods and the venue was full of teenagers who clearly had a good knowledge of classic cars and appreciated the engineering that had gone into some of the modifications. So perhaps there is some hope for the younger generation.

[XL391]

Buzzy, i've been into old motors since I was about 4 years old!!! So much more character than modern rubbish!!

[gillberry]

Buzzy even as a young lad I've liked old motors , some new ones as well in fact anything mechanical i like to poke my nose in but at least with old things they are simple enough to understand , well most of the time

[giggles]

You're not the only one that keeps getting that Message BB.


My 7 year old, James loves to read our Practical Classics and Custom Car magazines and adores classic cars, he's even trying to get some of his friends into them. I know several people who kids are slightly older than James that love classic cars. And yes, the parents ( and other family members) do have a lot to do with helping to promote classic cars to the next generation.


I think people that walk past our house and see the cars on the drive are suprised that they belong to a couple under 35. We've had a classic car since I was 22 and before that Mike had a couple of Beetles and a 1950's fire engine. Websites like Retro-Rides are full of people under 35 that own classic cars from the 1950's to the 1980's retro scene.

Mike's father helped to set up a local transport museum and has been around classics since he born, so I guess it's only natural that he got into them as well. My father is into classic commerical's as well, I think if his health was better he'd have one now that he has retired and that's were I got my interest from. In fact I met Mike at the transport museum

[buzzy bee]

Hi

Thanks for all your replies! Glad I am not the only one. I have 2 mates my age that are into old stuff, one is in a family that has a huge private collection and the other is like me, his family have no interest. he however won't buy anything old, he just like looking at it! My mum like old cars and I think she would like to have one if she had a little more spare time, but my late grandad, my mums dad, is where I think I have inherited the gene for old cars. I know that they may not have been classic cars when he owend them, but even so, he seemed to apriciate them!

I seem to get an older car every time I buy one, I hope I can break this tradition as in a few years I will be buying a donkey! hehe

I like old metal, as it is full of character and they have a certain grace about them. I like the idea of driving a good classic on a daily bassis, hopefully this will come true soon!

hehe

Cheers

Dave

[LadyThames]

It's ok I've liked old cars since I was young too, I can remember staring into the aquamarine paint on my dads Austin 1100 when I was three or four, and the white Wolsey 6 he had with the red seats and amazing grin, I loved them, also his Morris minor that he inherited from my grandad also with red seats and lovely smell.

Whenever I asked him not to sell them and to save them for me for when I was older he'd laugh and tell me that by the time I could drive they'd have all rusted away.

Then at 16 I found myself living with Travellers and around a mixture of painted up Fg's, Bella Vegas, Supa Vegas, Embassy,s, J-Types, Bluebirds and many other assorted 50's, 60's and 70's vehicles, I was in heaven, but never had the chance to learn a lot as M.Thatcher put an end to all that.

I went to college at 18 to learn about mechanics whilst living in a 71 Bedford coach, got sexually harassed by the young men there but kept going and did two years of the 383(?) city and guilds specialising in transmissions and CI engines, there was not a lot of practical though. I won an award at which the person handing me the cup shock my hand and leaning in said 'Motor mechanics? isn't that a strange job for a girl'!!!

But my tutors were great and with my background in having met many women who kept, lived in a drove their own buses I kept up the desire to have and restore vehicles. I have too work on my 400E on the road as I haven't a garage or parking space but they are quite simple and I just do a bit at a time as money and time permit.

I think it is a passion for me, I appreciate nice looking, simple and practical design and I appreciate the effort and work that people put in to hand building and finishing old vehicles, and wish them to survive for as long as possible as examples of what enabled the 'pimped-up mobiles' to be able to exist in the first place.

Good luck in restoring no matter what your age, that's what I say and we need the older members of the motoring community to share what they know, that's why I'm here I want to learn more

[Rick]

Well said LadyT, be interesting to read about your 400E (or did I miss it somewhere?).

My first old car appeared in the family when I was 15 (the red '67 Spitfire), initially dad was going to 'do it up' after buying it for £25 from a workmate. The car was in a million pieces and was a rusty old thing. He got as far as cutting out all the floors and sills (no bracing), then kindly donated the project to me at around the time of my O levels (remember them?). Although no pot winner, the Spit returned to the road in 1989. Putting that back on the road taught me a lot - the main thing I learnt was not to take a car apart and throw all the nuts and bolts into unidentified margarine tubs, without making any notes on how it all came apart, and how it should go back together.

Prior to that I'd always been interested in aircraft old and new (a family interest), but it was the Triumph that lured me into rescuing motors that others were ready to throw away. I passed my driving test in the 1960 A40 and drove that as my daily car from 1987 through to the early 1990s, alongside the Spit and the dark blue Volvo 121 that came along in 1990/91. It was about this time that I started collecting all the old junk to go with cars, eg tools, old tins, petrol cans, and so on

Rick
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