Are you a true hotrodder & why do we do this crap??

With this new car(49 Plymouth) I'm bound to find things wrong with it. Thats the way new rides are.
Today I'm on my way to the hotrod shop to get some parts for it. I'm cruising down the highway and I hear a sound. Oh no! sounds like I dropped a valve. I start pulling over and turning the radio down and notice its not the engine, it's coming from under the car. Maybe a loose tailpipe dragging? I get it stopped and the sound goes away. At least it's not the engine. I step out of the car on a bad spot where two highway join, traffic zipping by 2 or 3 feet away from me at 65 to 75 MPH. I make it to the rear of the car and get on my knees to look under the car. With a bad knee, bad back and over weight comes a deep breath and a sigh when getting down. Only to be met with a big gulp of unburnt gas from where I stuck my face right to the tailpipe while looking for the problem. With a hacking cough to clear my lungs I see the rear shock has came loose from the bottom mount. The stud broke off or fell off. The shock was dragging the ground. Knowing I was a few miles from a Lowe's pushed me to try for it. I made it out on the highway and with pissed off drivers flying around I made my 45 mph drive down the interstate. The hard part was over.? I couldn't back up so driving around in circles in the parking lot looking for a place to pull through and also to give a down pitch to the car cause the parking lot was on a hill. I would have to have room to get under it. I find a perfect spot, check on the hole for the bolt and go guess at the size I need to fix it. I find it, pay for it and head outside and on my back on the freezing cold blacktop. As I struggle to get the shock lined up I notice the ride to the store did grind about 75% of the metal off the shock eye. 25% will have to do . I can't reach! 14" thick gut can't fit under a car with 8" of clearance. I manage to get my arms in there enough to start the bolt in the hole. It's a hair to big. I get up and open the truck to find?? NOTHING I don't have my tool box with me. I start digging and find two pair of vise grips under the front seat . That will work. I used the vise grips for a hammer and knocked the bolt on through. I start reaching through to screw the nut on. You guess it. I butch the threads forcing it through. As I lay on the cold ground shaking from the cold I looked at my cut knuckles from the last work session. As I struggled with the nut trying to get it on the bolt I seen old scares on my hands from years ago before I had so many friggin wrinkles on my hands. The thought came to my mind as to why do I do this crap! I thought to myself, this really sucks! I could not get that nut started for nothing with the spot it was hiding in. I thought to myself, this can't get any worse. You guessed it, it started raining. Squeezing myself further under the car gave me enough room to move enough to get it started. Vise grips to make 'em tight and I was up, well sorta. Remember I have a bad back and the cold does funny things to my spine. I rolled into the car and sit there wondering why I didn't drive the new car. The 2008 new car with a factory warranty! It took me about 20 minutes on the cold ground to get that shock on. :!: Still shaking from the cold I turn on the heater and tried not to touch the steering wheel with my greasy hands. I hit the road and still wondering if this is really worth it. Before I get to the first redlight my mind snapped back to it's gearhead mentality. The feel of the old car took over and not even a new Corvette could take the feeling I have when it comes to this old iron. This is not something you learn about and do. Hotrodding is who we are and what we are about. It is ingrained in our DNA. By the second redlight all my thoughts of why are gone and even thought if the other side fell off I'd turn around and do this whole thing over again without even the thought of why. Most people don't understand it and I really can't explain it but hotrodding is more than old cars or just having old cars. True die hard gearheads are far and few now a days. There are not many of us left. But knowing that no matter what happens short of something major, blowing a rearend or engine I can fix anything while on the road to keep me running to these cruise ins and shows out of town. Fear of what ifs and whys are what keep the so called want~a~be car guys away from other shows that they would have fun at. Some of these guys kill me. Some have thousands of dollars worth of tools and fancy stuff in their garages but can't work on their own stuff. Washing your car, shining your tires before you can even drive your car around the block is for the birds. Duster on a stick should be for your furniture not your car at a cruise in. Limiting your milage on your car because your flathead is only good for so many miles before a rebuild is also for the birds and having 1 to 20 cars sitting in your heated and AC garage and not wanting to drive them ever sucks. Get a life, drive the eyeballs out of them. That's what they were made for.

By the way. I did make it to the hotrod shop after picking Big Dog up and we had a real good time screwing with the car finding the right seals for the doors and windows. Thanks for the company 'Dog

Cool.............It's a good thing you got the shock fixed before you picked up the Dog.

This was an appropriate thing for me to read when I got in to work this morning. I went out in the driveway this morning to find frost all over the big white wagon. That's not a big deal but when you don't have a heater that works it becomes a concern. I scraped the windshield and we took off. I had to have the wing vent open to help defrost the windshield. The passenger's side of course will defrost since what warmth that does come come from the nearly defunked heater is on that side and it manages to come up thru the dash on that side. So diriving down the interstate, with the window open and rubbing the frost from the inside of the window I manage to get Madonna down town then on to work. By the time I make it to work the windshield is clear so I can see to park the car. When I get out half frozen I think, that wasn't that bad a ride, then come and read this. Granted, I don't know how I would have liked it at zero, but it wasn't that bad this morning. It sorta separates the men from the boys. Just think how easy it would be to drive these old rags down south were the worst you would have is a little rain.

I guess i got that t shirt too Steve been their! But you got to admit when you think about its funny stuff when you write about it At the time were in misery though and wish we had some gas and a match But your right their's no other feeling like rideing around in old iron cause not everyone can do it! So next time were out i guess you won't make fun of my fancy tool bag will you mister hammer and pickel fork Oh yeah i forgot i now have a old uhaul blanket in their also i guess ill put it in a big garbage bag in case i need to make a rain coat out of it :lol! : Does anyone have a book of matches i need to set the points on my old ford? :!: NO GOLD CHAIN WORN HERE AND NO DUSTER IN THE TRUNK!!! BUT I GOT A GPS

big dogs 42 wrote:BUT I GOT A GPS

LOL!!! I can fix 'em. I can't find my way around the Buckeye state without a map book or gps. It's like another country

Broke shock before or after dog was in the car, that big head of his is heavy, Carl said he had to carry him at work for years, that's why his fore arms look like Popeye.....


Glad ya'll were ok.....I know that turn signal screw with you kentucky people, it's the one on the left.....

RebStew wrote:

big dogs 42 wrote:BUT I GOT A GPS

LOL!!! I can fix 'em. I can't find my way around the Buckeye state without a map book or gps. It's like another country

John some one told you a fibb it was me carrying Carl thats why i had to get so big as far as Popeye arms go mine are none to small problem is on Carl has gone from looking Popeye to more like Blimpy! When he went into skilled trades every time i found him at his outpost he was asleep and the other trades were carrying him I have been over in ohio longer than you have lived i used to live in middletown and worked in sharonville/ (lived there )and( i know where trenton is) Don't blame the shock bolt on me Steve picked me up afterwords! I have a green card for Ohio do you have one for the promest land Kentucky?

Yes, I were born there, Irvine, Ky. that is .....Carl goof off....you work....well...union jobs, I'd say you both skated...wait till BHB get in there, we'll all have free everything, just like congress gets......yea....right.....I'm rambling.....Lost in Ashland, Ky till Thursday Night....

big dogs 42 wrote:John some one told you a fibb it was me carrying Carl thats why i had to get so big as far as Popeye arms go mine are none to small problem is on Carl has gone from looking Popeye to more like Blimpy! When he went into skilled trades every time i found him at his outpost he was asleep and the other trades were carrying him I have been over in ohio longer than you have lived i used to live in middletown and worked in sharonville/ (lived there )and( i know where trenton is) Don't blame the shock bolt on me Steve picked me up afterwords! I have a green card for Ohio do you have one for the promest land Kentucky?

falconwagon62 wrote:Yes, I were born there, Irvine, Ky. that is .....Carl goof off....you work....well...union jobs, I'd say you both skated...wait till BHB get in there, we'll all have free everything, just like congress gets......yea....right.....I'm rambling.....Lost in Ashland, Ky till Thursday Night....

I'm just a few miles from Ashland, don't get lost there and end up in WV.

i hear banjo's......

John B wrote:

falconwagon62 wrote:Yes, I were born there, Irvine, Ky. that is .....Carl goof off....you work....well...union jobs, I'd say you both skated...wait till BHB get in there, we'll all have free everything, just like congress gets......yea....right.....I'm rambling.....Lost in Ashland, Ky till Thursday Night....

I'm just a few miles from Ashland, don't get lost there and end up in WV.

Run if you hear a guy squealing like a pig !!! You may be next

falconwagon62 wrote:i hear banjo's......

Thats probably just Keith Watts ( jokerlowrider on here ) getting tuned up for the weekly Wednesday night Jamboree and out of town Yankee orientation.

I fired up the old Mercury this morning to drive to work. It was below zero, no heater, no defroster, no seals on the door wiondows, lighting fire in the cold dark air on the way through the construction this morning..............PRICELESS!!!! Sure woke up the construction workers.

Mr. Fabulous wrote:I fired up the old Mercury this morning to drive to work. It was below zero, no heater, no defroster, no seals on the door wiondows, lighting fire in the cold dark air on the way through the construction this morning..............PRICELESS!!!! Sure woke up the construction workers.

I'm sure it made the contruction guys morning start out on a good note.