I'm not sure how it works in the areas where the rest of you are located in but here in Montana we start getting flyers for the up coming car shows and rod runs in the late winter. We go to as many as we can, but not as many as we used to. Our travels take us to Mont, north Dakota, South Dakota, wyo, and some times Idaho. we try to hit a few that we've never been to before, and of coarse we have our regulars that we really hate to miss. I really don't care so much about the show and shine anymore it's the drive to and from that is a kick, with $3.50 gal, or more gas it well be a real kick, So now it's time to vent. Is it the same where you are, just about every old ford has to have a flipen 350 in it, drives me nuts, can be the nicest car there but if I even think it has a flipen 350 i'll walk on by. I'v been messing with cars for a long time and they all seem to run good with out having to bastardize them. Fords should be fords, GM's Gm and Mo-pars be Mo-pars. And one more thing since I'm on my soap box, are we a dieing breed? Of all the activities we attend there just dosen't seem to be very many if any young guys that are intersted or are going to step up and carry on. I know most of us that grew up with these old rides and have many memorys of high school , beer partys, loosing our cherrys ect. we lived it and maybe thats why the young guys arn't as interested as we are. Hope I didn't bore you guys, but my passion for old Fords is strong, and I hate the thought of us being the end of such a fun time. Take care, Alvin
Alvin...I don't know what's hapening up your way, but I can't remember the last time I saw a ford with other than a ford engine. I love my '57, but to be honest I've never been really heavy one way or the other on car makers. I've had probably 20 or so gm products...though I've never owned a chevy...about the same ford products...and 10 or 15 chrysler products.I personally would never put anything but a ford in my ford...except I've got to admit I was at my friends restoratiuon shop yesterday and he is putting a viper v10 in a 69ish roadrunner...now that's maybe one exception I'd have to think about if someone wanted to donate one to me.
I haven't been in the rodding scene all my life as alot of you guys have been. I dabbled a little as a teenager but had to set it aside like so many others for career, family, etc., and I've just gotten really in to it the past 3 or 4 years since my semi-retirement. What I find in the southwest here is a pretty intense rodding culture that has really surprised me.Even with the down economy, things are still going on that surprise me...alot of small local shops seeming to be doing well restoring and building cars for customers. So, imho, if anything is going to kill the industry it'll be the economy, not the interest. As for the dying breed..probably for the most part. Alot of the younger crowd is more into contemporary stuff..but that's ok..This whole hot rod thing is about us and our generation. We do it diferently and better than our dads for the most part, and likewise our kids will do it different and better than us. What they do will be their heritage.
I'm assuming you're going to smaller local shows. If you can make it to Denver for the annual goodguys rocky mountain show (Sept?), I think you'd have a change of opinion on what's happening. I go to the Denver and Fort Worth shows..they both have about 2000 cars and I think you'd be hard pressed to find more than a dozen or so that would make you wonder what they are doing there. I really had my faith in good old American inginuity,craftmanship and quality restored after attending some of these shows. One thing about all the shows I've attended..the majority of owners are our generation, but the onlookers seem to be split evenenly. Rich
Alvin, the bowtie in everything is definitely a big deal here in Mississippi. I pretty much live in HeeHaw chevy hell down here. If they can stick a "tree-fitty and turboi tree-fitty" in it, they will. I am one of about 4 hardcore Ford guys down here. That is one of the worst things about living here, other than the horrible heat and humidity, the love bugs, the fire ants, the crooked politics, the super-expensive housing...why is it again I live here?
I am like you guys..I believe we are the last of our kind. I was talking with my dad not long ago, and he and I agree on that. He is a member of the Falcon club (local chapter), and he and a friend of his are the only two who did every part of their Falcons. Both of them are heavy, heavy modified, but still look fairly stock from the outside. All of the other members are pretty much oldsters, who paid to have their cars built, or bought them that way. You guys, especially you Rich, are like me, you take a basket case, that probably should have been junked twenty years ago, and turn it into something presentable. That takes skill and determination, and a bale of cash. Young guys, particularly those from 16-30, are more into "gimme now". Instant gratification. Granted, I could have bought a new Mustang and been driving it now. What would I have? Anothr commuter car. Even a Shelby GT500 is practically a commuter car, an expensive one, but its a new car. No thanks, give me my old stuff any day. My wife drives a newer Suburban, but my daily driver (60 miles round trip every day) is a `61 Ford F100 Unibody pickup. It has a 5.0 and 5 speed, and sucks gas like a wino. I plan to remedy that soon, with a carb swap from the thirsty Holley 750, to an Edelbrock 500. That and the 3.00 gear swap should net me about 20-22 mpg. Yeah, I'm a hot rodder, proud of it too.
Alvin,
After two seasons of one or two car shows a week I can say the only Fords I've seen with chevy engines are the much older hot rods. That's not to say later model cars don't get them too. I just haven't seen that many.
One of the times I was at the Gulf Coast Cruise in Gulfport, I was looking at a 65 chevy pick-up truck with a Ford 351 engine in it. That man had ten times the people looking at his truck than I've ever seen people looking at a Ford Hot Rod with a chevy engine. I asked that guy why he did that, he said " I got tired of hearing Ford people saying, why did someone take a nice Ford and put a chevy engine in it, I wanted to be different". It was an extremely nice truck too.
I wouldn't put a chevy engine in a Ford unless I was getting paid to drive and show it. So until someone buys my gas and tires I'll stick with Ford engines, and then I'd wear a bag over my head. Jim
Guys I keep em in line with my 351C/FMX powered 36 Chevy..... :003:
It seems that the Ford motors are gaining in popularity, with racers and street rods. You see more and more of it in street rodder and other car mags.I was kind of forced to run a chevy in the 80's when I dirt raced, not alot of affordable performance ford stuff then, I think that has changed. I prefer going to a good car show, like good guys or similar shows. I always take a lawn chair and a cooler, then watch em drive back to the motel or wherever. We have a world of wheels auto show in town this weekend, to many trailer queens. James, did you see the throttle body fuel injection they bolted on the 52 chebby in street rodder? They made huge gains in fuel economy, Wonder what that system costs. Mark
I would honestly say that at the track here thee are more chev powered mustangs than ford powered ones. Of course me, ever the diplomat, always has to ask why they would want to slow their car down that way. They always reply that their 502 or 532 BBC runs the 1/4 in 9 sec. To which I helpfully reply that 9's are slow for a stout 347 SBF or even a healthy 302 can go 9's now.....They almost lways curse at me and so I go on...chev in a ford is about the most hillbilly thing you can do to a car.
James:
I like it your really do bleed FORD BLUE.
Bob
57 AGIN