Where do you find your fun?

Over the last 40+ years I've owned a lot of different types of vehicles. I've owned several show cars and a lot more rag tag beaters that today would be worth a small fortune.

I find that I had a lot more fun with the less than pristine cars, trucks and motorcycles. The show vehicles were nice, but they were a royal pain in that they had to be cleaned, polished, protected at the shows, and I always worried about them when I had them out driving them. You know, parking lot dents, rock chips, unsupervised kids at the shows doing chin-ups on the door handles to look inside, etc.......

At shows these days, I find myself drawn to the vehicles in builder stages. If it's in primer, I'm gonna check it out. I really enjoy looking at fabrication techniques on these "in progress" vehicles. After they're finished a lot of the neat details get covered.

One of the most fun cars that I ever owned was a 65 Corvette roadster, 350 with a four speed, header-sidepipes, big radial tires on rallys. The car did not have a speck of paint on it. I stripped it to bare glass, and since a p/o had butchered the body, I intended to do some mild body mods. I found the car so much fun to drive that I didn't want to take the time to work on it.

And there were others, but what I'm getting at is, that my current build, although it would be considered fairly radical, it will not be a show vehicle. At the moment I'm not sure it will ever see a shiny paint job. I'm having fun with the fabrication part of the truck and I want the fun to continue when I get it running and road worthy. I have a lot of trick things that I want to do to it and I guess it's sort of a test bed for ideas.

That's a brief take on how I find my fun in the automotive hobby. What are your thoughts on the subject. I'm curious if this makes any sense to anyone but me.

Andrew

My sentaments exactly... I couldn't have said it better myself. You have hit upon what I consider the Darksider's Realm to be all about. Rave on !!!

Later Man...

welp the 53 for starters . it's the coolest dain daily driver in this city . i have hauled more of anything in it than any other late model truck i have had . it's got more class , style and charisma than a whole lot of free new ones . now then lets talk about the 200 dollar bird . i have beat the living hades out of it since it has come home . dents headliner and visor material peeling , all sorts of little things that would drive a normal person left of crazy. it runs like a scalded a-- ape , will leave a set of posi marks a couple of blocks long or more all the while with the 4.6 bouncing off the rev limiter . yeah i'd say i'm having fun in it !!!!!!!!!!!!! oh did i mention the warning ticket for exibition of speed from the little street suarez against a tuner with a big wing and loud muffler ?? i knew the officer , so he was nice ..... this time .

For nearly 20 years I was running 70's Ford's. Still do, except the '79 Bronco is only doing plowing duty til I replace the broken main leaf and gas tank. But anyway as a mud-runner/4 wheeler I never understood the fancy paint-job lifted 4x4 truck. Why go through all of that only to bounce it off a tree or rock and spinning big chunks of clay up the sides? Oh wait, they never went off-road, lol. I don't begrudge any of them, but I just didn't see the need for fresh paint on an off roading truck. But as we age, and money becomes more needed, IE house payments, families, etc... I've oriented myself more towards making something that will last. I just wish I could settle on just one, lol.

Hi Folks,
I see there are two subjects up for discussion here... First, where do I find fun, let's go their first. The answer to that is easy, it would be my garage and shop. I think I actually enjoy it more than driving anything I own. When it comes to going out in something I built or re-built, the fun in that for me is actually an extension of what happens in the shop when people notice it on the road. For as long as I can remember I have always been into building something whether it be electrical, mechanical or structural. I guess I get some kind of charge out of it. However, to be honest, in all my years I have never built anything such as the two trucks I will soon be starting. So, my funometer has yet to be tested against what may be serious competitors for fun prize.

Now, on to the subject Havi raises. I too have to wonder what fun there is to putting a lot of work into something and the taking it to the wilds to literally tear the hell out of it. A current example of this would be my Scoobygator project which is basically a farm and ranch utility vehicle. It was originally conceived as a way to make use of a Subaru 4WD drive train that I got from a friend of mine. I have been working on it as a secondary project since before my retirement. In that time there have been lots of people look at it and almost all of them express a desire to get it out in the woods and run the shit out of it. That kind of thinking really goes against my grain. My response is usually something like, pay me for it and do as you like but leave me out of the carnage. I take no pleasure from seeing anything wastefully destroyed. There are a number of people who already claim they want a shot at buying the Scoobygator when it is finished. I have made it clear to them that if they seriously abuse it they are on their own when it comes to fixing the damage.

As for fun with a vehicle, I think one of the most fun type vehicles I ever had was something I threw together about thirty-five years ago I called the Woodsbuggy. It was built from a '49 and a '50 Dodge which I shortened down to two seater with a Jeep-like from end and a fiftyfive gallon drum on the back for a fuel tank. It was essentially built for very little investment and we used it for several years ubtil the frame snapped. Even though I had little invested other than some time when I was out of work, I never wanted to ruin it.

Yeah I know, Blah, Blah, Blah, etc, etc... I just thought I'd throw in my two cents worth here. Hopefully we will get replies from others as to what makes their fun.

Later Folks...

[quote="Darkside Dave"]Hi Folks,
I see there are two subjects up for discussion here... First, where do I find fun, let's go their first. The answer to that is easy, it would be my garage and shop. I think I actually enjoy it more than driving anything I own. When it comes to going out in something I built or re-built, the fun in that for me is actually an extension of what happens in the shop when people notice it on the road. For as long as I can remember I have always been into building something whether it be electrical, mechanical or structural. I guess I get some kind of charge out of it. However, to be honest, in all my years I have never built anything such as the two trucks I will soon be starting. So, my funometer has yet to be tested against what may be serious competitors for fun prize.


Dave,

I'll have to agree that I really enjoy getting in my shop and just building things. Doesn't matter if it's a kitchen cabinet for a friend or just a cart to pull behind my yard tractor. I'm currently building a small trailer that I'm going to set up as an engine test stand. I've got a test stand that I mickey moused together years ago, but I want something that has more mobility. Currently got a friend that has just finished building a 454 and he wants to test run it before it goes in the car. With the trailer, I can pull it to his house and he can lift it into place and we can run it right there in his shop, fix any problems that might exist, and pull it right back off. Any kind of fabrication like that is fun to me. That takes away from my build time on my truck, but every now and then, I need to walk away and do something else.

Andrew

havi wrote:For nearly 20 years I was running 70's Ford's. Still do, except the '79 Bronco is only doing plowing duty til I replace the broken main leaf and gas tank. But anyway as a mud-runner/4 wheeler I never understood the fancy paint-job lifted 4x4 truck. Why go through all of that only to bounce it off a tree or rock and spinning big chunks of clay up the sides? Oh wait, they never went off-road, lol. I don't begrudge any of them, but I just didn't see the need for fresh paint on an off roading truck. But as we age, and money becomes more needed, IE house payments, families, etc... I've oriented myself more towards making something that will last. I just wish I could settle on just one, lol.

Havi,

I don't understand the fancy 4x4 deal either. Went to a local cruise-in friday nite, and there were at least 3 or 4 sky high 4x4's, nice paint, lots of chrome, nice wheels and I doubt that any of them have ever been off road. And if they do take them off road, it makes all the fancy stuff totally pointless. Guess it's whatever "floats your boat".

Andrew

wish i had a pic of the last 4x4 i had havi , you'd like it . beat up old 83 1/2 ton ford . spotted puppy paint / body panels , front bumper all twisted to bejeezuz from a tree stump i found , 33's 302 heavy 4 speed . it got beat to death and i couldn't pass up any inviting place that looked like i could get stuck !!!!!!! it was fun to say the least. no one ever parked next to it in a mall parking lot either , not even other 4x4's . dont know if they were afraid of the mud and dirt , or the fact that it was UGLY !!!!!!!

My truck is a "ten footer"....maybe even a "five footer." I like taking the truck to shows because of the camaraderie and the great people that I meet, but what I like to do even more is DRIVE the heck out of it. I bought my truck because I always wanted a '56 F-100; I like to "tinker" and it's a great way to get away from all the "madness"; and to cruise it around town making noise, going a little above the speed limit, and seeing the smiles from all the people that get to see "an old pickup."

5 footer ?????? herbie that thing looks straighter than the wifes new mini van !!!!!!!!! oh and another fun thing .... i do so enjoy ripping a " new " car apart to the dismay of others too provide parts / fodder for an old one ..... some just don't get it .... oh and lest we forget it's demo derby season here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! looking for a new wrong wheel drive to kill in the mini class and rid the world of another generic sheeple mobile !!!!!!!!!!

Fun is a strange word...

A good day for me is when I work in my shop all day and dont leave the property.
I have driven ONLY old cars all my life. Never owned a new car.
Dont want one. If you gave me a new car, I'd sell it without even driving around the block
Currently my daily driver is a 1939 Ford pickup, been driving it for 16 years thru 4 states, pulling a car hauler.
and a 57 chevy about the same length of time
and a 31 Ford coupe, original engine with lots of goodies, not sure how many years,
I'd have to go look it up maybe 12 or 13 or so
I bought a 47 Mercury when I was 17 and drove it 14 years.
It has a 392 Hemi.
I still have it
I bought a 59 Ford about 10 years ago for my son to drive out of state to college
After he graduated he decided to be a Jeep fanatic and gave the 59 back to me.
I drive it sometimes
At the same time he got the 59, he wanted this 1960 Ford pickup so I bought it but he was in college in another state...
The 60 was driven home and never driven again...that was about 10 years ago.
I just got it out and it fired up, runs good.
I have been getting it ready to paint and make driveable.
Thats when I went to the FTE board and found this one.
I have been hoping to find a friendly forum.

Hi bgarret,

Not sure exactly how you found us on the FTE but we're all glad you could make it. I have done a bit of recruiting but sometimes people use a different user names when they come here.

Frome what I can tell by reading your posts this is the right place for you. No silly games here, just folks who like to build and exchange ideas. I guess everyone has some degree of brand loyalty but we are not going to play favorites here. That said, I admit there is a lot of Ford stuff here but that is probably because I have tried to bring a lot of guys from the FTE over.

If you have anyone in mind that would in your mind be a compliment to this board, by all means get them onboard wuth us.

Welcome Man...

Darkside Dave wrote:Hi bgarrett,

Not sure exactly how you found us on the FTE .
Welcome Man...

ohh, yer funny!
'not sure how I found you'.....after you plaster the Darkside link everywhere you go on the 48-60 FTE forum.

Its good to see y'all have a good sense of humor here.
Thanks for the welcome
I have been hoping to find a friendly forum

bgarrett wrote:

Darkside Dave wrote:Hi bgarrett,

Not sure exactly how you found us on the FTE .
Welcome Man...

ohh, yer funny!
'not sure how I found you'.....after you plaster the Darkside link everywhere you go on the 48-60 FTE forum.

Its good to see y'all have a good sense of humor here.
Thanks for the welcome
I have been hoping to find a friendly forum

Maybe I put that in the wrong way...

What I meant to say is that I was not sure it was a result of my rigorous promotional campaign or a result of my personally contacting you by way of a PM.

However, thanks for considering my comment as funny as opposed to annoying.

Knowing the attitude and ways of the powers that be over on the FTE I am quite surprised they haven't came down on me for promoting the board over there. I admit that the FTE is probably one of the best boards out there but they are owned and opperated by a bunch of anal retentive money grubbing people who are out to make a profit by advertising. They have no problem with whacking anyone or anything that they consider competition for there membership and readership. The outfit that owns the FTE has a bunch of other boards. For them it's all about the advertising dollar. What really gaulds me is that plea for donations as a supporter with the lame excuse that they need that to stay aflost. get real !!! It's just another way to gat more money. And yes, I am a supporter. I did it to get rid of all the animated ads and get the T-shirt.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it...

Of course, in the pole barn working on something. This summer it was an electric golf cart that came off of the golf course greens to a street legal advertising vehicle for my wife. Royal blue paint with Shelby strips, aluminum bumpers, lights, wiring, 48V-to-12V power converter, chrome hubcaps made from truck stop hub covers, etc. Now I'm onto the '89 Cougar XR7.
Outside of the barn I enjoyed competitive autocrossing. Suspension adjustments, learning the track and pushing the car as hard as possible was a thrill. Now I get some of that excitement on the motorcycle or snowmobile.