Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Looking backwards to find a way forward.

 

I read this book as a high school freshman back in 1969-70.

My best memories of freshman year don't concern school activities. I was a not a popular rah-rah kind of guy. I didn't have a bunch of chums or even a girlfriend. That would take quite a few more years!

What was important to me was that I was fast approaching the time that I would be able to get a learner's permit. Then I'd get my driver's license when I turned 16. After that, it was inevitable that I'd get a car or maybe a motorcycle of my very own. Things were looking good, it was just a matter of time!

I was always very interested in the mechanical side of motor vehicles. I knew that to afford a car or bike I'd have to be able to maintain and fix it. I wouldn't have the money to pay someone to do that for me. Besides, I didn't want to have anybody else do the work that I could learn to do myself.

I'd always loved reading. Mostly books from the library. That's where I learned everything that I knew about dinosaurs!  I didn't read a lot of magazines at the time, as I'd already outgrown comic books.

There was a drug store on the corner of MacArthur Blvd. and Fruitvale Ave. Like most pharmacies they also sold pocket books and magazines. My bus stop was on that corner and sometimes If I was running a little early I'd have the time to drop in and check out the magazine rack. I remember that I bought my first hot rod magazines sometime in 1968, the beginning of my 8th grade year.

One was an issue of an East Coast based Hot Rodding magazine, I wish that I could remember the name.  The other was a special Hot Rod pictorial issue. Nothing but page after page of full color photographs. Some of which ended up on my bedroom wall.

A couple years later when I found that copy of Tex Smith's book in the library I was immediately drawn to the cover. It displayed a group of classic hot rods. What's interesting to note is that traditional cars from the thirties were only thirty to forty years old at the time. Old but not ancient.

The late 1960's was the time of declining popularity of classic hot rods and customs as the muscle car movement was in full swing.

Feeling nostalgic to reconnect with my automotive enthusiast roots and trying to define my new direction, I recently sought out a copy of Fixing up Old Cars.  The book is of course, concerned with fixing up cars from the immediate post war period, although cars hadn't really changed that much between the 40's to early 1960's. These were still very basic cars.

It was nice to reconnect with some of those adolescent emotions. I never really thought that I would buy a Pre-War vintage car.  My interest was already on 1950's and later cars.


Peterson Publishing company, parent company of Hot Rod magazine would release annual and special editions. These soft cover specials were often on specific subjects or the Hot Rod Year Book.

One was the complete Ford book.

Check out that '40 on the cover.

This was the first special that I bought. I learned all about early Fords. There was discussion of restoration vs. hot rodding. The editors saw the value to both, but realized that their readers would usually start with a pretty rough car and build it as a hot rod. The ideal was not to destroy a good, intact, original car.

That '36 Ford custom is what grabbed my attention

There were Hot Rod magazine yearbooks.

They reviewed the years events like the Street Rod and Street Machine Nationals. There was also some coverage on the early days of the Van movement. There was an interesting article on improving the fuel economy of your street machine. The price of gas skyrocketed in the early 1970's. Most older cars got dismal mileage. However there was a way to improve that number. Also included was full build up of a custom '36 Ford coupe.

Lots of topics displayed on the cover.

This issue wasn't as interesting to me. There was a  complete build up of a T bucket. Not really my cup of tea.

The ABC's of engine swapping from start to finish. Of course it included a gallery of successful swaps.

What young gearhead hasn't dreamed of an engine swap?

This issue is even better, modified Street Machines!

I had lost my original copy but found a replacement at a swap meet.

This is probably my favorite issue, as it had a little of everything. Late model hot rodding was where I thought that I would be. There were some gloriously painted cars in this edition.

It isn't as dull as you'd think.

I was eager to not only learn the basics but to develop a much deeper understanding of automotive engineering. I found this book to be very useful to that aim.

No hot rods on this cover!

This book dealt with the systematic refurbishment and restoration of every area of a vintage car. I was interested in buying and maintaining an old Cadillac at the time. It included considerations on the selection of your project car as well as the mechanical aspects.

I've still got my copy somewhere!

For as much as I was deeply interested in cars, my actual experience was with motorcycles. This issue had a very interesting comparison of 500 cc "touring bikes." My future Kawasaki Mach Three was included in the comparison test.

The XR750 was such a beautiful engine.

What caught my eye on this cover was the blurb about hopping up a Honda 305, which I currently rode. The article covered boring out the motor and installing a high performance camshaft. I found that intriguing but remembered my Dad's wise admonishment "If you want a faster bike, just buy a faster bike!" He was right, I was intent on working my way up to a Harley.

I bought this as an impressionable 60+ year old.

I found this book  while doing the antique store circuit with my Wife. Up in Eugene Oregon last Summer. Besides the buyer's guide of current models there is an unexpected article on chopper building. That was an unexpected extra.

This was included in a collection of magazines
given me by my Brother in Law.

There were usually special paint and bodywork issues in most automotive magazines. This special, edited by Pat Ganahl, was much more comprehensive and detailed. It covers every subject area. However the days of spray painting your car in the driveway or backyard have pretty much passed us by.

I think that it was the Merc that got to me.

These are  just some of the surviving copies that still make up my library. There are even more that are on my shelf buy not included in this pictorial. Some were intensely interesting to me, others not so much. But it didn't matter.

I devoured then all.

I bought and read many of these editions throughout and after my high school years. Some I even managed to hold onto over the years. They were always present in my memory and since then while cruising automotive swap meets I've managed to locate and buy replacements for the copies that I had lost over the years.

Looking back  I remember when I read these. I was already a gearhead by then. By the time that I graduated high school I'd already had five motorcycles. I'm not counting the time I rode my Dad's Honda 50 to school in the beginning of my sophomore year. I only did that once!  I bought my own Honda CB160 twin, then my brother's CB77 305 Superhawk, which I built into a chopper! ( He moved on to a Mach Three !) That was followed by a Kawasaki 650TT twin, a Suzuki X6 Hustler cafe racer, and finally a Kawasaki 500cc Mach Three triple of my own. I still didn't have a car yet. I couldn't afford a car and a bike! Besides, I could always borrow one of my Dad's cars when needed. My Dad was always supportive and was cool with that.

I was still very interested in old cars though, old cars being pre-war cars. I was also interested in post war models like the '40 Ford. Cars of the 1950's and 1960's were especially in my wheelhouse. These were usually just thought of as "used" cars. There was about a forty year spread in what interested me. Back in 1973 a '32 ford was only forty years old.

I imagined or fantasized about the kind of car that I would someday own, work on, and drive. It made for a lot of daydreaming.

I'd see a feature on a hot rodded  '57 Thunderbird with a big block Chevy swapped in.

The owner/builder would often be a clean cut older guy. This particular car was the culmination of his years of  automotive experience.

Would I be like that guy?

I really didn't know, I was just getting started.

What kind of cars would I be involved with? My personal interaction with cars would have to wait a bit.

As it turned out my 20's were primarily involved with motorcycles. Except for a '66 Mustang, '64 Cadillac, '66 Lincoln, 70 Coupe de Ville and '76 Pontiac Astre? Maybe I had more involvement with cars than I remembered!

I was working my way up the motorcycling ladder, in displacement, and prestige.

My emphasis was always on riding, no matter what kind or size bike that I had.

I rode my motorcycles everywhere all the time.

Cars were always a secondary concern. Except that now, motorcycling is just a memory.

Well, now The future has arrived. Now I'm one of those pot bellied graybeards I used to see in the magazines. While I have certainly enjoyed this little stroll down memory lane, I can't avoid the question. Am I still the gearhead that I was back in those days?

Is anyone the same that they were forty five years ago? Probably not, but can I find the enthusiasm to fix up my little stable of cars, or is it time to thin the herd?

We'll see, it's only a matter of time!