Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Most Hot Rodders are into more than just old cars.

Pat with his '47 Chevy parts car.

Who would have been surprised by that?

Pat Ganahl wrote an editorial on this subject, many years ago in March of 1978, when he was about to take over as the editor of Street Rod magazine.

He commented on a copy of Drag Racing magazine from 1959. The announcer that was the M/C of the event, would provide the elapsed times of the racers, but would also entertain the crowd with tidbits of background information about the race drivers. One of the most interesting bits of information was what the occupation of the racer was during the week. This was back when drag racing was an entirely amateur event.

Car people come from every walk of life.

Pat recalled that the mayor of the City of Industry, a small southern California city south of Los Angeles, campaigned a successful drag car for many years. 

Others that built hot rods or drag racers led busy lives with families and demanding occupations. Actually anything that would earn a livelihood can be considered a demanding occupation. The cars were a passionate interest, of course, but they were relegated to hobby status. Other aspects of their lives took precedence. Anyone with kids doesn't need to be told this.

There are some folks that are professional car people. They work in auto related industries; classic car dealers, restoration shops, specialized machine or mechanics shops. Body and painting, and upholstery businesses. They may specialize in antique or vintage cars, or deal primarily with modern day vehicles.

At one time the stereotypical hot rodder was a young single male that that spent all their time and money messing around with old cars. They would invariably age out of the sport, as they got a steady job or career, got married and raised a family. 

They might return to the hobby at a later date. The hobby of street rodding has evolved into a more family friendly activity.

The old car community is primarily made up of hobbyists, people that mess around with old cars for fun. A large number of them are serious DIYers. They will tackle many difficult technical jobs because they enjoy the challenge, and like the feeling of accomplishment that comes from completing the job in the correct manner. It also helps keep the expenses of the hobby somewhat in check.

Even people that are involved in the old car business as a livelihood, usually have other interests. Most people do. Generally the interest in the old car hobby has to be balanced against other life pursuits.

Car people don't have to maintain cars as the sole interest in their lives.

Pat closed out the column by saying, "Nobody expects street rodder's to eat, sleep, and breathe old cars. We're just expected to have fun with them!"

Content creators in the automotive blogosphere however, have a particular problem; content! They need to constantly come up with new material for their blogs, which means that they have to be constantly thinking about cars. That leads to the need for constant action; doing something with their current cars, and it makes them continue to add new and different cars to their stable as one way to provide this new content.

Many successful bloggers have started out covering their own vehicles and situations, then transition into a format that covers a succession of "new" cars.  

This Hoovie, of Hoovies garage,
you may have heard of him.

He's gotta stay busy.

Guys like Hoovie, maintain a constant stream of different vehicles, this process is baked into the program. These different cars provide situations that will develop more continuing content.

While I'm nowhere close to being in Hoovie's league, I've still got a similar problem. I just finished up a twenty installment series of posts for a large old car web site. I was glad to do it. It was fun, and I like the opportunity to improve upon my writing skills. Finding a larger audience is also a big plus, but it took up a lot of my time and energy. That took it away from my efforts with this blog.

This blog is my product, and I'm very proud of it. I managed to keep producing it for over ten years with regular weekly posts. 

I usually cover three general areas: My work on my own cars, my recollections and memories, and my ramblings about the hobby industry. 

I usually haven't covered shows or events that I attend. I did post photos from the Bering Museum, the Petersen Museum, as well as a British car show I attended in Clovis. I attend Cars & Coffee events frequently, but I haven't photographed any cars there. This is an avenue that I might develop further in the future. 

This is not a job for me, in the sense that I don't derive any income from my writing. Truthfully, I don't know if I could develop a large enough readership that would provide me with any kind of income! 

However, the internet has allowed everyone the opportunity to express themselves, present their ideas, and  showcase their talents in different fields. There is no requirement that the product be good, or even worthwhile! This has it's good, and bad points. It's significant, as it doesn't keep people from giving it a try. All someone needs is a smart phone, or a lap top, and they can be off and running. 

While I enjoy writing, I don't think that I'd like to provide articles to other sites as a freelancer. I'm retired, and I don't want to be saddled with deadlines. But I might enjoy it if I could add something to the discussion. 

The need to generate new content is a nagging concern, maybe not really nagging, this is a voluntary production after all. I'm going to dedicate more time towards producing this content. I used to get an idea for a new post and jot down the main idea, then flesh it out with a few sentences. Then I'd let it percolate on the back burner of my mind, and revisit it and continue to develop it into a full post. I had several of these unfinished posts constantly simmering for a long period of time. I don't enjoy having to rush to put something together for a self imposed deadline. 

I got to thinking awhile back; what will I do if the well runs dry, and I can't come up with anything new? Would this spell the end of my blog? 

I've seen many blogs that died out over time, I suppose for various reasons. Some due to lack of enthusiasm of the producer, some due to lack of the enthusiasm of the audience. Sometimes the producer's interest shifts towards another direction. Many more due to issues of the producer, primarily health and financial problems. It takes quite a bit of time to maintain a blog. Even a weekly updated site requires quite a few hours behind the keyboard. If this time cut into the time needed for gainful employment, I could predict which would have to go. 

Luckily I'm still enjoying the process, so I will carry on.

Sometime you need to put down the parts and tools
 and pick up the guitar.