Did you ever copy the aesthetics of your dad, or other older gearhead in your life?

The What Aftermarket Parts Improve thread got me thinking.  Did you ever copy the aestehtics of an older gearhead in your life?

My first "good" used car was a 1982 Rabbit.  One of the first things I did was source a Kamei air dam, wholly inspired by a mod my dad did in the early 1980s (shout out to Lateapexer).  I still have a distinct memory of the day he put a Kamei air dam on his super cool, German built, 1980 Rabbit and the drive we took afterwards.  I was 9, and to me, that black VW, with the menacing air dam, really made us the slickest VW family in the neighbourhood.

Flash forward to the 21st C.  Both my son and stepson have, or had, Miatas -- and both have made some aesthetic changes that look like my NA. 

I am the older gearhead in my life.  I was given a Hot Wheels car by my mom when I was like 18 months old and that is the extent of the push that got me down this rabbit hole.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

I am the older gearhead in my life.

This exact sentence was my first thought on reading the title of this thread.

I'm still trying to figure out, when I became the "older guy ". In my mind I'm still 25. Even though I will celebrate the 35th anniversary of my 25th birthday in a couple of months.  

I'm the older gearhead, too, and my father wasn't, but both my sons have purchased aftermarket wheels that match my tastes. They both gravitate to small four cylinder cars like me.

I had a Kamei front air dam on my 1981 Mazda GLC and a pair of Cibie driving lights. That was before the boys were born though.

Sure. I paint everything flat black, just like the old man did, wear a bandana, too, but that is likely due to the "sweaty" gene he passed down to me. Then there's the flannel.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

I am the older gearhead in my life.  I was given a Hot Wheels car by my mom when I was like 18 months old and that is the extent of the push that got me down this rabbit hole.

I still have mine. An F100 with a pair of yellow dirtbikes in the bed. Hand painted blue by my mom. It is my most prised prized possession.

The other is my EAA number. 489630. No one in the world will ever have that number. Mine for all time. A gift of membership from a pilot friend of a cousin.  We met him up at Oshkosh in 1992. Back then there was a line, and you needed a pass to get close to the aircraft. The only way to get it was to be a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association. To walk up to aircraft built with its owner's own hands, to see Delmar Benjamin flying his GeeBee R1 inverted, an F-14 doing a full burner pass?

Ive always been looking up, ever since I could remember, but this, this place, these people, this experience? There was no looking back. I belonged here.

My dad told me to lay off the car talk as it bored people. I am the oldest gearhead.

I was looking at late 60's-70's Oldsmobiles the other day on C list and I noticed one that had filthy white wall tires.  

My dad loved WW tires on his boats and they had to be stark white.  I always notice that.   

My tools are about as poorly organized as my dad's.

My father is not a car guy, but definitely a DIYer around the house.

I copied a lot of what I saw in the neighborhood around me as my dad was mostly not present and far from a gearhead.

Rick across the street had a Vega GT and then a round taillight Camaro. He also had a great swb custom Ford Econoline van.

The girl across the street to the right of Rick had a 77 Corvette and her brother had an older MG. This was back in the late 70s early 80s.

I am forever stuck on the shark bodied Vettes. I have been canning for a while. And I still want a Vega GT. With a turbo Buick V6!

No. My father's favorite colors were tan, chocolate brown, and orange, frequently together.

He also favored wide white walls.

So, again no.

In reply to Duke :

My dad loved to point out me the higher end fancy tires on luxury cars.  
 

Oooohhh look, that tank has Vogue tires.  

the older I get the more like him I get.  He was never a gearhead, but he loves cars.  Where we diverge is hes a purist and restoration guy and I'll mod with utter abandon.  But for whatever reason his favorite color on a car is a copper/orange color and I found myself looking at a 60s oldsmobile in that pallate the other day and really wanted it.   

The more I thought about this, the more I realized that, at least for the years where I was around, my dad did not modify street cars. He built a handful of race cars (FP Spitfire and ice-racing Hondas), but he left the things with license plates stock other than occasional misguided glasspack mufflers. He did some custom paint jobs but what was underneath was mostly untouched.

In reply to JThw8 :

In reply to ZOO (Forum Supporter) 
My Grandfather drove a 1930 Ford Model A pickup. Helping him work on that got me interested. Then when I turned 5 my dad put me on his lap and let me drive his new 1953 Chevy Convertible around the block.  My neighbor raced an Offy powered sprint car 

 I guess that makes me the oldest gear head 

Datsun310Guy said:

In reply to JThw8 :

Bigger :)

Dad, not so much. He had a corvair prior to my being born that was his favorite. When his younger brother had a 396 Nova, he was running twisties around the reservoir. So as a pastime, I took that from him. 

Starting around 1980, he took to diesel VWs, which I got into a bit, but they were never my main thing. I did learn about turbo charging and fueling from messing with them though and I cut my teeth on water-cooled VWs. 

He always had a diesel suburban tow pig, before a brief ownership of a 6.5 pushed him to a a gas Yukon xl then to Cummins powered dodge Rams. I strongly feel that pre Duramax GM diesels were a fallacy. Sure they were rated to tow more, but the transmission couldn't handle it (an external cooler should've been run). But if you nuked a gasser, replacements were cheap and plentiful, whereas the diesel was a paint in the ass. 

80's CalLook bugs are what I associate with my pops.  I don't think it has had too much of an influence on my personal auto style.

I look on them with fondness though

My Dad had an MGB, Opel GT, Firebird, Caprice, 87 T-Bird, Austin Healey... He replaced his 2017 GTI with a 1990 BMW 325 as his DD. His fun car is a 91 318ic. 
 

Every car I've owned, he's done some version of it before me. 

Dad passed away when I was 12.

He bought back and restored his 2nd ever car when I was in elementary school, a 68 mustang. He used to go look at cars at dealerships on weekends. My mustang is a one model year later clone of the last car he test drove.  I knew he had spridgets way way before my brother and I came along, I knew he wanted a Miata so badly, but couldn't justify it with two kids. 

He didn't race, he didn't modify. I got the racing bug myself. The bugeye probably partially had a want to connect with my dad aspect to why I got it. I did want to do a restoration as an automotive bucket list item. Still need to build an engine myself from the ground up.

Hard to say, like I said, I was 12...

My dad's not a gearhead. He's had some interesting cars back in the day. I think a 510 for a little while? A range of lifted squarebodies. My mother was the real gearhead but I'm too poor to afford what she had. '66 427 4 speed vette, '64(?) Fairline 500, '63(?) tripower bonneville and some others. All in a cascading effort to be the fastest car at the strip. 

Growing up I was really the only gearhead I knew. Internet forums were just getting popular so I was a 14 or 15 year old kid trying to talk with 25-35 year old car people. Always a hoot to show up to some of those early meets with a learners permit and a firebird.

Dad probably pushed me toward cars but our taste diverged very quickly. I don't think he approves of my Miata antics or my fondness for lowered trucks at all.

Closest we ever got was him daily driving a 2004 Suburban when I was in my teens and me having a 2002 Tahoe now.

Dad wasn't a gear head at all, yet in recent years I've had a yearning for a very large 70's land yacht, and suddenly like the color brown.