You are a hot rodder when...

Ok, I was out in the garage yesterday and thought this might be funny.

I will start based off my own experience, but I hope you guys chime in, and see what we get

You are a hot rodder (or GRMer) when...

-You have a dedicated set of tools in the car

-You have spare parts to every car you own, because you know... 'someday'

-You have spare parts to cars you have never owned... because... 'someday'

-If you break down on the side of the road, you just need a lift home, because you have the parts on hand.

-you have a plan to build another complete vehicle out of the parts that you haven't used.

-You have a vintage tool collection

-When you find a vintage homemade distributor wrench at a garage sale you say "great! This one can live in the car!"

-You know what a distributor wrench is...

-You are driving something with a distributor...

-When you have more engines, than vehicles to put them in

-The words 'numbers matching' means: move on it's out of your price range.

-smelling like grease and gasoline, probably means it has been a productive day.

-your co-worker asks why the shocks on his truck are on opposite sides of the axle, and you go on a 15 minute lecture about suspension geometry and wheel hop.

-very few things you own (if any) are left 'stock'

-you bought a little red wagon to hual your swap meet treasures.

-you promptly cut up little red wagon....

-Parts interchangeably manuals are a good 'starting point'

-your garage is better decorated than your living room

-you can easily fall asleep with two tons of steel, rubber, and toxic chemicals suspended inches from your face.....

BiTurbo is a legitimate choice.

Factory stock is never fast enough/fun enough/interesting enough.

You much prefer to engineer out the OEM engineering compromises.

One more project is never enough.

I think a Hot Rodder and a GRMer are often nearly polar opposites.

GRMers may appreciate Hot Rodders, but very few actually are.

If you know not one, but 2 very cool people named "A. Nelson", you might be a GRMer.

In reply to Madhatr:

The stretch Little Red Wagon is awesome!

In reply to SVreX:

I think you are thinking Street rodder.

And all those but the little red wagon apply to me.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

I think you are showing your youth.

I'd say a street rod has a can of wax in the trunk, while a hot rod has a tool box in the trunk. However, both usually emphasize old American steel and straight line racing, with very little limitations in the way of budget.

GRMers have a much greater appreciation of foreign metal, cornering and handling, and creative low budget solutions.

I have street rod. It doesn't make me a GRMer. I am not a Hot Rodder (though I respect them a lot). But I am a GRMer.

Fair enough. I always considered myself a hot rodder, that appreciated turning. And was broke. So maybe I'm a grm style hot rodder? I like my muscle cars, some street rods, some imported steel, etc.

And yup, I'm a young guy. (Feels nice to say that since I just realized today that holy crap, I'm 35. I have no idea where the last decade went)

What I don't get, is why the guy with the turbo LS powered fox body, and the guy getting upset because that '32 ford sedan isn't traditional enough. Will both call themselves a hot rodder.

I have searched for cars on the basis of what I have extra wheels for.

SVreX wrote: In reply to Dusterbd13: I think you are showing your youth. I'd say a street rod has a can of wax in the trunk, while a hot rod has a tool box in the trunk. However, both usually emphasize old American steel and straight line racing, with very little limitations in the way of budget. GRMers have a much greater appreciation of foreign metal, cornering and handling, and creative low budget solutions. I have street rod. It doesn't make me a GRMer. I am not a Hot Rodder (though I respect them a lot). But I am a GRMer.

I don't completely agree...

While this wasn't in the spirit of the topic, it always comes up when the term 'hot rod' comes up.

The original hot rods were cut up model Ts and other pre-war tin. The were drivers, salt lake and circle track racers. They were trying to go fast and were built out of what was cheap.. and what they had. Just what we do today.

It gets tricky because, every generation adds their mark on history, and remember what they want to. I have a pic in a HOT ROD magazine archive book of a 60's t-bucket with what appears to be VW torsion bar front suspension. If you were to build that today, people would scream that it wasn't 'correct'.

Trends also follow what the racers are doing, land speed, drag racing, trans-am, and now drifting... I would consider, the cunningham racers of the 50's hot rods, aswell as the street freaks of the 70's, and what our fellow GRM'ers are doing now.

I don't get the street rodder guys spending 20-30K on paint, but then the lowrider guys don't understand why I would spend thousands on engine parts no one will see. It is just the background you come from.

I am an artist, if do a pencil portrait and then an airbrush painting is one less 'artistic' than the other because the media is different? I don't think so.

Bottom line, guys that build stuff like to see how other people solve their related problems... we are all in it together... with greasy hands, and bloody knuckles

I could have just as easily substituted 'Car guy' for 'Hot rodder'... but again that is just my opinion

Brian wrote: I have searched for cars on the basis of what I have extra wheels for.

Nice!

SVreX wrote: In reply to Madhatr: The stretch Little Red Wagon is awesome!

Thanks, that was built in our basement, because I had no shop space and had a fabrication itch to scratch!

If you don't have a "built not bought" bumper sticker because A: it's freaking obvious Or B: What's a bumper?

In reply to Madhatr:

I didn't say one was better or worse than the other. It's just a distinction. Just as a car built for GT Road Racing is different than a car built for Outlaw Drag Racing, or AMod Autocross. They all take talent, they all cost money. But they are definitely not the same thing.

I am old enough to have spent time with some of the original Hot Rodders- in their shops, around their cars. Guys who were building cars in the 40's and 50's. Have even had some work with me on my car. I won't claim the title Hot Rodder because it would be an insult to them. I don't have their talent. When a guy has the capability of narrowing a Ford 9" rear in his own garage with minimal tools, that's something special. It is a privilege to have known a few of these guys.

I think of a Street Rod as a Cruiser. Most have a lot of chrome, custom interiors or body, and a bit of glitz. They might include some muscle cars and Pro Street. They take talent and money too, but they are still different. I have been a through driver on the Hot Rod Power Tour, so I have spent plenty of time around plenty of Street Rods. Spend a week or so riding 3000 miles with 2000 of your best buddies- its a zoo.

I have parts on my GRM cars made from scrap plywood, landscape edging, beer cans, fence posts, old file cabinets and ceiling fan drop rods. Some of these things are very cool, and I am pretty proud of them. But they don't belong on a Hot Rod or Street Rod.

I have a respect for Low Riders too. I think they are the Hot Rodders of today. My Low Rider buddies have spent years trying to get me to add hydraulics to my '60 Elky.

The beauty of it is not that they are the same. It's that they are different, and I can appreciate them all.

I like your list. I just think you are talking about GRMers, not Hot Rodders.

SVreX wrote: In reply to Madhatr: The stretch Little Red Wagon is awesome!

So much this.

Also I don't know where I fit. I have multiple factory stock cars. The only non-stock one I have is my van (and it will be much less stock before too long evil laugh)

Stock Rx8 because C-street class and also broke, stock 323 GTX because its too nice to cut up IMO (though I would buy a rally car'ed up version in a second if I could and pretend to be Timo Salonen all day long, and stock focus because lease and also broke.

I have a two bedroom house and a three car garage, that should be on the list.

I have a 5 car garage that filled to the rafters, and 16 cars in the yard.

In reply to Rufledt:

I don't think it matters where you 'fit'... as long as you are doing what you enjoy. I haven't been kicking around here for very long, but I know I am very happy that I found the GRM community!

@slefain & SVreX this is the space I have to work in...

Although I am ashamed to say it currently looks like this

Maybe we should add "more cars than storage"

In reply to Madhatr:

Suffice it to say that you have significantly more working space than I do in my 5 car garage.

If you look out over a junkyard and all you can see is potential...

If you lust after your grandmother's car because it is a panther...

If you have seriously discussed more than once attaching a v8 to a piece of 'usually-static' furniture...

If you think "Super Street" mag would have been more successful without the models...

If you fit in with most car guys only when you are not talking about your crazier automotive ideas...

...You might be a GRMer.

This is the perfect place to recycle something I wish I could take credit for. It was in (I think) CC so long ago that old guys like Dusterbd (ahem) might not remember it.

One of the ways to tell if you were a "car guy" was the following. If you write a letter, is it most likely to start out...

(A) May it please the court;

(B) I never believed the letters in your magazine until the day I opened my apartment door to find three Swedish flight attendants and a jar of mayonnaise; or

(C) I am the proud owner of...

Never considered myself a hot rodder. I would consider myself a car guy/ junkyard dog, close enough to GRM for me.