Car Shows
 

I only go to maybe 1 or 2 car shows a year (my mustang was the Lateral G May 2007 Feature for reference) b/c hey I would rather be driving it! Anyway, I had to share my rant because I was dragged out to one the other day, and was reminded just how clueless the general public is about our Hobby.

This guy was quite taken with my car, snapped a bunch of pictures and proceeds to tell me he converts cars to electric power, and wanted to do so with a 65/66 mustang. As we talk, I'm getting the impression this guy is not realistic about what this is going to cost. So I ask him " How much do you think I have in this car? "20-40k" was his response. I laughed right in his face. :lol:
People (at least in Canada) have no clue what it costs to put one of these things together (pro-built, frame up), but common sense should tell you, if you could have one for 40k (the cost of a Toyota Camry) perhaps you would see a lot more of them!!!! Anyway, looking forward to more postings from members and their own "dumbest things ever said at a car show" comments.

cheers.

Not really at a car show but similar. One time a friend mine was helping campaign a mini rod tractor in tractor pulls around the country. At the time it was the greatest weight to hp ratio of any motorsport. Anyway they were running a Keith Black Olds 455 "Y" block, for a power plant. See the link below for details on the block.
http://www.s-series.org/htm/tech/GMP...ts/153-156.pdf
Anyway they just get the tractor off the trailer and this guy walks up in overalls and a big wad of Red Man tobacco in his mouth and says "what kind a motor y'all runnin in that thing?"
My friend replied, "it's a 455 Olds Keith Black Y block"
The man then replied" what'd y'all pull that out of?"

My friend wanted so bad to say "Delta 88 wagon!". But he didn't.

Just got back from a swap meet where they had a car show... the show on a slopped grass field.... Not that I care much about car shows but I would never take my car 4-wheeling to be in one.

the good news is they pick up a car, then actually figure out how much it is going to cost, and you can pick it up at half the value! I bought the 66 Nova SS I am going to modify and I feel I got a pretty solid deal on it. At one point he handed me a Classic Industries catalog as he wouldn't need it anymore - later I noticed he had marked everything in there he would want to get and I suspect once he ran the total on it he about crapped. I do know what it will cost me so I was in a better position, and I was bargaining as such. Figuring out later that he had ran the numbers as well I think actually helped me negotiate.

Had a couple of Good Guys staff members (yea, you read that right) use my truck as a leaning post and writing surface. When I confronted them about it they snapped back with, "It's not supposed to be parked behind this tape anyway" and pointed to the tall cones with the caution tape in front of my truck. I apologized but informed them that when I rolled in that morning, neither the cones nor tape was up. They continued to feed me sarcasm and contempt for my even being there. I paid money to be in their show and that was how they treated me and my property. Never again.

That's horrible... they treat your property like their personal table and their excuse is that it's parked wrong? What a joke. I'm sure this is not the way that organization wants to be represented... I've always enjoyed their events but that is just out of line.

I've told this story several times. Pull up to a gas station several years ago and I guy walks up to me and says, "I'll give you $5000 for it." I start laughing and said, "And when are you gonna pay the rest?" He then said, "What do you mean?" I said, "First off, it ain't for sale and if it was my price is alot higher than $5k." I ended it with sayin, "I got more than twice that in the motor alone." The funniest part is after I ran down a few prices to him on what some things cost, he only upped his price to $12k. I think all he saw was an old car and not an old car nicely restored.

I have that happen alot with my '85 Silverado. People are always like, "I'll give you $3k for it" or some stupid low number and I laugh and tell them, "You couldn't even buy my stereo for that."

The other one that's fun is they ask, "Will you take payments?" I always say "yea, one easy one in cash. Color of the briefcase you put it in is up to you."

My favorite is you spend a bunch of time and money customizing a car and some guy walks up to you and say's he or his buddy had one just like that. I always let them know how much just like that it wasn't.

talking about great stories, the story I used to always love to hear was with the Grand National guys. Every one of them would swear they could put a $100 bill on the dash and I wouldn't be able to grab it - in fact, NOBODY had ever been able to do it. I would beg for them to let me try (because I have been in a fair amount of really fast cars) and none would take me up, so apparently the reason nobody grabbed it was because, literally, nobody was in the seat :D

I had forgotten about that until I was watching some random TV show the other day and sure enough, almost 30 yrs after they came out, this guy that owns one made that exact claim on camera. Just so funny how that story became a mainstay in that particular crowd. I would hear it all the time but that particular crowd of car guys loved to tell that story.

My friend had a mid-90s 5.0L Mustang that I had built the 347 for and I don't recall the supercharger size anymore, but it was making somewhere around 650 rwtq to the wheels and I actually tried to grab the dash and it was pretty much impossible with the car on ET Streets. In fact, it would sink me into the damn seat and the belt would hang up so when he slowed down enough I had to push against the dash with my feet to get the belt to jiggle loose :lol: Sorry, a stock GN wasn't making 650 ft-lbs to begin with, let alone to the wheels.

If I only had $100 for every time a guy told me that story... :rofl:

Yup, I get the same thing. People think I spent $30k and I try not to laugh at them. I don't really attend shows for the same reason. I'd rather get together with a bunch of friends and DRIVE the cars instead of pulling up lawnchairs and bench racing over the largest blower, loudest gear drive or largest tubbed rear tires. :lol:

I've actually had a few of my buddies who would call me up and ask me what I thought about a specific 30-40 year old car they are thinking about buying and I actually would tell them no, don't buy it. I would literally tell the no. They would ask me why I would say no to buying it as they know I'm a car lover. I then proceed to explain to them just how much money it takes to build one of these cars correctly and they think I'm lying. So, therefore, I tell them that's exactly why they shouldn't buy the car because they don't believe it would take that much money to do the car in the manner it deserves. I've got over $15k in my C10 in parts and had't even began building it yet.

Don't forget the numbers matching crowd who think any type of modded car is a travesty and waste of money, lol. I get a lot of that on another forum I will not mention, lol. This bothers me more than the lack of knowledge by the "Unwashed". lol

crybaby dolls. enough said. :lol:

Oh yeah, 14" Corvette ralley wheels jacked up with slapper bars and 4 wheel drums FTW :lol:

The numbers matching crowd have a legit concern up to a point. Any of the original rare cars are probably more valuable stock. But a generic, run of the mill production car is not now and will never be a high value car in stock form. My 68 was born with a 327 2bbl, 3speed, 10 bolt open rear, 4 wheel drum brakes. The car is a very nice rust free car but it was never going to be a collector car. So I had no second thoughts about my pro-touring build.

Anyone with half a brain who has been around any kind of car show knows not to lean on anyones car. That is so basic that even a caveman knows better. Those clowns are not worthy of working anywhere near these cars. I have to say that I would probably have been arrested for assult if that a**hole had done that to my car. At the very least I would write a strong letter of complaint to Goodguys HQ.

There are all kinds of people you meet. One would hope at a car show, the people might know a little more.

Most frequent question I get asked, is how much is it worth, or how much did it cost? I never answer, straight out.

A few years ago, when the car was in primer, a guy parked beside me. BMW or Mercedes or something. Balding, shortish, big medallion necklace, you know the type. :lol:

He asks me how much it's worth?

I didn't give him a number, and he offered up the number 5-$6000?

I told him, he might be able to buy the wheels and tires, for that. :rolleyes: