Normally on Saturday I'll be out in the yard or in the work zone working on some project, I have some immediate projects I have to be working on right now as a matter of fact, but this past Saturday was the Scarecrow car show. This is a car show that is held around the same time every year, the 3rd weekend of October. Most of the cars are local but there are people who come out from farther out than the tri-county area to attend the event. We always come check out the show just to put our eyes on cars that are in different stages of restoration. The show will have everything from resto-mods, rat rods, hot rods, stock muscle cars, some exotic cars, some late model or otherwise new but still unique vehicles, trucks of different kinds, even some military vehicles. Local vendors set up tents to promote their products or services, usually handing out free swag for the taking. For a few hours you and the family can have a good ole time checking out cool cars and even conversing with like minded enthusiasts about anything automotive. We did drive in with the 84 Monte Carlo SS just to keep up with the theme of driving old cars. We didn't enter the car into the show, my main thing is just the idea I didn't really care to pay to show my daily driver beater classic car. Even though there were some vehicles that fell into the category of "beater", I would rather show something that looks a little better than a daily driver. I would really prefer to enter a car that I'm trying to sell, really with the intent of promoting a brand or model. I would really wanna be able to build cars that are eccentric and unique and don't fit into any normal mold. These cars would be what I would enter so when people walk up to it and see just how unique these cars are then see they're for sale, it may pique the interest of someone who's looking for a cool car to add to their collection or to just enjoy. While I love looking at some of the immaculately restored cars and even some of the rather clean yet "average" restorations, one thing I will still hold on to is the idea that I really can't have my cars as "perfect" as these vehicles, lest I never drive them on the count that I'll be afraid of something happening, an errant rock cracking the windshield, or hitting the paint, or some rust starting due to driving in the rain repeatedly, or gasp, an actual accident that because of the cost of restoring the car in the beginning will end up costing a shit load to restore back to the way it was. If I do have a fender bender in a car that for all intents is a beater, or better yet, an average daily driver, other than the cost of replacing the fender and matching the paint and spraying the panel and being back in play, I won't be out of a lot of money, even with insurance coverage. Think about it, how pissed off would you be at some asshole causing the accident that fucked up your $60 resto and will end up costing $5k to repair versus spending $300 for a fender and another $200 for the paint and supplies to spray that fender and be back in play? Me, I've always been one for cars that look like they've been pieced together from junk and random parts to build something that is just as much a work of art as it is a motor vehicle. Even if the builders spend ridiculous amounts of time and money building the car, its still a one of a kind car that cannot be duplicated, even if you try. Plus, there's just something about one taking different junk to build something, usable such as a rat rod. Something from nothing, it takes one back to their roots when they built cars with limited resources, using what they had available. They didn't follow any rules, in their book there were no rules. Use whatever engine you had available (or choose), use whole frames or chassis components from different vehicles while using the body from something else. When its all said and done, you could literally have a mutt, a Frankenstein of a car that is made up from multiple brands of cars. One of the unique things about this concept too is the idea that by building the car from readily available parts, when it comes time to do work on the vehicle, you can at least rest easy in knowing that parts will be easily accessible. My personal preference is that I stay away from a lot of what I would look at as exotic or even "sports" cars. I do love corvettes and ferraris but I would not want to work on them let alone pay for the components to fix them, as would be the case for a car like a Ferrari. While vettes use the same powertrain as every muscle car in the GM lineup, their tight quarters engine compartments make for a mechanics nightmare. Still it's always nice to eyeball these cars up close and maybe dream of a world where you have the money that would allow you to just drive one of these cars to the nearest exotic car mechanic and be ready to max a credit card for some service. Until then I'll be sticking to my old bucket mustangs and chargers and monte carlos. There are a lot of cars out there that even as soon as ten years ago many people never really gave a second thought about. Whether it was because they were still "too new" or just common enough that the supply was still saturated, these cars didn't really get the fanfare that they are getting now. Just like our 84 monte carlo, many of these cars are finally getting the new shine that the 60s and early 70s muscle cars once had 15-20 years ago. Really the models of these vehicles that get the most attention are those that had limited production runs or were a special edition model in a production line that spanned many years, which again still kind of puts it in that limited production run. These vehicles do provide a low cost option for those who are getting their feet wet in the classic/collector car hobby. Just like our monte carlo, many of these cars are still roaming the streets as daily drivers and beaters that are just waiting for someone to swoop them up and turn them into one of these beauties like what we've seen at Scarecrow. There are some definite honorable mentions here, those that fall even deeper than the limited production models as well as those that for whatever reason or another are just cult classics that stood the test of time to hold their status among newcomers. Again, these are going to be cars that for most of us are untouchable because of their status. Even if I did have the money I'd still be a little scared to have one of these due to the idea that anything that happens to the car will make me wanna kill the fucker that hurt the car. Regular road conditions would piss me off just as much since there wouldn't be any target I could take my anger out on. I'd have to just settle for the insurance paying for its repair, and this means paying ridiculous premiums because of the idea that anything that happens to the car is going to be expensive to resolve. There is also a cult following for classic military vehicles, whether they actually use them in their normal travels or even just bring them out for Veteran's Day and Memorial Day parades. Some of these find favor with every day driving while others are really limited to just parade use, or if modified from stripped down platforms, equipped with tooling to allow them to do specialized work like what you may see on construction sites. Either way these vehicles do hold a place in the hearts of collectors and the hobby of collector/classic cars/trucks.
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