This blog if fun for me. Maybe someone else will also enjoy it. It will become obvious that I love old cars, hot rods, street rods, motorcycles and my wife and family. Not in this order. The old car thing is, well, old. I can’t make up my mind whether I was born that way or caught it from my boyhood culture in Boise, Idaho. In any event it has been around as long as I can remember.

I’ve enjoyed a bunch of hot rods. They were pretty raw when I was a young kid. Looking back seems odd that I could have owned two ’32 Ford, a ’33 Chevy, a ’40 Ford all before I was 18 years of age–but I did.

Here is what I started with a long time ago. The 1933 Chevrolet was actually a pretty good car and I drove it a lot. The hoodless 1940 Ford was a terrible car. Do these old hot rods have anything to do with this post? Of course they do.

A big difference between then, the late ’50s, and now is time and money. While I still don’t have as much time available for my car hobby as I would like, that is obviously a choice I make, not a requirement imposed by my situation as a teenage boy of modest financial means.

Of course money makes a huge difference. Many parts and techniques are available today that hadn’t so much as crossed anyone’s mind in 1957. Good thing, too, because we were forced to get by or get busy and make it ourselves.

In retrospect, I am happy that I had this kind of early hot rodding foundation as a start to a love affair with cars and hot rods that has lasted throughout my life. There is always a more expensive way to do something. Often there is just as good a way that requires more thought and ingenuity. Even when I can afford the latest, I find I prefer the home built way–feels more authentic to me.

At this point in my life I’ve met my perfect partner in hot rodding. He is not the kind of person who would appreciate any degree of fanfare or fame. Ralph Derico is my friend and while I mention him frequently, he wouldn’t take kindly to unsolicited attention, so please don’t contact him. He is a technician. He understands how to get things done in a safe, sensible and beautiful way. He is modest, self-effacing and eschews publicity of all sorts. He is my kind of guy and I am proud to know him.