Muscle Car
Fixing A classic Car Makes You A Better Person
By Mark Weisseg
This beat up car is our founding father. Yes, it’s a big leap of faith but everything started somewhere. It’s pretty well known the real hipsters did this to cars after World War Two for the most part. Most jalopy’s came from the bone yard and were pieced together in someone’s back garage.
Yes, the neighbors hated it, the parents tried to understand it and the cool cats doing it – loved it. They were tired of riding in Moms station wagon and wanted to soup it up. From my own experience this was a bit before my time but later on our garage at our house become hot rod central.
Yes, my brother and his friends all worked all the time to speed up the car they bought. If you had wheels back in the day you had girls. Not so anymore. That sense of doing it yourself is gone. Rarely do you see a young guy buying an old car and fixing it up. It happens but it’s rare.
I cringe when I see the youths of today driving around in Civics, Toyotas, and Subaru’s. Actually it makes me sick. We have lost an entire generation of young men who work with there hands. Unless you consider busboys and grass cutters. Just today I was putting gas in my Mustang GT when a young, no education kid walked out of the gas station with his lunch. He complimented me on the looks of the car and said someday he would love to own a Mustang like mine. I thanked him. But, as he jumped into the backseat of the old dump truck I thought this. You will need to first move out of Moms house. Second you better get a better job instead of cutting grass. Third, you better be able to use your brain in order to fix things. You cannot always call triple A when you get a flat tire.
Lastly, I thought we are in big trouble. There is a segment of the youth that seem to stay in College forever as lifetime students. They are book smart but dumb as rocks when it comes to which end of the broom goes on the floor. Or, we have the other segment of the populous that seems to be stuck waiting tables and asking if you want fries with that burger. Now, I know we need people to dig ditches but what worries this old beat up guy is I have friends who own their own businesses. There number one issue is finding anyone who will work.
Not everyone can be a consultant working out of the house. Somebody needs to use there noodle and fix things. When you can fix things that are broken your value goes way up. I know it’s easier to pick up the cell phone and ask for help but don’t you like the feeling when you fix it yourself?
That’s the point here. Classic muscle cars are much simpler to work on than present-day machines. Fixing them up and getting a roadworthy car is hard work, but the payoff is tenfold. Your sense of achievement and pride at the end is priceless, so next time you consider buying a vehicle, think about buying a classic. You will cherish the work ethic you gain forever.
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