Just looked at a 72 and thought it was priced high - are my expectations off?

[imjeff]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

There isn't that many younger folks who even know what a hobby is. Most males that turned drinking age this year have never built a model, very few have rode a motorised 2 wheel vehicle scaled smaller than adult sized, many have not ever fixed a bicycle and some have never owned a bicycle, or mowed a lawn other than their own. Even Lego sales are declining, consumer tool sales are way down, there simply isn't the mentality to carry on the hobby at the same scale. It has little to do with Priuses and Leafs it has to do with skill development. For quite a while now American youth has chose to be electronically entertained as opposed to creating anything.

How many hobby stores do you remember that are now gone? Were they replaced with some giant Hobby Depot? No, they are just gone, the concept is gone. How many kids do you know that have built a tree house in the last 10, hell 20 years, by themselves, not as a father son project. Do you know many kids that have changed a bicyle tire tube? Do you even know where you would puchase such a thing now, not online?

Point is that, yes some kids do such things, in my youth most kids did such things. Those born after the '80s have a very different view of the world, you can say I'm wrong but there is a lot of companies that used to be that will tell you different, and they didn't all die because Walmart moved to town.

I guess I don't see it like you do. There's a hobby shop on the other end of town (Hobby Lobby) and a little train store with models not far from my house. When I trained recruit firefighters, the ones without any mechanical aptitude all had parents that either allowed them to spend all their time playing video games and/or told them that you just can't work on cars any more. Both were a disservice to those kids and untrue. If you allow that attitude to continue there will eventually be nothing mechanical left. We can either take the opportunity to pass these things down or not, but complaining about them does nothing. My kids know how cars work, how houses are built, how to plumb a house, how to weld, how to shoot, how to survive and a host of other things that will ensure they are working when others are waiting for a return call from India. It's our duty to teach the next generation....leave it better than we found it.

[dajn]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

There isn't that many younger folks who even know what a hobby is. Most males that turned drinking age this year have never built a model, very few have rode a motorised 2 wheel vehicle scaled smaller than adult sized, many have not ever fixed a bicycle and some have never owned a bicycle, or mowed a lawn other than their own. Even Lego sales are declining, consumer tool sales are way down, there simply isn't the mentality to carry on the hobby at the same scale. It has little to do with Priuses and Leafs it has to do with skill development. For quite a while now American youth has chose to be electronically entertained as opposed to creating anything.

How many hobby stores do you remember that are now gone? Were they replaced with some giant Hobby Depot? No, they are just gone, the concept is gone. How many kids do you know that have built a tree house in the last 10, hell 20 years, by themselves, not as a father son project. Do you know many kids that have changed a bicyle tire tube? Do you even know where you would puchase such a thing now, not online?

Point is that, yes some kids do such things, in my youth most kids did such things. Those born after the '80s have a very different view of the world, you can say I'm wrong but there is a lot of companies that used to be that will tell you different, and they didn't all die because Walmart moved to town.

I couldnt agree more. I wish I was this good with words. Kids nowadays have the heart of a 70 year old man and the ambition of a trailer park queen with 5 kids. We need to do better. The united states is still a great country.

[dajn]

Like I said before and the editor came down on me but its true. The death of the small farmer is one of the worst things to happen to this country. Look at kids now compared to kids in the 40s and 50s.

[skorpioskorpio]

What personally amazes me is that UAW is actually reached a point where they are suggesting that immigration reform would help them. They are having problems getting American born youth interested in working in the automotive manufacturing field. This is how resistant to manual labor our country has become. Have you seen what plants look like these days? They are emaculate high tech work places and they still can't get anyone interested to work there. It's quite sad if you ask me, we've lost that industrial spirit we built this country with.

[imjeff]

We went from a manufacturing society to a "consumer driven" society. From a society where hard work was respected to a society where everyone MUST go to college. From a society that bought American cars (and goods) to a society that buys the cheapest stuff and bad mouthed American cars. We used to fix things, now we replace them. We used to pay cash for a good deal, now we use credit. The sad truth is that all these trends were perpetrated on youth by the generation before them. We are the ones that need to fix it. I get asked all the time about my vehicles. There is a misconception that they are too expensive by many youngsters. We need to fix those perceptions.

[davepl]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

The other side of this coin is that classic car prices will absolutely crash and crash hard and in the not so distant future. The vast majority of collectors are in their late 50s and 60s and there are relatively few younger than that group, watch a Mecum auction sometime. The collectors are getting older and there is really no significant group following them.

This is absolutely true, I've been saying it for a couple of years. A lot of these cars, particularly the pricey ones, are owned by guys into their 60s. Whether they sell them off or die off doesn't matter, in the next decade or two we're going to be flooded with high end cars.

[davepl]

People have been complaining about the younger generation since Roman times, and probably long before that but no one wrote it down.

Remember, for every kid that's not gapping points there's one rendering 3D models or writing code, which is quite frankly a far more useful skill than tuneups, because cars don't need tuneups.

Which brings me to my next point: why do people -dislike- the fact that cars are more reliable now? Everyone complains you can't "work on cars" these days (buy a laptop, stop whining, get busy). All the stuff you used to have to mess with just works today. No points, no mixtures, no advance curves, no floats, no nothing. Get in and drive 100K miles without changing plugs. And this is bad somehow.

Next time an old person complains about how young people don't learn the skills that old people do, how about erasing the hypocrisy by learning something young people learn today?

I didn't like the skip-shift and torque management in my Corvette. So I learned how to get into the computer and turn them off. And I'm old.

[ole dollor]

Originally Posted by davepl

People have been complaining about the younger generation since Roman times, and probably long before that but no one wrote it down.

Remember, for every kid that's not gapping points there's one rendering 3D models or writing code, which is quite frankly a far more useful skill than tuneups, because cars don't need tuneups.

Which brings me to my next point: why do people -dislike- the fact that cars are more reliable now? Everyone complains you can't "work on cars" these days (buy a laptop, stop whining, get busy). All the stuff you used to have to mess with just works today. No points, no mixtures, no advance curves, no floats, no nothing. Get in and drive 100K miles without changing plugs. And this is bad somehow.

Next time an old person complains about how young people don't learn the skills that old people do, how about erasing the hypocrisy by learning something young people learn today?

I didn't like the skip-shift and torque management in my Corvette. So I learned how to get into the computer and turn them off. And I'm old.

man that makes a lot of sense . I just wish the new cars and trucks of today looked as good as the stuff I grew up with, I used to see a vehicle from two blocks away and tell the year and the make of the vehicle... now I have to stop them and ask what it is... but they do run a lot of miles when taken care of.

[Big Kev-O]

I looked for a 67-72 LWB for three months and the only rust free fixer I could find cost me $4800. It came with a 90s 350 motor and 700R4 trans. I was trying to stay between 3-4K but everything in that range had rusted floor boards and rockers. After looking at about a dozen flat black primerd rust buckets I decided to spend a little more $ and get something solid. I wouldn't pay over $3500 for a truck that is going to need panels replaced. Good luck.

[davepl]

Originally Posted by ole dollor

man that makes a lot of sense . I just wish the new cars and trucks of today looked as good as the stuff I grew up with, I used to see a vehicle from two blocks away and tell the year and the make of the vehicle... now I have to stop them and ask what it is... but they do run a lot of miles when taken care of.

Actually, that's one of the ones I was going to add:

- "Cars all look the same today, unlike when I was young"

I can tell a 60s car from a mile, but to me a 40 Dodge is identical to a 40 Chevy or a 40 Ford until I see the emblem.

Many makes have very distinctive styling. You can easily spot:

- BMW by the dual kidney grill
- Lexus by the new "sideways chevron" grills
- Range Rover because it's a Range Rover
- Cadillac by the consistent styling that's clearly Cadillac

The only one I actually have trouble spotting is a Honda. They look very generic. I can usually ID a Toyota. Ford and Chevy and Dodge and Aston Martin and so on are easy.

Compare an Escalade to a Ford Expedition. Completely different.

I think it's a function of when we came of age and became interested in cars. The ones you see then are the ones you'll be able to spot for your lifetime, but other eras will seem a little indistinguishable.

[davepl]

Originally Posted by Big Kev-O

I looked for a 67-72 LWB for three months and the only rust free fixer I could find cost me $4800. It came with a 90s 350 motor and 700R4 trans. I was trying to stay between 3-4K but everything in that range had rusted floor boards and rockers. After looking at about a dozen flat black primerd rust buckets I decided to spend a little more $ and get something solid. I wouldn't pay over $3500 for a truck that is going to need panels replaced. Good luck.

Absolutely. Money spent on buying a better truck is almost always cheaper than trying to fix a worse one, especially rust.

On my Canadian 2+2 no one makes anything for it; Musclecar Restorations had to English-Wheel new panels. And let me tell you, that's not cheap. Fortunately there are a ton of replacement panels for these trucks but if you don't do your own work even that is pricey labor.