Hey Greg - Yes! I was at a show with my '56 F-500. I did everything on the truck with the exception of installing the windshield because I knew that the glass provider/installer would be responsible for a new windshield if THEY cracked it during the installation. I did the mechanical. The electrical. All body work and welding. Brakes. Re-did the seat. I even painted the thing. My truck is mechanically very sound. Not so much cosmetically. The paint is "ok" and it has a few dents. I took it to the Simsbury Fly In here in Connecticut two summers ago. All of us with big trucks were sent to the corner (naturally) and I was parked next to another big truck owner. I'm being careful here because I know the guys I'm about to call out are actual users on here. So anyway, the Big Truck Owner (we shall call him BTO) next to me had a flawless, newer model with gorgeous paint and he held his head in the air wherever he went. I heard BTO dissing other vehicles to their owner's face right in front of me in our "corner." Then he comes to my truck, opens the door and just starts poking around. He found me sitting behind it, talking to some of my buddies. So he walks over and says, "Who owns this piece of $&*# here?" I identify myself and go to shake his hand to say hello, dismissing his remarks. He snubs me by looking at my hand and refusing to shake it and starts calling out all of the things he sees wrong with the truck. And then he starts giving me advice and suggests I take it to "The Big Truck Guy" here in Connecticut (I am sure many of you know who I am talking about) for an overhaul that BTO says "it requires." I thank him, and wish him a good day and turn to go back to my buddies. He grabs my shoulder and says, "Hey, I'm talking to you! You better take my advise!"...or something like that. I just told him to have a nice day and walked away. He grumbled as he walked away and I heard him call me an @$%-hole under his breath. Now I will note that this anomalous. That same year, at a different show, I had my '54 Farmall on the back of the truck and let the kids hop up to sit on it and get a great view of the cars from the tractor seat. I let them sit in the driver's seat too. The kids and their families loved it. They glowed. And they were thankful. Even outright told me they were jealous of the rig. I was humbled. I went from "this is going to be a bad day" at one show to "wow this is fun!" at another show. It's just how society functions. I treat every classic truck/car/motorcycle/buggy/whatever owner with respect because they are contributing to the preservation of classic iron. And I appreciate that.

All in all, I think my truck and tractor are really quite fun! All ya'll haters can go jump in a lake of burning lava.


1956 Ford F-500 with 1954 Farmall Cub

 

I love it Cal..

 

That's what I hate about them, at least with the little show and shines you can come and go as you please..

 

100 0730
I've had my truck in a few local shows and I've found that most people actually enjoy seeing an old truck that still looks like the one that their father/grandfather used on the farm. Maybe I've been snubbed a few times but wasn't paying attention. My truck still has the original factory oak planks in the bed, some folks say "why don't you put new wood in it" while others really like it the way it is. I prefer the original wood myself.

 

Ha the only reason we usually end up staying to the end is my wife can't resist 50/50 tickets .

 

This is a great post! The best prize has to be being rewarded with the smiles of the kids and the adults when their kid actually gets to sit in a seat of a tractor and then a big truck! You are being a great role model and representative for our hobby! As far as being snubbed at car shows, usually the only snubs I get is from the 'vette owners. Not always, but there are many who think just because it's a Corvette they are the coolest guys around.

 

I don't really care if some one doesn't lime my truck. The incident above about,some *** doing a critique on the the truck was way out of line and it probably would had handled it a little more aggressively, not violently but I tend to generate a big mouth when ticked off. Anyways what really is important to me is the old guy who comes up and starts to tell me a story about having a truck like on his farm way back and the modifications they did to it to make work easier or haul more, those a the experiences I love. I could talk hours to people like that.

 

Sure looks good to me.
Thanks for sharing
Don52M3

 

Here's my POS!
God willing it'll be at central pa truckstock at some point

Yes it has some rust through (ie rot) on the lower front fenders that i want to repair and the seat cover, while not ripped, is covered with some type of purplish/red material. They did a nice job but geeze that color

 

Driving cross-country to Truckstock, especially in west TX and OK, I'd stop for gas at stations in little towns. I frequently found myself surrounded by locals who were hanging around there. Typical "breakfast club" cafes with older farmers, all of whom appreciated seeing an old truck and knew all about them firsthand. They were thrilled I still had a flathead, lots of love for them in that crowd, lots of memories. Some really nice guys.

But in Groom, TX, at one of those cafes, one of the ranchers saw that I had a tach mounted, and said, "You've got something special-hot under the hood, dontcha?" I said No, I just like to keep track of RPM. But he wouldn't have it, kept pestering me over and over until another ol' boy told him to STFU and go bother his wife. The exchange that followed was like listening to Festus on Gunsmoke, many words I hadn't heard before. I left there laughing so hard I could hardly steer....

 

The only real snobs I've noticed bought their project or don't have one and are jealous. Everyone who built it themselves understand the choices you need to make as you go and are usually very excited to live your build as you go over it.

People without projects tend to have a lot of opinions because they haven't lived their dream anywhere but in their head, so just like if they were meeting a celebrity, they already have an idea of what your project should be before even meeting it.

If you've never built anything you're not going to understand why you would swap out an engine or if you do why do it anything less than a 1000 hp monster. It's the same for every choice, work on them long enough you stop being so critical of other peoples decisions in their builds and also understand it's a journey, not a weekend project like the Discovery channel leads you to believe.

I've gotten flack for shortening my truck, adding a step side bed, not keeping the original engine, wanting it a different color than what it left the factory in, not leaving the orange/dark green/seafoam green patina, wanting to change the axles or suspension (so it can actually drive to my safety standards btw), wanting to use the truck as a truck, not putting in a diesel. In other words everything I've done to it someone had something to say.
No choice makes everyone happy, so I choose the one that makes me happy and remember sometimes people are silly, or just plain stupid even. Ha.

 

The trouble is it's too useful a term. My truck's a period hot rod, that i'm also keeping ratty. It's a ratty hot rod, or a rat rod. Not sure what else to call it, but that term still includes radical stuff like this



The only other term i can think of is "Derelict" which is what Icon uses to describe their "ratty" restomods, but that just doesn't have the same punch as "Rat Rod", and regrettably "Hot Rod" seems to have been pigeonholed into traditional 30's coupes or model A's with flattys and nothing else. And even if that weren't the case, it's still just as likely to describe a high dollar show perfect car as it is garage built traditional junk, which isn't useful here either.

Also, personally I quite like rat rods, they're a rejection of cookie cutter high dollar trailer queen "hot rods" (which somehow all have the same stupid interior and the same stupid wheels), but it's also a good excuse to be lazy and cobble together actual junk very poorly. But holding the worst elements of a thing against the rest of it is called the apex fallacy, and if we held everything to that standard there'd be little left on god's green earth to enjoy.

 

I wonder if that ride pictured has a neutral safety switch lol

 

I rarely go to car shows, I guess I have too much Red Forman in me.

 

I'd hate to see it get damaged in any way Kevin...