Influential

I bought the Hot Rod 1984 Annual at a convenience store while my family was taking a summer car trip. Few purchases have had such an impact on me.

I didn't know this at the time, but I was about to become a big fan of "how-to" articles. There are many of these step-by-step features in the '84 Annual.

Here's Charlie Hayward's tale of rebuilding someone's else project car into his "Heartland Express".

Charlie used the all important "parts car" to bring his 1937 Chevy back to life.

I haven't had a lot of car projects, and we have no room for a "parts car", but I have used this idea so many times. For instance, I've rebuilt more than one bicycle using "parts bikes" purchased from thrift stores. You save so much money on parts, and you can donate, recycle, or hoard what's left.

Although I was six years away from owning my own Bug, I thought I knew how my car should look in 1984 thanks to Ron Cogan's feature on Cal-Look Bugs. Cal stands for California - where this style originated.

I did update my VW with a "modern" side mirror in 1990. You can see the mirror in front of that skinny kid in the white shirt (The skinny guy wearing black is Rob Moeller.)

I also installed black fender welting like the article recommended.

Thank goodness I didn't have enough money to follow the rest of the Ron's advice. My car still wears the original chrome side trim, chrome hub caps, and chrome bumpers. Back then I thought I was supposed to modify everything. Now I like VWs in stock form. I installed an original side mirror when I replaced my rusted driver's side door.

Those two articles are great, but they aren't the reason my '84 Annual is so dog-eared, creased, and torn. It's in that condition because I have read Bruce Caldwell's "Build A Low-Dollar Street Machine" more times than I know. I've read those 20 pages at least twice this year. Why spend so much time reading an article that's 31 years old?

Well, for one, I admire the article's construction. Bruce's piece is a combination of two styles. One format is straight story-telling: prose broken into nine sections with titles like "Wheeling and Dealing" and "Finding the Basic Car". You could read this text and walk away with a firm grasp of Bruce's project.

The second style is a sequence of 99 pictures with detailed captions. If you only looked at the pictures and read the captions you would still understand all the work Bruce and his friends went through to get their improved project car back on the street.

But what's cool is how well the two formats compliment each other. Yes, the topics overlap, but each format contains information not found in the other. You have to read the text, read the captions, and look at the photographs if you want the whole picture.

I use this technique when I teach literature. Anytime I can find a visual compliment for a reading I show it. I'm not talking about reading Harry Potter and then watching the whole movie. Anyone can do that. I like finding visuals that make my point in a different way. For instance, when teaching about an internal conflict in "By the Waters of Babylon", I'll show a similar conflict in the surfing documentary Riding Giants. Same information; different format. Works really well.

Another reason I have read this feature so many times is because the information is still useful. When the floor beneath my Bug's battery rusted through, I referenced this section of the article for help.

Then I made the same repair on my car. I used an old license plate because I didn't need that much metal, and I knew the plate wouldn't rust.

I love the attitude expressed in caption 66: "It doesn't look as professional as a factory-style repair panel, but the seal is fine and the cost was low. It sure beats dragging your feet on the ground."

When all I could find was a black seat cover for my red VW seats, I took Bruce's advice again.

Before:

 
I used a spray can of red vinyl coating to cover the black.  Like Bruce's car seat, the color didn't exactly match, but it was at least in the same ballpark.

After:

I think the biggest reason I keep rereading "Build A Low-Dollar Street Machine" is that I practice what the article preaches. The Cal-Look Bug pictures were all taken inside a shop that specializes in VW repair, and some of the work done on the Born Again Street Rod was farmed out to specialty shops. That's fine if you can afford to do that. But for a guy who doesn't want to funnel the family savings into his own hobby, the Low-Dollar Street Machine is the way to go. Bruce shows you what can be done at home with limited cash and a standard set of tools. Hot rodders have been into DYI and recycling long before hipsters made it cool, and this article hits that ethos right on the head.

Like the article's construction, Bruce's goal also has two components. The first is to build a dependable and respectable street machine, the second is to do it under $1000. Even in 1984 money that's a tough nut to crack, but they get it done by buying a parts car, joining a car club, hitting swap meets, reading the classified ads, selling everything they don't use, and doing all the work themselves.

In those regards, not much has changed since '84. Instead of classified ads we have craigslist and eBay. Good deals can be found on both sites - try misspelling your key search word and you might be able to find deals others cannot.

Instead of joining a club, you can sign up for a forum that's dedicated to your project. I'm a member at thesamba.com (VW Beetles), schwinnbikeforum.com (Muscle Bikes), and most recently pinside.com (EM Pinball). You might be surprised how nice folks treat you if you are polite. When I broke a drop target for my Royal Flush pinball machine, I bought a new one that didn't match the rest.  I then asked on the forum if anyone had a vintage target for sale. Two guys offered to to send me one, and neither would accept any money - even for the shipping. The target arrived from Pennsylvania two days after I sent "Boilerman" my address. Take that, Amazon.



As expected, there's a lot of car advice in this article, but there are also lessons that can be applied elsewhere. "Concentrate on making the car safe and functional first." This is the first step I take with all of my projects.  I make sure the brakes work before I do anything else to a bicycle. Being able to stop is more important that being able to go. When I brought home a broken pinball machine I didn't even try to play it until I had the right fuses installed. A game that plugs into a wall socket is a game that can start a fire.

"If you make some mistakes on a low-dollar car like this, think of mistakes as valuable experience, not a big financial loss." I don't have any high dollar projects, and I do all of my own work, so this is a mantra for me. Instead of beating myself up when things go wrong (and they always do for awhile), I try to point out what I learned, and I promise myself not to make the same mistake again.

Here's some other lessons I've learned from the article and projects that it inspired me to try.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to have something that you are proud of.
When you do things on a budget, you'll always have more time than money. You have to be patient.
You don't shed tears and blood when you buy something off a shelf. You'll probably shed both when you build it yourself.
If you do the work yourself, then you can afford to purchase quality parts.
Buy the best tools you can afford.
A working, imperfect project is much more fun than a pile of shiny parts.
When you start a new hobby you'll be amazed at how little you really know. It's okay; everybody started at that same place.
There are a lot of nice people in this world. You just forget about them because they don't make the news.
It's okay to ask those people for help.
Never start a job after 10 pm.
Walking away in frustration isn't admitting defeat. It's called "forming a new plan."

I know I'm forgetting a few others. Maybe I should read "Build a Low-Dollar Street Machine" again to see if I can find them. That can't hurt, I'm looking to start a new project, anyway.

I've been searching craigslist for a vintage "motercycle"...