Posted 12 January 2017 - 02:04 AM
To me, that was the point of the hotrodding era --make what you want, from the palette of all the parts you can buy/modify-- and the tragedy of the end of hot-rodding.
I'm what we used to call a hacker (before that term became primarily computer-focused) and now call a maker (though that doesn't automatically imply fixing/modifying, which I've loved to do, above all, be it machines, humans, groups or anything else) -- so to me, the hot-rodder is the pinnacle of Car-Love. To me, a purist collector.is more like a clerk, a stamp collector, a trainspotter, while a hot-rodder is more like a lover: working with what s/he loves, getting elbow deep in the nitty-gritty-and-not-always-pretty, because you really know/love the subject of your obsession, rather than just the ideal of it. It's easy to buy a pristine model -- that's just money, like getting candy/baseball cards from the 5&10 as small children, but with bigger numbers.
Truly understanding what is, what could be, what you want, how to get there, and still loving it even if it fought you all the way and didn't turn out as you hoped/imagined... Well, that may not be a definition of love, but it's sure better than a lot of things that pass for love/romance/caring these days. Love ain't "obtaining perfection"; it's "working hard at it, and being damned happy with what you finally got, because you understand".