Thread: Street Rod Builder Mag?

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What's going on with SRB? Their "current" issue is November 2008, and here it is approaching mid-January. Are they having trouble?

Maybe they're a member of Uncle Bob's Procrastinator's Club!!!

Might not be a good time to renew a sub. Ol' Tex Smith walked off with my $ a few years back when he folded Hot Rod Mechanix without much fanfare.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Might not be a good time to renew a sub. Ol' Tex Smith walked off with my $ a few years back when he folded Hot Rod Mechanix without much fanfare.

Well, that doesn't seem very neighborly!! Kinda tarnished my image of Ol Tex there a little. However, I really like HRM magazine, it was sorta grass roots and for the everyday rod builder.

Don

Roger, I wondering the same thing, especially when the latest issue of Street Rodder was for Feb '09. I fired them off an email several weeks ago asking what was up and what happened to my free hat that never came with my subscription, the Nov issue came the next day, but still no free hat. I never got a response from the email either.

Mike

BTW, how is the search for a car coming?

I subscribed last november and still have not recieved an issue!

Originally Posted by stovens

I subscribed last november and still have not recieved an issue!

When I subscribed last year, it took a long time to get my first issue, have faith that things are alright with them, we don't need another business going under.

Mike

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Well, that doesn't seem very neighborly!! Kinda tarnished my image of Ol Tex there a little. However, I really like HRM magazine, it was sorta grass roots and for the everyday rod builder.

Don

Yeah, that's how it was for me. Here's a guy who was an icon from our youth, the HR mag articles, the building features on the XR6, and on and on. The tone of HRMx was right up my alley. What got me was the breach of trust. If he'd been honest when soliciting the subscription extention and said something like "we're facing some real challenges, if you want to help us survive........" it would have been one thing. Lord knows I've whizzed away a lot more than the $25 or so buck I sent him on less worthy endeavors. It's just that he had to know he was on the down hill slope and didn't admit it. Oh well, life happens.

Uncle Robert, if I'm up front with you, would you send me $25?

Mike in Tucson

PS, fly down and I will pick you up at the airport and we can go to Barrett Jackson next week for the day.....

That and a little extra is on the way.............just for you Mikey.

Thanks for the offer on B-J auction, but can't make it. I'll be in Pomona the following week though.

Originally Posted by Mike52

Roger, I wondering the same thing, especially when the latest issue of Street Rodder was for Feb '09. I fired them off an email several weeks ago asking what was up and what happened to my free hat that never came with my subscription, the Nov issue came the next day, but still no free hat. I never got a response from the email either.

Mike

BTW, how is the search for a car coming?

Mike,
I had forgotten about the free hat that never came, but got too many hats anyway... I had trouble getting my subscription started last Fall (October issue) but thought all was well when the November came about the time it hit the stands. In my experience they do not answer e-mails, but they do return phone calls when you call and leave a call back number.

On the search, I am still on the fence for building a coupe but have not pulled the trigger. There are lots of very nice cars for sale, but when people pay for someone to build for them and then want to get back all they spent those very nice cars have very nice prices. I would love to find something like the low buck build done by SRB without the $10k crate engine.

Just had a nice conversation with kennyd (will put up a separate thread on that). He's connected to Buckaroo to some degree and says they shut down completely for a month but are back in operation again with a minimal crew. They are rearranging financing and restructuring the company without going to Chapter 11, so they're trying to do the honorable thing. Given that they've laid off most of their staff you who might try to get ahold of them will find they're not as responsive as they may have once been (speculating here, give it a shot you've got nothing to lose if they already have your money). Word is they've been struggling since the get-go with newstand penetration, apparently it's tough to wrest shelf space away from the longer established titles, so it's not a direct result of current economic conditions, but that won't help either. All the best to them, competition improves the breed.

For what it is worth, of the various T-shirts I have (many now) my favorite is the one I got several years ago from Street Rod Builder. It has a very nice pin stripe design that covers the whole back a la Von Dutch. I do not know who did that pattern but it takes me back to the '53-'55 era when HRM showed a lot of California rods with elaborate Von Dutch patterns. At one point I was paid eight years in advance on Street Rodder because I kept getting phoney bills from a separate company that would forward my subscription to Street Rodder. Finally I called the main office at Street Rodder and found out how far ahead I am still suscribed. Maybe Street Rod Builder should use that same tactic. I finally got a very plain T-shirt from Street Rodder when I called the main office and told them the least they could do for eight years of subscriptions would be a T-shirt and they came through last Spring before the economic distress. Actually I liked Street Rod Builder (now overdue for the latest issue) but to my lower level of craftsmanship it always seemed way beyond anything I could ever do and was just advertising new innovations. Thus I would like another pin stripe T-shirt but I probably will not miss Street Rod Builder Mag; I can barely imagine doing stuff shown in Street Rodder which is at a slightly lower level, but I do value the advertisements in Street Rodder with phone numbers for various products. Sad to say I gave up on HRM years ago when they forgot to put at least one roadster in every issue along with all the modern stuff. I still have boxes with Popular Hot Rodding issues especially covering the years where Brian tried to convert rodders to the virtues of the Buick V6 but the parts for SBC V8 are still in the main groove so I took the plain vanilla path.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Just saw a new SRB in the grocery store a couple of days ago. Didn't look at the month, but just arrived. I have the Nov issue and it is different than that one.

Originally Posted by roofcam

Just saw a new SRB in the grocery store a couple of days ago. Didn't look at the month, but just arrived. I have the Nov issue and it is different than that one.

Realized tonight that I have the December issue, a black Sargis truck towing a radical bike on the cover - it got tucked away earlier in the month during a pre-holiday cleaning spree. The SRB web page still lists the November issue as "current", so Bob's explanation from KennyD makes sense. Hope we see their January issue soon...