'49 Merc

Met a fellow at CrackerBarell. I was wearing Steve And Berry's Hot Rod Caffe jacket-- he asked what kind of 'Rod I have. Anyway, turns out he has a '49 Merc that's chopped, channeled & lowed, flahead motor!!
Took him YEARS to do it he said.
Took it to a show last spring & never again-- said it cost close to $1200 to get all the scratches taken care of, but he will be driving it come spring.
My moto for looking at cars at shows-- keep at least a couple inches away, look but NEVER TOUCH, talk to the owner if I can.
Very nice fellow, must have been mid 70s.
Shook hands, and that was that.

Yes, never touch.

It seems not everyone understands that simple rule.

Well, at least: they only touch the sidepipes once. Heh heh.

You don"t look with your fingers!!

.

Years ago at an NSRA show a kid (10-12) jumped on my freshly Jet-Hot coated headers (T-bucket) and dragged himself along the body. Last I heard is he is still in therapy along with his father

Unfortunately it's not just kids. Out in Arizona last Spring, I went to the GoodGuys show out at Westworld in Scottsdale and a friend we were visiting tagged along. He's in his mid to late 60's and it was quickly obvious that he was more interested in vintage cars as opposed to hot rods, pointing out cars that were similar to those he had owned back in the '60's as a teenager. I was spending a lot of time looking at details, talking to owners, etc, and he tended to wander off on his own. Imagine my shock when I looked around to see him opening the door on a car, and then reaching into the grille area to pop the hood latch, opening the hood without any concern!! When I told him that it's "Look, don't touch" he just couldn't see how anyone who chose to "show" their car could object to people opening doors and hoods, or even sitting in them to "try the fit". Some people just don't get it.

The thing that really annoys me are kids unsupervised by parents who have no clue what proper decorum is at a car show. I have witnessed kids riding bicycles between cars, touching vehicles, standing on painted running boards, and opening the door and actually sitting in the driver's seat. The latter happened with my previous rod, a '29 Ford roadster. The early 20's young man opened the door and sat behind the wheel. As I walked up there, I could see he clearly had special needs, and I calmly explained to him that he could not do this or a policeman would come and take him away. That he seemed to understand. It's the small, local shows that are the problem. GoodGuys and NSRA events bring out a more enlightened spectator in most cases.

On the Tudor there are decals on the two rear side windows & the rear window that read "Finger Prints Piss Me Off".... quite surprising how many people (young/old) point and touch at them....

I have found that running boards on my 40 become a stepping platform for youngn's. The car isn't pristine so it doesn't bother me so much. But it's still the point of why the F would you even touch some one else's stuff? When I was growing up you would have gotten knocked down bare minimum for it...........

We were at a Show several years ago and part of the parking lot was gravel - - - - - a couple of pre-school kiddos decided to start chunking rocks at each other - - - - - you have never seen or heard so many Car Folks scream and surround two unsuspected youngins - - - - - bet they won't forget that very soon.