I sure would like to know where everyone gets the idea that all the cars were in primer!!!! Only a small percentage, as Jack said. Same was true where I grew up.. The cars were lacquer and clear with many coats of each and lots of hand rubbing in between.... The crowd I ran with, most had 2 cars, a daily driver for back and forth to school and or work, then the Hot Rod that came out nights and weekends!!!! There were very, very few primered cars, or the ones that were didn't stay that way for long. And no, we DID NOT paint them with brushes, barn brooms, and house paint!!!!! In the town of 500 that I grew up in, there was a gas station, lunch counter, bar. On most any Friday or Saturday night there would be anywhere's from 20 to 50 cars parked there, some from our town, some from the surrounding area, and a bit of match racing going on. Of those cars, there may be one or two with spots of primer where they had done some work and hadn't time to finish the paint yet. But they didn't stay that way long.... Just leaning against a guys fresh Blue Coral wax job was grounds for a butt kickin'!!!!!!!!

For the most part, the examples cited for cars of the 50's and 60's that had rust holes, no floors, no roof, and all the other trash looking stuff in my area accounted for less then 1% of the Hot Rods out there....

As with the rest here, I don't really give a hoot what you build or how you build, just please don't tell me that's how everybody did it---Back in the Day!!!