This is all good banter. I have subscriptions to both Street Rodder and Street Rod Builder, and one thing that got me buying the mags in the first place IS the ads. When I picked up my first Street Rodder, I quickly figured out that all parts were available to build an entire car -- literally. These magazines are now research tools for me, and I'm extremely interested in the new products and innovations that different companies offer. This info would be alot harder to procure if it wasn't for these magazine ads.

As for cost: yup, the new parts are expensive. That fact will make it longer for me to build my first car, and will limit the number of cars I will own in my lifetime. However, most specialty cars of any make or year will drain your pocketbook, so I feel that any way you slice it, you are going to spend bucks to get what you want. Given the option of "no car" vs. "expensive toy", I guess I'll bite it and choose the expensive toy, even if it takes me quite a while to save money for it. The armchair hobbyist is great for dreaming, but I'll be much happier with something tangible, running or not.

Lastly, as for junkyard parts and those who religiously scrounge for those parts, I think that's great and I admire you for your ability. Even I think it's a blast to hunt the bone yards, but alot of those cars go there because they're wore out, and I don't care to put too many wore out parts on my car. Mind you, I realize the value of these yards for finding obsolete parts and parts that don't wear out (such as trim), but for me, mechanical stuff I perfer new (mostly from a safety standpoint). I guess what I'm trying to say is I value junkyards to a point, but I also need safe reliable parts designed by folks who advertise in these magazines so I can build a car without having to extensively retrofit pieces/parts to get them to work. Alot of these "new" parts are already designed for the vintage street rods we so love and desire. If I had to completely engineer everything in a ground- up retrofit, then I think my interest in street rods would fade pretty fast. I'm not kidding myself that putting together a car is a piece of cake with these newfangled pieces offered by the Hot Rod Witch Doctors, but after seeing what's out there (by seeing these ads), I am confident enough in my abilities that I can truely build most of my own car.

I just hope that all our car magazines have access to this forum, read what's here, and make appropriate changes to their magazines to keep us -- ALL of us -- happy. What a travesty when we lose even one publication!