First of all happy Father's to one and all. I just returned from 45th annual L.A. Roadster's Father's Day Swap Meet and Car Show at the L.A. County Fair grounds. The first thing I saw in the swapping area was a Star radiator shell! It was severely pitted & rusted out with the bottom broken off, & no badge on it,it was a real piece of junk for $75.00. I guess the stuff is still out there but I think the Rat Rodders have driven the prices up on every thing not just Ford parts. Like I told my 80 year old dad, who was with me, the old car hobby has become a spectator sport. It's hard for the common working stiff to afford it any more.

Where Are You From? Riverside, CA

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1925 Star Touring

Yeah, It seems that the old car hobby should be a cheap one, but it isn't. Rodders used to make me mad, but they don't any more. After all these are just old cars . . which by rights have long since served their purpose and should have been scrapped years ago. I just question seriously the rodders' taste. And most of what we now call rods are really show-cars. (rods were for speed and little else - show cars were for show) The rodders have hurt some, but so have the hoarders. It seems that one or two cars isn't enough for most people, and it artificially drives down the supply and drives up the demand. The other side of the coin is that as the cars become more valuable, then restoration parts and service becomes more available. So it cuts both ways. There are still cheap and worthy cars around like Larks and Valiants. -Hal

Where Are You From? Pullman, WA

Do You own a car built by Durant? sort-of . . lots of parts

Rodders have never bothered me, I'm a rodder at heart. Infact I amplanning on building a Falcon with a Mustang motor for a daily driver. What bothers me are speculators. These are the ones that really aren't car people, they just buy thinking they can do as well or better than they can in the stock market. They are the ones at the auctions driving up the prices. Rodders at least preserve old cars, grant it they do it differently than we do, but a lot of cars to far gone for restoration have been preserved as rods. I have my doubts about rat rodders, they seem to build cartoon cars of poor quality. They truly ruined some good cars.

Where Are You From? Riverside, CA

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1925 Star Touring

Cartoon car, I love that term. While we are griping about a problem common to us all, there is the estate sale chaser. Perhaps they should be credited with getting cars to people who can use them, but when I see ads with statements like "I don't know much about this car, but I think that it's mostly there. . . you can have it for $6000 (I stole it from the bereived widow for $800)" then I get annoyed in the same way, for they are just another type of non-hobby speculator. But we don't have to buy the car, do we?
By the way, I like the Mustang/Falcon concept. A person who was really interested in a light small high-performance car in the mid-sixties rather than high-style would have done better by steering clear of the relatively expensive, heavy and flexible hard top Mustang poser machine and gone for a Falcon.-Hal

Where Are You From? Pullman, WA

Do You own a car built by Durant? parts, Star