Thinking of giving it up (a bit of a rant)

is the car hobby harder now or "before". before what??? lets just go back say 20 years, that is "96. the muscle car hobby had been going since mid 80's when it basically just started.

look at the amount o f restoration parts now. SOooo much more. costs???... like everything it all keeps getting higher. those companies have to make a profit or they would go into another line of work....

back then so many more salvage yards, yes .... that had SOME old mopars. most old yards have been crushed. owners retire.. die off.... old junkers lying around the countryside? so many were crushed the last few years when scrape prices got high, and the "honest" dopers ride the back roads looking for an easy buck. they talk the old retired farmer out of his free junk!

back before the "net", how did we find parts? word of mouth. travel how many miles to a mopar swap. add in newspaper before it cost $5000 to place an ad there! ads in MCG... and the Mopar camp was a lot smaller. we actually, many times helped each other. yes we sold parts for $$$$ but seemed like it was somewhat, more "parts friendly"???

remember back when Mother Mopar threw a fit because these little co. selling what few repop parts there was, used Mopar in their co. name! and Mopar claimed they could not repop fenders, quarters because it was ALL crushed when she went belly up the first time!????ha


so parts hunting? i'd say, of the remaining parts, parts cars, are in the hand of enthusiasts. finding a "car" out in the sticks in not very easy anymore, in lots of places pretty near impossible? last year I found a guy that many years back had a very small parts store out in this rural area, edge of small town. the building is always no one around never. well one sat I saw there was someone there, I stopped and meet the guy, he had good old mopar used parts that had been sitting in this building since he quit the hobby 20 years ago. yep he wanted to sell of parts. engines, suregrips, even an old challenger. NOW< the funny part is his nephew lives 2 miles down the road from me, we are friends ( supposedly). he is not into cars and i'm sure he knew his uncle's involvement in the car bobby. SOooooo, GO FIGURE!!!!!