I try not to pizz car show people off. On occasion, I have asked about common things that I see that are easy to change and not too expensive, such as battery cables for example. Twenty or more years ago, I was at a Labor Day swap meet / car show (Blueberry Festival) in Plymouth Indiana. I'm a swap meet / drag race kind of guy, but after I have bought everything I want in the swap meet, I mosey over to the car show for a little education on who's doing what to who. I spied an extra nice 66 Bonneville tri-power convertible, and it was a very correct car with the exception of the puny red aftermarket battery cables. Being very respectful, I ask the owner if he would be interested in a set of NOS Delco cables for his car. He said yes, but he hadn't been able to find any. Just so happens, a friend that was a sales rep for the Fort Wayne Delco warehouse distributor was there trying to sell a buttload of obsolete Delco shock absorbers and Delco Remy electrical. I had bought all the ignition parts I wanted from him, but I passed on the plug wires, battery cables, and shocks. Short story is, Pontiac owner hot footed it over to my friends swap space and bought complete new factory cables for the car at an unbelievably low price. An hour or so later when I went back by, he had the new cables on and offered me a beer for being so helpful. Since I only do mixed drinks, I settled for a Pepsi instead.

Back when I had my '67 Dart GT hardtop (and after all the parts were transferred to my son's '67 Dart GT convertible) there were comments made, unfortunately not while I was around. Both times my wife was with the car and I was off wandering. First was at a Good Guys show in Pleasanton and second was at Spring Fling.

Two guys walk up and look at the fender tag and go APE $hit, commenting about how rare the car is and want to know if my wife knows what she has there, blah, blah, blah, showing their considerable ignorance. I just never get the entertainment. No, the factory NEVER put a 440 backed by a four speed with the late '68 Hurst shifter and a Barracuda dash with the '69 Super Bee N96 stuff into a 1967 Dart (never mind about the 15" rallye wheels), but this fender tag convinced these guys that they were looking at the real deal.

I was at a Slant 6 show many years ago with 66 Barracuda I owned back then. I had swapped in a 340 in place of the 273. I had recently put an LD 340 intake on it and I needed a throttle return spring bracket, so I quickly fabbed up a piece of flat stock bent in an L shape. At the show, a bunch of people were looking at the engine and one genius says, “That throttle return spring bracket isn’t factory.” I replied, “Yes, I know. This car is so far from stock, it doesn’t matter.” I was merely stating a fact, but in a somewhat annoyed tone. After the guy walked away, a friend of mine says, “That was great. You basically told him to f*** off without actually saying it.”

When I owned that car the Bay Area Mopar dealers teamed up with Sun to do a free inspection on any Mopar, so we took the Barracuda. The Jahns pistons required .0075 piston to wall clearance so they were a little noisy. They commented on the wrist pin noise...then to do the brake inspection the guy pulled the spindle nut and tried to get the "drum" off. When he couldn't I hollered at him that it had discs. He asked who put those on. I told him the factory did...The car really wasn't that old then, either (1982). It had been rode hard and put away wet more than once by that time, though...

Got to say, that sounds more like a joke than a dig. I’d of just laughed and wouldn’t have thought any more about it. Having dealt with so many nasty people in life, something like that is way far beyond nothing.

Well I have found there is a turd for every punchbowl. Take pride in your car. Have fun being there and showing it. Most of all enjoy driving! Some people get it and some do not. It does sting when a known member from here says something crappy about your car. Happened to me years ago at Mopars in the Park in Shakopee. It stung but like a bee sting it goes away.

I just walk away

Heck just late last year I posted on here about writing up the for sale listing for my 1971 Demon. It had a 1971 360 transplanted in it by previous owner. (Replaced the slant with the 360.) A member here replies with a wagging finger and exclamation point scolding me that the 360 was not available in the Demon in 1971. I had never stated it was the ORIGINAL engine. Those "types" of people are EVERYWHERE.

The only time I critisize someones car is if they go out of their way to say this and that is all original when it's clearly not. And moreso when it's "fully restored off frame restoration" when it's nothing more then a paint job and a quick wipe down. You never know why something might not be right. Sometimes the person bought the car or parts that way and just doesn't know. Or they used what they had and couldn't justify spending a fortune on some rare part that doesn't do anything but hold another piece. I've got 4bbl brackets on my car that are modified because I couldn't find proper ones etc.

Sometimes you see cars at shows that have no reason being there at all. I just walk by and ignore them.

Life is a whole lot easier when you just don't give a [censored] what other people think, do or say .

I enjoy the day more when I ignore ignorant comments.

Not being there is hard to give opinion but sounds like he was trying to make a harmless joke and may have come off wrong. Don't forget, COVID has set some people's social skills back quite a bit lol. It's not uncommon for people to try and strike an overly specific conversation to fit in with the scene. I would have chuckled and told him it was a factory lightweight part.

I made the mistake once of letting autocorrect call my Barracuda a GranD Coupe...after the backlash I do it on purpose now because watching some people lose their minds over something so trivial entertains others.

I agree. It wasn’t an issue worth getting bunched up about. I once had to tell a guy that the go-wing on his 70 dart was on BACKWARDS, I did it very carefully, and it ended well,but was rocky going for a bit.

Try telling a life long friend his troubles with his wife are due to the guy he hes worked beside for almost 10 years.... many knew but no one would step up.

As for the cars and comments.... bah life is way too short.

Sometimes they just don't want to believe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CYdSfhwWVY&t=34s

My only pet peeve with Show or Display cars is the battery cables. I know it sounds petty. What gets me is someone that spends $30K on body work, $20K on an engine and keeps the hacked off battery terminal repair from 1982. I get frustrated because a failure from this will strand you on the side of the road.

Totally agree..........me I would have said "glad someone noticed....I almost got out bid on eBay for it at the last second but got it for $125.01, seller had it listed as a one of one as verified by the Moparts gurus......... If he didn't laugh then it would have been hit the ignore button on him (I'm betting he would have laughed, glass half full )

Mike

Pay them no mind... I have been taking my original owner 92 D150 to cruises lately... the only question I get is : what year is it and did you restore it? I just say its a 92 and is original paint mostly with a few touch ups , never any rust or accidents .. anything negative said I just ignore... since I also bracket race it also with over 10 Eliminator Wins they are really stunned when I tell them that... I have been asked why one week all four tires and wheels match and the next week they don't ( I put drag radials on for racing ) and just leave them on sometimes.

I wouldn't have even thought twice about his comment 30 seconds after he said it.

I remember a young man (21 to 26 yrs maybe) looking at my 1963 Belvedere 415 HP Max wedge two door sedan NHRA stocker street and strip car at the Winternationals in either 1980 or up to 1983, that car was a early production 1963 that had the right front brake line mounted on the top of the inner fenderwell instead of on the side like the non M.W. car had.
He ask me why it wasn't like stock and once I try t tell him it was stock he wouldn't believe me as he thought he knew everything about Max wedge cars and he had never seen or heard of the brake line routing differences between the Max wedge cars and the non max wedge B and RB cars in 1963.
I was the third owner of that car, I bought it from the second owner in 1971, he had bought it off a use car lot in 1965 before he blew the motor up by spinning a rod bearing and let it sit for two years in 1967 to late 1969 while he was in the Army.
He had Joe Reath Automotive fix it while he was in Viet Nam fighting and put the motor back in it after getting out and use it to drive to a junior collegde in Orange County, CA in 1970 were he lived until getting married and moving up to the high desert were I worked and lived in late 1970. He had lost the kickdown rod and ended up burning up the tranny and stop driving after putting around 500 miles on the simple street rebuild job
Way to many self made experts out there that want to impress people with their self proclaimed wealth of knowledge, especially on our cars, for me