I have noticed this summer that there sure are a lot of people out there that are experts on cars. Meaning they are there to pick apart the car versus just saying nice car, or I had one like it.

a few weeks back I had a guy try to argue with me that the on my Demon the wrong emblems were used. I said I know that's how my dad bought the car and that's how he wanted it kept, but the guys just insisted he was right, and I should change them. then he wanted to see the vin number to authenticate it's a true demon. I had to ask the guy to please leave before things got out of hand. mind you I paid to display my car while he was able to walk around for free!!

if they Aren't happy with how the numbers on the car are now wait until I do a hell crate to it!! it will be death and despair all around my car at a show. people need to lighten up and just respect others property and accomplishments.

oh, and before I asked him to keep walking, I questioned him, he has no classic car, nor does he even have a race car!! what a piece of work.

what is wrong with people today? As i get older I get why guys and gals never take their cars anywhere for other to enjoy seeing them. it's a great hobby and a privilege to be able to share and show older cars to spark memories, it should not be a hassle.

if you one of these people please don't stop by my car I would rather you don't!!

I had a few people come up to me Sunday at a local show and asked how much I paid for my 69 Dart GTS...

Guys with hot rod cars and pickups are much more carefree than the musclecar guys are I've noticed. Those guys don't have a 'fender tag' group trying to apply pressure on what they can or can't do to their cars.

Our local Mopars Unlimited club would have shows in the park every year and I noticed as the values of the cars crept higher people started nitpicking others cars a lot more,. It was a different time before that when people did not care if you repainted your beige car plum crazy, or converted a column shift car to a 4 speed. People were just happy to see all the cars all in one place again.

Posts like this amuse me. You are just now starting to notice this? This has been going on EASILY for the last 2 decades, im sure many will chime in and say double that. But I really noticed it getting out of hand when these cars suddenly all became investment pieces. I personally feel that is what ruined the hobby. Everyone became an armchair expert with the rise of the internet. Even when I owned numbers matching vehicles, people would still scrutinize everything. "Uhhhhppp! Those are not factory wheels and tires! That was a one year only trim piece, it shouldn't be on your car! I bought one of these new in this color, thats not a factory color!" And so on....

Easy fix. Stop going to car shows where you're putting your car/investment/pride & joy whatever you call it, on display for other people to scan. Know where folks don't criticize my cars? When I'm driving it, when it's in my work parking lot, or at the drag strip. Car shows are like going to the beach and being upset why folks are staring at your love handles.

good points guys,

sorry to bother everyone.

nope been seeing it for years now just as i get older it tends to piss me off more.

that is all thanks for the comments

My response has ALWAYS been the same: "For $XX,000, It can be yours, and you can do whatever you want to it. Until then, it's mine, and it'll be however I want it." Yes, I'm an a$$%*#!, but it usually gets them to move along before they waste much of my time. And I'm only a jerk with the experts; my favorite thing at car shows is to put as many people as possible in the driver's seat to get a picture, especially kids. My '72 Mini Cooper draws kids like a magnet...

Just one of many reasons I quit taking performance era Mopars to Mopar shows. Many of those guys were even Azzholes in the Modified Classes.

My wife and I (and my son with his family and my daughter with her friend) only attend one Mopar show a year and there are at least 4 in the area. The one we attend seems to have more mellow participants.

I am the guy in one of the modified classes that brings a vehicle that probably isn't really show worthy, but it is all Mopar and probably the only one like it there. It is $20 to enter the show, but to spectate the gate fee is #5/person. For that extra $10, we get a place to park on the grounds, have chairs to sit in, and we bring in our own water. We get a chance to talk with people, and its generally a fun day. I don't ever expect to win a trophy, but have occasionally in the past.

I'm not too concerned about what others think about my ride, I sure like it the way it is. If they think it should be different, they can build their own version, or buy mine after I'm tired of it and change to into anything that makes them happy.

I enter my original owner 92 D150 in a few shows a year... being a truck most people don't care if its numbers matching ( it is and has most of its original paint ) being a drag racer first and show / cruise night guy second .. showing isn't my first priority although I have Won a few show trophies . I have learned to have thick skin when it comes to peoples comments . I will gladly answer any questions people ask , I am not really to " outgoing " and just attend shows and enjoy showing my truck . One question a lot of people ask is " What year is it ? " since a 92 style grille was only used a few years and mine is a custom model of the original most don't know . I gladly answer.

Most of them, after p'ing you off get in their geo metro running on 2 of its 3 cylinders and drive away, ignore their jealous commentary and walk away.

Never really bothered me. I just tell them I built the car as I wanted to and it pleases me.

I have covered my vin for at least 20 years and the fender tag is in the glove box. When they ask about originality I laugh and dare them to find an original part on the car. It's just a pile of unrestored old various year and model parts with some after market stuff thrown in, not a collectible over restored trailer queen show car that i'd be afraid to actually drive.

I have replied to a number of threads about this. I quit going to Mopar only shows years ago. There is always the vin/paint dab checkers that feel they need to tell you what's not right with your car.Those are the same folks that will [censored] about the lousy attendance at shows(usually while their numbers matching perfect car sits at home) I take my toy to all makes/models show and enjoy talking to other folks who just want to have fun with their toys....zero craps given about vins/stampings/colors, etc......just folks and their toys.

My non-numbers matching anything toy...470" low deck, 4 spd, 3:73 8 1/4 rear, pistol grip, non-mopar color toy. Don't look underneath.....you might see the 73-up disc conversion and the Hellwig front and rear sway bars.It also sports a Clarion head unit with a Rockford-Fosgate amp and Infinity 6x9s w/built in crossovers. At Mopar only shows guys just take a quick look and walk away because it's not "right"

What I noticed after taking a few years off of having a car is how many people want to come up and talk money with me, something I don’t mind a bit…if you know me. I find it pretty absurd that a total stranger will do that, especially since it didn’t used to be this way. I blame all the auctions for putting attention on the $$$$$. Thing most of these people are missing is what a poor investment a car is. It simply doesn’t keep up with the stock market and really struggles to match inflation, outside a handful of really and truly rare stuff. And no, you aren’t buying my car below market, now or ever.

I use the naysayer type stuff to my advantage. If joe blow sees something as being wrong, that means I can improve something I happen to over hear. I’m kinda puzzled by some of the comments here, seems guys are coming up to you all? Nobody outright says [censored] to me, but I have a “zero given” attitude at baseline. Maybe that screens them out? The people that talk to me have been friendly and interested in talking about the past. I welcome that because the present and future are no fun to ponder.

One show I found a group picking over my car, as I walked up I could see it was someone I had met once before. I pointed out I knew the part was incorrect and it’s in my long term plans to remedy. I came away with another idea from that meeting that I’ll use. Probably a good thing I listened, as that person won an award at the Nats this year. It’s all in what you make it I guess.

i made replies like this when i had my 72 Road Runner. it was a factory N96 air grabber hood, V21 hood and V25 deck lid stripe car. it also had the factory 15 rally wheel option that was rarer than the stripes. it was also a "NAD" paint car.
i installed a big ci hemi in it, lowered it and had 17" mustang wheels on it. it also had custom made 2 toned blue / black seat covers.
it was a really sharp looking car and people would seek it out due to the stripes that most people hadn't seen before.

people would look over the car. say it looks really good. then look at the fender tag and freak out because the options were original factory options.
i would constantly get comments about how i should have restored it back to stock because it was a really rare car.
or how i ruined my car extremely rare car by using a hemi instead of the correct 400 ci engine.
i would get a few about the interior also.
my usual response was i still have the factory original motor , trans, and interior. why don't you buy it for $$$$ and toss that crappy hemi motor away and install that awesome 400 motor and the rest of the original options..

It's been a long time since I've brought an old car to a cruise or a show because of working on my house but when I did I rarely stayed near my car. I'd park it & go wander around looking at everything else or end up talking to people I haven't seen for a long time. I never cared what was said about my cars & actually found it amusing. One time I was walking back to my car & saw two guys walking around it pointing to different things & scratching their heads. As I got closer I could hear them talking about it & trying to figure out what it was & what year is was.

It's a 1969 Satellite convertible but has a huge mix of other parts all over & inside it. One quarter panel is a 1968, the trunk lid is from a GTX & has a Sport Satellite insert, the entire nose is from a 1970 GTX, the front seats, arm rest & steering wheel are from a 1973 New Yorker & nothing matches.

If anyone were to start telling me how incorrect it was I'd simply say that I didn't care.

Try not to take it personally.

Sometime guys will point out stuff that is wrong on my car.
If it's something I already know about I just nod and smile and say "It's a work in progress!". Sometimes I actually do learn something from someone more knowledgeable than me and I file that info away. Other times the guy is simply mistaken.

Either way, I don't let it hurt my feelings. It's just a car.

I don't really do "car shows" but do go to a cruise in from time to time. I meet a lot of nice people and really enjoy answering kids questions. My car is a hot rod, nothing more, nothing less. The thing I get most of the time is "if it was mine I'd.........", my reply is usually it's not yours. LOL

Can’t say we have had a bad encounter at a show, heck once we were even invited onto an episode of My Classic Car. Life is too short to get upset about irritating people.

Way back when I had my '79 'Lil Red Express, I used to get people asking me why I would ever do that to a truck. It was 100% stock. Some people are just morons, so it is what it is.

For many years I've enjoyed having a 1968 Fury VIP Fender tag on my legit 1969 GTX.

Nobody can ever seem to decode that fender tag for some reason!
I guess you better call Galen or David to figure it out

Sometimes I'll cover the VIN, sometimes I won't, depends how I feel.

Not much of anything has ever been original on the car since I've owned it, but I did at least paint it the original color this time.

I really regret not saving the fender tags of cars I parted out, junked, or took parts from over the years, because I'd have them on rotation
in the car. In particular the '73 New Yorker that donated the first engine I had in the car was pretty loaded, and had two fender tags...
I would install both of them and let the idiots struggle with it.

Those things are not the gospel that people make them out to be on an A plant code car /usually showed next to nothing.

For my next fender tag, I really want to have a custom one made that reads the same as Samuel L. Jackson's wallet.

When I had my 68 Charger R/T (440 car) that I put a hemi into I had a BLANK fender tag I stumbled across at the local P+Pull back in the 90's. I was even so bad that I would generally occlude the VIN tag with show entry form or one of those dastardly flyers, LOL. Myself, I've never been one to get hung up on numbers, hoses, paint markings etc. Having worked on the line back in the early 70's NOTHING was specified and most of the workers were high on something. Put it together with the supplied parts, put the jack instructions somewhere on the trunk lid bottom side, paint marks? somewhere on the R valve cover, rear end or ????? I have always been concerned more with reliability and being done well. Dcuda's69 seems to fit the bill nicely

I don't let it bother me.......just saying, at an all Mopar show guys want to tell you what's wrong with your car.....at an all makes/models show guys just want to talk about cars....big difference. Helps me decide which shows I will attend.

People are people. Everyone is going to be different and have their own opinions on things. I just ignore any ridiculous claims or advice. If it is useful and constructive then I file it under maybe.

I saw that episode. Too cool!

Back in the 90's when I had my '66 Barracuda with a 340 swapped into it, I had put an LD340 intake on it. The stock throttle spring bracket wouldn't work, so I took a piece of flat stock, bent it into an L shape, drilled a couple of holes in it and spray painted it flat black. It was a super quick solution. Anyway, I was at a Slant 6 show and they allow V8s there, so I was showing off my car. Some guy comes up and points to the newly made L bracket and says "That's not stock." I said "I know. I made it. This car is so far from stock it doesn't matter." Later, my friend tells me, "You basically told that guy to f--- off without actually saying it."

'Expert' expressed as a mathematical formula;

X = (the unknown quantity) + SPURT (a drip under pressure)

A friend of mine has a ‘70 Superbee that he restored years ago. It was upgraded to a 440 six pack setup but retained the 383 badging…he would open the hood and every expert would walk by and have their $0.02 to say about it. It also has red accents on the grill which a lot of people have told him isn’t factory correct. It’s been that way since he bought it in the 80s…maybe someone added it? He’s pretty sure that’s the way it came originally, either way he likes it and kept it the way it was.

The person who approached your car (o/p) sounds like a real dik. Probably just jealous, otherwise as you wrote, just comment "nice car" or something and keep going. It was your dad's car! That should've shut him up immediately but some people have to try and degrade others to feel better about themselves.

My response to a numbers guy in that situation. "it won't matter much on Monday, because the crusher doesn't care"

I found that it is best to sit a little away from my car at shows

So I can see them looking but can’t hear the comments

Yup... that's what I have experienced over the decades. I took my Duster to an all Mopar show
once, and a few guys (who were obviously in some sort of "club") bashed my car. I overheard a few comments from them..
such as: "That car isn't correct at all, and: " probably can't get out of it's own way"
I ended up with a 2nd place trophy, in A body Modified, at the end of the show !
Point is, don't ever give the naysayers a second of your time.
Also I love the idea of the custom fender tag: "My Bad Mutha F**ka...

As I've gotten older and less patient, instead of pacifying people like that, I just go right straight to MYOFB!!!

Life is too short to worry about what the experts at car shows say. It rolls off my back like water on a duck. Of course I was the guy who judged cars at Mopar shows for 30 years, try telling an owner that something is wrong, 90% of the time they really don't know, the other 10% just want the car to be better so they thank me and usually I see the car again the next year with what I had told them done! I like Tom's thinking, just sit back and listen then take another sip off that cocktail and snicker...

I get lots of them when I bring the convertible Charger to shows! I have heard it all,everything from I can't believe you sawed the roof off a Charger, to my uncle bought one just like that brand new! I tell them I cut the roof off because I was sick and tired of the factory sunroof leaking on my head! Lol

Mine is not matching numbers anything. I built my way. I did win cruiser of the night last week with it so the general public must have liked it since it is done by their votes.

I had a guy arguing with me mine was not a factory hemi car.

He was adamant Hemi wasn't avail in a Satellite. I pointed out the sales code on the data tag and the Vin,,,,,I got tired of him and returned to my chair and he finally walked away

I've had a similar incident happen from a younger (23-29 yrs. old white male "car" guy) happen back in the mid 1980s at the NHRA Winternationals one year. I had my original 1963 Plymouth Belvedere 2 door sedan 415 HP car that I was running in NHRA stock A/SA class and was in the rear of the staging lanes with the hood open when he walked up and look at it and made a comment that it was too bad that it wasn't an "original M.W. car"
I bought that car from the 2nd owner in 1973 who had bought it off of a used car lot in L.A. CA in 1965 and drove it until he blew the motor up, spun a rod bearing and had the motor rebuilt by Reath Automotive in 1966, he ended up joining the Army before the motor was done and he got orders to Veit Nam and had them hold the motor until he got back when he got out of the army in 1969.
Long story short he lost the kickdown rod for the 727 and burnt the tranny up in less than 300 miles driving it to college and around town before moving to the high desert after marrying his wife, her father owned a well drilling company and he went to work for his father in law so he could buy the company out later in life.
Bottom line that kid had never owned one of those cars let alone worked at a dealership when they came out and base his opinion on seeing some of those cars that the headlight, engine wiring harness placed on the upper passenger side inner wheel well instead of having it held on the inner lower side of that panel with factory wire holders like mine had, he had seen the later cars after Mopar had some of the early cars have problems with exhaust heat melt some of those harnesses
Did I say we had an "educational moment" together over that
He did thank me for helping him learn more about those limited production cars like mine
I forgot to mention I'm a drag racer, not a show car guy
The only thing I want to show other car guys is my taillights

Haha I kind of like this response. I also use GFY at times.

I agree, I just walk away or sit down in my chair and ignore them.

This is why I prefer drag racing. People only want to look at "the funny sounding" car.

Kinda there myself.

We have a couple of large car shows that I used to go to and I've decided I'm the type of person that can't sit in a lawn chair and listen to passerby B.S. all day.

I would 10x rather be racing. I'm not even a good spectator at the track but enjoy taking pics.