Where do you GET inspiration?

[iBorg]

Until T.E.N. (the successors of Petersen) pulled the plug on most of their publications and Rodders Journal died, I'd buy at least one magazine a month. Now I rarely walk into a book store. I used these magazines as a recurring source of inspiration. Now I lack a source of current inspiration. I do have a huge collection of older magazines but re-reading a magazine from five to thirty years old isn't the best source of new inspiration.

So my question is this.....where do you find inspiration?

 

[stitchdup]

I get inspiration from a variety of sources. Mostly its from the internet on a variety of sites. I find the various groups on flickr useful, and can find ones for everything from vintage hot rods all the way through to over done restos, as well as a lot of magazine photographers. I also follow a lot of blogs on tumblr and various online mags like noriyaro, moon, speedhunters and a load of others. And theres google images too, just search the car you want and you can use the pics/links to find the site the pics are from.

[NOBLNG]

I google what ever vehicle I want to build and click on images. If I see anything inspiring I follow the link and usually find more photos.

[deuces wild]

Here and the h.a.m.b. ??

[slusher]

I get ideas from Barrett - Jackson., I got two 53 Ford truck ideas. I look thru the cars sold each day and we miss a bunch of cars and trucks.  I do buy a magazine when I find one I like. I don’t care for some of the cars that are being built in todays styles and taste.. 

[Oldcarfan27]

Duck, Duck Go is my friend. 

Go to images. I'll type in the car I'm interested in (ex: 53 Ford Victoria). Or I'll add specific details (53 Ford Victoria model kit), (custom 53 Ford Victoria), (53 Ford Victoria gasser) or (1970s street freak cars).

I'll usually end up on H.A.M.B., real car auction sites, classic car dealers, Model Cars Magazine website or Pinterest. 

Just type in "Paul Hettick" and see what kind of inspiration a replica stock builder can find! Or "George Barris customs" if you fancy 50s-60s era. Or "TV and Movie cars", etc.

I haven't been to a magazine stand in years.

[Fat Brian]

Sometimes it's cars I've seen in real life, sometimes it's cars I've seen going down some internet search rabbit hole, sometimes it's a concept I've got that I dig around and find examples of for reference. On several occasions builds have suddenly taken a radical change in direction when I've seen a car in a search and just had to build it. This usually happens when I don't have a firm direction chosen, the muse grabs the reigns and off we go.

[Mike C.]

10 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

I google what ever vehicle I want to build and click on images. If I see anything inspiring I follow the link and usually find more photos.

That's about the same thing I do. I used to get Musclecar review but that went under (again) Then I was getting Hemmings Muscle machines until every month became an entire issue filled with "69 Camaros that looked like the were stolen from the latest ridiculous Fast and Furious movie set. Now it's just google images.

[misterNNL]

I still buy an occasional magazine if the $ 10.00(!) it costs has the inspiration content I require. Lately that has been 'Ol School Rods. I also visit the Oldmotor.com site on a daily basis for their unique content of vintage photos.

[Claude Thibodeau]

HI!

I was a Goodguys (and NSRA) member for a while, and lately, Goodguys started to send me (for free) their digital weekly "report", called Fuel Curve Insider. It features excerpts from their Gazette pages, and numnerous photo coverage of their events. It is a great source as to what colors and styles are "trending".

However, I mus admit that these days, we see the living embodiment of "all that is old is new again". Maybe that's the definition of getting old: stuff you once favored comes back in vogue? It feels like it...   But some new ideas emerge. 

CT

[iamsuperdan]

I don't really read car mags anymore. And I'm not an internet surfer or a facebook guy. Too much nonsense, too many arguments over everything and nothing, so I kind of quit the internet. A few years ago, I was on many forums. Now I'm on this one, and that's it.

Instagram is really the only social media I use and has been a great source for images of vehicles and colour combos I like. Have borrowed a lot of great ideas there. Not just from vehicles. Guitars are a great source of inspiration for colour combos.

Plus, just what I see every day. If a vehicle grabs my attention I'll take a pic or make a mental note of something.

 

And I just know what I like. I'll look at a kit and just think about what I want to see.

 

 

[thatz4u]

I just start something & follow where it leads...

[OldNYJim]

Good topic!  Last year I started trying to be more organized when it comes to inspiration, and started saving ideas into a photo-host.  Sometimes, I'll see a pic and think "that would be a cool build" and store it away so I can pick up a kit and start collecting the parts to work on it at some point, and other times I'll pick up a kit and THEN go looking for inspiration.

For example, last year I wanted to build an AMT '57 Chevy.  I'm not really a 57-Chevy kinda guy - they're neat, but I never saw myself building too many of them.  Trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I went searching for 57 Chevy reference ideas - and now I've probably got ten or twelve that I'd like to build.  Pics here, for anyone curious:

https://public.fotki.com/NewYorkSpeedShop/11-cars/reference-material/57-chevys/

I really like this book - I've bought probably 4 or 5 copies of it and given them to creative people I know and have at least three copies of it myself - and whilst it talks mainly about writers, painters and musicians a lot of it carries over into what we do too.  It talks about how to gather inspiration - but also how to take what you've seen elsewhere and make it your own...definitely worth a read (or worth picking up a copy for a few bucks).

[wrenchr]

This place for me is a big inspiration also the Autorama this week will be a big source. Going to Toy/model shows and swap meets fires the oven as well. Going to races.  

[Mike C.]

I was thinking more about this and I suppose I get a lot from the past. A lot of the stuff I saw growing up plays a huge role today.

[TransAmMike]

Being a born at a time when my hot rodding interests started in the early muscle car years (early 60's) I'm prone to building muscle of the early 60's to early 70's and replicas of mine and my wife's former cars.  Her first muscle car was a '66 GTO Convertable and mine a '66 Chevelle SS (bought new).   Also, with my Dad having 3 different '57 Chevy Bel Airs (one a convertable, 2-2Dr hardtops of which on he gave me upon H.S. graduation) I have built a few with more to come. 

I do subscribe to Hemmings Muscle Car mag but as for reference it's the internet.    

[MrObsessive]

The first cars I ever saw when I first knew what a car was (early '60's) ALL had tailfins on 'em and lots of chrome. I wouldn't know what years (or brands) were what till I was older, but those bring back memories of cars that either my Dad had, or what other relatives were driving.

Come the high school years (mid '70's), muscle cars and cheap American compacts filled the parking lot. They were a dime a dozen, and if you broke 'em up, you just went out and got another one! Can't do that today though.......cars are waaaay too expensive!

The occasional exotic will light my fancy, even the oddball foreign stuff I saw as a kid will pique my interest, where I'll start to gather reference pics for that "someday" project. In fact, lately I've been finding pics and info on VW's Type 34 Karmann Ghia. A real oddball you don't see on the roads here, but I used to walk past one every day on my way to school in the late '60's.

I just had no idea what it was. ?

[espo]

I had been a long-time subscriber to several automotive subject magazines. I would remove the pictures and stories about vehicles that got my attention. I have a few scrap books that I have put together that I will go thru when I'm starting a build and use the pictures as a reference. 

[Mike 1017]

Mecum

[BlackSheep214]

Hmmm... I get my inspiration from a lot of sources. Pinterest (oh yeah... you definitely need to look in there), magazines, Jackson-Barrett / Mecum Auctions on TV, internet....