hat saying “Built, Not Bought” has never sat well with me. Why? Simple: Who cares?!

Yeah, I get the whole pride in doing things yourself, but unless you keep everything you build, what ultimately happens to what you built? It gets bought. So, there goes that mantra right out the power windows you installed. You can—and should—take pride in your ride regardless of whether you built it, bought it, inherited it, whatever. And that’s purely what the common denominator should be, period.

I see flexing about this on the social medias all the time—often by individuals who, in fact, rely on “buyers” to support their “building” way of life. It’s quite the hypocritical situation, isn’t it?! I respect anyone who devotes any portion of their life to this great hobby of ours, whether it’s owning/driving/maintaining a classic vehicle, running a business that caters to, or, as some do, simply capturing this lifestyle on film/digital media for everyone else to enjoy. It really is a multi-faceted hobby, and without all the participants mentioned (and beyond), I don’t think it would be nearly as great as it is today.

As for me, my ability to work on my trucks, physically speaking, has diminished quite a bit over the last decade, so even if I were of the “built” camp, I sure would have a hard time standing behind that goofy credo. And to be honest, I enjoy watching others do the things that I’m nowhere near proficient enough to do—welding, body/paint, interior, chassis fabrication … yeah, pretty much every aspect of truck building! The only real problem is I cannot afford to have all of that done, especially at the level for which I’d be a happy customer with, so, let’s just say I go long periods without having anything cool to drive (other than my Harleys, but that’s a whole nuther story)!

Would I enjoy being able to build my own trucks? Sure, if time permitted, especially if my 20-year-old son were by my side lending a hand … or vice versa. But there’s another key element of why I currently don’t: Time. Being a magazine editor affords quite a few freedoms and liberties—but extra free time typically is not one of them. At least not until they figure out how to squeeze a thirteenth month into the calendar year, that is. So, for the time being, I will enjoy one of those editorial liberties, that being the ability to work with some of the greatest professional builders and companies in the industry to get my pair of Chevys [back] on the road so I can, for the first time in quite a while, enjoy a car/truck show as an actual enthusiast!

But in the meantime, let’s hear it from you: Built or bought … does it really matter?