History remember the excitement you felt the first time you drove your hot rod or custom?

I remember, It was on a Saturday afternoon and a friend had stopped by driving his '32 Plymouth coupe and I was installing the junkyard mustang automatic floor shiftier and he ask me had I fired the engine off yet, I said no I had a lot more to do before I did that.

He ask if the steering and brakes were done and I replied that I had finished up the brakes this morning, I didn't have any wiring done, he said lets hear that engine run and he said we can run a few wires and have it running in ten minutes, I had a small roll of wire, he ran a few wires, all red, we stuck a piece of rubber fuel line in a gallon gas can through the winshield opening and sat it in the passenger floor board, took the battery out if my daily driver and within a half hour I heard the engine run for the first time.

There it sat running, I sat a milk crate inside the cab, pressed the brake pedal and it felt firm, then I tried to easy it in gear, the truck lunged and it moved forward as I eased off the brake, man I was stoked and I shut it off.

We then added water to the radiator and remarkably there were no leaks and we tried it again, Rene suggested we drive it around the block.

I looked at the truck, there it sat running, just a cab, no doors or windshield,no seats,no bed or fenders but it was running and stopping and I told him to grab the other milk crate and I pulled the truck out of the garage.

I was grinning like a possum eating briers , I was actually driving something I had built from junkyard parts, we made it almost all the way back to the house when the wires laying on the floor started smoking and then went up in smoke, I reached down and tried to snatch them loose, here is the disclaimer ( Never ever under no uncertain terms grab hot smoldering wires with your bare hands, they tend to make deep grove burns to your fingers) but having them pulled loose I put the truck in park, jumped out and located a mud puddle and submerged my burnt hand soothing the fingers.

WE walked back to the house, got in Rene's coupe and towed the truck back to the house.

As we pulled into the driveway Rene' looked at me a said the words I have repeated numerous times over the years - Äre we havin' fun yet?

A few months later I worked well into the night hoping to leave the next morning to go to a show with a few club members, I came in around 4 AM and we were to meet at 8 AM to leave, I had only driven the truck that one time around the block.

I arrived Friday morning at the appointed time and if you were within 20 feet of the truck you could smell the fresh red primer, we left town for the North Atlanta Street Rods show at Stone Mountain, Georgia. As we took the on ramp leading to I-85 I though this had to be the coolest feeling in the world, driving a car I built and following my friends to a show more than a hundred miles away.

The truck ran well and never gave me a minutes problem, it's at this show were one of the club members made a cardboard sign from the bottom of a case of Budweiser and stuck it between the radiator & the headlight bar and in his best Crayola script wrote " Best Paint Award" given to HOTRODPRIMER.

Hence the moniker HOTRODPRIMER I use to this day. HRP

 

Back in the early eighties I had a 65 2wd Willys Jeep pickup that I had swapped a 440/torque flight into. The first time out on to black top with a TurboAction J converter and slicks I could feel the weight of my eyeballs at the hit.
A strange thing to remember...

 

I bet there are a whole lot of guys here who could write that exact same story of their first ride in their hot rod. I know I could have. Right down to the milk crates and the gas line running through the window to a gas can on the floor. 1929 Model A pickup. Still in high school. I have built a lot of hotrods and race cars since then, but that is the "first ride" I remember the most

 

more than one "first" experience - before I had a drivers license I took my Sister's '54 Ford (which I had removed emblems, etc from) to show off to a couple of older guys and tried to do a burn out - did not work, and I had accelerated too fast to make a curve in the road and crashed through a small wooden fence and knocked down a fancy named tree. Lucky for me another friend's Dad offered to help fix car. He said the brakes were bad, and we were lucky that they did not fail while my Sister was driving in traffic. Juvenile Court Judge said that I could not get a driver's license until I was 16, 15 was legal driving age in Hawaii at the time.

 

YEP!---Sat on a milk crate & drove to a gas station 2 blocks away with open headers!!!!!!!! Filled the tank, then drove back home again with a BIG SMILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The "Thrill" of many first times, now a senior the thrills are different, not as frequent, But I still get a that feeling when jumping on the gas in one of my hobby cars and still love it, guess I'll never grow up. I started driving at 15, legally at 16, what fun it's been, still is. This car hobby deal has served me well, first car 57 Chevy, first Street race, first love (first wife) went Midget racing, then Sprint cars, first race, last race, I remember them well, first street race with my roadster, beat my friends Challenger RT, first race with my 32, again whipped my friends 33. I could write a book I guess like many here but will not, some things maybe better forgotten, I do enjoy sharing here on the HAMB. Have a Great July 4 ! Everyone.

 

The first time I took my 39 for a ride, I hot wired it no lights and no glass. When I hit about 10 or 15 mph (no speedo) mouse nest and mouse stuff came from everywhere, still could not get the smile off my face.

 

The first time by myself? Or when my Dad let me drive? I don’t recall the first time my Dad let me drive, but do recall my first “night out” by myself. Was a wonderful feeling, I was totally free, right? 2 days after I got my license I rolled a stop sign leave my girls place, and got pulled over and a ticket. Of course I was 15 minutes late getting home and my Mom took the keys away.
Damn, was driving for almost three days, I was free, right? Well, it was a few weeks on the bus and walking for lunch, all I could think about is “how do people get around without a vehicle?”

Time moves fast at 16.
Oh, ‘57 Chevy PU with BBC and TH400.

 

Cool story

 

Did that with this car. Sold it 3 years ago. Bought it back today!!!!!!'

 

That’s not a car, that’s a first love!

 

Never ever forget that first drive feeling - years ago to license my F1 in CA I had to get it weighed before the DMV would register it since it was a truck - never forget that drive on a dark summer night to a local truck stop with a scale, thing was really light with no bed wood or glass, bugs flying through the cab, I smiled so big I think I hurt my face...

 

Grew up driving farm trucks etc and had a 37 Ford pickup--kinda rough but ran. My 1st time driving a real runner was a friends 51 Merc that had some work done by Winfield in Modesto-it had a Cad and a hydro and was fast for the time too-this was in 1958. He used to let me drive it now and then-boy was I cool! Then in 59 I got my 57 tripower Pontiac and redid the old 37 Ford pickup with a warmed over flathead as well that my Dad helped me acquire and get running.

 

My first trip down the road in this one, what fun ! I stopped at the local store,

 

It wasn't much of a hot rod yet but when I took my 57 out for the first time with the T-10 4 speed after changing from a 3 speed it sure made it feel like a hot rod.
The "hot" parts came later.

 

Yep, my t bucket, same story, working on it in the driveway, over came a couple fools, foolisher than me, goaded me into driving it. Found some headers, mounted them upside down so they blew in our faces, gas can in the passenger crotch, battery between us, wires all over, burnouts all afternoon on the street. The neighbours came out with chairs, we had a cheering section, shit eating grins, I've built twelve cars, had that feeling twelve times now.
THEN, its out on the road, heart in your throat, listening for noises, waiting for something to break, tingly all over, going progressively faster, getting home and being totally wowed by what you've done.....yeah, unbelievable high.

 

My first ride in my 29 after I started down the road to a hot rod was an event. Barely together. Just enough wiring to start it. No top. I think maybe the seats were upholstered. Was about it.
My wife called and wanted me to meet her at a restaurant for lunch. So I figured I will take the A. I checked the fluids and took off. Made it four miles when I figured out I had a problem. The car was losing speed but ran good. Thought I had a brake dragging. No luck. A rear end will only go so far with no gear oil.
I got sidetracked and didn’t check it. Expensive lesson.

Even will that I was so excited about getting to drive my hot rod.

 

My first car wasn't really a hot rod. It was a 54 Mercury convertible we rescued from a field next to a brake repair shop. My dad and I aired up the tires, cleared the area around it, put in a battery and it fired up. Dad drove it home and parked it inside the back yard where it promptly blew a tire. It had a pretty bad rear main leak so we pulled the engine replaced the crank with a reground unit. Since I was 14, my mom ended up driving the car for a couple of years. However, I did drive it up and down the alley by the side of the house for hours. While mom was using it, dad and I worked on the body finally having a friend paint it. When I turned 16 it became my ride. I'll never forget my first drive in my own car.

 

That's a cool old store. My sister lives just up the hill from there.

 

I loaded up Robin in the 37 and took a drive through the neighborhood. Got a thumbs up from a guy and then down a grade to a T intersection. Thats when I truly had the piss scared out of me by the cable brakes. Went left on 2 wheels.

 

Too bad it closed almost 20 years ago, I live 2-1/2 miles up the road.

 

I Remember buying my first original Ford coupe. Dreamt about it for 25 yrs while sending three kids to college and keeping everything paid up.
Bought it out of Tennessee near the Georgia border 600 miles one way with the idea of hitting a motel on the way home.
Once I hooked it up to the pickup heading home my mind started racing.
I traveled another 600 miles strictly on adrenaline.
I’ll never forget that excitement.

 

I haven't turned the truck in my avatar into my hotrod yet. I do remember the excitement when I rode in it. I was about 4 years old and dad bought it at a clearing sale. I begged mum and dad to let me go home in the truck. It was on dirt back roads with no seatbelts or drivers door.

I have memories of starting to drive it at around 6 or 7. I had to stand on the floor to push the clutch in. On a number of occasions I remember having a very jerky start as I had failed to master the clutch and accelerator. Dad always asked if I had put kangaroo pee in the petrol tank.

I am looking forward to the day when I can take my grandson for a drive.

 

Seems like we all have the same story. My question is: How many of you managed to do that first ride LEGALLY? You know, with plates and insurance and such? I posed this question to a friend who told me he was sitting on the milk crate and there was a cop down the street. Cop gave him the thumbs up.

 

I finished building this car in 1963 and drove it for the first time, I will never forget the excitement of driving that car, I drove it around town to visit all my friends and take them for rides, I couldn;t go to sleep that night thinking about where I would go the next day.

 

With me everything was spur of the moment, tags & insurance legality's never entered the picture, I do live out in the country and just drove around the block, well almost made it around the block. HRP

 

Bought my 51 Merc from the crafts shop teacher at school in March 1963. Had to save up the money to buy insurance to drive it so it sat quite a bit until the middle of summer. First time I went cruising with it I got chased out of a town about 20 miles away by the boyfriend of a gal I stopped to talk to and his buddies.
I bought my 48 in McGregor Tx for 75.00 in 1973 with a 194 Chevy II six in it with the stock drivetrain . That was the year the street rod nationals were in Tulsa and I had intended to take my T bucket but there was no way it would be done. A three month thrash of mornings before work and late nights after work and days off got the body straight and ready for paint, the trans and rear end swapped and got it painted and the seat redone. I actually drove it home one night with the closed drive and old 3 speed, swapped trans and rear axle and drove it to work the next day with open drive doing all the work myself with basic wrenches.
My wife and I left McGregor early on Thursday morning headed to Tulsa and a fuel filter and carb clogged with gold paint caused us our first delay, Then I burned out the coil crossing the red river and Bob Davis who used to teach at TSTI came along in his F100 and dug a coil out of his parts stash and got me going until I burned up the tail shaft of the trans just outside of Marietta OK where we did a tail shaft swap on the trans in a little wrecking yard and got it back together and got into Claremore OK well after dark and spent the night in the Will Rogers Hotel. The rest of the trip was uneventful, We found a little motel on the old route through Tulsa a few blocks from the fair grounds and didn't have to drive way out to the Holiday Inn at the airport and had a blast. We were in line with Tex Smith and some of his buddies for the barbecue dinner and we got to listen to a bunch of his stories while waiting in line. My wife got her feet sunburned on the way south on Sunday as she was asleep on the seat with her feet out the window and her head on my leg.

I got the bare rolling chassis of my T bucket running a few months later and my buddy and I took it for a test drive in the big industrial parking lot across the street sitting on a 2x8 board with open headers and no brakes.

 

The first few ground up hot rods were dirt track racers. The 1st drive in a dirt car isn't near as exciting as the 1st drive in a ground up street car.
There have been several 1st time drives with on the street hot rods since the old dirt track days. All have been equally exciting, and a bit nerve racking at the same time. The ones that go without issues soon fade into the memories, but boy those that were very eventful live on forever!

One of the more eventful 1st drives was on a car I'd installed a motor & trans, rebuilt the front suspension, and redid the brakes. We lived out in the country, a trip around the block was about a 3 mile trip on the shortest route. I left my house with the V8 4 speed and everything was running smoothly. Down our road to the 1st stop sign, and a right turn, everything was great. Run up through the gears, past 100 mph, everything was great (and a bit fun). Stopped at the next right turn, everything was great. Another run through the gears (not quite as fast this time). The trouble started when it came time to stop at the next sign (and the busiest street). I got it slowed down to about 15 mph before the brake pedal went to the floor! No brakes, and I quickly discovered I had very little e brakes either. Between pumping the brake pedal, pulling on the e brake lever, and downshifting, I got it down to about 2 mph before I shut the ignition off, clutch out, car in 1st gear and the car chugged to a stop as 3 cars rolled past. A quick inspection confirmed that the master cylinder was indeed empty! Still about a mile from home, (pre cell phone days) what is a guy suppose to do? Drive it home! Very slowly. There was one more right turn, and a left turn into my driveway yet to come, fortunately, no more stop signs. I pretty much idled into the driveway. I lost the brakes because one of the rebuilt wheel cylinders had failed. It must had been leaking the whole drive and finally ran out of fluid at the last stop sign.

The 1st drive in my 49 I just completed was legal, and uneventful. I don't count driving up and down the driveway or turning it around on the driveway as a 1st drive. but those too were uneventful. Gene

 

1953 F1 loved that old truck . Had a flat head V8 and a 3 on the tree but it was wonderful. first drive I put it in the weeds as had no brakes and I didn't have a license's an yes a cop pulled up. Told me get the piece of junk home home and he was going to have a conversation with my dad. Dad laughed his ass offed an helped with the brakes

 

Yup, I do......I was waiting for it to blow up!