Projects Teaching my 10 year old stick shift on my 51 Mercury

LOL, that is definitely a dramatic difference.

 

From Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Well done dad.

 

This works!!
I’ve taught all my kids and even my grandson to use a manual tranny on the 34 pickup.
Here’s the trick
Have them drive the car up a midsize grade that’s normally hard to start in with a clutch.
Get halfway up the hill and tell them to stop the car. Then explain to them they are not allowed to touch the brake pedal, take the foot off the brake and slightly release the clutch until they can hold the car still with just the clutch.
In about three tries, every one of these kids started holding the car in place with just the clutch. From there on everything else became easy for them.

 

Yep, both my 19-year-old boys that learned to drive standards in old cars drive standards as daily drivers today. My oldest has three that are standards including one that is three on the tree...

 

I taught my kids to drive 3-on-the-tree in the 1960 sedan version of my avatar. Number 1 daughter took her license test in the 1962 ute version… in 2002. Scared the driving instructor - couldn’t see the speedo (vivid arc “needle” is hidden at rest), no external mirrors, mph speedo. She passed

Tony - you now got a kid who can drive a stick-shift Merc in a rural setting. Suggest removing the rotor button and hiding the lawn mower gas can… otherwise he will likely cruise to town on Saturday night to raise hell… like many of us did

Cheers,
Harv

 

I took driver's ed in high school so I could get a discount on my insurance. The driver's ed. car was a '64 Impala with 3 on the tree. Can you even imagine driver's ed cars being manual now??

 

Fantastic! Get them hooked early! My youngest son was about 12 when he learned to drive a manual in my 312 4speed powered '28 pickup. Now he's a 20 year old gear head that's in the shop building hot rods and stock cars.

 

I taught both of my boys how to drive stick before they were old enough to drive. We used an old Ranger pickup that I had as it was real easy to drive. When they were going to get the drivers license, they were not good at backing so we hopped in the Ranger and I drove down a gravel road and stopped about a mile away from home and switched places and told them to back home. It took a while to get the hang of it but it helped them to use the mirrors and back properly. They are both good "backers" and drivers now with my weird way of teaching. Three on the tree in my 56 Chevy took them a little more training. They both drive sticks daily now.

 

Both my son and daughter learned to drive a stick in my 52 Willys CJ3A Jeep, out in our hay field, after the hay was bailed.

 

There is a scene in Christmas Story 2 where dad is teaching Ralph to drive. The old man says
"Remember: treat the gas like your wife and the clutch like your mother-in-law! Boom!"

 

Fantastic job Dad! I taught Little Truckdoctor when he was 11 on our 1953 IH R-130. Then I taught him a three on the tree in our 1950 Chevy 3100. His next driving education will be a 13 speed Roadranger. He was on a tractor at age 8 and now at 14 he’s better with the tractor than I am. It’s so important that we, as Car Guys, teach our kids how to drive manual transmissions.

 

My Grandad taught me when I was 11. We would go to a big cemetery early on a Sunday morning and practice. Taught my kids the same way. He's a lucky lad to have you spending this kind of quality time with him!

 

My Dad taught me in a 60 Falcon. Didn't get it right off and at one point I wanted to quit. Dad said to keep trying and finally I got the hang of it. My sister wasn't so lucky. She tried on the same car and don't think she ever mastered it. She said it was the only time in her life that Dad had ever yelled at her. Fast forward years later I had a stick shift car I was driving from work and I decided to teach my son how to drive one. He screamed bloody murder but I made him do it. He actually did pretty good. Hasn't driven one since.
Kinda related, I had done some work on a 65 Mustang and they parked it in the service drive overnight. Next morning they come and get me saying the car I worked on wouldn't start. I walked up there and asked the 3 young guys standing there if they set the automatic choke. Blank stares. I jumped in, pumped it twice and it fired right up. I got out, walked about have a dozen steps when they called me back to drive it away since it was a stick. Jeezes.

 

I learned at work when I was 17 on a big International flat bed truck. The trucks got put away at night, so I got to practice around the parking lot. Then I upgraded to the Ford F350 fleet.

My late wife could drive ANYTHING. She had a VW bug in college and later a hand-me-down Pinto. I have seen her drive a Ford tow truck, 26' moving vans and stock cars. She used to drive my '65 Belair wagon at times. 3-on-the-tree as well.

My girlfriend was put out when I got my OT Mustang with the 6-speed manual. She thought I was getting an automatic. I have offered to teach her a few times.

 

I learned when I was his age on a '55 Ford with 3 on the tree. Parents bought the car new and I'm working on getting it back on the road. One of my high school classmates was a farm-raised girl who learned to drive around the farm on a '37 Ford 1 1/2 ton flatbed. Tell the boy the reason we have a left leg is so we can work the clutch and dimmer switch. Not many people under 60 can drive a 3 on the tree.

 

THIS IS AWESOME. Good for both of you.

 

Of my six children only one had the desire to learn how to drive a stick, my second oldest daughter, she was also the one who drag raced. I’m not sure why but I seem to have a nack for teaching the kids how to drive, it’s about the only time I’ve got an abundance of patience with them. On the first Sunday of teaching her how to drive the Ranger the check engine light came on so when I got to work, I was the shop manager at a Ford dealership, I gave it to a tech and he came back a little confused with a excessive stalling code. We both had a good laugh after I told him why.

The never forgotten memories

 

Good job Dad, your son also rolled the window up using the handle and no asking where the power window button was.

 

when I bought my first car I had never driven at all other than drivers training and the driving test at the DMV. with a few pointers from my buddy I learned to drive a 3 speed column shift on the drive home.

from 1976 - 2022 all my daily drivers were stick shift. sometimes I still reach for the stick shift on the floor.

 

Too cool!

My 16 year old has his permit and is working on his driver's ed hours to get his license. During Thanksgiving week I took him to the high school parking lot in my 50 3100 to let him try the manual (T5). He's not a natural at it, but he did okay. I had the choke partway out to bring the idle up to help him. He wasn't letting the clutch out slowly enough, and was a little shy on getting on the gas when the clutch was out, so it was jerky. He didn't catch the car bug from me, so I was surprised and impressed he even agreed to give it a shot. We'll try it again soon.

 

Cool dad.

But I would take the videos down. Some overzealous asshat could try to charge you with child endangerment or some other nonsense.

 

We had a 62 fairlane 4 door the old man would let me drive it around the yard and close by when it came time to learn a clutch he took me to a section line gave me some pointers told me to find my way home then left. I drove up and down that section line then drove home I was hooked.

 

hardest thing for me was getting used to feathering the clutch when leaving from a standstill, first few tries I had the car bucking all over the place, but I got the hang of it it pretty quick.

Every time I get to driving mom's car I have to re-adjust to the power brakes and the lack of clutch, my foot keeps hitting the floor.

Glad to see you're teaching your son how to drive a manual, I wish my dad taught me to drive at 10 years old!

It's funny, it's really only the US where most cars are autos, when I went to peru all cars were manuals, even the bus. Same thing in Europe too, it's required in most places to know how to drive a stick

 

It helps to be able how to visualize how a clutch works. Friction is a hard to grasp concept for some.

 

An experience your son will never forget.. Good Job Dad.

 

I taught all my four kids to drive a stick. Even taught my best friend's girlfriend/wife how to drive a stick. but eventually they're all driving automatics... (unless it's a really old car.)
and even a couple of my grandsons can drive a stick!
Right now all I have are automatics... and I do miss driving a stick. and the three on the tree adds another dimension to the driving experience because of its shifter uniqueness.

 

Hello,

That is a fun thing to do for a young child. At that stage of the game, as long as you are on your own empty area and have gone through safety stuff, then the smile tells all.

As a young kid being in car was always fun, from the package tray in the back of big old Buick sedans that our dad always bought, to actually being able to drive. I will always thank my dad for choosing me to be his guinea pig in driving his big Buick. Well, not actually driving, but to allow me to get the idea of space, adjusting distances of our surroundings and physical actions of action makes things move.

He asked me one day to meet him at the corner of the block at exactly 5:30 pm on summer evening after work. He said to wait for me at the corner. So, at the time, I walked to the corner. It was those times when a walk in the Westside neighborhood was safe and done all of the time by little kids everywhere.

So, there I was “standing on a corner” (not in Winslow, Arizona) to wait for my dad to drive up. In a few minutes, up he came to the corner and told me to get in the drivers’s side. I was small enough to sit on his lap and grab the wheel. The pedals were obviously too far away and that my dad would control the pedals. I was going to steer.

He drove off telling me to move the wheel left and right, while we were in the middle of the street without any cars parked along the wide curb areas. So, I had the width to steer left/right, just to see what it would do. My dad knew I had to get the feel of handling in directions as we moved along. I was “driving” and enjoyed it immensely.

We went the whole block and he told me to angle to the curb. He went slowly and of course, I hit the curb very slowly. Then he told me to watch the end of the car’s headlights and angle it toward the curb, but to stay away as he moved forward. After a few tries, I could go to the curb and safely stop without hitting it.

Jnaki

From this initial action of holding the steering wheel, I had the vision of the wide window and everything around the car. It was wonderful to say the least. I kept telling myself that I drove a car… why did my dad ask me to do the initial steering of his big Buick? My brother was older and taller, but had no interest in cars other than building models or drawing them. He was usually off with his older age group friends and I was usually keeping to my self.

From that point on and into a daily thing, he actually pulled up one evening in a huge black 49 Buick. Now, I was going to “drive” that huge car? Yes, it was just as easy and my dad knew how to make it fun for me. This went on for at least a month or so.

Then all of a sudden, my mom wondered where I was every day around 5 to 6 p.m. not in the yard or small studio room next to the garage. So, she looked out just as I pulled up to the curb, not hitting it and stepped out with a big smile on my face. Yippee! But, my mom came rushing out and chastised our dad for allowing me to drive the big car in a dangerous fashion…
I always remember those “driving” lessons and actual experience. Perhaps, that is why I like driving car of any kind as much as I do… early hot rods in our lives, into the early married times still stand out as a great period with the various long distance road trips. But, today, as old as we are, our daily drivers start up and are reliable to get us where we want to go spend some time gathering our thoughts, plus, enjoying the surroundings.

So, goes the end of my driving adventure and did not pick it up until I drove our dad’s car out of the garage into the driveway for practice at around age 11 or 12.. Then later, when they were ready to go out for the evening… in 1957-58 … YRMV

By this time, our mom had gotten over the dangerous antic phase. She saw that I could handle any car in and out of the narrow garage driveway and not hit the walls or corners. So, she like it when I drove the big Buick out of the garage and on to the driveway ready for their uses.

 

I like that a lot ,thank you for sharing.

 

I retired from a local council truck driver's job about 5 years ago. One day I drove the truck to the tyre shop that was part of the council workshop and went and saw them about a tyre repair. I said to the young bloke that he could drive it into the workshop. Nope, couldn't drive a manual gearbox and the workshop rule was that if you didn't have a licence marked 'manual transmission' you weren't allowed to drive them 20 ft into or out of the workshop. My point was how were the ever going to learn.
When my father had his panelbeating business we'd got back to the shop after dinner at home to finish customer's cars. I'd drive the car to the customer's house, usually after dark, and park in their driveway and jump into my Dad's car before the customer answered the door. I was 13 year old at the time. Most cars were manual gearbox back then.