Who/What turned you onto classic vehicles?

I KNOW this thread has been done before but would be nice to see some new answers from different people out there too

Who or What turned you onto classic vehicles?

For myself it was my brother who is 13 years my senior. About 9 years ago I visited his home in Cali and I saw his mercury. He bought it as a project for his son and himself to work on. He always worked on cars but unfortunately moved away from home when I was still very little so I never had the chance to learn from him. I always had a love for the 40's 50's cars and music....I saw that car and knew I had to get something for me eventually and I did.
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"You may have a pink Cadillac,but don't you be nobodies fool"
Elvis' Baby lets Play House
"Give me that girl and we'll go ridin' around,and look real sharp with the white top down"
Eddie Cochrans' Somethin' Else.
I first heard these songs and others like them in the early '70's as a little kid,and these guys made the cars sound so kool they surely couldn't be refering to the then modern shitboxes I saw around me.Shortly after, I watched the movie " Loving You" on a TV rerun and saw the model A roadster and the '57 Lincoln Convertible Elvis drives and knew I was right.Since then I've come to realise that the '50's ended in '63,and I have never been interested in much that came after,car wise or other.
Paul

 

A hugh thread about this same subject a couple of years ago, HRP

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142867&highlight=who+was+your+mentor

 

it all started with hotwheels. my old manhad a lot of ol cars, trucks,bikes so hearing about them seeing pics then my step dad showing how to work on tractors just whent from ther in to my first truck a 1966 chevy

 

Hotwheels, Cartoon magazines, and my dad use to drag me to car shows around the world. I was a military brat growing up. Some really good shows in Germany. Not to mention things and skimpy bikini's!!! It was awsome when your 13.

 

I used to drive them when they were just called used cars.

 

Like the other guys..Hot wheels, r/c cars. My dad always wanted to get a 67-72 chevy truck so we could fix it up for my first ride. But I was always drawn to the older stuff. My first car was a '56 Chevy Wagon.

 

My Dad. He had , when I was little, 56 Chevy Bel Air, 40 Ford Pick up (Daily driven), 37 Ford Coupe. He continues to be my inspiration. I just recently got a 56 Chevy 210 Pro Street and I cannot wait for Spring!!!! Drag Racing and Cruisin'!

 

Hot Wheels and The Beach Boys, then American Graffiti and Grease.

 

First, a Little Golden Book about a family with an old car named "Gabriel". Then when I was about 10, my dad had a Model T-same name. From there on,it was off on my bike with my friend,Buzz-does anyone get nicknamed "Buzz" anymore?-to look at all the new cars of the early 60's when they came to the dealers.

If you've got young kids and want a cool book-read them "Miss Esta Maude's Secret"

 

Hot Wheels! My favorite cartoon was the little taxi cab that got a roadster body and a flathead ...oh, and a coontail!

 

Two influences;first was working with my Dad at a Kiwanis benefit day at a friends gas station. It was on Dort Highway in Flint,and seeing many cool cars go in and out(this was about 1964-5) really got the interest going. The other was seeing either a Hot Rod or Car Craft mag with some cool shot on the cover(at about the same time frame) and convincing Dad to buy it for me(thanks,Pop),then going home and devouring the pics and text. I vaguely remeber my mother talking to the old man about "corrupting" the kid with "that hot-rod junk",and Dad just shrugging his shoulders,as if to say "If I didn't,someone else will...". Smart man,my father.

 

I grew up watching The Untouchables on TV and loved the old square roofed cars.Later on,in about 1970,they stopped making stylish cars altogether and started making vehicles to get you from point A to point B.So I stayed with the classic style because they had class.I hate the plastic,unsexy cars now,you can't tell a Honda from a Mercedes anymore.

 

I don't know exactly what originally started my love affair with old cars, but I was 6 years old in 1968 when Hot Wheels were first released. These 4 cars were issued in '68 and '69 and were my favorites.

 

Mom, She used to tell me stories of drag racing "Hopped up" cars and about her big Brother's 32. I went home on leave one year and my Mom, Dad, Aunt and Uncle talked for Hours about Cars. After that chat my Mother remembered "an old Merc", thats exactly how she said it, and thought about me. I asked her what year she thought it was and she said 49 or 50. Being the loving son that I am, I thought but didn't say that it must be something else for sure. Moms can't be into cars, can they? I followed her directions and sure enough, the guy with the 49 Merc wanted to trade the flathead with Edmunds heads for a 289 or 302. Hooked my buddy Rich up for his A roadster and never doubted Mom again.

 

I was always a car guy. It's in the male dna. Hot Wheels, plastic models, then the cool cars that I saw cruising on Saturday nights as I moved up through school. I was a child of the Camaro era, so I was all about pony cars, but drag racing was the only thing we could do in my part of the country, so it took a pro-street line in my first years of putting together my own. I never really had the money to stand out in the car crowd, but found I had a knack for fast bikes, so I switched. I guess that was who I really was until I married a woman with 'bike concerns'. It was in my search for something we could share that we hit the Lone Star Round Up about 5 years ago and she was hooked! I recalled growing up across the street from a particularly talented builder of Deuce sedans and how cool they were through the '70s. I guess I lost interest as he moved into the '80s and the days of Velour Interiors. Back from the 'Round Up, I started searching the web for all I could find. It should be no surprise that it was really the HAMB that awakened my interest in pre-war cars. I like the post-war customs, love the larger than life drag racing of the '60s and early '70s, but it's the organic, function over form, nature of a pre-war hotrod, especially one that was well heated up again and again in the '50s, that really reaches into my heart. Turns out that the girl I married has a pin-up inside and I kinda like Hurst Cheaters....

 

My mother, she gave birth to me, been a old car nut ever since.

 

Newbie here.

I got into my cars because of my dad. he was a racer in the 50's and 60's and even won his class at the 61 nationals in his Corvette.
He worked for Old Cars Weekly until he retired in the late 90's. I grew up going to car shows with him all over the country.

 

I've always had a passing interest in the vehcles of my youth. The cars and trucks I remember from my early childhood. Indeed , my first car was a 1951 Plymouth that was given to me by my folks in 1970...It was a year older than me.
Being a motorcycle guy, my interest turned more toward two wheelers and in 1984 my wife and I took a MC tour out west and I was impressed with all the late '40's early '50's pick up trucks running around and decided I wanted a Chevy. In '85 I searched for months and found a 1952 half ton that was exactly what I wanted. Struck a deal and I have owned it since.
I used it quite a bit after doing several things to make it look and run well, and for the last 5 years or so it has sat while I made plans to make a period piece of it while I was busy with a couple of vintage bikes. My Nephew/Godson, who is just 17, lit a fire under me to get the truck up and running and that's just what we did. We did some overdue work on it, like new plugs, cleaning and setting the points, cleaning the carb, changing the oil and doing basic service. It was a real opportunity to teach my Godson these basics. We also had new stainless brake lines and skins mounted and we took it to the "Hunnert Car Pile-up"...It was too stock for the show, but it was a thrill to drive it there...and it won't be "TOO STOCK" next year!
I have an upgraded 235 C.I. 6 with full oil pressure and insert rod bearings that I had built to 54 Corvette specs that will be getting the dual carb, Fenton Header treatment that we'll be dropping in her and we're still brainstorming on paint and such.
In the meantime, my Brother in Law (Nephew's Dad) bought him a '47 Nash to work on and drive...so we've spawned an old car guy of the future who will be around long after we're gone to tell tales about what he did with his Pop and his "Unc".
While hanging with me in my garage he found a '68 Triumph 500 in my row of project bikes that his Dad gave me when his older sister was born...he has expressed a keen interest in spinning wrenches and getting that going too...although he's shown no interest in riding...I'll let him come to that on his own. Even if he doesn't, it's all good.

 

My Dad

 

This story is awesome. I know there are alot of other 'mommies' out there like me that love a car for more than sitting in shotgun and looking pretty. Your mom was pretty cool!
Great stories guys! It's funny also how the two most popular answers are 'hot wheels' and 'dad'
oh, My son's first word at 9 months was 'car', so i KNOW i'll have a pal out in the garage with him.

 

Wasn't even born yet when my mom and dad were going to car races at the local track. I grew up watching them and also had a keen interest in all those "other" cars I saw on the road growing up. I had a very patient dad as I would ask him about every old car I saw as to what kind of car it was. He had a 57 Chevy with a mild amount of custom bodywork him and a buddy did back in highschool. I never saw the actual car but saw pictures of it. He wasn't much into cars himself but would indulge me to let me have one and go to car shows with me. I miss my dad (died 10 years ago) but I hope to be dragging home a 57 sometime this spring. Needs a complete makeover. Stripped and sitting on its top for who knows how long. I plan on building it as a tribute car to my father. I gotta give credit to my granpa as well. He used to be a mechanic and I'd talk cars alot with him growing up. He's 93 now and still going strong. I have his old 61 Studebaker Champ pickup. They'll never be sold and I'll pass them down someday.

 

I was born with the fever.

 

My dad raced Harleys and Hardtops in the fifties at the Old Oakland speedway. He had a '51 or '52 Panhead (bobbed of course), his street rod was a '36 ford PU with a 455 olds engine. Louvered hood and bed sides. Steel plates in the bed for it to hook up. Mom cruised a green '48 Caddy and loved it. Helped Bro build his first race car in '77 out of a wrecked '68 vette (I hate fiberglass). He still races and is into the newest, fastest, high tech stuff but me...my heads stuck in the thirties and forties. Keeper of the flame kind kind of thing and all that.
Mike.

 

I never found a answer for that. I think i was born with the disease.

 

its in my blood.
my dad, hotwheels, cartoons magazine, swap meets every saturday thru the summer, my dads collection of street rodder, hot rod, car craft, rod and custom, etc.

but all those drag cars, street rods, muscle cars etc, i still have a passion for the 30's and 40's era.

 

When I was a kid all the car magazines at my eye level had acres of chrome, pipes, scoops, belt drives and such on the cover. I guess they caught my eye more than pictures of Nissans. No one else in my family is into cars, although my brother likes to spend a lot having other people fix his 944.

 

My Dad and brothers. Now I have give my son the drive and passion

 

My dad and we've been working on cars since. Almost 80 he is finishing his first true hot rod 30 roadster banger. All the rest over the years were slightly modded to drive better.

 

When I was 12 or 13 my dad dragged home a nasty looking shoebox. It was a rusty primered 49 2 door with all of the chrome locked in the trunk It looked like hell to me, but sparked my intrest, and got me in the library researching this old ford. Needless to say, i've been hooked on old tin since.