Who got you started?

Who got you started, who was it you looked up to as a kid and gave you the spark to ignite your fuel charge called hotrodding??????

 

I guess my father, never knew there was people that didnt have hotrod's untill I was 15.

Doc.

 

Thats cool for sure Doc.

 

My uncle did when he bought me my first model kit of this dragster back in '71...

 

My dad....grew up in the garage watching my dad build all sorts of Fords....Still love hanging in the garage with him....

 

My dad worked at a Dodge dealership in Miami,FL. back in the 50's till '62. He picked me up from school one day in a '62 Super Stock Dodge factory racer that had been shipped in for a meet that weekend. We're talkin' 413, dual quad cross-ram, 3 spd manual, stripped interior, etc. We detour through an industrial park going home where he proceeds to lay down a few "passes" on some deserted streets...I'm 9 yrs old...yeah, I was "HOOKED"!!!

 

My dad I used to sit in the shop and try to watch everything he was doing. We still build stuff together except now he sits and watches me haha

 

I wish I knew! My dad didn't do much beyond oil changes or brakes on our family cars, and never had anything cool enough to interest me. I just can't remember when I didn't gravitate towards hotrods as a kid.
Started with just being attracted to anything loud and fast, to model cars, and finally saving my earnings and buying a old '47 International panel from my uncle's farm when I was 13 yrs. old.
I'm pretty sure I must have been adopted, because I have 3 brothers and none of them owns anything in the way of a hotrod. They all wonder why I got so sidetracked too! And I think their new cars are boring! My newest ride is a 1971, and I don't want anything newer than that!

 

My father was and uncle were the ones that got me into cars. I remember when I was a snot nosed punk my father took me to my uncles garage. He had everything layed out to re-assemble a nasty 327. While my father and uncle were off to the side BSing I was looking over the parts for the engine. I remember picking up a cork valve cover gasket thinking hey this is neat. Next thing I know it folded and tore. Aparently they watched me do it, and watched me put it back pretending nothing happened. I got smacked for that one.

I haven't been into hotrods nearly as long as most people here. My first inspiration to build a rod actually came from the Coker tire ad on the back of a magazine. Ya know that bobber truck they did using the early '40s Ford cab? That got me into the rat rods. Then I found the HAMB and saw the light...

 

My Dad for sure. Told me stories about growing up in the early to mid 60's. Showed me lots of pictures. Unfortunately he had to sell his 23 t-bucket when i came along. And
the one thing that bummed me out was how much he wanted another one til the day he died. We just never had the money. I so wish he was here to see my 54. But anyway, it was my Dad.

 

Mine was a combination of my parents and my grandfather. My mom used to run a gas station before I was even thought of, Sinclair station at that in the 60s. My pops ran around with the hard street racing crowd when he was younger, was almost killed by a drunk that hit his 58 fairlane head on and pushed it up to the dash. He kinda lost his drive at that point, now im building him a 58 fairlane in its place, the car he never got to finish I guess you could say... My grandfather was a master mechanic, used to be in his garage with him all the time, had my hands in the tools at about 5yrs old. My senior yr of highschool on spring break we changed a motor out together and did some other cool stuff, he died a few yrs after that but probably one of my most inspiring people who gave me the basics and I took it and ran with it. I remember bout a yr before he passed he was about to buy a mint condition model a and just didnt want to cause he was older and was a little timid, going to build one some day, and it will be the car he never had.

 

I have the same problem these days.....

 

I guess it could have been the Ol' Man or any number of his friends (names withheld to protect the guilty, the innocent don't need protecting).

Happy Father's day Dad, wherever you are.

 

Most likely my dad as he brought mom and me home from the hospital in this.

I got to hear my first set of steel packs bark when I was three days old.x
He was always there for moral and sometimes financial support in my car endeavors over the next 50+ years until I lost him 8 years ago.

 

My dad, Oscar [O.D.] Lewis who was my favorite teacher and friend[ I also have his 56 F100 I'm redoing, and Bob Robertson who is still around. I owe a debt to these people who each showed me how to do or look at things in a different light.

 

My dad got me started a long time a go.

 

My Dad and Grandfather took me to the NSRA Nats in Columbus one year. I was hooked.

 

was in 1962 when I was 14..rode the schoolbus home past this small group of cabins, one of which was rented by this 17-18 year old with a red chopped and dropped 40 merc convertible..I remember it had a 50 nash grille. I rode my bike over to his house one day and struck up a conversation with him and he offered me a ride in the car. Had a full-house flathead with the stock 3 speed and teeny little glasspack mufflers. After that I'd sneak out my bedroom window and ride my bike the 2 miles to his place. We'd work on the motor and test-beat it down the local hiways at full speed. One night, he was gonna see how much rubber it'd lay and snapped an axle key..'No sweat" he said and jacked up the car, swapped out the broken key in record time...no wonder he broke the axle key, he carried all his tools, jack and parts in the trunk.

 

Grandpa. Gave me an old Maytag single cylinder washing machine motor to play with when I was 6 or 7 years old. I still have it, and it still runs great.

 

1964 at 10 years old. Lived next door to a circle track racer in Bakersfield CA, running a '59 T-Bird. He hauled me to the races as crew member.

I was livin' large!...

 

It was my father 52 Buick coupe . I was about ten then. That I can remember we went for a ride. I can remember think. What a car and that I want it for my own. The car belong to my father but my grandfather was using it wile dad left for the war. The car lasted until 1974. My father is 86 now and is out in the garage every time I am working on my rod. I love having the time together working on the car. Happy Father day!!!

 

I have no one to blame for this but myself.

when I was 11 or so I wanted a subscription to Street Chopper for my birthday, and my mom got me Street Rodder instead. I have not been the same since.

I recently got a bunch of papers from when I was a kid. on a folder from like the 3rd grade was a drawing of a dragster pulling a wheelie and smoke coming from the tires. I have no idea what put that picture in my head or why I drew it.

there are no car people or mechanics of any kind in my family.

I couldn't even imagine a life without old cars in it.

 

My dad. He used to buy sell and trade back in the day. Always did his own work, mechanical, paint, body work. He told me if I wanted a car I would have to learn to repair it too. Of course I had already been helping him some and fixing bikes and skateboards and the like so it was the next step.

 

Gee, I guess mabbie my cousin who used to put Cadillac motors in Studebakers in his little town in West Virginia . Then too, , The Late But Great Mister Budd Anderson of A. M. T Corperation . Budd and I coresponded several times in the early 1960's . Together, these two gentlemen shaped my life as a sheet metal fabricator and Fiberglass mold builder . Scrubba

 

Matthew Harris.

I didn't grow up in a hot rod family and Matthew, then a recent Wyo Tech grad, wrote a letter to Hot Rod Magazine when I was in high school. I read it over and over and realized that this could be a way to make a living and turn my casual hot rodding desires into reality. I took a welding class and enrolled at Wyo Tech where he was an instructor then. He showed me how to beat on metal AND the Jalopy Journal.

I will always hold him responsible for my career in this industry and will always be thankful that he took the time to write that letter to Hot Rod Magazine.

Donny

 

My dad, first teaching me how to tell the different years of late 60s cars. Taking me to cruise nights and i was always in the garage with him.

 

Nice hot rod... ^^^^^

 

This truck did:

 

My Grandpa Z. taught me mechanics and working with my hands, while our neighbor Jimmy K. in Fairview Park got me interested in old cars that go really fast.

 

My dad. I recall as a child going to junkyards and playing in the old cars as he and the owners would gather the parts he needed ( he had a body shop). also, we would occasionally go pick up another old car('30s '40s '50s) and haul it home or sneak down alleys and side roads using the E-brake because the brakes were down. Yeah those were good times as a kid. Now when he asks why I brought another rusty old car home , I tell him it's his fault, it's genetic, lol!