My dad and i custom built dropped I beams for his 79 ford when i was 7. when i was 9 I bought my truck. Now i'm 19 and building low budget customs for others out of my garage
I'm 31, first got the bug at 14, since then it's seriously been my life in phases. Didn't have much of anything to do with it when in college, just too involve with school, didn't have any car buds there, but a car accident got me back into it in 2001, after being on college haitus for a few years, been infected ever since.
about a year and a half ago when I saw a copy of Ol Skool Rods at the dentist office,wonka wonka,wonka...hahahaha
since 1960. I bought a 1934 ford pu. Kept the 21 stud and added headers and a thickstun. Everyone else was dropping SBC's, but I stayed FLAT. Took about 18 years off to raise three kids and I've been back in with both feet since. Never been happier.
I became afflicted about 1958. I could only afford AMT models and Rod & Custom magazines but I soon moved up to the hard stuff for my fixes once I got a real job.
I am 36 and I have been into cars from the age of 10. Now its just one day at a time............its a sickness.
My Dad got me into it at a young age, probably around 10 or so. He is not a car guy really, just maintaining the family car through the years. The first thing I remember is doing the front wheel bearings on the family 55 4-door. I was the kid that had to clean the grease from the bearings. He didn't know what he was starting back then. And that was about 40 some years ago.
I got my first, a '39 Chevy Master Deluxe 2-door sedan, when I was 15. I'll reach 65 in nine days so, if my math still works, that makes 50 years. Unfortunately I spent 40 of those years racing. The modified that I'm designing and gathering parts for will be my first hot rod......unless you count the flathead-powered '29 Ford pickup I drove around one summer.
I'm 56 didn't get started untill I was 40.Treated myself to a Mustang drop top.Everybody said it was just a midlife crisis..From there to a T-bucket,and now my '40 Olds.Dave
Today I'm 58;....been at it since 15; Not exactly new. But STILL have a good sense of humor. ...and it's always HAMBER TIME!...always!
I've been buildin' this coupe in my mind for 40 years and spent the last 13 months actually puttin' it together...it still ain't done
You figure it out. When I started, the cool hubcaps were 54 Olds flippers, 57 Plumouth cones, & the best of the best were, Dodge Royal Lancer 4 bars. 4 speeds were truck transmissions, & a bucket seat was the 5 gal. variety turned upside down. LOL. For our race car seats we would find a delivery truck in the junkyard, these had single seats. Our seatbelts were WW II surplus tank belts, with the rubber framed tanker goggles, you were in business. ................ It's no disgrace to be poor...just inconvenient!!!
I'm 60 now and was handing wrenches to my Dad when he was under the car, when I was 6 or 7 years old. When I wasn't helping him, I was tearing my trikes & bikes apart. Now if I could just get some of that s**t back TOGETHER................
My Dad was a body shop manager at a Buick dealer (Morris Buick) in Detroit. I started hanging out there on Saturdays when I was 7 years old. That was in 1952.I learned how to spray cars when I was 9 using a Binks #7 gun. My Dad built me my first car when I was still 15 in 1960. It was a '40 Ford sedan with a 348 Chevy and red and white rolled naugahyde interior. The '34 vicky in the picture below is the car I drove to high school in 1962 when I was 16. I own this car today. I've been lucky enough to own and drive a hot rod,street rod or custom every day of my life since I was 16. I'm 60 years old now.This stuff has been a "sickness" for me all my life.
Found my first Rod and Custom magazine in the trash at school. Sept. 1959. Got hooked, started building AMT models, planning my first car in my head. Got my first car in 1961, a 52 ply. belveder. I dechromed it, had it painted Chevy Marina blue, blue and white rolled and pleated interior. split exhaust with scavanger pipes. Drove it summer and winter in Chicago till Uncle Sam got me in 65. Been involved in one form or another ever since. I guess that makes for 47 years.
Started reading Hot Rod in 1954. Got my first car in 1958 ('40 Ford 2dr.). I guess you could say I've got at least 50 years of seniority. I started by following my grandfather around when I was 4/5 years old and he had me driving tractors by the time I was 6. He's the one who sparked the mechanical gene and I've been unable to put the fire out. Haven't even tried. Frank
When I was 5 I was stealing my Moms fingernail polish and painting my Hot Wheels. So I guess Ive been customizing cars for 33 years. Shawn "ENFO" Shirley
I think that day in 1961 when I put two quarters on the counter at "Squash's" for the July issue of Hot Rod was the start of things for me. I was 10 years old and still have that issue.
I guess I started when I was handing wrenches to a guy with a channeled 32 roadster with a olds. that would be in 52'. in 55 I sold everything I had to buy a 48 ford coupe., auto tech school, joined NHRA in 56 ,several cars and 20 yrs in serv. actually restored a 24 t roadster. I am still at it, just much slower.lol
1956, chopped, channeled, 31 model A, Buick nailhead, Cad-LaSalle gearbox, Columbia 2 speed, stock 40 Ford front axle, no interior, windshield only, no top insert and the list of cars and life kept going. It's been great!!!
My parents moved to East LA in '56. One of my friends had an older brother who was in the Imperials and I "gunk brushed" for him on his '50 Ford. I watched it go from a worn stocker to a dropped, dechromed semi-custom with a '51 hood and lip, '53 Pontiac grill, frenched head and tail lights, funcional lakes pipes and Dodge Royal lancers. He painted it copper metalic (would be right in style now, huh?). My dad gave me my last spanking for taking my my Schwinn that he paid 90 1957 dollars for to Gil Ayala's shop on Olympic to have the forks heated to lower it. Damn, I'll bet you can't think of any disease that doesn't kill you after more than 49 years of infection. It has, on occasion, put my wallet on life support though. I've watched the deal go from the image of hoodlums to spoiled rich boys and now am seeing the return of somewhat of a hoodlum style. I sure don't hope the cops don't start to ride our ***es like they used to when I had my '54 Chevy in 1968. I got a too low ticket on the way from the hospital, bringing my mom home, the night my pop died. Bellflower Blvd. But, yeah I've done this stuff for a little while. Probably the most accurate measure is the fact that most of the guys who inspired and showed me the way are long dead.
The Jalopy Journal
