History The crazy things we did

Being stuck in paint prison thread reminded me of this and it could be interesting.

When I was in high school one of the fellas was given his mom's '59 Ford. Now being mid 20th century this was not the worlds most popular car. But it was a 2 door sedan and had a v8 in it so it did have that going for it.

The man in question decided that if it was copper colored it would look better, well that and he found copper paint at the army surplus by the gallon cheap. One weekend we all had a smoke and grabbed paint brushes and painted it copper. I looked real good that day. Not so much the next day when we were not smoking. LOL

So tell us quick what adventures you had to be one of the cool kids.

NOTE: you are not required to admit that you may have done something not legal.

 

Some time back, when my nickname was Krash, my brother wrote following about me and my first car, also a '59 Ford.

"It all started when my maternal grandparents bought Krash a '59 Ford Three Hundred Custom, four door sedan for high school graduation. The Ford was powered by a 223 cu. in. six cylinder and a three speed transmission. As was typical of a 200 dollar car, much work was needed. Krash responded to this challenge by spending his meager funds on wide oval tires, a piston head shift lever, and a foot shaped gas pedal. Krash's careful accessory selections seemed to anger Dad who, for some inexplicable reason, felt that repair of things like bad brakes was more important. Dad just didn't understand the importance of looking cool. Why wide oval tires on a wore out, ten year old, four door sedan was cool is beyond the scope of this essay."

 

Another 59 Ford story….
My brother sold it to me for 200 bucks.
My first car. A wagon. Had plenty of fun in it. It also was 1969.
Had a y block automatic. Cut my teeth on mechanics keeping it on the road.
Until we decided to go to my first drag race at Dragway 42.
On the way home I decided mine too was a race car and the state police pulled me over doing 85 in a 65 zone. lost my license for 6 months.

 

OK, another 59 Ford story. I was showing off, showboating ... trying to impress someone. Anyway, I had this 292 powered '59 Ford 3 on the tree and I power shifted it into 2nd gear and broke the trans pretty badly. I went to the local auto wrecker and got a bunch of parts to fix the trans. I fixed the trans later that evening and backed it out of the garage only to find that I had roached the rear end when I broke the trans. That was a job for the next day.

 

Since we are talking 59 Fords. When I was kid in North Dakota my dads hunting and fishing partner had a bright yellow 59 Ford huntin car. I spent A LOT of time in the backseat of that thing on escapades with them. They took that thing places you think would need 4wd for today. Fun memories.

 

Hmm... the painting comments made me remember a guy that was a few years ahead of me in school (I was in junior high, he was in high school.) He had a 65 or so Mustang (this was about 1972 or 73) that was in "ok" condition, but he decided that he wanted to paint it a different color. So, one weekend, he gathers a paint brush and the remains of a gallon of house paint (I never did learn if it was oil or latex) and proceeds to paint his car. Didn't wash it or do any prep, just painted over the dirt, mud, etc. I guess there was a reason his nickname was "Jughead."

 

Not car related, but I stopped at a buddies place one Saturday afternoon, walked in a he and a few others were crashed out in the living room. Power tools and extension cords all over. Total mess all around. Looked up and there’s a big hole in the ceiling, rafters cut out and a hole in the roof.
I guess they decided to put in a skylight.
I’m sure illegal substances were involved.

 

Cripes, what's with all the 59 Fords!
Ok, I have a little experience cept it was my pals moms car, yes, a 59 Ford, black two door sedan, 292/auto.
He got his license before me and this thing was our escape vehicle, not much to brag about adventure wise because the ground rules had been set early on, but it got us out of the house, thats about it, and no, we had not been introduced to alcohol yet, let alone any other "mood enhancers".
But when I got my 61 Impala (almost sixteen) and still no licence yet, thats when the fun started, sure my pal drove it out of the driveway but when we were out of sight it was MY CAR.
The 348/three on the tree was fun but when I put the Hurst Syncro Loc shifter in it we thought we were Sox and Martin (in a Chevy).
I know, pretty boring huh!

 

I'm going to get you guys away from the 59 Ford to a 66 Fairlane wagon 200 six and treespeed, L60 14 on the back via air shocks set at 100lbs or so. I don't remember how this was found out but if I got on and off the throttle at just the right rhythm the front tires would come off the ground a foot or more. By the end of the summer I was very good at swapping input shafts or the compleat transmission in a couple of hours.
Now that was fun.

 

"Way Back Story Time"
A good buddy,got a used VW cheep,but it jumped out of gear alot an shifted bad. Could not aford to have a shop fix it. So foolish teens can do anything RIGHT,the power of stupidity protects!.
I didn't know anything about VWs,but he was my buddy,he ask for help:he was not much help on cars though ! He know I had repaired a few Ford 3speed trannys an built a hot rod!
So we go buy a new Chiltons car book, for not made in USA ,with VW crap in it.
Fig we just follow the photos an read. Buy new synchronizers n gaskets.
Pull motor n tranny out EZ Peezy,then take tranny apart,add new parts reassmble like new book said,and test drive!
We now had a VW with one speed forward *an a number of speeds backing up !!! Oooo Shit!
Took it all back out an apart,every thing looked right by the book,come to find out a photo in book was printed,reversed mirror image= showed ring gear on wrong side,= I was too stupid about VW to know those things can even be put together ether way=one slow speed forward. LOL
Turned out later ,when SCCA - FV race cars were built mid engine,they use the trick deliberately with tranny behind engine.

 

Since this seems to be about 59 Ford stories, I have one. In about 1966 a friend of mine got his moms 59 Galaxy 2 dr ht and we went out driving around after a few beers. We were both about 16 years old. We came upon a new stretch of hi way that they just had painted the center lines in the road that day. It was dark and they had put orange cones down the newly painted center line to keep people from driving on the new paint. My friend Mark thought it would be fun to knock all the cones over, so he opened the drivers door at 60 MPH. The cones went flying as they hit the open door. Until............. he hit one that some hi way worker had filled with cement, to fix those ass hole kids that kept knocking them over. The door slammed shut so hard that it almost broke his arm. He had a fun time explaining to his mom how the drivers door got caved in.

 

Speaking of reverse speeds one of my buddies wanted to lift his '57 Ford in the rear. Someone had said just put the rear end under the springs. Eeezy Peezy, just remove the rear and bolt it in under the springs. So remove the spring bolt to get it sticking out the bottom and flip the rear over and we were done. One speed forward and 3 in reverse. LOL

One time in the '70s we painted a '57 bug with a roller. it was a fuzzy bugger, guess we should have used a short nap roller.

 

Your first performance mod is always memorable. I'm going in a different direction.
I've told this tale in the past but it always amuses me. My buddy Don got me as partner in a '29 cabriolet shell. The remains were the rolling chassis, and body with doors, no fenders.
We had a tough time with shelter, and one night it we had to drag it from my uncle's Gulf station in Olney to West Philly. Around 12 miles. We set out around midnight to avoid traffic. Don drove my pop's fairly new '65 Chevelle SW, a work vehicle, I was to guide the 'A'.

Safety equipment consisted of a set of snow chains for pulling, and an old dead tire to cushion the blows to the back of Pop's wagon. Things were pretty calm through Olney and Germantown ( except for protests from law abiding citizens ) When we got to East Falls to avoid U.S. Rte 1 we lined up to use The East Falls bridge. It's hard to think of a steeper hill. As we start down, the front tires wanted to climb up the bumper and tailgate. The cable for the emergency brake had been on my mind.

So I stuck my work boot in the cable and pushed. The torque tube being twisted downward, managed to catch a crack in the pavement with the universal bell. I was shot up in the air looking over Pops roof with a fear filled grip to the steering wheel, when it broke free. Really can't recall what was under me except it had no interior. The rest of the trip was easy.

 

Never really wanted a '59 Ford...until now. Didn't know they came equipped with so much fun (& stupidity).
How about a '39 Ford story? My friends who have been dumb enough to stick around me since the '70s, all like to recall when my parents would be gone & we would take the '39 for a drive. Too young to have a license. No seats, so we used 5 gallon pails turned upside down (bucket seats!), & take it for a ride in the gravel pit near my house. Try to drive through a gravel pit in a buggy sprung Ford, sitting on 5 gallon "bucket seats" & not fall over & crash into stuff. It was fun, but I don't reccomend it.

 

Painted a 48 f1. Me and a friend from school. Our first paying gig.
We did the body work the day before. Packed it full of mud and lacquer glaze. Dirt floor shop with one flickering fluorescent light. We both took turns holding the flashlight as we sprayed the Western synthetic enamel cut with lacquer thinner.
looked like crap. The guy loved it. We both made $50

 

Non automotive?

I could tell stories that'd shake the foundations of the hamb universe. I was quite the wild one in my pro musician days. But they're not things that I'm proud of now. Not ashamed, I lived a crazy life and had some amazing times. I wouldn't change it, but I certainly don't brag about um. I was a lunatic back then.


When I was a junior in hs I drove my Malibu all the way home from school in reverse on a dare tho. One tame car story...

 

When I was a junior is high school, one of the "rich chick's" parents bought a brand new '59 Ford Galaxie two door hardtop; top of the line.

Ford's advertising slogan that year was "The world's most beautifully proportioned car" and said it won some international prize at the Belgium's World Fair that year.

I couldn't have agreed less. That car was stone ugly.

'57 Fords looked real good; they really screwed the pooch in '58, and hit rock bottom in '59.

And if I forgot to mention, my opinion of the Belgians has suffered greatly since then.

 

210superair , are you my long lost brother ???

 

When I was 16, their was a half a dozen of us with 4 wheel drive pick-up's and a shit load of beer every weekend. It rarely ended up good! Unplowed bean field's in the fall after a good rain and abandoned gravel pit's the rest of the time didn't stand a chance...

 

Had a guy named Red who was a year behind me in high school. Red's Dad had a cherry '46 Ford coupe that he would only drive on weekends when he got back in town from wherever he had traveled for work. Red and I went to the stock car races one night and I hatched a plan to become one of those fearless stock car drivers. All it was going to take was a coupe and I knew right where one was. One week while Red's Dad was gone, I convinced Red we should take his Dad's 46 over to Ernie Briscoe's and use his torch to strip it down to racing weight. Not being the brightest, Red agreed so, we did. After the carnage was over, we returned the car to Red's Dad's garage thinking how proud he was going to be seeing the trophies his car was going to bring home. Unfortunately, he was less than thrilled about the condition of his once pristine coupe and beat the hell out of Red. Then, he showed up at my house. I disappeared and my Mom was left to confront Red's Dad. Red never would talk to me after that but my Mom had plenty to say. Not one of my prouder moments but the title of this thread is, " The Crazy Things We Did ".

 

Never knew what was missing in my life before, now I know it's a 59 Ford.
I've got several new heroes after reading this thread.
My best stories may involve felonies, so I ain't saying a thing.

 

Tubman's comment about '58 Fords (I like '59s OK, '57s better) reminds me of my father's quip about '58 Fords--he worked at Ford's Atlanta assembly plant, and he said that '58 Fords "look like a largemouth bass on wheels."

 

We may all need to review statute of limitations laws first

 

^^^^ yup

 

Not a 59 Ford but one year later, a 60 Ford station wagon. My dad had purchased a 60 Ford station wagon that he let me drive when I got my license. After a while, I discovered that when you a coming to a stop and coasting, you can turn off the ignition and when you turn it back on, it would backfire. I did this a few times off and on. One day I was coasting down to a red light so I turned off the ignition and coasted all the way to the red light. When it turned green, I went to crank it and Kaboom.. I blew the nearly new muffler to bits. I played innocent and told him I didn't know how it happened, it just backfired. He either bought my story or pretended to. I always felt bad about that because we did not have money to throw away on childish pranks like that. I never did it again.

 

In high school I took an auto body class at the community college during the afternoons. Beats being in school all day. So I was working on my moms OT daily driver doing some body work. I sprayed the quarter panel in primer at the end of class to prevent corrosion overnight, as I had to drive the car back home everyday. One day I taped off in masking tape “Death Mobile “ ala Animal House on the quarter panel. The next day at school I got called down to the office, and the dean of students told me either I take that off the car, or I wasn’t allowed in the school parking lot (I guess he never saw the movie). Well, being the stubborn kid I was I parked up the street the rest of the school year, and purposely left it on the car till time to paint.

 

Sounds familiar
My HS principal didn’t like my truck parked in front of school. I would get called to the office to move it frequently.
Pic of me parked in front of school. This pic is from our HS yearbook

This was the view from his office window

 

After I got my license when I turned 16, the car I drove was dad's 64 Olds Dynamic 88 with a 394 4 bbl. Probably not a great car for a new driver.
To make things even worse, Dad ran his own business, so the phone at our house was always ringing with work for dad. As an escape, every Friday after dad got off work, the entire family loaded up in the car and went up to the lakes (about 90 miles away), there was no phone at the lakes. They stayed there until Sunday afternoon when they came home to watch the local races. That was an every weekend thing between April and about the middle of Sept when they closed up the lakes house.
The weekend at the lakes was my life, until I turned 16, and got a job at a local gas station. I had to work every Friday night from 5pm until closing at 9 pm, and then all day Saturday. I'd gotten my license in Sept, about the time my parents closed up the lakes. I was a really good boy driving dad's car to work, and directly home after all fall and winter. When spring came around, Mom & Dad determined I could stay home from the lakes so I could go to work, as long as I stayed out of trouble. I did really well about staying out of trouble for a couple weeks.

Dad's Olds was pretty fast, faster then any car any of my buddies had. I had all of Friday evening after 9pm and every Saturday evening after work to hone my driving skills in our local downtown cruising area. I was a pretty quick study and could drive the Olds pretty well. Working at the gas station had a few perks (I had money and gas). Often 3 of my buddies would go cruising with me in the Olds.
One faithful evening while cruising in the Olds with my buddies, some guy in a pretty hot 66 Chevelle challenged me to a race. We were sitting at a light, and my one buddy was talking crap to the Chevelle driver. When the light turned green, I stomped the Olds (not the best way to leave the line, but made great tire squealing and tire smoke) then promptly left off the gas. The Chevelle guy was taken by surprise by my start, but recovered quickly and went shooting past us about the time I had let off the gas. He wasn't a happy camper! The next light he wanted another run at me and started talking about running title for title. So I stuck my head out of the window and really looked over the side of this very sharp Chevelle. My buddy that was sitting in the back seat was a Ford guy, so he was making unkind comments about the Chevy. Finally, just before the light turned green, I asked the guy "Why on earth would I want the title to that pile of junk?" Then the light turned green and I stomped the Olds again, and again left off it pretty quickly. Again I caught him off guard and he went racing past us as I let off the gas. By the next light, all my buddies are giving him rash about how his race car can't even beat my dad's car with 4 guys in it.

Man, the next light he was ready! The light turned green and off he went. I just idled away. On my side of the intersection where the Chevelle driver couldn't see was a cop car, no doubt looking for whom ever had been making all the tire noise and tire smoke the last few minutes. The cop car was on him fast! About 4 blocks down the road we did a slow cruise past the Chevelle sitting on the side of the street with the cop, red lights flashing, parked behind him. We all laughed and waved at the Chevelle driver as we cruised by. Gene

 

I have a stupid kid tale of painting cars that taught me I was no body & paint guy early in life. I had a buddy I graduated with in 1969. He and another guy had painted his 55 Ford and it didn't look to bad so he called himself a painter. I worked at a parts store making $1.60 an hour so I was always looking to make a buck on the side. He talked me into taking on some paint jobs, nothing to it he said. The first guy he lined up had a white 65 Impala that he wanted painted a light green with fine flake in it. The only place we had to work was his Dad's wood shop. I got off work at 9PM on Sat. night and we pulled the Chevy in the sawdust heavy shop. I asked what about the dust, dirt and sawdust every where? No, sweat he said, we will hose the floor down! I was so stupid and he was the "expert" I just went along with him. We half assed sanded the car, blew it off and and he started mixing paint and the next thing I knew he was spraying the hood. The paint was way to thin and not covering hardly at all and running like crazy. He said there is something wrong with this crummy paint, so we decided to let it dry and sand the runs out before another coat. After a couple 6 packs "flash time" he told me to try the paint gun, turned out I was no better than him but the color was starting to look green at least but way more runs and dark and light "stripes" By this time it's getting daylight so we went home to finish it later in the day. When I went back to the shop after a few hours sleep he was already there painting the door jams and under the trunk lid with a brush. When we pulled it outside to check it our I almost had a fit. The sawdust was in the paint so bad it looked like we had threw buckets of it on the wet paint, no to mention the runs, drips, streaks and places that were still white where it wasn't covered. We took it back at night, he took the guy the keys, handed them to him at the door, he ran and got in my car and we took off. He changed his phone number the next day, I was sure glad the guy didn't know I had anything to do with it and I told my "buddy" if he ever brought up painting another car to me I would shoot him!

 

Right out of high school, working for the GM dealership in 1980, I bought a cream puff white 4 door 1959 Ford Galaxie, off their used car lot. Nice clean vehicle that I wish I still owned. Sorry fellow H.A.M.B.ers, I never did anything illegal, or stupid while I was owner of this car. Oh by the way, I only owned it for a short period of time ....