Hot Rods So,.... What lit the fire in you ? The car that inspired you FIRST ?

My Dads 69 Road Runner, he still owns it and it’s always been an incredible car. Not HAMB friendly but made me a life long car guy. -My uncle always owned Corvettes, especially 57-67 cars. I’ve always been a MoPar first car guy with a strong love for Vettes as a result. Later on I became more interested in traditional hot rods through Larry Barnette with his 33 Chrysler and 48 Plymouth plus we built a few cars for customers including a 32 Ford with a Flathead.

 

Several things. Dads old SS&DI, HRM and Car Craft mags from the 60s. Sitting in a running Offy powered midget when I was about 4 and the family photo album that I started reading around the same time. These two shots that my dad took in Sioux City, summer of 64 were burned into my brain at a young age. @Rikster used them in his Jack Stewart book.

 

I'm an oddity. I ended up getting into 50s cars after being addicted to 50s boats. And I blame dad for all of it.

 

these and the pulp wood and dump trucks growing up

 

Watched Ray Billhartz build his Olds powered roadster in Lansing MI around 1958
I was 10 years old then and very impressed.

 

Me either. Been in love with cars and trucks since I was a little kid.

 

Last name is "GAMMELL"

 

While serving in Korea 1951-1955, I bought & read every car mag I could lay my hands on!!!
SO, that lit my fire!!

 

This one...



I was 11 years old in 1958, living in a rural part of Maine where there were a few nice cars but nothing that could be called a hot rod or a custom car.

By chance I saw this magazine on the rack in the local drug store and fell instantly in love, with the car, with car magazines and with hot rodding in general. I bought this magazine, my first ever, with money I'd earned by picking up glass bottles on the side of the road and cashing them in for 2 cents each.

Sadly, this car met with a decidedly unglorious end, but my love for hot rods and customs is as bright and strong as ever.

 

It's 1969 and I'm 15 years old. Local gas station had a mechanic that had a 36 Ford 3 window, maroon, full-fendered and chopped. 283 4 Spd, black tuck and roll , chrome garnish moldings, chrome wheels with red line tires.
Asking 2,800.00. Might as well been 50,000.00. A new Z-28 at the time was just under 3,000.00. I've had a ton of cars since. No 36 Fords, but it is still on my bucket list

 

In 78 I was working part time at a gas station. I was filling up a car, had the oil checked and windshield washed just waiting for the nozzle to click full. I was looking down the highway and seen something strange coming at me. When it got closer it was a 50 f1 pulling a 55 chevy. They both looked cool and I got excited but figured I would never see them again.

This was a Sunday afternoon. Monday morning I was on my way to my full time job 20 miles north. Got into the next town and there the 50 f1 is sitting at the car wash for sale.
Tuesday it was sitting in my driveway. That was 44 years ago and it still sits in my garage, along with a lot of other old stuff.

Mike

 

My dad's '55 did it for me.

 

Beauty!

 

Early 80's at Tuxies, in Riverside, Ca. Lt.Grey primered 55 Chevy 2dr sedan, sitting low with a California rake. SBC with two (2) blowers. One sat flat, while the other on an angle. I told my dad I wanted to build one for my first car. I wasn't even a teenager, at that point. I clearly remember telling him that they were my favorite car. He looked at me in surprise, and said.. "these are MY favorite car!" I hope to remember that, as long as I can.

 

I have always been into cars.
I sure was a pissed off rug rat when my friends and cousins would play with my hot wheels and press to hard on the roof and bend the axles !!

my dad was a car guy mostly euro stuff and muscle cars , had a slew of fast back mustangs in the driveway growing up . ( also always a Lincoln as a daily )

but growing up in the 80’s it would have been the “ Cobra car “ Sylvester Stallone drove

and the Willy’s gasser in “ Hot rod” that really lit the match for old stuff and customs .

 

Do Not See No Stinking Dodge....

 

I did own a few Chryslers close e’nuf !!

 

When I was a kid, my older brother was buying Lowrider Magazine. I'd read them without him knowing. He wasn't one to share. That got me into wanting to customize old schwinn bicycles (they used to feature one bike in each issue) and it was probably the first time I really started looking at old cars as something I'd like to own one day. Later he bought an issue of American Rodder when I was about 15. That was the first time I really saw traditional rods. I remember a little red roadster with a flathead. It just had a great traditional look. It was the car that stuck in my mind whenever I thought about hot rods.

 

The Kookie Car on 77 Sunset Strip

 

For me I would say it was this kit which my parents got me when I was 5 or 6. Being a little kid I lost a couple of the Hot Rod pieces so I ended up building it stock. I was also influenced quite a bit by my Dad who was a mechanic. A little later an older neighbor kid gave me some of his old magazines. My Dad also gave me a go cart at 6 years old which I rode all over.

 

Had to be this car. I watched Wally Olson and Dwayne Taylor build it when I was eight years old.
My Dad would take me out to Dwayne's body shop West of Highway 99 in Fresno. Dwayne did
all the real nice body work including the rolled pan. I know everyone is familiar with the later
version of the car, but this is my favorite. I'll tell you something you've never heard about the car,
the T body was N.O.S. from the Ford dealership in Madera.

 

Being raised around a wrecking yard and used car lots there were many but if I had to pick one as a first, it would be the T roadster pickup in my avatar.

10943699_10203682089796347_2284603393024878785_n by onetrickpony posted Oct 22, 2015 at 12:03 PM

 

By age 5 in 1965 my parents have told me I would stand on the front seat and name the car brand for most cars coming towards us or what we were following.
Naming the models came later.
Neither of my parents are car people so they just figured I would grow out of it. Hasn't happened yet.

 

The very first one.
Handled like it was on a string.

 

Honestly, I didn’t grow up with these polished hot rods like most or you guys. But, I had an uncle that drug up old junk and I’d help him get em running. A 48 F1 was one of the first rides I helped with. Really dug that little truck. He drug it out of the woods with a stuck flathead on a Saturday morning. By noon, we was driving that beast around the neighborhood. A couple years earlier, he had a early 50s dodge truck. I thought the split hood was the coolest thing I ever seen. Painted blue with a brush, I wanted that truck so bad and still do.
Later in my early teens, the family went to a large car show at a GM plant in north Al. There was a blue chopped merc sitting in the weeds. Sexiest thing I had ever seen since Daisy Duke.

TV shows and beach movies was probably the only “traditional” influence growing up

 

Hot Wheels and Huey, Dewey, and Louie in their Tub. Go Dog Go was always a favorite also.
I went to auto body repair school and worked on this 55 Buick back in 1990. I liked it so much I bought one later.

 

The way I remember things (weaker all the time), the car thing seemed to come to me from many angles all at once. I recall watching the nifty little 77 Sunset Strip T bucket on a friend's TV. Also recall watching The Life Of Riley hot rod episode while home sick from school. Around that same time I spotted my first Hot Rod magazine. This was the issue with Lloyd Bakan's '32 coupe on the cover. So, with those influences taking hold there was the additional impact of the owners of a couple of lowboy coupes visiting the older girl next door. With all that happening around the same time I didn't have a chance! Started building model cars soon after and haven't looked back.

-Dave

 

About 1960/61 , I was still riding a bicycle, this coupe hazed the tires from a stop light , loud pipes ..... damn I was hooked , then my cousin gave me the AMT 3 in 1 “32 coupe model kit for Christmas, which I built and rebuilt and rebuilt , ..... been hot rodding ever since ....

 

Got hooked in 1966 at age 13 on a '32 Ford five window with a sbc that I saw around town. I thought I have to get one of those someday. The next year an older teenager neighbor got a nice '55 Chevy 2 door. I thought I have to get one of those. Got my own '55 Chevy 2 door in 1970 that I still have. I haven't got a '32 five window yet, but I did have a '32 three window. Do most of my hot rodding in a '34 Chevy five window that I've had since 1982.

 

It started with tonka trucks with me. But with hot rods it was the California kid.