Featured Hot Rods Where were you in '62?

Borrowing from the iconic tag line of American Grafitti - Where were you in '62?

I was a 12 year old kid and already liked cars and could tell you what most of them were when riding around with my dad in his '56 Chevy sedan delivery.

I really got hooked one Saturday when I went with my mom to Bryants drug store and picked up my very first Hot Rod Magazine.

At 12 years old seeing Dean Lowes red pickup I knew I wanted to build a hot rod pickup, growing up I built a lot of different cars but eventually I did build a pickup.

As crazy as it sounds a few years ago I was digging through boxes from my parents house and I found that very first hot rod magazine and talked to fellow Hamber Dean Lowe and he signed the magazine for me. HRP

 

1st grade, riding along with dad in his blue 61 Chevy Belair or the green 59 Chevy milk can truck

 

I was in diapers…

 

^^^^^ Before that the nursery at the hospital.

 

Freshman in HS. I could drive and had driven, but wasn't old enough for a license until the following year.
I was helping my older friends with their modifications and tuning.
Of course I was dreaming of a new 409 CI Bel Air bubble top. Red please!
That WAS a great time.

 

My wife was 9 years old and I wouldn’t show up until ‘66

 

I was 14 and building my first hot rod

 

I was kissin ****ies and ****pin my pants. . . So not that much has changed.

 

Sioux Falls, in traction getting my arm set, multiple surgeries and recuperating in traction for six week. My dad probably sold a few acres of farmland to pay for it

 

Not even thought of yet.

 

I was7 my brother was12, we were messing with go carts and mini bikes. Dad would take us to Fremont drag strip, the Oakland roadster show, the Car shows at the Cow Palace and there was a drag strip in Half Moon bay. Always was about cars for me.

 

I was 17 and had been working as a bag boy at the local A&P grocery store part time since I was 15. ‘Had saved up a little money and my Dad said he’d help me buy a car. As luck would have it the local Ford dealer had a brand new ‘62 Galaxy 2 door hardtop with the big engine and triple carbs, 4 speed and of course it was RED. I went down and lusted after it every day for about a week and I just knew my Dad was going to help me get it. When the big day finally arrived I withdrew all my savings and we went to see the Galaxy. I had, of course, been singing its praises to the point my parents were beginning to threaten me if I didn’t shut up about the car.
I can still hear my Dad when he laid eyes on the Galaxy. “That’s too much car for you. You have no business with something that fast.” He promptly asked the sales guy to show us something a lot more sedate.
Long story short, I left the dealership having placed an order for a ‘62 Fairlane 500, two door, in blue with three on the tree and…..a damn six cylinder engine. My Dad was no fool.
At least it was a new car.
Lots of memories were made in that car. I drove it for well over 100k miles and to this day I wish I could find one like it to restore and put a 289/302 engine in.
In hindsight 1962 was an OK year!

 

I was graduating from West Covina High School, And appearing on the magazine that kid is holding in Danny's lead post, Oh, and winning cl*** at the Winternationals. Thats the good part. The bad part is in May I was in a body cast from loosing an arguement with a Studebaker coupe.

 

Phoenix, AZ. 14 yrs. old and working on my first hot rod, the '37 yellow Chevy sedan in the photo,
which I later sold to my good friend, after I bought my brother's orange '40 Chevy in the same
photo. Second picture is how the '40 progressed over several years.

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I was going to the University of Minnesota, Duluth and planning on my next build. The previous summer, my best buddy and I had put together a '36 Ford coupe with a '42 Mercury flathead and a bunch of used and homemade speed equipments and went drag racing at Minnesota Dragway running in the D/Altered cl***. We had a bit of success and a lot of fun and decided to do it right the next year. I had ac***ulated some 2" square tube, a Model "A" rear crossmember, and a model "A" front suspension, and was laying out the frame for a "proper" D/Altered.

Right in the middle of everything, my buddy informed me that he had "knocked up" his girlfriend and was getting married. That put a stop to the altered build, and I changed direction and used what I had to build a "T" bucket. I eventually finished the car with a 270" '55 Dodge hemi and got it on the road in '66.

I don't have any pictures left of the bucket (an angry wife threw a lot of stuff out while I was out drinking with "the boys" a few years later), but my buddy had fared better and had saved a couple of the pictures of the original altered.

 

In ‘62, I was 16 and driving my ‘29 Model A cabriolet. It looked close to how it looks now, but much rougher back then.

 

Being conceived.

 

I was driving this, but it didn't have that Pontiac motor or the wheels and tires. I should have left it alone. This photo was taken in 82

This photo was taken a year ago last December

 

I was 4, probably standing between the bucket seats in my Dad's 40 chevy coupe while he was peeling out, or street racing. What a great time to grow up.

 

About the time the new 1962 car models were entering the new car dealerships in September 1962, I was entering 1st grade. I was either just 6yo, or just about 6yo, depending on the date in September you choose. I already liked cars!

 

Graduated from HS June 1962!
My 49 Chevrolet pickup with a 270 GMC engine before paint.
House I lived in from June 1944 until Nov 1963.

 

I was still in the Marine Corp with another year to go on a 5 1/2 year hitch.... I was driving a 53 Merc Monterey
Had a three speed overdrive and tall rearend gears.... Would do 120 across the Calif desert with a stock flathead....

LynnW

 

You shoulda turned off onto the dry lakes. You would have won a trophy.

 

I was a 2 year old living in N.S.W. Australia...

 

I turned four in the fall of 62 and I was into cars before that, I used to determine the type of car we would see driving around by a person that we knew that had a car like it. I’d say that’s a Kenny car or a Charley car, my dad worked for the local newspaper so we knew quite a few people and the cars they drove. lol

 

Fairbanks, Alaska Graduated High School in 62. Had bought a 57 Ford convertible with a 430 Lincoln from a soldier that got transferred. Froze my **** off in that car. My dad was in the army and stationed at Fort Wainwright.

 

June that year ( turning 14 ) marked a threshold for me.
While riding my bike, I stopped at drug store for a soda and found a mag called Car Craft.
35 cents later my mind and heart were doing ''The Twist" as I fell totally in love with the look of
Coupes and Sedans the featured theme that month.
Soon as I could I paid for a year's subscription.
My main obsession, in a very busy life. became dreaming of my own.
That avatar is six years later. Me on the left

 

17 years old and cruising the streets of our small Nebraska town in my 53 Chevy and trusty Cushman scooter and trying to spend as little time as possible in the principals office. Had started collecting Little Pages. I was hooked on 32 Fords. Life was good.

 

17 and Graduated from High School.Got $150 graduation presents and bought this 1951 Mercury Conv.

 

I had been building model kits for about 4 years in 1962. Started Jr. High and found out the librarian trashed all of the car mags each month when the new ones arrived. No way! I asked the lady if she would save them for me instead. That started my magazine collection. Three yrs. later bought my first car, a '53 Ford Mainline. The rest is car nut history.