Hey all I'm Brett and am the proud owner of a 1946 Chevy P'up that I intend to do up in early '60s style. Got an idea for a theme. Try to follow me here.... I was born in 1963, (yup, getting to be an old fart). I was thinking....what if a kid turned 16 in 1963 and his grandad gave him one of the old farm trucks for his birthday? What would that kid sell newspapers and mow yards to put on "his ride"? What would his wish list look like? Here's what I see...TorqThrusts, maybe with wide whites, black suede, either black&red pinstripes or green&purple (I grew up loving Rat Fink!!!!), or a brown suede tiki theme, mexican blanket interior, 283 with a quad and an old caddi air filter housing, or six holley 94s on a Man-A-Fre intake, and a M-21 4-speed, '55 210 steering wheel, and so forth. The only "modern" touch is a MII front suspension for disc brakes, indaweed stance, and ride. Been collecting parts over the years...Got the six-deuce setup (needs rebuilding and linkage) and a quad carb and the caddi housing. Had the 283 for years.... I've actually had the truck since 1977, my first car..... See where I'm going?!?!?!? Help me out here! How 'bout some input from the guys that could have been in that situation in 1963! What was on your "wish list"? <!-- / message -->
hey Brett.. a 16 year old kid in 1963 wouldnt have a pot to piss in.. he definetly couldnt afford Torq Thrusts or a whole lot of stuff. maybe he would have to go beg it outa granpa.. maybe lets try a mid 20 something single dude with a great job! in 1963
Well ... I WAS 16 in 1964 ... Only the high rollers already graduated high school guys had mags ( and very few of them had them either ) ... and few high school guys could afford chrome reverse rims. Most ran blackwall tires on them. Any color paint ( even old original paint ) was preferred over Primer. Some fellows had a couple of speed item decals in the windows but not really much speed equipment. Just having a vehicle that ran was considered a accomplishment. I did get a 55 Chevy 150 2 door later ... but not many fellows had their own car. Some of the older guys had 409's and 390/406 Fords ... but they were generally married, had decent jobs and were not in our circle. They were OLD GUYS At least that's the way it was in my part of town. .
Steel wheels with blackwall or thin wall whites (used) guys with money bought recap cheater slicks, and baby moons. No headers, but duals with exhaust cutouts, couple cherry bombs ending just in front of the rear axle. Fake lakes pipes, lowering blocks in the rear, reverb amp to single rear speaker. Cheap after market three speed floor shift and a spinner knob. Some kind of blanket seat covers, (not mexican) On chevie v8's a newer non oilbath aircleaner with the top turned upside down, so as to increase induction air noise. Lots of primer black, some scallops, no pin striping. Hot look in our area, no front bumper.
I was 15, and had my first car under way in '63. Most of the things you list (Muncie 4-speed, Torq Thrust wheels, and the Man-a-free 4X2) were not available in '63, but were by about 65-68. In '63, baby moons were popular, and if you had the dollars, you ran them on chrome reverse wheels. The new narrow whitewalls were the thing to have. I never saw horseblanket interiors until about '95, and we did not pinstripe the primer. We were waiting for the paint job to be finished! The engine would have been desireable, and 6 deuces were still cool. The Tiki style themes were mostly on show rods and West Coast woodies, but were around then. Hey "Plym 46", I took the front bumper off my '53 Chevy too, then filled the front springs full of spacers, and painted the rear wheels half-black, half-white for that drag car look! Foxcraft shifter on the three speed, and a "dice" spinner on the steering wheel....also some black cheapie cloth seat covers.
I won't say how old I am but one trait during that time period was no hood or sides cut out so you could see those carbs. No bumpers and a little lift in the front. Tall stick shift and dice dangling and yes....primer paint. Painted rims (usually red) with baby moons and as mentioned, as many hot rod decals as you could paste on the back glass.
I was 17 in 1963 and in our high school only about 5 people had cars in the whole school of maybe 400 kids. In "64" I bought my first car "49" Ford cp. for 50 bucks, immediately painted the rims red and put porta walls on it, they were like 2 dollars each. Had it maybe a year and my pop co-signed a bank note for me for $100.00 to get chrome stripped off and painted "61" Buick Steel Blue. Payment on loan was 12 or 14 dollars a month Had the car for three months, after painting & fixing up,hit a "59 Chev Wagon head on, my oldman beat my ass. Walked to the bank once a month for 9 months to pay off my loan
I'm older than Deuce as I was 18 in 64, and I had wide whites on my 56 Ford Crown Vic with standard wheels. Back then wide whites were losing their popularity as everybody was going to 1" whites. Most ordinary folk didn't have mag wheels, torque thrusts didn't exist neither did Cragers. If you had wires you either had an antique or a MG. Steel wheels were the flavor of the day, and you were special if you had them painted to match the car with trim rings and chrome smoothie center caps (we didn't call them moon caps back then). Rich kids and kids on the west coast may have had halibrands and radir wheels and other fancy accessories, but most did not. We had curb feelers and fender skirts, and Marilyn Monroe in a Death knob on the steering wheel. And no one wanted to be seen in a car wearing primer or suede. It had to be painted, even rattle can paint was preferred to primer. No body had anything other than an AM radio, no FM, no cassettes, no 4 track or 8 track or cd's, etc. Just AM radio and rock and roll. We did have lake pipes with real cutouts and glasspak mufflers like Smithy's and a little later, Thrush. We might have had a 3/4 race cam if we could afford one, usually an Isky. A single 2 or 4 brl or 3 deuces mostly rulled the day. There were other carb combo's, but not with much frequency. You'd do best keeping your truck simple. Very easy to violate the traditional period look by adding to much glitz and glitter. Just my .02
About those red rims, quite often if you took the hub cap off you found only the outer part of the rim (where it showed with the hub cap on) was painted. '57 Plymouth, '53 Studebaker hub caps were popular and of course "flippers". Completely primered cars WERE NOT the in thing. Cars in the "primer stage" had spots where work had been done.
When I was 16 the most I could do was buy a can of flat black spray paint to paint my wheels with. I worked at a Full Service station pumping gas. Full Service, that means I checked the oil, radiator, battery level, all four tires and washed the windshield while the tank was filling. Any way if I hadn't worked there I wouldn't have tires. I use the ones that came off of the customers cars that had a little rubber left on them. Only speed or custom parts I had then was a set of baby moons and straight pipes since I couldnt afford mufflers. I made me some cool side pipes out of irrigation suction tubes.
When I was 16 in 1977 most kids I knew still couldn't afford mags. The few who had them got them from someone else or bought them second hand. A buddy of mine traded his mags with bald tires for plain steel wheels because they had good tires on them. (his came with the car).
In 63, I was 17, just got my permit, found a 1960 Chevy, a retired cop car for next to nothing, baby moons whent right on it, and had to keep a case of RPM oil ( was realy cheap oil at that time) in the trunk, used more oil than gas!! I do have a 60 Chevy now, no engine or trans, but I have a 400 and a 350 trans waiting to go in.
In '63, most young drivers would lean towards chrome reverse wheels with either baby moons, pie-pan hubcaps, or pie-pans with knock-offs. BIG tires, but NO whitewalls (wrong era). Beyond that, a lot of guys went with some pinstriping (not much unless you pumped a lot of gas on your part time job). A lot of guys named their vehicles. Some blue dots on the tail lilghts. Keep it simple.
46 - I'll go with this comment. "Just having a vehicle that ran was considered an accomplishment." I drove "daddy's car" ('59 Impala 4-door) all through school and didn't own my own car until returning from the military in '65. Even then, it was a hundred-dollar '50 Chevy (the one in my HAMB avitar). I graduated High School in '62 (at 18 years of age), and I'd say that no more than 15 -20 % of the guys owned cars. Those that did usually had stuff from the late '40s/early'50s. Maybe the ocassional Model A. Thin white walls (often cheapo "Portawalls") were the thing, with black steelies - or chrome reversed wheels if you had big bucks - baby moons or some kind of bolt-on spinners, spider caps, etc. were the favorite wheel treatment. No full hubcaps. Mags were rare, and definately for the super-rich crowd. Wide and/or reversed wheels were made by welding the wheel centers from your car into rims from bigger luxury cars (cads, buicks, chryslers, etc.). Guys who wanted the "custom" look sometimes painted their wheel wells white (or other contrasting color to their car). If you did the white, re-touching them before the Saturday night cruise was a weekly affair - as was a "Blue Coral" or "Classic Car" wax job. Nobody was proud of a rusted piece of shit. Maybe you couldn't afford something nice, but at least you could keep it clean and shiney. There was plenty of "rattle can" primer around - and it was OK to have primer spots if your car was a work in progress, but a "real" paint job was the goal. Again, nothing fancy (Earl Sheib, etc. - or something done in your garage at home). Three deuce set-ups - or dual four barrels, were pretty exotic, as were big-block motors and 4-speed trannies. Most had three speeds, often times with a cheap floor shifter conversion (My first one was a "Universal Spark-O-matic" - priced at $9.95. It was supposed to fit several dozen different GM cars. In truth, it really didn't FIT any of them that well. It took forever to install and that included plenty of creative bending of the shift rods). It was mostly the old "three-on-the-tree" deal. There were a lot of 6-cylinder powered cars too. Way more than V-8s. The main thing to remember if you want to be "period correct", is that VERY FEW young guys had any real money back then, (I made 75 cents and hour pumping gas back then) so not all that much new stuff was bought. You saved a LONG time to go shopping for that special item at the speed shop. Junk yards were prowled regularly, and anything that would do the job was cleaned up and used - or modified to work. Straight-through mufflers however, were always in vogue and loud pipes were a rite of passage. Headers? I don't think so (money again). A few of the six-banger guys had split manifolds (again, welded up at home or in auto shop - not store bought). Have fun!
I was born in '49 so I fit in this thread. First car was a '51 Ford tudor that i took in trade for plowing for a neighbor for three days. Black rims, thin whites, Otasco seatcovers, homemade floor shifter, '51 buick grill. Drove it all the way through high school. The rich kids had 59-63 Chevies, A few had nice tri five Chevies.
1963..... I had a '47 Chevy coupe (no back seat) and NO hood or front bumper. Hood came up one night at speed, never had the bumper. Thin whitewalls, split exhaust. That's about it.
what I remember from around that time was most engines stayed stock , maybe an air cleaner, painted the wheels red, narrow white walls, blacknight hubcaps, removed the bumper on your 55 chevy, Had a few friends with their names painted on the doors just under the window, Knew one guy that had a 54 sedan, painted it yellow, jacked up the front, removed the front bumper, me and his brother made custom parking light lens, and taillight lens out of plexiglass in the shop class. Neat just thinking about all them cars again.
1st thing i remember doing was ditching the hubcaps for baby moons adding dual exhaust with that flexible stuff and when i got the money pulling of the 2 bbl and adding a 4 bbl. and if you had a stick swap a cheap almquist floor shift. when money got better then came the cams, multiple carbs. of course that was just before the muscle car era came on the scene. the bucks up guys in town had the 409s with a few fords sprinkled in, and those sneaky mopars with no weight that alot of guys wouldn't mess with. those guys could usually afford cragars, at least on the front.
Baby moons, beauty rings and thin port-w-walls. All purchased at Penn-Jersey before I could get the insurance. The car was in the back yard. I was eighteen and making killer money at 2.30 an hour. Gas was about 32 cents a gallon. Many had air shocks with the ass end jacked up and chrome "scavenger pipes" UNDER the rear axle. My first set of custom wheels were a used set of chrome reversed wheels. I spent an hour fighting the tire machine cussing like a sailor when one of the older guys explained to me that 14" tires won't fit on 15" wheels. DOH!
So glad to see the real truth come out for some of the young guys that don't have a clue as to what it was really like. I was 21 in '63 - every day driver was a '50 Chev 2 door, split manifold, nosed and decked, moon discs, good seat covers and a floor shift. In the meantime I was dropping every penny I had into a 394 Olds - Isky roller, 2 AFB's, Mag, worked Hydro, 10.5-1 pistons. The engine ended up in a 54 Olds 2 door sedan in late '63.
In 63 I was 20. I bought a new 63 Ply Sport Fury 383 4spd. Please note that I had been working full time for a couple of years. My senior year I was in a school work program where I went to school half day and worked the rest of the day. I was also married. I did a lot of street racing with that car. My car did have steel wheels thin w/w's and no hubcaps. Two years earlier I had a 54 Ford 239 OHV with 3X2's and an Isky cam, and chevy truck mufflers. Light blue car with red steel wheels and wide white porta walls. I did get help buying this one from Dad.
It was 69 but I had a 64 chevy fleetside truck[ex oilfield truck]. It ran ,283 with twice pipes . I had a 55 gallon drum in the back for when they had a little gas war I would fill up. I was raised in west Texas. Had hay in the back to feed the cows and a bumper guard on the front for whatever got in the way. Just having a running truck was cool. My dad would let me borrow his flipper hubcaps on the weekend though. I had mud grips on the back.
Ha, the good old full service station, man i worked as many hours as i could in them, during rush hours you had to be fast, must have patched a bgillion flats, we washed cars to. I finally got me a set of chrome wheels and thought i was about the badest thing on the road!
Tommy - Glad to see that somebody remembers scavenger pipes under the axle with the ass end in the air - might have spray bombed the gas tank white, too, to show how clean yer stuff was. In '63 I graduated high school and had a '40 Ford; in my hometown (in Western Mass.) cars were raked nose down, steel wheels with no caps (to show that you raced, as you hadda take 'em off @ the strip), Atlas Bucrons in 8.20x15. Spots of primer were ok, but you wanted paint. You kept your stuff as clean as you could. Engines were modified paycheck by paycheck. vic
I was 17 in '64 and drove a '56 Chevy 4-door that was all in gray primer when I bought it for $15.00. I bought four used tires from a junk yard for another $5.00 each and my brother helped me to put brakes in it. I was happy to have wheels, but so ashamed it was in primer, I never took a picture of it and I've regretted not doing so to this day. I worked after school & weekends slinging tires at a chain auto parts store, Noah's Ark. As I recall, I made 75¢ an hour. I was able to buy gas, reimburse my mother for insurance and keep it running, but just barely. I also had to buy some of my clothes out of the money I earned. The cool stuff had to wait a few more years as my dad had passed away when I was 13 and we just didn't have a lot of money back then.
Now i was born in 56 so my first car was a 67 mustang fastback. I paid all of $400 for it in 1969 i was only 13. The car only had 2500 miles on it the guy that got it new Died in the war, and i was his Mom;s paper boy. So me and a friend push it home a block and then i told my Dad what i just spent all my money on. So he had a friend come look at the eng. And they told me it had a bad valves. So not knowing they took me to a junk to let me pull a head off a car there so i would know how to do it. So i took the heads off my car and sent them to my dad's friends shop. 1 1/2 years later he told me they were done so i put it all back together. !0 years later i worked for that friendof my Dad's at Beverly hills Lic. Murc. And he was smilling and said Hey did you ever think why it took so long to do a valve job? I said no He said you were to young and your dad new you would Drive that car at 13 HA HA HA!!! Boy the Old Man got me. But all my car had was moon caps and had it Jacked up with Air Jacker's in back,side pipes , oh and Red lights inside for that Hot look, I did have it pinstriped but that cost $50 big money when you only made $2.75 my 2 cents about the sixtys
You guys make me feel like I'm ready for the grave yard!!!In the late fifties and all thru the sixties..I was one of the guys ya'll came to ,to buy all these aforementioned goodies...But we sold a TON of Sun Tachs,Moon discs,woodpecker decals,Hurst Mtstery Shifters..And yes whitesidewall PAINT.Had a laugh on day a kid came in asked for a pint of that paint..I asked him what size tire he was going to paint? 6.70x15 he says,,I say sorry we are all out of that size...He says thanks and walks out...We laughed the rest of the day..PRICES?? Edelbrock 3-2 SBC Manif $35.00,Schiefer Alum flywheels $35.00,Hedman Hedders $39.95,,Vertex Mags $125.00.' THOSE WERE THE DAYS,MY FRIEND"
Only reason a car was in primer than was either because it was still being worked on or the guy was saving up for the shiny paint, that was the goal. If I'm remembering right Cragers came out in 64. The majority of 16 year olds then didn't have a pot to piss in let alone alot of money to put into their car. If they were lucky they had a job after school that maybe paid a whole $.75 an hour. Most ran whitewalls, wheel treatment varied, spinners, moons, painted wheels, no hub caps. Other things included, cut-outs, California rake, scavengers, rear down w/skirts, lake pipes. wbrw32 I've still got a 1 piece Sun 10 grander that I bought in the spring of 64 for a whole $36 new. I was 19 in 63 and these were what I had
I am a lot older ,in 56 I had a 40 standard Ford coupe with torched front spring, dual straight pipes, and painted white walls with full wheel covers with the edge of the rim painted red. My first car after high school. Traded it for a 49 Ford coupe, had the head lights and tail lights frenched, hood and trunk leaded, gas filler moved to the trunk, 1" square tubing spacers under the spring pockets to lower front about 3", 2" blocks on back. No crome, door handles removed and vent window left open to access the inside handle. Car was gray so we used gray primer to cover all of the work that was done. Worked 55 hours a week at a lumber yard for $37.50 a week, took every thing I made for the car, lived at home with parents. In 57 traded the 49 Ford for a 50 Olds sedanette, Had the trunk and hood leaded, dual pipes cut front springs, Atlas wide white walls, full crome hub caps. Was making $173.00 a month working for the Texas Highway Department befor going into the Army. Not many young people had really hot cars until the mid 60s and they were all stock factory hot rods. Very few 18 year olds in 63 had anything more than an old car until they had worked full time for two or three years.
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