my grand father was an early brass restorer in the 50's i would spend as much time as i could as a kid "helping him. All i wanted for christmas when i was about 10 was a 50 ford so i could take the hood off!
I cant say for sure what got me "in" to old cars, but I do remember the exact moment I realized I "was" into old cars. 1986, my mom wanted a brand new car. I busted my parents chops to either get a Buick GN [brand new] or get something solid and old and rebop the drivetrain and engine. I actually convinced my Dad that this was the way to go, and he picked out a sweet 65 so mustang coupe for my mom, but she would have none of it.... She finally bought a Nissan Stanza. I was soooo mad at her. I bought the mustang. 2 months later when her "new" car was in the dealers shop for a new transmission, she was forced to drive "my" mustang to work for a few days. It took her acouple years of car payments, depreciation, and changing new car styles, but she finally admitted she wished she had got the mustang instead.
Money, or lack of got me into old cars. I never bought a car in high school that was running. Bought the ones others couldn't or didnt want to fix. When I was 17 I was given a 60 ford, a 61 ford and bought a 59 ford for $50 that had a good motor and no title and put them all together. Engine from the 59, tranny from the 60, and body from the 61.
I was building model cars and reading hot rod mags, but at the age of 13, I got to go to the 1962 U.S. Nationals! Oh my God! 2000 cars!....chrome, flake, and tire smoke for 1320 feet! That was it for me....I was gonna be a "car guy"! I went to the Nationals and other races for the next 13 years, until I moved to Arizona, and had to substitute the AHRA Winternationals and the Altered Nationals. Went through a loooong string of builds, but eventually fell in love with custom painting along the way...gave up my dream of being a pro racer.....and now I can count hundreds of custom jobs I've done....and they just keep coming. No regrets!
My Dad, My Uncle's collection of Hot Rod magazine. I've been hooked since I was old enough to look at a magazine...
My Dad. Grew up riding along in his 65 C10 SWB(Mine now). Its got one seatbelt for my carseat. Always heard stories about his 62 Bonneville 8 lug blue on blue, his 67 Impala SS327 he ran into a cow with at 50 mph-wrinkled all the panels on the right side, his first car was a 59 Bel Air with a 6 cyl. He only mentioned the time he went 140 in a 69 Daytona(probably didnt want me to get any ideas). All the above came out of Coolidge, AZ in the early 70's. When I was 16 and 17 I drug home a 50 Fleetwood and a 59 CDV and got hassled constantly. Talking to my grandma I found out he always had 5 or 6 cars in their yard. He's 53 now and doesnt play with old cars any more. He does help me with my projects though. More respect for him than I can express.
HOT ROD Mag passed around in high school study hall....Had to read something while there to stay out of trouble....This was 1951..Hot Rod was about only car mag at the time....
I was about 2 min away from being born in a '58 Ford. When I was a kid, the neighbor had a maroon shoebox Merc that I fell in love with. To this day, that's THE car for me.
That's an easy one for me to answer.....my dad. Ever since I was old enough to hold a wrench he had me taking apart flathead engines. I was hooked. Since then I've been into cars of all sorts. I've owned Healey's, Porsche's, Mustang's and many many other cars, but always loved hot rods. My Mom always tells my girlfriend that it's my dads fault I'm like this. She says it's a disease. LOL Matt
Thanks Roy H. My best friend and a damn fine example of what a good person and a better hot rodder should be. I owe you a lot.
I took a ride in my dads friends 31 chevy roadster hotrod when I was 6. He did a burnout through all 3 gears and I was done
My dad. He collected vintage Bentleys when I was young. The big prewar monsters. I rebelled, of course, and initially preferred the newer cars he bought. The sometime during high school I started to realize how much cooler the older cars were. Then I eventually after college I got the whole new car thing out of my system. I've driven all manner of old cars. European cars and American ones alike. There's just no going back!
i dont have a picture of every car, truck, semi, van , panel delivery, sedan delivery, step van, milk truck, service vehicle, military vehicle, motorcycle, trike, bread truck, tractor and steam car in the world.... i guess.. you will have to use this simple explanation. If it moves, if it makes noise, if it can some how be rode on, i DIG it. I am a 1million % gear head with every fiber of my body.
my dad and my uncles always had the coolest cars. my uncle had his own auto parts store back in the 60s where me and my dad would hang out on saturdays when i was about 9 years old. guys would come in and shoot the breeze and with little egging on, you know they had to leave a smokey burnout. all my uncles had 60s muscle cars, a big block 63 galaxie 500 4 speed car, 65 impala ss 396, and a 65 falcon with a 289 tunnel ram set up. my dad would always end up buying 1 of em when they came across somethind cooler. that's how i got hooked!
I grew up in the early 60's.My Dad took me to Kil-Kare Dragway by Xenia,Ohio alot when I was about 10yrs. old to see the early S/S cars,even some front engine dragster stuff.That did it...been hooked ever since. Thanks Dad!!!!!!!!!!!
I honestly cannot remember not being into cars. Started with Tonkas and Matchbox. Moved onto HotWheels when they came out. A buddy went to California with his parents one summer and came home with the Hot Wheels. Man, what a step up from Matchbox. They were already modified. We used to sit in the front yard and guess what kind of car was driving by, by the sound of the engine. I remember just a few years ago when Chevrolet did a commercial with a kid and a buddy in his room doing the same thing and a Z-28 comes by. What memories. Kroger Grocery stores had a show on T Th at seven call Race To Riches. Kind of a bingo game and was based on who was leading (1,2,3 &4) a Nascar race three times during the show and at the end. Of course you had to shop at Kroger to pick up the game cards. This was the earliest Nascar races I remember on TV. We'd see the early 60s Drivers.. Dominated then by Richard Petty long before he was "King". We'd watch all sorts of crap on ABCs Wide World of Sports just to get to the last 5 minutes of the show and see the final round of the NHRA Winter Nationals. A buddy and I built models cars. We'd mow lawns just to get the $ to ride bikes down to "Yankee's" to buy a model and can of spray paint. First Drag race I went to was at Onodaga Dragway in MI and watched the Terrifying Tornado, a twin engine 4 wheel drive supercharged monster. Ran around 160 in the quarter. There was an MG with a supercharged SBC doing about the same. In 69 went to Michigan International Speedway and watched the Can-Am cars run time trials. Peter Revson, Dan Gurney and Bruce McLearn. Again during the next few years to see Nascar time trials and eventually the Motor State 400 the first year Richard Petty had red on his car. I remember he ran a line so close to the wall on the front stretch that the wall reflected red when he went past. Then came American Grafitti. This gave us something to shoot for. The cars were different but all through HS we wrenched on each other's cars. Raced em' on Saturday night. Not alway at the track. Fixed 'em again the next week. My HS parking lot our Senior year was incredible. We could have had a car show right there. 442s, SS Chevelle's, GTOs, GTX, Roadrunners, Vette, Cuda, Fairlane, BB-Mustang and other less high performance but cool rides. We used to put our back wheels against the curb and drag race in the parking lot before school I coul get the 442 about half way though 2nd before I had to climb on the brakes real hard. Got called to the office by second hour a couple of times too. Had a friend that graduated the year after and he had a W-31. He said the fun was gone after our class graduated. It's been a lifestyle and I can't imagine life any other way.
Couldn't help it. My grandfather owned a garage/machine shop and was a motorhead back in the 30's, soupin' up T's. My dad followed in his footsteps, him and his brothers chopped/built Model T & A's. My Mom said that when I was 2-3 yrs. old all I wanted to do was sit behind the wheel of our 53 Chrysler New Yorker hemi and pretend I was driving. She said she always knew where to find me as soon as I learned to walk and open the car door.
I'm not sure when. Always had a tonka, matchbox or hot wheels around. would play with them for hours. Then there was the Bookmobile that had a copy of "Dragging and Driving", and the August 1976 issue of Popular Hot Rodding. Bought my uncles 50 ford pickup at 14(still have it) and haven't looked back since.
The Jalopy Journal
