Do any of you guys have memories of something special about a certain car that stands out in your minds? A special feature or way a car drove or rode? The sounds it made. One of the biggest for me was the '63 Stingray and those hide away head lights. That hooked me. Also the white 58 Lincoln 4 door we had and the electric windows we couldn't play with or they might break and the loud muffler.
My dad had a 58 Pontiac with 3 2"s, and my uncle had a 57 Buick J-2 with 3 2's, I remember them Drag racing in the street in front front of our house. It was a constant battle to see who was the King of the Street. What a sound, The sound of those Carbs howling was awesome.
I grew up in a '69 Roadrunner and '71 Barracuda grand coupe. Been downhill ever since. I distinctly remember how hot that black interior was.....literally.
First one I remember was the 49 Chevy Fleetline. After that we had a 53 Chevy 2 door hardtop, and then a 57 Chevy Belair with FI. He always love those Chevy's. I wanted him to keep the 57 for me when I got my license in 62, but he traded it for a 61 Ford Starliner. Told me the Chevy was too much car for me.
My dads 35 Ford truck cab that sat under a leantoo behind our shed. He bought it in the early 60s and me and my little sister used to play in it and we called it our club house. It was sectioned 13 inches some time in the late 50s. A few years ago, he bought a new frame and started building it. I replaced the rockers and the front and rear cab corners and helped him on a lot of other things on it. Last July he drove it for the first time and to see that Great Big smile on his face was worth the 42 years I waited to see it finally happen. He drives it all the time now. Every time I drive it or ride in it, it brings back a lot of memories. He still has a few things he wants to do to it but at least its on the road now. Tim
Oh yeah... in "58 or so guy in the neighborhood hada '32 tub low boy, blue with a white cover over the back seat very cool car, I knew then I liked hot rods. later in '64 a guy on our street had a '62 Impala 409 4 sd. car white with a blue interior, every morning he would back out of his drive, drop it in 1st and smoke the tires all the way to the corner I would sit there on my 10 speeed and just watch the show, I then knew I liked fast cars, in H.S. a rich kid had a then new '66 chevelle big block car with headers that dumped just in front of the rear tires, it rumbled like a cup car, when he came in the parking lot everyone would stop and look, the pretty girls would say "he's so cute" he wasn't, the car was, the lesson that day... nice car = pretty girls. Three valuable things I learned all because of cars.
When I was three I would play across a small field at a neighbors property. He had a 32 ford 5 window coupe that sat next to his garage and I would stand where the floorboard and seat should have been and make vroom noises.
First car I remember was Mom and Dad's black 49 Plymouth that gradually developed rust problems, our only car through the 50s. A good sized hole had developed through the rear floor on my side of the car, through which I could see pavement whizzing by. One day I thought it would be cool to stick the handle of my Louisville Slugger down that hole, and the bat immediately slammed forward with a thud against the back of the drivers seat as it jammed between the floor and the road. Mom slammed on the brakes when she heard the noise of it, but the darn thing was half gone before she got the car stopped. Dad reluctantly traded that car soon after.
My dad got a 33 ford pickup in 1953 and chopped and channeled it... He started a business in 1964 and stopped working on it.... I grew up playing in that pickup... Fast foreword to 2003... He remodeled the house and pushed the old truck outside, it sat there for a year and I told him I wanted it, he said come get it. .... I Rebuilt it and in August of 2008 on his 81st birthday I went and picked him up and we went to lunch and crusing in it.... That was the very first time dad ever got to ride in his pickup, it only took 55 years..... Dad p***ed away in December but I will always remember him taking the 1st ride with me........
I remember when I was a kid, my father had Dodge Ramcharger, definitely NOT ordinary car around our neighbourhood and not at most others either. Driving new US-built car wasn't during early 80's (probably still isn't...) most common choice in family of four children! I remember when we kids wanted always to drive on dads Ramcharger, and moms Peugeot never got such attention from us and other kids. Haha! Skipping few years, I was maybe something from 12 to 14, I remember driving with bicycle behind red 2d ht '60 Impala just see more of it. Other cars which I saw back then in this city were '58 Buick convertible and '60 Impala convertible. Funny thing here is that those same cars still have same owners and they are all my good friends, eventhough we have have 20 years difference in our age! Oh man, thinking my memories and drinking Bailey's now... I could continue for few hours more!! So, do we have any members that had parents/grandparents that drove some pre-WW II car as a grocery getter when you guys were kids?? J2 is Oldsmobile engine... (Not trying to be smart ***, this only took my attention...)
well im a little younger than yall but my dad had a 74 torino that was corvette green with big and little et's that bench seat was huge to me when i was a kid but now that i think about....its still huge
In the 60's my dad was in construction and I used to tag along to the equipment yards. While he was in BS-ing, I go out and find the oldest truck (usually a 40's or 50's International or something like that) and pretend to drive it. Every time I hear the thud of the brake or clutch stop hit the underside of the floor board it reminds me of those times. Also the smell of grease horsehair, brake fluid etc, that they had. One time he started up his loader and I got to run the bucket up and down.
My grandpa had a 51-52 Chevy/GMC truck with a camper. I was 4 or 5 when he had it so all I remember about it was that it was dark blue with a white camper and white penstripes down the door. It was a 3 spd I think. I just just remember hearing my grandpa say "watch your feet" as he shifted. I loved the smell of that truck.
Had a hotrodder that lived at the other end of the block from my parents, a hoodlum i think they called him, and he had a late '30's Mopar coupe, a Chrysler i think, with no fenders or hood and a nasty SBC in it. definately NOT street legal. Open headers, and only a windshield, I think there was some sort of box or crate for the drivers seat. He used to get a bunch of buddies over there and play with it. Didn't take long and it was on the street; go to the far corner of the block, (in front of my folks house) do a U turn in the intersection and punch it back to the other end of the block.....repeat till someone called the cops. That car impressed me so much, i was about 12-13 at the time and already car crazy. Once in a while he could get one front tire to lift off the pavement if he jumped on it before he was completely straight after the U turn...man was that cool!!!
i have a couple of memories of my moms driving, once i was with her when she was going way to fast on a dirt road and lost control of a 66 fairlane convertable, we ended up jumping a ditch, my dad had to come and fill the ditch with pulp wood so we could pull the car back onto the road, another time dad and mom had an argument, mom put me and my sister in the car and took off out the driveway, a 1967 mercury monterey, just to make her point she took out 13 fence posts. those were the days.
I remember standing in the back seat of the '59 Buick, no seat belts and dad didn't seem to care. He always had Buicks and liked to show how it would "dig-out" One time he got a ticket on the way up to Washington state, after the cop had left he burned rubber away from the shoulder. Did not make mom happy.
I remember a long time ago, my cousin wanted to take me cruising with him in his '66 Fury with a 383 Commando and the four speed. We were on our way into town when we heard his muffler fall off. Man that car got really loud with one open header. We went back and got the muffler, threw it in the trunk and kept on going.
My father and his friends were buick guys so I grew up listening to nailheads.To this day nothing sounds as good as a nice healthy nailhead.I am lucky because they also use to take every 401 and 425 they could find in the junkyard home so I still have a pretty nice stash.The car with the most sentimental value is my dads 29 buick he**** it has a dualquad 425 all dressed up but the car has not left the garage in over 30 years.I will post pictures one day.That car will never leave my possesion until I give it to my son.
North Arlington, NJ, 1959. I was 12, and my neighbor was 18. He had a '58 Impala coupe in Baby Blue with a 6 carbed Nailhead in it. Always had the hood up, never heard it run, or move. One day it was gone. I think it was too much car for him, but made a lasting impression on me.
"So, do we have any members that had parents/grandparents that drove some pre-WW II car as a grocery getter when you guys were kids??" When I was a kid growing up in our rural farming town in the 50s, people were frugal, and I saw many 30s cars and trucks still being driven downtown. At that time there were also very old ice and milk delivery trucks bringing both things to our door. I remember the ice truck in particular because it had hard rubber tires (no flats!). Grandpa was a staunch Plymouth man all his life. Every time he wore one out he parked it behind the barn and got a new one. Never traded one in. There was a line of them parked back there by the time I came along in 1951. I remember my favorite one to play in was a 30s model with agate dash knobs. He drove his faded green 48 until a short time before he crossed the finish line in the 60s.
Not early childhood (14), but I'll never forget the first time I drove my '50 Ford Club Coupe. Flatty, Smitty's, 3 on the tree. That sound will be with me forever. Though I've only had two flatheads, of all the cars I've owned or heard, I think a well tuned flatty with Smitty's is about the sweetest sound ever.
first car I remember our family having was a 53 chevy 4 door. green with a green interior. this would have been around 1965. this could be the car that started my sickness for 49-54 chevys we had a blue with black vinyl top 66 Caprice. then it got traded in on 2 66 or 67 Datsuns. a white wagon for Mom and a red sedan for Dad. what a couple of ****py little pieces of ****.
I remember being in northern Wisconsin about 8 years old and hearing a sound I had never heard before coming down the road. The first thing I saw was a white wing coming over the hill. It was a Plymouth Superbird in full acceleration. I was hooked. My neighbors had a Model A and I rode in the rumble seat which got me longing for an open car. I sure miss the old cars at the back of used car lots for $99 like a 55 Chevy 2 door sedan i saw in 1981 !!!! I thank my dad all the time for telling me the year make and model of every old car we p***ed on the road as it started me on a lifelong interest in cars. Too bad today's cars all look alike from twenty feet. The style and art of the old cars will never be forgotten by this rodder.
Whan I was about 4 years old in 1950, my father drove a 1937 Pontiac and when he'd put the high beams on at night a blue Indian would light up on the dash as a high beam indicator. I bugged him to put the high beams on a lot. I'll never forget that car.
I don't have a story of my own but my dad use to tell me about buying a new "big" carb. for the '29 Buick out of the Sears and Roebuck catalog, then driving to Visalia from Porterville with some of his High school basketball buddies to go "hit the town". On the way to town they opened up the old Buick six (this must have been in 1936) and with the Sears carb. the car would do 85 a 5 mph increase, not too bad for the day and $15.
My Dad's coupe was always in my life, so I never thought much about it. I thought everyone had one. I found out differently in '67 when my Dad started taking me to kindergarten in it. All the girls though it was too loud and all the boys though it was soooo cool! Not much has changed since then...
My dad was a salesman for a Buick & Pontiac dealership in Puyallup, Wa. The car I remember the most is in 1958, I was 12 yrs. old. He bought one of the very few built Pontiac Bonneville convertibles with fuel injection, and air ride suspension. It was white with red cove trim, and red & white leather interior. My brothers and I were the envy of all the "car" guys in our small home town. (That car is worth huge money today, hell it was very expensive in '58 dollars too!)
My Dad had a Model A right before I was born, sold it, and got a '58 Chevy DelRay wagon. Bronze with tan & bronze interior. First car I remember as a little kid. My brother, baby sister and I were in the back seat, just riding along, when my baby sister puked all over me. That's how I remember that '58. Damn near had an identical car a while back! A little later on, my Dad went through three '62 and '63 Chevy BelAirs, all four-doors. My Grampa had a white and blue '64 Impala SS with a 327 and automatic. He owned that from '64 to '72, when he bought a new '72 Malibu and gave the '64 to my older brother...who promptly wrecked that beauty within a couple of months! Loved that '64!
My father was not interested in cars, and thought that the road to hell was paved with those who did like them. One day when I was maybe 5 or 6 we were driving to somewhere in the mountains, and came upon a guy in a fenderless roadster doing donuts in the dirt parking lot. Later, when we were driving back he came roaring past us, and my father loudly expounded on how bad hot rodders were, and how they would all go to hell in the end. At that point, I knew I wanted to be a hot rodder.
The Jalopy Journal
