A family thing?....Are Hot Rods in your blood?

I never had the chance of having a Dad or brothers that were into hot rods as a kid. Most of my friends dads were into them though.

Are Hot Rods in your blood or did you have to go looking for it?
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I was conceived in the back of a 1955 Chevy and my parents have pictures of me sanding a wooden steering wheel when I was so young I was wearing diapers.


regards,
DJ

 

Nope..I was the only hell my momma raised
I took apart everything to see what made it tick..and was fairly successful at putting it back together and have it still work.

My father is very mechanical, but he keeps things stock

as far as it being in my blood..it musta got there someway, been messing with motorcycles, cars and most anything mechanical as far back as i can remember

 

I had to go looking for it. There is almost no one in my family that is into old cars. My Grandpa had a 38 Ford 5 window coupe that he wanted to give me when I was a kid. My dad said he didn't want that pile of junk laying around his place My Grandma likes old cars, my Mom likes certain old vehicles (early 50s Stude and Chevy trucks). My Dad has warmed up to old vehicles lately but he is definitely not into them nearly as much as I am. My brother hates old cars (except for muscle cars) and is embarrassed to be seen in my cars. My sister likes really old cars that are stock (Model T's and the like). The rest of the family I know has zero interest in any thing car related.

 

grandad was into cars, used to fix em up an sell em in the 30's and 40's I still have his creeper.... my father never liked workin on them...I think it was because he always was too poor to go to a mechanic and had to fix em on the weekend to go to work on Monday...it was always a stress for him

 

Yep!! I can remember the sights, sounds, and smells of my Pop driving his old '57 Chevy he built while I was a little kid. Wonderful memories burned into my brain...


That's me when I was about 6 or so... the car was on its way to paint...

Link to more stuff on my webpage...
Pop's old 1957 Chevy Sport Coupe with a 396 and four speed

 

I came by it honest, with no outside influence. I am the only car nut in the family. I remember seeing motorcycles, lowriders, and old cars of all sorts growing up. Every time I saw one it consumed me. I think it is a sickness, not genetic, but you can catch it from close contact with someone else who is sick. I have seen that first hand.

 

Yes dad had Chevys, Specifically from 1940. Which is why i choose 40 fords!

 

As a child in St. Paul MN., my dad owned Racing Unlimited. This was a major local speed shop in those days (sixties). Grew up early in the shops after school, (kinda weird then, but my mom had a business and worked too) and spent lots of time sitting the front motor cars that always populated the shops. Warren Johnson built engines in the clean room at the shop on B-2 And Cleveland, Rodger Ketchel fabricated chassis on the other side of this shop. Spent many hours watching them both. The rolling stock for the family consisted of my dad's Green "T" bucket, my mom's purple "T" bucket, dad's forty coupe, a Lathem blown Jag XKE, a chopped '57 Ranchero, and a couple different front motor cars and sprint cars that the shop owned or sponsored. Mom and dad split early in the seventies, and we moved to AZ. with a new step father (nicest guy in the world, but no mechanical inclinations what so ever), so as a car guy I was left to fend for myself. Fortunately, several neighbor guys were hot rodders, and didn't seem to mind a 12 year old kid hanging around. I guess today it might be considered weird, but these guys not only let me hang out and clean parts and sweep up, but started taking me to shows and runs through out the Southwest. I thank every one of them as I see them these days, and most are still very good friends almost thirty five years later. So I guess I qualify?!

 

i helped my dad build a 55 chevy gasser, my step dad built hot rods since about 61, my mom owns a 38 chevy coupe i helped on, my sister owns and drives a 65 biscayne, both my uncles are mechanics so yeah i believe that hot rods are in my blood, And i am hot rod trash

 

"Hot Rod Trash"

We should all be so fortunate! I love it!!

 

My parents were in "THE LANCERS" car club and named me Lance so I guess I was born into it. Now I'm in big trouble cause I have 3 boys that are all infected with this disease.

 

I caught the bug despite my family. My dad did take me to a dirt track when I was real young one time though. I actually broke down while trying to convince my dad to let me buy a 63 4 spd Pontiac Catalina with my own money. My uncle (his older brother) was a Chevy dealer and all he knew was that the 4 spd cars were coming back for warranty work with "blue clutches"
He did relent and the rest is history.

 

Sure is a family thing! My Hot Rod was my Fathers.My Uncle was a rodder as well, and still has a sled Merc!Rest in peace Pop.......

 

When my dad was younger he was more into the rodding and modifying but now he's more of a "keep it original" guy... To quote The Who: "I hope I die before I get old."

But he's what got me in to cars, working on restoring a 64 Bonnieville convertible with him and then my 65 Falcon when I was 13-16, and various other cars of his. I lived for Satuday night cruises when I was too young to drive.

 

YUP!!! I'm not sure if it's genetic, an affliction, or some of both. My Dad had to find it and learn it. I think I come by it naturally/genetically. Dad told me that he could not keep me away from the tools or the Hot Rod when I was a toddler. There's a pic of me, floatin' around the family archives, takin' apart the blown Y-block out of Dad's '57 Fairlane in Gramma's garage. I couldn't have been more than 3 years old.

I built my first engine, with Dad's help of course, at the ripe old age of 10 or 11 years. It was a Flattie. That's me and the Flathead in the attached pics.



I've always had an excellent mechanical apptitude. Mom calls me the "Fixer". There's not to many tasks I'm afraid to take on. I will qualify that statement by saying I am learning my limitations with age.

Thanks for the great thread! Have A Great Day!

 

My dad raised a little hell and had a couple of hot cars in his teens/twenties. That was a long time before I came along though.

 

No rodders in my family, but I was obsessed from about five years old.

 

Definitely in my blood.
My dad's first car was a 55 Chevy hardtop that he rodded up back in the late 50's. He then had a dual quad, 4 speed 58 Vette that had a gutted interior. He sold his 55 to my uncle, who stripped it down and made a pretty nasty street sweeper out of it. MY grandfather was the complete opposite. He always had the ugliest, cheapest car he could buy, since cars were basically just appliances to him.
On my mom's side, one of my uncles owned a tour bus company and had played with hot rods himself. My cousin, his son is also into hot rods and bikes.

 

My Grandfather raced boats, my dad was a hot rodder. My brother and I raced 1/4 midgets. My nephews race 600 micro sprints. My kids love hot rods. Motor oil runs through our veins.

 

No hotrodders in my family. My real dad always had some nice cars but totally stock. my stepdad could have cared less about cars.
I got bit by hotrods back when I was about 8 years old. my mom had a boyfriend who built a T-Bucket and took me for a ride.
I have managed to past this sickness off to my wife and son. My daughter loves old cars too. Her boyfriend still likes the tuners and trucks. Thats not all bad though.

 

right on

 

It's in my blood but don't know how it got there though. I never met my dad and my mom was kinda into cars. She had a '65 Malibu more door that was jacked up in the rear when she was in high school. I think it mostly belonged to my uncle but she says it was hers. Sucks she sold it when she had me in '76 to get a reliable car, a chevette. Nice

 

I didn't have any hotrodders in my family. I did have a burning desire to make or break things from an early age. Fortunately the kid next door's father was a real hotrodder and had a nice garage full of tools!
I spent most of my spare time from around 8 yrs. old watching from the doorway of the garage until I was noticed and asked, "What do you want?"
I told his dad that I wanted to watch, and he told me to stay out of the way. Over a period of time I slowly worked my way closer to the cars being worked on until I finally got to hand tools. That was all it took to eventually get dirty and really learn hotrodding!
Been over 50 years ago when I got a chance to learn from a neighbor, and I've always tried to return that favor by helping other young guys who didn't grow up turning wrenches.

 

no HOT ROD people but me in my family. my brother has owned a few old cars, but never one that ran other than his 53 Chevy 2 ton flatbed he used for hauling firewood back before he got too old to chop wood for money. he doesn't even have a full toolbox and actually pays people to work on his cars.

 

Definitely NOT genetic...My father was appalled at all those people with dirt under their nails, but I was drawn to it the first time I got gas on my hands, and finally got my minibike running...it was all over from there. The only family member I was influenced by was my Uncle Jack, he had a bunch of old Harleys, and bunch of old Model A banger Hot Rod Jalopies...Man, I thought he was the COOOLEST!

 

oh yea,
here's me at about 6 months old in 1950 - river grove,il. first time i sat in a surplus airplane seat in my dad's track roadster. and his dad before him had several "T" speedsters.

 

Much the same here, but glad to say it's flowing very well in my sons.

 

Yes ...


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unfortunately not, my dad only changed his oil because he was cheap, not because he liked it...still trying to work my way up to being knowledgeable.