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

I guess it was in my blood,My grandpa restores military jeeps,My dad built a 3 window coupe about 5 years ago(not his first) and me,my uncle and a large group of friends ran pulling trucks AND drag cars for years.Me my uncle and my grandpa built a 81 dually theft recovery from the ground up when i was 9 to pull the trucks.Still have that truck too

 

My dad was a capenter

No hot rods

 

My brother was a hot rodder till he went to Viet Nam. I took over and have been a hot rodder since I could hold a car. Neither of my parents were into hot rods and my Mom could not stand the fact that I hung around with all those "Hooligans". Never did fiqure out what a hooligan was.

 

I always thought it was odd that my dad didn't seem to care much for cars, even though he had one in his teens that he crashed, then when I'm in my 30's and go visit my 93 yr old great aunt she tell's me about my grandpa, a "hooligan" driving a hot rod. This would have been back in the 1920's. Apparently I do com,e by it honestly.

 

My dad has always been a "car" guy, but not necessarily a "hot rod" guy... He was more into the European sports cars or muscle cars. In the 60s he had a Porsche, a Triumph TR3, a Corvair, and in '71 bought a brand new Camaro Z28. Then he married my mom, started a family, and the sports cars turned into station wagons and Volvo sedans!
As a youngster I loved looking at pictures of old cars, but I freely admit I turned into a bit of a geek throughout my teenage years - much more interested in books and video games than cars. Now that I'm 31 I've managed to catch the hot rod bug, and I've got my dad infected as well.

 

I never had a chance.My grandfather road a surplus MP harley home to Georgia from San Diego when he was discharged from the navy after WWII.He started racing midgets not long after getting home.My dad had dirt cars my whole life growing up.I dont remeber not having a racecar,4x4 or some kind of hotrod at our house until all three of us kids got older and he could not afford the family and racing.I started drag racing on and off the track and have gradually slid into hotrods.I now have a 4 year old son that can get me the right tool almost everytime.He knows what a 9 slash one six is.I was recently able to get my dream car,a chopped 51 chevy.My dad and brother are as excited to get started on it as I am.My bro is building his dream 66 C10 and we just finished my dads vette.I wish grandad was here to sit in the corner,smoke on a cig,sip his Jim and point out what we should do.With the good fortune the three of us are having right now I guess he probaly is.Does anyone know where I can find a youth welding helmet?I gotta get that kid to work.

 

This is my Dad's car around '64 or so. See that kid by the rear wheel? That's me. BTW, I've already infected my kid as well...

 

I'm proud to have grown up in a family of six of us kids and no money for hotrods. Dad talked about a 29 A coupe he messed with during his school years. Dad had an orchard sprayer equipment business, peach orchard, plums too, 15 acres of strawberries, a love of motorcycles for many years, and a lot of work to do for a growing young son.
His Cycle World, Cycle, Pop Mechs, Prairie Farmer, Implement & Tractor, Farm Journal mags kept me imagining as a kid. A yellow 30 A coupe, full fendered, Centerlines in a 78 or so SRM hit home at a young age. A 40 Willys coupe with a BBC/4sp in Mattoon IL drove it more. Mechanical drawing class, welding, geometry. Hot Rod Gallery.
Turdytoo talkin' about a Deuce roadster, chassis conflicting arc geometry. MUCH MORE.
Adds up to more than why I built a hotrod with some help needed for beyond my skills. Also adds up to a good dose of how I have made a living for the past 22 years.
I don't want an antidote. If it's made of metal, it's made to be modified.

 

It's in my blood. More bikes than rod's though.

 

Grandpa was an Indy allstar. He was the curator of the Indy museum before he died. Mom was hell on wheels. I even got to take a ride on the street with my mom while she blew the doors off a Camaro with her Plymouth 383 Belvedere. Dad bought an auto parts store in 1960. Right on Van Nuys Blvd. Yes, that Van Nuys Blvd!! His customers were a who's-who of Hot Rodding. Keith Black, Ed Pink, Norm Thatcher, George Barris, the Granatelli's........ Thatchers shop was in the next block. I used to ride my bike to his shop and watch him build Bonneville beasts.

I built my first engine in the back of the shop, with dad's help of course, at age ten. Full pop Granatelli Studebaker engine. Dad street raced his 55 Commander with that engine and was the talk of the town. I street raced at age 14. Drag raced at San Fernando at age 14 (snuck my moms car on the track, took my class, trophy and check). Wrecked my first car at age 15 and 262 days. Built record setting drag racers, road racers, circle track cars and last year a Bonneville car. Taught High School Auto Shop. Going back to Bonneville this year for a record and a hat.

Little brother is NHRA Wally winner. So ya it's in the blood. I even met my wife at the street races in Simi Valley. We built cars together and she helped with the Bonneville car. Check out the cool seat cover she made for me.

 

Neither. No influence from my family, and I didn't go looking for it.

It was the teenaged neighbor-kids, revvin' the shit out of a late '40s Ford coupe when I was 3-4 years old, 1960. Wow! I scrambled to the window to see. I don't know why, but my mom said, "Ricky!...get away from that window!" I don't think she wanted me to be influenced by the "greaser" neighbor-boys. Too late...I was hooked. LOL.

 

Got it from my dad, that's him in my avatar.

RGG

 

My Dad's been into rods and customs since the 50's. Funny though, I've always known more about them than him. Weird.

 

My dad always had hot rods growing up. He got into sand drags in the 70's. Got back into hot rods in the 80's and now he rock crawls all winter & rods all summer. He was the biggest influence in my life. So because of him I have always been around open headers, the smell of gasoline & burning rubber. I also try to encourage as many young people to join in the fun as possible. pic is me age 5 at pismo beach.

 

It's in the blood!
My grandfather owned a customs shop and raced cars since I can remember. The 66 pickup I have today was a stock truck he had in his shop that I can remember bouncing in the seat with my brother at about 5 and saying that one day it will be mine. I was finally able to buy it at 18 just after my grandfather passed away and redo it to my liking. I worked side by side with him since I was about 10 after school and on the weekends building and customizing cars and trucks, and learning some tricks of the trait. I started racing when I was 7 in karts, and eventually moved up through outlaws. I remember the first complete paint job I did I was about 12 and painted a 60's Oldsmobile Cutlass in blue laquer. My grandfather told me not to be afraid if it starts to run just take it to the floor. It was to this day probably my best paint job ever. The last project that we did together was a restoration on a 57 Chevrolet 3124 Cameo pickup and shortly after he passed I had it featured in a Custom Classic Truck magazine. I am still working on buying it from my grandmother for sentimental reasons. I also remember riding to school in my dad's 55 chev 2 door hardtop every year for the first and last day of school. We always had some type of hotrod being built in the garage to climb in and pretend. I now see my sons doing the same, and know that it is a hereditary thing.

 

I remember riding in the back seat of my Dad's 57 Chevy after he had just changed the engine out and took it out for a spin and opened it up a bit/a lot. Don't tell Mom but that is when i was hooked.... In the blood i suppose.... ;o)

 

My ole man raced round-d-rounds , my mother raced motorsickles on dirt. The only thing in my blood is JACK DANIELS whiskey & BUSCH beer.
"AND THE BOWTIE ROLLS ON"
time for my meds...

 

I'd have to say family. Mom and Dad still have and drive one of their 32s that they had when dating in high school. Even asked her to marry him in this one. Drive it to breakfast ever Sunday morning. He used to race the jalopy roundy rounds on dirt. And, drag raced them also. Yes, he is one of the guys that almost raced the 32 in extinction and high prices. He wishes that he had all of the 32s that he and his racing buddies went through. The second picture is of my son, who also inherited the gene.

 

A family thing. Grew up helping my uncle work on his Fairlane's, Galaxies and a Thunderbolt. We would set up a spot at the local swap meets and spend hours talking with fellow car guys. I would probably be disowned from that side of my family if I would have come home driving anything but a Ford. Good thing I like those Fords!

 

grampa had a couple of stanley steamers in the teens. he was speeding through a small iowa town doing 15 when a cop on a bicycle tried pulling him over cause the speed limit was 12. grampa goosed it and looked back at the cop yelling "wait, stop." my dad was a native angelino who had a $10 t coupe when he was 14--no drivers licenses needed in 1927. he put it in the shop at burbank high to mill the head and gas went from 15 cents to 9 cents during a gas war. many years later he returned to his old stompin grounds to find that the old draggin grounds was occupied by the burbank studios. my story is similar--guys down on bucks drove flatheads and the "rich boys" drove overheads!

 

Pops moved from Hollywood to Escondido around 1950. He left his folks and moved into one of there properties in Escondido ca. (San Diego County) with his older sister. Dad was a junior in high school and a motor head. This was his first chop on his first car around 1952. He help start one of Escondido's first car club, The Oddsterd. I got my first Model A at age 15 1/2 and have always had several project going at a time ever since. My boy got his first 48 Plymouth to practice on when he was 14. he is now 26, I'm 56 and pops is 76. Guess its in our blood but its just always been like that and very normal to us.

Pops with his first chop in 52...

 

Shane,
I'm with you on this one. Its in my blood but noone else in the family that I know of. My father was a carpenter and pile driver ans showed me how to work with my hands though which I am very thankful for. I started meesing with making models and cars, boats,planes when I was in the third or th grade then working with wood somewhat in the 5th grade. When I got my first car (1966 Plymouth Valiant tha I paid $200 for in 1979) Dad helped/showed me how to work on it and we revuilt the whole front end andput some shag carpet in it too that I got for free from the apartment complex we were living in! Good memories! My uncle had a 64 Buick Wildcat convertible that was gorgeous and I loved it but he wasnt a "blood" relative. He was a grease monkey and very taleneted when it came to working on cars. I never did get to work with him on any though, family issues. :-(
I didnt actually get an old car until my 40's since I didnt have the money cuz we were raising a family. Anywa, thats my story!
Paul

 

Nope,
Pretty sure that hot rods are not in my blood. Never liked anything about fast cars, bikes or the people that have anything to do with them.

I am thinking about learning to fly though.

 

My dad used to race dirt track, and is way into muscle cars. I always helped when I was a wee lad working on the dirt cars, and always loved cars more than anyone I knew, and then I think it was when I was maybe about 15 or 16, I realized, I like muscle cars, but they just dont do anything for me, but I LOVE hot rods and customs, and its all been downhill, well, more of just a straight drop down the rabbit hole, and now at 22, thats all I can think about, all I care about, and all I dream about all day long. Drives the fiance nuts since were getting married in 2 months and all I talk about is hot rods.
Ehhh, she can deal...

So, its definitley in my blood big time, but me and my dad are really the only ones effected. I try my hardest to spread the sickness as much as I can though...

 

Sort of I guess you could say. My Dad has always been restoring old 60's and 70's muscle cars. Although I think they're cool looking I just never found any fun in the high-end muscle cars, you end up with so much time and money poured into them that to actually drive one on the street is nervy racking. That and you have to be properly anal because lord help you if you put the window crank from a 69' Charger on a 70' Charger you'll be laughed out of the local cruse in. So I did grow up working on old cars just not necessarily rods which are just so much more fun.

 

born to it here. my dad ran falcon's in the 60's (Banjo Mathews built the engine) and moved on to hot rods in the 70's. some of my earliest memories involve hot rods. The chocolate and gold tu-tone a model sedan he sold when I was 3, my childhood rolling around the back floorboard of a 35 ford coupe, etc. bought my first at 12. no matter what else I get in to--I always come back to hot rods.

 

My great grandfather came here from Minnesota. he started a scrap yard and my grandfather started fixing model t transmission bands. he had small hands and could change them from the top if he didnt drop anything. He then later got the idea to sell the parts off the scrap cars. Which probably came from people asking for them. This was 1933 when he named his wrecking yard. He was a pioneer. My dad built a nailhead powered t rpu in the '50's. I still work at our wreaking yards to this day.

 

my dad enjoys them but doesnt have the time to play with all of his jobs. my uncle is where the real hotrod blood is.

 

I'm the only rodder in my family. No one else is remotely interested in building them, although they are happy to ride in or and watch me work on mine or others.
All my car friends from years ago grew out of the hobby and moved into other things. A lot of current friends are around my age (53) or later, does this say something? A lot of cheque book people these days who wouldn't know how to build a car or turn a spanner. Thankfully my trade background has held me in good stead and given me the confidence and skills to do what I do.

 

My dad isn't into old cars but my grandpa who lives two houses away from me is and so is my uncle. I've been raised around them pretty much. My grandmas dad ran "the Hampton garage" when my mom and uncle were still little. So I guess it's safe to say, cars are defiantly in my blood


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