Hot Rods Dad's car, what we remember

Speaking of dad's cars, can't ever forget how dad lost his 56 Buick. He stopped frequently in a local watering hole after work only about six city blocks from our house. My sister worked there part time so it was a family gathering place of sorts. We heard a large explosion one early evening and saw large flames billowing in the sky. It turns out a gasoline truck flipped over and raw gas ran down the street towards dad's car. He ran out to get his car moved from the path of the gas but lost the car and all his tools in the trunk to the inferno. The Buick burned to the rims but dad was safe. Looked like a war zone after the fire was out. Bought eh 57 black Buick after that.

 

Remember climbing up in this one in the mid-60's, turned the key and backed it into the fence. 327 4sp.

 

After one bad experience with a '36 Chevrolet my dad was a Ford man for the rest of his life. The car that I remember the best was his '59 Galaxie 500 Sedan, 332 and Cruisomatic... Nice old car. But the fact that he, my uncle, my mom and my mother-in-law at the time all had '59 Fords, and I got to work on them all, kind of soured me on them. I may be from the PNW but that's not the kind of "boat ride" I like.
He also had a '51, '69 and '76... but the '59 Galaxie was always his favorite.

 

1st car I remember is 50 Plymouth- I came home from the hospital in a 47 Ford but do not remember-

Dad was a car guy as far as buying/ fixing and selling- had used cars that dad had bought and fixed for them to drive until the next project came along-

 

I did the same with the 50 Plymouth- backed it across Main Street-

 

Dad's early cars were an up and down proposition.
Started out with a 39' Oldsmobile sedan. Said it wasn't the cool car he wanted at 16, but it was 1946, and with guys coming home from the war there was a shortage of clean used cars. Spotless car owned by a grocer who lived above his store and never drove it. Paid $1250.00 and was happy!
Two and a half years later he traded it on a new 49' Ford Tudor - got $125 trade for the Olds. (arrruggghh)
A year later he got in an argument with his father over some money he'd loaned him for college tuition. My dad got pissed and gave his father the paid off Ford in trade for the debt, and $100.
Still needed a car to drive back and forth to college every week. (School Monday to Thursday 60 miles away - home Friday to Sunday working as a painter) Bought a 40' Studebaker coupe for $20. Ran good, looked rough. Painted it one weekend, drove it through the week and hated the color, taped and sprayed it another color the following weekend. Cut the package shelf out and put a Model-A front seat in the back. Charged $1.00 each way for a ride to Ohio State. Regularly put five people in it for the sixty mile drive. (can't imagine five people in that car!)
About to graduate college and head off to the Air Force, bought a new 53' Ford Tudor. Six / Stick / stripper
Now a young pilot, went in for tires for the 53', came out with a new 55' Fairlane. Fire engine red, three tone interior, big motor, and all the bells and whistles. Yeeee Hahhhh!
Uh oh, now married and a new baby. Goodbye hot red tudor (now pretty beat down), hello black year old used 58' Ford sedan. Stripper, three on the tree.
Out of the military (turns out not permanently) and new job as a territory rep covering two states. The sixties were a blur of new Ford wagon company cars, and Beetles for mom to drive around town. Even two wagons for a while - company snafu, dad ordered one, and the company ordered an identical one. Came in a day apart at different dealers in the same town. The company decided to keep the second one figuring they would need it eventually, and told my parents to keep it until they decided where to send it. We think they forgot about it, because my mom drove it around town for almost a year. It was the neighborhood joke, because they were absolutely identical.

 

First car I remember was my Grandfather's (No Dad) '68 ss396 elco and my Grandmother's '71 Mercury............the smell of that foam green interior (this was about '77 or so). After Both of them passed I found pictures of the Mercury my Grandfather painfully sold to get some money for their first house. I'm going to try to recreate that car someday.

1939 Mercury Convertible with some mods.

 

This story and truck are too new for the H.A.M.B, but I hope that can be forgiven.

My very first memory (I was about 3 or 4 in 1984 or 1985) is of my dad working under the hood of his truck running the valves

He was sitting on the inner fender, I wanted to see what he was doing, so I climbed on a milk create then on the bumper and tried to pull myself up on the radiator support and step in the grill opening.

At that point he saw me and pick me up on his lap so I could see what he was doing.

The truck was a 72 Ford F-100 Ranger-

390 3 Speed

He put 390 car pistons in for higher Comp.

Shelby Cam

390 Cast Iron H.P. headers

Edelbrock intake

Bought it new he and my mom took it on their honeymoon, he used it to tow his stockcar and I came home from the hospital in that truck.

 

The first car I remember was my Mom's 35 Buick 4 door sedan, this was the family car and both mom and dad drove it. We had a homebuilt trailer that dad built from dunnage lumber he brought home from the docks when ne worked for a coastal transport shipping company. The trailer sidewalls were about 1 foot wide with cupboards built all along the outside, the interior had cleats on each wall at the front that the frames from the three kids beds fit, one on top of the other. Dad made some conduit hoops that fit on top like a covered wagon, Mom sewed up a canvas cover for them. My dad said the trailer weighed as much as the car. At the age of five (1948) we went on vacation with the 35 and trailer and visited something like 33 States on a three week vacation.
My fathers daily driver was a 30 Model A coupe that had the decklid removed and a 4 foot long box built into the trunk area. Dad drove this car every weekday to and from work until 1953 when he bought a 51 GMC truck from a friend of his, he drove that truck every day until retirement after 40 years with the same job, delivering milk products to stores for Carnation.
Mom's daily changed every few years from the 35 to a 41,48, 51,53,55,57 Buicks, then dad started buying Oldsmobiles a 62,65,73,75 and when mom passed she was driving a 81.
The family never had a new car, dad did mechanical work and maintained whatever he bought, he also did maintenance and repair work for almost all of Carnations employees out of the family garage, this is how he made money for our vacations every year.

 

This is a good family story-

My Great Grandfather was a partner in a Cities Service distributorship in the early 50's- early 70's.

His partner owned a Cadillac dealership.

My Great Grandfather always wanted a Cadillac, so in about 1955 he traded his Hudson Hornet
for a 53 Caddy.

When he pulled in the drive my Great Grandmother met him at the door.

"Harold!, What are people going to say us owning a Cadillac! Putting on heirs owning a Cadillac!"

She would not ride in that car for almost a year.

He would he had to take her everywhere in the service pick-up truck.

When she finally did ride in the Caddy she found she really like it, and it was O.K. for him to trade it for another and in 67 buy a new Cadillac.

 

Keep them coming, both old and new. Hope we all can share similar times with our children and grand children. Got the greatest kick out of taking my two 4 and 5 year old grand sons for their first ride in Pop's hotrod. They live 1200 miles from me so it was thrill for me. They couldn't see over the window but I can still see the glow in their faces.

 

First of dads cars I remember was a 55 Imperial, had more chrome than ten cars today, us boys had to polish and wax it every couple of weeks. It was the first car I ever drove, dad pulled the hemi out for a rebuild (he was a shade tree mechanic) and I got the job of cleaning all of the parts with a scraper, and paint brush in a tub of gas, my reward, I got to steer the car on his lap on the way to the lake. Our backyard was filled with cars he would buy and sell. I remember a 57 Chevy wagon we put a front clip on was sitting there, and me and my brother got in, and found dads cigarettes, pushed in the lighter and lit up. Dad worked at the warehouse across the alley, someone one hollered Paul your cars on fire! he came running over, jerked open the door, and the trouble soon began.

 

First one I remember is o/t, 67` GTO. Yellow/ black top, int./ 4-speed. The rest after that were family cars/ wagons.

 

When I was a little kid in the early 50's Dad had a 46 Ford coupe that was the family car and a 40 Zephyr he'd bought when he got out of the Navy after WW2. The engine (one of several) was out of the Zephyr and it stayed parked by the barn at my grandparents' house.

The 46 got traded for a 52 Merc hardtop after he finished engineering school. About 56 a 46 Chevy pickup got added as a 2nd "car". Dad's workplace was about 20 miles from home so he drove the Merc and mom drove the pickup for errands around town. Dad started his own business in early 58 and bought a new 59 F-100 for the business. First new vehicle he ever had.

Then came a new 60 Starliner with 352 and auto, and later a 65 Galaxie 2 dr also with 352 and auto. The Galaxie was his daily and he bought a 60 T-bird from one of his friends sometime around late 66. It seemed as though he didn't like the T-bird much as a driver so it sat at the house about all the time. I drove it off and on once I got my license in 67, whenever my 56 Chevy wasn't roadworthy, and drove it most of the time when I was in college starting in 69.

Sometime in the late 50's Dad stopped by his mother's place to get something out of the barn and realized the Zephyr was gone. She had sold it to someone (without the title, which dad had) about a year before for $50. Dad was majorly pissed, which was nothing new as she had a real talent for doing things to piss off most everyone she ever met. Dad got the guy's name, found out where he lived, and went by there with the intention of getting his car back. Turned out it was a young guy and he'd put in a bunch of work on the Zephyr toward getting it back on the road. Dad decided he was a nice kid, so, instead of getting the car back, he told the kid to come by his shop the following week and he'd transfer the title to him so he could tag it whenever he got to that point..

The 46 Chevy pickup is at our shop and the 60 T-bird is in the basement at dad's house where its been for the last 30 yrs. Dad is 88 and in amazingly good health, and his daily driver is a S-class Mercedes coupe with a 450hp V-12.

 

A tinge of sadness as I read this - I'm so jealous of all you guys - my dad died in 1963 when I was 6 and Mum never remarried. She didn't get a car until I was 14, so I don't have any cool memories to share and no one to teach me anything - I was just always into cars.
One thing I do remember as a real youngster (probably 5 yo) was standing on my dad's lap in his ute steering it as we drove along. He had an old Chevy light truck that Mum always called 'Agony' 'cause it rode so bad.
Only other thing I remember is we used to visit family friends in Ballarat (about an 80 mile trip from Box Hill, one way). When we were coming home late on day, we sat in the back of the ute, under a tarp to protect us from the cold wind at night.
Mum's first car was a HD Holden sedan - 179 powerglide - yup, the 'big block!. I ended up convincing her it needed to be lowered, chrome wheels and open up the exhaust a bit. The Mum-mobile was pretty cool - well, I thought so anyway.

 

The first car was my moms 39 chevy 2dr sedan then a 48 stude 4 dr sedan nothing to exciting. Then we got a 53 chevy 4 dr sedan that did not have a heater. My dad did not really care about cars , he like to play the horses In 58 he hit it good at the track. He went to the chevy dealer and bought a 58 belair convertible 348 tri power, dual spots and antenna . I was in heaven I was 13 years old just getting into cars . when I was about to turn 16 he sold it bought station wagon . He decided at that time that it would be better if I never drove his cars. He was right.

 

First car I remember was a 52 Pontiac without the optional heater. I remember freezing in the front seat between Mom and Dad at about age 4. No car seats back then. Then in around 1960, we got a 55 Ford, 4 door basic sedan. It was the family car until 1963 when we got my uncles 57 Belvedere, Mom got it and Dad kept the Ford. In 1966 we got rid of the Plymouth and traded on a 1 yr old Rambler Classic 660 Wagon. Went everywhere in that pulled a popup trailer with it. Meanwhile the old 55 finally gave up and Dad got a $50 dollar special 59 Rambler for work, it ran good looked bad. He painted it with a brush out behind the house, some sick shade of blue. Ran it for a few years and sold it to a kid he worked with. Then bought a 61 Falcon in 1969. He died in 1972 and I got the Falcon. Wish I still had it. Wish I still had Mom and Dad too!

 

My dad had a '55 Chevy truck that we used for dump runs and whatever. I remember standing on the seat while my mom or dad drove it. Had a rope inside with loops on each end, hooked door handle to door handle, to hold the doors shut.

 

The first car I vaguely remember was a 50-something Plymouth. Dad used it during the week to go to work. He had the inflatable helper springs, so he could bring home bags of chicken feed, since he had chickens for eggs. He sold the eggs on a route that he had, during his lunch break from the store. He could put a thousand pounds in the trunk and with the springs aired up, the car would ride smooth and level.

Dad inherited his grandfather's 50-something (50 or 52, I think) Mercury. I can't remember what was under the hood, but I do remember the three-on-the-tree with the overdrive. For some reason, us kids nicknamed that car "Clyde". The fuel pump went, so Dad replaced it with an electric one. When he started the car, he turned the key to "on", waited to hear the "tick, tick, tick" of the pump, then hit the starter button. One thing he did not get around to fixing was the gas gauge. He would try to approximate how far he had driven since he last put in gas. Every once in a while, he would miscalculate. Good thing by that point they had purchased a '63 wagon for Mom. All the kids in the car, five gallon can of gas (an old 5-gal. oil can) and off we would go in the morning to fuel up "Clyde."

After that, Dad didn't have a car until after he retired and Mom passed away. His store "provided" a truck for him ('67 Chevy van, '72ish pickup, early 80's pickup which had an unusual three-speed with overdrive manual floor shifter. There may have been another pickup in between the '72 and '80.)

 

Here's my Nomad in my avatar when dad owned it. This pic is from '74 when I was 12. I found it 20 yrs after he sold it.

 

My dad had a yellow 67 427 390hp 4spd a/c vette coupe, 65 300 hp 4spd red coupe, 65 350 hp 4spd red conv, at the same time, until I was 6. He restored them. Walking in that garage as a kid, standing there when he'd start them all up, going for a ride. Amazing. Sold all 3 in 1982, bought some property.

Later on, mowing lawns and repairing rental houses just didn't have the same appeal. It got the bills paid though. He was just a few years early on the vette sale.

 

Pop sold the black Buick and bought a black 57 Chevy Belair for some odd reason. Boy did I love the looks of that car but he learned to hate it. Said it never rode like his Buick, was too light in the ass end and the damn trunk was too small. Had a "wonder bar" radio but he never would let us put the darn thing on when driving. Actually, he hated our choice of music so I guess times haven't changed much in that regard!

 

The earliest cars I remember was a 38 Ford Deluxe fordor, then a 40 Ford Standard tudor. Dad said the 40 Ford had too much power for the chassis Later came a 49 and 50 Bathtub Nash, those were new cars, a 52 and 55 Dodge and then finally a 58 Dodge four door. It would get with the program. I wrecked it twice in two weeks, well I actually wrecked it once, another young lady was driving when it got wrecked the first time

 

First recollection was riding in the back of Dad's '41 Pontiac, the smell of musty mohair, the dust on a hot summer night as we came back from my grandparents' farm 11 miles out in the country. My dad was raised by his grandmother, aunts and an uncle since his parents died when he was an infant. No mechanical training, but could learn everything through books. The starter went out on the Pontiac and he took it to the dealer, who put in a later model starter motor that interfered with the brake pedal. After my dad picked it up and began driving away, he found out the error and returned to the dealer enraged.
Not long after, he traded it in for a '52 Heny J, which he got cheap because it wasn't running right. He bought a Motor Repair Manual (1955 version), read all about the Henry J engine and decided to borrow my uncle's tools and take apart the engine to find the problem. Turned out to be a bent valve stem. He fixed it, got it running perfectly and drove it for another three years until he saw a '53 Willys Aero Ace two-door hardtop. That one I overhauled years later, when I was 15. Mom was proud of him for fixing the Henry J himself with no training. That's why I'm a hotrodder today. Early lessons make impressions.

 

My dad had a daily driver 51 Ford PU in the late 60's. The flathead was tired, so he put a 283 with a duntov cam in it. He loaned it to his cousin who needed to get a load of lumber. He told his cousin that the clutch is stiff, so take it easy when leaving the light. His cousin came off the clutch too fast and dumped the entire load on lumber out the back. Later the truck was stolen, my dad gets a call from the police in a local community that they found the truck. He asked where it was, but they insisted on having it towed, claimed they had to impound it first. He sold it when I was about 8, hated to see that one go.

 

where do i start? a 48 buick, 55 chevy 210, lots of late 40's early 50's chevy trucks. 61 ford wrecker, 59 ford galaxie (mom's) 63 gmc truck, 61 falcon sprint 260 cid 4 barrel 4 speed car, a corvair then they got to new starting with a 6 banger 68 rambler. after that other then a gremlin x (bad ass little car) it was chevy and ford trucks for dad and caddies for mom.

 

I grew up in the 60's. My dad had a small construction business with 10-25 year old vehicles. His water trucks and dump trucks were WWII surplus Jimmy trucks with a straight 6. When we went to the equipment yards I would disappear and go find some old truck to sit in and pretend to drive. I'll never forget the smell of gear oil, horsehair, dust, etc in those old trucks. Riding in his old pickups he would play a trick on me when he would tap the center of the dash and make the red high beam light go on and off. It never worked for me when I did it. I didn't know he was tapping the switch on the floorboards.

 

I think I like your dad real well.

 

I was born into the antique car restoration hobby. Between dad and gramps there was about 6 cars in the collection by the time I was born in 1973. The favorite is the 1910 Overland that my great grandfather bought brand new. Gramps got it out of the barn and started the restoration of the car in 1953. I got restored 3 times and finished for AACA judging in 1979. I always remember gramps testing that car sitting on the gas tank with no body on it. Dad restored his '30 Chevy in 1975. He always teased me about ruining the back door handles while they were off the car. Here is a pic of the Overland as it is now and a 2 pics of the '30. The first one is dad when he got the car out of storage to start the restoration and the other was taken while on tour in the Black Hills.

 

Love that 1910 Overland shot! Your Dad was one of the really nice guys I meet in AACA. Bob