Do you remember when you got "It"????

Around 51 when I was in High School. Got hold of a copy of Hot Rod mag. with a guy sitting in a channeled 32 5 window coupe, been hooked ever sence.

 

I was 8 and soon as I saw my neighbors draggng home a 50's dodge truck I knew needed one. when I tuned 17 I purchased a 1954 chevrolet 3100 truck. My son who is now 3yrs old follows me out to the garage to sit in the 54 and is now telling me it is his.

 

I can not remember ever not being a car guy/nut/person but I can pin point when I fell in love with kustom cars and that would be in grade school in 1954. My best friend at the time had an older brother that had 3 Barris kustom ('49'50'&'51) Mercs. That did it and I've been smitten ever sense

 

Around 1944, they made toy cars out of rubber during the war and most were 4 door 40 Dodge sedans. Took the carving knife and cut the fenders off so that I could go fast. Do not know how I thought taking the fenders off would make the car go fast at 8 years of age. In 1950 a senior in high school had a chopped and channeled 32 5 window coupe, he was my hero and later became my best friend. He is still building MoPar’s from the ground up at 77 years young.

 

Here you go, Old Houston International Dragway






Big Daddy, and that famous Dart Funny

 

mfbarnes52, Thats some cool pics. Takes me back to my youth.

 

1950---front seat of Dads 47 chev...Never forget...

 

Even as a little kid I gravitated to cars...but the defining "I gotta get that" moment was in the early 80's when I was about 9 or 10. I was riding my bike down the main drag in town on a Saturday afternoon and was stopped dead in my tracks by a wicked black '68 Charger with no hood and a 6-71 whining on top of the surging big block. He went rumbling by, rattling the windows on all the shops, and gave me a rev as he went by. That was it - I'd been reading magazines and things, but to hear it, and FEEL it in my chest was a new experience.

 

This may take some time for me to dust off the old hard drive in my head. I'll get back to you with when I first "Got It".

 

Cool thanks barnes 52 nice pictures...

 

When I saw Andromeda at a car show in 1978 in London...





1000bhp, Blown Hemi Powered T Bucket, just freshly restored....

 

In 1959 I was 10. I delivered papers to a lady that had a 27 T cpe behind her garage. She said she'd sell it for $100. Bucks. I said I'd start saving cause I wanted it. I came by one day and it was gone.
I was Pissed. She sold it to the Barber. Same one who cuts my hair.
So I went in for a trim and to find out what he was going to do with the T? He said he was going to lose the top and fenders and drop in a flattie with 3 97's. I asked if I could hang out and watch him work on it ? He said sure, so I went by as often as I could catch him in the garage. It took about a year to get it on the road. Pretty Sweet Ride,
I thought. This Dude fulfilled my first HotRod Dream.

 

Late 50's, I was in elementary school, the cruisers had a routine loop they made, but the hotrodders would go a few blocks out of the way and blast down 21st street (less than a block away) clearing their motors late into the night, and me laying there diggin' it!

 

I always had "it". I don't ever remember being without "it". My parents tell me my first word (for real) was "car car".

My wife really hates me fr "it" too... Go figure

 

Nope. As far back as I can remember I was always playin' with Hot Wheels, Tonka trucks (the real ones that were made of metal !) and Corgi stuff. Don't know where I got the bug from. None of my friends or family were car people.......I guess I was just born with it. When I was little my parents thought I could read because I could identify a brand of truck. (at first they though I was reading the tailgate lettering) They later discovered I couldn't read, I guess I recognized the shape of a Ford compared to a Chevy or Dodge....etc.... I think having their kid identify brands of trucks before he could read was a sign their son was a gearhead....

Todd

 

It was the late 50s. I was about 10 years old. My friend Daryle invited me to watch the drag races (1/8 mile) at the old fairgrounds in Sacramento. Street cars and race cars, all with uncapped exhaust. It was so cool. After that, I was hooked.

 

Dont remember the age,but fond memories from when I was young. Hot Wheels, model cars Speed Racer, Herbie the Love Bug, Racing my Big Wheel and my Dad's '68 442. I want that car back!!!

 

Yep, February 1977. My old man took me stock car racing in reading, I fell for a hot orange coloured stock car called the "Werewolf".
Ever since then i started earning a buck helping pops out at the family garage, and started building my own stuff. Started out with a couple of bikes and box cart racers and graduated to my first car at 15.
I got it real bad when Pops sold the garage and bought a wreckers yard. We parted some cool cars now that i think of it, and it makes me almost cry to think about how much the stuff would be worth now, and how damn hard i am looking for those same parts these days!

 

born with "it"

 

I think I always did but I can't really tag a date to it. Some of my fondest memories were the early mid 60s. Dad let me (MADE ME!) drive his 427 61 Ford circletrack car to the corner gas station for a fillup. Back then premium was enough to race with. I remember how hard the clutch was to push and hold. I was 8yrs old. Crazy, huh? The noise was frightening. He drove it home the long way, I'd say around 2-3miles. I had to hang on to the roll bars. I was hooked.

I recall in the late 60s helping him build cars all the time. I can't count the number of nights spent at Flat Rock Speedway (still there), and according to them I was there while Mom carried me (as in not born yet) many times.

A steady diet of Hot Rod, Rod n Custom, and Hemmings Motor News served plenty of early text. I guess I'm fortunate to have these memories and life style formed from those early years.

 

I was 6 or 7 years old and after playing with my matchbox cars and making motor sounds for about a year (funny how they all made the same sound rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaappppppp) I developed nodules on my voice box and had to go to a throat doctor and speech therapy to correct the damage. Kind of hard to play cars without making engine sounds. All I can do now is laugh and smile when my son does the same thing with his toy cars.

 

My brother had a 58 Chevy and built a couple of hot rod models, other than that no one in my family did the car thing. It turns out the guy down the street messed with race cars (1/4 mile). I was about 11 and finally worked up the guts to go down to see if I could hang out. He let me and eventualy he started givin' me **** to do. I used to think I was the **** just for helpin' him get the 68 Camaro on the trailer. If I'm not mistaken it was a C modified prodution car. Back with brown panel painting (with the heavy paint swirled in the middle).

I ain't been the same since......Hot Rods, Customs, Vans, Mini-trucks....I have had them all and continue to love a forms of the hobby.

 

Well. I've always loved cars. The General Lee was the first thing that I drew regularly. That and Garfield. I was like four or five. My Dad and my Uncle had tons of cars in their teens and early 20s. So I would always here stories about there cars, or trips to Road Atlanta, Daytona and the Gator Nationals (that one is my Grand Dad's favorite story) but like most my interest was always the super exotics in the magazines. And eventhough hot rod magazines had some cars that I wouldn't care for now I still thought that stuff was cool too. I was still drawing cars at this point (the 90s ) and honestly Chip Foose was a big influence on me at that time. I still didn't quite have it, but I was getting there as my focus was shifting towards older cars at least. I didn't have too many real world influences in small town middle Georgia. There's some muscle car stuff around here, almost no hot rod stuff (especially traditional) and mostly poorly built lowrider trucks, imports and 2nd and 3rd gen FBodies and the ubiquitus 5 point 0 as it is still referred to even in 2008. So I had no real direction around me. Then in '99 I saw the first issue of Hot Rod Deluxe. Actually the primer that came with an issue of Hot Rod. I was blown away. I was getting it. Then shortly after I saw American Graffitti for the first time. I had never even heard of it before and one night it just comes on USA. I was really starting to get it after seeing that. Then bored one night I was drawing a 40 Ford Coupe. I originally drew it lacking in trim and some modern wheels and low profile tires. And something suddenly clicked. I changed it. I kept some trim and added some flames to the front. It still wasn't quite right. So I got rid of the modern wheels and tires and replaced them with steelies w/ caps and and wide whites and gave it a rubber rake. Oh man. It was a hot rod. The first time that I'd ever created a hot rod (even if only on paper.) I finally got it. It took me a while. I was 21 by then. But I got it on my own. I still enjoy reading about and watching other types of cars and racing. But. I usually get bored with that stuff after a few days of catching up on it. But. Traditional hot rods and kustoms and the styles that immeadiately branched from those two never bore me. I never get tired of it. I can never get enough it. I have it.

We aren't talking about VD are we?

 

Played with cars since i can remember (born in 1963), but it was when i saw American Grafitty on the tv in 77 or 78, i knew what it was that i wanted
Lars

 

Well, I am not sure that I have "IT" yet. I am still learning from you fine folks, but I know that my father's interest in anything mechanical is a main reason for me being here. I remember one time that my father took me to the AUTORAMA in Buffalo, NY and I was probably 7 years old at the time. When we left the show that sunday night, a replica of Milner's car was just ahead of us with another hot rod. We stayed behind them as they held up traffic on the thru-way driving about 40 MPH. At that moment I thought, "this is the ****ing coolest thing I have ever seen". From then on I was hooked.

 

I can't remember not being a car junkie. I was at the drag races and car shows before I was old enough to walk, but the thing that made me love to do burnouts, came when I was 11 and my dad had a 71 F100 and he did a huge smokey burnout. I remember thinking it was the greatest thing ever.

 

I was the same way. My old man didnt know **** about cars. When i was young all I wanted to do was play with cars...some things never change.

 

I still have ALL of my old Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Corgi, and ***orted oddballs. They're in my parent's ba*****t and I will never get rid of them. Do I care if they're worth anything? F'n no... I just love to pull them out and look at them from time-to-time. My daughter plays with them everytime she's visiting there.

On another note... I've used to be able to name every car on the road (around Detroit) by the time I was five.

Really... I'm not kidding here... It really IS a sickness. I hope they never find a cure

 

I know it's cheesy, but being a little runt in the 80's (yes, I WAS little at one point in life) the thing that hooked me was that *****in '33 Ford from the ZZTop video "Legs"...The Eliminator coupe will always hold a special place in my heart, as will ZZTop...

 

I got "it" in the fifth grade, my dad took me and my cousin to the Revel Nationals at Fremont raceway,saw the ****oose race the snake, the Hawaiian, and others... by the time I was 14 watching my older brother and his friends chop the top on his '52 F1, I knew I was definenitly HOOKED on cars and the like.