I was at our MinnesotaSrteetRodAss. holloween party bulshittin with some friends talkin about cars and another friend stopped and aske if i was interested in a duece five window? for a grand! shit... i said i was, so i asked him for more details but he didnt have anymore, he said hed call the guy and see if we could go and look at it. so a few days later we drove up and looked at it, it was baaad as youve seen!, but the door were nice, thats why he only wanted a grand for it, figured you were buing the door and getting the pile of tin for free! well i had to try and resurect it. at the time i had an 31 A coupe i was tring to sell but hadnt yet, so i ended up borring the money till i sold it, and went and picked it up, yippi another major project! when i got it home i lokked at it a little closer, man was i gettin tired, but im thinkn itll turm out good. o did i tell you it was in 5 pieces when i bought it!
Denise, That is soooo crazy!!!! Just yesterday I was at a friends house, and he was doing some serious spring cleaning and was throwing out a bunch of worthless mags. I grabbed the CARtoons and the Rodders Digest and thumbed through it and saw "Project Big Olds" and immediately wondered if it was your car! I really didn't think it would be but, now here you are telling me it was! Crazy. You can have the issue if you want it. Let me know.
My dad knew I wanted a first generation Nova since I was probably 10 or 11 from looking at his 80's Super Chevy mags. I still remember a 62-64 wagon with wide whites and bullet caps on smoothies which is why I'm headed towards those wheels and caps. Anyway, in about '95 we had 2 close catches but no luck untill one went through an intersection in front of him. He followed that poor guy around untill he parked! The guy needed $750 for a down payment on a new family car. So my dad picked it up with some money I had from a head-on collision with a drunk when I was 2 weeks old (explains alot, huh?). The thing had rust all over and barely floors (still no floors. I tell people it's an old school neon kit), but it was my first car and I still roll it every day. Took my license test in the damn thing..on friday the 13th no less! It's one of my oldest and most reliable friends.
1972. I was working with a guy named Pete Cram who had this old Ford panel truck. He inherited it from his grandfather Bige Cook, who had bought it from the original owner, the Missouri Highway Department. I thought that it was a pretty cool old truck and tried to buy it from him for months and months. He kept telling me that someday he was going to sell it and buy a pickup truck, which he thought would be more practical for him. One day Pete comes in the shop and says "Mike, I traded the panel truck in on a pickup at the local Ford dealer last night. If you still want it you better get up there right after work. Well, I was a little bummed (& miffed) that he hadn't just sold it to me straight up, but what the hay? Ten minutes after work I'm talkin' to a salesman at Todd-Hogge Ford in California, Missouri. "Yeah, we've got Pete's panel truck." "How much?" "$75.00." "I'll be right back." Ten minutes later I'm talkin' to Bob Hert, the local bank president gettin' a loan for $75. I was a poor broke newlywed at the time and $75 was a loan amount, not pocket change. I made three $25 payments and then it was mine. That was February, 1973. Today it's known as Clarence and has been around the world a couple of dozen times (or at least it seems like it). I drove it with the original flathead 8 for years as a daily driver and in 1990 decided to "rod" it. I installed a 283 (out of a '66 Impala that my grandmother had bought new in the fall of '65), TH350, Aspen/Volare, 8", etc, etc. A couple of years later I chopped 5" out of the top. Don't know how many miles I've put on it. Lots, though.
i got my 50 by luck,i bought it off my older brother for 5 bucks hehe and just added the money i got when i sold my 79 bronco to it but i guess when your young in socal someone in the family always has a old hot rod,kustom or beater hiding in a garrage or drive way, in my family theres like 4 cars hiding someone and i got one of them
i was all of 18 years old.i'd just started college (tech skool) when i told my dad that i would really LOVE to get my hands on a '54 chevy.anything pre 55 would be cool,but i saw a ton of 54s in magazines and anyone who's anyone's seen moonglow,jesse james,mike ness' and cole foster's cars..so that was the year for me..why was my father being so generous?well,almost a year before the local steel mill he'd worked at for over 30 years decided to lock out the workers (not only drop the union's contract early,but refuse to re-sign their contract for another year and hire scab workers instead!)not to mention the fact that my parents had just gotten a divorce on top of that..so,my dad sat and waited for this lock out to end so he could go back to work...while waiting (for over 2 years before finally retiring only months after they started re-hiring union guys) winter had came and my dad's hot water tank ruptured and he was left without any hot water or funds to get a new tank.so,me being the caring son that i am dragged him out to Lowes and paid for a new hot water heater that we put in his house.after that i received a call from my dad saying "son,i'm lookin for a 54 chevy for ya..and you'll get one soon.."we'd looked at several 54s and 53s (one a fiberglass paneled sled with a tilt column and crappy paint and another with 3 inches of bondo on one fender alone!) i was starting to lose hope.then,i happened to show one of my classmates a picture of a black 54 i'd found online during a break between classes.he said "i got a 54" and i was like "..really..?" turns out he was all of 22,working on his 2nd college degree (his 1st was a flop and this one seemed easier,especially since his girlfriend/fiancee was going there) and he'd had one for 6 years that he got from his uncle.at 1st he refused to even think about selling it because he claimed he had over $1000 in the front end alone and was wanting to put a big block in it...then he started to realize he wanted a muscle car instead..and seeing as how my dad is a sports/muscle car FREAK (69 GTO Judge,2 corvettes,2 harleys,a 71 nova,a 69 chevelle with a 396,etc.) he was hoping for a trade.what he ended up getting was my dad talking him out of his ride for a little bit less than he had originally set as his price limit,and i got out of it with a nice,running (till now!) mostly complete car that i will probably never sell.EVER.thanks for reading my HUGE post!how did you get YOUR car? ~Creepy
48 Frazer - I bought it from the original owner (a little old lady), honest to God truth. 1960 Buick - I bought it from a pothead. 1955 Buick - I bought it on an impulse. 1959 Buick - I bought it during a lunch break.
My grandfather gave me a '66 T-bird when I turned 16 in 1995...That car was awsome, Red with red interior, 390, swing away steering wheel, sequential taillights...it was a great highschool ride...well after about a year some fuckstick pulled out in front of me one night and rearranged the front sheet metal for me ...my dad sold the car wrecked, and used the insuance money to buy me my '70 Chevy stepside (still have it). I fixed the truck up...swapped in a 350 in place of the 6, lowered it, and painted it with 11 cans of krylon flat black...since then I have done little stuff here and there to it, but I needed a real project...enter my '53 Bel-air sedan. I saw the car at a junkyard owned by "Lyin Larry"...this guy could tell some whoppers...he had a Camaro that would pull the front wheels on a dirt road, cause it was so powerful...anyway, He wanted $1200 bucks for the '54, it ran and was for the most part complete, but, I couldnt pay that much for it and he wouldnt come down any. A few months pass and I was driving past a friends house...low and behold theres the '54 in his front yard...I stopped in and started askin him about it...he traded a VW bug for it...I ask him if its for sale and he says ya...$600, now we're talkin...so $500 and two beat up go-carts later the car is in my driveway. After I bought it, I didnt do much to it, just stare and dream about how I was gonna fix it up, then pretty much just let it sit while I worked on other projects that never saw completion...'71 Nova, '66 Chevy truck. After about a year I couldnt take it anymore and dove into the '54...I'm still working on it right now...350/auto, rebuilt and lowered suspension, new brakes and lots of grim and crude removal. Hopefully it will be running soon, then I will focus on the body and interior. As I was searching for some fenders for the '54, I ran across my 26 T-coupe...or actually 3 of em. They were in another junkyard a ways out of town...funny part is as I was asking the owner about them a red '26 T-coupe that had been "Street Rodded" pulled up out front. So, the owner of the yard says $500 for the 3 bodys and a large pile of misc. old sheet metal...cowls, quarter panels, running boards, fenders and so on...all for '20s to '30s cars. Well, I offered him $400 for the bodys and the back half of a T-touring and he agreed. I passed up the pile of parts due to lack of space but, I plan on going back to get it sometime soon. Soon after I got the T's me and a buddy chopped the top 9 inches and ground off some rust...thats about it for now, still trying to collect parts (doors...anyone...cheap PLEASE! ) and that it sits at my bud house in the next city does'nt help either. Well, thats my story and Im stickin to it
Which ones?? It started with just one back in 88' a 64 1/2 Mustang coupe with a 289 I saved and bought for $2200..the rest is horse trading history..no pun intended...
My '57 F-100 is the first truck (well aside from a '78 Elko I had very briefly in college, hardly got anywhere with that) I've owned, have always been more into cars, but now have really gotten into custom/modified trucks. In fact when I got into college from '92 to 2000, I tried to keep cold turkey from hot rods, even car mags, except for a '54 Olds I had in '95, during a brief haitus from school. In August of '01, going home from Work in my trusty '87 Stanza hatchback in Redding, I got plowed into from behind, totalling the car. I'd been out of college for awhile, working and all that, and felt the need to get bitten by the car bug once more. Oddly, the decision was between a nice custom Bug and the '57, but was leary of the selling-for-an-outta-state-friend sitch with the Bug, and was really lured by all the hot rod work done on the truck, so far, so after talking him down to $1600, I drove home the F-100, been working on completing someone's 1/2-finished project since then. Of all the cars I've owned, this one's been by far my most successful hot rod project yet, will always remember it that way, too. Cool post!
'56 buick estate wagon: Original owner lived a block away since before he bought the car. Dad lived here for going on 33 years now, so they were friends as you could expect... Dad spent most of those years trying to talk car owner out of the old buick he had sitting in his garage.. The guy kept politley refusing... When he passed away, I saw his son going through the house, poked my head in the door mentioning my dad was interested in the car... (but I was really after it)The guy says well, he tows tow it outta here, it his... So I tell dad. Dad says well your 16 now, youre gonna need a car. By this time the guys older brother (the executor of the will)wanted to sell the car online to see what they could get for it. 5 months of me bugging them, and nobody else buying the car, and the deal on the house closing the next day, the guy calls me up and says to come get it...for 800 dollars. I walk down there and gave him 600, even though I had way more in the bank. When I towed it out of the garage, it was the first time the car had seen sunlight in 21 years....It really had 21 years of dust on it...Best day of my life so far. 54 Chevy 210 Sledan: I was driving my 56 buick home from a young ladies house at about 3 A.M. and saw it down a side street. I put the normal "sell you car!" note on the windshield. No call back. Several months I just kept an eye on it, another note here and there... Finally I went by and saw the owner out in the yard and struck up conversation. She had seen my buick around, thought I was a good kid and If she decided to sell it, she let me know. About 6 months later, I drive by and there are for sale signs in it! So of course I stop then and there to ask her whats up about it being for sale. Put a down payment of $300 bucks on it, agreeing to give her payments every two weeks, and left the buick there and drove the chevy home. Seeing how nice the Buick was, she assumed Id be restoring the 54... I didnt have the heart to to correct her. It was a long walk to go back and get the buick though! 34 ford pickemup: It had a sign in it, and I arranged to make payment on it. One of the biggest mistakes of my life was not buying the the freshly rebuilt 8BA and 39 trans that came with it...But that would have ment another few months of payments! Damn Im a fool, cuz I would be driving it right now instead of it being outside sitting in pergatory... Thas it, I just worked my ass off since I was 11 years old saving my paper route money, then on to a grocery store job, then on to more "real,grown-up" jobs. Ive earned everything about my cars. Kids these days dont know about hard work! Man, thinking about how I got these cars reminds me of how much I love 'em... -J.
Accompanied a fellow club member and Poncho addict to another buddy's to get some Poncho parts for him. Saw this 41 Pontiac bidness coupe sitting in the guy's pole barn. Haggled over price and went away empty handed. The guy called me a week later, needing some fast money for another project he'd found and we arrived on a more realistic price for the coupe...the end.
I could easily max out Ryan's band width with the stories about how I wound up with the many cars I have had, but will stick with the most current, the 1947 Ford Coupe. I answered an ad here on the HAMB. Down in Okiehomy, there was this poor distressed family that had to sell their old favorite car just so they could have something to eat. well, I really thought this was a sad story and just concocted to sell an old junker. Never the less, I drove for what seemed like an eternity to their house(it is off the beaten path). Even had to get an escort, but finaly arrived at the Casa De Root. I took one look at the sorry condition of their surroundings,, and the pitiful condition of the kids and the wife, felt so sorry that I loaded up my truck and trailer with what I could find laying about, and gave the family my life savings and drove away as fast as I could I just can't to see a gwown man cry.. I am still getting thank you cards from the neighbors. There is some truth to the above. Jim
A friend found mine for me! He knew I was looking for an Olds and found one when he was cruising the back roads one day. He phoned me at work and said you've got to come see this thing. Needless to say, three days later it was in my driveway. That was Valetines day, 2001. (forgot the card, too excited about car) Boy I sure have an understanding wife!
I puchased a 1959 Ford Ranchwagon (2 door no less) for $600 when I got it it wouldn't run and it had no brakes (imagine that) after about $400 more the wagon was on the road and I drove it for about 6 months then I traded it for a 1958 ford custom 300 (four door...insert laugh here) and drove it for a year then I traded it for a 1953 chevy 210 (four door....insert another laugh here). After taken ownership of the 53 I drove it directly to my cousins house where 20 min later the top was removed. I have about 2 weeks more work so I can start driving the damn thing. And now you know the rest of the story.
Hell, I been gettin cars anyway and everyway in the world for over 30yrs now. But I think my current F truck has a pretty good story. I got this friend Joe who's a Stude freak. About 8 or 9 years older than me. A couple of years ago I was drivin' a V-8 S-10 that I was bored with. And wanted to get back to my beginnings. But the drive train was tried and proven, and V-8 S 10s aren't worth much on the open market. So I measure the wheel base and started looking around at different bodies. I finally decided that I wanted the mid 50s F truck that had been rolling around in my mind for about 30 years. And low and behold the wheel base was right. I said something to Joe about my plan. He had a '53 at the time and thought modern suspension would be cool also. A couple of days later he wanted me to take a look at a paste together '53 on a trick chassis for him. I called him and said cool chassis (modified '53), done really well. A couple of days later he calls and says that chassis is his, we brought to my place with the body still attached. He was going out of town so I rolled the body off and put it in my back yard for the owner to come get. I called the guy and told him to come get his body. He told me to bring a truck and come by his shop there were some parts that Joe forgot. When I got there he loaded an extra set of doors, a valence and bits 'n' pieces in feed sacks in my truck. Then handed me a note from Joe. It read; "Here's your new cruiser. Build it and we'll drive it to Pigeon Forge. Your Brother, Joe"
I'll just paste the link... Getting the '38... Now, if I'd just get to work on the thing, and get it back on the road!!!
Couple stories: My first car was a 1951 Ford Tudor. I grew up on a farm and when the work was done at home we boys worked for neigbors for extra $$$. I had plowed for "Swede" Anderson for about three days and he and his wife were feeding me supper when he asked how much he owed me. I asked, how much do you want for the old Ford out by the barn? He asked if I had talked to Dad about it and I said yes so he said "let's just call it square" Figured out about $35. This was in 1965. Drove it all through high school. Second story: One of my current rides is a '63 Grand Prix. I used to work in the farm equipment industry and still like to go to sales and auctions. I was at an equipment consignment sale and in the middle of the wheat trucks and tillage tools sat this GP in primer, huge helper springs on the rear and a trailer hitch. It also had eight lug wheels, (overheard several comments about the "truck wheels" on that old Pontiac)lol. The interior was in pretty good shape and they had it running earlier in the day so I figured if I could get it for $1500 or less I could make a few bucks on it. When they got ready to sell it it wouldn't start and I got it for $1250. I drove it home! The tranny leaked so while we had it on a lift to replace the front seal I got to check it over and found out it was a rust free car. That was almost three years ago and it's been to several runs and shows since. Still in primer but lookin a lot better.
First, my 55 Olds. I already had a 56 Chevy that I bought off an old schoolmate, that I started to customize. I bought a 55 DeSoto grill, 56 Packard taillights, and 55 Pontiac side trim. I already had the 55 Pontiac trim ready to install, the door handles removed, nosed, decked, wagon bumper. My girlfriend at that time spotted a "cool old pink car" near her house, sitting abandoned in a body shop. I went to check it out, and found a 55 Olds 98 Coupe. I thought it would look MUCH coooler than a plain old Chevy as a Leadsled, so I bought it, and used all the parts I bought for the Chevy, to build the Olds. I welded up the Poncho trim holes, redrilled the original Chevy ones, replaced the door, with one with a handle, and finished it as a street machine. Later sold it. Built the Olds as a full on chopped top 50's Kustom! 54 Chevy. A buddy of mine at work dug old cars. He took a ride out to Ohio, with me, to the Merc Deuce Reunion in 1989, and got the bug. I invited him to work with me at my shop at night and weekends to learn the bodywork/fabrication/welding/painting side of the coin, since he was a good mechanic already. He started looking around for an old car project, and found his uncle had a 54 Chevy 2 door sedan, he would give him for free. We towed the car back from Maryland, and started in on it. He wanted it updated, so we bought an 80 Monte Carlo, and used it as a donor. Subframed, rear end, column, everything we could scrounge. Well, poor Joe got married, and couldn't play with us any more. He changed jobs, and we didn't see too much of him. The 54 sat abandoned in a greenhouse company, overgrown with weeds. So I offered him the cash he had put out to build the car so far, and finished it. Unfortunately, he never got to see it done. He had an asthma attack, which triggered a heart attack, and died, at 28 years old. I drove 'his' car to the funeral, finished. My newest project, the 46 Chevy coupe, I started working on for a neighbor. He delivered the bare body shell to my shop to get it out of his yard, and to slowly start to work on it. He then found a 48 convertible, and bought it, forgetting about the coupe. Later he told me to try to sell it for $500, for him. I bought it myself!
This story has a sad ending, sort of anyway. Kustombuilders brother now owns this car, I gave it away on the HAMB about a year ago or so. It was too much for me to handle, the girl in the story is my x-wife, fiance at the time of the writing. Enjoy! It all started back in November of 2000 when I was at work surfing for cars (in my spare time of course) trying to satisfy my itch for something to work on this winter, to keep me busy and out of trouble. Didn't have much money though, so budget was a concern.. I tried to limit my searches to $1000 or less. What can you get for that kind of money? Not a whole lot.. I thought. Eventually I came across an ad for a 1958 Olds 88, though I had never seen one before, it had two doors and no pillars, and that sounded good to me. The ad didn't have much information, just year make and model, and it was $1000/best offer. To me that meant "cheap." Plus it was in Ohio, so I didn't have to drive far from Detroit to pick it up. I called Melissa and said, "Uh, looks like we're getting another car.." She even agreed to pay for half (almost), as my Christmas and Birthday presents combined. Sounded great to me! I called, and the guy said someone from Texas was already sending him a deposit for it. Just the day before I had missed a '56 Lincoln Premiere, so you can imagine my concern over losing another great find. I said "If it doesn't come through, let me know.." Car guys talk, and we continued our talk about this and that, what he does and what I do, and he told me the history of this car. It was a one owner 46000 mile original, untouched vehicle. It still had the plastic on the seats from the factory! He said it was pretty solid, with some rust in the usual spots old American cars rust in. I asked him where the car came from, and he said he got it from the son of the woman who drove it way back when. Unfortunately, her son went to a nursing home recently (I gather he may not have been all there, also that the dude selling the car got it for nothing) and the car was released from it's dank and dark garage home. He said that the passenger side quarter had some surface rust because the car was exposed on one side to the elements due to a hole in the garage. Mind you, the car still had '73 Ohio plates on it, bias ply snow tires in back, and a tar top battery still under the hood. Talk about a time warp! With some encouragement (or is it bullying?) from my friends, I called the guy back and said "Fugitabout that guy from Texas, I'm coming to get the car on Saturday with cash." He eventually agreed to my mafia-like terms and I sent him a $200 deposit. The following Saturday, my friend Spencer and I got a tow dolly and headed down to Ohio. Ohhh, scenic Ohio! Needless to say, it was LOOONG 4.5 hours.. We got there and saw the car and it looked real good, until we got around the corner and saw the other side.. (see pic of me with her..). That surface rust made it look real bad.. BUT, it's not, which is the good news. We saw a broken windshield which was not mentioned, and the rear bumper is so screwed up it may not be able to get re-chromed. Spence is thinking (amazing isn't it?) "No way, not for a grand." and I'm looking at him with the same idea in mind. I asked the guy if the dude from Texas was still interested, and I didn't get much of a response. In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson; "DOH!" I said, "I don't think we're gonna take it.. it's too rusty and not quite what I thought it would be." Along with the other issues, there were no keys and a broken driver's side vent window (it had been locked in the garage 30 yrs. ago and they had to break into it to get it out). "It's just a matter of me getting my deposit, and we'll be on our way." Again, not much of a response.. doh.. again. "Why don't you guys come in and take a look at my shop?" This guy is the owner of CATZ Restorations, doing lots of high end concours quality restorations of rare cars. Great guy, fantastic shop.. still didn't want the car for $1000. After our tour was winding down, I decided my deposit was gone and we would head home. Out of nowhere the owner said, "You know, I would hate for you guys to go home empty handed.. why don't you just take it for the $200 dollar deposit?" My first thought was that my deposit was probably a fuel pump for that Mustang GT500 I just walked by. My second thought was "Hell yes!" Spence and I kind of glanced at each other with the same idea in mind; before you know it we were hitching that big bitch up to the van, and we were off like prom dresses. We both figured the car was worth a grand in parts anyway, so we had nothing to lose. Everything was there including all the stainless, all interior bits, there were no missing parts at all. This car is completely virgin, nobody has ever tried to "restore" it or hot rod it or anything. No repaints, not a lot of real rust (holes), it's very very solid. I think we made out pretty well. The ride home was fine until we hit I-94 in Detroit, steady at 55 MPH. If you don't live in Detroit or you have not had the pleasure of passing through it, you may not understand our urban road plight. I think the roads in Germany had less potholes after a fleet of B-17's dropped a payload. Needless to say, I was white knuckled and sweaty for a good hour until we hit our side streets. I thought for sure the car would be flying across the expressway, van in tow. When we got home, I told Melissa I got the car for $200 bucks, and promptly refunded her money.. she was quite happy about that.
Bought a rusty 58 Lincoln convertible off of Ebay about 2 years ago. Had it back at my Grandfather's farm and went back to work on it on the weekends. My cousin lives nearby, saw the car, and said he also had an 'old car' that he should get around to fixing up. I fully expected him to say it was some 80's TransCamaro, but I feigned interest and ask him what kind of car he had... turns out it was a 1959 Buick Invicta Wagon. He'd bought it 5 years earlier at an estate auction for a hundred bucks. 87k orig miles. He had it sitting outside and realized that he was never going to get around to finishing it. So he agreed to sell it to me for a grand. I've been driving that for about 2 years now and the Lincoln is still sitting up on blocks. I know I posted these before, but...
The Jalopy Journal
