How old's the oldest H.A.M.B. member?60+?Tell us a cool story

I'm 72 and have been into cars since before I can remember. The first car I lusted after was a 34 Ford 3 window coupe. It was a chopped, channeled bright yellow dream car with a souped up flathead and I spotted it at the Buick dealer walking home from high school. Harry said he would sell it to me for $125 and my feet hardly touched the ground as I ran the rest of the way home. Nope. The folks didn't have $125 and I didn't have a job. My first purchase was a 1929 Ford pickup that I bought from a friend for $45. It had a cracked head and needed a rebuild. My pop worked with an old timer who knew how to replace the babbit in the rods and we rebuilt the banger. I drove it to school for two years. When I graduated High School, my folks said they would buy me a car. I found a 1955 Studebaker Speedster that fit the budget. It needed work but it fit the budget. The engine was anemic and smoked like a locomotive. It had 3 on the tree with overdrive and a 4.56 rear end. My buddy had a 55 Chevy hardtop with the 265 and a tri-power setup. He took great glee in the fact that he could eat my lunch whenever he felt like it. I spent the next summer working on a farm and saving my money. When harvest was done I had enough money to buy most of the parts for an engine swap. My pop and I dropped a 365 Caddy in the Studebaker and I went looking for my buddy. We pulled up to a stoplight together and when it went green we were off. I beat him for a block and he insisted we go out to the marked quarter mile on the old highway where he would show me up or leave town. I beat him three times back to back before I let him off the hook and popped the hood. The car was a beast. I could feel the floorboards twist when I launched hard. I was fortunate to be working in a gas station where I had access to plenty of used tires because I could break them loose in second gear from a stop and fill both wheel wells with smoke before the car could hook up. It was a crowd pleaser.

 

I am 59 and happy that I can still walk the swap meets at nearby Carlisle and Hershey, although after 3 straight days at Spring Carlisle- my feet needed a few days off. It is a joy to go with my youngest son, who is 18 and headed to college to study mechanical engineering and wants a career in some automotive field. At Hershey it's not uncommon to see vendors who are way past 65 sleeping in their spaces at 2 in the afternoon. We look at their stuff and try not to wake them up- unless they have something choice. Typically my son will look my way and smile- because he knows dad will soon join the sleeping vendors!

 

Not sure if I have responded. Will now. Soon to be [ in Jan] 80 and building a straight eight Buick 263 CI to replace the 248 in my 1950. Sure not ready to give up. Hope to drive it to Allentown, PA in July.

Ben

 

60 is the "new" 30.

Sent from my SM-G900V using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Deuce Daddy , you crank me up... this is the coolest thing I've heard yet.

 

And by the way ,I'm only 58

 

Almost 69, a child of the 60's.In 1962,at age 14;a legal driver in Texas(in Texas you could become a legal driver at age 14 thru drivers ed) I drove over to my younger friends(he was 12) and walked down the street to a friend of his. The man was in his 20's and had a brand new Super Duty 421 Pontiac Catalina with aluminum front fenders and aluminum hood and front bumper. He took us for a "quick ride" and in the early 70's the car was still around with a different engine(421 had scattered).We used to joke about leaning on the alum frt end back before these cars became very valuable as lightweight cars. Added bonus ,in 1968 bought a new Plym RoadRunner for $2840 drive out. Super She'll 104 octane(10 pts higher than gas today) was $0.25 per gallon.Who cared your muscle car got 10-12 mpg; those days are long gone. Having great fun with flathead Ford v8 for 55 years. In 1964, had a cherry 40 Ford convertible, paid $250 with paper route money at age 16!

 

In 1962 I was 10 years old and my grandparents pulled up in front of our house in Waukegan, IL in the new car they had just purchased a few minutes earlier-a yellow '62 Impala SS with yellow bucket seats. I remember my grandmother asking my mom if she thought the car was too sporty for them and my mom said no and I immediately agreed with her. I thought it was the coolest car I had ever seen and think that may be when I first developed a lifelong interest in cars. My other set of grandparents had a blue '60 Bel Air 4 door with a 6 which I also liked but it obviously wasn't as cool as an Impala SS. Those were the good old days....

 

In 1956 we were teenagers snd bought an amazingly clean original mint '32 tudor for $20. We were going to build a hot rod. None of us had ever seen a hot rod but we had Hot Rod Magazine and that was all we needed. We started taking everything apart. Everything. We even disassembled the rear. If somebody had asked us why, we would not have had a good answer other than to reply enthusiastically that we were building a hot rod. Somebody should have asked. We eventually bought a used Olds engine, '39 trans, adapter, and '40 brakes and started putting it all together including reassembling the rear. We towed it around the Acme after its 7:00 PM closing time but it would not start. Not a pop. We finally discovered that we had incorrectly reassembled the rear with the ring gear on the wrong side so we were turning the engine in reverse trying to start it. I think '32 is the only year where that is possible.
Yeah, it's me again and I'm still 78 years old.

 

I just found this thread recently. I think now, its one of my favorites. A funny story, My good friend Moose was driving my coupe to Nats south, in the early 80s. When we went threw a VA. state police road check. The night before he was working at a gas station. When a cool old hippy dud was getting gas. After he paid for the gas he handed Moose a joint of Marianna. Being polite, he thanked the guy and put it in his drivers permit, which at the time was like a clear pouch with a paper permit inside. So when he handed it to the officer, it had the joint in clear view also. lol Luckily one of the officers was my uncle. this is what the coupe looked like at the time. I'm surprised they didn't lock us up, and through away the key. ha. ha. Ron...

 

I turned 68 last week and a story that I will never forget concerned when I turned 16 and showed interest in building a hot rod with my older brother (now 76) and his friend(now 80) we loaded our skinny bodies up in my brothers Chrysler powered 40 coupe on a Saturday morning to search the valley for a project. We went to many hot rod garages and looked at everything from a 1936 Cord to a rattle A roadster pickup. Just when we were getting tired and hungry after a long tour we lucked upon a 40 standard coupe with a nail head Buick and broken 39 box in front of a service station in Twin Falls Idaho for $200.00. I sold my guns bought the coupe and have never regretted the hobby.

 

Lou, is that the same car in your avatar? Remembering this old stuff brings back a flood of memories.

In high school I was friends with a guy whose family owned a Chevy dealership in KC, I won't mention which one as there are a few incriminating stories. Anyway, his first car was an almost new '65 Impala Super Sport, 409, black buckets, console, FOUR-speed, dark green, with Cragar SS's, loved that car. He learned to drive a clutch in this thing and had no fear of pounding on it, why not, free car, parts and service.

Anyway, the new Camaros came out and he grabbed the first one that came into the store, a stripper with the only options being the base 327, am radio, gold on gold with a THREE-speed on the floor. Metcalf Ave. was the cruise street and had a lot of serious stoplight wars. One night a few days after he got it with a couple hundred miles on it, we were out looking for races. We spy a Formula S Barracuda going the opposite way and eye ball each other. A little later we spot him a block ahead of us. We start to zig zag through traffic, Friday night heavy traffic, he must have caught us in his rear view as we notice he is slowing and holding traffic and waiting for the green to turn red. We caught him just as it turned to red.

It was a nice car, triple black with Keystone Kustomags and 383 call outs. It didn't matter that he could clean our clock, you'd race anything in those days. It was an automatic as he's foot braking the thing and it's lifted up on the suspension and the body has a twist over the wheels. My buddy slips into what he thinks is first and brings the revs way up. I'm all braced for getting pinned back in the seat. Light turns green and he side steps the clutch. The ass end of the Camaro lifts up and does this violent wheel hop into the front of the Imperial behind us with the retired couple in it. The rear just folded, Imperial, not too bad.

So, the result. I have a bump on my forehead the size of an egg from nailing the dash. My buddy? New aluminum headed SS396 Chevelle, red, black bench with FOUR-speed!

 

In either '63 or '64 I took my first solo ride on one of these:

My friend from up the street had a big sister who was dating a guy with a Bonneville and because my dad had bikes (and a patch) he decided that it was a good idea to put me on it and let me try to ride it. I couldn't reach the ground just barley reached the foot pegs. I managed to hit the big steel mail box on the corner,


and broke my pinky finger and his brake lever. The Chinese man who owned the corner store ran out and kept me upright until I was ready to try and ride back.

My dad owned one of these aside from his street bike which he sold to one of his brothers. '57 BSA. Minus the fancy paint job.





The summer that I was 12 (would have been around '66) his brother decided that it would be a good idea to send up the hill at the hill climb down on the devil's backbone. I made it over the top and managed to crack both knee caps on my way over the handle bars.


The summer that I was 14 I bought both my first car and my first bike, both Limeys. The bike was a '57 Norton Atlas. Somewhat like this one only maroon:



My granddad had a lot of fun laughing at me while I was learning how to start the old thumper. My first real date with the missus was on that bike. that is a story in itself.

I bought my first Harley the day I brought my daughter home from the hospital, a '49 45" WR. Now there is a story for the bleeding hearts. I took the missus to the hospital in a '68 mustang plane jane coupe with a boss 302 under the hood. We were going really fast and not wearing our seatbelts.

But wait it gets better, back then the common hospital stay after giving birth was 3 days. The day before the night that she want into labor we had gone to this motorcycle graveyard that was owned by an old flat track racer. We were with a big ol' guy named Slim. The wife told old Slim that she was going to have a baby today which sent him into labor. She calmed him down by saying "Not right this minute".

Anyway the old guy who owned the yard after we had spent an hour or so looking around walks up and says to the missus, "When are you do young lady?" She smiled and said. "I'm going to have it today." he nodded and told me that I should pay attention because women always know. Then he asked what we were after and I told him a Harley in a basket. He took us into this back room behind his office, full of trophies and 3 boxes if his old flat tracker. he said I can make you a deal on my old race bike and I'll make sure you have everything you need to make it street legal. He shot us a price and I told him I would have to sell some stuff but I'd be back. he said, "Good deal, that'll give me time to make sure you got a whole motor cycle." Then he smiled and gave the missus a hug and said, "You have yourself a pretty baby little missy. I hope its an easy delivery for ya."

We left, she started having little twinges about 10 that evening, called the doctor and he said that it was probably false labor. Told me the the same thing @ 1:30 AM and she said to me while I was on the phone, "Husband? My water broke!!" it was a white knuckle drive to the hospital but that old Ford sure sounded good at full sing. On the way I remember her saying to me, "Husband, the car sure is running good and you better hurry a little bit or we are not going to make it to the hospital." To this day I am not sure how much more hurry the little ford had in it but she was correct, I checked her in, went back and parked the car and when I got off the elevator at the maternity ward the nurse walked up to me asked me my name and said, "Your daughter is coming down the hall now." I handed her a cigar that said, "its a boy," Edye had told me it was going to be a girl.

Soooo I am dragging this out huh. The Mustang was paid for, a guy I worked with had a '56 Effie with a 352 that I liked and he really wanted my ford. I traded him and got enough boot to get out to the motorcycle grave yard and get the bike and gas money for the trip to get the missus and the kid. The girl rode home from the hospital on the wife's lap, no seatbelts, and the 3 boxes of WR were nestled securely in the bed of the truck.

it took me 3 days to put the bike together.

The Gurl turns 44 this year. I guess the ride home from the hospital didn't hurt her too much.

I don't care how you slice it, life does not get any better than that.

LOL that's rich. Did the cop say. "No thanks I got to drive?"

@1964countrysedan thanks man.

 

I'm not that old (49), but I can relate a tale told to me by an old coworker. When he was a kid in Webster City, Iowa, he and his best friend had "jobs" as test drivers. The friend's Dad worked for the factory that manufactured Doodlebugs. My coworker and friend were given brand new Doodlebugs and told to beat them to death. Then bring them back to the factory and get another. The engineers would look at the damage the boys would dish out, and make improvements to the cycles. He told me a young kid couldn't ever find a better "job".

 

LOL so many of us on here are 69 that we could hold our own high school class of 65 reunion.

 

Even if I fell into the class of '65 club I still wouldn't be invited.

 

For me, it was 1957, in Cleveland, Ohio, on St Clair AVENUE. It was not a junk yard or a recycling center, it was a "wrecking yard".
On Saturdays, we would walk the yard, look at the horribly wrecked cars, trying to imagine what happened to the drivers.
We pulled our own parts, most of the time, but when the need was for a BIGGER part, "Phil" had his "parts pullers" do the job.
In 1957, my uncle sold me his 1953 Buick Special 2 door hardtop, straight 8 with Dynaflow.
Couldn't take the Dynaflow, so, with the help of my Motors Manual to do the job, and "PHIL" at the wrecking yard, he supplied me with the stick shift steering column, flywheel, bell housing, used clutch, clutch pedal linkage and fork, stick transmission ...... all for $50.00, but $50.00 was big, back then.
So big of a deal, that "Phil" would not pull the parts, until I gave a $10.00 deposit, plus my Dad had to be with me, cause "Phil" wanted to be certain this 16 year old kid had the blessing of his parents to convert this 4 year old Buick.
"Phil" kept his wrecking yard looking like the aisles at Home Depot, a place for everything and every thing in its place.
I still have the Motors Manual, plus still have the darn receipt from St Clair Auto Wrecking.
Some memories are so vivid, but I can't tell you what I had for breakfast today.

 

Great story Beaner! That Norton in the pic is not an atlas,atlas was a 750 twin that shook like a 20 dollar junkie hooker with a hundred dollar bill showing.That big Norton single was a good motorcycle in its day. How did your WR work out? I have worked on some of those engines but never owned one.I did have a KR for many years,sold it around 1998 when the price of those got to (I thought) a fools pinnacle.Is the beezer in the pic an A7 or A10?

 

That sounds just like what Toad did in Ron Howard's '58 Chevy in "American Graffiti" and if I'm not mistaken he also hit a Mopar with an older guy driving....

 

I'm about to turn 74. Been playing with 2 and 4 wheels since I could. And the coolest story that ever happened to me was ..... Damn, I forget.

 

I'm 71, that's me in the passengers seat at 15 years old.

 

In 1957 I was a teenager building something - I forget what - and needed a '39 trans. Went to a junkyard near work. He had one but added: "OK kid, it's ten dollars but if you bring me some scrap metal that is the same weight as the trans, you can have it. I was back the next day with brake drums from mechanical brakes and various other items.
Yeah, it's me again and I'm still 78.

 

The bike in the pic is probably an A10. I robbed it off the web. The old Mans bike was actually a Gold Star and the more I look the more I realize that the bike in the pic is a twin the Gold Star had the exhaust port coming out on the throttle side. I let excitement get th best of me. LOL

So a correction the bike would have more closely resembled this bike only with a more aggressive rear tire, this one is a flat tracker. that someone added a rear brake too, probably so that they could race after the rule change.



The 45 worked out well once I learned to tune it. I rode it for probably two years. it was not a good road bike, too small. 45s in good shape are actually very dependable, and if you even got the lower compression 45 and stuffed the WR cams in it they would make a pretty spunky commuter, if you had to own an older bike. If I had one today I would consider a 45 magnum which is a 45 lower end and an Iron head top. But it would not be cheap to build, takes some machining to the cases to get the Sporster top end on it and like the 45 would not make a good road bike. But it would be one helluva bar hopper.

Figure it this way you could have an A coupe hammered to the max or an A sedan with a gentleman's chop. The coupe would make one helluva bar hopper but if I wanted to cruise from here to the coast ( choose one) I would rather have the sedan.

 

great stories Beaner. In the late 60's I had several non-unit Triumphs and a few A-10's-also a Velocette and a few Kmodels. Never owned a unit construction Limey as I didn't like the looks. Will have to look for pics.

 

LOL I still own a '68 Bonny, I haven't actually seen it since about '85 but it is still in a garage in redwood City, and it still gets used when someone needs it. I owned a '68 BSA Victor Shooting Star for a while, it was fun but like all thumpers it was a bitch to start even on a good day. LOL

For some reason someone put the word out once that I was MR Limey when it came to wrenching one. I had a steady procession of them wandering in and out of my shop for a while. I am no better at repairing them than anyone else. I did work for Hap Jones for a while when I was a young man. I needed a job and he had one, well that and it probably didn't hurt that he was around some when I was growing up.

Well we should probably swing this thing back around to cars.

 

Cool--I fooled with a bunch of Limey stuff too. Had some big thumpers too-a Matchless, a couple of 500 Beezers an AJS thumper and an early Ariel Red Hunter single as well--still have some Limey tools somewhere-clutch tool. valve pushrod tool etc. Bet there are still a bunch stashed away in Fresno-there were a lot of Ariel sq 4's there in the late 60's-early 70's-both 2 port and 4 port models

 

What was the question?

 

I got some whitworth tools here still. I try not to use them.

 

Me too

 

Dang ran across this thread. I was turning 64. Turned there and here I am at 71!