Hot Rods So,.... What lit the fire in you ? The car that inspired you FIRST ?

Mine started with my dad's 46 Ford coupe, blue, and my uncle's 47 Merc convertible, red. I loved the shape and overall look of both cars. By 1952, both cars had moved on. My dad had a 49 Ford convertible and my uncle aquired a black 52 Olds 88 hardtop. The Ford was okay, but the Olds was too bulky. Next thing I know, my dad traded the 49 in on a 50 convertible that somebody customized. Black and cream, lowered in the rear, hopped up flathead and dual smithys that really barked! I fell in love allover again! This was all before I was in the first grade in 1953! I was hooked forever more! By 1962, I was 14, my dad drove a 59 Impala coupe, white with a red interior, and a 348 with a stick. I decided that I needed my own car and presented the idea to my dad. He said, " you can have a car as soon as you can pay for it ! ". Little did he know that I had been squirreling away money from everything I had been doing. Odd jobs and even babysitting! He was taken aback but kept true to his word. March 10th, 1962, I became the semi proud owner of a worn out 48 Ford coupe all my own. But, I had 2 years before I could drive to make it road worthy. Fifty years and another 104 cars later, the passion has only grown. I own a hemi powered deuce hiboy roadster, a 30's rail job midget with V860 power, the El Camino my dad bought brand new, April 4th, 1968. And a few late model cars. All from a 3 years old being enamored 2 old Ford products and eaten up with things mechanical. And, I still am! Once the El Camino is restored/properly modified, my search for another 46-48 Ford or Merc coupe begins!

 

Okay, okay...
The Fisher Price pull along chattering telephone might be a little OT. Outside the main focus of this thread, as-it-were.
Sorry.

Honestly, there was no one car that pulled my trigger. It really was all of them. But I know one thing, it was the older ones that always got most of my attention.

I remember being 3 years old, sitting on my porch steps on warm sunny Sunday mornings in 1960 watching the cars pull up and line our streets in front of the big old St. Andrew's Catholic Church situated kitty corner across the street from where we lived and was where we also attended. I clearly remember being so entertained by all the different kinds of cars. And I clearly remember being able to distinguish between the newer and the older models. A boy interested in such things just knows, I guess.

The newer models were okay, but a little plain.

The ones that were just a few years older... the ones with the big fins and all the chrome... were cooler.

And the ones even older than that didn't have any fins at all. They were kind of smooth looking. And I liked those even more.

And once in a great while I'd see a late 30s model. Maybe a coupe, even. I knew that those were rare and even more special.

Truth is, I don't remember seeing any models older than that except maybe languishing behind an old garage. I think it was building models a few short years later that made me understand that I really needed a 1932 Ford.

This was my view of the old church. It's not there now.
But I can still smell the incense, perfume and cologne.
And still see the cars.

 

Old cars? It was this one - my grandfather’s ‘40 Olds - that I inherited when I was 12 years old - still have 57 years later - it’s 6 cyl flathead runs like a sewing machine.
Hot rods? Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s “Tweedie Pie”.

 

Same here, always had a toy car in hand growing up, JamPaks, hot wheels, matchbox etc. Always kept the good hot wheels to myself and had a set of beaters if friends were around; basically treated the good ones like my dad treated his roadrunner, the beaters were treated like his daily drive /6 Plymouth Scamp. I still have a ton of immaculate hot wheels at my parents house in the basement, may build a display for them in the garage someday.

 

At 12 years old a red roadster pickup on the cover of hot rod magazine did it for me, I took the bait hook, line and sinker!


60 years later I still have that magazine only now signed by fellow hamber Dean Lowe.


and my first build was a 1930 Ford pickup. HRP

 

I always liked cars. Had Tonka trucks, model cars, and when Rod & Custom was the small version, I would put it in my open English book. The Nuns never caught me.

When my parents purchased my first car for me, I was in love. A '62 Chevy II.... six cylinders, three on the tree, baby poop brown...
I treated it like gold. always washed and polished. Saved up for a while doing odd jobs and purchased two chrome wheels from Johnny's Speed and Chrome in Buena Park for the front. Learned how to reverse the rear shackles. I was hooked.

But the final straw was at OCIR. Larry Christopherson let me sit in his beautifully painted Nova funny car and help with the packing of the parachute. Now I had an obsession.
He is the reason I have had bitchin cars and no money.

 

The car that did it for me was a 1965 Ford Galaxie XL, that my Dad tried out for a day in 1965! He didn’t buy it and waited till the next year and bought a four door.
Also the 1965 Galaxie was very high tech with major style changes. And won the Daytona 500 that year! Over the years I had many cars, but didn’t get my 65XL till a few years ago!






Bones

 

Bones, this was me,
‘65 XL was our family car for 10 years! Always a soft spot for them….maybe some day

 

I was 7 years old in 1966 when I got a ride in a 1932 5 widow coupe with a 392 HEMI owned by Rich Hefner from Milwaukee. That did me in for life, both a blessing and a curse !

 

Nobody in my family was or is into old cars, or hotrods. But as a very young boy my dad would hit the local Goodwill store every Saturday morning to see what was new, and I usually went along with my .25 cent allowance in my pocket. Old car magazines were a penny a piece, and I was immediately enthralled with old issues of car magazines, and usually bought 5-10 a week.
The cars that got most of my interest were the 50's drag racers, and especially the Gas Class cars. So cars like Ohio George's '33 Willys, SW&C '41 Willys, and various other well covered Gassers were my favorites. Those old magazines started a lifetime love for 50's and 60's Gassers that I still have today.

 

To be honest, I first came to the HAMB for the customs. Then after I got here, the hot rods started to grow on me and now I just barely like customs more than hot rods. Some days it's a toss-up.

But my first real exposure to car culture was going to the drag races starting in the early 70's, so I guess that exposure, along with my Dad's slight interest in cars, really got me started.

 

Sounds like Dan Idler's car in the Henry Gregor Felsen novel, "Road Rocket".

 

I grew up around old cars and always liked them but the one that set my brain on fire was a flat black steel 23 tbucket with red pinstriped flames sitting on chrome steelies and whitewalls. also the engine was loaded with aluminum parts from cal customs.

ive been broke every since.

 

Gary Kessler's yellow 32 highboy roadster. Patterned my first roadster after it.

 

I was always around old cars, street rods that family members had…nothing traditional but I remember this issue of Hot Rod Deluxe hitting the magazine rack. My suspicions were confirmed that there was actually traditional hot rods out there. All of the Choppers cars on this cover were very influential. I bet others remember this issue too. Next year I went to Bonneville in 2000 and that ruined me for any car “event” after that. Haha

 

1955 setting in school Mrs. Gossett class. Across the street in a back yard set a 32 5w. That was it. Some 50 yrs later I met the man that owned the car. Was not able to go to his house and touch it. He passed and the car was sold.

 

Reading the majority of response's, we were influenced from their family tradition's cars/racing. Some men grow up fishing, hunting with Dad, the family camping outs, the various sports events that people become avid fans of, we have choices and some disposable income to pursue these interests whatever they may be. Anyone who follows their passion will be a happier person, you have to have a passion for something whatever it is. IMO, Living it is the key. In general most all the car guys I know are good happy relatively normal people, about 50-50, family influence or their own car passion discovered. WE are the lucky ones, the car hobby is the greatest. Everyone Have a Great Day, take your hobby car, honey for a cruise and dinner, that's my plan for later today.

 

I remember it very vividly. I was 4 years old and in the garage while my dad's '32 Tudor was rumbling away. I'm not sure if it was sound or the carbon monoxide poisoning, but I was hooked on flatheads ever since.

 

61 Ed's Beatnik Bandit

 

Saturday afternoon TV movie: Elvis, Loving You

 

I’ve been a car guy since childhood, but hot rods…. that came after my first trip to Speed Week. I didn’t stand a chance after seeing cars like these:

 

I grew up and still live in a very small town in upstate NY a population of about 800. There were a handful of old cars, a few street rods, and 10-15 oval track stockcars. (Yes, 10-15 stockcars in a town of 800.)
My dad worked on many of those racecars and built several stock car chassis.

By the mid 90's dad was burned out on working on everyone else's racecars, and I was becoming interested in period correct hot rods.

About that time I started seeing a cream and red scalloped chopped and channeled 30 A coupe, white walls and period correct small block Chevy it would drive through town about 2 or 3 times a year
It was often traveling with a chopped and channeled early 60 style 30/31 A truck purple with flames multiple carbureted Nailhead.

There were no cars like that is this area, after about 4 or 5 years I was finally able to catch up with the car and the owner/builder Doug Anderson.

That was the first period correct hot rod I ever saw in person! Doug lived about an hour away he and I got to be friends, Doug passed earlier this year.

 

Now I have been drawn back to oval track racing with vintage cars, due to the what the traditional hot rod scene has degenerated into.

The car that most insipred my current build is Charlie Jarzombek's Bug-



My build-


Click here >Build Thread<

 

Oh, the Studebaker and bus from the Muppet movie was a huge influence as well.

 

....watching these things go around in circles is what got me started on old cars..
.

 

Models !

 

Norms "T", Ivo's "T", and the Ray Vega 38 Ford tub built by Valley Custom Shop were all in my high school neighborhood in the mid 50's. They got me going on old cars. I was so lucky to grow up in Sunland Ca where Norm lived, saw him all the time in his "T", My step dad was Ivo's movie agent, he got Tom to take me for a ride in his "T", and the Ray Vega tub was at my High School VHHS often and was stored in the front yard of a kid near the school. Right time right place! JW

 

I was six in 1969 (you can do the math...)

THIS is the one that corrupted my mind very early in life.....



Yes, I still have it and, like all my other hot rods, it's not for sale!

 

Built this model as a kid, and told myself I'd have a hotrod 55 some day.

 

To many to say. End of 40s an in to early 50s was car crazy,got only more so.