So what was the very first hot rod type thing you did on your own?

For me, dropping the front of my 50 Ford sedan.
(I'd done duals prior to, but dad's the one who helped me finish it off properly.)

The lowering was done with a screw jack, couple of floorstands and the box of roadside repair tools I carried in the car.
No sockets, just end wrenches, screwdrover, pliers etc.

It took forever to screw the Acme threaded lower A-arm pivot bolt out with an end wrench.

Took the coils down to a oil field steel supply house where they knew dad - and me, sorta - the welder torched off a couple of coils for us for free and we figured we were in business.

After the install, the car had a nice dago on it, accented very nicely by the big & littles.

Like you'd imagine, two coils was one coil too many.
The lower A-arm laid on the snubbers and the ride was non-existent.
Looked cool as all heck though.

About a week later dad brought home a new pair of coils for me, I installed them with the same tool kit that now had a set of 1/2" drive sockets in it.
We figured we were running in the high tech world now.

The sockets and a little experience made the coil swap easy and quick.

Dad approved and the stock coils lasted about two weeks.

Next time around, same scenario, one coil cut by the same welder who thought the whole story was funny.

Dad didn't seem to mind the one coil cut.
Specially since he used the car now and then.
It helped that the ride and handling qualities weren't impaired very much and the car stayed as it was until it went to the junkyard.

I took all the good stuff off a sedan that dad bought new and put it on a 50 coupe.
The coupe was in nice condition, but every once in a while I get the guilty's for tossing a cherry sedan with good paint.

Live and learn they say, but I'd sure like a ride in a time machine so as to rectify some past stupidities....

 

Family friend and mentor taught me paint and bodywork on my first car back in 83. Did much of the work myself under his guidance. Later worked for the same guy in his bodyshop.

 

For me it was rust repair via some cheapo bondo on my very first car, at the age of 16, a '68 Camaro ragtop that I bought with all my own babysitting money. I was so proud of my work. Sure would love to see if it lasted.

My first pride and joy

 

I put a 4bbl intake and a teapot Holley on my first car, a '55 Ford with a 272. It made a cool DWAAAAAA zoise when I punched it 'cause I tossed the oil bath air cleaner, but it didn't run much better than the stock 2bbl....


Jan

 

Painted a pink pigs *** on the back of my 65 Rambler in 1981, modified the exhaust & lowered it with white walls and black wheels.

Also, lowered down the torsion bars on the front of mom's Cordoba and flipped the air cleaner for that full "Quadrajunk **** in the hood" sound

 

Didn't involve greasy hands or ****** knuckles, but I doodled about a million dragsters in the margins of my schoolbooks.

 

I put a Ford 97 style carb on an opel in 1966. Got the adapter 2bbl. to 1bbl.from Honest Charley or J.C. Whitney. As I recall the likage was a bit of a problem. It only ran really well wide open.
The second project was to try and stuff a 55 pont engine in a 36 Plymouth coupe. The swing set collapsed while trying to yank the Poncho motor from the donar. Finnaly with the help of a tree branch and a chain fall I got it out.
I'm laughing to myself as I type this.
Panhead Guy

 

When we were 12 or so my brother and I would take the forks of are bikes and weld forks from a ten speed on them. The ten speeds forks were turned up. It gave us really long front ends and we thought we were cool. These bikes are very hard to ride and I have multiple scars to prove it.

 

Helped my dad pull a 241 Hemi out of a DeSoto when I was about five. Not a lot of help probably.

Cranked the torsion bars down as low as they'd go on my '66 Charger before I was even old enough to drive it.

 

Overhauled the motor in a '59 English Riley. Oh that don't count.

Changed the cam in my '58 Roadmaster. I guess that counts.

After that I think putting the 312 in my '55 Ranchwagon. At least that was the first stuff I did on my own to my own stuff that I recall.

At least those were my first 3 cars.

 

I'll second that. I still have a rib out of place from wiping out my "chopper" 30 years ago.

 

if you don't count the "hot rod" sketches in my 4th grade notebook; and you don't count the cards clothespinned to the bicycle forks; and you don't count the 2x10 with the old radio flyer axles/wheels under it that we raced down the hillside over at the high school football field; then it would have been putting dual exhaust on my first car. a '64 corvair monza. 4-speed bucket seat car. the original muffler was toast and the neighbors complained that it was loud so mom & dad gave me the dual setup (prolly from j.c. whitney or someplace like that) for christmas and i froze my tail off putting it on with about the same tools that C9 was using the first time he cut his coils. done about christmas time in '67 or '68.

 

The first very own hot rod thing? I made a custom shifter knob in high school machine shop to fit my 50 F-1. Still have the knob and the pickup.

 

1. clutch in my 67 chevelle age 14
2. rebuilt a 350 to replace the blown 305 in my monte ss, after 4 days of ownership. then learned all about junk automatic transmissions. 200-4r pos! eventually had 3 motors, 6 cams, 4 intakes, 7 transmissions swapped in the gravel, by me. learned alot by trial and error. mainly error ages 15- 18

 

When we were 12,we pulled a hood off of a 1951 Chevy and used it for a snow sled. You could get 8 kids on that thing and it would go like hell. Except one time. The hood ornament dug into the dirt and threw us about a mile.
We "nosed it " and went on from there !!!

 

I upgraded the suspension in my first car. Bigger sway bar, lowering coils, new urethayne bushings........a complete frontend rebuild. Then I upgraded the 4 lug rear to a 5 lug.


And all that for a 67 Mustang. Wished I still had the car tho.

**x
Brandy

 

My Dad owned a carburator and electrical shop for many years! When i was 14 my Dad let me hang around the shop,Let me help out the mechanics and (of course) clean the shop. After a week there he let me do a tune up on a 67 Vette (supervised of course) but after watching the other mechs i figured i could handle it . Long story short! Did a good job,Got a ride in a sweet Vette and 20$ tip.

 

First vehicle was my 53 1/2 ton chevy truck. All I did to it was pull over and adjust the shift lever arms every so often.

Being young and adventurous I found a 1967 chevelle ss factory tach and gauges with a 4:11 rear and muncie 4 speed. The only thing missing was the 396.

I drove with my grandfather to Seligman, Missouri and picked it up sight unseen for $150.00.

I bought an all original 66 caprice 4 door hardtop from an old lady in Eldon, Mo. It had a 396 in it. It was beautiful black on black with electric doors and locks.

I took my dad's tractor and pulled the motor out of it and stuck it in the chevelle.

I would say that was my first real hot rod experience even though it was a muscle car.

 

the first real hot rod thing (not counting "stock" repairs) was swapping a 396 into my pickup when I was 17. Took the 6 out friday morning, drove it into town the next evening with big block power, got pulled over for "exhibition of speed" the following saturday.

 

alteredpilot, that's a great picture !

For me it was installing a 2 inch exhaust system on my Volvo 122.
Somewhere in Sweden, sometime back in the mid seventies...

From 1 1/4 inch to 2, it was huge !!

 

I "accidentally" shaved all the trim off one side of a ststion wagon in body shop cl***.
it was one of those 80's wagons that belonged to a teacher...she wrecked it and our cl*** repaired it.

I ground off all of the moun***ng tabs along the side of the car she wrecked.

I did such a good job we didn't even notice until AFTER it was painted that there was no place to put the trim back on!

unfortunately,the drivers side was not damaged in the colision, so the trim stayed on...

 

In 1961, when I turned 16, I had a friend who's Dad was a used car dealer. Eddie's Dad gave him a white '54 Vette, with a stovebolt six and a powerglide ******. It was pretty clapped out but we thought it was the ****z. Eddie was six months younger than me and didn't have his license. I got to drive us around in the Vette until he turned 16. One memorable trip during those days was to the drags at Emporia, Va where I got to drive, as I remember it turned something like 68 in the quarter. Got to see Chris Karamenzes (sp) run his rail that day though. Later, after my friend got his license we swapped out the six for a Studebaker V8, which came from his Dad's stash. The car never ran worth a ****, but we thought we were something. What I'd give to have that car today.

 

So what was the very first hot rod type thing you did on your own?

I payed a ****load of money for a car that didn't run.

 

My first hot rod type thing was on my second car. 74 lemans. i cut off all the perfect working single exhuast and stuck on some duals with cheery bombs and dumps at the rear axle with clothes hangers for umm hangers

Would have to stop about every 15 miles and tighten or change the hangers but it sound tuff and i felt cool. After that i went to town on my next car and really learned alote. nothing like a 85 fleetwood coupe sitting 2" from the ground with cut coils on the front and no coils in the back

 

The first Hot Rod type thing that always stays in my mind would be driving the **** Kraft / Highland Plating Special for the first time I ever drove a car at the age of 6. my father was sitting next to me explaining the clutch and I remember stalling it a couple of times before I actually got it rolling, it was on an old dirt road of which I live at the end of now and that was almost 30 years ago. I can still hear those side pipes cracking. Unfortunaltley my father sold the car off in the eighties, oh well cool memory's though.

 

I know you won't believe me...building the spacetruck was the first thing I ever did.

I bought a model A coupe first, but all I did was drive that ****er.

 

I rebuilt my vw motor into a 1641 by myself at 15yrs old, then proceded to build and install a 2 liter porsche motor in it. It has all been up hill from there.

 

Cut "moon disk" out of the bottom of coffee cans in 1957 for my 2 seat go-cart and they were cool specially after I white lettered the tires, got my fake antenne and ****s tail from J.C. Whitney, threw the muffler away and put a straight pipe on it.......................bad muther!