What got you hooked??

What was it in your life that got you hooked, I mean really hooked in Hot Rods...Customs...cars in general?

Do you remember?

I just got a plaque in the mail this weekend from Dennis aka. O'Brien Truckers that brought me back to that moment in my life.

When I was at Dennis's open house this spring, he was showing me some of his 10's of thousands of plaques from all over the world he has collected and catalogued from over the years. I asked him if he had a plaque from a certain club I remembered from the early 60's. He searches for a couple of minutes on his computer, points to the screen and says... you mean that one?
HOLY SHIT, it brought me right back.

I was just a snot nosed kid in the early 60's, probably just getting in the way of the car guys, but this club the Rear Gears hooked me for life. The rest is just fond memories.

My father had a store that was next door to the local Texaco Station, which was also next door to the town diner that you see in the picture. I used to walk to my fathers store every day aftyer school to hang out and catch a ride home. I used to go "help" at the gas station and check out all the cars that used to hang out at the diner. Thats where the club the Rear Gears entered a lot. Gassed Purple 40 Willys with a blower poppng out the hood, T-buckets, touring fuel on propane, etc...I will never forget.
I know a lot of you guys lived it, but a lot of us could only watch.

Does anyone recognize this little town or this club?

Do you guys have a similar area or club you remember?

so, what got you hooked?????

 

I don't recall any specific car club, but I recall going by Vrooders Iron and Hammer Works on 9th and Walker as a teen and seein' all manner of weird customs out front at different times and all the cool shit that used to cruise thru Hollies Drive In on Sheridan and Western,both in Okc in the 70's.

T.OUT

 

A couple of things in 1969...

Friends brother just back from Viet Nam (Marine) built a '41 Ford cpe with a nailhead...in a one car garage. I kept quiet and got to watch-help.

Hung out at the Philip 66 station on my paper route...David's 55 chevy yellow, 348 3x2, stick, no front bumper, and chrome reverse wheels. Calvert's '56 chevy, green, 283, 2 wcfb, stick, no front bumper, and chrome slot wheels.

Bill

 

When I was a kid, in the mid-fifties, my dad and uncles all had rodded cars, and sat around drinking beer and swapping stories at our house. My ears got positively huge listening to all the stories. One uncle had a candy apple red Stude Golden Hawk with a supercharger, said it wouldn't kick out of passing gear until 90+ mph. He asked me and Dad if we'd like to see. Of course, we did. Cool ride! I went to the drags at the old Pueblo airport, the stock car races at the old Pueblo Speedway (starting in 1957), Beacon Hill after it was changed from a go-kart track to a stock car track in '60 or so, the Colorado State Fair horse track,(saw the Unser boys kick some serious ass!) and lots of back roads around southern Colorado.

So I came by this obsession honestly, starting when I was about 4 years old (1956), and have continued to live the life of a dyed-in-the-wool gearhead for nearly fifty years since then. I still remember those stories, too!

 

The little magazines( rod and custom ,carcraft etc i would read while working in my dads grocery store. And then came 77 sunset strip, Kookie and that awsum hot rod he drove. I was hooked forever. God I love hot rods.

 

Phonics....



Mutt

 

My Dad got me intrested, he had a few cars 50 ford,35 ford,and my 40 which he gave me a few years ago. He had lots of bikes, he raced about any race that was around didnt matter what style he did it all. When I turned sixteen We restored his 69 bronco which he gave me as my car. about 10 years later he told me that he had bought the 40 ford and was going to redo it for my 16th birthday he got as far as the mustang front end pretty much all the frame. Well with being 16 I broke everything on the bronco that you can think of, he was working late at that time so instead of waiting on him to fix it I started doing the repairs. A quick reminder....

When you have to replace spider gears in the rear end make sure you dont use an impact on everything!!! Nothing more embarrassing than your pinion slinging around in the gravel.

Of course going to a boring college for two years and watching American Graffiti every night did not do anything but fuel the fire.

And my Dad... well he still working on his 50 and just recently purchased a triumph 250. And as he thinks Im crazy for switching everything back to the way it should be (Stock frame, flat head.) He has been the biggest influence on makeing me who I am,and getting me Hooked. Dave

 

Standing on the sidewalk in the early seventies watching my dad roast a set of tires off a '55 (I think) GMC.

For me then that was awesome. I was 6 or 7.

 

Mighta been the 289 stude motor my dad rebuilt in the kitchen when i was 4.
Hot cam and dual quads 4speed.Even my mom used to love beetin up on mustangs and camaros

 

When I was a kid ( mid 1970's), we went over to a friend of the families house. He was building a 30 model A and my dad helped him pull the body off of the frame. They set the body up on saw horses and also tied it to the rafters in the garage. After that, everytime we visited we got an update on the project as it moved along. This friend was/is an avid hotrodder and owns several cars. I kinda fell into it after my dad did a 65 mustang convertable resto. Helped with that as a kid and high school autoshop so on and so forth, but the Model A was the spark that started it all. BTW His son now owns that model A, a gift for graduating from college. The real gift though is that his son, my buddy also has the bug, real bad.

 

owning junkers and having to work on them, then finding a 1942 Dodge WC-54 military ambulance. I have yet to own one but thats what got me hooked. Someday I'll find one.

Gary

 

Gray Baskerville's coverage of a flathead-powered black-with-flames '40 Ford coupe in the December '74 issue of Hot Rod magazine. Some guy named Barry Lobeck (!) built it.

I was 13 and had no idea what it was, but knew it was cool and that some day, I was gonna build my own.

 

I was never too interested in hot rods until I realized that by picking up such a hobby I might be able to obtain a lucrative contract with TLC and or the Discovery Channel to create an exciting and informative television program wherein I build cars and or argue with my knucklehead employees.

 

I was about 10, when i had a Hot Rod magazine in my hand after YEARS of comic books and MAD Magazine. I don't remeber how it got there, but it was ON. I wore the pages of that thing out. Got every magazine on Drag type cars i could get my hands on. Put the centerfolds and color pics all over my walls. Drew hot rods on my school books. Had a different car magazine it seemed for each class. Oh, speaking of school, my grades went to shit. If a teacher caught me reading a car Mag, i would just daydream about cars instead. Then the car models, slot cars, and MORE magazines.

 

I'd have to say my dad as he always had old cars as everyday drivers (not hot rods) and he took me as a kid to the dirt trasck stock car races almost every weekend when I was growin up. This was thru the mid 50's when 34-early 50's cars were being raced. Ever since I've been infatuated with old tin. Thanks Dad!

 

Ditto. It was 1958, I was ten years old and I can still hear the theme song, but it was the "Kookie car" that sparked a burning interest in hot rods that hasn't cooled down. I'd been to many dirt track races and observed many local rodders' rides, but that Grabowski-built bucket was a visual delight that kept me glued to every episode.

 

Reading all my dads old and present magazines while growing up. While a youngster in the early 70s, my dad help build a chopped Model A coupe with the owner of the body shop he worked at. I got to ride in it when it was done. Riding in the rumble seat must have really started it all for me. Then there was his lowered short box chevy with flames he bought new in 74. I thought is was the coolest truck around. Going around with my dad to all the car shows and going to other guys home garages to see there projects at a young age just made me want a Hot Rod even more. I suppose listening to mom and dads 50s and 60s Rock and Roll records (Beach Boys and Elvis) helped some too. And not to forget The California Kid and American Graffiti movies.

 

I started with model car building in the 60's when I was in grade school. But never made the connection between the models that I was building and the real cars that they represented. My dad was a body and fender man by trade. I can remember waking up on Saturday mornings to the sound of a grinder and the smell of bondo out in our own garage where my dad did work on the side to make extra money for us, besides his work at the several different dealerships he worked at doing bodywork over the years.
When I was in highschool and bought the 58 Edsel that's when my intrest in the car hobbie really took off. I started learning to fix my own machines and having a dad to do my bodywork was an extra benefit.

 

My brother in about 1949, he had a 38 Chev with a Jimmy , dual carbs and straight pipes. I can still hear it!!!!!!!!..............OLDBEET

 

My Dad. I was 8 when he finished his 32 3 window, and I still remember him downshitfing and lighting up the tires at 55 MPH. Kinda leaves an impression.

I didn't get REALLY interested though, until recently. My Dad started building again about 4 years ago, and traditional cars started to get some more respect again. I had ignored rodding through my 20s, even though I spent 5 years as a race car fabricator...I HATED all the pastels, sherbets, and all the billet shit. I think it was when Shine's truck hit so big that I realized there were ways to build this shit and build it cool.

 

Reading hot rod books in high school in the early 50s, Hot Rod, Hopup, Honk, Rod& custom Ect.,came home from school one day, mom said there was a hot rod club[ Lehigh Valley Timing Assoc.] starting in town permoted by a local DJ called Dopey Duncan. I went to the gas station an joined,been hocked ever since. On May 15 we selebrated our 50th annv. of drag racing and to honor the memory of a great man that helped hundereds of kids stat out of trouble. we all miss you Dopey

 

When my older brother Bob was in high school (1969), he bought his first car, a 57 Chevy 4 dr. hardtop. I was a quiet 6 year old kid at the time, so he let me hang around when he was working on it. I've been hooked on old cars ever since. The pic is at Midstate Dragway in Havana Ill., about 1970.

 

My old man got me hooked in a round about way. He was never and still isn't into cars at all. But he was into the surf music pretty heavy back in the day. I used to spin his records all the time. Especially the Ripcords ..... I think my playing that crap got him to dislike it a little but I digress. The surf songs were cool enough but the CAR songs..... my lord was that stuff cool!!! 409, little deuce coupe, lady from Pasedena.... seemed like a few of 'em even had motors revving somewhere in 'em. That was REALLY what hooked me on rods. It blossomed from there into me naming every corner on our gravel road "Dead Man's Curve" and having fun fun fun till my daddy took my bike away.... that's another story.

The first CAR that got me hooked was my neighbors 34 Ford coupe that he'd owned since 1967. I used to play in that thing all the time when I found out it was sitting in his shed out back. He STILL owns the car and has just in the past couple years gotten around to fixing it up. He's down to metal work and I am lending a hand with that. So I guess it's almost come full circle.....

 

Well, honest?
I was 7 at least and my uncle Ken had a 68 dodge charger. A rolling smoky 3rd gear drug out tire roaching burnout gear banging two lane launch did it for me. 8^)
Now for a traditional? I was fifteen and my best friends father Sid had a 39 ford truck with a stroked 265 , 4spd toploader with a secondary overdrive and a 5:13 quick change .I only heard it run once and he took us for a ride in it.Bill still has it now that Sid has passed and he doesn't drive it ,but it still runs and has the original black paint . Nothing sounds like those cracker box chevies. man alive .What a ride. swaZZie

 

I am new to the post...but I like the fact that having a custom /classic car beats any new BMW-MB-Porsche that can be bought in about an hour with the right size wallet.

 

Twin 40 ford 2dr sedans. Our upstairs renter had one with a big Olds motor. His brother-in-law had the twin but with a stock flattie. These two would make the downtown cruise,(but never together) and sucker the local hotties into races. Flattie would get his butt kicked, then park in the alley between Pennys, hop in the Olds and get a rematch. I was got to ride in the Olds powered 40 when they drove side by side thru town at the end of summer. Lotta 'what the hells' and 'i told you so's' that night. Those two cars set the hook and I've been caught ever since.

 

For myself and alot of my mates it was seeing American Graffiti for the first time, on the big screen when it first came out in I think 1972.I was at that very impressionable age of 17. Went out & got a 56 Chev soon after. This movie gave Hot Rodding in New Zealand a huge boost at the time. Rodding was certainly happening, but really took off after this.Most of my mates who got rods at around this time are still very much involved in the hobby, only now maybe have a little more cash to spend on their cars.

 

i became hooked on hotrods around the age of 10-13 i guess. our next door neighbor max had a garage behind his house where he would repair automobiles for a living. i remember he had a sweet 50 ford coupe, man i loved that car. my dad ended up buying one also. anyways, i got hot and heavy into the car magazines, especially car craft and rod & custom. hell, one of myfriends had an older brother that took his 60 impala convertible out to george barris for lot's of custom work. living just 60 miles from indy helped as well, we attended the time trials for the 500 many times and the race a few times. i raced in the soap box derby for several years, then came 77 sunset strip, ozzie & harriet, record album covers of the beach boys and other's of the day with picture's of hotrods on the cover's, song's about hotrods, little deuce coupe, hey little cobra, 409, countless other's, ton's of models, you name it, if it had anything to do with hotrods i was all over it.....man i wanted a hotrod someday!

fast forward to around 1980-something and i'm driving down route 1 and in the opposite direction i see a primo full-fendered 28 model A pickup, slammed in front, big's and littles, the perfect stance, even a full hood and the sweetest sounding exhaust you ever heard. it had a dark blue cab and black fenders that litterally dripped over the front tires....THAT WAS IT !!!! i knew then and there that i was going to build something. i started hitting the cruise night's which was a little sparce back then, and after about 10-12 years of going to cruise nights and talking to guys about how they built their cars, i finally bought the '30 A coupe. what a great hobby and even greater hotrods!!!! thank's max!!! mike

 

Good topic,Keith.
I've been interested in cars in general since I can remember. Older cousins tell me that by the time I could talk,I could tell the names of the cars just by looking at them go by my house.
But the two things that got me hooked on hotrods was a club in N.Adams,Ma. called the Cambusters. I looked for their plaque at Dennis's openhouse but didn't see one.
One of the members who went to the local Catholic High School drove a white '53 Studebacker starlight coupe that was nosed ,decked,lowered and had red wheels and whitewalls. This was about 1958. I was in grammar school
across the street and when he drove into the school lot,that club plaque would drag on the sidewalk and call attention to him. Except in magazines,I never saw a real hotrod in our town until the mid sixties.
The second thing was an older cousin gave me a stack of old Hotrod mags and I read them until I wore them out.