First car (age 14) was an unfinished project '51 Ford Victoria with Merc flat head motor 3 speed. Ran well, but a few years later fell for the sound of a '57 Chevy 2 door post small block with too much cam, large AFB, blown out glass packs, 3 speed Hurst on the floor. Couldn't afford the gas mileage when I left for college, so the obligatory '65 Mustang was next. I miss them all.
Had a 292 in a 55 chev. 210, 3 on the tree and 3:70 gear. It was one of the very best, fastest machines i've ever owned, could wind to 7+ easy (solid cam) and go all day in 2nd. The pair of glaspaks really let you know it.
My first car was a 33 Chevy tu-door sedan, my avatar. It only had 37k miles on it and had never had anyone sit on the passenger seat or the backseat. The body was mint as well and the owner wiped the car down every day with a rag soaked in kerosene. The original black paint was thin and of course, I wanted to have a flame job, so my buddy painted it for me. It was painted in a dirt floor garage that he wet down before painting and the thing turned out fabulous. I drove it from the time I was 12 years old until at 15 bought a 38 Ford Tudor sedan, wow, a V/8, I sold the Chevy and the kid that bought it totalled it two weeks after the purchase.
First old driver was a 1955 Ford Ranchwagon. First non drivers were two Model A pick ups me and a friend dragged out of a field as over enthusiastic 17 year olds.
Around 1987 I bought a 53 Ford F250...It ran sort of but the flathead V8 was cracked too badly for reasonable repair...Bought another engine but it was just as bad..Sold the truck to cut my loss...
Fixed up and flipped a bunch of muscle era stuff as a teen but never did much more than test drive them. My first legal driver was a 74 vega till my old neighbor sold me a 57 chev 150 post for $1500. This car was cherry, the only trash i found in it was flyers for Milliken's bid for the Mich governor's race in '69 under the back seat. 50k miles, mint stock interior, faded paint but just 2 quarter size rust holes behind the front tires. someone had chromed a bunch of stuff under the hood and put big & little cragars on it so everybody wanted to race, but with only the stock six that wasn't going to work. I wanted so very badly to put a v8 in it but that six ran so good you couldn't hear it run at idle and even back then I could not bring myself to trash such a good motor. Drove that car for 2yrs even lived in it all summer one year never had to spend a dime on it outside of gas and oil changes. Sold it when someone offered me $5k. Big money for me at the time but like many here I wish I hadn't.
Bought this 55 Bel air hardtop in 1972 at age 12 for 40 bucks. the pic below is from 1977 when I was 17. then it had a 301 4 speed and 4.11 posi The pic below was taken in 1984, after I attended the KKOA show in Desmoines in 82 I got bit by the custom bug. I was 24 then, the little baby in the pic is my daughter and she is 38 now I sold it in 2000 after owning it for almost 30 years and over 100000 miles
Worked at an Esso station in high school, they had a friend who had the Holmes Wrecker Dealership. He bought a lot of old Navy vehicles, primarily mid 50 Ford trucks but a couple of other vehicles included. One was a 56 chevy station wagon, 6cyl/3 speed. I bought it for $25. Kept it for a year or so, sold it for $25 to a kid who used it to race around an old apple orchard till the gas tank fell out.
Still got it. It was my first car, not just old car. My Father thought if he got his 13 year old son (45 years ago) a project, he'd stay out of trouble & in the garage. Didn't work as well as expected. He asked what I wanted, & the answer was a '40 Deluxe coupe. He found this '39 Standard Tudor close by for $200. I said "close enough." It didn't look like this at the time. Built by teenagers in the '70s. It gets better with every update. I'm so glad now that I didn't have the money or knowledge back then to make the changes I wanted to back then. Still runs a flathead & stock suspension (w/ Sid's dropped axle). It's never leaving the family.
My first car was a '29 A Standard Coupe. I gave the seller $15 down and $435 when I picked it up and drove it home. It was R ustoleum primered, had no roof, no glass, no lights or wiring other than what it took to run the engine, only seat springs, rotten tires, wobbly front end, broke a brake rod and lost two clevises on the way home, stopping it only by locking up the right rear tire. That was August of 1968, when I was 19. By winter I had the engine out and rebuilt, installed glass, wiring, a roof, new kingpins and joints, replaced the cluster gear in the transmission (tried to powershift to second after a hole shot from the stoplight, racing a corvair). I drove it rain, sleet, snow or shine for 15 months and really learned basic automotive mechanics.
1972 Dodge Polara Custom 4dr hdtp. Was My great-grandpas car, because Granny didnt drive. Sat in a garage for about 12 yrs after he passed. I got it and drove for the first year. Then my buddy talked me into putting a 4bbl on the 2bbl intake with an adapter. Never ran right after, and I lost interest. Someone bought it and I never saw it again. Wish I had it back, that thing was like riding on a pillow!
Bought this the week after I graduated from high school in '72. Dropped axle, '57 PowerPak 283, Zephyr gears, black tuck and roll. Drove it home for $500.
Dragged this out of a dirt driveway North of Boston in 1990. I was 25 and everyone thought I was crazy.. It was a crispy critter, took a long time to get it running.
It was a 1948 Prefect (Anglia) in perfect condition. I was about 14 yrs. old and bought it from my friend that owned my MG, I paid $30. for it. I wanted to build a A/G car like my hero's from Jack Merkel's shop. So first thing I do is take the original engine and trans out and junk that. Then I had to move it out of the garage that it was in and rented a garage closer to my house. Well my friends got in the garage and took all the parts and put them on the landlady's lawn, she was not happy and kicked me out. And with no place to put the car (my parents didn't know about it) I called a tow truck, paid $15. and had it towed away. Pat
1949 Olds super 88, that I bought in 1959 out of a junkyard, shortly before my 16th birthday. No pictures though.
I pretty much laid claim to my 33 at birth, lol. My grandpa set me in the seat of it at ~6 months old and (from the story I am told) I looked around the cab and then looked at him and gave him a thumbs up and from that point it was mine, lol. It officially became mine when I turned 21 and got my first "career" job.
I bought this '35 5W from my uncle in 1958 when I was 13 for $17.50. Kept it for 2 years and sold it for $50.00. If it had been a 3W I would have kept it.
It was not a complete car, actually only a rusty pile of junk, but my first "old car" was a 1926 Model T coupe I bought in Gastonia N.C. in 1972 for $35. I ended up selling it and buying a 1928 Chevy sedan for $300 but then traded it off towards the 32 Ford coupe I have now. Here is the old Model T with a grinning young dude so proud of his rusty hulk: [/ATTACH]
1934 Ford 5 window coupe and a 1952 Ford sedan, both for $25. The engine from the '52 was for the '34 but I sold both without getting it on the road for $500. The '34 needed a frame and I could not find or build one. Sold them to a truck driver delivering feed from Purina to the feed store.
'37 Ford coupe at age 14 with my paper route $$. That was 1957. Stored at a friend's place until his folks went away so we drove it up the back alleys until we slipped into a ditch & had to get neighbors to haul us out. Last drive as we had to sell it asap or leave home!!
In 1969 I traded a 175 Bridgestone Motorcycle for a 1964 Cyclone that idled good but wouldn't rev over 1500 rpm replaced points, condenser, spark plugs, distributor cap and plug wires. Boy did it come alive!
Wow, I've had so many cars, trying to remember which old car was the 1st is pretty tough. I got my driver license in 1972. The first car I drove was dad's 64 Olds. Probably the first one I actually owned, in 1975 was a 65 Dodge Coronet. My 1st HAMB era car would have been my 35 Dodge 2 door sedan. The reality was it was a pile of cut up bent up rusty metal I paid $75 and got a good title. That would have been around 83, but it took until 94 before I had the ability to make it actually function as a car. We, as a family put 66,000 miles on it in 7 years. The pictures of the 35 went with the 35, except for the one remaining. Gene
At 16 i bought a 1956 vw baja bug, but my first real hot rod was a 1931 ford coupe that was my neighbors dog house when i was 23. He didnt want to sell it, but i offered 1000$ and he took it. 1 short year later it was my first hotrod, 364 nailhead, 4 speed and a 9 inch rear
My first real old car was a 32 Ford, kinda. My mentor told me if I kept my nose clean, listened to what he said, and most importantly, did most all of it myself, I'd have a respectable Modified ready for the season. Used the 32 frame rails, welded tube inside to hold all the mounts, cross members, torsion set up and mount the roadster body. Welded the doors and trunk lid shut, flipped it over and anything that looked like bracing was cut out and shit canned. Sliced and diced the body with a torch (Bob was a master with a Victor) and welded the body to the narrowed frame and roll cage. I remember spending a week cutting and fitting the 32 grill, just to have him tell me it wouldn't be used. Injected 327, 3speed, QC. Brush painted it yellow and white rustolem. Proudest moment of my young life was when Bob told the tech inspector to direct his questions to me, since I built the damn thing. Remember that first race night well. Qualified middle pack. Finished dead last in the heat, dead last in the B main. But the car had held together, ran strong, and that night there wasn't anyone in the pits with a bigger grin on his face.
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