When did it start for you?

well i started out swappin parts on stolen bicycles at around eight or nine then up graded to motorcycles at around 11 , then started boostin cars at 13 ..haha

 

My dad had a Texaco gas station, I was 4 yrs. old ( in 1950) and I "helped" fill a '50 Ford gas tank with a water hose!!!!! Getting spanked with a water hose hurts like hell!!!!!

 

I started like everyone else, tearing stuff apart and trying to put it back together. Then came models and later, the real thing. My dad used to let me help him work on the family cars. He hated paying other people to work on his cars.

 

I remember takeing an old Carter bbs 1 barrel carb apart at around seven or eight. When I was 22,my dad and I needed a one barrel carb for a Plymouth flat six he was toying with. He reaches under the bench and pulls out this rusty,old,dust covered coffee can with a stripped down Carter bbs 1 barrel in it. He says" 'bout damn time you put it back together dont ya think?" I did, and it ran like a champ. Dads gone,the Plymouth is gone, but the memory still makes me smile.

 

Building models as a tike was cool because you could own every car you wanted. Man I had deuces of every kind, 40 Fords, 55 Chevy's, neat pickups, etc, etc, so when I was 15 I decided to go full scale and I dragged home a basket case 55 Chevy. With the help of my older brother I got into it big time. Never looked back! Still fooling with that damn car!!

 

Growing up on a farm it seemed that there was always some implement or tractor that my dad or uncle needed help working on. Maybe they didn't NEED my help, but I thought they did... Then there was the Maytag washing machine engine to play with and get running, and the model airplanes and cars to build. Just always been doing it.

 

Started working on my first car, a 1960? Chrysler at age 14, My son, now 22, I had him working on Harleys at age two, got a picture here somewhere.

 

My Grandfather got me hooked at a young age. He raced the Daytona Beach races in the 30s. We talk all the time about old tin. Hell, I'm building a car now like the one he hopped up back in the day. Mine is not the real thing, I cant afford it. I guess that makes me just like he was back then. Work with what ya got! He just turned 90 last week and I'm 40. This is him taking the north turn on the beach. He is #5. I wish I had a time machine, looks fun as hell! Love you Grandpa!

 

My dad and Uncle Rex used to take me out to the street races when I was 6 or 7 years old. My uncle rex had a really bitchin 65 mustang fastback with a wild 351 windsor, with a 4 speed and some spray. The button was on a bunge cord and they would let me sit in the back seat and tell me to hit the button.
Been hooked every since..............

 

I was 9 years old and had just moved with my folks from Iowa to Milwaukee....I saw a Black '51 Chevy Business Coupe with Radiused rear wheel wells and wide whites and White pinstriping. It was called the "Black Orchid". I actually felt the Custom Car hook go in as it sunk into my chest. I'm 62 now and have it as bad today as I did then....It's an Awesome thing! Centurion9

 

I was in the garage putting around at about 4.

 

I grew up on the farm... so as soon as I was interested, I was encouraged to grab a wrench. Working on farm equipment is a lot different than cars tho...

 

Ever since I can remember my brothers and I were out in the garage with my dad, tagging along with him to swap meets, or just hanging out with his friends that were also into cars. To this day we're still doing the same thing. Having fun, as usual!

 

there is a photo of me pushing an american mag that was off my dads 66 el camino when i was in diapers, I used to dissasemble motors in the front yard when i was 5, I built a harley when i was 12, and it's been downhill ever since

BTW i still have the pair of american mags, and they are going on my 64 el camino

 

I saw my first sprint car race at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in 1935
when I was 4 years old and have been doing the car thing ever since.

 

About 5 years old when i was racing motorcross in the 50cc class haha...good times

 

I became a pro at getting wrenches & parts for my dad, his addiction to the gear started way befor and still hasnt stopped. as long as i have a memory and the pictures make up for befor that, theres always a classic in our driveway/garage. After being the shotgun rider for over 10 years, in 3 of my dads classics. And being a fresh licsens owner with only a clean as shit White 95' Grand prix, I'd had enough.
One day at a local car show a lowly looking 49' Ford F1 had a for sale sign in it, i didnt really think anything of it till i discovered the 454/TH400 drivetrain, Bought that with every bit of cash i had, a MTX 12" subwolfer and a set of 1979 cadillac steel basket rims & tires. Tore up the streets with that truck, surprized the narrow ass bias plys held up the lost count of burnouts. Sold the truck, bought the del ray, learned a lot more on that car then most lear in a lifetime. Relized it wouldnt be the car i wanted when i was finished and sold it off, bought the Cadillac, and you know the story from there.

 

I used to drive myself crazy wanting a car when I was younger. I built about every damn model I could find. I also tore apart every damn mechanical thing I could find. Finally after flipping burgers for the beginning of my teen years I had enough money to buy me a Camaro. First day I got it home I ripped everything apart. Years later it still needs a ton of work done to it. I love it and if I ever have kids will teach them to love it as well.

 

I "helped" my dad to rebuild his Fiat 850 engine, with some Abarth bits. I must have been about eight.

Ten years later I tried to get an Opel Manta running. My dad got irritated with the slow pace, and in the end we stripped the thing and sold it as spares. I discovered that doing this stuff costs money, and that I don't like the messy jobs. Give me an engine rebuild with good, clean, new (i.e. expensive) parts any day, but don't confront me with rusty sheetmetal that someone had tried to rustproof with asphalt mastic and potting soil!

Many years later my dad helped me to rebuild the Morris's engine, after I broke the crank. There seems to be this thing with my dad and me and little engines.

 

As a young teenager I worked in my old man's grocery store. Up the street from there was a welding shop, Ross Welding, where a NASCAR modified '37 Chevy coupe was stabled. I guess that started my love of cars, watching them work on it. This was the mid-50s, not many hot rods in our small upstate NY farming town. My dad wasn't into cars but he was willing to encourage his kid who haunted the local cigar store each month waiting for the new little hot rod magazines to arrive, spending his allowance on them and getting the new Honest Charley catalog to read in study hall inside a text book. So when I was 14, he went to the local Olds dealer he knew and got a junker '50 chevy, brought it home, fenced it in (to prevent me from test driving) behind the garage and let me learn "how it worked". I owe a lot of hot rods and race cars over these many years to my Dad understanding my love of machinery

 

when I was old enough to hold a wrench for me. I can't think of a time we didn't have a car to work on....

 

Well 1981 my parents being young and not ready for a kid. They pawned me off on my rockabilly grandparents... My grandpa took one look and my records" Falco and Culture Club" and said wow your Mom has you listening a bunch of queers.... He took me to his hot rod shop and then straight to the record store .... We walked in and there was a huge cardboard cut out the Stray Cats... My Granddaddy said to the guy " What do these boys play real Rock n Roll "? So that was my 1st rockabilly record .. Later that day got my 1st can of Royal Crown hair dressing .... We went back to the shop I watched the front and phone while peeking / watching these older WW2 vets working on cars.... I saw my Granddaddys best friend Earl.... He was tattooed in an old school sailor suit ..... I was hooked .....I have a picture somewhere of me I was 6 or so sitting on my Grandpa's shoebox drinking pony Miller High Life and smoking a cigar.....God bless both of them for being Hillbilly and great people ........ I laided my Grandma to rest 2 years ago she was buired with a glass bottle coke and her Buddy Holly record{which she loved} .....Grandpaw in a home now but still wears his hair done up and those BLACK slacks....

 

I too started at 6 working on my mini bike, building Choppers out of my 20" Schwinn 5 speed...yes I know what it's worth! Takes a real man or kid, to screw up a nice bike or car! Any body can build junk....got mt first car a 12 years old, tore it all apart and couldn't figure out where all those parts came from, sold it to a neighbor, and then got 1 63 Polara 2 door...cool car, fixed it up and sold it, and the game was on....