Basically since birth. Dad raced jalopys every weekend. Mom took all 4 little ones to the races every weekend also. Never in the grandstands, only in the pits. Nothings better than loud and lopey race motors and the smell of burning race alcohol.
Like many here, I got "it" literally when I was born. My Dad was a Muncie, IN hot rod guy...started the Delaware County Timing Association, was a founding member of the Rod Benders car club and in 1958 (when I was born) he built Muncie Dragway with NHRA certification when he was 26 years old. What a damn stud. We were broke, but we had a helluva time! I tease my kids that I have picked up more paper cups and used condoms that any kid in the world...when the old man would put me in a 50 ford pickup and have me pick up trash after each race. But I was truly blessed..I got to see and meet Big Daddy, Prudhomme, TV Tommy, Kalitta, Jenkins, Chadwick, Jeg, etc to name a few. Truly blessed! E
In the mid 70's. I was 6 or so, and there were cars at the junkyard that looked like the ones on that new "Happy Days" show. There were never any 'rods in my family, just a bunch of Vegas and old VW's. Dad quit his 'rodding after he married my Mom. -Karl
my grandfathers old 1960 chevy truck! stock! the smell the way it sounded when he drove me to school! man i still remember watching him shift through the gears! i miss that. its funny, my grandpa got rear ended by a glendale police car! cops falt! and it FUCKED UP! the cop car. my grandpa's truck just had a tweaked bumper!
Been with me since the beginning. Dad wasn't a car nut, no family close by, but I knew I liked cars. I was born in 74, came home in a 66 Chevelle. Just an old car to my folks. Dad kept it til 84, still just an old car. First sub to Hot Rod in 1980, folks trying to encourage me to read. Wish i had kept them now. To me, anything pre-70 is cool. I don't break it down further than that. Devin
1974: Being 4 years old, hearing dad's digger being tuned in the garage, shaking my core to the bone. RIP Richard Lloyd - #627
When did it start for me? Tough one to name the time and place, since it's been a part of my entire life. Here's a picture of the earliest I can find.
My dad was an auto dealer since the early 50's. The things he showed me, the cars he'd bring home when I was just a little boy, the races he used to take my brother and I to and the support he always gave me with car related questions. Since I was probably 5 years old I had no other choice. Thanks Dad.
I must say my first memories were of holding a shop light for my dad while he was working on a 28 Chevrolet he was restoring. Growing up on a poultry farm in upstate N.Y. my dad had to be a mechanic,enginer,and fabricator. In his spare time he worked on his old cars. As a kid ,his first car was a 40 Ford rag top he painted bright yellow with an Electrolux vacume attachment,which I still have. Growing up my dad passed on to me his love of old cars. I still have all of his tools, cars,and trucks. His 28 Chevy was his pride and joy.He won a lot of trophies with it and was very proud becaues he had done everything on that car. The other cars in my fleet are a 51 Ford sedan,51 Ford F-8,46 Ford 2 Ton,65 Chevy C-50,71 Road Runner,81 Ford F-700, and a mid 40's Case tractor. Most everything I own was my Dad's or we worked on them together. Dad has been gone now for over 20 years, working on cars will allways bring back many fond memories of dad and the time we spent together.
My "first time" was about 1947 when -as a yougster - I'd go over to Jack Downs house and stoke his pot-bellied stove as he restored a Model T. Jack later became a prominent antique car personality in Michigan. What sunk the hook for me occurred in May 1949 on the way home from 6th Grade. I was withjina block of home when by me on the street drove THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CAR I has ever seen a chopped and channeled duece coupe painted Light Blue metal-flake. It had an Edelbrock-equipped flathead with Red-painted block and Red solid wheels with Baby Moons and of cource - White sidewall tires (it was 1949 after all). Through the louvered, clamshell hood stuck three angle-cut velocity stacks. Guy who owned the car was Don Hunt. He was tragically killed a few years later driving that car in an illegal street race.
Well my Grandfather owned a Sinclair Gas station when I was about 5 years old and during the summer I always wanted to go to the gas station so I could see all the cars being worked on and I even went out to help pump gas . I would give the people the things we used to get when you bought so 5 gallons of gas , like glasses , kites , ice scraper and so on ! I loved to watch the mechanic take apart the engines so I could see how they worked . I thought that was so kool ! I loved to name all the cars & trucks as I went down the road in the back seat of my Dads Olds Rocket 88 back in the late 50's . He would also let me sit on his lap and steer the car as I sat on his lap ! Now after 50+ years I still enjoy all the old car & trucks no matter what make they are . That's something I will never forget about being that little boy in the gas station that always loved to see the cars and talk with the people when they got gas ! That was some of the best times of my life ! RetroJim
don't remember the exact year, somewhere around 65 or 66 neighbors had a beatup 55 chevy 2dr ht that didn't run. us kids would take turns sitting on the driverside and crankin on the steering wheel. i used to think it was the coolest car and dreamed of someday fixing her up for me to drive. man where did those days go?
1960...3 yrs old. The greaser neighbor-boys were revving the shit outa their late '40s Ford coupe. I went to the window to see. My mom said, "Ricky!...get away from that window!" Too late...I was hooked. LOL. Good stories here. Seems to be a common theme. Most of us got the "bug" at a very early age.
Ah man, I grew up around it my entire life and it definitely rubbed off from my dad. He found and bought some cool sh&# all the time. We always had a Model A sitting in the garage or driveway. He was also into go-karts back in the day and even design this lay down, which reportedly is the first of its kind. I need to break out the library and share some of what he had. It all influenced me as a kid growing up around it. Spending time with my dad at swap meets, finding old tin on vacations at abandoned junkyards, old farms, people he'd meet at gas stations. It all has a great sense of comfort and nostalgia for me. It's why I like the HAMB too. Seeing all your guys stuff and its connection is like no other feeling that I can describe. Just bitchin stuff.
Looks like most on this thread had the rodding bug in their genes, started pulling wrenches with their Dad. Not me. I don't think my Dad ever did so much as change his own oil. It all started for me in '57 (I was 12). Was in a drug store for something or other, and at the magazine rack one of the "little books" caught my eye. I picked it up and started thumbing thru it. That's all it took. After that, my paper route money went to car mags, models, and stuff for my bike. Unfortunately though, when I was 16, I went away to a military school, and then to college where car ownership wasn't permitted until senior year. So I was 2 months shy of 21 before I owned my first car ('57 Chev 270HP283). Other than my younger brother, who has a mild case of car fever, the rest of my family wonders what's the matter with me. One more quick story about my Dad, who is Mr Conservative. I recall a day in mebbe ~1960 and we were riding down the interstate, past an onramp. Up the ramp come a couple of guys in a 56 Ford, flat gittin' after it windin' it up and bangin' gears. Waaaaaaa/chirp, waaaaaaa/chirp.....While I'm grinning ear to ear watching this, my dad is shaking his head and saying, "Why would anyone want to tear up their car like that?" Why indeed. I love ya Dad, but you'll never get it. (Nor will he ever see this.)
I rember when they build new building near my house i was 4 the summer 1968 There was a one of the guys that work on the building that have a to big "Volvo PV" with wider rims from and fox tail in the radio antenn after wards can i idetify this car this was a Plymouth 46-48 coupe. And rember the few times i hered the V8 sound from some old cars. Her in sweden most of the cars hade 4 cyliners motors or some hade 3 cyl 2-stroke engines. /Stefan
As long as I can remember....old cars, trucks, garages, gas stations, junk yards, toys, restaurants......you get the picture.
I dunno, I've always been around cars and bikes. I can boil it down to the moment I got hooked on cars though. I can't remember how old I was, it must have been four maaaybe five. Tops. My dad had a badass '57 Ford, it was slammed had 2"wide whites, chrome wheels, a tube grill and a built 390. This was in maybe '95-96, and it was his first real tuck and roll job (his '54 ford faux-liner was top stitch). Anyway, the car had a four speed and a locker, and I can just remember him catching second and making corners. Those are memories that I should have forgotten, but I cant, and I'm very happy for that. Thats why the next custom I build is gonna have a badass FE under the hood and a locker out back.
Back in 1944 my grandfather had a 27 T cp with a box in place of trunk he take me for rides. By the time I was 10 my dad who drove tractor trailers, would take me on trips out of state. One nite we were climbing this long uphill road in Williamsport Pa. when he set the throttle on low speed , he said slide over and take the wheel and hold it straight. He steps out on the saddle tank to take a whizz, and there i sit wondering when he's gonna get back in. I later found out most of the driver's would do the same thing with there kids. I loved cars ,trucks, and trains this got me started by the age of 14 I bought my first car a 39 Plymouth 2dr., took it apart and hopped it up.
the little pages is where it started for me when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I was fascinated by the cars in those magazines that didn't look like anything around my town, and I thought they were way cool back then...and 50 years later they still are way cool. Always wanted to have one...and the sickness just got worse. Aint found a cure for it yet!
I got it from my Dad & Mom. I remember sitting in the back seat of a '55 Chrysler with my coloring book while Dad & Grandpa pulled the 331 Hemi to replace the 292 Hemi in Dad's '55 Desoto. Mom to this day still likes to drive fast and she'll be 73 soon. I didn't stand a chance.
started by building model cars.....then go-karts........then cars..............havnt looked back.............
My Dad had several cars ranging from a 50 Ford to muscle cars. I remember my Dad picking me up from daycare in his 69 F-100 or his Trans Am. On the weekends, I would help him work on the F-100. As I got older, I have always liked old cars, trucks and bikes. I had a slight turn into sport trucks, but quickly turned back to vintage cars and trucks. Its in my blood. Now since I'm a father, my son, who is only 5, loves to look at my magazines and watch me work. I'm starting him young just like I was. He has several hot wheels which are hot rods or bikes.
I was very young i don't remember exactly what age. But i remember my dad workin on his 67 vette in our one car garage. The sound of his roadrunner horn would always make me laugh, and the one memory that still sticks out is being dropped off at school in his 34 Ford chopped 4dr and all the other kids being dropped off in Astro vans etc. I guess it started at birth honestly because me and my brother were both brought home in my parents 57 belair, to say we were a little less than conventional would have been an understatement but we didnt care because we knew what was cool
when I was about driving age I couldn't get enough of the muscle cars, I spent about 6yrs driving and wrenching on Cameros, Novas, and every thing that would burn the tires off of it. My dad was always talking about the 55 chevy he owned and the 57 his brother had and eventually he had me wanting a 50's ride. Cant tell you when it happened but before he died a few yrs ago I was wrenching on my 2nd old 50's car and I dont see myself changing any time soon.
For me, it was mostly the hot rod toys I had as a kid. Then, when I saw the movie A Christmas Story as an 8 year old with all those old cars in it that sealed the deal. That 37' Olds was the shit for me. The picturesque "old car". Also, I always would ask my dad what year old cars were when we saw them. Going to car shows with him now, it appears he bullshitted me a lot. Maybe he's just getting old....
The Jalopy Journal
