drunk and retarded

[CRAP]

OK I am a little saucy tonight. But I was wondering what influenced you all to get into hotrods??? I will start. My dad raced formula fords in the 70's and early 80's so I always had cars on my mind. I started getting model cars for Christmas and I think that is what did it, I must have built 5 of those AMT 1940 ford coupes in every way I could. so that is my story, here is a drawing I did when I was six or so... keep in mind this was 1981

[Mass Butcher]

Same here. My father was into just about everything as I was going up. From VW's to Vans, 4x4's, and Hot Rods. I have pics of me at 3 yrs old laying on a creeper near his 55 with a(empty)Shlitz can in one hand and a wrench in the other. I also loved to draw cars and work on models. I was just lucky enough to be exposed to it all my life, so it just came natural.

BTW, that drawing. Are you special? Do you have some sort of ability to see into the future? I think you drew a "rat rod" way back in 81. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Jimv]

"A little saucey tonite" Dude its like 6AM!!
When i was about 10 yrs old(1959) a neighbors had a friend who would visit him with a ford coupe( model A or 32,can't remember)It was a nice blue with a Olds engine & 3 dueces, about 3 miles of white pinstrip on it, white interior that made it look like the inside lights where on , full fendered & it even had white roll & pleat on the running boards!!
Saw that car & was hooked!!
JimV

[lilbill]

in the early '60s when i was like 12 or so my best friend was a guy named joe krulac (sp) in pittsburgh. his dad had a hobby garage at their house and quite a few of the guys that hung out there had hotrods or customs. joe was half italian and half polish so he had like 600 uncles and they all owned either scrapyards, garages or car lots so we had access to tons of free cars and stuff. our favorite victims were shoebox fords because at the time they were literally a dime a dozen and there was all kinds of speed goodies laying around for the taking cause the "grownups" were into overhead valve motors and were tossing the old "outdated" flathead crap. joe lived next to a big 5 acre "clear zone" around an oil well and we cut a series of trails all through it that we would roar around on. we even cut a side trail that gave us access to a neiboring suburb for some asphalt time.
good times http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[LeadSledMerc]

In the early 60's my dad had a store in CT that was right next door to a Texaco station and one of the town diners.
Where do you think all the Hot Rod guys hung out??
I had to go to my fathers store every day after school in those days and stay until he closed shop for the day. I was around 10 years old at the time. Any how, I always hung out at Moe's gas station and "worked" on whatever he would let me. Even at 10, I learned a lot from him that I remember today.
The local club in those days was the "Rear Gears". They would come to the diner all the time with their Rods and seeing those cars is what got me hooked. I was too young to be a part of it, but I was always trying to hang around the guys and their cars. If I had to pick one of the cars that really stuck with me was a '40 Willy's coupe that wa gasser style with the front end waaaay up in the air and slicks, blown Hemi sticking out of the hood, purple with white rolled and pleated interior. There were other bucket's, tubs, coupes, but this one was it!

[modernbeat]

Like Dean Wormer told Flounder:

"Drunk and stupid is no way to go through life"

[JOECOOL]

My brother always had friends that were into cars. My Dad thought they were from point A to Point B ,nothing else. I liked the early 50's customs and hung around everyone who would let me. I eventualy moved to East Sedalia and found several Traditional Rodders. I helped a young rodder build a hemi t with a minimal amount of tools and $. the first ride in that car ruined me forever.
55 -57 Chebbys were my love then and still are actually. I used to be real discriminating about cars till I finally figured out to just be true to myself. I realized I like all cars,not just mine. There all good ,there all bad ,and they all are fun.

[MikeO]

I grew up at drag strips,car shows,cruise nights and spent most of the rest of the time in the garage cause dad would get me tools for helpin But mostly it was the dragstrips and garages that did me in Oh and I had one of them really kool moms that would let you rebuild carbs at the kitchen table and then SHE would clean up the mess when I was done http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[hell_fish_65]

I can't remember a time when a 60's or older car or truck was not in our driveway growing up(remember in a young un'). My dad loved working on them. He would tell me stories of building flathead v8's blindfolded to raise spare cash. he never said they ran after he built them, but they were together. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif My uncles and both grandfathers were into hotrods as well. So, I always liked them. It just took me longer to get my hands dirty. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[lil mike]

My entire life has revolved around hot rods and customs. on my dad's side, my great grandpa had a used car lot, and junk yard. My grandpa has had many cool cars, but has always been a drag racer, my dad currently builds customs that compete with Boyd Coddington, Foose,etc. On my mom's side, my great grandpa was an original member of the Horseless Carriage Club, and always had odd, but cool cars. My grandpa has always been a rat rodder, old bikes and hot rods alike (the man drives a chopped '36 Chevy truck to haul scrap metal in!). My mom can drive a 4-speed better than most men! She drove a traditional style '46 Ford coupe in highschool. Which my parents still have! Mom now owns a '55 Chevy BelAir, and does body work at my dad's shop. I've been helpin' my parents or grandparnts work on cars since I could git out to the garage. I worked at my dads shop for about 10 years (I'm 22years old now) but quit to work at a shop that builds traditional style car instead of hightech. I now own 4 car and all are older than me!

[Jester]

When you live in a area where the only thing to do is either get drunk and go cow tipping or watch tv you gotta do something.......but I guess the biggest enfluence in my life as far as rides go would be .......Hubnut he has always been someone I could look up to.....thanks Grant if it weren't for you and Mike I'd be so depressed I'd never leave the house. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Hubnut]

Born with it.
I have pictures of myself playing with tonka trucks and hot wheels cars when I was too young to have a memory. My dad had lots of cool stuff, like a restored 46 Merc and a brand new 68 charger r/t 440 six pak w/factory air. My earliest memories were of snap tite models and my dad and his friends rebuilding the straight six in his old chevy truck. At 8 and 9 years old I remember the drag racing and the junkyard trips we would make on the weekends. I'm 28 now and a father myself, with half a dozen project cars on hand I see one more generation of building coming up. Dad doesn't wrench much anymore, but that's ok, he can tell my boy the stories while we work! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[cadlights]

Here's what got me started. I posted this about a year ago but here it is for the newbies.

MEMORIES OF A 15 YEAR OLD.

It was back in 58 as I recall,
Leon's next door neighbor started it all.
We was watching Leon's dad work on his 36 ford,
Not much to see so we was kinda bored.

About that time Leon's neighbor hollered at Leon and me,
He say's com'on over boys I've got something for you to see.
Now the neighbor's son was older than us,
And we thought he was cool cause we'd heard him cuss.

So we wandered over and hopped the fence,
Then winked at each other cause sometimes his neighbor didn't make no sense.
It was getting dark and kinda hard to see,
This better be good Leon say's to me.

The neighbor took us in the back door to his garage and turned on the lights,
And there before us was a magnificent sight.
His son Terry had been working on this old Ford sedan,
We hadn't paid much attention cause when he got it it hardly ran.

What I saw that night burned a spot in my brain,
And since then it has been the cause of a lot of pleasure and pain.
It was a black cherry shoebox ford with fresh laquer paint,
And at that moment I thought Terry was a saint.

I stood there speechless with nothing to say,
That black cherry shoebox is still in my mind to this day.
There was three sixty watt bulbs and one neon light,
The sides looked black but the top of the fenders glowed red that night.

When Terry opened the hood it took my breath away,
A full dress flathead laid in that engine bay.
Finned aluminuim heads and three stromberg 97's,
I thought I was looking right into heaven.

White tuck and roll and appleton spot lights,
By this time my throat was felling kinda tight.
Then Terry asked what do ya think now boys?
Let's start her up and make some noise.

There was a knot in my gut that I can't explain,
When I tried to breath I almost doubled up in pain.
When he fired that flatty it was music to my ears,
It almost brought this 15 year old to tears.

Till the day I die I'll never forget that night,
That awesome sound and that beautiful sight.
It started a sickness for which there is no cure,
And I relive that night everytime I drive Ol Blue that's for sure.

[tokyo]

WEll I agin got a poem..but my story is simple...always liked cars (dad and brother were mechanics), but they liked to drink more than wrench in spare time let alone tell me anything about them...so i focused on school, got to grad school, blah, blah, blah...met this guy who had a wicked looking "old car" cuz i didn' t know the difference. Met him, hung out, found out that he would invest his time in telling me all the little stuff..and pt a positive fun spin on it..now I am hooked..think about cars everyday, I am glad i did what i did, in the order that i did it...i am the kind of guy who doesn't mind working on a car for 8 hours just to get a brake spring to finally fit...cuz then I did it..anyway, hope you don't have much of a hangover.

tok

[hankcash]

I saw the thread title and I thought that someone was looking for me...

HC

[ratrod40428]

my dad got his start at a Chevron station, he worked his way from a gas pumper to manager. when that place got closed down he opened up his own shop, (Charlies Automotive) some time around 1985, i was born in 1987 so i grew up at that shop, hanging out with my dad and all my dads friends, they all have either muscle cars, or mild custom crusiers, and i was learning how to do little things... our driveway always had 60's cruisers in it, my dad had a 1961 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 with a 394 and a TH400 (i loved that car) so even when i wasnt around the shop i was still around cars... and working on them just kinda came natural for me...

[Fat Hack]

In 1982...a year before I got my first car...THIS was my whole world...

Ron Pruett's 65 Mustang with a tunnel rammed 351 Cleveland...maybe gaudy and outdated by today's so called "standards", but it was THE car that lured me away from my then 100% stock mentality, and quickened my pulse!

Before seeing this feature, I lusted after bone stock 64 1/2 - 68 Mustang coupes with every last detail factory correct. After I saw THIS car, I said "Fuck that stock shit...I want a HOT ROD!". Ain't been the same since!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

(Then, the Eastwood & Barakat 32 sedan pulled at my heart strings and my fondness for all things automotive expanded beyond Mustang coupes and into rods and kustoms...but to back up to that first hair tingling, make you mouth water, kick ass HOT ROD influence...THIS was the car that did it.)

Hey...sometimes the spark is a little weird, okay??? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[willowbilly3]

I can't say, I was just born this way. My dad was a cowboy and no inspiration at all. I was a gearhead by the time I could walk. When I was old enough to read I saved all my money to get a Car Craft or Hotrod mag and a coke when I got to go to town on Saturday night.
When I was 3 my dad put me behind the wheel in the jeep to steer while he fed cows out of the back. I could get in the car or pickup and take it down the section line by myself by the time I was 6. My first car was a 54 chevy wagon when I was 14 and I also traded for a black 54 Dodge hemi convertable that year. A neighbor gave me the Dodge for helping him castarate pigs. I built my first "jalopy" from pieces of all different cars when I was 15, with only moral support from the old cowboy. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that dad bought a used Forney buzz box when I was 7 and got a bunch of surplus welding rod and that was when I started burning rod. I came home from school and welded everything I could find. By the time I was 14 or so I was doing welding for some of the neighbors.
Ok so now I have owned maybe a couple hundred cars and pickups. I also like WW2 airplanes and racers, fast snowmobiles and 4 wheelers, bikes, tractors, boats, trucks, just about anything that is a machine, but I still like hotrods best.

[Kev Nemo]

My dad always had a badass car-first a GTO then a camaro when I was growing up. When I was 13 he bought a 68 Impala which ended being my brother and I's skatemobile. My brother ended up trading it in so I was denied!
My grandpa on my mom's side was a Puerto Rican Vietnam mechanic and could rig/soup up anything. I have found memories of cigarette runs in his Challenger and Nova.
I also found out that my mom's real dad, also built rods and customs, and my uncle's all built lowriders.
Hey, does anyone remember that Looney Tune about the taxi cab that wants to be a rat rod? That cartoon was a huge influence, along with all those cars of the future cartoons, Ed Roth's art, George Trosley and the rest of the crew at 'Car Toons'... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[BELLM]

Thanks hankcash, I needed that really good laugh!
When I was little, 7 or 8 years old or so, about '56 or '57 my grandfather lived in Lexington, Texas. Was a channeled 34 coupe, maybe red oxide primer, sat low & nasty looking, had a flattie with finned alum heads, several carbs etc. sat at a service station on US 77. Everyone said that kid was wild. Made up my mind I was gonna be wild someday. Later in life, did a pretty good job of it. At least according to my parents & ex-wives. Fast forward to 8th grade, Rockdale, Texas, around '61-62. My friends brother, Bill Stauffer, had a T-bucket with a 301 Chev, 3 dueces, red, nice finished car. That really lit my fire. Built my first car @ 15, 27 T coupe with Olds engine, with the help of adult friends. Had this disease ever since, even though it lay dormant for quite a few years.

[NealinCA]

From 1977, at age ten...