How did you get your car????

[TINGLER]

.................

[radical56chevy]

i got all my cars the hard way..bot them....lol

[bigron]

hey von tingler did you finally sell that rpu project you had? i'm the one that drove up from atlanta. i bought a 31 chevy pickup from a friend of a guy on here.

[Action Girl]

After growing up around hot rods and (GASP HERE) turning down my Dad's offer to BUILD ME ANY CAR I WANTED after high school, I made it to the ripe old age of 31 having never owned a pre-1981 car, or American car for that matter.

Before you all jump on me for turning down my oh-so-generous Dad... you should know that I was about 16-17 at the time of the offer and spending lots of time clubbing in not-so-good neighborhoods. And having spent most of my life going to car events and weekend rod runs, I knew all to well the practicality issues of having an old car with respect to reliability. This coupled with my complete lack of knowledge on fixing cars led me down the path to my first car and bona-fide tank, a 1981 Toyota Celica.

A couple of years ago, I bought a new vintage-looking scooter which led ultimately to the purchase of a vintage project scooter. It's at that point that I discovered the joys of working in a garage, handling tools, making things work and above all getting dirty. So I guess once I got a taste for it, the next step was to get a car. After all, my whole life was leading me in that direction!

So around summertime this past year I started looking for a car. I wanted something running that I could drive right away although perfection was certainly not expected. I didn't want to spend more the 7k and so I looked for months at lots of major projects, rust buckets, and just "not right for me" cars before I found "Faye". I was starting to get bummed out as one car after another failed to pass the "dad" test and then one night I came home and my hubby said we were going to take a drive and look at a car. Oddly enough the car was not far from where I lived and had been sitting on the side of the road for sale for about a year. Of the cars I looked at, it was the first one that I thought might actually pass the stringent screening of my father. A few days after checking it out, my Dad and I went up and drove the car and ended up buying it for just $5750, enough under budget to get the car and all new wide whites. Not only do I feel like I got a great deal, but I also have fallen in love with this car in a way I've never fallen in love with any car before. It's so many things that make her special I can't even begin to describe it (although you all know what i'm talking about). And of course now I can't imagine not having an old car ever again.

Of course, my dad and pals are enjoying the fact that the apple didn't fall far from the tree, even if it took me 31 years to land http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

So.. now I'm a living, breathing car and scooter obsessed gal who CAN'T wait for spring and all the wonder adventures Faye and I will have on the open road.

So that's my story...how'd you get YOUR car?

[kustumizer]

bought it at some crappy used car dealer for 400 bucks and drove it home that day! Nate

[34Fordtk]

Auction for rough 1934 Ford truck Ebay $1275.00
Shipping from Iowa to eastern NC $750.00
2 years of hard work and help from the HAMB.....
Priceless!!!! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[lotus]

I have wanted a 49 to 54 chevy for a long long time...
I would look around in yards/driveways for one and could not find one in my price range...
I finally just broke down and ran an ad in the local paper saying I am looking to buy a 49 to 54 chevy car...BAM the phone calls started rolling in!!! some people are insane about the price they want for a car sinking into the ground...
One guy had a 4 door 54 in what USED to be his house...he has sold the house but the car is still in the side yard sunk up to the body in the ground (but it is covered in a tarp!)...there is a garage built behind it and a HUGE ass tree that has grown in front of it. I would have had to of hired a helicopter to get it out...the guy said he would LET IT GO at a loss for 5k!!! I told him I would think about it and ran away as fast as I could...

I ended up trading a dirt bike to a guy for my 52...the dirt bike ended up getting stolen from the guy http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif My car had been sitting for a few years across from the high school I went too...in a drive way. After I bought it my kid told me he had been walking past that car for a couple years...he didn't know that was the type of car I wanted so he never mentioned it to me...

[Boones]

I was one of the last hold out from the mini-truck/compact car club I belonged to. All my buddies had begun buying 50/60's rides but I had to wait until I bought a house (either that or become divorced).. When the time came I decided I wanted a wagon so I looked around and got a call from a friend that his friend has a 53 wagon forsale. Got a description from my buddy and a phone number. (previous owner is now a HAMBer also as well as my buddies). After getting my buddy to agree to store it at his place in Seattle (I lived in SC) and let me get it running. I made an offer and bought site unseen. The day came and I flew into Portland where my buddy met me and took me to the car. It was a happy and sad moment at the same time. IT was not in the condition I thought it was but it was mine.. Damn ugliest thing I laid eyes on and more of a project then expected. Today I am glad I bought it and but it cost me three times what I thought it would...

[133]

i saw the '49 Chevy i bought at the Long Beach swap meet and the next week i bought it. simple as that.

[CLSSY56]

I traded my 1995 Jeep Wrangeler for the current one I have now. I am still a Jeep nut and want another one really bad...

[Paul]

$150.00 down

and three monthly payments of one hundred bucks a pop,

that was for a body, frame and title.

Man I was poor then,

it was all I could scrape together and still eat.

Paul

[zgears]

to quote johnny cash "i got it one peice at a time". NOT RECOMMENDED

[safariknut]

Both my 55 and 57 Safaris came to me in a rather strange turn of events:
The 55 was purchased shortly after I had moved to Michigan and gotten re-married. I was in the market for a car but didn't really know what I wanted.
While scanning an auto trader magazine one day I came across the ad for the 55. It sounded interesting so I gave the guy a call. He asked me where I'd heard about it and I told him. He said that was strange because he had placed the ad nearly two YEARS before and never got one response! He was getting ready to re-advertise it when I called.
He described the car very accurately,I drove down to see it,liked it,we came to an agreed figure, and he delivered the car two weeks later.I've often thought that this car and I were destined to meet.
The story of the 57 is even more weird! We had driven the 55 to Massachusetts to attend the Ty-Rods show and I went down to see a friend about striping his Deuce phaeton.
He hadn't seen the 55 before and made a comment that a friend of his had a similar one for sale. I told him I'd like to see it and he made arrangements with the owner.
We got there and the owner couldn't find the key to the garage which was across the street from his house.They were a row of cinder block structures partially covered with dirt.Got the key,spent about an hour trying to unseize it(hadn't been opened in 7 years),unburied the car from under a pile of trash bags and old bicycle frames,opened the door to check the floors and noticed the lettering on the dashboard.I had painted it on there in 1963! It was my buddy's old race car!
It had a 1979 inspection sticker on it(the last time it had been registered)and it was now 1997.The body was excellent,all 4 tires were flat(later fixed by cleaning the Cragars and putting on new stems)but it was all there.I left it there until spring and came back to get it in April. I paid $1000 for it(plus $180 storage fees;that's what he was paying to leave it there:$30 a month for 17 years!).I got it home and eventually broke the engine free and ran it a couple times but the 4.56's in it weren't very good on the street!
Hopefully one of these days it will hit the streets again.This one and I were also fated to meet!
Ray
BTW the whole story was written up in Ron Kowalke's book on wagons awhile back.The enclosed picture was taken the day after I brought it home and washed all the dirt from it.

[Paul2748]

I probably got a few years on you. My first brand new car was a 63 Fairlane hdtp with a 271 and four speed. Bought from Tasca Ford in RI. One of the best cars I ever had.

My first rod was 31 roadster and for the life of me can't remember where I got it. My second car, a 48 Ford, was found by a friend of mine in the boonies of Connecticut. It was a real POS but I've had it now for about 25 years and have gone lots of places with it, some real long trips.

[Django]

I've had several but here's the story on the 2 that matter most, that i will NEVER ever sell for any amount of money. Lots of people say that. I mean that to the very core of my being...

My '67 chevelle SS convt... Dad bought it out of a junkyard in '77 and I was 9. We worked on it off and on until it sat in a body shop for a couple years cause the guy was flaky (and a friend... so it sat LONGER) Jump to '87. I've had my license for 6 mos and have a '67 SS hardtop that we built to be my car. It was corvette yellow and had a screamin' 283 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif. Dad decided the convertible project needed to be resurrected and he wanted to buy a '48 coupe so he told me to sell my hardtop and I could finish the convertible. It was in the paper the NEXT day. Worked on it and debuted it at my senior breakfast on the first day of school. Now 10+ years after that, I've been fixing all the little shit that doesn't matter when you're 17. Now it's less of a high school kid's muscle car and more of a "make it as bone stock looking but mean as fuck" as I can. The finishing touch was ditching the rallyes for dog dish caps and redlines.

The '36 Ford coupe was my Dad's first car that he bought in '64 for $150. He drove it every day until he left for the Air Force in '67. While he was in Vietnam, my uncle blew the motor and it sat in his garage for years. I remember climbing all over it, sitting in the rumble seat, pretending to drive. Dad decided to get it running again in the 80s. Tinkered with a new flatty. Then decided to rod it. Got one new frame for it with a small block. Decided it wasn't good enough. Had another frame built, a nice one with a sbf. It sat again. In '97 he decided I should have it and finish it. So I tinkered with it for about a year. Then I got divorced. So it sat again until the end of '02 when I found a group of guys into the old stuff, went to the first hunnert car pileup and found the HAMB, all within about 2 months. Joined the Czars, made a crapload of new friends and started in on the coupe again trying damn hard to make the '03 Pileup. Alas, no luck. As soon as it warms up, we're going to start thrashin' again, and hope to have it hit the road in April. And believe me, I can't WAIT to see the look on my Dad's face when we first roll out the driveway in it for the first time in 35 years. Priceless.

[Sam F.]

i bought them on ebay...i typed "RAT ROD" into the search engine,...then wiped out my credit card and got crazy.

most fun ive had in years.

[Homeresque]

Some guy had to beg me to take his '32 3W...really.
In '99 I had a patina'd-out '40 ford stnd coupe that looked pretty cool and everywhere I went the usual ford crowd was there. I started talking to this one guy and said I'd like to get rid of it for a fenderless car, preferably deuce. He starts calling me trying to talk my cash price down, and finally says he cant get the cash, would I like to trade for a '32? Disappointed it wasnt a roadster, I still drove over to Fullerton to look in this tiny garage in a slummy neighborhood at a complete primered unmolested fendered 3W minus-engine that hadn't seen daylight for probably 15 yrs. I had to think about it for 2 weeks with him calling and bugging before I decided to go. I thought I was pretty smart, turns out I didnt know SHIT about deuces. Thankfully it had everything, but if it had been missing anything I wouldnt have known it. As Im pulling out the drive with it on a trailer he keeps running out with more parts for it. Finally I go "What about window mouldings?". He goes back and gets them and I say "Just throw em in the back of the pickup" and I drove on home, with $3000 bouncing around in back on the 91 freeway.
Now Im gonna be buried in that car.

[trey]

i got mine dirt cheap. why? nobody else wanted the rat basard. its got more speed holes (or bullet holes) than i can shake a stick at. there was probably 6" of dirt built up in the bottom of it. wyoming wind makes dust. i still have the wagon wheels that it came with.

trey

[daign]

The moredoor had been in my family since the day I was born. Up until the age of 6, it sat on flat tires, dead battery, and covered in spider webs in Palm Desert CA. One day I decided it would make a great canvas for my green crayola masterpiece. I was truly an amazing artist at the age of 6, because when my father found me, he was so excited he whooped my ass all over the garage. A month later, it was beautiful and shiny, with only a smidgeon of my green crayola masterpiece on the rear fender. I was hooked the first time I rode in it with the top down at 80 degrees out at night.

Fast forward to the age of 23, it had been sitting and he asked me to help him sell it. No WAY. After 4 months of on and off convincing, I got him to sell the boat to me. "Now its your problem..." Fair enough, it's worth every penny I make and more, and will be passed onto my son for the original purchase price of $1100.

There is still a 1" line of green crayola I avoid everytime I wax as a reminder.

This ones a keeper, but a Lincoln Zephyr is somewhere out there waiting in the wings. You guys with multiple projects are nuts. I can barely handle one for NOW. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

-Dane

[prime mover]

since we're on the subject of fairlanes I'll tell that one, as like you I didnt know what a fairlane was or anything about 60's fords except mustangs(thats my first car). I kept seeing this fairlane in the high school auto shop parking lot and started asking my instructor about it. He told me for 2 years that one of his sons was going to fix it up, yeah right. finally after I got out he let me buy it from him for 350 dollars which was a little much for the shape it was in. I drove it across town with a bowling ball size hole in the windshield and started working on it. someday it will be painted white and will look like a thunderbolt fairlane until then I drive it in three shades of primer. the story of how I got my mercury will hafta wait till next time.

[old beet]

Wifes 49 Merc, several years ago havin a BBQ a some rich friend of the wifes. This guy says if you come across a 49 Merc to build he will pay the price. I say, might as well look for a 32 Ford........When we arrive home I have a message from a friend in Montana, says, still lookin for a 49 Merc Coupe? Wife says, yer not going to tell my friend are you! $500 and 2000 miles later...the rest is history.......OLDBEET

[Crease]

Fairlanes kick butt!

I brought my 33' home in veeeeeery tiny pieces.

My dad bought the 40' Dodge vert from a guy in town when I was about 5. He paid somethin like 500 bucks for it.

[ramrod]

Ok I'm 17 at the time.My best friend calls me up one morning and says I was tripping last night and I drove my 70 cuda into a ditch somewhere in Manville. I hitchhiked home and now I need help finding it.So we found his car,Pulled it out of the ditch.On the way home about a block away I see a 57 chevy.I still own it 24 years later.Thats one,I could go on all night.

[Jigantapomp]

i was 15 and wes gave me what should have been a parts car....if i only new then what i know now i would have known that "hey its urs if u come pick it up"isnt always the best idea

[Fat Hack]

Mine was a gift from fellow Gay Bitch member-for-life, RocketJ2! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

He was snickering as I looked the car over and uttered those three tender little words so dear to the hearts of gearheads everywhere...

"I'll take it!" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

(I think I scored BIG Brownie Points with his wife that day, too! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

Thanks again, Bud! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[DrJ]

I usta know this pimp dude who worked sometimes for this Italian "business man" in Vegas, well this guy was over at my place for cocktrails one day and he asks me if he could leave this chrome gun at my place for a while because he was moving and didn't want to misplace it. So, about a year later he asks me if he could have it back and at the same time I was looking for a work car and he had this Sedan Deville that was bout 5 or 6 years old and the chrome spokes was getting rusty but that didn't slow it down so I says to him, can I have the Caddy for taking care of the piece for you, And he thinks about it for about a second and a half and says sure. So I got this super fine pussy packer to drive to work in. but then after about 6 months me and my Bro is cruisin up Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock when the tranny decides to take a shit so we coast it to the curb and get out and call a cab.
Ain't seen it since. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Wowcars]

My '40 Chevy coupe: Gift from my Uncle when I was 12. Later he gave me a 454/TH400 to go in it. a man I still admire and am very close with today.

My '54 Ford Wagon I stole from my sister. hehe, thanks sis!

My RPU I got in a trade with Dan from here on the HAMB.

My '50 Stude has the longest story.... Drivin home from college in Dads '89 Cutlass Ciera, I take a longer look at a '64 Olds 4dr sitting behind a garage on the highway. While looking at it, I look up and there are about 15 old cars lined up beside the woods that are cleverly hidden from the highway. I investigate further by peeping my eyes into the open pole barn to see if anyone was around. When what to my wondering eyes should appear? But 15-20 MORE cars inside and these are mostly all restored Studes and other orphan cars. My bullet nose was sitting right up front like a pound dog begging to be brought home. I went up to the house and this 82 year old man answered the door with,
"You got car trouble?"
"No, sir."
"Good, we'll get along great then!"
So we talked for a while and I asked him about the '50 Stude and if he would sell. He told me that he would give me $1000 plus the Stude for the aforementioned Cutlass that I was trying to sell. Since I couldn't do that because we needed the money from the car, he told me to save up $750 by the time he came back from Texas in the spring and it would be mine, Title and all. So, I drank a little less that year and saved up the money. Come May 2nd, I paid him the cash, towed the Stude beind my faithful pickemup, towed it home and got it running that very night. Took my high school sweetheart to prom in it three weeks later.

Story still makes me smile.

[4t64rd]

picked up a Bargain Trader, Wild hair and an income tax refund check, Next thing I knew there was an engineless 46 Ford Tudor carcass in the back yard.

[Tim]

went to a swap meet with my student loan check http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[hotrodladycrusr]

It was Oct of 2001 and I was at the GG Charlotte show in my continued search for another fat fendered ragtop. I had lost the love of my life, my 1947 Chevy convert, in a shop fire in July of 2000 and had still not found the perfect replacement.

I was running around the show with my very good buddy Craig Suman from Melbourne, FL who had a red 1947 Olds covert. As we're walking around checking out cars he asked me if I had ever heard of "Project Big Olds" from a rag called Rodder's Digest . I told him I hadn't and he proceeded to fill me in on all the details. He wasn't sure what had happened to Big Olds after the mag folded but said he might be able to find out from Garry McWhirter who just so happened to be at the show. We stopped by and chatted with Garry for awhile and I was told it was a running, driving hot rod but it was still in "project" statis. I gave him my card and asked him to pass it along to Steve Hendrickson who actually was the owner. He said he would.

Well I really wasn't looking for a "project" as I knew my skill and knowledge level wasn't what it needed to be to "finish" a car but I knew it wouldn't hurt to talk to the guy. I had had no luck in finding anything that yanked my crank in the previous 18 months and was getting bummed out not having my own hot rod. It was the longest 18 months of my life.

Well a short time later Steve, better known as "Just Steve" on the HAMB, emailed me. I was not a HAMB member at the time. We went back and forth for a couple of months, him sending me photos and info and me asking more and more questions.

Before I made my decision I went down to FL and spent some time with my buddy Craig and his 47 Olds covert. I kind of just wanted to pick his brain about what I was getting myself into. Another buddy in Florida named Bones also had a huge influence on my decision as well. He had been driving his 40 Ford convert for a couple of years in the same state of buildup as Big Olds's current condition. They both gave me tons of encourgement leading me to believe that I could do anything I wanted if I just put my mind to it.

I thought to myself, well it's a running, driving hot rod convert, built right, and he was selling it at a somewhat fair price http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif So I sent him a check.

Next came trying to figure out how to get it from the WI/MN boarder to Detroit at the end of Dec with tons of snow on the ground and bitter cold temps.

But that's another story........ http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[titus]

I was at our MinnesotaSrteetRodAss. holloween party bulshittin with some friends talkin about cars and another friend stopped and aske if i was interested in a duece five window? for a grand! shit... i said i was, so i asked him for more details but he didnt have anymore, he said hed call the guy and see if we could go and look at it. so a few days later we drove up and looked at it, it was baaad as youve seen!, but the door were nice, thats why he only wanted a grand for it, figured you were buing the door and getting the pile of tin for free! well i had to try and resurect it.
at the time i had an 31 A coupe i was tring to sell but hadnt yet, so i ended up borring the money till i sold it, and went and picked it up, yippi another major project! when i got it home i lokked at it a little closer, man was i gettin tired, but im thinkn itll turm out good.

o did i tell you it was in 5 pieces when i bought it!

[Wowcars]

Denise, That is soooo crazy!!!! Just yesterday I was at a friends house, and he was doing some serious spring cleaning and was throwing out a bunch of worthless mags. I grabbed the CARtoons and the Rodders Digest and thumbed through it and saw "Project Big Olds" and immediately wondered if it was your car! I really didn't think it would be but, now here you are telling me it was! Crazy. You can have the issue if you want it. Let me know.

[Scraper]

My dad knew I wanted a first generation Nova since I was probably 10 or 11 from looking at his 80's Super Chevy mags. I still remember a 62-64 wagon with wide whites and bullet caps on smoothies which is why I'm headed towards those wheels and caps.

Anyway, in about '95 we had 2 close catches but no luck untill one went through an intersection in front of him. He followed that poor guy around untill he parked! The guy needed $750 for a down payment on a new family car. So my dad picked it up with some money I had from a head-on collision with a drunk when I was 2 weeks old (explains alot, huh?). The thing had rust all over and barely floors (still no floors. I tell people it's an old school neon kit), but it was my first car and I still roll it every day. Took my license test in the damn thing..on friday the 13th no less! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

It's one of my oldest and most reliable friends.

[atch]

1972. I was working with a guy named Pete Cram who had this old Ford panel truck. He inherited it from his grandfather Bige Cook, who had bought it from the original owner, the Missouri Highway Department. I thought that it was a pretty cool old truck and tried to buy it from him for months and months. He kept telling me that someday he was going to sell it and buy a pickup truck, which he thought would be more practical for him.

One day Pete comes in the shop and says "Mike, I traded the panel truck in on a pickup at the local Ford dealer last night. If you still want it you better get up there right after work. Well, I was a little bummed (& miffed) that he hadn't just sold it to me straight up, but what the hay? Ten minutes after work I'm talkin' to a salesman at Todd-Hogge Ford in California, Missouri. "Yeah, we've got Pete's panel truck." "How much?" "$75.00." "I'll be right back."

Ten minutes later I'm talkin' to Bob Hert, the local bank president gettin' a loan for $75. I was a poor broke newlywed at the time and $75 was a loan amount, not pocket change. I made three $25 payments and then it was mine.

That was February, 1973. Today it's known as Clarence and has been around the world a couple of dozen times (or at least it seems like it). I drove it with the original flathead 8 for years as a daily driver and in 1990 decided to "rod" it. I installed a 283 (out of a '66 Impala that my grandmother had bought new in the fall of '65), TH350, Aspen/Volare, 8", etc, etc. A couple of years later I chopped 5" out of the top. Don't know how many miles I've put on it. Lots, though.

[mybeatupford]

i got my 50 by luck,i bought it off my older brother for 5 bucks hehe and just added the money i got when i sold my 79 bronco to it but i guess when your young in socal someone in the family always has a old hot rod,kustom or beater hiding in a garrage or drive way, in my family theres like 4 cars hiding someone and i got one of them http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[hotrod54chevy]

i was all of 18 years old.i'd just started college (tech skool) when i told my dad that i would really LOVE to get my hands on a '54 chevy.anything pre 55 would be cool,but i saw a ton of 54s in magazines and anyone who's anyone's seen moonglow,jesse james,mike ness' and cole foster's cars..so that was the year for me..why was my father being so generous?well,almost a year before the local steel mill he'd worked at for over 30 years decided to lock out the workers (not only drop the union's contract early,but refuse to re-sign their contract for another year and hire scab workers instead!)not to mention the fact that my parents had just gotten a divorce on top of that..so,my dad sat and waited for this lock out to end so he could go back to work...while waiting (for over 2 years before finally retiring only months after they started re-hiring union guys) winter had came and my dad's hot water tank ruptured and he was left without any hot water or funds to get a new tank.so,me being the caring son that i am dragged him out to Lowes and paid for a new hot water heater that we put in his house.after that i received a call from my dad saying "son,i'm lookin for a 54 chevy for ya..and you'll get one soon.."we'd looked at several 54s and 53s (one a fiberglass paneled sled with a tilt column and crappy paint and another with 3 inches of bondo on one fender alone!) i was starting to lose hope.then,i happened to show one of my classmates a picture of a black 54 i'd found online during a break between classes.he said "i got a 54" and i was like "..really..?" turns out he was all of 22,working on his 2nd college degree (his 1st was a flop and this one seemed easier,especially since his girlfriend/fiancee was going there) and he'd had one for 6 years that he got from his uncle.at 1st he refused to even think about selling it because he claimed he had over $1000 in the front end alone and was wanting to put a big block in it...then he started to realize he wanted a muscle car instead..and seeing as how my dad is a sports/muscle car FREAK (69 GTO Judge,2 corvettes,2 harleys,a 71 nova,a 69 chevelle with a 396,etc.) he was hoping for a trade.what he ended up getting was my dad talking him out of his ride for a little bit less than he had originally set as his price limit,and i got out of it with a nice,running (till now!) mostly complete car that i will probably never sell.EVER.thanks for reading my HUGE post!how did you get YOUR car?
~Creepy

[Fraz]

48 Frazer - I bought it from the original owner (a little old lady), honest to God truth.

1960 Buick - I bought it from a pothead.

1955 Buick - I bought it on an impulse.

1959 Buick - I bought it during a lunch break.

[Tcoupe]

My grandfather gave me a '66 T-bird when I turned 16 in 1995...That car was awsome, Red with red interior, 390, swing away steering wheel, sequential taillights...it was a great highschool ride...well after about a year some fuckstick pulled out in front of me one night and rearranged the front sheet metal for me http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif...my dad sold the car wrecked, and used the insuance money to buy me my '70 Chevy stepside (still have it). I fixed the truck up...swapped in a 350 in place of the 6, lowered it, and painted it with 11 cans of krylon flat black...since then I have done little stuff here and there to it, but I needed a real project...enter my '53 Bel-air sedan. I saw the car at a junkyard owned by "Lyin Larry"...this guy could tell some whoppers...he had a Camaro that would pull the front wheels on a dirt road, cause it was so powerful...anyway, He wanted $1200 bucks for the '54, it ran and was for the most part complete, but, I couldnt pay that much for it and he wouldnt come down any. A few months pass and I was driving past a friends house...low and behold theres the '54 in his front yard...I stopped in and started askin him about it...he traded a VW bug for it...I ask him if its for sale and he says ya...$600, now we're talkin...so $500 and two beat up go-carts later the car is in my driveway. After I bought it, I didnt do much to it, just stare and dream about how I was gonna fix it up, then pretty much just let it sit while I worked on other projects that never saw completion...'71 Nova, '66 Chevy truck. After about a year I couldnt take it anymore and dove into the '54...I'm still working on it right now...350/auto, rebuilt and lowered suspension, new brakes and lots of grim and crude removal. Hopefully it will be running soon, then I will focus on the body and interior.

As I was searching for some fenders for the '54, I ran across my 26 T-coupe...or actually 3 of em. They were in another junkyard a ways out of town...funny part is as I was asking the owner about them a red '26 T-coupe that had been "Street Rodded" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif pulled up out front. So, the owner of the yard says $500 for the 3 bodys and a large pile of misc. old sheet metal...cowls, quarter panels, running boards, fenders and so on...all for '20s to '30s cars. Well, I offered him $400 for the bodys and the back half of a T-touring and he agreed. I passed up the pile of parts due to lack of space but, I plan on going back to get it sometime soon. Soon after I got the T's me and a buddy chopped the top 9 inches and ground off some rust...thats about it for now, still trying to collect parts (doors...anyone...cheap PLEASE! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif) and that it sits at my bud house in the next city does'nt help either. Well, thats my story and Im stickin to it http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[momentumfoto]

Got my 27 roadster off the HAMB tonight... duh

[Cadillacin Marcus]

Which ones?? It started with just one back in 88' a 64 1/2 Mustang coupe with a 289 I saved and bought for $2200..the rest is horse trading history..no pun intended...

[Humboldt Cat]

My '57 F-100 is the first truck (well aside from a '78 Elko I had very briefly in college, hardly got anywhere with that) I've owned, have always been more into cars, but now have really gotten into custom/modified trucks.
In fact when I got into college from '92 to 2000, I tried to keep cold turkey from hot rods, even car mags, except for a '54 Olds I had in '95, during a brief haitus from school.
In August of '01, going home from Work in my trusty '87 Stanza hatchback in Redding, I got plowed into from behind, totalling the car. I'd been out of college for awhile, working and all that, and felt the need to get bitten by the car bug once more.
Oddly, the decision was between a nice custom Bug and the '57, but was leary of the selling-for-an-outta-state-friend sitch with the Bug, and was really lured by all the hot rod work done on the truck, so far, so after talking him down to $1600, I drove home the F-100, been working on completing someone's 1/2-finished project since then.
Of all the cars I've owned, this one's been by far my most successful hot rod project yet, will always remember it that way, too.
Cool post! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Jkustom]

'56 buick estate wagon:
Original owner lived a block away since before he bought the car. Dad lived here for going on 33 years now, so they were friends as you could expect... Dad spent most of those years trying to talk car owner out of the old buick he had sitting in his garage.. The guy kept politley refusing... When he passed away, I saw his son going through the house, poked my head in the door mentioning my dad was interested in the car... (but I was really after it)The guy says well, he tows tow it outta here, it his... So I tell dad. Dad says well your 16 now, youre gonna need a car. By this time the guys older brother (the executor of the will)wanted to sell the car online to see what they could get for it. 5 months of me bugging them, and nobody else buying the car, and the deal on the house closing the next day, the guy calls me up and says to come get it...for 800 dollars. I walk down there and gave him 600, even though I had way more in the bank. When I towed it out of the garage, it was the first time the car had seen sunlight in 21 years....It really had 21 years of dust on it...Best day of my life so far.

54 Chevy 210 Sledan:
I was driving my 56 buick home from a young ladies house at about 3 A.M. and saw it down a side street. I put the normal "sell you car!" note on the windshield. No call back. Several months I just kept an eye on it, another note here and there... Finally I went by and saw the owner out in the yard and struck up conversation. She had seen my buick around, thought I was a good kid and If she decided to sell it, she let me know. About 6 months later, I drive by and there are for sale signs in it! So of course I stop then and there to ask her whats up about it being for sale. Put a down payment of $300 bucks on it, agreeing to give her payments every two weeks, and left the buick there and drove the chevy home. Seeing how nice the Buick was, she assumed Id be restoring the 54... I didnt have the heart to to correct her. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif It was a long walk to go back and get the buick though!

34 ford pickemup:
It had a sign in it, and I arranged to make payment on it. One of the biggest mistakes of my life was not buying the the freshly rebuilt 8BA and 39 trans that came with it...But that would have ment another few months of payments! Damn Im a fool, cuz I would be driving it right now instead of it being outside sitting in pergatory...

Thas it, I just worked my ass off since I was 11 years old saving my paper route money, then on to a grocery store job, then on to more "real,grown-up" jobs. Ive earned everything about my cars. Kids these days dont know about hard work! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Man, thinking about how I got these cars reminds me of how much I love 'em... -J.

[Rocky]

Accompanied a fellow club member and Poncho addict to another buddy's to get some Poncho parts for him. Saw this 41 Pontiac bidness coupe sitting in the guy's pole barn. Haggled over price and went away empty handed. The guy called me a week later, needing some fast money for another project he'd found and we arrived on a more realistic price for the coupe...the end.

[JimC]

I could easily max out Ryan's band width with the stories about how I wound up with the many cars I have had, but will stick with the most current, the 1947 Ford Coupe.
I answered an ad here on the HAMB.
Down in Okiehomy, there was this poor distressed family that had to sell their old favorite car just so they could have something to eat.
well, I really thought this was a sad story and just concocted to sell an old junker.
Never the less, I drove for what seemed like an eternity to their house(it is off the beaten path).
Even had to get an escort, but finaly arrived at the Casa De Root. I took one look at the sorry condition of their surroundings,, and the pitiful condition of the kids and the wife, felt so sorry that I loaded up my truck and trailer with what I could find laying about, and gave the family my life savings and drove away as fast as I could
I just can't to see a gwown man cry..
I am still getting thank you cards from the neighbors.

There is some truth to the above.

Jim

[Rocket88]

A friend found mine for me!
He knew I was looking for an Olds and found one when he was cruising the back roads one day.
He phoned me at work and said you've got to come see this thing.
Needless to say, three days later it was in my driveway. That was Valetines day, 2001.
(forgot the card, too excited about car)
Boy I sure have an understanding wife!

[Jester]

I puchased a 1959 Ford Ranchwagon (2 door no less) for $600 when I got it it wouldn't run and it had no brakes (imagine that) after about $400 more the wagon was on the road and I drove it for about 6 months then I traded it for a 1958 ford custom 300 (four door...insert laugh here) and drove it for a year then I traded it for a 1953 chevy 210 (four door....insert another laugh here). After taken ownership of the 53 I drove it directly to my cousins house where 20 min later the top was removed. I have about 2 weeks more work so I can start driving the damn thing. And now you know the rest of the story.

[porknbeaner]

Hell,
I been gettin cars anyway and everyway in the world for over 30yrs now.
But I think my current F truck has a pretty good story.
I got this friend Joe who's a Stude freak. About 8 or 9 years older than me.
A couple of years ago I was drivin' a V-8 S-10 that I was bored with. And wanted to get back to my beginnings. But the drive train was tried and proven, and V-8 S 10s aren't worth much on the open market.
So I measure the wheel base and started looking around at different bodies. I finally decided that I wanted the mid 50s F truck that had been rolling around in my mind for about 30 years. And low and behold the wheel base was right.
I said something to Joe about my plan. He had a '53 at the time and thought modern suspension would be cool also.
A couple of days later he wanted me to take a look at a paste together '53 on a trick chassis for him. I called him and said cool chassis (modified '53), done really well.
A couple of days later he calls and says that chassis is his, we brought to my place with the body still attached.
He was going out of town so I rolled the body off and put it in my back yard for the owner to come get.
I called the guy and told him to come get his body. He told me to bring a truck and come by his shop there were some parts that Joe forgot. When I got there he loaded an extra set of doors, a valence and bits 'n' pieces in feed sacks in my truck. Then handed me a note from Joe.
It read;
"Here's your new cruiser. Build it and we'll drive it to Pigeon Forge.
Your Brother,
Joe"

[38Chevy4door]

I'll just paste the link...
Getting the '38... (http://rslee.home.worldnet.att.net/wsb/html/38chevy0100.htm)

Now, if I'd just get to work on the thing, and get it back on the road!!!

[G V Gordon]

Couple stories:

My first car was a 1951 Ford Tudor. I grew up on a farm and when the work was done at home we boys worked for neigbors for extra $$$. I had plowed for "Swede" Anderson for about three days and he and his wife were feeding me supper when he asked how much he owed me. I asked, how much do you want for the old Ford out by the barn? He asked if I had talked to Dad about it and I said yes so he said "let's just call it square" Figured out about $35. This was in 1965. Drove it all through high school.

Second story:
One of my current rides is a '63 Grand Prix. I used to work in the farm equipment industry and still like to go to sales and auctions. I was at an equipment consignment sale and in the middle of the wheat trucks and tillage tools sat this GP in primer, huge helper springs on the rear and a trailer hitch. It also had eight lug wheels, (overheard several comments about the "truck wheels" on that old Pontiac)lol. The interior was in pretty good shape and they had it running earlier in the day so I figured if I could get it for $1500 or less I could make a few bucks on it. When they got ready to sell it it wouldn't start and I got it for $1250. I drove it home! The tranny leaked so while we had it on a lift to replace the front seal I got to check it over and found out it was a rust free car. That was almost three years ago and it's been to several runs and shows since. Still in primer but lookin a lot better.

[chopolds]

First, my 55 Olds. I already had a 56 Chevy that I bought off an old schoolmate, that I started to customize. I bought a 55 DeSoto grill, 56 Packard taillights, and 55 Pontiac side trim. I already had the 55 Pontiac trim ready to install, the door handles removed, nosed, decked, wagon bumper. My girlfriend at that time spotted a "cool old pink car" near her house, sitting abandoned in a body shop. I went to check it out, and found a 55 Olds 98 Coupe. I thought it would look MUCH coooler than a plain old Chevy as a Leadsled, so I bought it, and used all the parts I bought for the Chevy, to build the Olds. I welded up the Poncho trim holes, redrilled the original Chevy ones, replaced the door, with one with a handle, and finished it as a street machine. Later sold it. Built the Olds as a full on chopped top 50's Kustom!
54 Chevy. A buddy of mine at work dug old cars. He took a ride out to Ohio, with me, to the Merc Deuce Reunion in 1989, and got the bug. I invited him to work with me at my shop at night and weekends to learn the bodywork/fabrication/welding/painting side of the coin, since he was a good mechanic already. He started looking around for an old car project, and found his uncle had a 54 Chevy 2 door sedan, he would give him for free. We towed the car back from Maryland, and started in on it. He wanted it updated, so we bought an 80 Monte Carlo, and used it as a donor. Subframed, rear end, column, everything we could scrounge.
Well, poor Joe got married, and couldn't play with us any more. He changed jobs, and we didn't see too much of him. The 54 sat abandoned in a greenhouse company, overgrown with weeds. So I offered him the cash he had put out to build the car so far, and finished it. Unfortunately, he never got to see it done. He had an asthma attack, which triggered a heart attack, and died, at 28 years old. I drove 'his' car to the funeral, finished.
My newest project, the 46 Chevy coupe, I started working on for a neighbor. He delivered the bare body shell to my shop to get it out of his yard, and to slowly start to work on it. He then found a 48 convertible, and bought it, forgetting about the coupe. Later he told me to try to sell it for $500, for him. I bought it myself!

[tinyelvis]

This story has a sad ending, sort of anyway. Kustombuilders brother now owns this car, I gave it away on the HAMB about a year ago or so. It was too much for me to handle, the girl in the story is my x-wife, fiance at the time of the writing. Enjoy!

It all started back in November of 2000 when I was at work surfing for cars (in my spare time of course) trying to satisfy my itch for something to work on this winter, to keep me busy and out of trouble. Didn't have much money though, so budget was a concern.. I tried to limit my searches to $1000 or less. What can you get for that kind of money? Not a whole lot.. I thought.

Eventually I came across an ad for a 1958 Olds 88, though I had never seen one before, it had two doors and no pillars, and that sounded good to me. The ad didn't have much information, just year make and model, and it was $1000/best offer. To me that meant "cheap." Plus it was in Ohio, so I didn't have to drive far from Detroit to pick it up. I called Melissa and said, "Uh, looks like we're getting another car.." She even agreed to pay for half (almost), as my Christmas and Birthday presents combined. Sounded great to me!

I called, and the guy said someone from Texas was already sending him a deposit for it. Just the day before I had missed a '56 Lincoln Premiere, so you can imagine my concern over losing another great find. I said "If it doesn't come through, let me know.." Car guys talk, and we continued our talk about this and that, what he does and what I do, and he told me the history of this car. It was a one owner 46000 mile original, untouched vehicle. It still had the plastic on the seats from the factory! He said it was pretty solid, with some rust in the usual spots old American cars rust in.

I asked him where the car came from, and he said he got it from the son of the woman who drove it way back when. Unfortunately, her son went to a nursing home recently (I gather he may not have been all there, also that the dude selling the car got it for nothing) and the car was released from it's dank and dark garage home. He said that the passenger side quarter had some surface rust because the car was exposed on one side to the elements due to a hole in the garage. Mind you, the car still had '73 Ohio plates on it, bias ply snow tires in back, and a tar top battery still under the hood. Talk about a time warp!

With some encouragement (or is it bullying?) from my friends, I called the guy back and said "Fugitabout that guy from Texas, I'm coming to get the car on Saturday with cash." He eventually agreed to my mafia-like terms and I sent him a $200 deposit. The following Saturday, my friend Spencer and I got a tow dolly and headed down to Ohio. Ohhh, scenic Ohio! Needless to say, it was LOOONG 4.5 hours..

We got there and saw the car and it looked real good, until we got around the corner and saw the other side.. (see pic of me with her..). That surface rust made it look real bad.. BUT, it's not, which is the good news. We saw a broken windshield which was not mentioned, and the rear bumper is so screwed up it may not be able to get re-chromed. Spence is thinking (amazing isn't it?) "No way, not for a grand." and I'm looking at him with the same idea in mind. I asked the guy if the dude from Texas was still interested, and I didn't get much of a response. In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson; "DOH!"

I said, "I don't think we're gonna take it.. it's too rusty and not quite what I thought it would be." Along with the other issues, there were no keys and a broken driver's side vent window (it had been locked in the garage 30 yrs. ago and they had to break into it to get it out). "It's just a matter of me getting my deposit, and we'll be on our way." Again, not much of a response.. doh.. again.

"Why don't you guys come in and take a look at my shop?" This guy is the owner of CATZ Restorations, doing lots of high end concours quality restorations of rare cars. Great guy, fantastic shop.. still didn't want the car for $1000. After our tour was winding down, I decided my deposit was gone and we would head home. Out of nowhere the owner said, "You know, I would hate for you guys to go home empty handed.. why don't you just take it for the $200 dollar deposit?" My first thought was that my deposit was probably a fuel pump for that Mustang GT500 I just walked by. My second thought was "Hell yes!" Spence and I kind of glanced at each other with the same idea in mind; before you know it we were hitching that big bitch up to the van, and we were off like prom dresses.

We both figured the car was worth a grand in parts anyway, so we had nothing to lose. Everything was there including all the stainless, all interior bits, there were no missing parts at all. This car is completely virgin, nobody has ever tried to "restore" it or hot rod it or anything. No repaints, not a lot of real rust (holes), it's very very solid. I think we made out pretty well.

The ride home was fine until we hit I-94 in Detroit, steady at 55 MPH. If you don't live in Detroit or you have not had the pleasure of passing through it, you may not understand our urban road plight. I think the roads in Germany had less potholes after a fleet of B-17's dropped a payload. Needless to say, I was white knuckled and sweaty for a good hour until we hit our side streets. I thought for sure the car would be flying across the expressway, van in tow. When we got home, I told Melissa I got the car for $200 bucks, and promptly refunded her money.. she was quite happy about that.

[Nappy]

Bought a rusty 58 Lincoln convertible off of Ebay about 2 years ago. Had it back at my Grandfather's farm and went back to work on it on the weekends.
My cousin lives nearby, saw the car, and said he also had an 'old car' that he should get around to fixing up. I fully expected him to say it was some 80's TransCamaro, but I feigned interest and ask him what kind of car he had... turns out it was a 1959 Buick Invicta Wagon.

He'd bought it 5 years earlier at an estate auction for a hundred bucks. 87k orig miles. He had it sitting outside and realized that he was never going to get around to finishing it. So he agreed to sell it to me for a grand. I've been driving that for about 2 years now and the Lincoln is still sitting up on blocks.

I know I posted these before, but... http://yourpage.blazenet.net/hepcat/buick4.jpg