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Customs What car first got you excited about customs or rods as a kid?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by patrick66, Oct 27, 2009.

  1. Pre-K
    Joined: Jun 27, 2007
    Posts: 219

    Pre-K
    Member
    from Ventura

    My parents first car, which mom still has, was a 1947 Lincoln Continental coupe, with a hot Cad V8. My friend Teeter Spath, his father had a ten year-old 1950 Ford in the weeds of his small back yard that I think was chopped.

    When we moved to Carmichael, CA, in 1962, we lived around the corner from Bertolucci's Auto Body, where I definitely recall seeing the Ohanesian '40 Mercury, and that did it for me... been a secret sloper fan ever since, but I really love anything automotive.
     
  2. OGNC
    Joined: May 13, 2003
    Posts: 1,194

    OGNC
    Member Emeritus

    It was the mid 1970s and we lived not far from SanDiegoJoe's house. My mom, dad and I were eating at Picnic-n-Chicken in Broadway in Lemon Grove when a group of early lowriders rolled in. There was an early 1960s Riveria that was ultra low, flake roof with patterns, some sort of velour interior and a set of what I assume were Supremes. I was mesmerized by that car.

    When I close my eyes I can still see it in my head...
     
  3. Definitely model cars got me started. Started with an early monogram model T I changed with a hot ice pick and lots of model glue. Then the Lil Coffin just sent me over. In the 60's in grade school, we all traded parts of models with each other and made our own creations. Used to save up allowance and buy the open kits at Woolworths and T.G. &Y to use as building material. I still seem to have a pile of parts laying around to throw together to make a car, only full scale now. Some things never change.
     
  4. Alos, Dad worked for GM here in LA and we got to go to yearly events when they would bring a few "prototypes" out to show the west coast employees.
     
  5. no55mad
    Joined: Dec 15, 2006
    Posts: 1,956

    no55mad
    Member

    In the very early fifties, shortly after I was born, this spaceship appeared and out came these humanoid type beings with almond shaped eyes. They implanted something into me that caused this affliction for mechanical things. If this happened to anyone else here, please explain this to my family. On late night drives I have heard similar stories on 'Coast to Coast AM'.
     
  6. well it's not really a hotrod or custom....more of a very Roth-Fink-inspired family vehicle we had in the 80's. I recall my grandpas old 50's Buicks and Pontiacs but it was our family Ford Econoline snub nose van that really got me goin. My dad bought it when i was in 3rd grade and it was one of our family vehicles for several years. It was bright blue heavy metal flake all over and dad had flames painted from the front to the back. It had a rake with the ass up a tad on American racing mags with skinny whites and chrome exhaust out the back. no seat belts. shag carpet inside. loud speakers. it was awesome and loud. All the kids and their parents didn't quite know what to make of it or my dad. My dad grew up in California so he brought back what he'd absorbed there and never changed. Neither him nor his cars ever fit in to small town Kansas, still don't to this day. If Ed Roth ever had a long lost brother, it'd have to be Johnny Ray Brown. I loved that van. That van was my dad.
     
  7. my dad was always into cars and i always took a liking to them, but the first time he dropped the hammer on his 406ci. 55 chev, i was hooked for life!
     
  8. Kripfink
    Joined: Sep 30, 2008
    Posts: 2,040

    Kripfink
    Member Emeritus

    I was born 20 years too late but the path of my life has been directed by a love, some would say obsession, with all things mid-century. But the first time I can recall anything other than stock fifties yank cars making me go "WOW I love what's been done to that" is Steve's '58 Impala from Graffiti. But the kustom that really made me wanna do one myself is Craig Hahnes '55 effie;

    [​IMG]

    Paul
     
  9. Kerry67
    Joined: Apr 11, 2005
    Posts: 2,606

    Kerry67
    Member

    The car that got me into cars was my brothers 68 GTO when I was a kid. I thought that thing was the coolest thing ever.
     
  10. Bigchuck
    Joined: Oct 23, 2007
    Posts: 1,159

    Bigchuck
    Member
    from Austin, TX

    My ex-brother in law had a 61 Impala SS way back in the early 70's, before I was too young to drive. White/red interior.
     
  11. Belchfire8
    Joined: Sep 18, 2005
    Posts: 1,540

    Belchfire8
    Member

    In the very early 60's there was local guy that had a chopped/channeled 32 Ford pickup that was painted kind of a drab green. It had a Hemi in it and I'd see it all over the place. I was around 8-9 yrs. old at the time. What i didn't know was that the driver had had polio and was driving with hand controls. He was a young man at that time but he still drives the same truck today. His three sons are all infected with the car disease and they rebuilt the truck for their dad a few years ago, It's now a beautifull metallic red. That truck got me going more than anything else, but I also remember wondering why the cars with the rear ends almost dragging on the ground sounded so cool.....It's been downhill ever since. :D
     
  12. '54Caddy
    Joined: Sep 11, 2009
    Posts: 985

    '54Caddy
    Member

    My dads 55 Chevy and my uncles 53 merc.
     
  13. bct
    Joined: Apr 4, 2005
    Posts: 3,154

    bct
    Member

    ken helm's 28 rpu ....was his daily driver....toyota powered....i would see it parked at the sub-station where he worked a couple times a year...
     
  14. flatheadpete
    Joined: Oct 29, 2003
    Posts: 10,479

    flatheadpete
    Member
    from Burton, MI

    Bright red '39 Chevy hot rod around the block when I was a kid. That car owes me big $$$$.
     
  15. skwurl
    Joined: Aug 25, 2008
    Posts: 1,620

    skwurl
    Member

    The IN-SANI-T. Does anyone have pics of that car. I liked the Eliminator too.
     
  16. Cars - my dad's 1960 TR-3A in 1965.
    Hot cars - Hot Wheels soon after.
    Rods - Hot Rod and a little yellow full-fendered '29 A roadster pickup at the beach when I was 13, circa 1976.

    Hooked since!
     
  17. When I was young I fell in love with a junk 56 caddy. I remember being impressed with the 1956 sqript on the dash, and of course those fishtail fins and Dagmars.

    I just picked one up a few months ago...
     
  18. Flatlander
    Joined: Jul 19, 2007
    Posts: 29

    Flatlander
    Member

    I was hooked on cars since playing with hot wheels. My addiction to hot rods came during high school as friend of mine had a 50 ford pickup as his daily driver and we built a 51 chevy in shop class for another friend.
     
  19. 40 & 61 Fords
    Joined: May 17, 2006
    Posts: 1,999

    40 & 61 Fords
    Member

    My Dad has always been into rods so there was always something cool in the Garage. There were always friends of his stopping by with their cool stuff. One of the best was the neighbor who was into drag cars, usually late 60's big block Camaros. He would come by, have a couple beers with Dad, then take off....HARD! I'm talking wheels up, tire smoking, full launches! We'd go to lots of shows and I see cool stuff too.
    Then it happened...The October 1980 Street Rodder magazine came in the mail, and I saw the COOLEST car ever! It was a black and flamed 40 coupe....I was in love!
    It's the 40 coupe owned by Dave Mock. He's "DaveyDeuce" here on the HAMB now.
    That car and the article written by Geoff Carter still get me excited every time I read it! Thanks Dave!

    [​IMG]
     
  20. swi66
    Joined: Jun 8, 2009
    Posts: 18,172

    swi66
    Member

    Going to the Clutch Attist's Autorama at the old Masten Avenue Armory in Buffalo and seeing all the rods and customs, but the most memorable were the Ed Roth Cars, and the George Barris Ala Kart.

    Went right out and got model kits.............
     
  21. droplord49
    Joined: Jan 12, 2004
    Posts: 1,690

    droplord49
    Member
    from Bryan, Tx

    I'm only 27 but have been into cars as far back as I can remember(hotwheels, model cars. etc.). I was mostly into lowriders until one year(I was about 11-12) I went to the Houston Autorama and saw Jimi Vaughn's 51 Fleetline and Mike Youngs 60 Impala. I had never seen anything as beautiful as both of them were(still are). That very night I when home and started dreaming of bias ply WWW's, tuck-n-roll, and flipper hubcaps. I haven't been right ever since.
     
  22. SP8CTRE
    Joined: Oct 23, 2009
    Posts: 20

    SP8CTRE
    Member

    The first car that got me interested in Hot Rods was my Uncles 1957 Chevy. It was stricktly a drag race car, he built it in 1969 when I was 9 years old. I followed him to the track every weekend for about 3 years. Here is a picture at KilKare Drag Strip in Xenia Ohio around 1970.

    Other than that I would have to say the Munsters episode with the Munster Mobile and the Coffin car Dragula.
     

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  23. I'de have to say a couple I seen on the Munsters!!!!
     
  24. HMMM. Back in New York, in the mid 60's (I'm around 12 yrs old), this guy John was dating my beautiful neighbor Trudi. So, he was already my hero. But, he had an early 50's Chevy with nose-bleed stance, black with blue tinted windows, a 396, 3 speed stick and no front bumper. That's prolly the car that grabbed my attention
     
  25. SanDiegoJoe
    Joined: Apr 18, 2004
    Posts: 3,519

    SanDiegoJoe
    Member

    Courtney - I'm surprised that you have not tried to replicate that car! I miss Picnic-n-Chicken.

    - Joe
     
  26. Mr Haney
    Joined: Jul 17, 2008
    Posts: 1,000

    Mr Haney
    Member

    tie em to the car and drag him !
     

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  27. 55FORDWGN
    Joined: Feb 16, 2009
    Posts: 210

    55FORDWGN
    Member

    A couple of cars come to mind for me, a neighbor had a purple 54 Corvette with a 265 and a 3 spd. Another one was a 57 Ford 2 door post with Candy Pagan Gold paint, chrome straight axle, big block, 4 spd, Goodyear Bluestreaks with Cragars. That car was bad ass.
     
  28. Dad's always been in to original restorations and I've helped him work on stuff/hold the flashlight/"go get me this wrench" since I was little...mostly English sports cars, which is cool, but they can't always throw you back in your seat. When I was in 4th grade one of my best friend's dad had a '58 Impala. White with silver interior, lowered, functional lake pipes, white line tires on Radirs, and a souped up 348 tri-power with a 4-speed. That thing was cherry. It was a boat, but it had some scoot. I remember three of us sitting in the back and the one in the middle busted the little emblem on the back of the middle seat with his head when we took off from a stop light in town. Good times, awesome car, probably won't drive anything with less than a V-8 from now on because of that car.
     
  29. voodoochili
    Joined: Aug 21, 2006
    Posts: 130

    voodoochili
    Member

    The whole early 60's hotrod scene Ed Roth was my hero. I mooched every felt fedora in the neighborhood to make "hillbilly crash helmets". Beatnik Bandit, Outlaw, Mysterion.... Wow! What a great time that was. The car I could touch, my older brothers 57 chevy, 265 auto, raked with ladder bars and keystones, black roll and pleat interior, custom midnite green paint. The best part of all... riding along for stoplight drag racing! I've been ruined ever since.
     
  30. I don't know that I can point at one car, I sort of grew up with it all around as many others mentioned.

    When I was a kid starting about age 4, my dad always had Corvettes, so I grew up riding in the back window to shows, swap meets, etc...

    When I was probably 12 or so, I took a ride in a blown sbc powered T-bucket that gave me the bug for hot rods.
     

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