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

lil' coffin and red baron

 

I came home from the hospital in Nov of 1946 in my dad's 41 Ford Ragtop with what were said to be the loudest pipes in the county at that time and it's been down hill ever since.
When I was little My uncle Vernon left his 51 Merc coupe in the yard for a year while he was in Korea in the army. He took me to town in it when he got back and I think that started my love for 51 Mercs one of which I had as my first car and owned for 32 years.
My stepfather came home with a 52 Vic hardtop with a 56 Tbird special 312 in it in the late 50's that had Held C Gas records at the Ellensberg Wa strip in the 50's. It was the fastest car I had ridden in at the time and probably set me on fast cars for life.
Discovering Hot Rod Magazine on the bookmobile thanks to seeing on in a Six grader's hand and then looking for one to check out while in the 5th grade was the thing that set the hook and drug me in though.
From the time I was about 12 my dad took me to the indoor car shows in Seattle and Tacoma where I got to see cars like Madam Fifi, The bare end 56 F100, Poco Loco 59 Elkie, The sectioned red 56 Buick (now lavender) that Paul Harper later restored before it was sectioned and the next year or so after the section.
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Austin Healey 100-4 LM
I use to ride with my dad when I was young when he hauled cattle to the stockyeards in South Saint Paul Mn and by the State capital was the British car dealer over the years I have had an MG midget, and a Bug Eye Sprite vintage road race car.
About 2000 I gravitated toward hot rods and sold off all of my road race stuff and eventualy found this place.
And the rest is history.

 

my grandad was letting my uncle's dad store his 50 chevy deluxe at his house for a season. it was black with www's, skirts and more chrome than you could shake a stick at. i was probably eight or so. i can still remember the smell of that ole girl the first time we went into town. cool thing is my 54 has the same smell.

 

Bob Tindle's "Orange Crate" - '32 Ford Tudor flopper with a Potvin-blown Olds.
Now that was a Hot Rod!

 

1986 Street Rod Nationals Columbs OH "new jersey suede 1933 ford"

No Kid I was 32 at the time

 

It was 1959.We had just moved into a different house in a new neighborhood.I was looking around the house when I looked across the street and saw what looked like a sports car.My cousin and I walked across the street to check it out.It was a for real 1932 Ford roadster,highboy,whitewall tires highlighting the fenderless red beauty.I looked at the engine and the valve covers said Mercury.I had just seen my first hod rod.I started reading Hot Rod and Rod and Custom after that.It took me 15 years until I had my 32 Ford,a 5W coupe.

 

That me (14 years old) in the passenger seat of my best friends (16yrs old) Desoto powered 23 T roadster. I was already into cars, but this set the hook.

 

The car that first got my attention was my uncle's '34 ford 5 window coupe. the car was maroon and still had the flathead. my favorite car to this day.

 

A couple of guys I met raced this T with a 440 in the 70s. This car was the only rod in my neck of the woods. 30 years later these same 2 guys helped me build my first coupe. 2 Lane Blacktop also provided a lot of inspiration.

 

the rod that got me was none other then the california kid still think its one of the most bad assedest cars around i dont know how old i was probably 7 when the tv movie came out that was the first time i ever saw it and never forgot it

other then da kid i guess when my dad had his old gray primered 55 chevy hardtop all stripped out on the driveway in front of his daily 55 chevy mordor belair i rhought it was cool as hell to have that kinda stuff around the house i guess thats why ive had soo much junk sittin around my house lol

i dont know what he did with that 55 hardtop i was like 5 ('75ish) when it just disappeared while i was at school probably went the scrap yard

 

Probably my grandpa's old 1965 chevy stepside pickup, red, 90's billet wheels, fast, sbc, etc.

 

We've got a guy down here thats got a 34 coupe, remembered it kicking up chunks of mud on the cam at idle... That got me going, think i was about 6 or 7yrs old. Used to run low 8s on methanol street regisitered.

 

I wonder if this is one of those moments for Joey...

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Joey in Jack from the Lifters 32 pickup...

 

I got hooked by a 1940 ford coupe. I was 7 yers old when the guy that lived across the alleyway brought home bits and peices of a 40 coupe. I watched him for some time turn several trailers worth of parts into one of the coolest 40's I have ever seen. It was a inspiration, a daily driver, and a D/G warrior on the weekends. It was sweet. Stan Braden built and owned the car, lived in Cheyenne Wy. If you knew Stan, or the car, you understand.

 

Model A Hot Rod..and now some 35 or more years later, im finally building one..' think i got hooked around 10 years old

i think its all you guy's fault and this forum

 

This belonged to my dad's friend and was always around the house, had a 455 under the hood. We had old cars and trucks but this one probably got me into Hot Rods.

 

Late Sixties, Wells Minnesota. Tinker( Anthony) Mosers 55 chevy 2 door sedan . Hooked from then on. Gary

 

Me and my brothers loved the movie Christine when we were young. My dad always had cool cars,some Vets, a nomad, couple Impalas. But when he drug home a half bond and half chicken wire 57 Plymouth that only had 1st gear... I was hooked. I mean we just got CHRISTINE! Who wouldn't be stoked. I still got it, stage left.

 

Air planes first. Sky King.
My great grand mother got a new 58 Edsel. She'd let me push the buttons on center of the steering wheel to make it go. I was about 4. I thought it was magic.
The 63 Stingray and those hideaway head lights and the Dream Rod first time saw the model.

 

dad always had at east one project from a 54 ford panel truck, 37 ford panel truck, 74 sportster and various others. but if i had to pick, it'd be the 67 1600 VW type 1 and the 87 5.0 rustang i had. the bug gave me the bug for cars and the rustang gave me the need for speed. not because the latter was fast but because she was slower than a sleepy jabba the hutt and that needed tending too! i know 17.5 in the 1/4 isnt too slow for bone stock hatch but still needs to be rectified! lol

i finally got my hands on a 49 or so Studebaker 2R and later a 55 2R. and now a squarebody S10 with a 383 that im workin on along with the Studes, lightbulb! I JUST REALIZED WHY IM BROKE! and i dont give a damn...

 

Model cars I built as a kid in the sixties, are what got me infected, and I guess the one that got me excited the most was the tijuana taxi, if somebody has a picture of it , that would be awsem.My favorite second would be the boot hill express, and the third would be the pie wagon.

 

For me it was a Pontiac powered T-bucket that I saw cruisen' around when I was a kid. I still remember that car like it was yesterday.

 

when i was 17, growing up in orange county ca.. going to classic tattoo and seeing erik maaskes 52 ford... it grabbed me from 2 miles away, that thing was sinister and i would of done anything to get a custom.. that meant, joining the navy!!!!!! the rest is history in the making... havent stopped loving slick customs ever since!

 

It's back on the hobby shop shelves.
Cool model

 

51 merc, 53 desoto grille

 

It was a 1959 impala nad a 1955 f100.

 

I'd love to be the odd man out and say it was something cool yet obscure, but apparently for me it was the 57 belair. My mom gave me alot of my stuff that she had kept from early preschool on up til I moved out. And theres more than a few drawings of 57 chevies with flames coming out of the pipes from when I was like 5. Later on it was Allstates and Henry Js

 

Gravedigger! haha

 

If we don't count toys and models, well, then it was riding my schwin up to and sneaking into 605 Speedway watching the roundy-rounders, or the San Gabriel Dragstrip just across the way or the original Irwindale when it first opened. (soon after, I had the privilege of driving a car there, and quite often, towing it home) Because of this, I got the Greed for Speed. So first cars were street warriors that just so happened to be 55, 57 and 65 Chevy's. In addition, growing up in Baldwin Park, you had to appreciate lowriders or spent most of your time getting into fights about them. Add it up, equals a life of old cars and grease under the fingernails at family events.