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When did it start for you?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Jive-Bomber, Mar 19, 2010.

  1. Jive-Bomber
    Joined: Aug 21, 2001
    Posts: 3,754

    Jive-Bomber
    MODERATOR

  2. beauishere
    Joined: Mar 17, 2004
    Posts: 607

    beauishere
    Member

    I know it's cliche, but it was when I first saw American Graffiti. Although my dad had been a rodder before I came along, he had never told me about it until I came home from the theater talking about this movie and about all the cool cars it had in it. There weren't a whole lot of hot rods where I grew up, so it hit me like a left hook. The cars, the music, cruisin', racing, the whole thing.
     
  3. Little Wing
    Joined: Nov 25, 2005
    Posts: 7,505

    Little Wing
    Member
    from Northeast

    Watchin my Father take apart the Avanti, and be surrounded by all the motorcycles.

    It was the people attached to the cars and bikes I think as they were different ,,fun kinda people. When you saw the car or bike it was like so and so is coming,,and as a kid it would be play time.
     
  4. chop&drop
    Joined: Oct 11, 2006
    Posts: 668

    chop&drop
    Member

    I can't think of a "moment" when it hit me. It was a LONG time ago. I guess I was about 10-12 years old when I "fell in love" with hot rods. My dad has never been a gearhead, nor has anyone else in the family, and before I got into high school I didn't have any gearhead friends. It was just something that hit me like a ton of bricks and never went away.
     

  5. Kerry67
    Joined: Apr 11, 2005
    Posts: 2,606

    Kerry67
    Member

    I was into cars my whole childhood. Got into playing guitar in the late 70's when I was about 12 and that took over my life until 2000 (tried to be a rock star). Got back into cars (muscle cars) and then started to get into this type of stuff around 2004 or so when I got tired of people asking if it was numbers correct or pointing out flaws on every car around. Always went to car shows and auctions though..........
     
  6. From as early as I can remember (born in 1962), my dad raced coupes on the roundy round stuff. I was wandering around in the garage, junk yards and dirt tracks as a young kid and it just never stopped :D .
     
  7. well like most if not all here it started right out of the crib , but i guess the true defining moment for me was watching my dad tear apart a gray primered 55 chevy hardtop i just thought that flat gray car was awesome

    ( i think he was actually junking the car )
    supposedly it was his old "hot rod" and was suposed to have been pretty mean
    wish i had a pic of it
    cause after he was done taking it apart it disappeared never saw it again
    i was at most 6 years old at the time
     
  8. rustyhood
    Joined: Dec 2, 2009
    Posts: 722

    rustyhood
    Member

    I must have been to little to realize the moment it hit me. My dad had a towing business and every chance I got I was at the garage. My dad could always find me pretend driving and working on the junk cars on the property. I was blessed to have a dad that was a motor head and to be apart of his life teaching me. I miss him.
     
  9. Munstergarage
    Joined: Jan 1, 2009
    Posts: 75

    Munstergarage
    Member
    from Visalia ca

    Porterville Ca 1986: I'm 5 years old playing in my front yard when i hear the most terrifying yet eexciting sound I'd ever heard. It was the sound of a 396 torturing a set of tires. As i looked in that direction I see a canary yellow '55 chevy turning on to my street. the driver pulls up in front of my house and says " Hi Kenny I'm your uncle Doug, get in the car." He took me around town planting the loud pedal every chance he got. Thats when it happened for me. riding in that car, the tuck n roll, the smell the sounds I was hooked ever since.
     
  10. petes65usa
    Joined: Mar 11, 2010
    Posts: 254

    petes65usa
    Member

    It was 1965....I was 7 years old riding my purple metalflake bike up the sidewalk of the house we lived in and a brand new Gold 65 GTO "with cragar ss rims" came up the road and to the house across the street . I just thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen....Been In love with American Iron ever since.................:cool:
     
  11. oldpaint
    Joined: Jul 25, 2009
    Posts: 357

    oldpaint
    Member

    I'm a "Boomer" born in 1948. I grew up in a small town. Across the street from my house was a chevy dealership and behind the garage was a junk yard. I hung out there most summer days.
    I painted my first bicycle black and flamed it and named it the "Black Flame".
     
  12. Plowboy
    Joined: Nov 8, 2002
    Posts: 4,278

    Plowboy
    Member

    As long as I can remember whenever we would be on a trip, whenever I saw an old car I would always ask my dad what it was and what year it was. As I know now he was mostly full of shit. Now he has to ask me.

    As for hot rods, Cartoons magazine, and when ZZ top came out with those videos that is what really set me off.....
     
  13. BrerHair
    Joined: Jan 30, 2007
    Posts: 5,006

    BrerHair
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Growing up in the 50's, the family piling into our '56 Ford wagon, kids in pj's, to go to the drive-in movies. Us kids would fall asleep early into the film Mom & Dad wanted to see.

    First "souped-up" cars I remember were shoeboxes and tri-5's, neighborhood teens.

    Growing up in 50's, there were still tons of 40's cars around. My dad had a '46 Plymouth, etc. . . . great childhood memories. :)
     
  14. Labold
    Joined: Nov 1, 2007
    Posts: 1,219

    Labold
    Member

    It is hard to pin point an exact moment because I grew up around cars, but I vividly remember playing in/around our 64 T-bird convertible (Dad still has it). I was bitten by the bug so long ago I don't even remember getting bit.
     
  15. Knucklehead29
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 132

    Knucklehead29
    Member

    I'm probably a little different than most. Since my family is from Turkey I wasn't really raised with the whole American Hot Rod family like some here. As a kid my parents couldn't quite understand my obsession with all things cars around the age of 10. My first car was a 1990 Toyota Supra Turbo (I know I know) that I used to tune, but mostly it was something to go fast in. Next car was a 1996 Mustang Cobra that I spent most of my hard earned minimum wage money upgrading and making faster. My mom told me when I was 18 that she knew exactly where I got it from. She said her old man was fanatical about cars and had a '56 2 door Bel Air he used to take the family around in on long weekends in Turkey. He used to love that thing and shine it up every day. She said I must have got the bug from him when I was a kid. I bought a Bel Air to honor my grandpa's love for Bel Air's, and a '53 since that's when my mom was born. The day I showed it to her for the first time she got teary eyed and said "you remind me of my dad." That was all the motivation I needed to keep working on the car. For me it's a lifestyle. I tell my friends "To understand me is to understand my obsession with my cars."
     
  16. i belive it is in our DNA i have always loved cars.hot rods,drag racing,my mom has a picture of me at 2 years reading rod and custom magazine,by age 6 i was holding a drop light for my gradfather &,cleaning tools out in the shop
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2010
  17. Bphotrod
    Joined: Sep 19, 2006
    Posts: 271

    Bphotrod
    Member
    from da U.P.

    The next door neighbor kids were a few older than me, and always bringing home cars. One day one of the brothers came home with a 70 Cuda 340 4sp black on black. That was it. I was 10.
     
  18. Study Hall in High School 1950...A senior was passing around the latest copy of "Hot Rod"mag..Shortly there after,I put Sombrero caps,Buick Skirts,long shackles and a set of "Douglass "twin pipes on my 39 Deluxe Ford cpe...Been at it ever since...
     
  19. I was only 2 years old ... but I was already "driving" the HEMI32 Coupe:

    [​IMG]
    1963: "Cruising my (future) Elementary School" - Fremont, Ca
     
  20. cr55
    Joined: Feb 9, 2009
    Posts: 29

    cr55
    Member
    from del

    It started for me when I was a little kid beggin my mom to buy me the larest copy of Rod and Custom or a model, had to cut grass or shovel snow for the money....My parents weren't into cars whatsoever, jut a means of transportation! They always wondered what was wrong with me!!:eek:...CR:D
     
  21. flynstone
    Joined: Aug 14, 2005
    Posts: 1,723

    flynstone
    Member

    matchbox cars............. before hotwheels
     
  22. Born in 69 and can't remember a time I didn't lust after early tin. Sure my first car was a musclecar but I also had a Henry J and was building a gasser at 14 years old. From memory I can honestly remember laying claim to dads old box of Hot Rod Mags in about 1974. The folks tried to get me to throw them out over the course of 5 family moves but I still have them to this day.
     
  23. traffic61
    Joined: Jun 15, 2009
    Posts: 1,545

    traffic61
    Member
    from Owasso, OK

    Probably when Dad brought home those Hot Wheels in 1969. Still have about a dozen of the old Redlines ones, including the 1955 Nomad. Not long after that we moved and the guy across the alley had a '55 gasser sedan that rattled the windows and drove my mother nuts. Seeing American Graffiti sealed the deal for an impressionable 12 year old.
     
  24. Hot_Rod_Johnny
    Joined: Dec 28, 2008
    Posts: 197

    Hot_Rod_Johnny
    Member
    from Sweden

    My first ride (from the hopsital as newborn) was in pop's 1962 Opel Kapitän (Germanys baby Chev). It's possible that it was the start of life-long interest of cars. Model kits was my second "wow" I guess, a lot of beutiful American cars in small scale :)
     
  25. olscrounger
    Joined: Feb 23, 2008
    Posts: 4,770

    olscrounger
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    started for me about 1948 when my Dad came home from the service and our car was a 41 Ford ragtop that he had bought prior to the war (black,loud pipes,etc.)--also his cousins were playing with hardtops that they raced at Madera speedway-cut up alot of nice early Ford coupes--later about 50-51 my Aunt's boyfriend used to come over and take me for rides in his 39 Chevy coupe that was very nice for the time--
     
  26. catbox
    Joined: Dec 23, 2008
    Posts: 99

    catbox
    Member

    i have it in my blood as well.

    the obsession for old cars really started when my dad was fixing my moms oldsmobile and he came in and asked if i was done with my cereal. to which i replied yes and then he took the box....and made a new gasket with it.

    he then started to tell me about when he and his brother used to race at Skagit Speedway in washington state with their 56 ford with a 312 police interceptor motor. he ended up rolling that one seven times on the guard rail, and walked away.

    from then on it was about anything with wheels and a motor.
     
  27. Asphalt Outlaw Hero
    Joined: Dec 9, 2006
    Posts: 963

    Asphalt Outlaw Hero
    Member
    from Dixie

    I just always seemed to gravitate towards them.My brother use to get Hot Rod,I read it regularly in my pre-teen days.I was going to drag races before I could drive (legally).I gravitated away in the late 60's and then fell back "On the wagon" a fw years ago.I've always been into motorcycles.

    "IT AIN'T A DISEASE,ITS THE CURE".
     
  28. JeffreyJames
    Joined: Jun 13, 2007
    Posts: 16,628

    JeffreyJames
    Member
    from SUGAR CITY

    Probably 1992 when I was ten is when I fell in love with old Hot Rods. My father took me to the Clutch Artists Autorama at the Buffalo convention center. I had a great time my father taught me the ins and outs of old cars. Coming from a family that loved hot rods but never had any, this was the one of the first times I can remember being this close to them. We stayed until the end on Sunday and when we left a Milner Cloner and another hot rod held up traffic on the 33 going out of Buffalo towards the airport. My father explained to me how cool it was and because they were driving Hot Rods they could do what ever they wanted even if it meant driving 35 in 55 because that was cool. I'll never forget that.... it was february snow on the ground and two hot rods taking up the lanes driving at their own pace late at night. Real cool.


    Besides that it was thursdays at Jafafa hots if I remember right. A really cool cruise night on Harlem Rd. that filled up with all kinds of cool cars.
     
  29. For me, it started in the very early '60s. My family lived along a busy thoroughfare in suburban Denver. I would sit in the front yard and point out the cars by make, model, and year - at age THREE - and get them right. My ability at car recognition started very early, so from that, my appreciation and love of everything automotive. My Granddad bought a brand new '64 Impala SS with a 327 automatic. My Dad had a string of Chevrolets from 1957 through 1965 when I was a kid, but his were the BelAirs and Biscaynes. My granddad's SS was my favorite car for the longest time! We lived right up the street from a Chevy dealership, whom my dad was a very good friend of. It was also on the way to/from school, a 1/2-mile walk. So, I'd go there after school sometimes and hang out in the showroom, sitting in the brand-new '67 Camaro SS, or the Corvette with the 396 and 4-speed, or the 327 Chevelle SS hardtop. The owner knew me, too; so he'd let me look and dream what kids dream about - going really FAST! We were a GM family across the board...

    Then, my older sister got married to a Mopar motorhead, who owned a whole list of really cool Chevys and Mopars over the years. Among these were a '56 Chevy gasser, a '63 split-window 'Vette, a '65 'Vette ragtop, a '69 Dart 340 Swinger, and a '70 AAR 'Cuda, among many others. So, between my family, and the fact I grew up on a busy street watching traffic go by, I was big into cars at an early age.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2010
  30. flamingokid
    Joined: Jan 5, 2005
    Posts: 2,200

    flamingokid
    Member

    I'd say cruising with my uncle in his Jag XKE back in the 60s.I was completely car -aware from that point forward.
     

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