Hot Rods Remembering that first hot rod

I ran across this old photo of the first Model A I built back in the mid 70's and how much I still enjoy building and driving them.

This was a simple truck with bigs and littles,heck all I could afford was moon disc and a coat of red primer....hence my moniker hotrodprimer

How about sharing photo's of your first hot rod. HRP

 

I don’t have a photo, but it ties into music.

Every time I hear Rod Stewart singing “Maggie May” I flash back to my first mechanical love.

That song played like every 15 min’s on the AM radio.at that time of build.

 

I don't think they had cameras back then.

 

Come on, hieroglyphics preceded the camera by about 4000 years. HRP

 

First one, 1973.


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Hum,Moon disc,do I see a early seventy's pattern? HRP

 

I've posted this photo in the past,but as you can see it was wearing red primer. HRP

 

Well my first ones never hit the road except the first photo 1949 if you count that!
Then there was this in High School!

 

The one I really miss. 53 Olds Emerald Green

 

It hurts to much!! Pete

 

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my 39 Chevy tudor with dual carbs and split manifold, I had a head-on collision while passing a semi, they tell me. I was asleep at the wheel after working for about 30 hours straight. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, maybe I wasn't going that fast, it happened in town.

 

Pictures of my first hot rod disappeared when I went into the Navy and my mother swamped out my bedroom. Car was a 1947 Ford, tudor sedan. It had been the test mule for a guy named Gordon Ross who ran '37 Chevy NASCAR coupes at Agawam, MA. He would put a new motor in the Ford and then have it push his welding truck up Route 9 to seat the rings. I bought the car, with an Offy adaptor early Ford to Chevy, a '39 floor shift tranny and two angle iron backets welded to front crossmember to accept the early Chevy front mounted biscuits. I got a 283", from Volce Auto Salvage in Poughkeepsie and rebuilt it with a lot of advice from Gordon. I was working in shed behind my father's grocery store and could walk the half mile to Gordon's shop when I needed help. Car was still in Ford black paint, I used front wheels and for back wheels I used late 50's Imperial wheels, the ones with the ring of holes. Painted the rims red, and put 6:75 x 15 WW on front, 8:20 x 15 WW on the rear, all used tires from the Mobil Station where I worked. Dual exhausts with glass packs and scavenger pipes exiting below the rear axle. Probably had $500 bucks or so in it, ran without a hood to show off the Chevy. That was when you could buy a 3030 Duntov cam for $30 right from Chevy dealer and a set of Corvette valve covers could be had cheap too. I sure wish I had pics of that car that sent me on this long path of hot rods. On the firewall I had one of the little aluminum Mooneyes plaques. You can buy them all day long now but back then, about 1961 or so, they went strictly to dealers of Moon Equipment, on per. I hounded the late Joey Kornelski (Ulster Speed) until he sold me the one he had hanging in his shop. Wasn't a pretty ride, nor the fastest car in town by far, but damn I felt I was on top of the world.

 

1955:
Mine was a three dollar '30 Model A Cabriolet out of a field: the employee of Lantz Lumber Co. used the chassis to shorten into a "dune buggy"! I bought a '32 frame, rear end, and a set of '39 pedals from an older rodder, $15 all! Frame and rear were painted black, Nitro lacquer.
Had it running in 1 year, '37 Ford tube axle, '40 brakes, Deuce 'K' member, '46 Merc flattie, Edelbrock 3 jugger, Offie heads, Weber F2 cam, '41 pickup box, Belond headers, 28" 'mellotones' ('glasspacks)...Body channeled 6", that beautiful 'convertible' windshield stock height.
Loved/hated that thing, every cop in Santa Clara hated it, 'cause I was soooo cool.

 

Tupperware 101

 

First older car was a 39 Ford Deluxe coupe in 1970 with a small nail head and stock trans and rear. Painted it Red with a saddle interior, drove that car everywhere. Sold it in 72 to build a deuce roadster. First (hotrod?) was a 53 Bel Air hardtop in 63. Started something I haven't had under control since then.

 

This was my first street able hot rod. Must have been in 1974.

 

My first was a mild custom 56 Dodge.

 

1940 Standard in 1962; pic taken at Ascarate Park Dragstrip in 1962. Still running an 8CM flathead with column 3-speed. I couldn't best the SBC's but I could generally spank the run of the mill Y-blocks of the day on Dyer Street. It wasn't my first car, but it was my first hot rod.

 

Not my first 40, but the first that could be considered a hot rod, the rest were "shot rods".


This was the next one a few years later. t rod. The others were more or less "shot rods".

 

I'd have to count My 51 Mercury as my first hot rod when I bought it at age 16 and it came lowered with glass packs and headers.
First hot rod I built was my T bucket in the early 70's

I cut the frame out of a stick of 2x4 1/8 wall tubing and Paul Charles welded it up. I hauled the body home in pieces out of a field in the trunk of my 62 impala making several trips. Engine and trans came out of a 61 Impala four door that I bought for 100 bucks and drove home. Front brakes and rear end out of a 56 Ford Pickup and the front axle came from a club member after he put a dropped tube axle in his T. The wheels I had bought for my 51 Mercury before I got drafted and my grandparents carried them from here where I sit to McGregor Tx when they came down to see their first great grandson. My wife had a blast driving it around town and still wants me to build another one that she can drive.

 

For some reason, it seems we were thinner and had more hair. Trick photography or someone else in the pics?

 

Guess I'm not the only one who doesn't have a picture of my first real hotrod, but I sure wish I did. Back in 1958 it was a '34 Ford 5 window that I channeled and put a '54 Olds engine in. I drove it for a while in primer then decided to go racing. Built the engine to full race but like a fool didn't balance the clutch assembly which came apart just before the traps doing about 110 mph. End of hot rodding for a long time.

 

L

439923.jpg by bowie posted Jan 13, 2013 at 8:26 PM

1973 Lookn' a little different , but not much.

 

Still got it, look to the left. Redone as you see it in 1975 and now has 145k miles most pulling a trailer.

 

Not a hot rod, but my first car in high school

 

No old pics of my first car/hot rod

my 2nd hot rod: in 1964


my 3rd in 1966

327, T-10 4 speed

my 4th in 1968

A/SR 401 Hillborn injected nailhead

a year old pic of my first, still under reconstruction, with hopped up 4 banger


and yesterday's pic of the dash

 

Not first i had but first to get finished. Dragged it home in 75. Sold it...bought it back and driving it

 

DAMN!

 

You got that right Tim,but a lot of photo's posted are 30 to 40 years ago. HRP

 

Well I did have more hair but I wasn't any thinner, That Texas cooking took a tole on my waist line.

Requite family photo with the car in front of my mother in law's house in McGregor Tx. She contributed to the weight gain after I got married.