Folks Of Interest OK the my dumb question of the week thread.

So this crossed my mind a bit ago when I was reading another thread so here is my dumb question of the week.

What made you decide to build your first rod or custom?

For me it was never really a choice, I have been around all manner of altered vehicles all my life. I'm with Hank Jr here "I am just carrying on an old family tradition."

I know a lot of you guys didn't come up around hot rods and customs so why and when if you recall?

 

because I liked the way it looked . and I wanted it to go faster than stock .

 

I knew that I liked hotrods and couldn't afford to buy one. THATS when I decided to build one. Thats also why I learned to weld, do bodywork, upholster,wire, and everything that goes with these damn things.

 

Stock Sucks

 

Sucked at sports...
Girls wouldn't talk to me.... the good looking ones, anyway...
The hoodlums up the street and their cool cars impressed the hell out of me...
I liked loud, fast, and weird....
Seemed like a good idea at the time...

 

I cant say there was a definitive moment Beaner but two influences that come to mind are:
My high school parking lot was full of shoebox fords that were nosed and decked, moon discs, dual exhaust, primed mostly. Also an upperclassman drove a '33 Chev 5 window, fenderless, nailhead, red oxide primer, sweet car that I drooled over every recess.
The 2nd item is due to the fault of my big brother. His 1st car was a flat head powered '53 Victoria HT, black and white that he and 2 buddies swapped a 303 Olds into. Boy were my parents pissed, but I thought it was cool. I still remember that steering wheel with the 50th anniversary logo, very cool.

 

My Dad worked on his cars, but didn't really have anything fast or custom, at least not after kids. Before I'm not so sure, but he did repair and repaint and I'm sure hot rodded a few. I took an interest in fixing things and helping my Dad, so when it came time for a car I was sure of what I wanted.

I always take notice of what other guys have done to fix up their cars and I kept a mental notebook. Filled and shaved hood, recessed license plate, un-cluttered engine bay. So for me it was taking a car from stock to slightly modified, give it my own personal touch.

 

LOL I was the hoodlum up the street, and some of the girls would talk to me but they all said that I was not the one to go out with. I didn't care wasn't much time for girls anyway.

 

In 1957, Kendallville, IN., with my parents in our 55 Buick at the Redwood Drive-in, this chopped and channeled Model A coupe drove by, as a 12 year old kid it just blew me away, had no choice, the seed was planted!!

 

My Dad always had something that ran hard, he was always street racing and had raced legally too, their was really no choice, I was born into it.

 

It was always chevy's.
I loved Duntov camshafts and street racing.

 

We moved to a very small town in 1970 and I really didn't dig the new digs. I was ten and apparently very impressionable.
One day, this thunderous noise began to emanate from across the alley. My mother commented on the unholy racket coming from the neighbor's old car. I wondered out into the back yard and witnessed Charlie working on his '55 Chevy and I was hooked at that point.
Every time he would bring it out, I would run to check it out.
Twenty years on, cancer claimed Charlie and his folks were selling his Chevy. I had just sunk everything I had into my first house. I couldn't swing the $2500 at the time. Not figuring out a way is a true regret that I have and I will always wonder what happened to it.

 

My older brothers showed me at a very young age "stock" isn't cool and cars can be much more then a form of transportation. Started out with muscle cars, that's what we all drove in high school. Shortly after that I met a bunch of older guys (They were upper 20's!) that had just formed a street rod club, they got me into hot rods. I didn't know anything about building something from an old car but I could paint so we did a lot of trade out then, worked out well.

 

It's family tradition for me too.

 

1955. Moved to Hurst, Texas. Went to school on Redbud Ln. Across the street was a 32 5w in the back yard. It belonged to Mr. Streeter (sp). Mrs. Gosset wore me out for looking out the window of her class so much. Fast forward to after I had retired and owned a 5w I met Mr. Streeter. He had gotten old and slow like I'm getting. Before I was able to get with him on a good day for him he passed away. Talked with his grandson and as I remember the car was going to Australia. I've been a 32 fan from 1955.

 

I was ruined from birth. My dad was a hot rodder. My 36 in the background. He bought it for my 2nd birthday. My mom was pissed.

This is when it was finished in high school, circa 1984-85 timeframe.

 

From early childhood I was drawn to cars and machinery.......not really a choice I made.
When I was about 10 or 11 years old ('54/'55), I discovered car magazines at the drugstore news stand.
That opened my eyes to a new aspect of cars....about that time I discovered model cars too, and became
an avid builder of them, modifying and swapping parts between kits, etc. Revell '56 Ford Sunliner, '56 F-100, Monogram, AMT, etc. By the time I was 14 I bought a real Shoebox Ford ('50 2 door with flathead V8), wrecked, and proceed to repair it. In high school, I spent waaaay too much time drawing custom cars. And so it went......

Ray

 

Pretty much that...from as long as I could remember all I ever did was draw and design car, or make scale model versions. I went to my 15th year high school reunion, and some one asked me where's my hot rod, that kind of gave me the kick in the pants that I needed to get a project started.

 

The neighbor around the block had a red '39 Chevy coupe. Tri-power SBC, 4-speed, steelies w/caps and rings. That was it.

 

I seem to remember driving home from the World of Wheels show in Tucson, 1978, with my brother...and talking about how we need to get that 396 built and put it in the old truck. We did, soon after.

 

Gotta be the sounds ... I think maybe some of us were hooked on the various unique sounds we were exposed to before we had any idea what we were hearing. I wasn't old enough to stand up when I first heard the neat sounds of skillful drivers working a crash box 4 speed in pre-war farm trucks ... later, maybe at 8 or 9, I heard that Plymouth with the split manifold, and here we are 6 decades later ....

 

I have always just liked cars.... since earliest childhood....( born 1960)Then around 10 or so I built model cars ( never like the box...) and read a bunch of car mags from the 50s and 60s I rescued from a paper drive at school. The Swindler A was my all time favorite and I wanted to build a real one instead of the Revelle model I built so many times.... I worked in a chopper shop at age 13 till I was 17 and this let me buy a 1963 Impala S.S. (in 1974) with no engine or trans for $125.00 There was no way I could buy a running car so I guess I built my first car outta nessecity but really cuz I like to.... Oh.... and does anyone see the SWINDLER A influence on my present car of over 30 years... ( my avatar)

 

Sounds familiar. Of course these things don't happen overnight.

 

Junior High age lived on Oahu, Hawaii - hotrodders & a custom guy in neighborhood - the sounds & sights got me addicted - model cars did the trick for a while - had '53 Merc before legal age to drive

 

I grew up in Ireland and there were not alot of american made hot rods. There was alot of tiny small roads and small cars...thats what I remember from my youth.
My dad was and still is a pro musician and he has raised 3 boys that are all drummers, i am the only car nut amongst the 3 boys.
He did study mechanics as a young kid but playing bass became his passion. He still works here and there on his car or suv...he is 76 but you would think he is 60....staying busy keeps him young. He would always do his own brakes, oil change and the odd whatever to save a buck and keep busy out in the garage.
He was the first person in Ireland to import a (baby blue convertible) mustang. He has always loved cars and I guess I inherited that from him.
He always pointed out the older cars while driving with me sitting along side of him...with no seat belt on of course.
He would watch car racing on tv and I remember seeing the STP car circling the track...so I guess my dad even not being a typical hot rodder showed me how fun the car hobby can be and I hope my son is learning (what little I know ) so he can own a cool old car someday.

 

All the cool guys who had the best looking girls had Hotrods/Customs.
I wanted one of each too!

 

Because I "needed" to be that guy. Life can be an expensive one just to prove something to yourself.

 

My story started around 1960 eight years old, Mom and Dad bought the farm in 54 so no hot rods just horses then tractors and no money BUT we did have a beater 55 ford f1 farm truck, dad worked out mom was a stay at home mom with my older sis and little brother.
Couple years later sis got married so saterday was grocery day, just me and bro and the weekend I remember was I think may 24 they drag us to town and it was rotten rainy day and wasaga beach was five miles from town and the last stop for supplys for the tourists
Town was full of bikers having a great time in the rain mostly panheads, it took me years before I could afford one, so not hotrods but bikes started the seed.
Back to the 55 I was mayby 14 old enough to be left alone, 200 gallon tank of tractor fuel a 55 ford and miles of gravel roads what would you do,,I did, and never broke it.
Fast forward 40 years hurt myself cant ride the pan anymore gave it to my son and in 08 got the 31 chevy avatar then a 52 gmc now a 41 willys it never ends,,,,,,,,sorry about the ramble.

 

Hell, I don't remember. Is it important?

 

No choice in the matter! My uncle Al owned a gulf station, my cousins worked there and were hotrodders , street racers. The neighbors next to us had a teenage son. big time street racer. When I was only 5 or 6 years old, I would go over and watch him work on his hotrod, 57 chevy. Then we would watch The Twilight Zone on TV, and he would put my coat and hat on me BACKWARDS, and send me home. LOL. Larry was very fun guy, and was very cool to me when I was little.