History How did you get your first car and what age were you?

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Damn HRP I lived the same story When I was 14 with my Dad pretty much, 2 years before the Kiser, red headed girl.

I cut grass and had a paper route also. That began in '50 in a small rural community south of Seattle. Mr. Smiley and his wife lived just up the street, he and his wife early 70's I'd guess. I cut their grass every Monday, spring, summer, and fall. They came out of the depression years...…the house was never painted and it matched the garage/shop also. Once I caught a glimpse of a car in the garage. There was only one light bulb hanging down, but the light from the windows showed it to be purple of all things. I saw it again a couple of years later when he pulled it out, "Just to make sure it ran", said he. So by this time I knew it was a '32 Sedan, Victoria no less. Painted with a brush, with lime green stock spoke wheels. We got paved roads when I was 14 in the whole valley and that is how I remember when this happened. 1953 and walking home from that yellow kiddy thingy and passed by Mr. Smiley tending his roses. He calls out to me, " Larry are you driving yet, do you have a license?" I can't lie, not to Mr. Smiley so say "no." What came out next is the honest truth. He said, "I want to give you my car". NO SHIT!!! Well not quite that, but close. So it is sitting out beside the house, I go through the gate, go up to it and he says," get in and start it". He gets in shot gun and coaches me in driving it 3 houses down and park it in my yard. WHOA, I'm beside myself, nervous, shocked, don't know what to think!! I thank him, he walks home and I don't know what to do.
Well there is only me, my brother and our Dad in our family, mom left in '49 and now dads chasing some slut (who he did marry later) down the street after he gets home precisely at 4:10 every afternoon, and Gary and I damn well better be there. He pulls in driving his 46 maroon Ford, gets out and says to me, with Gary in tow, "What the hell is the piece of junk doing in my yard" ??? Well back it went in the garage, I never saw it again. Never forgave him for allowing me not have a 32 Vicky but POS 47 Kaiser was ok a couple of years later.
Side note: 18 yrs old, graduate, job at Boeing, first good car, cherry '50 ford 2 dr, black. Bought from a barber in the neighborhood, fall of '57, 21,000 miles. I took the bumper guards off the front and he pitched a bitch.

 

A car pretty much like this one..........paid $95 for it in 1965 when I turned 16
Had a Foxcraft 3 speed conversion on the floor, 312 Y block
Wish I had the back seat back

 

I was 16 when I bought a 47 Ford coupe for $125.00

Gary

 

Beautiful. What new car is as pretty as that?

 

I was 14 (1978), bought a 61 VW Dune Buggy for $1000. The body was a Manx clone, but looked close. Stock 61 VW 40 hp engine. But it was fun, and my dad would take me out to the country and let me drive it on some weekends. We would typically drive out , then I would take over and drive approx 1 hour and we would stop for a coke. Then we would return back towards town, and Dad would drive to the house. The dune buggy was put on my parent's insurance as an extra car, liability only.

 

My old man was into old cars & thought if I had one to work on, I'd stay out of trouble. Great in theory, not so much in reality. He asked what I wanted, and I said "1940 Ford DeLuxe Coupe." He found a '39 Standard Tudor in a barn a few miles from home, and we went to look at it. Good shape, restoration started (partially disassembled & one side in primer), and in his price range. He asked if I wanted it, and I said, "Close enough for now." We dragged it home & got the flathead fired up. Not bad for a $200 investment. I was thirteen & it was 1976. Still have it. I did get my '40 Deluxe much later. It's patiently waiting for me to get off my ass and get busy.

 

Growing in a smallish town in the '50s, I started 'hanging around' a garage/body shop/gas station that was situated on my way home from school. This was about '56/'57 era. They tolerated my presence and I made myself useful, doing odd jobs around the shop for the guys at no cost other than letting me observe and ask a few questions.

In 1958, when I was 14, they got in a '50 Ford Tudor sedan that had been T-boned on the driver's side. I bought the car for $40.00 and also a used '51 door from their stash and a quarter panel from another two door being stripped. Between what I had observed up to that point, and some coaching along the way, I hung the new door and spliced the quarter panel in. The owner of the shop told me if I would prep the car for paint, they would shoot it after work some evening...and I could use whatever paint I could find in the surplus shelves upstairs. It was a great opportunity and experience. By the way, the $40.00 bucks and other expenses came from paper route and lawn cutting money..I stayed pretty busy in those days in addition to chores at home.

Ray

 

At 12 I had a paper route, lawn mowing jobs and worked Sunday bingo for 10.00 a week. I save enough to buy a kdx 80 Kawasaki. wanted that bike so bad. then in 1983 right after I turned 14 my dad painted his buddies pickup. As part of the paint job he wanted the interior completely done and detailed. The fellow bought all new headliner, door panels, dash pad for his pickup. He had an old 4 door nova with most of the engine sitting in the front seat. I told my pop that I would do the work on the inside of the truck for the car. I would even pay for the paint and materials to prep it and paint it. My dad agreed. I sold my motorcycle to pay for the paint. Did all the work. My pops was impressed with how well it came out. When the truck was all finished the fellow paid me 100.00 to completely detail the engine bay, paint the rims etc. He took his truck home and pop and I borrowed a trailer and went and got the nova. Within 4 months I had the car running and driving with new rings bearings a gasket kit and a cam. My pops was shocked that I had it ready to drive before I had my permit.

 

When you grow up on a farm things are a bit different. First at 12 was a $15 39 Dodge coupe, then a 51 Chev convertible, a 51 Studebaker, 53 Willys and then the 36 Ford PU which I still have and use. Hundreds since then have come and gone but I still think it is the best looking thing on four wheels. If that truck could write a book. It's been a fun ride.

 

I had just turned 15, my Dad and I looked at ALOT of cars that I wish I would have bought and we finally found a first year pony car coupe, the one with the running horse in the grille. 289 4 bbl with a cruise-o-matic trans. The body wasnt too bad and the interior was nice, $175 and it was mine. My friend Dave, my Dad and I tore it all apart, rebuilt just about everything. My Dads plan worked as I was in the garage EVERY available minute working on that car, staying out of trouble. What he didn't realize in the begining was that I would have sole control of HIS garage from about 1975 till 1990 when I finally bought my own place. That garage was used to build the pony car, a weird unfinished Pinto thing that eventually got sold and my 36 Chevy pickup. Mitch.

 

Cool stories and thanks for sharing. Makes me finally feel young as my was end of 70's so off topic Chevelle but I did have a 31 Ford high boy by 21.

 

I was 14 and car crazy. My dad talked one of his old high school buddies into giving me a 29 ford coupe. Well, it was most of a 29 coupe. It was 12 miles outta town where we lived and it was missing all the running gear....more of a body with frame. I'd ride my bike the 12 miles [3.5 miles on a gravel road] out there and take parts off...ride back to town and clean and paint them....radiator shell, garnishes and some other small parts. We moved 150 miles away and I never saw it again.

 

I was 16 and working at the local Streetrod shop and my boss said I needed a car to run errands in. My boss’ brother in law happened to have some old car for sale and my coworker new of another. Both were $500 bucks, which might as well have been a million. The Chrysler K car ran and had 6x9 speakers in boxes sitting up on the package tray, but the ‘68 Chevelle that hadn’t moved in over a decade was cool. I got a loan for $500 bucks from my dad and with a battery I borrowed from the rod shop, some duct tape wrapped around the rubber gas line to keep the fuel pump from sucking air, and some bailing wire to hold the exhaust tips up, I started that small block Chevy up and never second guessed that decision a single time....


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First was a'61 Chrysler Newport.

My dad, being the ever loving cheapskate that he was, bought the car used in '65. It had a claimed original 300 miles on it, as rolling it back wasn't real uncommon then.

He then drove it until about '85, when he lost his job. Not knowing he'd have another one the following week and figuring he didn't need two cars, he pulled the insurance and let it sit.

Sometime around '93 my mother got sick of seeing it in the driveway rotting away. What are you gonna do about the car? What are you gonna do about the car?

Finally, in a moment of weakness he said alright, I'll sell it.

This turned into "when you gonna sell it? When you gonna sell it?".

I was 13 at the time, and wanted it. He sold it to me for a dollar.

She didn't talk to him for over a month.




I never did pay him.

 

It was 1983 and I was 17. I had been driving my mother's Rocket 350 powered Olds around. My Aunt calls my brother while I'm up in Reno (visiting my dying grandfather) and tells him that she's giving up her 1961 Chrysler New Yorker station wagon. The car was loaded, she bought brand new and it led an easy life. All it needed was brakes and a muffler. It ran good. My aunt: "Do you want it?" My brother: "Naw, I already have three cars" "Aunt: Do you think Perry would want it?" "Probably not". My Aunt had the car hauled off to a wrecking yard.

I gave my brother an earful every time that I saw him, for months after that. I was so pissed off. The New Yorker was mettalic turquoise and white exterior with a white interior. Dash like a jukebox. 413 powered. I had ridden around in it with my cousins for years. It was the last of the big fin wagons. I simply could not believe that my brother...also a die hard Mopar man... let that old wagon get hauled off like that. Months later I was still giving him grief over it.

He finally called me one afternoon and told me to come over to his place. When I arrived there was a 2 door Plymouth parked in his driveway. A 1971 Satellite that still had halfway decent paint on it. He came out and threw the keys at me. Pointing at the Satellite, He said "That's yours. I don't want to hear another word about that old wagon." I waited a few years before giving him any more crap about the New Yorker...

 

Sounds like your old man was a good guy. My first car was a Satellite. One day I dragged home a Satellite for my teenage son. It infuriated my wife (now my ex). My son....well... He came home from school every day and sat behind the wheel of the car, just dreaming. He's grown now, became a mechanic by trade. He still has the car.

 

I got my first car on March 10th, 1962. I was 14 and car crazy. I lost my after school gig which didn't pay much at all. A family friend asked me if I was willing to baby sit their 7 year old daughter after school 3 days a week for $15. The kid never gave me any trouble and fifteen dollars a week for mostly watching tv was great. I saw an ad in the local paper for a '46 Ford tudor at a lemon lot for $60. That got my juices flowing and stopping after I called and it was sold. I told my dad that I wanted to buy a car. His reply was, "You can buy a car anytime you have enough money because I am not paying for it ! ". Two weeks later another ad appeared in the paper. I had the money and you should have seen the expression on my dad's face, he was sure I would never save enough to get a car. But, true to his word, we headed to Beseler Motors at 32nd and Main in San Diego. It was a combination used car lot and wrecking yard across the street from the Navy base where he could sell junkets to young sailors. We scoured the yard and I found my car. A non running '48 Ford coupe. It didn't run and I didn't care because I couldn't get my license for another 18 months. It cost $75 plus tax and registration fees to put it in my name. All in all , it was $82 delivered by their wrecker which was only slightly in better than my coupe. That day my dad lost our 1 car garage until I went in the AIR FORCE 5 Yeats later. I worked on that car from bumper to bumper and had it ready to drive my junior year of high school. There are times I look back and wonder why I sold it, but I was that car crazy kid and loved cars too much to keep any one too long. One hundred cars later, my wife would get the latest car. One thing I kept with me from the first car was the 1956 yellow and black license plate. It has hung above the house door in every place I have lived since, proudly hanging there LNH 878. Oh yes, that was the last time I EVER baby sat! And 56 years later I am still that car crazy kid with an old body. And as soon as I find out who the S O B is that gave me this body, I am going to kick the crap out of him!

 

Ppj

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My first was a clapped out 1966 Ford F-100 longbed. It had an FE, the seller told me it was a 390, could’ve been a 330 truck engine for all I knew! It came home on a borrowed trailer behind Dad’s new 1989 F-150. Of course they were out of town at the time. Granddad was taking care of us and he thought it was great that I had got an old Ford. Grandad was a lifelong Ford man(1950 Ford coupe was his first new car!). Mom and Dad only let me get it because they never figured I would get it running. Paid $110 for it. Seems like the $200 pickups are long gone, but seem like yesterday.



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In 1958, I went logging for the summer, and on a weekend at home, a friend of mine had his 39 Ford Standard Coupe for sale. The price was $100, and it was the perfect car for me. I had a riot with that car.
Bob

 

high school. Sold off some records I had & bought a '64 Malibu for $125. 283/PG POS.

 

I was 15 in 1971. I traded a Thrifty Drug Store Tiesco guitar and amp for a 1970 Subaru 360. I needed a new gig amp and begged my dad for a new amp when I was 13 and kept it for a about a 1-1/2 years. My dad thought it was funny until he asked me what I paid for it. Man! He was pissed!

Traded the Subaru 360 for a 1961 VW. The guy I traded with worked with my dad and built Dune Buggies. He took that Subaru 360 and built a small buggy for his 9 year old daughter to drive.

 

By 1969 I had cut and modified enough 1/24 and 1/25th scale plastic AMT, Revell, Monogram and Johan model car kits that I convinced my parents that I could do the same to a 1:1 scale car.......the first one that a local guy had that I could afford was a 1938 Ford Standard Sedan which I was able to buy for $30.00, I think he seller drove it to my neighbours place as we had to cut a piece out of the fence to get it into our yard...........I soon discovered that it had more rust than I knew what to do with so I sold it for $20.00 teaching me a fundamental lesson in economics..........I then decided that a budding hot rodder needed either a Coupe or Roadster..............in early 1970 a 1940 Dodge Coupe was advertised in the paper for $40.00.......I had saved up enough money and off we, Dad & I went look at it........I decided that it was just what I needed..........but it had to be towed home, my poor long suffering father got the job done with a hired car trailer but swore never to tow another car for me...............as all 16yr olds do I pulled this car apart and by September 1971 had bits everywhere and needed spares.........I saw a 1940 Dodge Sedan advertised, we went to see it, dad & I as I was still at school without a driving licence and after some wheeling & dealing we bought it for $15.00............o/k so it wasn't going as some ignition wires had shorted out but still had 6weeks rego and was absolutely complete down to hubcaps, the owners manual and workshop manual....it was too good for spares so I ended up doing it up and this month marks the 47th year of my ownership.............andyd

 

I have told this story on other threads, I had a grass cutting snow shoveling enterprise and at 12-16 a paper route, saved up and had $600 for my first car, had been dreaming/planning from age 12, 57 Chev was my dream car. Before I was 16, 1964, bought a 57 Chev 2 door sedan w/o engine trans for $150, went to local junkyard, purchased a 348 tri-carb w/3 speed od tranny complete for $150. at this time was living with older sister, no garage, everything done outside in her backyard, spray can rebuild, with help of friends, we got it in, bought a Hurst floor shifter, Sun tac, 3 gauge panel, and chrome air cleaners, baby moons, I was in heaven, it ran good, tons of fun, fastest car at our high school that year and put me on the map as a car guy/street racer in my neighborhood. I learned a lot, changed many broken parts, eventually got a posi unit and street slicks which hooked it up which led to more broken parts. That car was a great learning experience in many ways that helped me all through my life, #1 to follow my dreams, tune out the Nay Sayers, and beware of the "Experts"

 

My first car was a truck. An old "jailbar" 46 Ford that my dad had retired as a farm truck as it was hard starting, overheated when worked too hard, etc. I was 14 I think when I went to work getting this old truck mobile. It ran. Rode like the proverbial lumber wagon on ten ply twenty inch wheels but I thought I was king of the world driving it. I learned a lot about getting and keeping flathead V8s working on that truck. I brushed on a coat of hardware store green that I found in the tractor shed and wow!

 

In high school, just got my learners permit and wanted to buy a car.
Told by my folks “ no need” you can use moms car whenever you need to save your money”
Ok great! First Friday night going out ask for the keys and get “ the car needs to be home by 11 pm”
Huh ? I don’t have a curfew!
Yeah, don’t care when YOU come home but the car needs to be in the driveway by 11!!!

The following Monday bought my o/t 80 camaro t-top manual for $1300 bucks!!
Hid it at my cousins house around the corner for the first 2 weeks !!!
Lol the look on my moms face when I brought it home and she lost that last bit of “ control” she had over me was priceless!!!!

Yupthe car had no toe boards left, weakclutch and leaky t tops but it was my baby for the rest of high school!! Some sheet metal and pop rivets and a layer of tar fixed the floor,a rebuilt clutch disc fixed that issue and some brake fluid on the t top rubbers helped with the water egress !!! Lol

 

My parents were strict, no car until I graduated high school. Bought a 68 Barracuda fastback for $235.00 the day after I graduated in 77" and have never looked back.

 

Just wanted to say, "what a hoot", reading all the posts answering my question. Really like all the answers from you guys of all ages. Seems the group from that came of age when I did, 1945 to 1960 did pretty common things like paper routs, cutting grass, hiding a car from parents at a buddies place, (I hid a 41 Plymouth for a full school year for my best bud, you need to get creative when your dad keeps asking why is so & so's car in our side yard?), and of course why the blanket on your front and back seats? Keep 'em coming if you can, good to know we were a brotherhood even though we lived all over the country

 

When I was 10 dad said he would pay me $5 a day to run the tractor. As I got older the days got longer but the pay was the same at 15 I bought a 57 Ford. Two years later ready for college dad said it's better mileage or the car stays home swapped for a 60 Falcon. Better than walking found a new 62 totaled Fairlane and swapped in the 221 Falcon got a lot more fun.

 

Okay...…..you asked.
Like many I earned my dough with paper routes, and odd jobs for neighbors.
Going past the local strip mall (I don't think we called them that in '62) I spotted a yellow '51 Merc tudor, with a for sale sign in the windshield, on the pin corner. I was fortunate that we had moved to So Cal in the aerospace boom and settled in the West San Fernando valley. As a result the car was in very nice shape considering it was 11 years old and was "just" a regular family car. It ran great, the interior was flawlessly stock, and the paint was the original though oxidized to almost a flat tone, with one flaw to the whole deal. First gear had a tooth or two missing. I made my deal with the seller, $125. As soon as he handed me the key I made a bee line for the car and took off the factory option fender skirts. Sorry kids, I never liked that look. Drove it home and started out to polish the paint to as high a gloss as it would yield. Got some porta wall whites, painted the rims black and polished the caps to a like new shine. Stylin'. A month or so later I went to the local junk yard and got a replacement trans for $10 (exchange) and replaced it in my driveway. Good learning experience. Like others, I sometimes wonder what happened for the rest of that car's life. I too had a long list of cars I wanted to experience and none stayed around for too many years.