Folks Of Interest Was Your Dad a Hot Rodder?

You could say that from this photo from 1939. 29 Ford roadster, chopped, Chrysler grille shell, Crager head, dual Winfield’s, SW gauges, bobbed fenders, no running boards, etc. Was in our back garage in Inglewood until the mid late 50’s.

 

My Dad & his bone stock '25 T roadster, built from the ground up from parts.. Not a hot rodder, but he didn't discourage his 3 sons from all becoming one. I think the idea was to keep his sons busy in the shop, & out of trouble.
He had several old cars at different times. Some I remember: the T, A tudor, '38 Chevy Coupe, '37 Stude sedan, '39 Chrysler sedan, '62 Impala sport sedan. There were probably more. I miss him.
At least my sons can say their Dad is a hot rodder!

 

My Dad has always been a hot rodder. I've heard stories of his first project as a teenager, a '40 Ford coupe that my Grandpa helped him install an Olds V8 in.

He raised three sons to also be hot rodders, and he continues to build still. His current projects are a '59 Chevy sedan delivery and a '32 Ford five-window.

 

Nope.

After giving it some though the seed could have been planted by my granddad, He worked at the foundry and he also dabbled in the non taxed liquor business, just small batches and he had a Henry J with a Cadillac engine in the barn but I never saw him drive it.

I'm actually envious of you guys who had your dad involved with hot rod's & customs. HRP

 

My dad or anyone in my family was never really into cars that I know of. My love for cars and trucks started young and still hasn't faded. Hopefully that will pass on to my son since he will be driving soon.

 

Here's our old club back in 1958

 

My dad never even owned a car.

 

My dad (the tall one) was a hot rodder, but these are the only pictures of his cars, he had over 50 different ones in the fifties.

 

Not only was my dad not a "Hot Rodder", but he actively tried to discourage any interest my older brother and I had in automobiles. Early in his life, he had been a mechanic for Firestone in Minneapolis and he must have had some negative experience that soured him for life. When we were kids, he had a good white-collar job as a salesman for an outfit that sold fuel and supplies to municipal power plants. He was adamant that none of his kids were going to "end up as mechanics". My older brother, who had a distinct mechanical bent, went into the Navy and became an aircraft mechanic. Me, I was sent off to college to become an Electrical Engineer, which, to him, was a situation akin to what becoming a Doctor was to a Jewish mother. I didn't do well, and by the end of the first year, the only thing that I salvaged from that part of my college career was a refund of my spring tuition that went right into a '36 Ford drag car a friend and I were building (and finished and raced).

I went back to college the next year and finished and got my bachelor's and master's degrees (not in engineering). In the mid '60's, I built my first real "Hot Rod", a "T"-bucket with an early Dodge hemi. All through the process the old man kept reminding me that I didn't have the skills, tools, or money to complete such a project. He did grudgingly accept my efforts when I drove it into his driveway (newly registered and with shiny paint even) in the late summer of 1965. I never heard another negative comment the rest of his life.

I shudder to think what might have happened had he supported or even encouraged me.

 

Dad wasn't a hotrodder at all, but he certainly encouraged my interest in building cars! He even let me do tune ups, and brake jobs on his cars when I was 12-13 years old. he told me he'd rather pay me, and get it done right, than pay a shop to cut corners.

 

Nope. I don’t know where I got it from. I’ve had it a long time tho. My earliest recollection was model kits in 1966. Hot Wheels shortly thereafter. Snowman

 

My Dad was NOT a car guy. He was a brilliant Electrical Engineer (guidance system designer X-15, Gemini & Apollo missions) and never understood my leaning toward "mechanical" vs "electrical" engineering...but he was always supportive.

But, we did do one car project together

In 1966 my dad bought my Mom a new Ford Bronco, By the late 70s the body had rusted to death. It only had 30K miles on it so he bought a complete fiberglass replacement body. A few weeks of evenings, some great bonding and lots of beers, we had the old Bronco up & running with the new body. My Mom loved that old Bronco and continued driving it into the late '90s.

He's been gone for quite a few years now, but I still miss him like hell

 

My Dad was a hot rodder from day one . In high school he had a '37 Ford 2 door slant back sedan with a warmed over '41 Mercury v-8 . In the mid fifties he had a '51 Pontiac with a built up 331 Cadillac. In 1957 he bought a new '57 Chevy 210 wagon , that was our family car , but he also drag raced it in NHRA stock class where he won his class against 2 door sedans . Growing up in Kansas City ,any time we would go across town we were likely to get in a street race .
He always supported my hot rodding , helped work on my cars , and was my crew chief for 12 years of drag racing. He was my best automotive intructor also . He will be 89 in June .

 

Pictured is a reproduction of Dad's old car club plaque from 1958 that is on my roadster. The original is proudly displayed on his chopped 33 sedan.


Hotrodderman

 

My dad? Nope!
For a long time, I didn't think my dad knew where the hood latch was, but by carefully monitoring his habits, I did catch him topping off the old crankcase oil once or twice. My early recollections are of a succession of beaters being driven into the ground.
Now, my dad was not a putz, by any means. He was a skilled tool and die maker....... even owned his own shop for a time. And he was a home handyman that could rise to any occasion. He just treated vehicles as disposable appliances.

 

my dad was not into much of anything it seems.... sports maybe, and beer. he was not mechanical at all, and couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler. all my creativity and mechanical interest comes from my Mom's side of the family. her first car was a 1931 Chevrolet coupe that liked to bend pushrods for some reason and she figured out what the issue was and replaced them herself with no man at the time to help her.. she was always fixing things, and when she moved into a senior complex she was always fixing things for the other little old ladies, my nieces all called her Grandma fix it.

 

Dad was a farmer and could fix anything. Taught me how to tear down Chevy 6's that were in the farm trucks. Also helped him work on tractors etc. He had a friend that he helped in 49-50 that ran an Olds stock car too. Knew Olds very well-flatheads and sixes too. Tried to discourage me and my friends for modifying our cars but helped us when we had no clue. Really disliked us street racing and took my car a few times because of it. Took his 57 J2 Olds to the Madera drags in 59 and won B/SA when they were gone. He found out and I was not allowed to drive my folks cars after that for quite a few years.

 

My father was a skilled craftsman so knew how to work on complicated stuff and was one of the smartest men I ever knew. He would do needed repairs/maintenance on our cars when he had to but didn't really enjoy it. Me, I was fascinated with all things mechanical from an very early age and never got over it. When I was little, on the rare occasions he did work on our car I was his shadow, hanging over whichever fender wasn't in his way watching. I do remember getting my ass whupped when I got the idea to 'flame job' my pedal car and maybe 1/2 of the paint actually got onto the car; my mother was mightily displeased over the ruined new clothing.... LOL.

Not to say they discouraged me; by the time I became a teen, my mechanical abilities had progressed to the point that I had built more than a few operating contraptions out of junk so my dad brought home a home-made 'go-cart' he got somewhere that didn't run. My successful revival of it (and subsequent terrorizing of the neighborhood dogs that chased it LOL) was apparently an exam. He next turned over a 'work car' he had bought from my Godparents for 'repair'. A '50 Plymouth 4-dr, I found out later that the car had received ZERO maintenance for eight years of daily use. Gas and oil added when checked but never changed. Actually ran decent, but a slipping clutch and brakes that hit the floor was the reason for the sale. Turned out the brakes had plenty of shoe life left, adjusting them was the fix. Same problem with the clutch, but it didn't survive; I did have to put in a new one; my first 'major' repair. That sealed my fate... I was now the mechanic on call for the household and did most repair work for my parents until they no longer drove. As a side note, that flathead Mopar impressed me; it spite of terrible care, after I serviced/tuned that thing up, it ran great for years afterwards. My dad drove it for five years, sold it locally and I saw it around for another five years at least.

The 'need for speed' I got from my mother. My dad drove like an old man long before he got old. My mother? No slow-poke here; she would only drive V8 cars. My dad and my older sister convinced her to buy a two-year-old '64 Dodge Dart, six/manual (she didn't care for automatics either) after I rolled over her '56 312/stick Fairlane. The Dart didn't last long, being replaced with a new '67 Cougar 289/4V/C4. The 2V 289 didn't have enough 'beans', and she didn't want the C4 at first but deemed it 'acceptable' after the salesman pointed out she could manually shift it if she wanted. If only they would have had a 4-speed car on the lot.... She loved that car....

When she passed, at her 'celebration of life' get-together one thing pretty much anyone who had ever ridden with her marveled at was the fact she never got even one speeding ticket... who says miracles don't happen?.... LOLOL

 

My Dad was a gearhead, therefore repairing the family car was part of his life and my start. However he did street race, He drove a '53 Oldsmobile with a 3 on the tree loved racing young kids..... maybe he was one of them and didn't know it?

 

Sorry to hear about your dad. My dad was not a car guy in any form, but with five kids he needed to save money so worked on them some. At 15 yo I was looking for my first car, and to save money let me get a fixer upper that needed a engine rebuild ( He did some engine work before but no rebuilds) so he learned for me. from then on I have been addicted, thank dad. Now he is 90 years old still doesn’t understand my addiction to cars.

 

In a limited way,Dad really hated getting his hands dirty. He did talk about a Wippet he had as a teen, like it was a hot rod.?
I had a Uncle that raced stock cars right after WW2 an Grandad was a super mec. with anything.
When I was 14,I got a old Crosley Hot Shot with paper rout$,an got it running. Dad drove it around the house so much, he ripped up the grass in 1955. At witch point Dad said he was going to make a SCCA race car out of it! H-mod' some buddy of his kind of talked him in to it. =I didn't have a car now after all,but you guessed it,I had to clean all parts up.
It was at that time,I started collecting parts to build myself a hot rod,an by 1960 a custom Henry J.
Dad would look too see what I was doing; give advice as best he could,but not get hands dirty. Some times it was,"You should of left that alone!" LOL.
Big help was he let me,keep my car stuff our back.

 

bmp

 

My dad wasn't much of a car guy.I knew the moment I saw your photo where it was from.Sorry for the loss.

 

My Dad had zero mechanical skills, and zero interest in cars......except to drive one to work. He never changed oil/filters on his cars......just added oil when the gas monkeys told him he needed some. Never even considered preventive maintenance.....had it fixed when it broke. Nor did he ever wash a car. He thought I was a bit crazy when I used to wipe down the engine in my hot rod to keep it looking good, and clean when I worked on it. When I was 18, I built my 1st 315 HP (with Rochester FI) 283 in his basement........he was completely amused that anyone would do something like that, but still took the time to see what I was doing, and why I was doing it. Other than cars, we were very much alike. Having said all that.......he was a great Dad......

 

No, but he bought a '39 Ford during the War. After the war he bought a crate motor and dropped it in. Mom said it had a truck clutch & was either in gear or out, no in between. She hounded him into selling it in '60. Mom drove in 1 or 2 stock car races in Vermont (?) in the late 40s, don't know what.

 

My Dad didn't like hotrods, motorcycles, or guns, the 3 things I couldn't get enough of. Still loved him, and miss him every day since he died 25 years ago. I learned most of my car skills from a neighbor , and his 6 years older than me son. They also had motorcycles. My gun fix was fueled by a couple of my Dad's friends.

 

My dad was a hot rodder. Example
Dad was to buy a new car for grand parents. He came back with a brand new 65 Mercury Comet 2 dr hardtop with 289 4brl with 4spd and bucket seats. Black with the light blue/grey interior.
Grandpa used to play rubber in that thing all the time. Funny stuff.

 

No, he always bought Chevrolets.

 

I wish. My Dad was a farmer and thought cars were just basic transportation. My uncle, however, was a Mopar dealer and my mom kept books for him. I used to hang out at the dealership after school. That is where I got my "car bone" from.

 

My dad has always been a car guy. He and his buddies ran the car on the right while he was a young man near LA (from one of Ganahls’s books). The other shot is him helping me on my current project two years ago. He missed his visit last year due to COVID, but will hopefully drop by for a ride later this year. All 5 of his sons are into cars, his 3 daughters not so much.

john