History Remember Your first car? what ever happened to it?

This is the only picture of my first car. I bought it when I was 15 and customized it in my parents' yard. Painted it silver blue metallic. I wish I had a view of the front end. It was nosed, frenched headlights and a 55 Ford grill. I heard the guy who bought it put a 430 Lincoln in it but I never saw it again.

 

the car I bought in 1976 has looked like this for the last 10 years. frame and undercarriage is all painted. insides is all sound/heat deadening.... MII - 10 bolt rear - 305 and 700R4

 

My '47 Plymouth has sat in the garage on 4 flat bias ply whiewalls since 1996. However, on a more positive note, since then with all the information from builds on the HAMB, nifty new tools such as tigs, migs, English wheels, and such that I can finally afford from my cousins in China, I can probably do a better job on it now than if I had continued hacking on it back I 1996.

 

It’s been a redo since 1985. But I’m actually working on it now.

 

My first "official" car I had my name on title was a OT 68 Camaro. Still have the car and its not going anywhere. Will sit right next to the 33 Ford pickup my grandpa built and I grew up in. I tend to just hang onto my stuff and maintain and improve it.

 

Brenda omitted part of the story, her parents home faced Main street & next door to a small shopping center, One Saturday morning Brenda pulled the car into the front yard to wash it, in this small town main street was always heavy with traffic and as she was dragging out the hose she heard a loud crash, she turned around to find a big Ford station wagon sitting on top of the hood and windshield of her Mustang, the station wagon had a man & his wife and a bunch of kids.

The man said his gas hung up and instead of hitting the slower car in front of him he veered to the right toward a small brick wall separating the parking lot from Brenda's parents yard, but what the guy didn't see was a huge 8" pole that had a Singer Sewing machine sing on top, the wagon knocked down the small brick wall then the pole bending it over as the car tried to climb it, needless to say the wagon was totaled, the mustang was totaled and amazing as it was no one was seriously injured. HRP

 

What happened to my old '52 Chevy?
Wellllll...
I was rounding the bend, doin' 100... the coppers were hot on my heels!

Ok, I'm lying.
It was too rusty, so I gave it to old Cal who had helped me put a motor in it.

 

My first car turned out to be a 1959 Morris Minor station wagon. The closest thing that I could afford for a woody. I would tell my buddies my car was a woody with a 4 speed and bucket seats Replaced the head, tinted the windows, new exhaust and painted it Plum Crazy. After it was painted, I sold it it to obtain a 58 Impala as my DD and started working on Tri-Five Chevys. For the past 50 years I always had a 55 to 57 Chevy.

 

Building my Tub was my very first car and I sold it a few years ago.

 

Who's next? HRP

 

This is it. 1936 1/2 ton pickup. I found it buried up to the axles in San Diego and my Uncle got it for $75. He went through it putting juice brakes on it and getting everything working. 48 Merc flathead, 39 box and rear end. A hot rod in 1960 when I got it from him. He and my Dad painted it a Buick green while I was overseas with the AF. I sold it to a deputy sheriff for $750 when I got back in 65. I’ve had two more of them since then but sold the last one a few years ago. I’m just too big for them any more.

 

My first car (truck) was a $49.90 1930 Ford Pickup. I cut the whole top of the cab and windshield off, trashed the bed, put two 97s on it with a Cyclone head, got it started a couple of times and blew the engine up. Later it became our drag roadster shown below . . .
(It was a holey terror.)

 

got it in 1958 or 59 and still have it, recently rebuilt, prettier than ever, spent 2000 hours of my time doing it.

 

I first car wound up in the same place as my 2nd, 3rd... you get the idea. Azusa Auto Wrecking!

 

First "old" car (1930 Model A Coupe) and first "new" car (1970 Corvette) are both still in my garage (as they have been since 1970).

 

My old man scrapped my first '51 Ford when I was away to college in the early sixties; it was extremely rusty. The engine was decent though, so the next summer a friend of mine bought the engine out of the junkyard and installed it in his red '52 mild custom tudor. A couple of years later, I needed a beater, so I bought a green '52 tudor off the "back row" at the local Chevrolet dealer. It ran and drove OK, but second gear was out of the transmission, so it was only $150. I got it for $125. I put a $15 transmission from the junkyard in it and it became my daily driver. A couple of weeks later, I ran into my buddy and after a quick lookover, he said, "hey, that's my old car". He pointed out a few things, and I'll be darned, it was. A few years later, I had the opportunity to pull the engine for cheapo rebuild. When I saw the oil pan, I recognized it right away. It had a brazed patch on it from when I blew a main bearing cap on it about 8 years earlier, but that's another story.

I ended up selling the car to another friend who gave it to his younger brother

 

1968 Cam@&o, it’s not Hamb worthy so I won’t spell it out. However, the car that an 80 year old lady used to total my car is: Her 1962 Buick Special. Her first accident and her first ticket. Probably her last. I swerved to avoid hitting her driver’s door, after she pulled out into my path. The Buick definitely won that battle. It got driven home. My car, not so much. That was May of 1978. I didn’t get another 1968 Cam@&o until 2004.

 

My first car was a 30 Model A Tudor. I got it when I was 13. It kept me entertained for a couple of year but I never got it running. I have NFI of what happened to it. However the first car I had that actually was roadworthy was a 40 4 door sedan. Painted Lincoln Matador Red with a beautiful persimmon dash and firewall. Had a 59L block 3/16 x 1/4 with a Potvin Eliminator cam. 3 97's on an Evans manifold and Evans Heads. I was really proud of it. I think I paid 300 for it which was a whole lot for a 15 1/2 year old kid. I was now upgraded in my job and was making 75 cents and hour. I had saved my money and bought the car before I had a drivers license. I had lots of driving experience off road in the back roads and Monterey Hills. Just before I turned 16 my two older buddies would drive around with me because they had licenses. One of them actually had built the car. He showed me how to speed shift, lay rubber and all those essential skills a new driver needs but that aren't taught in drivers ed. Unfortunately they were a bad influence and taught me how to drink and smoke. Now for what happened to the car. My mother had a cabin up in the mountains above San Bernadino and she had a wine stash there. Being a budding hoodlum I informed my older friends that I knew how to get into the cabin. Off we went and a good time was had by all. Of course I was confident in my highly refined driving skills and a bottle of red wine did not effect my skills at all. After consuming more spirits than anyone in their right mind should consume we hopped in the car and headed back home. All went well through first gear and the speed shift to second gear. I'm sure I impressed these older guys with my driving skill. It was going great till I dropped it in third and hit the corner that should have been taken at no more than 20 or 25. Off the road be went and hit the large tree top first. The electric pump in the back kept pumping and the fire started. The beautiful clear plastic fuel lines burned right off and the blowtorch under the hood kept going. I was the only one hurt as the new chrome gear shift stuck in my leg. Vince climbed out the window and pulled the wire from the fuel pump. We threw dirt on the fire and the burning tree and by some miracle the fire went out. The cops showed up and weren't impressed with the strong smell of alcohol on our breaths but someone took us all to the Lake Arrowhead hospital where I received a couple of stitches. The other guys skated with no injuries. Somebody came and got us and somehow I got a ride home. I don't remember how I got the car home but somehow I did. I was able to pull the engine and put it in another 40 sedan. Those were the days when a stock 40 sedan could be purchased for somewhere between 50 and 200 bucks. I got the new car going, painted it black primer and vowed to not drink and drive in the future. I later traded that 40 in at a car lot in Alhambra for a 56 Ford just like Jimmy Six's. I wish I still had that one.

 

Sold it in 2007 after 28 years of owning it. Seen it one week later at the home it went to while dropping part's and pieces that I promised. The car had the whole front end apart for a disc brake swap. Never seen it again afterward. Don't miss it, just wonder sometimes if it still exists is all.

 

Very nice & tastefully done. HRP

 

56 Chevy pick up that I literally drug out of a field. Sold everything that wasn’t nailed down to get it. My father was not impressed. I sold it to finance my first real race car ( 65 chevy 11) That guy drove it under a bridge on the Natchez Trace. Missed the turn By a lot. It actually had a glas front cap on it by the time I sold it. Got it my freshman year in high school . So that would have been 81. Sold in 86 my freshman year at north east. Long time ago -

 

My first car was a 1959 Ford Galaxie 2dr 292 with a 3-speed. It did not take long to add a 4bl, dual exhaust with cut-outs and then traction bars to stop the severe wheel hop. After 6 months it was not fast enough to suit me so I traded it in on a 1963 Galaxie with a 406. The '59 only sat on the used car lot a few days as it was a good looking car. While street racing the '63 one night I saw my old '59. It had a 427 with 4-speed and still looked good. I wanted to talk more with the new owner but when the cops showed up everyone scattered and I never saw the '59 again.

A picture of my '59 can be seen on page 4 of "The 57-59 Ford" HAMB forum site. There is also a picture there of my '58 Ford that I built up a few years later.

 

53 chev pu with a 216. Had it for my junior year in high school. Washed a lot of dishes to buy that truck. Hit a center median one early morning sun in my eyes. Tore the front axle out from under it and bent the hell out of the frame. Sold it to the cop who showed up on the scene. He fixed it and drove it till he moved away.

 

I got my first car in 1967. 1947 Mercury. Still have it

 

I bought my first car a few months before I turned 18. The guy wouldn't sell it to me because he was afraid my parents might make him take it back and return the money so he sold it to my girlfriend as she had already just turned 18 a couple months earlier. She turned around and signed the bill of sale over to me for $1 to make it legal. I still have that original bill of sale and a drawing she did for me in art class.


I sold it over well over 30 years ago but a little over a year ago I was reunited with the guy I sold it to and one conversation was if I'd be interested in buying it back. Unfortunately I can't afford to pay his price but I went to see it and was in disbelief when I saw it. Partly from what I saw and that it would now take an additional cost, at least of his asking price to get it back to a drivable car. Definitely can't pay that.

Now if I ever win the lottery it might happen.

 

Got run off the road when a truck from Pauls Transmissions tried to pass on a blind curve on old 94 out near Jamul. Head on to the innocent car, the truck or go off the side. Passengers side front tire blew, spun out across the highway and when backwards off the other side, just missing a telephone pole...down the embankment and rolled for 75 feet or so. It all seemed to go in slow motion, in all the movies I was dead because the car was going to explode. Didn't, but I remember going over and over looking out the windshield. It finally stopped upside down. I was still belted into my seat when my buddy who was following me started yanking on the door. During the action, my arm had hit the door lock...noticed that and we got the door open. Ran, because of course it was going to explode. Still didn't.
Poor thing got flipped over and towed/dragged to a friends yard several miles away. He pulled the 318 and used it in his truck. Before that I pulled the Mallory iggy and intake/carb...whatever else wasn't damaged. It was a 68 fastback Baracuda. I bought another one and swapped the parts onto it. Rolled that one a year later, drunk driver waving a pistol out the window ran me off the road out in Lakeside. I didn't buy another. I figured I'd already killed enough of them.

 

I sold my first car (O/T 67 Camaro convertible) when I was 17 and it had a few owners near where I lived shortly after. When I was in my mid-20’s, a friends in-laws had it and I would see it around every now and then. I finally had a good job working on the assembly line at GM and decided to see if I could buy it. Found out it was traded for a plastic cobra to somebody in Wisconsin a few days before I called the guy... I haven’t seen it since it left Oklahoma, but occasionally look for it since it was likely my only father-son project I will ever do with my dad.

 

I had an encounter with a Country Squire station wagon.

Gary

 

My first car is a 26 ford model T coupe and I still own it I started on it fall of 1989 and had it running and driving in spring of 1990 I started with 3 super rusty body’s that I was given then rust repaired it constructed the chassis and when I say I constructed it I mean I fabricated all the 4bar suspension every bracket needed I bought nothing as I was a kid with a talented dad who taught me how to run a lathe a mill a torch a welder and most importantly a grinder as I was 15 years old I paid for everything with money I made from mowing lawns and doin odd jobs for my grandfather the only rust repair panels I bought was the panel below the deck lid and the outer skin repair panels for the doors as they were cheap back then though I had to make the inside portion plus those parts were nonexistent on the body my dad also taught me how to do paint and body as I done all the paint and bodywork as well which is where I decided there’s guys who do that and I’m not one of them Though the car was straight as an arrow and the black paint was sanded and buffed like glass i just hate block sanding I’m more of the fab guy lol. I was very fortunate to have a dad who had the patience to teach a stubborn hard headed kid how to do all of these things Over the years I’ve had a whole bunch of engine and trans combos in it currently it is sitting in my barn with a blown up engine and no trans I have been gathering parts for a new power plant and someday I will put it back on the road when I do it will be the last time so I gotta make it count lol here is a pic of it in 1992 when It was freshly finished and I received an award at the street rod nats in Oklahoma City remember this was long before the hamb and at the time street rods were everywhere