Art & Inspiration How far back do your Hot Rod memories go?

I've been around to cars since I was born. My Dad was always working on cars all the time - not hot hot rods per se, but was always wrenching on something. All of his buddies were cars guys so anytime I went with him it was usually to work on a car, take an old car to the junkyard, get something from a junkyard, etc.

My first exposure to an actual hot rod was my Aunt's boyfriend who had a '31 Model A coupe. I thought that car was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. I remember the process of him building that car - from being in primer to the day we went with him to the muffler shop to get an exhaust put on it. I remember being disappointed when he put a set of fiberglass fenders on it.

Of course, there were also lots of car magazine and hot wheels.

 

I remember a Yellow 57 chevy "BOSS BANANA" Gasser with chrome drop straight axle and springs spun tank where the grill use to be and no bumper in the front red tinted windows in Lorain .Ohio

 

My earliest hotrod memories are tough to nail down as far as age or year. I grew up in the 50's and I was not raised in a family with a hotrod mentality, but fortunately our next door neighbor was a hotrodder. I remember as a pre-schooler that he had a 4 car garage, and always had something going on inside. When you're that young, the sound of metal banging and sparks flying is very attractive! I spent hours sitting at the open roll up door watching with great interest!
I don't remember when they finally let me in close, but I do remember too many times when I was told to get out of the garage. Eventually they realized I was continually sneaking in to watch, and let me stay at a safe distance. After that I was gradually allowed to help more and more, until around 10-11 years old I was considered "pretty sharp for a kid".
By my early teen years (12-13) I was doing my dad's brake jobs and tune ups, and earning extra money from other neighbors by doing minor repairs. All those monies went into buying my own first truck at 13 yrs. old.
If it wasn't for having the influence right next door, I'd probably never gotten into hotrods. I'll always be thankful I was so fortunate to be in the right place!

 

It was 1950, I was 10 years old, walking home from school. 1932 Ford 3 window coupe. Green, full fendered, white top insert, white tuck and roll interior, Stewart Warner wing gauges, staggered 4 twos, flat head V8, big and littles, red steelies, dog dish caps, beauty rings, white walls. Drivers suicide door swung open, one of the two owner brothers sitting in drivers seat with left foot resting on running board, smiling and saying "Hi ya kid".
That memory has said "hot rod" for me to this day.

 

I was 11 years old in 1957 when I asked my father to buy me a copy of Rodding and Restyling, because of the red '32 three-window ( The Ruby Rod) on the cover.
I was excited when I found out the car was from Passaic, NJ, the town next to town I lived in.
I grew more excited when I found out my cousin worked for the coupe's owner, Andy Kassa, at Andy's gas station.
With this information, my friend's and I would ride our bikes there and drool over this quintessential little hot rod whenever we could.
Years later (mid 1990's)I was part of a group of guys from The Meadowlands Street Rods that restored Andy's car over a two-year period. We did it free of charge, just for the love of this iconic coupe.
We were rewarded on two occasions as towed the car twice to California; once in 2001 to The Concourse D'Elegance and again in 2007 The Grand National Roadster Show for the 85th anniversary of the '32 Ford.
This car started my hot rod desires for sure!

 

Probably late '50's. I was in elementary school and had to walk by the local garage everyday. Guy had some kind of hot rod way in the back, it was a large, very dark building and it took all my young nerve to stand in the door and peer in at that car. Not even sure what it was but it was gold colored and it caught my eye big time. One of my buddies older brother used to baby sit us and he would bring over his car models, all hot rods. Another life changing moment. Bought my first car magazine in 1961, Car Craft with Ed Roth and his Beatnik Bandit on the cover. I was in, hook, line and sinker.

 

My story ...... fourth grade -1955 ... teacher asks the class to bring in things that are " different than one would normally see" for a show and tell type thing ...... classmate has his brother bring in a YELLOW 1932 FORD ROADSTER !!!! OMG !!! I was HOOKED right there !!! it was fenderless and painted a bright yellow with red wire wheels and the sound alone took away ANY CHANCE of me even GETTING TO SLEEP that night !!! I bought every little book I could from then on and had MANY taken away by teachers for MANY years following .... it still continues to this day and I'm 68 now !! .... thank GOD for the HAMB and for the youth that become involved to keep our wonderful "sickness" goin' on ....

....... jersey Skip

 

Around the late 50's early 60's I saw my first hot rod mags at the news agency. I used to scour the neighbourhood for old cars but couldn't afford anything at 12/13 years of age. Finally sold my bicycle and bought a 38 Ford Club Roadster for $30. There was a local servo that had some hot rodding activity going on that I used to visit. Bought my first car in 1968 and that was a channelled 29 A roadster with Y block power/39 box.

 

I honestly can't recall a time when I first started liking hot rods. It seemed like I have liked them as far back as I have a memory. Perhaps I was born with the love... or a reincarnated hot rodder to those who believe that sort of thing. I always had a desire to look at the old square bodied cars like in the movies and on tv in shows like The Untouchables and the hot rods on 77 Sunset Strip. I do recall moving in 1959 and there was a red deuce highboy roadster with a Mercury Yblock in it sitting across the street at a neighbor's house. I knew it was a 1932 Ford roadster so I guess I had been indoctrinated earlier somehow. My dad wasn't really a hot rodder but he did have a 49 Ford coupe with loud glasspacks that I thought was really cool. He never cared much for working on cars though. After I saw that 32 roadster I remember I had to start buying car magazines. I used to drool over them and wish that someday I could live in California where all of the cool cars were.

 

Hey Jackdarabbit, thanks for the Henry Gregor Felsen ping! I read that book at least four times...Bud! The turned up fedora! The rolled up jeans! The follow up "Street Rod" was a bit of a let down, but "Hot Rod" is a MUST for any HAMB'er...

 

Remembering sitting on the edge of my chair wide eyed when Norm hammered the T in this TV episode.Think it was a "Peter Gun" epidode not 77 Sunset Strip

 

It's 1956 and I am re-reading Hotrod or Streetrod by Felsen. I'm 14 and hooked for life. It's been a steady diet of cars since then; from 40's to Nomads to Camaros. Good ride.

 

Late '60's, when the guy down the street had a late '50's Corvette on five spokes. And also, my grandparents were neighbors with TC Lemons' mom, so it was not uncommon to see Big Daddy's rig parked down the street or at the nearby gas station. Damn, that seems so long ago. Guess it was.

 

Late sixty's for me also, The neighborhood I grew up in had a couple had a couple guys the were in to hot rodding. Also my half sister who is 10 yrs older dated a guy with a Gasser style 55 Chevy and a few times when she had to watch me I went with them to the local Frisch's which was the Friday night hangout.

 

My grandfather took me to see the "stock cars" [jalopy's] run at the West Brattleboro VT track in the early '50's. A cousin introduced me to Hot Rod and Motor Trend, then I started buying my own. My first HRM had TV Tom's 117mph T Bucket on the cover, Aug '57 IIRC. Been hooked on all forms of motor sport ever since.

 

1968.My uncle was shipping out to Viet Nam and he let me sit in his lap and steer his XKE convertible.I was maybe 4 at the time.My Dad then took me to a drag strip in Wisconsin shortly thereafter,where I expanded my horizons.Been hooked ever since.

 

In 1947 not long after my Dad got out of Navy,he souped up his 41 Chevy coupe within our barn behind the house,as a 5year old kid I helped he said,ha! But do remember playing with the tools,that he was always saying I lost from that time up to the day he died in 1985,anyway the Chevy six had twin carbs an EX that I remeber,and he told mom he had to do that so it could tow our camping trailer[sure he did!!! as for me,you know I had to have V8's with more carbs,never enough carbs!

 

My memories go back to May 1949 when, on the way home from school in the 6th grade, I saw my first street rod - a chopped and channeled 32 three window. Ain't been the same since.

 

I've been around cars and vehicles in general since I was born, but not hot rods specifically. Muscle cars, Datsuns, and the like of the era... being in my 40s now, that wasn't a strong era for cars.
Since the earliest I can remember, I've been intrigued with all things that have wheels and an engine.

now my kids are exposed to this stuff on a daily basis. helping me in the garage on car and motorcycle projects, getting to play with tools, learning to use equipment. teaching my 8yo daughter to oxy/fuel weld this summer. 4yo son can use every tool in the chest and can measure with decent accuracy. 2yo daughter is picking up on it all, too.

 

1952 for me. My mom was working as a car hop at the Triple X in Bremerton, WA which was the local Hot Rod hang out.

 

Summer of 1977, top of the alley behind our house in the city, I was 4 yo and stood watching all the highschool kids have a burnout contest on the street that came to a T at the top of the alley. There always seemed to be one car that always won, a 1970 Cranberry red SS chevelle SS396 auto. I was in awe at the spectacle, they would do this for hours and fill the neighborhood full of smoke and those polyglass baloney lines all the way up the block..needless to say I trotted up there everyday for the rest of the summer hoping to catch a glimpse of it again..That's all it took.

 

Some olden times stories......
from Fred
http://www.bikesters.com/NitroRecollections.htm

 

When I was a baby sitting in my high chair my favorite toys were Dinky Toys cars. When I was a little older I liked to hang around the corner gas station where the owner worked on his hot rod after closing time, looking at the cars and reading a stack of tattered hot rod magazines. I can't say exactly when this was but we moved to that neighborhood when I was 9 and it couldn't have been long after.

 

Going back to the early 60s. Had a small 1/4 mile drag strip and as we didn't yet have drivers licenses we hitch hiked and got picked up in a white barn fresh 39 Ford coupe. At the track we had basically a "run what you brung" type of race. One hotshot had a 62 Ford with a 390 and if I am not mistaken, a 3 speed column shift. He always ran the quarter at just a hair over 100 mph. He was the first member in the Century Club although many came very close. One weekend a fellow showed up in a black 62 Vette. Quiet guy with a cigar stub in his mouth and green shirt and pants (Dickies - style). The announcer was always asking for drivers to try for the Century Club and this fellow raised his hand. They finally saw him and he rolled to the starting line. Flag dropped and he was gone. 108 mph! Well it seemed like the world came to an end for many that day. People just squeaking over 100 and feeling like kings and out of nowhere comes this quiet guy in a black Vette and blows the doors off everyone. I try to tell this story to non-car guys and they don't get it. When they are willing to sell their mothers to get even 101 or 102 mph and this guy blasts 108. I'll never forget it nor will I forget the white 39 coupe that always picked us up.

 

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My first ride in a hot car was in a local guy's 56 ford crown victoria,,,Straight axle,,390 FE engine,,toploader 4 spd..cheater slicks..black n white paint.(all this was learned later in life) I was just a kid in my PJs...when my father and this local guy decided it would be a good idea to send a stray dog thru a picnic ,that was happening down the road,,with shaving cream on its face...Mann!! I can still hear the screams from the picnic of--MAD DOG!!! as they ran for their lives!!!,, But the best part was when we left in a hurry--Bangin gears in that ford!!!

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We lived in a small western Mo. town in the early '50s, on Highway 71 at what was the outskirts of town. Then the Air Force build a base nearby, a whole new wave of young guys with mechanical skills and steady jobs came to town, and suddenly all the farm land along the highway became commercial property. Across the street from our farmhouse they first built a drive-in hamburger joint, Ed's Drive In. Then next to it was built Jack's Tune Up. My second-story bedroom window was just northeast, across the highway, and I could smell the greasy burgers and too-rich exhaust from the local hotrodders' flatheads and post-war ohv oldsmobiles and caddies. During the day, hotrodders and airmen came by Jack's to tune cars or swap out engines. The sounds at night of rumbling exhausts and early rock 'n roll from blaring car radios pretty much sealed the deal. With the local guys' hotrods challenging the young Airmen to drag races up and down the highway, what more could a young boy want? It didn't hurt that my uncle owned the junk yard only a quarter mile down the highway, so there were always new wrecks to pick through. I just wish I could go back today and live those moments again.

 

My dad was into hot rods in 1938. Same year I was born. I can remember going to a dance with my dad and coming home with my mom! Guess that why I am hooked.

 

Late 50s,two uncles. one road raced the other drag raced. I was 5. we still have the drag car ,but it's on the street now days. We ,as teens drag raced at Sears Point . And late had a road race team at sears point for well over 25 years. Now I do the salt each year.My Dad said to me the at lunch the other day, You and your bother would be well todo if you stayed away from those car and motorcycles. And I said yes we would be. But I we had more fun than anyone I know. And have freinds from around the globe....

 

Went for a ride in my cousin's '29 roadster A V8 in 1948, thats all it took!!

 

**1941 Ford pickup** ----I grew up in southern Oregon, and my dad 'gave me' a 1941 Ford pickup, for the sum of 6 months of extra chores. I was 12 in 1972, and sat out in it under the blackberry bushes, and vroomed and sputtered driving sounds to my hearts content. Eventually I got it running, with the help of my grandfather's expertise, and drove it around town without hood, running boards, bumpers, or floorboards...the 6 volt generator didn't work, so I carried an extra battery in the bed, and drove the roads while keeping an eye on the oil pressure constantly as it blew oil from the engine. Thought I was the coolest kid in town! I eventually drove it across the Nevada desert in the hot of summer, and watched big bubbles develop in the radiator hoses, and electrical tape saved the day! I learned a lot with that old 41' Ford...kick myself now for not keeping it and taking care of it better----sold it in 1983 while in the Navy....a mistake I still regret....said with a heartfelt sigh!!!