Hot Rods First car... how old were you?

53 Chev 2door green at age 14 with paper route money.

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Getting married was not the problem, it was who I married that turned into the dumbest thing I ever did!!!

 

19 years old, 1972 VW Beetle. Drove it from Spokane to LA.

 

16, 1964, 57 Chevy 210, 2 door, bought w/o engine, installed junkyard tri-carb 348, 3 speed, 4:11 rear, put this together w/ some help from friends, had tons of fun w/ this car and established/validated me as a "Car Guy". WAS THEN and continues on to present ! The good old days, whole deal was $400/500. These HAMB threads bring great memories up for me, enjoy reading and Sharing memories, the last 7 years here have brought up things, I have not thought about in Years.

 

1987 I was 16 and bought a 63 Dodge Dart GT for 650.00 bucks from a grandma. Was garaged it's whole life, had 54k on it. I was forced to sell it to go abroad, and the buyer a week later rolled it, totaling the whole car.


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Yep, that's it.

 

19 years old. A 1073 Pontiac Lemans. It's a funny story because during the process of looking, my dad was telling me how to "play the game". So, we get to the house and the car was immaculate. One owner and her son was selling it. $1,200. I took it for a test drive and came back to haggle. My dad said, "Just give him the damn money and get out of here."

 

15, I bought a 37 Ford 4-dr. humpback sedan from my sunday school teacher.

 

In April of 1977, I bought my first car.....A 55 Chevy 210, for $800. I was 14 at the time, and still own the car. Still has the same driveline that I installed.....283 bored .080, (now .120), Muncie 4 speed and 4:56 rear end.

 

1 5 . Still have it 38 years later. OT though !

VR&C.

 

14 years old when I bought a 28 Ford Sport Coupe with a mildly hopped up banger for $85.00. That was in 1956. Been a banger lover ever since.
Unfortunately a bitch of an ex made all of my old pics & my old record collection disappear when we split.

 

Got this from my uncle when i was 12, christmas 1983. It was bone stock, with a frozen engine. I couldnt find parts to restore it, so in my college years i tore it down and cut it down to build a gasser, and immediately exceeded my limited fabrication skills. I have been working on it slowly ever since. It now has a 413 in it, and is slowly coming together. It is now a lack of money and space,holding me back.

 

1966, 1940 ford coupe, 56 olds 324 39 trans. Still thinking about it!

 

I got my first pedal car at 5. I got my first real car, at 14 a { 31 chevy} I got my drivers license the day I turned 16. I drove my dads 67 Bonneville convertible, { which I still have} until I was seventeen. I than got my Vette { Which I still have too.} I had big plans for the 31. I was going to cut the front doors out. Make it a fender less Hot Rod. But I gave up on it. Then sold it to a friend for $50 bucks. He parked it in a woods, were mother nature has taken it. lol I still have the Chevrolet emblem off the radiator shell. Ron...

 

My first Car { I still have it}

 

A 1957 VW Type I bug when I was 15.
I was a helper/gopher/apprentice in a VW shop and got it for $300 with a blown up 36hp engine.
By the time I got it running it had a Porsche 356B engine and I had a license.

 

My 31 Chevy I gave up on. I gave $30 for it at age 14. later sold it for $50 bucks. lol

 

My first was a 1964 impala flew to Iowa checked out the car liked it my dad and I drove it home.

 

'32 two door for $20 at age 12. My present sedan is what I tried to build over the next few years but finally had to abandon when our parents said we could only have one non-running car and my brother's '34 into which we were putting a nail valve was a better choice.

 

My first car after I became a licensed driver was a 56 VW. My old man was a VW mechanic for Gardner Motors in Fresno. It had the orig. 36 hp motor and non syncro first transaxle and a racing stripe. We put flared glass fenders and 15 x 8 wheels and tires for the "cool look". Looked like a pregnant roller skate. Knocked the tranny outta it twice tryin to burn rubber. My dad finally got tired of puttin it back together, so I sold it to my future father in law and bought a 55 Nomad. Talk about two totally opposite cars.

 

I was 13. 66 gmc truck for $450
Still have it and still drive it.

 

1954 Chevy 210 Sedan painted dark metallic green. Bought at the age of 14 for $500 in 1984. It ran, sorta, and had decent paint and interior. Had a later 235 with the original hydro slide automatic. Wish I could pick up one like that for that price now.

--louis

 

11, I cleared a field for one of my dad's friends and got a '62 bug. Been wrenchin' ever since!

 

15, 1961 Bug Eyed Sprite

 

I believe I was 13-14 so around 1971. The car was a 1961 Fiat 1200 Roadster my father found with the engine in the trunk behind a gas station. He got it for 50 bucks. We had the engine rebuilt and I learned how to work on the rest (Webber carbs anyone?). By the time I was 15 it was a runner and I had probably memorized the Glenn's book I had on it.. I drove it till the late 80's. Got tired of working on it, ya it lived up to it's moniker, Fix It Again Tony, and sold it for 25 bucks, I hated it so bad. It did, however, teach me about being a mechanic, which I still am today.

 

Great thread!
First car:
'51 Ford 6 cylinder more door.
About 1963 at 12-13 yrs old.
Buddy and I paid $30.
It was on the other side of town.
It didn't run.
We couldn't drive it.
Our $30 "find" cost another $30, to tow it!
Sold it the next year for $70.
Done.
Motto became "don't buy it if it don't run"
Still good advice for me!

 

14,the car would have been old enough but it is OT. I also bought a bike that same year, and managed to get myself invited to leave home which I did post haste.

Pretty good year all in all.

 

I got a '40 Ford tudor at 15 years old. I can still remember my Dad and I driving across Iowa on a frigid January day to bumper-tow it home. I still have it.

Second car at 16 years old was a '67 Chevelle that I drove through high school. And I still have that one as well.

 

I dragged this beater home in 72. I was 15 years old. No engine or trans, back window was busted out, front seat was missing, hell, even the steering wheel was gone! I should have found a nicer one to start with, God knows there were plenty of them out there in 72, but the price was right.....free!



I finally got it on the road in 76. Had a 327 and a Muncie 4 speed with a 57 Pontiac rear with 4:88 ratio. It was a hoot to drive.



But it got mothballed after marriage and the kids started to arrive, but now my oldest son has taken an interest and is breathing new life into it.

 

My high school car in 1956 was a '34 sedan with recent maroon laquer and an exquisitely crafted stainless roof insert that had been done by an aircraft metal man. Always wondered what became of that car after I sold it later that year. Can't believe anyone would have ever removed that roof insert. by 1957 I was building a channeled 34 coupe with 265 sbc and was on the streets of northern NJ and racing C/A at Montgomery NY where I was also flagman. Rod & Custom ran a picture of this coupe on p. 88 of the August 2013 issue. They wanted readers to send in pics of their early cars.