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

I was 15 in 1966. My dad's friend gave me a '57 Chevy 150 2 door sedan that he had ended up with when his brother went to prison. Pulled it home with a rope behind my friend's '54 Ford. I had it running by the next night. I drove it all through high school and the first year of college. I sold it because I needed the money for school. Wish I hadn't.

 

MY FIRST CAR... by Arabie777 posted Nov 1, 2014 at 10:51 AM

I was 14yrs old when my pops gave me this ....

 

Liking cars starts pretty early for most of us,just toys,then modals an after a time we get or build something to ride in,push car,go cart,but then its time go for it! By 1956 I had built more then afew dreamcar modals,so at 15YO started to hunt real car parts,most from junked cars around near my house,an drag them home{free just work}an getting help from two of my buddys also,best find being a badly messed up body an frame of 28A roadster. It took tell 1959 as high school was going to start ,to get all the parts made in to my hotrod. Over the years I built a lot of rods an customs,but kept my first baby,an drive her on most weekends. I'll add 2 shots,one at one of my highschool reunion some years back an a close up after getting the carbs working.

 

O.K.....my first REAL car was my 1931 Dodge coupe. My first pedal car was a bit earlier than when I was 15 years old....

 

At 14 years old in 1975, I was collecting parts for my first roadster build. I had a model A frame, a 55 olds rearend and some other odds and ends. Mostly junk. I got discouraged and sold out and started over several times before I finally got a roadster project put together in 1998. Now I'm building another one.

 

It was so early, I'm not quite sure. My dad owned a Texaco station and gave me a 1956 Chevy 2 door handyman wagon that had been a Montgomery Ward's delivery vehicle. The motor was bad so somewhere in the 9/10 year old range I attempted to build a small block out of stuff I scrounged up around the station. I'm sure they got a big kick out of me building an engine out of bad parts without gaskets and expecting it to run! However, I stuck with it enough to impress him and at 11 he bought me a Berry Mini T dune buggy, which was my first running, driving car.

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You need to be 17 down here before you could drive so I waited until then. Bought a 1 x owner deceased estate 1948 Holden with 60K original miles. Rare car now, one of only a few actually built in late 48. Should have left it original and wish I didn't modify it now. Had my driver's license suspended in the car due to a few speeding fines Kept the car for 5yrs and sold it with only 66K miles.

 

This was the first legally registered and titled car I owned.
It cost me a whopping $175 dollars and the insurance and registration cost the same $175..
Had to finance the insurance cost over 6 months as I spent the rest of my money feeding in gasoline and Motor Medic.
Drove it to school for about 1 year then moved into a '57 Bel Air Sport Sedan.

 

This was the next car. It was a lot of fun driving this to it's limits. Learned a lot about Chevrolet's with this Bel Air Fuelie.

 

I was 16. I got my mom's '57 Plymouth, flathead 6/3sp. I put in a Spark-O-Matic 3sp. conversion kit, a Moon green metal flake steering wheel, a tach on the dash and lowered the front by turning the torsion bars. I thought it was the coolest car in town. My Auto Shop teacher called it the Green Latrine.

 

I was 15 in 1957 bought a cherry 1946 merc coupe for $375 put hi compression edlebrock heads and tri power ,nosed decked lowered skirts 49 ply bumpers , 5 years ago I restored a 46 merc and put a 303 olds rocket in it

 

Just turned 13, bought a Model A rolling frame, $3. (cleaned and painted!) Paid $5 for a '33 Plymouth roadster body, decided it was too 'fat' a body for such a 'skinny' frame.
Sold it to a kid in my class, bought a '36 Three window from an older rodder. Distributer was apart, he couldn't get the points back in. Bought the car for $15.
My first 'complete' car. I was 13 and a half.
Oh, Billy was trying to fit 2 sets of Chevy points into the Diving Bell distributer! Griffin's Auto parts had the right points and condenser, so for $7 or so I had the car running the day after I got it.
...and I had to walk the 10 blocks to Griffin's!

 

1957, 17 years old bought 1951 Ford two door post Custom for $375. Didn't leave it stock for long. Built a 3 5/16 by 4 inch with Howard F10 cam, Lincoln valve springs and Johnson adjustable lifters. Engine sounded good but was probably no faster than my Father's 1955 Fairlane 272 ci Y block automatic lol.

 

I was 15 in 1995 and got a 57 dodge coronet 4dr sedan. Black with gold fins and roof, in decent shape. 325 2bbl poly, torqueflight, power steering (manual brakes) and the jiffy jet windshield washer. Not a horrid option list for a coronet.

Drove the hell out of it, the car earned the nick name of "the dodge of death" from my friends. It got a 392 later on, which then ended up having a bad day when i ripped the pan open leaving a parking lot. It got torn down and the car ended up being parted out. I still have the back of it for a future couch project. Ill be honest, i wish i would have kept it instead. I had a super ratty 58 new yorker after the dodge, which i drove for a year before its torqueflight gave out. I took stock and the car was more than i could handle at the time and the interior was totally blown out, so i snagged the 392 and sold the rest to a guy in new mexico doing a 300D resto. I'm doing a 57 Desoto firesweep as the 2dr i always wanted back then, with the built 392 i wish i had then too. Still won't be my first car though, This New Yorker motor is the one i'm building now for the desoto.

 

1969, 15, '62 Belair bubbletop, and no I don't still have it. Thanks for reminding me, I hate these damn threads.....

 

When I was 15 yrs old I bought a '48 Willys Jeep CJ2A, in 1969. Paid $400.
My avatar is only the 12th car I ever owned!

 

I was 14, in 1959 I sold my bike to buy a chopped and channeled Model A coupe. It had a flathead in it. I never got it on the road and sold it after losing a spot to store it. Never saw it or heard about it again.

 

My brother and I got this car in 1963 from our grandfather. I was 14. This was my first attempt at redoing a car.

 

I was 14 when my brother gave me a '38 Ford DeLuxe Coupe. He had a '39 Standard that he and I had driven from Texas To California the summer before (1958). I put some pretty bad flatheads in it and later a 303 Olds. Took it to TJ for black naugahyde ($60) and had every metal part inside chromed ($100). Big and littles on home reversed rims. dropped axle and almost ready for paint. Sold it to a friend. The last we heard of it it had a SBC and was racing at Fremont Ca. in '64-'65. We both wish we still had it.

 

15 yrs old, the Nova in my avatar that I still have today.

 

15 years old- $50.00 1953 Ford- 2 door Sedan- blown flat head motor- became a father and son project- dad was good with the mechanical but no patience for body work or paint- Tried to find a picture but no luck-

 

My parents got me a 55 Chevy for my 15th birthday I'm now 48 and still have it but it's in a million pieces at the moment.

 

First car I had was a project I built . Had no idea what I was doing or any idea what perspective was . Body built out of a $10 model A sedan I cut up . Had a 55 Chevy before I finished . I was 13 . That was 54 years ago .

 

I have a photos of me in 1952 playing with toy trucks that I still have. One of my first real cars is a 1947 Mercury that I bought in 1967. It has a 392 hemi in it

 

Better get er back together while you are still young enough to enjoy it. I like it!

 

I want


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Allow me to rewrite that, I was 15yrs old in 1987, I'd been wanting an F100 for a good while and finally got one from a guy my father knew. Started work 3 years later. Dropped a 289 from an LTD into the engine bay and drove the wheels off the truck for a good long time. Then a few years later I updated the front end to a Volare unit (amazingly the darn thing just welds right in) and got power brakes and steering (my shoulders ache when I think about that original steering)shortly after that I installed a '93 Ford Explorer rear end with 3.08 gears (I just looove that gas mileage). Now 29 years later I still have the truck and more memories than I can shake a stick at.


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1963 first car 39 Ford 2 Door St. 15 years old. Neighbor had the ford setup for a 54 Buick engine but the rear end was the only part of the driveline in it. Dad paid a $100 for it and thought that would keep me busy for the summer. In 1 week I had it together and running. I still own it. Here it is today, with a 302 engine.

 

I was about 14 years old, in 1977 my father took our family on an epic road trip in a faux woodie Jeep Wagoneer from New Hampshire to Nebraska to pick up a rust free early Ford pickup truck to bring back to NH. On the long roads out west I was allowed to drive the beast myself for many hours with my father in the passenger seat watching. We pitched tents and slept only in campgrounds. It was real test our our family unit for sure, especially after about three days of continuous rain -setting up camp became quite a shore. When we arrived to buy the truck, we were also offered a 1931 Model A Roadster - completely disassembled. We towed the two vehicles all the way back to NH like “the Clampetts” on the Beverly Hillbillies. I worked in my father’s gas station all rest of the summer and my reward was the box of ‘A’ parts. We had it together and running by my 15 year and ready for the road. It was a novelty by then in 1977 and I loved it, but no girls would allow themselves to be seen in it, so it didn’t last too long.


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Funny how early a lot of us started in this obsession. I was 12 when I got my first project car that my dad and I built together. I bought my second one when I was 14 so I could build it by myself. Both were barely OT for this forum, but not by much... I am starting my kids off similar if not worse. My oldest boy got his first free car (59 2-door Biscayne) when he was 5 which he sold a couple years ago before he bought his second car (chopped 50 Ford Sedan) at age 13 that we are currently building. My other son got his first pickup (52 Chevy) when he was 9 and we are currently building it to be his daily driver as well.