History The 60's & our cars was the topic at the hot rod lunch

I miss my stacker record player and vibrasonic wired in to my am radio in my 55 olds. Listening to Louie, Louie. Hard to hear them over the sound of my scavenger pipes. Seems like only yesterday

 

I recall a 4 door Falcon with so many decals in the rear windows you couldn't see if there were passengers in the back seat,the car had silver rattle can painted wheels. HRP

 

You rich guys! I couldn’t afford the chrome.......mine were plain steel but a bit of rattle can silver paint did the trick.

 

Yeah, I was really knocking it down. I was making $137 a month as a Specialist 4 in the military. I did work part-time for a motorcycle shop off base when I didn't have duty to help pay for car stuff.

 

Grew up in farm country where every farm had a shop and tools. We pretty much made everything. My spring shackles were cut and drilled from scrap metal. Traction bars were welded up from steel from the old machinery. The cool kids bought it. We made it and still blew them away on the 1/4 mile south of town.

 

My first car was a 58 ford 4-door which i had a Earl Scheib $ 29.99 paint job (orange),black interior done with rattlecan (not interior paint), moon hubcaps on front wheels, and chrome rims on back. Oh yeah- and air shocks in the back. Thought i was cool until one hot summer's lunch day at school i and a couple of friends went out to lunch and i found out that the paint on the rear seat was still tacky and came off on my friends girlfriend's dress. Those were the days. Oh then there was my 40 International.....

 

Painting the complete underside for my 62 Impala SS white , for that "sanitary" look

 

I saved up for a glass t bucket body.

 

MANY great memories, stories from the 60's, myself 16 in 1964, Milwaukee Wisconsin was a very active car city, street racing, cruising, car culture huge. It was a mix of us kids with our 50's modified cars and a ton of late model muscle cars, at that time Milwaukee was full of good paying factory jobs, right out of high school/factory job into new muscle car was typical. I cruised all the spots, all sides of town but never saw many Hot Rods, I've been told there was some, just did't see many, Wisconsin weather not very Roadster friendly IMO. Wisconsin Ave, Saturday night was a Big Event summer months, you would have to have been there to believe it. I have always felt Lucky and Grateful that I grew up in the best of times for a Car Crazy kid. I 'm still friends with someone from back then (high school) and we will get going BSn on the fun/stupid stuff we did and best part for me I can kid him about my junk beating his junk for near 50 years now, cannot race him anymore as now he has a few that are faster than anything I own and I always tell him, don't want to spoil my perfect record.

 

Had to love the JET coil booster for Better MPG,or the torbo fan spacer under the carb for better MPG

 

I believe it was 2 T bucket body's wasn't it? HRP

 

1968 I had a '60 Ford Sunliner. Working at a gas station was to my benefit at times during high school Like the time I got a set of used Firestone Wide Oval red stripes. Took the front bumper off and reversed the spring shackles. A pair of cheap Arvin glasspacks, good to go. I would borrow my mother's '64 Mercury Park Lane convertible when going on a date, that car was pure class not to mention without the massive rust holes my '60 had. To make the Merc cool I popped the wheel covers off and tossed them in the trunk. A slow night at the gas station, I repainted the wheels black and painted the hubs and lugnuts silver, twenty bucks for chrome nuts was beyond my budget. The ultimate cool factor with the Merc was that by accident I found that it sounded so mellow with the mufflers off, just running through the resonators at the front. She had an exhaust system replaced and one of the mufflers was not clamped down enough and it would slip off with the right amount of pushing to the back of the car. So if it sounded good with one off, it would sound better with both off. So I looped coat hangers around the rear frame rail and the mufflers, loosened the tight one, hey, poor boy cutouts.......

 

We would paint the rear wheels 1/2 black and the other half white, like the drag cars of the day did. Crank up the torsion bars on Chrysler cars to jack up the front end for that super stock look. And don't forget putting red bulbs in the dome lights. Put yellow bulbs in the clear front turn signals to make them look like the "new" cars of the day. Install a rear package shelf radio speaker for that "stereo" sound. White crayons to make our own "raised white letter" tires.

 

Only a Muntz 8 track player that was a piece of crap that never worked right. All my other cash went in the gas tank.

 

I removed the front bumper from my 1962 Holden sedan to show the completely chromed front end. Damn, that new fangled chrome tape looked good from a distance .

 

One of the cheap things to do was remove the front bumper,that way it didn't look like your mom's car. HRP

 

My first add on's that I remember were, what I added to my dad's 67 Pontiac convertable. I put in a mini 8 track with about 25' of speaker wire, then used two large house speakers. It rocked at ball games, feild parties, and parking with a date, etc. I also added a small chrome air filter, that made a loud sound, like that of a cow baweling. A year later I took them off and added them to my first car, a 68 Corvette. I still have both cars. and the mini 8 too. Lol

 

I think my first auto parts doodad was a Dixon tach. Nope take that back my first new doodad was a barefoot gas peddle, the guy at the auto parts gave me two surfer feet decals for free, I cut them up and made happy feet. Then the Dixon tach.

My next worthless piece of auto memorabilia was a genuine shrunken head from the back of a comic book. That hung from the mirror of a couple of cars until a friend traded me a genuine tiki made from real pine (rubbed with used motor oil for effect) for my genuine (rubber) shrunken head. LOL

 

Just remembered thanks to porknbeaner. I had a Moon gas pedal in one of my 55 Chevies. It also had a 389 Pontiac motor. The other thing that was done back in Stamford is if you were going steady with your favorite girl she would buy white baby booties that you would hang from your rearview mirror. That told the other girls to stay away!
My wife kept them all these years and they now hand in the coupe.

 

Picture in your mind a '67-'68 Camaro RS without a front bumper on it.....
Yeah, it's got the look....

 

I'm running a surfer's foot gas pedal on my 40 ford pickup as i write.

 

The Camaro's were a few years in the future,my car was a '54 Ford. HRP

 

1958 Long Beach
Hello,

Whenever my (late) brother and I would get together, the topic was always, (wife says: IS ALWAYS) hot rods, drag racing, surfing and motorcycles. When our friends were added into the mix, it was multiple hot rod subjects and more banter. Remembering that we all hung out at the local drive-in restaurant parking lot with more conversations and bravado... We did finally get around to talking about what we had on our cars, his new 1958 Impala that became mine in 1960 until 1965.

It must be the early 60s vs the late 60s. In the early 60s, the only odd ball thing was putting on stickers of what you had in/on your car. Racer Brown Cams, C&O Stick Hydro, Reath Auto Parts, etc. Also, a white ball column shifter knob and radio knobs were added to the 1951, lowered, Olds 2 door sedan and 58 Impala. We tried those 45 record playing machines, they skipped too much. We even tried using the reel to reel tape players in the trunk for our recordings. That worked for a while, but the connections were always “shakey.” The only other thing that we added was when the “reverb” sound came out in mid 60s.
“… reverberator. This was an electronic device added to the receiver designed to electrically delay the signal from the radio to rear speaker created the illusion of a stereo signal. In essence it added a depth to the recording, almost like a concert hall with a bit of echo in it. “

By then, I sold the 58 Impala to a friend to pay for a new 1965 red 327 El Camino. (more tires and wheels, etc.) By 1968, the Reverb sound was on its way out and FM radio was the latest thing. By the early 70s, cassette tapes improved the sounds tremendously. For us, there was no need for any other accessories or other custom touches. The cars spoke for themselves and us.

Jnaki

The late 60s through the 70s was a blur with all of the radical things going on in the world affecting all of us. We muddled through with what little money we had and enjoyed life in our hot rods and daily drivers. My wife’s motto: “If it did not come with the car, don’t add anything…except tires and wheels…” That opened the door and then it was Corvette rims/tires, , slotted silver rims with beauty rings, American 5 spoke mags and a myriad of tires.

When a bunch of old guys get together (my late brother and I or a bunch of OGs) Those classic topics fly across the table like no other. History always creates classic conversations. They are fun times, indeed. Hot rods, drag racing, surfing, what else was there for a couple of teenagers growing up in So Cal? (besides girls, the standard…) But, I do miss those one on one conversations with my brother, when he was around.

 

Jacked up suspension was pretty common in this area. HRP

 

Who didn’t buy those instant pinstripes on the roll.

 

1963, first thing I bought for my 59 Impala was a bar grill, then $15.00 Bongo drums for the back window.
The Bongos were the rage in Fresno.

 

Still got half a roll somewhere.

 

Like Nobey, further south toward L.A. bongos in the back window, and a Vibrasonic reverb unit through the shelf mounted speakers. Some would have a fake shrunken head hangin' from the rear view mirror. Don't remember any of the "cool" folk using fuzzy dice or blue dot tail lights (still can't stand those). While red line tires came in later, the sign that you'd stepped up to Goodyears was the blue stripe. Brought a nice, new 8 track Craig home from across the pond (along with the requisite Canon or Nikon SLR that were way cheap at the Exchange). As someone else mentioned the car stereo only lasted as long as the thieving bastards allowed. In the mid '60s you could buy flathead stuff for next to nothin', and often the older guys would just give it away...………...pretty much nobody wanted that stuff in '66.

Floor shift conversions were the thing, from the crappy Sparkomatic to a proper Hurst Comp (though they did come up with the "Mystery Shifter" to compete some with the lower end). Chrome steel wheels were the deal in the early '60s, but then American 5 spokes took over as THE wheel to have, or the steel rim/aluminum center clones if your wallet was thinner. Cragar SS were toward the end of the '60s and some of us never did warm up to them. In shop class in '61 it was a regular project to make laminated plexiglass knobs (shift and dash) in a tear drop shape. Oh the things we did...………………….

 

not something talked about much here

 

How about the mini 8 track tape player? HRP