History THAT FIRST RIDE IN A HOT ROD OR CUSTOM - AS A PASSENGER

early 70's i was maybe 7 or 8 years old . a friend of the family had built 2 VW based dune buggies to sell. my parents dropped by one evening with me in tow just to shoot the shit and i assume check out the buggies. he had one ready to sell and asked my dad if he and i would like to take a spin. i got to sit in back and hold on to the roll bar , i can remember it like it just happened . it was blue with huge bass boat meta-flake molded in to the body , it was loud and fast and i had a blast !!! lots of memories with my brother later in the 70's. he had the obligatory V-8 vega , that car was scary fast . also a 56 nomad that could smoke the tires at will . one was driving home one afternoon in his 74 nova ,he had it going over 100mph ,windows rolled up and my ears started popping.

 

When I was a kid I spent a few summers on a farm in Arena ,Wisconsin.Carlos lived on the next farm down the road.He was older and had a driver's license.Not only that, he had a '40 Ford pickup with a Mercury flathead in it. His dad found it and bought it for him.It wasn't an all dolled up show truck. It was just a solid good running vehicle.One evening we went down to the blacktop down by the Spring Green Restaurant and spun the tires a bit.

 

I brought my eldest granddaughter home from the hospital and her first ride in a car was in my 1939 Ford convertible in '95. HRP

 

1965, my brother took me to junior high school in his chopped and channeled, full-fendered 30 Model A with 401 Buick. But, I was 3 to 4 years into drag race attendance by then so the "hook" had been set for a long time!

- EM

 

Any more? HRP

 

Back in the late 60 I obtain my first job, washing dishes at the Officer's Club located at Pease AFB, NH. Being a young man of 15 years old I took a real shinning to a waitress who was a few years older. She would always come over and talk to me about cars, sports, and rock and roll. I found out as much about her as possible to the extent that she live only a few blocks away from our quarters on base. One night as work to coming to an end she came over and told me that her father took her car away because she was speeding around the base. The base speed limits were 35, 25, and 15 in the housing area. I figure that this was my chance and told her I could give her a ride home in my car. HA HA I did not even have a car at 15 years old did not even have a driver's license. So after work we walk out into the parking lot and I found myself telling her, "gee, my Mom must of come over and borrow my car". My basic plan was to just walk her home, for it was only a mile or so, just to get some "one on one" time with her. Well the joke was on me, as soon as she figure that she would be walking, she yelled to the Head Cook, who was just leaving the building for a ride for both of us. So there I was sitting in the back of a station wagon, with my "girl of my dreams" sitting in the front with the Head Cook and you know who he drop off first. So a few weeks later, at work, the girl of my dreams came up and told me that she got her car back and wanted to know if I needed a ride home after work. Of course I needed a ride home, because my Mom, again, borrow my car. She look at me, with a smile and a wink, and said, "yea right". So after, what seem to be a million hours at work and a million dishes, we finally hit the parking lot for my ride home. Come to my surprise she own a gray or light blue 1965 GTO without hubcaps. Bucket seats and a four speed, what more could a girl want. From the Officer's Club to my house was two right turns, do up a slight hill of about 1/2 mile and turn onto my street. Well she made the first turn out of the parking lot and at 0200 in the morning there was no traffic, so we had the road to ourselves. The next right turn, she pulled into the middle of the road and was pointing at a solid 1/2 mile or hardtop. I guess you can say, that at this time was not a real "gear head" because I was more memorize by her legs and not what she was going to do with the car. So she rev the car up and side step the clutch, I on the other hand was looking at her extended right leg and thinking boy that is really a short skirt. I did not notice that the hood was pointed towards the stars and the rear end started to come around, when she bang second gear, the rear tires broke loose for a bit and the rear end slid the other direction, now I was a "gear head". Third gear, was a power shift and the car pull straight and quick. We never did hit forth gear because the first house of the block was coming up. She look aver at me and said, you live on Maple don't you, I was out of breath and said in a weak voice yes, 27 Maple. She slowed down to 15 and stop at my house. Before getting out, she pulled me over, gave me a big kiss on the lips and said, J, I am a little too old for you, see you in school.

 

Luckiest 15 year old kid that ever lived. HRP

 

1972 My gas station co-worker in San Francisco had a t bucket with blown small block. Crazy fast...My initiation to hot rods. Stuck with me ever since. 47 years later I'm working on this...

 

You bet.

 

I've liked traditional hot rods and customs for as long as I can remember but my first actual ride (and drive) in a HAMB-friendly car was in 2011 when I was 19 years old, so I guess I was late to the party but better late than never.

The car was this 1949 Mercury coupé, lovely car still powered by a flathead V8 and 3-speed manual with overdrive.

 

Can't remember the first time, but I grew up riding with my dad in his 53' Ford F-100. It's a "farm truck" with a stock straight 6, not really a rod or custom, but It probably had a big influence on my love of inline engines.

There was one time when we lived in northern Idaho that we pulled a rusty Buick Roadmaster out of the forest on our property and I rode in it while my dad pulled it through the field with our Ford 8N tractor. We sold it before getting to do anything with it before moving to Texas.

I've never actually been a passenger in my car. I'm not against others driving it, but I think everyone else is afraid too. It's like the older it gets, the more the look on their faces says "its still legal to drive?" I think most people a assume it takes different "skill" to drive than newer cars. I think I need to hang out with different people.....

 

1954 I was 13 and went fur a ride in a 32 Ford 3 window with an Olds engine.

 

8 or 9, summer time. Neighbor's 1932 pickup. Candy apple red, chopped, channeled, full fendered, chrome buttoned, white interior and bed cover, chrome everything(front end, rear end, shocks, brake drums, headers, drive shaft, if it could be removed it was chromed). wide whites, chrome reverse wheels. Buick engine, 6 deuces, red fuel line, mag, and auto. Didn't know what all the stuff was called back then, but learned quick. Neighbor told me to hop in, and we went to A&W for rootbeer and cheeseburgers and fries. My reward for helping to clean all that chrome. While we were there his buddies showed up. Midnight blue 40 Ford two door sedan, (Olds power), 39 Chev two door black with flames, (Olds power), and a few others. After A&W we 'scooped the loop' and even did a little stoplight racing. I remember hanging onto the grab bar under the dash because there weren't any seats, you just sat on the button tuffed floor. When I got home my mom saw the look on my face and knew she was doomed. She had a hotrodder in the house.

 

Around 1973 I got to ride in a 1960 2door HT Impala with that beautiful reddish orange factory color with matching interior except it was two tone with an off white accents, it was lowered with custom exhaust with extended chrome tips. It belonged to Raymond Seaford, a coon hunting buddy of my Dads. Loved that car, I was 13. BigO

 

I loved the ride in the 41 ford except the throttle sticking part. I couldn`t wait to go fast again but being twelve it wasn`t going to easy to do.

 

Mid 70s my dad took me to a customers shop in Palo Alto it was Able Special Tee’s
The owner John took me for a ride in an m&m green t that had a matching trailer that was a fuel trailer so he didn’t have to stop on his way to a show in the Midwest. saw a lot of cool cars come out of that shop he made quite a few that the casinos in Reno used for promotional giveaways.

 

About 1960 in a 39 Ford Coupe with a "full house" flathead. Two chrome 97's on an Edmunds intake with finned aluminum heads, acorn nuts, clear red fuel lines, clear red plug wires going through chrome looms. Pretty exciting for a 12 year old. Of course if you ran it too hard it ran hot. It wasn't a high buck car, but pretty much like other hot rods in the area.

 

Cusin Billy, San Fernando, early to mid 80s' ish - He had a 57 bel air and i was the tool monkey while he replaced the head gaskets. right after, he took me to some concrete river where a shit load of various cars were racing. I remeber being pinned to the seat on the first run. So excited I don't even remember who wont lol -- wanted my own 'hot rod" ever since. Took another 30 odd years, but i finally got my own. A 29 Ford Closed Cab pickup is my taste. Great memory, thnx!

 

I am going to go out on a limb and say Day 2, (of my life) and that was in my Dads 39 Chevy he called the
"Red Witch" It had a hopped up straight 6 and he used to race it at Lions Drag Strip all the time. The picture was in August of 1960..... (I also posted this in another thread, sorry for the repeat)

 

My first fast ride was in my dad's '64 vette with a 427. I was a wee little lad but I remember that he buried the speedometer. I don't think my mother ever knew about that.

My first ride in a hot rod was at age 16 0r so in my great uncle's '31 A sedan. I had the bug from that moment on.

I have given countless people a ride in my coupe and I've let a lot of them drive it. I never miss a chance to let a kid sit in the driver's seat and pull the shifter. The look on their faces never gets old.

 

1967 or '68 (about 14 years old) Sunday afternoon ride around with a friend of my soon-to-be brother-in-law, in his 2 door '53 Chevy with a 409, 3 deuces, 4-speed and glasspacks. Just riding along sitting in the back seat, cruising the drag, drinking beer. Before life got complicated...

 

I guess my first ride in a “ hot rod” was in my Dads 36 GMC, that he put a 270 and a five speed in . But I was really too small to remember or know it was a hot rod. The next time probably was in my cousins 1957 T-Bird, around 1960 or so. But! The ride that I really remember , in a hot rod, was in my cousins T bucket, with a 327 , cam, four barrel high rise, etc. Hooked up to a Ford three speed. It was around 1965 or so and he didn’t have the interior done, just some bucket seat sitting in there. We took off, he brought it up in first gear easy, shifted into second, ease it up a little, then with out warning stomped the gas! I thought me and that bucket seat were going to end up going through that fiberglass body and out onto the street! I had heard of being” twisted out of shape” on the song, but had never experienced it! I consider, this my first ride in a “hot rod “.

It flung a craving on me, to get a T-bucket, but that has evaded me for fifty some years! But I’m looking!






Bones

 

1966, I was 7 years old. My parents had a two car garage and only one car. So they rented out the other side to a guy named Ricky Haefner for dirt cheap in the winters for storage. Part of the deal was when he came and got it in the spring, he had to give my brother and myself a ride in it. 1932 Ford 5 window with a 392 Hemi and three speed in it. Need I say more...???

 

1963, Fresh out of high school and other than my own 53 Bel Air hrdtp with a 6 cylinder I'd never been in a hot rod. Went away to college in Hastings NE and got a job a Burck's Service Station. Burck was the resident hot rodder in the area and all the guys with cool cars hung out there. Jim had just finished a T bucket with the body mounted on the rear end with no suspension and a really hot SBC. he asked me if I wanted a ride and I jumped right in. What a ride, he was a little crazy and he scared the s--t out of me. I've never forgot that ride as it lit the fire that was smoldering in this young college student.

 

When I was a kid I spent summers and one night a week at my aunts house. It was only 14 miles from my house, but my cousins there where all 10-13 years older than me. They had a few nice cars.
Once when my foster cousin was home on leave from Vietnam I handed him wrenches while he put the top end back on the 283 in his Canary yellow 4spd, 57 Bel Air.
When we got it fired up he took me for a ride I will never forget. When he stepped of the clutch in that car and rowed through the gears, I was hooked.. My aunt thrashed him for having me in the car and lighting em up like he did. But I was the happiest kid in town that day. I pretty much grew up running around with my brother and cousins who where coming home from across the pond. Quite and experience for a 12 year old kid lol..

 

Tony's flathead '46 sedan, all club-lounge '77 white naughhyde, silver ghost flames over nassau-style met blue, big rake, 5 slot mags, shag-pile, '70's street/show rod.
First wild ride Holden L34, 308", 4 speed, crazy driver. Beautiful lil' screamer, lighter than a maverick, true 300+hp. Nearly hit someone after flying over a crest. Good brakes, all four smokin'.
One of 291 prized genuine L34's. Dude wrapped it around a pole and killed it a few weeks later.

 

Nigh on to 60 some years ago, a friend named Barry had a deuce 5w, east coast style, fenderless channeled not chopped. Powered by a 322 Buick. We were both at state auto tech school, first year, and he took me for a ride. All those years of looking at cars like this in the little books and now I was riding in one. Main thing I remember was the car had cooling issues so at red lights Barry would count to 20 and then take off so he didn't overheat.

 

twenty years back,40 chevy coupe as a passenger.BBC it sounded great.then a 32 ford pu prob 10 years back .flathead 5-speed.42 chevy pu prob 2 years ago rover v8 5 speed.the first I drove.then my 38 chevu pu,I love that one

 

Hello,

HAPPY NEW YEAR… ! What a great way to start the new year off with a recollection about getting a ride in my first custom car (actually it was a 55-56 chopped Ford truck) and years later, a ride in a black painted 1934 Ford 5 window coupe. I don’t remember which one was more fascinating. Each event was in different time lines with the truck being in elementary school era and the hot rod 34 Ford 5 window in the high school era.

Getting to ride in that chopped, lowered (raked) truck with Tahitian Red Paint, white tuck and roll and chrome reversed wheels was like being in “Dreamsville” for a little kid. My friend, the local expert mechanic was working on that truck randomly over the weeks prior to the actual ride with me in the passenger seat. One day after school, he asked me if I wanted to go for a ride to deliver the truck to the owner, just several blocks away. We both knew the owner as he was a family friend, as was the mechanic. They both knew my dad and were friends from the neighborhood.

As a little kid, I was enthralled at being asked, but being in that chopped truck was no different looking out of the windows. I was just a little kid and the whole world was big outside that truck. The chopped effect did not affect how I saw the truck. The white tuck and roll was more to my liking as it was soft, but firm. Waving to several of my elementary school friends, as we drove by them, was a highlight I explained to them later. That was my official first ride in a custom car (truck).

Over time, I had ridden in many mild custom coupes and sedans. But, that truck was the first, almost full custom, that I had ever seen locally and was able to say, “I rode in that Tahitian Red truck.”

Jnaki

My first ride in a real hot rod was in my brother’s friend’s, hot, 1934 Ford, 5 window coupe. The look and sound of the big Olds motor was the highlight of the cruise. When the accelerator was pressed, it was instant throwback into the seats. The power was there, while the thrill was going up my spine, hanging on to the seat and door. That was an inspiration that my brother got every time he went cruising around with his friend in the 1934 Ford coupe.

I am sure that my brother’s 51 Olds Sedan was not very competitive with this 1934 Olds powered, Ford 5w Coupe. The sedan was a cool cruiser and fast sedan, (they never raced,) but, IT was always out there. So, that is why my brother wanted to build a Model A with a SBC motor with multiple carbs or a Paxton Supercharger. A little teenage envy goes a long way to satisfy that urge. My brother satisfied his urge by purchasing a new 1958 Chevy 348 Impala. Now, the Impala was able to keep up, but, again, with the long standing friendships, they never raced, only jawed at each other and laughed.
It looked like this one, except the motor was a big Oldsmobile V8 that was very powerful and fast. It was a competitor in the A/Gas class at Lions Dragstrip and won many trophies. It was also a daily driver to high school and work after school.
EARLY 1959 later 1959

This is the shortest film on record, but it is the only one at the starting line in late 1959.


This 34 Ford could have been the same one, only in early 1959, but look who he had to race in A/Gas…