Folks Of Interest Was Your Dad a Hot Rodder?

My Dad was not a hot rodder although he did design several turbochargers that made cars haul ass. He never understood me throwing money at my cars , racing em , breaking em and fixing them. One morning in the early 80s he asked me for a ride to the airport as he was going on a business trip , He wanted me to take his S10 but I said I'd rather drive my car a hopped up 69 Z28. He held onto the dash grab handle white knuckled the whole way and I didn't even wail on it....Kinda wish I had I lost my Dad on the 18th of January 2020 , miss him dearly.

 

The Man I called Dad was all throughout his long life. He taught me all I know about hotrods both traditional (his main interest) and street rods. My pride and joy was his last real hotrod, my avatar. It gets driven and well maintained. He helped me find and build my first 52 Henry J, then a 49 Buick Super daily driver. Here's a few pictures of him in some of his favorite cars. He passed on last year, but his passion lives on.

 

My Dad wasn't a hot rodder,he was a teacher,but he could do anything.He could paint a car,remodel a kitchen,build a garage,put in an inground swimming pool.He got his black belt at 58.Roofed his own house at 71.He is 88 now,with some severe health challenges,he just got his book on surviving cancer published.When I bought a 54 Chevy out of the newspaper when I was 15 ,for $75 ,he towed me home with a chain behind the family station wagon.That was just the beginning and he could have squashed it right then.I think he would have preferred I went to college {I was the only kid out of 4 that didn't}but he let me go my own way,and I have built and owned many,many cars over the years and still going..I knew I could do anything because I saw him do it.

 

My Father Was A Rancher Left Over From A Century Ago And Considered Henry Ford To Be A God Who Walked Among Us...

 

Absolutely!! That's where it all started.

 

Nope. I caught the hot rod bug all by myself.None of my four brothers were car guys either. My dads brother use to buy wreaked model T"s back in the late 20"s,and build one good one from the pile along side their home so dad wasnt too surprised when I hauled home a 55 Chevy that needed a transmission.

 

I'm going to say no to the Hot Rodder, but he bought a new 1935 Ford when he was 20, and a new 1937 Harley two years later. Took me to every car event I wanted to go to, local Stock Car Races and the drag races at Dover, N.Y. Hot Rod show in NYC. He was the adult advisor to the local Hot Rod club in 1962. Took me to see my first '32 Ford chassis with a full race flathead. Sure do miss him, and it feels odd to be 3 years older than him now than when he passed at 67.
Bob

 

No, he wasn't. He was a product of the Depression and thought cars were transportation. My mother hated motorcycles so I left home at 16 with my motorcycle.

I have no idea where the hot rod bug came about.

 

In the last picture, what is the black and red tow vehicle? A Mercury Ranchero? Just guessing, your dad looks like someone I would have wanted for a dad. My dad and my stepdad were not into cars at all, I caught the bug all on my own.

 

Dad is not much of a hot rodder, mainly passed on my love for baseball. My grandpa though has been a hot rodder all his life, building cars as a side job to make extra money to pay for his motorcycle racing. He was a flat tracker for awhile then a professional hill climb racer. He had a bike for every class he could run because he got bored sitting in the pits waiting. Then I have been going to car shows and racing events since I was born and we still work on cars too this day. Have that 33 Ford pickup project going currently. I would defiantly not be as obsessed as I am about these old cars if it was not for him.

 

My dad and his dad were seriously into horses. My dad raised Arabians. He lived and breathed horses. I think he wanted one of us 6 kids to like horses, but although we can ride, none of us were passionate about it. Both of my parents have been gone for a lot of years, but they told me that as early as they could remember, I was car crazy.

 

My dad definitely wasn't a hot rodder, cars were just a means of transportation to him. He didn't support my love of cars and hot rodding, one day when he came home from work and found I had drug home a 26 T tudor sedan body complete with fenders, he in no uncertain terms told to "get that thing out of my garage"!

 

I know exactly what you mean....my Dad passed at 63, and I'm 68. I often feel like I'm living on borrowed time...so I try to live life to the fullest...despite the wife constantly saying "you're too old to do _____" (fill in the blank).

 

no, my dad born 1912,was a trailer driver,with work and little money we were lucky
to have an old car for transport. my first year of work I discovered I made more money
than he did,he worked so much harder than I did and never complained.

 

Nope, must be a 2nd generational thing as it skipped my son, maybe my grandson will inherit my [Car] genes? Dad like many worked hard to provide for family however he enjoyed a drink, smoking and gambling; no time or money for cars. He embraced my endeavours and supported me when I showed an interest in cars. I took great pride in sharing my old OT Fairlane with him before he passed.
P.S. I might add that he was a hands-on guy who would do anything and everything around the home and on his cars, he wasn't afraid of hard and/or physical work and that's probably where I picked up his work ethic, I copped some flack for what he did for a living (Law enforcement); long hours, shift work and learned valuable life lessons and skills that have shaped the way I live my life.

 

My Dad was a military man as a pilot, navigator, flight engineer for some of the slowest and fastest aircraft in inventory at his time. He ran is own gas station and work on cars (a short time between WWII and the Korean War) for a living, but flying was his real passion. He never show much interest in the cars that I was building but he could fixed anything. he pass away several years ago but said that if was to die, he would die a happy man. For a time we were living in a house with the garage below the house, would be building hot rods, running them on open headers, painting cars in that garage and he never said a word. He did build several cars always an odd ball such as a Nash, and he did everything from welding, motor work, and final paint, then drive the crap out of it.

 

No, he drove things like Packards & Lincolns, but usually way over the speed limit.

 

No. My Dad came of age after WWII and graduated HS in 1950. He and friends made a trip from Ohio to Idaho one summer in a Model T. Fell asleep at the wheel and ran it into a ditch. He had little use for Fords after that.

But he liked cars. He talked about cool things like Duesenbergs and Mercedes Gullwings and Cad-Allards, etc. But he bought plain jane Chevy sedans, an Opel, a series of VWs and then, fatefully for me, a Chrysler Town & Country with a 440 and dual exhausts. Loved that wagon. He did not work on cars much but kept a small toolbox and encouraged me to fiddle with them when I showed interest.

 

Yes a custom Mercury, we called it the Merchero

 

I feel the same way being 31 and out living my father who died at 27 when I was 6 years old. He was in and out of prison and was never really a dad.

My father figure was my grandfather and I don't think you'd call him a hot rodder as much as a Greaser. He was born in 1939 one of many kids. They were poor and he bought his first car at the age of 16 with the help of his cousin. It cost 50 bucks and each paid half. It was a 51 Studebaker that they took a axe and chopped the top off it and took some barn roof metal and metal screwed skirts on. (I have a picture somewhere). He was a hell raiser, drinking on gravel roads and they would "lift" as he put it things for their cars. He was a member of a group of guys in the 50s that went by the road runners. They would street race and gravel road drink until one day it cost him big. He was drinking cruising around with a girl and his car got into a wreck and rolled. She got killed and he got sent to prison for vehicular manslaughter. While incarcerated he was brought for a dentist appointment and he escaped through a bathroom window. Was on the run for a couple years and ended up getting caught and doing the rest of his time and then some. He got out of prison in 1965 and that must have straightened him up. He started working as a trucker and saved enough money to buy his own truck. Before you know it he had multiple trucks and his own business. He stayed on the straight and narrow and always preached about doing he right thing and to not be a screw up as he was. When I was growing up he took me to the races every weekend and we drove his 56 ford crown Victoria to every car show we could get to. He wasn't very mechanically inclined but always did his own maintenance taking the bigger jobs to the local shop. He encouraged me to work hard and when I got old enough he loved that I was a gear head always working on cars. He bought a 51 ford 4 door in his later years because it was the exact same kind of car he bought for his own car that he purchased himself without any one else's help. We started collecting parts to customize it like he did in his youth, visor, skirts, crestline trim, etc. He ended up passing before we could restore it but I still own it now 8 years later. This is now my father and son project and some day will be my sons car done the way grandpa wanted. I owe everything to my grandfather, he may have been a trouble maker in his youth but he was saint to me and my sister. He laughed when I was 20 and I told him I got job as a correctional officer at the prison. He said "Well I think it is better to be on that side of the bars then the side I was on." I got the car back on the road in the spring after being parked from bad brakes and a bad radiator. I have been working on it with my kids and taking them on rides as much as possible. I just wish grandpa was here with us however I know he is looking down at us with a smile.





Grandpa's 51 ford we are trying to replicate

 

Unlike many of it's ilk, that "Mercharo" really works. The use of the Crown Vic parts borders on genius. Is it still around?

I would loose the rear marker lights, though.

 

Not in the slightest no interest in cars at all. WWII pacific and Korea USMC vet. Drove beaters until they died. Got his very first new car a 1963 Ford Galaxie 4 door and was pleased as punch.

He was a talented tool and die maker and never discouraged my building attempts and made many parts for my minibike building business when I was 11 years old.

Got all pissed off about trying to build them just from me telling him what I wanted and threw me a drafting book and said to learn to draw a blueprint before he would build anything else. So I studied that book and started drawing blueprints of what I wanted.

Never thought much about it until I was in High school/Trade school and one of the subjects I aced was Drafting.

 

Great thread and great stories. Like many, my dad was no hotrodder. Being a tool and die maker he was handy, and as such did work on his cars. I guess watching him gave me the bug. Most kids in the neighbourhood were also into cars when they came of age, but it was the beginning of the muscle car craze. His brother was a true genius and I recall him buying a smashed up VW Gharim Ghia. It needed new quarters, but back then they were $800, so he went and repaired it himself. When it was done, you couldn’t even tell it had been repaired. Too bad he died at only 55.

 

My Dad was not a Hot Rodder, but was car crazy, from as long as I could remember.
A lot of the stuff about cars, that I learned from him has stayed with me my whole car life.
Back in the '50s, as a young kid we sort of had a ritual. On Sunday mornings we went to church,
came home, had breakfast, then went around to the new car dealers in town.
We were not wealthy, and never had a new car. He didn't even look at the new ones.
We always went to the back of the lot to see the used cars. He usually went to the
older ones. He always pointed out the possibilities of how great the older car would
look with a "Simonize" job, and maybe some wrenching!
I think he invented the saying we still hear all the time, "that will buff out!"
He did always buy an underdog looking car, and loved to "bring it back", and our
cars always looked older, but always clean and shiny. He had some good connections,
with used car dealers, mechanics, and parts guys. Some of these connections still
existed for me in the '60s, when I started playing with my own.
This is the kind of dad he was.
I had a '52 Chevy delux coupe, and my daily driver '54 Dodge Royal, in about '71.
I was away at college, came home For Thanksgiving and he told me that the guy
that had the '62 Corvette I had been watching wanted to trade for his beautiful
'64 Pontiac Bonneville 2 door, EVEN! He asked if he should do it for me!
I said "What are you, Mom and brother and sister going to drive?"
He said, "I'll run your Chevy for while and you can just pay me the $600
that I have in the Pontiac when you get it!
Needless to say I got the Corvette!
This was a very happy time for me! In '72, I married my sweetheart, graduated college,
had a Corvette and the greatest Pop in the world!
I had already learned to look at the possibilities, and to let the cars show what
they could be. I'm still pulling cars out of old garages, getting them running and driving
enjoying them, then passing them on to other car crazy guys! And yes, always trying
to get them to be Hot Rods!
My Dad died in December 1972 at 47. I still hear him say,
"With a little work, this can be a great car!"
I still miss him all the time. We really had a great time together!
His philosophy is where my quote below came from!

 

Nope. Had multiple midyear vettes (restored them), bought the factory performance models as daily drivers when he was younger.
They all stayed stock and got tuned up regularly.

 

My dad loves working on cars. He is more into cars of the 60's and 70's though. He taught me how to wrench at a very young age. We had a junk yard growing up and together we would pull all the engines and transmissions out and strip the cars down. At 8 years old I could name any part on a car and knew firing orders by memory. I had a c10 growing up and I think we put about 10 different engines and probably more trannys than that into it. We would pull them from junk cars and clean and paint them really nice. We'd replace gaskets and add chrome pieces every time but they usually didn't last very long. Had a blast doing it though. Good times.

 

Sorta not,,, my dad's job was working on cars,,, and his choice was sport cars,, so I rode around in Triumph's MG's Lola's, he did timed rally's,,
But he did not bring cars home, but he was our Scout Master and Judo Sensei, and later Master Chief in the SeaBees
After he retired he played with hit-and-miss motors until last year at the age of 88.

 

Definitely not a hot rodder or even a middling interest in cars outside of transportation, and is very much one of the 'indoor kids'. Aside from topping up the coolant or changing a bulb here and there, i dont remember him ever doing any of his own maintenance or repairs, and when i started showing an interest in cars, it fell on me to do the maintenance on the family cars. When i started working on slightly more interesting, older things, like stuff that would have been the cool cars when he was a teen, GTO's, chevelles, impalas, etc. ( he was born in '53) and tried to show him, it was the same amount of interest he would have had, if i was showing him some leaves i found on the ground, (no interest), so i stopped trying. I dont think i would say he actively discouraged my interests, maybe wasnt encouraging and always made sure to say some negative/ doubting comments when he would see me doing something, but we're not really close, so no need to waste my energy worrying about what he thinks of my hobbies.

 

my dad had a passion for cars ... here's his old ranchero.... He got a 1933 Ford pickup in 1950 that sat in the garage unfinished that I played in as a kid... I got it from him in 2001, built it and took him for his first ride in it on his 81st birthday We still have it ... I have past it on to my son .. Dad encouraged me to try anything if I thought I could do it.... He'd always help me when I needed it.... Dad has been gone 12 years but I see him over in the barn in everything I do.... Thanks Dad....

 

Not sure I would call my dad a hot rodder, but he has always liked cars (mostly vettes) and taught me most of what I know as far as working on them. He was pretty much always into fairly late model stuff (at the time) and the first big project he really took on was for me as my first car. He did rebuild a few mid-year vettes, but they weren’t really that old at the time. I have tried to get him interested in getting something old (even like something he used to have years ago), but he just isn’t that interested. I do appreciate that he is the one that taught me so much and exposed me to the car stuff from pretty much right after I was born. I just took a deeper dive into this deal than he ever chose to.