Hot Rods Neighborhood hot rods that influenced you

I lived in a small bedroom town out west of Oklahoma City. The town's name is Wheatland. It wasn't much of a town. In our town we had an old school muffler shop, called Mike's Muffler. Creative, huh?

Mike was a big barrel chested guy with a red lumberjack beard. A real man's man in the early 80's. I always had him do my muffler work. He gas welded all the joints. He was probably 40 and I was 16. I thought he was the coolest guy in town.

Mike drove a bitchin 1956 big window, F100. It was slammed with red steelies and 56 F100 caps. The hood had 150 louvers in it, it was red oxide primer and a big block 460 Ford in it. It had a look of "In progress", but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

That truck made an impact on my teenage psyche.

I told the wife, I may tickle that urge again and buy a 56 F100 for my daily. That truck still lives in my memories. I'm 52 and that was in 1984ish. I still drive by the old muffler shop occasionally, which is closed and covered in junk now.

I have had a couple, but Mike's 56 will always be a favorite.

Do You have one?

 

When I was a young lad and already a car nut, my sister dated a fellow who had a '50 Merc convert along with a buddy of his who also had a '50 Merc convert. Where are they today!?

 

High school junior. I had nothing. Kid down the street, same age with money had a beautiful '41 Ford coupe, metallic blue, scalloped, 265 Chevy and 4 speed hydro. 4 carbs. This was about 1957. I was a jealous dog.

 

When I was a lad in the mid sixties our next door neighbor had a Studebaker Avanti. It was lightly modified for the times, a nice rake, white with a red stripe offset on the driver's side over the hood, roof and trunk. What really left an impression on me were a sweet sounding set of dual pipes with chrome tips sticking right out the back. I'd sit on my tricycle and he'd blip the throttle a couple times for me whenever he'd leave his house.

 

Around the same time as my Avanti story my older sister had a nice 62 Gran Prix. She'd take me out cruising to get a Coke. I'd sit on her lap and steer. She still reminds me how I'd always ask if it was time for a Coke yet. LOL

 

Always worked on lawn mower engines, mini-bikes, go karts and then I found a '37 Chevy 2 dr. sedan in a backyard
that I bought for $5 . The resident black widow spiders were free. My brother had a friend who had an identical
car that was totally redone, with a SBC, LaSalle trans, chrome wheels, flawless red paint job, chrome window mouldings, etc. I wanted to build mine just like it. This was in 1963. Painted my '37 in the carport, canary yellow,
and later on sold it, moving on to the orange '40 Chevy coupe. Second photo shows how it progressed over a
couple of years. Still hot rodding today.

 

Our little town was full of hot rods. Hard to name a single influence. Gene, the older kid down the street had a nice red ‘56 Chevy with a 327 that he took us to Lions and to the beach in. I recreated it recently. I saw Sam Conrad’s dark blue Olds powered ‘29 highboy in our neighborhood pretty regularly.
And probably the baddest hot rod I ever saw as a kid, John DeRocco’s chopped, full fendered, ‘32 tudor with dark gray primer, American 5 spokes, and a blown Olds for power!
Here’s my tribute to Gene’s ‘56 from my childhood. The white walls are a little too narrow and the interior is all black instead of black and white but other than that it’s pretty much right on.

View attachment 4977077

Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Oh yeah. When I was a kid, the girl next door was about 10 years older than me. She was dating a guy with a 53 Chevy, baby blue, white top, small block with 2 fours on a cross ram, no hood, front end lifted, whitewall slicks. Next he had a 64 Galaxie with a 427, tear drop hood, black, slicks. After they got married he had a 67 Belvidere with a Hemi. The brothers on the other side of me had a 62 Corvette and a 68 Coronet Super Bee.

 

I wonder if there is any connection between Mike's Muffler in Wheatland and this place in OKC.

https://www.facebook.com/clamb1255/

 

I grew up going to races, (racing family) read Dad's Hot Rod Magazines, Speed Sport racing news, so I was hooked early on racing. 1960, I was 12, a neighbor's son came home from service, purchased a 57 Chevy BelAir hardtop V8 powerglide and a Harley Dresser with shifter on gas tank. Jim LeRoy was his name, took me cruising with the 57, I rode bitch on that Harley when his sweetheart worked. WOW ! What fun and cool at 12 years old, that man Set the Hook for me on kool cars/cruising/motorcycles, I had cycles 40 years, still cruising/cars. I Tried to find him in my later years to tell him how much that time meant to me, I thanked him many times back in the day. The moral of this story is, Be nice to youngsters, you do and can have a positive influence on them, be nice to the uneducated car enthusiast you meet at cruises, shows. In my lifetime I have met many good people in my youth, as a adult and have faith in the "Good" in people.

 

Dunno. I would think he would be in his 70's by now.

 

So many cool cars back in the early 60s... I remember a white 57 Chevy with a Z-28 302 drive line. Man was that car nasty!! Then there was a 63 Red/Red interior Ford Galaxie 406 4 speed.. I can still see that guy coming up the alley going to work in the morning in that Ford trying not to make any noise. People were real respectful of things like that back then.. That car seemed so low to the ground and had such a cool look to it.. He had ET wheels on it and Porter mufflers.. The Chevy used to blast across the 40th street bridge like it was a rocket.. Man was that Chevy fast.. It had a dual four cross ram intake. I never saw another Chevy with that kind of intake..
There was this Emerald Green 1957 Thunderbird. It had a black convertible top with Cragar Sparkler wheels. I remember the name on the boxes when the owner was putting them on his T-Bird... That car was so nice! Black custom made interior. It had a 427, 4 speed, 9" rear end.. He had something no other car had back then, disc brakes!! They were on the front. It was the first time I ever saw anything like that. He told me all about them. They were made by Hurst and the back wheels were drum but the linings had these lining squares instead of two long brake linings. They were made by Grey Rock..

 

When I was about 12 there was a 32 tudor sedan, purple and white, big and littles that the next door neighbors son
sometimes drove over to visit his parents. In high school there was a 57 ford, white with a primered teardrop hood,
Thunderbird y block that picked up his girlfriend after school every day. Her father owned the school bus company
but she never rode the bus.

 

I grew up across the street from a mail man with a 67 Camaro that ran in a class with a very high strung 265 small block. Ron would work on that thing all night and then fire it up when he got it together, no matter what time it was.
There was another guy down the street, John that had a 64 Chrysler 300K with 440 in it that had been racing the car since 1969, he and I got too be good friends until he died in 2014, he build my iron headed 440 that makes 650 hp, it's an old school build from the 80s. His 4100lbs full interior stock body 64 ran 11.0s at the strip, he was a good man and I learned a lot from him.

 

When I read that first line I thought this post was going to go a different direction, than I remembered I'm on the HAMB....

 

This Olde Ford Was 2 Blocks Away And Drove Off One Fine Day..

 

So I'm going back to the earliest examples. There was the guy across the street with the C1 Corvette. And then there was the older boy down the street who built sand buggies in the garage and ran them up and down the block. This was before VW's became dominant in the buggy scene, back then it was all front engined buggies. I still remember seeing that sand rail they built that was injected, and how they had stuffed tennis balls into the stacks when it was shut down. My oldest brother had a 63 Old Cutlass with the turbo charged 215 V8. That left a big impression on me, as did the 40 Ford coupe that belonged to a friend of another older brother.

I know we're not really supposed to talk about dune buggies around here, but when I was in Jr High we went camping out in the desert with some good friends of the family that were into dune buggies; they had 2 of them at the time that they had built themselves, but were basically old cars stripped down to the chassis, with a single bench seat bolted down to the frame rails, and they had fabricated dually rear wheels, and we ran those buggies all over the dunes. What a blast! One buggy was a Chevy, with an L6 for power; the other was a Ford with a flatty. The Ford was the faster of the 2, but the Chevy was the torquier of the 2 and was able to climb the dunes without having the rev the engine as hard, which gave it better traction and better climbing. The dad preferred the Chevy, the kids liked the Ford. That was a big influence on me.

 

My uncle, mid to early 70's, had a 66 dark blue metallic GTO. Built by a old pontiac tractor puller somewhere around liberal mo. I believe.

Had a 421 super duty motor complete with factory bathtub 2x4 intake, factory replacement cast iron s.d. headers complete with Mickey Thompson rods. 4-speed and 3:90 posi.

That motor was so sweet to listen too, solid lifters sounded like a sewing machine.

Hear him coming from blocks away and then feel the ground pound when he pulled into the driveway with the high compression and dumped exhaust in front on the rear housing.

Wouldn't be the early 70's without the aluminum slots and air shocks on the rear!! Loved that car......

 

Not great photographs but this ‘40 Mercury showed up in my high school parking lot in 1960 in rural Massachusetts. It had a windshield but I’m not sure it ever got any other glass. It had an Olds engine, never got a hood, and was grey primer at first, then later blue primer. It later got much bigger fins on the back. By the time I got to know the owner several years later the car was parked for several years, then crushed during a cleanup at the local hot rod club. I never got a ride in it but it made a huge impression on me. HFH.

 

I grew up very poor in a community during the 40's and 50's south of Seattle. No hot rods at all.
Although as I have said here before, a guy a few houses away raced sprint and migets, always testing and tuning on our gravel county roads. That keyed my love of open wheel and hot rod cars.

 

For me it was the opposite! Had a guy with a clapped out 69 charger painted up like the duke boys car, a bunch of really stupid mustangs , camaros and corvettes done up in 80’s and 90’s style with skirt packages tinted lights and goo gaws galore!

taught me what I don’t like !!!

my older cousin rino and his buddy haverlock who was a die hard old school car guy took my to a local coffe shop car show when I was just a young kid and that was that . I knew that day what I liked !!!
50’s cars big old 60’s boats noise , big engines and big cars !!!
Always had a soft spot for40’s era coups
But really not until I found the hamb did I really start liking old cars .

But I did know at a young age what was in style in the 80’s and90’s was not for me.

 

My friend and mentor Walter. Still owns car, I was 14 (1960) Please excuse the non HAMB friendly wheels.

 

That 56 is bitchin!


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

My dad and my uncle always liked 55 chevys. My dad had one behind our house in the woods that he always wanted to fix up. He never got around to it. He died racin dirt track 25 years ago but i always remember playin in that old car. My uncle became my second dad and would take me for a ride in his 55 and i always loved it! Finally this past year with the help from my uncle and cousin i started rebuilding my dads old car that bin sittin in the woods rotting away all these years! The 55 is definitely the car that got me! Hopefully ill have my dads old car on the road by the end of this month! Gonna try and make a build thread on here soon!


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I was born in Chicago in 1946. In 1956, my family had relocated to Georgia, a small town called Albany. My grand dad in St Louis was very sick and my dad went by train to visit him. Long story short, my grand dad died while my dad was there. My mother and I rode the train up for the funeral. My dad met us at the train terminal in his nephew's 1955 Chevy Bel Air two door hardtop. It was blue and white with glass packs, a three speed on the tree and in my 10 year old brain the coolest thing on wheels. We were able to use the car while we were in town and I remember many rides listening to the loud pies as we drove around.

 

The car that flipped the switch for me was a 67 Corvette coupe. 427/435 with 4spd. Black with silver stinger and side pipes. The car was just incredible to me and at 4 yrs old I was hooked. I got to go for a ride in that beast as well. What a ride!!

 

I lived in a neighborhood where there were older teenaged girls that wouldn't even look at me. Anyone else have that problem? Anyhow one of these girls dated a guy whom had a dad with more money than sense. We'll call him Jimmy as that was his name. Jimmy's dad, being very well off, spent a lot of money on cars for Jimmy. One of the builders around Kansas City was a guy named Ray Fahrner whose name might ring a bell.

Ray built Jimmy several cars including a '59 or '60 red Chevy 2 door hardtop with the rake, loud pipes, etc., that was named the "Crimson Crutch". Another one about that time was a gold Chevy 2 door named the "Devil's Disciple". There were others but the names escape me now.

That was when I decided that hot rods were the thing when I was about 13, or so. Jimmy ended up being a born again Christian and had, at that time, the documented worst traffic record in the state of Missouri to include multiple suspensions, DWI's, etc. You remember that Jimmy's dad had a lot of money--that kept Jimmy out of jail.

I never did get any of the neighborhood girls but I did get the hot rod bug.

 

1968...I was 12 and Teddy lived across the street. He was 19 and had the baddest '57 Chevy in town. Reworked front spindles and Olds rear with ladder bars so it had a mean gasser stance. Real magnesium American 5-spokes with Firestone tires. Built 327/4spd combo. My parents wouldn't let me go out at night but they did allow me to go over to Teddy's house 'cause they knew the family. Teddy would let me sit in the garage and watch every night while he worked on the car. He would patiently answer all my stupid questions and explain everything he was doing to the car as he did it. It was Teddy and that '57 that got me into hot rods at that young age. Over a half century later and I'm still obsessed! I doubt he has any idea of the influence he had on my life.

 

In '57 my oldest brother bought the first Harley Sportster in SW Washington. At the time, he was working at Boeing in Renton (just South of Seattle) and when he came came home on weekends, this 8/9 year old pestered him until I got some "seat time" with him on that thing. That hooked me on speed.
Two or three years later a kid (he was 16 or 17 I'd guess) got into '50 Ford 2 door sedans. He'd buy a nice original, detail it, drop it, lakers, flippers, whitewalls, then pedal it and get another. I 'supervised' most of that, and that hooked me on cars in general. Then a year or two later, THE local car club, The Slo Poks, had their club house about 2 miles from my house. I'd ride my bike there and drool and ask stupid-kid questions, etc. They were really tolerant of a kid hanging around. One day Vern Clemmens (sp) was tuning up his blown-flathead powered T sedan and asked me if I wanted to go on a 'test' run. You bet! I'm in! We headed towards town to an abandoned street that he knew, and proceeded to do a number of (approx) 1/8 mile full throttle runs. That hooked me on quick, loud hot rods. I have a lot of guys to thank for my addiction.

 

When I lived on Bainbridge Island in the late 50's early 60's the "older" neighbor kid who was a high school Sr at the time had a slammed to the ground baby doll blue 49 Plymouth that I thought was way too cool.
When we moved back over here when I was 15 the Guy who ran the Shell station in the middle of town had a chopped and channel 36 Ford truck that you would call a bobber truck today that really spun my wheels. I think I have the radiator shell off it that I bought at a swap meet probably 20 years ago. One of those things I had no real use for but it was cheap with a lot of cool factor.