Even as a little kid,I took stuff apart,put some of it back together. I made a little $,from pinstriping an other art on cars. Then a long comes the mid 1950s when I was thinking in a few years ;I'll be in Sr. High School ,so owning my own cool car,would be way better then the not cool at all bus rides! Dad tells me ,even before the start of Jr. high,I'm getting your Sis a car,but your a man an need to get your own. Well that's start of hunting up parts to build my cool car{Hot Rod},knowing I could not buy one. By 1959 I had a running hot rod from 3 years of hunting mostly free parts. It was not what Dad had in mind!! Had real fun driving 28A roadster hot rod to high school<even still have it!,but after 2 months in high school it dawned on me,I really needed a car with fenders, a top and roll up windows. So blow the last of saved paper rout n odd job $ on a $75 old Henry J. = Car #2< It was ugly but dry,so a little at a time I customized it,by 1963 the "J" was in Jan. Car Craft mag. as a full custom. Owning two def cars in High School at the same time,was odd maybe,but hay it just happened !
I did. My first car was a real p.o.s. my dad wisely tried to talk me out of buying, but I was too stubborn to listen to him. I spent a lot of time working on it, spent more time working on it than driving it, until I finally traded it in on a nice used Charger down at the local Dodge dealer.
In our family we had to buy our own cars if we wanted one. My first car, a '37 Chevy 2dr. sedan, I bought for $5 from my brothers friend. We had to pull it out of his backyard, and take the spiders with us. That was in 1963. Sold that one for $200 and bought a '40 Chevy for $200 next. Started working my first paid job at 14 and every cent went into cars and car stuff. Now, 30+ hot rods later, nothing has changed. Life was, and is, good. Here's a picture of my 1st and 2nd cars....
I realized early that I wasn't cut out for 'working on' other peoples cars. Their money, their rules. So I worked two full time foundry 'piece work' jobs, at the same time(3rd and 1st shifts) to support my automotive addiction. My money, my rules.
First car wasn't a car; it was a '47 International panel truck. And I was 14 yrs. old, and it was cheap. Uncle sold it to me for $25 because the soft plugs had rotted out of the block. Put new soft plugs in it, along with new seat, battery, carb kit, and gas. Drove it around his farm for 2 years until I could get my license, and then drove it to school a couple years until I bought my '57 Chevy Belair. Always had to buy projects I could afford, and then try to do as much of the work as possible, as couldn't afford to buy them done, or pay anyone to do the work. Ended up working at the local Cadillac dealer after high school, and went to GM Training School here. Then got drafted, and when I returned home Fisher Body was on strike, so I changed careers and stuck with just doing car work as my hobby. It's been over 55 years now of building cars, and playing with cars. Not many of my hobbies make me as happy.
I didn’t come from the school of tough like you guys did, only had a few side jobs while living at home. But spent all my free weekends and summer weeks doing seat time for my dads commercial tractor work business he had going. I never got a paycheck from him, but he always footed the bill for what I needed , not wanted, but needed. That said, he’d always have something he’d parked that was worn out, had a problem, etc. He’d find cheap transportation for his real job and I’d get the left over car/truck. I’d use his 2.5 ton Ford for wrecking yard runs for parts. Even drove that ‘54 to HS a few times with the D4 sitting winched and load binded down on the deck. When he felt I was responsible enough he gave me the keys to his ‘57 Chevy PU he’d bought new. By that time he’d put a 454/TH400 in it from a ‘70 Vette. Then the fun began. I wanted chrome (so did he) so the seat time discoing, scraping, etc I was doing was paid off in chrome. Pretty sure I was living my dads life. For things he didn’t think I needed, I did side work on friends cars, headers, intakes, etc. 10 here, 20 there, went a long way in the late 70’s. I was just thinking about this the past few days, have had vehicles since the mid 70’s, and I’m just now try to find time to actually pay a shop to fix a smog issue on my truck. I cringe at shop rates, but figure if I spread it out over the last 50-plus years, I’m still ahead
Hi. It was 1953 in Shreveport La and my drivers liscense got me started. Took paint & body in high school. Was founding member of the old STA (Shreveport Timing Assoc) and the Regents rod & Custom club. First car was a 52 MG TD bored with a hot cam and duals followed by a 49 Chevy coup I did some custom work on & the a 39 Ford Coupe with a 265 Chevy V8 with dual carbs and a columbia rear end. Then came my 53 Ford convertable custom That I now and then post a pic or here. It is the only one from back then that I have a photo of. Then family and life got in the way of all that. Got back into old rides in 2013 with my 46 Chevy coupe with the hot rod 235 and a couple of years ago with my 1950 Plymouth Deluxe. Jimmie
Grew up on a farm in the 50's ,we fixed everything or we didn't get to use it .Dad had an old canvas bag that held all our tools.A lot of the bolts back then had square heads, been awhile since I seen them.
My 1st real job was at a gas station when I was 15 1/2. Before that was lawn mowing, and helping the neighborhood guy with his lawn work. Dad "let" me use his old car for my transportation, but I paid the car insurance and bought the gas. I didn't get my own car until I was 18, it was a nice looking pile of crap. At 19 I bought my 2nd car (traded in the 1st car), and then got married 6 months later. That was when everything changed for me. My wife worked full time too, we split the household expenses, she paid for some stuff and I paid for other stuff. My full time job paid my part of the household bills, and the after hours work paid for all of our car stuff. There was a lot of after hours of work, and a lot of car stuff. Gene
Had the money from working since I was 12 for my transportation AND INSURANCE my dad would be sure I had. Not sure it was the 4sp car my mom took me to see and she liked that my dad didn't. Or the 41 Plymouth coupe at the used car lot that started up that my dad didn't like because it had fresh oil - butt. He steered me to my Studebaker truck that was one of his military co-workers - that ran but needed a transmission - that I got on the road after I found a transmission for it and rebuilt it myself - that got me going. Or it could have been that little 2 stroke M/C he bought with my money that wouldn't run 10 mph. Proved it had a stopped up tail pipe but I think he thought that was just luck....or maybe he knew ?
my dad was a depression-era guy, who believed in fixing things if they broke. guess it rubbed off on me!
What got me really started with hot rods and customs was finding an issue of Hot Rod on the bookmobile when I was in the 5th grade and probably 12 years old. That sure killed any plans that people in the school had for me to be a scientist due to having the highest IQ score in my grade in the school district that year. I blew that idea out the window. Truth was I was really good at taking tests like that and had some real good teachers at McKinley elementary where Heritage University now sits. Top quality teachers who turned out a bunch of well rounded kids. I was on Bainbridge Island when I took the IQ test and found Hot Rod about the same time though. First car was my 51 Merc that I bought from the crafts shop teacher in High school here in Toppenish. I think he moved on and taught in Cashmere Wa for years. My summer jobs and what ever I picked up after school and on weekends went to what the car needed or the one that I had after it needed. There are probably a few gals my age that I could have asked out in school but my car always kept me so broke that I couldn't afford many dates in those days. I thought I wanted to be a mechanic and my big plan was to have my own shop but looking back I was far more interested in having the skills to work on my own stuff than I was in working on other peoples vehicles all day even though I was pretty good at it. Never did have my own shop but looking back I don't miss that.
Growing up we lived in the rural South and every extra cent I could get my hands on went into model cars, one day I ran across across the Henry Gregor Felsen hardbound book HOT ROD in the school library, I read it and started looking for books on hot rods. One day when I went to the local Drugstore with my mom I spotted HOT ROD Magazine on the magazine rack, I was 12 years old and the image on the cover reached out and grabbed me, I still have that magazine to this very day. The image on that magazine is our own Dean Lowe with his 1929 red roadster pickup, that was the January 1962 issue. my fate was sealed and I knew I was going to build a hot rod someday. HRP
Dad owned a Richfield full service center. I really caught the bug in my teens. Cool cars were a dream.
My dad got my older sister a car, than it was passed down to my oldest bother, they had to play by dads rules because he owned the. I wanted no part of playing by dads rules so I bought a fixer upper, rebuilt the motor and got running, than found out I still had to play by dads rules.
My step dad agreed to buy me a car... I had high hopes of something like a muscle car, sadly that was not in my future lol. He paid 125$ for an OT Plymouth Fury that had more issues than a ward at the crazy house. He told me if I could make it run, make it legal, and have it pass the state inspection, it would be mine. The rest is history! I replaced the tranny in that thing twice, re-wired the majority of the under-dash stuff and learned that if another human built it, I could most likely fix it! That mentality has served me well all through out my life!
Absolutely! I could not afford a decent car in high school, but my dad could paint a decent lacquer paint job and I was really good with bondo and between the two of us we could do most mechanical jobs and that is how I got my first several cars, including my first 1950s car (in 1984). Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I got started building when I got my first erector set for Christmas. I was 5 and that had me wanting to build all kinds of things. When I was 9 I got a go cart for Christmas that my dad built. It was awesome and from then on I was hooked on did all the maintenance on it with the help of dad. Even put a new, bigger engine in it with my own money from a paper route. I wanted my own car bad and I new I would have to buy it, so i saved my money and had a 65 Corvair Corsa coupe at 14. Dad helped me get it going and funded many of the parts. He wanted me to pay my own way, but he wanted to help me succeed as well. The bottom line was if I wanted my own wheels I was going to have to work for it and the fire that burns for our hobby was sparked from this.
My old man was a rugged individualist who believed in a man making his own way and passed that to me. I did odd jobs starting when I was about 13, cutting grass, cleaning paint off of freshly painted windows, helped a fellow set up a store, hauling hay, anything I could make a buck at. My automotive knowledge came from books and magazines, I was an avid reader ( still am), and I soaked up info like a sponge. When I was 16 and had my license, I started watching the newspaper classifieds and dealer ads. He wouldn’t let me buy anything without his approval, so even though I found several affordable cars, he wouldn’t let me buy one of them. Finally one spring day we went to the Chevy dealer and bought a 67 Mustang, 200 6cyl C4, wouldn’t run very fast, but it was a car of my own. Kept it nearly a year, doing high school things to it, glasspack muffler, chrome breather, just small things I could afford. Then I found another 67, a loaded V8 car. Traded my car for that one, gave $600 boot IIRC. From then, it was on! It got dual exhaust, a mismatched set of Torque Thrusts, wide tires, air shocks for that jackrabbit raked look, more things I can’t think of right now. Did all my own work with knowledge I had gained from all my reading. Still hate to take a vehicle to a shop, but sometimes have to with the modern computer junk. I think the old man was proud of me when I changed a water pump for him, a job he wouldn’t tackle. He would do some stuff like plugs and points, but left the rest to a local shop.
My dad was a gear head. Passed the love of old cars to me. I would help him in the garage. His friends who were also car guys were always around.
Grew up on the farm, it was something my Dad let me do for myself. We had lots of tools, my Uncle had a body shop, had a friend apprenticing as a mechanic. Found my 50 ford half ton at an auction out of the farm paper. Got the auto trader every Thursday after school, fresh off the press, tried the buy low sell high model as a side hustle for years. Still at it.
Simply said, Dad was a jalopy crazed individual with Hotrod magazines everywhere. How could I not follow in his foot steps...
Hello, Well, for starters, a nice family that supported just about anything we tried to do while growing up. Our dad was a sports fishing fanatic and an ex semi pro baseball player, a switch hitter/thrower. So, he showed an interest in showing us sports stuff, only if we showed an interest. He showed me how to switch hit and in our little league and junior baseball. It was an advantage and confused the opposing pitcher. In high school, not so much as the skill set for everyone was much better. He was a dad that liked getting involved with his sons, but not pushing his style or interests on us. He let us evolve and ask him for help or information. Fishing we learned by doing. Fishing with our dad was a whole new ball game, as there was a sparkle in his eye when the two brothers jumped right in the deep sea scene. My brother was an antsy kid and was always doing something new, from tall “grass bombs” during our “war” games in the huge field behind our old house, to quietly sitting reading comic books…he was involved. He was older and did things with his friends first. Also, our dad would get involved with anything we showed an interest in and that helped tremendously. Our mom was supportive to a point. During our 1940 Willys Coupe build, she would only support our involvement with late night sandwiches and drinks and a few words to get inside the warm house for some sleep. She did not like the 671 HAMB motor exhaust noise and thought hot rods should not be for young teens. Ha! One simple thing was driving to the local liquor store to get a newspaper for his “day off” reading time. That weekly event involved the two brothers as we tagged along to read whatever was available at the magazine rack, while our dad shopped for household necessities. He hated grocery shopping in large stores, but would buy supplies at his favorite small store. It was this time that comics and car magazines held our interests. We were good model car builders, despite the fights we had over sharing different parts. So, these times were, in essence, what got our interest perked up as we saw cool hot rods and custom cars/trucks in our neighborhood and in the magazines at the local small liquor store. It was a weekly event from the time in 1948, when we moved to a real house in the Westside of Long Beach. (in 1955, our house was about two blocks from the Southern end of the new, Lion’s Dragstrip) The weekly events continued until we could actually go to the same liquor store by ourselves, via bicycles or my brother’s new Oldsmobile sedan. Jnaki The starting point was either our interests in building plastic models or being influenced by the cool looking hot rods, customs, and modified trucks from our early days as little kids. It helped that a local businessman had the most wonderful custom, chopped truck, painted a beautiful Tahitian Red and had all of the custom stuff of the day. We walked by that truck almost every day, while our mom and dad knew the owner quite well, while going to his business store. We admired it walking, bicycling or just going to his business with our folks. It was something to see. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/neighborhood-hot-rods-that-influenced-you.1221076/page-3#post-13962969 As far as working on cars, with the advent of a cool 51 Oldsmobile Sedan sitting in our driveway or garage, it was being asked to do some maintenance from my brother. He had a built in worker bee, shown the correct way to do something and when it was done to perfection, it was a way to be able get two things done. One, detailing or mechanical stuff for the newly acquired 51 Oldsmobile Sedan. But, the other thing was me being able to tag along with my brother to speed shops, the drags, the beach, etc. All things I could not do by my self, I was able to do by simply cleaning his 51 Oldsmobile Sedan or do some simple mechanical stuff while he was sitting inside of the house listening to music. He had a built in protégé in a younger brother willing to do stuff on hot rods or other car stuff.
I got started by obtaining my first car as payment for helping out a guy who bought cars, fixed them up, and then sold them. He taught me a lot about mechanical things.
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