This is the story of a 26-year Australian love affair that began in the Eighties... was centered in the Seventies, but ended up in the sixties. Eventually, it lead me back to the Thirties where I would purchase a super cool cruiser. All of a sudden I realized that every car I bought since the 80's I kept going further back in time, buying cars that were older than the last one. Enter a young kid from the southern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. A kid whose father was a car guy. Dad loved his cars ... and he had plenty of them as I was growing up. When he was young he worked the dirt track speedway as pit crew for open-wheelers. It was Liverpool Raceway mainly. Even though Dad preferred the SBC powered ope-wheelers it was the big US Cars that I loved to see. Little did I know, way back then in the years to come, I would become an accidental car tragic !! I do love my car stuff now... but it wasn't always that way. I wandered for many years doing work-related things... had a few car setbacks ... and then all of a sudden I found myself on the trail of performance street cars, drag races (some illegal), and classic cruisers. Luckily I found the girl of my dreams to share those things with. So this is installment one, ... and I'll lead off with some images that shaped me when I was young. Dad loved his cars and they were all makes and models. Here he is in 1967 with a GM Holden. There wasn't much Dad couldn't fix or maintain...from Lawnmowers to Diesel Generators. In the 70's Dad sure loved his American Chevy's. So enter the Speedway. It was a regular event that Dad would take my younger brother & me off to the Speedway on a Saturday night. I was about 10 and my brother 3 years younger. We would sit on the grass mound on turn four with a blanket to stop the mud from hitting us as the cars went by. Meanwhile, Dad was in the pits working on the cars. There was plenty of octane in the air and of course coke and hot dogs for my brother and me to eat. View attachment 5067352 Plenty of Aussie stock cars with the occasional import. View attachment 5067354 Open Wheeler midgets with their small block V8's ... always a great race. View attachment 5067355 It was the big US cars that my brother and I liked. Occasionally they would be up against the big Aussie cars like '74 & '77 V8 Aussie Coupes. Little did I realize that when I could afford to save up and get my own car it would be a '77 V8 Ford. More about that later. View attachment 5067361 The car that was won and lost very quickly but always remembered as the one that got away. Installment two shortly. Please stay tuned.
Great Read ! I always enjoy reading other CarCrazy's story/adventures/life. Looking forward to installment 2. I've told my story, always enjoy reading other's, If we ever meet, we would have a connection instantly.
Sounds like we grew up in southern Sydney at the same time, ( I’m a Bankstown boy) every car I bought got older and older and in worse and worse condition as each one taught me more and more, so each new project I was game to try something I hadn’t done before , it was always easy to buy a mid 50s Holden or ford for peanuts, and work on it,,, I look forward to your next posts
Hey mate... thanks for that. It may take me a little bit to reply with the time difference between here and there but I will reply. Installamet two underway !!!
Hey there Bowlingball... Bankstown eh!! Well, I am a shire boy from Sutherland! Go Sharks !!! 2016 was our year...only took us 50 years to win a premiership. It seems we have chewed some of the same dirt and breathed the same pollution from that which is Sydney. While I haven't lived there since the early 80's I do still miss the palce where my formative years were spent. Mainly on the old red rattler trains going in and out of the city. Nice to meet you.
Great story, My story is the opposite of yours. My Dad never owned a car, he was in fact very anti car, he worked for the NSW Gov Railway & we lived very close to the station in Sydney's western suburbs, don't get me wrong he was a great Dad & we went every where on the train which wasn't a bad thing. I got the car bug totally on my own, I was bitten at a very early age. When I was 8 or 9 I used to walk past a Model A roadster on the way to school which was very different to other old cars it was low in the front with no hood & a lot of chrome on the motor, I was hooked this was the early 60's & later my Sister's boyfriend would take me to Westmead & Windsor Speedway. Later on I used to catch the train to Penrith then hitch hike out to Castlereagh Drags which hooked me for life. Looking forward to the next episode of your story. Cheers.
It's funny how things work... Not that I am surprised by the opposite nature of your story. It's just funny how things work. I was in car wilderness for many years later. Even vowed I would not do it ever again.... yet sometimes the world and external influences have other ideas....
I Never had a single thread/post that started from the beginning to present, just several posts that I've talked about my life at different times, now 73. I was born into a racing family, raced myself as a driver, car owner and owner driver into my 40's, Been a Carnut from childhood on, will be to my expiration date. I had some kool cars as a kid, this car hobby has been my deal all my life, I've raised a family, ran my business 36 years plus a racing business 21 years, very busy all my life, now operating on the "Nothing happens fast program". Check my albums for some pic history and I'm still playing with cars, mostly enjoying, not any big projects anymore, one restoration still in progress will be my last I'm thinking.
Hey OzMerc, thanks 4 thread (beautiful avatar!), relate a lot, parallels exist between us, I suspect. However I am a mere art guy and wannabe driver of old junk. Me- Northern Adelaide, post-Brooksflield, Rowley Park pre-teen junkie, SUPER MODIFIEDS yeah, my fave too. Bill Wigzell #88 'Suddenly'. John Boulger on the Jawa. Although I have for many years since now tended to favour speedcars. My FJ is identical to one in your photo, but a basket case with 16.80 grey mill. My nephew is < 25 y.o and hardcore grey motor freak with lotsa gear, including a lovely XU1-ish FJ on original modified fittings. We would ride single speed pushbikes 18 miles to drags as kids, including Cobbler Creek hill. We'd be freaked out by Graeme Cowin & Jim Walton and all the other great Victorians & Croweaters. 'We' is my mates who all have righteeous old home-built street pre-48 stuff.
Hey mate... You are right...many similarities there. They are very influential years as we grow up While I tried to break away from it. The older I get the more I realise how much it means to me and how much I now try to bring those time closer since my Dad passed away. Great artwork by the way... Sometimes it a case of you don't know how much you have got until it'd gone. So it is with my Dad...passed away 2001.
As the years went by, my cars became an A to B thing. However, I started to realise just how much influence there was from Dad. He was a clean freak with his cars and Sunday wash was religious. Not just a wash but the whole thing inside and out vacuum and glass, chrome, tyres and even the chrome tip on the exhaust. Meanwhile, there is me mowing the lawn ... earning $2 per lawn at the age of 10. Good money for the time. Fast forward to the 1980's and it came time to go out and look for a car of my own. I knew I needed something cool but also practical enough to get me home on an interstate trip. Having stalked the car yards for what seemed weeks and weeks I eventually settled on a '77 V8 Falcon. It was 1985...and it was perfect! Not exactly a hover board or anything like Back to the Future..but it was cool to me. It was a 1 owner car, mag wheels, tinted windows, deep jade green in colour, T-bar auto with a retro vinyl roof. Cool as...at least I thought so. While all of my mates spent their hard-earned $$$ on beer and night clubs I began to tip it into the Falcon. Before I really knew it I had spent the original purchase price of $7000.00 again on accessories and performance. Suspension, Transmission (shift-kit), Engine rebuild, exhaust system, Sound system etc etc.... I may have been racing it illegally on the street and then in dark back roads just for the kicks. In fact, it was so nice that someone thought they needed it more than I did and stole it... stripped it... and then set it on fire. That was a killer !!! I four short years of ownership...everything I had built...was gone. I salvaged the car and tried to re-create the same car by transferring the driveline into another car that was 1 year older...a '76 model. It never was the same and eventually married life entered the equation and the car left the family as I sold it for the quiet life. Years would pass and even marriage came and went..... so I had to determine... what was next ??? I wanted to reclaim my life again and figure I needed something that was the same age as me... I hunted around and at that time it was the 1990's. Guess what 25 to 30-year-old cars were cheap. Nobody really wanted them. For the owners, they almost couldn't give them away. After a good 6 months of searching, I found one which I thought to myself. That's the one !!!! I was in Melbourne at the time and answered an ad for a 1964 Falcon Coupe Deluxe. I went to see the guy and we talked about the history of the car and haggled on price. It was a Broadmeadows car and sold to him from a deceased estate from the 1st owner's widow who lived at Phillip Island, Victoria. He lived not far from Melbourne airport. The deal was struck and I collected the car a week later. Interestingly I paid the same amount for this car ($7000.00) as I did for the '77 Ford. Dad was still alive when I got this. He visited us in Melbourne, and after giving it the once over and picking up a few problems. Gave it his stamp of approval, hoping I would see to fixing them. Sure Dad... will do. As purchased in 1996. We have been on some adventures over the years and she has transformed mechanically and interior, Largely she has become the most reliable car I have ever owned. Let's go on the journey of 20 or so years until we get to the point that a '60s car needs to give way to a '30s car !!!!
Hey Deuces ...A long way from Michigan. I am always surprised when I hear of Americans that move to Australia. Nice to have you here mate.
The coupe was partially restored when I brought it home. The previous owner had started the work, however, he was between a rock and a hard place trying to renovate his house in preparation for getting married. I figured that his loss was a gain for me. I haggled $200 off the price and I became the third owner of this fine piece of Aussie motoring history. The first thing to do was to put all the side trim (which was all in the boot) back on. In the previous photo, you can see the Deluxe trim back where it should be. Interestingly my second or third trip into the city I parked it in the street, but when I returned someone had tried to jimmy off the door and rear panel side trim. Luck I had used stainless steel brackets and speed nuts to secure it on. Even in the 90s Coupe trim was hard to get and expensive to buy. The main reason I re-attached it was because I didn't like the look of the holes in the body. The interior was in ok shape and good enough to just get in and drive. I figured that maybe if I really needed to, I could get it refreshed in a year or two. More about this in a later installment about just how long it took me to have the interior redone. This car was now my only car so I needed it to get to and from work. Having rebuilt the engine and suspension in the '77 I was able to find my way around the engine bay of the coupe with relative ease. I sure didn't have the money to anything except keep it running. Well, Australia is a large country and this meant if I wanted to go anywhere this car was going to have to get me there. The first test after 8 months of ownership was an interstate drive to my next post. Melbourne to Canberra. That's just shy of 700km (420 miles). With nothing more than a standard service...grease & oil change I set off for Canberra in the height of an Aussie summer. Arrived in good shape ready for 7 winters.... 1997 - I couldn't find a photo of the Melbourne Canberra trip. Here a return trip I did at some other time. All good in the Nations Capital in 1997. The spats were added after attending the famous Bendigo swap meet. I think I know why I ended up consecutively buying older cars and ended up in the 60's and eventually the 30's. So let's explore that in the next installment.
I grew up as kid in Australia... We moved to the States in '71.... That be a hair over 50 years ago... I'd love to go back after I retire though...
I believe that it is quite often the formative years when you a little kid that leaves impressions on you that you don't realise. Along with cars Dad really love his photography. So naturally, he took a lot of photos of his cars...A LOT!. Now I have all those photos, hence why I was able to kick this thread off with some of him and his cars. It did get to a stage where Mum said..."Des will you stop taking so many photos of cars!!!" "how about taking more of the kids?!" So he did... But he made sure there was a car in there somewhere..... Thanks Dad... Absolute family gold !!! Along the way and after I lost the '77 to thieves, I had plenty of friends who were into the car scene. It was a very different scene than what I was used to. Being a reformed Street Machiner with illegal drags and later street meet drags at the local raceway, I initially found older cars not all that interesting. When I met him one of my best mates (to this day) was heavily into his 50's Chevy's. He had just sold a red four door 57 to fund and imported '57 Two Door post that was in pieces in a shed downtown. With the leftover money, he bought a hack to run around in... A '68 Impala with a 327. Man o man that '68 was a huge ... a football field on wheels and ran on aviation fuel. He and I went to all kinds of Car Nationals... Chevy Nationals, Street Rod Nationals etc etc.... It was a completely new world for me.... I also had mates that just owned older cars and used them as daily drivers. I ended up learning the lesson that driving them is better as it keeps everything in good shape. There I was looking for a new Street Machine with a modern car and here they were enjoying their classic cars and Hot Rods & Customs. Naturally, I took after Dad in the photography department as well ... I snapped these photos back in the 80's of all the kind of car stuff we did. Here is a sample... My mate sold this to fund a yellow '57 two-door. I helped him from time to time in building this car. This was a huge project for me. I had never rebuilt an entire car before. Heading to the Chevy Nationals in 1986 (note 'acid' wash jeans...so trendy) Stan on the right owned the 63 SS Impala and my mate and I drove it home. The hydraulic suspension was a hard ride ... but we got home looking super cool along the way. All those years of Dad saying "hey stand in front of this car and let Dad take your photo"...to losing my Street Machine in a fiery blaze of theft ...combined with the recovery period of hangin' out with good mates saying hey take a look at these cool old cars, lead me back to buy a 1964 Falcon.... My other reasoning was... My Falcon & I ... We were made in the same year. So that means we understand each other a whole lot better.... OK, I said... got to love those 60's !! ... at least for a while as I was coveting a '32 Hi-Boy Roadster. More about that later
Nice place to live, I lived at Thirroul for 7 years and spent my early years surfing the south coast,,, beautiful beaches and a great car culture,,,home to the biggest Aussie owned rotary scene...I’ve a soft spot for the old rotors
That 1964 is a much improvement over the 62/63 or what were the years this body was produced over there ?
What year car is the one that looks like a 1960 Falcon from North America? Does anyone have pictures of a Falcon Ute from this era? I'm curious if it is the same as a Ranchero here.
The Falcon ute made here used front 4 door sedan doors (local production), the Ranchero used longer doors (2 door sedan doors maybe?). We never got the 2 door sedan.
Thank you for your replies. It looks like the quarter panels are shorter too. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hey Oz Merc, I'm a Caringbah/Shire boy too and like Charlie (Dago88) my father wasn't really interested in cars but with him being from an engineering background he always repaired and/or serviced his own cars. Back in 1966 we had the USA drag tour visit Australia and the Yellow Fang dragster was on display at Miranda Fair shopping centre prior to the Castlereagh round. After getting an autograph from George Schreiber I pestered my parents to take me to that event which they reluctantly/eventually did, I was 12 years old then and I needed the transport. Until I was old enough to get a licence my brother and I would get to Castlereagh by catching a train to Penrith and then walking/bum a ride out to the track for Saturday events. We'd sleep overnight there (usually in the old bus) and then walk back to Penrith on Sunday to catch the train back to Caringbah ...... what great weekends we had back then. Mark and Parker Georgette were also Shire boys and their parents owned a toy store in Caringbah which is where Mark built many of his hot rods and the "Outrage" Fiat altered. I used to ride my push bike down there and watch Mark welding the tube chassis together and drool over his Corvette powered Model A coupe. This was the start of my 55 year car addiction having owned several Altereds since 1970, a flathead powered '31 Ford coupe that is still in hibernation and I'm 75% of the way through a '46 Ford Tudor build for my wife to cruise in ...... she has always supported my car habits by allowing my many Australian and USA drag strip visits. I think that we lived through a great period of time, things were pretty simple then and if you had some basic skills and tools you could manage most car projects.
The Jalopy Journal
