History What was your First car?

My first couple cars were OT Chevy midsized coupes with small blocks. Fun but I wanted something COOL! In 1990 a coworker at the time said she had a 57 Chevy in her back yard since she was born. Apparently her father was told to park it and get a family car. Two days later we hauled it out and oh my did I have a project!! 1st pic circa 1975 before it was put away, 2nd pic is from a couple weeks ago

 

How do you define 'first'? My grandpa had a 37 Ford pickup that I begged him for when I was a kid. He said I could have it before he died in 1965 but my father wouldnt let me bring it home. I still have it. In 1963 my father and grandfather bought a 1950 Ford for me to work on, In 1964 I got a Nash Metropolitan, did some work on it, repainted it and sold it for a nice profit. In 1967 I paid for a 1947 Mercury which I still have. Its hard to define which was first but I paid for the Mercury and drove it for 14 years.

 

74 Corvette. Silver, black guts, t-tops, 275hp 350, 4 speed. Had a casette adapter jammed in the factory 8 track. This was the mid-90s so nobody wanted these cars. We got it cheap because the engine was blown. Rebuilt it, warmed it up a little. Man I loved driving that car. Not the fastest thing around, but it would whoop a 5.0 Mustang and that was good enough for me at the time.
I'd post a pic but I'm sure it'll get removed.

 

the first car i ever bought was my parents 65 impala 4 dr hard top which i had maco painted red to go with the red int. installed air shocks and slot mags. 283 2bbl so no ball of fire. my friends called it the "party wagon" . i wanted to buy my dad's 67 no window chevy van with the camp beds in the back.... but he wouldnt sell it to me. for some reason he thought "a high schooler could get in too much trouble in that!"

 

The 1960 VW in my avatar. Paid $850 for it off a used car lot back in '83, last $50 was in nickels, dimes and quarters from my paper route. Another salesman saw my uncle and I loading it on a trailer and, not knowing that it had been sold, reported us to the local police that it was being stolen - oops! Learned to drive in it, work on it, hotrod it (much to the consternation of my parents), and got me started in the metal trades learning how to do welding, sheet metal and machining to repair and fabricate parts. Lots of adventures driving all over New England! I have met a lot of nice people over the years because of it. It got me into college, a few jobs, and it even helped me secure a couple of bank loans over the years. 39 years of ownership next month!

 

In 1965 My first was a 57 F-100 from a junk yard, installed Pontiac 389 and trans. Dads Friend owed him a favor and it got paint, My Dads oldest friend owned a tinting business( liquid put poured on and collected at her bottom of window) and I was ready got 11th grade

 

1964 Ford Econoline Van does that count?

 

my first car was a wagon. 1953 or 54 ford wagon

 

First car was a 61 Pontiac StratoChief. 261, 3 on the tree, and a 4 door. Had it all of about three months. Bought it from my boss for $400 in 1975. Seems my first lesson about ownership was discovering just because you can buy it there's the need to insure and register it that needs buying as well. Seems some of that stuff they either didn't teach you in high school, or I didn't learn. But $3.10 an hour bought me a Pontiac.
I didn't do the damage, it was my younger brother learning to drive.


The nose of it's replacement is in the back ground. It what was used to tow bar the 38 home.

But that's not the full story. Looking back now, the damage doesn't look that bad? I should have thought about fixing it but I didn't take automotive in high school I took welding. Truth be told I didn't own a wrench or a welder.
Anyhow, mall parking lot, brother learning, 3 peddles, and discovering after a way to quick right hand turn, now second gear, a short but stout concrete barrier protected two large garbage bins in our path.
We came to an abrupt stop hitting one square on. Thinking about it now, looking at the picture, we road up the concrete and bumper dented and pushed the bin. Car now stalled out, rad pissing anti freeze, us two kncukle heads dumb founded by what just happened figured best get going home.
Surveying the damage, we switched positions, I backed us down and said we're going home.
Next morning I'm woken to my mom saying cops at the door. Turns out some one had seen us and called the cops. Talk about stupid criminals, they followed the antifreeze trail. Not that our path home was a complicated one, but we left a trail. Seems they lost it in the dusk but picked it up the next morning. Sure as hell, I followed it myself and yea, smart cop had a trail to follow. First car, first tickets, first hard lessons in life.
Anyhow, sold it to a kid in the hood and he tried to out run the cops with it when reported for stealing car stereo's.

 

The year was 2000. I was 15 years old and I had saved $3500 for the purchase of a car. I wanted an old car, but my mom wasn't about it. When I asked her to take me to go look at a 70 Mustang Mach One for sale, she said no, and basically forced me to buy a brutal 1986 Mustang LX convertible. She hated it, and wouldn't ride in it, which was problematic since as a permit holder, I needed a licensed driver in the car. I never liked the car, so I sold it and said I would buy whatever I wanted. A buddy's dad told me about a 57 Chevy sitting at a gas station in Iselin for sale. It was in my budget, and when I went to look at it, I knew it was the one.


It was a little rough, but it was a 57 Chevy. It had a 283, with a 2 barrel and no power options. It was a weirdo with a Turboglide transmission, too. It needed exhaust, so a local shop put long tube headers on, Flowmasters, and true duals. With he mufflers basically welded to the reducers, it was LOUD and would rap like a set of glass packs. I put a head unit in it, and I was on my way. This was my first real car, and the car I would drive when I first got my license to drive. Even though I was a senior in high school, my girlfriend at the time was a freshman in college. So every weekend I would jump in my 57 and drive the 100 miles down the NJ Turnpike to party at the University of Delaware, cruise Main Street in Newark, DE, hang out with a bunch of pretty girls, and really have a time before heading home on Sunday to rejoin my classmates Monday for school who weren't living on that level. GREAT times were had.

Unfortunately, a loser kid at school who had his license less than a month plowed into the back of the 57 later that year. While it wasn't totaled, it was badly hurt. The decision was made to take the generous insurance pay out, sell the car as is, and parlay into something else with 2 doors. I brought my 57 Ford home the day of my senior prom and have had it ever since.