History I'm curious-How long you been at this??

I'm 61 and have been interested in cars all my life. My Dad was into cars and I built model cars and bought every car magazine I could find (and took them to school in my notebook). When Niagara Dragway opened in Niagara Falls, NY in '62 we rode our bikes there every weekend until we were able to start driving there. I remember doing burnouts with my Father's car in the driveway and then trying to get rid of the tire marks before he got home from work--of course I couldn't. My first car, when I was in high school (and auto shop), was a '39 Ford Standard coupe and I put a 265 with 3 deuces in it. Lots of cars since, rodding is still fun even though my body won't let me do all the work that I used to do.

 

Started with hot rods in '57 with my girlfriend's older brother and his car club when I was 13. I'm 64.



Mutt

 

Loved cars since I was a kid and I'm the only one in my family. Dad comes over and looks and scratches his head wondering were I learned how to do this. I spend most of my time with my father in law how's been doing this when this was all new. He now builds street rods. I tried to bring him back from the dark side but the Force is strong in him.

 

Picture of me after I picked up my first chick! My Dad, me and my sister in '48.

 

62 years old and I can remember as a kid about 6 years old going to the neighborhood gas station with my dad whos friend owned the station. My dad would bs with the owner and I would check out whatever he was working on. I asked alot of questions and he would take the time to explain what he was doing and from around then I was always interested in working on cars.

 

I'm 29 and been in this life for 24 years. My Dad is a custom guy and taught me to love both customs and hot rods. Dad wanted a garage buddy and someone to go to car shows with. My brother wasn't into and I loved it. I grew up around all of the hot rod greats. Gene Winfield, Dick Dean, Larry Watson, Bill Hines, and so many more. I was voted Miss Cruisin Nationals at age 13. My first car was going to be a 1957 Nomad that my Dad and I found in a field in Hemet, Ca. Sadly we had to sell it for financial reasons. Of course years later, this hobby/lifestyle brought me to meet and marry another hot rod great, Von Franco. Now I live for driving my Studebaker.

 

I'm 64 and started turning wrenches on a buddy's home built go kart in about '54. Got my own Doodelbug mini bike a year later and a Harley hummer in 57. First car in 59 and built my first rod in 61. Got my latest rod on the road about a year ago. Between 61 and 07 bikes Vettes , rods bikes, big trucks [semi's] and now back to rods. With a few odd sportscars thrown in for the hell of it.

 

52 and I can't remember a time when I would hear a muscle car or hotrod and not be twisting my neck trying to see it . My first car was my brothers 64 galaxie 500 2dr HT that he went defunct on it was 1971 and dad said get a hair cut and i could have it . Since i've been married i have allways had something sitting around .

 

I'm 28. I can remember when I was 3 living in Austin Tx watching The Dukes of Hazzard on TV. What else is there besides Hot Rods. I eat,drink and sleep this shit - this is fucking life. I machine and build race engines. I'm always around something cool.

Later Eric

 

I forgot about the model cars ,My older sister was friends with Jack Walker Darell Starbird & Ray Farner which in KCMO at that time was big I got to go to the shows Mainly to wax the cars .But at home I was customizing some of my model cars I had 3 of big boxes of parts.When I got to the real cars I passed then on to my nephew.Those things made it look easy WHEW!! Larry Henry larry@ vintageozarks.com

 

35... started building LEGO cars professionally at age 2. Just grew from there!

 

I guess I'm a lot like everyone else here - had an uncle and a cousin that had hopped up street racers that I was facinated with when I was real little, and that got me interested. I especially remember a black primer 55 nomad with a vette 327 and chrome reverse wheels, cherry bomb glass packs - you know the type of car. I'd watch them work (and cuss) hand them wrenches and cans of beer. Later, they'd hand me down there old Hot Rod mags. My first car was a turbo charged Corvair Corsa coupe that I'd race at Seattle International raceway, and is surprised a lot of folks. From there, an early Mustang, a 49 Chev pickup, several brit bikes, etc. Worked on European sports cars for a while, which was really cool, but you always come back to your first love.

I'm 43 now, my daily driver is a 40 Ford pickup with a dual quad 283, and I'm building a street racer style 55 Fairlane with a 3x2 312 and stick trans, with a 28 rpu and a 56 Triumph bobber waiting in the wings . . . I have three sons and a daughter to help me build them. They'll get my hand-me-down car mags.

 

Got interested in cars when I was12 at the local gas station, now 61 and just retired so have more time to work on the four oldies I have now, first car was a 27 Chevy doodlebug that my grandpa gave me from the farm, counted up once and have had 50+ old cars and trucks so think I'm hooked for life on the oldies.

 

you know Im not sure if I answered the post before but Ill add my 3 cents in again.

My dad was a hot roddder (Norm Schaeffer) who used to race back on Lynn mArsh road in the 50s here in Massachusetts. So I guess its been in my blood.
Been doing it professionally since I was about 15 and used to hang around Richie Tringali's shop in Malden - soaking up every bit of learning I could and trying it on my own rides when I got back home.

I muddles around for years working for collision shops and resto shops, all the time concentraing on metal fab cuz it was the most fun.

Got my 56 CHevy as my HS grad gift from my grandad in 1981 and its been done over at least a half dozen times as I learned new stuff.

Went out to Cali for a few years in the 80s and ran the gamut there too.


Came back in the late 80's to MASS and been working more and more in the industry since then


Opened the shop in 2004 and never looked back.


Yep thats me in both pics and the same car too ... now 45 and a bit rounder on my edges...LOL

Guess you could say I was born to do it.

 

Almost 62, Father had a 49 Ford, then he got a new 56 ford, think that is what started the passion for cars, built lots of modles then at about 14 years old, started working on the real thing!

 

I'll be 61 years old on August 13th this year. I got into trouble in grammar school for drawing sketches of hotrods during class! I remember my 1st encounter with a brand new 57 Chevy 2 door hardtop like it happened yesterday. There's only one cure for this "hotrod fever" that I'm afflicted with, and that is to own one!....I've been extremely fortunate to have owned several in my life!.....and still going strong!

 

Scenario,
The "unsung builders " are at the house for Christmas, I am covertly
hanging on every word (with my Dad's {the brand} root beer),

from there,

I am sure you folks remember the "Mac 9".... yes the chain saw motor,
well, there were two of them on this go-cart that just was not fast enough...

 

I'm 32 and I've been drawing cars/trucks since I was old enough to hold a pencil/crayon. My dad had 4x4's and almost every muscle car known to man at one point or another while I was growing up (he bought a '59 Vette the day my sister was born). He always had Hot Rod and Super Chevy mags laying around and we starting going to Super Chevy week-ends once a summer right up until midway through high school. I was into hot wheels and models like most, and then into elect.R/C cars around age 10 (now into nitro). My first set of keys at 15 was to a Jeep cj, and it's been my learning ground ever since, with 3 frame up rebuilds in the past 12 years or so. During college ,(Industrial Design),I started reading about guys like Foose, Stanford, Taylor and what was going on in California. It's been a slow steady slide into traditional hot rods and customs ever since. I just picked up my first hot rod project this summer that I found here on the HAMB. A '57 Chevy 3100 that's going to be my traditional hot rod shop truck when all's said and done. During all this time I'm still drawing cars/trucks, except now it's my part-time business(hopefully full time someday), Mind's Eye Concepts doing hot rod design and illustrations. I just can't seem to get enough of this hobby/industry.
Ryan

 

I am 48. I remember building model cars and reading hot rod mags back when I was 11-12. Joined the local hot rod club when I was 13. Here I am chopping my first top 30 years ago.....1978.

 

NICE hairdo Kev,ha ha ha!!! "HR Puff-n-stuff...."
I've been to your house and saw your pic's...you must have started at birth!!!! I'd like to see what the rest of that car looked like.

 

Kev, what kind of car is that??

 

I was chopping this.....

 

I knew you would have some pic's!!! That's cool,Kev...

 

Thanks Bob, now stop double posting all the pics

 

I'm 61 been a car guy ever since I can remember.Bought my first hot rod magazine in 1958 done a lot of other stuff but always came back to cars.

 

Man I'm 32 and started with just clean and and powerful at 15, pops was a white collar accountant, and I'm just a dirty old frat boy...with too much free time. My taste for hotrods was from the begining, but you do what you can with what you had. Discouraged away from hotrods was from the begining.

Here I am at 17 in a stock sled

 

I'm 52, have loved cars for as long as I can remember, but, i bought my first 'project' 3 weeks ago tomorrow. Flathead 8BA motor, trans, rear end, in a pick up frame. What it will be... not quite sure yet!

 

I was born on Christmas Eve of 1957 and according to my mom, I was a gearhead from that day on. While most kids were playing with sticks and balls I was reading HRM, drawing cars, building model cars (no interest in model boat or planes), and dreaming of the day I would own a deuce roadster. My dad was more of a tinkerer than a hot rodder but he did have a few cool cars over the years. He always encouraged me and still to this day finds project cars that he thinks I should buy at least once a week. My brother does the same thing. This week I will go check out a 50 Chevy coupe, a 52 Buick, a 56 Chevy, 2 - 56 Chevy big window pickups, and a 63 Savoy 2 door post.

 

Small world Don
I went to calf in 1959 in aug and by Sept I was at Lions Dragstrip and in 1963 went into the Air Force for 4 years and getting married so needless to say with kids it kind of put my racing on hold for sometime but I would set on the front steps of home and on Saturday night I could hear the fuel cars run at Lions ( the Beach) anyhow after a time I still wanted to race so I built another Front Motor Dragster which I sold it in 1995 and purchest a Rear Motor Dragster which drove great so to spice it up I put a Blown S/B in it but that got boring so I built another Front Motor Dragster like my old one S/B INJ on alka, although It was much harder to fine the old INJ like I had in my old car, if you would like to see some pics of my cars Check it out at http://www.geocities.com/bud_motorsports anyhow as I was getting ready to retire I sold my home in lakewood. CA and moved back to Missouri about 8 years ago, so now I work part time for NAPA and play with my cars, I plan on going to the H.A.M.B. race at MO-KAN 8-23-08
I also put a tape of my Dragster on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/budssupere
at KCIR ,im 67 and not planning on building any more cars its to hot in the summertime and to cold in the winter .
I was Born on DEC,26 The Day After XMAS
Bud

 

I remember that my grandfather gave me a wooden truck that he made for my third Christmas. That was Christmas 1946.
My mom said she never remembers me playing cops and robbers or cowboys and indians. Just cars and trucks and once in a while Army.
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Like I told the kid,"Your music not too loud, it just sucks!"