Customs What car first got you excited about customs or rods as a kid?

My dads triple black 69 Eldorado.

(and I'm asshamed now but... Cadzilla)

 

For me it was the Pharoahs Lead Sled in American Gaffitti - None of my family was into cars but I remember thinking how slick that ride was.

 

.......1940 Black Ford Coupe...........

 

My cousin's collection of model cars and car magazines, the "Here is Your Hobby" series books by Henry Gregor Felson, Hot Wheels, and Roth Studios artwork.

Still remember seeing Lobeck's '40 in Popular Hot Rodding, and the California Kid in R&C.

 

Anything Roth!

 

Dont really have a specific one, I just started seeing old cars/pickups and loved them!

 

My first car that got me excited was a Willys , I saw Steve McGees willys coupe racein Oregon at the coast and was hooked. Since then I hve owned 8 willys, Drive a 37 Sedan and am Club Rep for The Gasser Gossip Magazine and write for them also.

 

back in the early 50s my parents had friends that came to our house in a 35-36 ford coupe......lepord skin seat covers,skirts,coon's tail on a whip antenna.....i didn't know what it was or what kool was but man i knew that old coupe was something special

 

Going to the Orange Massachusetts Drags around 1960 and seeing what I remember as a Studebaker custom with shaved door handles, very cool tailights and a floor shift. "Hot Rod" soon replaced the comics books. I was 12 at the time and one of the guys that worked for my Dad took me to Orange for the drags. Harold Haskins if you're out these get in touch.

 

The Little Coffin: I was 11.

The Old Tinbasher

 

The custom 54 chevy from the late 50s called Moonglow. With the 56 Packard tail lights, it was awesome!

 

I used to build a lot of the AMC models and the Roth creations as a kid. But I didn't get serious about cars until I saw American Graffiti when I was in high school. I couldn't dream of a deuce but I dug Falfa's '55 too, so to be somewhat original I went out and got myself a ratty '57 to rebuild. My dad helped me (re did most of it) and I finished it in time for college. So I guess it was the whole American Graffiti garage that started me off.

 

I was 16 in 1951 and my first car was a 1936 Ford conv. Put dual intake and was the first hotrod in school.

 

my stepbrother nelson burkhardts red oxide primered chopped steel duece tudor sedan.
he rolled into the 1983 street rod nats in berea with the whole family in the car sitting on milk crates with gas leaking out of a bad seam in the original tank.
350/350 w/ vette rally wheels.
frame and wheels painted hugger orange.
to a 13 year old kid it was the baddest car ever!

 

Yea, 72 Nova, my Mom had one and she usesed to let me go through the gears as a passenger, I was only about ten years old, but man did I love that car. Later in life, I got me a 72. Really great cars.

 

Stories about my Dad's 47 Chevy Coupe named Alley Oop with a nail head, dual carbs, Lesalle trans and a locked 9" Ford. Dark blue with blue and white tuck and roll interior. I never say it but someday I will recreate it in his honor!

 

I was 11 when Rick, the owner of this model A tub with Chrysler power used to get us local kids to clean it. one day he took a friend and me for a ride around the block. i can still remember the sound and smell.
ive been aflicted with the hot rod sickness ever since. im 44 now, and so far theres no known cure!

 

the car had a vw axle on the front and was last known to be owned by tom "scoop" boers.
he sold it in the eighties.
there was a sighting of it at solon commons about 2000 or so.
that was the last time i saw it.

 

My Uncles '46 Merc and my Grandmothers '56 Chev 2dr post............

 

This would have been around 1970, my dad took me to a friend of his that had a Model A coupe, gold with blue plexiglass top, 4 speed and a 283. He took me for a ride, stopped on a straight stretch, lit them up and went through all 4, I was impressed. I ran into him a couple years ago at a show and reminded him and thanked him for all the money I have spent on cars and it was his fault.
Fast forward.... I'm comming home from York Nats in a pro street 34 Ford PU, sitting at a red light in a small town there was a young boy sitting on the steps of the Bank on the corner. I lit them up and did a burnout across the street in front of the kid. My ex got mad and asked why I had to do that, my answer was, maybe that kid will be impressed and get involved with cars and have a great hobby. Worked for me.

 

1970's style T-Buckets the gaudier, the better. My brain is not attracted to them anymore but something deep down still churns when I see one these days. Weird.

 

My first moment of Wow is a picture stuck in my head of an afternoon in our front yard late 1958..my Dad was flying corporate for the Phillips 66 Oil Company and would get a new company car every year..and there parked in the driveway was a brand new 1959 Impala red on red, parked next to it was my Dads buddys full dress Harley who had come over to admire the new car, later we took rides in the car and on the Harley..did it for me..

 

My dads 46 ford convertable

 

Cadzilla and Hogzilla really knocked me out when I was a kid.

My son Joey was able to recognize the Pierson Brothers Coupe at about age 3... Gotta start 'em young!

 

If you have ADD, or the attention span of a gnat, you can skip this one.
I am genetically incapable of telling a short story.

This isn't about the first car I was interested in, but it's the first one that got me feeling awestruck.

I came of driving age circa 1959.
Was already nuts about cars compliments of Car Craft, Hot Rod and all the other "little books".
(BTW ... the little books were really neat because of their size. You could tuck one inside your school book. Teacher saw you studyin' your ass off, no clue as to exactly what you were studying!)

Anyway, walking the car lots in my home town dredged up two likely candidates:
A clean '49 ~ '51 Mercury two door sedan, 3 speed, white.
A '37 Ford coupe with a DeSoto hemi of some indeterminate size shoehorned in the engine compartment. Maroon, big & little rake, glasspacks.

Both these cars were priced at the then-princely sum of $350. (Oh yeah!)

Brought my dad down to look at the two cars. (For some reason they insist on helpin' out with the selection process. Like a 15-year old doesn't already know everything!)

The Merc was on a lot owned by an acquaintance of my dad's. After we'd looked at the car a bit, my dad pointed at a different car parked near the office. It was a midnight blue Ford shoebox coupe. All stock looking except for bare black rims w/ chrome trim rings. I hadn't seen the car before.
"How much is that one, Frank?"
"$1100", sez Frank.

YOWZA ....!!!!
Man, eleven hundred bucks was beaucoup money at the time!
(Actually, it still is around my house.)

Once dad and I picked ourselves up off the ground, Frank proceeded to pop the hood, showing a dressed nailhead Buick with no fewer than six freakin' carbs.
Needless to say, I was in lust!
Also needless to say, dad promptly fell out of lust!

As for the Merc vs. '37 coupe, don't ask. I made the same choice any red-blooded American male would have!
It was a short and tragic story!

 

These two

 

Anyone got any pictures of Lobeck's '32 B400?

 

With a little imagination, you can sorta' make out the lines of a '29 Lakester.

 

This was one of the more "Hi Performance Go-Carts. It had a steering wheel.

 

Yeah, that's Craig Breedlove, right after his swim in a Bonneville dyke. the car was there in all it's damaged glory. took me almost 40 years to make it to Speedweek, but I got Salt fever this day.