I'm surprised that more people didn't comment on the fact that it is a Ford and not a Chevy.That was always one of my favorite customs;everything just seemed right on it.
I'm the same way with my kids, or anyone's kids. They don't have the choice of vehicle control, I do. Also, their lives ARE worth more than mine. I'm only 46, but I've lived mine. They haven't.
Anyway, my daughter Jaime loves it when she gets picked up or dropped off at school in the '50 (which has 3-point belts in front). I like it too, especially when it's raining like today. Show those soccer moms whos got style! haha!
Love the article. My wife and I only had classic cars until recent. My wife drove the shoebox when we took my first daughter home 5 years ago. I drove the 54 Buick always. That is all we had. Then after a while, we had a more modern car the shoebox to spit time with for her. My 2nd daughter came home in a 63 Olds... But that is gone. Now they ride around in a 05 Suburban. I just want them to be safe, they do choose the classic to ride in when they can, but they are just kids. I have been thinking about getting a 50's olds, buick, or pontiac wagon and reinforce it with DOM Tubing, etc.. Make it stonger, some pads etc. at the bottom of the dash, etc.. Hide it all with some cool interior. A tight almost hidden roll cage with modern seatbelts etc... Reinforced doors, etc etc.. a war wagon. A steering column that collapses. The seatbelts, maybe harnesses will keep the driver from hitting the steering wheel, etc. etc.. I won't even comment on the worth of a child verse adult. One of my favorite articles. Wil This is on the planning table....
both of my kids came home in 55 chevys. both with bucket seats and no belts wife held them in her arms.but we did live in a small town and no need to get near a hi way.but i can remember sleeping on the package shelf in my dads cars on vacations.driving on 2 lane highways for 12 hrs at a time.sleeping in the floor with pillows in the feet area so the hump wouldnt break your back.but dad would never have a 4 dr car with us kids.always said a 4dr car and kids back there was a accident just waitin to happen. didnt really matter, he always said 4drs were ugly anyway.i never even wore a seat belt in a street car until i was in my 40s and im 56 now.but i do make my grandkids buckle up and lock thier door. i aint gonna let anything happen to them on my watch.but according to the world today none of us should be alive.
many a boyfriend pulled that "move" on me.......not sure if he was protecting me from the dash or trying to cop a feel.
Thanks for the post. I remember having one of those kiddy seats, forgot about it until the memory jog. The wife thinks I was spoiled,I consider it being lucky!! Cat
Yep, It's a 53 Ford - this was one of my favorite cars "in the day" - and contributed ideas for my first car - a 53 Ford Vert !
You are more likely to survive an accident in todays "tin can" than in the "real cars" of yesterday. I've seen many a new car that was completely destroyed and the occupants survived and even walked away from. One of my memories as a young guy was checking out a 64 Mustang at a local body shop. Blood and hair on the windshield and a broken steering wheel shoved back into the bucket seat and the engine pushed several inches into the firewall.. I'll wager he didn't survive. Today that same accident the engine mounts would break so that the engine would stand up and never make into the passenger compartment and one wouldn't hit the windshield or be impaled by the steering column. While the same hit may look much worse with todays' "tin cans" it pretty simple economics it cheaper to replace a car than a person, be it a child or adult.
Times have definitely changed ... When my kids were younger, I didn't take them for many rides in the coupe ... the logistics of properly installing their BRITAX® car seat (or booster) in a chopped & channeled Deuce 5wd Coupe just wasn't worth all the effort ... plus the HEMI is a bit loud. In the '60s & '70s, my father used to take us kids (me & my siblings) for rides in the coupe ... although it had lap belts, I don't recall ever wearing them until I was 11 or 12 years old. In 1969 and in the early '70s, the whole family (all five of us) used to ride in the coupe to "ANDY'S PICNIC" ... Dad drove ... Mom sat in the passenger seat ... I sat in between my parents ... my younger brother sat on the floor between my mothers legs ... and my mother held my little sister. Here's a pic of all 5 of us arriving at the 1972 ANDY'S PICNIC held @ Crow Canyon Park in Castro Valley (~20 miles from our house in Fremont): image from the "Andy's Instant Picnic" article that in the December 1972 issue of STREET RODDER magazine.
"Traditional" Car Seats ... 1949 (1953 patent) SAFETY CAR SEAT: 1952 (1955 patent) INFANT'S CAR SEAT: 1955 (1956 patent) CHILD'S CAR SEAT TOY: 1959 (1962 patent) CHILD'S CAR SEAT: 1961 (1964 patent) CAR SEAT FOR INFANTS: 1965 (1967 patent) CONVERTIBLE CAR SEAT AND BED FOR A CHILD: 1967 (1969 patent) CHILD'S SAFETY SEAT:
I'm damned glad my youngest is 27 and I don't have to decide if my truck or car is "safe enough for the kids to ride in". Car safety isn't all about the car. I see reports every week in this area of kids being hurt or thrown out of late model cars simply because their parents or who ever they were were with didn't care enough or in some cases "didn't go by the white guys laws" and allowed the kids to bounce around in the back seat of the car or back of the van and get thrown around or out in an accident. Seeing six small kids in the back seat of a K car with no seat belts or car seats at the gas station and know that they just came over Satus Pass from Goldendale to Toppenish and are gassing up to go back the same way scares the crap out of an old grandpa aged guy. It' about the safety measures you do take rather than the car you take. My nieces kids aren't any safer in her 2011 Volvo wagon if she doesn't use the proper car seats and have them fastened in than Ryan's kids are in the back seat of his 39. Put in the belts and use the proper safety seats and everyone should be fine. In some cars we may have to make setups so that the seats stay in place better so the car seat will stay in place. Still defensive and safe driving is probably the biggest thing in keeping yourself or your kids safe in the rod or custom. Staying sober and not getting overly tired on road trips. Having all people in the car belted in. knowing what is going on and around you on all four sides when you go down the road. Always knowing where your excape lane is if something happens in front of you that you can't control. Know the local driving habits. That includes knowing that the drivers of certain cars have terrible driving habits and be on the watch for them. Just because old Grandma Jones has never had an accident doesn't mean that she hasn't had a lot of close calls or caused a dozen accidents over the years.
I remember when I was 4 or 5 and dad would strap me down to the console in his '67 Corvette he had back since high school. The 327 and sidepipes really had a impact on this kid. I can even remember the smell of the interior. Some of my best memories come from me and my dads "early" rides in his hot rods. Especially when your a car rider in elementary school and you get picked up in a hot rod. Makes the other kids envy you.
Damn right Ryan! That natural instinct to protect your kids, to the best of your ability, is just something we do. My previous old car, that was a drivable, was my 70 Dodge. It had lap belts and I felt pretty safe driving them around. I recently offed that car to get my 48 Dodge with no seatbelts. My 11 year old daughter came with me to pick up the car, but I had totally forgot the car had no seatbelts. She was just too excited to come along and I was excited to take her along. I freaked out the whole way home with we in the passenger seat. It just seemed unnatural. Even though the car still requires a ton of other work, the first mod I did was install some lap belts in the back seat just for them. It still freaks me out because I do understand that even a modern Chevy Aveo is much safer than my 48 will ever be, but the idea is that the kids will be safe if a mi or impact were to occur. I know, for fact, that they will not fly around the cabin during a minor traffic altercation. Considering most accidents are minor in nature, it's the best we can do. I still, to this day, am amazed at the fact that my parents drive me from Detroit to southern Caliornia. I was six months old, riding in a playpen, in the back of or old Dodge station wagon. Yeah the car had seatbelts, but you couldn't belt a six month old into a car back then (haha). This was back when few freeways were finished and Dad made it to Riverside, driving batshit crazy, in two days. Man those were the days
What a coincidence i was just flipping true my Custom Cars 1957 annual and that was the only article i paid close attention too, and here it is again
That "staged" wreck with the 59 is just that, staged, the frame looks to have been cut in order for it to fold up like that,If you remember the pretty lady from the hot rod shop in Sacramento got in that horrible accident with hers at 60 MPH when she hit a tree or pole and her car didn't look near as bad as the one in the vid.
Well I got a 10 year old girl and she gets a seat belt in my 33 Ford pick up. I put it in for her. When I was a kid my dad put us in the front seat of the 61 Apache on the way to the dump(no seat belt) and in the back, on the freeway, on the way home, good times!
Yeah you might be right there but I'd bet all my money that today's cars are safer then the ones of yesteryear by a long shot. It's not how the car stands up to an accident it's how effectively then crumple in the projected manner that saves lives. I'd rather the car take some of the impact and keep me safe then the car come unscathed and me absorb the energy with my face. The new Malibu looked like it did that effectively. My 35 is no 59 impala and it's size is comparable to to a VW Jetta. However I'd rather not go up against anything more then a squirrel in that thing.
I rolled my truck on US41 in Bradenton Fl. because some dumb lady was standing in the travel lane looking for a bus on a curve, I cut the wheel to slide it side ways it went over the curb, tire bit the dirt, truck flipped on it's lid and the roof went skidding down the curb at 45 mph. She grabbed the kid and ran across 6 lanes of traffic and almost got hit again. Seat belt saved my life, the D50 got a new roof and hopefully she learned something.
I think Sam did his best work on his own cars. They were all top notch!! As for the safety issue and kids I would never trade the safety features of a modern car for those of a classic when it comes to the safety of my son. It's not just a matter of smashing your face into something it is a matter of absorbing energy. In an accident the energy has to go somewhere and if the car doesn't absorb it (crumple)then we do and even if you are not thrown around a car your organs and brain is thrown around inside your body and that is not good and probably worse on young children.
i know this thread veared of course a little.. but i have to add to it. for those that still think the old iron is tuff as nails, is going to protect you and our kids.. IT IS NOT!! these pics are from last month when some dipshit pulled in to oncoming traffic "me" while texting... although both cars were totalled his s10 blazer sure faired better than my giant 58 olds!!! the sickening thing about it is that i was on my own street, on my way to pick up my 11 yr old daughter with her new bicycle in the trunk. and even though i installed a seat belt on her seat, she would have gotten hurt! the floor buckled up 3 inches and her seat ripped out of the floor and snapped the mirror of the windshield.. i still drive with her in my model A belted in secure, but i hope this makes you aware that these ol heaps just aint that tuff!!!!!
You are right Ryan! I did not get it untill I had my own kids. I drive for a living, and teach professional safe driving as well, but still.. I drive extra safe whenever one of my kids are in my Acadian with me.
The frame wasn't cut. That was an off-set impact and that was the real deal. Its a well known fact that the X-frame GM cars from that era fold up like an empty Twinkie wrapper in a fat kids hands....especially with that kind of hit. The frame is designed such that you essentially have two triangles barely stuck together at the tips with nothing more than the car's rockers tieing the sides together. As soon as the front "triangle" starts to move to one side the rocker caves and the car folds up. If you watch the vid closely you can see this happen. If the impact was dead on center in the front then the vintage tin may have crumbled a little less dramatically but still would have been a total mess and the people inside no less injured.
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