Was Anyone Here Actually There?

I watch some dude paint some stripes on Betz shop truck. I guess that means I was there

Crushed some Hot Wheels in a vice then smacked 'em with a ballpeen hammer too

Blew up revel model cars and rat fink models with fire crackers.

 

I'm here and I was there. But that's neither here nor there!
First car in 1955 was a 49 Dodge coupe. The one with a rear seat and long trunk, short roof. Shaved, decked, electric doors VW solonoids, 57 Caddy hubcaps in 57. My brother and his friends borrowed them! I still haven't taken them back.
I tried to sort of copy the maroon 49 Dodge in one of those little page books. Still have the magazine but my Dodge is history. Used real lead, paddle, propane torch, just like it showed in the little pages.

Must have started readin those car books when they first came out. Fit real good in my school books. Still got over 50 of em. Read about all the greats, even before they were great. Met a bunch of them at midwest and east coast car events. Remember Norm Grab, who is now in ill health. Met him at Turkey Run Daytona. Also met two Big Daddys, Roth and Don. G. over there. Met lots of the now famous builders. All friendly great human beings.

Next was my first toy, a 31 A coupe to restore. Never got it done cause an old guy wanted it more than I did. I really did want it but money talked! I almost learned to weld and paint on that Model A. Always did all my own work from body, paint, to interior. Mostly in the drive way or a single car garage. So poor I couldn't even afford a shade tree. We didn't have magazines to buy many parts. Found our junk in junk yards and farm fields.

Bought a T touring cause I figured older was better. Went wrong about then. Restored the T and a 33 Chevy. Restoring is not fun and costs too much money so I started building rods and customs. Is a 1960 Austin Healey Sprite with a 327 a rod? I still don't know the difference between traditional, modern, streetrod or any of those names. If it has wheels that's all that counted.

Got into tri-five Chevys and a 49 Ford coupe. Mild custom work on a 49 Olds 88 and a 50 Buick fastback. Bunch of other 50's cars. Still own the 39 Ford coupe I bought in about 1975. Things are gettin fuzzy without lookin at the paperwork. Took the 39 Ford to the first Street Rod Nats in Peoria. Lots of leadslead and other shows in Indiana.

Some talked about Elvis. My younger brother was in the same motor pool in Germany with that kid. We listened to rock-n-roll and country on tube type AM radios and loved it. Cruised the rootbeer stands and Steak-n-Shakes. Made out at the drive-in movies. Ya dropped a car by cutting coils and adding lowering blocks. Primer was our friend.

To me a real rod is a Model A or T-bucket. Sadly never got one finished. Wife, kids, jobs, seemed to interferre. But never stopped playin with cars or the same wife I met in 55 when I got the Dodge. I guess I was there. Wherever the hell that is!

 

I was a car crazy kid in the 60's, watching from the sidelines still made a permanent impression on me...

 

Back in the day we didn't think about it we just did it. I left Ohio in 57 for calif hotrod scene & never looked back & can't remember most of it. Occasionally I get a flash back. heh heh he Some good some bad

 

Me too. Those were good times to grow up in. Bought my first car, 1950 Ford 2dr. before I was 16. Raced circle track at 17.
Tom

 

Well Tony,,I just turned 70 last mo. In 1959 ( I was 17) my ole man brought home a 51 Chev. 2 dr. that was ALL black and cherry. My Mother said what's that for and he said it's for you. She said " LIke Hell, I 'm not going to drive that thing". I about broke my arm to get their attention to explain that I would love to have it. Well we worked out a deal and it was mine. Didn't take long for me to pull it into shop at school , Get the torch hot on the front coils while two guys sat on each front fender to drop it down for that "California Rake". Next was a set of 8:20-15-rear and 640:15 front, a shaved and primered hood and deck and I was Hot Rodding. Of course it didn't come close to comparing to the Channeled A coupes, 32 coupes and dozens of other Cad., Olds. and Hemi. Powered cars hanging around the local Shell and Amoco stations. But guess what.....I was happy at the time because I was 17 and Hot Rodding.. Now at 70 I have a 46 Chev. truck, a 48 Chev.Aerosedan and a 96 Harley Lowrider and I'm still as happy as if I had good sense. But we all know I don't....May we all live forever driving cool hot rods, seeing big tits and drinking great moonshine.......Howeird

 

Sixty five year old guy here, got into cars hanging around (when they let me) hot rodders that were living the dream. Lived in a city with very active car club, lots of coupes (Ford, Chevy and a couple great 34 Plymouths). Remember all kinds of engines, 331 Caddy, 241 hemi, 401 nailheads were favorites, everyone had a flathead or 265/283/327 in a car at one time or another. Hearses were popular in our city in the mid sixties. They were cool with whitewalls (hand painted) and covered in the brightest orange paint you could find. Bought my first car in 1965, a mint 39 Pontiac two door sedan. (car is still alive today, living out it's life as a street rod in British Columbia) My second car (bought off a used car lot) was a 55 Chevy post, 327-4 speed, my dad hated it .........I loved it. Took me one day to rattle can a grey primer paint job on it. Lots of cars in between then and now, but I'm still going down the road in a red oxide model A and will continue to do so until everything goes dark.

 

YUP, Born in 46. Started driving on the gravel roads at 13. Got my drivers license in 62.

 

I feel so blessed that I got to see a drag race when they still used a flagman, that is, before a Christmas tree. It was at Person County Dragstrip in Roxboro, NC in the '60s.

And I was there at the very last NASCAR Grand National race on a dirt track. Raleigh Fairgrounds Speedway, 1970 (and won by Richard Petty).

 

I wasn't there, but I've hung around enough of the old guys to wish I was there right now.

 

Yep!

 

Thankfully we were. We came thru a "window of opportunity".
How about some memories: As a youngster I would stand at the back door of a shop on Ida Street in Wichita that was full of sanding dust and very unusual cars. My friend, Terry Doramus had an older brother who was in a car club which met in their garage at the house next to this cool car shop. Looking at hot rod magazines as I dreamed of my first gokart. Having my Dad teach me how to build something AND DO IT RIGHT. My first drag race: Green Valley Raceway - Smithfield, Texas -1961
Reading about that race in those same magazines.
My first car: 48 Ford Deluxe coupe - $75 Drove it home, put "scavengers" on it and somehow just got used to water shooting out of the pipes whenever I started it. Then came the $50 303 Olds and hydro, which I started to install with a hacksaw, many blades, and even more patience.
How to build a T bucket in Car Craft. $35 bought a '27 roadster body, model A p/u bed, and 40s Ford front and rear ends. The same hacksaw and the very capable help of my friend Jerry Fain resulted in a tube chassis. I shot trans fluid ALL OVER my aunt who happened to be there for the celebration of the initial fire-up. We towed the completed chassis to Custom Automotive one day, with me sitting on a piece of plywood, holding on to the shortened, vertical F-100 steering shaft. On the way home, on the FREEWAY, I noticed that the tie rod had come out of the driver spindle and was trailing behind the right steering arm. My ass got a firm hold of that plywood!! And I lived to tell about it. Probably are a few things about that story that you could not get away with these days.
The important thing IS that you CAN still have fun with cars. You know, when you are putt'n and you look over at some youngster LOOKIN at your ride and all you can see is their eyes above the window frame. You know it will affect them, just like when some kid stood at the back door of a custom shop, LOOKIN and taking it all in.

 

Been there, done that!

My first car was a 1914 Willys-Overland that I worked three days to buy for $15 bucks. Had to hand crank it to start and mechanical brakes to stop it.

Had a '34 Chev 4 dr. with a leak in the tar top roof and had mushrooms growing by the back window because the wood was rotting that the tin was nailed to.

Got into a '47 Buick Roadmaster 75 2 dr. sedan with a straight eight that I took the babbit off the rods driving over 100 one night, ended up driving back home at about 20 mph with the rods knocking. Who says you can't speed shift a Buick? Took out reverse, but had four buddies to push it when it needed to go backwards,

Too many 46 to 51 Fords to mention, bought them for $175 to 300 a piece, junked some, sold some. Best memory was a baby blue '51 Meteor convert that we ended up going across the line to walhalla, N.D. , picked up a couple of sisters (old man owned the auto wrecking in town), spent the night overlooking the town down below, come morning we rolled on down the hill, sitting up on the back of the seats, throttle pulled out to about 15 mph, cruised down Main Street of town, made the mistake of going past the church as the crowd was letting out, their Daddy spotted us and came after us with his old Ford 1/2 ton pickup, the girls went out one door and the old man chased us down the highway but he couldn't get it passed 70, but we did. Had occasion to pass through there a couple weeks ago, auto wrecking gone, girls gone, hill still there, river still there, and I just rolled down that street with a smile on my face.....thinking. We gone.

 

Well said, Rfraze. Sounds like you and I run parallel histories. I enjoyed your post.----Brian

 

Yea Denny,seems like we were about on the same track , same time, and some of the same cars. DaveM

 

At the time it sure didn't seem like the good ole days! I remember our parents and grandparents also talking about how good things were when they were younger in their good ole days.
It's scary to think our kids will think this nitemare was the good ole days when they get old!
At this point in time there may not be much of a future or time for the good ole days!
But I'm happy to sit and remember the drive-in movies, drive-inn restaurants, racing from lite to lite, even playing bumper tag right down town. We didn't always do the safest or right things. But people were more friendly and life was good. Besides, it was so much fun making love in the back row in a 49 Dodge or 48 Chevy!
If our first kid was a girl we would have named her STARLITE.

 

1967 Mustang = 12 gallons at 0.18 per gallon = $2.16
Coors six pack = 1.09

 

Pay in a well known union factory $1.54 hour.

 

I was there, 1962 my uncle bought a '26 T on deuce rails. he hauled it to our farm and built it there. I was 8, and "helped" more then he wanted. had the eye for the cars at school and the drive ins. so if you were there then you also know it ended 1973-74?? I see the response from a small % of the people, around here..most look and shake their head

 

I feel fortunate, the house my parents rented was owned by the track cop, he'd gather me up every sat morning and we'd spend the day at the track - '63ish, 64maybe and i got to see all touring gassers, altereds and dragsters. They were just messing with AFX that was before funnycars.
I graduated in '67 and by then had built a street legal (barely)Anglia and a 348 chevy impala. By the late 60's i was helping on a rearengine asphalt supermodified; in '69 or '70 i my summer college job was crewing a can-am car. Then i discovered sex, drugs, rock 'n roll and got away from racing. I had a '67Nove SS (and still have it) that was pretty neat but scared to drive it becuase i was stoned all the time.
I gathered myself back up around 1980 i think.

 

76 now, but don't think the way someone my age should think. Still building rods. In trouble if I was to quit. First car: '35 Ford roadster: bought for $50.00. Second car: '39 Ford convert. Bought for $175.00. Third car: '32 Ford five window. Bought for $85.00. Fourth car: '32 Ford roadster. Paid $65 for that one. Had to pay $35.00 for a Desoto hemi and put Desoto hemis in both '32's.Of course, I wasn't earning much at the time, so prices seemed reasonable.

 

My little cousin and the lil Ford...

 

Hell yes hanging at the local Honky Tonk "thats a Pub" to our friends over seas playin this on the jukebox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMSWAUAKJn0

 

Probably to late to get added in here but I too was there 1958 thru today. Statred out at the end of my 7th grade year. I was a block away from a stock car driver and was in school with his son, Butch. I first learned to gas weld back then converting his 1955 Chevy (late model) into a 57 so he could legally run a 283. He cut the fins off of a 57 four door that he bought wrecked and we cut off the tailights and about 2 foot of the rear fenders of the 55. He was busy installing the front fenders and hood onto the 55 while he showed Butch and me to weld using coat hangers those 57 parts. That was all we changed. Brush painted over our repairs with enamel paint and we all went to the track. My FIRST time ever at a stock car race (or any other for that matter)! Loud, fast, and I was IN THE PITS!!!!! Way to go!
As a side note: The racers did a lot of bumping, drinking, cussing, smoking, yelling at times even a few fist fights! Not my kind of world! They had been banging into his rear on the 55 (7?) trying to spin him out I later learned but Butch told me they were trying to round off the back fenders and make it look like the old 55. It worked! One of the stock car drivers drove by in the pits (my 3rd time there) and hollered out, "Hey Bud, (Butch's dad) looks like you'll have to take out that new 283! Ha Ha!" The next week Bud had found another 57 this one a station wagon and we had to chisel (with a hammer) (you learned fast to wear a glove!!!) off those rear fenders and reweld them onto the car. I was starting to NOT like stock cars!!! But I was still in the pits!!! I now knew how to weld a little bit!! ++++ Next I traded my Schwinn bike, my soap box racer, and $12.50 mowing money (1958) for a not raced jalopy model A racer that had $ owed on it for channeling over the frame and a roll bar install (old bed head boards (pipe). The shop had also got it ready for a flathead and rear juice brakes. No motor nor trans. Otherwise most all of the work was done. I WAS very LUCKY!!! My first car! And it WAS a hot rod! I bought a 46 Ford fordoor sedan for the motor, traded the trans at Howard Atwoods Auto Salvage for a truck trans with the shifter. 39- 47 years. Started driving it up and down the alleyways! I drove it to school to show it off and got suspended! I had to show the V.P. and the Principal my driver's license and I did not have one. I was 12!!! Almost 13. They were going to have it towed off! I begged and they told me that my FATHER would be the ONLY one to remove it from the School. It WOULD be TOWED after dark if still on the school grounds! My father worked as a guard at the Federal Prison! I got spanked with a plastic belt by my mom when I got home and grounded. I had gotten PADELED at school before I got my suspension paper addresses to my parents. When dad got home at 5:30 pm I got the belt! 3X! Dad was going to SELL that DAMNED car!!! Three spankings! Car almost gone! Grounded for a week! (supposed to have been two). But I STILL had my hot rod!!!! It got easier after that but still I had to cover my tracks! The cops (police back then to us kids!) would take your stuff really quick if caught driving under age! I started working at the station just around the corner on Route 66. Worked there off and on until I finished College. So does that qualify me to join with you guys?

 

Faron sang one of Willys better songs that he wrote when he was younger. Had a 34 Ford Coupe in black primer in 54 that I had chopped and channeled then sold before driving it in that configuration. First car was a 34 Plymouth in 1950 when I was 14 and just had a beginners license. Was involved in drag racing in central Texas as a crew member until 1960 and it got too expensive for working folks to afford so we went enduro go kart racing until 1972. Then got into British sports cars until 82 when I bought my 48 Plymouth. Been messing with old cars all of my life, my mother always said if I would just save my money instead of buying old cars I could have a nice new car. She never understood that I had no desire for a new car when I could have 5 to 10 old cars for the same money. Some of us never grow up, we just grow wider and shorter with age.

 

My wife came in the other day and said;
" Honey, 1968 called and they want you back".

 

I have been thier since 1957 , and still playing the game. I'll be 72 next January,and won't be changing a thing.

....................Jack

 

I started in the 60's First vehicle was a 35 ford truck 361 chy. Next was 56 ford with a 390. after VN it was a 66 GTO 389 400 heads 3/4 cam tri power. I do miss that car, but my wife sure doesn't !!!

 

i was there in the early sixties.........

 

I was...in a past life...