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What Car Started Your Jalopy Journey!

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by WICKEDJOHN, Feb 26, 2008.

  1. It was a truck for me actually.1938 Plymouth p.u. with a flat head six and a split manifold. The engine burned so much oil from busted rings it wasnt rebuildable.{cylinder walls were too scored up to bore properly.}My dad swapped in another six from a 53 Ply. 4dr parts car. Used a big beam in the carport and a chain block and tackle to do the swap. To get the engine out, he had to take the tires off and roll it out from under the engine on the brake drums. He let me take the carb apart from the original engine. I found THAT torn down carb in the same coffe can I had put it in under his work bench shortly before he died. We put it back together and put it on one of his friends old six banger Plymouths and it worked real good. I've had some kind of old Chrysler six powered car ever since. 'Just love them old boxy looking engines.
     
  2. fortypickup
    Joined: Aug 2, 2007
    Posts: 1,780

    fortypickup
    Member
    from Nebraska

    My Dad brought this ugly ass 40 pickup home one night! It was so homely, and ugly I had to give it a home!

    He said "You can keep it...if you take care of it!
     
  3. bumpybigblok
    Joined: Feb 26, 2008
    Posts: 247

    bumpybigblok
    Member
    from Midwest

    In 1963, when I was 14 I bought a 31A 2dr sdn. for $40.00 with a truckload of spare parts.
    I sent off to Warshawskees in Chicago for a head gskt. a dist. kit, plugs wires and a carb kit. Put it all together and went to 66 station for 5gal. of gas and a used Battery. Cranked
    till I drained the Bat. Gas everywhere ,but no POP. Took Bat. back to 66 to charge. Took
    it home and tried again. No spark, why the Hell not.? The next day in school I ask a Geek
    I know if He'll come over and help get the A started? So He comes and 1rst thing takes the
    dist. cap off and says ,"There's no condensor", I say "What's that? He says "you need it to make spark". I say "I put in all the parts that came in the kit". "Got any old radios?" He asks.
    I said "Ya, Gramma's got some up in the attic, I'll go grab one". Got one and gave it to him .
    He took the back off the radio and snipped out a two fuse firecracker looking thing and
    says , "this is a condensor", and put it in the dist. and then said "Now try it." Damn thing
    fired right up. Who'dda Thunk? True story, No Shit
     
  4. racer67x
    Joined: Oct 30, 2007
    Posts: 261

    racer67x
    Member

    I bought this car when I graduated high school back in '79.
    owned it 14 years and still kick myself for selling it..
    now I'm building a '72 Nova to play with on the street and strip but I'll always miss the ragtop.
    [​IMG]
    photo was taken at my aunts house in Syracuse during the '83 Car Craft Street Machine Nats East.
    also took it to Indy in '81..that was a wild time.
    :)
     
  5. WATKINS BOYZ
    Joined: Dec 21, 2007
    Posts: 142

    WATKINS BOYZ
    Member

  6. ARCHANGEL
    Joined: Jan 5, 2007
    Posts: 1,437

    ARCHANGEL
    Member

    THE YEAR IS 1967 MANTECA. CA, ME AND OUR '63 CHEVY 4 - DOOR..........:cool:

    RAFA.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. GatorO'dell
    Joined: Jan 9, 2008
    Posts: 165

    GatorO'dell
    Member

    Thats one tuff looking midget!
     
  8. ARCHANGEL
    Joined: Jan 5, 2007
    Posts: 1,437

    ARCHANGEL
    Member

  9. rjm7404
    Joined: Feb 10, 2007
    Posts: 12

    rjm7404
    Member
    from home

    For me it was model cars and then reissue of the Big T. Both the 1/8th scale and the full size car. I am working on 1/8th scale Tweedy Pie when I can.
     
  10. Jalopy Jim
    Joined: Aug 3, 2005
    Posts: 1,867

    Jalopy Jim
    Member

    My dad told me I could drive the old - not - running 51 Stude around the feild road on the farm if I got it running. I was 9 years old and on my own I got the old girl running. The feild road was 3/4 mile long took a left for 1/8 mile came back 1/2 mile and another left back to the main road. Dad probably need the bulldozer to fill in the ruts I created driving around that loop.
    And 51 years latter I'm still tearing up our township gravel road.
     
  11. buikwag
    Joined: Apr 21, 2005
    Posts: 472

    buikwag
    Member
    1. Buick Nailheads

    My 1930 Model A Coupe. First picture is when it still had a Flattie with a 39 Trans. Second picture is later with a 322" Nailhead and GM 4 speed. This was in 1963, Wished I still had it.
     

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  12. TRuss
    Joined: Jan 7, 2007
    Posts: 549

    TRuss
    Member

    I had always been around cars, car talk and watching racing on TV with my Dad and Uncle. I always begged for car magazines when we went to the market. Still do...just ask my Girlfriend. But it wasn't until I saw American Graffitti and the first issue of Hot Rod Deluxe (both happened at nearly the same time) that I realized that it was traditional rods and customs for me. I enjoy reading about and watching all (well, most) types of cars and racing. But is the traditional stuff that really lights me up. I have a true feeling of nostalgia for it eventhough I'm too young to have ever experienced it. Whenever I see old photos of the pits from the dry lakes I just want to be there. I feel almost like I was there. It's crazy.
     
  13. Andy Kassa's "Ruby Rod" lit the hot rod fire in me after seeing it on the cover of Rodding and Restyling in 1957. Then I found out Andy and the Little '32 three window lived only11/2 miles from me! I was fortunate enough to be part of restoring this very same car, bringing it to Pebble Beach in 2001, and to the Grand National Roadster Show in 2007, along with other members of the Meadowlands Street Rods Club.
     
  14. Drfenders
    Joined: Feb 28, 2008
    Posts: 3

    Drfenders
    Member
    from SoCal

    41 Chevy Coupe my father dragged home. I busted rust for months. We grafted on an early 60's Chevy pickup torsion bar front end and had it set up for a big block Chevy. I went off to the Marines and he sold it.
     
  15. DocWatson
    Joined: Mar 24, 2006
    Posts: 10,273

    DocWatson
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I was lucky, born into it. Third generation hot rodder, this is the car that started it for the family all those years before. Been re-build a few times, went from my grandfather to my father then onto me and now back with my parents.
    [​IMG]

    Doc.
     
  16. Ghost28
    Joined: Nov 23, 2008
    Posts: 3,200

    Ghost28
    Member

    I think what got me started was when I was about ten years old. On a vacation to south dakota to visit relatives on there farm. They had a lot of old cool tractors and cars just sitting around by the front entrance to the farm. And the two that I remember most was an old c cab truck with lantern lights, that we tried for about an hour to start but no joy. The other was a 32 chevy coupe that fired up with just a little coaxing. And they let me and my brothers take turns driving it in an old corn field. And one thing led to another and my younger brother ended up standing on the running board while I was driving. And I proceeded to take a good stock car corner and threw his little butt right off. Thank god he was allright. But from that point on I was hooked on old cars. Denny the cousin on the farm had a hopped up 56 chevy 2 door. That he gave us all rides in up and down the dirt roads. And that is what gave me and my younger brother our need for speed...ghost
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2009
  17. Rockettruck
    Joined: Aug 21, 2006
    Posts: 167

    Rockettruck
    Member

    1. I was in the hospital at age 4 (1961) with an unusually high temperature. Mom and Pop got me a battery-powered 1/8 scale '60 Thunderbird convertible. Loved it!

    2. Used to read (!) HOT ROD at the grocery store where Pop worked in '63 and '64. The owner of the store had a neat '59 Olds wagon!

    3. Raced slot cars and go-karts in Jr. High and High School.

    4. Pop bought me a '47 Chevy coupe (barn find!) for $75! when I was 14. (1970) I inherited an almost new '72 Pontiac when my brother was killed in a motorcycle wreck and decided I didn't want the old coupe (stupid!) and let Pop sell it. (double stupid)

    5. Bought the Rockettruck ('51 Chevy 1/2 ton) in '76 for $50. Still got it! See my avatar...

    6. Wish I still had the '47 Chevy coupe as well...
     
  18. vertible59
    Joined: Jan 25, 2009
    Posts: 1,058

    vertible59
    Member

    We lived in a small college town when I was a kid and a bunch of the guys from the school came in with cool cars. There was a guy from the college who was dating a local girl and she had him in church every Sunday. He drove a black '50 Ford coupe that was a tail dragger with several body modifications, one being shaved door handles. Well, being a youngun, and a car freak, I just had to see how he got into this spectacular looking machine. The next Sunday that the shoebox appeared, I talked my mom into letting me sit with some other kids in the back of the church. I didn't care about the kids, I just wanted to be able to sneak out early so I could lurk around that Ford and see how the owner got the doors open. Sure enough, the guy comes out, with girl in tow, walks up to the front fender of the car and taps his toe under the portion of said fender, just behind the wheelwell. Bingo...the door pops open!
    By now, I'm all excited and had to find out just what kind of magic this guy had performed! I walk up to the fellow and asked him to explain to me what had just happened. He did, and was very nice about it. He also explained some of the other mods hed made to the car, including opening the hood to show off the much modified flathead. By now, the girlfriend was getting fussy, so he had to go or hear some serious chin music. I stood at the curb, watching that gorgeous machine drive away with the twice pipes and smittys making music. That car got into my head, then and there and I have never forgotten it. From then on, I took every quarter I could get my hands on to "JAZZBO'S" news stand for a copy of the latest title of "the small Pages". Still hooked...I like it that way.
     
  19. Waldoz
    Joined: Dec 31, 2008
    Posts: 82

    Waldoz
    Member

    Growing up my dad always wanted to restore some old cars, we had a full service auto garage, so why not? When I was around 8 my dad brought home a 46 Studebaker pick up, then a pair of 50s buick sedans, then a 66 Galaxie 500 conv, then a 66 bonneville conv, then a 28 Pontiac Oakland, and then he never worked on any of them cause he had too many projects. But, it was too late, I was hooked on cars, I now own the stude truck and am restoring/customizing it. I never really got into tearing up streets and going fast til I was 16, one of my best friends got a 67 Impala with the 327 & 2 speed power glide, another got a 68 Galaxie with a 302, both had insanely loud exhaust compared to my 89 Corsica :cool:, and both were fast. I've never stopped loving the speed, and the loud engines, but I've always been a little more into the vehicles apearance than performance, probably comes from being in a club full of lowriders. Now I just gotta convert my wife and start my 1 year old daughter early on the love of cars.
     
  20. NotStockPhoto
    Joined: Dec 10, 2006
    Posts: 2,322

    NotStockPhoto
    Member

    For me it was Jimmy Vaughans Rivi in a early 90's issue of Car Stereo Review. Up until that time I thought Minitrucks and car stereo instalation would be the life for me.

    I got a chance to finally see it in person this past year at the Houston Autorama still as gourgeous as i remember in the magazine.

    I even got a chance to meet Gary, and Jimmy (even though my wife says I acted like a grade school kid meeting a Astronaut or there favorite cartoon charachter)
     
  21. fleetbob50
    Joined: May 1, 2006
    Posts: 306

    fleetbob50
    Member
    from Waco,Texas

    My older brother had a 1932 Ford Vicky and the 32 Ford Cabriolet that I now
    am working on. I must have driven them a million make believe miles even tho
    they where sitting on blocks. The Vicky had a trans in it and I shifted it so many tines my arms would hurt but I never lost a race in it. Between the cars and his old hot rod magazines I was hooked before I could ride a bike. Best
    memories of my youth!
     
  22. RichG
    Joined: Dec 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,919

    RichG
    Member

    It wasn't a car, it was a pile of parts and a 94 year old man... probably one of the coolest dudes I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.
     
  23. Thanks for all your great stories....I hope there is more to share:)...............John
     
  24. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,345

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    Most influential? These three model kits were it - just after they came out! I built quite a few of them before I actually had a chance to see a real, 1:1 hot rod. But I already had been to quite a lot of jalopy races in Honolulu (mostly 5W coupes). Gary
     

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  25. 56FRLN
    Joined: Feb 7, 2012
    Posts: 221

    56FRLN
    Member

    It was a car that, unfortunately, I never got see in person. My Dad's '49 convert. The stories he would tell about he and his Air Force buddies in his car seemed like hollywood-type stories to me when I was very young. He never got to do much with cars once we kids came along but he prodded his parents to give me their '56 when they were moving and downsizing. Dad and his pride n' joy below.

    [​IMG]
     
  26. Larjk9
    Joined: Dec 12, 2008
    Posts: 186

    Larjk9
    Member

    A head injury when I was a baby
     

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