Register now to get rid of these ads!

Lets hear some crazy but true stories of what you did with yer car as a kid...

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by redlineracer42, Apr 5, 2013.

  1. Small town USA...1976 I'm 16,I built a 1963 Impala S.S. 283,300 hp heads,big solid lifter cam,Tarantula intake,600 Holley,Appliance headers,Mallory dual point,4-speed 390 gears.I was cruisin with a straight laced buddy of mine,showin him how my car ran.Still in town headed out of town 30 mph zone.Prolly runnin 65.Just about to round the slight bend and here comes the cop from around the corner headed the opposite way.We pass and he hits the skids,we round the corner,I shuts the lights off,pulls it down into 3rd gear and put it to the wood! We blast outta town and make the next left onto Garden Plain Road as fast as humanly possible in a jacked up 63 Impala...make the turn and wood it again,lights out runnin as fast as that thing would go,(no speedo,3.90 gears,prolly 110 or so) We run about a mile and pull up into a farm on the hill( I knew owner) and hide the Chevy behind the barn and sit on the hot hood and watch the cop fly down rt. 30 with his cherrys on! He never saw us make the turn.... We were laughin but I was shakin like a glass shitting chimpanzee....
     
  2. 5CHERO8
    Joined: Feb 22, 2013
    Posts: 71

    5CHERO8
    Member

    There was a commercial when Chrysler products had push-button automatic transmissions showing a car – a Desoto I think – going backwards, turning left into a slide, turning the wheels to the right and stabbing the drive button to make one continuous fluid motion from backing up to going forward. I thought it was a neat trick, so I tried it at a place called Black Sands – a traprock plant in Haverstraw, NY. Only I used a friend’s standard transmission Henry J. The car hit a rut during the maneuver and pulled the clutch pedal shaft out of the bell housing. I had to start the car in gear and shift without the clutch to get my friend’s car home.
     
  3. 5CHERO8
    Joined: Feb 22, 2013
    Posts: 71

    5CHERO8
    Member

    I found a pair of headers that would fit my 1949 Mercury, and planned to install them on the car in my front yard. I removed the stock exhaust manifolds, and on a whim, I started the car to see what it sounded like. I revved the engine a few times and every time I let the car come back to idle it shot blue flames out of the exhaust ports. On the third such blast, my father came running out of the house shouting, “I think you have those on wrong!”
     
  4. 5CHERO8
    Joined: Feb 22, 2013
    Posts: 71

    5CHERO8
    Member

    When I was fourteen, I took a job at a summer resort parking cars. I didn’t actually park the cars; I just guided them into position. Late one afternoon, I was feeling a little tired, so I sat down on the rear bumper of a car – a 1955 Packard. The rear of the car settled a bit when I sat on it, and then the Torsion-Level system raised the bumper – and me –a few inches. When I got off the bumper, the car settled back down. I rode the bumper a number of times, and then had to get back to work. When the Packard’s owner finished his day at the lake, he found the battery was nearly dead. I brought some jumper cables and helped him start the car. He said that the car was only a few months old, and this was the third time that the battery had gone flat; his kids just snickered.
     

  5. Yes too new but
    "Da Mav" a 70 Maverick was a mail box killer - we'd roll up quiet like no lights and ease into "mailboxes on a stick " in suburbia - the sheriff eventually gave chase but the no headlights worked well for evasion - "Da Mav" was a good off roader too - and took good care of junipers, flowers and 170 cu on was hell on lawns.
    Bad, bad boys !


    Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
     
  6. Ognib
    Joined: Mar 15, 2013
    Posts: 113

    Ognib
    Member
    from Mo

    1964 I was 16, had a cobalt blue 56 chev 2dr post that I'd bought with money saved from working for farmers in the summers & after school since I was 14.
    Had a 283 overbored to 302, solid lifter duntov, wcfb carter, muncie & a 4:11.

    One of my friends older brother was a salesman at a chev dealer & he bought & sold a bunch of cars & he found the car for me up in the big town about 50 miles north.
    Think I gave $500 for it.
    Had to borrow a couple hun from my dad to pull it off...he was surprisingly cool & supportive of my buying it.

    Hung out at the local mechanics shop who worked on everything from lawn mowers to farmall tractors & he was good at what he did.
    He'd kinda took me under his wing & was showing me stuff, based on my strong interest in cars & things mechanical & this gave me the knowledge necessary to keep the 56 in sharp tune.

    Lived in a small town of 500 or so.
    South of town the 2 lane asphalt had a half mile of good straight road & that was the drag strip.
    Had our run-in's with the law, but they couldn't keep us away for long.

    By today's standards, it wasn't particularly fast, but gawd, I loved that car.
    Girlfriend thought it was sexay & cool...good thing the back seat couldn't talk.
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2013
  7. agrezy1
    Joined: Aug 12, 2012
    Posts: 20

    agrezy1
    Member
    from tn

    back in mid 80s would sneak my dads 1969 q code mach mustang out while he worked nights cruise the strip in vegas and street race it.

    told him years later and he still doesnt belive me! he said i always had a steering wheel lock on it!
    it was one of the pre club steering locks that hooked on the steering wheel and the brake pedal.then you locked it tight so you couldnt turn the wheel or push the brake pedal!!!

    now the mustang had tilt wheel and my dad had a big ole belly !!!
    lets just say he never put the tilt wheel down when locking it...:D
     
  8. In 1979, I was 16 and bought my first car, a 2 door 1954 Ford. I of course had huge plans for it and just recently sold it. But at the time, the original motor had a big old hole in the block, from the former owner, so I drug a 68 Fairlane home and pulled the motor and tranny, and installed the 289 and C4 in the girl. Only had front brakes, so did awesome burnouts. I installed a set of Doug Thorley headers and no exhaust and drove it all over the farm and countryside. Well, one DRY fall day, my mom says let's take my dad some lunch out in the field, as he was combining corn that day. Only had one bucket seat in it at the time, so mom just jumps in and sits in the back seat, and off we go. Roaring down the dry, combined rows of corn stalks, we were laughing at how loud it was when we see my dad jump out of the combine and start screaming and waving his arms frantically. What we didn't know was every time I let off the gas, flames were shooting from the exhaust, which he could plainly see. Thought we were going to set the field on fire. Never seen my dad so excited! He still speaks of that to this day!
     
  9. Great stories guys! Keep'em comin!!! MORE MORE!
     
  10. was about 16 dumb farm kid wanted to lower 40 pontiac coupe, cut rear half off leaf springs driveshaft flew off shortly after, learned chain towing quickly in my life
     
  11. 63comet
    Joined: Jan 31, 2006
    Posts: 508

    63comet
    Member

    OT cars back then, didn't start to drive until 1990 so the cheap cars were all '80s hatchbacks.

    Still plenty of dirt roads in my county. I put that poor Escort through hell. Thought I was a rally driver or something. Doesn't really matter how big the mud hole is if you hit t at sixty you'll skim across. Only time I ever flat run from the cops was in that car. I was speeding, they hit their lights, I was close to a dirt road I knew well so I hit it at speed. I reckon the cop backed off expecting to find me in a ditch. Used to terrace jump it at the farm too. When I traded it in in my next pos hatchback the dealer couldn't believe it'd never been wrecked, lol.

    Other time I didn't stop for the cops was in my '72 TR6. Was swapping exhausts and driving over to a friends house for assembly help, running straight out the manifold so it was noisy. Passed the officer at about 90 and saw him pull out behind me. I briefly took my foot off the gas to quiet the car to avoid a secondary ticket but when I realized he hadn't had time to catch up I decided he was goi to have to work for that ticket. Punched it and went on my way. I assume he just chose not to give chase.

    Had a slightly lifted 4x4 for a while that I was bad in. Same with the rag top super OT Mercury. My other skin friends nicknamed that thing the Durango 95.

    Got pulled over once after I figure out I could shoot fireballs and clouds of smoke out of my '72 Caddy by killing the ignition and pumping the throttle just right. Worked great for backing off tailgaters. Unfortunately I didn't notice this tailgater was driving a Crown Vic.
     
  12. cavman
    Joined: Mar 23, 2005
    Posts: 669

    cavman
    Member

    I don't know if the statute of limitations has run out yet, so I'm not telling! :)
     
  13. TheTrailerGuy
    Joined: Jun 18, 2011
    Posts: 392

    TheTrailerGuy
    Member

    Ditto
     
  14. F91
    Joined: Dec 29, 2012
    Posts: 126

    F91
    Member

    65 Mustang with a 351 Windsor. C4 with traction bars and air shocks. Yellow with black Le Mans stripes on the hood. Fast as hell. Got airborne often. Buried the speedometer racing big block fords and some Hemi's on I95. You could do that sort of thing in the 80's in Palm Beach county. Frequently got airborne and sideways. The catch? It was originally a power steering car and the connection from the pittman arm to the lower unit was a ball joint.... that frequently popped off.
     
  15. Iron Dog
    Joined: Oct 28, 2011
    Posts: 267

    Iron Dog
    Member
    from Minnesota

    Day I got my driver's license in the summer of 1967. Dad let me take his new 67 Pontiac Executive Wagon for a spin. Headed out of town and floored it to see how fast it would go. It was my lucky day, as I neither was pickup up, nor crashed.
     
  16. Dexter The Dog
    Joined: Jun 27, 2009
    Posts: 195

    Dexter The Dog
    Member

    1964 VW split window busses have direct gear to gear reduction boxes at the ends of the axles to gain ground clearance and change ratios. Since they're direct, the ring gear is flipped and the axles turn backwards. Hence the back goes up when you hit the gas.
    1982 Myrtle beach I found a 68 front beam with ball joints and put disc brakes on mine to get rid of the king pins.
    Torsion bars were stiffer so it sat high in the nose. I decided to run it without shocks to pound them down a bit.
    Well with two or three bounces in first gear I could get all four wheels off the ground.
    Drove it for another 4 years like that, sold it in 1986
    Found it in 2006 for sale on thesamba.com in a Toronto scrap yard.
    No shocks... Don't know if it ever had another pair installed or not.
     
  17. I rolled a car in the middle of main street,

    I've nailed the gas in gravel that had fallen of a truck,the only problem was there was a Motor Cycle Policeman behind me,,I cracked his windshield and busted one of his flashing red lights and pelted him. the end result was not pretty.

    Back when I was playing in a band I had my Fender Bassman amp in the back seat of my '63 1/2 Falcon Sprint so I couldn't see behind me and a guy in a red/with and blue 390 Rambler Rebel goaded me into a drag race one Saturday evening on main street at a red light,,I blistered the tires and he sat still,,he knew a policeman was behind me,,the bad thing about it it was the same policeman that I showered with rocks a few years earlier. HRP
     
  18. roughneck424
    Joined: Jan 10, 2009
    Posts: 1,084

    roughneck424
    Member

    Not so much crazy. But Dumb or would have been in big trouble if caught.
    But in 78 I was 17. Had the 55 Chevy with 350 & 4speed. Sneaked out of small town life of Maricopa,Calif. and over the Grapevine to cruise Van Nuys and maybe go street racing. Well its only a 100 mile drive, but it might as well been a million. That far from home not so much in miles but lifestyle and with mom & dad not knowing ! Once I got there and saw all the cars of the Big City I was amazed. Then we made it to where the street racing was. I believe it was San Fernando Rd? Right where one of the major freeway overpass is. Guys were using the lights from the overpass to help tune engines, timing lights out , car on trailers showing up lots of 70's street machines. It dawned on me then that I was Way to far from home to chance knocking out a stock 55 rearend. Something that I had done a couple times in the past with hard launches. We called it quits and ran for home when 2 guys on Yamaha RD 400's where doing wheelies down the "track" and a guy in a VW on side of the road pulled a U turn right in front of them. For he did not see them cuz the headlights were pointing straight up.
    I was glad when I made it to Fraiser Park area for I was back in small town America and could explain my way out of that. The 55 didn't fail me that night and I made it home with out Mom & Dad ever finding out.
     
  19. Heard Dad talk about chopping the top on a 48 Chevy PU, so I took a hammer and chisel and cut the thing off in the 110 degree heat of Texas summer in 1967. I was about 10. Here's the funny thing about that. Around 1992-'93, I was striping a '50 Chevy PU for a customer when he told me him and his Dad have about 50 of those trucks. I mentioned the hammer/chisel chop job and he said they have one just like that his Dad bought about 10 miles from where we lived when I was kid.

    I was about 10 yrs old when I took some brown shoe polish and hand lettered crazy words all over Dad's 50 Dodge PU. He was pissed but pretty much nailed my early career sign painting race cars and wreckers.

    Street racing a bone stock Ford Pinto in my 12 second 55 two door hardtop Chevy. I'd race anything.

    I was 16 when stopped by the town Mayor for loud exhaust in my 55. Coke cans worked on that.

    Had a flat, jacked the car up to change the tire, listening to Led Zeppelin we thought it be cool to see if the jack would go down itself. The jack handle flew through the air and landed smack in the middle of windshield. No I wasn't tokin'!

    1999, bought a new Chevy PU, wanted to see what it would do. Pulled over going 115 on I-35 through New Braunfels. I was not a kid then but sure felt like one. Got a warning. Nice cop.

    I'm sure I have more stories but getting too old to 'member.
     
  20. jbrittonjr
    Joined: Sep 10, 2009
    Posts: 105

    jbrittonjr
    Member

    What is the statute of limitations in New Jersey again?
     
  21. whtbaron
    Joined: Sep 12, 2012
    Posts: 579

    whtbaron
    Member
    from manitoba

    I was about 11 when my dad let me have the old family beater... a $50 52 Plymouth 2 door. Ran it across a stubble field over 60 mph when I hit a grassed waterway and launched it into the air. The 6 volt battery went into the fan and I cracked the frame beside the left front shock mount. Still got the car in the pasture, but it's in a sad state of repair. Some day I'd like to turn it into a Sam Barris style custom.
     
  22. 62RagtopNova
    Joined: Feb 5, 2012
    Posts: 115

    62RagtopNova
    Member

    The TR-6 story hits home. I drove my '71 TR-6 from Brea to Yorba Linda with an uncorked header to get the exhaust installed at the only "custom" exhaust shop around then. I explored the performance potential on Imperial Hwy fortunately no po-po.

    Later I was a pioneer of the drifting craze in the same car after a light rain until I lost it and planted the car against the curb 4 square. Not a scratch.
     
  23. crashfarmer
    Joined: Apr 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,285

    crashfarmer
    Member
    from Iowa

    When I was 17 I decided to take the hood off my 55 Ford and drive around. I went through the river ford at Pammel Park way too fast and the water cascaded over my engine killing it immediately. There I sat on the ford, in the Ford in the middle of Middle River until my distributor dried out. :D
     
  24. 55yak
    Joined: Nov 5, 2011
    Posts: 41

    55yak
    Member

    I was 17 in 1963, my stepdad had been wanting a new car since he was still driving a 1950 Buick. He worked hard at his 24 hour coffee shop in San Fernando on Hwy. 99 before I-5 was built and said he deserved it. He knew absolutely nothing about cars and actually valued my opinion believe it or not. He liked Pontiacs so he took me to the dealership in North Hollywood to help him order a new one. He seemed to like the luxury of a big black Bonneville so we went down the order list with the salesman. I told him the 389 with factory Tri Power was the way to go since he could get great gas mileage on the center carb and still have the other two if he needed to pass someone, yeah right. I also talked him into the finned aluminum wheels. He would not go for the 4-speed so we had to order the automatic. The salesman was staring at me and smiling, I guess he thought he had hit the lottery. What my stepdad did not know was what a squirrel he had recently inherited for a stepson. I would borrow that big cruiser for "special dates" and I would drive around the corner, open the hood, take off that air cleaner, put it in the trunk and make those 3 Rochester's sing me some beautiful, mournful, moaning music to compliment the howling rear tires as I took off. That big heavy car would fry those tires for a long, long way. My poor dad took his car back to the dealer more than once to try and find out why his rear tires were going bald. On the second visit, they asked him if he had a teenaged son in the family. Bingo, he got it and I never got to borrow that car ever again.
     
  25. 57Custom300
    Joined: Aug 21, 2009
    Posts: 1,424

    57Custom300
    Member
    from Arizona

    I was 18 on the streets of Detroit in '67. Sittin' on a residential street talking to a buddy in our cars & we decided to go over a friends house down the same street. Problem was it was behind us so we decided to "race" in reverse to his place. Sitting side-by-side we both floor it in reverse. Later he tells me he made it about 3 houses and bounced off both curbs. I was "winning" and made it about twice that far but lost control. The car did a 180 & ended up facing in the direction we were going anyway. I just cleaned my pants, put it in gear and continued on. How I stayed off the curbs & parked cars I dont know. No wonder I was hated all over Warrendale in Detroit for my cars.
     
  26. 40StudeDude
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 9,536

    40StudeDude
    Member

    "IF you can remember the '60's, you weren't there." LOL...not everyone was doing drugs in the '60's...and by way of self promotion -if you want to read the "REAL American Grafitti" stories, pick up my first two books "Bangin' Gears & Bustin' Heads" and "Fast Cars, 4-speeds and Fist-fights"...those were written about the wild, crazy days of 1962-'66, with a '57 Chevy. The fifth book I wrote, "Faded Thunder" covers Denver, ColoRODo, 1967-'69 when I owned a built '64 Chevy Impala with a 301", 4-speed and a 5:13 rear end...whipped a lot of the new "muscle" cars on the street.

    R-
     
  27. My first car had a 225 slant 6,three on the tree. Too under powered to spin the tires. I found the only way to do a burnout was to drive up on the sidewalk at school with the back tires on the curb and pop the clutch. This got the one tire spinning real good untill the rear end broke. Never had a good answer for my parents on how I broke 2 rear ends.
     
  28. Learned to drive in my uncle Skip's driveway. Me and cousin George would
    put car in gear then push starter button till car wouldn't move anymore Sometimes we overdid it and car would not start when Skip was ready to leave.;)
     
  29. old jetstar
    Joined: Dec 29, 2011
    Posts: 43

    old jetstar
    Member
    from oswego,KS

    One of my buddies had a 65 impala with the smooth center chrome wheels.....We figured out that it was just the right width to fit on the train tracks if you let the tires down low so the wheels would guide the car.......Then we'd get out and ride on the hood,rode quite a few miles that way......:confused::confused:
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.