What was the car that got it all started for you? My Dad had a car when I was a kid and sold it when I was 6 or 7 that's what got me into hot rods but it wasn't my first car. I bought a 1930 model A in 1985. My Dad was gone with his buddies to the Street Rod Nationals in Minnesota the first one he ever went to. I went for a ride on my motorcycle and on the outskirts of town there it was a Model A that someone had started and lost interest in and put up for sale. The top was chopped and it was in primer. I just had to have it. We struck up a deal and off to the bank I went. I couldn't get the money until Monday so 100 bucks down would hold it until then. Know all I had to do was convince my Dad that this was a good deal and with his help we could make this a pretty cool car. I tried in the past to talk him into us building a car and he didn't want too said it cost a lot of money and takes a long time. Needless to say I was a little worried that he would be pissed because I don't have a garage and he does so you see we're I'm going with this. Well Sunday rolls around and Dad comes back from the show and is on his way to my house I'm on my way to his house and we meet at an intersection. He said follow me I want to show you something. So I follow him not knowing we're we are going. Well we end up at the house with the model A.He gets out of the car and rambles on about the street rod nationals and all the cool model a's that he saw he said I can't afford this but you can and he would help me with it and it will be fun. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I busted out laughing and told him I already bought it I can pick it up tomorrow. The two years it took to build that car gave me a lot of respect for him. I owe anything I learned about cars to him. I still wanted it with no fenders and more old school hot rod look but I gave into his way of thinking and you know he was right the car looked better with fenders than without. Well this is my first hot rod lets see and hear about yours.
As a kid of 16 i bought a model A cpe from the local bone yard for $25 . The next door neighbors complained so my folks made me take it back to the bone yard. Needless to say i didn't get my money back.70 years later i am fulfilling my dream.Its a 32 5 window cpe 3 inch chop 302 jag torsion bar suspension c-4 auto electric windows and a/c. 4 years of work almost done. Whoopee
don't get me started on my dad....or the first....he was a USAF and always bringing home car's from the guy's - I guess now - that were shipping out.... he brought home a 36 Ford 4 door....had to have had an Olds in it...my older brother...and me pleaded for him to keep it..."it's to much car for you boys" was always his standard line....there's a pic of it somewhere... then at 16 I was going to trade off my HT-1 Yamaha for a running 41 Ply cpe...he said no to that as well... he did let me drag one of the guys in his outfit's Studie truck home..thinks he didn't think I could get it running and back on the road...
Dad had a history with the good oie boys from compton. Art& jack Christman. had sprint cars ,hot rods in the garage from the time I was born.started racing sand drags when I was 12/13 yrs old.The "Olddie But Goddie had a name to be respected. Born and bred into this colorfull word of hotrodding. have no complaints
When I was about 5 or 6 my dad bought a 36 Ford 2dr Slantback...bone stock. When I was about 14 I built a model of what "I" thought it should look like. He's now retired and finally working on a complete restoration (its been in the garage eversince 1971). Wont be the hot rod I envisioned but I'm hoping to talk him into some bigs and littles, a dropped front axle and dual pipes.
Started working on it in 1959 when I was 14. My ride at the time was a Cushman Eagle. My friend's grandmother gave him a 1941 Ford Sedan. He was building a Model A touring car, and needed money for an Olds engine. I bought the sedan for $30.00 and traded it for a 1946 Ford coupe. I got a running '53 Hemi out of a scrap yard for $10.00 and bought motor mounts and transmission adapter from Honest Charlies. Picked up a '39 gearbox and away we went.
No, it started a long list of cars I wish I still had. 1954 Buick custom, Model A roadster pickup with a real Corvette engine, Duster 340. Also wish I had my Cushman Eagle and my Triumph Trident back. Just sold my 1962 Triumph TR4..had if for over twenty years...and already have remorse.
Seeing this car from the school bus window back in 1957 parked outside Charlie Durso's place in Wappingers Falls, NY was my beginning. ( The Pepto Bismal Pink car)
The car in my avatar was my fathers and he started it in 1959 and it has a 331 hemi a lot of similarities there. I found it and bought it back about 4 years ago.
I fooled around with 50s cars when a kid and didn't get my first real hot rod until 1974 when I bought this 32 Ford coupe at a car show swap meet. I kept it about 15 years then sold it. Good news is I found it in 2009 and bought it back last year! I had lots of old cars after I sold it but nothing ever felt so right as this coupe.
The one that didit for me was a 38 Chevy Coupe with an Olds Engine. It was owned by a friend who was a good 20+ years older than me. One ride in that car and I was On Fire !!! The car had been down the Strip quite a few times and then was retired and built as a show car (Atlanta in the mid 60's) In 1967 this older friend (Wes) helped me with installing a 283 / Power Glide in my newly purchased 39 Chevy 2-dr (axle car) I ain't been right since then !!! Jeff
Well, it wasn't my first, but it's the first time I saw one in person. My family moved to Houston in fall of '74. I was 16 hooked on hot rods because of American Graffiti, Hot Rod magazine and Street Rodder Magazine. VERY hooked on T Buckets. That fall, my dad took my brother and I to the Auto-Rama. It was my first car show. I walked around in a daze, taking Polaroid pictures that came of too dark. I saw this T Bucket and just stared at it. For a VERY long time. I'd walk away for a few minutes and come back, only to stare some more. It was candy Apple red and as faddish as T Buckets could be in 1974, but I freaking loved it. Chrome, a blower, BBC. I was digging the power to weight ratio, even though I was flunking Algebra. There were spot lights all around it and every time I took a step, it seemed the car shined more. That night was the night my dad told me, I could build one, if I ever got my shit together. It ended up being 32 years, before I felt I had my shit together.
The Jalopy Journal
