Back in 1962 when I was 19 and celebrating a street racing win by playing around on the curvy road back to our hangout, I rolled my super clean low mileage '56 Vette. The insurance company totaled it and sent me a check for $710 ($10 for towing), a note that said "fix it or junk it, it's yours", and a cancellation notice. I decided to fix it but marriage and kids got in the way so I sold it partially repaired and then lost track of it. I hope it survived.
I had a few cool cars when I was in the service, and on a few, I took it in the shorts because I had the cars torn down for a rebuild and got an assignment. I had nowhere to store them while I was gone, so I basically gave the cars away, most notably an all-original '65 GTO 389 4-speed, with a running '65 LeMans to go with it. I shudder to think of how many pristine Chevy and Pontiac station wagons I bought and raped just for the front sheetmetal and the engine. I would love to have just one of those wagons today. I do have to say that since my younger years, I have changed my ways and have saved a bunch of vehicles that were headed for the scrapper.
When I was 15, a classmate's aunt died and he was bequeathed her very nice, 40,000 mile '54 Chevy 210 2 door sedan......and he promptly took his father's torches and cut the roof off of it.
Back in 1985 I bought an original paint 1966 Impala 2 dr hardtop for the motor/trans for a couple hundred bucks. After I removed the running gear from the car I rolled it outside. One of my brother's buddies asked me what I was going to do with the body and I said I was not sure. When I walked away he grabbed a wood chopping axe, jumped up on the roof and chopped a "sunroof" in this near perfect car. Funny at the time but very sad today.
Not necessarily H.A.M.B. friendly, but in 1983 I was working at a junkyard and building a new street stock. Dan, the yard owner, told me to go get the 70 Torino in the back corner of the lot to cut up. I went to get it, came back and said 'Dan, are you sure? That's an original 428 Cobra Jet Torino' His response 'You wanna race? Cut it up.' So I cut it up and made a street stock out of it. FWIW He posted here a lot on the Historic Stock car thread as Allstarracing before he passed. In fact searching for him was what led me to the HAMB.
Not necessarily me, but being in High School from '78-'82 saw my friends kill lots of desirable muscle car stock 'cause they were simply cheap ten year old trnspo at the time. Fred Rose completely destroyed a '69 Charger 440 4 speed car over a six month period one year, another who's name escapes me destroyed at least three '69 Camaros, one being a big block 4 speed car. Challengers, Barracudas, Early Mustangs, all driven into the ground in fits of youthful exuberance. I already had my '35, then my '39 so I was a bit more careful than most.
I feel your pain...I bought a vintage early 1960s Nova stock car. Not a lot left of it but still a cool old car. In the 1970s class requirements forced them to take off the 57 Chevy body and put a later model body (the Nova). However after looking at the rear section of the frame, it was clear the original 57 was a "Fuelie!"
Not me but it is teenager related I built a really nice Resto-rod 62 Nova with a 400 small block, headers small cam and good intake/carb, t-350 and a 10 bolt with 3.73's. The body and interior were restored to stock. The rolling stock were body color rims and dish hubcaps and beuty rings. The car was lowered all around an inch or so for the "good" stance. Loved that car. Fast enough to be fun but not so you would get in trouble. Got a lot of thumbs up on it from a lot of different crowds. Time to move on so I sold it to an 18 yo kid with his dad doing the haggling. Saw the car a few weeks later with 12 inch wide Pro-Tracs and slotted mags on the back with air shocks jacked up as high as they could go to clear the fenders. He had bolted on a snorkle scoop and added a chain steering wheel. I almost puked. A few months later I ran into the kid again... He told me he had hit a pot hole and drove the shock tower into the hood and bent the subframe. The insurance company had written it off and sold it to the shredder.
yea , if you think what efforts we do to restore something while thousands in much better shape were destroyed.. It's an artifact of the society we live in, where people use up a car 25% and then buy a new one. The 75% cars will soon become plentiful and thus worthless, and will be treated as such..
This makes me sick. When we were just stupid teenagers in 1962 we had a local car club. Back then everybody wanted Ford coupes and roadsters. We were donated several cars one being a 1940 Caddy LaSalle, another was a running 1940s Hudson and perhaps the worst of all a 1934 Ford "woodie". We had a large field next to our clubhouse and on saturdays we had demolition derbys with the cars. Please shoot me!
had a 56 Nomad that I spent a lot of time on took care of it. years later sold it reason I will not get into car was not payed for another story. found it on Ebay 20 years later lost it in auction it looked bad. but all the other cars I had I ran them into the ground made dirt cars, cut others up, as others bought good cars for engines scrapes the rest, and a beautiful 64 devile convert cut it up to fill in an old septic tank and many other things worse
back in say 1975 our neighbor gave us kids a 64-65 Mustang it had no engine or tranny, my brother and I took our tools to it pliers and a pocket knife we cut the interior and removed whatever we could from the dash, ended up using the hood as a sled in the winter, we jumped on the roof and crushed it in, we sold it twice and guys would just remove parts and leave the rest, it had a rustfree body white with perfect red interior
i rolled a 56 ford vicky, with a 312 in a field behind our house when i was 14, had the air cleaner off to get that good 4 barrel sound it caught fire and burned, it sat in our field for years
I came from a poor family, we never had a car. I had to ride the bus everywhere. I would have sold my liver for one of these cars.
55 Chevy 2 door post... perfectly straight with nice black paint and low miles. Don't ask, it still makes me want to cry.
a 68 charger rt, , over a cliff , ruined a 64 gto by straight axelin it and a 67 396 chevelle too oh then theres the impala wagon i tore the quarter off , thats enough
In about 1970 while still in high school my brother and I decided to cut the top off a mini and weld it on to the top of his van. It went fairly well considering what little we knew about body work at the time. We didn't know much about Econolines either and even less about Minis as it turned out. We realized later that we cut up a Mini Cooper.
Up until the mid 70's I was still driving the 50 and 60's stuff. Did have a friend that decided to go stock car racing. In two seasons we went through 17 57 chevys just for the tin, one was a low mileage 4 dr. hardtop still had the plastic on the seats, no dents, good paint.
I am the reason muscle cars are so valuable and rare!☺ Really these cars were junk! Fucking bodies were ill fitting and pre rusted from the factory! The only thing worth salvaging were the drivetrains! Posted using Full box of Crayons on the Kitchen Walls App!
I guess I was brought up right , our family would not butcher good or restorable possible collector cars. we often took ordinary cars and added parts to them from wrecked ones , I have owned several trans ams over the years but only one was a real T/a the others were sheetmetal swaped firebirds and parts added to it to make it look and handle like the real thing . and if I gernaded a motor well go get one from the bone yard , get one from a 4 door catalina and start swapping parts again. one of the cars was mostly a 4 door drivetrain , and the rear from a 4 door 68 mercury .and a 6 cyl base model bird to begin with . My 50 , if it wasn't already butchered , I would have left it with a stock driveline and tried to soup it up ( would have changed out the rear end because of parts availability ) . but I am going to try to leave as much of the interior alone . just going to improve on the original items like electrical . as for the body , thought about chopping the top but was kind of talked out of it , but we are going to smooth up the rear by removing the bumper and putting pans on it ..
I don't think I ever deliberately destroyed any cars, they were too precious to a poor boy like I was. I did finish off a bunch of "dead on there feet" cars by driving them until they quit, or until I couldn't afford the repairs. A couple that I should have saved were a 62 Dodge Dart 2dr post 318 3 on the tree, (worn out engine) and a 64 Pontiac Gran Prix 421 tri-power 4 spd car (clutch) I bought a Dodge squad car with a 361 for parts, never got around to swapping the 361 into the 2 dr post.
With all these confessions going on here, I don't feel so bad after all... At least mine were common ol' late 30s Fords, and more doors at that..
The Jalopy Journal
