Hot Rods Dad's car, what we remember

Reminiscing a bit here, but what are some of your family memories growing up around cars. My family had one car and no one drove but my father. He was never a car guy but loved his Packard as I recall and finally moved onto Buicks. Never could figure out his love for the Packard? He worked six to seven days a week as a carpenter and carried all his tools in the trunk so ample trunk space was first priority.
We lived in a row home in the Philadelphia but I remember having to help him put snow chains on the Packard one winter night in a driving snow storm using a bumper jack. Imagine that, no garage, the horror! He had to get to work in the morning at all costs as there were seven mouths to feed. Think I was about seven years old and I'll never forget what a misery that was. Sure as heck remember having to help shovel him out of the snow and securing his parking spot after he left for work. Used trash cans in his spot to prevent parking spot thieves. Unless you lived in a snow belt city you have no idea what a pain in the ass that was. "I shoveled it, now it's mine mentality" Still an inner city tradition, only more territorial.
In better weather when not working he'd wash the car and wax it using the old hard paste wax like "Simonize." Still remember rubbing wax off the Packard and especially the jet black 57 Buick. Shined like a pearl in the sun when done but was that ever a chore .

 

First car I can remeber anything about my Dad having,was a used early 40sChevy coupe,I was 4 years old, so right after he got out of WW2 its what he got,,when I was 5years old,Dad desided to rebuild the 6cly motor in our little barn out back next to my sand box.
I wanted to help,so when he was at work and his car was in the barn almost done with the hood off,carb not yet mounted on the intake,I got up on the fender with my sand bucket and rasins,filled up the open hole on the intake for him with my sand an rasins mix,smooth it out nice an flat too. Mom came in, see's what I did and takes me down the street to her frainds to stay for one or to days,I'm told that saved my life! LOL

 

Dad was a Buick man so we always had Buicks til the day he passed. I remember the 46 Roadmaster,51 Special,bought new 55 Special that became my first car in 67, 56 wagon ,58 wagon,63 wildcat ,65 Sportwagon,66 Wildcat,70 Electra,72 Electra,78 Electra. The wagons were used to pull the camper on our many trips and used as a second car for Mom to use and haul us kids around. Dad was never much to modify anything on the cars but I did talk him into glasspacks on the 58 wagon when the exhaust needed replaced in about 62. It put a smile on his face everyting he fired it up! I could even talk Mom into rapping the pipes when she picked me up at school sometimes. The love of Buicks must have rubbed off as I have always owned them and now my son has a small fleet of old Buicks too.

 

This is me working on the first car I remember as a kid, 1957 Ford Town and Country wagon. My guess is it had a "Y" block, but wouldn't know what cid., automatic and a seek-scan radio. My parents would put blankets and pillows in the rear for my brother and I to nap on during trips to SC to visit Granny. We had this car up until the early 70's when it was replaced with another wagon for the now 3 boys.

This is the first new car my parents bought and it has passed on to my oldest. Purchased from Thompson Ford, we took this car on vacations and enjoyed the AC. I helped Dad work on this car too, and it gave him the most aggravation of anything he ever owned. But it was always know as "mom's car".

 

My dad used to tell me a story about when he was in college (late 1950's) when he and my grandfather went in together on a mild custom 54 Chevy convertible, pale yellow, white gut with a white top. They thought it was the sweetest ride ever, my grandmother however did not agree and made them take it back. He said that was one of the best and worst afternoons in his life.

 

First car I "drove" was a 53 Dodge my sister's boy friend owned. Actually didn't really drive it...released the emergency brake while playing in the car and it rolled down the hill. Almost crapped my pants as I could barely reach the brake pedal. I think I was about five or six. My sister and boyfriend laughed their ass off. Probably only rolled ten feet! She married him.

 

before I was born my pop had a dark green 51 mercury 2 door. my Mom says it was beautiful until he wrecked it one day and just came home without it. must have sold it to the tow truck driver... who knows.

when I was born we had a 53 Chevrolet sedan. this must have been the start of my love for 49-54 Chevrolets. one day my sister barfed in it, and soon after they traded it in on a new car. I always thought they got rid of it because it smelled like barf. funny the things you remember from when you were a kid.

pop also had a 66 caprice with a 396, bucket seats and a console with gauges in it and a floor shift. I have never seen another one like it... it was like a Caprice SS that they never made

 

My dad never had anything exceptional, a 1952 Ford Courier and later on a 1956 Chevy sedan delivery,they were our everyday transportation for work,going to the grocery store or traveling throughout the state to visit my grandparents.

They were simple cars but served him well.

Dad wasn't into cars although he appreciated a nice car he could never afford one.

HRP

 

oooh oooh! almost forgot, the coolest cars I ever saw my pop drive were a 1957 Chevrolet sedan delivery and a 50 or so Chevrolet long wheelbase panel truck, painted blue and yellow with "T&T Linen Supply" on the sides. these were work vehicles.

 

Dad had a wrecking yard when I was little so there were lots of different cars around but the one that always stuck out the most was the stock T roadster pickup he would pick me up from school in when I was in 1st grade. He only drove it on nice days and always with the top down. That would have been in '61 -'62.

 

First car I remember for sure that we had was a green 42 Plymouth sedan. It seems like we had a 39 Chevy before that, but I'm not sure about that. My dad was never a car guy, he considered them strictly a means of transportation and I will never for get when I rode along with him to Omaha when I was about 13 or 14 to buy a different car and seeing a 54 Vette on one of those raised up drive on stands, right where we drove on the lot. Of course he never even looked at it, we drove home in a 53 Belair that day.

 

Hmmmmnnn the only car that I really remember was the roadster, I still don't like roadsters.

 

Lessee...as best as I can recall:
'40 Buick Super Sedan
'41 Buick Roadmaster convertible sedan
Austin A90 convertible
'48 Mercury woody
'51 Jaguar MK VII
'56 Mercedes 300SL gullwing
'70 Mustang fastback

Oh, and he had an Airflow DeSoto in the '30s, before I was born.

 

For several years the family car was a '35 Dodge sedan, I remember going to buy it with my dad, the lady was selling it for her son, he had lost interest in it and now had something a little more hot rod to work on, anyway, the price was $25.00, she asked my dad how much was it going to cost to get the title changed over, he said $15.00, she took that off and my dad gave her $7.00 for the car.

 

Dad's 41 Ford Ragtop that he bought when he came back from the South Pacific at the end of WWII
He dated my mom in it and I believe I came home in it from the hospital when I was born in 1946. It was said to have the loudest pipes in the county in 1946. It got traded for a 41 Buick Sedanette not long after I was born that got traded for a "new" 51 Ford tudor sedan or coupe. That got traded for a 55 Buick Special which got traded for a 57 Roadmaster with every bell and Whistle Buick put on one then. He had a 52 Olds Super 88 tudor sedan that I really liked as I was 14 at the time and then a 57 Olds Super 88 4 door hardtop that had a J-2 tri-power in it and was solid jet black. Boring cars after that one though.

 

My dad was ALWAYS tinkering on his hot rods in the mid-to-late 1950's in Grants Pass/Rogue River Oregon. He was always trading, fixing, and driving cars of all shapes and sizes. He dated my mother in a blue-teal 31' Ford Coupe that had no seats, but two conveniently placed wood tree stumps...goin' around a corner was tricky, but teenage love in all it's glory with whitewalls and .50 cents worth of ethol gas! My father drove a lowered 1950 Merc lowered by throwing sand bags in the trunk which was painted tangerine orange around 1959, that was always picking up trash under the chassis.....my mother was horrified to ride with him most times, because nothing ever ran properly, ....but, he looked 'cool' in his sunglasses, straight-leg levi's, and brogues...and slicked back hair with ducktail. My grandfather wasn't too impressed with his cars, and was always taking time off from work driving a log truck, and picking up my dad & mother broke down someplace....it's funny to think of my parents doing outright 'dumb' things as teenagers and seeing the years accomodate Pinto's, Reliants, and stationwagons in the driveway.----my dad never lost his love of hot rods though, and would linger quietly over them in the local 4th of July parade & car show.

 

Dads OT 1969 Eldorado "company car" in flawless triple black. He worked as the design director for Westin Corporate in Seattle just down the street from the Frederick Cadillac dealership. He had them install a brand new warmed up 500 complete with lumpy cam and bigger stall in the late 70's. (My mom hated the attention that car brought on) I'm pretty sure he must have bought back at least one set of his own hubcaps since they were stolen every few months while he owned it.

 

My pop's interest in cars fueled my modest 35 year racing career. However, on topic: the 1st I remember was a red and yellow 4 door convertible maybe a Buick he got it in trade for an Indian motorcycle. (mom made him get rid of the scooter) This was just after WWII maybe 47 or 48, a black panel truck (I fell out of it onto the street car tracks), a green 52 Chevy 2-door, a 53 Chevy red vert, a creepy titty colored 55 ford Mainline, a green 57 Ford F1, and drum roll...a lavender 58 Olds 98 with the J2 engine and a pull out radio.

 

Actually, my earliest memory involves one of my dad's many MOPARs. Back in the '30s my dad had been roommates with a guy who later became a very high placed executive at Chrysler. From 1955 through 1981 dad got cars through him that were "special order".

Though I remember no details about the car, my earliest memory is being on my dad's lap, looking out of my grandparent's window, at my mother walking to our brown & cream 1955 Plymouth wagon.

The next was a white '57 Plymouth wagon.

The first I remember details of was his '61 Plymouth wagon. Navy blue, with 2-tone blue Chrysler seats, a clear rectangular Imperial steering wheel with sparkles in it, and 1957 Lancer 4-bar wheelcovers. The outstanding feature was the engine...a 413 dual 4bbl cross ram. His justification for the engine..."In case I have to pull a trailer".

Next came a '64 Plymouth wagon with an interesting story. Dad got creative ordering it...Imperial blue-green metallic paint, with 2-tone gold and light brown interior, a repeat on the Imperial sparkly steering wheel, Chrysler wagon side air deflectors/handles, and of course the Lancer 4-bars. A couple of months after putting in the order, dad's friend was in the area and stopped by to check out the car....but there was no car....and the guy was seriously PO'd. He gets on the phone and demands to know where this man's car was. He was told that they refused to build the car because the color combination would be ugly, and it would be impossible to put the old '61 steering wheel on a '64 column. He barked back to forget the wheel, and if he did not personally deliver the car in 1 week, he would be fired. That ugly color combo...looked stunning enough to be used in one of the '65 Dodge sales brochures.

Around that time, my mom finally got a driver's license, and that was dad's trigger to go car crazy. Until his death we always had 1 MOPAR, but the 2nd,3rd,4th....cars were anything that caught his eye, and frequently were not kept long enough to need a 2nd oil change...LOL.

The only other car he had that might be considered friendly here was his pride & joy for the last 10 years of his life. A very unusual 1964 (titled here as a 1966) MG 1100SS. A very special version of a 4-5 passenger folding roof 2 door sedan MG. One of 21 ever built, and as far as we could determine the only one in North America. It had a special head, dual carbs, a long tube tri-Y header, special gear ratios, and a lowered version of the Hydrolastic suspension. Unfortunately, the boxed rockers of the unibody structure rusted from the inside out, and was undiscovered until the car literally started sagging in the middle. Shortly before he passed, he sold it to a collector who transferred all the "SS" stuff over to a standard 1100 sedan.

 

We were a one car family growing up. My dad had bought a 1961 Chrysler in '65 and he was so cheap he just kept it on the road. I was born in 1980 and came home from the hospital in that car.

Around 1993 he sold it to me, and we fixed it up and I drove ti for some years. Later on it fell into disrepair and now it's at Gambino Kustoms for some much needed loving.

Here is a photo of my son with the ole gal.

 

This is the first car of Dad's I remember. I was just 3 years old. We were at the Huntington Beach speedway in 1947.

 

My dad cherished his '48 MG TC up until the time he developed Polio and could no longer drive it.
Fond memories of our entire family stuffed inside that car.

Sylvia ran with the Nash as her driver. Had no back seat, just a wooden shelf.
Dad had a back seat made for it as more kids (5) came on the scene finally

 

The cars I remember were a bathtub Nash (it was huge) and an early 50's Buick. One of em, probably the Buick, I hopped in pulled it out of park and rolled it into the middle of a Detroit street. After those he bought his 1st and only new car. A 1957 Ford Del Rio Ranch Wagon. He hated that car, while I had fond memories growing up in it. Years later I tried telling him how cool and desirable they were but he wasn't having any part of it. He still hated it, said it was worn out at 20k. Although he was a mechanic all his life he wasn't much of a car guy. Always hated anything I dragged home.

 

I remember riding in the package shelf of a '37 Ford coupe' back during WW2, I was 3 or 4. I also remember the gear knob, sort of flat with the V8 emblem on it, and the radio antenna under the running board.
After my sister was born in late '44 he got a '39 Plymouth 2 door, that was a good car, drove it 'til about 1951.

 

caption on the back "a day on the Cape Fear 1955" written by my mother...I remember driving to the mountains as a boy in this car( 1955 Chevy)...Dad's on left...

 

My earliest car memory is riding out of the Norwalk, Ct. Buick dealership in Dad's new '53 Buick two door hardtop with a V8. I was just about 2 1/2 years old at the time That got traded in for a new Ford in 1961, the car I would later take my drivers test in. Bob

 

This is a picture of my Dad's 48 Buick Roadmaster convertible. His daily driver was an army jeep, but this car was his pride and joy. This picture was taken at our motel in Florida one year.



Every Summer we went from Pennsylvania to Florida for a vacation and we took the Buick. I remember one year my Mom bought a palm tree in a 5 gallon container and I had to share the back seat all the way home with that damn tree ! My Pop was a musician and the Buick was what he drove to his gigs........he was quite the ladies man, and I guess the jeep just didn't get it for impressing the women.

The Buick met it's end one rainy night when we were coming from Ohio back to Pa. It was coming down in buckets and my Mom was driving. I was about 8 and I remember waking up in the back seat and finding out she had spun it sideways into a guard rail. I looked out the back window and saw a huge trailer truck coming around a curve and right for us. It hit the back of the Buick, spun it around, and all three of us were thrown out of the car. I have no idea how I got ejected from the back seat, but the next thing I knew I was sliding down the road and then my Dad ran up and picked me up.

None of us were seriously hurt, probably because that Buick weighed about as much as a tank, but the Buick was totaled. I don't think my Dad ever forgave my Mom for killing it.

My Mom was not the best driver in the world, and I remember one time she was backing up and looking out the window. The car had electric windows and her elbow hit the switch and the window rolled up on her neck.


Don

 

I faintly remember a dark blue 54 Ford 4 door we had. First one I really remember was a 59 Galaxy, aqua and white 4 door. No idea on the engine, just remember the hood opening to the front. That would be in 65, I was 6. The 59 was traded in on a brand new 67 Ford Custom 500. 289 C4, no power stuff, he hated power accessories, I learned to drive in that boat. He kept that car until after I left home in 78, then traded it in on a 78 Mercury Monarch. Cars were just transportation to him, he was Ford loyal with the exception of a 71 Chevy pickup he bought in 72 and kept up until sometime in the 90's. My first cars were both 67 Mustangs, first one a six, second one a 289. Pissed him off when I added mags and glasspacks! He was not a car guy.

 

Dad had a 29 Chevy truck he tore apart to restore. The frame leaned up against our little 1 car garage. Dad was at work, I climbed on top of the frame and started checking hole sizes with my pinky finger. Didn't take long till I was stuck. Soon half of the neighborhood was standing around trying to figure out what to do. Had to wait for my dad to get out of work, seemed like hours. He used some dish soap to secure my freedom. He paid 50$ for the truck, never did put it back together. Sold it for 100$, mom thought he done well. I think my dad regretted it but never spoke of it.
The 1st family car I remember ( I was 4 or 5) was his 60 Chevy. We pulled out of his buddies Texaco in Port Huron and just as we went through the intersection, an old lady blew the stop sign and totaled us. No seat belts, my head broke the passenger side window. ( some say that's what's wrong with me) No ambulance, just a sheriff car. He asked "the boy gonna be OK?", the old man replied he'll be fine. I had a lump the size of a golf ball. The cop told him, just don't let him go to sleep for a while, he may have a concussion.
That car was replaced by a red 63 Chevy wagon. Then a blue 66 Chevy wagon.
Then a new 69 Chevy 3/4 ton truck. Mom got the wagon. 6 kids, dads hot rod days were done. He'd still talk about his 41 Lincoln, 50 ford, 55 Chevy.
I remember seeing cool cars in other driveways, thinking I wish my dad would buy something cool.
Now when I look back, I think man I wish I had that car, any of em.

 

Several years before I could legally drive I had several projects stored in and around our New jersey home. Dad , not a car guy by any means, wasn't impressed at all. Actually put a fiberglass roadster body on our rear porch roof so he couldn't see it. Worked fine for a while until our neighbor came over wondering how I got a "boat" on our roof. Obviously not a car guy either but my Pop didn't find it necessarily funny. Had to cut it up to get rid of it. Thankfully I still kept the 34 Ford and the 55 Chev. rag top safely hidden.