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Folks Of Interest Did you drive a hot rod or custom car in the 1950s?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by SuperFleye, Dec 21, 2009.

  1. SuperFleye
    Joined: Jul 17, 2005
    Posts: 2,053

    SuperFleye
    Alliance Vendor

    It seems like this message board is full of "older" members that drove cool sleds and hopped up jalopies in the 1950s. They lurk around here, and posts a photo here and there of their old rides. It would have been cool if these guys could show us their old rides in a dedicated thread. Mild or wild, cool or ugly, post your photos in this thread! My parents were barely born in the 1950s, so I have unfortunately nothing to start this thread with, but I hope somebody will chip in and share their rides soon!
     
  2. SuperFleye
    Joined: Jul 17, 2005
    Posts: 2,053

    SuperFleye
    Alliance Vendor

    Hey, it's almost been a year and no replies! So I'm bumping this up on a Saturday night :) Come on folks share your stories with us newcomers
     
  3. RDR
    Joined: May 30, 2009
    Posts: 1,480

    RDR
    Member

    one of us 'old farts' problems was we didn't take many pctures...spent most of our cash on fixing the car not photoing it...sometimes a girl friend or if we remembered the parents camera we might have a pic to share....that being said here is the best I've got of my highschool car 1960-62....'49 Chev,303 Olds/cad 3 spd,merc/spicer rearend...gold color,red/white interior(Tijuana)
     

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  4. I was born in 1950 and I walked a lot until '64. HRP
     

  5. daddio211
    Joined: Aug 26, 2008
    Posts: 6,012

    daddio211
    Member

    I was born in 1971, but I'd drive 19.50 in the quarter in my '41 Tudor. Does that count?
     
  6. mj40's
    Joined: Dec 11, 2008
    Posts: 3,303

    mj40's
    Member

  7. BOWTIE BROWN
    Joined: Mar 30, 2010
    Posts: 3,252

    BOWTIE BROWN
    Member

    if you remember the 60s you were'nt there.
     
  8. jpbanjo
    Joined: Aug 24, 2007
    Posts: 171

    jpbanjo
    Member Emeritus
    from Tulsa, Ok.

    Here, see if this helps your thread. That's me, a lot younger and a whole lot skinnier back in Aug, 1958. I had just driven 400 miles from St. Louis to Tulsa to go back to school. Note the American Racing Gray paint job and "full race" Port-a-walls on the front tires.
    [​IMG]

    While going to school, I turned it into this by Jan. 1960. That's fifty years ago and it's still in my garage (but without the white spare tire cover.)
    [​IMG]
     
  9. only in my dreams
     

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  10. rockable
    Joined: Dec 21, 2009
    Posts: 4,429

    rockable
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I was riding in a stroller and a '56 Belvedere 4 Dr. Sedan. :(
     
  11. propwash
    Joined: Jul 25, 2005
    Posts: 3,857

    propwash
    Member
    from Las Vegas

    first car was a 48 Merc coupe...bought and driven in 1959 as a 9th grader. Hot-rodded it soon thererafter - never had a true custom - even my shoeboxes had Cads or Hemis within. Lots of customs in town, and I appreciated most of them...just didn't ring my bell like noisy dual exhaust and tire-burning engines.

    dj
     
  12. gkgeiger
    Joined: Nov 28, 2007
    Posts: 767

    gkgeiger
    Member

    When I was 16 (1959) I bought a 54 Ford Business coupe. It had a 239 OHV engine. The guy I bought it from put a way too radical Isky cam in it. It had a 2bbl carb which I replaced with 3X2's. It had duals with Chevy truck mufflers and no tailpipes. It was loud and sounded really radical, but a stock 265 Chev w/2bbl carb would blow my doors off. I loved it though, until I spun it it the rain and knocked a telephone pole down. There were sparks everywhere. Scared the sh!7 out of me.
     
  13. hotrod40coupe
    Joined: Apr 8, 2007
    Posts: 2,561

    hotrod40coupe
    Member

  14. 40StudeDude
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 9,536

    40StudeDude
    Member

    I sure would like to hear someone tell me the explanation behind this saying...

    I can remember all the 1960's...I even wrote two books about it (1959 to 1969)...

    Perhaps it's because that decade was full of drugs...??? If so, I didn't do drugs...drank a lot of beer tho...

    Here's the '59 I owned a couple of years after graduating in 1961...I drove it to art school in Omaha, NE, and drag raced on Dodge & Military Avenues... that's my Mom and Dad in the pic with me...

    R-

    [​IMG]
     
  15. 6berry
    Joined: Apr 12, 2009
    Posts: 352

    6berry
    Member

    i was born in 1992 and didnt start legally driving until earlier this year but i love to see these old pictures
     
  16. 49 chev coupe 1956-1958. 31 ford roadster 1958-1960

    Mick
     

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  17. Randy P
    Joined: Oct 3, 2006
    Posts: 437

    Randy P
    Member
    from Austin, TX

    I didn't, but my Dad worked on and drove these in the late '50s in Rockdale, TX. He drove this '36 Cabriolet with '40 Deluxe front sheetmetal, '40 dash and '50 Merc flattie, through high school and never had a top on it. He customized and drove this '50 Ford with Pontiac grille after that. Many others with no pics, lucky to have pics of these two.
     

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  18. 40fordtudor
    Joined: Jan 3, 2010
    Posts: 2,503

    40fordtudor
    Member

    RDR said it for me---took no pictures. I had a 40 Ford coupe in high school--39 tranny and straight pipes. I had a local bodyman deck it (bad move) and I drove hell out of it. Blew up the flatty, sold it and bought a shoebox. Stuck a 303 Olds in it--still no pictures. I have taken pictures of what will probably be my last car--they are on my HAMB site--my 5th 40 Ford.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2010
  19. Pat Pryor
    Joined: May 28, 2007
    Posts: 1,911

    Pat Pryor
    Member

    hopefully in my past life
     
  20. Kripfink
    Joined: Sep 30, 2008
    Posts: 2,040

    Kripfink
    Member Emeritus

    Threads like this are why I love it so much here! I hope it takes off this time around.
    Paul
     
  21. poncho62
    Joined: Nov 23, 2005
    Posts: 1,094

    poncho62
    BANNED

    I am almost 60 and got my license in 1968, so the 50s guys must be real old........lol
     
  22. George Miller
    Joined: Dec 26, 2008
    Posts: 413

    George Miller
    Member
    from NC usa

    Here is my 31 chev, with a 261 Chev 6 engine, in about 1955
    I had black hair then.
     

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  23. For most (at least the ones I ran with) life in southern cal & the bay area was about over indulgence in the mid to late sixties. Hot Rods, horsepower, choppers, booze, drugs and babes. Pick your poison and then "Tune In, Turn On and Drop Out"! Do I remember the sixtie's? Yea, kinda...
     
  24. George Miller
    Joined: Dec 26, 2008
    Posts: 413

    George Miller
    Member
    from NC usa

    Here is one of my 1941 Chev coupe. It has 3 carbs on a home made intake and split exhaust that I made my self, because I did not have money to buy them. It also has two accelerator pedals. one for one carb and one for the other two carbs
    This is in 1953 I was 16 years old.
     

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  25. Randy P
    Joined: Oct 3, 2006
    Posts: 437

    Randy P
    Member
    from Austin, TX

    Here's one Dad customized and drove in the late '50s while on an extended vacation in France compliments of Uncle Sam and the US Army.
     

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  26. SuperFleye
    Joined: Jul 17, 2005
    Posts: 2,053

    SuperFleye
    Alliance Vendor

    Look at that, nice to see that the bump jump-started this thread! Keep them posts coming folks :)

    Latemodel34 do you know what happened to your dads olds? Could it have been one of the first customized american cars in france maybe?

     
  27. Randy P
    Joined: Oct 3, 2006
    Posts: 437

    Randy P
    Member
    from Austin, TX

    I asked Dad about it and this was his reply:

    "That was a 1953 Olds, had electric doors & deck lid, shaved door, hood, and deck handles, frenched head and tail lamps, caused quiet a stir in France, was shipped back to Peoria, IL, about a year or so after I got back (1960), by J Handley , one of our best friends. He actually owned the car, I just did the work. (free of charge) . We traveled everywhere in this car and our 1949 Ford.
    P.S. All work done with 30/70 lead, no bondo , in tobacco barns you see in photo this was 1959 and 1960 in Brizambourg, France .
    Never saw anything else like it over there."
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2010
  28. 57belair
    Joined: Jan 5, 2008
    Posts: 95

    57belair
    Member Emeritus
    from Michigan

    Here's my '57 Chevy. bought it new
    and been cruisin and showin ever
    since.
     

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  29. atomickustom
    Joined: Aug 30, 2005
    Posts: 3,409

    atomickustom
    Member

    Around 1958 my dad customized a '53 Studebaker coupe but never took a single photo of it. He told me so much about it as I was growing up that I believe I could probably clone it just from his descriptions. I only have one photo out of all the cars he and his older brothers ever owned, and it was a mint '55 Dodge that he bought a couple years old (also around 1958) for next to nothing at an estate sale. That's it. Uncle owned several '40 Ford coupes with not one single photograph of any of them. Other uncle had some oddball cars, not one photo either. It was buy film or buy gas, and they bought gas!
     
  30. MT63AFX
    Joined: Dec 24, 2008
    Posts: 39

    MT63AFX
    Member

    My uncle was the "car-guy" in our family. I remember at the age of 6 (1956) he drove a 50 Merc, hot flathead through functioning Lake pipes. Chopped, Frigidaire white, with the long Highway, bubble skirts? Had to take our shoes off before getting in the car. Police had nabbed us kids playing in the under-construction houses in our neighborhood. When I heard that flathead fire up a block away and come rumbling down the street, the tears had already started flowing, LOL, 'cause a whippin' was coming in that Merc, Rod.
     

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