How did you get hooked on to old cars ?

I blame Hot Wheels. I was 7 in 1967 when they came out. that combined with an unexplainable urge to take things apart and a subscription to Street Rodder for my 12th birthday did me in. I have no car or mechanical people in my family. I have no one to blame but myself.

 

Was born into it. Here's a picture of my Dad, sister and I with his 35 Chevy standard coupe, with olds rear, and 322 Buick Nailhead, circa 1963. My uncle's from both sides of the family were also car guys.

 

Building car models when I was 9 years old in 1949.

 

1950 I got a ride in my uncles 32 roadster when he got home from the war and it was all written on the wall after that. In 1958 he gave me that roadster and it has been the inspiration for several hot-rods. Sadly I traded the roadster for a 33 ford 3 window coup in 1962 because the top was rotted off and living in Oregon a top was important, but not all ws lost because I still have the 33.

 

I used to pee on them

 

How did you get hooked on to old cars ?

Never did. I can quit anytime I want to.

Those damned first Little pages magazines.

 

mine started the day my dad bought a pink and white rambler station wagon for my mom, that we back in 1959 (see photo) in no time, give or take 8 years i started building plastic model kits, at 14 a family member gave my friend and i a pair of vintage plymouths, a 36 & a 37. we got the running and drove them up and down the street until our dads found out about us driving them and they took them away from us, since then i can't remember i time when i wasn't tinkering with something, now 40 years later i am still getting more hooked on cars then ever before, i guess it was in my blood before i was born my dad loved the "odd balls" like Nash, hudson and rambler and growing up our family only drove dodges

 

My dad ran around in the later 50s with a supercharged 5 deuce 302 straight 6 in a49 chev n he always tools me the stories of racing qwerty the old beeline drag way. He always bought hotrod magazines n we always talked about building a car together when I was ten. 15 years later w built a55 desoto . I've always loved how they looked and how they sounded. More so now than ever.

 

Same as most guys started with my dad and uncles they would race on the weekends and I would get to go along! And that was it I wanted to get my hands dirty and build

 

thanks, now I gotta clean the coffee that flew out my nose off the keyboard.......

funny, very funny

dr

 

I was very young when it happened to me. I was born in 64 and my grandfather at the time owned a Ford dealership and other bussineses he had one son, my uncle that ended up with a 63 ford lightweight galiaxy that he raced till 65 and I still remember the car. And in 66 I remember swinging in the front yard of my grandfathers house and watching the cars drive by and calling them by name and make. My father never cared about cars or anything related and always said if I would put my mind into school books instead of cars I would have flown through school.

 

built models, aurora slot cars, hot wheels, my 2 older cousins always had hot cars, 63 impalas were everywhere and cheap, they must've crashed one every 6 months. They'd pull home an old shoebox to run in the fieilds. I lived right beside an old junkyard and I was friends with the owners son and we used to play in the cars, the stuff he had amazed me back then, glass top fords, shoebox woodies, mercs, my fav then was a green hudson twin H power. The lower lot next to the stream (not done today!) had 30's and 40's stacked like fire wood (it was all crused decades ago..).
In high school a guy had a 35 dodge rumble seat coupe that his GF used to drive to school everyday, I knew then a "street rod" was what a wanted.

 

I was always fascinated by mechanical and electrical "stuff" since I was a kid. I remember watching a neighbor adjusting the valve clearance in some inline 6. It was a neat car with running boards. Fast forward many years and when I got a quote on changing a frozen brake caliper on my first car I went into shock. Took it off car myself, trip to junk yard and put new/old one back on car. Then I did a lot of reading picked up a 57 Caddy to fix up. Now I just wish I had more time to spend on my 50 Chevy. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it can save a boatload of money!" And older cars are much easier to deal with than the POCs produced now! Still want a car with real running boards, just haven't found the right deal yet. Bottom line is old cars are just. . . shweet!

 

Building AMT, JOHAN models, older neighbor kids that had old fords Merc's and Oldsmobiles. Everone in Hign school had a 55-57 chev because at that time they were just 10 year old cars. After 1970 I never cared much about new cars.They were all starting to look the same.

 

Always played with Hot Wheels and built plastic models. My Dad worked at a Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth dealer on Saturdays and I would ride my bike down and see all the cars that had arrived that week and were being prepped for delivery. Muscle cars. Amazing stuff in 1967-70. My brothers were into Chargers, Satellites, etc.
Later, I started hanging around a buddy's body shop and he always was messing with older cars. Went to a local "car show" with him and saw it -
Gary Kessler's deuce roadster (then owned by Don Ward). WOW!!! That was it......I was hooked on hot rods.

 

So around 58', I would of been 8 yrs. old. I was on a family trip to Southern California from Northern California (way North Coast in the Redwoods on the Pacific, Squaresville to me), headed to Long Beach to stay and visit some of my cousins. They were in their early teens. I remember being taken with the model airplanes that they had built and had hanging from their ceiling. I liked hanging out with them. They were "wild". They lived on Hwy 1, across from the ocean. One night they pulled the lead out of some 22s and pinched them over. We then went across the street to the beach started a fire from beach wood, tossed 'em in and ran..............in my eyes some "Cool Cats" and I was thrilled to be hanging out with them. My parting gift from Cliff and Merv was a paper bag full of "little books". That was it. Of course, I have replaced some of those "little books" and I get the same feeling that I got back then when I peruse them now. What invokes the most from me is some of the illustrations. What was/is "KOOL" to me is the "anti norm", "rebel"," juvenile delinquent", "daredevil". Twenty-two shells in the fire - unacceptable behavior of which I still possess. It is a good thing for all that I gave up the "drink" (my liver thanks me). My last recent ticket was from the local Chief of Police. I saved and framed it.

 

I haven't been into cars for all that long, really. I was a little late to the party! I had always wanted an old bike because it's what I was raised around. I saved my money to put towards one but eventually I realized the bikes I really wanted were just WAY too expensive to ever actually own one, at this age anyways. Panheads, Indian Chiefs (41 Indian Chief has to be one of the best lookin machines ever) and such were what I really wanted. My mom never wanted me to buy a bike cause she thinks they're too dangerous so the logical next step was old cars. I slowly started getting really into it and before I knew it I was obsessed. So I guess I owe my dad for the love of old machines and I owe my over protective mother for the love of cars.

 

What got me into cars was from watching The Dukes of Hazzard tv show ,old reruns of the old Batman tv show and playing with Hot Wheels.

 

i was always into old cars but what really got me hooked is when i helped my dad fix up his high school car a 1955 chevy 210. lot of work doe to it full body swap since he decided it was a good idea to cut the roof off it when he was 18. but thats what got me hooked.

 

Dad was a wrench, the neighbor was a wrench and my brother started to wrench so I got messed up early.

 

G'day guys, I just wanted to know how did you get the bug for old cars?. Do you know what year, the place, the first time you saw a hot rod, what magazine you saw it in anything that got you hooked.

Living in Compton Calif. No one had new cars back in the 50's & 60's.
I idled my naber as most the kids on our block did. Every one called him "BULLET or Al Capone" both names fit. He was sort of a gangster & always drove old cars of the 30's. "GANGSTER CARS" Then in the mid 60's my brother got his 54 two door, lowered, all chromed up, raked in the front. He was pretty cool to. So old cars were always the cool thing. Than as I became of age, my buddy got his 49 Chevy coupe which we cruised all over in. Than my first car was a 49 Chevy Fleetline, on the ground it went. Loud pipes & chrome wheels & I was cruising in style. It's been old Chevy's ever since. Life don't get no better than that. Cruising in my Chevy's, LOW, SLOW & LOUD, sitting low in the seat with your arm hanging down out the window. I swore I would never drive anything newer than 1954. My cars have all been Chevy's & I've had most of them from 54 to 39, two or three of some years. Now my 39 Sedan just sits & watches as I build my new project, my 39 STUBBED TOE fantasy photo. What it will look like when it's done. Baby blue & on the ground. Check them both out...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=36904&pictureid=436179
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=34026&pictureid=389541

 

My Uncle Billy had a 66 Malibu when I was about 5 he would come and get me on saturdays to get hair cuts and he would do a burn out all the way down our street.Then he got me wrenching in his repair shop at around 8 and have been hooked ever since.

 

Its a curse have blue oval dna lol... mom had a 63 427r galaxie daily driver
that used to take me and my buddys to school in there was so much rubber down our street lol on sidewalks knocked over garbage pails even the crossing guard would run up on her lawn when see seen mom coming down the street
always had fords in our driveway no matter what she drove it was to the floor board
dont know if he is still alive but joey pasqauly took that 427 off mom when she launched it in our driveway and put it into the side of the house and climbed the front end passenger side about 3 feet in the air stuck on the house
he gave her a little fairlane small block as a trade
he got the better deal lol wow good childhood

 

My appendix burst when I was 12 and I was laid-up for several weeks. Someone gave me a copy of Car Craft,(June 1960-I still have it), and someone else gave me a JoHann 3in1 kit of a Dodge Polara. That was it. I was hooked. I think I immediately started "kit-bashing" and detailing interiors with cloth and engines with thread. I made exhaust out of aluminum tubing. Custom paint was made by using nail-polish.
It grew from there as soon as we moved out to the 'burbs in 1962.
Distant neighbors, few police, and lots of dark, empty roads at night. YeeHaaaa.

 

My brothers friend had a V8 powered MK2 Ford Zodiac. When i was about 14 he took me out in it and thats the time and place i was hooked.

Still a car i'm yet to own but on the bucket list.

 

I bought a new car... lol Working on it once made my choice easy. My newest car is an 81 now.


Truly, I fucking hate electronics, and getting ripped off. You get that alot with new(80's+) cars. I like shit I can fix in 10 min, and cars that dont do things for you, like lock your doors and control your traction.. I had to teach myself how to weld and do body work so I can afford to own old cars.

 

was offered a 1951 plymouth belvedere 2dr hdtp for 10 dollars that was age 16. at that time i didnt even know what this was other than a car that had a very bad life. needless to say my parents wasnt happy with the idea of towing it home with 4 flat tires in middle of the night. i never heard the end of it on that one , still have most of the parts that was useable and rest went for scrap.


Jen

 

I must have been born with it (1966). I allways wanted see how things worked. My dad was a bootleger and drove a 47 GMC 3/4 ton with a 270 punched to 302 with 5x2 intake. Model cars. My dad gave me 2 T-birds when I was 9, a 61 and a 62 rusted junk but I got one to run. Then for my 13th birthday a 56 Ford pu rusted out but I got that one to run too.

I just loved old cars from the begining. I am trained as diesel mechanic and have had a number of jobs where I was the on site mechanic.

When I was 20 in 86 a neighbor showed me a car in street rodder mag. It was a 34 Ford Sport Salon a Thom Taylor "phantom" drawing that had been brought to life by Larry Foss and Hal Arnold. That was the moment that I said to myself that is what I want to do for a living. 20 years later I got a job working in a hot rod shop... the one that built that car!

I work for Fosses Hot Rods and Cool Cars doing everything on a car but paint and bondo. And in my free time I build cars for fun.

"Follow your dreams and learn every thing you can along the way" Jim Ford

 

Science has not yet determined the genetic defect that makes some people lose control when they spot an AV8 on the road or a rusty fender in the grass. Most of the population doesn't even notice. Maybe someday they will find a cure, but it's already too late for me.

 

I guess I've always had the old car bug , but I remember back in 1950 when I was 4 my father had an old Pontiac sedan and when we went anywhere at night the high beam indicator would light up with the Pontiac head. I always begged him to keep the highbeams on.
Later an older cousin passed me down his old Hotrod Mags, and I was hooked !!!!