I was into cars befor it got to be big money,and i will be here when big guys are playing with a different toy. I got my first rod in 1966 so it looks like a long time for me 41 years,I must be getting old! how long for you? Russ
Been the hobby of a lifetime for me - since about age 14 - call it 50 years. Probably forgot as much as I remember.... Charlie
My Dad set Harley toys and Hot Wheels on my bed in the hospital the first day I was born. As far back as I could remember I was pushing cars, tractors, bikes and trains across the floor making engine sounds. I got my first real project car when I was 16. I have helped my dad build his car since I was five. I'm 19 now so I have a long ways to go.
My Dad took my Mom to the hospital in a kustom, and I spent every moment I could with my Dad in the garage, I got my first hotrod at 14 and have owned one or more ever since and I am 33 now. John
I got my learner's permit on my 15th birthday. Got my license a month later. Three months later I got a '48 Chev 2 door. I lowered it in back, put a glasspack on it and removed the vacuum shifter. It bottomed out, I got a loud muffler ticket and the syncros in the trans got messed up. Obviously, I was destined to be a hot rodder. That all happened in 1956 and I've been at it ever since.
Got my first car at 16 in 1961, a 32 Ford 5 window, 46 years ago, still have it, still playing with cars, always will be
It all started in the summer of 1957 when I was all of 10 years old. I helped an uncle, who is only 7 years older, work on his 39 Ford. We put 4" shackles on the rear to lower it, added the right side tail light and fender skirts, swapped 40 Delux front sheet metal to it, and put in a 40 column shifter and trans. Been hooked on tinkering with cars ever since.
since I was 13 or thereabouts, first engine overhaul at age 14 (on my own pretty much), first auto trans at 16, first engine swap at 17. now I'm 45, and I'm gettin tired
Since 1970. I bought my first car then, at age 15(57 Chevy Wagon for $20-pretty clean but smoked a LOT). Did as much damage as any 15 year old could do, then towed it to High School Auto Shop and rebuilt the engine, and made it my driver. I remember writing the cost of parts for the rebuild on my notebook cover as they came to mind. I believe it was something like $107 for all needed parts including Hot Tanking. Which in those days was $5 for the block, and another $5 for everything else (heads, pan, valve covers, intake, timing cover, etc)
Got my first car when I was 15 - with a blown up motor. Had it running by the time I was 16. By 16-1/2 I had done my first V8 motor swap. By 17 I was rebuilding that first V8. Still drive that car today - 25 years later.
Dad had an appreciation for 60's Kustoms and the Rat Fink art...he grew up down the street from the "Alexander Brothers" in Detroit...He would draw Rat Fink cartoons for me occasionally when I was a kid...but he had no mechanical (aptitude) interest in old cars...I built models until I was 16 or so...then I moved on to the real thing. Parents thought I was crazy when I drug home that non-running Chevelle! (Come on Dad, you had one!) That was 15 years ago. Dad hasn't drawn a "Rat Fink" inspired drawing in probably 25 years...but he was in the loop way back when...I thank him for that at least. People ask where I got my interest/ability in cars...I got my interest from my Dad; the rest, as they say...was learned. I couldn't WAIT to take H.S. Autoshop class...ended up taking 2 years of autobody, then working 6 years in the field. Had my fill and moved on. My step Grandfather used to work at Harold's Frame Shop in Detroit from 1946-1969...unfortunately for me, he sold all his "old" tools in 1985 when I was about 10, not realizing what he had done. He passed on many years ago...but I got to talk old cars with him for a bit at least. I'm sure he would fall over himself if he looked in my garage today. So, I guess I played with cars since 10 or so??? Had what I wanted when I was 16...that was 15 years ago...man...now I feel like time has really slipped away.
A guy one street over had a 68 Chevelle that did not run.......He told me if I got a job I could make payments...I was 15, That same day, Saturday the day he told me this, I grabbed the paper and looked through the classifieds. I had found a dishwasher job within bike riding distance from my house. I peddled my ass over and applied, she asked me when I could start, I said whenever, she said how about now, but first let me call your mother a get permission to hire you since you are not 16.......I got permission, but asked her to write a note stating I had a job......I peddled my ass off to this guys house handed him the note and he said we could push it over to my house the nexted morning, then I went to work.............Littleman....forgot to add its been 22 yrs, actually longer if building models count
Awesome. I would love to be able to do that to some young buck one day. It's stories like this that warm the heart a bit...when all those cold Michigan swapmeets start to get to ya. LOL!
my son, much like myself learned how to make car noises very early on whilst pushing his hotwheels on the floor, I remember "helping" my dad in the garage when I was 5 with a 57 chevy (before they were cool and just a old car that no one really wanted 25+ years ago) the next car after that I actualy think I helped on (I believe that anyway) it was a late 50's MG-A....I got my first car, a broke dick 79' LTDII 2 door with a police interceptor 302....I had to change the trans, carb, rewire, do the body etc....OH and move 25 yards of dirt by hand in payment for the POS....I had a ball and learned a ton on that car....took me two years to get it road worthy....then I drove it for a few months and told pop it was slow...he said, "you want it faster, make it faster, I'll give ya advice and a hand when you get stuck" I bought a 73 lincoln MK VIII, ripped the 20 thousand mile motor out, slapped on a alum intake, a cam and some headers and put it in my then lightened LTDII...I got grounded soon thereafter for some teen shit and pro streeted it....after that and a bunch more engine mods it was a bit too wild to drive to school and I picked up my first "Old" car , 50 chev business coupe, got it running stock and drove it for a bit whilst racing the II...started to customize it and its been down hill....
Bought my first vehicle in 1957 at age 13. A cushman scooter. Rode it until I was 15 and bought a 29 Model a coupe. Got it going just in time to get my license at 16. This was 1960. I painted the coupe. put in white Naugahyde interior, overhead valve conversion, juice brakes. Nice car only to have it burn to the ground one weekend because of a fuel tank leak.
I was born in 68. My Dad ran a body shop out of the home garage, so I can not remember ever NOT being into cars. He had/has a 1938 Plymouth and used to take us kids to car shows regularly, plus the stock car races. My uncle gave me his clapped out 1970 split bumper Camaro when I was about 15. I figured I had a year to get it in shape before I'd get a license. I took it all apart (that was 1983) and....it's still in pieces! Someday I'll actually complete the restoration of it. When I did get my license, in 1985, I bought a black 1964 Oldsmobile F-85 with a 330 V-8. I loved it and actually still have it. I've had a few other 64-65 Olds over the years and my current "cruiser" is a stock white 64 F-85 2 door coupe with a 225 V-6 and 3 speed column shift manual trans which was a bit of an oddity in the Oldsmobile line. My brother liked the Olds too, so he got himself a red 65 Cutlass convertible and we have gone partners on many Olds parts cars, one of which we turned into a Street Stock race car in 1990. We've been partners in all the racing stuff ever since. We have a pair of 1978-81 Malibu Stock Cars and a 1937 Chevy coupe vintage dirt Modified and our current project is a 1933 Chevy coupe stock car/hot rod. We spend WAY too much time on the race cars, which is one of the reasons the Camaro never got done.
I can't remeber not working on cars. I must have been about 8 or so when I started helping my dad? I guess about 25 years now. I had breakfast with some of my dad's old car buddies today. One of dad's buddies (he's 82) said that he thought building and collecting cars was worse than a disease. He pointed out that diseases can be cured, but he's been building and collecting for 70 years. After thinking about it for a while, he added that all of his friends that didn't build cars are now dead. I always wondered how someone could help but love old cars. I can't imagine a day without atleast getting on line a talkin with a bunch of dudes about cars.
Bought a 49 Merc 4dr in 1955, pretty beat, paid $40. But was into cars before that. 55 years I guess!.......OLDBEET
Got my first car in '61, a '50 Studebaker Commander 4 door. had to overhaul the engine before I could drive it as the original owner had run it out of oil. Built the first drag car, a '53 ford K-gasser in '62 with some friends and have been playing with cars ever since. Guess that it's about the best hobby a person can have. More of a life style than hobby. If it's got 4 wheels, (or 2 for that matter), it has the potential for being fun, the older stuff is just more fun 'cause it's easier to work on. Just sort of living in a points and condenser world and they don't even have distributors any more.
Got my first car at 15 , 1956 . Had a job as a dishwasher , had some money saved. I found a 40 Ford convert , 3/8s X 3/8s flathead --150.00 Bucks. told my Dad I had found the car , he asked "hows the motor "? "Thats the best part Dad, its a full race flathead." "You ain't buying no hot rod Ford Boy!!" SO I went looking again, found a 47 Chev. convt, with a 324 inch Wayne headed Jimmie, 5 bxov2 strombergs on it , 125.00 $--- ol man asked again "hows the motor "?--- "Dad ,Its a 6 cylinder " So I got it!! By the time he found out , I'd had it long enough that he just grumbled a bit.
Started putting together models when I was about 9. Dad bought me an '80 El Camino, and I helped out with the sanding. But I pretty much had nothing to do with it. Got a '75 Dart when I was 13, then later found a '36 Ford, 50's FoMoCo custom thing, '62 F-85, and '68 El Camino in the woods behind an old ladies house. Traded around and got '54 Ford. Then dug up a '31 Chevy and Plymouth roadster in the same place. And several more. But I have nothing to show for it really... Just a bunch of crap. But I'm still young.
My Dad Started Buying Hot Wheels For Me Before I Was Even Born And He And Mom Brought Me Home In Dads 63 Impalla 409ss(he Wishes He Still Had That Car Now). Ive Always Been Around Cars And Racing Thanks To Him And My Grandfather, I Just Wish My Gramps Could Of Still Been Around To Get To See My 32, Shes Almost Done Now.
i started working on cars after my dad brought home his 55 when i was 13, got my first hotrod at 14 and i've owned about 8 cars from the 70s back, and i'm 18 now.
How long has it been? lets see now, I'm 48........ In 1960 I was standing between the bucket seats of my moms Studebaker hawk. An old man in an early 50s chev/gmc truck pulled out in front of us,my dad shoved me down under the dash so i wouldn't go through the windsheild,I cut my head wide open on the gas pedal. Had "pedal to the metal" on the brain ever since!{thats my story and Im stickin'to it}
I'm 62 started playing with cars at 12 had a 49 Chev. and others drove around back yard etc. Got my first 39 Ford in 1965, my second in 1966(still have that one) have had 8 39-40 Fords plus muscle cars, and so on. Wish I had kept them all ,would be rich!
It was 1966 for me too, I started building a 55 Chevy Handyman sedan with a buddy and my Dad. was at the dragstrip with it in 67 turning mid 13s, we were hot shit seventeen yr. olds..I know the feeling of having forgotten more than I remember..like, I was working on a friends 56 Chevy with 235 six and thought I had invented the trick of a T fitting at the lower oil sending unit and running a line up top to the head to get much needed extra oiling to the valvetrain, until I looked at my 39 Chevy and realized I'd done the same thing to it 20 yrs. earlier....
Always....was sitting in the garage with my Dad when I was 3 months old...never really left...Sadly my Dad did
Dad was into the hobby since the 50's. When I came along in 60 it was just natural to love most anything with wheels. From a battery powered go cart at 4 (drove it around inside the house which drove mom nuts), to mini bikes, to my first car ( Nash Metropolitan ) at 12. Guess that was the real start, within the next four years there were two Corvairs then an early Corvette. That figures to about 35 years for me.
You can spend too much time on race cars???... Someone should have told me this 39 years ago. I'm guesstimating a bit, but I think that I became of actual help on my cousin's '37 dirt tracker in about '61. I was 10, could stick weld a bit, turn wrenches, help pull motors, trannys and such. I bought my first road car, a '55 Ford with a 272 that I rodded some...teapot holley, cam ,duals, etc until a drunk totalled it that fall. With his insurance $$$, I bought a ratty '61 Sunliner and gave a "hillbilly rebuild" to a 312 4 bbl. motor with ECZ-G heads from a '57 Ford I bought under suspicious circumstances... I bought my first dirt track stocker in '68, a '53 Ford with a decent Merc Flattie that I had about $200 invested in, went racing and haven't looked back since until traditonal rods and customs reappeared. But vintage racers are still my favorite Hot Rods. Jan
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