The rod/custom/classic you own that does it for you.

There have been many parts of me left in my car. Blood, knuckles and probably some sweat somewhere along the way. It has only left me stranded one time and it was my fault. The car tried to tell me and I ignored him. It is like the puppy that wandered up and wouldn't leave.

 

I owe him a bump for my spin off thread .....

 

My (english) '59 Ford Consul. Slow, cold, but fun. 18 months of blood, sweat and tears, But I couldn't replace it.
Stopped me going sane at times......

 

Ranunculous:
When anything leaves you bleeding, on fire and stranded along the rod and you still love it, that's an addiction! Don't look for a cure, the best rodders I know are truly addicted. Glad you are too!

 

gerry, my olds and my ford do it for me and allways will.........my ol ford is because it was my dads, and i cant bare to part with it....and that oldsmobile just does it for me.................................john

 

I started my 1950.5 Victoria in 1989. It was painted in '97, upholstered in '98, so I'm in my 21st year with the car and the 13th with it completed. It's been driven about 40,000 miles since completion. I have built/bought 4 other rods & customs since then, but the Vic continues to be the best to drive and the most satisfying in its details. I have never wished that I had painted or trimmed it any differently. Guess it'll be around for a while more!

 

I've owned my 63 chevy carryall (burb) for over 25 years now .. drove it from border to border south to north .... my family has been on too many trips to list in it.. thought about selling it ,, family says NO ... even after i got my new project ,, family still says NO.. so i guess now i have 2 .. my new love is a 48 dodge 4 door town sedan with a chop top and dual headlites ..

 

'61 DeSoto.. one of my top five favorite cars.

That car is phenomenal. Always loved that Victoria roofline, never understood why it was never used for Mercury in 1951. Maybe you could build one of those!

 

I've had mine since 73. Wrecked it, drag raced it, and now it's redone
again. My Grandpa bought it new and everyone in the family has had a swing
at it. It ain't goin anywhere while I'm around.

 

skreemin..."How 'bout that sh1t...it works!"...Hahahahahahaha!!! Cracks me up. Sounds like my old buddy Roy Montgomery...always has some funny saying.

hotrodj54...somethin' about having a car that belonged to your dad...I'm jealous.

50Fraud...Your Ford is sweet. Shiny! Very nice.

bobjob55..."The family says NO."...I guess you're right...it's gotta stay! Now, who would've thought that a 1948 Dodge could look so nice? Especially a 4-door, and especially the way it looked before you started! Nice job, bobjob!

 

Thanks. Have you ever seen the Merc that Valley Custom did, that was featured in Hop Up, October '51 (it's in Mark Morton's reprint of the first year)? They used a DeVille hardtop on a '49 Merc convert. I thought it looked very nice, and it gives you a good idea of what a Merc hardtop could look like. I've thought it's something that somebody should build again. I'm not at all a Merc guy, so it won't be me, but somebody oughta do it.

 

I have posted this same pic a bazilllion times....



No matter how hard a day I have at work, at the end of the day cranking this old heap up and driving home makes it all better...Even after 15 years of daily driving, one crack of the throttle still makes me giggle like a school girl.

-Abone.

 

Hi Sirwoosh! Well you know me and my story when it comes to the 55 "Oldsmo-boogies". They were Daddy's favorites and although I'm going to have to let some of them go soon, I will ALWAYS keep his blue and white Super 88 2 door hardtop. That car will be with me for life because it had pretty much become my only sibling as far as he was concerned. My Dad loved three things......My Mom, Myself and his Oldsmobiles, especially his "Elmer". Since we have had so many 55's, we long ago began the habit of giving each one a name so there was an instant recognition of which one we were talking about. Elmer got his name from the original owner who's first name was that. The others got their names from famous people that just seemed to "fit". I sort of "broke training" when I bought first one, then a second 59 Buick. Daddy approved though because the one car that nearly beat him in a traffic light race with his second (and favorite) 55 Olds was a black 59 Invicta. He had a healthy respect for the Buicks after that. I always wanted a 64 Ford because my late Uncle Bill had a Rangoon Red, Galaxie 500 2 door sedan that he bought new. When it came time to create a daily driver for myself, I purchased a 64 Country Sedan, and after a completely stupid amount of money, being jerked around (not to mention robbed) by several shops, it's finally in the hands of a great guy who's soon to have it on the road for me. That is another I will most likely keep for life and by all rights ought to be buried in it for all it's cost over the last five long years. Do I love my cars? Yeah, I think that's putting it mildly.

 

<--------------- got a chance to drive it last monday for a good 5 hr drive ....drive -em .............

 

Thanks for the story of your Dad Rocket Girl. You'll have to share with us some of the things I remember you saying he did. Like the food warming tray under the hood.

 

Yeah, Daddy was always known for being thrify but like most guys of the 50's and early 60's he liked to take his date to the drive-in movies. Of course, back then, the guy paid for everything, so he was trying to fit his weekly dates into a young man's paychecks. The 55 Olds he got from his Dad (who bought it new) wasn't equipt with power steering, so there was a nice space ontop of the engine. Daddy took a metal, covered cake pan (the kind with the flip-clips), drilled a hole in the bottom and put some kind of pipe nipple through the hole, screwing the other end into one of the drilled holes for a power steering unit. That held the pan in place and the nipple allowed heat from the engine to go up into the pan without carrying fumes since the hole in the engine wasn't drilled through to anything toxic. Before he picked up his date, he would go by the grocery store and pick up a variety of sodas, chill those in a cooler in the trunk, then swing by the local Little Tavern burger place or the early McDonald's and grab up some cheeseburgers, and fries. Those he would place into the cake pan and seal the cover back down on it to ensure no fumes would get to it.
He'd get his date and head to the movie, then ask the girl if she'd like something to eat etc. I can only imagine the shock when he gets out, heads for the hood, pops it open and comes back handing the girl her burger and fries, then proceeds for the trunk after giving her the choice of what she wanted to drink. What soda didn't get used that date, was put away for the next time. It was also funny that when he traded the Olds in for a brand new 63 Chevy Impala, he forgot to remove the cake pan off the engine, so we used to laugh alot, imagining what the dealers and/or new customers must have thought of seeing a cake pan mounted to the engine. My Grandmother, by the way......was NOT amused that her good cake pan disappeared.

 

hotrodj54...somethin' about having a car that belonged to your dad...I'm jealous.

yea, just sentimental to me.......it will be passed on to my kids someday too......john

 

I have had a bunch
but I love this car!

 

Cool story Rocket Girl 88. Wish I could have been around to see them trying to figure out that meal heater under the hood of your trade in.

Hot rod........ Interesting view of your car. Looks like it should be on a magazine cover. Like Good Guys? Subtle pinstriping. just right.

 

Heres my Obvious one... She's my baby.. my high school car, my pride, blood sweat and tears. Never going anywhere but with me.

 

But I want to add something. I have never owned either of these but they are my favorites... I cant take my eyes of them when I see them and I aspire to own one of each some day. The first is a car that warped me when I was little... not saying I want it in this configuration, but I still love it,


The second I dont know who owns this particular one, i'll bet a HAMBer, but a 56 Cadillac Coupe Deville custom... yeah love those and will have one someday

 

I've only had one so far but in comparison to the other "cookie cutter" cars, I wouldn't trade it for next to nothing.

 

My 52 Studebaker is mine...got it from a local hamber before i knew what this was all about...Before my Grandparents passed they used to live in a little house in Mineral Wells TX...But on the way out to their house from dallas (a trip me and my dad made every year) there was a little shack called the studebaker farm...we leave an hour or so early so we could stop and look everytime...so from about the time i learned to drive, a little over 17 years ago i have wanted a studebaker...i love the 'bakers, the look and the name...i have not yet been able to drive mine yet as it is in the process of getting road worthy, but i will sit behind the wheel every weekend and just pretend...

 

I have many ideas for a hot rod project, I've got one in the works (18-22 Dodge Touring), and quite a few other piles of parts... And a ton of severly warped ideas... But when the day end there is one car for me... It's not a traditional hot rod, and it's not an '87 Honda Accord... It's my pride and joy. A 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 2door, white w/ burgandy interior.. I could never sell my Cutlass, even when the ol' girl gives me hell..

I got the car a few years ago as a Christmas present from my mom and dad.. The car was bought brand new in 1980 by a customer of my dad's, in 1983 when the warranty ran up she started bringing the car in for work. From '83 up until '05 she brought it in.. One day the car came in for I believe an antifreeze leak and springs.. When I got out of school and came to the shop the ol' girl was there.. After staring at her for a long time I asked my dad if he thought she would ever sell her.. Dad looked at me and told me there was probably no way she would.. I was kind of bummed... The car was killer!. But I blew it off, little did I know that a week or so after that that my dad would by the ol' gal. As time went on and the Cutlass was still at the shop I dropped the question every now and then... Do ya think it could ever be mine? and always got the same answer.. No. Well then the she disapeared from the shop and I hadn't forgot about her, but figured there was no chance I'd have her anyways so didn't bother asking about her again. Fast forward to Christmas morning. After all the presents were unwrapped except 2 little boxes I couldn't open for some strange reason my dad said he had to go up to the neighbors for something.. Which I thought was odd but didn't think anything of it... Well after dad left mom waited just a bit and then told be to come outside with her, then she blindfolded me and made me spin around in circles until I could barely stand.. When I stopped I heard the faint sound of crumbling gravel.. (you know the sound when a tire rolls over it) She told me to take the blind fold off and there she was! A beautiful white '80 Olds Cutlass Supreme... The chrome glistened in the sunlight and the top that was once a dirty dull white shinned like ivory. My dad threw me the keys and told me merry Christmas... after the obligatory hugs and tears from mom I got a chance to go check her out. I opened the door and was blasted with the smell of a leather pine tree air freshener... The seats looked like they had never been sat in, I climbed in twirled the wheel, honked the horn, played with all the knobs and switches, checked out the radio, and then popped the hood... There under the hood sat a 65,000 mile two hunder and sixty cubic inch v8 that was top of the line for it's day.. And it purred like a kitten. I walked to the back and opened the trunk (which was still lined in plastic from 1980) and checked it out... In the glove box was all the paperwork for the car (build sheet, dealer invoices, window stickers, and repair receipts)... The car sat on a set of American Outlaws, and had a nice set of meaty tires on the back, which were very different from the 14" ralleyes and skinny white walls she wore the last time I saw her... I was thrilled it was more than I could have ever wished for on Christmas... A car that I thought never would have been mine, and I was holding the keys. And in those two little packages that I couldn't open, another set of keys, the title, and a cool Cutlass watch... I still remember that day like it was yesterday. Me and the ol' girl go every where, and she gets a hell of alot of compliments. And she'll be mine until I'm in the dirt.

Then there's another story... I've got this 1938 John Deere Unstyled 'L'... When I was probably 5 or 6 my Grandma gave me the ol' tractor.. Most of my time when I was a little dude was spent at Grandma's... And there was probably alot of time spent in the barn climbing around on Grandpa and Grandma's tractors. But there was one tractor in there that was always mine.. That ol' L a fine girl she was.. She had her flaws unlike the Cutlass, but that was just fine.. Grandma has told me I always called it mine even before I knew it was mine... Then oneday we went to Grandma's with a trailer and picked her up.. Another day I can't forget. I've been told Grandpa was pretty damn mad... Grandma was happy as could be, I had my own tractor! (and for anybody who knows about old J.D's you know why grandpa was pissed, Unstyled L's are rare birds)... Anyways the ol' L is another thing that will sleep right next to the Cutlass at night until I'm in the dirt. That tractor and that car meen more to me than most things... Yeah the Cutlass gets the attention, but everytime I go in the shed I talk to the old L.. She's a good ol' gal and I wish I knew half the things she's seen... I've had a few other projects and they come and go.. My old tractor, and that sexy ass Cutlass are always going to be with me...

Oh and then there is this small pack of little 50's and 60's riding lawn mowers that are like the Gremlins (don't get them wet or feed them after midnight, they'll multiply).. I'm not sure I could let any of those little bastards go either... mainly because they don't take up much space (most of 'em you could fit in a closet) and there is one that has some sentimental value... A little yellow and white 7hp Mowette Mustang, cute little bastard I tell ya... My dad bought it for me to ride around on when I was little, and now I'm in the process of restoring it... I should probably finish it, it's blown in peices between 2 shops and a basement... Yeah... I defintaly couldn't sell my little 'stang... She's a keeper too..

 

Ive had alot of cars but my 57 was love at first site. Its the first car ive ever done alot of work too, i have alot more plans for it and enjoy every second i spend with her. I can never imagine life without it!

 

I've only had 3 driveable hotrods in my life, a T-bucket that I bought and rebuilt, the chopped '48 Chevy p/u that I built from the ground up, and the Essex that I currently have.

Of these, the Essex is the one that I can't see myself ever selling. It was the first rod I ever worked on and drove back in 1979 when my friend built it. I was 16 at the time, so getting to drive a hotrod was quite a thrill for me! I've only had it for 2 years, but unless some kind of financial disaster hits me it will never get sold.

I plan to tear it apart this spring to do some much-needed (and HAMB-approved) upgrades, then I plan to drive the wheels off it.

1979...


2009...

 

I built a '32 3 window, which was finished in 2000. It was a show car/driver and I thought I'd never sell it. But over the years of cleaning and fixing it, I decided I wanted a more low maintenance rod. Since then, I've had several cars which I drive for awhile and sell if the price is right...............

 

I expect I'll stick with my Hupmobile for a while. It's clearly my wife's favorite of the cars I've built. But, I've got a couple more projects underway.

 

i,ve had these 2 cars for ever and still couldn,t think of gettig rid of them