Folks Of Interest What did your dad drive?

Hello,

For the third and fourth generation in our family, the stories of what dad drove are beyond HAMB specifics. If one were to ask my son what, he would only remember being in a car seat in an El Camino. But, if memory serves us and him, it may have been too early to identify the El Camino and the road trips.

I remember changing him in the open bed of the El Camino on one of our son/father days day trips. I was prepared and when the time came, I pulled over in a quiet residential neighborhood to change him. The changing bed was ready behind the seat, the specific items necessary and everything was as planned. The only exception was this huge red fire truck that came blasting by us with the loud siren going full blast.

It was a few minutes of holding him to calm the surprising loud noise, after it had passed. To this day, he does not remember that harrowing moment, so he probably does not remember the El Camino. What was the calming changing bed for him? It was an inflatable, comfortable blow-up surface.

It looked like a pool toy, but was specifically made for a baby size person. He fit perfectly on it and since it was plastic, easily cleaned if necessary. It fit behind the seat of the El Camino, accessible anytime, and when he was put on the changing item, he calmly quit fussing. Only his arms were moving around like he was stirring something in the air. We called it a “Tubby.”

Jnaki



The El Camino was a great car. It had room to carry a bunch of stuff…only tied down. We wanted a station wagon for more room and security. But, at the time, a 1965 Chevelle Station Wagon was way beyond our reach. So, we looked for an inexpensive small station wagon.

The only way to remember or at least identify those moments are the writing of stories and what photos we took during our early 20-30s days. One year, as he was a teenager then going on 20 something time, we gave him some of our old rock music albums. He thought that was gold. His group was getting into the “oldies” and our albums fit the bill. That he still remembers and can say with a good story, what led up to that moment.

Since then, he knows the cars mom and dad drove, but they were just fading out, as his life started… The classic situation would be that my wife and my previous lifetime was from Mars. His was down to Earth in the 1980s-90s teenage angst. These days, his memory is geared to old photos and words of wisdom from his, young then and old, now, parents…Ha!

Memories, where would we be without them? YRMV

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/images-of-tri-five-fords.1210072/page-69#post-14464280

 

One of Dad's cars was a '59 4 wd Willys wagon. Mom's Dad bought it new & sold it to Dad a year later, but that 1 year was in the Vermont salt. Dad welded a lot of sheetmetal into it when it was only 10, but by the time he passed in '92 it was rusted out again.

 

Dad drove one of the coolest looking '49 Mercurys' in our small Iowa town. Dad was a body man and truck driver...painted our car Turquoise and Black...and I wrecked it three times shortly after I got my license at 16 Y.O in 1959.....and had to fix it myself twice with my own money. You can read about those "adventures" in my first book "Bangin' Gears and Bustin' Heads"...available used on Amazon... ...

 

Blue '40 Ford 2 door sedan. Traded that in on a new black '50 Mercury 4 door, flathead, 3spd., w/OD. By '61, when I was starting to drive, it was Earl Scheib Seafoam Green . That year we got a second car. We kids were lobbying hard for a Chesapeake Blue Starliner. What he bought, a black 4 door Galaxie, 292, Fordamatic. I got to drive that on Sundays if I would take my brothers and sister to Sunday School.

 

My father was building hot rods/street rods ever since the early 50's and here's an example that he built in the early 90's from a 51 Chevy hardtop that I found for him for $50. He peeled of the roof and you could see where the convertible top pins would have been if it had been made into a convertible at the factory. He made the fender skirts from a 68 chevy top and later made a carson top with conduit, chicken wire, padding and vinyl. I'll post some others later.

 

Dad had a 49 Ford 2 door , Hot Rod Primer, no hub caps, black wheels with wide whites. We used this car to tow my 1/4 midget to area tracks here in northern Ohio. On occasion he would let me sit on his lap and steer and shift. He would say Ok Bob clutch is in and I would shift into second and then again for third. I sure had fun driving that old Ford! Dad passed away in 93' I miss him every day!

 

Dad's first car was a 35 Plymouth coupe. Shortly after that was a 37 Studebaker coupe with an Oldsmobile engine.
He had a 35 Ford coupe right after he got home from WWII. In the early 50's he found and repaired a wrecked 37 Cord sedan. He said it was the first car he went over 100 mph in. At the same time he raced a 35 Pontiac coupe in the regional dirt track oval races. I wish I had asked him for more details when he was still alive. I'm sure there were stories to go along with everything he experienced. Miss you Dad.

 

Dad was born in 1912 and would always tell us stories about his cars. Maybe that is part of why my Brother and I followed so closely in his footsteps. We lost him in the late 1980's, but he has always remained close in our hearts.

 

My father heading off to war in 1939, next to my grandfather's RHD 39 Pontiac, in NZ.

 

I'll play .... My Dad drove junk!
He was a mechanic that worked at a gas station.
He died when I was 10 years old ..... One of my most remembered memories of him was when I was 8 years old. ..... He came walking down our 1 mile driveway with his friend & had a piston/rod in his hand as a trophy. .... He was game.

Just the usual, cobblers kids have no shoes ... the mechanic drove junk.
I really have no idea what year my mothers Buick was.

I remember it as a 10 year old child. It had the port holes down the side, it was a shiny red convertible with a black top & white interior.
I believe today it was before 55, maybe a 48-54? I have no clue.

Of course the engine smoked & needed rebuilt, When father passed it went to a scrap yard for probably $15 ..... My father who was a mechanic daily, was building a boat & farmed as a team with a friend.

 

My dad never really had hot street cars, but he built several race cars!

 

My dad “drove” a 1962 cessna 150 with a tailwheel conversion and a 180 hp lycoming power-plant. He was a bush pilot in alaska in the 1970s. We flew a lot more miles than we drove back then. He was the cessna bush plane guy of his day.

 

Bump for my favorite thread, lots of neat reading material here

 

His first car was a bullet nose Studebaker that he bought in Hawaii while he was in the Navy.

 

Before I was born 1939. 29 Roadster. Crager overhead, chopped, Chrysler grille shell. Driveway infront of the attached garage in the house I grew up. Inglewood. Ca. He was 27 in this photo.

 

^^^^ Please tell me you have more pictures of the car….

 

We didn't have a car so I can't say but I heard that in his younger years my dad had an Indian motorcycle, I don't know much about them but I recall hearing it was a shaft drive bike.

 

I do but they are not on my phone or I Pad. I’ll add a photo of my mom near the same time. She took photos at Muroc in 1938 which had one made into a painting. They married in 1938 in Yuma Az. He worked at the Glendale Western Auto and was friends with many dry lakes racers at the time but was a little older. When Kong Jackson heard my last name mentioned once in the 1990’s at a racing gathering he came up and asked if I knew a Tone from Glendale. I told him I was his son. My dad died in 1963 in a motorcycle accident.

 

My dad told me once that he and his brother had a Willys ('30s?) that they pulled the motor out of with a chain and a pipe, him on one end of the pipe and his brother on the other. Later, my Mom said he had a Merc mild custom that she had rolled and totaled.

Gary

 

Dad's first car was a 35 Ford. Then a 51 Merc, 56 Nomad, and at his peak, a 1/2 year old red 62 Impala hardtop, with 4-speed dual quad posi-traction 409/409. We have a picture at his house, but none on my phone.
Then my brother was born, and out went the 409, in came a Rambler wagon.

 

My dad was a Chrysler fan he had a 37 Chevy when I was born; but after that it was DeSoto, DeSoto, Plymouth, and Dodge, all 4 door sedans and a station wagon. He had a couple second cars, ford PU and Chevy suburban; but nothing fast or cool when I was a kid. He started driving with Model T’s and the 29 Model A cabriolet (mine now) was his first new car and last Ford he ever bought. The cabriolet was given to his mother, and he bought a used ‘28 Chrysler touring. Later in the depression he had a couple used Chevy and olds sedans, including the Chevy I came home from the hospital in. That is pretty much his full life’s car history.

 

It would be understandable if you disowned your brother after that! In my family it was my sister that screwed things up!

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all these stories ! My dad had a Model A roadster before WWII. I know that for sure because he had about a 2" wide flap shaped scar on his forehead where he went through the windshield when someone ran a stop sign in front of him and it totaled his car and sent him to the hospital where they sewed the torn forehead skin back in place. By the time I came along in 1947, he owned a 42 Buick torpedo body, tan and cream. Which he sold soon after because it either would catch fire or over heat. He formed a lifelong hatred of Buicks from that one. He then bought a blue 46 Ford club coupe, and that is the first car I remember. He traded that for a 49 Convertible, V8 and overdrive. He was coming home one evening and saw a customized 50 Ford convertible and traded the 49 for it. Everybody in the neighborhood loved that one! Next came a 53 Ford convertible, sea form green and with an automatic. He really didn't like that car. And when his WWII Marine buddy drove his 56 Chevy Bel Air hard top over to our house one day, he decided that he wanted THAT car instead. It 2 as cream and root beer color, 265 power pack and Powerglide. He drove that until May of 1959 when the trans went out. Promising himself to never buy an automatic transmission again, he called his Marine buddy in Chicago and asked him what he had with a V8 and a stick in it available. We limped the car from Gary, Indiana to Siep Chevrolet in Chicago having only low gear! Les Hill, his buddy, had brand new 1959 white Impala hard top with red interior waiting for us, equipped with a 348 and stick! He drove that until 1968, putting 27k miles on it in the process. He gave me the car after walking on the truck lot at Courtesy Chevrolet in San Diego and asking the salesman what he had in an El Camino with a V8 and a stick. The salesman showed him about a half dozen SS396 4 speeds, but my dad said they were too much car (drat!). They finally found a forlorn custom 300, sitting on the back row, covered in dust. It had two options on it, a radio and a 307 V8. The heater was standard. He bought it and paid full price! That was his pride and joy. He loved it and babyed it when new as it aged and he aged it got less babyed. In 1982, the cam went flat in the 307. I was service manager at Pontiac/GMC store in San Diego and we had just replaced a 350 in a 1 ton truck which had snapped a crankshaft. I got the engine, installed a crank kit in it, did a ring and valve job on it, put a 350 hp 327 cam, high rise and Holley 600, and Doug's headers on it and replaced the 307. He went through his second childhood and loved it! Sadly, he was semi retired at this time and hardly drove it. He alway complained that it burned oil. He never got the rings to seat properly. A couple of years later, he suffered a massive stroke and was paralyzed on his left side. The car sat until his passing in 1990. After he passed, my mother gave me the truck. I pulled the engine and did a proper rebuild to it. I put a 4 speed in it, disc brakes and power steering. I wore that engine out and the replacement engine I put in is now geriatric itself. As I type this, the car is sitting about 50 yards from me in my driveway. It has about 500k miles on it and I am building a destroked 400, roller cam and rockers, a modified tuned port injection system and a world class T5 for it. When I push up daisies, my youngest son and his two boys will inherit it. 54 years in the family and will remain with us for who knows how long .

 

Don't know why I just run across this thread! My Dad graduated HS in 1940, he talked Grandpa into sighing for him to get a new Chevy convertible as soon as they came out in late 39. He had worked since he was young and saved every penny he could. In the spring of 1940 he somehow talked the bank in to financing a new Chevy dump truck that he hauled coal and anything else he could to make a buck. He was the only guy in his class that had a new convertible and a new truck the year he graduated! He always said if it wasn't for going to school he never would have gotten any sleep! He was drafted in early 1942 and served in the Army Air Force as a tail gunner on a B24. When he got out in 1946 he came home and got on the list for a new Chevy, while he was waiting for a new hard to get car his buddy that worked at the local Buick/Chevy dealer called him to look at a 46 Buick Roadmaster that had come available. He took a ride in the Buick , bought it and never owned any other kind of car until the day he died in 1982. Maybe that is why I have owned a Buick of some kind of other since I got my first $50 54 Special I talked Dad into letting me buy when I was in 8th grade in 1964 and hope to keep up the tradition until the day I am under the dirt!

 

Dad was a mechanic so everything he drove needed something fixed. Here's a couple of cars he had, one a bathtub Nash and the other, the only new car he ever bought a 57 Ford 2dr. DelRio wagon. He complained about the 57 for years. Engine was worn out at 20k, rusted out even though he had it rustproofed and anything else he could think of. Long after he retired we were talking about it and I mentioned it was a highly sought after car to restore now. He was not impressed. He also picked up a 56 Ford, 61 Mercury for mom to drive. But the one car he picked up for mom to drive still shocks me, a 1973 Mustang Mach1. Wasn't a hot car just a 351c 2bbl with a/c. Mom loved the car. Said teenagers would pull up next to her and want to race. Took her a few times to figure out what they wanted but when she did she had a lot of fun with it.

 

A 1936 Dodge Sedan (similar car for three years) during college days

A colorized B/W photo. My wife’s mom used to have a job as a photo painter with colors to make a B/W photo like a color painting. It would have looked like this color version. A 1936 Plymouth sedan for the whole family in 1947.

Hello,

My dad could not afford a car during most of his college days. He took the Red Car Trolley to downtown Los Angeles from the San Pedro/Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor area. But, at the end of his college days, he had saved enough to buy a 36-38 Dodge Sedan. He bought it before he went touring with a semi-pro baseball team from Los Angeles. He was a lefty throw, and righty batting, along with a switch stance hitting, when it called for a different approach. (left hand pitcher)

But, he did get used to riding the Red Car Trolley to college.

Jnaki

One day I was sifting through some old photos and came to the old photo. But, then I was also sifting through my wife’s old photo array and came up with a colorized photo of her at age two, in front of a 1936 Plymouth, a sister sedan to my dad’s 1936-38 Dodge. From OKC to So Cal… a culture shock for sure, but similar tastes in family cars…

What a small world, only to discover similarities after 56 years… zowie!

 

My parents had a 52 chevy. They could not make the payment on month so they traded it in on a 53 chevy so the could skip a payment. The neighbors thought they were rich. They kept the 53 till they bought a 64 ford station wagon, that was the car my mom liked enough she finally learned to drive.