Thread: car stories

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memories .. i have debated with myself every since i joined this site whether i wanted to start this thread or not .. iv`e told my stories so many times on several sites but the need to stay active in the hot rod world and the want to share my lifes expierences dictate that i do it all over again .. but this thread will be open to all of you who wish to share stories from last week or 50 years ago .. or more .. i remember almost every car every person i knew from the past 40 years has owned ( hot rod that is ) and will tell many stories i can recall about them .. please do the same ..

i will start with my very first rememberance of a car .. i was three years old in 1958 .. every friday was payday for my father and that meant he would be bringing home a 6 pack of double cola`s and a half gallon of neopoliton ice cream ( choc - van- and strawberry ) in the same box .. being the baby of the family i got first chance to eat my fill .. so every friday i sat on the front poarch and waited for that green 1954 ford to pull up ( at three i knew that car ) ... suddenly a green 54 ford pulls in the drive .. i run out as always and quickly latch on to the the leg of what i thought was my dad as he exited the car .. the person drags me to the front door and was knocking on it .. about the very same time my father drove up and while he was prying me off the leg of this stranger with me screaming " no " daddy daddy .. " my father sad " son " if you think this man is you father i may need to have a talk with your mom .. i did`nt know who my dad was but i knew that 1954 ford

Here is a story that is a tribute to "improvization". :-)

Back in '68 I was 19 years old. I had just gotten my second car together, which was a '57 Chevy Bel Air 2-door hardtop. I bought it from a local junkyard, along with a '59 283 4-barrel engine, and a Corvette 4-speed trans. I rebuilt the engine, and added a Melling reground solid cam.

It was running pretty good, but did not "sit" quite right. The popular "look" was to raise the rear with airshocks, but I had spent all of my cash on the build. How was I going to raise the rear body on a budget? .....then it came to me!

Being "exceptionally clever", I reasoned that I could jack the car up, and put a muffler clamp around each shock, keeping it from collapsing back to normal ride height!

I ran down to Fagan's Auto Parts, local purveyor of "hot rod things" in Danville, Illinois, and picked up the right sized clamps for a buck or two. Arriving back home, I experimented with the height of the car until I got it just right, and put the clamps around the shocks nice and tight! I then changed clothes, and jumped in the car to go show off the new stance at the Steak & Shake drive in.

Now we lived in the country, and our gravel drive had a few dips in it before you got to the dirt road out front. I started the engine...checked the oil pressure.... stuck it in first.... and eased the clutch out....

Now I didn't hit those dips fast, but by the time I got to the road, I had cracked my head sharply against the roof at least three times!!!

I stopped and looked around to make sure nobody saw my stupidity,.....rubbed my head......backed up very slowly,....and took the clamps off of the shocks. My Chevy no longer had that jaunty look I wanted so badly, but I did have a newfound appreciation for the value of having functioning suspension! :-)

I was in 8th grade and a friend of mine had a 55 f-100 sitting in his dads field , I was in love ........ I struck up a deal with the dad $40.00 cash or help irrigate for the summer . I had an after school and weekend job at the chevron station , but I thought I could save all this money for just a little of my time ...
I would get up before sunrise , go set tarps in the ditches , drag around siffon tubes to move the water then go to work . at noon go change the tarps , eat a fast sandwhich head back to work .....
on my way home it was back to the ditches and more tarps , tubes and fricken water ...... this went on all summer

after 5 months of being a farmer , my debt was paid and I was the proud owner of an awesome 55 ford ........and it didn`t cost me a dime this was 69`
I fixed up my pride and joy all thru hi school ....bought a wrecked mustang with a 351c , 4 speed , 9" and a set of huge mickey thompson n-50x 15`s

I still own my 55 today , I am going to re-do it again this winter ....slide a newer chassis under it with a 525" big ford , top loader and narrowed rear ...

my dad always told me .." take pride in workin for something you realy want ,it makes if that much more sweeter "

Oooo! I just love a good story!

The Studebaker truck that I am working on now has been in my famly since I was knee-high to a grasshopper...ever since that truck first rolled into our driveway that fateful summer day, I have loved it.

My dad picked me up from school everyday in it, it took me to the dentist (which I hated going to, but riding in the Stude always seemed to make things better), and it hauled firewood every year to keep my family warm. It was truly part of the family. It seemed only natural that it come live with me, after my daddy died, so that I could help her become the glorious hot rod she is destined to be.

My Corvair, well, she and I just belong together....we both have our quirks, so we understand each other just fine. The Vair is what I learned to drive on, and I have had it ever since.

I consider both the Corvair and the Studebaker to pieces of my past, and a way for me to keep my dad close to me, because everytime I see them, I think of him, and smile. They are my kids. And my one passion that I don't ever see fading away.

Originally Posted by Hot Rod Angel

Oooo! I just love a good story!

The Studebaker truck that I am working on now has been in my famly since I was knee-high to a grasshopper...ever since that truck first rolled into our driveway that fateful summer day, I have loved it.

My dad picked me up from school everyday in it, it took me to the dentist (which I hated going to, but riding in the Stude always seemed to make things better), and it hauled firewood every year to keep my family warm. It was truly part of the family. It seemed only natural that it come live with me, after my daddy died, so that I could help her become the glorious hot rod she is destined to be.

My Corvair, well, she and I just belong together....we both have our quirks, so we understand each other just fine. The Vair is what I learned to drive on, and I have had it ever since.

I consider both the Corvair and the Studebaker to pieces of my past, and a way for me to keep my dad close to me, because everytime I see them, I think of him, and smile. They are my kids. And my one passion that I don't ever see fading away.

Hot rod angel
I've said this before, but since you love a good story...read Truck a love story, by Michael Perrry. Thanks to him my wife wanted me to get my old ford as a project!

i did that also but they would break pretty quick so i got to putting 4 x 4 blocks between my rear end and the frame in order to get the high in the rear look .. but then always one side or the other of the wood would bounce out and i would be crooked ..could`nt afford air shocks at the time

Originally Posted by HOSS429

i did that also but they would break pretty quick so i got to putting 4 x 4 blocks between my rear end and the frame in order to get the high in the rear look .. but then always one side or the other of the wood would bounce out and i would be crooked ..could`nt afford air shocks at the time

I used to put a 2x2 through the rear shackles of my FREE '56 Chev because the springs were shot and the car sagged. I always liked a small Rake on my cars. The year was '75 and I was just a youngster of 31 years old.

the first hot rod expierence i felt was in 1968 when an older brother bought a 66 galixie with the seven litre 428 and a 4speed ... black on black with bucket seats .. he really enjoyed frying the tires on that thing although it would`nt outrun anything ..a few years later he was drafted to vietnam .. the car sat for years as he decided to make a career of the military..this is`nt one of those stories where the son gits killed and the car sits forever although i know of such a few .. he just lost interest of it and it soon dissapeared .. when he would come home for a brief visit i would always have to let him borrow one of my hot rods so he could have a bit of an adrenalin rush .. another brother was into mustangs and bought one in 65 then traded in every year till 1970 then marriage ended his fun

Well Hoss this will come close to home for you . My first experience with rodding was visiting family in Huntsville in the 60.s My cousin who still does em from time to time has allways had some type of rod . He does body work for the local dealers in the area at his own shop at home . He lives off morris mill rd. His last one some years back was a 63 Falcon convert he put a 5.0 in and ran the roads scared me a bit riding with him but it was fun.

huntsville has a rich and amasing hot rod heritage .. most of the stories are`nt mine but i will try to recall and post some of the more incredible stuff iv`e heard .. big money flowed in the area thanks to NASA .. and big toys were a plenty

My first experience with hot rods was in high school in the early sixties. A small rural community in California's Sacramento Valley, a predominately agricultural area. Without interstates, cable/satellite TV and no large population center, being in a rural area was really being disconnected by todays standards. Our cars were for the most part hot rodified by what ever we could scrounge at the local junkyard or Western Auto. I had a '57 Chevy 210 four door hardtop at the time with the stock 283 and Powerglide setup, not a real hotrod, but a desireable car at the time and I thought it was neat, until the day when the high school nerd came to school one day with a "built" '55 BelAir, I mean this car was like from outer space, it was that dramatically different from all the other cars in the high school parking lot. I don't recall all the specifics about this car but it sounded and looked mean and nasty and the "Nerd" was driving it.....until that day hot rods like this were only to be seen in the pages of HotRod magazine. My first experience in being able to hear and feel a real hotrod and the "Nerd" was driving it! I have nothing against nerds mind you, but nerds just didn't drive hotrods. This was the coolest car in town now and the nerd fast became everybody's friend.

My story about being introduced to hot rods was a "blitz attack"! A friend and I were building models, and buying hot rod magazines, but it really happened for me when he talked his mom into taking us to the US nationals, 90 miles away in Indianapolis.

It was 1962, and we were about 13-14. Back then their was no limit on entries, and there in front of us were 2,000 super stocks, gassers, altereds & dragsters!!! I have devoted the last 45 years to the obsession that started that weekend!

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

It was 1962, and we were about 13-14. Back then their was no limit on entries, and there in front of us were 2,000 super stocks, gassers, altereds & dragsters!!!

gosh !!! if you only had pictures

I lived in Hawaii in 1961 and I got my drivers license when I was 15.
Wanting my own car after asking to use my folks '58 Chevy Nomad and being told to get a job and buy your own .

So every day during the summer I'd get up at 0430 and put on combat boots some heavy duty multi layer long sleeve shirt. Leather gloves and steel mesh goggles and head out to pick pineapples for Dole.
It was Hot dressed up like that and I'd always come home with lots of needle marks from the sharp pointy leaves that would some how make it through the many layers I had on.
It was hard work but I always had one thought in my mind --my own cool set of wheels.
I saved every penny and just before high school started in the fall I bought a
1954 Dodge Royal Red Ram 2 door sedan- hemi V-8 auto transmission.
two tone blue with big white walls.
I polished and waxed that car every weekend
I was the first kid in my class to have his own car.
Back when a gallon of gas was 25 cents.
I sold it for more than I bought it for when we left for the main land
($750)
those were some good times
hank