Thread: Great car and truck stories

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Steve,
When I was in collage I bought a 57 chevy 4dr wagon, but I wanted a 2 dr. So I cut it in half and made a 86" wheelbase 2 dr. out of it. I have some great shots of it pulling wheelies on the street. I'll post them Monday when I'm at work, I don't know how to scan them in
Ken

I think this is a great idea for a thread Steve. Thanks for bringing it up. Since I have told most of my stories at least 10 times each on here , I can't think of any that wouldn't bring out a bunch of yawns, however, maybe I can mention something that might get others to start with their own stories.

The other night we played the DVD I have of American Graffiti, and it started me remembering some of the things we did back in the 50's and 60's and how this car hobby has had so many different phases to it. That movie was very close to what many of us remember of those days........every town had the guy with the fastest car around, we guys were all trying to get to first base with some young thing, and generally the times were pretty innocent.

Most of the cars I remember from the late '50's to the early '60's were ones like '50 Fords or partially finished hot rods that sometimes actually made it to the street. Most were pretty crude in the area where I grew up, and the first hot rod that I saw that came from California blew me away. It was totally finished down the the all chromed Olds engine and diamond tufted interior. That car showed me that a whole nuther world existed outside of Pennsylvania and that the guys in California drove cars that we only saw in the latest little book hot rod magazines.

Then in the mid 60's things changed because of cars like the GTO , Chevelle, Mustang,and various Chrysler muscle cars. For a car payment of about $ 99 a month you could buy a car that was faster than anything we could build and it was also clean enough so girls would actually WANT to go out with you. In '66 I bought a new tripower GTO and that night was out drag racing with the big boys, something I had only dreamed about before then.

The '70's were a weird decade in my opinion. The EPA and gas prices were making muscle cars go away, and it took Streetrodder Magazine and the first annual Streetrod Nationals to get people interested in building cars in their own garages again. Some of those '70's rods were pretty badly built and not very attractive by today's standards, but at least it was getting people back into the garage and building cars again. I was one of the few people at the time who still wanted to build '50's style hot rods, so I was able to buy stuff nobody else wanted like '37 Ford V8 60 axles and '40 Ford drum brakes for cheap money. Everybody else wanted disc brakes and IFS under their cars.

In '79 we moved to California for a year and going to a few car shows there showed me the level to which California rodders took their cars. What made that possible was the fact you can drive a short distance there and find most any kind of shop you want to buy cool parts or have them made. That, and the fact that Californian's take their cars very seriously. Now I wish I had gone by some of the icon shops like Barris, Roth, and some others. How cool it would be to have memories of meeting some of those guys.

So, those are some of my memories, what do the rest of you recall???


Don

In the mid 70's I was out looking for a '55 delivery or nomad to build. There were none to be found at the time, but I did find this panel truck for $100.00.

Odd thing is I thought that truck was as old as the hills back in the 70's. But, today I am building a 70 camaro (that was nearly new at that time) and the camaro is now older than that panel truck was at the time. My how time flies.

Thanks for sharing, Ken please do post some shots,
Don I know what you mean about the seventies. Smog devices, cars that ran like crap...,but jeeze you could still pickup 60's and 50's cars for a few hundred bucks.
In our town the car to beat was a Vega with a 454 under the hood. The whole front end would twist when he gunned it. I remember my dad had just imported a Lancia Zagato that needed a little work. He let me take it home for a week (back to my mom's house). Friday night who should pull up next to me but the Vega. I went for it and smoked him down the block( the Lancia was very fast in the low gears), hit a t- intersection turned left, barely staying on the road at about 60 mph, he went right. Had it continued straight he would have had me, but I felt like King for the day, and managed not to get a ticket too!

So you were John Milner for a day, huh? One of the most stupid things I have ever done was in about 1972. When I married my wife she had a brand new 68 Mustang coupe, 289 C4. In 71 I transplanted the complete drivetrain from a 70 Mach I into the car.........351 Cleveland, toploader four speed, and nodular 9 inch rear. The engine got headers, cam, aluminum intake, good ignition, and a 780 Holley. The transmission got a Ram shifter and the rear went to 4:88 gears. I ran M and H slicks on it , sometimes on the street. It was a solid mid 11 second car.

My wife was an RN and worked night shift at a local hospital, so one night I put Dan and Don who were about 18 months old into their carseats in the back of the Mustang and took their Mom to work and dropped her off. We were on the way home on a four lane street and a vette pulled up next to me at a light......he was wearing either 396 or 427 flags (I forget which) and he started revving his engine. When the light turned green I buried it and by the time I hit 3rd he was looking at my 6 taillights. (ok, Mustangs only have 2, but there was this Beachboys song and .............)

The dumb part about this is that I totally forgot the Kids were strapped in the back seat, and when I looked in the rearview mirror I saw 4 eyes the size of saucers looking at me. I shudder to think about what could have happened, but I think that was the day they became gearheads,

We never told Mom about that little story.

Don

Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

Steve,
When I was in collage I bought a 57 chevy 4dr wagon, but I wanted a 2 dr. So I cut it in half and made a 86" wheelbase 2 dr. out of it. I have some great shots of it pulling wheelies on the street. I'll post them Monday when I'm at work, I don't know how to scan them in
Ken

Remember this was 1971, it had a 327, cam, headers and a Muncie 4 speed. It was a fun car. If you look underneath you can see the lift bars like a Thunderbolt used.
Ken

Man that is a great lookin chopped wagon!. Looks like she used to fly down the road....litteraly! Must of been a lot of fun to feel that kind of horsepower under your seat! Nice classic shots too!

Come on Ken, we want pictures of you in your Disco haircut and bellbottoms!!

That car was 70's period perfect, bet it did fly.

Don

The story about the cheerleader rang my bell. When I was 14 I had some savings from a paper route and my Dad was a fan of Model As, having owned three previously, although he was forced by economics to accept my Grandfather's hand-me-down Plymouths every three years. We bought it for $100. My Dad wanted another Model A even though I could not drive until I was 16 in Penna. Well it was a '31 Fordor and we painted it robin egg blue with a brush and painted the spoke wheels red. We added a dimmer switch on the floor and used tin snips to cut the rims out of '38 Buick sealed beam headlights which fit right in the Model A buckets (with a little rattle) to pass Penna. inspection. I couldn't drive it but I would go out in the back yard every so often and start the engine and gun it just to make sure it worked and keep the battery charged. At that age I was in the marching band and one of the "Flag Girls" lived at the end of my block and she really looked good in the special band uniform. When I finally got my license I asked her if she wanted to ride home from school with me, but she said NO! She did not want to ride in an "old car" since she was already engaged to a guy who had a '51 Ford! Boy that cooled my interest in the Model A and soon thereafter I sold it and bought a '47 Ford ragtop (literally), painted it orange and my Grandmother staked me to a new top (took pity on me driving in the cold!) but it was too late for that girl. I really liked that orange convert so much that one of the next girls on the list kicked and scratched the new paint on the rear fender because she thought I liked my car more than her, well maybe. Sorry, no pictures of either car, wish I did have a picture! Funny how you remember the early stuff.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Boy! Don's story reminded me of one. It was 1968, I had a 1963 Falcon with a 327 Chevy and a 4 speed B&O 4 speed Hydro in it. Married with a 6 month old daughter in the back seat. We were coming home from the drags, it was late, when I pulled up to a stop light on this hill. A '57 Corvette pulls up next to me. I couldn't resist we both nailed it, now we are going down hill, my car was fast but with this helping, we were flying. I pulled the Corvette in first and second gear, I shifted into 3rd and broke a U joint and the drive shaft came flying out. I pulled off to the side of the rode and put it in "park" in front of a closed gas station with a phone booth in front. My wife got out with me and walked to the phone. I was talking to my neighbor, telling him where the tow bar was for my car when I hear my wife scream. I turned around to see my car rolling down the hill with my daughter in the back seat. I ran as fast as I could, dove in the side widow and stopped the car. All I could do was hold and hug my daughter, I never raced again with any of the kids in the car. I think back on this kind of stuff and wonder what kind of bone head decisions I made!
Ken

Boy, we've all pulled those kinds of tricks and sweat bullets later when we think back on what could have happened. Young and dumb.

Ken's story also reminded me of one. When my Sons were about 4 or so I took them to the store with me one time. It was a little grocery store on an incline in Pennsylvania. I shut the car off, but just put the four speed shifter in one of the gears to hold it while I ran into the store. The kids stayed in the car (those were the days you could do that kind of stuff) and as I am paying for my loaf of bread I look out to check on them as see my Mustang rolling slowly past the window but gaining speed! Like Ken I ran out, threw open the door, and jammed my foot onto the brake pedal. The car stopped inches from a parked car in front of me, and my two little drivers were sitting there wondering why they couldn't play with the steering wheel and shifter any more.

Mom never knew about that story either.........Mom never knew about a LOT of stories, or she would have never trusted me taking them out by myself again.

Don