Thread: How young did you start, and did it result in obsession?

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I am 63 years old and cars have been apart of my life for as all as I can remember.First car was a field car that was a straight 8 Buick.Well that lasted until mom saw us roll it.Kind of made her mad and scared.We where laughing and was going to roll it back on it's wheels,but she stopped us and then forced dad to get rid of it.I too built models.As I remember,there wasn't that many guys that wasn't into cars.First build I did was a 53 Chevy coupe with a Hemi.Poor thing.The front end dropped like a rock under the wt of that 780lb Hemi.Too many drag cars to count.We use to buy a distress sale drag car a guy couldn't finish because he was behind on his bills and fix it and race it for a yr and then sell it off.Made money doing that.The market has changed since those days.

Could I stop???.Nawwww-then that wouldn't be me.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.

Dan and I's obsession with cars comes from pops. I have been broke ever since I could pick up a wrench thanks to him!

Seriously,
Glad he taught us to build and work on our own.

Don Jr.

Guess it's time to tell my not so exciting story . I have been fascinated with going fast since I can remember. I would watch the speedometer when dad was driving the Buick on the old 101 between Eureka and Santa Rosa and the faster he would go the more mom would tell him to slow down. I think he would get it up to 65 or so and I thought we were flying. When I was in High School I drove my mom's car, a 53 Chrysler 331 hemi, and thought it was the fastest thing around, it wasn't. My first car was a 50 ford Crestliner given to me by my aunt as a graduation present. It was 1st owned by the son of the Ford dealer in Eureka, Ca. He had the block ported, polished and relieved, added Offy heads and a duel point dist. and an Isky cam. It was worn out by the time I got it, on the drive from Eureka down to Sunnyvale where I was then living it burned 8 gts. of oil. Owned many cars since then including a 66 GTO bought new in April of 66, of which the running gear has, since 68, now resides in my 34 3 window.

Jack.

When I was 16 back in 1966, my first car was a '59 Impala 2 dr HT--white with red interior, 283 PG. Nice car but I wanted a hot rod. So the next summer when the PG was toast, with the help of some older guys who were mechanics in town, I changed it over to a manual tranny. At the same time, we pulled the engine, rebuilt the 283 with a small solid lifter cam and an AFB. The next year in high school shop, I worked over the body, painted it 1968 GTO green, blacked out the grill, radiused the rear wheel wells, added chrome reversed wheels, and had the seats reupholstered in black, and changed the rest of the interior to black. The next year, I sold the 283, got hold of a '64 Corvette 327, added a Dempsey Wilson cam, dual quads and a set of 4.11 gears. It was pretty quick by the standards of the day. All this drove my parents nuts, but I had a job, and I paid for everything myself. It was by no means a show car, but it was a laboratory project for me to learn from. I wish I had that car back now, but it eventually met Mr. Crusher.

PS give up the fags otherwise you might not get all your cars build.
Whip....

How young did you start, and did it result in obsession?

When I first saw the title of this thread, I thougt it was about
porno magazines......

That was the first reason to have a nice car! LOL!

EVERYTHING reminds Mike of porn...............very Freudian............

I'm about to turn 64, and I have been in love with cars for over 50 years ...... my dad was an insurance adjuster so cars were just "a claim to be handled" to him ....... but my grandfather was a mechanic at a Chevrolet dealership ........ I guess I got my love of cars from him ........ he found my first car for me, a Robin's Egg Blue and White '55 Chevy Bel Air 2-door hardtop, 265 and a Powerglide ........ it went through two major transformations ..... first to Roman Red with a white interior (283 and a T-4 3-speed)...... then to Corvette Silver with black rolled & pleated naugahyde (300 hp 327, T-10 4-speed, 4.11:1 rear)





I have always tried to have a performance car in the garage

















When I was 13, my dad took me to the first race at Amarillo Dragway ........ and I was hooked for life ........ bought, built, and raced until it just got too expensive to field a competitive car anymore ........ still at it (have spent wayyyyyyyyyyy too much money building the Thames ......... hope I can afford to keep it

wished id of never started

With cars... or porn? :-)

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

With cars... or porn? :-)

EITHER

I was actually still in the woomb when I got my first hot rod. I had a hard time getting parts. As hard as I pounded out the morse code on my mom's tummy, nobody seemed to understand what I wanted. By time I was 2 yrs. I was able to talk and call shops for the parts I needed. At 5 I slipped behind the wheel for my first solo drive in the old Ford Falcon. In elementary school I was drag racing the local high school kids. By time I hit Junior High we were rebuilding our parents engines, and in High School made our first car from scratch.!









Seriously, I was 15 or 16 when I bought my first car which was a 1968 Mustang coupe with a blow engine and tranny but perfect body with mag wheels. Prior to that I had worked on my older brothers firebird, and some of my Dad's exotic Italian cars which he was importing used, fixing up and selling locally. My brothers and I lived with my Mom, so we had to buy and fix our own stuff due to limited income. In a way it was a great gift. Taught me to work for what I needed, and to maintain it. At the time we had a High school auto shop. So I took auto chasis and auto electrical, while a friend took auto engines, between the two of us we rebuilt the motor and redid the suspension and electrical stuff. Wish they still offered these classes.

I was taking the nuts and screws out of the kitchen chairs when I started crawling. Any toy I was given was soon taken apart to see how it worked. My uncle had a Gulf gas station and I want to stay with him in the summers and he told me when I could reach half way across the windows to clean them he would pay me to work for him. When I was 12 I could do that. He taught me how to do limited maintenance to cars and trucks, oil and filter grease jobs and manual tire changing. That is all he could do for his lift was outside. During the rest of the year I had an uncle that was a sports car driver TR-3's and Alfa. We followed those races and had a blast. I got my first car when I was 16, 53 chevy $50.00 blew up on the way home. Didnt know enough to fix it. Bought a 56 chevy $150.00, 265, 3 speed on the floor. That car taught me a lot. Like everyone else I had some awesome cars i.e. two more 56's one 348 with 3 two's, two dodge swingers one 340 4 speed, 74 roadrunner. I worked for various gas stations around town and in the summers while in college a Mobile oil company chassis dyno shop.
I have where possible time wise done most of the maintenance to all my cars. The money I saved I bought more tools with. As long as I can get up off the ground I will do what I can do. It's fun it's accomplishment. When my wife found our truck (I am blessed with a wife that loves them as much as me) it got us back in the hot rod business and we have met gobs of people that have the same feelings about cars and trucks. We have parking lot meetings every Thursday night and Saturday mornings (30 to 40 cars and trucks). We are involved in the starting of a truck club in north Texas. We are having a blast!! Oh! 1960

Started for me with erector sets and model cars, first car I worked on with my Dad a 53 chevy. High school 56 chevy gasser style and a 31 Ford hemi.
Did time in the Navy, had a 65 Tempest installed a 389 4 speed and tri power, back from Nam, 1800.00 bucks later 66 427 4 speed vett, broke a lot of axel u joints . Discharged 69, tore the vett up got a 68 GTO. Learned electronics got a job sold the goat, got a company car.
Drove company cars for 30 years, had Harley's for a hotrod. Then 95 working for Sun Microsystems making some nice dough started to look for a hobby car, got a 34 worked it over for a couple of years. Then got a mess of truck parts 32, and built the wife her own hotrod truck, and that is where I am today.
Overall it is a pretty good fun hobby, my enjoyment is not sitting and barking at a car show. My kicks are driving, loud exhaust, open-wheel a$$ kicking little powerhouses.
Harley's are the same way, loads of bikes sitting in the garage, loads of street rods sitting in the parking lot with little blue fold up chairs sitting in front. To each his own I say, glad for the cars and prefer the late 20 and 30s hotrod style coupes generally speaking.