Thread: car stories

Tweet

while it`s fresh on my brain story .. the company i work for at the moment was built in 1969 as IBM electronics ... we have a huge emergency back up generator that iv`e heard run now and then but never gave it much thought .. some guys in the maintanance dept recently were servicing it and as i walked by one of them said . " hey " you may be interested in this generator !! i couldn`t think why but i walked over and sure nuff i got very interested .. it was powered by a 429 ford motor .. an original 1969 like new motor that was put there brand new .. and it still runs like new .. it`s propane powered and runs only a few times a year so it has virtually no hours of operation .. that reminded me of other things i saw in the early 70`s .. there was a local tractor equipment sales place that sold these huge three wheeled fertilizer spreaders .. i looked closely at one once and saw it had a 428 cobra jet motor in it .. aluminum valve covers - holley carb and the whole works .. in a piece of farm equipment no less .. it`s my understanding that ford got rid of some of their excess hi-po stuff in that manner back then .. iv`e also heard of big block chevy motors driving water pumps at old city wells and farm ponds and lakes back 30 years ago .. how bout that ..

I grew up in Greeley, CO a small farm community about smack dab in the middle between Denver and Cheyenne, WY. 20 mi west was Loveland, 35 mi northwest was Ft Collins. "D" block was where everyone went on weekend nights, right downtown a one square block area. That's where the hot cars were, the girls, where we'd get the older guys to buy us beer, and if you owned a hot car you showed it off and "chose" races.
I turned 16 in 1963 and my first car was a '53 Chevy Bel-air 2 dr. I bought it from my uncle who had hopped it up with Offy split headers, dual exhaust, and an Offy 3-2 intake with Strombergs. Uncle Don had taken the car to Juarez and had "genuine Naguahyde tuck and roll interior installed there" and had repainted the car in it's stock "baby blue" and white. For $250 bucks it was a buy for this punk kid. I had been delivering papers for about 4 years and had worked summers doing construction or bucking hay and tried saving my meager earnings. My Folks had made it plain that if I was going to get a dl and wanted a car I had to buy it myself. I eventualy made enough money that I put a "Spark-O-Matic" floor shifter in it and chrome reverse wheels on it. We lost more races than we won but it was a great car and I drove it primarily all thru high school. I sold(gave, since he never has paid me)it to my younger brother when I headed off to college and he totaled it doing something stupid.
One of my best friends dad had a machine shop and he would help Ed and I on our cars, and when they weren't running let us keep them there. In early '64 I bought a wrecked '57 Chev Sedan Delivery, I always wanted a '57 Nomad but this was the closest I could get to one. Paid $75 bucks for it. Front clip and hood were toast and the front suspension was mangled.
The rest of the car was in good shape. By summer of '65 it sported a beefed axle front end that raised the car about 3-4" from stock, traction bars, and a 327 with headers and "Cherry Bomb" mufflers and 4-spd, chrome reverse wheels with re-tread street slicks(illegal then), primered front clip. I used to race it on the street and at the run-what-u-brung drags in Cheyenne and Erie. Win-loss record was about even--but it sure looked and sounded nasty.
It had a great "back seat" too. I have a few stories about the '57, and the back seat
I had great jobs for a high school kid. I still delivered papers in the morning until I was a JR and I worked in a bowling alley all through school as a mechanic on the machines, swept the lanes between leagues and emptied the trash, Mon-Thurs, had Fri and Sat night off, worked the kids league Sat mornings. Not a tough job and I could study in the shop room in back. Made a $1.25 an hour
and worked from 5-12 week nights. Summers I worked construction or bucked hay and lifeguarded part time. For a high school kid I felt I was in tall corn.
In late '65 I sold my '57. I'd blown the 327, so I bought a running 265 into it, pulled the wheels and ties off, put the stock ones back on and a for sale sign on it and some guy bought it from out of town. A few weeks later I spotted an MGA with a for sale "cheap" sign on the college campus. I'd always followed Shelby and loved the Cobra and wanted a sports car. Anyway the car had a frozen engine but other than that it was in great shape. Ed and I and a couple of other friends managed to get the car to Ed's dad's place. I wanted to stuff a V-8 into it. Well if it hadn't been for Ed's dad and my dad it would never had happened. By the spring of '66 it was on the road, it always overheated if run hard or on a long trip, we were always afraid we'd rip the rear end out from under it if we tromped on it. Ed's dad, with our piss pooor help, managed to fabricate all the parts we needed, including putting Chevy drums on. I traded the '57 wheels for 14'' chrome reverse ones.
Still cruised "D" block that summer and all over the place....probably the most fun(and dangerous)car I've ever owned, 18 years old and we had not a care.
I went off to college in CA and I gave Ed the car. He was drafted in '67 and was killed in a training accident when a 6x6 he was riding in back of flipped over in an accident down in Ft. Bliss. I came back for his funeral and at the reception Ed's dad asked me if I wanted the car I told him no and I don't know whatever happened to it.

Today it is totally different here, there is no more "D" block, the young "car guys" drive bling-bling ricers with fart can exhausts and stereo systems that belong in concert halls not on the streets.

in about 1979 or so while i was at the wrecking yard a brand new 25th edition silver and black corvette came in .. we wondered why it was " totaled " .. found out pretty quick .. the guy who bought the car brand new died in it almost as soon as he got home .. was`nt found for a few weeks .. several local cleanup shops tried to save it but to no avail .. the smell of death could not be gotten out of it .. it was stripped and the yard owner made a fortune off it .. saw one sell on barrett jackson for quite a bit ...stories will pick back up in a bit ... having a hard time remembering anything these days . .the mind is a terrible thing to waste ,,. the other forums i posted on i deleted everything as i left ..

Originally Posted by HOSS429

while it`s fresh on my brain story .. iv`e also heard of big block chevy motors driving water pumps at old city wells and farm ponds and lakes back 30 years ago .. how bout that ..

Hoss429, I recall back in '65 we visited Grandma's in the small town of Tulia, TX in the lower panhandle area - flatland farming country. The Heater/AC fan started howling in Dad's '64 Impala and I rode with him up to the local Chevy dealer, with Dad hoping that they had the needed part in stock. Summertime in the panhandle of Texas I guarantee you the Chevy dealer had AC fans on the shelf, but he also had a complete crate engine sitting there waiting to be picked up - a 409 in all its glory, chrome valve covers and all, but with a little 2 barrel carb on top. I drooled over that engine (16 at the time), and asked why the 2 barrel? "Why boy, that's just an old irrigation pump engine!", the parts man said. Seems that as the wells got deeper the pumping power kept creeping up, and the engines got bigger. Lots of big iron in the fields back then, but not sure what they run today....

No new races to talk about and besides, the weather is so bad here in Washington, a guy would have to be crazy to do much.

It leaves a little time to reminisce. You tend to do this as you get older. I can't believe some of the crazy stuff some of us did when we were younger.
I wonder how I made it to my current tender age.
Anyway, I was thinking of the year I got my first "sorta fast car".

It was a 66 Pontiac GTO, tri power. Got it brand new from Osborne McCann in Tacoma Washington.
They went new for about 3400 bucks.

I should have bought two and put um on blocks for 40 years.

Anyway, it sticks out in my mind because I didn't have the thing 24 hours before it was defiled by some yard bird in Portland.

It was a Friday night and I stopped by and picked up my Buddy at his work and dropped him at home so he could get a change of clothes.

The idea was a road trip to Portland and once there, cruz Broadway and troll for some local Babe's in the new car.

My buddy, Jerry, was a high school chum who took machine shop and was known around school as one of the local hoods. Guess now days it would be "Gangsta".

Well I go back and pick him up after getting gassed up with some Chevron "white pump" (108 octane then) and he comes out with a metal lunch pail.

I ask him whats in the pail and I get this cryptic smile and the explanation, "secret weapon".

I tell him I don't want any guns in my car and he's like laughing and telling me it's no damn gun, it's harmless.

Well, we weren't in Portland 20 minutes and pull up at a stop light on Broadway when up pulls this 65 Chev, 396 Impala with three guys. Now that I remember, the driver could have been related to Andre' the Giant (or so it seamed).

The driver rolls down his window and yells, "A maroon GOAT....Baaaaaaa "!!

My buddy, Jerry, rolls down his window and says, "no need for hostilities, man".
So the driver replys, "That thing go"? Jerry calmly states that it would eat that Chev for breakfast and burp little turrds out the tailpipe, where upon the driver exclaims, "why don't you take that POS back to Washington where you belong"?

Jerry is starting to get a little hacked and flips them off......
"Geeze", I yell, at my buddy. "Ya wanna start a fight with those guys"? "Just ignore um".

Too late. The driver reaches way down and dregs up this humongoid, primordial lung biscuit and honks it up onto the hood of my brand new GTO.

I just went bananas.

Jerry calmly announces that I should be ready to punch it, light or no light. I'm still going nuts....
He reaches down to the floor and opens the lunch box and pulls out this water balloon looking thing and heaves it right into the open window of the Impala.

It breaks on impact.
All hell breaks loose and the passenger gets out and comes around the back of the Impala with a tire iron, yelling something about us being road kill.
Jerry's yelling "punch it, punch it" and off we go.
Not quick enough. The passenger laid his tire iron across the right rear quarter with a loud thump.

I'm yelling at Jerry about the water balloon and he's telling me it wasn't just any old water balloon but that it was filled with elk urine that he picked up from a hunting supply store. "Yeah, it's for hunting but it smells like nothing you ever smelled before". In between spasms of laughter, he reaches down and picks up a little brown bottle out of the lunch pail and reads, "Yeah, ELK RAGE".

About that time I look in the rearview and that Impala is right on our ass....."aw geezze", I yell, "we're gonna die".

I manage to get up onto the freeway and head Northbound and that Impala wasn't more than a couple of hundred yards behind us but at least they weren't gaining.

I'm so shook up I can hardly drive and my buddy Jerry is laughing like he'd been sucking on a NOS tank.

I think back about the coolest move I've ever made in a car and this was it. I duck in front of this 18 wheeler and at the last second, duck down this exit as the Impala was trying to pass on the outside.

We were safe. In no time we doubled back on some side streets and picked up the freeway a few miles up.
Back to Tacoma as fast as we could go.

There have been a few times when life has dealt me an exciting hand and this instance was sure one of them. I was a nervous wreck and it was all Jerry's fault.!
Of course he didn't get to go on any more Friday night Cruises. That whole incident was just a little to close for my tastes, besides, the repair to the fender cost me a bundle.

I miss the Pontiac. It was a strong runner and this night it sure saved our stupid lives.
Dogtag

i overheard this conversation at a car show in ardmore tenn. a few yars ago ..some fellas were standing around a mach 1 stang .. the main guy telling the tail says .. " whatever the colonel wanted - the colonel got .. he said the colonels boys went thru more mustangs than anybody he ever knew .. most all of them were shelbys and when the big 428 shelby came out the oldest boy had to have one .. the local dealor didnt have one on hand and told the boy it would take a month to get one .. that was`nt good enuff .. the boy told his dad ( the colonel) the colonel made a phone call to detroit and a brand new 428 shelby was at the dealor the next day .... but it did`nt run to his liking .. the colonel took it back to the dealor and said his boy wanted a new set of 4;30 gears put in right now .. the service manager said .. it`s saturday .. we dont have the 4;30 pumpkin on hand .. come back monday .. again a phone call to detroit ... a special delivery was made and the new gears were installed that very weekend ..all of this was taking place in kentucky .. i didnt catch some of the start but i put together a few ideas of who he was talking about .. "colonel'" - kentucky "' fried chicken perhaps !!!,

Colonel Harland David Sanders, no doubt. He had three children, the oldest and the youngest being both girls. The middle one was a boy, but that don't quite fit the story. Must have been a different Kentucky Colonel. Probably thousands of them down there.

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail....but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying..."Damn....that was fun! """
i have a story that fits along the line of your sig

Hoss, I bet you could. Wouldn't surprise me if you were in at least one of them. Only wish I hadn't live such a sheltered life. Otherwise I could probably have enjoyed a few myself.

The year was 1949. My Dad was driving a 39' Ford Coupe with a blown 48' Merc flathead. The blower was a 6-71, driven by 4 bicycles chains. The Coupe was black.

My Dad and my Mom (who was pregnant with my brother) and just pulled into a gas station around the Hollywood, Ca area at night. My Dad jumped out of the Coupe, ran back to the gas tank and twisted off the gas cap with a whoosh. The tank was pressurized to feed the blower.

As he filled the tank, two of LAPD's finest pulled in on their Harleys. One of the officers got off his bike and strolled over to my Dad. The officer told my Dad that he heard about his Coupe. He wondered if the Coupe could beat their motorcycles. My Dad just nodded his head, finished filling the tank and jumped back into the Coupe.

My Mother, who had heard the conversation, told my Dad, "You aren't going to race? I'm pregnant!". Meanwhile, my Dad was pumping up the pressure in his fuel tank. He turned the ignition and the flathead roared to life, the godawful rattle of the bicycles chains coupled with the whine of the blower.

My Dad shifted into first and creeped out, onto the street and waited. The LAPD motors followed suit and lined up, side by side with my Dad. My Dad just nodded and the motors took off. My Dad hammered the gas pedal as he dumped the clutch. The Coupe leaped forward with tires squealing for traction. As my Dad took off after the motors, over the roar of the engine, my Mother could be heard screaming, "Nooooooooooooooooooo...........!!!!"

My Dad won that race. In 51', I was born but the Coupe was long gone. My Dad had a roadster pickup with a flathead and dual strombergs then.........

have you guys seen the movie Fast and the Furious tokyo drift? well in highschool i had a 1987 montecarlo LS black w/grey interior duel exhaust amercan racing rims firestone firehawks and i did my own thing didn't get along with the jocks and nerds or preps then alone the teachers but however i got along great with my shop teacher great and had my own group of friends. i was a rebel, partyed on the weekends or worked on my car or took whatever girlfriend out to a movie while working at a lube shop.

But one time back in 98 a jock 2yrs older than me gave me a hard time alot and one day rode my ass all the way to the hwy from the school parking lot on the frontage road. well we ended up racing down the hwy and i wasn't about to loose well it turned out being 3 cars me,travis,and kip well i kept my foot down on the throttle and ran wide open well its a 4 lane hwy 2lanes north bound and 2lanes south with a center divider or ditch well there was no trafic until we came up on a truck in the right lane well i was side by side with travis with kip behind him they were in the left lane and i was in the right lane and i had no intention on loosing so i passed the truck using the shoulder and we were going around 120 130 mph i won but the truck i passed was a teacher from school and got my car taken away for 3 months cause she had called my parents. I still have the car and well known for the car plan to restore it for my highschool reunion and leave some rubber in the school parking lot for old time sake.

Back in the '60s I was going to photography school in Santa Barbara Calif.
Everyweek end my buddy and I would head down to LA or Ventura for a sports car rallye.

We got pretty good at it and had lots of fun.
One event I remember was a ISCARA PanAmerican Rallye.
It started in LA and ended in Ensenada Mexico-- 250 cars leaving a minute apart- it wasn't a race just had to be at the check point at the exact time and from the right direction. But some time we had to make up time when we got lost.
Before the event I'd pull the passenger seat out and my navigator would sit in the backseat (I got tired of him leaning on me when we were hard cornering). He would have lots of room to look over the road maps and work out how fast we had to travel to get to the check point on time-

We had a shortwave radio for the WWV time station and a accurate Halda Twin master mechanical odometer mounted on the dash.

After driving around California for many hours the rallye would head into Mexico--and at our first rest break mosty everybody would remove the muffler and put on a stinger straight pipe--

We came around the corner that had a road sign in Spanish saying "curvo a pleagoso"( sorry my Spanish is not good) I looked back and asked my bud what that sign said
" what sign ?", he said
I looked forward just in time to swerve pass a Mustang and a MG that that didn't know what it meant either and had just played tag with each other.
(Rough transulation nasty curve ahead)
we threw some flares out and They were OK so we just headed off and told the officals at the next check point what we saw
and got 5th place over all that year
next year we got 2nd place
then 3rd year we really blew it and ended way back in 50th or so
It was a lot of fun and plenty of Jose' at the end

and for a laugh the specs on the car were
'64 sunroof bug with a balanced twin carb motor with big bore jugs
extractor exhaust system- Michelin X radial tires -rear wheels decambered
Porsche rims and 5 Lucas driving lights running off a 8V tractor battery
and rallye dash plaques all over the dash and below the rear window from the many events we ran



It is amazing we lived through those times

since i`m gunna tell about a hunnert more tales i may as well run thru this list of other peoples cars i remember from the old days ... noel - 69 383 4 speed road runner ,, leroy 440 roadrunner green .. dickey , 440 roadrunner red ,, buck 426 hemi roadrunner ( with 383 ),, hemi was long gone ,,,blake 383 rt ... phillp 383 sattelite ,,, myself 440 six pack super bee ,, roger 440 67 GTX.. and AAR cuda ,,another roger 340 duster ,, bobby-jeff-jerry,, 340 dem ,,, donkey-bobby 340 dart,,donkey still has his dart ,,,ken-steve 340 cuda,,janis 383 4 speed cuda .. claude - dwight - myself - frankie -and charles all had 69 428 mustangs at one time or another . tim 351 mach one .. thomas 351 mach one .. that car still sits outside at a mobile home year round .. still looks ok .. eddie 390 67 gt stang .. joe - fats - 396 chevelles .. wayne 454 chevelle .. though he only kept it for about 2 months .. he blew 3 motors before the warrenty ran out and the dealor took the car away from him .. roy - ronnie - robert 55 chevys .. jerry - alan - jerrys brother ( whom i will not speak about ) had more cars than i can list in a day .. eddie ..my best friend .. 69 390 torino and later 455 cutlass … danny 67 cutlas 455 .. one of the fastest cars around … of the cars that were mostly stock that is ..no one in the county had exotic cars such as 429 boss or hemi stuff .. those cars were mostly in Huntsville .. one guy in Huntsville drove a 66 gt40 and parked it on the street in front of his apartment .. we just thought it was a weird looking old car back then .. it is rumored to be still around somewhere .. I know of two guys who are hunting it …

this just in !!!! new market man found dead in truck .. presumed died of exposure .. that could have been me.. some mornings while running the gauntlet to work one can find themselves caught behind the garbage truck .. a fate worse than death .. yeah !!! a garbage truck stopping and starting every 50 feet in 80 mph traffic ... i accidently fell in behind the thing this morning .. good thing i had already had a couple days worth of survival supplies . ( left over from the weekend buying panic cause the forecast was for maybe an inch of snow ) .. it is my understanding that my county ( madison ) was the first in the nation to implement county wide garbage pick up .. as well as the Y.M.C.A was invented in madison county alabama

[QUOTE=speedy55779]have you guys seen the movie Fast and the Furious tokyo drift? QUOTE]

what