Thread: Great car and truck stories

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Since reading the tons of fun story by Ahhhh
I thought a thread devoted to stories like his would be nice.
First score, 16years old got a 1968 Ford Mustang with a blown engine and tranny, but perfect body, in a nice shade of blue, for $400.00 because the owner got his girlfriend pregnant and needed cash asap. Loved that car! I remember one day after school right after we dropped the rebuilt 302 in, a cheer leader came by and asked for a ride home. The old stang wasn't quite ready, and I had to tell her no, one of my first heart breaks from this car, to be followed by many!
Here is a scan of it back in 1980

Here's another scan, with a shot of my first engine rebuild, 302 Ford.




Man I was a young kid with lots of hair!

OK one more to try and get some of you to share. My current truck came home after five years of thinking about what type of car or truck I'd like to work on. Many have heard this so I'll make it brief. My wife Monique read a book about a guy who falls in love during a year in his life that he is restoring an old 51 international pickup. Something about the story tickled her sense of nostalsia, and she said if I was interested in fixing up an old truck she'd support me. So the next week I found my F1 as a stalled hot rod project that had passed thru several owners, and ended up sitting for 6 years, until I got it. Perfect timing!

[QUOTE=stovens;337327] I had to tell her no, one of my first heart breaks from this car, to be followed by many!

I love it, Thats hotrodding for sure. Thanks for the old pics.

i wish a zillion times i had pics of all the cars and things i and friends did in the 70`s . i told a few stories in a similar thread but kinda lost interest ..

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

I grew up in Clarksville, TN and had a buddy that was a motor head from day one. I had moved to FL for a while and while I was there I picked up a 57 150 Handy Man 2 Door. When I built the motor for it I just couldn't get it running right. I called Terry one night and said "Terry, listen to this and tell me what's wrong." He did, right off the bat. Can't for the life of me remember what it was, but Terry nailed it.....over the phone. I've been back home for years now and we still get a grin talking about that sometimes.

I dont have a picture but one of my favorites was a 66 Rambler Classic that belonged to my sister. She bought it at an estate sale in the late 80's with 69,000 original miles and used it as a daily driver for 6 years until her son wrecked the front. She was really bummed out, she loved that car but didn't want to spend the cash to fix it. It sat outside under a tree for a few years and she called one day to say I could have it. By now it was looking pretty rough and had 170,000 on it, but it was still tough for her to give it up. I took it home, rebuilt the engine, found a front clip, took it to Maacco for a $299 paintjob, spruced up the interior, and gave it back to her for her birthday. I think I enjoyed that more than anything I ever built for myself.

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