Thread: How I got addicted, in 100 words or less.

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I've loved cars for a long time, always went through the hotrod magazines when I was younger. But my dad wasn't into hotrods "anymore", and didn't have proper shop setup. Plus my mom was not one to indulge things that took money she could have used elsewhere. My first car was a 65 mustang fastback (sold when family needed money) and I had a 69' caddy convertible for a while. both fun but I didn't really work on them.

I've wanted to build a hotrod for a long while, but never had the resources and tools. My uncle Rick (who's only child was a girl that wasn't a tomboy) is like a big kid and when I moved into my house started building a shop there for us to use. Then this year he decided he wanted a hotrod, and since he knew I'd enjoy working on it instead of buying something finished he bought what we have out there now for me to work on with him. It's great fun and only possible through his kindness. Hopefully when my kids are old enough we can still get fuel for these things!!!!

Red

went to a drag race in the 70's in richmond, Va to watch a car called Warbuck. It was a blown vega. To smell the burning rubber and hear the thunder i fell in love. When i turned 16 i got a bright yellow 72 monte. Had to sell the car 3 years later. Always loved that car the most. for my 42nd birthday my fantastic hubby brought me a 71 to make my own.

I guess for me it was in the fifties when I was about knee high to a grasshopper, as my gran'pa would say. He always had cool cars, Packards were his favorite. As a youngster we hopped up our bicycles with dual playing cards in the spokes, front and rear. Then as years went by Hot Rod magazine worked it's influence and in the early sixties I graduated to the real deal and got my first car a '54 Merc which would never start, but it had wheels! My cousin, a charter member, #2 of the LA Roadster's had a '31 Ford roadster with a blown Caddie that really was my inspiration to someday own a hotrod. It was many years and cars later that I was finally able to realize the dream. Seemed like growing up in the fifties and sixties a young man was almost destined to be involved with working on cars, it was a necessity just to keep 'em running.

some of these stories really make me wish I could've just had a glimpse at an earlier day in time. My dad influenced me, as odd as it is he grew up in Ohio and found himself racing in Europe in the 60's on weekends when he didn't have work obligations (I wish!!) and was a proponent of working for what you got. He told me that if I wanted to have a car when I was 16 I better get moving on saving my money and he'd match it dollar for dollar when I was ready. At 15 I had 500.00 and we went and found a 65 Buick Skylark 2dr hdtp it was all original and beautiful ............so I tore it apart lol. Since then I've gone through probably 300 or more cars and I think that qualifies as an illness doesn't it. I love my dad for making me sick and I know that as much as he lost use of his garage from time to time, deep down he loves it too.

My father built sleds and rods which got me into the LA street racing scene during the 70s-80s. I know I'm sick but I fell in love with V8 Vegas. They were so insane back then. Been screwing with them ever since. I love them and the whole big engine/small car thing more now then ever.

For me it was an older neighbor kid.He had a 29 model A sedan ,we would take it out in the pasture field and drive the wheels of it.I knew then I was hooked.He also had a Cushman motor scooter that we rode.when I was 15 my dad borrowed 150.00 dol. for my first ride (1939 Ford 2/d sedan black).I was in hog heaven.I traded it for a 50 olds.2 dr. sedan manual shift,drove that for a number of years and traded it ,an owl head pistol,and 20.00 dol.for a pristine Original Ford Model B.The coupe only had 32,000 miles.I didn't like the original V/8, so i dropped in a modified 57 sbc engine,wheels,juice brakes and what else I could afford at the time as I was only earning 16.00 per week working in a dairy.I remember seeing Don Gartlis drag race at the Knoxville,Tn drag strip for the first time in the Swamp Rat,what a thrill to see that awesome power,and the smell after his run smelled like you had just discharged a shot gun WOW.Then the supreme sacrifice was made.I got married traded the coupe for a 57 Chev.conv.3 kids and forty + years later my wife detected I was getting a bit bored with retirement and Golf and made the suggestion that I might want to build another car.This was 21 months ago.The Car is now finished,34 Ford 3/w cpe.

Originally Posted by djv8ga

My father built sleds and rods which got me into the LA street racing scene during the 70s-80s. I know I'm sick but I fell in love with V8 Vegas. They were so insane back then. Been screwing with them ever since. I love them and the whole big engine/small car thing more now then ever.

i have a 75 gt i want to v8 it, help!

gassersrule 196, Join our little cult at H-body.org.

From all you guys.

Originally Posted by bluestang67

From all you guys.

It can be contagious!

My Dad was a wrench behind Patton in WWII and my mom said I knew the names and the cars of the fifties before I did the alphabet. Dad was self employed bricklayer that did all his own repair work. I was handing him wrenches at 5 and changing trannys in fork lifts by 9 by myself. I was 11 (1965)when one of my older cousins brought his T bucket out to the shop to work on it, He gave me a ride and I have been hooked ever since. My Dad is gone now along with the cousin but I think of them often when I am in my street rod cruisin' with the pipes just singing, I know they are with me and smiling. Dad would run his old 68 4dr lincoln BB up to 110 and look at me grinnin and say "Now we're sailin' son, now we're sailin'".

Reached puberty, grew hair.noticed gals...gals noticed cars..I got into cars

My dad loved all kinds of oval track racing; midgets, sprints, "big cars" (Indy roadsters), and stock cars. As soon as I was out of diapers, Mom & Dad started taking me to races. Mom would wrap me in a blanket and I would watch until I fell asleep. The dust and noise and the smell of castor oil had me hooked by the time I was 4 or 5 years old.

Later, when I was 7 or 8 (1955 - '56), my older sisters' boyfriends started giving me their old magazines (Hop Up, Honk, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, etc.) and I fell in love with the hotrods and customs. I switched from building model airplanes to model cars. When AMT introduced their "3 in 1 Customizing Kits" in 1958 my model building went into high gear.

In 1960, one of my sisters dated a guy who had a full-fendered '32 five-window coupe with a '48 Lincoln flathead. It ran E/Gas at Bunker Hill Dragway in Kokomo' Indiana. That was my first exposure to drag racing. That same summer I got my first ride in a hotrod; Ron Ennis' bobtailed T roadster. In 1961 my dad bought a go-cart and we started racing. We weren't very sucessful and only stayed with it for a couple of summers before selling out.

In 1964, when I got my driver's license, I started working for one of my relatives in his body shop. He taught me a lot of the basics and I have done bodywork, off & on, ever since. My painting skills are mostly "book inspired" and self-taught. I bought my first car at 17 (a 1956 Chevy 2-dr sedan) and have never been without a car of my own since.

I built my first race car in 1969 (a Hobby Stock '56 Chevy) and started racing on the 5/8 mile oval at Indy Raceway Park. By 1973 I was married and too broke to race, so I sold out and quit. In 1975 & '76 I built my first hotrod, a 1915 Ford C-Cab replica. I moved to Florida in 1980. Since then I have jumped back & forth between hotrods and stock cars. I last drove a stock car about four years ago when the costs drove me out again. That's when I found the body and started building my coupe. Now I'm in the midst of building a roadster. After that... who knows??

is he a teacher yep i can tell that LOL just remembering a bit Jim .

Sorry, everyone. I can't do anything in a hundred words or less. I even left out half the story...!