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

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Like many of you, my first exposure to the hobby was an issue of Hot Rod Magazine borrowed from a friend in High School. I was blown away by the cars, and when I reached 16 bought my first car, a 48 Chevy coupe. When the babit bearings went (wouldn't take any reving at all,) I replaced the old 216 with a GMC six. Later got into sporty cars with an MG and later a Sunbeam Tiger (Ford V8) but then came marriage, kids, etc. and 4 doors. I have always retained an interest in the sport, but the responsibilities of life have put it on the back burner until lately.
I now have a slightly warmed up supercharged 1940 Graham and am currently "restoring" a 1958 MGA into which I am installing a Ford V6 and five speed. I love this forum.

Wow, lots of great stories here.

I started back in the 60's when the local airstrip would get turned into an 1/8 mile dragstrip on the weekends. Would ride a horse as close as they would get to all that noise and then walk the rest of the way. Later we gave up on the horses and used bikes to get us to the drags. I kept attending the races and getting pit passes, oh the smell of alchohol and nitro! The sound of those top fuel guys! Yippppeeeeee!

Helped my friend's cousin get his T-bucket down to Cottage Grove one weekend and had a great time riding shotgun!

Then I found Hot Rod magazine! From there on it was all over. My first car was a '64 MGB that I tore apart within a week of getting it. Positive ground just blew me away.

Sports cars and then muscle cars, what a great bunch of decades. Now I'm still into muscle cars and am starting to think about a true Hot Rod.

I can remember my much older cousins on dad's side talking about the family drag strip.
The 300 C Mopar with out the radio and heater.
The 327 in the old Corvette's.
I grew up less than 45 min. from Knoxville Iowa home of the sprint car nationals.
On mom's side we had two uncle's that ran midgets for many years.
The first car I ever owned was an old Ford Torino which came with a 302.
Out came the 302 and in went the 460.
Out came the 3.08 gear in went the 3.73 gear.
That was in 1983.
I had part of Dad's shop torn up for about a month doing that.
I can talk about all the other cars but you said in less than 100 words so I will end it there.

Originally Posted by gassersrule_196

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

There used to be a company that was making all of the necessary pieces to do the swap.....Radiator, mounts, headers, rear axle, etc. It might have been one of the Chevy operations, like Motion Performance or Nickey Chevrolet.

You are like me JR........someone asks me what time it is, and I end up telling them how to build a watch!!


Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

................... and I end up telling them how to build a watch!!


Don

And then going WAAAAAAYYYYYY over budget building it!!!!

I know my own story has many more chapters,.......like people who fed my addiction,....... and experiences that pushed me in different directions.

What I didn't want to do was bore you with lengthy discussions of dropping a bolt into the intake of a fresh engine, and figuring out how to retrieve it.....or throwing wrenches that bounced back and dented the car,..... or the time (after an impressive "exhibition of speed & power") I opened the hood of my 409 Chevy to let friends listen to the nasty "lope" of the Z-11 cam, only to hear a bearing spin, and lock the motor up right in front of them! :-).

hotrodpaint:

A classic victim of "watch this"......haha.

Mine goes from doing donuts in the school parking lot...resulting in a week of detention in the principal's office,
Explaining to dad how the muffler fell off....it was oval on the ends and round in the middle.

A little later explaining how the generator windings came apart on the 56 Ford.

Then how the transmission began slipping on the 53 chev.

Why the 57 Turnpike cruiser smelled of burnt rubber.

and it goes on.

Bought my first issue of R&C May '64 (I still have it) at the corner drug store (remember them?). Taught myself to braze using an old Midway buzz box at age 12, and used it to build go-karts, minibikes, and motorbikes. Built and raced a lot of slot cars in the mid-60's, also customized a few motorcycles. Continued to follow the hobby, customizing VWs in the 70's because they were cheap and we could still shoot lacquer in the driveway. Rebuilt the car pictured in '92, which was someone's earlier build from '85.

When I was in Junior High and High School there were two groups of guys......Jocks who loved sports and gearheads who ate, drank and slept cars. Guess which one I was in? We would go from class to class making these stupid squealing tire sounds and shifting gears. Dumb, I know , but it was fun then.

If we got a glimpse of some hot car or actually got invited to ride in one we were on cloud nine. Like many of you I had tablet after tablet of hot rods I drew, planning the hot rod I was going to actually own some day. The little hot rod magazines that sold for 25 cents fit really well into an English or Math book which is why I still can't speak properly today or add 2 and 2.

And, like some of us older guys on here, I am so grateful that I got to grow up in the 50's and 60's. Things carwise were really starting to happen and the world was just a cool place to be back then.

Don

Easy for me, it was love at first sight.
I have 2 uncles 10-15 years older than me, so at a very young age I was exposed to hot rodding. My uncles we into all the 60's era cars they grew up around, which thankfully rubbed off on me.

Dad owned a Speed Shop and a Body Shop in the 50's and 60's,
guess that kinda hooked me for life.

Two words, My Dad!

Keith

I'm learning that our stories are similar. There seems to be the influence of a friend or family member who was already addicted ...and the sounds, smells, and sights of the cars!

...and I haven't even mentioned how the car becomes an extension of your personality due to the feeling of power, and the attention of others! I'll never forget giving up my '61 Vette for a Plymouth sedan family car, then felt "incomplete".

...until I bought a '69 Camaro SS ragtop with a 350 4-speed and was mysteriously cured! :-)~

Good topic.

I grew up wrenching in my family owned "bicycle shop" from age ten. It was located in a shopping center that had a Ryan Evans Rexall Drug store. They had a nice magazine rack and I read every one of the small 25 cent Rod & Custom magazines that came out and dreamed, while drinking a cherry Coke.

A guy named "Royal Mason", that lived down my street had a couple of 1947-48 Fords and it seemed like he had the flat head engines pulled out of one every weekend with his chain hoist. I got to watch and help.

My first car was a 1958 Chevy six cyl. that "I had to change over to a 283 cu. in. with a Duntov cam before I could legally drive it at 16, LOL. I still say it's not a hot rod without a V-8!

I went to Mel Larson's Phoenix Dragway (the one at the Luke auxiliary runway before it was moved to the current Speed World location) and watched "real dragsters". To me they were defined as must be PUSH STARTED. Half the fun was watching them fire up by pushing up and down the strip and turning around. The "single car" that pushed me over the top was the Speed Sport Fuel Roadster raced out of Tucson. Damm....I can still hear that car today now almost 50 years ago (and have heard it's recreation at The March Meet). The Johnny Loper built, Ole Hoss B/G Willys and Lil Hoss A/G Anglia got me into Gasser's.

I can't say that I even remember a racer that had "a covered" trailer. Heck Johnny Loper used to pull the Ole Hoss Willy's to the track with a tow bar behind a big old BuicK/Oldsmobile station wagon.