Welcome to Club Hot Rod!  The premier site for everything to do with Hot Rod, Customs, Low Riders, Rat Rods, and more. 

  •  » Members from all over the US and the world!
  •  » Help from all over the world for your questions
  •  » Build logs for you and all members
  •  » Blogs
  •  » Image Gallery
  •  » Many thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of posts! 

YES! I want to register an account for free right now!  p.s.: For registered members this ad will NOT show

 

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

Reply To Thread
Page 3 of 4 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 LastLast
Results 31 to 45 of 51

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    J. Robinson's Avatar
    J. Robinson is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Titusville, FL
    Car Year, Make, Model: 31 Ford Coupe; 32 Ford 3-window
    Posts
    1,791

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

    Racing! - Because football, basketball, baseball, and golf require only ONE BALL!

  2. #2
    RestoRod's Avatar
    RestoRod is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    In the Boonies of Ontario
    Car Year, Make, Model: 40 Graham Sharknose :58 MGA/Ford V6
    Posts
    1,307

    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.
    Last edited by RestoRod; 08-22-2007 at 04:59 AM.

  3. #3
    Hot Rod Surfer's Avatar
    Hot Rod Surfer is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Satellite Beach
    Car Year, Make, Model: 69 El Camino SS
    Posts
    401

    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.
    ...at least I'm enjoying the ride!

  4. #4
    erik erikson's Avatar
    erik erikson is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    clive
    Car Year, Make, Model: BLOWN 540 57 CHEVY
    Posts
    2,878

    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.

  5. #5
    Itoldyouso's Avatar
    Itoldyouso is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    fort myers
    Car Year, Make, Model: '27 ford/'39 dodge/ '23 t
    Posts
    11,033

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


    Don

  6. #6
    Bob Parmenter's Avatar
    Bob Parmenter is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Salado
    Car Year, Make, Model: 32, 40 Fords,
    Posts
    10,890

    Quote Originally Posted by Itoldyouso
    ................... and I end up telling them how to build a watch!!


    Don
    And then going WAAAAAAYYYYYY over budget building it!!!!
    Your Uncle Bob, Senior Geezer Curmudgeon

    It's much easier to promise someone a "free" ride on the wagon than to urge them to pull it.

    Luck occurs when preparation and opportunity converge.

  7. #7
    HOTRODPAINT's Avatar
    HOTRODPAINT is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    tucson
    Posts
    3,043

    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! :-).

  8. #8
    bentwings's Avatar
    bentwings is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    St.Paul
    Car Year, Make, Model: 41 Willys pro street
    Posts
    279

    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.
    41 Willys 350 sbc 6-71 blower t350, 9in, 4 link
    99 Dodge ram 3500 dually 5 sp 4.10
    Cummins turbo diesel . front license plate, black smoke on demand, Muffler KIA by friendly fire (O&A Torch co) fuel pump relocated, large fuel lines. silencer ring installed in glove box, Smarty

    older than dirt

  9. #9
    Dorsey's Avatar
    Dorsey is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Hershey
    Car Year, Make, Model: 29 Ford Hi Boy Roadster
    Posts
    130

    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.
    Dorsey

    There is no expedient to which man will not resort to evade the real labor of thinking.

  10. #10
    Itoldyouso's Avatar
    Itoldyouso is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    fort myers
    Car Year, Make, Model: '27 ford/'39 dodge/ '23 t
    Posts
    11,033

    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

  11. #11
    STREETWERKZ's Avatar
    STREETWERKZ is offline CHR Member/Contributor Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Columbus
    Posts
    180

    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.
    Custom Powder Coating & Media Blasting

  12. #12
    DA34GUY's Avatar
    DA34GUY is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Out in the country (Duncan)
    Car Year, Make, Model: 32Roadster/always buildin sumthin
    Posts
    1,551

    Dad owned a Speed Shop and a Body Shop in the 50's and 60's,
    guess that kinda hooked me for life.
    When I get to where I was goin, I forgot why I went there>

  13. #13
    blwn31's Avatar
    blwn31 is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Placerville
    Car Year, Make, Model: 31 Ford 5 Window Coupe and 69 Camaro
    Posts
    508

    Two words, My Dad!

    Keith

  14. #14
    HOTRODPAINT's Avatar
    HOTRODPAINT is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    tucson
    Posts
    3,043

    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! :-)~

  15. #15
    Rrumbler is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Las Vegas
    Car Year, Make, Model: Sans hot rod, sold the truck.
    Posts
    1,207

    Question Whoaaaa!!??!

     



    I don't know how I missed this thread way back in '07, and didn't tell my life's story; I usually like to expound on that, it seems. Now, someone has resurrected it, so I'll make a contribution.

    I consider myself to be a "pre-boomer"; I was hatched in '42, not too long after that small Asian nation attacked Pearl Harbor. By '48, or so, I was being influenced, even at that young age, by a couple of "big kids" who were neighbors; one was just an all around tinkerer and messed with anything that flew, rolled, sparked, or other such. The other, the older of the two by a couple of years, had "bikes" - regular pedal types, Whizzers, Mustangs, and Cushmans, and was always "improving" them some way or another. I was the almost constant shadow of one or the other of them.

    I guess I have some sort of recessive gene in my makeup that predisposes me to things manual, because my Dad was not mechanical at all; I don't think he could even hang a towel bar without help (some early memory, no doubt), but both of my Grandfathers were relatively self sufficient, and experts in their own fields, one a lineman, electrician, and millwright (I followed in his footsteps in my career), and the other was, what today would be called an enterpreneur - he was a wholesale/retail milk distributor, ran a retail door to door route three days a week, and wholesale accounts the other two or three days; Sunday was for church, no exceptions.

    At any rate, my mechanical adventures started at a very early age; roller skates and bicycles for starters at about age five. In about 1950, my Dad bought a new power mower; within about three months, I had the B & S one lunger bolted onto my "Li'l Red Wagon", and it was some hot rod. Of course, when my Dad found out what I had done, I got my butt thrashed, then had to put the mower back together. In years following, I wrenched or hammered on anything I could get my hands on; and, I learned a lot of hard lessons along the way. When I got into high school, shop class called me very loudly, and I started taking every shop class I could get; metal, electrical, and wood shop at first, and when they would allow it, I started into auto shop. Since I didn't have a car, I worked on other guys stuff and shop projects, and the learning continued. I did not get my own car until after I graduated from high school, got a real job on a power line construction gang - as if swamping for a block mason, digging ditches by hand, and swamping on moving vans weren't real - and saved enough money for the down payment on a car; I put two hundred down on a $500 '51 Ford 2 door sedan, and payed it off to the dealer at 25 (or more) a month.

    Since then it has been one form of "rod" or another all through the years. In addition to cars, I played with motorcycles in the early sixties, but a couple of wrecks, common sense yelling very loudly in the back of my head, and a new Bride who was adamantly against me being on only two wheels caused me to abandon them and more or less focus on things with four or more wheels, and engines - and transmissions - and transfer cases, and - and - and -----. In addition, I play with wood, things that go bang, a dabble or two in RC stuff, archery, and when I want to look like I am fishing, I go hang a weight on the end of a line, toss it in the water, and sit under a tree and nap.

    So, that's my long winded story. There's a lot more to it, details and all, but they are boring.
    Rrumbler, Aka: Hey you, "Old School", Hairy, and other unsavory monickers.

    Twistin' and bangin' on stuff for about sixty or so years; beat up and busted, but not entirely dead - yet.

Reply To Thread
Page 3 of 4 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
Links monetized by VigLink