Thread: How young did you start, and did it result in obsession?

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I don't know if I am unusual, or if others have a similar story.

Started building model cars in grade school, and went to my first U.S.Nationals in '62 at age 13. I was hooked!!! I would be a "car guy"! :-)

Got my first car, a '53 Chevy 2-door, at 15... immediately had to repair the babbited rods, then swapped in a '58 235 by making my own mounts. Added black rims and baby moons

I repainted it at 15 (looked like crap, but I was proud)... took off the front bumper and filled the springs with spacers. Drove it in my senior year of high school.

That year a friend started a 33 Plymouth coupe street rod ...from the frame rails up ...which I helped to build. In junior college I spent a couple years helping to build an Austin B/Gasser, while I built and drove my '57 Bel Air... then my '57 Vette... on the street.

After that it was a blur of Chevrolet projects...Corvettes, Novas, Camaros, 409 cars, etc. I built motors, trans, third members, wiring, fiberglass parts, paint, etc.

I started custom painting for others in '72, at age 23, and decided to dump my drag racing career plans. Went full time in '86. Eventually stopped building my own stuff, and made it a career, so I could be hands-on 7 days a week! (It beats a "real job"!)

No regrets! (except my first wife, who didn't understand my passion for performance and custom cars.) :-) She is long gone, and now I can brag of hundreds of completed custom paint projects.

Anyone else this "obsessive-complusive"???

I think it might be an Illinois farm boy trait---you know--bigger pistons/sleeves in the tractor, bigger carb on the farm truck---up to top fuelers, indy cars and B 777s

My Dad bought me my first car, a 32 Ford 5 window when I was about 11. He thought he was doing me a favor, and got rid of it without me knowing and bought me a 50 Willys Jeepster. I cried because I wanted the Deuce back, and he couldn't understand why and was pretty mad at me for being ungrateful. Guess Dad wasn't a hot rodder.

I've been obsessed with cars since I was about 10, I guess. I bought every 25 cent magazine I could get my hands on, and spent hours drawing the Deuce roadster I wanted to build. Before I was 16 I had a Model A sedan, a 33 Ford roadster, ex drag car, a 38 Ford sedan, a 37 Dodge sedan, a bunch of Crosleys, a Fiat 500, about 3 or 4 50 Fords, and so many others I can't remember them all.

My Mom (bless her soul ) had a very simple answer for the neighbors who would mention we had a lot of cars sitting around our house. She would say "At least I know where he is every night!" Mom was pretty cool.

So here I am 50 some years later, and still obsessed with them.

Don

(QUOTE)"My Mom (bless her soul ) had a very simple answer for the neighbors who would mention we had a lot of cars sitting around our house. She would say "At least I know where he is every night!" Mom was pretty cool.(QUOTE)

My dad would just shake his head and say "why do you have to leave all of my tools laying in the driveway?" He was proud later in life, and helped me fix up my property when I went full-time. :-)

My dad has been taking me to stock car races since I was 5. I remember handing my dad wrenches in the 70s when he was working on his 57 Hudson when I was 7 or 8. It was hard to see over the fenders, but I managed to get by. My folks bought a 68 Javelin and when I was 2 or 3, my mom left me and my sister in the back seat with the car running so I jumped up front, put it in drive and drove it through the garage. They sold the car when I was in 7th grade because it needed too much work and I bought it back 2 years later as my first car. I restored the car driving her through high school, college and into seminary. I put her in storage for 2 years and when I went to get her out, she had rusted away and ended up sending her to the scrap yard the day before I was ordained. I have the motor and tranny from her sitting in my Nash now. I am a huge Nash, Hudson and AMC guy because of my dad whom I credit for raising me right. I love dirt track racing and old cars because that is the way I was raised.

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

I think it might be an Illinois farm boy trait---you know--bigger pistons/sleeves in the tractor, bigger carb on the farm truck---up to top fuelers, indy cars and B 777s

Jerry, There may be something to that Illinois farm boy thing! One time, while I lived in Illinois, I went "parking" with a girlfriend, and got my '57 Chevy stuck in a farm field. I walked home, and got in touch with a buddy. He came to pull me out with an old tractor, which had a Merc flathead swapped into it, and straight pipes! It was so cool when we ran down the highway on it, belching flames! :-)

I would guess that you got obsessed too. LOL!

Pastor, When I was about 8-10, my uncle had a little Nash Rambler, with the spare on the back, that we used to ride in. Long time ago!

Ah yes, parking! I think most of us lost a little interest in cars at about 16 when we discovered Girls were good for more than just annoying us. Then later in life we found out they JUST ANNOY US. (Jyardgirl exempted)

Don

I grew up as a kid in the 1950's, working in our family retail business. It was a combination toy/hobby/bicycle store. We sold a lot of the Cox Thimbledrome gas airplane and prop-rod cars. No customer could ever start one of them "out of the box". So......when they came back, "I became the go to guy". I was about ten or eleven years old at the time. Like others have already stated, I also spent my lunch time down at the Ryan Evans Rexall drug store's magazine rack reading all of their small .25 cent car magazines drinking a (a real) Cherry Coke.

Royal Mason was one of our neibours. He had two "daily driver" 1948 FORD's because only one would run at a time. It seemed like he was pulling out an engine every weekend. He was nice enough to let this kid watch, ask endless questions and clean parts.

I bought my first car for $500., when I was 15 years old. It was a nice 1958 Chevy two door BellAir. But it had a high mileage smoking 235 six cylinder engine. The Six engine came out and a 283 with a Duntov cam went in before I would even drive it to school.

One thing that really bothers me is where are the new "car guy" kids going to begin? I still remember my grade school wood shop teacher's name, Mr. Baker. After 50 years, I still have my seventh and eight grade shop projects. He had a brand new bright yellow Austin Healy six with three carbs. My auto shop teacher was Mr. Bartell, he had a three cylinder, two cycle Berkley sports car. The schools today have dropped their industrial arts programs due to cost (and I'd bet liability). I'd be cautious in todays law suit happy world to have neibour kids hanging around while I'm working/welding/grinding etc. But then again, that's where I got the car guy bug.

Hey Don ... you guys must have been well off ... was that in 1933???

Just bust'n them.

I got started when I aske my Dad if I could get a car in high school. We were a bit lower middle class .... he said SURE ... buy what you can afford.

So ... my first car, before I got my license @ 16, was a 1969 Torino 428 SCJ with a blown engine. I managed to change it out in the dead of winter, in the street, in the Boston area. That was a cold winter gents. I moved onto a 1946 Ford p/u & then assisted my Dad on a resto of a '34 ford pick up.

I got worse from that & I've never recovered.

REGS

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

Pastor, When I was about 8-10, my uncle had a little Nash Rambler, with the spare on the back, that we used to ride in. Long time ago!

The Hudson is long gone but he now has a 51 Nash Rambler Wagon. It has a 258 with a split exhaust manifold. The thing sounds like a v8 and people cannot believe that it is a 6.

[QUOTE=REGs;402436]Hey Don ... you guys must have been well off ... was that in 1933???

Nah, tbat was when all these old cars were $ 25.00 each. I'd be sitting in class and a buddy would come up and tell me that someone he knew had such and such a car for sale, usually $ 25.00 was the going rate, so I'd hit my Mom up for a few bucks and would get a new toy. I would also call junkyards because people would scrap great cars just because they were tired of them. They usually charged $ 25.00 for a car, and if you wanted the battery it was $ 6.00 more..........I have no idea why that was.

I knew a guy who would get a car from a junkyard and drive it as his car until it finally died. Then he would call them up and ride with the tow truck driver to the yard, pick out a new car, and drive that one until it also died.

Don

I also built model cars, but the obsession started around 14 when my Dad bought a "Dividend Bonded" gas station. It was one of those where they gave out coupons you could redeem for iced tea glasses, tools, etc. I kept the coupons the customers didn't want and turned them in for an "Indestro" brand 1/2" drive socket set. I still have it.

When I was 14, two frends and I built go-carts from bed-frame angle irons and lawnmower engines. I put a 5 hp 4-stroke on mine, and we drove them around our small town (yep, in Illinois), until the city passed an ordnance against them.

The first big project was when I was 16 - a 52 Chevy tudor sedan with a 216 six, and my Dad had moved up to a Texaco station. When the 216 blew up, I changed it out for a 235 truck motor, and dug up Fenton headers and a two-carb intake. As I was starting to put the engine together, my Dad walked in with a big grin on his face. He had been at the local auto supply, and when he told his buddy that I was rebuilding the engine, the guy handed him a 6-cyl Corvette cam.

After the engine was installed, I nosed and decked the car, put 55 Pontiac split bumpers on the front, a mesh grille with door pulls (remember those?), a rolled rear pan, and painted it a nice Cadillac blue. From then it was 56 Olds, 55 Chevy convert, 68 GTO, turbo Trans Am, big-block 30 A-bone sedan, big-block 72 Chevy Fleetside, Super Comp 23 T, Corvette, and now the yellow 34 coupe. None of those cars remained stock for more than a couple of days - or until the parts came in.

My home town was also the home town of Stan Lomelino, who often won the Indy Nationls in the F/Dragster class with his flathead digger. We hung around his dirt-floor garage like he was Big Daddy Garlits. I guess he was to us. We followed Stan to Alton one Sunday, and it happened to be April 24, 1960, the Sunday that Chris Karamesines ran 204. I think that day is a little like Woodstock. More people claimed to have been there than the park would hold . . . but I have witnesses.



We discussed The Greek and Stan Lomelino on another thread a few years ago.

im only young from what i figure compared to most of you guys-im only 26 now.
i was born into it dad had customlines his whole life- his first car. he bought his first project hot rod about when i was born and also had an aussie 64 2 door coupe which had a factory 'chop top' so was a lower roof than the yankee version. he wanted to bring me home from hospital when i was born but due to no rear seat belts mum said no.

i built model hot rods when i was younger and got pretty good at it winning a few awards for them too.

ive found there are car guys then there are CAR GUYS!

for instance my brother is into hot rods as well but has no interest in building them himself in any way, where as i did a trade in sheetmetal just so i could build my own- and now i can. YAY!

It was different for you guys, cars were more hands on.
I mean, when your dad pulled over and you'd get out and shovel more coal into the engine.....


Seriously, I've always been a car/truck guy. My family was ashamed of their blue collar backround and knew nothing on building or fixing anything, so there was no help there.
My dad told me once that "Every tool has it's use." To which I said, "So you need a REALLY good telephone, right?"
I was a little bitter maybe as I'd been working two jobs (lawn mower repair and a farm) ages 10-15 and got pretty handy at fixing things.
Was out on my own at 18 but too poor to do anything other than keep my old junk running.
Only recently have I gotten my family settled in a nice house, and met all my obligations to them to where I could afford to pay myself a 'hobby salary'
So I guess I started at age 10 but couldn't do anything about it until age 30.

All uphill from here,
Drew