Thread: Funny things we did with our hotrods in early 60's

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Sure! Send'em in Bat..

Originally Posted by johnboy

Yep . . . me too . . . been there, done that!

yup...x3..All good fun.. specially in a tunnel..

My first car was a 1965 Corvair, turbocharged 180HP. I used to do the backfire thing until the night I kept the key off too long and when I turned it back on, it shot the muffler straight back into the car following me. Cost me over $200 that night to fix his car.

The Bat reminded me of another little story - when I was even younger, I and some of my buddies thought is would be cool to flatten the tires of a road grader. I was actually unscrewing the valve stem with my face very close to the tire and when it let go, it shot out with such force that it stuck in my cheek (ouch!) and we then found out that there was also water in the tire as we all got sprayed with the nastiest, foul smelling water on the face of the earth. To make matters worse, we were observed and I got my seat warmed and we had to assist in the refilling of the tire. Lesson learned there!!

my back-fire story.
In 1963 my friend Dan and I built a 1930 Model A Ford in his dad's barn. Stock except for 1934 wire wheels and 14" tires
We visited many junkyards - looking for old Ford gold(parts) being a couple of high school seniors we were broke.
(even at 25 cents a gallon)
we didn't have a proper ignition switch just a push button I found on a desk lamp. Haywire technology

Driving by a supermarket while cruising along we would push the ignition button ,retard the spark , coast a while then push the button -Big Bang and flames

I looked over at the main door coming out of the market and saw a lady drop a glass bottle of Clorex bleach that shattered and went all over her feet and dress, the rest of her groceries was scattered in that mess. Broken glass and dioxins.

We thought we were the funniest guys around- laughing so hard almost crying then we noticed the police car behind us
He followed us for a while then turned the flashing lights on.

My pal Dan was driving and he had a story that these old cars do backfire every once in a while on their own.

The cop comes up and said , "Nice businessman's coupe, you boys better follow me"

Thinking we were headed to jail , he lead us out of town down a dirt lane to a house with a few Model A in the yard

Turns out his dad was really into Model A's - we had dinner with them spent most of the night talking about "A's"

We didn't learn our lesson and kept doing the back fire to impress the girls
young and stupid
I'm now getting old and still stupid

hank

Again,there were a lot of good guy cops in Miami in the early 60's,but this is about the same butthead cop from the other storys.
I guess I got to set ya up with the were when,and layout,; I lived in Coconut Grove/Miami,one house off the bay/water,there was a street "Fairile" going passed my house to a brige that was not completed by a few feet to an empyt inland of just trees and sand,they were going to develip it some day,but for a few years it just had a fance with barbed wire on top ,on the land side of the brige and mostly was locked up. But we cut the lock off every few weeks so every one could go across the brige to swim or fish ect.
There was one old man in our naborhood who seem to think it was his job to keep every one from going out on the braige ,so he would close the gate back up and some times even lock with his own little lock,plus so no one would clime over the gate,he smeared black bull tar on the fancing,maybe he did it cuz the kids call him names or he had nothing better to do,but it's not about him,but the butt cop insted. Who was still giving all the kids n hotrodders as hard a time as he could.
OK,to get to the story,I'm mowing my lawn in plan site of the open brige gates from my yard,see a few of my buddys and some kids go over to the inland. After a short time butthead cop drives by in his cop car and right through the open gates on over the hump of the brige to give a hard time to anyone fishing or playing on the braige or beach. Seeing that made me remeber a big old rusty padalock that was open and had no key to,Dad was going to get one made for ever,but that never happen,anyway I stop cutting the lawn long enough to get the old lock,close the gates and lock them,,go back to cutting my lawn/had to recut a few times over same spots were I could keep a side eye on the briage. After 15 or 20 min. here comes butthead driving his cop car back,I keep cutting lawn but see him stop at the locked closed gate trapping him on the briage ,he shacks hell out of the gate but it don't open,so he goes to his trunk looking for something I think to bust it open with,fines nothing,pulls his gun out,must of though better of writing a report of why he fired his gun and puts it away=after all he was most likely still getting ribbed by the other coppers about having to get 4 tires to get back to the station one nite!,So next he gets back in his cop car and pulls back from the gate,maybe to ram it open? Must of desided the report of how car damage happened would be fuel for the ribbing and did not do that. He then desided to clime over, after a few trys,but by then bull tar and tairs in his unifrom are pretty bad. Drity n sloopy butthead cop sees me still cutting my grass,and comes over n ask if I have a hacksaw or somthing and did I see anyone over near the gate? "Well no,I've just been cutting my Dad's grass today" at about the time he looks harder at me ,he said "What about a hacksaw or a crowbar?" ,I tell'm I think Dads got some tools,I'll look,be right back[so I go inside our backroom shop,Dads got lots great tools,but he don't know that, takes me some time to find the really old bent hacksaw frame and the dullist blade we had,put them together and take it back out side to the cop,he grabs it,not even a thank you! and goes to the gate,its Miami and about 88*,he works over there about 30 or 40 mins before actully some how cutting the lock off with that crapy old saw. Brings it back in his car now,still no thank you,but bitchs at me that he thinks I'm a JD that I probuly had something to do with him getting trapped,he's nearly shoutting this at top of his voice dripping wet with sweet,as my Mom comes out to see what's going on,at that point he jumps into his cop car and speeds off laying rubber . I woulder if the motor pool or he had to clean all the black bull tar off the car seats,I'll bet he did it so there was not a report. Just one more thing had to happen to that butthead cop before he asked all of us at the Big Wheel to back off and he would stop also,I guess even a butthead knows when to holed a white flag up. That had to do with red ants.

Originally Posted by glennsexton

On another occasion, my buddy says, “If you turn the key off while you’re going downhill and pump the gas, your car will backfire really loud when you turn the key back on.” Again, I followed advice from a peer that I should have ignored and we proceeded to get the Corvette up to about 60 on a downhill grade at which time I switched off the ignition and pumped the gas several times and turned the key back on. A backfire would be a vast understatement as it was more akin to a bomb and the car became noticeably louder. It was dark outside and I distinctly remember seeing two red hot images in my mirror which I can only surmise were once the cores of my Smithy’s.
Regards All,
Glenn

I used to do that in Lissie Prairie, when the ducks and geese were everywhere and it would make them rise up by the thousands, however, I was not as lucky as you, Glenn, I blew a head gasket. It didn't get louder but it sure ran differently hahahaha

Has anyone mentioned putting taters in the exhaust pipe, yet???? A good way to make an enemy real quick - - - that is IF you got caught - - - - and how about starting your Rod with it in gear? No wonder my Dad had ulcers and indigestion all the time !

I'll do the finish of those storys;
The butthead cop had given me two tickets for no fenders $10 then $20,one ticket for dim tail lights,it got tosted out by the court. And a ticket for no bumper $10 ,too say nothing of BS ones he gave most of the rest of our club. He did kind of wave the white flag by saying he'd desided to be nicer to all the kids,cuz he had the Christmiss feeling=made a point of telling us all together at The Big Wheel around Dec.1,this happened one day after some one put a hole paper bag of red ants and sand nest inside his car when he had been taking a pee in mens room. Latter he must of asked for a beat in some other part of town,we never saw him again after new years 1960.

One night we took the FFA truck out to an old deserted farm house and stoled the "Two Holer" (aka out house). To say it was rotten and falling apart would be too kind, it was pathetic and stunk to high heaven. Then we took it to the High School and placed it in the front door. Then we wrote above the door in large white letters "Supt. White's Office"! Yup we got caught because of a 'snitch' but I promise you he suffered way more than we did.

back in 60 or 61 we had a couple of those buthead cops they would run us out of McDonadl's any time we were there. One night they came in shining the spot in the cars telling us we had to leave. we left they parked and wen't to order. we came back around the back. Jacked up there car and set it on milk crates so you couldn't tell it was in the air.. We road past there often to see what would happen . the last time we went by there was a tow truck alongside there car. After that when we were in there we got dirty looks but did not get run out.

Abe, the oldest and had a drivers' license, bought a '58 Anglia - it was just a cheap used car back then - and we stuffed a power pack 283 corvette engine and 4 speed in it. Whicked piece of work, wouldn't go over 70mph but it'd pull the front tires until it hit 70!
We'd race at the dockyards up in Portland Maine and there was a hurtz GT350 Shelby that we'd clean its' clock regular on the weekends. We'd race that same damn car over and over and it was always driven by somebody different. That poor car went thru hell! I always felt sorry for the poor guy that bought it.
Those were good days, maybe 1966 or so.

Stovens; I used to jump my old VW bug in to a parking lot behind Valley High school in Vegas.
All the guy's would go over to Jack in the Box which was in the front of the parking lot, then there was a strip mall in the back that was closed back then.
If you came in the back driveway the ground took a deep slope down about 4 feet so if you hit that drive way at about 30 or 40 MPH you could catch some big air.
A lot of the guys had 4X4's so they were so heavy they would just drop in a couple feet, then we had a guy try it in a old New Yorker, I ain't sure of what all he broke
but I know he had to replace his oil pan. I'd hit that thing in that old bug and it would just fly. It bottomed out a few times but I never broke anything, But I also had a bolt on skid plate with a drain hole in the middle. I believe it bolted to the bottom engine block if I remember right. I know it must have saved me a few times because it was all scraped up, when I looked under there.

I lived in the Bay Area ,Santa Clara Valley, back then, 50's and 60's. There were still orchards all over back then with roads flat and straight between them and we did a lot of straight line racing at night on them. If we stayed on one road too long one of the farmers would call the sheriff and we would get run off, the sheriff never seemed to get there in the middle of a race. Then we would Cruze the main between 1st and 2nd street in San Jose. I have to say though that our favorite activity involving cars, besides working on them, was to park in an orchard and watch the "ants eat the apricots" or maybe drive to Santa Cruz,park on the beach to watch the "submarine races". It is amazing how we survived those times but everyone I knew back then did.

Jack.

Originally Posted by Jack F

It is amazing how we survived those times but everyone I knew back then did.

Jack.

All I can say is that your mob were fortunate.
A fair few of our contemporaries didn't.
A mixture of alcohol, inexperience, and speed.

I 'saw the light'.
If I'm going to be driving, I don't drink.
Not at all.
Not even one beer.

Vara4 mentioned VW bugs.
A favourite stunt back then, (and it still is today, in fact we did it about twelve months back in the Cabbage Patch just above our house,) is to throw an early VW block or gearbox casing onto the bonfire.
They're full of magnesium, and burn quite spectacularly, with an extremely intense and white light.
You can't look into it; it's like watching a welding arc. And you can play 'shadow puppets' on surrounding walls hedges etc.

Don't ask how I know this; but the fire brigade can't extinguish it with water . . .