Thread: What Planted The Seed For You?

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"The biggest lesson I learned from these two men was not to be afraid to try something, even if you fail. Just learn from the failure and keep going. The only shame in failing is giving up. They're both gone now and not a day goes by that I don't miss them."

Those are some powerful words, Mike - thanks for sharing .
Glenn

Originally Posted by glennsexton

"The biggest lesson I learned from these two men was not to be afraid to try something, even if you fail. Just learn from the failure and keep going. The only shame in failing is giving up. They're both gone now and not a day goes by that I don't miss them."

Those are some powerful words, Mike - thanks for sharing.
Glenn

Those words hit me too, Mike. I think it was Edison that said, "I never failed at anything! I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work!"

Well just about everybody said parts of my life with cars so far. My Dad built my 1st Hotrod, it was a wooden 2x4 framed go-cart with a Briggs And Stratton , belt driven with a handle you would pull up on to tighten the belt and go. Not fast but I was 6 maybe 7 and it felt like a race car to me. Many cars/trucks have come and gone but I remember that 1st one so vividly and the same here not a day goes by that I don't think of him and Mom, she got to apply the Iodine .

Originally Posted by Navy7797

Well just about everybody said parts of my life with cars so far. My Dad built my 1st Hotrod, it was a wooden 2x4 framed go-cart with a Briggs And Stratton , belt driven with a handle you would pull up on to tighten the belt and go. Not fast but I was 6 maybe 7 and it felt like a race car to me. Many cars/trucks have come and gone but I remember that 1st one so vividly and the same here not a day goes by that I don't think of him and Mom, she got to apply the Iodine .

LOL Navy I'd forgotten about my first "hot rod". I was about 11 and another kid in town had a new car that his dad made from plans in Popular Mechanics -a scaled down midget racer that was really cool! At the time Dad was the Vo-Ag teacher at our school, it was summer and he took a 1x12 for the "frame", a 2x4 front axle with solid mower wheels pivoted on a carriage bolt, a similar rear 2x4 axle unit for the roller. A friend had a kick start 1/4HP engine from a Maytag washer. Dad got a ratcheting e-brake handle from the salvage yard and found a sliding jack shaft that the e-brake handle operated. Once he had the mechanical sorted he had me sit on it, feet on the front 2x4 axle and said "Try it out!" I pulled the handle to tighten the belt, and away I went! No seat back, foot steering (rope for backup) and a top speed of 12MPH! I came back pulling it by the rope on the front axle when it ran out of gas! He had plans to add rope actuated steering, wound around a large dowel, and maybe some kind of drag brake but I told him it was good the way it was and it was my ride for that summer and beyond. I had several shirts that had a line of belt dressing in a line on the back, and I remember one Saturday pulling into the Phillips 66 station and asking the owner if he could fill my tank, which I think cost a dime, and him saying "Do you want me to fart in your tires, too?" That was pretty racy for '57 or '58 but he was a grizzled old fart himself!

I’ve been pondering this extensively, cause I don’t think there was a seed, more like a complete garden. My wife tells me it must be my 3001 mid life crisis, lol. I’ll back up a little and try to explain.

My Dad was a CB in WW2, his (their) motto was “nothing’s impossible, the impossible only takes longer”. Growing up my brothers and I heard this a lot (along with many other bits of wisdom), as cars, boats and anything mechanical came into the garage to be worked on. So, growing up it wasn’t unusual for us to take things apart to see how they worked, always coached and encouraged. And, we always helped in the garage, learning to disassemble and re-assemble motors and all the stuff that goes along with it (hated packing wheel bearing, lol).

I started racing slot cars when I was 8, by 10 I was re-winding and balancing the armatures, clocking the commutators forward (timing) for quicker starts, then shimming the magnets for even more rpms. At 12 I started playing guitar, by 14 I was in a band (and been doing it ever since). At 15 I took auto shop, the teacher shortly noticed I was passing the tests without studying and soon after I was out in the shop working on his side projects while the others were reading the books (thanks Dad). 16, I got my license to drive and the car bug really took off. My friends and I were doing motor and tranny swaps and tuning for others on just about anything that came our way.

In my 20’s I built a few commercial slot car tracts and built and raced the cars. 21 I married my bride, by my mid 20’s I was into boats and water skiing. In my late 20’s my son was born, some people were telling me kids change your life and that the days of fun are over. My Dad pulled me aside and said “this (pointing to my son) is the best toy you’ll ever get”. I laughed not realizing until years later how true those words were. My son watched, helped and learned as we made and played with everything we could think of, after all, nothing is impossible, it only takes longer.

Fast forward and here I am with my wife of all these years, son and daughter in-law, 2 grandkids, hot rods, rock-n-roll bands, which reminds me of another saying my Dad had, “wealth isn’t measured in dollars, wealth is what’s around us”. Man, if I’m not a wealthy man I don’t know who is…

"Fast forward and here I am with my wife of all these years, son and daughter in-law, 2 grandkids, hot rods, rock-n-roll bands, which reminds me of another saying my Dad had, 'wealth isn’t measured in dollars, wealth is what’s around us'. Man, if I’m not a wealthy man I don’t know who is…"

Amen to that!! By that same measure, I too am a wealthy man most blessed...

In my case it was no one thing in particular, but many things in general. I remember sitting in class in the 5th and 6th grade, 53-55, looking out the window which faced a fairly busy street and oogling the cars as they passed by. Many were tail draggers adorned with coon tails, fender skirts and mud flaps and three things that still today I cannot stand.
Car magazines were becoming popular and although I don't remember where I came across my first one, I do remember the cars in the magazines and my attempt in trying to draw them. I was also fascinated by the drag racing articles and later by Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, Ca in particular and hoping someday I'd be able to attend a race or two.
I didn't have a mentor though in my Freshman year in H.S. I met someone who would become a lifelong friend and that was Richard Moore better known as techinspector1. After flunking a class in the first semester he talked me into taking machine shop and to this day a vocation I wished I would have continued with. In our Sophmore year we had a study hall together and one day Richard came up with the idea to start a car club, maybe more for the jackets than anything else, and Viking Customs Of Dayton, Ohio was born. At the peak we had close to 30 members with about half or so actually having cars. We were a Charter Member club with NHRA which allowed us to work at the local drag strip which we did the following year, 1959. We worked the starting line with Richard working in the timing trailer. In the third week the flagman didn't show up, he'd joined the Navy, and the strip operator went looking for a new flagman. No one came forward so I volunteered and flagged the remainder of the season. I don't think the strip operator knew that I was only 15, turned 16 in August.
After I completed boot camp and was able to get some liberty the first thing I did was ask my dad, who lived in So Ca., to take me to Lions. After that when I had liberty and you would find me on Saturday night at Lions on the pit side in the stands by the starting line and where I fell in love with AA/FA's and particularly the Winged Express. I also witnessed many runs of the GBP yellow car and many of other top fuelers of the day.
Over the years I've rebuilt a few engines and tried to help others with their builds and problems, but my first love is drag racing.
A couple of pictures, the framed club jacket and the name above the raven went over the left breasIMG_6926.jpgIMG_6930.jpgIMG_6931.jpgt and the shirt I wore at the drag strip when I was the flagman

The first thing I remember when I was about five years old I saw a stock car go past our house on a trailer. I can’t remember anything about what it looked like, but I remember being super excited about seeing a “real race car”.

The next big thing I remember was seeing a T-Bucket in a Fourth of July parade. I was about ten years old then. I went and found the car after the parade was over, and I think I spent about half an hour looking it over. About a year later I saw a T-Bucket in a magazine ad, so then I knew what it was called.

I didn’t grow up around any hot rodders, but my dad was a bit of a do it yourselfer. He taught me how to change the oil, replace a radiator, and how to remove a thermostat and test it in a pan on the stove. My dad and several of my uncles worked on the Fisher Body and Oldsmobile assembly lines in Lansing, Michigan. I was taught that foreign cars were a terrible thing, and I still believe that, lol.

In Jr. High School, the library had a subscription to Hot Rod Magazine. I would go in there in the morning before class and read every word of every issue. By ninth grade I had my own subscription. In 11th and 12th grade I took Auto Shop. I had an excellent teacher who was into drag racing and hot rods. I’m still in touch with him to this day.

I as well can not say my love of this hobby/life came from 1 certain thing. My father was a big portion of it. He was a mechanic by trade and worked out of an old milking barn converted into a shop on the side. He always had several old cars and trucks in our yard. As kids, my brothers and I would always be pretending to race, drive across the country or what ever in these broken down derelict vehicles in the yard behind the shop. I can't remember for sure when I actually started helping Dad in the shop. I know I was mowing the yard on a rider and cleaning the shop/parts at 8 years old. Dad had a 68 Buick GS400 convertible that he used as a truck. We never had any new cars or trucks. He would always buy or get paid with a broken vehicle, he would fix it and sell it or keep it until something nicer came along. My mom's oldest brother had a 63 Corvette that my Dad worked on a lot and we even stored it at our place when Uncle Jon was in the Navy. Uncle Jon used to take me with him and let me set on his lap and drive that car. He says I was only 4. My parents used to take me to boy scouts and baseball practice/games in that car so that set the seed for my love for Corvettes. Every time Uncle Jon came home on leave he would banter Dad about how that Buick was just a pos and Dad would get out the Buick and they would go line them up. That cammed up 327 Vette never did beat that old blue GS. My Uncle is still butt hurt about it.

Then there was my Dad's Uncle Jerry. He had a love for hot rods. He drove his everywhere even if it was not super shiny or the interior was ratty. He didn't have a lot of mechanical capabilities but he did what he could and called my Dad for the rest. I got the pleasure of polishing chrome and doing small jobs when Dad and Uncle Jerry were working on he car. I still have images in my head of a 40 Ford with no front clip, a 40 Ford with no hood, and his car in general.

My mom's youngest brother was a gear head as well and he had a Buick Regal with a nasty 355 in it. He used to let me drive that thing home when we would wash Lanter delivery trucks. I wasn't even 14 yet. He is where I got my racing bug from the most I bet. All in all, it was a combination of family and family friends all being into muscle cars and hot rods. I'm not sure what my life would be like if Dad wasn't a mechanic.