Thread: What Planted The Seed For You?

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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!