First Car Stories!

[69LM1]

Just sold that 69 red/red X-11 that I have been working on to (partially) finance the rebuild on a Eliminator that I just bought. Anyway Pretty cool story, a guy calls and is looking for the car for his 15 year old son. Son has been saving and dad is going to match what the son has saved.
Son has been on ebay, and of course has seen the 2fast 2furious "Pure American Muscle Baby" scene with the Yenko.
The Dad has a 69 Vette big block CE motor, pan to pan, still in the crate! so, I wound up dropping the price a few hundred. Cool story because I remember my first car and thought this might make a cool new thread so hear goes: http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

It was fall of 1980. I had been working all summer at the local Winn Dixie and saving. I had just gotten my learners permit, but my dad, an auto mechanic had been letting me drive to the local quick stop store every once in a while (over my mothers objections http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif). I was really liking the 80's camaro look and of course wanted one. After looking in the paper for weeks, I found an ad for a 69 Camaro and talked my Dad into going to look at it.
So, with $300.00 in my pocket (all 5's, 10's and a few 20's), my Dad, my Uncle and I went to go look at this Camaro. I had never up to that point seen a 69 before, but was expecting to see something like the 2nd gen body.
So, we get there and this older gentleman shows us the car.
Man, talk about something that can get a teenage guys mind off of girls (for a sec anyway)! It was love at first sight. There sat a faded puke green 69 camaro, with a 307, 3-speed manual transmission, black interior with a console.
Then the bomb, the guy wants 425.00 for the car!!! Dad was also concerned about the car being "to fast" for a 1st car.
As dad was a dirt poor mechanic, 125.00 was big money. So as I am in the corner begging him for the loan, the guy overhears us and drops the price to 350.00!!!! So, my dad and uncle loan me the 50.00 and away we go with the car!!
Talk about an early Christmas. Of course, I could not drive a stick yet, so dad had to drive the car home.
When we got around the block from the house, dad stops the car with a serious look on his face. He give me the "this is not a toy" speach, then proceeds to rip off the line, smoking the tires, urhcing second and third gears, while proclaiming that if he ever catches me losing to a ford he will take the car away http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif !!!
It took me 3 years to finally get the car restored, and Dad rebuilt the engine and added a few goodies (anyone remember the "curve" kits?). During my senior year in high school, I had a overnight school function for the busines club. When I got back, Dad looked sheepish, friends were smiling and mom was mad. It seems that while I was gone over a friday night, Dad snuck out with the car "to go to the grocery", http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif . A neighbor sees the car Drag Racing and calls my mom to tell her that she saw me racing. Of course, I was out of town and it turns out it was my dad! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif Anyway, I just thought that was a great story, and that it was pretty cool that this guy is building a muscle car with his kid.

Any one have any cool stories like that? One day I will share the one where later in like my little brother total's my 69 Z28 while I was in the Air Force!

[Jeff H]

I came up $200 short of being able to buy my first car, a 6 cyl 69 Camaro conv. I went off to college thinking about the car for several weeks until my mom called one night and said "guess who called today?" It turns out they couldn't sell the car and finally came down the $200 and I ended up getting the car. Of course, I was at college so my dad went and got the car for me. He would take it out every Sunday morning to go get bagels. I didn't get to drive it until I was done with school in May! I had it restored by the local Vo-tech school and my dad would still take it out every Sunday morning to get bagels. The funniest one was watching my dad take my 68 SS396 conv to the muffler shop with open headers! He figured the cops wouldn't give him a ticket so I said "go ahead".

[njsteve]

My first car was a 69 Z11 pace car. I am one of 5 kids. I saved every penny I had since I was born. While all my friends blew their cash on minibikes, motorcycles, drugs, beer, women (not necessarily in that order) I ended up saving $2700 by my 14th birthday. My dad and I drove by a crummy little ripoff car lot and saw the car. We ended up buying it for $2700. When we got home (of course I couldn't drive as I was only 14) my mom says to dad: "You know Bernie, his brother just turned 16 not him" I guess he lost track of which kid was which at the time! I learned just about everything about cars from that car. Including: don't think it has a 350 in it just because the fender emblem says "350". It ended up having a 1964 327 under the hood. Never ran right. Had a carburetor fire one day. While I was on my third fire extinguisher trying to put out the flames, my mom walks out with a bowl of tuna salad and asks: Are you coming in for lunch soon? I grabbed the bowl and tossed the tuna salad on the fire. To my amazement it put the fire out! I never insulted my mother's cooking after that. Here's a photo of me in 1976 (age 14) Gotta love that hairdo!

[Salvatore]

Sounds like tuna helper! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif Good story.

[berger]

started looking for my first car at boston police auctions once a month w/ my dad I was 15, we started bidding on a 68Rs/SS ConvertW/ orig. motor, in primer, roof shredded ,
5$ first bid, had it at going twice at 350$, 1 other guy started bidding, up we both went 5$ ata time, ran out of dough at 800$, father said I can't loan you money your mother will kill us both if we bring this home, well after uncle scolded us for letting her go, we were both hooked on camaros, found my first 67 327 coupe in east bum NH out of want adds, 1000$, shot to hell, drove up in snowstorm from cape cod, found it in middle of farm field, after spraying about a can of ether in the carb, boom! cooked the hood, but she was running and we proceeded to drive her home w/ no headlights / side windows/ or seats, we used milk cartons,crazy but true, restored her in 4 months, scoured every bone yard in new england for parts w/ pops, found my 67 yenko for 500$ out of the wantads too 11yrs ago. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif

[55chevy]

Heres my first car. A 71 Chevelle... I used to race guys from school all the time with this one. 300hp 350/automatic with a 2:56 rear.. Nobody could touch it on the top end back then. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Loved that car!

[55chevy]

heres what I did to it one morning on my way to school.... Valentines Day 1990 8:10am....... http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Mr. T]

Ed,

Tell us the story on what happened to you on the way to school. Geez, that was some wreck!

[55chevy]

Here is a 77 Camaro I had around 1992. This was a fun car. 350 4speed car. It was pretty quick when I got done with it. Traded a tired 84 Trans Am even up for this Camaro and a fullsize Chevy Caprice station wagon that had a factory 454 in it.. I got the best deal in that trade http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif I got the car it was solid white and pretty boring looking so I added the stripes and day 2 stuff. This was one wicked sounding car with the blown out glasspacks I had on it.. I remember one nice summer day, I was still living at home in Fishertown, PA and I asked my dad to run out to the little country store to pick me up something and he goes out and hops in this Camaro... pulled out on the road with it.. started out easy then just layed on it grabbing second and third up the road sqwaking the tires... I laughed my ass off because my Dad was never really the hot rod heavy foot driver like I have always been. I remember saying "go get em Dad..Give it hell".. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif And thats the first time I'd ever seen that car in action from a distance and it looked and SOUNDED pretty damn mean. I eventually blew the clutch in it, yanked the engine/trans for another project I had and sold the roller with a trunk full of parts for $500.. I wish I had that ALL back now.... http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[55chevy]

I was on my way to school that morning.. roads were a little damp and I was in a hurry because I was running late... I'll give some specific places because the Barr bros. probably know the road I'm talking about.. I pulled out at the intersection where the only red light in Pleasentville is heading toward Bedford on RT56 on my way to the Chestnut Ridge HS.. The road is a straight stretch for about 2 mile and I was on it.. I hit 110mph by the time I was going past the COW ice cream place and held it there until I needed to take a long sweeping left turning bend at which I backed off the pedal and left it coast back to about 90 around that bend then it was straight stretch for about 3/4 mile where it comes up to the intersection of where the Chestnut Ridge Market used to be and the road starts to go up hill and curves to the right in sweeping uphill bend... I took it back up to 95 on the straight.. backed off and entered that uphill bend at 85-90 I guess.. (memory gets a little fuzzy at this point).. Back end came loose from the road and I hit the 8' embankment head on on my side of the road.. car spun around and started doing flips on the road.. I went up the 10' embankment on the opposite side of the road rolling and clipping a row of trees and a sign off 10' in the air.. car came to rest on the roof with me pinned between the roof and top of the bench seat by my legs.. I was in and out of consiousness so the memories are patchy.. But you never forget the sound of the Jaws Of Life... I'll give you that much... 2 years later I worked with a guy that was driving on the opposite side of the road JUST as I went through this wreck and he saw the entire thing and told me the clear version of the story.. Thats how I know exactly what happened.... Wasn't wearing a seatbelt and I was told if I had been.. I wouldn't be here telling this story because I got thrown clear of where the roof and pillar came in and occupied the drivers position... The steering wheel was imbedded in the seat.. Gotta give thanks to the paramedics and fire dept guys and a few friends that were on the scene in a big hurry. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif

and yeah.. took a while to recover from this one.. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/headbang.gif

BTW.. that area where this accident occured was a hotbed for accidents.. and it took a big rig slamming into the Chestnut Ridge Market store that was on the bottom right hand of this turn and killing a few people for them to finally rework the road through there.. Today the store is gone.. The embankment on the inside of the turn I hit head on is gone and has been cut Waay back and flattenend out.. but the opposite embankment still stands and so does the sign where you can see a red 71 chevelle took a chunk out of the corner.. Probably can still see some Cranberry Red paint about 10' up on them trees right there too. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[69LM1]

Man Ed what a story!!!!
Here's my "little brother" story as promised.

It is 1986 Now. I had sold the original 69 and bought a 69 Z-28, original 302 and all. I restored the whole car, interior and Dad and I rebuilt the engine. The only thing left was paint. I was accepted into a opportunity of a life time training with the US Air Force and put the car in storage at my grandparents. A year and a half later, my brother calls and says that his car broke and he needs a car for the senior prom and can he borrow my 69. Of course mom and dad are supporting him in this and help sway my answer. I told him yes on one condition that he not drink while driving my car. So, the prom comes and goes and I call the next morning. He says everything went well. Six more months go by and my training is up and I get my first leave to visit home. While on the phone with my mother, she is yelling at him to talk to me. I got this instant sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Dad gets on the phone and explains that while at the prom, my brother stopped at a local store for "gum" and when he came out the car was totaled http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif . Someone "hit" the car and "ran. Rigggghhhhhhtttt, http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif I said. C'mon Dad. It would take a rig to drive off after that bad an accident (the motor broke off the mounts and went thru the radiator it was hit so hard in the rear). My Dad said that he even found fender, grill and light parts all around the car when he went to get my brother. The whole family chimes in. So, a couple of years pass and I came home and start going to church and all. Another six months go by and I invite my brother to church. After church, the pastor asks if anyone is interested in accepting Jesus as his saviour. To my astonishment, my brother "walks the aisle". A little while later, he comes back and sits next to me, excited and emotional. I tell him, man that was great. He looks up at me and then I say "So, what REALLY happened to my car? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif "

Who can lie at a time like that? He finally confessed. Turns out he and a friend were stone drunk and had dropped off their dates. They were in the local supermarket parking lot doing 360's with MY CAR!!! He was in reverse, as he said, doing 40 or so, when he collided with a light pole. Miraculously, neither he nor his friend was hurt. They called a tow truck and had it towed to another store. Then they went and got his friends car and went around town picking up wrecked parts to "place" around the car before calling my dad.

We both still go to church to this day, and I still remind him about that car all the time!!!! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[MrsBillyBobcat]

GREAT stories guys!!! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif Keep 'em coming!

Hey Steve (njsteve)...By any chance is this your Camaro in this pic? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif (see attachment)

Rita http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Bill Pritchard]

Rita, you are going to be Grounded for Life if you keep this stuff up http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif

[Salvatore]

Hey Rita, By any chance is that you leaning on Steve's camaro? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

[njsteve]

That's not my car but it is me in the photo. As you can see I spent all the money after I sold that darned 71 hemicuda convertible and put it all into plastic surgery. Boy was it ever worth it! - http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gifNJSteve or is it NJStephanie?

[NCGuy68]

First car you say ???

Mine was a 57 Chevy 'Post Car' with a 283 and 4 barrel Carb. Always wanted a 'Power Pack', (2X4 Carbs) but couldn't find one at the time.

The large back seat provided ample room to 'frolic' with one of the High School Cheerleaders. Needless to say. I really enjoyed my first car.

[elonblock]

What I wanted, and I what I ended up with are 2 totally different thing!

It was 1977, and I was living in the West Chester PA area.

The parking lot at the local high school that I was attending was full of
every type of muscle car imagineable.

I remember looking out the windows and seeing a Boss 429, a Cuda T/A,
and lots of Mustangs, and Camaros.

I was just itchin' to be as cool, or cooler than any of the other students.

A guy I knew, had a 67 Chevelle SS, that he had restored.

It had a nasty 283, with a 4 speed in it!!!!

He had gotten so many tickets with it, that the police told him they
would impound the car if they ever saw him driving it.

So he had to sell it, or possibly go to jail.

I could visualize myself cruisin' with a car full of babes, just hanging on my every word!!!http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/haha.gif

I was drawn to this car, like a moth to a flame.

Thank goodness, I couldn't come up with the money, because I probably
would have hurt myself, or someone else.

I ended buying a 68 Impala 2 door. 327/250 with a powerglide
from an original owner.

It had 48,000 original miles, black with a white top, black interior,
and all the trim inside the car had a yellowish brown film on it, because the owner smoked like a chimney.

I installed dual ehaust, and a CB radio ( remember those?), AM/FM stereo, and drove the car for 2 years.

I never put another dime into it except for oil changes, and 1 tune-up.
It was bullet-proof, and I sold it for more than I paid for it.

Those were the days!!!! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Elon

[camarojoe]

OK, Here's my "first car" story... bought this car for 400.00 when I was 15 years old, and spent the better portion of a year making it look good, along with the help of my buddies and my dad, and my little brother (who was 10 years old at the time!) Car was a 307 powerglide 72 Nova with a really bad 5 year old Earl Shieb paintjob. You "Day 2'ers" should dig the nosebleed/airshock rear stance, and Cragar/slot wheel combo! http://www.yenko.net/attachments/66491-novawreck3.jpg

[camarojoe]

We painted it a medium blue metallic, consisting of the remants of about 6 different colors of blue lacquer all mixed together. Painted 70 Chevelle SS style stripes on the hood and deck, and "blacked out" the side window frames for a racy look. Also changed the complete interior from tan to black. Saved up my money from a part time after-school dishwashing job to buy a used set of tires and 15x7 rally wheels, and located some other odds and ends at various swap meets, including better used bumpers, door handles, grille, valve covers, air cleaner, etc. Also bought some new stuff for it, such as weatherstrip, front end trim, bumper filler, etc... and cleaned up/reused as much as I could on my shoestring budget. In all, i had less than 1500.00 in the entire project, and did 95% of it myself. http://www.yenko.net/attachments/66492-novawreck1.jpg

[camarojoe]

Drove it from the time i turned 16 in May, until storing it behind my dad's house for the winter in November. During my Christmas break, My buddy and I decided it would be "cool" to swap in a Borg Warner T50 5-speed tranny from a mid 70s Chevy Monza. We had gathered all the needed stuff earlier in the summer, and decided to install it all over the holidays. After 3 solid days of work in an essentially unheated, 1 car, dirt floor garage, we had the trans in it...on Christmas eve... Well, i test drove it around the block, everything seemed to work, and I had my buddy follow me from his house back to my dad's house. On the way, i decided to "run her through the gears" http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif and hit a small icy patch going into 4th gear. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif The car spun around and slid down the road backwards for about 100 yards until colliding into a utility pole. I sheared the pole off about 3 feet from the ground, and totaled the car. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif Luckily my own injuries were minor, but it was a pretty sad holiday. http://www.yenko.net/attachments/66494-novawreck2.jpg

[camarojoe]

A week later i bought another Nova for 150.00 that I had looked at earlier for a possible parts car when building the first one, and within a year I had built this "twin" to the car I totalled, using many of the salvagable parts from the wreck. I had alot of fun with that car too, but you only get one "first car". http://www.yenko.net/attachments/66497-novawreck4.jpg

[Belair62]

[ QUOTE ]
While all my friends blew their cash on minibikes, motorcycles, drugs, beer, women (not necessarily in that order) I ended up saving $2700 by my 14th birthday.

[/ QUOTE ]Well...after I pissed away all my money on a JC Penney Golden Pinto mini-bike,some pot and Ripple wine with my very first girl friend (priorities)I bought a 1965 Impala SS...327/300 powerglide for 325 bucks...drove it until my lady friend distracted me http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif and I drove over a parking block in the local forest preserve completely tearing out the lower right control arm of the car. I went to a boneyard and got a used A arm and installed it...did some "bodywork" on the car and had it painted at APCOA...I sold it a month later after going thru at least a tire a week....guess I didn't fix it too well...it sounded like it had the brakes locked while driving down the road...the alignment and the frame were just a BIT tweaked !!...........Hey Ed....glad to see you made it out of that one....usually a tarp over the car means there was a fatality !

[Supercar_Kid]

Well here's mine...when I turned 14 my Dad handed me an envelope with a distinct lump in it. Inside the usual birthday card was a pair of very worn GM keys. He led me outside where I found the car you'll see in the attached pics. It was actually one of the rarest Chevelles made in 1970, no not an L-78 or LS-6 convertible, or anything of such high performance pedigree, but rather a lowly Canadian built 1970 Chevelle 300 sport coupe. A thrice repainted, severely neglected, 307 two barrel 3 speed auto on the column. Black bench interior and an option list you could tally on one hand. Didn't bother me a bit though, as I'd always took a liking to the '70 bodystyle and I could see a diamond in the rough. During the next year and a half I spent every weekend and free moment I could spare working on the car with the help of my Dad, older brother and a few friends of the family. The car needed extensive rust repair including quarters, doors, fenders, decklid, hood, floorpan, and even a roof skin from a '72 Malibu parts car I bought for $150 and robbed of all it's valuable parts. I used the bucket seat cores, console, power brake setup, floorpan, doors, roof skin, and numerous other parts from the '72 to bring my '70 back to life. Looking back on it I probably should have saved the '72 and scrapped the '70, but I had my heart set on bringing this first car of mine back to life. It was lots of work and lots of scavenging swap meets and bone yards, but by the time I turned 16 and got my driver's permit the car was complete, at least for the time being. Needless to say as a 14 year old gearhead the original Champagne on black bench seat 300 trim didn't really do it for me, so I took the artistic license to create the SS454 clone you see in the next attachment.

[Supercar_Kid]

I trimmed the car out in full SS454 garb and continued driving it around with the 307 and a rebuilt quadrajet on a freebie iron intake. The cowl induction air cleaner was cool enough to make most people at my high school drop their jaws in awe, and it ran well enough to be fun yet keep me out of trouble, so at 16 I was happy.

[Supercar_Kid]

A few years down the road, I got the bug for more power, as is usually the case with the maturing gearhead, and sometime around the winter of my senior year I had saved enough money to buy a 454 longblock from a friend of my Dad's for $800, but it turned out to be blown, and not the good kind of blown. Unfortunately I didn't know it was blown until I had done the full 'Krylon rebuild" on it and had it sitting between the fenderwells ready to drive. A few seconds at idle and it was apparent something was drastically wrong. Back out it came and a friend offered to open it up for me and inspect the damage. It was determined that the bearings were chewed up so he offered to put new rod and mains in it and help me put it back in to have another go at it. I was on a shoestring budget and was already in deeper than I had anticipated, beginning to regret yanking the perfectly good running original 307. After the second installation, and a half day spent trying to get all the bolts in the automatic tranny housing while laying on the firewall, she was in and ready to fire. Again it blew in less than a minute. It seems the crank was way out of round an dthe new bearings only lasted a few hundred RPMs. I saved my money and took the engine to a reputable machine shop and had it completely redone. Pistons, crank cut, heads done, the whole nine, some $3200 later she was back between the federwells and looking like you see here. http://www.members.aol.com/erikbarr/Eriks454.jpg All in all, the car has been a terrific learning experience and I still own it today, some ten years after getting as a 14th birthday present. I know it's not a "real" anything, but I wouldn't trade it for the world, as you only ever get one 'first" car. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif