AMC RULES 36,954 #26 Posted April 11, 2015 C'mon, they were chicks to somebody Denny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ken B 3,116 #27 Posted April 12, 2015 My first car was actually a truck, a 1964 Ford F-100 handed down from my brother Dave when he joined the navy. It was his first ride as well. I got my balls busted all the time about it in school. all it took was one kid to say it looked like a milk truck and that was it, EVERYONE called it the milk truck for the next few yrs.. Sure wish it was still around, it was a lot of fun.. Yes, this is an actual pic. My second car was a heck of a lot more exciting.. Since we are on the topic of first cars.. This is my father in law Joe's 61 Ford Fairlane, it was his first car. He special ordered it when he was 19 yrs. old with every speed option you could get. The largest engine you could get from Ford at that time was a 400 hp 390 which it had along with a 4 speed and 4.56 gears. My father in law did everything he could do to max out the hp on the 390 (within the gray are of the rule book.) He could easily handle hangin and beatin the 409's and 413 Mopars but when Chevy came out with the 427's he started to get spanked. So.. He was able to purchase a 427 side oiler new from the dealer which he built from the ground up. Bye bye Chevy's as he put it.. So where is this car today? It is sittin up on blocks in his garage as it has been since 1968. Why? Father in law said the car became outdated and he wouldn't be embarrassed so he built race cars for his friends and when they were too chicken to run them at the track he did the drivin as well. The Fairlane never spent a night outside, in fact it was never even registered, it was a track car only. It has 2500 miles on it, mostly from flat towing it to the track. My mother in law wouldn't let him sell it because she said she never even got a ride in it so until that happens it ain't goin anywhere. My father in law died this past September. It is now a PRIORITY of my mother in law (and the rest of the family) to make it happen for her, hopefully this summer. If there is one guy in this world my father in law didn't like it was the guy that owned this Impala wagon. Don't kid yourself it was a full blown race car, 427 with dual quads and a 4 speed. The owner of it owned his own speed shop, the House of Speed out of Norwalk CT. My father in law and this guy wound up having to race each other all the time and the results were always the same, The Impala beats him off the line (no lack of traction out of that wagon) and the wagon would lose by a car length. Then the owner of the wagon would force my father in law to tear his engine down(for a fee) to have the officials check it out to make sure he was within the rules. The guy would always shoot off that a legal 390 could never beat him. Well, never caught cheating and that really pissed the Impala guy off. The one time the Impala beat my father in law Joe decided to return the favor and forced him to tear it down. Guess what, he cheated! They never raced again, once the guy heard there was now a 427 under the hood of Joe Walko's Ford he disappeared. 11 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muz123 1,191 #28 Posted April 12, 2015 (edited) 1976 Plymouth scamp Edited April 12, 2015 by muz123 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stevebo-(Moderator) 8,041 #29 Posted April 12, 2015 Great pics and great story Ken! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dclarke 4,011 #30 Posted April 12, 2015 Great story, Ken.... My Dad drove a '63 Ford pickup back in the day. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zieg72 209 #31 Posted April 12, 2015 1976 Plymouth Duster over 400 cars trucks ago 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sscotsman 132 #32 Posted April 12, 2015 (edited) My first car was a 1981 Mustang: Had a 255 V8, the smallest V8 ever in a Mustang.. bought it used in 1988, from Elmira NY, when I was 19 years old. drove her all through college and a few years beyond.. I LOVED that car! By 1994 it was time to take it off the road..13 years old was quite elderly for a car of that era, it had 150,000 miles, and lots of things were starting to go wrong.. I tried to keep it, but had no where under a roof to store it.. so I parked it in a back corner of my parents property, covered by tarps.. By year 2000 it had turned into a pile of rust, and I had to have it towed away to that great junkyard in the sky.. RIP Mustang, I will never forget you.. Scot Edited April 12, 2015 by sscotsman 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,121 #33 Posted April 12, 2015 My first NEW car was a 1987 Nissan 300ZX Turbo. In 87, there were only a few options available, Electronics package, Digital Dash and Leather. Mine had all 3 plus a 5-speed manual and a Garrett T3 Turbo. What makes mine even rarer is it has a limited slip rear diff, which according to the Z31 enthusiasts wasn't available until April of 1987, mine is a March 1987. Like a few of the others, this is NOT my car. My car is sitting in my garage and in awesome condition with 87K miles! Still a blast to drive and love when the turbo winds up! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bmsgaffer 2,043 #34 Posted April 12, 2015 (edited) My first car: 1994 Pontiac Bonneville. I loved that car. Packed a heck of a punch with that 3.8L V6 too and could haul 5 friends comfortably. Got her at just under 40K miles and had to sell her at 161K because an idiot in pickup truck decided to eat my trunk at 35mph as I was stopped for a passing emergency vehicle. She had a maroon velvet-like interior, my wife (GF at the time) was happy to see her go. I still miss her, but I sure do like my truck! Edited April 12, 2015 by bmsgaffer 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Digger 66 3,477 #35 Posted April 12, 2015 I wish this was the your "favorite" car thread Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
squonk 38,987 #36 Posted April 12, 2015 Some amazing looking cars you ole geezers had back then . sadly we didn't have any American cars here in UK , probably caus you had the steering wheel on the wrong side . Not really. You guys just put your roads in backwards! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
squonk 38,987 #37 Posted April 12, 2015 Speaking of Impala wagons. guy I knew had a 68 Biscayne wagon. Just a little small-block in it and Firestone Town & Countrys all the way around with no hub caps. Medium blue with rust blotches all over it. Every winter it would come out and the back cargo area would get filled with various adult beverages. We'd pile in and go "Drift Hopping" out on the back roads. Back then we got lots of snow. I can only remember getting stuck twice. One time the snow pushed the big radiator out of it's mounting and into the fan! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bach-Ed 164 #38 Posted April 12, 2015 My first car was a 1962 Chevy II station wagon, which I got in 1969. My parent' s bought it from the estate of a relative. Mine was tan. The previous owner smoked like a chimmney. So getting rid of the nicotine was a challenge. And it was a Flintstone car, step one was get a piece of sheet metal so you could no longer see the road under your feet. And rust every where, front, rear and sides. But it would hold full sheets of plywood inside, something that only the largest SUV's can do today. And Chevy II was called a compact. I lived in Chicago and my girl friend always took her new Buick Wildcat UNLESS we were going to see the Bulls at the old Stadium. The neighborhood was really bad there but my rust bucket just blended into the surroundings and disappeared. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,121 #39 Posted April 12, 2015 Found an image of what my '71 300 looked like. Mine was Maroon, then I had a green one. The Green one inherited the 440+6 when the maroon rusted a torsion bar mount out. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sparky-(Admin) 19,595 #40 Posted April 13, 2015 Found an image of what my '71 300 looked like. Mine was Maroon, then I had a green one. The Green one inherited the 440+6 when the maroon rusted a torsion bar mount out. That's one loooooong car!! Mike.......... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zieg72 209 #41 Posted April 13, 2015 (edited) My best friends car we drove the power tour, he asked me to sell for him as he was passing away from Cancer, wish I could have kept it. Edited April 13, 2015 by zieg72 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 51,899 #42 Posted April 13, 2015 Wish I had them all back! When I was 13 I took dad's tractor and drug home a 1931 Chrysler sedan for $20. The block was cracked and no red-blooded American teenage boy wanted a flat-head six anyway. Dad was COOL, he let me have a corner of the barn to do my thing. Picked up a '53 Chrysler with the old (331? cu/in) Hemi engine and good transmission for $50. My buddies and I pulled that Hemi and began to fabricate mounts for it; only tools we had were a 1/4"drill and hand tools. When we got it in place I took a pipe cutter and cut the two drive shafts and took them to a welder to have them put together, this was our first adult intervention! Ernie, the welder explained that this would never work. He came down to the barn and laughed himself silly looking at our angle iron motor and transmission mounts! The next day he asked my parents if I could come work for him on Saturdays and learn how to weld, they said yes and within a couple weeks I had stinger in hand. I never finished that car but it paved the way for lots of other successful auto projects. When I went in the Navy at age 17 there were four cars in and around that barn; the '31, a '46 Chevy 1/2 ton, a '47 Dodge Coupe and a '55 Ford Convertible. None of them were derivable and Dad sold them for $50 each, I don't blame him one bit. Since then I have built a few Street Rods and still drive a yellow '48 Ford F1 that I built thirty years ago, it has well over 100,000 miles on it and a few dents and dings, but I'm proud of it. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nylyon-(Admin) 7,121 #43 Posted April 13, 2015 That's one loooooong car!! Mike.......... I was able to put 2 10.00x22 truck tires in the trunk AND close the lid! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stratostar250 919 #44 Posted April 14, 2015 Here was my first car *cough*truck : It was a 96 Dodge Dakota with a 3.9 V6, had 4x4 and a 5 speed. It was a great truck. I learned to drive stick in it, and on the highway, somehow got almost 23 mpg! But it slowly acquired a few problems here and there, and this had became available to me, so I jumped for it, I considered it an upgrade: This also was a 96 Dakota, but had a 318 V8, 4x4, and was also 5 speed. It was essentially a little Ram! I loved this thing. Drove nice, was very comfortable, had plenty of torque, and was quite quick when you put your foot down It would really make the kids in their Honda's angry But it slowly had more and more and more problems and was becoming quite costly, so it was sadly time to move on. So, in December, I went out on a limb, and purchased my first new vehicle, and except for the payments (totally worth it though), I love it! It's a Nissan Frontier Pro-4x. Has a v6 with more power than my v8 dakota, 4x4 with a locking rear diff, and a 6 speed stick, which I absolutely love. The only problem I've had with it so far, is that I got rear ended on my way to get my first oil change. Of course this is when it would happen though......It should all be fixed soon, though. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 51,899 #45 Posted April 14, 2015 ​ Those Dakotas are great, I had a '87, '96 and now have an '09, the first two gave me over 200K of trouble free hauling, I'm sure this one will too. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stratostar250 919 #46 Posted April 14, 2015 (edited) ​ Those Dakotas are great, I had a '87, '96 and now have an '09, the first two gave me over 200K of trouble free hauling, I'm sure this one will too. Nice man! I really did love those things, awesome little trucks! I wish I had gotten 200k outta mine though. But they just started to be big repair after big repair, with considerable rust, hahaha. Edited April 14, 2015 by stratostar250 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
squonk 38,987 #47 Posted April 14, 2015 I was able to put 2 10.00x22 truck tires in the trunk AND close the lid! How many chords of wood? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sgtsampay 117 #48 Posted April 15, 2015 My first was a 1998 ford ranger 4.0l ohv 4x4 with 3.73 axles short bed double cab sport. I loved that truck so much and wished I would have never sold it when I was 19 years and stupid.. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimD 3,345 #49 Posted April 15, 2015 (edited) 1953 Chevy Belair.. (borrowed picture) Edited April 15, 2015 by JimD 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Don1977 604 #50 Posted April 16, 2015 1950 Mercury 2 door 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites