Reliving your first car

[The_Diesel]

I was down visiting my folks in AZ a few weeks ago, and one of the last days I was there my dad, brother and I went to a spring training game. On the way back I had requested we stop at the Bass Pro Shop, since it was on the way home. My brother wanted to watch the basketball games going on, so he went to the bar near-by. Well, it turns out there was a car show going on right outside the bar that night and as we were there a lot of the cars were starting to file in. I'm not a huge car guy, but I really enjoy going to shows with my dad, as he just lights up telling me all about the classics and stories of who he knew owning what growing up and what they did. He can tell me just about every make and model at any show we've been to. I really like it because I know he's enjoying it too. He has always wanted to find his first car. At this particular show he found probably the most similar one he's seen yet. He had a blue 1969 Dodge Coronet 500, and this one was the Plymouth version. It was awesome seeing him smile and reminisce about his car again, and what was different on his versus this one, etc. He showed me where they used to remove the air vents under the dash and hide cans of beer in there and all those types of things. It was great. I could tell he really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of those cars. Someday, whenever I find a good way to make a lot of money, I'm determined to find his exact car and give it to him. I can't imagine anything that would make me happier than seeing his face when I drive up in his car and hand him the keys... I made him and my mom watch Dazed and Confused when we got back to their place that night, hoping it would bring back some more of their memories. Ironically, that Sr. class was the same year as my dad's. Never put that together until that night.

Anyway, just thought it'd be cool if folks wanted to post about their first cars on here and reminisce about the good 'ol days. I know I sure enjoy listening to my dad talk about it, and I think he enjoys telling me as well.

[DTro]

There sure is something special about your first car isn’t there? For myself, growing up in the middle of nowhere, it also meant my only means to get anywhere. I was pretty lucky, my folks scrounged up enough to let me buy a pretty cool car. It was about 10 years old, had a lot of miles and it wasn’t in perfect shape, but I was proud of it. It had the smallest V8 know to mankind, but if you held it to the floor for a while it would finally bury the needle (which went to 80). I learned a lot of things with that car, both good and bad. For example, when you are 16, having rear wheel drive after a fresh snowfall cannot be beat; when your uncle says you’ll appreciate that big back seat, he isn’t kidding; and it’s not wise to race most anything when you only have 260 cubic inches available to you.

I always wanted to find a way to get a 350 Rocket in there, but before I could, I learned another lesson…make sure all your connections are rock solid when changing out your in line fuel filter, otherwise you could be going down the road and have a loose connection fail, and spray combustible stuff onto a sizzling manifold. I can remember the heat from those flames like it was yesterday. :sad:

Insurance funds and a part time job later provided enough cash to put me into an ’83 Trans-Am, and then I got to learn some real lessons about speed. For example, even if your car has a big flaming bird on the hood with a sweet cold air intake and has the biggest available 305 engine for that year with the latest “crossfire” technology, it is no match for a Camaro with an old school 350. No matter how many times you try to race the same car.

It would be fun to get behind the wheel of a ’79 “Gutless” again…

[leech~~]

No pic's but it was a powder blue 1966 fastback Mustang with a 4 bar Highpro 289. 60's on the back and jacked!

The girls loved it and so did I at 17 years old!

[echotrail]

1st car: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Aire 6 cyl. 210 auto. color: Light Blue

Dad and I bought it for $500. I was a junior in high school.

Gas was about .23 per gal and I could drive for a week on $2 of

gas. Some joker totaled it while it was parked on the street.

(About 2 years later he drowned in the Mississippi river)

2nd car: 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass 8 cyl. 330 auto. color: Dark blue.

I bought this one myself. No reason to get rid of it other

than I saw car #3 on a used car lot and had to have it.

3rd car: 1970 Dodge Challenger RT 8 cyl. 330 manual tans. color: Plum Crazy

It had the pistol grip gear shift. No PS or PB.

I put a lift kit on the rear and and added some real wide tires

which took away most of the rear suspension. You needed to wear

a helmet on a rough road because the top of your head tended to

hit the ceiling. It was like driven a tank especially when you

had to parallel park.

[leech~~]

Some joker totaled it while it was parked on the street.

(About 2 years later he drowned in the Mississippi river)

Um, you didn't help him did you?

[echotrail]

No, but I didn't send flowers or go to his funeral either.

[Mid-Lake Rock]

Got my license in 1992. My first vehicle was a 1964 Chevy c10 pickup with a 1976 strait six under the hood. The truck was a three on the tree and my dad showed me how to drive it. My mom drove a stick, so I learned on that car and switching over to the truck was easy.

A friend's dad bought the truck in Oklahoma and brought it up here for his son. The kid didn't want it, so I got it cheap. It was a flare side and had mag wheels and a glasspack. A rear-wheel drive truck in the winter is fun when you are 16. We used the bed to lug my brother's snowmobile around and on Friday night there would often be a group of high school kids in the back. It's what my friends used to haul the fish house out on the lake.

Because this vintage of vehicle had absolutely no plastic it could handle a decent amount of abuse. One thing I did often with the truck was give my friends a "love tap." I'd see someone I knew at a red light and I'd drive up from behind and hit their vehicle with my truck. Not something I advocate now, but fun at the time. I had a buddy with a Plymouth Horizon that I must have bumped 100 times.

A lot of bad decisions were made while operating that truck, but we all lived and had a good time. When I went to college we sold the truck and I got a smaller car. Wish I still had that truck.

[SkunkedAgain]

I'm only in my 30s, so my first car was a 1983 Mustang. It was the first year they offered a 3.8L v6 - which translated into a whopping stock 112hp! The real story of that car was that roundtrip to Milwaukee and back in college required 18 quarts of oil. I'd buy two boxes of 20w-50, mail off the rebates, put them in the trunk, and drive. Stop on the highway shoulder when the engine knocked, add 2-3 quarts, then drive. It's amazing what no piston rings will do to an engine.

I won't be looking for an '83 mustang in my twilight years....but echotrail's 1970 Challenger...

[BoxMN]

Hey skunked, mine was a '74 Mustang II with the little 4 banger and a landau top! Hahaha! The Pinto-Mustang! 4 speed manual, so I could still "chirp" the tires, haha! It was fun though, amazing how many kids you can fit into the back seat. It went through the oil, with a leaking main seal. A mechanic told me, "Don't fix it, just put anything thicker than water into it, check it often, and don't park on friends driveways..."

Then my brother used it and then it was sold to someone else to have fun with.

My next and first real fun vehicle was an 87 Ranger. The hunting wagon. I loved that little truck, even during the emmission inspection years, when it would NEVER pass...

[gixxer01]

I know what you mean! The old man won't let me forget what the best car ever made was..."1969 Dodge Dart Swinger with a 340 and a pistol grip 4-speed! Not the 69 1/2 dump, they were detuned. It has to have the original Swinger orange paint. Most underrated motor of its day!"

I still keep my eyes out for one.

[Mid-Lake Rock]

A buddy in high school had that same 83 Mustang. We called it the Rustang. More rust than paint.

[SkunkedAgain]

A buddy in high school had that same 83 Mustang. We called it the Rustang. More rust than paint.

Yup, they called mine that too! Those deck lids were the first things to rust out. I borrowed my brother's 1980 Toyota Tercel once. Some girl backed into it in the HS parking lot, put a crease in the corner of the rear bumper. We got out, looked, and saw a little pile of rust. My buddy kicked the creased bumper and a storm of rust and metal came flying out onto the parking lot. Old rusty cars....

[chasineyes]

1978 YELLOW 2WD suburban. Loaded alot of friends in that baby. Also use to flip the air cover so it made a tougher sound. I can only imagine how much gas we burned through that thing.

[NIBOWMAN]

My first shared car, with my sister, was a '74 Datsun 710 wagon. Bought it for $175 with bad head gasket. My dad "planed" the head with a file and straight edge. It never leaked again, don't ask me how. The little wagon was sure fun on date night.

My first personal car was a '66 ford Mustang, 200cid 6cyl with 3spd on the floor. No speed demon but still fun. My dad and I rebuilt the motor, trans, put new rear quarters on it and new paint. A kid hit it in the school parking lot at our Christmas dance my senior year. If he wouldn't have hauled a$$ home I would have killed him. We are adults now and I still see him around. Sometimes I still get the urge. We had to put on a new front clip and all new paint again. The car sat in storage while I was in college and I sold when I gradutated. Lots of memories with that car mostly working on it. By the way, not nearly as fun on date night.

[bobbymalone]

i was not very excited about the 16 year old camaro my parents bought me from some friends. It was as old as i was. It was in really good shape, driven a few times a year for the past decade, only 50K miles, no rust. but it was canary yellow and it did have the world's slowest inline 6 under the hood. it had a 6 foot long hood, it was highly visible, and it was slow. I'm thinking that's why my parents bought it.

little did they know it took just a little bit of slick on the road or brand new asphalt and that thing would go sideways and lay down a ton of smoke.

and my god the girls loved that car

[fishing tech]

73 dodge dart slant 6 $300

70 mustang 302 $300

69Buick vista cruiser $100 with a blown engine. Put in a beefing 350. It had power windows, power seats, the tinted glass roof, posi rear end. drove it for 8 months and sold it for $1500.

75 Chev 3/4ton 4x4 free with a bad trany. rebuilt the trany put some 33" tires and ran it for a year. Sold for $1600

Those were my vehicles for 16 til 21.

The dart I had jacked the rear end and put some taller 15" tires on it. I would go wheeling with my buddy's. Them in thier trucks and me in my dart.

[flyfisher03]

My first car was a 1980 Ford Fairmont, 200 6 cyl, rear wheel drive (light in the back real fun in the winter). You could not blow the thing up. My parents bought it brand new, then 16 years later my oldest brother drove it, then 2 years after that my middle brother, and then 2 years after that it was all mine. I'm not sure how much longer I would have driven it but about 2 weeks left of my senior year a classmate of mine t-boned me in the passenger rear door at an uncontrolled intersection (I would almost come to a complete stop at this intersection because it was a bad one). Spun me almost 180 degrees. He was a councilman's kid and didn't get a ticket for it (still chaps my hide).

[snowfighter]

1949 Ford club coup,V8 flat head 3 speed manual with OD.Paid $90.00 for it used of course but in nice shape wish I would of stuck it away and had it now.

[TR21HP]

67 Firebird with a 326 and a 3 spd. Promptly put in a 428 and a four speed with Gabriel Hijackers, headers, full race cam and Formula tires and Cragars SS's on it. Left the 326 stickers on it of course- didn't fool anyone. Only thing it couldn't pass was a gas station but gas was 30 cents a gallon then. Ah, the good old days huh?

[20lbSloughShark]

I fixed my first vehicle a 1994 ford explorer 2 years ago (I wanted to tow a boat) . It was going to be scrap, but I convinced my dad to let me fix it. It is still moving, but barely. Even after 2 years, I always have some fear of it randomly stranding me, even though it has only failed in the yard. I now realize its a ford thing. Fords will always work, but never well. Chevy will work great, but break down if not maintained. Maybe 20 years from now I'll miss it, but for now it is a pain.

Edit: Its funny how a ford owner will tell me how much better fords run than chevy, then drive away with a completely dead cylinder.

[SkunkedAgain]

Only thing it couldn't pass was a gas station but gas was 30 cents a gallon then.

Classic

[Pooh]

I'm 26. my first vehicle was a 92 F150 reg cab short box. It had a 300-6 and 5 speed trans and my custom shifter knob. (which I still want back, its a ball of clear epoxy with the broadhead I killed my first deer with.) Traded it 2 years ago, still see it once in a while.

[reinhard1]

1958 chevy with a wolf whistle. pulled that whistle downtown Duluth in the 60's at 3am and it would echo everywhere. never realy worked on the chicks though. good luck.

[Spike76]

1936 Ford, 2 door sedan, with a 47 flathead. Bought it for 50 bucks, had it a couple of years and got a 1952, ford, 4 door. Than a 1956 mercury, 2 door hardtop, than 1936 ford coupe. Than traded the 36 for a 1931 chevy, 5 window coupe, with a chevy v8, 265. Than a 1958 chevy impala, convertible, black with white top, and three dueces, from the factory. I'll quit there, just 11 more. Sorry I got carried away thinking about them.

[Jim Almquist]

My first was a 1966 purple VW. My brother bought it when he got out of the Navy. Wanted a car for getting around until he found the right 442. Traded my Schwinn Continental 10 speed for it. So at 15 1/2 all I could do was go back and forth in the driveway until I got my license.

Fun car in the snow!!