First Car ?

Bird · Feb 9, 2004

( I really liked the gas cap hidden behind the tail light. )

Did you gas it up yourself or let the service stations do it? I liked those '56 Chevys myself but they were notorious for shooting the gasoline back out the fill tube unless you were listening very carefully and stopped quickly at the right time.

Justaplain · Feb 9, 2004

Bunch of kids /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif 1929 model A. $50--1943 sold it in 1947 for 50 bucks and the guy made a saw rig out of it. bcs

Hambone · Feb 9, 2004

A 1964 1/2 Mustang Coupe with the pony interior and a 260 v-8. Paid $150 and my brother drove it home for me in 1978. I played around and sold it for $400 a few months later.
They sure are worth a bunch now!

dmccarty · Feb 9, 2004

Don,

That is an awefull story! Its one thing to crash the car after all
that work but then have the dealer come in and offer all of that
money. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

That is just plain cruel.

To REALLY show my age, my first car was a new 1984 Camaro
Z28 with a five speed. It had a 305 cubic inch engine and
pumped out a whopping 195 horsepower.

Which ain't nothing compared to the 60's and early 70's cars
or todays cars but the Z28 had better performance than some
of the low end Porches and was a whole lot cheaper!

It was stolen by a thief who was chased for 30 minutes by the
Police. They only caught him when the water pump blew and
the engine computer shut down the engine. The car was
mechanically trashed. Cost me thousands to fix up and then
I just sold it. I had planed on keeping that care forever....
/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I did learn that Nationwide is not on MY side. Hate those
people. THe thug just took my car. Nationwide took my
money for years and then took ME for a ride.

Later,
Dan

fivestring · Feb 9, 2004

1965 Ford Fairlane for $450.
289, 3 speed on floor. I had never driven a gear tranny before. I learned quickly.
It used almost as much oil as it used gas.
I kept it 1 year and "traded up" to a brand new 1977 Vega.

JDgreen227 · Feb 9, 2004

I had a '66, '67, and '70 Mustang in later years but my first car was a 1962 Mercury Meteor 4 door, 260 V8 with three on the tree. Every one of the Mustangs I sold or traded in for a few hundred dollars....dumb me, the '70 was a Mach 1 with the 351 Cleveland and shaker hood. When it was 3 years old I traded it in for $900. How I wish I had kept it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

kokopelli2 · Feb 9, 2004

mine was a 79 plymouth volare 318ci v-8
powder blue coupe with navy viynal top. best part was the 29000 original miles in '91! kept it till 96 with 119000 miles when i moved to japan for college. i couldnt take it, i tried.

Golfgar4 · Feb 9, 2004

A '57 Chevy, white over lavender /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif 4 door that I bought for $100 when I was a freshman in college. It had the oddest quirk in the engine that no one was ever able to figure out. I'd be driving along just fine, and the engine would just quit. I never knew when it would happen. Sometimes I'd go for days without it happening, and then other times it'd seem to happen every 10 minutes.

And the only way to get the engine started again was to pour a little gas down the carb, so I always had to have a can of gas in the trunk.

It was a frustrating car to drive, but it often worked out GREAT on a date!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

AndyM · Feb 9, 2004

1982 Datsun pickup with a diesel engine.
What a rust bucket!
I paid $200 in 1990 and drove it for two years, before I sold it for $450.

My second car was a 1975 Nova, I paid $50 and sold a couple of months later for $475. I then moved on to a 1969 Ford station wagon for $100 from a 85 year old woman who hadn't driven it for a few years. I drove that one until I bought my first new car-- 1993 Ford Tempo.

Dozernut · Feb 9, 2004

1960 Rambler Ambassador I paid a 100 bucks for, what a piece of junk! It was up on blocks more than it was on the road. It was bad about eating carrier bearings and had an enclosed drive shaft. You had to literally drop the rear axel to pull the drive shaft to get to the tranny. The one that got away was my 1965 Mustang. Candy apple red with aluminum dish slot mag wheels. Sure wish I had that one back.

RobertN · Feb 9, 2004

My Road Runner did that for a while. My Dad worked for Mopar,, and we had other Mopars in the family. So, we had spare parts ect. I tried rotor, cap, coil, ignition module to no affect. Still died now and then out of the blue, but would start right back up after 5-10 minutes.

Turned out to be a cracked resistor leading to the coil. Those things are resistive material inside a ceramic casing. The engine and underhood area would get warm, causing the ceramic to expand. It would loose electrical connectivity inside, and the car would die. Then it would cool down and contract, again making electrical connection. She'd fire right up!

I like those cheap simple fixes, but when they are hard to find...

JerryG · Feb 9, 2004

Those resistors were bad about that. I had a friend that had a rig that he raced a lot that would crap out a higher rpm. He had taken it to 4 dealerships and 3 independent garages and they couldn't find out what was wrong with it. I found the problem in about an hour. I really don't think that the others wanted to work on anything for racing.

JDgreen227 · Feb 9, 2004

"I'd be driving along just fine, and the engine would just quit".

I have a computer that does that all the time, we have really made progress over the years, huh? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

chim · Feb 9, 2004

Back in 1965, it was a 1959 Buick coupe. Fire engine red. Grandparents generously provided it. My Grandma chose it because she thought the mag wheels were so spiffy. I don't think we ever got a picture of it. Kinda resembled a red Batmobile.................chim

Bird · Feb 9, 2004

( Turned out to be a cracked resistor )

Was that the one they called a "ballast resistor"? I never had a Mopar quit while running, but we spent a weekend at Toledo Bend Lake once when I was pulling a little travel trailer with a '72 Chrysler Town & Country wagon and when we got ready to leave, it wouldn't start; no Chrysler dealer in the nearest town, but the Chevrolet dealer advertised repair service for all makes in the yellow pages. They towed it in and 3 guys spent a day and a half trying to get it started before I suggested that they call I Chrysler dealer (I told them I'd pay for the phone call) and the Chrysler dealer promptly told them to replace the ballast resistor which fixed it (5 minute job and $2 part). So when one of my daughters was driving my '77 Dodge pickup and called one night when she was getting off work and it wouldn't start, I went and got a ballast resistor and changed it; that's all it took. But my '68 Roadrunner never failed to go. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

GaryM · Feb 9, 2004

A 1959 Pontiac Catalina in black with a red interior. Bought used in 1965 for about $300. Needed a little work. Had a bad waterleak somewhere in the back. When parked facing up a hill in a hard rain, water would collect under the rear seat. Drive up the hill to a level spot and hit the brakes and a wave would sweep under the front seats and get your feet wet.

Punched a few holes in the floor to let the water out.

fivestring · Feb 9, 2004

"1960 Rambler Ambassador I paid a 100 bucks for, what a piece of junk!"

That was the first vehicle I rode in with the vacuum-operated wipers. The slower the engine speed - the slower the wipers! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Dozernut · Feb 9, 2004

Those vacuum wipers were a real gem. That Rambler also had a window washer. It consisted of a large squeeze bulb on the floor by the dimmer switch. To wash your windows you just stepped on the squeeze bulb to squirt fluid. The only neat thing about that old Rambler was that the seats would lay flat and you could make a bed out on them. Great for camping but not as much fun when its in up on blocks in your yard!

TWINKLE_TOES · Feb 9, 2004

Gary, I recall the way they worked a little differently. 50MPH down the higway, step on the gas wipers stop, downshift on hill and the go like a bat outta heck. Idle or cruise they run somewhere in between.

wroughtn_harv · Feb 9, 2004

If the British can do nothing else then can put a paint job on a car.

When I got home from the service January of 69 I had some savings, a job at GTE waiting for me, and three years of catching up to do.

I was twenty going on sixteen--forty. I narrowed my choices down to three. 67 Corvette with a 427 and a four speed, a little rough. 67 Datsun 2000 with the hundred and fifty horse motor, Minlites, Michelins, and a five speed. New 68 TR4A IRS, black, not just black black either, black as seeing yourself coming or going in it black.

My heart loved the Datsun. Puppy would get it and sing while doing so. But I got the Triumph.

It came with 5:90 fifteen nylons. Volkswagens came with 5:60 fifteens if I remember correctly. They lasted three thousand miles. All four were no treads even. That was important to me. I'd heard that Jim Clark wore his tires that way. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

It was a toot and just perfect for me. It didn't take me long to develop a gift for gab out of self preservation. If I couldn't get away with murder with the cops I skated with the judge. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

One morning I walked the mile or so to traffic court. I was facing a ninety five in a sixty five and I figured I was dead meat so I might as well not risk having the car towed because I no longer would have a license. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

But as usual I got lucky. Right after the judge sat down for business a pregnant woman carrying a baby came in. I elbowed the guy next to me as he tried to get up. She got my seat and I stood in the back of the room real polite like.

When he called my case he pointed out that my minimum sentence was two hundred dollars and ten days in jail. I definately remember him saying "and ten days in jail". Or I could go to traffic school.

I'd been raised with honesty being the best policy. So I ducked my head and informed the good old judge that I had graduated from traffic school just the night before for three other tickets.

He asked me if I wanted the two hundred dollar fine and the ten days in jail or traffic school. Even in my youth I was a quick thinker. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif And even a faster talker. I think I skipped all the way home. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

It was a fun car and we had many adventures. I imagine she's owned by some collector now. I doubt if they've removed her memories though. Like the time the the two fighter pilots from Norton AFB let us have the ugly gal while they took the two pretty ones in their XKE convertibles. I passed them in the curves going up old Waterman Canyon on our way to Crestline. They were not happy campers. They weren't real comfortable with the tires squealing much less all four loose in a drift. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif They found out there is a difference between looking fast and being fast.

I paid twenty nine hundred dollars for her tax, license, etc in January 69. She had leather seats, neat wood dash, and we had fun. She'd only do a hundred and fifteen but she did it often. North of Phoenix we caught a swarm of honey bees at that speed. I had the top down and all of a sudden the windshield turned yellow. It had a pump winshield washer. I had that little kicker doing double time getting to see once again. I didn't know it was bees I'd hit until I got where I was going and found some not totally yellow globs that were obviously bees.

Just thinking about her brings a smile. We had a bond. The ladies loved her. And gawd knows I loved the ladies. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif