First Car Stories

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WRB426

Insane 4 Mopars
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I was 16 in the summer of 1985. I was working with an older friend doing tree work for the summer. Every morning we would pass a gas station with a 70 Charger 500 ( 383 auto A/C P/S P/B Console Orig plum crazy but painted black white inter.) At the end of summer the Charger was still there. We stopped and was told he was selling it for a customer that lived up the street. I got the number and called. The guy had bought it to fix up and drive but lost interest. He wanted $1000.00. More money then I had at the time. I told him he he was interested I could give him $300 down and pay $50-$100 a week til it was paid for. I think he saw the love I had for the Charger and agreed. For months I rode my bicycle to the next town to drop off a payment and drool over hopefully MY Charger. I got good exercise doing that. A couple of weeks before Christmas he said he was going away and wanted the Charger gone when he got back. He said he wasn't worried about the last of the money he knew I was good for it. He joked that anyone who ride every week to drop off a payment could be trusted for the rest. So I had my mother to bring me over to get the Charger. With only my permit ( no license yet) and an expired plate that I found in my basement I was off. Bald tires, exhaust leak and half of the lights not working didn't bother me. Down the street it stalled and I barely got it running again. Once running the big pedal went to the floor and the 383 howled like a bear. When I got home my mother asked me how she was to follow me when i drove that fast. LOL Christmas morning came and I had the best present a 16 year old could want. A big block Mopar in the driveway. God I miss that car and if I had the money I would like to see if it survived. This is my first car story and I'm sticking to it. I had a bunch of good experiences with that car. I could keep the stories going but maybe that will be another thread!
 
Awesome story man! My first car was a 72 demon, slant six, 3 speed manual on the floor. Dad bought it for me so we could fix it up together. You know, father son project type of thing. I remember that if I pressed the clutch pedal too far down it would stick to the floor! I vividly remember sitting at a stop light on a road that went up hill, and damn near rolling back in to the car behind me as I was trying to fetch the clutch pedal lol. That car got me in to a bunch of trouble at school. Not that it was fast lol, it was noisy as hell. The lifters needed to be adjusted badly, and the original exhaust was pretty much rotted off. I went hauling *** thru the back parking lot at school chasing my buddy in his turbo dodge shadow. We came around the corner and there was a student teacher walking with a special needs kid. I missed them by a good 6 feet, but I got reported to the principal. The next day I show up for school and get called into the office. I open the door and there stood a city of Aurora police officer. My buddy was already in the office. We were both written tickets for "Failure to yield to a handicapped pedestrian" and " Wreckless driving". I had to got to court with my dad. He wasnt too mad. My mom was furious! She didnt even know about it until after my dad and I went to court! I ended up with ZERO points left on my drivers license until I turned 18. Needless to say, I drove like a saint for almost two years. I learned a lesson that day thats for sure!
 
my first car was a '68 Mustang coupe (VIN# 8R01C165212- the only one of my vehicles I know that about). Had a 302 in it, bought a 351C cheap (a friend had it in a demo derby car, got the engine from him afterwards).
Turns out when you put a Cleveland in a '68 Mustang the car becomes a tire smoke factory.

edit- sorry I had to write about a Mustang in the Mopar General Discussion section:D
 
Nice thread WRB426. I'm gonna post on here soon as i wake up tomorrow, late on the east coast now:)
 
The first car I drove was a '75 Valiant. The first car I legally owned was my '72 Dart Swinger. I had an opportunity and bought the '75 Valiant later, so I have 'em both now.

:)

The first car I owned was a '73 Dart, but the guy I got it from just claimed to own it and told me to tow it, so I never got a title. (Don't hate, I was only 15)
I had to scrap it instead of fix it. A decade later, almost to the day, that I got rid of it, the salvage yard I sold it to listed it on eBay and it still had my license plate on it, so I drove 120 miles and bought my original license plate back (I almost bought the car but there wasn't much left).
 
Ok I got into a ton of trouble with this car she was a 69 coronet sb car I cant tell ya how many motor mounts i went though in her .. I even junked an 8 3/4 .. I know u want pics lmao Well there coming so hold on lol .Any time i drove the car at night I would get pulled over Why ur thinking well that 3 brake light was out lmao ... If ya dont know coronets the middle one aint a light lol Then there was the one time i got clocked at 120 + ... You should have seen my 17 year old *** talk my way outta that lol ... Then bout the time i jumped it .. The back doors never shut the same after that lol ... How many sets of back tires it went though ... How many times was it side ways on gravle on the back roads ..... How bout the time when i got busted going side ways on the back roads Oops ... How bout the time I drove though a corn feld .. Btw It was a side ways that went wrong lol .. Or the time i almost fliped it when i didn get it back under me .. Btw thanks chuck aka dobadaddy ! His words I bet you cant do it agin ..... Well he was right lol ..... Ah good times .... If ya dont beleave me ask chuck lmao He didnt beleave me that i jumped it tell he talk to the guys that was in it wwith me hahaha Good times .... Btw much smarter now lol :cheers:




Ps this post took me forever to do i HOPE ya like it :)
 
Nice post Asa. No stories yet with my first car (its not done yet gimme a break I'm only 14) but its a '69 340 4 speed GTS.
 
Thanks kiddo Just dont do what i did ... If i had been smart i would still be driving my 1st car lol
 
I'll try and be brief:). It was late 1974 and i was set to get my license in Feb. 75, 16th b-day. Moved to a neighborhood in 1970 that had 10-12 guys in their late teens and early 20s and all most all of them drove Mopar muscle of some type. Needless to say now i'm hooked. Back to 74', i was determined to have a 340 car and liked Dusters more then anything else. My best friend, seeing my passion for the 340 engine, decided he'd like one also but he was into 68-69 Darts. He was already driving at the time, his dad's 72 Vega and i was set to inherite a 1963 4 dr. Chevy II. We looked at alot of cars, mainly for him at the time, and looking back i am amazed what poor condition most were in. Just some were....68 GTS 383. 69 GTS 340, 2-69 Swinger 340s. Quarter rust, body damage, interiors with alot of wear, high mileage, etc. Well, he decided to just keep driving the Vega for a while. My grandfather had set aside $1,500 for my first car and i was getting close to my license and it was burning a hole in my pocket:). I was pumping gas at a shell station full time, yea we actully did that and for $1.60 hr. no less. So many cars came through there, mainly GM's, and i couldn't take it anymore. A super clean 69 Chevelle SS came in, family driven car, for sale at $1,600. Well $1,400 later it was mine.
Now, 1 week later mind you, here comes my buddy with a want-ad paper and says let's go look at this Duster. Well he bought it for $1,050 dollars, got a trunk full of parts that he sold and made enough to buy the wheels that are pictured on it. He got the car i wanted:banghead:. Next for me was a 71 Scamp 318, but my timing really sucked on the first one.
P.S. every one of the Darts we looked at were priced under a grand.
 

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First car was a 1960 Chevrolet Impala that was given to me by a friends dad. I spent the whole summer of 1984 getting that piece of crap to run and got my license in November of that same year.

HATED THAT CAR!!! The only good memory I have of it is that I took my ex on our first date in it.

My second car was a 1974 Plymouth Gold Duster. It was red/white with a 318.

Since I am on a Mopar site, guess which car was my favorite!

I tell people my first car was a Chevy. My second car was a Mopar. I have been a Mopar man ever since.
 
MY first car as a 1951 Ford that i bought in 58 with a loan from my grandpa. I was easy on it as I only broke 5 trans, 3 axels, 2 U joints and 3 clutches. I didn't think that I drove that hard, just bad luck. My first Mopar was Maverick's 60 Dodge Phoenix 383 with short rams. Best of 13.79 and 105 on street tires. That is when the street had better traction that the strip. Yes, I am an old fart
 
My brother bought a 1969 307 4 speed Nova to play around with. After he did a few things here and there the timing chain jumped a tooth and he lost interest. I was to get my license in a few weeks and he told me if i could fix it, i could have it ! i fixed it, he kept his word and gave me the car so i cleaned it up, sold it and bought a 72' Demon /6 auto with A/C :) i've had nothing but MOPARS since ;)
 
First car wasn't a Mopar, but it eventually led to my first '69 Dart.
Summer of '66 and I'd just graduated from HS and was planning to commute to college in the Fall. My parents were looking at buying a new Oldsmobile 98 so worked a combo deal with the dealership and I ended up with a 2-year old '64 Cutlass, 330" V8, 2-speed auto for $1600.
Met my first wife in that car that same summer - oh, the stories that car could tell. Got married the summer of '69 and it was our only car for awhile. A couple of months later my wife got hit in it one day on her way to work and we decided we needed a second car. That second car turned out to be a '69 Dart 340 Swinger that we picked up used in November '69 for $2500 from a guy going into the Navy. The Dart already had a new set of Cragars on it.
Ended up selling the Cutlass in January '71 when I headed off for Basic Training at Ft. Polk, LA. Bought a used '70 Charger 500 when I got back from AIT in May same year. Got the Charger for $2500 from a young couple that were moving to Hawaii.
 
I bought my first car in 1955.....it was a 6 year old Olds "Rocket 88". It cost my $285......my life savings as a 16 year old. :cheers:
 
my first car was a escort station wagon.. named the red rocket.. haha
 
My 1st Car was a 66 Dart. I was coming home from work at about Midnight some 29 years ago. It was snowing pretty hard and I had Bias Ply tires. The town was Clinton, NJ and I was passing Laneco which is now a Wal-Mart and there was about 1.5 inches of snow on the road. As I headed down the hill, I noticed a Tractor trailer blocking the entire road under the Rt. 78 overpass. I hit the brakes and my Dart just started sliding toward the truck. I prepared myself to go under the trailer by laying down on the seat. I knew the roof would not clear the trailer and figured it would either get ripped off or cave in and crush me. I started praying "Dear God please help me". As soon as I started praying God answered me. "We" sat up and everything went into slow motion. It felt like 2 Mph but I was sliding at about 40 with the brakes applied. I know God had taken the wheel and we glided to the left side of the road. The curb felt like cotton as My dart bumped against it. I was looking at about a 4 foot opening between the *** end of the trailer and the curb. Some how the Dart fit through the opening without a scrape. When I came out the other side, There were cars spun out everywhere. At least a Dozen. We steered through and around every car again without a scratch. I pulled up into Pip's Texaco and Parked. Walked over to the pay phone and called my Girlfriends house. Her and her Dad came and got me in the tan Chevy 4x4. I'll never ever forget that day. I have had many more close calls Especially in My Big Rig. I luckily remembered to pray and somehow got through them all without a scratch. I am not one to push religion on anyone but All the details are true. I always planned to put my true story in book form with pictures of the Dart and the Truck etc... Just never got around to it.
 
I was working at Burger King in 1982. By the time school let out for the summer, I had a few bucks saved up. The Dukes of Hazzard was popular then, and I really wanted a Charger. No Internet then, No Auto Trader magazine either... It was used car lots and classified ads, or bugging the old man about his car on the side of his house.
I saw a '70 Charger 500 near my school. It was F8 with green interior, 318/904 and in decent shape. The sign in the window read $1500. I didn't have $1500. I ended up going to look at a 69 Dart that was in my price range : $500. I ended up buying it for $400.
318 2 barrel, 904 trans, 7 1/4" axle and 4 wheel drums. They sure built a LOT of them that way! Red with a black interior. I drove the car when it would run, but that turd left me walking quite a bit. It always seemed to have some electrical problem waiting to happen. I had the car from July '82 to August '83. I put in 3 starters, 3 batteries, 2 alternators & VRs and one starter relay. Being 17 and inexperienced, I never figured out the root problem. It could have been as simple as poor connections at the bulkhead.
I made several mistakes with the car. Once I installed ignition points and couldn't get it to start afterwards. I called a buddy for advice. His response? "What did you gap the points at?"
"Uhhh, GAP points?" I didn't know you had to do that!
I used to take the car on dirt trails to drive like Bo Duke. I got stuck several times but never jumped it. I added slotted mags and air shocks and had it painted. About 8 months after I sold it, I saw the car in a self serve wrecking yard. It had no body damage and this was several years before CA required smog checks, so my guess was that the new owner also got tired of pushing and towing the car and junked it. That was my first car and my first A body. Today I have owned 56 cars and 24 have been A bodies. I currently have a 67 Dart GT, a 71 Duster and a 74 Duster. I love these cars!
 
Mine is an F body that I drove for two weeks and then decided it need a 4bbl in HS. Anyway I still have the car all torn apart, I have built a few cars since then and the F body sits waiting for time and money. Lol I could have put it together a few times over for what I have in all the other cars.
 
My first car was a 1970 torino super cobra jet. It was an original 429 4 speed car. The day I got my license it rained and my mom wouldn't let me drive it to school, so I took her car and she pulled out in front of a semi truck and it was no more. I sold the 429 to a ford guru in the neighborhood and got a 1970 ranchero to boot. Long story short I wound up with the ranchero, running a warmed up 250 I6 mustang motor, with a top loader 4 speed, and a 9" with 4.10 gears. It would give any of the then super popular 5.0 mustangs the rich kids had a run for their money, It claimed many IROC camaro's and multiple Chevy trucks as well as a few V-8 S10's.
 
I was working at Burger King in 1982. By the time school let out for the summer, I had a few bucks saved up. The Dukes of Hazzard was popular then, and I really wanted a Charger. No Internet then, No Auto Trader magazine either... It was used car lots and classified ads, or bugging the old man about his car on the side of his house.
I saw a '70 Charger 500 near my school. It was F8 with green interior, 318/904 and in decent shape. The sign in the window read $1500. I didn't have $1500. I ended up going to look at a 69 Dart that was in my price range : $500. I ended up buying it for $400.
318 2 barrel, 904 trans, 7 1/4" axle and 4 wheel drums. They sure built a LOT of them that way! Red with a black interior. I drove the car when it would run, but that turd left me walking quite a bit. It always seemed to have some electrical problem waiting to happen. I had the car from July '82 to August '83. I put in 3 starters, 3 batteries, 2 alternators & VRs and one starter relay. Being 17 and inexperienced, I never figured out the root problem. It could have been as simple as poor connections at the bulkhead.
I made several mistakes with the car. Once I installed ignition points and couldn't get it to start afterwards. I called a buddy for advice. His response? "What did you gap the points at?"
"Uhhh, GAP points?" I didn't know you had to do that!
I used to take the car on dirt trails to drive like Bo Duke. I got stuck several times but never jumped it. I added slotted mags and air shocks and had it painted. About 8 months after I sold it, I saw the car in a self serve wrecking yard. It had no body damage and this was several years before CA required smog checks, so my guess was that the new owner also got tired of pushing and towing the car and junked it. That was my first car and my first A body. Today I have owned 56 cars and 24 have been A bodies. I currently have a 67 Dart GT, a 71 Duster and a 74 Duster. I love these cars!

Don't you just love being young and no clue on working on cars? Every time I worked on my Charger it wouldn't run after. My older friend would come over to help. The first thing he would ask is what I was touching. Surprise I usually screwed something up.lol
 
My first car was a 70 Coronet 4dr. I bought it in 1984 at the age of 12 from a friend's dad for the whopping sum of $20. It had no trans, and the 318 was in the trunk, lol. I spent most of 2 years paper route money buying parts, (rad, trans, driveshaft, etc) and then learned the frame was rusted out. Parted it and got my investment back, and made $5 profit. Been wheelin and dealin ever since.
 
My first car was a 70 Coronet 4dr. I bought it in 1984 at the age of 12 from a friend's dad for the whopping sum of $20. It had no trans, and the 318 was in the trunk, lol. I spent most of 2 years paper route money buying parts, (rad, trans, driveshaft, etc) and then learned the frame was rusted out. Parted it and got my investment back, and made $5 profit. Been wheelin and dealin ever since.
High 5 for the coronet ... Mine met its end to a guy that parted her out for 2 bees mine had no rust :banghead:
 
High 5 for the coronet ... Mine met its end to a guy that parted her out for 2 bees mine had no rust :banghead:
Second car was a 70 parts car for the first one, seventh car was a 69 4dr 440 model. Almost bought a 69 4dr 500 model for my eighth, but bought a 76 Doba instead.:eek:ops:
 
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