How did you get into Cars,and the Car hobby ??

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MOPARMITCH

MOPARMITCH

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There is a thread over on FBBO like this. I thought it would be interesting to hear other's stories .. Here is my story.

My life before age 11 was spent overseas with my Air Force Dad. Not many American friends, no TV, so my brother and I had to find stuff to keep us occupied. My Dad bought us Aurora H.O. car sets. We had a few sets and could make a pretty big track on the platform that my Dad built. Remember getting the Hop Up kits for them and making them better. Had some pretty cool HO cars back there in the mid 60's. Also used to occupy my time with building plastic models. Everything from Cars to Planes To Boats. Learned a lot about assembly in those days. When we returned to the states in 68, we lived on Eglin AFB in Fla before Dad went to Nam. When he got back, he got an assignment with the 89th at Andrews AFB. He had brought back with him from Austria a 64 MG 1100 4dr sedan. Had an 1100cc transverse mounted 4 banger with a 4 speed. The Engine was getting worn. I remember telling Dad, that I thought I could rebuild it. To my astonishment he brought home a FSM for the MG. At age 14, He gave it to me and said after I read it all, he would let me do it. Took the engine out of the car on the street. Took it for my first ever trip to a machine shop and had the machine work done. Went home and assembled the engine myself. First one ever. Put it back in the car , and it RAN. Amazed myself !! Only problem was I had the timing off by 180 deg. After I figured that out, it was fine. Never looked back. Been wrenching on my own stuff all my life. I'm 58 now. Lost my Dad to cancer, due to exposure of Agent Orange in Nam. He died at the young age 56 in 1989. Took me a while to realize the risk and confidence he had in me to allow that MG engine to happen. Thanks Dad. I miss you and love you!!
 
It started for me in 1956. I was 6 years old. Back than my father used to drive my mother to the supermarket, once a week ( she didn't drive at the time). I used to go with them and, while they were shopping, I would sit by the magazine rack, across from the cash registers, and "read" ( what words I could read a 6 years) the various car mags. I also used to have a decent collections of Matchbox cars and trucks, as well as some other brands of the day. That year I also started building model cars, and trucks.

One day, while at the A&P with my parents, as they were on line at the register, my Dad asked me if I wanted the magazine I was looking at. I did, so he bought it for me. It was HotRod. Magazine. IT wasn't long after that that he would buy me a magazine on cars or model cars every week. HotRod, Car Craft ( and they were vastly different then to. Hotrod concentrated on mostly pro-built cars, and Car Craft was mostly home built stuff). There was also Moter Trend, Rod and Custom, Car Life, Motor Life, Rodding and Restyling, Custom Rodder, Popular Mechanics, etc....

So, I became a car enthusiast at 6 years old, back in 1956.

First motorized vehicle: 1958 ( 8 years old) 2.5HP lawmower engine on a J.C. Higgins bike

First purchased motorized Vehicle 1959 (9 years old) 5HP go cart.

First car in 1965- (15 years old) It was a 57 Ford Fairlane inline 6 cylinder engine, 3 on the tree, $25.00 ( 2 payments). lol

First MoPar in 1966 - (16 years old) 1956 Wayfarer Flathead inline 6 cyl. 3 speed. $48.00

First New MoPar in 1968: (18 years old) 1968 Hemi Roadrunner, 833-4sp, Dana 60/4.10 Rear.

First van. 1969 (19 years old) 1969 VW Bus. Blue and white, with black and read interior. I needed something to carry my basses and amps, and stuff. ANd something that get better than 9 MPG around town ( Hemi RR).
 
family had a dodge dealer, then Studebaker, then Mercedes. Dad was the tech and a round track racer of the family and his brother ran the business side. I used to hang out there after school, started at 5 years old. hung out in the cellar where they kept all the tires. still love that smell!
Started working on mercedes there when I was 14, self taught, guess it's in the genes!
Still at it for better or worse with my own business.
 
Living with people who were/are in the towing business and had a rural salvage yard and know almost everyone else in the salvage/towing business in the area.

Since I was almost 15 in 2001 I have been living in a salvage yard setting and it became normal as breathing to go outside every morning and see a lot of old cars everywhere and to hear tow trucks in and out.

when your a kid its fun to pilfer through junk cars and sit in them and make engine noises and pretend your going somewhere without moving......oh wait ...I still do that :???:

simply put.
 

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Neighbors kids were into hot street cars, dirt bikes, 4x4's. Hung out , and learned from them to start.
 
Got a Sears mini-bike when I was 6 years old, then a Honda 50, then a Honda 70, then a Yamaha 125. Rode ALL the time and messed with the engines and such.

Around 14 years old a lot of guys rented garage space in an old shoe factory near my house...I hung out with them and learned a ton! No Mopar guys that I can remember. My dad had Mopars all his life.

My first car was a 72 Duster, then I got a Dodge Van, then I bought a new 4x4 Toyota pickup and went Air Force and got away from the hobby until a few years ago. Now I have a couple of 1966 Barracuda's...the first model of car I remember my dad having.

Now I'm back to getting grease under my fingernails and can't get enough of the hobby!!
 
Well I was born into it. It started in 1979 and the day I left the hospital in a 73 duster. First stop was the body shop my dad worked at which was the local dodge dealer. 6 months later he bought his 66 charger. The charger is still with us. Then we built 70-74 challengers. Then at the age of 11 we picked up my 69 swinger. We built it and I drove it everyday to school. Now I'm trying to teach my girls to love cars. I bought my oldest a 2001 off road ram.
 
For me I really believe it was genetic - although I didn't get any training or teaching from my dad about cars. I lost my dad when I was only 7. But I learned later he was performance oriented since he would only drive a Hudson Hornet - and back then Hudsons were one one of the hottest cars on the street. Remember the "Fabulous Hudson Hornets" of early NASCAR fame?
I didn't get any automotive encouragement from my mom after my dad passed. In fact, the following year she discouraged me from taking an offered chance to take over the driving of a quarter midget car that some of our family friends from church owned. Their daughter was going to be too old to drive the following season and they offered me the ride but my mom wasn't in favor of it. I've always wondered how my life may have been different.
Having been born in SoCal and growing up in the time period I did, I always had an interest in cars and hot rods. It was always a treat every September/October when the new models came out to walk to the Ford and Chevy dealers in town to try to sneak a peak at the new cars before they were officially out in the showrooms. The dealerships would get those huge rotating spotlights and light up the night sky when the new models came out.
I started out building model airplanes but quickly switched to cars and the 3-in-in kits from AMT and Jo-Han, and later MPC when they came out.
My cousin and I both received Strombecker slot car sets the same Christmas and we'd put the two sets together to build the biggest track we could.
In Junior High I used to spend a lot of class time drawing hot rods. I remember a gift exchange we were going to have in my 7th grade homeroom class. A couple of days before the gift exchange on the last day of school before the Christmas break, I'd finally gotten the girl who'd drawn my name to tell me what my gift was and she told me it was a model car. I took a tube of glue with me to school that day and put the model together right there in class (today, that tube of glue at school would probably get me expelled or arrested!)
My mom and stepdad both worked for the school district so we'd always take a short vacation over Easter break. In April of '63 we got one of the new cars the school district had just gotten for their Driver Education program and took a road trip to Sequoia National Park. While in Sequoia, one day we stopped by the general store that used to be the area by the cabin we were staying in. I walked in and fell in love! Right there on the magazine rack was the April 1963 issue of Hot Rod Magazine with the Tom McMullen deuce roadster on the cover (check out the price - 50 cents).

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That was my very first car magazine buy and I read that issue cover-to-cover so many times the print just about fell off the pages. I was hooked for life!
During high school my friends either had Fords or Chevys and I wanted something different. We'd go out cruising Whittier Blvd. after football games and even do a little street racing.
I didn't get my first car until the summer after I graduated - a '64 Olds Cutlass with a 330-inch V8, 2 bbl, and 2-speed automatic. It sure couldn't compete with my best friend's '63 Impala 425-horse 409 or my other friend's cars: 289-powered Falcon Futura, 327-powered Nova, or brand-new 396-powered Chevelle.
My first Mopar came a few years later when I picked up a very slightly used '69 340 Swinger in November of 1969. That Swinger spent time out on Whittier Blvd. on Friday and Saturday nights, occasional runs down the quarter-miles at Orange County International Raceway and Irwindale.
Wow! Great memories!


 
It was all a big mistake.
 
Dad started to work at Chrysler in 1953

my brother and I built models and races slot cars

but my dad would help out inspecting and fixing cars at my uncles body shop and I was always with dad till he had to go to work (afternoons)

played in the cars as a kid, at 6 got dads 56 chevy 3 on the tree in neutral and down the driveway it went but dad got there before it got in the ditch. Then pushed 2 buttons on the 64 Dodge and jambed the controls and dad had to fix it, started driving at 10 in my brothers 62 Corvair and dad let me start driving the 64 Dodge at 11

started working on my brothers and sisters car myself at probably 13,

started drivers training at 14

before getting my 1st car Dad said "YOU WILL DRIVE A CHRYSLER PRODUCT"

bought my 67 Barracuda at 15, rebuilt the 273 HIPO out of my sisters Formula S and put in my cuda at 16

Dad was always there to help me when I got in trouble.

Birthdays and Christmas I always ask for tools, I still have a lot of the gifts I received when in school, got my 1st roll around tool box for high school graduation

My dad said I would never get my Dart back together, it was apart for 10 years, dad got to drive it with open headers, no front fenders or any lights. I think he would be proud of how it turned out

Dad helped tear the 340 down when I had 2 stuck pistons. I was busy doing something outside the barn and could hear him beating on it, I told him I would get it. He wouldn't leave it alone. Had been spraying it with PB Blaster for a couple of weeks every time I was over there. Dad got a piece of 2x4 and big hammer and just kept hitting it and by the time I got back inside he had them both out. He also helped some putting it back together.

The car the day he got to drive it

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so guess I was born to work on cars. Dad never had fast cars but enjoyed driving mine. He never drove my Prowler, I offered several times, think he was afraid to drive it
 
I was 12 yrs old in 1974 and my sisters boyfriend had fast cars. All Chevy stuff but going sideways down a single lane hwy thru 4 gears sets you in the seat regardless what it is. I was hooked on Fast cars ever since.
 
My earliest memory was when I was maybe 5 years old I would watch my Dad work on cars and play gopher for him.If he needed a half inch wrench he would tell me to get the one with the 1 and 2 on it. At age 14 we were getting ready to do our 1st Father /Son project ( 51 Studebaker Pickup and an Olds 303 CI engine) and trans when He was killed in an on the job accident.My Mom had to sell the Pickup but gave me a running 52 Chevy He had just bought.Me and my buddies took it to a friends farm so we could drive it around in the fields(this was 1963 so no helicopter parenting was happening).As we broke it we all would pitch in and buy parts and figure out how to get it going again.Forgetting about a 3 foot irrigation ditch that winter ended the life of that car for good.After that I picked up various cars and fixed and sold them until I turned 16 Then went to work and bought my 1st legally driven car..a 55 Buick with a 322 Nail Head motor that my Cousin had built(cam..4 barrel....Dumps ).Hung around with gearhead buddies until I married the 1st time at 18 that pretty much ended my "Hotrod'days for quit a while.Pretty much just learned everything by trial and error and still consider myself just an average back yard mechanic although I have earned a living at it at various times.Like I told my present Wife" it's in my blood and will never leave" Sorry to ramble but that's about it
 
Mine was because of my Dad.. In 1976 he raced a 1967 Shelby GT500 that had a 427 built by Homer Moody. Great car and dad even had the record for B super stock stick for 1 week..

We as a family got out and worked on the car and all went to the races...

Sure do miss dad....
 
my dad was in early 40's when I was born, he had spent his life in Marine aviation/mechanics, 5 years of war took quite a toll on him mentally,and after the service, he had little interest in anything mechanical. so I wasn't born into cars!

at age 13, I decided I loves horses. why? don't know. maybe genetics. so I began to persue anything horse. age 14, I rode my horse into the country of s w Ga, picked up $400 worth of pecans and bought a GOOD new roping saddle!

drives liscense in 1964, yea I wanted a FAST car, but dad gave me a 49 chevy that barely got me there ( or not). I lusted for SPEED! if I had a fast one, I could have ended dead like more than a few kids I knew,

fast forward.....by mid 80's I decided I would get into a fast car. that started my Mopar thing. Dad had no use for the unitized body, he was chevy guy then ford after getting mad a chevy dealer! LOL but I decided Mopar made the fastest, the baddest!! so that's where I went. 1985 I buy a 69 roadrunner roller for $50, complete less engine, all there and F8 green , looked ugly. sold it for $500 to guys for parts car. he took it ALL apart,and 6-7 yrs later, he calls me and sells all the parts back plus 440- 6 complete engine, dana, basement full of parts and another 69 runner project for like $2,500. his wife had gotten tired of all this in basement and car in garage, the house was probably a $400,000 home back then!!! I sold that stuff for around $10,000 and I was off..

from that point, I owned many desirable cars, I had MY cars and the trade cars.

no more boring stuff.....still got my horses and a few cars ( none so called rare).
 
cheesy 70's/80's tv shows with car scenes

the last of the rumbling 60's+ hotrods driving streets while I was a young child

cheap hotwheel, matchbox, fast ones toy cars, and HO scale model trains, later remote control cars, then radio contolled cars...

...70's left overs in highschool parking lot & tons of stories, in a time where Americans had a lot of spite for the Japanese vehicles flooding the market
 
the old "shine" movie made me want to see what speed was.

back in '55, I was 7, parents made trip to Fl ( from Ga) and bought new 55 ponyac. I was riding back with mom when SHE " opened" it up!" 120 down this little 2 lane blacktop! LOL wow I liked that!

1965 I was h s jr. kid had graduated and bought new 65 impala, 427 4 speed. his "occupation" was runnin shine from s w Ga to hot "lanta". cool!!!
my hero... back then.
 
My first word was "truck", and my mom often verifies this.
 
Always hung out with the older guys..my friend next door had a '70 challenger we did all kinds of work on that car,did my first cam swap at fifteen thought it was the coolest thing...then George moved in across the street with a '70 340 4-speed duster,man that car was quick(to me back then)..on my 3rd '70 duster now
 
First job pumping gas, then oil changes started there at 13!
 
here's a hot one - the first car I ever thought was cool looking was a late 60's Mustang fastback - I still remember looking out the back window of my parents car and asking what THAT car is --- it came up and passed us with a roar and that did it for me... I may have even muttered my first swear word that day - I was 8 or 9!! LOL. It was the cool look and the noise that hooked me.. still got that affliction.. it's gotta be cool lookin' and it HAS to be noisy!!! :D
 
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