First cars? (siblings)

[Pit Bull]

Originally posted by RedRam1

I'd love to have my first car back. It was a triple black '66 Chevelle, 396-375 4 speed. I paid $1650 for it in '75, the car was cherry, I got it from the original owner. It had around 50K on the clock.

WOW, that is a nice first car or second or third. I had a 68 Chevelle SS 396 4 speed but mine only had the 4 barrel on it not the 3 - 2 barrels, big difference!! What was funny about mine was that it had power brakes but no power steering (weird). The good part about that was that my wife could not drive it because she could not down shift and turn a corner at the same time

 

[RedRam1]

Pit,



The 375 horse 396 just had a holley 4bbl, I think it was a 735 or 780 cfm... I'm sure there are some experts lurking out there who will correct me if I'm wrong. The 375 also had square port heads, and a mechanical cam. The big block's with the 3 x 2 set ups were the 427-425/435 horse jobs.



Speaking of 3 2's, another car I would like to have back, and one that is probably more desirable to the TDR crowd is a '71 triple black (I didn't target black cars, it just worked out that way) 440 six pack, four speed Cuda. The car had a Dana 60 with 4:10 gears, no power anything... h@ll it had drum brakes all the way around! I moved to Texas in '77, and one of my new buddies was a car nut with lots of $$$- his dad owned a oil tool manufacturing company. My buddy loved cars, but was not the least bit mechanically inclined. He wasn't a pretty boy, who was afraid to get dirty, not in the least, he just did not have much mechanical aptitude. I had lots of ability but little $$$, it was a match made in heaven! Anyway, we bought old muscle cars, fixed them up and sold 'em (usually played with them a little first). We bought the Cuda from a guy who had just moved to Houston from Ohio, it was 99% complete, and pretty sound mechanically, but was rusty & needed a complete restoration. We usually steered clear of cars needing this much attention, but couldn't resist this one. We spent over a year and quite a bit of money on that car, even hauled it back to Georgia to get one of my buddies who builds mopar show cars to do the paint/bodywork. In the end, it was beautiful. I would have loved to have bought my buddy out and kept it, but we decided to sell. I think we paid $1800 for it and sold it for $11,500. I'll bet if you figured in our time, we probably made about 2 bucks an hour. I've done a couple of full restorations since, and still can't see how anyone makes money restoring cars.

 

[Pit Bull]

Red

That Cuda is a bad ass car. I wish I would of owned more of the muscle cars, since I grew up in the 60's. My Chevelle, I think was a 325 HP? Bought it used and it was weird how it was equiped. Vinyl top but no power steering. I know what you mean about fixing up old cars and selling them. My Dad and I use to buy old foreign cars from a junk yard in KCMO. One of our first was a 1958 Triumph TR3, with the bug eye head lights and the scooped out doors. We rebuilt the engine and transmission, did the brakes and had some body work done and then painted it. It was a beautiful car when we got done with it. Dad offered to let me buy it for what we had in it. But in those days I was more the black leather jacket kinda guy and this car was too prepschool for my taste. We put an add in the paper and at 5AM the first day of the add a guy was beating on our door. He ask if that was the car in the driveway that we were selling, and without ever driving it counted out our asking price. We got better at the pricing part after that experence. The junk yard later had a 1958-60?? Mercedes 300SL Gullwing that looked good except for needing a transmission rebuild. At the time they wanted $5000 for the SL. In those days you could buy a new Caddlac for that amount. Could not talk my Dad into buying the SL (big mistake) He said it was to much money and the transmission on that car might be more than we could handle? Would of been more than I could handle but I think my Dad could of fiqured it out.

 

[RedRam1]

Pit,



Yeah, the old muscle cars were a lot of fun, and in the late '70's/early '80's they were pretty affordable, especially the Mopars. We got fairly lucky with our 6 pack Cuda in that mopars had finally started to increase in value by the time we sold ours. For what ever reason, they did not start getting pricey until a couple of years after the Fords and GM's had started to take off (except Hemi's, they were always pretty high).



I've got a sob story to rival your Gullwing tale! My partner, the guy with the $$$, found a Ferrari 2 seater convertable for sale in San Antonio, this was probably around '79. I don't have any idea what model it was, but it was an early '60's car with a 60 degree V12 with six weber carbs. A guy had embarked on a total restoration, he rebuilt and detailed the motor and trans, and completely disassembled, piece painted, and reassembled the chassis/body. From all appearances he did a superb job... that v12 was beautiful, the detailing was top notch. What was the trouble you ask? Well, when the guy picked up the rolling chassis from the body shop - he had just had a couple dozen coats of hand rubbed Ferarri red lacquer applied (this was the '70's, and they still used lacquer on high end exotic car restorations), he was unloading the car from his trailer when it got away from him and smacked a pole in his shop dead center on the nose. The nose was screwed up pretty good, (Aluminum body) it was certianly reparable though, the hood was not on the car, so the nose was the only thing messed up. His paint job was esentially hosed though, he would have had to repair the nose, and repaint at least the whole front of the car. Well, he got disgusted, put the car in storage, and just never could work up enough enthusiasm to get back on the project. My buddy was foaming at the mouth, and digging for his checkbook, the guy wanted $16K. I pulled him off to the side, and told him we need to think about this one a little. I knew that I was going to have to do esentially all the wrenching on the car, and I also had an idea about what Ferarri parts would cost. The car looked complete, and from the quality of work the guy had done thus far, I'll bet the running gear was jam up, and all the bits and pieces necessary to finish the car were probably there, just like the guy promised, but I was just not willing to gamble $16K on it. If the motor had turned out to be junk, it would probably have cost us another 16 to repair it, and what if a lot of stuff was missing? A hand full of parts could amount to serious $$$ on a Ferarri.

I had mixed emotions, and my buddy was about to cry, but I talked him out of it. He has never let me forget it, he remembered the year model and so forth, and it turned out to be one of the cars the yuppy Wall Street types were paying 7 figures for back in the late '80's when the rich and famous started pulling their money out of the market, and investing in exotic cars. No matter how much we would have ended up spending to finish up the restoration, we could have made a mint! I guess you live and learn. I did manage to keep one fairly valuable car from my muscle car days though, a '69 Boss 429 Mustang. Just wish I still had the '66 Chevelle, and 6 pack Cuda to go with it!

 

[lgibson]

My family was poor so we had to buy our own cars. Both sisters got married and then got cars. My first car was a 57 Studebaker wagon given to me the day i was born. My grandfather bought it new then gave it to me in 1967. In high school I bought a 1984 Ford F-150 ext. cab. I bought it from my father who bought it new 8 months earlier. He bought a 85 F-250 6. 9. The first car I bought without any help was a 69 Cornett 440 with just over 65,000 miles. It was'nt running because some shadetree mech. gave it a tune-up and could not set up a dual-point distributor. It was green with two black strips and a 4 door. I paid $100. 00 and got it running with nothing in parts. Boy did that car move.



I moved and left it at the shop that I worked at the time. Brannans(sp?) in Victoria, Tx. I never went back for it. I ended up buying a 86 Honda CRXsi that was bombed. 2. 0 twin turbo, custom suspention, fancy body work, a very, very fast car. I had it for less than a year and it was stolen, never recovered.

 

[rrausch]

My first car was a 1946 Chevy panel truck that I put a '56 Pontiac V-8 and Hydromatic in and added 3 deuces! Did it all in Ag. Shop! Good old Mr. Grieb, the teacher, never batted an eye! I never got it street legal, cause I didn't have the title, but man did I ever learn a whole lot building that truck. It sat out in our barn until my brother gave it away in the mid 1980's without telling me! Bummer. Then:

1957 Olds 2-door hardtop. Great car.

1958 Corvette, yellow with built 327. I still dream about that car!

1953 Chevy 4-door. "The Brown Cow"

A 3-Cyl 2-stroke Saab! Neat little car. Lots of heart.

A succession of 3 Volkswagon busses which I had a lot of fun with.

1969 Impala With a 396

A 1969 K. Ghia which was so rusty one of the parking lights fell out one day! I cut the top off, welded the doors shut and made a convertible out of it!

1971 MGB GT. What a POS! Every month SOMETHING worth $100 broke.

1980 Camaro, 305 4-speed stick. Good car.

1954 Chevy 1/2 Ton, restored by me, stolen by Mexicans, never saw it again.

1953 Chevy 210 Cobnvertible, bodywork done, in primer, waiting for more.

1954 Chevy 3/4 Ton, restored by me.

1982 Ford 2-ton, 400 c. i. gasser, 373 rear end. Good truck!

1995 Dodge/Cummins. The best of the lot!

 

[duaneparks]

I'll throw my story in here...



My first car (in 1985) was a '83 Olds Omega 2dr 4spd. Loved the car, blew too many head gaskets... 3 of them. Traded it for a '85 Chevy Cavalier (in '86) 8 months after my dad bought it for me.



My 24 year old brother's first car? '82 Maxima in 1992. Now he drives a '94 twin turbo RX7 (his 2nd car), both provided by mom and my stepdad (brother's dad).



My 21 year old sister's first car? '84 Olds Calais, then moved to a '92 Crown Vic, then to a '66 Dart (burnt orange with slant six), then to a '96 Celica, all provided by mom and my stepdad (same guy as above).



I wish I had that Dart, but mom likes it too much to part with it. Can you blame her?



But look what I drive now:

'01 Ram 4x4, now that's what I'm talkin'!

'49 CJ2a

'98 Maxima (when the girlfriend lets me)

'82 'Vette (when my dad wants to borrow my truck)



Now, for my kids (7 yr old twin boys), I plan on restoring two '68 Chevy stepsides with more modern drivetrains... unless they change their minds on what they want between now and when they start driving, which could happen.



Duane

 

[98rammer]

please, i don't mean any flames or whatnot here. i'm extremely lucky to have my truck as i am 17 right now. I do know what it's like to live in poverty after my parents got divorced! i'm currently looking for another job as i quit my last one (problems). all the money that was coming out before was going to the truck payments, insurance, and fuel. i'll be working at least 40 hours a week over the summer, but i'm looking at doing 55 hours to help more and save a small bit for a transmission in many years . my dad and i have fun, we both love motorsports (that's how i have my snowmobile). my mom and i have struggled before-being real bad at times, but we're doing much better now. no, not everything is handed down onto a silver platter for me, and i'm extremely grateful that my mom is helping me to pay this thing off. (plus, i will be going to college for diesel mechanics--big help). i know two other kids-16 and 17 who have brand new extended cab 2500 diesels who work hard too . i'm not a stuck up rich kid, just learning more and more info each day for a bright future on diesels!

 

[fest3er]

• First car: '66 Gutlass 400, 2spd, at 100K. $350. 45K miles.
• Second car: '71 Plymouth Sport Suburban wagon at 100K. $500. 8K miles.
• Third: '84 200SX, new. $12000. 126K miles.
• Fourth: '87 Formula 350, new. $18000. 76K miles.
• Fifth: '88 F150 4x4 at 38K. $10500. 104K miles.
• Sixth: '98 Ram 2500 12V 4x4,new. $30000. 106K miles and still going.

Paid for all of them myself. Paid for all the maintenance, fuel and insurance myself. And paid for all the moving violations myself, received in a number of states around the lower 48.

Fest3er