Everybody remembers their first kiss, their first time, and their first car. Let's just keep this family friendly and stick to our first car stories. Some of you had rich parents who gave you a nice sports car on your 16th birthday. Some of you got a hand-me-down from a family member. Some of you worked your #### off to buy your first car.
No matter how you got that first car, or how nice (or ragged) it was, it was yours. Finally, freedom to get away from the parents, or your clingy little siblings. Some of the great memories of our youth occured in that first car.
I'll get it started with my first car. My Dad gave it to me for a Christmas/birthday present when I was 17. That's a great thing about having a birthday the week before Christmas...the old one gift for two occasions from your family. Ahh, good times. Anyway, it was a 1967 (unrestored) Mustang that he bought for $200. It was in pretty good shape though, and after all the hell I put it through, it was still running a couple of years later when it was handed down to my brother. He totaled it in a matter of weeks.
You can't look back and not think about the dates, the concerts, the games, the street races, and all the good times you had in that first car. Most of you probaly had a nickname for that first car. We want to hear what it was, and why. I didn't have one for mine. I was more of the guy who nicknamed everyone else's car.
So, let's hear it, sports fans, what was your first ride, nickname, if any, what you were rocking in the tape/CD player, and what ever happened to that hooptie.
Lori...that's what I'm talking about. I should have added that in my post...The little quirks that you had to live with, like how many times to pump the gas pedal to start it, andstuff like that. I learned to drive in my Dad's 260Z out in the horse pasture when I was a kid.
Reminscing? Don't make us play that vid again, please.
mine was an automatic, yellow (hence the nickname of 'Jordan' as it was that Jordon F1 team "hey look at me!" yellow which made it real easy to find in car parks, lol), 1984 Toyota Corolla which was my grandfather's. I can still recall the licence plate since I remembered the letters by 'OYG = Obnoxious Young Guy' :P
My dad bought me my first car. A 50 ford coupe with a flat head V8. It didn't run. Said if I wanted to start driving on the streets, I had to fix it my self.
One of my school mates dad owned a junk yard and we raided that place for parts.In 3 months we had it running like a hot rod. Offy heads and 3 Strombergs, new clutch, lowering job,painted flames down the side, and plenty of lead fill ins on the body. It was hot and I was broke.
Dad did kick in some extra green backs to help fix her up. Had plenty of dates with her and knotches on my steering wheel. That was for races I won with her at the drag strip of course.
The things I did learn from that experience was responsibility, appreciation, and respect for money.It really doesn't grow on trees.
Got a job at a grocery store when I was 15 when I turned 16 I bought a 61 valiant with a blown motor for $100. Bought a used slant 6 for another $100 and Dad and I had it running in a few hours. The blue maggot as it was known in the neighborhood. Push button transmission. Damn that thing was ugly. Lasted about a year until that damn tree jumped out in front of me.
My first car was a truck. a 60 Ford F100 that i got from a farm auction with the help of my grandad when i was 14 for $350. looked almost as sad as this when i got it.
I worked all summer with dad and granddad and did most of the body work myself and by the time school started it looked almost exactly like this one.
Had an inline 6 with a one barrel glass bowl Holly carb and 3 on the tree. Drove it back and forth from school for 2 yrs before i had a license(small town west Tx you could still get away with that.) Actually kept that truck until i went to college where i sold it for 2500 to help pay tuition. Wish i still had it.
54 chevy pick up with a studebaker engine and an oldsmobile rear end. My dad was a junk yard engineer and we would spend Saturday mornings pulling parts and the afternoon working on the truck. It would start four times a day after that you had to push it. I saved thirty bucks and had an Earl Schieb paint job. Damn I miss that old truck. Thanks Hanahan.
I still have my first car. It's now a ten year old Ciera and it can still get rubber. Not that I do that with the price of gas but it does it sometimes because my accelerator sticks and sometimes I have to push too hard. How do I make that stop?
Ahh.. working summers at McDonalds..Making 3.15 an hour. I wanted a new bed. Also wanted a car. It was 1986. this is how that summer went.
Up at 5 am. Off to McDonalds via bycycle. Worked hard for my $3.15 saved almost all of it.
Comes to be mid August. I am turning 16 on the 23rd. Been shoppin for cars. Still needed a new bed to. Well low and behold guess what I found? Nope if you are thinking a pickup truck you are wrong.
I found my little old red 1976 rusty old Chevy ElCamino. Yes I got my new car. At least the front half. Also got a bed in the back. Oh what a car. Had that baby for most my highschool life.
Ahh the memories. And yes the bed of my car made me a man....Think about it.
Hanahan--My first car was supposed to be a 69 charger with a 440 magnun after my dad bought it something happened with the timing and we could never get it right he sold it and bought me this for my 16th birtday same color and everything it had a 400 with a holley 650 double pumper edelbrock high rise accel duel point ignition with the accel super coil hooker headers it was a heavy car (lead sled) but at highway speeds if I nailed it that m and fer would fly...I miss that car.
69 Grand Prix his name was "The Beast"
Last edited by JOKERSWILD on July 17th at 5:59 AM.
My Dad told me that I had to pay for my first car, that way I would know where the money came from and hopefully learn how to take care of it.
My first car was a 1964 Ford Fairlane that I bought for $75.00. It had a broken left rear leaf spring and someone had stenciled TENNESSEE HILLBILLY on the rear fender, it had a 200 c.i. inline six cylinder engine and an automatic tranny. I was out of school for the summer and was helping a man build houses. I also helped him with his hay fields. I had been walking to work everyday so I took my paycheck and went to check out this car that one of my friends told me about. It wasn't pretty but it was mine. It took the rest of my pay to license it and to fix the broken leaf spring. I drove it about eight months and sold it for $100.00. If any of you remember the old 200 c.i. ford six cylinder engines, you also know that the heating in these cars wasn't the best, but that didn't matter to me. I still thought that I was HOT.
'51 Ford Pickup. Already had an Olds '98 rear end in it when I got it. Did the body work, rechromed grill, replaced rusted-out bed with a walnut & aluminum bed, baby half-moons, brilliant yellow lacquer paint job. Loved that truck (as did my Grandma - she loved riding in it).
A beautiful truck, and had a classic muscle car exhaust note.
Every once in awhile, my dad would drive it - - always loved that as the starter button and horn button were side by side and identical - and he NEVER could remember which was which. Almost always began his trip with a very loud blast (no japanese nerdo horn in that machine).
Well I had saved up a little money and wanted to buy my first car so I drug my dad around to see every 55, 56 and 57 chevy that was for sale with a bigger engine dropped into it. After looking at a dozen or so he asked what was wrong with the engines those years that they all had replacement engines. {they were small, 265 & 283 big 327} so he saw through my plan and said no way. Good thing too because I probably would have killed myself or someone else if I had gotten one of those hot rods.
He took over the search and I wound up with a 1960 ford falcon [precurser to the mustang lol].
It was 4 years old and had been owned by the telephone company so it was olive drab like a army jeep! I painted the front end grey primer to 'Look Like a Fiberglass Front End' added spring spacers to jack up the front. 144 ci, 3 on the tree which I promptly broke trying to power shift so I put in a Hurst shifter and thought I was hot. lol
My pops gave me his 94' Chevy Silverado, stick shift...I called her Edna, named after Edna Turnblatt from hairspray...If you see the movie you'll understand, John Travolta dressed as a woman...perfect comparison
When I was about to turn 16 and get my license my Dad told me to hang on. I wasn't going to get my license until I got a job and was able to not only buy a rig but also to pay for gas and upkeep. His one consolation was that he would put me on the family's insurance, but I had to pay the premiums. I was downtrodden, but I had this genuine need for freedom so I got a night job as a janitor and made the money. I wanted a pickup and kept my eye peeled. One day there was an ad in the local (one day a week) newspaper for a 1952 Chevy pickup for $350. It was owned by a local minister's son who was in Viet Nam and told his Dad to sell it. That old pickup was my pride and joy! It had been sitting for 3 years, but by the time I was done with it, it looked like a million bucks to me!
Here it is, wish I still had it...
Thanks Hanahan!
Oh, BTW, the license plate was ELJ 044 so it was named El Joe! And we did roll!
Hanny,
Great blog topic. My first was a Red Sunbeam Tiger convertible with a white top. If anyone has seen the new Get Smart movie, you've seen what I had. Bought it for $700 that I earned the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. Had great fun driving it including running it on the dirt fairgrounds track without lights on moonlit nights until I slid it through the fence one night. Never got caught but never went back. It was the first of many that I ended up totaling including a couple that were my parents primary cars. Oh well, stuff happens. I'd sure love to get another Tiger though. Two-seater, 289 Ford V-8, handled like a dream, and was screamin' fast. A lot of my buds had the Chevelle 396s but they couldn't beat me if we raced on curvy roads.
My first car was a 1979 Chevy Impala that was fire engine red and thus was known (for obvious reasons) Big Red. I bought it with the money I had got from selling my 4-H calf that year. There wasnt much to recommend her but she had a kick #### stereo system...lol. I drove her for 2 years through high school till I blew the engine coming home from a bush party (no not Kyle) and that was the end. Ahhhhhhhh the memories.
I didn't actually own a car until I came back out to the east coast in 1990. But the first car that I drove all the time was my stepdad's '73 Forest Green Buick LeSabre in high school and college breaks. Automatic, 8 cylinder, 350 block, bad fast pick-up. Used to scare the hell out of my buddies on the dirt roads looking for....oh yeah....sorry, I already told that story. But it was true. Since he worked all the time, I got to use it on Friday and Saturday nights as long as I cleaned the interior and washed it every month.
My first car was a '63 Olds Cutlass with an all aluminumumumumum V8 and a four speed. It was white over red with a red interior and I kept it through high school and 2 years of college. I think I still owe my parents the $600! It was the only car I ever had sex in...and yet...I joined the herd and traded it in on a rice burner Subaru GL in 1972!
Side note. I am restoring a '63 Cutlass now...nostalgia is a good thing?
g daddy...most of us probably wish we could have that first ride back again. Bet you wish you could have those times working on the truck with your Dad back again, too.
Nique...try the brake pedal to make it stop. Just kidding. Every girl should be friends with at least one grease ####. Hint- play up the helpless female routine, they love to help out.
noahspop...You did work your #### for that 1st car. I still have a 72 El Camino SS. Probably my most favorite car ever.
JW...that car is badass! JW was big pimpin' in high school! Sounds like you had a great Dad, also.
Was it the big block 400, or the small block? A friend of mine in high school had an old FBI car. A Chevy with the 400 small block and that thing would stroll.
Hanahan - my first car was given to me by my parents, it was my mom's car a Datsun 200sx. No nickname for it but learning to drive with my parents provides some funny memories!
Hanahan-I believe it was the big block but im not 100% sure I know it wasn't the fastest in the 1/4 mile but like I said cruising at 75(which is the speed limit in Oklahoma) You could punch that thing and be doing 120 in a matter of seconds I also forgot to mention it also had A b&m shift kit in it the speed ometer said 140 Iv'e buried it on several occasions but after all was said and done I still would of rather had the 69 r/t charger I had a buddy in high school that had a 66 GTO with a 389 ? tri power he would kill me in short races but I would murder him on the highway .
Last edited by JOKERSWILD on July 17th at 8:36 AM.
charrit...sounds as if you really had to work to get what you wanted. Makes looking back on it even better. Did you paint over TENN HILLBILLY, or just let it ride?
Dave...sure sounds like a labor of love. Yellow, huh? Was it easy to find in a parking lot?
elad...I could have sworn I saw a pic of that Falcon here before. Pretty cool looking. A friend of mine bought an old Bell South van one time. It was that same bad green color.
SRM...I'll take your word for it. I'm not watching that movie. B^)
D-Man...great story. Cool nickname, too. It seems we have a recurrence of 1950s pickup trucks, and one of the common denominators is that the owners are all big NASCAR fans. Hmmmm.
HR 13...That was a great car! We didn't have an oval track within 60 miles, so we used to drive around the gate to get in the dragstrip to do our 'testing'. Your nickname is not still 'Crash', is it?
kena...you have the only story that involves selling livestock to buy your 1st car. And, do we want to know what a bush party is? LOL.
moseby...I loved the way those LeSabres looked. How's this for weird? After our band discussion yesterday, guess who was on the 'Colbert Report' last night? RUSH!!! They'll rerun it a couple of times today in case you missed it.
BNut...Those Cutlasses were the bombdizzle back in the day. Once you get the new one restored maybe you can get the wife to go for a little re-enactment, lol.
kristen...you and Lori both started out in Datsun 200s, and became NASCAR fans. That must be the female version of the 1950s pickup truck for NASCAR guys.
1977 Toyota Corona, baby-#### brown/baby-#### brown. The throttle linkage would sometimes pop off if you pressed the petal too hard. Had to pull over, fish around and find the linkage, reattach and go. Blew the muffler off that thing one time too. My friends picked at the dash until it was mostly exposed foam. Never forget piling that car with people after school every day, must've taken me an hour to get home. Great car....
Hanahan-I know this is off the subject but The 69 GP wasn't the only ride I had to HS I also had a 78 Yamaha 650 special with a full farring I looked like a twig on that thing I bought it with money I made from mowing lawns and a paper route I had at that time I rode it most the time till it would get cold My 69 GP the speedometer would go to the right and the gas gauge went to the left you could acually see it going down..
Mine was a 1973 Chevy Vega. If you drove over 60mph, the car would vibrate so bad that the windshield wipers would come on. The car blew up outside Decatur, Texas when I was on my way back home from college in Denton(everything from my dorm room was in the back).
My sister got a 66 Mustang(actually, she got two of them. One didn't have any parts, but the body had never been wrecked; the other one was wrecked but still had the original parts). A couple of months after she finished having the car restored, she was checking the radiator and thought the water looked dirty, so she drained it and refilled it. Temperature went down to almost 0 that night, and the engine block froze. What she thought was dirt was anti-freeze.
Hanahan -Yes I was forever a Cutlass (442) freak, have owned bunches of them, but with $5 gas, I think the next project will be an Isetta or Dauphine hahaha...Besides Cutlass, I had Minis and TRs. I am not sure my wife can bend like that again. I will take your advice and challenge her though...at least there is no damn pantyhose to contend with now!
Last edited by BeaverNut on July 17th at 10:11 AM.
s2dsayer...Damn! That sounds just like a friend of mine's old car. It was a blue Corona, called The Rutabaga. No front passenger seat. The passenger sat in the back seat, looking out the windshield.
J Dub...Damn, you were big pimping! Wish gas costs the same as it did then. Wouldn't mind seeing the gauge go down then.
SB 20...Wow, one of the few who will admit to owning a Vega. Don't see many of them on the road nowadays. Wonder why? X^)
LMAO@pantyhose. Being a car virgin I have no clue what ya'll are talkin about!
Bush parties Hanny, you city boy...lol...bush as in bushes, as in trees, as in an outdoor party in an out of the way spot that the cops will hopefully not sandbag, rather than a traditional house party...LOL.
Now get your mind out of the gutter! :-)~
Last edited by Sweetkena on July 17th at 11:08 AM.
Great Blog Topic, Hanahan! I got my first car after I graduated from High School with my own hard earned cash. I was 18, and got a cute litte lime green 1975 Chevy Vega. Didnt have a name for it.
Unfortunately, I was in an auto accident 3 months later, and the car was totaled. (Yeah I was ####ed up too). Bought a used 1972 Dodge Dart after that to go to college with.
Would I be revealing my age if I say that I remember gas being about $0.56 a gallon when I got my first car? We'll never see that price again!
hanahan
My first car was a Mini 1275GT. My sister's boyfriend and I placed a 2 liter engine in that thing. And it was like that things just couldn't slow down once your placed your feet on the gas pedal.
Suffice to say I had it long enough before I went off to join the military. I sold it to him at the time for $4,000.
And I can tell you this it certainly became something of a chick magnet along the way. Many a time I'd have some fun in the back seat with a nubile young lady.
We spruced up that little baby by giving it a new paint job cloth interior and bucket racing seats front and back.
Nowadays the Mini does have road cred to it with its design and power.
A theme with the ladies and the Datsun 200 SX's. Met my wife at a company business education session in downtown Indy. We walked out of the first day's session together & then went to our cars. I didn't pay much attention while loading stuff into my car in the parking lot when I heard a double honk, looked up and saw her waving from the cockpit of a bizarre orangy/maroon Datsun 200SX laying down a military grade smokescreen as she drove by.
LOL.. I didnt realize we were such an old bunch on here until you did this Hanahan. Where's the kid who got the Corvette or Mercedes? Looks like everyone that's commented had to work for their first cars. must be a bunch of middle kids.
Bet if you ask them what their brothers or sisters got, we'd see the newer rides.
If I left it up to my father, this would have been me driving home.
I financed a 68 Chevelle. It had a 454 in it, and while I loved the car, I lost my license within my first six months of driving it. It was actually for just smoking the tires however, that is speed exibition and a 12 point fine. That was probably not the best idea for a first car.lol
There is still nothing like the memory of driving your first car.
Last edited by sixfigurefan2 on July 17th at 12:37 PM.
Oh, I almost forgot. While it was hard to hear over the engine, my cassette deck would be playing
Metallica (kill them all) and Judas Priest (Stained Glass)
Uh ohh. I think I just realized why I had a lead foot...........damn that music would get your blood flowing.lol Thats why they call it speed metal.
Last edited by sixfigurefan2 on July 17th at 12:47 PM.
Yeah Han I had a generic one up for a minute, I was looking for a pic of my ole 'Super Fella" but my desktop is in the shop and it's not on the laptop. 8-)
Gerrel...Another Vega! You were better off with the used Dart than the new Vega. X^)
al...if that thing was a chick magnet, you must have been living in an Amish community. LOL
Dave..."military grade smokescreen" LMAO!
Cuda...now that you mention it all my brothers and sisters did get much better cars than I did. I was the oldest.
sixfig...The 68 Chevelle looked like a NASCAR racer, and the 454 made the driver think it was one. The cops probably gave you the ticket for playing that music. B^) I had the cassettes dragging to Marshall Tucker Band, Allman Bros, etc.
Cuda - I'll bite on the brother and sister thing..lol. My brother (3 yrs younger) restored a 49 Chevy with the cool little side/back windows for his first vehicle when he was in High School. Dont know all the specifics but think it had the original (or close to) engine in it. It didnt go all that fast but it was a guy magnet when he let me have it for a bit in College...LMAO
My sis (6yrs younger) didnt have her own car until she was about 25. She did drive my bro's old 92 Chevy when she was in University tho.
Here's what I recall playing on the cassette player most of the time:
Dixie Dregs (was really into them then)
Classic bluegrass
Ram Jam's "Black Betty"
Chick Corea (like Return to Forever, ... but it was most definitely on the player in an attempt to be cool)
Ramones (my buds and I were fascinated by punk, and LOVED the Ramones - and also loved the Tubes spoofing punk).
Most anything Doobie Brothers, Aerosmith, or Stones.
Judas Priest = Metal Gods, Hellion
AC/DC = Back in Black
Van Halen = I, II, Women & Children, Fair Warning
Springsteen = Born to Run, River, Darkness, WI&ESt
Stones = Some Girls, Tattoo You, Exile on Main St
Who = Who's Next
Many, many, many more
Kena - bush party = "field" party for US midwesterner's
Dave...the Dixie Dregs, I wore that tape out. Haven't heard their name in 25 years at least. Classic bluegrass? John Hartford, Vassar Clemments, Doc and Merle, NGDB.
As for the rest of my 1st car's soundtrack, watch Joe Dirt. Any band he had on a tee shirt I rocked to. Skynyrd, Top, MTB, CDB, BTO, Bob Seger, Little Feat.
I had Metalica master of pupets - Ac/Dc highway to hell- Iorn Maiden Number of the beast - Ozzy Diary of a Madman and Some old Deep Purple and Aerrosmith Toys in the Attic and Conway Twitty Love to lay you down..
I got my first vehicle at 12 from my Dad, a 1960 GMC pick up truck. Dad used it on the farm. My brother (2 years older) taught me how to drive, check and change oil, sparkplugs, oil and air filters, and jack it up and change tires. It was a straight shift. When I was 16 my brother (primary caregiver) gave me an old Jeep Wrangler with a cool snap on top. He put a cassette player in it. I'd go down the street with tunes from Phantom of the Opera, etc., playing loudly. I taught my daughter to drive in that old jeep and I finally gave it back to my brother. His two girls learned to drive in it and he still has it. Good times indeed! He has recently had the jeep restored and we spent an entire day together in it during this past May.
