Change up

lawnmowerman

Just a little break form cards, stats and the like.... What was your first car? Mine was a hand-me-down 1974 Chevy Nova complete with a 250 straight six. It was awful. My uncle moved down (to FL) from New York and didnt want it anymore. So this eyesore of a vehicle sat in front of my house( about 1 year) untill I was 16. It was given to me in 1986 and I took it gladly. The thing was painted terd brown, had ripped up vinyl seats and no floor! The floor was rusted out in four spots form all those years my uncle drove around in the snow of New York. All you had to do was pull the carpet to the side and you could use your foot brakes ala Fred Flintstone. The leaf springs in the rear sprung apart, so my brother welded them back together, talk about a rough ride. My dad, being a steel fabricator welded in the new floor which of course was three times thicker then the original steel so the car dropped down a few inches. When I put the interior back in I ditched the bench seat in the front and went with two large, blue velour captains chairs. The chairs of course looked terrible in the car and your head would actually rub on the ceiling when you sat in them. I think the best part of the car was my vast collection of screwdrivers stored neatly, stuck into the dashboard. Anyway its pretty funny when you look back and remember something like this. It didnt matter ( and I didnt care) what the car looked like just as long as it got me where I wanted to go.

Matt

Mac53

1963 Push-button tranny Dodge. It was 100 yards wide and weighed 1,000,000 pounds. It could carry about 10 people comfortably, and a lot of people got laid in it, but I wasn't one of them. It got about a mile a gallon, but back then I could fill it up for $4.00. I don't think I ever changed the oil. It died in an Indiana University parking lot in 1973. It may still be there.

jrdolan

Mine was a blue 1970 Ford monstrosity that I affectionately dubbed "The Blue Whale." I can't remember the model, but it was huge. I paid $100 for it, and the seller got the better of the deal. It would have graded PSA 2 with a qualifier of JH (junk heap).

julen23

1980 Maroon Grand Prix... V8 engine to boot

I worked for 2 summers bagging groceries and paid $2000 cash for it. Sold it my senior year in high school for $2000 also.



Julen

Knuckles

1992 Ford Mustang hatchback 4banger. Forest green.. mint. Got it in 1997 I think. That car took such a beating from me.. bagged and bagged on it for years.. neglected to change it's oil when supposed too.. 1 oil change per year give a few months.. nothing ever went wrong with. It ended up being a write off.. huge truck smoked it when it was parked in a parking lot.

Stingray

Lawnmowerman,

I hope you see this. I had a 74 Pontiac Ventura with that straight six. It was a two speed automatic! I could slam on the gas, not spin the tires and it would switch gears at 45 mph, what a piece of crap. Finally had to dump it when it started shooting flames out the carburator.

Stingray

Axtell

1969 VW Karmann Ghia...auto stick (who thought this idea up?)

Car was in the shop more than I drove it...but still loved it. The window rubber was bad, and was freeeezing cold in the winter.

gregm13

A 1978 Chrysler LaBaron - that I bought for $250 in 1990 - and sold for $500 when I bought my 1985 Ford Mustang a year later. I only had an AM radio - so I would bring my little tape player in the card and jam away to Led Zeppelin. I thought I was the sh*t.

Greg M.

RipublicaninMass

78 pontiac formula 400, terrorized the neighborhood for a bit.

Cubfan

A black 2-door 1975 Ford LTD with a state trooper's engine. I had it up to 120 once and got scared to push it faster. You could virtually lay down in the back seat and the trunk could have fit a family of three. Great college car!

detroitfan2

Mine was a 1972 Mercury Monterey 4-door hardtop. It looked just like this, only it was lime green with a lot more rust.

I can actually relate this posting to sports. One of my fondest memories as a child was going to Tiger Stadium with my dad. He absolutely refused to pay for parking. We used to tease him that as soon as he could see the stadium through his binoculars, he'd pull over and park. Then he'd be off to the races while my mom tried to keep up with 3 kids in tow. Just to put it in perspective, after the Tigers won the 1984 World Series, we walked from our seats through the entire hoopla, got into our car, and basically drove away. That's how far away we parked.

Anyway, one day we went to a game in the Monterey. There was a parking spot on Michigan Avenue, right near the stadium. Now the Monterey was about 25 feet long. This parking spot was probably, oh I don't know, maybe 25 feet and 1/2 inch long. Somehow, in the midst of game day traffic, Chet (my dad) pulls past the spot, throws her in reverse, and parallel docks I mean parks this baby without ever putting her back into drive. That was 25 years ago and to this day it was the most impressive driving feat I've ever witnessed . . .

As a side note, if anyone cares to PM me to let me know how to put scans into a post, I would appreciate it very much.

lawnmowerman

<< <i>Lawnmowerman,

I hope you see this. I had a 74 Pontiac Ventura with that straight six. It was a two speed automatic! I could slam on the gas, not spin the tires and it would switch gears at 45 mph, what a piece of crap. Finally had to dump it when it started shooting flames out the carburator.

Stingray >>

Hey Stingray! Yep I saw it. We almost had twin cars. Thats pretty funny. I eventually ended up selling mine to a friend for $50.00. It sat in front of his house untill the junkyard came and charged him to haul it off!

Matt

sixdart

1974 Plymouth Duster - straight six .... and that '70s green!

zef204

1987 GMC Jimmy. 0-60...Yes. Merging on the expressway was very difficult. I had it for 10 years and sold it for $300 with no AC/4WD and black smoke coming out the hood if you got over 40.

DirtyHarry

1967 Falcon V8 308. The thing was an animal. Color was puke green...until I took down a lampost with it and replaced the front right fender by myself with junk yard parts. Then it was puke green and black.

goudeygold

1987 Nissan Pulsar NX-SE. high revving 4 banger that wound to 7600 RPM. Suffered through hell and lived to tell. Drove it until it had 100,000+ miles and made 52 trips through Indiana for college. Sold it when I finally could afford the 1998 Acura Integra GS-R that redlines at 8,100 in Milano Red, and off the showroom floor. God how patience pays off!! Still got it to the day, and it still bounces off 8,100 just fine!!!

GG

phreakydancin

Picture this baby in orange...



0-60 in a tailwind

AkbarClone

A white 1981 Ford Mustang.

gosteelers

Mine was a Red/Brown/Orange/Rust 1980 Ford Mustang. One of the few model years that really didn't look that cool...

Mark

pandrews

1978 Ford F-150 with 36" Super Swampers.. it got about 5 or 6 miles per gallon.. i was a skinny little 16 year old kid with no business driving it..

TNP777

1973 black Buick Regal. Got it in1985 on a signature loan as an E-1 in the Air Force. Totaled it two weeks later, didn't yet have insurance (was shopping for rates). Long story short, I paid off a loan for which I had no car, which at least resulted in a hard lesson learned (don't drive a car w/o insurance), lost my license for a year (again, don't drive a car w/o insurance), but at least got a decent start on a good credit score.

My next car was a rust-bucket of a 1971 convertible MGB - bright freakin' green. Fun car!

Carew29

a 1972 Plymouth Sattelite Station Wagon----Nothing much until we dropped a 440 MOPAR in it. 225 tires on the front 240's on the rear.

My second car i still have. A 1969 Cougar XR7---all original paint,engine,and papers.


" Never tell a joke that ain't funny more than once!!"

yankeeno7

1974 Chevy Chevelle with a 350 big block. I bought it off a little old lady who never broke it in. Paid 650.00 in 1985. Though it wasnt the GT, it had the same engine. The body was kind of crapped but I could blow away almost any other vehicle on the road...except for new Corvettes. I tore apart new Trans Am's and Cameros!

ajetfan

Barry,

A 350 isn't a big block. A big block is a 396 (really 402 ci) and up. 396,427,454,etc. And did you mean SS (SuperSport) as opposed to GT. Not trying to be a SOB, but I know this because my first car was a 1970 Chevelle I know more that I care to admit about them from all the work I had to do on it.




---------------------------------------------------
1980 Topps PSA 9 #s 401 (1/2), 541 (1/2), 560 (1/3), 597 (1/4), and 629 (1/2) and more on ebay

srs1a

1968 Olds Vista Cruiser station wagon w/ a 350 rocket. I'd love to have one today. They were the ones with glass on the top and I think they only made them in '68 and '69. I think the Buick version was called a Custom Cruiser.

MarkLee

Don't remember the model year but it was a Plymouth Volare back in 1982, my sophomore year of high school. Used telephone company car. It was painted white and had whatever the old BellSouth ancestor's logo was on it. I had it painted metallic blue with one of those $69 special paint jobs. Was probably actually even cheaper back then. I broke the rear axle trying to park near a ditch in a hurry to get to a high school football game. Luckily my Dad is kind of a car nut and made sure I was with wheels. Next up I had a Toyota X-Tra Cab pickup truck. By the time I was a senior I had a new 1985 candy apple red Camaro. It was sweet.

Fabfrank

1972 Opel Manta Stick. My dad got it from a junkyard he worked at part time for $600 as a HS graduation gift for me. They had another Opel, same model, that I used to scavenge for parts. I drove it for 3 years abd sold it for $1200. I found out years later that my dad got the car for free

mccardguy1

mccardguy1

sorry double post!!!


1973 white Ford LTD with a 351 Windsor engine. Yes this one also had a huge back seat and a trunk that would fit 5 comfortably while trying to get into the outdoor!

Had to get rid of it because I could not afford the gas but I wish I had it today!

helionaut

Mine was a 1978 or 1979 Datsun 210 5-speed hatchback. I didn't get my first car till I was 26, as I luckily live in a city with good public transportation. It belonged to a friend whose father bought it new, then handed it off to her. After she bought a new Toyota, she wanted to sell it to me for $225. I passed and she sold it to another friend instead. A year later I bought it off that girl. It was a kind of dark butterscotch color, and every surface in the car was degraded, eroded, or just broken. The driver's seat I had to tie down to the frame with wire and duct tape in order to pass inspection, or else it would recline like a Maybach seat (comfy). The formerly vinyl seats were completely shattered. The roof liner had long since vanished. It had a couple holes in the side panel like bullet holes that I never found out what they were. There was no AC, a huge drawback here in Texas. The paint was worn away in places. The hatchback door had to be held open with a 2x4. The girl I bought it from had glued little toys to the dashboard, army men, knights, a surfer girl, lizards, etc. It took about 60 seconds to go from zero to 60. But dang if that car didn't get 40 MPG on the highway. I could fill up in Austin, drive exactly 200 miles in 3 hours to DFW, and it only took 5 gallons to fill up again. When I traded it in for my Saturn in 1998, it had just under 199,000 miles on it and I got $100 trade-in for it. I was a little sad, as I had hoped to see it roll over to 200K, but it needed more work than it was worth just to run safely (it had started vibrating terribly over 50 MPH). I like to think it's still on the road somewhere down there in Mexico or someplace. I should've kept it that extra 1000 miles.

helionaut

While we've got this thread going, I've been thinking about asking people here who know more about this stuff than me what they might know about having older cars to drive. I still have the Saturn from my post above but it's getting on in years. It's a 1994 with about 145K on it (the odometer stopped working a year ago). It still runs fine, but I'm thinking it might be time to get a new ride, either a newer used car, or a more vintage car. I've been keeping an eye on this auction:
1966 GTO
To me, that's a great looking car and for a price comparable to the newer used cars I'd be looking at (though I don't know what his reserve is). Does anyone have a "classic" as your daily driver? If so, do you have problems getting parts for it? Do you have a hard time finding competent mechanics to work on it, or do you work on it yourself? Please share.

yankeeno7

Maybe it was a small block? Not sure now...I didnt know much about cars when I was 16 and thats what I was told. I only had the car for 2 years and all I cared about was putting the pedal to the floor!

BaltimoreYankee

I know this thread is really old an I didn't bump it but anyway....1969 Dodge Coronet for me.

craig44

What in the world.