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What was your first car? What happened to it? - READ ONLY

281 messages,  Last post on Jan 02, 2009 at 7:50 PM

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Messages Page 1 of 28

#1 of 281 How bout this for a topic. by glengle

Mar 14, 1999 (10:02 am)

I'd like to hear from all of you to find out what
everyone's first car was. If you're like me, it
wasn't a classic at the time, but is now.


I guess I'll start off. Mine was a 1970 Buick GS
455. Dark green with white vinyl interior,
automatic in the console, air, etc. I drove it for
several years and sold it for $1000 to put down on
a 1982 Datsun 280ZX. Who knew?

#2 of 281 ladyblue by ladyblue

Mar 14, 1999 (2:48 pm)

My first car was a 70/72 Toyota Corona Mark II wagon, named "Clyde." The body and engine was a 70, and the rear end and front axle were from a 72. I'll explain.


I bought the 72 for $700 and one week later crash it. The engine and body were beyond repair. Two weeks after the accident, I bought the 70 for $50. The body and engine were in great shape, but the rear end was shot, as was the front axle. My father, my cousin and I dragged it home and began to build Frankenstein's Monster. We managed to put together one good car out of the two wrecks.


It had a push-button start on the dash, a hole in the floor on the passenger side, and a heater control valve that liked to spit boiling hot water on my right foot every now and then. Top speed was 50 mph, and that was only if you were drafting behind a big truck.


I drove it for two years, and gave it to my brother. He drove it for another two years, and sold it to a friend of his. I heard it finally went to the junk yard in 1987.


"Clyde" taught me more about mechanics than any school ever could.

#3 of 281 first car by MarkinAtlanta

Mar 14, 1999 (6:39 pm)

Two tone Green and White '59 Dodge Coronet, huge low slung coupe, large fins on the rear, pushbutton transmission on the upper left hand part of the metal dash board. Eventually it started to constantly overheat, so I junked it with about 80,000 miles, but it only cost $150 and it was good for a year and a half.

#4 of 281 sebringjxi by sebringjxi

Mar 15, 1999 (12:13 am)

My first was a 1959 MGA. I'll never forget trying to give the previous owner the brick I found in the floorboard when I started home with it. He said keep it, you'll need it. I couldn't imagine why, but soon found out--the emergency brake didn't work, probably hadn't since 1960! But when hot, the starter wouldn't turn the motor over with the clutch pedal held in. You had to put it in neutral to start it. Made parking on a hill tricky! I soon learned to back up, open the door, drop the brick and roll back down to it before shutting the motor off!


I drove it for 3 years, bought another MG (a 1969 MGC) before I sold the A. My father-in-law (future, then) made fun of my $1000 price on the A but was surprised the day I sold it and the guy who bought it passed him on the road on the way home!


Of all the cars I've had (11 from age 16 to 26), the MGA is the one I want back....just wait until I get the kids out of the house!

#5 of 281 Mr_Shiftright by Mr_Shiftright HOST

Mar 15, 1999 (6:40 pm)

The MGA wasn't my very first car, but close...3rd I think...still like those cars...a very honest sports cars...getting to be quite valuable these days, for a really nice one.


My first car was a 1955 Studebaker President two-door hardtop, stickshift 289 V-8 with overdrive. Good-looking car, pretty quick for its time (as good as a '55 Chevy 265 V-8)...sold it when I tore the differential off its mounts hitting a Manhattan pothole at a high rate of speed.

#6 of 281 sebringjxi by sebringjxi

Mar 15, 1999 (10:58 pm)

Mr. Shiftright,


I'd like some advice and help and don't know if I should open a new topic or not. What I'd like to do is to find an easily adaptable power door lock system to put in my son's Jensen Healey. It needs to be sliding locks, not plunger locks. The throw on the slider is about an inch and a half, maybe a little less. I was thinking some of the custom street rodders might have an idea of which cars to rob in the boneyard--hondas, toyotas, Nissan? What do you think?


Hal

#7 of 281 Mr_Shiftright by Mr_Shiftright HOST

Mar 15, 1999 (11:16 pm)

Yeah, SEbring, you're right...you need to check out a rodding magazine. But sure, let's stay on topic here and maybe you could open up your question in the Maintenance and Repair Conference:




Maintenance and Repairs Conference

#8 of 281 carnut4 by carnut4

Mar 16, 1999 (12:17 am)

My first car was a beautiful, showroom condition 55 Chev Belair 2dr with 29000 original miles on it. 265 V8, 3-spd column shift, and dual glasspacks. The old man I bought it from called them "lifetime" mufflers, and claimed they gave better gas mileage. Never mind-they sounded GREAT-and-this was in 1964-I paid $475. cash for the car!!. One of those ads in the San Jose CA paper thAt had no phone number and little information in it. Almost didn,t check out the ad.I drove the car for over a year, and then put in a 327 fuely block with that 30-30 cam. After another year, I sold it with 65000 mikes on it, and 10000 on the new Corvette motor-for $550 cash. That was in the summer of 66, so I could buy a hot Plymouth Belvedere hardtop with 383 and 4 speed. I'd like to have BOTH of those cars now....

#9 of 281 Cid by Cid

Mar 16, 1999 (9:53 pm)

 Being the excited, but dirt poor, 16yr. old, I bought my first car - a 1966 VW beetle with 69' interior. Beulah, was her name and she was a gem! I bought her while living in Pennsylvania then moved to Takoma Park, Maryland where she was stolen. I had just had her painted by a friend who needed a car to work on since his vocation was auto body/restoration. Beulah was painted a lovely soft turquoise and when found, all parts had been stolen and she was left in the gravel pits near Calverton, Maryland. Surprisingly, I seldom think about the ole' girl now, but she was definitely a good buy at the time.

#10 of 281 sunliner by sunliner

Mar 16, 1999 (11:28 pm)

First car of my own was a 1960 Ford F-100 pickup truck. I paid $200 after dark for it, in 1987. First sign that all was not well was when it got driven home and the timing chain broke. I bought it in October, and got to drive it for the first time in December!


It was white, with panels cut out of the bed sides to make storage cubbies, because it'd been used to haul a camper around. It had the horn on the dashboard, and the windshield washers on a foot-stomp-squeezebulb, and the backup light on a switch...I'd turn the backup light on at the bank, and remember to turn it off at the gas station! It didn't have dash lights, and I had to turn on the dome light to see how fast I was going at night -- until one night I was fiddling with the switch and presto! I had dashlights!


It had a 254 straight-6 that burned oil by the gallon, and a 3-spd on the column, and I got passed by bicycles off the line! The first summer, it ate THREE engines (the mechanic warranteed the first one, the fool, and the other two were under warrantee!) and the repair yard traded it straight across for a 1977 Oldsmobile Omega with a 350-4bbl. Talk about a blah-mobile!


I wish I still had my old crappy truck, too!

Messages Page 1 of 28

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