Ask the Car People.SM


My Dad's Favorite Vehicle - READ ONLY

64 messages,  Last post on Mar 10, 2011 at 11:36 PM

You are in the Automotive News & Views-Archives Forum.

What is this discussion about? Automotive News

Messages Page 1 of 7

#1 of 64 My Dad's Favorite Vehicle by KarenS HOST

May 31, 2007 (9:06 am)

With Father's Day approaching, I thought this would be an interesting topic for the dads here and/or the sons and daughters to post a tribute to their dad and his favorite ride.
 
My father loved to camp. We vacationed in the Rocky Mountains, Ozarks, Smoky Mountains, Wisconsin Dells and always stayed in a state park campground. One of our vehicles was a Ford Fairlane. Sorry, I don't recall the year, but I am the baby of the family. There were others, but all were sedans, IIRC.
 
I have no idea how my Dad managed to pack a family of seven plus all the camping gear into one car. I do vaguely remember watching my Dad roll up the tent, which was the old canvas type, into the tiniest roll it could get.
 
Before he passed, his pride and joy was a 1985 Dodge Caravan that he had stripped out and made into a mini-camper. He and my mom toured Alaska, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone. He loved that van.
 
Happy Father's Day, Dad! We miss you.

#2 of 64 Two of them actually by anythngbutgm

May 31, 2007 (9:30 am)

75' (I think) Duster with a 340 which they had when I was just a baby, and his pride and joy after the Navy, a 69' Boss 302.
 
I would do pretty much anything to have that Mustang in my driveway

#3 of 64 1953 Buick Special by steve_ HOST

May 31, 2007 (9:57 am)

My dad had a blue one (I'm pretty sure it was a Special - I've been searching family photos for a snap of it for a few years now without success).
 
He enjoyed pulling away from Caddy's at the red lights in that thing (it was a V-8). I remember watching the chip seal go by underneath my feet riding shotgun where the floorboards had rotted away. The family used to cruise the dirt backroads just to see if we could avoid getting stuck (often we'd manage to get it stuck up to the axles).
 
One of my fondest memories is going to his store front on a Sunday afternoon expecting him to be behind me, and turning around to see him chasing the Buick down the parking lot - he managed to get it stopped before it crossed the highway and landed in the fields beyond. A few months later he thought the Buick had been stolen but it had rolled off into the fields from the same parking lot and sat there quietly overnight.
 
Dad sold the Buick in the early 60's to some teenager who promptly wrecked it, and made Dad regret selling it in the first place.
 
Oh, and he always bragged about how slow it would go without stalling - he would say the best way to test drive a new car would be to see how slow it could go since any car could go fast. Only the good ones could creep along.

#4 of 64 . by fintail

May 31, 2007 (9:58 am)

Of all the vehicles my dad has owned, probably a couple dozen over the years, the one most mentioned is still the the 1960 Ford Country Sedan he bought back in the early 90s. It was a neglected low original mile car, bought for almost nothing. We actually pushed it home as it was a few blocks from our house...he tinkered with it and I rubbed out the paint and polished it up. A few weeks later, it was all shined up and tuned up, and was running fine. He had a modern car, but loved to drive this huge red and white tailfinned wagon. He actually commuted in it for a couple years, but then as moving came into play and other issues, he decided to think about selling it as he had 4 other cars. He parked it in a high traffic parking lot, and it sold the first day he parked it, for full asking price. He kicked himself for selling it for many years.
 
When my dad was young, he had a couple of Ford Crown Victorias back around 1956-59. Those earned his affection too.

#5 of 64 Jaguar XK 140 by john_324

May 31, 2007 (10:13 am)

A late 1950s black Jaguar XK 140 coupe, with the racing suspension.
 
He bought it in the early 1970s in Southern California, when he and my mom were just starting their family. They were out for a ride one weekend, and came across it, up on a lift in a service station. He went in to inquire about it, and walked out as its owner.
 
I'm told when I was being a cranky infant, a ride in the Jag on those great SoCal freeways would always calm me down...
 
For all the mechanical headaches that car gave him (he was very good friends with his mechanic by the time he sold it), he never thought it wasted money, and he still talks fondly of it. He notes that it always seemed to run better when the weather was foggy, damp and chilly...

#6 of 64 I don't know... by lemko

May 31, 2007 (12:02 pm)

...if Dad had a favorite vehicle, but there were vehicles of his that were my favorites. I really liked his 1961 Chevrolet Biscayne and 1965 Pontiac GTO. My Uncle Daniel, however, had some REALLY nice rides - a 1973 Cadillac Sedan DeVille and a 1975 Lincoln Continental.

#7 of 64 I think my Dad's favorite car... by andre1969

May 31, 2007 (12:14 pm)

was a '63 Impala SS409 hardtop he had as a teenager. It had a 4-speed, and had the optional 425 hp setup. And then he got drafted, and sold it!
 
When he got out he got a '65 Impala SS396 hardtop, also with a 4-speed, and this one also had the optional 425 hp setup. It was pretty ratted out though by the time he got it, and he didn't exactly go gentle on it. I think he threw a rod and abandoned it on a lonely country road.
 
He also had a '62 Corvette and a '64 GTO 2-door sedan, but they were pretty ratty by the time he got them. I remember him saying the best car he ever had was a '64 Ford Galaxie 500 hardtop, with a 390-4bbl. It was in great shape, but my Dad hated Fords, so he hated this car by default!

#8 of 64 This is complicated... by fezo

May 31, 2007 (12:40 pm)

I can't much account for dad's cars until I showed up though I know he bought a brand new Chevy as soon as they let him out of the Army Air Corps at the end of WWII. He and a friend drove to New Orleans in it and when they got back from whatever they were up to they got in the wrong car. An identical black Chevy but there was just enough off for dad to say this is the wrong car. Now keep in mind his key not only unlocked the other car but started it! The dealer said it was impossible.....
 
First one I remember was a 51 Chevy. Then a brand new 57 Plymouth Custom Suburban that he bought for my mom.
 
Once that Chevy started to die was when my dad became the king of the $150 car. "For $150 how can you go wrong?" Let me count the ways.... What I remember of those - 3 different 55 Plymouths - two wagons and a sedan, a 51 Plymouth, a 57 Chevy wagon, a 57 Ford Fairlane, a 58 Pontiac wagon...there are more but I think my brain did me a favor and I forget the rest. A few years into this he finally sprung for a $600 car - a 56 Buick Special which worked great. Took us to the day my mom finally bought a new 66 Chevy Biscayne and we were back in the real car world.
 
He really liked the 83 Chrysler Fifth Avenue and we put almost 200K on it. By then he had started to rent DeVilles which I think were his favorites that he actually drove much.
 
His absolute favorite that to this day is one he bought so that I wouldn't try to mooch his car. It was a 1954 Mercedes 300 sedan that he traded a dishwasher for. The dishwasher was worth about $200 at the time. The thing was magnificent. Four speed on the column! Full wood dash and window trim. Solid wood - not veneer. We had to work like mad to fix up the interior (the varnish on the dash was all alligatored and some tears in the leather) and it had to get a ton of bondo work on it and paint it and the dashboard didn't work - no speedometer, odometer or gauges.
 
We loved that thing. It wasn't the greatest in dependability and I always had to put gas in because my brother never did and there was no gauge.
 
On e day the mechanic said the engine had seen its time and he and I went up to the Hudson Valley in NY to look at an engine (he looked; I made believe I knew what I was hearing). He put that in and at the same time we got a new dash cluster which was great except that it was metric!
 
Later on he built the best possible engine out of parts from the original and the junkyard. Then finally said it's time to either get serious bout restoring it or punt. He got like $600 for it and to this day (he's 89) he may lose memory on lots of things but every time I see him it's good for one "I never should have sold that Mercedes.".....

#9 of 64 He saved for Five years to buy a new 1950 Cadillac by euphonium

Jun 01, 2007 (8:58 pm)

He arranged for factory drive away and we all flew to Detroit to pick up the Series 61, 4 Door, 331 OHV V8, 4 speed Hydramatic, Ivy Green metallic with light Green top.
 
The car was a cross between a Cadillac, Buick, & Chevrolet.
 
From the dashboard forward it was Cadillac, the interior was Chevrolet Mohair, but the body was the same as the then Buick Special, but it was a Cadillac. He babied that car for over 10 years until the Dr. said that due to his heart he had to have power steering. Though he drove two Pontiacs and a Buick after that, he always had the fondest memories of his only Cad. His generous nature let us use the Cad for our Honeymoon which then included two sweethearts.

#10 of 64 My dad's by odie6l

Jun 02, 2007 (6:00 pm)

My dad had 3 before he passed away in 1998 at 62 yrs old (I was 24).
#1 - Was his 1995 Customized F-150 (was customized by local Ford Dealer for him). This vehicle still lives on as the Fire Chief's personal vehicle at the fire department that he was a volunteer with for 41 years. He was Chief there for 10 years, so after he passed away, we sold the F-150 (at a huge discount) to the department for them to use as the Active Chief's truck (and they signed a contract that they are not allowed to sell / trade with-out contacting myself or my mother first). Oh, and the local dealer that my father bought (and had customized) the truck at performs all service on the truck at no charge.
#2 - Was his Jeep CJ-8 Scrambler off-road rescue truck that he practically rebuilt. He needed a little roll-out cargo net / ladder to get into the seat (he was only 5'6"). The truck was lifted and modified for moutain off-road trail driving. The funniest thing I remember about the CJ-8 was his license plate on the front read "Have You Driven OVER a Ford Lately." Being he was an avid Ford man, this was very funny to him.
#3 - His oldest, was his 1974 F-100 custom that still resides at my uncles house in Clearfield, Pa.
 
Odie
Odie's Carspace

Messages Page 1 of 7

Advertisement

Browse by Category

Browse by Vehicle
   View All Vehicles

Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
View All Topics

Edmunds Community

Advertisement