Old farts, show your age......young turds, take a guess.....;)

[Big Muddy]

Name 'em all:

flrbd.jpg

[Thumper]

L to R - dimmer switch (headlights), clutch, brake, accelerator, starter (ignition on/off switch was on the dash) and shifter. (‘Course there’s also a non-collapsible steering column in there). They're not shown, but there "should" be a parking brake handle to the upper left of the pic and probably a choke knob to the upper right, on the dash.

Note: The starter pedal was next to the accelerator so you could twist your right foot and give 'er a little gas while cranking.

I guess I'd rather be a fart than a turd.

[Bwana]

What Thumper said, 'tis true.

[Big Muddy]

[Big Skyz]

Thumper didn't give anyone else a chance. My first pick up looked very similar to that on the floor board. It was a 1938 Dodge. Quite frankly it still likely runs and is more reliable than anything they have made in the last 40 years.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I learned to drive, bouncing around our farm in a ‘51 chevy pickup that was my grandpa’s work truck and he called ‘Judy’. He was a ‘turn key’ carpenter which meant he built houses and did almost all of the subcontracting work himself. Plumbing, electrical, everything. I remember helping him dig foundation footings by hand as one of my first jobs helping him. He used old Judy as a paint scaffold when he painted soffets so it was covered with paint drops of many colors. One of my uncles had his old truck for years after my grandpa was gone and let another uncle talk him out of it to ‘fix it up’. He had it sold in a week. Fucker. We still don’t speak, but not just over that shenanigan.

Anyway, it had a four speed manual, three with a granny gear and my grandpa would sometimes pour a little used motor oil down the carb so it would get enough compression to start, then it would smoke like the dickens for a couple minutes. It also had the floor starter.

Good memories! we used to load that sumbitch down with enough hay that the front wheels would ‘walk’ on the ride to the barn.

BKb

[Big Muddy]

I learned to drive on a cow-turd green 1952 International Harvester pickup.....no bench seat in it.....driver side seat was a rusty milk can, and passenger side was a wooden coca cola drink crate.

[Thumper]

Thumper didn't give anyone else a chance.

Well SOMEBODY had to go first!

[Chicken Dinner]

I learned to drive on my Uncles 1960’s era F-series with the three-on-tree column shift. I was doing some odd jobs for him on his farm that summer in between loading produce down at “the block” as the local auction was called. I still remember his amazement that I was 14 years old and didn’t know how to drive...


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[BarryBobPosthole]

Funny you say that. I had a farm permit to drive when I was 14. I couldn’t go to town or anything but I could drive on the dirt roads close around our place. I terrorized those roads.

BKb

[Thumper]

Back in the day, we got our learner's permit at 14 and I think I was at the Highway Patrol office the first Saturday after my 14th birthday. I have no clue when I first started driving, but my uncle lived "in the country" and he always let me drive his old WWII military surplus Jeep around the 100 miles of dirt roads as well as his hunting lease. BUT ... though we got our learner's permit at 14, we weren't allowed to get our regular license until 16. The heck with that b/s, as far as I was concerned, once I had that permit ... it was a full-fledged driver's license! Two buddies and myself pitched in $25 each and bought an old '49 Plymouth (4-door) with "three on the tree" for $75 total. We were all the same age and all had our "permits". We must have put a bazillion miles on that old Plymouth before she finally spun a rod bearing and we drove it to the junk yard.

[HideHunter]

been there - done that.. Grampa's 47 Chevy pick up..

[BarryBobPosthole]

Someone mentioned the cost of their first car. Mine was a ‘65 VeeDub bug and I paid $60 for it. The old man and I and JC Whitney rebuilt the engine on the back porch basically new jugs and mains, a lady across the tracks in town recovered the seats for like $75 and after some recap tires it was driveable. Which is using the term loosely. That car barely had a sign of brakes on it. You had to get a run at hills and I lived in hilly country.
Quite a hoopty.

BKB

[Thumper]

Is there ANYBODY who didn’t have a well-worn, dog-eared J. C. Whitney catalog as a teenager?

[Big Muddy]

Yep, and after it was well-read, it was taken to our one-seater outhouse, where it sat next to the Sears catalog.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Remember the old ‘water vapor injection’ ads in JC Whitney that promised big increases in gas mileage and horse power? Did anyone ever buy one of those?

BKB

[quercus alba]

I never was interested in cars as a kid and still not today. They’re just a vehicle to get you from point A to point B. Have no idea who J C Whitney was. I know who J C Higgins was.

[Thumper]

P-hole, I can remember seeing those silly water injectors on brand new Cadillacs in the 60’s. I remember the first one I ever saw like it was yesterday. Like our “remember when” thread, I remember it was in the Caddie dealership in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I walked back to b/s with one of the mechanics (Mike, can’t remember his last name). He was working on a car in his stall and the hood was open. I saw that injector and asked, “WTF is that?” I can’t recall what his opinion was of the thing, but it’s one of those vivid memories of “when and where” I was.

I also remember some sort of silly magnetic thingy you’d install in-line on your fuel line. It was supposed to align the molecules in the gas to improve fuel mileage. Even as a kid, I always wondered wtf was “magnetic” in gasoline!

I always liked the steering wheel knobs with the nekkid ladies in ‘em!

[Thumper]

Q/A, that’s exactly where I am in life now. When it comes to cars, they all look alike to me. It all just boils down to make and model these days and although I do look at the specs from time to time, I doubt I could tell you the horsepower rating on anything I’ve driven in the last 40 years.

I was lucky enough to grow up in the days of tri-5 Chevies and actually spent my teenaged driving years during the 60’s muscle car era. I had motor oil running through my veins in those days and was a total, 100% gear head. I doubt there a 60’s muscle car I didn’t get to drive when I was a kid, including the fire breathing street racer I built in high school and raced on the street. I remember when the sound of a big-cammed V-8 would actually bring tears to my eyes (literally).

I remember about 10-12 years ago my neighbor’s kid had 3-4 of his buddies at the house and they were installing one of those things on the end if the tailpipe on his Honda Accord. I have no clue what it was supposed to do, but all the kids HAD to have one on their car. Once he started it, ALL those goof balls got all excited and talked about how good the car sounded now and told him it’ll probably run like a bat out’ta hell. I laughed and asked them how bolting a coffee can on the end of the tailpipe was gonna make the car go faster. They just looked at me like I was stupid and obviously new nothing of “performance cars”! I think kids these days are deprived in that field and it makes me appreciate growing up when engines were referred to by cubic inches instead of liters.

[BarryBobPosthole]

To sum it up, there was a time when you could pull up behind a car at night and ID the make and model a quarter mile away just from the tail lights.
Nowadays they look like they’re all clones of one another.


GMC has borrowed heavily from the Tundra body lines too.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, I’ve noticed the resemblance.

When I was just a LITTLE kid, I dunno, like 8-10 years old, I could do exactly as you say. At night, I could see a car 1/4 mile down the road and tell you the make and year. I could also tell what many cars were just by the sound. I could hear a car the next street over and most times tell you the make just by the sound of the factory exhaust. Of course, there was also that distinctive sound of the old gear reduction starters on Chrysler products. You could tell the sound of a Chrysler, Dodge or Plymouth starting from a mile away without ever seeing it. That used to bug the crap out’ta me when watching tv or a movie. A Dodge would start and the sound affects guy would dub the sound of a standard, non-gear reduction starter. Grrrrr!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I once had a ‘74 b100 Dodge van that I put headers and corvair mufflers on. The sound of that 318 cranking and then the rumble of the engine was uniquely MOPAR. I loved that van. Wish I hadn’t traded it.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, Corvair TURBO mufflers were the tits! In fact, I ran them on my little high school hotrod. If I remember correctly, they had a straight 2-1/2” inlet AND outlet. A turbo car doesn’t like back-pressure and that made for a great performance muffler on a normally aspirated car. Mine sounded badass and I remember a bazillion people asking what exhaust set-up I was running. Since it was mid-engined, the mufflers basically hooked up almost directly to the header reducers and the outlets left just enough room for exhaust tips. Man, you’re bringing back fond memories. I haven't "talked cars" in ages!

I don't know how large the pics will be once posted here, but you can see the reducers and tailpipe tips in these photos. As you can see, there was really no exhaust pipe OR tailpipe to speak of, nothing much more than headers, reducers, mufflers and tailpipe tips!

corv8-5.jpg corv8-2.jpg

[jb]

In 1963, when I was 18, this is the first car I bought, 55 Merc. V8, red & white factory leather, 3 on the tree / elect. overdrive (that never worked)
Paid $350 for it. Last year Ford offered a 6 volt elect. system. It took a good minute of cranking to get the car started, always felt like the battery would go dead before the car started. Sold it for the same amount in the fall when I headed to the Marines.
Wish I still had it.
Picture was taken in front of the Texaco Station my dad owned, when he died his two brothers bought it from my mom. Worked here from 15 to 21. One of the few stations in my town that had 4 bays. My two cousins who's dad owned the station were pretty big gear heads, and the hang out at night for the teen car crowd. My two cousins and myself would divide up the weekday for running the station from 6-9pm.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Nice! was that the Nercury version of the Crown Vic? Kind of looks like it. Two-door no post!
55 was an awesome year for all US auto manufacturers from a design standpoint.
BKB

[jb]

We always referred to that model as a two door hard top, if it had a post we called them 2 door sedans.

[Thumper]

Ha ha! Bubba, I had that same car! But mine was a ‘56 with a 312 V-8 (I think it was the first year for the 312) and three on the tree! Black on black. I was only 13 and wasn’t allowed to drive yet, but I’d start it every day and drive it back and forth in the driveway, then occasionally sneak it around the block if my mom wasn’t home. We ended up trading it to a painter. He got the car in exchange for painting our house before we sold it and moved to Mississippi.

My dad had acquired the car somehow and promised it to me for my first car, but I wasn't "allowed" to actually drive it until I was 14, so it just sat behind or house (the driveway extended all the way back to our rear property line). We moved when I was 15 and that's when the family needed a little extra money to fix the house up for sale and help pay moving expenses, so the Merc was sacrificed.

[DeputyDog]

I remember about 10-12 years ago my neighbor’s kid had 3-4 of his buddies at the house and they were installing one of those things on the end if the tailpipe on his Honda Accord. I have no clue what it was supposed to do, but all the kids HAD to have one on their car. Once he started it, ALL those goof balls got all excited and talked about how good the car sounded now and told him it’ll probably run like a bat out’ta hell. I laughed and asked them how bolting a coffee can on the end of the tailpipe was gonna make the car go faster. They just looked at me like I was stupid and obviously new nothing of “performance cars”! I think kids these days are deprived in that field and it makes me appreciate growing up when engines were referred to by cubic inches instead of liters.

I still don’t know why anyone would want their car to sound that way. When I was in high school no one even wanted a motorcycle to sound that way, let alone a car.


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[DeputyDog]

I had a 63 Corvair convertible when I was in high school. It wasn’t in the best of shape but it looked ok, was unique since everyone else had Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds, Monte Carlos, Cutlasses, or Buick Regals, and best of all it was a convertible.

There is one car I kick myself over. My Dad had bought a 66 Buick Lesabre from an old woman who was the original owner. This was in the mid 80’s when I was in high school. That car looked brand new. It was that gold/tan color and was a 4 door hardtop with a 350 Wildcat engine. It only had thirty-some thousand miles on it. He offered it to me, but being a 17-18 year old idiot, I told him that it was an old person’s car and didn’t want it.

[Thumper]

I still don’t know why anyone would want their car to sound that way. When I was in high school no one even wanted a motorcycle to sound that way, let alone a car.

Man-o-man, I know Yankees have always been a bit deprived, but a kid NOT liking a loud exhaust? I've never heard of such a thing. Now, mind you, these little rice-burners running around these days with loud exhausts do nothing but irritate me. It's not that I'm just an old fart, but that's all these kids really grew up with and they don't know any better. A nice, throaty American V-8 with an aggressive cam and a bitchin', WELL TUNED exhaust is music to my ears and actually brings tears to my eyes.

BTW, my best buddy's mom drove that EXACT same car (Lesabre, same color even) when I was a kid. I'm 99% positive it was also a '66 because it was only about a year old when we moved away ... and that was 1967. Odd, since to me it was an "old lady's car", the only major thing that really stands out in my old memory banks is that it had a goofy "speed control" feature. There was a dial on the dash that moved a big red (or yellow maybe?) pointer thingy across the speedometer. If the speed limit was 60 mph for example, you'd set the thing on 62 (or whatever) and if you hit that speed, the most irritating sound you've ever heard would emanate from the dash and would continue until you backed off on the speed a bit. I think most people just set it on 120 and ignored it.

Oh yeah, FYI ... when I was "younger" ... I wouldn't be caught dead driving a 4-door. You may as well spray paint "Mom's Car" across the hood!