What Was Your First Car?
Tuesday March 13, 2007
My About.com affiliate Aaron is hosting what is turning out to be a hilarious discussion on first cars. Sure, some of you had the good fortune to find a Mustang with a bow on the roof sitting in the driveway for your 16th, but the rest of us were riding in some doozies. I thought my first car was pretty bad (a '79 Grand Prix painted doo-doo-brown with a stuck driver's door) but some of these have me beat by miles. Check out the conversation at cars.about.com. Thanks to Aaron for sharing.
Comments
My first car was a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle. It was for sale on somebody’s front lawn for $200. I told the man that I only had $75 and he said take it-I want it off my lawn.
It had all of 36 horsepower. (fastest thing on the road from 0 to 10 feet!) There was no gas gauge, just a lever on the floor that you turned when the car started sputtering out. It gave you about 40 more miles to get to a gas station. If you forgot to turn the lever back after filling up, the next time you ran out of gas you really were out of gas. (I forgot many times).
It ran forever on $2 worth of gas. I had a blast with that car. I used it for a full year and never had to put a penny into it.
Oh, yeah. The car was so rusty that you could see sunlight coming in along the edged of the floor pan.
Wow, thanks for the memories.
My first car was a 1961 Ford Facon. Two tone paint job - Chesapeak Blue on the bottom and White on top. Had a “big block” six cylinder of 144 cu.in. with vinal floor mats. It was not whart you would cal a “babe magnet” but it got me around for years and years of low cost driving - especially importent when you are a teenager with afirst car.
My first car was a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 with a gas-guzzling 429 cu. inches under the hood. I got it off the lot at the local Ford dealership for $500. The car was stolen six weeks after I got it. It was found 50 miles away about 2 months later. 2 days later I made my first cross-country drive in it from north of Seattle to N.C. I traded it in on something newer a year later.
My first car was a ridiculous little ‘74 Chevy Vega with the Ol’ Smoky 2.2 aluminum block, steel piston engine. Even my 8-year old son can tell you what’s wrong with that design. But, when you’re 16, any wheels will do, eh?
After a bit, I learned about how Chevy Monzas were basically the same car, and how they come with V-8s. So, before long, my Vega had a bone-yard 327 under the hood. Of course, being 17, my friends and I did a really, really bad job of swapping engines. It lasted about 6 months before the transmission, which we hadn’t swapped (but bolted up anyway), grenaded while on a trip to Denver. It snowed that night, and a snow plow on I-25 “accidently” finished the job.
I went through a number of Vegas after that (the devil you know), but a friend of mind bought an old CJ-5 while in our senior year, I got hooked on Jeeps after that, and I have never looked back.
But, like your 1st girlfriend, a man never forgets his first car. I imagine that she’s (the car, not what’s-her-name) is razor blades and carpet tacks by now. I bet she’s still leaking oil.
My first Rig was a 68 V.W, paid $300 I think. I started adding as many Gizmos as I could afford, you know all that stuff available from J.C.Whitney, 10% here, 15% there, I figured I would end up with about 600 H.P. She Always seemed a little clunky on bumps, discovered later only 2 loose Bolts holding Body to Bed Pan. Long story but it rolled off and into a ten foot culvert ( I thought it had landed on my best friend who was in the culvert for a moment, he did see the underside before he ran into the pipe) ripping the exuast,bumper and rear of body off, and flatened the tires and wheels, nice start to a Baja Bug dont you think. Was driving it down the road one time and the throttle was stuck full open, reached down and messed with the peddle, it started working but there was a awful sound coming from behind. One of the brass tubes from the Carb came loose and was holding the Butter-fly Valve open, I jarred it loose and it fell down into the intake, somehow beat its way threw the engine and it kept runing till I got rid of it. Thats what memories are made of.
My first car was a 1988 chevy caprice with a rusted out trunk, hood, and roof.It cost me $350 plus all the work I put into it. In all, I’d say I spent about $3000 to get it to a decent running condition. One night the battery died and had to push it in nuetral. I happened to forget that my drivers side door was open because it was dark and bent the door all the way to drivers side fender. I bent it back to position but that bend made it really really ugly…What a whooptie.
My first truck I had was a 87″ GMC work truck that my Granfather gave to my Father after he retired it and I got it from my Father after he parked it.The fenders and doors were all different colors so it became known as the skittles truck.Who knows how many miles it had on it cause the odemeter stopped working at around 300,000 and my father had it two years after that.The back glass was a piece of plastic.It had coat hangers for outside door handles.No need for oil change it changed itself just change the filter.It took 3 quarts of oil a day, and 3 quarts of power stering fluid a day.The dash lights were christmas type lights I had to plugg into the cigarette lighter.If I wanted heat I had to pull over and turn it on under the hood.Also every time I left I had to go under the hood to turn on the engine fan because it was straight wired to the battery and hopefully remmeber to turn it off when I get there.I had to be jumped off many times for dead battery.If you picked up the rug I could watch the road go by cause the drivers side floor board was rusted out.