Biggest old car "impression" left in your mind...

[kevin1221]

I have loved cars for as long as I can remember. In 1961, my dad bought a 1959 Ford Retractable for my mom to drive. Although I was only six years old, I thought that was the neatest car I had ever seen, much less ridden in. We kept that car until 1964, selling it for a new 1964 Country Squire Wagon....the family was getting larger!

I also loved going to car lots as a child and teen ager. Always saw some great cars that I loved.

Kevin

[Guest greg walsh]

I think my biggest impression was with a small car my Dad bought for me in high school. It was a 1960 Renault Daulphine that he paid $50 for. The guy he had gotten it from had traded it for a shotgun. My first experience with a foreign car, kinda' wish I still had it. It was red and I put yellow racing stripes on it and tried waxing it with floor wax, what an idiot I was.

[Guest Albert]

I think what got me started in the Antique cars, was back in 1975 my dad got a winter wood working project throught a friend to build the new coachwork for a 1928 Auburn boattail,, we spent 3 months in the workshop sanding and cutting the new wood for the body frame. back then there was no internet, and trying to find information on a car like that was hard.. the owner finialy found out the body had some odd stuff about it, as we had two spare tire mounts, as well as we had two golf club doors on this car , when all the other 28's only had one,, we then found out that we had #7 of the first 25 boattails Auburn built, I understand this car is now in England some place.. Owner sold it to buy another basket case a 1929 Duesenberg model J, and has now finished off his second model J..

[John_Maine]

Wish I could figure out how to "quote" but to respond to Shop Rat - I don't know for sure why I didn't like riding in the '37 Plymouth coupe, but I do remember that it seemed very noisy compared to the more modern cars I was used to. And there was something about the floor shift......

[john2dameron]

Was 2 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. We lived on Route 311 which was the main road from White Sulphur Springs, WV, (home of the famed Greenbrier Hotel) to Roanoke. One favorite pasttime was standing in the yard and ID'ing the cars that passed by. My excitement knew no limits when the 1947 Studebakers appeared along with the step-down Hudsons and Kaisers and Frazers. Saw everything from Fords and Chevies to Lincoln Continentals and Rolls-Royces. Dad's brother was a railroad engineer on the C&O. He kept us supplied with magazines from the YMCA. Post, Look, Colliers, Argosy, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, etc. My favorites were the ones with the automobile ads in them. Today I have a few thousand of those ads. My mom said long before I started to school I could identify every car I saw. Can't quite do that today with the road full of generic sedans. I can remember riding in a c.1948 DeSoto, a step-down Hudson about the same vintage, prewar Buicks, an early postwar Dodge, a 1941 Plymouth, a 1942 Cadillac fastback, and who knows what else. Never got into collecting old cars but owned 6 different convertibles in the '60's and early '70's. Have about 1,000 diecast, mostly 1/18th scale and other automobilia, including magazines dating back to 1948 and hundreds of car books. I still love to look at cars and read about them. Took my computer to the shop a few days ago and the technician was surprised to find almost 20,000 photos of cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc.on it. That's why I enjoy going to shows; I look at the cars and trucks, take photos, and talk to the owners.

[Shop Rat]

Wish I could figure out how to "quote" but to respond to Shop Rat - I don't know for sure why I didn't like riding in the '37 Plymouth coupe, but I do remember that it seemed very noisy compared to the more modern cars I was used to. And there was something about the floor shift......

All you have to do to "quote" something is click on the QUOTE button at the lower right corner of a post. It will then appear at the top of the reply message area and you can add your message below that.

That makes sense that as a child you might not like a noisy vehicle compared to a quieter one.

Edited January 19, 2011 by Shop Rat
type-o (see edit history)

[Guest Skip Jordan]

Speaking of hating a '37 Plymouth, my grandfather had one that I hated (he smoked cigars in it). Didn't that car have front wheels that changed camber when turning right or left?

[OldsDoug]

Was anyone here ever fortunate enough to have attended one of the GM Motoramas? Gawd, that would be my dream... none of them ever came here to Washington DC, but I bet my Dad would have taken me had there been one here... he did take me to the Auto Show in 1960... man, I still remember that... like some others here, I could identify cars from the time I was about four years old...

[keiser31]

Was anyone here ever fortunate enough to have attended one of the GM Motoramas? Gawd, that would be my dream... none of them ever came here to Washington DC, but I bet my Dad would have taken me had there been one here... he did take me to the Auto Show in 1960... man, I still remember that... like some others here, I could identify cars from the time I was about four years old...

My dad and my brother and I went to most of the Detroit auto shows from about 1959 on. Never went to a bad auto show.

[Guest DaveCorbin]

I want you to imagine the height at which a 3 year old sees a car, about 6 inches below the belt line. I remembered these 3 details of this car for years and about 5 years ago at Hershey saw a set of cars with those details. By elimination, the car in my memory was a 1933 Packard 12 dual cowl, with glass wind wings. Color was pale yellow with a green belt line.

Two sisters rented a room in our house and their brother came one Sunday to take them for a ride. This would be early 1943 and it took me until 2006 to match the details I remembered! I don't think he drove it much due to gas rationing as I only saw it a couple of times.

Then, I lived on US 40 from May of 1945 to December 1956. If it had wheels, I saw it, but that big Packard made a BIG impression.

Regards, Dave Corbin

[1937hd45]

The day the neighbor across the steet brought home a new two tone blue 1985 Ford LTD.

[Tom M]

Mine was when our great uncle would take us for a drive around Marquette Park in Chicago in his '31 Packard. Which is the same car I own today. :cool:

[Guest darren y]

This '49 may be up for sale soon.

it is for sale again, contact Brad Young 541-482-9274

[Paul Dobbin]

For me it was building a homemade yard car with my father. We built a 2x4 frame, got a 5 HP Wisconsin engine that weighed hundreds of pounds, put wheels on it smaller than wheel barrow's use, then we built a two passenger body with galvanized sheet metal over a wooden frame. The finished product took a year and then was to heavy to drive in the yard. I had a bike with a car steering wheel instead of handelbars. Then an old lady down the road drove past in her Model A Ford. At that time, (mid 50's) the Model a looked in perfect shape and I was told she was the original owner. A 25 year old car!!!! WOW, I was hooked at age 10 and was trying to buy one by age 14.

I guess I never got over it (Model A's yes, but old cars NO)

[Guest Skyking]

I remember in 1956, I was 10 years old and playing in front of my house with my best friend. He lived across the street from me. We were playing with our model cars and when ever a nice car came by, the first one who said "I own that". well that kid would own it. A kids game, you know. Well out of a clear blue sky this gorgeous 1956 tri-color Packard 400 came by and my friend yelled, "I own that"............. Little did he know his father was driving it home for the first time. His dad owned a Hardware store and bought a new car and station wagon every few years. I remember that Packard like it was yesterday.

[John_Maine]

Ironically, as much as I liked cars, when I was 3-4 years old, I remember riding in my uncle's '37 Plymouth coupe. I absolutely hated that car for some reason. I remember screaming my head off everytime I had to ride in it. My uncle bought the car when he got out of the service after WWII. In 1948, he won a brand new '48 Pontiac Streamliner in an American Legion raffle. He gave the Plymouth to his brother and that is who I remember riding in the car with. That would have been '53 or '54. When my parents bought a '54 Crestline Victoria in '55, my uncle bought their '51 Crestline Victoria and gave the Plymouth to my cousin who was in college at the time. He had it for a few months before wrapping it around a tree. Amazingly, it survived 18 years. I recently found a picture of it sitting in front of my grandparent's house.

[carlisle1926]

My start of loving old cars came in the 1970's when I was a kid staying with my Great Grandmother at her dog run log house in Carlisle, Texas. She lived out in the middle of nothing off of a dirt road on the North East side of Lake Livingston. A ton of Model T Fords came racing past the house on a tour as I stood on the front porch watching them go past. I remember telling her "someday I'm going to get me one of those". In 2007, I ending up with a 1923 Model T touring car that had been cut down into a truck during the war. Grandma had been gone since the 1980's, but I drove right past the falling down old log house just like I said I would.

The other was an apple green Model J Duesenberg roadster that Jerry J. Moore had on display at the Houston Autorama in the 1980's. I fell in love with the full classics that day. I still don't have a Duesenberg. I liked that Duesenberg so much that in 1997, when a guy called me needing a large hand painted mural to hang in his car garage, I painted this image on a large canvas background. The odd curtains were his idea. That is me on the right holding the canvas.

Edited November 15, 2012 by carlisle1926
added photo (see edit history)

[Guest brich2929]

When I was very young, probably would have been 1983, my grandfather worked for Burdumy Lincoln-Mercury in Upper Darby, PA at the parts counter. My dad had taken me there one day, a slow day because hardly anyone in the showroom t hat I recall, but what I do recall was that they had a replica of JFK's SS-100X limo right in the showroom. At the time I didn't know it was a replica, I thought it was the real deal. I sat in the back seat, remember thinking it was so cool that there was a clock in the seat infront of me as well as a clock in the dash. I went out to the shop area and wsked where the bubble top was and it was there propped against the shop wall. I have inquired over the years every so often when replicas come up for sale...to my knowledge there are basically 2 or so that are really well done. A few years ago someone was selling one, a woman that I'd read of online. I contacted her and her price was 2 or 3 hundred K. Just saw one on Hemmings over the summer aty a place in Beverly Hills. The guy said the asking price was $90K and they had it right there in the showroom, but not on their site yet. I of course couldn't afford that price but asked him for as many pics as he could send. They never got sent and I never saw it get listed on their website. Not too long later it was removed from Hemmings.

Needless to say, since I can never have the REAL SS-100X which bares little resemblance to the existing car at the Henry Ford Museum (still have never been there), I see down the road perhaps a future build...

I would love to try and find out more details of the specific cr in that showroom that day, perhaps it was this car?

http://bazar.glo-con.com/article.php?article_no=117

Edited November 14, 2012 by brich2929 (see edit history)

[GARY F]

i am old so i remember my grandfathers L36 Olds 4 dr. during WWII he sold it to my father. I would still kile to get one & restore it to join my 63 Bonne

[stock_steve]

All-time coolest old car experience ever for us was a ride in our friend Alex's World War II VW "Kubelwagen," back when we were still relatively new to the old-VW hobby, in the mid-1980s. That experience has always stuck with us. Thanks again Alex!!!

Saw a beautiful one with NJ plates driving around the flea market at Hershey this year, as a matter of fact. I don't know who owns it, but I'll try to paste in a photo or two below:

Edited November 13, 2012 by stock_steve (see edit history)

[gavinnz]

For me it was watching the short lived US TV show "Bearcats" as a kid that had to guys driving around the wild west in a Stutz Bearcat.... (replica for the action shots).

I still vividly remember them driving fast around a slight uphill bend at speed and the car shooting rocks and dust out the back as it slid around the corner...

That show is the reason I an building an American LaFrance Speedster...

Regards

Gavin

[jrbartlett]

My start of loving old cars came in the 1970's when I was a kid staying with my Great Grandmother at her dog run log house in Carlisle, Texas. She lived out in the middle of nothing off of a dirt road on the North East side of Lake Livingston. A ton of Model T Fords came racing past the house on a tour as I stood on the front porch watching them go past. I remember telling her "someday I'm going to get me one of those". In 2007, I ending up with a 1923 Model T touring car that had been cut down into a truck during the war. Grandma had been gone since the 1980's, but I drove right past the falling down old log house just like I said I would.

The other was an apple green Model J Deusenberg roadster that Jerry J. Moore had on display at the Houston Autorama in the 1980's. I fell in love with the full classics that day. I still don't have Deusenberg.

Hey Carlisle 1926 -- Galena Park isn't all that far from me (I'm in Tomball), and I've attended the Houston Autorama off and on since the 1960s.

Since you liked that Duesenberg, get in touch with me via email and I'll give you a ride in mine sometime during the next couple weeks.

Edited November 15, 2012 by jrbartlett (see edit history)

[Guest Normbc9]

In 1941 about a month before Pearl Harbor Day we got a ride home from church in a '31 marmon with a v-16 engine. What a car. Crystal vases and flowers too. Circassian walnut wood dash inserts just like my dad's FN side by suide shotgun made in Belgium. Big car. some gear noise as it accelerated but smooth! Huge haedlights and also fog lights too.

Normbc9

[Pomeroy41144]

My father had a 1937 Ford when I was very young, then a 1953 Chevrolet, then a 1941 Buick. And now here I am.

[39BuickEight]

My favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story, all incorrect era vehicles aside, I loved the rusty old 20's cabs laying all around the neighborhood, but something about changing the tire on a 30's car in the snow just sounds fun to me.

[Marty Roth]

James,

I would walk from New Orleans to Tomball for a ride in that magnificent 1932 Dual-Cowl Duesenberg Phaeton you displayed during the "Freshman Festivities" on the Glidden Tour.

Maybe one of these days...

and we could take a few photos of our Packards side-by-side

[Seldenguy]

I was a kid in grade school and overheard the big boys talking about a new car in town. The wealthiest man in town whom owned several business plus hundreds of acres of farms all rented out bought a new 1940 Oldsmobile with a then new Hydromatic transmission. After school I went to his house and it was parked in the driveway, I looked in the window and sure enough no shift lever on the floor! At home I told my parents about it, they being conservative said it was just a new fad and there would always be a shift lever. Looking back I probably asked questions about this that they couldn't answer? Fond memories of my youth. --Bob

[Steve9]

Going to the Custom Auto Show at the Seattle Center as a 12 year old kid with my older brother, a model A nut, in the late 60's. He introduced me to Bert Lobberegt who was showing his 1907 Pierce Great Arrow. Bert restored this car himself, then drove around the U.S. and placed the decals of all the states visited on the large windshield! I got to visit his garage when I was in my 20's and see the rest of his amazing collection. Bert's gone, but not forgotten, and his Great Arrow is now part of the Lemay collection in Tacoma.

[oldcarfudd]

Two early memories:

1. WWII, about 1943. I'm 7 years old, living in Ridgewood, NJ. I'm friends with a kid up the block, whose parents are Swiss, living in the states. In their garage is a 1934 Packard, up on blocks, because there are no tires or gas. The other kid and I spend hours in that car, pretending to drive it.

2. 1953, I've just turned 17, have a brand new driver's license, and have just graduated from high school. My folks have rented a summer cottage at Candlewood Lake, CT. A Doctor O'Brien, from Danbury, owns a summer place there. He has just taken delivery of a brand-spanking-new Jaguar XK-120M, and I'm drooling on it. He takes me for a ride, and lets me drive it! He also owns a 12-cylinder Model K Lincoln convertible sedan, and he lets me drive that, too! What an astoundingly generous thing that was. And what a thrill for a newly-licensed kid. After that summer, I never saw him again. But all these years later, thank you, Dr. O'Brien.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ