My First `Car'
 

This morning while sitting on the back porch having a cup of coffee with my wife I thought of my very first car for some reason. A soap box derby of sorts. With a wide board, an old automobile steering wheel, a broom stick, wagon wheels and axles, two pulleys, a rope, an orange crate and the use of my granddad’s tools I concocted my first car. I pushed and rode that thing everywhere, even raced others like it.

My dad bought me a Maytag washing machine engine. I tried mounting it on my derby via an old fan belt and a pulley welded to a wagon wheel. This was eons before go carts. It never worked....

I bet some out there have similar stories.

BTW I still have a Track Rabbit go cart that I bought in 1960.

Shadetree

Re: My First `Car'
 

Shadetree, my first car was the 31 Vicky in my avatar. I'm 31 and bought it unrestored when I was 18. My first driving lesson with a manual transmission was my grandpas 1932 model B 5 window. Wish we still had that car!

Re: My First `Car'
 

Shadetree, If you had managed to get your derby to run with the maytag motor, how long a tether would you have had?

Re: My First `Car'
 

I think those early Maytags had gasoline engines because so many farms didn't have electricity

Re: My First `Car'
 

Ohhh yeah... The Gravity Gran Prix...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/p...ctureid=221156


http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/p...ctureid=221157

Re: My First `Car'
 

I spent a lot of summers at my Grandparents house, he had an old buckboard and my older cousin and my older brother and I would pull it to the top of the hill and ride thru the apple orchard on it, my Gramma found out about and got Gramps to buy us some wheels from sears and we made a real beauty, kind of like you did, we rode and rode that "car" all summer, boy what memories!! Rode it once all the way to the lake, didn't do that again, scared the #### out of us.

Re: My First `Car'
 

Mine was a two wheeler ,bicycle. mounted Dads Waterwich outboard motor with a fan ,didnt last too long without water for cooling,heck i didnt knowthe thing needed water for cooling,didnt go very far either,or fast.Guess this was about 1940.

Re: My First `Car'
 

I was 15 and bought a 35 Ford 5 window coupe for $7.50. It burnt oil and smoked but ran. Several months later someone ran into the side of a 34 3 window up at the corner and it flipped over. It had a new Ford rebuilt engine with about 100 miles on it. I bought that for $15.00 and put that engine in my 35.

Re: My First `Car'
 

Yes I had a Maytag soap box car, but my first real car was a 26 chevy. Someone stold the shift lever long before I bought it and you shifted it with a long screwer. Took alittle practice, but doable. My first leagle car was a 33 chev coupe with rumble seat, paid 40 bucks for it, ran good, do almost 70 mph.

Re: My First `Car'
 

Hey Ron, that remionds me of my first car, 1928 Chevy, the last of the 4 baggers. I was 14. Had 1/2 doz cars before I was 15 and got my licenes. Payed 20 bucks for the 28 Chev and drove it home, the starter didn't work but a stem winder on the front. Walt

Re: My First `Car'
 

My first car was a 39 Ford Standard 2 dr sedan. It was setup for a buick engine but it had been removed. I bought a used 200 hp 54 Buick Century engine and in a week i had it running. I was 15 also. I still own this car and i am redoing it now with a 302 Lincoln engine. Marv

Re: My First `Car'
 

Shadetree, If you had managed to get your derby to run with the maytag motor, how long a tether would you have had?

Alan,
Someone was looking out for me. If I had been successful the only place to ride it would have been the streets or the baseball field. I had both in mind. I would have had my butt busted, either by Mom or the police.

I do remember this as clear as day. A kid on a Whizzer stopped as I was working on my derby and asked questions about my project. I had never seen a Whizzer before. What I wouldn’t have given for that bike!

Shadetree

Re: My First `Car'
 

While living in Chicago, I went to St. Mells Hi school and a buddy of mine and I would go there on a Whizzer MB, surprised I lived this long.

Re: My First `Car'
 

Got my first car in 1982, A '66 Mustang GT, and still have her to this day! I love my Zephyr, but the Mustang is my first and a heckuva driver :D

Re: My First `Car'
 

My first car was a '38 Chevrolet 2 door , My dad paid $35.00 for it and I pulled the engine and did some work on it, but I never drove it on the road. What a waste of money. Sold it for scrap and bought a '37 Ford slant back and been a Ford guy ever since, although the only way I could get the Ford stopped was to let it run down. I was 15 at the time.

Re: My First `Car'
 

My first car was a 31 chev sedan Paid $ 35.00 on a payment plan of $5 a week till she was all mine. It had 18 inch Wheels & tires with no spare that were almost impossible to find at that time so I had to carry tire repair, boots & tire pump until I found out that 37 chev 16 inch wheels would fit the hubs they were plentiful at that time. After a couple years, drove that car in to the junk yard & got $ 7.00 cash for it. If it had been a Ford I would have kept it lol
~~Walts37~~

Re: My First `Car' - a Corvette!
 

When I was 17 my Dad suggested that he buy my twin and I a used Rambler American - which was very generous of him - but I thought that was beneath my dignity as a car crazy (but poor) kid who wanted a hot car. So my twin got the Rambler and I stuck to my bicycle - but - I went back to my Dad with a plan - I had a small cash flow form summer and winter jobs and with his help to smooth cash flow - I could buy a junked Corvette and rebuilt it - and that what I did! Took me 2 years with tons of sweat, heart and soul - learned lots of life lessons and got a lot of self esteem - It was a 375hp and was quite a handful - but with all i put into that car - I never wanted to break or damage it so was incredibly well behaved and mature to have that kind of car. Police pulled me over all the time because they were suspicious that I stole it!
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/PICT0002.jpg
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Re: My First `Car'
 

That is a great story! Few people had garages back then. Overhauls and paint jobs were done outside. Do you still have the Vette?

Shadetree

Re: My First `Car'
 

At 17 I bought my first car now 56, it was in 1972 a 1960 Cadillac for $60, yes those big tail fins, my dad thought I was fooling him. It had to be towed home it needed work, and I knew nothing about cars, and had just gotten my license, I had a few high school buddies the monkey'd around on cars, so they showed me the ropes and we got it running, oddly enough, before I truly got to drive it, I went to show it to my uncle outside my house just up the street where I parked it, and no car, after calling around learned that it was at a tow garage, and that it had actually been missing from the parked spot for 2 days and had been stolen and the thieves had lost control of it going around a bend where a brick wall was on one side and a one way street, well the creamed into the wall with the passenger front and totaled the whole front quarter. Needless to say I was heart broken, and sold it for a $100. No they didn't catch the thieves they had run off.

The kicker is my very next car was a red 1963 VW bug, I went from one of the biggest to one of the smallest, you guys got me to laugh at myself right about now. This is where I really learned how to work on cars, I have had many, many cars of all makes, from german, british, american, but true love are Fords, my dad is a Ford man, and drives a Lincoln to this day.

Thanks for the fun memories you made me think of.
Pete

Re: My First `Car'
 

Shade tree - I had the pleasure to own that Corvette for 3 years - It was part of my DNA at that point. Unfortunately my parents announced they were moving to Virginia and selling our home and I was welcome to come - i had a girlfriend that I had no intention of splitting from so.... now being "homeless" i had to sell my pride and joy to pay to be on my own - instant "grown-up" if you will! I had nightmares for many years after that - missing that car and wanting to have it back.