Just how dumb was I?
 

Well, let me tell you. When I was 16, I got a 5 or 6 year old '53 Ford convertible for $350. It was a V-8 with Fordomatic, and wasn't as fast as my buddies 53 tudor with a stick. I still raced anyone I could find, but was mad that it wouldn't burn rubber. Don't remember winning any races either.

One rainy day, I started from a stop sign where there was a big puddle, and when I punched it the wheels actually started to spin, so I kept it floored and enjoyed the rap from the twice pipes. Until, that is, there was a big clunk and the motor quit.

I had broken the crank in half and the cam into three pieces. It was gonna cost a bundle to fix it, so I bought a 52 Lincoln with the big Y block motor for about $100, and my buddy and I installed the motor and trans into the '53.

We had to butcher the frame to do it, since the pan was not the same configuration. Then we rebuilt the motor but never could get it running right.

After months of trying we gave up and sold it for the cost of motor parts, and it ended up in the junkyard.

Looking back years later, I have always wondered if we had the distributor 180 degrees off. Guess I will never know.

What I do know is that years later it dawned on me that it was the 50th anniversary edition, and I remembered the horn button that announced it. Years after that I found out the Ford convertible was also the Indy Pace Car for the '53 race.

Not that mine was special, but being a 50th anniversary car was kinda neat.

No wonder I'm grumpy.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Youth is wasted on the young!!

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

It's not that you were 'dumb' but you had a lack of knowledge. :)

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I hot rodded a 64-1/2 Mustang conv. in the early 70's. My buddies father said not to do it as it will be a collectors item someday. Did I listen???? of course not!

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

This may be off subject a bit.
When I was a young lad in 1974 I bought a used 1963 Gretsch white falcon guitar for 400 dollars. Traded it back in in less then 2 weeks for shiny new guitar..

That shiny new guitar is worth about 200 dollars today.. the Gretsch is worth over $80,000... oh if I had a time machine I would tell that young lad not to sell it.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Stupid is as stupid does.


been there done that

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I junked a 1949 Ford Convertible.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

In 1963 my Dad sold my 1946 Woodie for $150 when I went in the military.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

While in college I sold my 1939 120 Packard convertible to my roommate for $1000.00 so I could buy an engagement ring. Best decision I ever made !!
Pete

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

That's a whole other thread right there.......Good and bad decisions over women and cars !!!!.....Glad yours worked out !!.....Mark

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Had a friend offer me his '68 Shelby KR500 for what he owed on it. That was $1300. Heck, I didn't want a Mustang for THAT kind of money! Back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Gotta' just keep moving forward.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

This is really interesting. I bought my first new car, a red '53 Ford, standard shift convertible. The dealer had hot rod meetings once a month in downtown Houston. This got me interested in something faster. About a year and a half later I sold the '53 and bought this '34 hot rod. I raced this on the streets and at the drag races until I got drafted in '57. My father drove the car to work every Friday (except when the weather was bad) but I sold it about 6 months after I got out of the army. I sure wish I had kept it but don't know that could be possible (marriage, kids and needing the money).
Anyway, you can see its replacement with the stock '34 roadster in my profile.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I saved my paper route money and bought a '49 Ford Convertible off a used car lot for $263 including tax & license. I had to borrow $40 from my father to do it. One broken axle and one thrashed engine later, I paid a backyard mechanic $250 to put in an Olds with a Hydromatic. Should have stayed with the Ford V8 & 3 spd overdrive, 'cause you know why. It barely ran at all, but I got $20 for it at the junk yard.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

It seems like every time I sold a car for dirt cheap, the next month one of the magazines would run an article about what a valuable or desirable car they were, and the price would skyrocket.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Yeah know the feeling. My father sold my perfect stock 50 Ford custom deluxe coupe without my knowledge for $300 two months before I got home from Vietnam. Took me 46 years to get another one.............life happens. Look forward not back huh?

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Don't feel bad. If the distributor was 180 degrees out, it wouldn't have run at all. Now you know.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

When I was in high school I had a 57 F-100 with a mustang 302 in it. I raced that truck all over northern Michigan. I gave it to a guy I knew up there when I moved because I could not afford to bring it with me. Supposedly it sat at his house for a long time outside. This was 20 years ago. a high school friend is now his neighbor so I asked if it was still around. Turns out the engine and trans were pulled and the truck was scrapped. Bugs me to this day.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I bought my '53 Ford Crestline Sunliner with Ford-O-Matic, in 1973 for $125.00. I'm happy to say I still own the car, she's waiting for me to rebuild the Flathead (for the second time, first time was in 1975. :)

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Bought my 33 Victoria for $100 in 1953. Hot rodded it in 1954-55. Then restored in about 1960. Have had several offers to double my money, but still turned them down. Many flatheads have come and gone but this one is a Keeper!!
Paul

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

In 67 I bought a brand X Bel air conv. with a sweet running 62 283 for 200$. drove it for a year and bought a cream puff 63 Olds 2 dr ht. tried to sell the brand X for 200$ the guy beat me down to 175. I sold it as it would not do well out side in the north east, no garage:mad:

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

We all have those stories. Mine was a 1962 Galaxie 500 XL with factory 4 speed, tri-powered, 405 HP, 406 CI motor. I sold it because it was keeping me broke. When I see what they sell for today I just shrug and say oh-well.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Yep, we have all been there. I have a buddy that told me he and his brother used a 55 Crown Victoria as target practice when he was growing up. My big regret is that I sold a 67 Fairlane GT with a 427 Tunnel port 4speed SS legal for two grand. I never woulda thunk they would get to be so valuable.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Wow Rick, I'm impressed that you went for Lincoln power for your '53. I thought it was absolutely imperative that a person should swap a GM engine in there. That's what it says in all the magazines anyways.

I have a '54 Lincoln 317 in the que for resurrection. I want to see for myself how they stack up.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

The 317 my dad had in a '53 Lincoln was a certified turd! In fact, that whole car was nothing to write home about. He finally dumped it for a new '57 Caddy. DD

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

"How The HELL Dumb Can You Be?"
Was my fathers favorite saying.
He stopped using it when I started taking it as a Challenge.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

In 1963, just out of college, I bought a 1963 Fairlane hardtop with the HIPO 271 HP engine. Three years later I wanted another car so I sold it. Now they are worth plenty.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I can't pass up saying I top that eight ways to Sunday. Part of the problem was old cars were just that. I loved them all but my family, and neighbors thought I was a pain for wanting to save and, or house them all. The Mid-seventies brought a change of attitude. Regular people began to think the old ones were cool NOSTALGIA was the call of the day. By then I had disposed of my 'stable' (some for no money).

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Those turds did pretty well in La Carrera Pan America. In fact Lincoln won three years in a row if memory serves me right.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Here's a good story about those Lincolns.

https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...ritage-museum/

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

A friend of mine off the farm went away to university and when he got back during the break found his father had traded his 38 Dodge for a few sheep.

GB

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Thanks guys, it's nice to know I am not alone. Of course that was just one of my first automotive mistakes.

I also managed to buy a brand new '65 GTO. Shortly after I switched jobs, and was told I would be driving about 100 miles to my new work location (fire station) right after I finished the academy. Just before graduation, I traded it in on a new VW squareback, and was then assigned to a station six miles from home.

Grrrrrumpy Rick.

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I'm not say'n I'm not dumb...... I bought my '38 in 1976 ,and have still got it.We wont mention the 57 chev,55 chev, 64 Fairlane, British Zephyrs etc etc!!

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

Good advice!!....Mark

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I blew the stock car engine and we bought another used engine. We put new plug wires, dist cap , rotor etc fired her up and she missed. We could not figure it out, and i tried to driver her that way, and i could have done better on a bicycle. I was 18 and my help was 30 and older, but could not find the problem and i ran it till it blew. Years later i found the problem in a motors repair manual. That 1 year Plymouth made an engine with a left hand wiring order and we had that engine we were wiring it right hand. I still feel stupid. LOL

Re: Just how dumb was I?
 

I remember going to the Ford dealer in 73 to order a new Mustang convertible, triple black and loaded. The salesman said with your trade your going to be talking about a $60 a month payment. I left, but I still have the 67 Galaxie I was going to trade. As said hindsight is 20 20.