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Post Info TOPIC: Show us your very FIRST vintage car ever. (Pre 1980's please)


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Show us your very FIRST vintage car ever. (Pre 1980's please)


Show us your very first vintage car ever, the car that started it all for you. It does not have to be a car that actually made it on the road, although that would be ideal. Lets make this strictly pre 1980's because lets face it, cars just got too boring in the 80's. For me it was a 1956 Chevrolet BelAir sedan that was all intact but very rusty. The car ran with a non original 235 six and stick on the tree. Oddly this car was originally a 265 Chev V-8 with cast iron Power Glide but someone went to a lot of trouble to install a 235 in line six and three speed stick on the column. The steering column and steering wheel was a different colour and was a 210 wheel not a BelAir wheel. I never thought of asking the seller if he was the one that did that weird conversion. My 56 came with many original accessories like full front bumper guards, full tinted glass all around, electric wipers, radio and the previously mentioned 265 V-8 and Power Glide. The car started well and drove but what a rusted mess. I was a teen age punk with very limited knowledge of cars and quickly realized that i was way over my head with this 56. I bought the car in 1976 at the age of 18 and kept it a year. I peeled the carpet back and realized that it was the carpet that was keeping the floor together, so to speak. I bought this car with my heart and not with my mind because i loved 1956 Chevy's and i could not afford a real nice one at that time. I did well with this car because it came with a trunk and back seat full of extra parts including new never used rear leaf springs. I kept all the parts that were extra and sold the car for more than i paid for it. I then bought a much nicer 55 Chevy. Cheers. 



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1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six

1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8



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821A7B5F-ECD8-4C76-844D-DE81D7ECAE35.jpeg



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pontiax- (canadian pontiac X frame)1964 Parisienne 2dr. Hardtop ,lagoon aqua metallic (Q) ,421 cid Dart Industries block and heads. 550 hp. 575 ft lb  of torque.

 



Poncho Master!

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Mine would be a classic now, but was only 7 years old when I got it in 1970....My 1st car. 

4a_1.JPG

In later years I have had these.

pontiac1.JPG 55chevy6 (Medium).JPG

ctmpphp4YYnPr.jpg

 



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Hanover, Ont

Ontario Rodders Forum



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1970 Buick Skylark. I've shown pics before. Paid $750 "certified". Lot's of bondo but surprisingly good underneath. Tired 350.2bbl. Interior was trashed.

As purchased around 1986:

70Skylark.jpg

A drunk neighbor backed into it and damaged the drivers front fender. He gave me 400 bucks. I used it towards a rotted 70 GS parts car. It had a good hood, grill and emblems plus a decent black carpet.

I got a pair of decent junkyard fenders, used the doors and trunk from the parts GS, replaced the tired engine with a 350 with lower miles, found a THM-350 at the junkyard that looked to have been rebuilt. I installed a shift kit and installed the trans in my parents driveway. Found Buick rally wheels at a neighbors. Ordered dual exhaust from Canadian Tire and installed it in the same driveway. Found a near mint black interior at a junk yard for $75 and installed it. My neighbor did some bodywork on the rear quarter panels and we took it to the "Fix it Yourself Garage" where a buddy of his (who worked at Ron Box Autobody in London) painted it. My goal was to do the GSX stripes but ended up having to sell to pay an income tax bill. Turns out my part time employer wasn't taxing me properly! It went to Stratford in 1987 and about 15 years ago I did a VIN check on it. The buyer was the last owner and I wonder if he still has it.

70Skylark2.jpg

Don't mind the bad hair. I just climbed out from under the car. I remember it was something like 32C out and had also installed the fenders that day

70Skylark1small.jpg

Junkyard interior mostly installed

70Skylark3.jpg

Shortly after being painted

70Skylark5.jpg

 



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Todd
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Canadian Poncho World Headquarters - Prince Edward Island

 



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Todd, you did a beautiful job on that 1970 Buick, especially considering you did it on a tight budget. Very very nice. smile



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1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six

1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8



Uber Guru

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I hate to be a one trick pony but,

That's why I'm here biggrin

My first 1969 Pontiac

my 1969 Grande.jpg

I also had a 1974 Cutlass Salon but I can't find any pics

(not mine)

74 cutlass.jpg

 



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https://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/t63333628/click-here-to-support-canadian-poncho/

 



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Avert eyes from the Stubbie.

1980

351 Cleve/ 4spd..

 

5221648424_4ac5f8b9fb_z.jpg



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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


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IMG_1320.JPG

1976 Mercury Cougar XR7 fully loaded. I still own this beauty!



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--Pritch--

'76 Cougar XR7 (original owner); '52 Mercury Monterey 2 dr HT (Future Project)

2013 Mustang

2010 Ford Ranger

'93 MX5

'64 Custom Sport Ragtop (Factory M20)



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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So nice Brian. What is the story on the boards?



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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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cdnpont wrote:

So nice Brian. What is the story on the boards?


 Saskatchewan!  lots of gravel!  very common



-- Edited by beaumontguru on Sunday 29th of March 2020 08:50:57 PM

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Beaumontguru

MY BEAUMONT HAS 4 STUDDED TIRES AND 2 BLOCKHEATERS......AND LOTS OF OIL UNDERNEATH.  The other one has a longer roof.



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Well there you go!



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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


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Sadly I took very few pictures of the cars I had no



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Guru

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You make me laugh with your question regarding the boards. Dave beat me to it. It definitely was a Saskatchewan thing. This picture was taken 2 years ago. I still have the boards on the Cat for old time sake. If I remember correctly, I originally put them on to save the rocker chrome from rocks and road debris. Whenever I take this Merc for a drive, I always get comments about the boards. Being a life-long FORD lover, I have owned my share of Mercurys, Mustangs, and Fords over my lifetime, but this Mercury is still the smoothest riding car I have ever owned let alone ridden in. Last summer I was honored to have my Cougar appear in a movie entitled "I Slept With A Killer." The cast waited excitedly every morning for the Merc to arrive on set. My Cat is 100% original including engine, transmission, and paint.

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--Pritch--

'76 Cougar XR7 (original owner); '52 Mercury Monterey 2 dr HT (Future Project)

2013 Mustang

2010 Ford Ranger

'93 MX5

'64 Custom Sport Ragtop (Factory M20)



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Did you take the boards off for the movie...

Just kidding. What a great car and story. Genuine XR7? Sounds like a separate story?



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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


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No, I offered to remove them but the director insisted that I leave them on.smile



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--Pritch--

'76 Cougar XR7 (original owner); '52 Mercury Monterey 2 dr HT (Future Project)

2013 Mustang

2010 Ford Ranger

'93 MX5

'64 Custom Sport Ragtop (Factory M20)



Guru

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This third generation Cougar (1974-1976) left its Mustang roots behind and shared a chassis with the Mercury Montego and Ford Torino. Later, the Cougar became affiliated with the Ford Thunderbird and later, the Lincoln Continental Mark IV and thus a personal luxury car.

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--Pritch--

'76 Cougar XR7 (original owner); '52 Mercury Monterey 2 dr HT (Future Project)

2013 Mustang

2010 Ford Ranger

'93 MX5

'64 Custom Sport Ragtop (Factory M20)



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acadian 6.jpgblaser chris.jpg



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Surrey BC

1963 Acadian Beaumont Sport Deluxe
http://www.63acadian.com/



A Poncho Legend!

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Sorry, this is all I've got handy. Picture of a picture.

Bought this the week after I got my license. 65 Sport Deluxe, 194 Powerglide, PS and PB.  It was an insurance write off. A local guy (my friend who does all the Beaumonts here) bought it at auction, put on a left door and fender, painted the entire car and I paid a whopping $500 for it! I had $50 to my name once I had it insured but it didn't matter...

As soon as I could afford to, I pulled the 194 and put in a 283 with a Quadrajet, (thus the nose down in the picture) followed up by a TH350, 3.73 gears, chrome reverse and after that those ET gray 5 spoke mags that I still love to this day. Everyone laughed at those wheels when I put them on but I loved them, and now people are paying good money for them!

Traded this car plus $40 18 months later for a triple black 66 Grande Parisienne 283, Strato Bench, Powerglide, PB and NO Power Steering! Those who know me will know what I did to the Grande Parisienne.....

temp25.jpg

 



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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



A Poncho Legend!

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Traded for this-

temp26.jpg



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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



A Poncho Legend!

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Monza2+2 75.jpg

monza engine.jpg



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Ray White, Toronto ON

1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 




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73SC wrote:

Monza2+2 75.jpg

monza engine.jpg


 Ray, that Monza must have been a rocket. What motor was it...... let me guess a 262,.... no maybe a 267. Even in smog form these cars moved with there low weight. 



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1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six

1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8



A Poncho Legend!

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Yup,

It was a 262 that was touched by my modest University student budget, The most I spent on it were the Hooker Header which I got from Karbelt on Bayview, shipped in from Hooker in California, 4 pieces with slip joints for each side. Back then the Karbelt boys had no listings for the 4.3 litre V8 so we gambled that the 350 headers would work and they did of course. For some crazy emission problem the 350 was offered in California. Smog pump disappeared when Headers went on as did Cat instead I ran 30" straight pipe off the collectors into genuine GM Corvair Turbo mufflers with down spouts at the differential. I raided Dom's one afternoon and got a 2bbl carb off a 400 Kingswood Estate for $20. I don't know if it was any better than what I had but I figured a 400 2bbl must have been better than a 262 2bbl. She hollered with that Fly Eye. Surprised a lot of guys with that era muscle, including three Corvettes as I recall. Learned brakes real fast with that car, the front Vega non finned plate rotors just burned up pads and calipers with all that weight and power.



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Ray White, Toronto ON

1973 LeMans 454 "Astro-Jet"

Built March 9, 1973 - Oshawa ON

1993 Corvette Convertible LT 1

Built January 10, 1993 - Bowling Green Kentucky 

 




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I know. Its a Ford. But under the hood I swapped in a built up 396 BBC with TH400. That thing sounded nice and it hauled. Was a fun truck. I got a few stunting tickets with it. Back when you didnt need a big stereo. 

BCA1149E-0B14-49C0-8F35-723C26C54CB8.jpeg



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'68 Parisienne 2+2 Convertible Matador Red (Resale Red but not for sale).



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Boy you guys must have been wealthy! When I was young we were really poor.  We lived in a hole in the ground with a tarpaulin over it. I can hear it now, "Oh You had a tarpaulin. Lucky you."

(See the link below for the comedy sketch that covers this type of claim) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k

 

Anyhow not to derail this too much but the first vehicle I ever learned to drive on and eventually could call mine (for a while) was probably the rarest and stupidest vehicle my family have ever owned.

It wasn't exactly a roadworthy vehicle, and in fact it was marketed to the gullible from about 1949 to 1952 as a small tractor.  It was called a Mayrath and was actually a 50 year ahead of its time quad or side by side type of thing, now that I think about it.  I have heard they made maybe 500 of them and maybe 30 or so of the deluxe models with a sheet metal front clip and a full seat. Ours was the deluxe, but we never wanted to use the front sheet metal as it was flimsy and would have just made it slower.  I don't have any pictures handy as it existed back in the day but for now I'll attach of couple of pictures off the web.  The one that shows the machine with no front metal is more or less what it looked like when we had it running although we didn't have the plow attachment. In fact I don't remember that it had any attachments.

The back story on it is that my father bought a working mink farm from my uncle in about 1958 and this came with the place. Apparently my uncle who was a progressive but impulsive guy had bought this little thing with the idea to use it to hooked to a trailer to haul the mink crap from between the mink sheds as it was small enough to fit down the narrow aisles.  Once he found out just how light duty it was I don't believe he used it and ended up buying a Massey Harris Pony instead for utility work on the farm.

It just sat for quite a few years in the yard. My dad had taken the wheels off so the tires wouldn't rot and that's how it stayed until the mid 60's . By that time the original Briggs and Stratton had been taken and used for something else but he did acquire a nice old 10 horse Wisconsin which gave him the idea to resurrect it and finally end his oldest boy's annoying pestering to learn how to drive something, anything!

The thing had been engineered on a fairly flimsy inch and a half pipe triangular frame with a Crosley rearend mounted solidly to it and the front suspension consisted of a steerable front axle using a centre pivot (like a tractor) for the front suspension. The steering was a hokey setup using a cable wound around a hub at the bottom of the steering column attached to a tie rod off the back of the  front wheels.

It also used a Crosley tranny hooked to a belt type clutch from the back to the engine.  Using the 10 horse Wisconsin actually bumped up the power rating by 20 percent so the idea was that this would be quite the little hot rod.

My dad spent what spare time he had in 1967 setting it up to run, then then turned it over to my older brother (the guy with the 65 409) Being a six footer my dad had a real tough time actually fitting in it but it fit a couple of kids very nicely in that bench seat. My mother was of course worried to death but since my brother had asthma quite badly he tended to be indulged in whatever got him outside and wasn't too strenuous. 

Once my brother had sort of mastered the steering, clutch and the really crappy rear wheel only brakes and learned to shift the non syncho'd tranny we were off to the races!  

This thing was unique in our kid-filled neighbourhood of acreages so it really made us a pile of instant friends. Anyplace we went with it  usually had at least three or four yard apes draped all over it. It was actually handy to have those guys as the magneto on the engine was kind of weak and it usually took a pile of pushing down a hill to get it running.  Once we got it going we usually kept it running all day.

It held up pretty well at first given the duty cycle we gave it.  The first thing that went was the steering. I recall watching my brother as the  frayed cable let go just as he was pointed toward the 500 gallon propane tank in the yard. I still remember the rather musical clang as it hit the thing hard enough to rock it on its mount. No explosion or injuries luckily.  My dad then modified the steering to use a tie rod mounted to pivot at the bottom of the steering shaft and then hooked on to the steering rod.  I don't know if you can visualise that setup but it ended up having a steering setup that went from lock to lock with about a quarter turn of the wheel.  Made it very twitchy indeed, but did built up our upper arms quite a bit.

Depending on the diameter of the engine pulley we had mounted, at full revs you could get about 30  to 35 miles per hour with this under-engineered deathtrap, so how we ended up not killing ourselves or our buddies as it got passed down from brother to brother is amazing, but we didn't give it a thought at the time.

What a blast, but by the time we had all used it the Crosley tranny gears were worn to nubs and the rear wheels had to be welded and rewelded on to the axles as they kept falling off occasionally. We found a tranny from a 1927 Chevy and made it fit in there. Much more durable. How that tiny little rear end didn't get blown is also remarkable.

Anyhow, like I say not really a car but it did give us invaluable tinkering experience and a major thirst for a real car.  It still exists, by the way and has been more or less restored by my nephew.

My older brother ended up with my dad's old 53 Belair four door and when I finally got to be 15 I also bought one of those lovable pumpkin shaped early fifties Chevys.

(Picture to follow when I can find one.)

Mine was a $10.00 junkyard dog 1954 Belair 2 door sedan with no drivetrain.  The body and interior was actually quite good except when I opened the glove box I found that the previous owner (quite a while before, I would guess) had stored quite a few garlic sausage rings in  there for some reason.  What was left of them came leaping out at me which gave me a reaction worthy of the best horror films. Once I cleaned them out I couldn't bring myself to actually use the glove box ever again. 

Anyway I found a 235 and tranny and put it together with my bro's guidance. I recall once we had it assembled we just couldn't get it to run for more than a minute or so. We even resorted to pulling it around the neighbourhood to no avail until at last he noticed that I had actually bolted the fuel pump on upside down. Fixed with a red face, and away we went.

I never used it much as I was quickly offered 15 bucks for it by a friend and with my usual business acumen (Wow, I'm making a 50 percent profit!), I sold it and moved on into another of the endless line of wrecks and junkers that I were all I could afford for a long time.

Anyway, good topic George. I hope I haven't derailed it. 

mayrath.jpgmayrath 2.jpg

 

 

  

 

 



-- Edited by 66 Grande guy on Monday 30th of March 2020 12:27:41 AM

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ken from northern Alberta

38 Willys pickup electric

39 Buick (327 with 700 r4)

66 Beaumont 4 door hardtop

69 Chevy CST pickup

1976 GMC 23'  motorhome

1994 Impala SS (temporary, according to my wife)



A Poncho Legend!

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JC2+2 wrote:

Back when you didnt need a big stereo. 

 


 I love that sentence!



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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars

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