No pics but my first car was given to me by a neighbour with a dead engine in 79. It was a 68 Skylark GS 350 bench seat car. Then a 69 Parisienne, 2 69 Camaros, a 58 Apache, 30 Model A, 70 Plymouth GTX, 69 Skylark Custom with a 455 and then more than 200 hundred cars over the years of which the majority were 1979 and older. I will need to spend some time digging in albums that are in storage one day. No isolation for me, the business I'm with is deemed an essential.
I need to dig through the family albums. I should have a few pics but they're stored in my mother's basement and I'm not going there anytime soon.
My first vehicle was my father's '64 GMC half ton long box fleetside. He sold it to me for some paper route money... umm, $100 if I recall correctly. I was 14 so that would make it spring of 1981. Dad had swapped the tired six out for a 283 he and his buddy rebuilt. He kept the tree speed but he had a floor shifter I later installed. It was a one legged tire shredder and when I sold it, I kept the 283 which I still have. (It's a 1958 Turbo Fire.)
Before I turned 16, I "inherited" a family member's farm truck, a '54 Chevy half ton short bed. I think the deal was $150. A friend and I drove 200 miles to get it and I drove it home on a learner's permit. (Don't tell anybody.) It was red and white and 12V converted. No block heater, but it never failed to start and often served to boost dozens of others during the 40 below blasts. It was the best "winter beater" I ever had and it made decent heat, too.
My parents were separated for a few years and divorced in 1983. When they sold our house, Dad took our '78 Parisienne and Mom bought a (cough, puke) '78 Ford LTD. The odd man out was our second car, a '69 Impala which they left to me. It was getting rusty and not worth much, but Dad had rebuilt the 327 and swapped the 2bbl Rochester/intake for a Quadrajet.
That same year, I was working a part time job and took a bank loan for my '67 Impala SS - 327/M20 four speed. I have a couple pictures of that car on file.
As it was when I first had it...
I drove it like that for a couple years, but the paint was getting chalky and it had some bubbles along the seams where somebody had brazed two large quarter panel replacements as indicated below...
I went to tech school in 1985 and took the Impala with me. There, I ground out the brass and welded the seams, performed the necessary bodywork, then painted it BLACK. I love black and always will... anyhow, when the paint was done, I drove the car home sitting on a milk crate. The school was right next to the bypass Reginans know a Ring Road. My mother's house was just off Ring Road, some miles away however. So Ring Road it is... dumb as I was back then, I had to wring the Impala out and touched 90 MPH or a little better on the bypass... just as I pulled into my mother's driveway, a front brake hose burst and I rear-ended her evil, traitor Ford. I was mad as hell, but happy the hose didn't fail at speed three minutes earlier. I put the car in the garage and couldn't even look at it for months. Mad.
By the next summer, I had fixed the brakes, changed the front bumper, installed my custom (hideous by today's standards) interior and pulled it outside for the first time since the bashing. This is the only picture I have, still covered in dust, still missing some trim and still wearing its bent nose hood.
At that time, I still had all the vehicles I've mentioned, as well as another '67 I bought for parts. Mom's house had parking spaces for seven (including the double garage) and I occupied five of them. Her rotten Ford and her soon to be husband's '82 Chevy SWB pickup were holding down the six and seven spots. Then my younger brother decided to come "home" with his first car, a '74 318 Plymouth Scamp. (Another traitor!)
Something had to go, so I pulled the 283 out of the '64 GMC and sold the truck to a friend of a friend. I pulled the 327 out of the '69 Impala and sent the car to... scrap. (That still hurts me a little, but it was in poor condition and the trans was getting soft.) Before I left home, somebody made me an offer I couldn't refuse for the '54. He had to have it and the money helped me put a down payment on my first house. The SS and the beater Impala went with me. I drove the beater for a couple winters and parted it out. It had a black interior, so I raped most of it for my SS which I drove for several more years until I tore it completely down for a planned restomod.
This is starting to sound like a life story, but I have time so I'll finish the SS story. When I tore the car down, I was married and living in my second house with a large detached garage. Some years flew by and the car sat in my garage untouched, largely because somebody got my wife pregnant, twice. The Impala was low, low on the priority list until we were better off financially. In between time, I kept my eyes and ears open for a 427, which I desperately wanted for my car. I haunted a couple cars and their owners, one was a '69 Impala, the other was a '67 Caprice, both 427 cars. The Impala was rough and the Caprice was in nice shape, but neither seemed to turn a wheel, year after year. I left my name and number several times with both owners, never heard from either one and the cars eventually vanished without a (insert cursing curse word here) trace.
We moved to our current home in 2003 and a guy who'd been haunting me for several years, finally talked me out of the car, partially reassembled, still no 427. I thought I had lost interest and was ready to part with it, but I guess I wasn't. I honestly cried when it rolled out of my yard and my life.
Nice story, huh?
-- Edited by cranks38 on Saturday 4th of April 2020 02:08:21 PM
-- Edited by cranks38 on Saturday 4th of April 2020 02:11:40 PM
not my first but the picture i got that got me into the acadian files 1983ish 19yrs old but i had already gone through 2 novas a datsun aaaand aa bunch more in 3 yrs lol
I'm killing the afternoon scanning some old photos. Found another one of my first car:
It was sold to a guy in Stratford Ontario around 1987. Judging from the MTO Used Car Package I bought about 10 years ago it was last registered to him however it showed the colour changed to burgandy.
Anyone remember seeing a burgandy 70 GS in that area back then? Makes me wonder if it's still around sitting in a barn.
Also found this pic of a 69 Coronet I bought. It was a Texas car. Original Alpine white paint. Small block (had a 360 swapped in). Factory AC, black interior. Had a switch under the dash to kill all the lights except the headlights lol. . You can see my 71 Skylark 4 door winter car. I bought it for 400 bucks. 350 auto, trailer towing package with Positraction. Great car. I wish I had kept the Dodge. I wanted to make a Superbee clone from it. Broke kid with no money ...
-- Edited by Canadian Poncho on Sunday 5th of April 2020 01:51:34 PM
I was barely 16 .my buddy found this car in a pasture in the middle of nowhere
Boggy creek manifobia. Farmer gave it to me. I was going to build a hotrod.
I started a bit and went on to newer stuff. I still have it. R
SOMEDAY!
Just curious, what make is this (I don't know my 30s cars very well)? But from following the TV shows and magazines, it seems these 5 window 30s coupes are desirable hot rod platforms.
That car looks pretty solid. Great find and a keeper. Owned since 1975!
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Here's the first car I owned, 1957 Chevrolet 150 4 door sedan. I purchased it from the original owner in Leader SK in 1978. 283 2 bbl, 3 speed standard, radio, deluxe heater & windshield washers. I had it for a little over a year and added a 4 bbl, radial tires & full disc hubcaps. I think this photo is from the day I sold it.
Just curious, what make is this (I don't know my 30s cars very well)? But from following the TV shows and magazines, it seems these 5 window 30s coupes are desirable hot rod platforms.
I hope it's ok if I sneak this one in, it's my first new car. 1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 I purchased it new about a month before graduating SAIT here in Calgary, at a whopping 21.5% interest. This photo taken on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu CA in October 1983. It was a good car, but the 4 speed needed to have an extra gear as there was a pretty big gap between 2nd & 3rd.
Just curious, what make is this (I don't know my 30s cars very well)? But from following the TV shows and magazines, it seems these 5 window 30s coupes are desirable hot rod platforms.
I hope it's ok if I sneak this one in, it's my first new car. 1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 I purchased it new about a month before graduating SAIT here in Calgary, at a whopping 21.5% interest. This photo taken on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu CA in October 1983. It was a good car, but the 4 speed needed to have an extra gear as there was a pretty big gap between 2nd & 3rd.
You were adventurous in going for a GM FWD in its formative years of production. I personally only ever had two front wheel drive cars but both were GM models, the first an 89 Pontiac 6000 with a 2.8 V6, and the second, a 2002 V6 Impala. I have to say that both cars were very good, not only reliable but good handling and peppy.
Those early Cavaliers with the V6 were decent cars for the money. Almost bought one in the early 90s. However I didn't get my first new car until I was 41, a 98 GMC pickup that I also kept for only a year before I went back to my 89 Caprice cop car.
The next new car came in 2005, and was a 5.7 litre Dodge Magnum, an excellent car that I wish I'd kept. This was followed by a new V6 Mercedes 300, then a V8 Mercedes C63 AMG which I still have, and finally a new Dodge Ram in 2015 that I drive all winter every year.
That's it, 5 new cars in 46 years of driving, with most of them acquired when I was in my 50s.
Over the years prior to that I drove lots of junky cars, many of which were on their last legs when I got them due to the rust promoting climate in this part of the country. Even my retired 87-90 RCMP Caprices and my 86 Caprice coupe - all of which I really liked - rusted out in a short period while I had them.
I hope it's ok if I sneak this one in, it's my first new car. 1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 I purchased it new about a month before graduating SAIT here in Calgary, at a whopping 21.5% interest. This photo taken on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu CA in October 1983. It was a good car, but the 4 speed needed to have an extra gear as there was a pretty big gap between 2nd & 3rd.
You were adventurous in going for a GM FWD in its formative years of production. I personally only ever had two front wheel drive cars but both were GM models, the first an 89 Pontiac 6000 with a 2.8 V6, and the second, a 2002 V6 Impala. I have to say that both cars were very good, not only reliable but good handling and peppy.
I figured it was the Car of the Future, and in a sense it was. Very reliable 2.8l V6 with lots of go, lots of space, it just needed a 6 speed.
not my first but the picture i got that got me into the acadian files 1983ish 19yrs old but i had already gone through 2 novas a datsun aaaand aa bunch more in 3 yrs lol
I thought i might revive this great topic................ our very first oldie, classic, vintage ride, antique or what ever you want to call it. The stuff that mattered to us at such a young age and still matters to us today. Please let's keep it to cars that actually mattered, pre 1980's. Cheers.
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1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six
1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8
not my first but the picture i got that got me into the acadian files 1983ish 19yrs old but i had already gone through 2 novas a datsun aaaand aa bunch more in 3 yrs lol
looks pretty solid. Great find and a keeper. Owned since 1975!
