1st thing you replaced/repaired/built?

El Rat

Well Known Member
Hi gents
I assume most of you all did not buy your project brand new. Sooo I’ll start. The PO replaced the alternator and left the deep groove pulley on the “core”. The replacement alternator screamed like a banshee.
 

La Hot Rods

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
If your talking about cars, I bought a 65 bug at closed bid auction at age 15, it had a dropped valve in #3 cylinder. I pulled the engine had to replaced one jug and head. Got my first ticket in it before I ever got a drivers license. :facepalm
 
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63 dream'n

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 4
First car was a 63 impala (16) General maintanence till I got sick of the powerglide....... took the pedal assembly from chiefs scrap yard bought a Saginaw 4 speed had a buddy weld on the z bar bracket, drive shaft shortend, welded .........I was very proud ......I had a 4 speed 63 SS 283......I also put on Doug Thorley side exit Headers......My own personal favorite car memory back when Madison Wisconsin held the street machine nationals I drove my white 63 super sport impala uptown to the Square (Capitol) in Madison with open headers......I did get a ticket for excessive noise .....but it was worth it..!!!!
Ended up selling the car.....(sad)...... lost storage while I was in the service
....... more sad...... lost my focus and haven’t had a hot rod to drive since ..... gotta finish what I started......... this thread is a hard one to stop on ......I’ve come back and edited three times......... thank you for posting it almost feels therapeutic ........ I never cared for high school ......I did never cared for being a teenager .......but I do miss wrenching on my car, no matter where it was ........gravel drive, gear lube and gravel stuck to your hair .....head to toe grease, pulling a motor from my car from a tree branch back by the cemetery.... I wish my dad would’ve been around to have more of an influence on me ......when my mom and dad got divorced, he had to sell his 63 split window Corvette.... I can remember helping him put the four-speed in it in our garage at our house,I am sure that ......that one day .........got me into cars
:ty:idea:goodpost:goodpost:beer2:ty
 
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62BillT

Well Known Member
First thing was a Mini-Bike I built when I was about 14. First thing with a car? My '58 Nomad, 348, 3-Speed had a damaged R/F Fender. I went to the junkyard to get another. It was in great shape and I can remember exactly what I paid for it, $15. I took one bolt out at a time and finally got it on there, lol. I was 15 at the time.

Good 'ol junkyard days. When you needed a Trans, you went to the pile of them they had in the middle of the yard. All the 58-'64 Chevy 3-Speeds were in one big pile. You could pick out anyone you wanted, $10.
 

64ss409

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 9
8th grade, I put dual straight pipes on my 41 Ford. I brazed together exhaust pipe pieces I found in the dump. Sophomore high school, I put a performance cam and adjustable push rods in my 53 Olds 303 cu in. I got the cam from Warshawsky. I guess I didn't lube it good enough, it went flat a few months later.
 

ROYALOAK62

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
Around my 16th birthday my dad gave me the keys of a 51 Chevy Coupe.
He said the car is yours, but keep your hand off the family 61 Chevy wagon.
He also said if the 51 ever breaks down, it’s up to me to fix it.
Within an week I was on the way to the local junk yard for a new engine.
went from that little 6 cylinder to a 1955 V8.

Dave
 

409gang

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
I was 14 when I sold my Fox mini-bike to buy a 32 Ford pickup and a 331 HEMI w/torqueflight ($150.00). Put the 331 and torqueflight into the pickup after taking the heads off so I could take them to my dads shop to freshen up the valves. Put the engine back together, got it running and ran out of funds.I wound up selling the project when I was 17 and bought my first 62 Impala for $500.00 (327 4 speed) and have been hooked ever since.
 
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Junky

Well Known Member
My first ride was a horse... Cars hadn't been invented yet. In 1893, I dreamed of buying a Duryea, but the brothers Charles and Frank said that I didn't have enough coins, and to keep saving my money. :cloud

In 1959, I got a very tired 1955 BelAir convertible, and spent my summer cleaning it up, and repainting the interior, and then sanded and fixed dents on the outside. The person that owned it had been a heavy smoker, and the interior was stained with nicotine. I scrubbed it clean, and the grey vinyl interior looked like new. The original color was Dusty Rose & Ivory. I had it painted 2 tone grey, and replaced all the chrome on it with new from the local Chevy dealer who was glad to sell me everything that I needed or wanted cheap. Even had a continental kit that I got for $100 (2 + weeks of working). Went off to college, and coming home Thanksgiving week the exhaust valves burned, and the exhaust manifolds glowed red all the way. I left it home when I went back to school, and used my dads car till Christmas. When I came home, the car was gone, and my father said that he didn't think that I would have the time to fix it. I still have dreams about that car! Should have bought another when they were inexpensive, but was too busy flipping modern iron, and didn't give it much thought. My mothers friend had a 1955 still in the garage in 1980, but she wouldn't sell it to me. Told me that it was promised to the granddaughter. That is a whole other story for another time.
 

409gang

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
If your talking about cars, I bought a 65 bug at closed bid auction at age 15, it had a dropped valve in #3 cylinder. I pulled the engine had to replaced one jug and head. Got my first ticket in it before I ever got a drivers license. :facepalm
Thats funny and reminds me of when I was 13 and got 2 tickets on my mini bike, 1 for no license plate and 1 for no drivers license. To say the least my dad was not to happy as he had to take me to juvenile court!!!
 

oldskydog

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 10
When I was 16 i bought a 51 Furd 1/2 ton from my Dad for $150. I wanted a floor shift so I took a column shift tube from the junkyard, cut most of it and welded what was left so the handle and shifter arms were next to each other and fabbed a U-bolt mount for the linkage to the trans. It kinda worked but the throw was very long and it was a bit short for my reach but I had a floor shift.
At 17 I pulled the 348 out of my 58 DelRay and re-ringed it. Also rebuilt the 3 speed.....I'll never do that again.
 

skipxt4

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 18
When I got out of High School, I needed a car, to go to work.:clap Only made about $ 1.20 an hour, so my choices were limited.:doh I went, where everyone goes, to buy a car, with little money. :rolleyesR.L. Smith's Auto Sales. Smitty's:goodMost of his cars were, either good body's, bad engine's, or good engines, crappy bodies.:doh My two choices, came down to a 1952 Ford, floor shift 292 C.I. Metallic Green.:love Car had 55 Olds tail lights. $ 200.00 Really wanted it. After it warmed up. it played the song "I hear you knockin":bang My second choice, that I bought, was a 1957 Chevy Station wagon, 283 3 on the tree.:clap Didn't knock or smoke. $ 175.00 It took me a month, to save enough, to bring it home.:( Ran good. I decided, I wanted to put a floor shift in it.:appl Couldn't afford a Hurst, so I got a Foxcraft. Lived in an alley way, that got little traffic. Pulled the car half on the sidewalk, layed a blanket down, over the snow, and started removing shifter arms and rods. The replacement arms were different, and needed to be put on upside down. Drilled a hole in the floor, and used a chisel, to make it larger.:clapChisel always, does a Neat job.:rollAfter hooking up the arms and rods, shift pattern was backwards.:dunno2Got too cold, to finish. Next day, I had to do some filling, and reversed the arms and adjusted the rods and it worked pretty good. The shift lever was held on, with a 7/8 " Nut.:doh No way, to keep it tight. Banging 2nd gear, was a painful experience.:eek1 Punching the dashboard almost every time.:dropA few weeks, after I had the car, I found out, if I drive it hard, it blows oil, out the Oil Filler Tube. If I didn't clean it, after it happened, it would gather on the Intake, and the fan would blow it, on the firewall.:laugh2Eventually it made it's way into the car, under the gas pedal.:laugh.Drove it for about a year, and then found my 1964 Impala SS Conv.. 409.:cloud
 

Tooth

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
At 14 I was always working on my motorcycles, and yes the police escorted me home several times. Never got a ticket though. Do all gearheads start off as delinquents on Motorcycles?:doh The Kawasaki was used for road trips because it had lights. My cousin and I on a 40 mile back Road trip to grandparents house. We did wear helmets though. Never got caught was a hoot of a day for 14-year-olds. What a lucky kid with three motorcycles. Bucking hay and mowing yards! Good money for a kid.
 

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