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My First Car

Started by Snake, April 15, 2012, 06:56:05 PM

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McHeath

Like your Subaru, and I even like the color.  What's a cold weather package?  Engine heater?

My first car was a 1960 Chevy Bell Air.  This is not it but an internet pic, but it's exactly the same color, number of doors, and look.  283 V-8, 3 speed column shift, no mufflers!  The exhaust system ended right under the passenger compartment, so it's was crazy loud.  Smoked like a forest fire!  I'd carry several quarts of oil with me in the trunk, the old paper quarts, and usually had to add one every 30-50 miles.  You'd stop at a light and slowly vanish under your own self-created fog bank of oil smoke.  Eventually I rebuilt the engine in shop class, pretty much had no oil seals left. 

Paid 400 dollars for it.  Wish I still had it, sold it for 150.


Just4Phones

Oh so many fond memories of my youth in these photos.  I was only 17 at the time and I had to beg my parents to cosign for a loan.  We were living In NJ at the time and I dragged them all the  way to Penn. (Reedman for those of you near  ;D) to get it . It was a '75 Monte Carlo Red with a white vinyl top and white interior.  darn that car was HOT.  I too washed and polished it every weekend.  I cried when I traded it in for an 83 Toyota Celica.  To this day that is and will always be my favorite car and a definite chick magnet.  I beg to differ about the "tacky" dice.  Mine had the red ones and I also had the playboy bunnies in the back side windows.  Gas was .55 a gallon at the time. 

JorgeAmely

Quote from: Just4Phones on April 16, 2012, 06:35:31 PM
... Gas was .55 a gallon at the time. 

Aaah, the good old days!
Jorge

JWatler

Mine was red.  My second car was also an Austin, a Mini from of the mid 1960s.

AE_Collector

#19
Quote from: Reptile_Master on April 15, 2012, 06:56:05 PM
Looks like I'm going to be going to a lot more places now that I'm mobile...
Now I just need to figure out were I'm going to get money for gas!

Looks as though Reptile_Master is enjoying the freedom of his first car AND he figured out where to get the money for gas. He hasn't been heard from here since June! Or I guess a snake might have him trapped in his vehicle, someone want to check?

And Just4Phones, I love that Red 75 Monte Carlo! A cousin had a Gold one with every bell and whistle known to mankind. It was a beauty.

Terry

McHeath

Ha!  Glad he figured out where to get money for gas, I keep wondering myself.  Paid $4.69 a gallon tonight. 

twocvbloke

Quote from: McHeath on October 15, 2012, 10:40:13 PM
Ha!  Glad he figured out where to get money for gas, I keep wondering myself.  Paid $4.69 a gallon tonight. 

Cheaper than here, on average it's about £1.40 a Litre here now for Unleaded (more for Diesel), and a quick conversion with average figures comes to about $8.50/USGal for what we pay at the pumps, so, be thankful you have such cheap fuel over there... :o

old_stuff_hound

Mine was a '69 Buick Skylark Custom. It was blue with a black vinyl top, and most of the "sheetmetal" was in actuality Bondo. I found out the hard way why you don't put ArmorAll on vinyl bench seats!

Here's one from the internet. Mine looked similar, but imagine this car with about 100k more miles and a value of about $300.


twocvbloke

Quote from: old_stuff_hound on October 17, 2012, 07:39:54 PMimagine this car with about 100k more miles and a value of about $300.

The only thing I can imagine is this....  :D

old_stuff_hound

Put four wheels under that and you're not far off! ;-)

jsowers

Mine was a 1969 Olds Delta 88 4-door sedan painted Nassau Blue. It's very similar to the one in these pictures which were taken from an auction. The interior and trunk were exactly the same. Mine didn't have a vinyl top. It had belonged to my Uncle Harold, who was an Oldsmobile man, as they said in A Christmas Story. I got it for $750, which was a great deal even then. It had about 66,000 miles and ran fine. I got it after graduating high school and drove it all four years of college. Everyone who rode in it had a relative who owned one, it seems.

It would fly. It had a 455 2-barrel engine. Got about 15 mpg on average, though most of my miles were highway miles. I remember buying a 6' Fraser fir Christmas tree in Chapel Hill and I just put it in the trunk and brought it home on the weekend with the lid shut. I could fit everything from my college room in it on one trip. Dorm fridge, stereo speakers and all. Wish I had it back. I sold it in 1983 because I needed a station wagon in my business. By then it had gone over 100,000 miles and was still chugging along without the AC ever needing to be recharged.

I could work on that car. It wasn't hard to replace things.
Jonathan

old_stuff_hound

Quote from: jsowers on October 19, 2012, 11:25:44 AM
Mine was a 1969 Olds Delta 88 4-door sedan painted Nassau Blue. It's very similar to the one in these pictures which were taken from an auction. The interior and trunk were exactly the same. Mine didn't have a vinyl top. It had belonged to my Uncle Harold, who was an Oldsmobile man, as they said in A Christmas Story. I got it for $750, which was a great deal even then. It had about 66,000 miles and ran fine. I got it after graduating high school and drove it all four years of college. Everyone who rode in it had a relative who owned one, it seems.

It would fly. It had a 455 2-barrel engine. Got about 15 mpg on average, though most of my miles were highway miles. I remember buying a 6' Fraser fir Christmas tree in Chapel Hill and I just put it in the trunk and brought it home on the weekend with the lid shut. I could fit everything from my college room in it on one trip. Dorm fridge, stereo speakers and all. Wish I had it back. I sold it in 1983 because I needed a station wagon in my business. By then it had gone over 100,000 miles and was still chugging along without the AC ever needing to be recharged.

I could work on that car. It wasn't hard to replace things.

My roommate in college at NCSU (go Pack!) had one of those. Not sure of the year -- he'd sold it by the time we met -- but he said he and ALL of his friends could pile in it at once and go out on the town. He'd take up a collection to put gas in it, drive across town, take up another collection for more gas, and drive back. ;-)

DavePEI

#27
When my wife and I got married, she had an old Laurentian green (?) 4 door Pontiac Laurentian she affectionately named Bessie. The reason for the question mark, is that it was a mix of red primer, red, black door, blue hood - well, you get the idea. A $300 beater.

One day while driving to work, she heard a noise, and the car rolled to a stop. The gas tank was found on the road a quarter mile back. Well, eventually, it was strapped back on, and she continued driving it until after we married. By then, the car smoked so badly, it kept the property clear of mosquitoes  (probably for miles around) when it was running. Despite this, and the fact you needed an oil tanker behind  to supply it, you couldn't kill it.

Finally, scared to drive it, we parked it out back, where it sat for 5 years. During that time, we stripped the tires off it, stripped lights and brakes off it to use on other vehicles and ended the world-wide oil shortage by not driving it.

When the day came to get it towed away, for fun, I put the battery back in and turned the key. Vroom, it roared back to life! One turn of the ignition. Amazing, in terrible shape, and sitting for 5 years, and it started!

I was glad to see it go, but will always be amazed how it started the day we got rid of it!

Bye, Bye, Bessie!

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

AE_Collector

#28
Did you leave it idling as it was hauled out the driveway and down the road! I'm not sure if "Laurentian" is one of our Canadian models that others may have never heard of before. There were several models of cars that got different names for Canada than they had in the USA. I don't know if that marketing still goes on now between Canada and the USA but it seems to still happen between other countries.

Terry

<edit> Just looked it up on Wiki. A Pontiac Laurentian is a Pontiac Catalina south of the 49th....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Catalina

Here is a "relatively" small excerpt from the bottom of the above posted Wiki link specifically about the Canadian versions of Pontiacs from the 50's through the 70's:

Strato Chief, Laurentian, Parisienne and Grande Parisienne (Canada and Canadian export only)

1956 Pontiac Laurentian ConvertibleFrom the 1950s through 1970s, GM of Canada offered a unique hierarchy of full-size Pontiac series different from the American Catalina, Star Chief, Executive and Bonneville lines. In Canada, Pontiac was marketed as a low priced car, rather than a medium price make as in the U.S. Closely paralleling Chevrolet's Biscayne, Bel Air and Impala series, by 1959 the Canadian models were named Strato Chief, Laurentian and Parisienne. When Chevrolet introduced the "Super Sport" as a distinct model line in 1962, GM of Canada soon made available a similarly equipped Pontiac "Custom Sport" (rebadged Pontiac "2+2" in 1967 to mirror a name used by Pontiac in the US for a sporty model based on its Catalina series). And when Chevrolet rolled out its topline Caprice model in mid-1965 to compete with Ford's newly introduced upscale Ford LTD, GM of Canada introduced the "Grande Parisienne" trim series for the 1966 model year.

Like all Canadian Pontiacs built from 1955 to 1970, Laurentians used full-size Chevrolet chassis, drive trains, and other parts, but using a body shell similar in style to, but not interechangeable with, the U.S. Catalina. For example, a 1964 Pontiac Laurentian looks like a Catalina, but has more in common with the Chevrolet Bel Air. Through at least 1967, however, the Laurentian wore the three "stars" normally associated with the Pontiac Star Chief/Executive series, even though other exterior trim pieces were similar to the Catalina.


DavePEI

#29
Quote from: AE_collector on October 20, 2012, 11:52:44 AM
Did you leave it idling as it was hauled out the driveway and down the road! I'm not sure if "Laurentian" is one of our Canadian models that others may have never heard of before. There were several models of cars that got different names for Canada than they had in the USA. I don't know if that marketing still goes on now between Canada and the USA but it seems to still happen between other countries.
If I remember correctly, it was either a step up or a step down from the Parisienne. IT was one of the Pontiacs made in Canada for domestic use and export, part of the Strato Chief, Laurentian, Parisienne and Grande Parisienne line. No, I didn't leave it idling as they winched it onto the hauler - they couldn't have seen through the smoke to do their job.

She still loved it, as it was her first car, but I was glad to see it go!

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001