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WildBill wrote:I had a friend who owned a Norton Commando. He couldn't keep it running long enough to worry about the lights.

Norton Commando's were the perfect motorcycle, for anyone who loves working on motorcycles.

I had no problem keeping mine running, but it seemed I was always fixing or adjusting something on it. When I wasn't doing that, I was cleaning up oil spots.

I was 16 in 1978, Bought a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 fastback. I paid 50% and my parents paid 50%. followed getting my moms 1973 Grand Prix.

Purplehood's post brought back memories. I learned to drive on a '53 Merc - 3 speed on the column with overdrive. It was the first car that I worked on - put a new muffler and a new clutch in it without many tools.

The first car I bought was a brand new '69 Beetle. I had it about a year before a guy late for work married his El Camino to the back passenger side of my VW doing 70mph in a 25mph zone on my then fiancee's 21st birthday. Fortunately for me, the whole back end of my car pivoted away from the El Camino with the force of the crash. The cop who responded to the call told me that the county coroner had had to declare his DIL dead at the scene under almost the same circumstances as I had but her car didn't spin out of the way. The VW was never the same afterward and I ended up trading in on Cutlass.

1971 Dodge Challenger R/T, 383 4bbl, SlapStick automatic, power steering and brakes, but NO A/C to slow it down. Bought it in 1973, a couple of months before I turned 16, for $1850.00 with 17,000 miles on it, and paid cash for it with money I'd saved up working since I was 11.

A 1966 Chevy P/U, three in the tree, wood bed and aftermarket A/C under the dash. Paid $500 cash in 1984. Best thing about it was you could stand up under the hood to work on motor, carb or whatever. Nowdays, you can't even see the ground from under the hood on most cars and trucks.

My first car was a 1970 Chevy Nova. Had a 307 with automatic but it could still screech the tires hitting second gear.

My second is the one I wish I still had. A '69 Dodge Charger with a 383 - forest green with black vinyl top. Alway wondered if it was one of the many wrecked making the Dukes of Hazard. Traded it in on a new '75 Ford Granada - what a piece of junk. First and last Ford I've ever owned; but we regress.

!969 Pontiac Bonneville. Dark green with black vinyl top. It was the best $300 I ever spent. Got me around and was easy to work on. Learned how to replace an exhaust system on that one but the timing belt blew and I was told it was not worth trying to clean all the bits and pieces out of the engine to get her back on the road.

Pawpaw wrote:

WildBill wrote:I had a friend who owned a Norton Commando. He couldn't keep it running long enough to worry about the lights.

Norton Commando's were the perfect motorcycle, for anyone who loves working on motorcycles.

I had no problem keeping mine running, but it seemed I was always fixing or adjusting something on it. When I wasn't doing that, I was cleaning up oil spots.

My Triumph mechanic had a saying, "Why do they drink warm beer in England? Lucas makes refrigerators." He wore a button that read, "Lucas, prince of darkness."

My Trump had a 6 volt battery, a positive ground and a magneto ignition. The good news was if there was ANYTHING in the battery, you could kick it through. The bad news was it was Lucas through and through. Back around '81 or so. I was on my way out of Lewisville heading toward The Colony on 121 which was a two lane highway then, no civilization between 1171 and 423. It was late and there was no one out and no moon when "pffft", no lights. I slowed down, eased over and could barely make out the edge stripe and puttered on home. Pulled into the driveway and as soon as I dropped the center stand the lights came back. Turned out it was a crack in the frame that was causing an intermittent open.

Oh yeah, my first car? A 1972 or '73 VW Super Beetle (it was only 1975), 1600cc with 4 speed and A/C! Pretty peppy. A neighbor down the street was an avid VW guy and had been in stock car racing. He helped me retrofit a transmission cooler with a kit to cool the oil. That car was unstoppable were it not for an ill placed patch of black ice and fire hydrant in 1977. My dad kept the pan, the engine and tranny and eventually built a beautiful '53 MG kit car. A broken spring under the seat caused a short and subsequent fire that burned it to the rims around 1985.

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My Triumph mechanic had a saying, "Why do they drink warm beer in England? Lucas makes refrigerators." He wore a button that read, "Lucas, prince of darkness.[/quote]

We had the same saying about Lucas made aircraft electronics such as the Engine controls on the Emb- 145 regional jets

first car was a 1987 silver toyota supra, i was in high school in mid 90s. saved 1.5 years sacking groceries. paid 4k cash, i was 17 yrs old.

Texas_Blaze wrote:first car was a 1987 silver toyota supra, i was in high school in mid 90s. saved 1.5 years sacking groceries. paid 4k cash, i was 17 yrs old.

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Texas_Blaze - You have a very impressive work ethic and extraordinary self-control.

chasfm11 wrote:Purplehood's post brought back memories. I learned to drive on a '53 Merc - 3 speed on the column with overdrive. It was the first car that I worked on - put a new muffler and a new clutch in it without many tools.

When I was a little boy, my dad drove a '53 Merc. Looked just like this one:

The Annoyed Man wrote:

chasfm11 wrote:Purplehood's post brought back memories. I learned to drive on a '53 Merc - 3 speed on the column with overdrive. It was the first car that I worked on - put a new muffler and a new clutch in it without many tools.

When I was a little boy, my dad drove a '53 Merc. Looked just like this one:
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Yep. Looks just like the one we had but ours was green.

Another funny story. Initially, I wasn't very good with the clutch on the Merc. (probably one of the reasons that I ended up replacing it a few years later). After a few of my bucking starts at stop signs, my dad drove it to a road with a fairly steep incline. He switched me back to the driver's seat with the car pointed up the hill and told me to drive it. He'd let me get the car going and then tell me to stop - over and over and over again. I hated it at time. We had a couple of those sessions.

Fast forward almost 50 years. A guy had rented a truck to do some moving. It had a terrible clutch in it, an emergency brake was really hard to release and it stalled quickly at idle. He got it hung up near the end of bank with the front wheels pointed over the edge and was unable to deal with it. There was nothing around to block the wheels. I got in and knew that I'd have one chance with it. Feathering the gas with my toe while my heal was on the brake pedal, I worked with the clutch to catch it right at the engagement point. I was able to back the truck out of trouble and drove the truck for him for the rest of his move. As the truck backed away from the bank, I said a prayer of thanks to my Dad for all of those clutch lessons in the Mercury. It has amazed me over the years at how much I learned on that first car.

Well, from what I've read on this thread, this one is going to be the oldest 'first car' so far. I don't know how that happened...I'm certainly not the most well-seasoned contributor to this forum!

I don't have any photos of mine (wish I did), but back in east Tennessee in the early 80's, my first car was a 1947 Chevy Stylemaster Coupe. I drove it for my last 2 years of high school, and my first year of college.

It had vacuum-pump windshield wipers. If it was raining, I'd have to take the foot off the gas so they could work, and then memorize the road for a few seconds, and then start accelerating again.

Mine didn't have the side-of-the-hood vents shown in the first photo below, but it did have the pop-up vent right behind the hood shown in the second photo. That acted as the defogger for my windows (or at least it tried to).

Here is a photo of one similar to mine:


Mine was painted two-tone, with cream-colored body and brown fenders, similar to this one (but without the external visor over the window):


I had more room in the front seat than most of my friends had in the back seat (which brings back memories that I won't / can't share here). On the inside of the door, there were two window cranks. One rolled the main door window up and down, and the other one rotated the smaller vent window open and closed.

Vol Texan wrote:It had vacuum-pump windshield wipers. If it was raining, I'd have to take the foot off the gas so they could work, and then memorize the road for a few seconds, and then start accelerating again.

Vaccuum operated windshield wipers stayed around for a long time. I had a 62 Falcon that used them. Yes, they worked fairly well, unless you were accelerating or going up hill.

Vol Texan wrote:On the inside of the door, there were two window cranks. One rolled the main door window up and down, and the other one rotated the smaller vent window open and closed.

Most cars had that until they started cheaping out and made you push the vent window open by hand. I still miss the old vent windows.