Your first car?

[madmike1976]

Always a fun subject when car guys get together. What was your first car? How much did you pay for it? How long did it last? And what, if you know, was it's ultimate fate?

Mine- 1969 Galaxie 500. A two-door SportsRoof with the tunnel roof wings just like Bo and Luke Duke had on their General Lee. Bought it off the tarmac at a filling station for the royal sum of $75 (almost $300 in today's dollars) and believe me, it was worth almost any penny of it. There was a massive piece of iron welded to the front bumper which nobody there seemed to know anything about, whilst the rear bumper was missing altogether which nobody there knew anything about either. The engine was a 351w, a mainstay in full sized Fords for years and years but not in 1969, at least not according to the parts books since it was introduced mid-year. Would have got tired of explaining that to auto part store clerks if the car had lasted more than two months. But we digress.

I test drove this thing, slowly, since it didn't have any licence plates and the brake pedal was pretty much down to the floor except there was no floor, only a hole where a floor used to be. It was also loud thanks to the exhaust which could have been considered "dual" in that there was nothing attached to the manifolds, and there were two of them. There was a bench seat in fairly good condition on the drivers side but all tore up on the passenger side.....guess there was a story there but really didn't want to know about it. Car didn't leak anything though. It started, ran, stopped after a fashion, and was a massive upgrade from my Schwinn Sting-Ray with the cheater slick tire and three-speed Power Shift. Seventy five bucks later, it was mine.

How to tackle such a massive project? First it needs a name. We dubbed it "The Machine" because it was big. Made sense at the time. Then it was time to paint it Primer Black. Why not? Keep in mind it still didnt have a rear bumper or any brakes. Priorities, right? Baby moon caps? Check. Foam dice on the mirror? Check. Aw allright, we can put a new brake line in too. Time to hit the road. Maybe we should carry some tools in the trunk? Oh.....the trunk doesn't have a floor either. So much for that.

To make a long story short(er), the Machine's time as my personal transport lasted until our second or third "hump jumping" session at the local drive-in (those of a Certain Age will know what this means...for the younger folks, keep in mind it's not nearly as risque as it sounds!). The rigors of high-performance/high stupidity driving were enough to reveal that what had originally been considered surface rust on the driver's side framerail was actually rust rust as in all the way through rust as in the frame rail broke and dragged itself upon the ground. Caution- emits shower of sparks....like a roman candle but with a fuel line clipped to it. Not good.

Sold the Machine thru the local auto trader for $85 to a guy who swore he could "weld anything". Never did find out if "anything" incleded a rustbucket Galaxie with nary a solid metaluurgical molecule to it's name. But I got more for that car than I paid for it.....thirty years and three dozen cars later, methinks that was something that never happened again.

Sooo.....what was your first car? Enquiring minds want to know!

-Mike

[robic58]

Mike-

Really enjoyed reading your narration about your first car, not only is the story interesting, but you manage to tell it marvelously well ,most entertaining.

BTW, I'm old enough to remember "hump jumping", and dirt country road racing,and $2 worth of gas being good for a whole evening.

I'll get around to writing about my "first"car soon.

Hopefully, you've started another topic that'll beef up the readership.

Cheers, Ralph

[robic58]

My first car was a very unpretentious -tame looking family hauler -a 1956 Dodge Mayfair- hardly what would fit the image of choice for an 18 yr old hormone charged male.
This was in 1960, the car was 3 1/2 years old and had 62,000+ miles on it. At the time, that was fairly high mileage.
The 56'Dodge Mayfair,in Canada was the equivalent of the US Plymouth Belvedere. Mine was a late'56, at a time that Chrysler had already planned the 1957 radically changed offerings, I think it probably accounted for the oddities ; the exterior was white and wedgewood blue; the interior black and rose ( hardly complementing tones). I later found out that this had been a fleet car, used by a traveling salesman for three years, at which time his employer traded this car in. The Chrysler dealer from which I bought it was asking $750, but I ended getting it for $575, of which I financed $300.. The attractive color combination had had this car sitting on his lot for more than six months.
Apparently,Chrysler Canada filled orders for fleet cars,with only exterior paint color choices.
Overall, the car was in relatively good shape considering it had travelled over 60,000 miles on two lane roads in Atlantic Canada.
Immediately, I had to to have a healthy piece of pipe welded on the exhaust. ,which sent the 277 ci V-8 engine purring again.
It had the Powerflite dash push button two speed auto transmission , with overdrive. I believe the rear end ratio was 3.73 : 1 . I lived in a coastal village with the nearest town being about 12 miles away,that's where the action was. There was a drive in theater, and on nights where no movies were showing we also did some "hump jumping", on nights when movies were running, the action was mostly in the back seat.
Another pasttime was country dirt road racing- My Mayfair was not the fastest off the mark,Usually Fords with standard trannies, but always fared well in the Quarter mile. Probably because of no pollution controls, I felt that I had a strong,peppy engine that hauled ash when you asked it to.
Now, the brakes that was another story.. Plenty of moving power but hardly any stopping power, which accounts for my colliding with a cow,yes the 4 legged variety, on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Damage- one dead cow and another 100+ ft down the road , a badly mangled left front fender, headlight, slight distortion on hood, and a small piece of grille broken off, the rad let go and the battery split. I spent several hours pounding out the fender, used headlamp bucket and trim, recored rad and a used battery, and I'm back tearing down the road.
The car worked a-1 for a year, by which time I had moved to Montreal, and my dear Mayfair while parked on the street one night fell victim to a drunk driver in a truck that literally plowed into six car, hitting mine first- back end brutally and totally demolished. Oddly enough, mechanically it ran fine, and I got a $200 trade in value on another used 1956 Dodge, this one a Regent - with nice matching blue interior and exterior- much nicer to look at, but nowhere as "badass"as the Mayfair.
For years after, I was a devout Chrysler product believer, and remained so until 1995, when we parted company.
It's amazing what one remembers about their first car.
Cheers, Ralph

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[madmike1976]

Ralph-

Much thanks for your kind words re my "first car" story and for sharing yours. I know I have a couple of old Polaroids of the Machine around here somewhere and will try to scan and post if I can dig them up. They might even be in black and white for all I know...

We never got to do much dirt-road racing here in Yonkers NY, we're pretty much the big city only a dozen mile from NYC. But Central Ave was the main drag and there was plenty of street racing going on and Nathans drive-in hot-dogs for hanging out....gone are the days.

Love those old MoPars. There's currently a '59 Plymouth Belvedere V-8 (complete with "toilet seat" trunk lid) sitting at a service staion in my town, much the same way I first saw my "Machine" so many years ago. Maybe I should give them a call

-Mike

ps -just wondering- how do I make a sig?

[rod]

My first car was a 1975 Mercury Monarch coupe. Bought it for 1000$ in 1981. Was white with the silvery blue interior, matching vinyl roof. It only had about 60,000 miles on it at the time. Sadly, I had money problems about a year later, and sold it to my brother, who promptly smashed it up. Still miss the old girl, it had the 302, buckets, no console, though.

[madmike1976]

As promised, pictures of "The Machine" as purchased, 30+ years ago. Only took me a year and a half to find them!

-M