This is a history of the cars I've owned. My first car was given to me by my then step father Johnny Adam's, the year was 1964, and it was a1955 Ford convertible. It had a V8 engine, four speeds on the floor, the top was worn out as well as the seats, after who knows' how many winters in Cleveland Ohio. On the day he decided to give me driving lessons in this car, he backed it out into the street, stepped out had me slide over into the drivers seat. After explaining the gas peddles and clutch movement he had me put into first gear,
the car immediately stalled, after doing this several more times he instructed me to give it more gas and come off of the clutch a little faster. The cars tires spun and burned rubber several feet up the street, oh yea, he forgot to mention the brake peddle. He had to put his leg over mine to get to the brake to stop the car. We sat there for a few minutes, he spoke softly asking me to trade places, he slowly drove us back home, saying on the way, "I guess we should have your mom teach you to drive, then silence. I'm thinking that wasn't too bad for my first time, I will enjoy this driving thing a lot.
My next car was given to me by my mother, she used it to drive us from Cleveland Ohio, to Los Angeles, California, (This trip is a story in itself). It was a 1954 Chevrolet Bellair, it had a straight six cylinder engine
power assist brakes and power steering. This car was the beginning of my education of servicing and repairs of automobiles, beginning with a complete brake job. continuing with high school classes in auto body and fender class where I learned to do body work. In the following semesters I included classes on engine repair and continued with auto body and fender classes both during the day and at night. Let me talk about my first brake job, mom's gave me the money to buy the brake shoes, I find the nearest auto parts store walked in as if I knew what I was doing, ordered the brakes not much problem after just a few questions and answers. I get home jacked up the left front of the car, remove the tire and drum, looked inside to see the brake assembly and was in total shock, what the heck is all this mess. Springs and metal do dads all over the place, so I get a piece of paper and a pen, make a sketch of the assembly, and begin to disassemble. Four hours later I've completed all four sides. Now the time has come to take a test drive, I decided to take it real slow, roll a few feet from my parking space went to press the brake peddle and got nothing, straight to the floor, slipped it into neutral opened the door to use my feet like Fred Flintstone to get the car stopped. Just after getting the car back into its parking spot my friend Albert came around the corner. He took me back to the parts store, as soon as the salesman saw me he knew why I had returned, the conversation with something like this, "Car wouldn't stop? Nope! Why do you think that is? I don't know, brakes not working! Nope, young whipper snapper, you didn't adjust them! Adjust them, how do I do that? With a spoon! A spoon! yep, not a dinner spoon or shoe spoon but a brake shoe spoon. Okay, how much do that cost? Could be $10 dollars could be $3, see as how you didn't blame me I'll let you have it for free". Two hours later brakes all adjusted and working fine. Next morning mom's takes the car to work, telling me she just wanted me to do her brakes for her. Eventually I did get the keys for good when she got a new car.
For my next car, I worked through the summer of 1966 for a teen summer work program cleaning vacant lots of weeds and other debris. I earned a little more than $350 dollars to go towards the purchase of another car, after the 54 Chevy's engine quit on it. I found a 1956 Ford Fairlane in the news paper selling for $300 dollars. I asked my mother's then husband to go with me since he was a great negotiator. He was able to get the car for $150 dollars. We get the car home, give it a pretty good check out, no leaks, not much oil stains in the engine compartment. It looked to be painted blue, turns out the paint was badly oxidized. This is when I learn about rubbing compounds, course, medium, fine and buffing creams. Lesson number on, do not put any rubbing compound on in direct sunlight on hot metal. Lesson number 2, do put rubbing compound on all over the auto like you would car wax. Lesson number 3, follow the instructions on the container for the compounds exactly, you will save yourself a lot of heavy rubbing in the long run, and a lot less work. After several days of work, the color turned out to be a nice deep green, as a result my friends named the car, The Green Lion, du to the noise of the 312 V8 engine, with custom mufflers, 3fr chrome tips. I loved that car.
After graduating from high school I entered the Marine Corps, on my return from Viet Nam in December of 1968 I purchased a 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400. This car became my pride and joy for over seven years. During that time I had it customize by having a 312 lift cam installed, putting on a 440 dual feed Holly carburetor. supper wide rear rims and tires, wide rims and tires on the front, a rear lift kit, and adjustable front shock absorbers. A new paint job, midnight blue, and a light metallic blue half vinyl top double padded for added depth. This car was a dream to drive, quick and really fast. My first ticket could have sent me to jail for exposition of speed, at 110 mph. The CHP officer made the ticket for 70 mph, he was an Marine Veteran, I couldn't say thank you enough, I was on my way to Camp Pendleton after my leave back from Viet Nam. I let him take it for a spin when he asked if he could, and hes I was left on the side of the highway with his cruiser, he returned after about a half hour all excited saying he has made his decision, he would get a Firebird instead of the Camarro. Yes he gave me my ticket and we parted ways. This car met an untimely end when it was stripped down by thieves, they even tried to take the fenders.
I went through the next few cars in rapid succession, several in less than a year. The first was was a 1964 Ford Mustang, with a 289 V8, four speeds on the floor. Really fun to drive but it had serious engine problems. I Sold it after the timing chain broke and I didn't have the tool to make the repairs myself. I used the money from that sell to purchase a 1967 Chevy Chevelle. This car was disposed of after the transmission went out,, the car could only move in reverse, and I didn't want to put any money into making repairs. so I gave it away.
My next car came to me in an interesting way, there was this car parked in the back corner of the parking structure for the apartment building I was living in at the time. I didn't even know the make or model of the car, it was covered up by a lot of clothes and other items. I asked a friend and neighbor if he knew the owner,
amazingly it belonged to him and it was for sell because his wife hated it. The car turned out to be a 1962 MGA 1600 MK II. To help me out he sold it to me for only $150 dollars, he tried to give it to me but I figured it was just too good for him to do that. I looked at this purchase as the chance of a life time, it's not often one has the chance to own such an elegant and rare automobile. It looked just like the one pictured here with one exception, it had center spin off spoke wire wheels. I began a restoration of this car but was stopped on it before I could get very far along. I did put it into the shop, the mechanic pulled the engine and transmission, and began to rebuild the engine. He had purchased a new set of piston rings, a crank shaft and cam. I had to have him stop the work and retrieve my car because my then girl friend and later Fiancee' decided we were going to go into business for ourselves, and we needed the money put aside for the restoration. Later as our life began to go south on us we put everything into storage, the car body with to my sisters for safe keeping. After her death my brother in law had it impounded when I couldn't come up there to get it. Suffice it to say I no longr have the body, but I have the engin and transmission in storage, maybe one day I can get a body to begin again. This car was truly a dream to own and drive.
Remember the girlfriend/Fiancee' I just spoke about, she had recently moved to California from Portland, Oregon. She had been going to car dealerships looking for a small car that had a tire on the rear, round windows on the side as she described it. She insisted that it was a new car because she had seen several of them on the freeway on her way home or to work. The more she talked about the car the more convinced that it was not a new car but an old one from the 1950's, She was very surprised when I informed her that it was a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, to convince her I took her to a restoration dealer in the area call 55 - 57 T-Birds in Culver City, only then did she believe me. The tried to talk her out of wanting one, she was unmoved, so they put her name on a waiting list and told her she had at least a two year wait. She bugged them incessently to their surprise a car came in to be sold on consignment after only a couple of months. She bought it right then and there, she was happy as a bug in a rug. She passed away suddenly in 2004, now the care is mine, I have it in storage, and is in need of plenty of repair work. When I begin the restoration I plan on doing a blog showing the work in progress. When it is completed it should look like this one, maybe better. It is the same color as the one I have.
This brings me to the present, today I'm driving a 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser which I purchased used in 2006. I'm satisfied with the performance and extremely low mantenance, it's just that it doesn't fall inline with what I've owned in the past, or what I will purchase in the future.
That's it for my car history for now, as it changes will keep you informed.
Thank you for reading my story!!
Chil's Ride's
