My dad would change the oil and that's about it, so it wasn't until I went to college with a concentration in motorsports then worked in racing. It really picked up though when I got a project car, and that's when it all spiralled out of control.
My dad would change the oil and that's about it, so it wasn't until I went to college with a concentration in motorsports then worked in racing. It really picked up though when I got a project car, and that's when it all spiralled out of control.
Yes.
I don’t at all, but that is just fine. What I do have is a Dad who taught me how to fix most anything on the old farmhouse that I grew up in, and that has saved me a bunch of money over the years of home ownership. Plumbing, roofing, electrical, framing, bring it on.
That, and he trusted me to do the household auto maintenance starting at about age 16. “Son, put these new shocks on your Mom’s car this weekend.” With no internet. Or cellphone. Or instructions.
I might not have fully appreciated it at the time, but what an awesome education!! And yes, I have thanked Dad for doing that.
Both
Both of my parents, now deceased, were gear heads. Dad was super mechanical, and prior to meeting him Mom dated a midget racer named Lyle Dicky. Mom dragged Dad to a race in 1949. Never had to drag him again, and I was raised in the family sports car repair shop. Dad was also the "car dad" for a number of my peers from 1965-1978 who had disinterested parents. Photo from a few years prior to my arrival.
No, I started working on a 28 Ford Model A (the farm mud car that had been sitting under a tree for years) before I was a teenager and helped school mates with their cars while in high school learning by experience. At 19, the Air Force sent me to a 16 week training course that prepared me to be an on the job trainee mechanic. I continued to learn by reading and thru experience for the last 51 years. I have always been an automobile enthusiast (I have owned over 100 cars) and continue to enjoy every minute of it.
solfly said:dad
I think I got started here then actually had to do something at work?
Anyway. Dad is a mechanic by trade. Was out helping him in the driveway and other people's garages for as long as I can remember. Built a garage when I was 10 or 12. Built my first car together, a 73 El Camino. Then a winter S10 and from there it just snowballed. Took automotive in high school and tech college. Worked for a national parts chain for years and now managing a repair shop. Built a bunch of stuff together from autocross hondas to off road jeeps and everything in between. We're always tinkering with stuff still. Hoping to pass it on to my son who is 3. If hot wheels interest is any indication I think we're on the right path.
My Dad. Although he isn't into racing/performance or anything like that and didn't get into having a dedicated project or toy till his kids were almost all grown up, he grew up wrenching on his own, his friends and siblings cars and always preferred to work on his own stuff whenever possible.
Well before I was around, he got out of the Air Force (in 1980 I think?) and needed a car, so he bought a cheap early Chevy Vega. If I remember the story correctly, he eventually found a Vega GT in the junkyard and swapped over a ton of GT specific bits from that car to his, including pitching his 2-speed Powerglide for the 4-speed manual out of the GT. Around the same time my Mom had a succession of E36 M3boxes that he helped keep on the road, an early 2-door Omni and Plymouth Arrow. Eventually he got a company car, and he and Mom bought or leased new cars, especially after starting a family. That said, I always remember him pulling them into the garage when they were due for regular maintenance and stuff like that.
At some point when I was in grade school, we moved into the house that my family would grow up in and that my parents still live in to this day. He decided that for some of his weekend warrior projects, he wanted a pick up truck but didn't want one as his every day vehicle. He picked up a cheap 2.3/5speed Ranger that wasn't that old, but had been owned since new by a college student who drove it from SW to SE MI and back every weekend during the school year for 4 years, so it had a lot of miles and needed some work. He spent a summer refreshing it. Then when I was in high school, I think he got sick of spending the money buying or leasing new cars and took a gently used, but starting to age LH New Yorker as a hand me down from my grandpa/his FIL and put a bunch of work into that.
It was when I started to drive that he really kicked being a car guy into high gear. I had dreams of living out some Fast and the Furious fantasy for my first car, and after some back and forth he and I settled on me getting an AWD 1G DSM. He wanted it to be an automatic however, which unlike today, wasn't exactly cool back then. About a week or so after we bought mine, a guy in our subdivision parked a rough around the edges 5speed AWD 1G in front of his house with a for sale sign in the window. I actually called the guy for a friend who was looking for one, but my Dad asked me about it and then picked it up for himself, which 16YO me thought was the coolest thing ever. My Dad then spent his spare time over the next weeks and months, parousing DSM websites and forums, absorbing a near encyclopedic knowledge of DSM intricacies, parts, common issues/fixes, tools, you name it. He also used some newfangled at the time website called eBay to fill his garage with new and used DSM parts. While fixing up the 2 cars on the weekends, he also became a defacto consultant, mechanic and tool loaner for some of my import/tuner owning buddies who maybe didn't have a Dad who was into that stuff. I thought it was the greatest thing ever learning everything I know today like that and watching my late 40's/early 50's Dad shoot the E36 M3 about DSM's with guys sometimes 1/3 his age.
I think in the span of about 4 years, my Dad had done multiple 4G63 timing belts both in and out of the car, a 7 bolt to 6 bolt engine swap, an auto to manual swap, rebuilt two 4G63's and probably replaced just about anything you can think of on one of those cars at least once if not multiple times. All that said, his ideas and plans for his DSM were vastly different than my own and most other turbo DSM owners. He wanted to restore it to it's complete factory original glory. Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of the driving in his car as mine was always broken. With me treating the car like you'd expect a high school kid to, he usually had to spend way more time keeping it roadworthy than restoring it. Though not restored, I now/still own both cars to this day.
Eventually, he parlayed that interest into a more appropriate platform, towing home a rough but rust free 1966 Thunderbird. He spent the next few years doing a highly detailed restoration on the car. I remember him buying multiples of certain parts until he got one that was perfect. He even yanked a newer smog era engine from the car and installed a same year as the car Mercury 410 that he rebuilt himself and ran/tuned on an engine test stand he build so he didn't have to do it while it was in the car. Below is the finished product that he loves taking to shows where he's won a bunch of awards over the years.
My Dad for sure. He spent most of his teenage years (early 50’s) making $50 and $75 dollar Fords run. He had an early 50’s Ford Victoria with glass packs, an auxiliary overdrive and a triple carb set up on a flathead when he was dating my Mom.
He brought a new Opel Rekord (‘60?) back from Germany after his Army service which was the first thing I ever rode in. Then a Mercury Comet wagon, a 69 Peugeot 404 (4 on the tree!), a ‘73 Peugeot 504, ‘78 Datsun 810 (2.4 inline 6 / 4 speed) that I learned to drive on. Next was a ‘74 Mercedes 230, then two 300D turbo diesels. The weirdness stopped with a ‘91 Grand Marquis, all Ford / Dodge since (He has an absolutely pristine ‘04 Dodge Dakota 4x4 V8 with under 60k on it and a ‘16 Fusion now.)
I learned a lot of the basics following him around, we did all our own work for quite a while. He helped me get my first car road worthy when I was in college, wouldn’t let me have one before that because he didn’t want me spending all my time on cars instead of school work.
Dad for certain, and mom more than a little bit.
Dad grew up on a farm, so he was driving around at 12. His uncle was a WWII bomber pilot in Europe who brought back an affinity for French cars. Dad learned to drive in a Panhard and a Renault Dauphine. Owned a MKII Sprite before he had a driver's license.
Dad met my mom at community college when my uncle's car wouldn't start. Uncle asked his friend (dad) to give her a ride home in his '69 Roadrunner. She asked him it it would make it that far- it ran a lot better than it looked. He was a little stung, but she still got in the car.
Growing up, he taught me maintenance, got me subscriptions to Car Craft and Hot Rod, and kept me out of school one day so we could watch the Power Tour come through. Bought me my first car ('73 Duster) when I was thirteen. Helped me swap a V8 in it and do the bodywork. Helped me buy, sell, and fix dozens of cars since then. He also got into Miatas after I bought mine. Wouldn't be here if it weren't for his influence.
Now he's just retired, but says he's worn out and doesn't want to work on the same '69 Roadrunner he had in college that my mom dragged out of a junkyard. Hoping that'll change after he gets bored in a few months. Otherwise it's gonna fall to me, and I don't have the time or expertise to finish my own projects.
My Dad had a Cuda and/or a Challenger (pre-oil crisis cars) before I came around. I've got a now retired second cousin who built heads (I think) for one of the NASCAR teams, but the internet is my car dad.
I had a modest career as a bicycle racer that imprinted speed/precision lust on me. After that ended and I gained a financial foothold MIATA became the answer.
Dad most definitely. Mom just tolerated the shenanigans, but I was told last year enjoyed that I took up all the handyman stuff that my dad would do.
He grew up "poor", served his country through the draft and when back stateside, bought a Boss 302 Mustang. Once retired and widower, almost finished the 62 Galaxie I've posted here before, plus everything else.
Soon, D2D will move under its own power come late spring early summer.
Grandfather, Dad, and almost all aunt's and uncle's...
Grandpa raced stock cars back in the 40s and 50s. Ended up running a used car lot that all his kids worked in. Dad has always and still does bounce around all kinds of interesting cars. one uncle has quite a classic car collection and another has been racing in NASA for 10+ years.
My dad. Although not sports cars or muscle cars, but neat cars nonetheless:
1930 Chevrolet Sedan Deluxe
1946/7 Chevy one-ton panel truck
1948 International KB6 Fire Truck
1963 Corvair Rampside
1964 Corvair Monza Spyder
1965 Corvair 140 hp convertible
1976 Cadillac convertible (concours winner)
Two Honda Goldwings
Many tractors/machines, as old as 1911.
Seven other daily cars/work vehicles for his company
He has a great relationship with his insurance guy.
Close cousins and uncles have dozens of antique tractors, steam engines, steam cars and other antique cars.
Definitely my dad. He started driving right in the middle of the 1960's, and was big into the musclecar culture back then. His first ride was a 1960 Ford Fairlane that was cobbled together by him and his friends running a 292ci V8. His next ride was sort of a sleeper: a 1966 Olds Cutlass Supreme 4dr, but it had the 330ci H.O. and a Hurst-shifted 4-speed manual. And a bench seat! He modded that one quite a bit, and liked street racing with it and trolling unsuspecting victims. He had a ton of other interesting rides over the years:
-1955 Pontiac Star Chief
-1969 Pontiac Lemans Sport 2dr
-1970 Olds 98 Convertible
-1983 Ford F150 XLS Flareside
-1985 Ford Escort GT Turbo
-1992 Ford F150 4x4 Flareside Nite
-2014 Infiniti Q60 AWD
His most recent acquisition is his 2010 Corvette Convertible:
He clearly loves this thing. I don't blame him.
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