What did you learn to drive in?

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kevin B

Bicycle Demolitionist
Pro Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
1,646
Reaction score
3,755
Location
Lehigh Acres, (Fort Myers) Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
For me it was a 53 Chevy pickup. It was just like the one below color wise but ours was a total rust bucket. Three on the tree and a starter pedal on the floor.
My first Personal car was a 57 Chevy.

1953-chevrolet-3100-pickup.jpeg
 
Yellow 1980 Chevy chevette... floor boards were completely rusted out, my old man said don’t buy it son… of course I bought it anyway… $50 felt like a good deal.
My friends and I tried to kill it, we took the oil plug out and went joy riding in a corn field, it just wouldn’t die- so we drove it to the junkyard and the guy gave me $20 for it.
IMG_0803.jpeg
 
1988 chev sprint 3 cylinder.
CC-395-059.jpg

We called it Pregnant Skateboard. It died in a blizzard when I did 100 kph dive into a deep ditch and did an end over end flip off the front bumper. The hat I was wearing ended up in the trunk. Thanks, seatbelt
 
1973 LTD. Perkins township schools driver's Ed. The teacher didn't believe me when I said I had never driven any car or truck. I had many thousands of miles in on bikes though, making driving easy.

1695432165089.jpeg



My first car, 62 Comet, 144 six, 50 bucks from a neighbor in 1976. I later junked it but looked for it when I retired from the AF in 2005. I wanted to make a gasser out of it. Probably was crushed 25 years before that.

1695432665388.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I bought my first car before I had my license, as such it was registered and insured in my dad's name while I learned how to drive. I bought it from a Ford mechanic for $750 in 2004. Both rocker panels were 100% expanding spray foam, but the rest of the car was nearly immaculate. Ran like a top, parts were a dime a dozen (I put tires on it for $29 a piece!!!), and it beat my buddy's Camaro in a drag race.

This is the only photo I have in digital but I have a lot of 35mm prints of it somewhere. 1991 Chevy Cavalier 2dr hardtop.

0728180854.jpg


At the left of the frame is the truck I replaced the Cavalier with, an '88 Dodge Ram D150, in which I learned how to do burnouts and donuts 😁. Bought it for $1,200 from the grandson of the original owner. It had 66,000 original miles on it and, other than an ugly patch job above the left rear wheel and a badly bent lower control arm; the truck was cherry. I kept the Ram hood ornament when I sold it.

I miss both of these vehicles almost daily, lol.

NewTires1.jpg
 
Last edited:
My brother had one too, I remember it having a small v6 in there? He surprised a couple of people with his.
I forgot they were putting V6's in those! 3.2L I think? Mine had the little 2.2L straight 4 and a whopping 95 horsepower. I only beat my buddy's Camaro because I had a better launch. His was a V6...possibly the same engine they were putting in the Cavalier?
 
I learned to drive in a 1959 Chevy Biscayne. 283, power glide, no power brakes or steering. It did have factory air conditioning.

barn-found-1959-chevy-biscayne-has-the-magic-package-all-original-one-owner-top-shape-203920_1.jpg

Internet photo

My first car was a 1964 Plymouth Fury. 318, 3 speed on the tree, with PS. It was red over white with a red gut. I bough it with my paper root money, $300. Needed brakes and tires.

1964-plymouth-fury.jpg

also internet photo
 
1972 Chevy Caprice, 2 door coupe.

Like this one, but root beer brown with a cream vinyl top.

Screenshot_20240627-132824_Samsung Internet.jpg


Fun fact, the GM workers were striking in the early '70s due to poor working conditions and pay (among other things). During this time, factory workers were acid washing hoods and trunk lids before they went to paint. So you will notice a lot of (original) GM cars from the early '70s look like they have leprosy on the hood and/or trunk. Ours was no different. As the years went by it got worse. Only way to fix it is to make a new hood or trunk lid.
 
Last edited:
1972 Chevy Caprice, 2 door coupe.

Like this one, but root beer brown with a cream vinyl top.

View attachment 271120

Fun fact, the GM workers were striking in the early '70s due to poor working conditions and pay (among other things). During this time, factory works were acid washing hoods and trunk lids before they went to paint. So you will notice a lot of (original) GM cars from the early '70s look like they have leprosy on the hood and/or trunk. Ours was no different. As the years went by it got worse. Only way to fix it is to make a new hood or trunk lid.
My dad worked at GM from 1955 to his retirement in 2002. Probably worked every job inside that 4.8 million sq ft Goliath. Even during those early 70’s Fisher Body days like that Caprice

I worked there too and got out in 2007 before the plant was shuttered in 2008
 
I had been building radios in school, and doing engine swaps and major repairs with my dad. I was able to hotwire a car by the age of 13.

So this wasn’t the first car I ever drove. That would have been a 1963 Mercury.

This is the first car I was officially allowed to drive and given an actual driving lesson in. Dad’s 1963 international scout, which I still own.
EA68307C-CFCD-45D9-ABD3-0D80107A9116.jpeg
 
I had been building radios in school, and doing engine swaps and major repairs with my dad. I was able to hotwire a car by the age of 13.

So this wasn’t the first car I ever drove. That would have been a 1963 Mercury.

This is the first car I was officially allowed to drive and given an actual driving lesson in. Dad’s 1963 international scout, which I still own.
View attachment 271191
There's one of those around the corner from me I'll get a pick next time it's out..looks brand new
 
Not this one!

After life in Minnesota and Utah, the body had rotted.

She wears a ‘67 body from Arizona.

Dad and I swapped it in the winter of 1973-74. It’s roasted from sitting in the sun. Engine has been frozen since about ‘88.

It might get “restored” before I die.
 
My stepfather taught me to drive stick on a 1976 Datsun B-210. His was blue.

1719589056062.png


He did not know though, that when they were gone on vacation, I had unhooked the speedometer on mom's 1980 Oldsmobile Omega and had been driving it.

1719589295571.png


Oh, but now that I think about it, when I was twelve, my sister would let me drive her triple green 1973 Plymouth Satellite in empty parking lots on the way home from church. So technically I learned to drive in that but learned the rules of the road in the Datsun at age 16.

1719589506553.png
 

Latest posts

Back
Top