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what was your first car?

llkoolkeg

llkoolkeg

Ranger LL
Sep 5, 2001
4,335
15
in da shed, mon, in da shed
1970 Firebird bought for $1500 of paper route money when I turned 15. It had a perfectly straight, dent-free body and brand new Firethorn Red paintjob...but the springs were shot(it dragged ass) and the stock 400cid a bit tired and tempermental. I restored it over the next 8-months until I got my learner's permit. I yanked the 400 and put in a rebuilt and seriously hopped-up 455HO/TH400, new short&stiff competition springs and sway bars, a 1200 watt stereo w/custom speakerbox that replaced the back seats, 16" polished aluminum racing wheels & Pirelli P500's(295/50/ZR16) at all four corners(I had to cut the fenders and install fiberglass flares and larger tubs), a fully-functional shaker hood/air cleaner after jigsawing a hole in the hood to accommodate the much taller engine, etc.

By the time I finally sold it in the early 90's, I had gotten more than my fair share of fun, trouble and great memories out of it.

Here's what it looked like stock before the new paint and all the mods I made-
 
stosh

stosh

Darth Bailer
Jul 20, 2001
22,238
393
NY
llkoolkeg said:
1970 Firebird bought for $1500 of paper route money when I turned 15. It had a perfectly straight, dent-free body and brand new Firethorn Red paintjob...but the springs were shot(it dragged ass) and the stock 400cid a bit tired and tempermental. I restored it over the next 8-months until I got my learner's permit. I yanked the 400 and put in a rebuilt and seriously hopped-up 455HO/TH400, new short&stiff competition springs and sway bars, a 1200 watt stereo w/custom speakerbox that replaced the back seats, 16" polished aluminum racing wheels & Pirelli P500's(295/50/ZR16) at all four corners(I had to cut the fenders and install fiberglass flares and larger tubs), a fully-functional shaker hood/air cleaner after jigsawing a hole in the hood to accommodate the much taller engine, etc.

By the time I finally sold it in the early 90's, I had gotten more than my fair share of fun, trouble and great memories out of it.
Click to expand...
nice story!
 
golgiaparatus

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
First car... 1976 Ford LTD police interceptor, repainted ugly fuhking baby blue. Still had holes in the roof from the siren mounts. Ran great with a 351 Modified Clevland engine.

Had an AC that was so cold that if you breathed out by the vent while it was on high you could see your breath. Had the worst Vinyl bench seats on earth except for the fact that it could seat 8 people. The brakes would lock up instantly and on demand... just for fun I'd be cruising down the road at like 40 or something and hit the brakes hard... the car wouldnt slow down or anything the tires would just lock up and squeal, it was funny as hell to do that in front of a tailgater. The car was replaced in 1994 by the funnest car I have ever had... I completely reworked re-engined (350 4 bolt, had somewhere between 300 and 350 hp) 84 Monte SS.

We use to go shopping card bashing in that car. Which is basically, with a full load of people in the car... going to a grocery store at 3:00 AM and charging shopping carts with the car just to see them go flying. Never made a dent on the cars massive chrome bumper.... Note: one time I had a wreck with a ford ranger. His car was demolished and the bumper mangled... mine had a small scratch and a tiny/shallow little dime sized dent.
 
Booker

Booker

Monkey
Feb 5, 2003
233
0
Louisville, KY
Oh man. My first car was a 79' Chevy Camero. I think i payed $500. Bought in 98'. :o: V8 305 Eng. 350 turbo Tranny. As soon as i got it home i took a sawsall and cut the exhaust off. Bolted on some headers and two glass-packs. The glass packs ended right under the doors and the floor boards had holes in them. It was so loud it would give you a headack. No radio or air condition.

Its how i earned the name "skippy" with my dads friends. Long story short.... Drivers door never latched very good. Me being a 16 year old dumbass didn't have my seatbelt on. I took a turn at about 35-40 mph, door opened, and i FELL OUT of the car. I "Skipped" across the road, thru a drainage ditch, and into a stop sign. The car kept chugging along. It ran over some ladies bird bath, over her little baby apple trees, across the road and into another guys fence. After i dusted my self off i ran over to the car (wich was still running) and backed it back onto the street. I payed the guy $100 for his fence. $25 for the ladies bird bath / tree. Only damage to the car was a dent in the hood. And i only got scratched up a bit. I will never forget the sound of that car as it drove inches away from my head. :dead:
 
BigHit-Maniac

BigHit-Maniac

Monkey
Jul 5, 2004
245
0
Las Vegas, NV
My first car I bought by myself (as well as my current).

It was a 1986 Saab 900S. It had lots of Saab Turbo parts on it, with the intentions of putting a turbo motor in it with a Euro-Spec transmission. I wound up selling it at 359,000 miles... on the original engine. The body was in great shape with little rust, and that care drove like a go-kart. I was rear-ended THREE times while owning that car for a period of just over 3 years. Every accident damaged the other car, and didn't do JACK to my battle-tank. I loved that car.

I now drive a 1995 Ford Thunderbird LX w/ the 4.6L V8 in it. I've always liked RWD more, so I thought this was a steal when my neighbor was selling it for $2,000. It needed minor work, but since I have connections.. I got a $3800 car for $2,000 :)


-Matt
 
tartosuc

tartosuc

Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
202
0
montreal
Here in canada students get smaller cars!

My first car was a '81 chevy chevette 4 door automatic :dead: what a slow car! I got it on a friday, crash it on satuday night!( roll over ) paid 400$can$ for it. I fixed the car with a friend of mine for 240$(raise the roof back in place, new windshield, new rear axle), the paint was never completely finished so the car was 3 colors with some body filling showing everywhere...the car has serve me for 2 years !
 
Ciaran

Ciaran

Fear my banana
Apr 5, 2004
9,841
18
So Cal
White 68 VW Bug. It was known as the "Bug O Death"! The floor in back was gone, and we had layed down some boards to cover the holes. You couldn't put too much weight on them or you would go through. When we were driving you could lift up the boards and see the road go by. There was a loose wire that we were too lazy to fix so when you drove over railroad tracks the wire would come off and the motor would shut down. or sometimes it would come off for no reason, like on the freeway. The tranny was shot so when you were in 1st gear adn were just about to shift the shifter wiould pop out of gear all by itself. Push starts more often than not. Ahhh fun times.

Everyone should start out with a beater. Those rich kids may have had it easier but they don't have cool Bug O Death stories!

Edit: Oh yeah... I bough it myself with my pet store job money and it was 700.00. (I got robbed!)
 
J

JSB

Monkey
Apr 8, 2004
383
0
Flower Mound, Texas
My dad gave me his 1980 Corolla. It was a two door 5 spd, which made it a little more fun. It was a third car. I drove it 6 months, and bought a 1986 Mazda B2000. Put some rims on it with fitties, and a huge system in it. Oh the good old days of HighSchool.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,111
1,166
NC
My first car was a 1986 Toyota Camry with 130k miles on it.

It was pretty beat. The radio was tempermental and used to cut out, but you could get it to work again by whacking the dashboard. After a while, this started to make my hand a bit sore (you really had to beat it), so I started carrying a rubber mallet under the driver's seat.

The look on a first time passenger's face was absolutely priceless when the radio would cut out, and I'd whip a large rubber mallet out from under the driver's seat, and "WHAM!", bring it down hard on the dashboard, then calmly replace it under the seat as the radio kicked back on...

Oh, and eventually the left rear strut froze, broke free of its rusty mount, and banged its way into the interior of the car (it was a hatchback).

I did drive (read: beat the crap out of) it for 40k miles, though, and sold it for two hundred bucks less than I paid for it. The body was beat, but it still ran well.

The guy I sold it to eventually bought a new car, and as a last huzzah, we took that old Camry boonin'. Absolutely ripped the **** out of the undercarraige, but by God if that car wasn't still running after we got it ten miles into and out of the woods :D.
 
reflux

reflux

Turbo Monkey
Mar 18, 2002
4,617
2
G14 Classified
1995 (red) Geo Metro. 2 doors. Hatchback. 5 speeds. 3 cyclinders. All fun.

As lame as it was to have a Geo in The OC, I loved that car like no other. I drove it through high school and for the last couple years of college. I'll never forget one road trip I made up from SLO to Chico for a bike race. We crammed 3 people inside, all our chit, and 3 bikes on the hatchback with a trunk rack. We still managed to average 42 mpg for the entire trip.

I drove it like it had at least 4 cyclinders. Why? Anyone who's ever driven a Geo knows that's the only way to rock it.

We donated it to a local charity this past year because it was pretty much an aluminum can with an engine and a few seats. Geo = not very safe.
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,973
12,893
In a van.... down by the river
Kanter said:
1980 Toyota tercel with fat tires on it. <snip> Best car and most economical car I ever had.
Click to expand...
:thumb:

Not my first, but that was my second & third car. Actually the 3rd was an '81 Tercel hatch with the motor transplanted from the 2nd into it. :p

Funniest story - I once took 2 other people skiing with me in that car. 3 people in a tercel with all their ski gear going into the mountains of CO during a blizzard. We got denied on our way to Winter Park due to an avalanche burying the road (and a hapless car).

So we turned around to go to A-Basin. Denied again - Loveland Pass closed due to avalanches burying the road. Try for Breck - denied. Eisenhower Tunnel was closed due to avalanches on the west side. So we ended up at Loveland in nipple deep snow and a friggin' whiteout-blizzard.

Great skiing...... although there was really *TOO* much snow for Loveland. :p

What a great car.

-S.S.-
 
dh girlie

dh girlie

MISS MISSY (geek)
Feb 11, 2002
8,056
0
A state where you never find the dance floor empty
1968 Ford Mustang, 289 V8...it was BAD ass...but like an idiot I changed it from it's original color of a dark aqua to white...it was still bad ass. I didn't pay for it, I got it from my older brother. I totaled it on highway 17...hit a slick spot and spun out and tore the undercarriage apart...bent the frame...blah!
 
-BB-

-BB-

I broke all the rules, but somehow still became mo
Sep 6, 2001
4,254
28
Livin it up in the O.C.
This was my ifrst set of wheels:
It was 10 yrs old and had 150k when I got it.



But it had no paint, only Primer-Grey, and the cloth from the ceiling was falling down on the inside.
We used to play this game where you go into a neighborhood at night, turn off the lights, get the car up to about 10mph, jump out, and let the car ghost-ride (like a bike).
You then had to get back into the car through the sunroof.

Gawd were we dumb.

The one thing I loved about it was that the rear seats folded down, and you could fully stretch out and "sleep" (pass out) after a night of drinking.
 
Zark

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
1980 VW Rabbit Convertible
236,000 miles when my dad gave it to me.
4 colors of red
signifigant bondo action
rear window held in w/ duct tape
no stuffing left in the seats

It was a fun car. Stuff that thing hard in a corner and the inside rear tire would lift off the ground, can you say 3 wheel donuhts?;)
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,111
1,166
NC
Zark said:
1980 VW Rabbit Convertible
236,000 miles when my dad gave it to me.
Click to expand...
F'ing sweet!

The car I learned to drive a clutch on was a 1981 VW Rabbit. It had 650,000 miles on it! I can't believe the damn thing still ran.
 
mobius

mobius

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
2,158
0
Around DC
2001 Chevy Cavalier brand new my parents got it for 6000 they had a credit card that gave them money off a GM car but they had to use the points by the end of the year so we got like 5000 off from that and they negotiated off some too before letting the guy know we had the credit off.

Sold that car for more then we paid now i drive my 96 v8 awd exploder.
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,973
12,893
In a van.... down by the river
binary visions said:
F'ing sweet!

The car I learned to drive a clutch on was a 1981 VW Rabbit. It had 650,000 miles on it! I can't believe the damn thing still ran.
Click to expand...
You know why those little bastards ran forever? They used the diesel engine block for the gas version - modified a bit for the obvious differences between the fuels.

Basically it was a beefy block because of the diesel requirements.

:think: Unless this was all an old wives tale that my ol' man told me. :D

-S.S.-
 
Zark

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
binary visions said:
F'ing sweet!

The car I learned to drive a clutch on was a 1981 VW Rabbit. It had 650,000 miles on it! I can't believe the damn thing still ran.
Click to expand...
It had 260,000 when I sold it for $350
The engine was a champ, same with the trans. I tested the cylinder compression and it was 3% off factory specs after a quarter million miles, that is remarkable.
It was the electrical and cooling systems that sucked on it.

I'd never heard that it was the diesel engine block, but that would explain a lot.
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,973
12,893
In a van.... down by the river
Zark said:
<snip>

I'd never heard that it was the diesel engine block, but that would explain a lot.
Click to expand...
Another nice thing was that they were *super* easy to rebuild and cheap to boot. You could probably get a million miles out of one of those cars....... as long as the electrical system didn't completely fail on you. :D

-S.S.-
 
urbaindk

urbaindk

The Real Dr. Science
Jul 12, 2004
4,819
0
Sleepy Hollar
My first car was a blue 1983 Toyota Corolla. My parents bought it new in '83. I started driving in '89. For a while you had to climb over the passenger seat to drive because of a side-swipe. That was the first time it was totalled. We took the insurance money and bought junkyard doors, new tires, and breaks and kept driving it. There was a slight bend to the frame so it was a little hard to drive in a straight line. The doors were gold. It was classy. The second time it was totalled my girlfriend and I were in our apartment asleep and we heard a bang at like 3am. We didn't think much of it at the time and went back to sleep. The next morning around 9am my roommate's girlfriend came running in my room in a panic saying you better come out and look at your car. Some drunk had plowed into it durning the night. It was smashed like a soda can between the wall of the apartment building and where the driver of the other car had hit it. My car had slid into my roomates car, totalling it, my roommates car had slammed into my girlfriends car and did about $4000 worth of damage to it. 2 cars totaled and one nearly totaled. The dude who had hit it had driven off. We called the cops and they came and drove around the neighborhood and found dudes car. It was totaled and was miracle that he had been able to drive it away. The cops charged him with hit and run. Apparently he had no idea he had even wrecked his car that night. He just came home and passed out drunk. And that is the story of my first car. She had 199K on the odometer at her passing...
 
Crash_Tested

Crash_Tested

Monkey
Jan 26, 2003
311
0
wCo
77 firebird with a olds 400 small block. you could hear the damn thing gulping down gas when you floored it, which was the only way to drive it. I was a pro at figure 8s

 
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