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1985 Chevy Nova. Which was essentially a Toyota corolla in gm clothing. I miss this car and abused it like hell as a teenager. So much off roading and thrashing on. I kinda miss this car and would love to get another one.. and yes to thrash on some more then restore it.
The first car I owned was a ’70 VW Karmann Ghia. Body was too far gone to get on the road legally, though. My first real drive was a ’63 Ford Galaxie. 352 mated to a 3 speed column shift without power steering. Everything worked except for the fuel gauge. Fixed that by dropping a couple of golf balls in the tank. When I could hear the balls rolling around, it was time to buy some gas.
My first car was a 2000 Oldsmobile Alero. This this had so much rust underneath it. I owned it for like 5 months before the break lines blew out while i was driving. Drove it home at 5 mph and eventually sold it at auction.
1985 Honda Accord ‘S’. 1.8L 12 valve, teeny tiny carburetor with countless vacuum lines running from it. One owner, 5 speed (if you held it in 5th it had 5 forward gears), manual everything. All mine for the princely sum of $300.00 in the summer of 1991, just 320,000 KM on the dial. It had only minor collision damage from rolling into a tree, mild to severe rust depending on the panel, smelled of German Sheppard and pickles.
Swapped in a set of ’87 CRX buckets, 14″ steel wheels and the factory caps, a universal fit SuperTrapp muffler that worked every bit as well as you think it did and a number of pine scented trees to combat the odor. I spent at least 10 times the purchase price on stereo equipment. Among the many lessons this car provided, I learned bondo, broken bolt extraction, and tetanus shot frequency. Thankfully my Dad (a skilled welder/fitter and more than fair mechanic) was kind enough to share his experience and knowledge.
Each and every day that car was in a state of ‘Mission Readiness’. My only other vehicular experience involved Honda 4 stroke 2 valve air cooled dirt bikes. Anvil reliable, and therefor so should my Honda car be. It had 13 souls in it on a ‘Carload Thursday’ at the drive inn. Countless trips to Washago Beach (the largest freshwater beach in North America) driven by a maniac listening to Metallca at a volume well past ‘clipping’, an AWOL trip to Toronto ON to see Guns’n’Roses with ‘just’ enough gas to get us home and no money for more, a skiing trip to Mont Tremblant, Quebec where at the time you couldn’t buy gas for a car with Ontario plates. Never once did it leave me stranded – even the time it stalled – some clown drove it into a large ‘puddle’ during a local flood – water over the door sills once we came to a rest – it had enough heat in it to steam the water out of the distributor cap (screws were broken off in the distributor body, the cap was held in place with a really good elastic) and fire back up just like nothing had happened.
That ladies and gentlemen was a fine automobile.
1985 Honda Accord ‘S’. 1.8L 12 valve, teeny tiny carburetor with countless vacuum lines running from it. One owner, 5 speed (if you held it in 5th it had 5 forward gears), manual everything. All mine for the princely sum of $300.00 in the summer of 1991, just 320,000 KM on the dial. It had only minor collision damage from rolling into a tree, mild to severe rust depending on the panel, smelled of German Sheppard and pickles.
Swapped in a set of ’87 CRX buckets, 14″ steel wheels and the factory caps, a universal fit SuperTrapp muffler that worked every bit as well as you think it did and a number of pine scented trees to combat the odor. I spent at least 10 times the purchase price on stereo equipment. Among the many lessons this car provided, I learned bondo, broken bolt extraction, and tetanus shot frequency. Thankfully my Dad (a skilled welder/fitter and more than fair mechanic) was kind enough to share his experience and knowledge.
Each and every day that car was in a state of ‘Mission Readiness’. My only other vehicular experience involved Honda 4 stroke 2 valve air cooled dirt bikes. Anvil reliable, and therefor so should my Honda car be. It had 13 souls in it on a ‘Carload Thursday’ at the drive inn. Countless trips to Washago Beach (the largest freshwater beach in North America) driven by a maniac listening to Metallca at a volume well past ‘clipping’, an AWOL trip to Toronto ON to see Guns’n’Roses with ‘just’ enough gas to get us home and no money for more, a skiing trip to Mont Tremblant, Quebec where at the time you couldn’t buy gas for a car with Ontario plates. Never once did it leave me stranded – even the time it stalled – some clown drove it into a large ‘puddle’ during a local flood – water over the door sills once we came to a rest – it had enough heat in it to steam the water out of the distributor cap (screws were broken off in the distributor body, the cap was held in place with a really good elastic) and fire back up just like nothing had happened.
That ladies and gentlemen was a fine automobile.
My first car, an 88 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Classic. 5.0L 307 V8 with feed back quadajet carb. 2004r 4 speed automatic transmission. Limited slip differential. A/C, power steering and brakes. No power windows, locks, seats or mirrors. Stock am/fm radio, no tape or cd. Purchased it from the original owner with only 76000 miles and 11 years old. The owner was an older lady who babied that car. The $$$ I gave her for the car, she used it as a down payment on a new car. She hated her new car. Every time I saw her, she would tell me she wanted her old car back. I told her the reasons I won’t sell it back to her are the same reasons she wants it back. Reliable, easy to maintain, paid and not filled with electronics. I MISS THAT CAR!!!!
My first was also a hand down and the oldest on the driveway a 1974 Chevy Impala 2 Door Custom, with a 350 2brl, Silver with black interior no tinted glass no A/C but room for you and 8 friends.
1974 is the last year GM manufactured a car without a catalytic converter, but was hardened to burn unleaded fuel. It also had a strange pollution control system that made it a bitch to start once the engine was warm. As a result she ate starters every couple of years, and was a difficult removal and install with all the pollution plumbing. It was great to be able to burn just about anything, and when gas was 99 cents/gallon and a 25 gallon tank it was not too bad to drive getting on average 13 MPG. Having a vacuum gauge installed did keep me in check while driving to try and get the best mileage possible.
The springs in the rear were sagging so air shocks went in so it would handle a bit better and not scrape the ground pulling out of the driveway..
It too had a rust problem, and I patched the body twice first time was a real hack job and the second was more a recreation of the whole lower 1/3 of car it was so bad. I was fortunate that my father was a sheet metal worker; I would make up drawings or templates of the steel I needed and he would come home with them. I would have liked to have welded them on, but it was not possible so rivets, screws and epoxy was used. I used rust neutralizer on everything possible before applying the replacement steel and slow down the rust progression. I used very little body filler or glazing putty, just on the surface rust areas and blending of the attached pieces. It was a slow dirty summer project, with tons of priming and sanding, so much sanding. I thought about just shooting the sides on the driveway with the leftover paint from the first hack job, but decided against it. The whole car was primed and sanded to 500 grit to receive a fine $199 Maco paint job in the late summer of 1990.
I learned a ton driving and maintaining that car; disk and drum brakes, front and rear shocks, replaced the distributer, starter, alternator, belts, gas tank, car audio installation and even a CB.
In the end I sold it for $500 the early summer of 1992 with 135,000 to purchase my first new car; a 1992 Chevy Lumina EuroSport Coupe, 3.1L, Black Sapphire Metallic, $12500 out the door, tax title, and license.
I will admit it hurt to watch the ’74 drive away since so much of myself was in that car.
The first car I had was a 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire with a 370hp 425 ci that I put a 1000 CFM carter carburetor on and terrorized the town with. At the same time I had a 67 442 with a 400 ci but it was more low key. First car had a single master cylinder (67 first year for dual) and a brake shoe stuck at about 130 mph. I never did care for single master cylinder systems after that one incident. Neither the car nor I was hurt in any way, although that falls in the young and stupid category being that I was within city limits.
This thing:
1976 E-150 351w C6.
Was a total piece of crap. Also turned out the title was no good. I think I put more miles on it on the tow strap than under its own power. Didn’t pay a dime for it though, so was a fine educational experience.
Edit: ‘Course, it was fully assembled when I got it…
My first car was a 1971 Dodge Challenger LP, it had a 44o c.i.d I bought it for $1200.00 back in 84-85 boy do I miss her. 🙁
My first car was a 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra that I bought on a payment plan for $400.
The sway bar and part of the exhaust was held up with clothes hangers, the brake lines going to the front of the vehicle were cut so you had to stop using only the emergency brake, radiator fans didn’t work, had tons of custom wiring, 3 different tire sizes.
The works lol.
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