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What Was Your First Car?

Marshall

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Dad: US Navy
Uncle: US Navy
Great Uncle: US Army
Grandfather: US Army

Stepdad: USMC
Myself: USAF
Me: USAF
Cousin: USAF
Cousin: USAF
Cousin: USAF

Us boys all Air Force. I am trying to talk two of my kids into Air Force post high school.

Thank You all for your service.

I was Air Force ROTC until they knew I wouln't pass the eye test. That was back when correcting them surgically automatically prevented you from joining. Oddly enough, they would pay for older pilots to have the surgery to retain them. Typical.
 

Maurtis

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I've got a Pinto engine in my garage with an Offenhauser manifold. Other goodies also. It was my first "Dunebuggy" creation.
Not superfast but reliable.
Rouse got his start with building the "Pinto engines".

Nice! I had an Offenhauser intake on the 232 straight six in my 1975 Pacer, along with a Holley four barrel carb and a Jeep header. That is a car that I miss.
 

Lil4X

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I had an Offy intake on my Valiant, along with a 4-bbl WCFB, the little brother of the AFB whose massive fuel delivery would strangle any sub-350 CID engine. I did the same trick on a 283 Chevy in a 58 'Vette my roommate and I flipped for college cash. Seems people can't resist ramming gasoline into a motor that's already gargling. We and a couple of local high-school shop kids who did our welding for us repaired all the hot-rod mods a wealthy Dallas brahmin's kid made to his congratulatory HS graduation gift - and screwed up badly. We restored it and made a couple of tweaks (327 heads - identical to the 283's but with larger valves) and a mild cam (idiot-installed full-racing cam was actually an "098" Corvette cam, designed for use with Chevy's mechanical fuel injection . . . mean idle, but barely ran with the installed carb). When we got it the thing was hard to start and while it sounded like a bad boy, it couldn't whip a bicycle. When we sold it on, each of us profited the tuition for the fall semester. I think it was the only time I made money on a car. :orange:
 

Muzhik

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My first car was a 1976 VW Rabbit, bought in '79, with a manual transmission. It was bought when I was getting ready to graduate from college and would need something to drive around looking for work. Blessed thing would run through anything, and the only reason I got rid of it was because the floorboards rotted out and would have cost too much to weld new ones on.
 

floydv

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California
My first car was a pre-smog, 1972 Toyota Corolla, a total ricer. I spent my entire summer's savings working in der Wienerschnitzel to fix her up with new red paint (Earl Scheib, of course), engine rebuild (high school shop class), mags from Pep Boys (!), ground effects package, and some audio package complete with separate equalizer and 6x9 speakers I bought from the back of some guy's van roving around the parking lot one night (I knew nothing about hot merchandise, I swear).

Kinda looked like this:
image.jpeg


Man, I loved that car. You never forget your first. Was sad to sell it as a trade in for a Mazda pickup. Even sadder to learn it got sent to Mexico to be used as a taxi, but at least it wasn't crushed.
 
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JEBar

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for cars it appears that many if not most of ours came from the '60's ... mine was a '65 Jeep CJ5 .... Dauntless 4 cylinder engine, 55 mph was really moving along .... 3 speed manual transmission (shift in the floor) with a high/low transfer case to control 4-wheel drive .... as it shipped from the factory, the Kelly Cab, the heater, and Warn hubs were dealer add-on's .... I added an AM/FM radio, radio antenna, 3 channel crystal CB w/ 102" fiberglass whip antenna, 8 track tap player, seat belts, cut down a school bus seat for the back seat, backup spotlight (AKA Ford tractor headlight), Armstrong Norsemen tires ordered from Dick Cepek of California, and an 8,000 lb Warn Winch .... lots of memories wrapped up in that rig
 
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