Story behind your hot rod

[Monk]

Several years ago, I saw this car at what would be the last, major, indoor car show in Seattle.

I was in love, the shape, the color, the stance... everything about that car - I was seriously drooling. It is true that I like Buicks, but that wasn't the Buick that made me like Buicks (my skylark was the guilty party in that). However, that one wasn't perfect - it's powered by a 500 cadillac motor.
I started looking for a car to build, and simultaneously, I was collecting parts to build a turbo 455 for the skylark. It was going to be low-buck, mostly stock bottom end, ported heads. Then I met Paul. Long story short. Custom pistons, I beam rods, girdle bottom end, half filled block, edelbrock heads, MS3x injection/spark... The top will be chopped 3" like the pictured car, though right now, I'm really tempted to chop it but leave the patina on it for now.

Sweet

[antmnte]

Ive had mine so long that at one point I had to do something with it. So I Hot Rodded it up,it sucked stock so I couldnt leave it that way. I catch crap for it sometimes but its mine and I dont care.

[74NovaMan]

Here is my story on the project board: http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showthread.php/42169-74-NovaMan’s-…-Novas

[Orange65]

My orange 65 C10 was originally acquired by me back in 1985. A guy I new had it- he had been working on getting it running with a 350 and an automatic but had not put a transmission crossmember in it when one of family drove it and broke the transmission. He wanted to sell it. My old man had a 1972 Pontiac Grandville 4 door with a 455 in that he wanted to get out of the front yard- he had parked it and it was rusting away. I managed to trade the Pontiac for the truck after buying the Pontiac for $300.

The truck was a short wheel base step side and ROUGH. So rough that since that time I have changed almost everything on the truck. The only original parts left are the front half of the frame (it is back halved) and part of one of the front fenders (what isn't repair panel). I used parts from probably 6 trucks for sheetmetal. I originally customized the truck and finished the first iteration in 1988. It had a 350 (not the one it came with) and a 4 speed and a fleetside bed. I didn't drive it much because I wasn't completely happy with it.

A few years later I decided to go bracket racing with it, so I pulled a 427 truck engine out of one of my old mans retired log trucks that had burned, ported the heads, swapped cam, carb, and intake and went bracket racing for a year. The TH350 was starting to slip at the end of summer and I was trying to finish my BSME, so the truck sat in the shop for a couple of years until I had the $$ to turn it into a real racer. My dreams were to go super gas racing. I gutted the doors and cut out the dash and replaced them with aluminum sheet. I bought a fiberglass hood and installed a cage. I then started back halving the truck before giving up on that. I built a step side bed with fiberglass fenders, installed a spooled 12 bolt car rear and ladder bars. Then I painted it orange (Pontiac Carousel Red to be exact). This was around 1997-then I stalled big time. I lost interest in drag racing for near 10 years.

Around 1999, I decided after all the work I had done, I wanted the truck back out on the street. For some reason which I cannot fathom now, I decided I need a 455 Olds in it. I built one over a couple of years and drove it with the Olds in it for years. I hopped up the Olds until it ate the crank the day before I was going to Drag Week in 2010. Last year, I built a 489 for it that is the most serious engine it has had. I would like to get it in the 9's on the bottle this year just to say I did. I would like to say my truck is a race truck or a street truck, but in reality it is a shop truck- because that is where it spends all its time.

[Bamfster]

Here's mine: http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showt...g-Attractions-...

[Spaceman Spiff]

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showthread.php/21945-spiff-s-new-project

[TheSilverBuick]

Mine was my grandma's car

[Joe Grippo]

Check it out.....

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showthread.php/22471-Joe-Grippo-s-1970-Mustang

[Caveman Tony]

My '39? It was my Dad's first car...

I traded my Dad an MG B GT coupe for it... lol, got the MG in AZ, and shipped it all the way to MA. I had to move back to MA to claim the '39.

He received it as a gift from his great aunt shortly after high school... the funny part is, HE was the only relative's kid she liked... apparently, she was an ornery bitch.

Despite her charming personality, SHE received the car as a gift brand-new in 1939 from a vacationing gentlemen who was staying with her family. Hmmmm... she was married at the time... hmmm...

She also had a LEGENDARY recipe for old-fashioned back-bay baked beans...

So, once I get it somewhat restored, I'm gonna christen it "Aunt Leighty's Ornery Bitch Baked Beans -- Special Delivery"

[A/Fuel]

I bought my camaro in 1987 or 88, I can't remember now. I've had a few cars that came and went but for some reason I kept that one.
It had 70k miles on it when I got it, and it has 90k on it now. You could take it off the jacks and drive it down the road right now.
But I don't drive it much anymore, I should just get rid of it.

[tedly]

Back in '97, Dad was in the market for a new car. This was the first time he had gone looking for one strictly for himself that I can remember. While he's not really a gearhead, he does have an appreciation for cars and picked out a beauty, a brand new Thunderbird. It was only a V6 and not really optioned out, but when it sat out in the sun it was simply beautiful. That deep blue with just a bit of flake to make it shine, the aluminum wheels weren't flashy like chrome but somehow just looked right on it, the wing in the back visually lifted the drooping butt that I never really cared for on these models. The interior was comfy, it handled surprisingly well even if it wasn't exactly fast, and while it was relatively sedate it never failed to turn heads and get compliments everywhere. I had never really given much thought to this bodystyle of TBird before, but this one caught me. When the folks got a divorce a few years later, the TBird went with Mom. It wasn't an act of spite, just simply he had a company car and the TBird was the only other one they had. It never really sat right with me, but seemed to bother me way more than anyone else, including Dad. My brother bought it from Mom a few years later, then I ended up buying it from him about 2 years ago. It was in good overall shape but really starting to show it's age mechanically. I had it as a DD for a year before getting my truck and retiring the Bird with about 200,000 miles on the odometer, overdrive slipping like a mofo, and the engine starting to stumble and act up. After I bought it I pulled Dad aside at one of the family get togethers and told him anytime he wants it back, I'll sign the title and hand it over right then and there. If he wanted, I'd even restore it back to new instead of making a toy out of it, but he told me to go ahead and play. So that's what I'm doing. One of the things I'm really hoping for is to see the old coot race his old car at a track somewhere, maybe even Bonneville. We'll see if I can talk him into it.

[Thumpin455]

My '39? It was my Dad's first car...

I traded my Dad an MG B GT coupe for it... lol, got the MG in AZ, and shipped it all the way to MA. I had to move back to MA to claim the '39.

He received it as a gift from his great aunt shortly after high school... the funny part is, HE was the only relative's kid she liked... apparently, she was an ornery bitch.

Despite her charming personality, SHE received the car as a gift brand-new in 1939 from a vacationing gentlemen who was staying with her family. Hmmmm... she was married at the time... hmmm...

She also had a LEGENDARY recipe for old-fashioned back-bay baked beans...

So, once I get it somewhat restored, I'm gonna christen it "Aunt Leighty's Ornery Bitch Baked Beans -- Special Delivery"

Best story evar.

[milner351]

My '39? It was my Dad's first car...

I traded my Dad an MG B GT coupe for it... lol, got the MG in AZ, and shipped it all the way to MA. I had to move back to MA to claim the '39.

He received it as a gift from his great aunt shortly after high school... the funny part is, HE was the only relative's kid she liked... apparently, she was an ornery bitch.

Despite her charming personality, SHE received the car as a gift brand-new in 1939 from a vacationing gentlemen who was staying with her family. Hmmmm... she was married at the time... hmmm...

She also had a LEGENDARY recipe for old-fashioned back-bay baked beans...

So, once I get it somewhat restored, I'm gonna christen it "Aunt Leighty's Ornery Bitch Baked Beans -- Special Delivery"

I'm guessing she was ornery because the guy wouldn't leave his wife for her, and she bitterly accepted the gift as an inadequate substitute?

Sounds very soap opera - ish. Leighty's Baked Beans - has a nice ring to it.

[Grumpy]

I can't match some of the really cool stories on here but here's the way it happened for me, I always thought the 66/67 Nova's were cute little shoeboxes but I couldn't afford one when they were new because my money was going into building my first Drag car, then many years later when I decided to get back into it I knew that's the car I had to have, just click on my "Garage" or the link below for the rest of the story.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/showthread.php/35382-Purple-I-1966-Chevy-Nova

[DanStokes]

I've had lots of cars with lots of stories but I'll go with the S-10 for now.

My friend Terry (trussell on here) had raced a SBC-powered S-10 for many years at Maxton. On its last run in the last Maxton meet with his future wife driving the low-buck 327 scattered itself all over the track. Terry dragged it home where it sat for a year or so. In the meantime I'd had a small underhood fire in the Buzz Bomb '78 Camaro LSR car and hadn't gotten back to straightening it out - I was sort of itching for a new project, I guess. After a little head-scratching we worked out a deal and I took the Camaro to him and picked up the S-10.

Terry and I had both though about the small Diesel classes in LSR and thought that the S-10 might be just right for these classes. I found an '84 M-B 300 SD (which is a 3 liter Diesel) which I bought pretty cheaply and pulled the engine and trans. So I'm thrashing as documented in my Project Cars thread.

Dan