Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

67ss · 1K+ Club

How I got into Hot Rodding

bowtie · Secretary

Not to hijack JohnD's post about his son's accident, here's how it happened in my house when I was 16:

Dad gets a call, I rolled my Jeep. Into a yard. Up the street. MY street. On flat ground. Without having a drink. (backstory: I went through a small mud hole and spun the tires when I got out-lost control, hit the curb sideways at a curve and voila`.....). Dad goes all Andretti to get there, slides to a stop and I hear "That must be the father". A tow truck is there and tips it back onto all fours. I drive it home. Dad asks what happened to which I reply: "Well, Chris had just replaced the clutch pivot ball (dad knew about that) and when I turned onto the street I drove through a puddle (from the small shower we got earlier that day), I wasn't used to where the clutch released which made the tires spin and the I lost control."

So now, dad goes into protective dad mode and somehow finds that on CJ style Jeeps, the rear spring shackles can break causing some loss of control to the vehicle. He couples that with the clutch repair and gets a whole big stack of "evidence" to help my case including a video tape of the shackle thign that was shown on 20/20 or 60 minutes or something. We go to court with Chris 67SS there as a witness since he did the repair and the charge was dropped completely along with dropping my restitution down to minimal repair of the yard (not a complete re-sod and tree replacement like the guy wanted).

Bear in mind, I was driving away from the camera position......

I put the Jeep for sale in Trading Times the next weekend after doing some real shoddy bondo work, windshield and frame replacement, top sewing, and oil change. Before it was sold, I had already bought a 74 Camaro from a guy I met through Chris since it was "harder to roll" (hehehe). It was an old drag car with later model Firebird interior, rearched springs, a 12 bot with 4.11s, and a 2x4 355cid which dad wouldn't let me leave in it and a TH350. I got a stock 400 from the same guy and little by little learned about how cars work and made many pilgrimages to junk yards.

After wheels, new springs, and cleanup:

2nd engine, a mostly stock 350:

That's how I got into hot rdding.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

I remember you telling us about this story when we first met you. What damage did you end up doing to the Jeep then? I see its now leaning to one side once they got it back on its wheels.

bowtie · Secretary

Actually, the Jeep came through pretty well. Needed a new (used) windshield frame and windshield, some TLC with a hammer and 2x4 in the rear body side upper edge area, some bondo to smooth out, a little degreaser to clean the oil that came up from the pan while tipped, and a good cleaning. I had a light bar mounted on the w/s frame, but it wasn't working yet and that stayed off. We had to get one of the rear leaf spring shackles welded, and my mom was sewing the top back together as someone drove down to come look at it. I sold it for $1700.

Here's the next project after the Camaro was sold:

83 Grand Prix that I bought as a winter beater. It was pretty clean, but a lowly 6 cyl. After driving it one winter, I saw an article about Cadillac 500 engines being swapped into things. Through a friend (the guy who sold me my Camaro), I bought a 70 Deville which had a 472 cid engine for $175. After yanking the engine, I sold off the TH400 and the car was sold for scrap. Total investment at that point was @$100. We rebuilt the engine, got adapter plates for the motor mounts, and a short shaft BOP TH400. Chris P found me a MOPAR 8-3/4" posi rearend with 3.73s that was already cut to fit. The suspension is the same as a Grand National and I used Hotchkis rear bars and PST front end. Rear springs were from a Olds 88, front were from a cutlass diesel car. Floor shift and buckets already, and it was a fun runner. It wasn't crazy fast (factory cam), but the torque was amazing at @500lbs-ft. It got a cheap low-prep MAACO paint job (unlike Kevin's) and that's about it. Sleeper look aside from the wheels and obvious sound which had quite the thump.

After paint but before some of the touch-up details:

Modern muscle: an old school 302 in a Cougar, my GP, and a T-type.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

That GP is a hot rod that anyone can build on the cheap even for todays standards. Although those Caddy engines are getting slightly harder to find, you just have to look a little harder then in the 1990's.

bowtie · Secretary

Yeah, I had MAYBE a couple hundred bucks into it between an Eldorado pan and pickup, an electric fuel pump, a coil and wires, a gasket kit from NorthernAutoParts in IA, and exhaust. I had a bunch of leftover little things like the air cleaner, fan, and stuff so it was a pretty cheap deal. I think I was @ 19 or 20 when we did it.

John D · 2K+ Club

It had to be environmental & genetic... My Mom blames it on being pregnant with me and attending Speed Week & the '64 Indy 500. I think it was my Dad and all the daily (literally) car related influences. We were a "car" family. Dad was VP & GM for a few dealers when I was little, then we started Crystal Lake Toyota & BMW. A true single owner (us) dual-line car dealership. Every chance I got I was at the dealership making a nuisance of myself (owner's kid, don't say anything...). This was 1970 through 1975-ish, and most of the mechanics had some hotrods or muscle-cars.

Dad as a late-teen/twenty something built a ton of rods... OldsmoLac's, LincoFords, whatever you called them - common theme was the biggest into the smallest. He raced with the likes of Bettenhousen & Granetelli when they had their fledgling speed shops in the Chicago area. He also was part of the Muntz Jet project, getting the steering geometry & alignment baselined, moonlighting these jobs on Zwifel Ford's "1st in Chicago-land Bear Visu-liner Alignment Rack".

All of this had to have an influence, because I was always interested in ANYTHING mechanical. To this day I can stare at an automated packaging machine and go "cool".
I was really fortunate to attend a HS that had a 1st class Vo-Tech-level industrial arts program. (This was High School and we had a 10-bay shop, 4 lifts, a Binks spray booth... across the hall was a full-blown production machine shop with mills, lathes, shapers, welding stations AND a foundry... you get the idea - the place was built in the 40's to train for the war effort. Because of the total completeness of the wing, it was self-sufficient. If a machine broke, we MADE new parts. ((My senior final was making a 36-tooth helical drive-gear for something)).

After 4 years of Auto Service, 4 years Machine Shop, 2 years Electronics and out of high-school I could pretty much go anywhere. I was accepted into GM's apprentice program, had a dealer sponsor me, and fortunately went for my final interview in December. After touring the shop and watching the guys getting dripped on, slipping on snow & glop, etc... being a mechanic wasn't for me.
At 17-1/2, I applied as a machinist at the local auto-parts store. This was a REAL auto parts store that had a fully decked out machine shop in back, but had nobody to run the machines! Everything had been under covers & tarps for 2 years... not even drums & rotors! The guy they had running the shop got greedy, and the skin-flint owner thought it cheaper to shut down the shop than pay premium machinist wages... Enter the goofy skinny red-headed kid who asked for minimum wage, plus 20% of the labor ticket. A few phone calls to Sunnen, and I had the reps out to qualify me on some of the specialty machines, and I was cranking more iron out of the shop than they could believe... heads, blocks, rods, flywheels, press work, drums, rotors, name it. No High-Perf work, just rebuild & reconditioning... kind of like Karl's place - collision not restoration. (Not to say a few jobs didn't slip through).

This was during my Ford-phase. I had several '65 & '66 Mustangs, all with varying degrees of snotty 302's in them. Again, I was lucky to have grown up on Chicago's north side. Cruising Milwaukee Ave, and racing on Howard St. with the likes of Samuels, D'Augustino, Berns, Scavo, and the other guys who were basically the founders of the 10-inch tire class. All of that schtick grew out of the Chicago street racing scene.

All this stuff probably formed the core of my "If you don't have it, can't get it, can't afford it, well then MAKE IT" mantra. I've never been rich, probably never will be, but give me a block of metal and I'll make you what you need.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

There isnt a single influence of automotive in my family. Well, my older brother had a 68 Charger when I was around 10 years old (early 80's). Neighbor across the street had a 68 Chevelle SS. But the real influence on my was Hot Wheel/Matchbox cars and seeing the blowers sticking through the hood and giant tubbed wheels in magazines like Hot Rod and Car Craft that really did it.

SShink · 3K+ Club

Gotta say I'm similar to Chris on how I got into cars. I was the kid in the late 60's/early 70's that ruined all his Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars within hours of getting them and playing with them in the dirt pile in the back yard.

I was like John D. that anything mechanical intrigued me, and I usually ended up taking it apart, putting it back together, and it worked but usually had an extra part or two left out. Kind of like what still happens to me when working on the Chevelle now!

In high school I was the 'wanna be' kid that hung out as much as possible with the kids that worked at the Phillips 66 station on their muscle cars, the rich kids that bought their fast stuff, and the guys that had cool cars but liked to fly 'high' if you know what I mean. Me and my '71 Malibu with a 307 with headers, a 327 Corvette 4 barrel intake, air shocks, a C.B. radio antenna on the trunk, and a 2.73 10 bolt rearend. I thought it was the coolest thing in 1980!

Then the 'dry' hot rod years of getting married, kids, going back to college, the usual life things that happen to most folks. Then in 2000 I talked the wife into buying an '88 Camaro with T-tops to take the kids for drives. The rest is history...

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

The hottest car my father had was a 1966 Galaxie 500 with a 390 @BBL.. LOL
So it wast hereditary for me.. But the neighborhood was full of cars and it was the era when you spent your whole day out and about.... I got put to work at 4