Was your dad a gear head or no?

[Cranky]

I was a gear head from a very early age and dad tried to talk me out of messing with cars when I got older even though he bought me model car kits when I was younger. I'm thinking when he finally started making good money and buying new cars for 3 years in a row and he decided that I should do the same thing. Thing is, he used to brag to his buddies about what all I was doing with my car.

 

[Billccm]

I was a gear head from a very early age and dad tried to talk me out of messing with cars when I got older even though he bought me model car kits when I was younger. I'm thinking when he finally started making good money and buying new cars for 3 years in a row and he decided that I should do the same thing. Thing is, he used to brag to his buddies about what all I was doing with my car.

I wanted a path to eventually own my own car restoration shop. My high school counselor told me (in 1977) cars would never make much money and since I had a ham radio license I should focus on the future (electronics).
Little did she know that anything electronic related would be out sourced and car restoration guys make $$$$$. I've done alright, but think I'd do better at cars and be much happier. Engineering was not the most pleasant or easy thing to do career wise.

Nobody imagined outsourcing and Chinesium in 1977.

 

[chargervert]

He was a service manager at a local Peterbilt truck dealership. It was right next to the state Police station,and he was friendly with a few of the State Police officers. When he bought the Charger R/T SE,they were busting his chops about the car not being so fast,and that the cruiser could out run him,so one night after a late night at work,he showed two of them that the 440 Charger was capable of outrunning two of their cruisers. He pulled away from them at 140 MPH!

 

[Moparfiend]

So far we are about 35% with fathers who got us into cars. Thats lower than I would have thought……….. but so far 100% earned our gratitude and respect. They definitely were part of a generation that deserved this as well!

 

[1967coronet]

Our Dad was also a Korea vet. In the early 60s I remember him working on a couple chevy coupes that he and a buddy trans planted V8 drive trains in.
He had a old Harley with the suicide clutch / hand shift. I do have a pic of one of his coupes 37 chevy.
He was a hard guy but fair. I couldn't wait to get away.
He's been gone for several years and I miss him.

 

[ESOXER]

My Old Man did body work for a living at my Grandfather's (moms dad) used car shop until I was 6 maybe. Our first two houses we're revolving doors for cars. Dad had a 64.5 stang he flipped, I remember riding on thinner cans and losing a gallon of milk off the roof. My Uncle, dads brother, lived with us was a Javelin junkie had 3 or 4, until he bought a wrecked LTDII, they halfed it, I was amazed at this. My favorite was his friends 70 Cuda, it was orange, I remember blocking it with him when I was 4-5, he also had a 69 GTX dark green. The Cuda knocked pictures off the wall, when he parked it in the garage. After that he took a factory job and only did a few after that. A Bronco II, Full size Bronco and a 87 Cougar, then sold all his equipment. I was about 15 then. Now my Old Man asks me how to fix vehicles, he only knows body work, but refuses to do it.

 

[Black_Sheep]

No, but he did indulge my brother and I by taking us to car shows when we were car crazy kids…

 

[Detective D]

Grew up dairy farming in WI.
It basically is a job requirement.

Late in life Dad started messing with some of the higher mileage vehicles that were still around. You don't have time for that farming. Any fixing is on the farm machinery, and if the truck was down you had someone else work on it because you didn't need it for planting or harvest, at least not right then, not until it was fixed.

I got interested in basically anything with an engine because of the tractors and trucks on the farm. But I had no money or time to pursue any of it until I was out of school, and wife and kids and buying a home continued the lack of funds for along while(on top of how blue collar was treated for the last 25 years)
I have most of the tools from the farm in my shop. I have one of the tractors I grew up with. My Grandpa bought it new in 1966. Dad learned farming and wrenching from Grandpa.
I will tell you, working on different brands of tractors, and I mean wrenching and running them, teaches a guy a lot more about engine characteristic and design then most average cars on the road. Bore vs stroke vs RPM and gearing, compression ratio..... to put it simply, when you operate one brand of tractor rated at XX HP, and another brand rated at the same HP, and the two function decidedly differently, it then becomes intuitive to try to observe why. You learn so much mechanical design and application with 1950's and 1960's farming equipment and methods it is just not replicated anywhere in modern day.

 

[RussT Plymouths]

Kinda wondering how ya’ll got into this. Was it your pops or did you have this in you already?

I'm not sure if it was in me already or not, but growing up in Pops body shop in the 60's and 70's definitely fueled my interest in this hobby. I learned a ton from him, thanks Pop.

Thanks for this thread, it's brought back some nice memories.

 

[Jerry Hall]

I don't know exactly where I got my love for the automobile, but my two brothers and my sister were all into fast muscle cars. My dad was one of those guy that just performed oil changes and brake jobs and general maintenance on his cars. He discouraged hotrodding, but always kept the engine compartment cleaner than the outside of the car. I was always right there when he lifted the hood on the family car. At an early age I was able to tell year, make and model of cars at a glance. My two brothers became professional mechanics and are somewhat younger than me. One is now a service manager at a Honda/Accura dealership. The other brother is now disabled due to a spinal injury sustained while servicing a car at a Mercedes dealership. My sister and I both went to work for the Bell system, now AT&T. She started as a telephone operator and I as a lineman. We both ended our careers as electronic switching technicians. I hotrodded, drag raced and wrenched on cars after hours and weekends and after retiring early at 51, I started a business repairing TV's and installing satellite TV systems. When the TV's started being replaced rather than repaired and satellite systems became pie plates for a dime a dozen, I bought a body shop to continue with my love for cars. Now at 77 I just go out every day and attend to a "to do" list on my cars.
Hope I didn't bore everyone, but that's my story.

 

[threewood]

No, my dad was not mechanically inclined. I picked up my love of cars and working on them from a good friend and his dad who had several Mopars.

 

[Moparfiend]

I'm not sure if it was in me already or not, but growing up in Pops body shop in the 60's and 70's definitely fueled my interest in this hobby. I learned a ton from him, thanks Pop.

Thanks for this thread, it's brought back some nice memories.

Yes it has for many of us regardless if dad did or didn’t influence our interest in cars. It doesn’t have to be father's day to remember him!

 

[Cojohnso1]

My dad was a musician. A piano man. And was not mechanical. He hated my muscle cars of my youth. (At the time was the only cars I could afford.) Who knew? He liked his cars HUGE. Cads, big buicks. If it wasn't the size of an aircraft carrier? It wasn't an automobile to him. He called my cars "Noise makers."

 

[Moparfiend]

No, my dad was not mechanically inclined. I picked up my love of cars and working on them from a good friend and his dad who had several Mopars.

Then a friends dad! Thats another category!

 

[Moparfiend]

I don't know exactly where I got my love for the automobile, but my two brothers and my sister were all into fast muscle cars. My dad was one of those guy that just performed oil changes and brake jobs and general maintenance on his cars. He discouraged hotrodding, but always kept the engine compartment cleaner than the outside of the car. I was always right there when he lifted the hood on the family car. At an early age I was able to tell year, make and model of cars at a glance. My two brothers became professional mechanics and are somewhat younger than me. One is now a service manager at a Honda/Accura dealership. The other brother is now disabled due to a spinal injury sustained while servicing a car at a Mercedes dealership. My sister and I both went to work for the Bell system, now AT&T. She started as a telephone operator and I as a lineman. We both ended our careers as electronic switching technicians. I hotrodded, drag raced and wrenched on cars after hours and weekends and after retiring early at 51, I started a business repairing TV's and installing satellite TV systems. When the TV's started being replaced rather than repaired and satellite systems became pie plates for a dime a dozen, I bought a body shop to continue with my love for cars. Now at 77 I just go out every day and attend to a "to do" list on my cars.
Hope I didn't bore everyone, but that's my story.

A great story! Just oil changes is more than the average guy! A clean engine bay says a lot!!! Thank you!

 

[Moparfiend]

My dad was a musician. A piano man. And was not mechanical. He hated my muscle cars of my youth. (At the time was the only cars I could afford.) Who knew? He liked his cars HUGE. Cads, big buicks. If it wasn't the size of an aircraft carrier? It wasn't an automobile to him. He called my cars "Noise makers."

Sometimes we are motivated by what were are told we cant do lol!!

 

[Cojohnso1]

Sometimes we are motivated by what were are told we cant do lol!!

Ain't that the truth. I have 4 kids who have little interests. Sure they will help. But I have to beg to get even one for some seat time.

If my dad had muscle era cars that needed some road time? I would still be living in his basement.

 

[j-c-c-62]

My Dad went from working in his father's Gas station to enlisting in the Navy post Pearl Harbor to become a Flight engineer on a B26 in the Pacific.
He had chronic OMD (Obsessive Mopar Disease), which is highly contagious in close quarters BTW.
I had a gas-powered straight truck fracture a few rocker arms and broke down on the side of the road 1000 miles from our shop when I was touring in Europe. My guys said, even being retired, he arrived the next day and repaired the engine on the side of the Interstate.
What a Dad, I was lucky.

 

[Moparfiend]

My Dad went from working in his father's Gas station to enlisting in the Navy post Pearl Harbor to become a Flight engineer on a B26 in the Pacific.
He had chronic OMD (Obsessive Mopar Disease), which is highly contagious in close quarters BTW.
I had a gas-powered straight truck fracture a few rocker arms and broke down on the side of the road 1000 miles from our shop when I was touring in Europe. My guys said, even being retired, he arrived the next day and repaired the engine on the side of the Interstate.
What a Dad, I was lucky.

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Good story! Your lucky! Nice Avenger! That bomb bay with a fish inside was a sweet design. The A26 was I believe the only bomber to be designated as an attack aircraft. It was based off the Mitchel I think. Had loads of 50 cals in it as well.

 

[Cojohnso1]

Kinda wondering how ya’ll got into this. Was it your pops or did you have this in you already?

For me it was always there. I started riding friends dirt bikes in 5th grade never having money to buy one. Then I worked two jobs in HS (True Value/McD’s) and saved up for a 1973 Z28 back in 77. That car really made the gear head in me evolve.

My pop’s never opened the hood of any of his cars and his “shop” was an adjustable wrench and a hammer hanging on a pegboard that the previous home owner put up lol.
He wasn’t handy/mechanical at all but he was a good father and I miss him.
So needless to say I developed the love for machines on my own. Now with 4 daughters and 3 granddaughters I find myself still wrenching in the garage alone.
But I happy as clam in my shop…..!!!!

How about you guys?

Nice post question. Next is "Why Mopar?"