My Dad grew up on a farm during the depression. He still took care of the farm but made his living as a mechanic and always did everything himself.
My interest in machines and cars has always been there.
I was always tagging along with Dad when he worked on machines and he had me helping in some way even if it was just handing him tools. By the age of 6 I had watched him tune up cars many times.
This day in 1967 was different though. Dad was going to do a tune up on his ‘67 Chevy Bel Air station wagon, Bolero red, 283, Power Glide.
He loosened the spark plugs and told me to pull the plugs, wires, distributor cap, points and condenser while he went down to the basement to do another household chore.
Following his example I did exactly as he said in exactly the same manner he usually did tune ups, about a half hour later he was back up in the driveway and I had already put the new parts on. I changed the plug wires one at a time and eyeballed the point gap. All this while hanging off the fender with my feet dangling in the air!
Surprised I had put the new parts in Dad checked my work and asked me how I gapped the points, to which I replied I “eyeballed it” He remarked the gap was probably off too much to start it but when he hit the key it started right up and when he hung the dwell meter on it there was only a 4 degree difference from spec.
Over the next week I overheard him telling several people about the tune up his 6 year old son did.
That was 56 years ago. Dads been gone for 9 years now and we fixed and restored many machines in our time together.
Although not a mopar, here is one of them with my Dad. It’s a 1950 Chevy 3100, 216, 3 on the tree. It, along with his tools, reside in my garage.
Thanks Dad, we’re still fixing things together!
