I'd better get in on this first car stuff before Glen Barrett or Tom Shannon
make some pun about expecting Keith's first car to be an Oldsmobile "Rock"et
88.
I spent more on my first car than any of the prices quoted so far but I was
21 when I bought it. Found it in the Minneapolis paper and drove it home
from my LDS mission. Mint condition with 18,000 miles, 1953 Studebaker
Commander, 5 window coupe. It even had dual pipes and that 232.6 cubic inch
V-8, 120 HP engine that weighed the same as a Cadillac V-8 of the same
vintage. The under two year old car had gone down from the original $2100
sticker price to $900. Seat belts were my first modification too ... but
only for the 2 front seat passengers.
By the time I traded it for a 1960 Healey 3000 I had installed a massaged
'60 Corvette engine ... bored to 293 cubes, Jahns pistons, Dempsey Wilson
cam, Vertex mag, 3 2's - '97's on an Edelbrock manifold with progressive
linkage, Honest Charley motor mounts, electric fuel pump, re-worked
suspension with reversed eyes on the rear springs and a coil out of the
fronts and a variety of other improvements. It was fun driving up to State
Street in Salt Lake from Provo because it was such a sleeper. Yeah, some
street drags. The 4.56 stock rear end was great for getting the power down,
blown transmissions (with overdrive) were a $35 replacement at the junk
yard, cheaper than buying replacements for the stripped cluster and low and
I drove it home more than once, starting easily in second gear.
Yeah, I wish I still had it ... and the Healey I traded it for as well.
Wes
on 11/30/04 5:09 AM, Keith Turk at kturk@ala.net wrote:
> Okay I'm bored... what's up with you guys.... how bout your first car?
>
> Mine was a 56 Chevy 2 door wagon... worked my butt off on it and it was still
> very average... but I paid for it myself and did I mention it was average?
>
> Keith ( hey the other side of this is that we could bench race your favorite
> problem...)
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