From 1961

[JimT]

Jim Taylor.JPG

When I was 13 I bought a 1941 International pickup and made a Desert Buggy out of it. There were a group of us boys who had them and we would run all over Paradise Valley, Arizona. There were very few homes at the time and Scottsdale Road was dirt from Bell Road on north.

Sometimes I would drive my buggy to School and park it across the road from the School. The buggies were great fun! We did not do as much damage to the environment as the developers did a few years later when they came in and ripped out all the desert plants and covered the valley with blacktop, concrete, shopping centers and houses.

[2ndovc]

Bet that was fun!

During my high school years, a couple of us had Jeep CJ 5s and 7s. We take them out to the farms belonging to family and friends and have a blast. Mine was a '79 CJ7 that I'd give just about anything to have back.


jb

[.45colt]

Great picture Jim of a much simpler time. once every fall put plugs, points & condenser in an engine , really feeling froggy a distributor cap , rotor and wires. I still have my old dwell meter and timing light. You could sit on one of the front tires of that buggy and work on the motor.! Love it. .

[marlinman93]

In 1963 I bought a '47 International panel truck from my uncle who had just parked it behind his barn when the soft plugs rotted out! $25 whopping bucks! I worked for him summers, and helped with the fall harvest also. So I put new soft plugs in it, rebuilt the carb, and replaced the bench seat the mice had eaten. Drove it around the farm occasionally until I turned 16 and got my license, and then it was my back and forth to school and work rig. I miss it!

[Bill in Oregon]

I never had that kind of fun. Mid 1960s, prolly fifth or sixth grade, I ran across an article in Popular Mechanics on how to build a simple generic "Tote Goat" type minibike using a horizontal-shaft Briggs lawn mower engine and begged Dad to help me. A. He did not approve of motorized two-wheel vehicles. B. He was a forestry professor and not a welder/mechanic. So I was SOL.

[JimT]

I was 15 in the photo of me and my buggy. I sold it later that year and bought a 1947 Merc coupe. It did not have an engine or transmission but it did have a dropped front axle! (for you guys who never had the old cars, that lowered the front end by about 4" depending on what was done.)

I got a 53 Ford V8 and had it bored .125" ... stroked it to 4" by using a Mercury crank .. full race cam .. Mallory dual point ignition .. dual carbs .. Fenton headers ... milled heads .. shaved the flywheel .. installed a 12" truck clutch and I was off to the races. Compression was so high I had to go to an 8 volt battery to crank it. The lights were nice and bright. Wasn't 16 yet and didn't have a drivers license .. but it would run.

1947_Mecury.JPG

Ford_flathead_V8.JPG

[Sixgun]

Like the fancy roll bars Jim.......yea...they were the days. I caught the tail end of that era.

Where'd you keep your beer?

[Ysabel Kid]

Back when a car was a car, and not a computer with four wheels!

[Griff]

For me it was 1965, and I was 15, bought the neighbors '50 Ford Woody, for $35 without a battery. My Dad was so PO'd he made the neighbor give my money back and promised a better vehicle. We took his '59 Apache 3100 and pulled the Chevy six and dropped in the 354 Hemi from our boat. Earlier that year my Dad had bought a '57 Chrysler 300 with a 392 Hemi and had it built into a 406 ci, 650 hp engine. We pulled a 3 speed trans from a '53 DeSoto and mated it to the 354 for the truck. It'd burn the tires off from a standing stop in 3rd gear. I traded it off for a '55 Chevy Handyman wagon (2 dr), with a 283 and powerglide. Perfect car for a southern California kid that surfed & water-skied his way thru high school. Sure wish I still had it!

[6pt-sika]

Bet that was fun!

During my high school years, a couple of us had Jeep CJ 5s and 7s. We take them out to the farms belonging to family and friends and have a blast. Mine was a '79 CJ7 that I'd give just about anything to have back.


jb

I learned to drive stick in my grandfathers 64 CJ-5 . Later I had a 78 CJ-5 . His was a 4 cylinder that was plenty stout , mine had a V-8 that honestly was to stout for the drivetrain even though it came that way from the factory . But being in your 20’s and plenty liquid lubrication from the adult beverage store helped tear up rear ends and trannies in that Jeep.