The Cars of My Youth - there were a few more than I expected.

[John Hubertz]

Hi all,

I just finished a task I wanted to accomplish before my memories begin to fade.  I'd been collecting pictures off the 'net for years, but I wanted to complete a list of the cars I had between the ages of 16 and 21. 



Before any of you point a finger and say "what a child of privilege," let me tell you that I loved working, and maintained a part or full time job from the age of 13 on.  I think you'll be able to tell from my list what I spent my money on.

Why so many?  Well, I figured out early on that if you were willing to wait for the right car, tried to buy it for a reasonable sum, and then sold it again rather quickly, you could wind up owning and enjoying cars without actually spending much money.  It was like a small savings account I could drive - and the quick turnover meant little or no depreciation.

Anyway, here is the list: http://obvioushallofame.blogspot.com/ .  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the remembering. 

[oversize]

A 1957 Buick Super hardtop hey?  I still have my Roadmaster hardtop (awaiting sufficient funds for restoration)!

[John Hubertz]

Mine was the Riviera, which meant roll-up windows and no air con.  It was a sweet, sweet example too - 68,000 original miles, white and green with an absolutely perfect interior.  I paid $1400 and drove it 110 miles home from South Bend.

Check out this high-resolution image of one in the same colors!



PS:  The orange stripe and wheels are NOT original.  Here is the original look:

[13B]

I wouldn't mind seeing pictures of the Cosmo.  I'm quite partial to the Mazda rotary engine.

I.

[Squiggle Dog]

Oh, wow. You have had some good ones! In case anyone cares, I'll put down my list.

1. 1923 Model T Ford My first car, sold new as a chassis only and later equipped with a 1927 touring body. It was given to me by the next door neighbor. I was probably 13 years old at the time and never did much with it. I was hoping for it to be a father/son project, but my parents made me give it back when we moved.

2. 1958 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine I saw it in a car collector's back yard and traded him my 1941 Wards Hawthorne Comet bicycle with original paint and Wards Riverside Mate whitewall tires for it. The bicycle is now in the front window of his car museum. My dad said to get rid of it as it would never run. The person who bought it drove it away and it still had the plastic over the back seat and the divider window worked.

3. 1955 Pontiac Star Chief It ran, but had brake issues, and had been rear-ended at the left rear corner. Someone put 14" tires on the 15" rims. All glass was cracked. I decided to sell it.

4. 1955 Ford Fairlane Given to me by neighbors down the street that were clearing out their property. I tinkered around with it a little.

5. 1955 Ford Customline I bought it in two installments of $150. It had been crashed into a tree, but wasn't in too terrible of condition. I got it running and used to drive it around the farm community well before I had a driver's license, using the parking brake to stop. I ended up trading both 1955 Fords for a 1967 Plymouth after my parents divorced.

6. 1955 Dodge Truck Given to me by a guy I used to ride the school bus with. His parents had acres and acres of old cars that they were crushing, some as old as the turn of the century. I didn't do much of anything with the truck. I put it up for free when my parents divorced, and a guy came by, took the title and wheels and said he would be back later, but never showed. I ended up having to locate a set of wheels to put on it so I could give it away as scrap to someone else.

7. 1967 Plymouth Belvedere II I traded both my 1955 Fords for this. The previous owner said it ran and drove great, but the starter went out and he said it only takes 3 bolts to replace it. I tried replacing the starter and realized it can't be done without lifting the engine, so I gave up and sold it for $300. Typical Utah car, missing rockers, etc. The buyer came back and told me the engine was seized, so we both had a talk with the previous owner.

8. 1959 Ford 300 I saw it in someone's back yard and had to have it. I paid $100 a week on it until the full $1,000 asking price was paid in full. I got it to run and took it in to a mechanic. I had my driver's license by this time and was hoping to start driving. The mechanic made it very clear that he thought I was an idiot for owning such an old car, and that I should drive something "more practical" like a Ford Fiesta. He constantly complained about what a relic it was. It was a fun car to drive, but I could not afford the insurance. It had also spent many winters on the salted Utah roads, so there were no rocker panels or lower fenders left on it. The few times I had it insured and got to drive it to high school, people thought it was an awesome car and I would let whoever wanted to drive it borrow it during lunch as long as they topped off the gas tank. A high school friend fell in love with the car and begged me to sell it to him. I sold it to him for what I paid for it, and let him pay me $100 a week. He rebuilt the engine in his auto shop class and also redid the interior and did body work. In fact, his turned down a girl at the prom because he "had a car to work on".

I ended up buying back the 1955 Ford Customline. It had been spraypainted black with flames and magic markers. The brakes were repaired by the previous owner by shoving a baby bottle tip and magic marker into the master cylinder. He installed a child seat for his baby by tying a seat belt to the rear seat cushion that was not attached to the body. I took blue and white house paint and painted over his paint job and "Cletus" written on the driver's door. I never could get the engine to run because the previous owner must have blown it after I sold it to him. So, he sold me a 1965 Ford truck with the same engine.

9. 1965 Ford Truck I bought it for the engine to put in the 1955 Ford, but decided it was too much work and sold the pair to my sister's boyfriend. Years later I saw the 1955 Ford in worse condition and missing the engine, with a $3,000 price tag on it.

10. 1955 Pontiac Chieftain Sold to me by one of my Boy Scout/church leaders. It was very original and had an older repaint. The previous owner had his nephew rebuild the engine. Unfortunately, he lost several important parts, including the dipstick and tube, transmission inspection plate, and some carburetor parts. He had the transmission professionally rebuilt. I ended up replacing the missing carburetor linkage with motorcycle spokes. I had no idea what the oil level in the engine was since there was no dipstick or tube. The car ran like crap and the brakes went out, and since I was still making payments on it, I had someone else take over my payments. He took the car, had it for months and never paid a dime, so I took it back and resumed payments until it was paid in full.

11. 1965 Volkswagen Beetle The 1955 Pontiac was driving me nuts, so I decided to get something simpler to work on, and easier to get parts for. The person at the local European auto repair shop had a Volkswagen Beetle that was originally owned by astronaut Buzz Aldrin (who walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong). It was missing an engine, but the owner said if I traded him my 1955 Pontiac, he would build a large engine to put in the Volkswagen. I pushed the car home, had it there a few days, then changed my mind and returned it and got the Pontiac back.

I bought an NOS Rochester carburetor, which made it run better. After getting charged $80 by the shop to change the spark plugs, and $800 to replace the brake master cylinder, I decided to start doing my own repairs. I got a set of 5 new wide whitewall tires and some friends and I drove it to Wyoming to get fireworks. My father offered me a free trailer to live in if I sold my car to get something that would "do better in the snow". I listed it on eBay and it sold for $1,000 (less than the tires alone cost) and the buyer gambled on the way up and won $1,000, so the car was free to him.

12. 1951 Willys Truck At my father's request, I got a 4X4 truck, even though the 1955 Pontiac was great in the snow. Much to his chagrin, it was still a vintage vehicle. It was a joke of a truck, too; the original engine was replaced with a 6 cylinder AMC engine that was too long for the engine compartment, so they had to cut a hole in the firewall and use an electric fan. The body was only held on by one bolt, so it would slide on the chassis on corners, and the leaf spring shackles were tilting to the side so the car didn't point straight ahead when it drove. It also had four shift levers. I was using it to push someone else's car, and their bumper slid over mine and it made the body of my truck slide back and the radiator went into the engine. So, it would no longer hold coolant and I could only drive it for 5-10 minutes before it would overheat and shut down, then I'd have to wait before I could crank it over again.

13. 1953 Willys Wagon I got it because I wanted more seating and interior cargo space. It had a 30 horsepower 4 cylinder engine that was rebuilt in 1980, but I never got it running. I sold both my Willys to the same person.

14. 1980 Mercedes 300SD I got a job opportunity in Park City, so I needed a cheap car. I was originally looking at a 1977 Plymouth Volare, but the seller was really rude to me so I decided to not buy it and got the Mercedes for $300 instead. The body was rusty (used to be yellow, but was repainted silver/blue/green), but the interior was near mint condition bamboo MB-Tex. 380,000 miles on the original engine and the previous owner used to pull a boat with it. It needed a battery, so I spent $100 and got a new Bosch battery. It had better acceleration than any car I had driven and rocketed up steep hills. I couldn't believe how after hours of driving the fuel gauge didn't move. But, all of the power windows were stuck up and the heater and air conditioning didn't work. This was brutal in the summer, so I disconnected the driver window and when I wanted to raise it, I would wedge a wooden block under it. The window glass fell down and broke one day, so I replaced it with a piece of plexiglass. It seemed like way too complicated of a car to work on, so I sold it on eBay for $600.

15. 1960 Ford Truck A friend needed money, so he sold me his truck for $1,000 on time. I drove it around for a bit, then decided I couldn't afford the payments, so I gave it back and cut my loss.

16. 1967 International Travelall I had my eye on this for a while, and finally was able to purchase it from a southern gentleman in installments. It was huge and roomy, perfect for hauling around vintage bicycles. I loved this vehicle. The clutch went out as I was driving it home, but I was able to figure out how to replace it. I got a dog, so my mom and stepdad said I needed to either get rid of the dog or move, so I chose to move (I was a responsible pet owner and they never had to lift a finger). I used my Travelall to move. I couldn't afford to maintain or insure the vehicle, so I sold it to pay rent. I rode my bicycle everywhere I needed to go.

17. 1979 Jeep Cherokee My roommate gave it to me since his brother had given him a Toyota. The tires were flat, so I had a set of new tires put on it. A week later, the bank repossessed it, so I lost the money I put out on the new tires.

18. 1974 Porsche 914 One of the contractors I was working for gave me this in lieu of payment. It was in great condition, but the engine was locked up. It came with a spare engine, though, but I didn't have any money to do anything with it. I was broke and the only way I could eat was by looking for change under drive-through windows at night so I could buy and apple and a box of instant potatoes to eat for the day, mixed with dog food. Seriously. I got an opportunity to move up to Washington and live for free until I found a job, so I sold the Porsche to my parents for $1,000 so I could afford to move. My roommate towed me 30 miles behind his car with a tow strap on the freeway to get it to my parents' house. Then I rented an SUV, overloaded it with all my possessions, and moved to Washington for my free living arrangements.

19. 1977 AMC Hornet Wagon After spending a while on my bicycle, I traded my 1957 Schwinn Mark II Jaguar for an AMC Hornet wagon. It was supposed to have 7,000 original miles and owned by an old lady who got T-boned in it and then parked it. 107,000 miles was more like it, and it was owned by a FAT lady because the seat was collapsed and had a metal plate over it. The B-pillar on the passenger side was pushed well into the seat, and the doors were smashed up and wouldn't open. The thing leaked water like you wouldn't believe. It was a pretty bright orange color, though. The rear axle was broken from the crash, so I had to replace it along with all the passenger side brakes and wheels. I actually drove that car to Utah and back one Christmas, though the water pump blew out on the trip and I had to take it to a Chrysler dealership for repairs. I ended up selling it because it was so smashed up and the windows were constantly foggy from the wet interior, and I got tired of the Washington rain and household drama.

20. 1965 International Travelall I really missed the 1967 Travelall that I used to own, so after I moved back to Utah and got a job as an apprentice plumber, I located a nearly identical one in California. I had been riding my bicycle 10 or more miles one way to work each day, and it was wearing me out. I had some money set aside, and got a $6,000 loan to pay for the Travelall and a bit of restoration work. That loan ballooned into $12,000 quickly, and I got in over my head, eventually having to get a consolidation loan and pay it off at $200 a month, but that is another story. I flew down to California and drove the Travelall back to Utah. As I was driving through Nevada in the middle of a moonless night in the middle of nowhere, I hit the high beam switch on the floor and suddenly lost both headlights right before a turn as I was doing 70 miles per hour. I couldn't see a thing and flew off the road and bounced up and down until I stopped. I bounced so hard that my foot punched through the floorboard. As I stepped out of the vehicle, I fell into a ditch that I barely missed. If I didn't have four-wheel-drive, I wouldn't have been able to get back onto the road. The previous owner didn't crimp the wires on the new headlight dimmer switch tightly enough, so they popped off when I pressed on the switch, causing me to lose both headlights at once. Then, as I was driving the rest of the way the next day, I ran out of gas at the top of a hill. I poured in gas from the fuel can and ran the battery dead trying to start it, so then I tried to start it by letting it roll backwards down the hill and pop it into gear. It broke the rear axle shaft and differential gears. I rolled the rest of the way into a rest stop and had someone jumpstart me. Then I put it in four-wheel-drive and drove the another 100 miles home on the front axle. I rode my bicycle to the wrecking yard and pulled the differential gears and axle shafts out of another International truck and installed them. After that, it was a pretty reliable vehicle, though I never did get to do any restoration on it. I was living in my sister's flooded, spider-infested basement, and she said she was moving into a double-wide and I couldn't come with, plus I quit my plumbing job because I couldn't handle all of the harrassment, so after spending the winter in a shack made out of pallets, I rented a UHaul and drove back to Washington with the people I used to live. I drove the Travelall for about 2 years total as my daily driver, but it rode SO uncomfortably rough and the body was beat to heck and rusted out, so I sold it.

[Squiggle Dog]

21. 1968 International Travelall I purchased this one out of someone's backyard because the body was in better shape than mine. I ended up selling it to a guy who planned to restore it.

22. 1964 Corvan Greenbrier A cool rear-engine van version of the Corvair. Good body, needed paint and interior, didn't run. Got it for $100, but decided to not mess with it and sold it.

23. 1967 Mercedes 230S A family was moving and needed to sell it. It was running and driving, but the owner had the head rebuilt and got the timing wrong, which bent the valves. I got it for $100, but ended up finding out the block also had a hole in it. I removed the engine and later installed a 5 cylinder turbo diesel engine. Unfortunately, the body was very rusty and structurally unsound, so I parted it out. It happened to have a set of factory skid plates, so I saved those.

24. 1979 Mercedes 300SD I saw a craigslist ad for a free Mercedes 300SD. I called the owner, and he said I could drive it home. I brought a trailer anyway, and am glad I did, as it had no air cleaner, alternator, belts, fuses, front wire harness, headlights, grille, bumper, exhaust, etc. It had already been parted out, but I towed it home anyway, thinking I could make something out of it. A few months, a parts car, and a few wrecking yard trips later, it was my daily driver and I honestly think this car is about where I finally figured out how to PROPERLY repair automobiles. I drove it for about two years on biodiesel and LOVED it. I knew from then on that I didn't want to own anything but a vintage Mercedes diesel. It was my dream to have a Mercedes fintail with a turbo diesel engine, so I found a rust-free one with a sunroof in California with no engine that I had to have. I sold the 300SD on eBay so I could purchase it, but the seller ended up wanting way more for the car than I could afford, so I was stuck without a car.

25. 1977 Mercedes 450SE This car came free with the 300SD. It was a Euro-spec car, and my roommate actually drove it most of the way home until it ran out of gas. It would not start after this, so I trailered it home and parted it out. It pains me to admit that I threw away a mint condition set of front and rear bamboo leather heated orthopedic seats. I also broke both windshields trying to pry them out with a screwdriver. Many of the parts went onto the 300SD. I could not sell the Euro bumpers for the life of me, and ended up giving them to a guy who wanted to cut them down to put on his Datsun. The car was in excellent condition, but I had no title for it. I'm still finding the parts I saved from it useful to this day.

26. 1979 Mercedes 300SD I got this as a parts car and donor engine for the 1967 230S. I paid $600 for the car after the seller kept raising the price on me. When I went to meet him, he ditched me and went to some party, so I had to pay some guys to help me load the car and then catch up with him for the title the next day. The car ended up having orthopedic leather seats with headrests and heat front and back. The seat heater system is in my current 1980 300SD. After parting it out, it went to scrap.

27. 1960 Mercedes 220SE A fintail with a sunroof, and good body. Just what I had been wanting to install a turbo diesel engine in. I got it for $300 and it came with a parts car. Once I started looking at it, I noticed that the first generation W111s lack disc brakes and have some goofy firewall arrangements, remote brake booster, no seatbelt mounting holes, etc. I knew this would not work for my turbodiesel conversion, and I would need a second-generation W111, so I sold it on eBay to a person in Dubai who did a beautiful resto-mod on it.

28. 1960 Mercedes 220 Economy-model W111 parts car that came with the 220SE. It was full of spare parts. After taking what I wanted, I sold it to another fintail enthusiast.

29. 1968 Mercedes 200D I was in need of a car because riding my bicycles 10 miles each way to work was wearing me out, and the bus system was an insane asylum on wheels. I saw a craigslist ad for a Mercedes 200D. I read the rumors about the cars being dangerously slow, but decided I could just stick to the back roads and be fine, better than riding a bicycle. Once I bought the car and got it onto the freeway, it was not the slightest bit slow. I was doing 75 miles per hour easily, and the car felt like it had effortless acceleration. $3,000 in parts later, it was a reliable daily driver using biodiesel for two years, that I even took on a 2,000 mile round trip to Utah and back. I could cruise in that at 80 miles per hour for hours at a time. Unfortunately, the engine smoked terribly on startup, it leaked oil horribly, and the body was rusted out. The driver seat had fallen through the floor, the firewall was eaten away, the floors and rockers were gone, as was the mounting area around the taillights. I couldn't sell the car, so I parted it out. It saddens me because I LOVED that car and would still be driving it today if the rust didn't kill it.

30. 1980 Mercedes 300SD 30 time's a charm! It didn't seem like I was going to be able to find a non-rusty diesel fintail Mercedes, and converting a gas one to a turbo diesel engine was going to be too much work, so I started looking for another 300SD. I wanted a W116 with that nice bamboo interior, but I wanted one in Walnut Brown, and with a sunroof. Unfortunately, the only year you could get a Walnut Brown 300SD was in 1980, and in 1980 very few 300SDs had sunroofs, let alone one in that rare color. None of the Walnut Brown ones I saw had a sunroof, except for one that was way out of my price range. I finally decided I could settle on black and then paint it Walnut Brown later, and any residual black paint wouldn't haunt me too badly. I found mine for sale in Oregon, which was black, but after running the VIN number, I determined it was originally Walnut Brown, and it had a sunroof! Woohoo! I did what I had to to get the car, but the seller was dishonest. The "new tires" were mismatched and threadbare, the "working" CD player didn't work, the "new" brake master cylinder was leaking fluid, the "new $6,000 differential and axle shafts" were old and rotted, the "fresh alignment" was sloppy steering that pulled, the "good interior" was sunbaked and fried (too-small blue W123 seat in back), and the "good paint" had peeling clearcoat and bubbling basecoat. It was only $1,000, so I paid and drove on my way home. The transmission wouldn't shift out of second gear, and when I stopped to fill the empty fuel tank, there was no coolant in the radiator. I topped off the coolant, the transmission finally shifted, and I got it home. A few months later, it was my daily driver and I have practically rebuilt every part of the car but the engine, which has 317,000 miles on it and still going strong. I've been using it and running it on biodiesel for two years now, and truly love the car. It's a keeper.

31. 1967 Mercedes Wagon My true dream car was to get a Mercedes fintail wagon, but only a few were converted by Belgian coachbuilder IMA. Even less ever made it to the USA. I found mine on craigslist for $1,000 and couldn't get there fast enough. Mine is a Euro-spec car that spent most of its life on salted roads in Europe, so it is rusty beyond saving and about ready to fold in half. At some point it was purchased by a director who had the lower half of the vehicle "repaired" by covering it with sheet metal screwed on to whatever remained, then slathered with body filler and covered with paint, used as a movie prop. This only accelerated the rust. I have put a turbo diesel engine in it, and plan to find a rust-free W111 sedan with a sunroof, and will graft the wagon-specific sheet metal onto it. Then it will be my new daily driver for the rest of my life.

[oversize]

Mine was the Riviera, which meant roll-up windows and no air con.  It was a sweet, sweet example too - 68,000 original miles, white and green with an absolutely perfect interior.  I paid $1400 and drove it 110 miles home from South Bend.

Check out this high-resolution image of one in the same colors!



PS:  The orange stripe and wheels are NOT original.  Here is the original look:

That car looks pretty original to me!  Looks like it's a Special, which is quite different to a Super.  Do you remember the model number?  Mine's a 73A

[John Hubertz]

I don't recall the model number, but it was a Super "riviera" hardtop.  It had the wonderbar radio and two-speed dynaflow transmission.  The starter was automatic, and was engaged when you lightly brushed the accelerator with the key in start position.

[JasonP]

I didn't have a car of my youth. I got my first car when I got out of the military, at 26, which was a Geo Prizm. Sensible.


(Not me)

That got me to Portland, OR, where my girlfriend trashed it. Sensible.

Then I drove my mother's Corolla when I was her caregiver. Sensible.

Then when that died (after she died) I bought a 1979 300SD, because it was all I could afford. Very sensible.

I'm a sensible guy. Boring, but sensible.

I hate being sensible.

[ZCarFan]

I did not recall how GM-biased I once was until I made the list:


1. 1977 Old Cutlass Supreme Brougham -- Typical 350 4bbl loaded Cutlass.  Rusty as heck after only 11 years.

2. 1978 chevy Nova --- 250 6 cyl. 3 Speed column shift.  Only option was a heater.  Even the AM radio was dealer installed.

3. 1970 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400  -- one owner car bought from a friend's father.  Sold it due to some arguments with my father over money.

4. 1968 Chevelle 300 Series.  230 6 cyl. Powerglide -- only option was the 'glide.  Did not even have armrests in the back.

5.  1986 Pontiac Firebird SE  305 5-Speed 3.73 LSD axle 4 wheel discs  WS-6 suspension Special order car with supposedly "non-available" options likely one of one.

6.  1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass -- 4-Door hardtop (no pillar)  - One owner car bought with 29K miles.  -- totaled shortly thereafter.

7.  1969 Chevy Impala  -  bought as a 21st birthday present to myself.

[oversize]

These are 57 Buick Supers in a 4 door hardtop (pink) and a 2 door:

[John Hubertz]

That's the one. (the buick super)  I remember the little strakes of chrome in front of the rear wheelwells that the specials don't have

[JasonP]

Is it really worth it losing the beauty of these older cars in order to save a few miles per gallon, and have smaller parking spaces?

I submit that it is not.

[ZCarFan]

Is it really worth it losing the beauty of these older cars in order to save a few miles per gallon, and have smaller parking spaces?

I submit that it is not.

There certainly is something to be said for a sense of style, isn't there?

[marku]

How about some European cars in here although we did have one US car in which we had a lot of fun

1931 Singer Le Mans
1948 3.5 Jaguar
1957 3.5 Mk7 Jaguar
1959 292 Ford Fairlane Country Sedan
1964 2.4 Mk2 Jaguar
1965 3.4 Mk2 Jaguar
1965 4.2 E-type Jaguar

plus a lot of general runabouts Vauxhalls, Triumphs and Minis. You can see I was a long time Jaguar fan but now a Mercedes convert. Wish I had kept them now but that's history. Didn't keep many photos but have started collecting 1:18 diecast models of them and have got one for the 450SE just need one for the Fairlane now.