San Anto Hot Rods (San Antonio, Austin: salon, home, cost)

[Pachuco2]

I started a "Who had a hot rod", and it was moved to general topic,..I wanna know who in San Anto on this forum had a Hot Rod, or first car mom and dad got for you ,and is a Street Rod Nut...I saw a 63 silver nova with big meats cruising Austin Hwy,..which one of y'all own this street beast?

[TrapperL]

1934 Ford 5 window coupe. I had a Corvette 283 given to me by one of my dads buds. The engine was actually the guys brothers engine that he was fixing up for the drags but got involved with drug dealing and went on a State run sabbatical for 10-20, so I ended up with the engine. The engine had been bored to a 292, solid lifters, cam. I put a Mallory duel point ignition system on it, Edelbrock intake single plane, WCFB carb, Hookers, Bolted it to a 1939 Lincoln Z transmission, enclosed driveshaft, 1940 Ford 1 ton rear axle with 3.78 gears. I ran 9.75x15 rear tires and 6.75x15 on the front to drop it some. Had scavenger pipes hanging off of the rear axle about 2" from the ground. It was primer grey with 57 Plymouth hubcaps-the cone looking ones. Turned the 1/4 mile in a little over 11 seconds. I could get a one wheel stand from a roll with it too. It was a torquey engine. But then the entire car was just over 2300 lbs as everything that I could get in aluminum was replaced along with several hundred drills making holes in the thing to lighten it up. I had a chrome S shaped shifter inside with the big chrome ball on top. All of the gauges in the metallic blue dash- tach, vacuum, oil, temp, etc. Put a Motorola Golden Voice radio in the back deck- there was no backseat or room for it- kinda like a regular cab truck in a coupe. The windshield rolled out and the back window rolled down. The suicide doors also had the windows that rolled up and then rolled back about 2" Neat set of wheels. Most of the time I couldn't keep second gear in it. I was having SA Speedshop build the clutches for it about every 8 months. It got attention needless to say and was a fun project.

I followed the coupe up with a 1960 Chevrolet convertible, bright red with a 348 and a Powergluide. Coming from the coupe, it was a dog. Then came the 1964 Polara SS followed by the 1969 Charger R/T with the limited 425HP 440 with a 727b transmission. I ran that one in Superstock at the drags. If you were around then you know either the O R Mitchell Dodge or Superior Pontiac was going home with the trophy unless the Cortinas boys showed up with their Nova. Never placed in Superstocks but always won my D Gas class with the coupe.

Fun times back then. I had one dimwit that had a dad with far too much money. Dear daddy bought the guy a 56 Thunderbird and had McCombs put a 405 together for him. It was a strong running car and if the kid had a clue how to drive it could have done some good. But being daddies baby boy, he let his bravado get in front of him one night and he and I ran for car titles. As I expected, at the line he was making far too many RPMs and dumped the clutch while I calmly left him in his own smoke. Once he got a grip with the slicks he was coming strong but he ran outa room and lost. Haven't seen him or my Thunderbird since.

San Antonio had a strong car culture back in the day. Too bad the kids today can't really afford to do things we did. A starter back then was 20 bucks as were a lot of parts. With San Antonio's traffic and the cost to hot rod today, it's out of reach of most of the young bunch. Besides, today everything is so computerized you just about have to be a programmer to make one run. We relied on mechanical knowledge. My other half from Michigan doesn't understand car culture at all. None of my girls were into it either. Back in the day, even my mom would run her metallic maroon GTO occasionally. It was a family kinda thing on Saturday nights for my family. Cousins came with their cars too. We had great times.

[majormadmax]

There are a few places that still host a hot rod get together, check out this thread:

//www.city-data.com/forum/san-a...car-meets.html

Check out post #58 where I posted pics from the monthly Castroville meet at Wommack Chevrolet (second Friday night of every month).

Cheers! M2

[badhornet]

70 AMC Hornet...401 with 727 TorqueFlight

[pfil]

first car '74 nova . NOVA OWNS . it was a pos but still the best car i ever had .
look at it, look at those curves . the Nova IS THE CRUISER CLASS OF ALL MUSCLE CARS .



it's like the 80s; everyone thinks the iroc z28 is the iconic car but it's the monte carlo, friends .



as with the nova, one's what we thing we remember and one's what we actually had .

[TrapperL]

Can't believe I found this....and by pure accident too!
CKC Racing Chevy II Fastback Funny Car - Super Chevy Magazine

pfil, looks like an early 70's Chevelle in that garage. My runnin bud had one in silver grey with the black stripes. That dude would run! His drag car was a 59 Biscayne with a HIGHLY modded 348. He ran with the big blocks with that ol' wedgehead. Anybody remember the BIG Indian guy at the drags called Hands? Talk about a guy that could tune multicarbs!
Here's another good linky:
Augest Hartkopf E/Gas Chevy 1965at Beeline DragWay AHRA Winter Nationals - <H2> photos</H2>JOHN DURAND PHOTOGRAPHY

[Merovee]

My wife is casually into cars and clearly tells me there is a difference between hot rods and muscle cars. So not hot rods but I've always loved Monte Carlos. Too bad you do not see many fully restored on the road. Still I've always thought the definite '80s vehicle was a Grand National.

[pfil]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

Can't believe I found this....and by pure accident too!
CKC Racing Chevy II Fastback Funny Car - Super Chevy Magazine

pfil, looks like an early 70's Chevelle in that garage. My runnin bud had one in silver grey with the black stripes.

sharkskin gray i'm assuming and with the black stripes she probably did look mean . i just realized i may have implied the pic i used was a pic of my nova . not so, wish my nova looked 1/10th as good . the chevy II is one of the very few ''box cars'' i liked .

[pfil]

Originally Posted by Merovee

Still I've always thought the definite '80s vehicle was a Grand National.

those two were very similar in the way they were 'souped up' . back in philly (and especially the suburbs) they were the really poor man's iroc .

86 grand national


86 monte carlo ss


and...

olds cutlass salon (85)


and even the grand prix (85)

[OnlyonthursSA]

I have a 1962 Impala 4 door sport coupe that I am SLOWLY restoring. Its been in my family since 1963. This is her when I got her from my mom's back yard. It was sitting there for about 10 years. She has some issues but nothing that I can't handle. And as much as I would love to restore her to original I know that would be WAYYY to damn expensive. I am going to keep her a mild cruiser, slightly lowered with white walls on steel wheels :






and this is how I want her to eventually look like:


Im in no rush because well its not cheap to restore an old classic.