Mexstan

Something triggered a memory this morning and then thought that it may lead to an interesting thread if others have similar memories.
I learned to drive on my fathers old Chev 1/2 ton. Three speed manual on the floor. I was nine years old. Got him mad one day on a driving lesson when I confused the accelerator and the brake and in reverse managed to jump the rear axle over a stump. Took a LOT of jacking to get it back over the stump. He was mad because it made him late for something. All dirt roads in the area so at an early age learned how to handle a vehicle in slippery, muddy conditions.
By the age of 10 and 11 I was driving big dump trucks with full loads of crushed stone up and down really steep hills. If my parents never knew of this, they never said anything. My father at the time was the director of a big granite stone quarry in Uganda and I used to flag down the trucks going to the quarry and get the drivers to move over so that I could drive. Hopped out as we got close to the quarry so that my parents did not see me. Then did the same thing with a truck going the opposite way. By doing this I got to drive about 5 miles each way.
By the age of 11 I could handle any farm tractor plus D8's and TD24's.
Had my first date when I was 12. Borrowed my father's Ford pickup (with his permission) with 3 on the column and drove to my 'girlfriends' place about 4 or 5 miles away. Her mother would only allow her out for about 15 minutes with me so we could only go for a short drive. This was all way out in the country.
At that time the drivers licence age was 18. Driving thru town the day before my test in an open convertable I was stopped by the only cop in town. He happened to be our neighbor. He was also the same guy who gave the drivers licence test. Man, did he give me a talking to! Threatened to give me the strictest driving test ever. Never gave me a ticket but sent me home with the instructions not to drive on public roads again until I had my drivers licence. Do not remember any problems taking the drivers test so mybe he got over it.
Anybody else with similar memories? Or interesting early driving stories? Or first date stories?

Commatoze

When I hit 14 or so, I'd grab my dad's keys and go out and warm up the engine if we were going out. One of those times, I decided to let the clutch out in reverse instead of neutral. The car lurched backwards, jumpped the curb and snapped the mailbox off at the ground. : Nearly 40 years later, my dad still brings that incident up as one of my more stellar driving moments.

Then there was the time, 1 day after I received my official driver's license that I decided to take my mom's 63 Olds Delta 88 on a short cut down a dirt road to get home. Unfortunately, it was March, and the dirt road was a quagmire. I reached a point of no return, and ended up to the floor pan in mud. I called a wrecker to get me out, but the guy made me attach the hook as he didn't want to get in that mess. It was so muddy, the wrecker actually spun me around so I faced the direction I came from. My parents still bring that one up too.... :

The dates?....Let's just say this:
Do you guys have any idea what you could do in the back seat of a '63, 4 door Delta 88? ;D

BigBlue

I've been driving on back roads since I was 10 in my dad's old (forgive us) 1994 Ford Crew Cab Longbed 4X4 PSD. Been driving on highway's since I was 13. I think it helps learning how to drive at a young age. Teaches you responsibility. You can guarantee my son/daughter will learn at a young age as well.

kingofdodge7131

ok so you say you where 10 driving an old 94 ( to me 94s old but not OLD. But the trucks only 9 years old, so if the truck was old and its only 9 years old, how old are ya?

Lary Ellis (Top)

My first car was given to My twin brother and myself at age 10 by Dad. It was a 1954 Metropolitan Nash and the engine was in the trunk in pieces. No drivers seat but the body was cherry.

My father was a heavy equipment mechanic and this was to be our "project car" He said once we got it running we could drive it. ;D

I know he didn't expect that to be for a few years down the road, but using his tools and a lot of guesswork, I was driving that car 3 weeks later with a fruit crate for a drivers seat

My father was working out of town and we saw him briefly on weekends, he did not know we had it running, and Mom didn't either for a bout a week. ;D When dad confronted us about it, he agreed with our logic that he had indeed said we could drive it once we got it running, however he amended that agreement on the spot.

We no longer were allowed to run on the street with it, and had to keep it on the property we owned in Northern California. Still it was a really sweet ride, and We learned a lot fixing that thing up and making it run.

We did a valve job on it, using his valve grinders and even swapped out some bearings with no supervision from him.

Wish I had that little car today, it would be worth a good deal to a collector. The picture I included is a different year car but very similar in appearance, the color I had was Aqua over white.

I suddenly realized that is the same color combo on my truck a coincidence? or is their some inner child I was satisfying when I ordered my truck?

Thanks Stan, I hardly expected my story to lead to this conclusion.... Very Interesting indeed ;D

BTW, the car was 6 years old when I got it, that should give you a time frame of sorts

scuzman00

I had so "Many" driving experiences when I 1st started, that my mom would just answer the phone call with, "OK, you are on the phone, so you ust be ok. Did anyone else get hurt?? Where are you now so I can come get you??

I had probably 12 beyond close encounters by the time I turned 18 (drivers ed here in Houston gave you your license at 16 way back then).

Most memorable event was in my 2 yr old Mercury Capri....lemon yellow.... cruising thru the neighborhood with a couple of buds. Everyone in the neighborhood waving furiously at us. Pulled into the local K-Mart parking lot to check out the girlies and the engine sputtered to its death. A bud in the front seat opened the door to get out and check the mechanicals and was met with a nifty large wisp of flame that shot out from underneath the car... Needless to say he shot out the door like a bullet, with the bud in the backseat playing a close game of pin the tail on the donkey behind him. As I got out another willowy wisp of flame cleaned the hair off of my leg better than Nair could ever imagine. Manager of K-Maart came out with water extinguisher and sprayed at the fire, only to disperse the rapidly growing puddle of gas spewing from the "plastic" gas line that had melted over the starter wire. All the while I am watching the local fire department make 3 runs up and down the freeway past the K-Mart.

My lil yellow lemon practically melted down in front of that K-Mart that sunny spring afternoon... And with it my dreams of getting to 2nd base with the woman (girl) of my dreams on the next Friday night (such is the case with young lust)... So much for the dreams that go with your 1st car.... And to think that I only owned the lemon for 4 weeks....scuse my rantings, but it was fun to recall my moment of glory, that day in the neighborhood when I thought all the folks thought I was so cool.....when it was more like my car was HOTTT...lol

RamThatStroker

I'm 24 and I started driving when I was 9. Dad used to let me drive an old 69 CJ-5 Jeep with no power steering, brakes, or clutch down the county road which was an exciting experience to say the least. Also use to drive an old Ford tractor around the yard.

My most memorable experience has to be driving my old 73 GMC 2500 to school. Truck was the loudest thing there. One day everyone in my class decides to pile in the back of my truck. We go for a quick ride into town and decide to pick up some water guns and fire extiguishers and then proceed to drive by the high school in town where everyone is outside for lunch. Needless to say they all got a soaking but we all got arrested. Try to explain that one to your parents >

As for the dates when I was sixteen my dad purchased my current truck which he occasionally let me take out. I'll just say this there is a lot of room for extracurricular activities on the passenger side of my Reg cab truck ;D

Joe

98rammer

i use to shift my dad's old 5 speed peej when i was in preschool. of course, i didn't know about the clutch back then except to shift when he pushed it in. i once tried to start it in 1rst gear, almost went through the back of the garage. thankfully the motor didn't start up, but i did pee my pants :'( other than that, i only drove the trucks around the yard until i was 15. by that time, i already had ~10,000 miles on snowmobiles, atvs and the such.

being a high performance freak and loving big diesel trucks since i was born, i fell in love when my dad got a 1994 reg cab dually 2wd cummins before anybody really had any (got TONS of compliments). then i found the TDR in 97 i believe, and have been reading since! and the day i get a dually like i've always wanted, it will get the west coast (monkey bar) mirrors like the old dodge did.

hey Joe, you got the gsk??? like it? ;D how's that clutch?

that's my story and i'm stickin' to it...
Tom

blackjack

Got my drivers license in 1964 so all these old cars and trucks i'm hearing about wern't even around I learned on a 1949 plymouth straight 6. My buddy and I took the old six and made a y pipe off the header and ran duals with cherry bombs made it look like a v-8 sounded pretty good too. Ran those 60's and 50's cars up and down the all famous now Woodward Ave. ( home of the woodward cruise) Drag racing anything we could get our hands on. My sweetheart car was a 64 chevy with a 327 300 h.p. built up to god only knows. My grandfather owned 2 garages and I spent all my spare time making go fast stuff. It was a heck of a time to be growing up in the motor city in the erea of the mucsell cars.One of my buddies talked his mom into a 64 GTO with tri power His dad had passed away and his mom didn't know the difference we learned how to keep the trips adjusted and it was pretty cool to burn the tires off that car.
Also remember all those back seat dates at the drive in.
I even have the results of one of those nights runs around here calling me dad and borrowing all my stuff .( over 30 still borrowing you guy's know this one)
who would of thunk way back then learning to drive , Lucky to still be here more I think about it. ( he's gonna be even luckier if he don't bring back my stuff)

DuaneWKKC

I was raised on a farm in southeastern Ohio. Started driving pickup BEFORE tractors because of allergies and asthma. At twelve I could back a trailer into any door it would fit in. Was backing stock trailer into barn with truck and doing so with the drivers side door open looking back. Barn door was not quite wide enough and did a real nice job on truck door :'(. I got a real good lesson that day on using the mirrors from dad. Just wasn't put that nicely : .

duaneW

RamThatStroker

[quote author=98rammer link=board=10;threadid=23257;start=0#msg218432 date=1070592024]
i use to shift my dad's old 5 speed peej when i was in preschool. of course, i didn't know about the clutch back then except to shift when he pushed it in. i once tried to start it in 1rst gear, almost went through the back of the garage. thankfully the motor didn't start up, but i did pee my pants :'( other than that, i only drove the trucks around the yard until i was 15. by that time, i already had ~10,000 miles on snowmobiles, atvs and the such.

being a high performance freak and loving big diesel trucks since i was born, i fell in love when my dad got a 1994 reg cab dually 2wd cummins before anybody really had any (got TONS of compliments). then i found the TDR in 97 i believe, and have been reading since! and the day i get a dually like i've always wanted, it will get the west coast (monkey bar) mirrors like the old dodge did.

hey Joe, you got the gsk??? like it? ;D how's that clutch?

that's my story and i'm stickin' to it...
Tom
[/quote]

Tom,

Got the 3K's in and boy do I love them Truck really came alive with those springs like you said it would. Although, I do have miss/stumble at about 2900 rpms which Piers says is due to the timing. As for the clutch I've got the clutch at my buddy's shop but I just haven't had the time to get my truck down there and do it with the stuff I have going on at work. I'm leaving for Hawaii on Sunday and won't be back until the 17th so I guess the clutch is going to have to wait until Christmas time to get it done. After that all I need to do is get some 191 DV's in and 370's and I think I'll be done for awhile. :

So how have you been anyways??

Joe