Community Forums

ME for Maine · 01-13-2017, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

Buick cars had gas pedal start for a few years in the 50s. Turn on the key, step on the gas and it started.

My '38 Buick's owners manual called this feature the "Starterator."

The owners manual also touted the parking lights being visible from the sides (early side marker lamps 30 years before the feds mandated them), coil springs at all 4 corners, flow through ventilation with front and rear vent wing windows, Body by Fisher, torque tube drive, and locking steering column. To top it all off, when I lost my ignition key I borrowed a friend's 1968 Buick key and it was an exact match! Same key for 30 years.

ME for Maine · 01-13-2017, 04:34 PM

Also had a '65 Corvair with the 2 speed Power Glide. I tried to blow it up by dropping it into low at 50 mph, then into reverse at 20 mph. It lit up the instrument panel and blue smoke poured out of the dash vents as it locked up the rear tires and skidded to a stop. Started it back up and drove off. Drove it from Maine to Detroit to Florida after that.

Named that car Smokey the 'Vair for all the oil it dumped out the rear main seal and through the push rod seals.

brian-nicola · 01-13-2017, 04:38 PM

First car I ever owned....58 Impala 283 and a 2sp powerglide (or power slide as we called them), was like gee thanks Dad (bought it for me for $125).
THEN American Grafitti came out and now I had something to work with when I was done looked just like the car and had a 327 with a turbo 350 tranni...that was a cool car with a big back seat.

texkayaker · 01-13-2017, 05:31 PM

Got my drivers license at age 14 in 1951. Bought a 1940 Ford 2 door sedan in 1953. 1940 was the first year Ford moved the gear shift to the steering column. Wrecked it in 6 months and bought a 1935 Plymouth with 3 speed on the floor. Never owned a car with automatic transmission until about 1970. Current car is a Honda CRV with 5 speed manual on the floor. Motorhome is auto trans.

sam60 · 01-13-2017, 05:43 PM

2nd & 3rd '63 Chevy Impalas. Loved them rust buckets. Tree was fun to operate.

Eyephoto · 01-13-2017, 07:00 PM

I'm 63 and still driving the car I learned to drive at 14. Three on the floor, non syncro-mesh, double clutch, push button start, no outside driver door lock.

JMonroe · 01-14-2017, 09:34 AM

I drove a Mercury Meteor in high school, straight 6, three on the tree. Years later (late 80s) I was a regular volunteer at the EAA museum in Oshkosh, specifically at the Pioneer airport area. At the time they had a WW 2 staff car and I was called upon to move it as I was one of the few that knew how to drive it - and that was almost 30 years ago.

Romer1 · 01-14-2017, 10:13 AM

My parents had a '38 Nash with a 3 on the dash, dead center. Weird layout.

99-Am.Star · 01-14-2017, 12:11 PM

I consider myself to be just a little old school as I still use an old flip phone, mostly shoot revolvers. and have driven vehicles with most every trans that has been used in production. To include floor shifts from 3 to 16 speeds and column mounted 3 and i do believe 4 and 5 in trucks. Now I'm too lazy and actually prefer auto's. And saying that I also drove fluid drive and 4 speeds with electric over vacuum clutch.
Now can you guess my age ???? LOL.

OverDo · 01-20-2017, 06:07 PM

Cars with three on the tree I've owned (that I can remember):
1957 Chevy 283 2barrel
1957 Chevy pickup 235? 6-cyl. I think
1958 Chevy impala 283
1964 Chevy station wagon with a 235 6 cylinder power house.
1964 or 65 Chevy pickup 6 cylinder.
1964 Ford pickup. Don't remember the engine.
1965 or 66 Olds 4 door.
1969 Chevy pickup 396 engine
1972 Chevy pickup small block
Probably a few more that have vanished from memory. All were at least 10 years old at the time and mostly junkers.
Not a 3 speed but definitely an odd car for the use was a 1969 Nova SS V-8 with a 4 speed on the floor that was a car used in the drivers training class I took in high school. As a hot-rod farm kid I really loved it. You should have seen the attempts to pass the parallel parking test when the city kids who had never seen a clutch before tried. It was hilarious.

Hooligan · 01-21-2017, 08:25 PM

Scott: I had a 50 Studebaker 2door. Shift lever was on top of the steering column. I bolted a second shift lever going to the left side of the column so I could shift left handed and keep one arm around my lady..

Also a 47 Chevy convertible with column shift.

40's and early 50's many column shifts. When automatics came out it stayed there or moved to center console.

afrohman · 01-21-2017, 10:39 PM

I'm younger than most of you (I'm 39) but my Dad made me take my drivers test in a 1963 Impala with no power steering or brakes and a 3 on the tree. He told me if I couldn't pass in that then I had no business driving. I can tell you parallel parking that car was an adventure as it took about 3 full revolutions of the steering wheel lock to lock but I passed with flying colors. He gave me that car after that and I still have it to this day. (Its now a big block 4 speed SS clone)

texkayaker · 01-22-2017, 07:23 AM

Eye photo, that is a beautiful Crosley. A friend of mined Dad had one. I drove it a couple of times, great fun. Had terrible brakes that I remember.

OverDo · 01-22-2017, 07:28 AM

afrohman,
Thats a great story. Glad you kept the car and put some big power in it. The BBC's are all torque monsters. I had a 1967 Chevelle big block SS clone hat I just sold a couple years ago after owning it for over 30 years.
I was talking to a friend the other day and we thought an interesting puzzle for a young driver today would be to give them the keys to a locked 1962 anything with a 3 on the tree trans that had a flat tire that needed to be aired up and needed a couple of quarts of oil put in before trying to figure out how to get it started and safely backed out of the garage.
Of course there would be a compressor, air gauge and oil in the garage as all of the cars in that era used oil and had leaky tires.