What got you hooked on cars?

[JHMoparnut]

My dad was definately my influence. He has owned Mopars since the 60s. Drag raced them then on to motocross and off road racing. He opened a 4X4 shop in the early 70s doing lift kits, 4X4 accessories and Jeep stuff. I spent many weekends at off road races throught the midwest. In 1985 a guy drove into my dads shop in a blue 74 Chally looking for parts for his truck. Well I ended up with that Chally and have had it ever since. My only regret is I did not do much wrenching on my Chally growing up (Dads mechanics would work on it).

[67 Cuda]

My friends I would have to say started to get me into cars.  From there, it took flight on its own.  Sadly I now know a lot more about cars than all my friends.   I developed my love of mopar on my own and car shows have just boosted it.  My family never really was into cars.

[Old Moparz]

In Emerson NJ now, but still venture out there often, relatives are spread out from queens to holbrouck, usually make a visit to one of em every few weeks, ware abouts are ya? Rich.

Hey Rusty Cuda,

How long have you been in Emerson? I lived in New Milford from '71 up until I bought a house in 1989. The Emerson Hotel still there? They used to have decent food but I haven't been in the area in years. Not too many Mopars around when I was first driving, & some guy in Westwood bought a '69 Charger SE from me in the mid 80's. It was red with a black top.


As for getting hooked on cars, Matchbox did that to me. I still have all the ones from when I was a kid packed in a box in my attic. I think the first real Mopar I saw that I liked was a 68/69 Charger in the neighborhood where I was a kid in NYC. That, & a fastback Mustang I'd always see, looked like race cars parked on the street. Nobody, & I mean nobody in my family were ever into cars except as a way to get somewhere. No cousins, aunts, uncles or anyone I know of saw my old car as anything but "an old car"  :laughing:

[72cuda]

Can't remember when I didn't like cars. If it had an engine, and I could tinker with it, I was there (lawnmowers don't count).

Now as for Mopars, the mechanic at the gas station we had our car serviced at (62 Impala convert with the old stovebolt six and a Powerglide - convert was nice, but s-l-o-w, my dad was just not a car guy) had a 69 Hemi GTX, and gave my Mom and me a ride home once when we dropped the Impala off. When he punched it, I could not pull myself out of the seatback. And the sound, I can still hear it.

Game over.

*Nothing* comes close to a Mopar fired in anger.   :thumbs:

[whitesatinmopar]

Well I guess to be able to get my first drivers license in 1962 kind of put me in the jetstream of the eariler stages of the Mopar muscle story, and it's history today is recognized by all "hot rodders". But my first ride was in a friends GTX 440 and well as they say, the rest is history. Absolutely the best muscle car made, MOPAR. My first Mopar was a 64 Sport Fury 383 hi po. it was the "little brother" of the Mopar stable. But I sure would love to have her today!  :worship:

[RUSTY Cuda]

The Hotel is still there but changed hands a few years ago, I'm right around the corner from there, behind the baseball fields. A friend doing a charger lives acroos from the firehouse, found out a customer had a duster a few weeks ago & a guy across from him has a dart, their in washington township, a guy who works at the repair shop I go to has 2 fury's he's from bergenfield I think, there s a few mopes around, I'm sure now that I'm back into it I'll find a few more, I've been here since 80, when traffic used to move a little better!
Where did you buy, still local ? Rich.

[mopar_guy333]

i dont kno, i have always loved cars for as long as i can remember,then my family got hooked on mopars and love it. its like a disease that keeps growing on you lol but a good one

[mopar-or-no-car]

My dad is a  Mechanic so for Easter vacation Mom sent us to his shop for the week!! So I spent the week on his  creeper chair!! asking questions and driving him CRAZY!!!!! He also use to race cars before I was born so there was NO stopping him from racing his 56 F100!! on the street ( great influence for my teen years!!)  and in high school you tell a guy you dad's a mechanic they instantly want to talk cars!!(like I really new what they were talking about) but I learned quickly thanks to all there comments I'd go home and ask dad what the guys were talking about!! hence the learning!!! and my intro to mopar!! a guy in my high school had this awesome 1971 'cuda.  I was in love! no other car would do after that!!! So I showed my dad.  and one of his customers had a 73 ralley he needed to unload due to bad timing chain(oh darn!!) so the rest is history!!and I got it REAL CHEAP!!!!! I was hooked I love the car I will probably be burried in it!! I have decided that I must be a man in a womans body I love cars that much!! nothing beats the rumble of an engine!!! :driving: my 71 is heavily cammed and I have an argument with my dad all of the time-- cam vs gas mileage!! I tell him MY CAR... MY CAM it is not coming out!! NO ARGUMENT!!!!

[RusTy/SE]

  The June 66 issue of Popular Mechanics had a two page spread of license plates for each of the fifty states so i cut the pages out, my Dad mounting them on cardboard backing. I was eight and i'd ride with my folks during shopping trips around Brooklyn so i could try spotting as many different license plates as possible. As time went by i began to notice the cars attached to the plates, developing  favorites. Us guys are all about shapes and colors so cars like a black '64 Electra 225, '64 Ford Galaxy, the Caddys, and big Chrylsers started catching my attention.
  Within a few years i progressed through Matchbox, Speed Line, Hot Wheels and finally HO slot cars (still have all of them). There's just something about the Ford J-car... :dontknow:
  I moved to Alabama as a 10th grader in '74 and the rest is history. Mom never had a driver's license and neither Dad nor any of my brothers or sisters were mechanically inclined so to answer the thread q i'd have to thank that litlle two page spread in my case. Totally blew me away how everyone could work on their own cars down here. Pull the motor out??  :eekbig:  Are you freakin' kidding me!!?? I've still never done more than a water pump on my truck but would love to try sometime

Russ

[Old Moparz]

I've been here since 80, when traffic used to move a little better! Where did you buy, still local ? Rich.

1980 was the year I graduated HS. My wife & I couldn't afford to buy in the area back then, so we're now about an hour north in Newburgh, NY. A lot of my family & friends had moved out too, but I still get down there to see a few of them once in a while. Have one friend who moved to Paramus, my mother sold the house in New Milford & she's in Elmwood Park now.

You remember Marty's Towing in Westwood? Those guys were the worst towing outfit there ever was. They flat bedded a 1970 GTX I had & wrecked one side of the car on a tree. Had a stereo stolen from my old Charger when it was on their lot, & another time a snow plow nailed it when it was there. You'd think I'd have learned, but I was friends with the owner, a guy named Rusty who has a pair of rare Mustangs.

One was a red & black, 1969 fastback, with a 428 Cobra Jet & a shaker hood. The other was a white 1969 fastback with the Boss 429. I had been in the Cobra Jet & it was a 4 speed car he beat the snot out of. It was the first fast car I had ever been in when I was 16 or so. He had them for years, but I lost touch with him & never knew if he kept them.

I don't know if traffic was ever better down by you.  :laughing:

[RUSTY Cuda]

Have seen the trucks around, but don't know any of the guys(or the cars)  I came over from NY,so traffic here was considered light back around 80, but they keep building more & bigger homes on every friggen square inch of land they can find or subdivide, so same roads & twice the population! , lived in an apartment in lodi for a few years & then bought the shack, over the years totally rebuilt it ,added a second floor & new garage, now it's time to do all the major stuff again, If I can afford to stay when I retire, they can bury me & the cudas in the yard! Rich.

[Thad]

Was born liking cars.

Like something from everywhere.

Even like some English, German, and Italian cars.

Don't fit in most of those, so I tend to prefer American Musclecars.