Wow, that's a great story!

First car for me was actually 1/2 a car. My buddy and I bought a 1973 Ford LTD Brougham sedan in beautiful Harvest Gold Metallic with a black vinyl top. 351 Windsor two bbl with a 3 speed automatic on the tree. Crank windows, manual locks, ac (worked), heater (worked), hub caps (1 or 2), rust (gotta have it), no posi, no radio, black cloth high back seats and a big comfy back seat!

My buddy and I thought we'd do some body work (rust and dent repairs). We took a decent looking car and sprayed red oxide primer over sections that we "fixed". And of course we couldn't get some trim pieces off, so we "carefully" taped it, then shot the paint. We also had no idea how far the paint would travel, so we got paint on the bumpers, grille, lights, tires, etc, etc, etc! We learned how to install a cheap stereo system. We also learned how to fix a flat tire. And how to get the right rear tire to smoke.

1. Place the shift lever in R

2. Let go of the brake and at the same time push the gas pedal to the floor.

3. When the tire starts spinning, quickly throw the shifter into D, without letting up on the gas pedal.

4. Carefully try to steer the car down the street.

5. Most importantly, get the heck out of the neighborhood fast. People don't like the sound of a hot rod race car! Or for us, some punk kids leaving single tire marks down the street.

One other thing, neither of us had licenses, we weren't old enough to drive, had no insurance and no plates on the car - in IL, the seller took the plates. Somehow, we never got caught - I have no idea how we did that! Though we were smart enough to never take it to school or into towns that had too many police.

One of my best memories - picking up friends and gals in my car. I thought I was a happening dude back then! Great memories!

My first was a 63 Impala 4 door in red that my dad "sold" to me for $1 in '75 when I was in high school. 230 straight 6 with the 2 speed power glide, column shifter, bench seat, and no A/C (it was called roll down the windows); just an old car with 100,XXX+ miles on it and not a popular vehicle at the time. It definitely did was not a performance vehicle (my friend had a 70 Buick GS 350 that was half bondo but it was apparently "tuned" well above the typical performance curve for that vehicle and he drove it as such). The 63 had horizontally pointed back fins and one was bent down from someone running into my dad, he didn't feel like spending the money to repair an old car; their car apparently suffered catastrophic failure of the entire front grill due to the impact, the Impala was definitely a heavy vehicle. Some rust on the quarters and door panels. I dug out the rust and filled the holes with repair putty in the shop, otherwise known as my parents driveway, and sanded it down "flush". My uncle, who owned a small Chevy dealership about an hour away, painted the work with the side molding acting as a clean break point, not perfect by any means but better than rusty patches. Idle adjustment was easy, if it sputtered, pop the hood, get out of the car, and adjust the carb idle screw until it steadied out and then drive on. Upgrade 1 was to supplement the AM radio with an FM stereo and 8 track player bolted beneath the metal dash, speakers on the B pillars between the doors, undersized and poor quality sound but it was FM! Upgrade 2 was changing out the muffler to a Thrush glass-pack. Needless to say, the pop-pop sound and tonal quality was closer to a 4 barrel import with their massive mufflers and did not come close to my friends GS V8 rumble. Sold the car to a couple who tended in a bar and needed a cheap ride when I went off to college for $200 or $250. Thought it would be interesting to find and restore it and looked for it a few years after graduation but the couple had moved on to other pastures unknown to the bar owner or the patrons that were present when I asked.

Sounds like you had great memories!

That was a different era, when a couple hundred dollars bought you a car you could drive. And any wheels were better than walking or riding a bike! Or God forbid, having your parents drive you to pick up your girlfriend! And worse yet, they'd start talking to her!