Your first car

[Big_John]

1984 Mercury Cougar... the biggest piece of junk I ever owned.

My youngest son had one of those for a short time when he was in high school. He bought the car for next to nothing and it was worth every penny... LOL. It had an excellent body, but all sorts of mechanical gremlins. It sat in my driveway and we decided it wasn't worth fixing...

I posted it "for sale" on a Mercury Cougar forum... I stated quite frankly that it had a great body and a lot of good parts. It could be had for the price of scrap. You wouldn't believe the nonsense I got from those guys. First... It wasn't a XR-7. It was "How dare you post something other than a XR-7. No one is going to be interested in buying a car that isn't a XR-7". It quickly went from there to "How dare you scrap this car".

I defended myself once.. saying "The car has to go... I thought I would offer to help any fellow car guys first... and it's a entire parts car for the price of a tail light". More nonsense.... including a couple "If it's a nice parts car, why is it so cheap?" I called the scrap guy and he took it away. I didn't get a pic of it being hauled away, but if I had, I would have posted it.

 

[Jussi]

1982 bought this fury 3 -70 with my friends, later to my self. Pictures are from 1983

Those happy days

 

[polara71]

So you're the other kid that had a four door C body in 83...?

 

[75LandYacht]

Make sense to me, in Europe the cars are small, so instead of all his friends bring allot of cars, everyone he knows pitchs in and buys an Ol American beast!! they all ride in ONE car.. lol..

 

[crv]

1982 bought this fury 3 -70 with my friends, later to my self. Pictures are from 1983

Those happy days

Engine compartment acrobatics are always fun.

 

[Samplingman]

My youngest son had one of those for a short time when he was in high school. He bought the car for next to nothing and it was worth every penny... LOL. It had an excellent body, but all sorts of mechanical gremlins. It sat in my driveway and we decided it wasn't worth fixing...

I posted it "for sale" on a Mercury Cougar forum... I stated quite frankly that it had a great body and a lot of good parts. It could be had for the price of scrap. You wouldn't believe the nonsense I got from those guys. First... It wasn't a XR-7. It was "How dare you post something other than a XR-7. No one is going to be interested in buying a car that isn't a XR-7". It quickly went from there to "How dare you scrap this car".

I defended myself once.. saying "The car has to go... I thought I would offer to help any fellow car guys first... and it's a entire parts car for the price of a tail light". More nonsense.... including a couple "If it's a nice parts car, why is it so cheap?" I called the scrap guy and he took it away. I didn't get a pic of it being hauled away, but if I had, I would have posted it.

Sound a lot like this forum sometimes.

 

[Jussi]

Make sense to me, in Europe the cars are small, so instead of all his friends bring allot of cars, everyone he knows pitchs in and buys an Ol American beast!! they all ride in ONE car.. lol..

3 guys, 1 gallon of gas (yes really!), drove to main street parking.
One as driver, for others little booze.
Hoping to get some girls to talk with and maybe little more..
Sometimes got lucky.

 

[cantflip]

3 guys, 1 gallon of gas (yes really!), drove to main street parking.
One as driver, for others little booze.
Hoping to get some girls to talk with and maybe little more..
Sometimes got lucky.

I think most of us were playing the 1 yes for 100 no's game at that age. Though sometimes it seemed like a 1000 no's.

 

[Bart]

I had several concurrently: technically, my first car was a truck. It was a 1971 D100 318/4 speed. it was state motor pool orange. I put 60,000 miles on it in the three years I drove it. A couple months after I bought that, I picked up my first car, a '62 Dart highway patrol car; 361hp, pushbutton, 3.91 limited slip. That was fun! also bought a '67 Barracuda 318/904. All three are awaiting restoration on my dad's property, now that I live in my home state again...

 

[pomonamissel]

looks like mine , 64 n 69 still flying that factory orange

 

[bluefury361]

Being right handed, I remember this is how I replaced the rear plug on the left bank of a big block....... Way back when I could still get in that position.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Being right handed, I remember this is how I replaced the rear plug on the left bank of a big block....... Way back when I could still get in that position.

Virtually every 69 Polara grill I have seen is bent down on the driverside, I have always said it was from climbing in. Try swapping a distributor on a small block without climbing up.


Alan

 

[Snotty]

I scanned this from an old photo. My first car was a '61 Bug. You can see the date my Mom wrote on it. I bought the car on August 8, 74, and picked it up the next day. All I could get on my AM radio was Richard Nixon's farewell speech! This was the fifth year of ownership and I was 20. I had already wrecked it three times, thus the different fenders, lights, etc. This was right before I bought a Baja Kit for it. I sold it two years later after I had bought a '70 Challenger.

When I think of all the cars I could have bought when I bought this, I want to go back in time and kick myself! But, I really wanted a Bug.

 

[GJS]

I scanned this from an old photo. My first car was a '61 Bug. You can see the date my Mom wrote on it. I bought the car on August 8, 74, and picked it up the next day. All I could get on my AM radio was Richard Nixon's farewell speech! This was the fifth year of ownership and I was 20. I had already wrecked it three times, thus the different fenders, lights, etc. This was right before I bought a Baja Kit for it. I sold it two years later after I had bought a '70 Challenger.

When I think of all the cars I could have bought when I bought this, I want to go back in time and kick myself! But, I really wanted a Bug.
View attachment 120912

NICE. My first restoration was a 66 1300 I picked up when I was 16 ... I don't think I was so much into the car as much as you could get parts at the corner store... in the end tho it was fun to drive .. unless it was winter.

 

[Snotty]

NICE. My first restoration was a 66 1300 I picked up when I was 16 ... I don't think I was so much into the car as much as you could get parts at the corner store... in the end tho it was fun to drive .. unless it was winter.

I wanted a '66 or 7 buy couldn't afford either. Same for the fastback; was simply out of my price range back then.

 

[thrashingcows]

My first car I bought off my father for $500. It was a 1980 Plymouth Caravelle 2dr, triple green, 318/auto and a worn out 3.21 suregrip. Sure my Mother has photos of it somewhere, but I don't have access to them right now.

Looked much like this one, but no T-tops.

 

[300rag]

I scanned this from an old photo. My first car was a '61 Bug. You can see the date my Mom wrote on it. I bought the car on August 8, 74, and picked it up the next day. All I could get on my AM radio was Richard Nixon's farewell speech! This was the fifth year of ownership and I was 20. I had already wrecked it three times, thus the different fenders, lights, etc. This was right before I bought a Baja Kit for it. I sold it two years later after I had bought a '70 Challenger.

When I think of all the cars I could have bought when I bought this, I want to go back in time and kick myself! But, I really wanted a Bug.
View attachment 120912

I see you did the 62 tail light swap on your 61 as well.

 

[monaco68]

This is the first plymouth I ever owned, fantastic car. I had trouble affording the insurance on it so I sold it to my dad's friend. He worked at Montreal General with underground parking. It only took 4 weeks before it looked like it had been in a derby. I almost cried.

After that I bought a 73 Fury 3 400 two door hard top from my dad ( can't find a photo). He was so pissed off at that car I was able to buy it at a very good price. He was in Montreal and it died 23 times on the Bonaventure expressway. NOT a happy camper. As soon as I bought it I took the carb off and sealed off the EGR orfices in the intake and replaced the carb. I then timed it by ear. It could eat a set of tires in no time after that and it never stalled again.
When my wife and I moved to Ontario we bought a 73 fury sport with a 318. Replaced the timing chain and never looked back. We made a lot of trips back and forth to Quebec with that car. We could cruise at 120 km all the way on less than 1/2 a tank. I only wish we still had at least one of those cars. Always looking.

 

[tbm3fan]

Virtually every 69 Polara grill I have seen is bent down on the driverside, I have always said it was from climbing in. Try swapping a distributor on a small block without climbing up.


Alan

I never noticed a problem and I swapped mine in and out about 5 times in 2010 from the passenger side.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

I never noticed a problem and I swapped mine in and out about 5 times in 2010 from the passenger side.

Maybe because I'm only 5'-7", even from the passenger side I'm on my toes.


Alan