When I was 14, I bought my first vehicle, a Model A Ford pickup, $200 cash. Rural Area, no one bothered about licenses. At 15 only had to take the exam as my father attested I was an excellent driver that could parallel park. Not much use unless we drove into Phoenix, no curbs elsewhere.
The starter was broke, with no money for a new one; so, always started it with the crank. It usually started on the first crank once I got the combinations right. Quickly learned to set the spark and idle throttle. I was a light weight so had my share of kickbacks but no injuries. Sold it with the starter still dead.
Anyone ever drive a Hudson Terraplane? That was my second car, bought it to scrap it out but did run it awhile. It was a piece of junk. 6 months later sold it to a guy who wanted it for a demolition racer. He said they were real good as you could pull off the water jacket covers off both sides of the block and run w/o a radiator, then cool them done with a hose spraying into the water jacket. Never heard how he did. They were a tank, and had a lot of rear axle torque, heaviest car on the road.
In my teenage years; I scrapped out many cars and trucks to make money. My dad had a acetylene generator and an O2 tank w/torches he loaned me and I bought the consumables (whole story on its own). He let me use his flat bed truck to haul the scrap. Chopped up sheet metal bodies with a double bitted ax. Radiators,batteries, engines, and axles were the big money makers. Most vehicles I got for hauling away or next to nothing. Bought 6 flat bed trucks from a delivery company that had them setting. $20 and I had to set up all the beds on oil drums to make a loading dock for sorting freight. Hired another brawny kid to help for $100. I cleared $1500 after expenses. Found the rear axles, transmissions, and auxillary transmissions were valuable to the truck wrecking yards. They said bring us all you can get.
Along with working for wages working for my dad in his sheet metal and HVAC business and my scrapping business, I always had jingle in my pocket. Paid cash for several cars along the way for personal use.
Keep going and you will trigger more stuff from my cluttered past history.
Ron
Ron
