Cars from my childhood

[Paladin]

First car I remember is Dad & Mom's 1941 Buick when we were stationed at Camp Hood in 1948-49.
(Me standing in front of Dad).

View attachment 67916

Wonderful photo of you and your family standing next to the family car. Just for clarification, the automobile in the photograph is a Chevrolet Fleetline Aero Coupe. The actual model year is difficult to determine since they built the same body style from 1942 through 1948. For reference, the car in my attached photo is a 1942 Chevrolet Fleetline Aero Coupe.

 

[vito]

I wish I had a photo of the first car my family ever owned, a 1941 Oldsmobile. My Dad was so proud of this car, the first he could afford, and this was in about 1948 or '49. What I remember most about that car was the bad smell of the apparently mildewed upholstery, a smell that never went away. But that car gave us the freedom of traveling beyond where the city buses and subway trains of NYC could take us, and it was exciting to me as a little kid.

 

[gnappi]

My sister and I on pop's Studebaker Champion.

It was black, and I think it had grey fuzzy interior that itched. My mom told me I would sleep on the shelf under the back window... no seat belts back then eh?

 

[Watchman]

The first car I remember was my folk's '57 Chevy Bel Aire wagon. It had a bad oil consumption problem, and would produce more blue smoke out the tailpipe than the city busses of the era. There were always metal gallon cans of standard oil on the backseat floorboards, and every gas stop required adding oil as well. Good times!

 

[Ale-8(1)]

First family car I recall was a 1938 Chevy four-door sedan "inherited" from my grandparents. Sitting in the center of the front bench seat I learned how to shift gears using the floor-mounted lever. That one got traded off on a 1947 Studebaker.

 

[jav]

I always had a j.c. Whitney catalog

 

[Armybrat]

Wonderful photo of you and your family standing next to the family car. Just for clarification, the automobile in the photograph is a Chevrolet Fleetline Aero Coupe. The actual model year is difficult to determine since they built the same body style from 1942 through 1948. For reference, the car in my attached photo is a 1942 Chevrolet Fleetline Aero Coupe.

You might be correct, as Mom could've mislabeled the description on the back of the photo.

 

[Gopher]

Dad bought the first 1955 Chevy the local dealership received with a 283 V8. It was turquoise and white. When he traded it off you could see the road through the holes in the floorboard. The 1965 Chevy Malibu wagon that replaced it with a 300 hp 327 had a special place in my heart. It won lots of races in the Red Light Nationals.

 

[KS25-06]

If I am not mistaken, I think the 283 did not appear until '57. It would have been a 265 in '55. My dad had a red '60 El Camino with a 283. For some reason it started using oil really bad. I talked him into seeing if they would replace the 283 with a 327. Since Dad was paying, the dealership said no problem. It had a 3-speed on the column with 308 gears in the rear. Not much for drag racing, but would bring the speedometer back to zero on top end.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

If I am not mistaken, I think the 283 did not appear until '57. It would have been a 265 in '55.

Yep.

 

[Mauser9]

Recall my dad's Kaiser and a 56 or 58 Buick Roadmaster. After that the 59 Pontiac Bonneville. Probably a big V-8 in that one. Wonder what year Pontiac came out with that 389?

 

[WAYNO]

I remember very well, our 2-dr Chevy. But from the photos I have (somewhere) I cannot tell if it's a '49, '50 or '51.
Early photos of me near that car, I was 2 or 3 years old. I don't know when the change happened, but thru much of my childhood, my Dad had a 59 Chevy. Simultaneously, he drove big Buick's. He bought and fixed cars in the neighbors driveway, and would sell them down on the street corner.

 

[Colonialgirl]

The first car I can remember was my grandad's '39 Packard with the spare tire on the fender. There were numerous Pontiacs and De Sotos before I got my first car; a '49 Ford two door sedan.

Yeah, I had one of them when I was a Jr in high school; it was a six cylinder model.
The first car I remember for my Dad was a 1951 Plymouth which got shipped to Morocco when the Navy transferred Dad there. (It was FRENCH Morocco in those days) Later he bought a 1956 Ford ( in Bartlesville, Ok) and a '49 (AW SHUCKS the brand slips the mind but I remember the two sitting in a hail storm (golf ball size) which broke the windshield and badly dented the hood and roof while Mom's car only had a dent in the sun visor..

 

[arfmel]

First family car I can remember was a DeSoto, probably a 55 or 56 model. There was an intriguing little hole in the headliner above the back seat. I used to get in trouble for sticking my finger in it. Dad traded it in on a 63 Chevy II wagon when I was 6.

 

[bedfordboy]

Wonder what year Pontiac came out with that 389?

The 389 came out in 59 as the result of increasing the bore of the current 370 V8. They bored it out again in 1961 when Pontiac offered the 421 as a dealer installed option and factory installed option in 1962. By then both the 389 and 421 could be had with the super duty (2x4 bbl) or tri-power (3x2's) performance versions which were dominating NASCAR and drag racing. Those were the good old days I have a 389 tri-power in my 66 GTO… those 3x2's at full throttle make some beautiful music.

 

[WAYNO]

Found it!

 

[Heliman]

My first family car memory was a 47 Nash, maroon in color.

 

[larry8]

My dad had a 40 something chevy that he traded for a '52 4 door chevy that after a few years burned a quart of oil every 2 weeks, When my dad went in the hospital he gave me the car and I had 4 spare tires mounted on junkyard wheels in the trunk cause it would have a flat every time I took it out. I got a job after collage and bought a new 64' Pontiac GTO convertible. Wish I'd a kept it now.

 

[Jeepnik]

The first car I remember was my folk's '57 Chevy Bel Aire wagon. It had a bad oil consumption problem, and would produce more blue smoke out the tailpipe than the city busses of the era. There were always metal gallon cans of standard oil on the backseat floorboards, and every gas stop required adding oil as well. Good times!

What color. Ours was light green and white. Neighbor had a red and white one that I thought looked cool.

 

[jimbo1096]

Dad had one like this,49 Plymouth in this same color.
I remember riding on the package tray watching the cars and scenery go by.