cars

I remember the old model A's and other cars, but the first one to get my attention was a car my brother Mundo brought home one summer, i don't know what make it was, but what i do remember was Mundo taking it apart,and i do mean taking it apart. He took off the body, fenders, doors, seats, windshield. The only thing left was the steering wheel, motor, tires, chassis and thats about it. One day he asked my brother and i if we wanted to go for a ride with him and of course we said yes, but there was no place to sit so he said get some prune boxes , so we did, and thats what we rode to town on. No seat belts, no doors, no windshield. You could see the road right below the boxes we were sitting on. but we were cool,we were styling. The police seen us and didn't say a thing. This was my brothers first hot rod. There's a picture of that car somewhere. The next car to get my attention was my brother Jr's, It was my first lowrider, he had it lowered in the back, this was a big deal. Everybody was doing it, and they were finding some creative ways to do it. cut the springs, heat the springs, remove the springs, even weighing down the rear of the car with rocks, of course they had to take the rocks out before they gave the car back to dad. Then it became a contest to see who could get the car the lowest. If you could get a pack of cigarettes under the car it was too high. All the cars had just your basic colors, nothing fancy. Then they started taking off the hubcaps, that was considered radical. Then it was painting the rims red with white wall tires. ( gangster whites ) If you couldn't afford white wall tires you painted them on with this special whitewall paint. After that they started taking off the hood and trunk ornaments and filling in the holes ,this was called "molding". Car clubs were starting to become popular about that time. I was probably about 10 years old at the time. At that time people looked forward to the new model cars coming out like we look forward to the Super Bowl. G. M. C, Ford and Crysler, that was about it. No other car mattered. then the hubcaps became popular, Cadillac and Buick hubcaps were the most popular at first, then came the spinners, crab lancers, Dodge lancers, moons ( full moons and half moons) and then the pointed ones they called titty hubs ( sorry ladies i didn't give them that name) cars were really changing, it was the 50's. Tuck and roll upholstery. dual pipes, skirts ( on the cars ) cool paint jobs. a .m. radio with just one speaker, then they started putting two speakers one in the front and one in the back. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Bill haley and the Comets, The Platters and a whole bunch of others, this was Rock and Roll and all the young folks were digging it. My first car was a 1939 chevy. all black. I paid $20.00 for it and it ran like a clock. The first thing i did was lower it as far as i could. I had the springs heated to lower it. There was this old man who lived down by the river and if you took him a soda or something he would lower your car for you. Sometimes he would do it for nothing. Cars were all pretty distinctive then with there big fins, chrome grills, two and sometimes three tone paint jobs. in closing i would just like to say, If you ever get a chance to ride in an old car go for it i really think you'll enjoy it.......Bud