What was the first car you worked on regularly?

1966 Mustang
My first car, Hand me down from my sister in 1973/74 had it repainted in the original Springtime Yellow, it was in REALLY nice shape but the NY road salt took a toll on the paint so I had it re-done

Always did my own tune ups and also for friends and even some co-workers. Same goes for the boats I owned.
Points, Condenser, Rotor, Distributor Caps, ignition coils, PVC valves, gas filters, air filters, timing, were all so simple then.
 
Last edited:
1976 2 door Buick LeSabre....Had a '70 Buick 225 455 & TH400 swapped in.
I got a beautiful hand me down '65 Electra 225 convertible with the 401 Nailhead. After somehow toasting the condenser on my first try at points I did my first successful V8 tune-up with a GM windowed distributor. Loved that car. I replaced the stock muffler with a single Cherry Bomb - what a sound! I was also impressed with the giant aluminum brake drums when I performed my first brake job on that car.
Later I got a 1970 Electra 225 with the 455, THM400 and Posi. It was indestructible, but it didn't quite have the character of the 1965.

Pet peeve - If someone in my presence calls these Buick a "deuce and a quarter" I'm gonna smack the dope!

- Arco
 
Last edited:
My first car I worked on was a 63 Plymouth Valiant. It was my first car that my older sister and I had to share.
This was my first car as well! Given to me by my grandmother so I didn't have to hitch hike from college to home and work. It was 10 years old at the time with 65K miles. Tune-ups were a breeze but hated the distributer being on the slanted side of the engine. I also was jealous of the Chevy guys that had a neat little window on the cap to set the dwell. Good memories! It lasted to 165K when I sold it after completing my residency after dental school. By the way, it was a V200 with 170 ci slant 6.
 
1993 Jeep Wrangler YJ. It was simple and had a great little 2.5 4 cylinder engine. It also had a massive amount of room under the hood, so things were easy to access. I changed spark plugs, thermostat, hoses, belt, PCV, and really learned to do all the different maintenance tasks on that wonderful Jeep. I also learned to do some modifications, such as adding custom bumpers and skid plating.

One of the dumbest vehicular things I ever did was to sell that Jeep. I wish I still had it today. It was bulletproof. That little engine was like a tractor engine and I think would have run for half a million miles, easily.
Sold my 95 last year. It needed an engine and I didn’t feel like doing it. It was a great vehicle to play with.
 
1970 swinger slant six probably bought in 1980 first car $150. My neighbor was a retired Plymouth mechanic he checked the car for me said buy it. He did a full tune up for me it purred like a kitten. He found me a 340 duster a year later from one of his old customers he tuned that thing we did a little work on the engine. When we finished with the engine changed the rear it ran like a raped ape that old man knew his stuff taught me a lot.
 
A 1948 Plymouth sedan DeLuxe with a rebuilt 6 cylinder truck engine similar to this one. I paid grandpa $50 for it with the promise that together we rebuild the truck engine so that I "could learn some mechanics."

1948 Plymouth DeLuxe.jpg

 
1984 GMC S15 Jimmy.

Bought it non-running for $100, put about $4,000 into engine and trans rebuild, go fast parts, suspension, tires, interior, etc.

Gave it away for free a few years ago after owning it for ~25 years.
 
First car I worked on was a '73 Vega wagon that was gifted to me by my parents when it was around five years old.
I was in college at the time and decided to remove the head to see if I could determine the cause of the huge oil consumption. I did this and discovered large scores in all four cylinder bores, so I had my answer. The iron head with the cam in it was pretty darn heavy as I recall. I put it back together with a beam torque wrench I bought from Kmart for cheap and drove on while adding quarts of cheap on sale 10W-40 on a regular basis. I did replace the timing belt while I was at it. I later had to replace the fuel pump, but dropping the tank was easy and parts were cheap.
I drove it for another few years after taking the head off with no other issues other than the really high oil consumption. Even did a number of long trips in the car. Did have to remove and clean the plugs pretty often.
I had also bought a cheap timing light, dwell/tach and feeler gauge from a Gold Circle.
The Vega taught me a lot, especially the virtues of simplicity in a vehicle.
 
In November 1966, I bought a 1964 Corvette convertible at age 19. I sold everything I owned to buy that car. As I was broke, I did all the maintenance on that car. The ignition seemed to need a lot of attention. With the leaded fuel, points and condenser ignition and distributor. and plain old AC Delco spark plugs, it needed a tune up every 5000 miles. I later added an aftermarket capacitive discharge ignition box that used the points to trigger discharges into the coil. Tune ups lasted longer, but that leaded fuel still fouled plugs.
 
1968 Mercury Montego MX convertible. Did most of the work done on that car including tune ups.
 
'66 Oldsmobile 98 LS.
Oil-tune ups-shocks-window switches.
I was told that consistent, fuel and otherwise good maintenance means carburetors didn't need to be messed with.
I also learned that Rotation was a good thing, but regular alignments and balancing weren't frequently needed.
And other stuff.
 
Back
Top Bottom