My first car was a 64 Galaxie 500XL that I bought from the original owner (a Ford dealer) for $700 in 1973 when I was a Jr. in high school. What a sweet ride: 390, floor shift automatic, rear speaker, bucket seats, console. The trunk was so big I could sneak 3 guys into the drive-in movies if the spare was removed. One day while driving home it developed a nasty knock somewhere in the valve train. I knew nothing about cars at this time and certainly couldn’t afford to take it to a mechanic for repair. So one Friday night a few of my buddies came over and we tore the heads off. I think the problem was only a collapsed lifter but that’s what happens when you get too much testosterone and not enough knowledge together. But that’s when I became interested in cars – seeing that engine opened up made me actually understand how it worked, way cool. One of my friends talked me into having the heads milled since they were off the car anyway to increase the compression and the ball started rolling from there. Eventually it got mags, fat tires (had to roll the fender lips to get ‘em to fit), Hooker headers (a pain in the butt 8 hour install), Gabriel Hijacker air shocks, Holley 650 double pumper, i.e., another great car trashed by a punk high school kid. I sold it in 1976 for $800 shortly after I bought my next car, a 57 T-Bird for $1900, to a guy I went to high school with. Unfortunately he wrapped it around a telephone pole a few weeks later. He was OK but the car was totaled. For a brief period I had both cars which was pretty cool at the time for a 19 year old. I remember one week where there was one good battery for two cars. I would take the Galaxie to the local drive-in, hangout, then after a while drive it home, swap the battery into the T-Bird and take it back to the drive-in. That 57 bird was a fun car but looked like hell (primer, etc.). Some previous owner had replaced the 312 with a 68 J-code 302 complete with a Shelby lettered intake, headers, Holley 600, HiPo dual point, and T-10 4 speed. That made it a much better balanced car being much lighter up front and it actually didn’t handle too bad, it was great in the snow. I had plans to restore it someday but it had a pretty bad case of body cancer and I had to make a decision before it literally fell apart – put $10K into immediately or sell it. Since I didn’t have anywhere near $10K it was an easy decision, I sold it in 1982 for $6000 to a guy who wanted to restore it with his son. Those two cars and the experiences I had with them are what injected the blue blood into my veins. Dave 6S1757 In a message dated 2/21/2005 7:04:28 AM Pacific Standard Time, RSANTER@aol.com writes: > So what was everyone's first car/highschool car? And do you still have it?
