How About a High School Hot Rods Thread

In the interest of getting the ball rolling here, how about posting about the car you drove through high school.

I hope this isn't too long and boring. This was was my daily driver, street racer, go out on dates, and school transportation car. 1970 Dodge Charger. Purchased stone stock with a 318 and steel wheels from a friend of my Dad for $200 and driven home. I swapped out the first 318 almost immediately for a hot rodded 318 with a Holley 650, Edelbrock dual plane intake, M/T valve covers, Direct Connection purple cam & kit and a set of Blackjack headers and turbo mufflers. It made very little power but with a full race B&M shift kit it kept breaking the tiny u joints on the 8 1/4 rearend.

So I bought a wrecked 72 Charger with a 400 big block and 727 and installed them relatively stock along with a 3.23 sure grip rear out of a 69 Road Runner. The 400 developed a rod knock and disintegrated a few months later. This time a warmed up 440 went in along with an Edelbrock Torquer, Holley 780, a small cam, those nice chrome Direct Connection valve covers, and a repop factory dual exhaust. Some where in the mix it got a set of Western 15x10 slots for the rear with Pro Trac N50 15's and some 70's on the front on American slots. I picked up the correct 1970 Go Wing for $35 from a kid in my neighborhood who had just wrecked his 70 Road Runner. The factory R/T emblems came off a junkyard 1970 R/T Charger that somebody shit canned at a local yard. I got the door scoops too but just couldn't bring myself to drill holes in my doors to install them. I drove it like this the majority of the time I had it but more was to come.

I bought a sideswiped 69 Road Runner with a 4 speed that ran pretty good for $400 and used it as a parts donor. The carpet, trans, 4 speed hump, pedals and clutch linkage went into my Charger along with the 11 inch front brakes. I bought a 3.54 Dana out of a 69 GTX from my buddy for $100 and installed that along with the staggered rear leaf springs out of a 68 Charger R/T I parted out along with a new set of Black Jack headers. A kid I knew at school had a 1970 Charger 500 with a factory 4 speed that he totalled out in a drag race next to the school one morning. From him I bought the 4 speed console and the big dog leg pistol grip shifter which pretty much completed the car. I think like paid him like $100. He wanted "all the money" I had picked up an Edelbrock aluminum 6 pack intake with carbs for $60 from another kid but sadly I never got it on the car and I resold it for the same price to another buddy. It was no show car but was one of the bad boys in the high school lot I can tell you for sure.

64 c10 long bed, small window. Th400, 327 with (camel humps). Wiend intake, hooker supercomps with full length 3” exhaust with bullet mufflers, I forget the cam details. 650cfm Holley, all msd ignition purchased from Mike Mendenhalls speed shop in South Bay. 3:73 rear. 6/4 drop from early classic enterprises and a Sony explode cd player!! A/c, power steering and disc brakes up front.

Should’ve kept that instead of my 65.




Side note: that’s me at 17 in the black and white H.A. Support shirt. Kinda ironic, looking back.. my younger brother dressed like vanilla ice was 12? Pics are from 1999. Lotta cool cars were built in that garage/driveway.

Hey I was raised in the country and had to work on my "hotrod" skills. This 1977 Scottsdale was my first vehicle. It was a great 30 footer. The 350 engine was so worn out the first oil leak I fixed was replacing the timing cover because the chain had literally rubbed a hole in the bottom of it.

I don't know why I don't have any other pictures of it I can find. I owned it for 7 years or so. I did eventually get rid of the country boy look and added N50s and worked on making it faster. Have to remember I was making like $3 a hr. and in high school. A 2 weeks pay check was I think around $140.

My first attempt at making it faster I took all the money that I got as a graduation presents and bought a 350 short block. Cast flat top pistons and everything else was bone stock. So I went to the local machine shop where I had my low compression 1977 heads getting worked over, I had seen they had performance cams on the shelf. I was a avid magazine reader at the time and they preached not to over cam your shit like it was the end of the world so I saw this description on this one here that read.

Good street performance with stock converter, choppy idle. Biggest cam for inboard/outboard. Good for ski, economy and some performance.

Click to expand...

Well all my eyes saw was what I highlighted in orange. I also stopped reading when I got to the word idle. So I picked up this Comp Cams
High Energy 268H Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshaft Lift: .454''/.454" Duration: 268°/268° RPM Range: 1500-5500 and headed to the counter. I could hear it loping in my head. My grandfather (retired Ford mechanic) showed me how to assemble a motor. So we put the heads on and the cam in along with the factory iron intake and carb. I had my first hotrod! Or so I thought. That POS cam made it sound like it had a random miss at best. I was so disgusted. To make matters worse I didn't feel any gain under my foot.

So from there I went to a carb shop over around Dallas and bought a factory reconditioned Qjet. I thought I was being smart the guy says we don't have any for a 350 currently. The best we can do is this one for a 400 small block. In my childish mind I was like awesome bigger even better. Took it home and it still didn't run any better. It ran good it just wasn't a hotrod.

Some things transpired over the next year or so and I acquired a 400 small block. I was still a little dummy but I was a smarter dummy. I had learned some stuff after getting nowhere on my first attempt. Well I knew bigger air pump would be better. Then a found a set of iron bowtie heads with 64cc chambers 2.02 /1.60 valves got me a set of 1.52 Magnum roller tip rockers and a nice new camshaft. I ordered me up a Solid Flat tappet cam Lift: .555''/.555" Duration: 260°/270° RPM Range: 3500-7500. Picked up a used Transking 3500 converter did a rebuild on the TH350 minus the wave plate and put that famous B&M shift kit in. Next was I found a used cheap Weiand 7508 aluminum intake. I topped it off with a brand new Holley 3310 750 carb. Oh yeah I was cool shit then. But hey I had a hotrod and everyone in town knew it. I was a complete idiot.

I know I swapped intakes and carbs to better stuff even ran a Predator at one point. All was good till that one morning at 2am getting off work and there was black ice out. I found some and there was nothing I could do I hit a guardrail. Messed the truck up pretty good. I eventually put it back together on a new frame and drove it a while. Finally it became a sitting piece of history and someone wanted it so I sold it. I like most of the rest of us wish I hadn't sold it but its gone. And this is what led to the choice of my truck I built now.