List Your First & Latest Mopar Experiences

[kencombs]

Back in '59 I was a new driver with a ratty '46 chevy 2dr.  Dad had a 49 Dodge 1t he had bought to resell.  Sitting out by the road with a for sale sign.  Friend of mine came over and needed a tow as he was stuck in a ditch.  Well, looked in the Dodge, no keys.  At that time we always left the keys in the vehicles, just no theft issues in our town.  Anyway, since we needed tow truck, I hot-wired the old flatty, took it over and pulled him out.

 

Dad came home, noticed the truck had been moved and we had a 'discussion' about no insurance, no permission etc.

 

It just never occurred to me that he took the key out on purpose.

 

BTW, the old truck had no problem draggin' a Ford out of a really deep ditch.

 

No more Mopars until '64 when I picked up a 58 Coronet, red/white, 325 poly, smoking.  It got replaced with a 63 413,  much faster than the aforementioned 1T!!!

 

Then in '70 I bought a low mileage '65 Dart 273 Hi Po 4 spd.  Still my favorite car!  That one was still under factory warranty at 47000miles.  Remember the first long, 50K warranty?  It was burning oil so it got rings, bearings courtesy of Ma Dodge. I added PC valve stem seals and valve job on my dime.  And, to ice the deal, the local dealer had no mechanic due to resignations and I needed my car.  So, I did the work, at my Dad's shop, the dealer provided parts and submitted the warranty paperwork .  A couple of weeks later he dropped off a labor check.  Never before or since has anyone paid me to work on my on car!

Edited September 24, 2019 by kencombs

[MackTheFinger]

1969, my then girlfriend's father gave me a '63 D-100 with a 318. The hood had blown open and it had set on a railroad right of way for 3-4 years with the dented up hood in the bed. The truck generally looked like it had been in a demolition derby. I got it sorta running and almost immediately traded it off for a really nice '65 VW. The night I drove it out to swap for the VW it was backfiring and just generally running badly. I had taken the air filter off and it would shoot flames 20 feet in the air! The guy I sold it to repainted it, got it running right and drove it for a while before he sold it. Looked like a new truck after he got finished with it.

[RNR1957NYer]

My first car ride home from the hospital in 1954 was in Dad's '52 Belvedere; he soon bought a used '52 Windsor because he wanted to upgrade to a Chrysler and with two kids now, the four door Windsor was more practical than the two door hardtop Belvedere.  The Chrysler was the first family car I remember; Dad  kept it 'til '60 when he bought a new Valiant. He brought the Valiant home, opened the trunk for a neighbor and thought the spare was missing; at six years old I showed him it was under the floor (I must have been paying attention at the dealership!)

My latest experience was the 25 mile drive into Boston for  work this morning - my daily driver '09 Challenger R/T has about 202,000 miles on it.  There are a few MoPar experiences between these.....

[plymouthcranbrook]

I first remember standing on the drivers seat(about age 6 or so I suspect) "driving" the `1940 Plymouth 2 door sedan(I suspect it was a Road King) while my Father really drive down the alley next to our apartment.  Then at age 7 or 8 the Family went on a trip to see my Mother's family. We drove from NE Illinois to West Virginia in the aforementioned 1940 Plymouth. This was in 1958. Took three days to make the trip(Dad was a slow cautious driver) and I remember at least two breakdowns one happening on a bridge over the Ohio River and a nice old lady who used her car to push us down to a gas station at the bottom of the bridge.  I remember being there for hours until late at night while the man at the gas station and my Dad repaired the Plymouth.

 

Latest was today when I drove my 52 Cranbrook  to work at the bus company garage.

Edited September 26, 2019 by plymouthcranbrook

[hkestes41]

My first was a 48 Plymouth Business Coupe that I bought when I was 14 with yard mowing money. Drove it through High School with the flathead. Once I spun a bearing, I built a 383/727 from my grandfather's 68 Belvedere wagon and had it put in the 48 along with a Nova subframe. The subframe was a big mistake. It was done well but should have just rebuilt the stock suspension. Since then have had a a 73 Cuda with the 383 from the 48, a 34 Plymouth coupe with a 318, a second 48 Plymouth coupe this one a Club coupe with a hot rod flathead and OD and now my 37 Plymouth coupe with 360 Magnum / 727.  

Edited September 27, 2019 by hkestes41

[LazyK]

first experience, though I do not remember it, would have been the ride home from the hospital  in 1955 in a 1951Plymouth Cranbrook .

Drove the family 1960 Dodge Pioneer station wagon during high school. My first car, I purchased, was a 1972 Dodge Challenger, which I still own. Dodge Lancer and Plymouth voyager mini van while the kids were growing up. Today the daily drivers are a Jeep Liberty and a Dodge Ram 2500. Other than a couple of Toyotas mixed in I have always owned MOPARS . 

 

And that 1951Plymouth should be back on the road in the spring

Edited September 27, 2019 by LazyK

[Dodgeb4ya]

My first car was a 51 Cranbrook that was handed down to me as my first car in 1968.Still have it. 2nd car in 1971 was a 52  Belvedere I restored and still have it. Have added several more MoPar cars and trucks over the years.

Yesterday I drove the 1952 Belvedere and my 1950 Chrysler NewYorker Newport hardtop.

[Bobb Horn]

My first experience with Mopar was in the early 1950s, in a 36 Plymouth Coupe my two Uncles traded back and forth.    The younger Uncle ended up keeping it for over 40 years.  My first car was 54 Plymouth.     Now I have a 38 Plymouth Coupe, I will keep as long as I am breathing.  Bought it in 1986.      Just sold my 37 Plymouth Coupe project, and have a 37 four door project, I will sell soon.

[Reg Evans]

My first car when I was in high school in 1966 was a 1933 Plymouth sedan with dual side mounts. I paid $225 for it back then.  I had to sell it a couple of years later as I became a dad and had no place to park in at my apartment complex. I always kicked myself for selling it and kept an eye out for another just like it for many years.  Fast forward 46 years to 2014 I finally found one on Craigslist in Tacoma,Wa.  !!!   This one was owned by the seller since 1958 when he bought it from the original owner.  It's in amazingly original condition and still runs like a top.

 

 

[joecoozie]

1st car at age 15 - 1961 Chrysler Windsor given to me by my neighbor - it barely fit down the driveway - sold it to my brothers friend for $50

Next was a 1949 Plymouth 2-door sedan. Used it as my daily driver through tech school

 

49 Desoto Suburban used as daily driver - always stalled going up hills and wouldn't restart - brakes never worked properly (neither did the hand brake) so rolling backwards down a steep hill on a busy street and "standing" on the brakes was, to say the least, "exciting". But I was 18 years old.....Ho Hum.

47 Desoto Suburban - loved that car and have regretted selling it many moons ago.

51 Desoto Carry-All - had to cut the tree that grew through the front bumper to get the car out of the yard it sat in

49 Dodge Coronet - bought it for $50 and drove it around for a few months

2 62 Valiant Wagons

62 Valiant

62 Dodge Lancer GT - got demolished in a head-on with a cement truck

49 Plymouth Business Coupe

51 Windsor Town & Country Wagon

Several 47-48 Town & County's - have a 47 Sedan now

49 Plymouth Woody - have it now

47 Plymouth Coupe - have it now 

47 Plymouth Sedan - have it now

37 Plymouth 2-door sedan

1954 Belvedere that I used as a daily driver. Car smoked like a chimney, had sagging rear springs, had a miss in the engine, torn up interior. Paid $100 for it.

When I drove at night everyone flashed me because they thought I had the high beams on.The sagging rear springs made the headlights point to the sky 

 I smuggled my girlfriends brother and cousin into a Swim Club by putting them in the trunk. As I was driving over the dirt road and all of the bumps the people at the gate heard "Ye-ha's" coming from somewhere but didn't know it was the 2 knuckleheads in the trunk

Probably so many more I cannot recall right now - and I am not "loyal" to Mopars. Have had many,many other cars and makes.

[pflaming]

Headed for DMV later this week, then lots of short reliably drive tests.

[Young Ed]

This is the first one under my ownership. Been 19 years now. This is how it looked when I got it along with 4 pickup loads of all the pieces. 

Before that I spent plenty of time in on and around all of Dads mopars. 

and current

 

This is the latest mopar experience. Picked this up the end of May this year and have been driving it all summer long! poly 318 push button auto 64 belvedere 6pass station wagon.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/dodgepu1946/1964 Plymouth/IMG_20190601_174249.jpg

 

 

 

 

[Reg Evans]

I need that wagon !!!!

[Young Ed]

Just now, Reg Evans said:

I need that wagon !!!!

it's not going anywhere for a long long time!

[HotRodTractor]

My first Mopar experience would have to be memories of an early 80s extended cab pickup we used around the farm. It was 2 tone brown and tan. I specifically remember playing in the bed of the truck sitting in a hayfield/pasture area just south of the dairy barn and I wasn't very old.

 

After that came a couple of red regular cabs - the only way I could tell them apart when I was a kid was one was an auto, and one was a manual. By the time the 90s rolled around the farm was using Fords..... so it was short lived. If I had to guess we were all Fords by the time I was 10.

 

By the time I was 14..... I remedied that by starting to drag home Pilothouse pickups..... by the time I was 16 I had a pretty solid driver. There are times I wish I had never sold that truck.

 

Fast foward and my latest Mopar experience was under the hood the the D.C P15 this afternoon. I was going to clean and gap the plugs as I fouled them out yesterday somehow.... don't know any more than that. I couldn't located my spark plug cleaner to make the job easy (been cleaning and reorganizing the shop, so everything is a mess).... so I figure I would just pop in a new set of Autolite 306s... I only had 4 on the shelf as they got some 386s mixed into the pile (for my Deeres). Such is my life. Minor setbacks. lol

[neil and ethan]

  69 gtx  you are right ,     and 69 charger  dk. blue /white vinyl .  never had      

sorry no pics , , came from hosp. in a51 Plymouth, in 58 , then dad had a 57,and almost a  new 64, but mom sent him back to get the cheaper used 61.

  then his first new car 68 polara.  later 74 sebring plus ,  the 68  first car I drove with  licence

 first cool one  was the sebring .  .  as a kid   drove 2 and 3 ton 46-48 dodge /fargo  grain trucks , and 52 fluid drive 1 ton.

 first car I bought was a 70 Newport custom 4dr . hard top. 70,000 miles.

 

 memory   11 yr. old  ,summer day , on the front lawn in 69 cleaning the polara ,for a 3 day holiday at the lake . listening to WLS Chicago,  from the west side of Saskatchewan,

 1500 miles away ,  for the music and the grand Spalding dodge commercial's . Red rubber ball was  the  song. 

  going to the RR tracks in august , 3/4 mile way to get a sneak  peak  at what the new models looked like ,  68,69 70  loved the 69 charger.

       years later 

   brother had rebuilt his 71 gtx  440 six pak . we were over 150 mph in 4th and he backed off because the revs were over  6,0000 .

 you do not forget , going that fast .     ever  , even slowing down was  scary.

 

      

  

[oldmopar]

my 1st moper was my 1st car a 1959 Plymouth Belveder, brought my dad to look at the car that was 1968 . owned others mopars since.

 

[mlozier76]

My first Mopar Memory is when my brother and I received a call from our old preschool sunday school teacher asking my dad if us boys would like her old red 1975 Plymouth Fury.  She had started pulling it out of her garage and accidentally scraped the left door on the garage door.  We showed up and the car was as she left it, halfway out of the garage.  She decided not to drive anymore and we picked up the car for $300.  We had to replace the transmission cooler lines to be able to move the car.  We took "Big Red" everywhere and I probably would still have it, if my dad hadn't sold it while I was away at college.

  One of my more recent outings with my 48 Dodge Coupe was on an 8-900 mile trek with our car club to Kalispell, MT. The old girl did great, other than a few hiccups trying to start her.  I have intentions to build up my "new" motor this winter, and show of my rare wares, like Shanafelt Dual Intake with Holley 97s and Phillips Performance headers.   We had several unique vehicles in our convoy, including one of Gene Autry's  old tour buses. We found it in a someone's side yard and showed it to a friend who picked it up and refitted it with a Cummins and now drives it all over and on ski trips. 

Edited September 30, 2019 by mlozier76

[n1gzd_plymouth]

My family had no Mopar products and I never owned one until 2000. My first Mopar (and the first one that I ever drove) was my 1958 Desoto Firesweep which I still have.

My most recent Mopar experience was in fact driving that same car last weekend.

Rebecca

[Dan Hiebert]

First Mopar experience was my second car (first was a '67 Fairlane wagon that met its demise vs. a cow in southern Texas after only a few months of ownership) in 1980, a 1966 Chrysler Imperial Crown.  The girls called it a "baby limo" and it ran like a scalded ape.  Joined the Army and my mom gave it as payment to the guy that fixed her roof.  Oh, well.  Fast forward through the years discovering Mopar products always seem to fit the bill, to the most recent Mopar experience, and washed the sorta spankin' new 2019 (Dodge...don't seem to be able to call it just a) Ram pick-up today.  Yeah, yeah, not something to blow one's skirt up, but I did take my uncle for a spin in the trusty ol' D24 last week.  Although we've had the D24 for 28 years now, he'd never even seen the car before. 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Dan Hiebert
Typo

[JerseyHarold]

First experience:  Coming home from the hospital in our '52 Cambridge.

 

Latest experience:  Just got home from the UPS store where I was quoted an outrageous price to ship an NOS Plymouth fender I'm trying to sell.

 

Lots of Mopar experiences between those two....

[MackTheFinger]

Another fun time in 1969, BIL had a '65 Dodge Coronet wagon, we stopped to look at a '53 Chevy I was thinking about buying. I slammed the door of the Dodge on my right index finger. The fingernail pulled out from the bottom and was still hanging on at the top. BIL says "Let me take a look at that" and yanked the fingernail and most of the meat off the top of my finger. I didn't hang around to buy the Chevy and even though I've had a lot of good times with that finger it still gives me trouble to this day.

Laugh's on him, though; I'm still around and he isn't. ?

[jamienoise]

I'm a bit younger than most around here, so my first Mopar experience was as a teenager in 2005 outside our local depressed mall. A friend was throwing a rock show in an empty store, and out back one of the guys had a '68 440 R/T Charger in B5 blue that sounded incredible and shot flames. It left an impression. A couple years later I bought a '72 Valiant, and then a '74 Duster, and then a '73 Scamp (from the guy with the Charger,) and then about 10 more A-bodies. And then trucks. And any other Chrysler product I could get my hands on. Eventually I bought my '66 Charger (with factory 361) which I own to this day. My daughter came home in the car. I don't think I could ever part with it. It is currently set up for daily driver duties and has a 1999 Dodge Ram drivetrain, complete with fuel injection and the overdrive automatic, but I am scheming to go back to a big block and add a four speed at some point. I now own and operate my own shop, and though we work on everything my real passion is fixing classic Mopars. We are currently restoring a '78 W200 crew cab.

 

My most recent Mopar experience was acquiring a '55 Plymouth Plaza sedan - the car that brought me to this site. It showed up on a Facebook classic car group, and the gentleman wanted to trade it for a pickup. My offer of a (different) '78 W200 with a big block was the only real offer, and he agreed to trade. I loaded the Power Wagon on a trailer and towed it behind my '99 Ram (with a Cummins and its third automatic transmission) several hours down to Longview the back way - it was a little heavy. When we arrived, the gentleman hardly looked at the Power Wagon, and we set about making the Plaza run again after several years. The car had a Chinese electronic distributor, which hadn't been installed correctly, but even with that solved refused to make spark due to the pickup being trash. We found the original Chrysler distributor in the trunk, scraped the points and had the flathead running in about twenty minutes. I drove it around the block and loaded it up, and since bringing it home I have tinkered with it a good bit and driven it around town. The paint is faded and not the correct shade of blue, but the seats have been recovered and there is no rust to speak of, which is quite uncommon in this area. I'm used to getting looks in old cars, but the attention the Plaza brings is somewhat startling. The flathead purrs at this point, but strangely will not rev past about 2000 RPM. More on that later...

Edited October 4, 2019 by jamienoise

[B3BNMissouri]

My first dodge was in 1979 at the age of 18, I bought a 1969 Dodge Charger RT 440, sold it when i was 24. Ive missed that car everyday since then!

Over the other years,  ive had a 75 valiant and bought new ram trucks in 97 and 03.

Still have my 03 and love it!

Recently i went old school though and picked up a project 51 B3B 1/2 ton pickup.

 

[_shel_ny]

First that I remember was in 1966 when I turned 16 some of my driving with my learners permit driving was with my grandmothers Plymouth. A light blue 4 door. Think it was a '61 or '62.

 

Took my road test in a '65 Dodge that I totaled in 1968.

 

My first car (purchased in 1969 for around $300) was a '62 Plymouth that I bought where my brother lived in PA. Was in the Air Force stationed in NC, and made many trips to PA on weekends.

 

I still remember one Sunday night when I was on the way back to NC.  Driving along on 301 (sometimes drove I-95) late. Kicked it on up to 105 for a short spurt, then let it slow back down. Next thing I know, a car pulls up along side in the left lane. It was the police.  I did not get a ticket.

 

Had a Dodge van. '73 I think. Bought it in '76. It was a panel van. Cut some holes near the back for port hole windows. Put in a sun roof, button tufted foam walls/ceiling,  put on some custom wheels, and wide tires.  Got an Earl Scheib paint job, and drove it until 90-91 replacing the engine (slant 6) twice, then I signed it over to a guy for some drywall work done in my house.

 

'50 New Yorker, and '51 Meadowbrook, but never had them on the road. Well the NY was, but just a quick unregistered drive late one evening.

 

Last, the one I miss the most, was J. Edgar, my '48 Dodge bizzy coupe.

Edited November 19, 2019 by _shel_ny
add the van