04/21/2023
My first car, 1958 Ford Sedan Delivery. I bought the car in 1982 at the age of 18. I come from a racing and car family, even mom drove a 1966 GTO. I looked at many cars, 66 Nova and even a Chevelle, but the Ford guy in me won out. My cousin heard that that car was coming up for sale so as soon as we could we took a look. I loved the car from the moment I saw it, the lines, the dash, the grill and chrome. I bought the car on the spot, with help from my parents. $2500 later it was mine, drove it home that night. After a restless sleep, woke up early the next morning to get to washing and waxing, a total detailing job. Then time to go show it off. It had a 390 Ford big block with a 2-barrel carb, not big power, but it ran and looked great and had a chrome air cleaner and valve covers.
The first upgrade was to get it to sit right, cut a coil or two out and blocks in the rear. Then came more power, I worked at an automotive machine shop, so power was in my blood. I picked up a old set of factory three duces, rebuilt the carbs and bolted it on, now we had some power. A year later I started gathering parts for a new engine with, you know, more power. A 406 big block, Delong racing cam and that three duce set up, man that car would run now. I drove that car everywhere; it was my daily driver and gas was under $1.00.
I looked pretty cool crusin the local strips in the Bay Area of California and maybe doing a little bit of street racing, this thing was a Camaro killer. Wash it up on a Thursday night so I was ready for the strip on Friday and Saturday nights. I just loved to pop that hood to show off the big block with all those carbs, good for my ego, ha. I owned the car for 15 years, never towed, only broke once, but limped it home in low gear. It is hard not to feel a bit cooler than others when you’re in a cool car, love that feeling. The best part is you get to hang out with other car people and in my mind, car people are the BEST!
I miss the days of driving my 58 Ford, but I did replace it with an even older Ford, so all good, but this car will always be special, thinking of her always makes me smile. I wonder where she is today?
