Remember Your First Car?
By: Fourth Wave Editors
Tags: Vintage Automotive, This Happened To Me, Writing, Auto, Memoir

Remember Your First Car?

By Tom Sprague

Author with his 1948 Mercury convertible which he bought for $2250. Scroll down to see a video of it in action.

You remember your first car? Of course you do. Everyone does. Might have been the old Buick handed down by your parents. Or maybe the slightly older car you bought by saving up money earned from mowing lawns, babysitting and paper routes. Now you must figure out how to pay for gasoline and maybe a used tire. But it surely was fun washing the car every weekend.

My first car was a 1930 something Model A roadster with a Model B engine. That engine was important, because it had a fuel pump, which the A did not. The Model A was gravity flow from the gas tank in front of the seating compartment. Which meant you had to back up hill. Not so with the Model B and its fuel pump. Pride of the neighborhood.

That car cost me $46 total. It was put together from various pieces garnered from Stockton junk yards. That $46 did not include fenders or a windshield or a top, which came later. But it was street legal.

My handwritten parts list is quite specific, like 56 cents for one valve lifter and a dollar each for four pistons. The roadster body cost $2.50 (plus .06 cents sales tax) from Stockton Auto Wrecking on April 26, 1944. The engine came in at $14. We bought a 1930 Model ‘A sedan and tossed the body and used the drive train.

It was in 1943 that I asked Mom if I could buy a car. She said, I am a single parent raising four kids and you want to buy a car? Not going to happen.

Auto shop was my favorite class in high school, and when I talked with my best friend, Carl Schmid, he outlined the plan to build the car. He was amazing with autos and I could not have ventured down this path without him.

When we finally got it running and drove home, Mom said “What is that? I carefully replied that you said I couldn’t buy a car; you didn’t say I couldn’t build one. Well, you got me there she said with her ever loving smile.

And that was the beginning of my love for convertibles and set up the many ensuing visits to dermatologist for sun related skin cancers.

The author in the 1948 Mercury convertible he bought to drive his girlfriend Patricia in the Homecoming Parade. Two years later, she was his wife.

Charlie Libhart was the auto shop teacher, and when I was picked as Stockton High outstanding alumnus of the year, I named Charlie as my favorite teacher. He let Carl have the key to the shop so we could work at night, much to our delight and the police amazement.

Carl and I both had a class in Spanish after two-hour auto shop, and Miss Selma was very patient. Me cleaning dirty fingernails and Carl polishing piston connecting rods so they could go through the oil faster and the car go faster.

I also was told that changing the ring gear in the differential would provide greater speed. Spent all night in our garage on Baker Street making the change, only to find out I had put the gear in the wrong side. Drove to work with three speeds in reverse and one forward. Then spent the next night putting it in correctly.

My handwritten parts list is quite specific, like 56 cents for one valve lifter and a dollar each for four pistons. The roadster body cost $2.50 (plus .06 cents sales tax) from Stockton Auto Wrecking on April 26, 1944.

I soon added twin melodic horns to attract the ladies on the sidewalk, and later put in an ordinary old-fashioned doorbell. That worked great.

I also rigged it so no key was needed to use the car. Just pull on a rope under the dashboard. But others soon learned that trick, and the car disappeared one night from the baseball park where I was working. Recovered quickly downtown with help of local police.

We cut out the gas tank in front and put it in the rumble seat (Remember those?). But that meant no fuel gauge, so had to carry a short piece of wood and stick it in the gas tank to see how much was left.

The author with his 1967 Chevy Impala and a top hat, because…it was the ‘60’s!

We replaced the area where the gas tank had been with a special dashboard — made from Philippine mahogany wood which polished nice. Put in modern gauges for speed and other necessities.

One special memory of that car is a photo on the front page of the Stockton Record driving down Main street celebrating V-J day, with other revelers hanging on the car.

When wife Patricia was selected to be a princess in the college Homecoming parade, she needed a convertible to ride in. I did not like the idea of her riding in some other guy’s car, so on April 1, 1948 bought a l948 Mercury convertible from Ralph Bokeno for $2250. Had 4000 miles on it. That car served us well for many years including the wedding in 1950. Never bought a car with a loan — always paid cash which was a good discipline.

Driving to El Paso for the Army in 1952, we had a Plymouth sedan. Put a big chunk of ice on the floor next to the front vent and it cooled us a bit.

Spent all night in our garage on Baker Street making the change, only to find out I had put the gear in the wrong side. Drove to work with three speeds in reverse and one forward.

After the army, bought a repossessed 1958 Plymouth. Paul Devencenzi, a pitcher on our baseball team, repossessed cars for the bank. Told us to avoid a certain part of Stockton, and we would be OK. Since we were moving to Sacramento and a new job at Aerojet, that worked just fine.

At one point our carport in Altadena housed a tiny Plymouth Colt, great for mileage but not very useful for a family. Also, a Chevrolet Camaro, with lots of zoom. And enjoyed by teen age son Brian. Both were stick shifts, which enhanced driving skills.

Had a Mexican-themed party when our 1967 Chebby hit 100,000 miles. Drove it around the block forwards and backwards to make sure the 100,000 registered in our Altadena driveway. That is also the car with its extra-large trunk that I used to smuggle out some early JATO rocket engines from the Aerojet scrap heap and donated them to the very happy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum since they had no hardware from that era to display.