<VV> Re: First Car

[Stephen Upham]

I agree with this opinion totally and that goes for everything; not 
just cars.

	I bought my first car, a Steel Gray/ Black '66 Chevy Impala 283 PG 
(Corvair content, sort of) from my brother-in-law for $250 in 1975 with 
money I had saved from lawn mowing jobs.  I was fifteen and wouldn't 
have a license to drive it for another six months.  It ran so-so but 
had about 75 hail dents and residue from a wax job that was applied in 
the direct sun by my nephew and of course wouldn't come off.  When I 
backed it out of our driveway to test drive it, the first thing I did 
was to back up into the curb on the opposite side of the street and 
cave-in the end of the tail pipe.  Ugh.
	I owned the car for six more years.  I replaced the 283 with a 307 (I 
think) which had been bored to 327 with high compression heads.  My two 
biggest boo-boo were not changing over to a four-barrel and not 
replacing the PG for a four speed.  I changed the bench seat to buckets 
using seats from a Mazda RX-2, and installed a tach and stereo system.  
I also replaced the power steering pump, starter, and learned to adjust 
the timing (by ear as I didn't know how to use a timing light ) by 
myself which was my first foray into auto mechanics.  I eventually, 
with the help of my dad, did all of the body work to bondo the dents 
and repaint (same color) the car in our home garage.  I wish I still 
had it today.  I did keep a picture.

	Stephen Upham
	Corvairium II


From: "Gary Swiatowy" <mopar@jbcs2.net>


Seeing as how you asked. When I was a kid around 15, my dad told me I 
better
get a job because if I ever wanted a car I had to buy it, and pay for 
my own
insurance because there was no way I was going to drive his car. Before 
I
turned 16, I owned a car, paid for by myself, and had a down payment 
for the
insurance. Because of this, I certainly wanted to take care of that car 
as
now I needed it to get to work!
Friends my age who had parents who were beter off financially, just 
bought
the kid a car which pretty much got trashed and asked daddy for a new
one. . .

If a kid, even a girl has no investment, they will not appreciate the 
car
and will figure daddy will just buy her another one. . . .

I don't know your daughter, or how responsible she is, but if a child 
has no
investment in a car, they will certainly not take care of 
it............Just
my opinion.........your results may vary

Gary Swiatowy