Dan Hampton

A couple or pics I found the other day. The first one was taken in '68. I bought this '57 after having sold my '58 just before entering college. It was a cold day when the pic was taken and I remember having to have it jumped after staying out in sub 0 temps for three consecutive days. I was eighteen at the time with future bride-to-be in the pic. I bought this car for $625. It had a damaged front fender and for $200.00 I had it put back together sans the paint. I couldn't afford to do that at the time. Also, bought it without my parents knowledge. The front grille surround was damaged so I cut a section out and just reinstalled it. It was originally a 2X4/slush and had the original engine. It had a 3-speed in it when I purchased it but the 2X4bbl were missing.. I sold it to a college friend in '70 for $1,150. It has been sitting in a shed on his hobby farm since '74. Would like to have it back. It drove like a dream and had a neat luggage rack on the rear deck.

The second pic is of a high school friend and his brother. '66 BB 425 that used to terrorize the high school parking lot in '67. This pic was taken in '68, as well. Mosport green w/o sidepipes.

His parents were fairly wealthy and somewhat naive. After two weeks of ownership, the car needed rear tires. They never had a clue. The engine and transmission were replaced twice (big surprise) which just strengthens my bias against a lot of BB Corvettes still in original engine form. When the tranny went for the second time, the older brother reattached the speedo cable five minutes before the Rapids Chevrolet truck picked it up. They were still under the 24,000 mile warranty and had disconnected it some months prior in attempt to run out the clock. All this took place just two years after the car was built. The car did run like a raped ape, though, and we had a lot of fun on the streets of Cedar Rapids, Ia. with it. The rear valances are missing because the night before the pic was taken, they had missed a turn at high speed and ended up in a corn field in rural Iowa and had done some damage to those panels.

Some of our Forum members, especially older guys, can appreciate the times and our cavalier attitude in how they were treated.
Note all the salt on the side of the '57. We just drove them like everyday cars back then.

vettefred

Hey Dan, That first picture looks like most of us back in 68...and you are right, we would drive 'em in rain, salt, snow etc.

Great old pics. Thanks for sharing.

Fred

Frankie the Fink

It actually looks a lot better than I did, even in '68....cool pictures...
I wish I had kept more of mine of the cars I drove off my Dad's car lot in the '60s....

shemp

Dan, Who in the hell cut those shorts and what was he smokin, there off by an inch or so The cars look great. Shemp

nitromainia

Great Stuff! Thanks-

Stan's Customs

...you and your bride were some nice lookin' kids..

Must have been cool having a Corvette...in any condition!

midyearvette

cool pics...what's up with the antenna on the 66?? if you know....

Gman58

Are those snow tires on the rear?

Jim Dillon

Dan pretty cool. It would be nice to get the 57 back.

You were hot stuff with a Corvette, no wonder you got such a nice looking lady.-Jim

StingU2

Dan

Very cool photos... along with great stories.

Dan Hampton

Thanks, Stan. It would have actually been a lot cooler to have had the BB that my friend had instead of the SB '57. When those BB cars came out, it was like the difference between night and day vis a vis the older C1s.

I worked with a guy at a Sandy's Drive-In (later Hardees) who had a very quick '62, 340/4:11. He was only 17. It was really fast, but when those first '65 396 C2s came out, there was just no comparison. My '57 performed like a full size Bel-Air with a six cylinder compared to that Turbo Jet V-8.

Back in the mid 60s my hometown of Cedar Rapids had a ton of Corvettes prowling the streets. Between '65-'67 my high school would have had no less than eight C1s and a couple of C2s in the parking lot. It wasn't Hollywood High, but then again, those cars weren't that expensive back then. The real hurdle was convincing your parents that a car like that was warranted. To this day, I don't know how I talked my parents into the purchase of my '58 in April '66--still a junior in HS.

Stan's Customs

I can relate to there always being something faster. Kids in my school all had beaters except for a very few of the fortunate ones. One freshman girl had a 65 Buick Riviera with 2 fours. One guy had a 65 GTO with 3 deuces ...and one other classmate had a 1964 SS Impala 327/4 spd. (beautiful black car).

That was it...all the rest were beaters...and I mean beaters.

I don't remember seeing a Corvette in the whole town back then, and for sure not in school. They were...well, sorta outa' reach I guess...at least in that farm community .

And you are right about the big blocks...that's all I had for years after returning from the Army. I had a couple of small blocks in family transportation beaters...buy "my car" was always a big block.

I have 3 454's even now..and some cranks and odds and ends. I am using a ZZ4 in my project...just because its a neat little engine, and seems more correct (to me) for a '61 I guess?

You would have been envied in my day/home town with a Corvette of any kind...that's for sure

Cruzmeisters

First winter I had mine - 1967 - I bought two wheels from a buddy who put mag wheels on his '63...and mounted STUDDED snow tires on it. The WORST snowy days, I drove the Vette to work because I didn't want the '63 Dodge to downshift at an inopportune time & put me in a ditch I put 24K miles on the '62 the first 3 years I owned it. Back then, they were only a little bit fancier than a Chevy convertible...

Dan Hampton

I don't think so. I had a penchant for putting wide tires on the car---used ones, at that, with not a lot of tread. Made for a "cool look" versus having the same size all the way around. Pretty stupid when one thinks about it but no one, including my parents, had to worry about me being valedictorian.....

1-2-b-67L89

cool Dan and yes, it does bring back a lot of memories. Class of 66 but we did not have one corvette sitting at our HS and it was fairly large. Probably had a lot of other muscle cars as well?
The one car I clearly remember the spring of 65 and 66 was a local guy who picked up his girlfriend everyday after school in a red with red gut 65 396 Chevelle. Loved the car and little did I know how rare it was going to be

Frankie the Fink

Glad you went with the ZZ4 in the '61 Stan...those LSx's are nice but just don't look right unless the car is entirely restomodded and blinged out.

The Shoney's on Va. Beach Blvd in Tidewater, Va was like a scene from American Graffiti (actually much better) every Saturday night. The cars that arrived there to eat burgers and arrange drag races would put a BJ auction to shame...and what was the Finkster driving ? A '55 Buick V-8 with Dynaflow tranny. Plenty of room to frolic in the back seat but drove like a Stratofortress ?! I was usually the guy staging the races (not racing) unless I could sneak a muscle car off my Dad's car lot that night...

DansYellow66

Great pictures and stories. I wish I had taken a bunch of pictures during my senior high school year of 68/69. I worked in a large grocery store in Kansas City with an outside drive for loading people's groceries. Every once in a while someone would come through in a Shelby, or a 427 Corvette or GTX and we would throw the groceries in back just like any other car. Lot of great cars owned by people that worked there. A barber with a 440 Charger R/T, a stocker with a mean looking all black 65 Olds 442 with cutouts, another with a 65 327/4 speed Impala, a manager with a 62 Ford 406/4 speed, another stocker with a 63 2-dr Plymouth ex-Highway Patrol car, a sacker with a 64 GTO 3x2s 4 speed, another with a 65 GTO and added 3-speed Turbohydromatic, and another with a 65 Barracuda with V8 and 4 speed. Good times.

Frankie the Fink

Yup! The little drugstore I worked at had a Dodge Superbird park in front regularly and we all laughed at the garish rear wing.....who's laughing now ? My boss's wife drove a '67 GTO because she, "likes how it looks". She was about 5' 2" and 100 lbs and drove like a maniac...

Stan's Customs

Thanks for the thumbs up Frank...
...some think the ZZ4 is second rate for the Restomod.. May cost me a bunch if I ever sell the car just because I didn't go with the LS....on the other hand I guess it depends on who's buying..Ha! The car will look nearly stock.. wide whites and hubcaps even with the Dawson chassis...so I decided to go with an old school engine look...sorta. (serpentine belts with A/C, script valve covers etc). The idea is to have as much old school as possible..and stilll have a real comfortable, fun driver.

...I had a car "borrowed" off my lot back in the 80's by my best friend's son. He did a lot of little odd jobs for me and was always around. I thought that some of the cars I had put gas in were way lower than they should be. Come to find out ..he had been slipping one out for dates etc, on a regular basis. Finally caught up with him though ...when he let a little girlfriend drive a Bonneville convertible he had "borrowed". She side swiped a guard rail with it...heh heh. So he had to fess up..

I had to act mad for a little while, and make him work a little for no money. But but he was a really Good kid, no drugs or other crap...loved him like a family member. Still comes to see me once in a while, when he's in town...

Oops...sorry if I drifted too far off topic on your thread Dan..

Stan..

Bill Lacy

A friend bought a new 62 and just found pictures and all of his original paper work. It was a white black int, 2 top, 340 hp...