I'm I the only one ?

[ranger04]

I'm I the only one who remembers the wide tires sticking out a foot on the rear of the old stangs. Thats one of the first mods we would get, would be either a set of gabriel highjacker air shocks or shackles to jack that rearend up and slam a set of 50's under there. Even the kids with the 6 cylinder stangs would do the 50's so it would look fast. Yep wide tires and a 10.00 dollar thrush muffler was step one in a performance build up. I was looking at pitures of the older stangs here in the classic section and not one stang with 50's on it. I just wondered if I was the only one who remembered. I als thought it looked cool and would like to do something like that with my 07 and make it look really retro. Rear louvers, hood pins and fat tires, now thats the ticket!!!

 

[rbohm]

i always looked at the "stink bug" stance cars more derisively than o would at low riders because at least the low rider guys would make the car look good.

 

[JDS68Stang]

Am I the only one who remembers the wide tires sticking out a foot on the rear of the old stangs. Thats one of the first mods we would get, would be either a set of gabriel highjacker air shocks or shackles to jack that rearend up and slam a set of 50's under there. Even the kids with the 6 cylinder stangs would do the 50's so it would look fast. Yep wide tires and a 10.00 dollar thrush muffler was step one in a performance build up. I was looking at pitures of the older stangs here in the classic section and not one stang with 50's on it. I just wondered if I was the only one who remembered. I als thought it looked cool and would like to do something like that with my 07 and make it look really retro. Rear louvers, hood pins and fat tires, now thats the ticket!!!

Thrush mufflers were first on the list to get done, we paid about $15-20 each here in N.Y. Get the car home, hacksaw off that muffler first thing and add two thrush right under the seat area and dump em just past the doors. We used to get exaust parts (bends, straight pipe etc...) out of the local Cole Muffler dumpster and piece it together when we were in our teens. Then put that mean thrush bird sticker on the vent window

Next was the hood pins, we all had the hood pins.

We all tried to keep the tire right out to the fender lip and not beyond, I've seen the ones your talking about, cops here would hassle you real bad if you had them, I ran L60s on the front of one coupe.

Two things you didn't mention, didn't you add the yellow retangle fog lamps in the grilles?
Didn't they have the "real" Purple Hornet mufflers in your area, those were truly bad azz Govt. outlawed them in a hurry but I had a set on my 66 Chevelle SS.

Had the rear louvers on my 78 TA and a 76 Camaro but never got them for any of my stangs including the FBs, but wanted them back then on the FBs.

My personal preference is the old school look, but I've seen some pretty decent resto mods here as well. It gets down to what you want your ride to look like, everyone has different tastes.

 

[chepsk8]

I grew up in that era! We all has Air shocks, and the really hi-tech air shocks had one line per shock so we could pre-load! We also had Pioneer Super-Tuner cassette decks, Slapper Traction bars, Accel Super Coils, and Moroso air cleaners. Big stuff then, Old School now. And when the air shocks failed, the car came down on the tire and usually sliced it in half!

What else? Most had Thrush "Hush" mufflers, I used the Turbo-style. Cragar SS mags were still the rage, yes, we had hood pins! But, the locking ones usually froze in the winter. The more I think, the older I feel!

When I first built the Deceiver back in 1983, it was way ahead of the standard back then. I found the Magnum wheels, quad exhaust tips, and much more on the car then that was just not done. If I still had that car now, it would be still current! But for now, the crazy things I am doing to my Cobra are again setting me apart.

 

[JDS68Stang]

We only had the 8 track player option when I was a kid that I can remember. Played the hell out of that Boston tape
They also came out with a set of speakers w/ a cheap amplifier (that actually worked good) called "Mind Blowers" for about $35.00 back then, everybody got a set of those.
Installed more air shocks than I can count

 

[StangDreamin']

We only had the 8 track player option when I was a kid that I can remember. Played the hell out of that Boston tape

Oh, crap - I remember that! Bought an el-cheapo Craig unit to replace the AM radio in my Dad's LTD. On date-nights, "More than a Feelin' " was guaranteed to get you.... uhhhhh, errrrr, my kid may still be lurking around here or her mother (and it was before I met her); so I'll just shut up now.

They also came out with a set of speakers w/ a cheap amplifier (that actually worked good) called "Mind Blowers" for about $35.00 back then, everybody got a set of those.

Oh yeah; the Craig played through JCPenny 3-ways (re-branded Jensens) and a Jensen amp'd EQ that put out a blazin' 40W/channel! Pop wasn't down with me cutting up the package tray; so I made some brackets that mounted them to the front of the seat-frame. Looked stupid (if you looked down at them); but they actually worked pretty well........

 

['66 coupe]

I wonder if ricers will be starting threads like this in 20 years.

 

[ranger04]

Yeah, we only had 2 muffler choices back then, thrush and cherry bomb, either one had had the sticker for your vent window. Not if, but when your airline broke it would eat up a tire. The rich kids had both, shackles and air shocks. You had to have hood pins, even if it was the imitations ones that JC Whitney sold that just stuck to the hood. I had an under the dash mount 8 track that could follow me from car to car and you were living large if you had pioneer speakers. My 2 favorite 8 tracks were boston and meat loaf "bat out of hell". I also had Elvis greatest hits that mom got me for X-mass that stayed hidden under the seat unless no one was around. "BUT the tires", we all had the wide fatty tires in the rear, it was a right of passage. Even if they were bald hand me downs, you had to have them. Cops never bothered us over wide rear tires, just cherry bombs or thrush comming straight off the headers, if you were fortunate enough to have headers. If not, like was stated, hacksaw at the Y pipe and put them there. "O YEAH", a sun tach on the steering colum, it didn't have to be hooked up, just there. I traded the Rolling Stones (some girls), Elton John's greatest hits and the Eagles (hotel califonia) albums for my tach, I'm sure it didn't work even if it was hooked up, but it looked cool. This was in the mid to late 70's, some time after that the wide tires disappeared, not sure when, was driving around one day in the 80's and couldn't find one car with the fatty's. Hopes of thier return was dashed in the 90's with rice rockets and then the fast and the furious, but with the return of the retro stang, there's still hope!!

 

[skywalker]

There was a place and time that playing a song could get you laid? *sigh*

 

[rbohm]

actually ranger04 the tires never left, we just figured out how to tuck them up in the wheelwells where they belonged.

 

[bnickel]

actually ranger04 the tires never left, we just figured out how to tuck them up in the wheelwells where they belonged.

yep. had a set of H-60 pro tracs on the back of my car on a set of 9" Fenton slot mags, i had air shocks, shackles and shock extenders but the shocks were never aired more than needed to keep the fender lips from cutting the crap out of the top of the sidewall, they were tucked and didn't stick out past the fenders but if you hit a bump the fender lips would rub just the top of the sidewall right at the tread, the air shocks kust jept that from happening. my car had full 2 1/4" exhaust out the back with california turbo's and chrome tips. engine had a 650 vac secondary holley on e'brock intake but had stock manifolds, going back to them on the cougar too with the 3 1/4" exhaust too, well i may still go with some shorty headers but i'm getting rid of the 2 1/2" exhaust, it hurts my ears in the car, sounds fine outside though, just resonates like mother.

 

[StangDreamin']

Purple Horney's or Thrush's were great - if you had the car that matched! I just couldn't bring myself to put them on the Gran Torino..... somthing about those "two extra doors" that kinda clashed against the whole "Performance Exhuast sound". So I had the biggest Walker "Turbo" Mufflers I could stuff under the car; trying to find some balance between keeping her quiet and letting the poor Cleveland exhale!

What I would have given for a couple of 24" Maggies on that car


EDIT: I remember when my Dad replaced the original (to the truck when he bought it used) blown out glass packs on his F100 4x4 - he bought "Purple Horneys"! At age 16; I'm about dying and couldn't stop mentioning the name. Dad's ready to smack me into the middle of next year, and Mom (God Bless her!) couldn't figure out why I thought that was sooooo hilarious!
EDIT AGAIN: It might hellp if y'all understood that, when I was 16, my Mom and Dad's ages were 57 and 61, respectively. Different times, different terms, different attitudes.....

 

[StangDreamin']

Whoops!

Deleted a double post.

Move along, nothing to see here......

 

[JDS68Stang]

Yea good ol JC Whitneys That was the catalog to have for those hard to find and cool custom parts before the internet came along.

 

[ranger04]

Maybe I'm talken a little over kill, the tires didn't really stick out a foot, with 50's a couple of inches at most, a lot of the tire was inside as well. 60's were about even steven. I just remember how cool those cars looked from behind. It wasn't only mustangs, there were fatty's on station wagons, grand torino's, what ever you had to run. They just looked really good on fastbacked cars like the stang, or maverick's, but looked good on about any car. Yep, the old 4-door was the hardest to do anything with. I've seen some S-197's with fatty's, they don't stick out past the wheel wells, but they look just right. They have some beef when looking at them from the rear. Someone posted a piture of a 70 or 69 mach 1 at an air port I believe on another thread. It ta wide rears that didn't stick out, but looked perfect, I'm pretty sure it was blue, just an awesome looking car.