My GF took pictures of his cars. One of the girls is my mom and I peg this around 1940-42? I'm not clear on the car or year. He also loved the 1949 Ford and somewhere I have a key tag from the dealer.
The two guys on the bumper is on my Italian side - Uncle Mike is on the passenger side and was known to always have a gun in the glovebox.
Was your relatives car guys?
(58th and Kostner, Chicago - Pasteur School)
My Grandpa used to take his Dads brand new Frazer from his house in Gladstone Park (Milwaukee and Menard) to court my Grandma down in the Evergreen Park neighborhood (95th and Sacramento).
Grandpa also bought a Jaaaaaag off the autoshow floor in McCormick place, had everything from a Cheiftain to Corvairs to Eldorados, and bought his kids MGs, Firebirds, GT 350's, Fiats.... Yes, he was a car guy. Not quite as much as his younger brother though. Uncle Pete ran the shop at Gateway Chevy and drag raced Desotos. I need to go visit Pete. His current DD, though he doesn't drive much anymore due to being 83 and having had Polio, is a '37 Ford Pickup with a 472 Cadillac underneath. I think he also has something with a Buick straight 8 in it.
One of my grandfathers (Henry R Joyce, 1880-1970) was the first person in Norwalk CT to repair a car for a customer, at the machine shop where he was employed. He never drove one, and I suspect did not like them, either. The other (William Arista Giltzow, 1888-1976) Worked assembling Fords in Kearney NJ, and later was a dealership mechanic at a Graham dealer in Bloomfield NJ. In the time I knew him he always drove large Chryslers. I don't think he was a true enthusiast in the manner of both of my parents though. Cars were tools not toys.
My grandpa wasn't really a car guy, but he had something of a magic touch when it came to making them last. He drove a Pontiac Catalina and Ford Falcon well into the 80's, rust free . . . IN MICHIGAN.
Grandpa Poll always had a few classics around, a 28 Model A Pickup (same year as my Grandma he'd tell you, probably how he remembered lol), a 47 Chevy 1 1/2 ton Truck restored to be identical to the truck he bought after the war for his local cream run for the New Dundee Creamery (gotta make that butter!) and a red with white top and interior 66 Thunderbird convertible that was used for cruising around at the cottage and home in the summer. He also kept a late 60's Ford T-series tandem axle dumptruck that was in very good original condition for doing dumptruck things with around his farm and the shop.
Wish I had pictures of them all, fortunately I have lots of great memories.
Biological grandfather definitely was a car guy and was involved in the German car industry. As I never met him I don't know for certain but I believe he knew Ferdinand Porsche. He at least borrowed (and crashed) one of his rarer creations.
Stepgrandpa and my mum's dad weren't really car people.
My grandfather was a VW guy. He never really worked on them that I can remember but he owned a T3 Squareback, A T2 Baywindow, a Mk1 rabbit amongst others.
I have owned probably 25 different VAG products. Right now I am 5 VAG cars out of 7 total cars.
My grandfather was VP of Engineering for Crown Coach. He did build a reliable MG TD. He used a 2.4 liter crate motor from a Chevy stepvan, a 2 speed Powerglide, and all GM electrics. He built it for my grandma, but she had no interest in it. She just knew that if he was working on it, he wasn't in her hair. I am sure we can all relate to that kind of story.
My grandfather wasn't a car guy in the modern sense, but he had lots of stories of the family car (the first Model T in Flint MI). He was driving it when he was 8 years old.
My other grandfather was an airplane mechanic- in WWI in 1914. I didn't even know there was such a thing!
Yep. He was a SSGT in the Army, motor pool, landed D-Day +1. Never really talked about it. Only heard about having to retrieve a half-track that had a bad generator in the middle of a battle field. He said he wasn't going to send one of his boys. He also talked about how thankful the ladies in Paris were and that he ran into his CO coming out of a bar, stone drunk, the CO questioned where Grandpa was going and he stated he was going into that bar and getting stinking drunk. The CO saluted and told him to "carry on"
Afterward, raised 3 boys (all car people) did door to door sales, drove school bus, rebuilt drive lines and alternators/generators in his basement shop, etc. he was a hell of a character.
One Grandfather was born in 1870...So no, but he was a horse guy, if that counts. I'm not sure he ever drove. I presume so. My other grandfather was 1890 vintage, and owned a 56 Olds when he died in 1971.
Youngest son of the youngest son sends the generations a long way back.
Moms dad was born in 1902. Nev r made enough money to have cars as a toy, or any exotics/fancy cars. But my grandma had her own car going back into the 50’s. Very rare in those days in the country. And he always kept their stuff nice. Lots of day trips and driving vacations after retirement. Had a farm truck (in the 30’s) in the summer, that got a school bus body on it during school time, to drive the local kids to school. Always tinkering with something mechanical. Miss him a lot!
My grandfather at one time worked as a mechanic on Model T's. He also worked in the auto parts business in Napa CA (no relation to Napa auto parts that I know).
Your first pic is a 1928 / 1929 Model A Sedan.
Second is a 49-51 Ford
Third looks like a late 40's Lincoln but the grille isn't quite right.
Neither of my grandfathers were car guys. One of them was into the original kind of horsepower.
I never thought my grandpa was much of a car guy. He lived on prince edward island and spent his life in farming academics (did you know you can get a phd in farming?).
One day, while riding with him in his lincoln town car, he winks at me and says out of nowhere: it doesn't look fast, but I can still beat just about anything on the island from a roll.
A friend, at 16, was offered his gramps old stodgy Dodge. He thought "I don't wat that big old slow beast!" Many years later he found it it was a late 60's 440 car!!! Grandpa just drove it slow!
My other grandpa was much more of a true car guy. Onwed a dealership for a time, fixed all his friends and neighbors cars, even built a garage at home and tiled the walls so he could wash his cars inside during the winter.
My mom always complains that she always wanted a piano but he would only buy her dirt bikes. Guess who grew up with a piano but no dirt bikes?
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:My mom always complains that she always wanted a piano but he would only buy her dirt bikes. Guess who grew up with a piano but no dirt bikes?
That sure is how it works. That same friend mentioned above doesn't care if he ever eats another steak. Both his folks grew up dirt poor, but did well for themselves as adults.. Had steak several times a week 'cause they could!
Hahahaaa! Nooo, he most certainly wasn't!!
It's funny how things develop and how "today" is created (forgive me a bit of a story here):
My grandad was the youngest professor ever to be approved at the Stockholm University of economics. He was brilliant in his field, but utterly useless when it came to anything practical or technical. Cars was something to get from A to B.
My father has always been skilled with his hands and enjoyed fine mechanics. He wanted to become a watchmaker. But, that wasn't quite academic enough and grandad apposed. This ended with my dad becoming a dentist and an orthodontist, which also requires exact hands. He ended up being quite successful and owning his own clinic (retired now), but he also developed a hobby of working on his houses. He is a quite competent amateur carpenter these days, since his hobby has been remodeling his houses by himself.
So why do I have a shop with two race cars in it???
In comes my stepfather. At age 8, he was introduced into my life and HE has always been a huge gearhead. He owned 12 cars when he meets my mom. He was never into racing or rally, but his friends were. Suddenly, a world where cars aren't just to get from A to B opens up to me. I remember (at age 12-14 something??) walking into the shop at the small dealership that my stepdads friend owned and finding 2 guys working on his wifes rally car. An hour later, she took me for a spin in it on the little twisty roads on the rural Swedish west coast. I was hooked like I had never been before, ready to give my nuts for a rally car (not to mention head over heals in love with this 20 years older woman) .
At age 16, I started borrowing my stepdads cars. I was (in MY mind!) a very competent driver, but I kept it around the block. Mostly. It ended, quite predictively, with me denting it and having to explain some things. My stepdad, having done very much the same at an even younger age, said "We have to get this out of you". We spent a weekend working in his friends shop and got an old, use Gokart as payment. The small 40K inhabitants Swedish city where I grew up just happens to have an EU-class Karting track...
I'm 42 now and I very much share the racing life with both my dad and my stepdad. My dad has a nice RV and we stay in that during race weekends, testing days and such. The social life of the racing club is a big deal for him, retired and all. My stepdad comes to all the races and we hang out, the three of us. Had it not been for Covid, my soon 4 years old son would have been introduced at the tracks this year.
My paternal grandfather was a share cropper, way too poor to pursue cars. He did horse trade quite a bit from the family stories. When my dad was very young, in the 40s, they still went to town by mule. He was killed in a car wreck in '54 so I know they at least had a vehicle by then. As a dirt farmer he was a definitely a mechanic though. My dad is most definitely a car guy and a heck of a mechanic though, and I learned a lot of what I know growing up helping him.
My maternal grandfather died when I was 3. I don't think he was really a car guy either. His son ( my uncle) loved cars but wasn't really good with them. Scrounged old nonrunners from places but never made any serious attempt to make them run.
On my mother's side my grandfather was an orphan train rider, only saw cars/trucks/tractors as a tool on the farm in Southern Iowa. On my dads side my grandfather WAS a anything mechanical guy. They were migrant harvesters and drive the entire family back and forth across the country for seasons in a ex ww1 truck. Then moved to a M37 after wwii. It broke down in southern Iowa and they got a job on a farm and ended up staying. When my grandmother passed away a few years ago my uncle scrapped the power wagons and other cool old stuff on the property. I wasn't in a position financially to save it.
I'm old enough that my grandfathers were horse and buggy guys. 
(there is a family photo showing my mother as a child, sitting on the running board of her dad's 1920s Oakland.)
My Dad's dad passed away when my Dad was just 15, so needless to say, I never knew the man. My Mom's dad was a Chevy guy. I remember a big, black Impala with massive tailfins, probably a '59 or '60. His last car was a little '65 Chevelle Malibu 2-door hardtop with a 283 2-barrel. That car stayed in the family for years and my older brother was driving it until sometime in the early 1980's, when he sold it.
You people who are fortunate enough to get to know your grandparents should be very grateful and appreciative. With the exception of my maternal grandmother--who was a remarkable woman in her own right though she never learned to drive--my grandparents were all long gone by the time I was a teenager.
Dads side very much so. More then I relaized until after he'd passed.
My fathers dad was kind of. He was never into motorsport or had any fast cars whn I knew him though he did by some interesting stuff. In the time I knew him he had a first gen Citation with a stick, an early Chevette also manual and an Olds with the infamous diesel engines. He did tell me about a 30 something Packard with a straight 8 he bought when he came home from WWII. The motor was worn out so he and his brother rebuilt is and shaved the head. According to him he surprised a lot of people with that car, and had a big smile on his face as he told me about it.
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