My Grandfather was a car guy. Was yours?

Paternal grandfather owned a livery that became a GM dealership when cars replaced horses. He'd passed before I was born and my uncle & cousins ran the dealership for many years. Paige's Chevrolet in Amherst MA.  I went to college in Amherst and was nice to be able to use the shop to work on the '66 Chevy II and '68 Camaro I had at the time.

Maternal grandfather owned Stuart Kneen & associates. The business did all kinds of things. Sold Boyertown trucks, outfitted fire trucks, installed AC in VWs in the 60's for dealers, built motor homes from scratch on truck chassis, etc.  I loved to go to the shop from a very young age and learn how to use all the cool fabrication & welding tools they had there.

No but my father was.

I just remember my Grandpas last car was an 1984 Olds 88 Broughham. Navy on Navy on Navy  (Just a sea of navy velour) Courtesy lights and ashtrays everywhere .

My grandfather wasn't a real car guy per se - I never met him, so I don't know for sure, but he was no mechanic.

He did own a Chevrolet dealership in the '30s and '40s, which means he must have bought it (or founded) it when he was in his late 20s or early 30s.

My grandfather sold a 1933 Eagle Six Phaeton to his sister, and then later bought it back from her and gave it to my father when Dad was 15 or 16, right around the end of WWII.  It was my father's daily from 1945 through about 1952, and he still owned it at the time of his death in 1996.

I don't know if my grandfather's dealership ever included Cadillac, but I know he had a 1941 Cadillac that my father loved, and always wished Pappy had kept.  The aunt ended up with a 1956 Sedan DeVille that also ran into the early  '80s.

Mine was a farmer. He didn't have time to play with cars. 

He could fix just about anything though. He passed that knowledge to my father who also wasn't really a car guy. He appreciated them for their engineering but never worked on them for fun. 

 I guess I'm the first. Two of my kids are following those footsteps so I'm batting 50% so far. 

My grandpa was a traveling salesman in the 1920's. 

He either traveled by train or his Model T.  He said most Model T's had a top speed of 30mph.   But his would do 45!   

He said he put on a better intake/carburetor an also a lower (numerical) rear end ratio.  

He also told me a Stutz Bearcar story.  An automobile dealer in New Orleans offered $50 to anyone brave enough to take that car up to 100mph.

So grandpa took the challenge and they went out to a road known for people "testing out" their cars.  This road was pretty rough, mostly dirt and clamshells.

 He said by the time he got to 80 the car was leaping off the ground on the bumps but he kept the pedal to the metal because he wanted that $50.   The dealership owner was riding along in order to verify the speed.     So anyway, at a little over 80mph the owner tells him to shut it down, you win the $50, and by the way, you are crazy.

This story came out  from grandpa back in the 70's when there was a TV show on which featured a 1920's Stutz Bearcat. I can't remember the name of the show. 

Edit: The show was named "Bearcats!" and ran one season in 1971.  It featured a 1914 Stutz Bearcat, not a 1920's one like grandpa drove for the bet.

Never got to meet my Grandfather, he passed away when my Dad was 16.  My Dad turned out to be a heck of a mechanic and the "go to" guy for Chrysler stuff back in the day.  Really miss hanging out with him and his buds at the shop with their stories. 

Actually yes, one of the few car people in my family, most famous for rolling a car into a gully in Jamaica, climbing out, and telling a concerned passer-by that he's never seen that car in his life My grandmother also had LBCs and used to drag race VW beetles. All happened before I was born. That grandfather settled into plush SUVs and that grandmother settled into chainsmoking and agoraphobia.

I forgot to mention my other Grandpa. Grandad Jack passed away when my mom was only 6, in 1966, so I never met him. He was not quite a car guy. But he was a doctor in a rural area. He needed to get through anything, be it mud or snow or ice. That garage remains the only place I've seen snow chains. Not that he'd ever do more than fill it up himself - as a surgeon, he could not risk hurting his fingers.

He had one of the first Broncos delivered in the state, and before that he drove Galaxie 500's and had a Mercury body put on a Power Wagon frame. Don't ask for pictures, I can't confirm it was real other than too many people saying it happened, but his best friend owned the Ford dealership so it is possible that it happened. 

Yup.  Grandpa had a 29 Model A roadster in college.  He drove it year-round with the top down and just bought a good coat.  I have the alpaca trenchcoat he used to wear when he drove it in the winter.

He traded that model A for a 39 Olds Regency, then a 50 Pontiac Chieftan Catalina, then a 57 Olds Starfire 98 Holiday, then a 73 Olds 98.  He always got the top-of-the-line flagship model with the fewest options possible so he could afford it.  (teacher's salary after all)

After he retired and got up in years he switched to more normal, farm-use stuff.  He had a 66 F250 that he traded for a newer (at the time) OBS ranger and then eventually a caravan after Grandma became mostly wheelchair-bound.

I remember thinking that the upside to when he passed away was that I might get a really cool car in the will, but, alas, a 96 Caravan was the only thing left.

I did get a super-sweet 57 Ford 601 Workmaster, though.

I'm not sure my dad's father drove at all, to be honest. He was from Italy (like my dad) and from what I understand, he never had his license when he came to the states in the late 1940's. He may have driven during his conscripted service in the Italian army during WWII, but no one knows for sure. He was a cobbler by trade, and his shop was a 5min walk from his house. My dad and uncle were the ones who drove him around when he needed to go somewhere. I never met him; he passed away 7 years before I was born. 

On the other side, my mom's dad was into cars of the luxo-barge variety. He always had something full size and Broughamy, and I remember him having Oldsmobiles, Buicks, and Lincolns. His brother owned a used car dealership in Methuen, MA from the 60's-late 80's that specialized in American luxury cars of the day, and that's probably how he ended up with most of his rides. My mom said he had a Hudson Hornet when she was young, and she thought it was the coolest. He didn't like sporty cars at all, so that Hudson was probably as cool a car as he ever had.

All of my gearhead influence came from my dad, one of my uncles, and some close family friends. They always had cool rides and took the time to answer all the car questions I had when I was growing up.

Mine was an all around gear head. Tractors, combines, cars, trucks bikes... if it had moving parts he was intrigued by them. Unfortunately he died when I was 9 and Mom's Dad died when she was still in high school so I never met him. I heard stories from dad growing up that if something new came out he would go buy the manual, then tear one apart to find out how to make it better. That was jut what he did. 

One of my grandfathers owned a Lincoln Mark II in the '50's, the other assembled Model T's when they were new.  They were delivered in crates to the dealers with "some assembly required".  He owned a Texaco station later on for 30 plus years.

Yes on both sides of my family. My grandfather on my dad's side owned a BMW 2002, and my grandfather on my mother's side was a very good mechanic. He worked professionally as a body man for his entire career and did amazing work. 
 

I always loved cars growing up, but my love of cars kicked into high gear when my grandfather gave me his copy of the R&T Porsche special magazine. I've been hooked ever since!

I've only had few interactions with my dads family over the years, but there was few times cars we're common connection.

My grandpa used to race strait 8 cars back in 50s-60s. Supposedly my grandpas uncle?? was one one of the founders of the SCCA. And the first person to import an MG for racing purposes back in the day