That got me to thinking of rides in my past

age 13, dad gave me a 51 Willis Overlander, two wheeled drive with blown motor.

With a fistful of dads tools, and a block and tackle hanging from a tripod I fashioned from polls I cut in the woods and dragged into the yard. I pulled the six-cylinder Hercules F head, dismantled it, took the crank to local NAPA machine shop. With crank restored, installed in block and with borrowed ring compressor installed pistons with new rings. Put back together and reinstalled in the Willis. Since I was not old enough to drive it on the road, my brother and I beat that poor machine to death running it through the woods.

Before I had driver's license, I owned the Willis, '55 Chevy, '54 Pontiac (straight 8, auto), '55 Chevy wagon, and a '56 Buick special. The buford came before I had a License, but I still had it when I became legal to drive on the road. It got rolled over one fateful Halloween. 

Then came the '60 Chevy. six cylinder three on the floor. Yep, I modified a salvaged floor shifter and converted it. It worked, but the shifting pattern was wrong, reverse and first was backwards. I drove it for a while, until my dad discovered it and ha a fit. wouldn't let me drive it until I made it right. It met its end one summer evening after we had a bad storm, trees down everywhere. I left it setting idling with just the parking brake on while started to clear some downed tree limbs. I heard a 'click' an turned to see my car coming at me! Going too fast for me to catch it. watched it run through the downed trees, and it hit square on into a concrete culvert. 

then found a 49 Olds 76 (6 cyl with automatic)
  Rebuilt the 51 engine to .125 overbore , solid lifters and JC WHITNEY hot cam and put stick trany behind engine - and replaced 6 cylinder into the 76 body .
 Then found a 37 Cad La Sal 3 speed floor shift to replace the funky shift linkage of the other stick trany.
 Take 3 years later when I got out of Navy that 49 Olds seem to have rusted sitting so found a 56 Olds 2 door with 3 on the tree . About 6 months later head gasket was leaking and on a trip to see a girl in WI transmission fell apart .
 Had guy I was working for PT for , come with his tow truck for the 50 mile ride home
Next day swapped engine out of 49 into the 56 along with the floor shift 37 Cad tranny , drove that for a year until bought my NEW 65 Olds Cutlass Supreme Convertible , 442 - 4 speed , 400 cu in 3:55 posi rear -  STILL HAVE THAT CAR 70,000 miles on it 
 Bought the wife a NEW 73 Olds Cutlass Supreme 442 which she drove for next 13 years

I counted up the other 49 to 51 olds I bought and parted or sold and it comes to be 14 others which passed through or under the maple tree in folks home place where they were fixed or junked for parts .