[boater bill]

This is a great thread.
I cut the forks off parts bikes I would find to make choppers, record was 8 sets long and the front so high you fell off the back. Learned to weld using my dad's 50 amp sears cracker box and cut up frames to make higher ground clearance, longer wheelbase, upside down frames, custom handlebars etc.
I would also take a roll of caps or maybe it was 3-4 and smash with the 5 pound sledge hammer for fun amd noise. Mom wasn't liking that so much.
Bottle rocket wars escalated in college. With a 3/4 inch 6 foot long PVC, I could get a star burst rocket into a guys room through his broken window pane at 30-40 feet.
About 4 years ago my step son was 11 and he came home with an aluminum bike frame and not much else and asked if we could build a bike. I said sure, whats your budget? He said I have to pay for it. uh, no this is your project. I have no money he says, so we went to the scrap yard and got the wheels, handlebars, seat and pedal of bikes heading for the shreddar for free. He stripped it and painted it lime green with left over paint from his sisters Mustang stripe. Best bike ever in his mind! He learned to strip and shoot paint, and working on a bike as well.
My kids still run off to the tree fort they built 5+ years ago and throw rocks and stuff at each other. Their friends just don't get it and would rather play Nintendo.
We are kind of looked down upon by some ofthe frilly neighbors we have. I think it is jealosy because we have fun dang it!

[TEG]

Yes, some kids play outdoors, jump 1973 Schwinn's off culverts (sometimes forgetting to wear a helmet), shoot BB guns, get grass stains, and collect frogs.

[455Grandville]

One thats changed; you don't see kids on bikes much anymore, or big wheels, they're all playing video games and getting fatter then hell.

I still have my Roger Decoster bike I'd like to resore with the "Tuff" wheels if anyone remembers those or the "Motomags"

[shawn e.]

Oh man I remember the toughskins. I would wear the knees out and my mom would patch the knees but never a matching color. I remember once I had a green pair with red patches.

Shawn

[mviker]

We used to have BB gun battles in the back yard. Someone would always get shot in the eye or someone would pump up their BB gun one too many times. I got hit in the eye once and also got a chipped tooth, but man, was it fun.

Those were the same days we ran through neighbor's yards and they would wave and call out to us. Do that these days and you're off in a body bag.

We all had our own bike and lawnmower piles too. There was always just enough junk to keep busy building something.

Lots of fun...

[Rob B]

Don't forget every kid had some sort of a "dirt pile" in their own yard or neighborhood where anything was possible.

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Some of us do.

Sure they do. Just not that nice! We played in one that had the foor falling out and use to loose out Hot Wheels cars through

[David Jones]

Originally Posted by 1969GTO

I was the wheelie champ on my street with my Huffy Sting Ray bike,banna seat and sissy bar,cheeter slick.
pulled a wheelie one time and the front wheel came off,I passed by it,forkes hit the ground...I flipped.
Also went to pull another wheelie and the goose neck on the handle bars broke off.....not funny (

Both happened to me also........

[Region Warrior]

Made our own gun powder out of charcoal/sulfur/salt peter for home made mortar.
Was a 4"W x 3'L iron pipe w/a cap on one end. Used primer cord for fuse.
Angled/wedged under a 3'H x 4'L boulder w/huge rocks hold'n it in place.

Did the fork deal on Huffy 5spd stingray(or whatever they'r version was). Lit'l longer then Schwinn's.
Had a 1/2 mile long very hilly(some so steep couldnt stop) back woods bike path w/a creek run'n thru for 10spd races.
If couldnt slow down at bttm of one curve you'd end up in 3'-4' water.
Also was a 40'H x 100'L RR trestle thru there we'd cross to get to other side of town instead of round the block. Saved 2-3 miles.
Have to watch for trains 1st...

BB fights.
Dirt clod fights.
Bottle rocket and Roman Candle fire fights lol.
Try to make plastic model cars go down the road with Estes rocket engines. Never did work well lol.

Camp'n out all nite and raid gardens for snacks. Everyone had one along with fruit trees, grapes, rasberriers, strawberries, etc.

Fish all day long. Had our own worm patch.
Ice hockey till we couldnt stand.
Tree fort made with every scrape of wood we could find. Was 20' up in an old Oak.
Only way to get up/down was a knot'd rope. Unless you had an extension latter to reach limb.

HO slot cars and trains. My drag strip was 25' long.
Still have whats left of sets stored away since the 80's.
Only other things still have are 2-3 unstarted model rockets and one car(maybe get to'm aftr the 67-68 FB's are done).
Nephews distroyed my model collection aftr moved away frm home.

Lit'l older we had a 1/8th mile oval dirt track behind my house for go-carts and mini bikes. Then beater cars & trks.

[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Some of us do.

That has to be the nicest treehouse I have ever seen. Did you build that one yourself? I could retire in that thing.

[goatwgn]

Mikenoun, I had the Evel Knievel "wind up" bike. I think I wore it out. Used to get it cranked up pretty fast. I had the "Stretch Armstrong" as well. On rainy summer days I would build model cars. Still actually have a lot of those. Keep them in a glass curio cabinet. The plastic chrome has faded off a lot of them. I also made a "trailer" for my bike one time out of an old Radio Flyer wagon. Used it to haul around who knows what. Including my little brother.

[76WS4]

I remember all the cool musclecars that were around during the '70's. They were just used cars then. Neighbor up the street had a bright red '67 Grand Prix 428 convertible. The son would do 100 ft burn outs in it down the other end of the street. Cops didn't seem to be around as much back then. His own '64 Tempest wasn't tagged. A buddy of his would come around in a '70 Z-28 blue with black stripes an do burnouts. A young family living in the trailer park across the tracks had a black with red interior '66 GTO hardtop. One of my best friends dad had a '70 Plymouth Fury GT 440. The guy was 60 years old then and still kickin around right now at 90 something. But he doesn't have the Plymouth anymore. We had a red '70 Impala 4dr with a 454 in it.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by goatwgn

That has to be the nicest treehouse I have ever seen. Did you build that one yourself? I could retire in that thing.

Thanks, it's pretty cool. The kids love it, & I loved building it with them.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=600373

[Cobrabill]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Thanks, it's pretty cool. The kids love it, & I loved building it with them.

Has the State of Ct. tried taxing you on it,yet?

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Cobrabill

Has the State of Ct. tried taxing you on it,yet?

I'm waiting for the revaluation.

[Cobrabill]

I'd laugh, but it's probably true.

[400 4spd.]

I grew up in a middle class blue collar/military neighborhood of wood frame homes, all less than 15 years old. Just over 30 homes per block. In hindsight, there were lots of young couples/families in the area. Muscle cars were family transportation at the time.
As a teenager I can remember the following cars on my street around 1974.
1. A gold 1969 428 Cobra Jet Mustang with 4 speed.
2. Green 1968 GTO automatic.
3. Maroon 1967 327 Nova SS with auto. (2 houses away)
4. Green 1969 Plymouth GTX 440 auto. (next door)
5. Blue 1966 GTO running the orig. 2 spd. auto behind a 428. (directly across the street)
6. Blue 1970 Dodge Super Bee, 383 with a pistol grip 4 speed.
7. Red 1966 GTO running a 421 and 4 speed.
8. Plum Mist 1967 GTO, 4 speed. (my brother's car. BTW, he smoked the above 421 '66 right after it was put together).
9. Signet Gold 1967 GTO, 4 speed. (mine)
10. White 1965 GTO, 3 speed Dearborn behind a '69 400. (also mine)

[69 T/A]

We had a 2 story treehouse back in '69-70, electric lights and heat. We made a small furnace from a 10 gallon can. Used a 12 volt battery for lights. All windows were covered in UFR wire. Unidentified flying Rocks were the norm as we lived in a bad neighborhood, had to tear it down soon after.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by MYGOAT

We used to get 2 large 3/4" bolts and one nut. Screw the nut on one bolt about a third of the way of the nut. Filled the cavity with shaved match heads. Screwed the other bolt on semi tight. Then throw the thing in the air on the road and if you were lucky it would land on end and go off with a big bang. Little things like this would amuse us for hours.

We did the same thing with spark plugs. Unscrew the post, tie one end of a string to it and tie the other end to the electrode. Put the match heads in the hole where the post came out, jam the post back in and swing the plug like a pendulum against a brick wall.
Sounded like a .22 rifle going off...lol....hadn't thought of that in years.

[wrenchmen]

Man does this thread bring back memories!....my friend "onemoregoat74" and I lived all your stories and then some!...we had a blast in our neighborhood!....Tommy, (onemoregoat74), was a crazy, insane, fearless kid who was riding a Suzuki RM80, while we all rode mini-bikes!...Tommy was always pushing the envelope, he would use the local landfill behind my house to perfect his skills. The town dump,Caterpillar loader operator would burry the garbage and create a huge "bowl' in the ground, Tommy would use this ramp created by the loader as a jump and scream his suzuki up the perpedicular ramp, launching himself skyward!....he would get some crazy air and always land perfectly.

Myself on the other hand, remember taking a jump near the local deli, with my BMX bike and the front wheel falling off, me going over the handle bars and my front wheel continuing to roll onward and hit a parked car.

Tommy and I put together a rocket, made from toilet paper tubes taped to one another, we attached 3 "C" rocket engines together with a single twisted fuse and launched it in the field behind his house, The rocket soared skyward and than suddenly drifted down towards earth, just as it was horizontal to the ground, the 2 other engines ignited and propelled it like a cruise missle towards the center of town!...we dont know where it landed as we were hiding in his basement!

Tommys Mom was the greatest, we would both peddle are azzes off on a schwinn bike with a banana seat and powerslide into a mud puddle at the end of his street, Tommys Mom would call us "Baba-Le-owns"....and wash my clothes so my mom had no idea what a dumb ass I was!

Tommy was the first one to get a car, he bought a 67 or 68 firebird from a local dude, It had a 428 in it!...would have been a great car to keep!...dont remember what happened to it, He later picked up a 60 somethin Olds cutlass with a small block chevy, cool car, nice square, clean lines.

I bought a 68 firebird 400, 4speed vert, my GF was there to help me fix it up and make it street worthy.....and now, she is my Wife, 2 boys and a girl later, she perfectly cleans and rides with me to car shows in my 70 Lemans Sport.

My other good friend, kevin, had a 67 Camaro RS, cool car with hide-away headlights, we removed the engine, a 327 we were told, and Kevin brought it to a local machine shop for a performance rebuild "Blueprint/Balance"....they called to say it was done and Kevin said "I am here to pick up my 327"...the guy replied, 327, that was a 305, here it is all done.....we were to young and had no knowledge whatsoever to dispute his claim, Kevin installed the 305 in his RS camaro....hell, we had no clue, I couldnt even tell you what heads were on my 400!
Years later I worked with a guy who built race engines for Wall Stadium in NJ, he said D&R performance, where Kevin had his engine rebuilt, was nototrius for scamming people out of high performance parts and exchanging them for less desireable stuff!
I truly believe his engine was a 327!

Wow...time flys by,...I miss those days, Bon-fires in the woods, partying with good friends, cruisin the streets of seaside, woods ridin' all day in a 4x4 Ford, only to have the front wheel fall off and walking through a pitch dark cedar swamp for 3 hours to get home, foolin around with my GF in my 76 Jeep Cherokee on a fire trail in the pines!
Those were the days!