My 18 year old daughter has a day off today so we took Bessie out for a sushi lunch. On the way home I pulled into an empty strip mall parking lot and put her begins the wheel.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PkP...w?usp=drivesdk

I just had her driving around in second (first is a granny gear). I tried to teach her to shift to 3rd, but by the time she figured it out, we’d rolled to a stop. Baby steps.

 

That's all good. Did you ever see the Last Man Standing episode where Tim Allen's character let's his youngest daughter drive his 56?

 

The oatmeal cookie comment was priceless.

 

No, but I can imagine what happened.

Ever see him in the Home Improvement show when he crushed a 57 Chevy wagon?

LOL…that came out of the blue.

 

His daughter got on it in a parking lot and slid into a parking space

A teacher friend of mine that is a die hard Chevy guy told me that one of his Chevy buddies taped the episode on his VCR, remember Tool Time was on years ago . He played that part frame by frame and they could see that Tim's beautiful red Nomad was replaced by a plain Jane Chevy Handyman wagon .

 

Cool video...it's fun now where the pavement is flat and dry and there's no hurry to get to where you need to be. The novelty wears off quickly when the old truck is the only thing between you and the job or school. I can see some "darkside" in your future for the daughter's build!

 

When my boys got their licenses I let them drive my F-2 whenever they wanted. I had people tell me they thought I was crazy for letting a new drive take the truck out. The truck was made to be used and enjoyed. They drove $75K farm tractors with implements on the back when they were 14 years old, I thought they could handle a little ol' pickup.

 

In general she’s a good driver so I figured she could handle it in a parking lot. It’ll take many more lessons with the crashbox before she’s ready for the open road.

 

She'll get the hang of it pretty fast. Doesn't take that long to learn to shift it. A little longer to shift without grinding gears but she'll get it.

 

I’m sure it will take some time. Hell, I’ve been driving a manual for 55 years and it took me awhile to get the hang of the crashbox, and I still grind gears from time to time. But I’m confident she can do it.

 

Bob, thanks for the video, it was great. Also thanks for the motivation. I have been wanting to let my 15 year old son drive "Blacky". Saw your video and said today is the day. Pulled into a school lot and asked if he wanted to drive. Of course it was a yes. He did great! Even with a local police car sitting on the other end of the lot the whole time. LOL.

 

Great video. What a great memory for both of you.

 

i have my grandfather's 56 F250 that, i assumed, my family would sell when i am gone. I decided to put it back on the road a couple of months ago so have been getting it ready. My youngest daughter said she wants it even tho she was too young to drive it because of the memories. She just rode in the parades we drove it thru. It WAS GREAT when she told me that.

 

She stopped in front of a disaster recovery trailer, how ironic, lol.
I had my oldest son in a race car when he was 15. He did great and raced until joining the military.
Oldest is a mechanic in the military and is buking a hot rod. Middle son races autocross and builds battle bots, even been on TV. Youngest races super sport motorcycles. I started all of them onto cars as soon as they could walk and talk. Showing them the love of doing things, not the work and dirtiness' of the stuff you need to do as well. Now all of them are happy to get dirty to see the results of there efforts.

 

Great stories everyone!

I don’t remember if I’ve said this on the forum before, but when I brought the truck home Jules got in and asked “how do you put it in drive?”. Now she knows