Hello, That was a nice overall So Cal hot rod influenced shop/manufacturer list of locations. But, having lived in the Southern L.A. County-OC beach area so long from 1947 to 1998+ there are some glaring errors. MAP ICONS: Is our house from 1953 to 1998. The three red squares are the ones showing major errors in location. The closest to our house is the Clay Smith Cams location on Gaylord Street. (7) It is across PCH and is in walking distance to our old house. Venolia Pistons and the McEwen/LeGrand Speed Engineering were also located within a block of Clay Smith, but not listed. Mickey Thompson’s Speed Shops were also way off the mark. They originally took over the old Joe Mailliard Shop on Cota. Then expanded nearby. Finally, relocated everything to the last known shop on Santa Fe Avenue. That was still walking/bicycle ride away from our Westside of Long Beach house. The #9 listed location was closer to the original Reath Automotive location. The #10 Joe Reath shop map pointer was about 4 miles too far north of the original shop location on 10th. But the 2nd location for Reath Automotive in a large corner lot was still on Cherry Avenue, but North of the 405 freeway at 3300 Cherry Avenue. Jocko’s Porting Service was always on Cherry Avenue in Northeast Bixby Knolls. It was never in Wilmington near the harbor locations (20). The real #20 map location is about 6 miles away from the posted location near the downtown Wilmington area and the harbor locations nearby. Jnaki We used to go to all of those places regularly and they were burned into our collective hot rod/race car parts chasing/purchasing runs. Reath Automotive in the Eastside of Long Beach was fairly close and within range for a parts run after high school hours, which was located several blocks away. YRMV Some of the buildings are still there, but updated. Others, have turned into apartments/condos and are gone into history. YRMV
I respect anyones opinion. From the beginning I used a term that in my neck of the woods was how myself and guys in my neighborhood referred to the style design of the 59 to 62s unique roofline. If it is technically wrong it did not matter. It is my opinion and the way I will always see the STYLE of that GROUP of cars and the shared design as bubble tops. RIGHT OR WRONG if one does not agree, so be it. Let me make a bad situation worse. If JUST the roofs were laying on the floor in front of them I would bet MOST could not tell the what car or year they came from. Like I said from the beginning it may have been a local thing. Thank's to all, PRO or CON.
Wow, I was just talking about that car last night. I guy I knew ended up with it. He also had a chopped 41 Ford that was the lousiest riding vehicle I had ever been in.
The Jalopy Journal
