Here's a plate from an old Wichita club started in the early 1970's, The Fundamentals. This plate is a repop. If you quit the club back in the day you had to turn your plate in. No repops were ever authorized but there's a guy out there doing it anyway. Some of the original members are still around so I consider this just a tribute to that great club. I did it up to look old but it's not.
Anyone in the Torrington, CT area know if this plaque was for a car club or some other kind of social or civil group?
I was lucky walking around and the Tustin historical society museum was open late last night (a haunted tour was just ending at 9 pm). They let us in to look around and I found this on the wall. The club was founded in 1955 and the plaque was donated by the widow of the Docents friend. Love finding local history, especially if it's automotive centric.
Here's another question for you HAMB experts. Someone sent me a photo of this Sejants plaque that he found in his late Father-in-law's stuff. He was a cop in Vernon, CA area, but wasn't a car guy. Does anyone know of this club or where it may have been based? It was made by the Koehler Foundry in Bell, CA and is made of brass ...
You can use this to look up C.C. plaques from your area. https://www.obrientruckers.com/ppwd_plaques/index
I live across the street from Lake Minnetonka, I asked some of the hot rodders in the area that are in their 70's and 80's and no one remembers the club....
One of my reference books, Hot Rods and Custom Car Clubs, has the Road Runners from Lake Minnetonka, MN listed so I'm pretty sure they were around in the 50's or 60's. Fred Thomas put in a lot of time researching old publications. Someone may have tried restarting the club and that's why there are two different plaques.
Here's another great resource for looking up car club plaques with 8,500 clubs listed by city. https://carclubplaques.pairsite.com/carclubplaques.htm
Top picture is a plaque I found at a swap meet from the town I've lived in for the past 40 years. The club is long defunct but I've found a local or two who remember it. The bottom pic is a hand carved wooden form that was used to cast the plaques. My son in law found it in a local antique shop. I think I'm pretty lucky to have found both.
Since I've had an obsession with car club plaques lately I've been doing some research online and found this short video. It's interesting to know the first ones were just painted like the one that someone is currently trying to get $2,499 for on Ebay. Anyway the next time @Ryan or any of the other mods are looking for something interesting to write about may I suggest the history of car club plaques as a topic.
He used a lot of info from my website and even gave me credit at the end, but mispronounced my last name.
The Jalopy Journal
