In the early '70s, Sears was hooked up with Cragar. My cousin's '63 409 (bought it in '67) still has a set of five spoke mags on it that he ordered from Sears. Cragar called them G/Ts, but as you mentioned, Sears had their own center caps for them that read "Magster".
I bought a set of Crager G/T wheels from Sears in about 1970--looked like Americans--cast-aluminum--machine outer,as-cast spokes--even had Crager caps,but said "G/T" not "S/S"--anybody ever see these? I've never seen another set. But the worst----my cheap-ass parent would buy Sears jeans (instead of Levi's) for my brother and I in the early 60"s--sons-of bitches were like Army tent material--stiff as a board--OR--they would by "cords"--anybody remember those? I also remember the people down the street from us had an old Allstate--old man only drove it a couple times a month.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Wards & Co. as well as others sold houses "ready to assemble" from near the turn of the century(19th, that is) through the post-WWII years. Kits were precut, numbered and came in various tages of completeness (with or without doors, windows, etc) including roofing materials and kegs of nails etc. Thousands of these houses still are occupied throughout the US in large cities, small towns and rural areas.
My dad bought a new Road Runner in '69, a stripper post model with hubcaps and a 4 speed. He went to Prange Way and bought a set of mag wheels and some fatter tires there. If anyone knows what the brand of wheels were that were availible at Prange Way, I'd love to know. He's got a picture of the car with my Mom sitting on the hood of it, they got married at 18 and bought that car. Oh, and the Merc flathead that used to be in my '53 Ford had a Montgomery Wards rebuild tag on it too.
ACTUALLY, they are called CRAFTSMAN for a reason. You picked your plan, ordered it from the catalog and viola drove your wagon and horses down to the local rail yard and picked every piece you would need, clear down to the exact amount of nails and door knobs. Sears also sold Ford Flatheads....promised to have 3 or less cracks in the heads. Both Sears and Monkey Wards also manufactured tractors.
Sears had the Tuff Skins and JC Penney had the Plain Pockets. I should hate my parents. Monkey Wards had everything. My garage fridge is a 70's gold Wards fridge.
In the 30s and 40s Monkey-Wards sold farm tractors that were simply called a "Wards Tractor". They usually had a Flathead six Chrysler engine and used a GMC Truck rearend. My dad remembers seeing one, (and actually checking it out) sitting in the showroom of the Wards Auto Center in Sioux City ,Iowa in the early 40s. In the late 60s, early 70s they were farely popular in the early days of Hot Rod Pulling Tractors. They had a simple but cool looking grille. JC Penny sold there own brand of speed equipment branded as A/FX. And, Sears and Sawbuck sold Henry Js branded as Allstates
Ha ha- I wore Toughskins jeans through 6th grade. I think I got a lot of "you still wear Toughskins?" then, so I had to have Levi's for junior high. I found Toughskins on ebay, but no Husky jeans. Thanks, Kurt
Second job I ever had was working a JC Penny Auto Center. I mounted tires, did wheel balancing, wheel allignments, brake jobs, and car "rustproffing"! The Monkey Wards Auto shop closed a few years before I started at Penny's. Several of the guys I worked with had worked at the Wards Auto store. You could get tires, mags, headers, and a bunch of other performance parts at our store and we installed everything except headers. We had 7 shop bays and a wash bay where they would hand wash cars. This would have been around 1978 or so, I worked there for a couple years. The Penny's Auto Centers closed in 1983 (or there abouts) country wide. Our auto center was one of the last ones to close. I wore the Pennys plain pockets for years, Mom said the Sears pants were "too Expensive." Gene
back around 56 or so my dads family were all builders.My dad got hired by 2 brothers who bought a house from sears together.They got into some kind of arguement and one of them went to the house lot and painted over the numbers and stuff on all the crates! My dad said you had to be very carefull because everything was precut to exact size you had to fit it correctly or you'd run into a real mess.Dad said the houses were very well built as far as materials and such but ultimately it depended on the builder as to how good it came out.They ended up hiring my dad to assemble it in the end and he had to go without plans since everything was painted over.He said it took him almost a year of part time work to put it up but everything went in where it belonged.The house still looks great today there are about 6 togetrher on the same street
two of the houses directly across the street from mine are Sears homes... around the corner is an Aladdin, and there's a Montgomery Wards' on the other corner. not only could you pick your house out from the catalog, you could finance it through Sears, as well... a great deal of the millwork for Sears and other "kit" homes sold on the west coast came from a mill here in Portland (and a bunch of non-Sears houses here have very similar millwork, because of it). sears tractors: have owned a few. owned a Wards, too... but it wasn't running. as far as the MW rebuilt engines: had one in a '54 chevy about 10 years ago... tripped out when i saw that tag... i had no idea that they'd rebuilt engines.
likely its a rebuilt from somebody like Jasper. there were lotsa rebuilders around in the 50's including Sears and Roebuck. Was fairly common with poor oil, dirt roads, ineffective air cleaners, and optional oil filter to see these engines rebuilt or exchanged for a rebuild with as few as 50K miles. This from A Pittsburg newspaper dated Sept 17 1951. Installation looks like it was 10 bucks. Plymouth 6 was a bi more than the ford at 194 installed. On the back was an add for youngmens winter coats with shearling collars for 10 dollars, boys sizes started at 7.00. Buckle Golashes for 4 bucks. So Sears was Allstate, wasn't MW Riverside or JC Higgins?? I worked at a Dodge Dealership in the aerly 60's. they had a licensed Chrysler rebuilding facility on the premisis. It was basically a shed attached to the body shop. two old guys worked there tearing down stuff and putting the back together. Machine work was done off site. They always kept a stock of freshend engines and offered them to folks who need a major. Their cars were down for only a day or so. and they got a core credit for theri old engine. Chrysler sold unnumbered bare blocks to rebuilders. they either stamped on a number, or attached a tag like you found. Usually the tag had a code or model designation on it indicating what the under and over specs were. <!-- / message --><!-- attachments -->
My father always took his car to Montgomery Wards in Laurel Md to get work done on it. They had a shop there until we moved away in 1994.
I remember MW selling Wards Riverside tires and I think they carried JC Higgings guns think thats where my 16 guage came from
Hey, thanks for all the input. I learned that alot of fellow HAMBers remember that MW, S&R,JCP, made and sold all kinds of stuff. I think I'll keep running the 216 until it goes bellyup then decide if I should install a 235 or a 283 <(got a runner in the garage) and yes my mom would make me wear those jeans when I was a kid too...( buy 2 pair for the price of 1pair of levi's,..lol)
Now don't start knocking cords, my wife had a heck of a time getting me to stop wearing them, then a couple of years ago they started making a comeback, and I mentioned it, and it has been quite awhile since I have seen a look like that I rember buying headers for my stang from Jc penney, and I bought my first set of Keystone Klassics from Target in 76. Mike
This is wild as hell.......Dept. store speed equipt. Yep, JC Penney had the A/fx brand, valve covers, intakes , headers and plug wires....I think shifters too. They also had their own line of drag slicks called ..."El Tigre", that worked pretty well at the time.I had to wear those damn plain pocket pants too...only in colors, black, brown, green...etc. JC Penney had the "Foremost" brand as well. Sears had JC Higgens and Ted Williams....Monkey Wards had Riverside. I can see it now....guy is at a car show or drag strip with his car...."Yeah...I built it myself....runnin a Riverside .030 over 283 with a JC Higgens 3/4 cam....A/fx Intake & headers.....Ted Williams 4 bbl.....Foremost traction bars and El tigre slicks ".... LMAO. What a period in time it was....
Man What a trip....My mom did all of our clothes shopping from JC Penney's. Plain pockets. I need a pair of those Sears jeans now so my fat ass don't blow out the fricken crotch. Courduroys....couldn't sneak up on anyone in the damn things, Phtt, phtt in the crotch. We had a department store called Nichols that had the most Cal custom stuff you could ever see hanging on the walls. I remember seeing baby moons and spider caps, trim rings all going for 99 cents in the mark down bins right before they closed. They had complete 4 speed shifter for damn near anything you could think off, This was late '60's-eary '70's. I remember seeing so many of those stupid barefoot pedals for dimmer switches. We had an SS Kresge store (pre K-mart) that had model cars cheap, I had a ton of Roth-like plastic monster/car figures from there. I had a huge '32 roadster model from there too. We had to drive a little to get to Uncle bill's dept store. dad popped the question to mom in '61 with a ring he saved up for and bought from Uncle Bill's. He still tells me how he drove a 24 year old Ford to get it and the fuel pump went bad on it....Bone stock '37 Ford Tudor. I collect old literature and before my grandmother died she gave me an old 1932 Sears and Roebucks catalog, thing is huge and Model A parts are cheap! Tires rims fenders were expendable items and cheap cheap! Had houses in it also, Medical tools for the doc including the black doctors bag. I met a guy that has a Sears Roebuck house. Brought to the site by horse and wagon to replace the termite infested log cabin (still on the property). It wasn't a complete kit but what is real cool about it is that they had cut down some diseased trees on the property and had the local saw mill cut it for them because it was cheaper than a complete kit. By the way those diseased trees were American Chestnut....yep...the house is done in Wormy Chestnut!
Stiff Ol Jeans Does anyone remember Spin and Marty from Disney? They had an episode where they were at the Ranch and got New Jeans. They spent the whole show trying to make them softer by beating them in the dirt, soaking them with water, twisting the legs up. I can still feel the asswhipping I got, it looked like such a good idea. Don't forget the live animals you could order from Sears/MW, chickens, rabbits, goats horses, cows. Bout the only thing I didn't see were mailoder brides and strippers.
In 1960, I had a chance to buy a flathead v twin bike the looked like a Harley. It had a Allstate badge on the side of the tank. Of course dad said no way in hell are you going to buy that. Wound up with a Chushman super eagle. Anyway, been looking for another ever since. Harley says they never built it. Anyone ever seen one?
I wish life was still like that, Simple! I don't think it's going back to that though, I'll keep trying !
Don't know if its regional but Benny's store chain here carried Spark O Matic shifters and a line of speed equiptment I remember buying baby moons for 16$ for a set of 4.Don't know if they had their own line or just carried someone elses stuff. Western Auto also had speed equiptment would guess since they are owned by Sears the same stuff was sold in both chains
'66-70 in Pennsylvania there was a big MW retail store within walking distance of my dorm; They had a '49-53 Merc engine (I assume a well painted junk core, but who knows) as the display advertising their RB engines. Sears and MW stores generally carried general maintenance car stuff and a limited line of high volume parts, but catalogs had practically everything needed for car repairs including still Model A parts. Sears catalog even showed interesting oddities...in the rebuilt trans section, for instance, you could choose close-ratio vette gears in your RB '55-64 Chevy 3 speed, the "Zephyr gears" of the fifties for people who couldn't find a T-10.
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