History What happened to the Hot Rod Shop in Detroit?

So I was thumbing through a recently acquired August 1951 issue of Hot Rod. There was a two page spread on the Hot Rod Shop owned by Bill Toia. The article states this was Detroit's first speed shop (1949.) Then they mention it grew from the success of Gratiot Auto Supply (1945.) So I’m not sure if it would be considered the first but it sure looks like a cool place. It was listed at 8249 Grand River in Detroit with Al Medici as its manager. There was a great looking neon sign out front featuring a dual carb roadster. That sign has to be hanging somewhere in somebody’s shop. I did a Googlemaps search and only came up with a church and an empty field. I just wondered if the building still existed and perhaps the addresses had changed.

 

Hard to tell..
one thing i can tell you about Detroit..is it is slowly going back to corn fields like it was back in the late 1800's

so many burned out homes and buisnesses, and what didnt burn down got looted..and believe it or not, people would take the brick off of old buildings and sell them..right to the point where the building slowly disapeared over time.

Back in my familys working history was a Foundry in Detroit right near the Amb***ador bridge..it too is gone..an entire foundry.

the land scape of Dietroit is changing..may it be ever so slowly ..things that were once there could be gone in a matter of months weeks or days.

dam shame for some of its rich history

 

In 1951 there was a shop on Telegraph in Dearborn, I think called Hollywood hot rod shop. It was around Cherry Hill.

 

Read this blog from Ryan and the responses when you get a chance. When I asked the same question from a bunch of local old hot rod guys that LIVED in Detroit then, no one remembered a thing. Sad, very sad.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=2129

 

That's an awesome story Denise. That beautiful little car is about fifteen minutes from my house!!! I can't believe nobody remembers this shop? Grand River is smack dab downtown, not out in the suburbs. Seems like it would've been a rather prominent place. I'll be in Detroit the next two weekends, I'll soop around for it

 

Grand River Ave runs all the way across the state. The shop could have been on the very edge of Detroit, like around 8 Mile. Certainly makes more since then in a "downtown" location. Grand River further out of the downtown area are more mom and pop size buildings and such.

 

I think that address is between Virginia park Street and Vicksburg Street on the left side as you are heading out of town.. there are short little streets off to your left..(cant think of the names ) and 96 is right there running parallel to GrandRiver to your left (also as you head out of town) so kinda northerly..really like north west i think

 

The good Ol' Days

 

The shop was a few miles from downtown. I went there as a young guy looking for parts. If you go there to snoop around, be prepared, it is not a safe area. Bill Toia had a Lincoln in the Mexican Road race in '53 or '54. I don't know when he closed up shop but it is long gone.

 

Scott,
If ya go to Motown be sure to drive carefully cause the fuzz may be watchin

 

Gratiot Auto Supply

Long since out of buisness

 

Yeah I didn't think about Grand River going out of town. The Googlemap query put me in the Bagley street vacinity if I remember correctly. That's why I ***umed it was downtown. Although it seems kind of odd having two identical four digit address on the same avenue within a city. Rich, the 5-0 can pull me over with that anytime

 

Oh yeah, I know. I think I read on here the Woodward location is now a Murry's Discont Auto. I'm curious about the location of the Hot Rod Shop on Grand River and if the building still exists? Actually Rudy, I was about to PM you to see if you had any info.

If you know what 'm talking about somebody HAD to have kept the sign.

 

What a great picture, Detroit people where's this at? I see the Fyfe building in the background and that's Adams/Woodward. I aso see what looks like the bottom floor of the Statler Hotel on the left. Maybe Bagley and Park Ave?

 

If you go to Google maps, plug in 8249 Grand River and then click on Street View, you can look around at ground level and see what's left at that on that section of street. About all that's left is an abandoned church and a whole bunch of vacant lots.

 

There were two Hollywood Hot Rod Shops in the area up until the mid/late 80s. One was in Dearborn over by Miller School, on Oakman if I remember right...and the other one was on Plymouth Road in Redford or Livonia.

What was neat about going into those two stores was that they had a buncha cool stuff (in my eyes anyway!) left over from the 60s and 70s, and really decent prices! I used to go there and buy Rocket (brand) valve covers and Cal-Custom stuff...they were the last place around to still carry that sorta thing! I recall the Dearborn store having a surplus of SBC tri-power intakes. I considered running one on my Chevy-powered Pontiac, but knew that the single four barrel would run better, and the hood was usually closed!

In the early 80s, we'd shop at H&H Speed Shop, which was on Telegraph Road in Taylor for a while before they moved to a bigger building on Fort Street in Southgate. Those guys (Ron, Don and John!) gave us kids the real hook-up!

Then there was Mayfair's Hi-Po Shop on Van Born Road, and though it was closed for a while, it's open now under a new owner. Dan is a good guy...stop in and see him if you make it to the Dearborn Heights/Taylor area sometime!

Redford Speed was another one that hung on for a while...on Grand River in Redford. They tended to have consignment stuff...selling used intakes and stuff for people...always worth a trip to check out what was new!

Of course the Ramchargers chain had stores in Taylor, Madison Heights, Roseville and Livonia for a long time...but they bit the dust a while back as well.

Those were the places I'd spend my money when I was younger...now it's just up to Dan at Mayfair to carry the flame...but he does it well!

 

Back in the day we used to get our high-performance goodies from a joint called Detroit High Performance Warehouse. Huge with General Kinetic Cams. I believe Joe Tryson was the head cat back then. Cool place with the best products and prices>>>>.

 

1951 was before my time but I remember Hollywood Auto Parts' main store being on Shaefer Rd, just south of Mighigan Ave. My Uncle was one of the partners. I used to love going there as a kid & looking at all of the cool stuff!

Uncle Fred & his partners also owned Lion Muffler Shop on Plymouth & Middlebelt in Livonia.

There was also Hollywood Sam who used to work for the partners before starting his own place under that name. His shop was on Plymouth Rd east of the old Redford theater.

Like everything else in this moth-eaten town, it's all gone now.

 

I think the Hollywood shop had a new Chevy sedan delivery customized with skirts and bolt on stuff. Although it has been many years, I remember a lot of these names like Mayfair on Van Born, and Ramchargers on Pelham. Way back there was Lubri-loy Jack on Van Born and Pelham. Had a 29 roadster pickup with crazy clown hubcaps and was a push car at the Flatrock Speedway.

FASI back in our time that part of Grand River down town wasn't near as rough as today. Lots of auto stuff and engine blocks and supplies. I remember a s**** upholstery place that had rejects by the pile and you could pick out bits and pieces to customize our cars.

 

That is a sweet picture. Thanks for pulling that up.
Hacks story reminds me of when my little brother worked at the Murray's here in Canton. They had a Mr. Gasket 3 speed shifter -55 up SBC- on the wall for, like, ever, til I got a car with a 3 speed and went to get it... no one knows where it went. Probably got thrown away.
I'll ask my dad when he gets back from Texas where that picture was taken... maybe grand circus park?

Jay

 

my dad was born in 1941 in detroit, he tore up the streets in his days and he remembers that shop too.
i've been to detroit a lot, theres a helluva Salvage yard at 8mile & hoover, and i've gone to look at various cars for sale, (i give crazyroger1 some points), and its sad to see most of the stuff the way it is, dad would never even go near where he grew up, wouldnt be the same.

 

This is from wikipedia...
"The Detroit Statler Hotel (demolished), a.k.a. the Detroit Hilton Hotel was located at 1539 Washington Boulevard across from Grand Circus Park between the David Whitney Building and Hotel Tuller in the Foxtown neighborhood of downtown Detroit, Michigan. In addition to Washington Boulevard, the hotel also fronted Bagley Street and Park Avenue."

I can't believe I actually knew that it was across from Grand Circus park. Not bad for a suburban kid who only goes down there for Autorama.

just kidding. I love downtown. Too bad it isn't as vibrant as Chicago, et al.

Jay

 

On a totally unrelated topic, this is one of my favorite Grand Circus Park subjects. The 1916 AAA of Michigan building. When the Statler Hotel was demolished in 2004 debris fell onto the roof of this building a set it on fire. It looks so strange sitting all by its self, burned out on a little gr***y lot. I'm pretty sure that pic with the chevies was taken around this area.

 

Hollywood Sam, That is his place. Still there actually although not open on a regular basis, but stillsome invintory there.

I see Sam about once or twice a year.

 

Growing up in Highland Park, the Hot Rod Shop was on Manchester near Woodward , run by Gene McCricket. He then moved over to Grand River and Ivanhoe, next to where the Victory theater used to be.He was there into the 60's. Does anyone remember that?

 

Never been to Detroit. Seems like a fascinating place.

 

I remember the Hot Rod Shop in Detroit. It was a storefront right on Grand River almost to downtown. Not a garage or anything like that, just the sidewalk between the store windows and the street. I took a Greyhound bus from Lansing to Detroit and back to get throttle linkage for the 3-carb setup on my ’47 Ford coupe. I got on the bus down the street from my house in Lansing, and the driver dropped me off right at the Hot Rod Shop door in Detroit 85 miles later. Then I got picked up for the ride home just down the street from the shop. Later on I drove there to get parts and also to show off my car. Used to be a few hot rods parked at the curb sometimes. These guys were the real thing. Used to be a lot of rodders from ‘down river’, Wyandotte, Delray, and Ecorse. Being in that shop was like being on another planet. Had all the stuff I saw in Hot Rod Magazine. Bought HRM at the Paramount News Shop in Lansing in those days. Anyone remember that place? My only contact with hot rods in those days was HRM and a couple of oval dirt track guys I knew. Still have some of those old magazines.
I don’t remember when the Hot Rod Shop closed. Later in the 50’s, other places opened up. One of the best was Kustom Equipment in Flint, Michigan. Bill Waddill was a famous racer out of that shop. Then there was the Capitol City Speed Shop in Lansing, run by Charlie Johnson and Noah Canfield, the guys that raced the Gl*** Chariot and later an AA fuel dragster.
Grand River was the major highway across Michigan – no freeways back then. It was a 3-lane highway. Those roads were scary, and head-on accidents were common in the center or ‘p***ing’ lane. Michigan didn’t have a highway speed limit until 1956.
Long time ago… damn it was fun.

 

I'm sorry to get OT, but could someone please tell me what year the Chevy in the foreground is? I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with prewar cars.

 

it's a 1939

 

1939 coupe. My dad had a '39 2-door during the war.