What was the Speed Shop that said it all for you?

Hey Doug, I knew that Jon Anderson was on San Gabriel BL and moved at least once - but 4 times? Didn't realize it was that many in as short of time he was in business.

 

"Dave's Home of Chrome" on N. Long Beach Blvd. in Compton California.

 

X2...that place was huge (seemed like it, anyways) and packed full of shiny chrome stuff I couldn't afford, but that didn't stop me from looking & dreaming...

Eric

 

Jim lives up in Tehachapi, CA, and runs a small shop. He sells components on Ebay. His user name is "skinhead661" Not a politically correct name today, but back then everyone called him skinhead simply because he was bald! Times have changed....

Here is a link to his little Ebay store:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/skinhead661...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&_trksid=p4340.l2562

 

SHAKER RACING granger indiana. DICK AND CARL dick still owns it today 40 years later..... also RACE SHOPS USA in mishawaka indiana... and OC SPEED & CUSTOM in oceola indiana

 

He was at the LA Roadster Show as well. His shop is called Hi Mountain Fabrication. 661.823.0694

 

How could any Minnesota list be started without Smith Auto Ind. and Champion Auto .. It was fun going down to MAS and drool over Gary Kolofskis 55 chev on a regular basis wasnt it .

 

Motor Clinic in Avon, Ct. Tons of speed parts, great parts advice from "Dick out front". in the back was a chassis dyno and several lifts and several techs ready to change your cam, bolt on a tri power or whatever tripped your trigger. Most I could spring for back then was a chrome 1 bl air filter, a chrome tailpipe extension, and a chrome oil filler cap for my 61 Tempest 4 cyl wagon.

 

I spent a lot with Speed-O-Motive is South Gate for all my piston kits.
and some at Downy Service Center.

Roach

 

Of course, I was never there since I'm 15, but there were 2 race/speed shops that stick out in my mind Red Vogt's Garage and the Cherokee Garage. Red's shop was off Spring Street in Atlanta from about 1929 till about 1954, then he moved his shop to Daytona for a couple years. In that time frame, he built hot rods, race cars (his engines built for Raymond Parks' legendary team won the first organized stock car race in Ga in 1938, then ten years later Parks' cars won the first Nascar race and the first two championships, all in Red Vogt built cars. Red was also known for building the fastest bootlegging cars in all of Ga, but if they paid him enough, he would also help out the men trying to catch the moonshiners.

And the Cherokee Garage who at one time was owned by Gober Sosebee. Gober started working at the garage in late 1948 while Billie Hester owned it, Gober drove for him in a 39' Ford (which is in the racing museum I work at, the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame). His cars always carried colorful Indian heads on the doors and on the trunk. He won three consecutive Daytona modified wins (49-51) driving that same 39'. Later in the mid 50's when he owned the Cherokee garage and was driving either an early 50's olds, a Golden Hawk Studebaker, or his 57 Chevy Convertiable, he was always winning, and liked to help out racers who didn't have much.

-Cody

 

Ray's Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts. Manhattan, KS.

 

J&M in Riverside,Ca.

 

Fred is that you in there????

 

Doug Blacks Speed Shop in Tiny Brookfield Missouri in the 60`s

 

Still going strong, since 1957. Phil died 3 years ago but the shop continues today

 

Oh, forgot about Ruskin Auto Parts on Blue Ridge Blvd in Grandview, MO. When Jerry Slover had his gorgeous '34 coupe parked there it was a treat. Right on the Friday and Saturday night cruise route. Later became Pete & Jake's and then they moved down south to Peculiar, MO.

 

The original S-K ... they were located on Fulton Street (Hempstead Turnpike ) and Merritts Road in Farmingdale. This was back in the 1965. They are still in business on Long Island with from what I was told, one of the original owners. I bought an Edelbrock dual quad ram log and 2 AFB carbs from them and tore up the neighborhood with my SBC powered '60 Valiant.

 

Up, first joint was a little place on the east side just south of Broadway, then down south of Mission, then on the west side in the building that became Gale Banks shop, then on the west side just north of Valley Blvd.
In fact Jon lived above the first one in a small apt.

 

I too remember ordering parts from Honest Charley's in Tenn. His catalogs with all the little cartoon type pictures of him were cool as hell. I always wanted to go to California, and just step foot in Blair's Speed Shop. I just remembered 2 more shops in Louisville, Ky. Criscoe's in Fern Creek, and Redd's downtown. Redd's may have only been a parts store without a machine shop, can't remember, but they sold a lot of used speed equipment. God the 50's and 60's were a great time to be alive!

 

Cool! Glad to hear he is still out and about. his stuff was always cool back in the day, and the articles he collaberated with others on taught me lots about chassis fab and how stuff went together.

I like your signature line too! How true!

 

I know that things change and that life tends to move on. But I still miss the days of my youth and the thriving car scene that existed around our serious hardcore shops.

In Edmonton we had Pacemaker Automotive and Wheeler Dealer.

Then there was Davis Automotive and also JB's Automotive.

The best were Pacemaker and Wheeler Dealer. I loved going in and just absorbing all the car talk and buying goodies for my 65- 340 powered Barracuda.

Then having the guys in the shop help me wrench on my car in their parking lot, they even helped me with an intake and cam swap right there, and never complained about it.

The shop mechanics helped me on their coffee breaks.

Like I said, I miss those days, things are not like that anymore, the old shops are gone and we have no real serious shops anymore.

Not like the old places that's for sure.

We have Mopac and they try but no way are they even close.

 

A couple of old haunts from my youth:

Troy Ohio: Mader Motor Mart on South Market Street
Piqua Ohio: Rocky's Automotive on Looney Roads

 

D & R Speed shop in Lafayette, Louisiana was a great place to go and great people to.....

 

After it burned down do you know if it was the same owners that opened the Service Center in Bellflower, over on Alondra I think?


Those little boats that were in the shop on Atlantic looked kinda like these without the name down the the sides of them.

 

Competition Sales. Houston, Texas. Two locations, but I think they're both gone, now.

 

Joe Reath in Long Beach CA

 

Smith's Speed Shop, Eaton, Ohio

 

Jake's Speed Shop in New Orleans, then after I came to the Houston area in '65, it was H.O. Andrews Speed Shop on East Mt. Houston. DD

 

There was T&C Speed Shop on E State in Athens, Ohio. Owned by Ted Hutchison & Monte Goodfellow. Ted donated a brand new Six Pak Super Bee to drag racing, the 440 threw a rod in 1970 and the car drifted around (not running) for a couple years after that. It finally came to rest in Albany, Ohio, and 20 years later it was still rusting peacefully under a tree there. Jegs was just a store at 11th ave & I-71 in Columbus then. Antorietto Racing Engines, Athens, Ohio. RIP Louis Antorietto.

 

Al VanDyke's Evergreen Speed Shop, Everett, WA. Finally closed a couple of years ago. I started going there in 1962. Still in High School...spent every dime I made there for years.