Mid to late '60s, (later than the ads you're showing, I think, blowby) I used to look at the Sunday newspaper classified car ads. I was only 8-10 years old, but knew I wanted a '32 Ford. Coupes, roadsters, etc. for $1,000 maybe $2,000. I remember seeing one advertised for $3,000 and thought to myself that it must be a really nice one. Of course, this was when muscle-cars had everyone distracted and hot rodding nearly died for a while. Then Pete built a black coupe and Jake built a yellow one and everybody got interested again.
I didn't focus so much on the prices, of course it seems cheap, but a chance to see how the cars looked and were outfitted by the everyman. Also interesting is along with a photo of the car, the sellers full name (Cam Stalker, great one) and address are listed. Different world back then.
As a kid the thing that caught my attention was the difference in $$$$ invested and the sales price. Because I've never had money, that is still important. At this point I'm probably somewhere close to even. I'll never try to add it up because I don't want to destroy that fantasy.
My grandmother on my dad's side never learned to drive. Never needed to I guess. I remember her talking about how poor everyone was during the Great Depression. She'd say a candybar was only a nickle, "but I didn't have a nickle." The point being, I guess, it doesn't matter what something costs, it's all relative. We also got the lecture on Christmas Eve, on how she got an Orange for Christmas one year, and shared it with her sister. One year she got a scarf.
There is the key right there. Divide the selling price by the average wage then and you get the number of hours of work it took to pay for it. Multiply those hours by today's average wage and you might be a bit shocked on how expensive those cars were when compared to now. Some searching shows that the National average wage (not minimum) in 1963 was 4400.00 or 2.11 an hour. that means before deductions the average guy would have had to work 509.48 hours in 1963 hours to pay for that car. I have to say the classifieds were one of my favorite parts of Hot Rod Magazine in the late 50's and early 60's and the created a lot of "what if" dreaming for a young teenager.
Hello, When summer came rolling around, I needed an infusion cash. Surf trips to Baja, Mexico, overnights in San Diego surf spots, etc. They all cost more than I could save from mowing the lawn. So, I got a job, a bicycle ride away, from our Westside of Long Beach house. At Kit Trailers, I was the “screwer” of cabinet doors. I had the job of screwing in the hinges to the various size cabinet doors that were eventually going to be installed in the large trailers being assembled in the section next to where I was “screwing” around. Ha ha !!! Since I was the only H.S. kid working there, I took a lot of ribbing as the “screw guy, etc” The hourly pay was $1.32 per hour. It sounds like a piddling amount, which it was, but I only lasted a week, due to an accident when they moved me to the next station. I was getting so good at organizing and screwing that the doors began to pile up for the next station in the actual trailers. Those guys did not like it that I had the next load of doors ready when they weren’t, (it was due to those guys being lazy and not paying attention) Any mechanical robot could screw in 6 screws for two hinges and move the product to the next station. For $1.32 per hour, I was that mechanical robot. A conscientious teen was more like it… Jnaki It was a short bicycle ride away and convenient, so I put a good effort to doing the best that I could. Those guys on the line were permanent workers making a lot more, and I was cannon fodder for their comments. My next station job was using a power stapler to put together the frames for the cabinets. A 1x1 stapled to another 1x1 wooden dowel, in a “T” shape. So, they told me to hold up the long side rod and place the top piece over, making a “T”. then using the power staple, connect the two together. I asked if there was a mold, they said it had been done this way for centuries. So, I made a stack of “T” connections and overpowered the next station again, drawing comments like… what the f…… simpletons… I accidently stapled my thumb and it was pouring blood all over everything. I asked the secretary for the rest of the day off and to go see our family doctor. She laughed and gave me a bandage. Then sent me to another station sanding. That made it worse and I quit. Of course, I got the permanent career speech by the foreman and boss. But, I bicycled home and went to Baja in two weeks of pleasurable surfing. My $1.32 per hour pay check for the week and a half, was good for a week’s worth of steaks, Cokes and contributing to the beer factory runs in Baja Mexico.
I graduated in 1965 as and engineer. We got paid twice a month, as I came in mid pay period I got 3 weeks pay in my first check . When I cashed it I couldn't believe there was that much money in the world.
My dad always tells me when he immigrated from Italy he worked 3 jobs welder , built air compressors for refrigeration, and as a machine operator in a machine shop and helped his buddy paint houses on the week end ( no really he painted houses not “ painted houses). Said he made around $600 a week !!! Said that was basically 5000 bucks in today’s money!! when my grandfather said screw this snow and cold and decided to go back to Italy my dad stayed as he was living like a king, worked like a dog but had the money to show for it .
No add but in 1964 when I needed a car because I had blown up the engine in my 51 Merc the Jeep AMC dealer down the street from the Honda motorcycle shop I worked at had two 55 Chevys on the lot for 350 each but that was a bit out of my budget at the time. I always get a laugh from guys who say we had it so good back then though. I think when I started working minimum wage was 1.10 an hour around here. That bought 3 gallons of gas and in many places today one hour of work buys just right at 5 gallons of gas. minimum wage in this state being 13.69 and today's best local gas price being 2.70 When I was teaching I knew a high school girl that could have given Vandenplas a run for his money. She attended class as a Sr in the mornings, did teachers aid thing in the grade school in the afternoon and then worked one of the three jobs she had in the evenings, The state allows high school kids to work at a job 15 hours a week and she had three jobs so she could get in 45. The last time I talked to her she had just got her masters. Daughter of migrant workers who was a first generation American.
1955 Hello, As early as we could and as soon as we saw this ad, my brother and I went to the post office to get a postal mail order to send for our catalog. They were not sent to the local magazine stores or where we saw our supply of hot rod/custom car magazines. Honest Charley was a name brand and we had no idea who or what it was. It was one of the first mass produced catalogs out for the general public. That was a great business sense for many years. Who hasn’t seen or heard of an Honest Charley Speed Shop Catalog? Were they a certified speed shop or just a warehouse full of accessories? We never knew, but the local speed shops and engine/race car builders kind of chuckled at the idea of ordering speed parts from honest charley as the industry grew in our Westside of Long Beach neighborhood. Jnaki But, for a couple of young kids, it was something to read and dream about what parts go with what car, etc. we had no idea of actual building, maybe my brother did as he read those tech articles from cover to cover, whereas, I just looked at the photos and features. The tech stuff was too busy for a little kid. For days on end, perusing that catalog once it arrived in the U.S. Mail was a great day and everything was put aside so we could fight over who read the catalog first. We did not like sharing, even as close as we were. YRMV
@jnaki In the late ‘50s/early ‘60s, I was a big fan of Honest Charley and his catalogs! ‘Ol Honest Hisself! The photos, crude drawings and cartoons really cracked me up. One was a altered photo of Charley with a finned aluminum ford head on Charley’s head! I think i still have a remnant of one somewhere in the ‘archives’....... Ray
Charlie Card and his wife Hazel owned a Chattanooga eating establishment and starting selling speed equipment at the checkout counter. You had to meet Charlie to understand how the concept of the catalogs came about. I think that part of the story includes the fact that Charlie and Hazel allowed customers to put money on the counter based on their ability to pay. Met "Honest Hisself" at an early SEMA Show. Corkey Coker bought the trade mark and ads still show up in HOT ROD.
Back in the mid 60s, (13 or 14 yrs old, still building model cars and racing slot cars) a lot of the advertisers in Hot Rod mag offered their T-shirts for $1.00. My total summer attire consisted of those dozen or so hot rod T-shirts I bought. I thought I was the coolest kid in the world, although I was too young to even own a car. Honest Charley's was one of my favorites
I bought this one in 1962 and kept it 57 years. That's only $17.54 a year! And got more than I paid for it when I sold it!
I live by Riverside. A few years ago I was there and while looking at the H.A.M.B. something popped up about that car and that ad. I looked it up and was only a few blocks from the address. So, I did a drive by. Cool old house in a cool old neighborhood. I can only imagine what it was like for you to pull up to buy that awesome roadster way back then!!!
I can't bear to read those ads. I'd look at the Chicago Sun Times auto section in the '60s and '70s. Hell, there was a time I could purchase a McLaren 427 Can-Am racer for $3500 through Autoweek. Good thing collectors and speculators came along to drive prices into the stratosphere.
1957 The ad for the Moon Equipment Company Discs were out in early 1957. HRM photos Hello, We did not start seeing Moon Discs until late 1957 when the Hot Rod Magazine Special ran at Bonneville. "Suddenly it's 1960!" was the ad slogan used to describe the new Plymouth for 1957. “Thanks to the magazine staff's connections at Plymouth's headquarters, a yellow '57 Plymouth Savoy two-door hardtop rolled out of Chrysler's East Los Angeles assembly plant and into Ray Brock's anxious grasp and the thrash began.” My brother bought his first car in late 1956 at age 15. Throughout the 1957 year, he had his first set of screw in Moon Aluminum Discs on his 1951 Oldsmobile Sedan. Lowered Cal Rake 51 Oldsmobile Sedan painted a Lime Green prior to the sale to a friend. Jnaki Both of us have been through a lot, but the first car is always remembered as the one that got us started in hot rods and drag racing. 1956-57 Oldsmobile Sedan Westside of Long Beach “SUDDENLY” was the name of the Bonneville speed record holder. And, suddenly, it is 2021 with history upon us… big time.
And who remembers Muntz 4 and 8 track stereos? The coolest one was the all chrome model...ahh...Momma's and the Papa's.....
When I was a kid in the late 50's/early '60s, every Friday edition of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin had a full page ad for Reedman's of Langhorne. There was a selection of $9.00 Reedman Specials and a better bit for $19.00 each. No hot rods but plenty of nice customs material in that bunch.
Hello, My brother and I purchased a set of 7 inch wide Bruce Slicks for our Saturday dragstrip adventures from 1958 to 1960 in his then, new 1958 Chevy Impala. By the time 1960 rolled around, we were on the next level of our builds, a 1940 Willys Coupe with a 283 SBC for the Gas Coupe/Sedan Classes. By the time we had used the 7 inch wide Bruce Slicks, a new company started advertising a new compound to compete against the “standard” for most racers back in those early days. Now, some of the well-supported race teams from 1960 were starting to experiment with those wider slicks with the newish compound. Every inch of anything to get a better time and speed at the dragstrip. The M&H Tire Company had an East Coast presence, but word and products spread fast to the epicenter of drag racing, So Cal. So, we began to see the results of the more expensive wider racing slicks in the top individual class racing and teams. Jnaki My brother had an inkling of what was coming up in our future race prep ideas and products. He could see the writing on the wall. So, he had some 9 inch wide steel Chevy bolt pattern rims made at Henry’s Machine Shop in NE Long Beach, near Bixby Knolls. I remember spray painting them black when they were in our backyard garage gathering dust. The odd thing was, we were doing well with the 1940 Willys Coupe, now supporting a 671 292 C.I. SBC blower spec motor. The Bruce Slicks were still very grabby and led us to some E.T. times that were close to the national record in the C/Gas Class. Besides, at the time, we did not have money to get a pair of wider slicks, but there were other things that needed to be done first. Much to our surprise, we found out in late July 1960, that our friend had ordered a set of the new M&H wide slicks for us and they were sitting in a warehouse up in downtown L.A. Note: Besides those bigger M&H Slicks, plus a set of Hilborn Two Port Blower Injectors and some Halibrand Mag Wheels were also in that same warehouse.
SOUND FROM 1959 Hello, During May 1959, Joe Mailliard’s Automotive Engineering was at a different location from the final location near Mickey Thompson’s Shop in the Westside of Long Beach in the years of late 1959 and 1960. The two top Westside speed shops were located within blocks of each other during this time period. But, for the high school locals, for us beginners in 1959 and for my brother’s earlier class activities prior to 1959, the speed shop location was just two blocks from our big high school in Long Beach. Back then, the street was still named American Avenue. From Willow Street North through Bixby Knolls and into South Gate, the street was known and listed as Long Beach Blvd. By the end of 1959, the American Avenue from Willow Street to the Ocean was renamed Long Beach Blvd. Jnaki The building still stands, but the whole area is going through some redevelopment and it looks quite barren. Not, like it was in 1959-63 when hot rods and sedans cruised from the ocean back to Bixby Knolls past some of the biggest car dealers, restaurants, and popular shops in all of Long Beach.
1964 Hello, In trying to remember the old hot rod speed shops and manufacturing shops that lined the small industrial tracts near our Westside of Long Beach house, it was confusing that several stories and old advertisements had similar photos, but different shops. The old mind and memory had to take a step back to see what was what. One strong memory was of the Mickey Thompson’s Speed Shop being located on Santa Fe Avenue. Santa Fe Avenue is the main drag of the Westside of Long Beach. It runs from the city of South Gate area down to the harbor area near Terminal Island. At the time, the street was very busy and the shops flourished. It was also an alternative route to get to Los Angeles before the Long Beach Freeway was opened. Santa Fe Avenue was where our first sighting of a custom Ford F100 chopped and fully customized truck was always parked. Most everyone that walked by the custom truck was amazed at the bright Candy Apple Paint or a darker Tahitian Red color. It depended on the sun or haze as to what color paint is actually was on the custom truck. As we went down Santa Fe Avenue, it gets more into the industrial shops area after crossing PCH. Then the shops take on the industrial versus a neighborhood stores and small businesses look. The ad for the Mickey Thompson Speed Shop was listed as 1419 Santa Fe Avenue. That was puzzling as the speed shop was one block off of Santa Fe Avenue at one time. Jnaki https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/friday-art-show-7-9-21.1235014/ post #11 So, in recent research and a post on the famous Italian Deli, Market and Restaurant with a cool GMC Panel Truck, I noticed the sign in the background. 1419 Santa Fe Avenue. This was the address of the last Mickey Thompson Speed Shop. Today, it is another company, but across the street, there is a Studebaker Restoration Shop. As well as the long running Italian Deli next door to 1419 Santa Fe Avenue: 1401 Santa Fe Avenue: The Santa Fe Importers, Inc.
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