5 blocks from our Westside of Long Beach house from 1953 to 1998. Turn left at the gas station corner and about two blocks to the end gate of Lion's Dragstrip ambulance entrance and exit. The corner of Santa Fe Avenue with Willow Street crossing East to West. The Richfield Gas Station evolved into an Arco station if one were to drive by there, today. Hello, This corner had a lot of meaning for us as little kids and into the teenage years. The corner was one of the two main busy intersections in all of the Westside of Long Beach. Going West from the corner one comes to the Terminal Island freeway entrance and the railroad berm from the harbor. Continuing West, one goes under the railroad overpass and comes to the emergency exit to Lion’s Dragstrip from 1955 to 1972. Today, it is a back entrance to one of the largest container shipping box, drop off and storage facilities. If you are wearing something or bought something in the last 20 years, it came out of one of those large shipping containers. Then as one continues West, you eventually arrive in the Los Angeles communities of Manhattan, Hermosa, and Redondo Beach areas. The Willow Street turns into Sepulveda Blvd. and becomes a South Bay street naming phase. Jnaki This intersection was important to us as little kids since it is the main route to the junior high school campus and the row of fast food restaurants. It was our walking to junior high school route, as we stopped at the little store for snacks and whatever. Then, across the street from the corner gas stations, there was the best fast food restaurant that everyone stopped for an after school burger, fries and Cokes. No, although it was a snack + meal heaven, we were not overweight and remained athletic to ward off those extra pounds. But, the extra meals and snacks were our "thing." back then. Who could resist fries and a Coke for a snack? Yummy... But, for hot rod folks, the repair shops and parts stores were in a nice row. No homes were along this route, since it was deemed a business district for a couple of miles back to the harbor areas. Directly across the street from liquor store and auto repair place is one of our favorite places. It was called Moe’s Muffler shop. One underground pit with two above ground lifts and a dinky office were the main places. The yard was rather large and project cars and supplies were located here. We spent many hours on the lift, the yard and in the office when Moe was doing out custom muffler piping systems and yes, a dual pipe “Scavenger pipe system” when that phase came into being, at the local dragstrip and cruising around. Moe made these pipes with the smoothest welds we had ever seen. Then we took them to the local chrome shop to get the finishing touch, prior to mounting them to our Moe’s custom downtube header, dual outlets. They pipes fit the outlets and were attached to brackets completely under the 58 Impala. The scavenger pipes were the real ones that went past the rear axle and they were not just add on extended exhaust pipes attached to the mufflers. The actually came directly from the motor exhaust headers. Even custom short over the axle exhaust pipes that were considered legal for stock car class racing. Moe was the go to guy for all welding and custom muffler/exhaust pipe construction. Jnaki That location was important to both of us. Moe was a genius in all things welding and was a competitor to the largest welding shop in the Westside that is still in business, today, located down a mile or so towards the harbor. But, being a small shop, he had his competitor, although his quality work was well known in the hot rod circles. YRMV We are testament to his work with the original downtube exhaust outlets in early 1958 and the connections to the side lake pipes or the dual scavenger pipes, custom made for the 51 Oldsmobile and the 58 Impala. When it was our 1940 Willys Coupe build time, Moe even worked with us to get a custom exhaust pipe system from our Hedman Headers on our 671 SBC motor. We had the header set up on the motor, but needed a connection to the exhaust pipes to be class legal. After that, the headers were able to disconnect for the straight through sound and performance.
The Jalopy Journal
