Featured History Service Station Built Cars....

Anyone Build Their Cars While Working At A Service Station?...

 

Interesting topic. As a high school kid (1962-66) I remember seeing quite a few cars being worked on in gas stations, but the vast majority were race cars and the majority of those were oval racing cars - given the thousands of oval tracks that sprang up after WWII. Several notable exceptions were street versions of g***ers or show rods. One of my cl***mates worked on a very cool Nomad at the station where he worked. I didn’t know him well, but here are some of the details I remember: tilting gl*** hood, teardrop scoop, all jacked up with white fender well headers, an I-beam front end and long ladder bars. Lime green, green tinted windows and **** carpet. Another kid had a red, full fendered A coupe. On sunny days they drove them to school on slicks. I’m sure they raced them, as Union Grove wasn’t that far away.

 

I worked at mom and pop owned E**on when I was in high school and worked on my car there a lot. Luckily I lived close by so I could leave it there for long periods and just rode my BMX bike to the station for work.

Edit: Oh yeah it was a 63 Falcon hardtop with a 260

 

My friend worked at Danny's Mobil Station in Riverside,Ca in the evening. We would all go work on our cars there.

 

My Uncles Gulf station was a friendly place.
Day time, housewives, salesmen, and retirees came for maintenance and tune ups.
Nights and Sundays were open season for me you and the guys from PepBoys to do what needed doing.
I learned a lot watching and helping.
Windshield Replacements
Clutch Jobs
Engine Swaps
Springs, Leaf and Coil
Door Gl***
Seat Belt Installs
and the frustrating Shortcircuit Checks
My '57 Chevy got all the treatments Plus a week of Rattle can magic.
I slid a Z28 cam into my buddies '60 convert. ( not knowing about break-in RPM )
He in turn broke the crankshaft ( not knowing about main bearing install. )
My Uncle was a sweetheart guy. Being born in Dec, I felt he had a Santa Claus complex

 

I would have loved to work on my stuff in a setting like a service station, but never did. However, your comment about riding a BMX bike reminded me of riding my BMX bike to parts stores when I wasn't yet old enough to drive. One of the delivery drivers at one of the parts stores would often load my bike in the back of his pickup and take me back home since it was several miles from my house. Also, I once got shot in the back by a BB gun while I was riding my bike to the parts store to buy a shift kit by some older hoodlums. Had to get the BB cut out of my back at the hospital... Good memories.

Ok, carry on with the subject at hand.

 

When I traveled all over the Midwest starting early 70's racing, when I got into a new town and racetrack to me, I looked for a local gas station, very high percentage had a stock car or some type of race car sitting there. How did I get along without my girlfriend then and now, "Miss Garmin" or my affectionate nickname for her " ***** in the box" " recalculating " Bring up any memories for anyone else ? My wife bought me the first one around 99/2000

 

interesting how many HAMBers worked at gas stations back in the day,...my 2 brothers and I worked at this Shell station in my town on & off for several years while going to high school....63-66

We were always doing something on our cars.

Here's a photo of the station circa 64-65,..that's Don's (the manager of the station) 50 Ford pickup to the right, it was blue/white...Farmer's Lumber Co. behind the station.

 

At 16, 1964 I sold my paper route and got a job at a Clark gas station, 2 weeks, first check, looked at it, with taxes out and I quit, telling the boss I made more money with my paper route. Then I went into the grocery store, stock boy, the stores were union and hourly pay was 2x the station job to start, in 2 years was up to $2,65/ pretty good as my Dad was a maintenance mechanic in factory and he was at $2.60. I kept that grocery store job part time 5/6 years. During this time frame I was friends with a kid working full time at a Texico station, the owner liked me ? my cars,? he was a good guy, one of the best men I ever worked for and took along some of his knowledge of how to deal with people. In a conversation he asked if I would be interested in snow plowing/service calls for him as he needed a fill in guy. OK I'm serving my apprenticeship, Tool & Die Maker which pays **** in the beginning 1966. So now I had 3 jobs and the tool shop was not happy as every time it snowed or got real cold I called in sick. One day running the service truck, no starts, tow ins, 12 hour day or plowing I received $100 cash, more than I netted at tool shop for 55 hour week. The store was flexible all the years I worked for them, tool shop was not happy with me and eventually told me to make a choice, I told them it's their choice, plenty tool shops looking for help, I did finish my time there and left the day my hours were in.

 

I grew up in West Allis, Milwaukee Wi. area and many gas stations had lots of stock cars, modifieds. AS a kid riding my bike all over I would sometimes stop and check them out respectfully, most times owner would ask, what's up ? I would introduce myself and explain I'm a racing fan/nut, My Dad has a Midget racer, sometimes they knew him as he had a Shell station way back, that would break the ice and I've never forgotten how many men were nice to me 10-14 year old kid. I remember this at car shows and when I raced went all out towards fans/kids, they are the future of everything, I wish some of the crabby ***Hats would give that some thought.

 

My first job out of high school was at an Amoco station. Worked there on and off for quite a few years. Learned how to run the wrecker, tire machines, brake lathe, alignment rack while working there. The mechanics were great guys and learned a lot from them. Saturday nights and Sundays were the days us young guys brought our cars in to work on them. Having access to a lift and a warm garage in the winter months was a godsend

 

When I was 18, I was dating (later married-then divorced) the daughter of the owner of the Mobil Station up the street.
I lived about a half mile from there...one night me and my buddies pushed my '56 2 dr hdtp Chev, to the gas station to pull the engine after hours, then pushed it back home after removing the engine.
About a year later, one of my best friends worked at the gas station across the street...spent many hours there hanging out...fun times.

 

In the early '60's I lived in Strafford PA. I remember riding my bike to a Sunoco gas station on U.S. Route 30 in Berwyn, Pennsylvania and peeking in the dirty windows to see what car Bill Jenkins was building out of the back half of the station. The rest is drag racing history.

 

While working at a Standard station from 1975=78 I caught a lot of flack from city officials and eventually my boss for de-building cars. A crush only s****yard was 1 block away and the only way to it was past our service station.
I would flag down anyone hauling a car in and offer $5 more than s**** and have them drop it off. After stripping it I would use my wrecker to haul in the hulk. A unauthorized salvage operation was what the city called it. I called it entrepreneurship. I think the s****yard had a hand in shutting me down

 

I had the full after hour use of a Service station that was about 1/4 mile down the street.

 

I remember we'd screw around until time for the boss/owner to go home, then hit the Texaco or Derby station where pals always worked.

 

Derby that brought back memories.

 

The lift was outside. Had to work on the car with everybody driving past watching you.

 

Worked at a gas station in the late 60’s that was off an expressway interchange. The more of us hanging around at night the lesser chance of it getting held up so the owner encouraged us to be there and work on our cars.

 

Back in the early 60's if you had a gas station and had 25 faithful customers who along with buying gas from you had you do their tune ups and all their service work and bought their tires from you you could make a decent living. That was with all the other gas customers and casual service customers though. One local station that I hung out at a lot in the early 60's had a string of race cars but also built a pretty nifty 36 Ford Bobber truck in the second service bay over a period of time.

 

When I was 15 1/2, I started working at the biggest repair shop and highest gas volume Mobil gas station in town. There were 3 work bays and a wheel alignment rack out back. There were also 8 gas pumps, selling regular or premium gas, and we had one pump that we sold "white marine gas", the station owner was a big fisherman. There were 3 full time mechanics Monday - Friday, plus the boss, and 3-4 pump jockies pumping gas nights and weekends, and during the days through the summers.
When I hire in I already had some mechanical abilities, and the boss taught night auto cl***es at the local college. We hit it off really well right from the beginning.
In addition to pumping gas and changing tires, the boss would let me do a few minor repairs after the mechanics went home for the day. What started as oil and lube jobs quickly turned into tune ups. Soon my work days started as soon as I could get there after school (3:30pm), until closing time (9pm), and all day on Sat (38 hours part time, while still in high school, for those of you counting). I was cl***ified as the "night, weekend, and holiday mechanic."
Before I graduated high school, I was helping all my friends on their cars, the boss knew and was OK with the arrangement we had (they had to pay for the parts used on their cars, and station work came first). I was deeply connected with the local dirt track, I did a lot of small things (and a lot of tire mounting) for some of the local dirt track racers. Pretty much, when ever I was at the station, there were cars there that were somehow connected to me. After I graduated, I continued to work there, then normal hours jumped to 55/ week. I also did a lot of major work after hours at the station, that the station didn't normally do. I did several motor & transmission swaps on station customer's cars there after hours, often started with a connection from the boss.
After I got married and had moved out of my parents home, I brought the dirt track cars to the gas station. My buddies and I pretty much built our first off topic dirt track car at the station, after hours. I worked at the Mobil station for 7 years, we both mutually agreed it was time for me to move on. We remained friends for a very long time afterwards.

 

I work at a station in the 90s, slightly worked on my friends car there, but mostly worked on customers old cars since I didn't have enough money to work on my own. I had to put this pic in because of the gas prices.

 

In the late 50's, while in high school, I worked at a Marathon then a Shell station in Lawrenceville, Il. After closing up the station at night we would all meet up at the 24 hr. Texaco to BS and work on our cars. This is my '50 Ford with a '56 sbc back in the day.

 

I had a friend in highschool who was apprenticing to be a mechanic. He did the exhaust and compulsory safety check on my avatar. We also championed a couple of demolition derby cars - 66 Chrysler Windsor and 68 Parisienne - out of the Gulf station he was working at. Those were heady times.

 

I was born in '62, so I got to witness the big shift from "service stations" to "gas stations" and then "convenience stores"... There was an Esso, later E**on, station on the corner of the road my grands lived on. We'd stop there for gas, they had full service up into the '70's, and there were some old cars there at all times. Mid- 70's, they did away with full service and closed the two service bays, made a store out of it. Another station a couple of miles up the highway stayed in operation until 7-11 went in next door. Lost a major business IMHO.

 

in the mid 60's in my town of 2400 people, we had 7 service stations that all made a decent living, now we have 2 gas station/convenience stores, a Shell & a Casey's

 

When I Arrived In My Present Town At 18 (1966) I Was Disappointed That There Didn't Appear To Be Any Hot Rod Action Like My Home Town And Then Looked Behind The Service Stations And Sure Enough There They Were The Shoe Box Chevys Waiting For A Opening In The Wash Bay For Creative Engineering...... .

 

Great subject!
I started hanging around the local ENCO gas station when I was 12 or 13, I rode my bicycle there because there was always cool cars there. I would offer to wash the guys cars ( including white rubber floor mats) for free just to be able to hang around.
The day I turned 16 I officially started to work there as a paid employee. I normally worked the late shift, closing the station at 10pm. I was in high school at the time so I would drive my ‘32 Victoria to the gas station and during my shift I would wash the Vicky or do some minor work on it, at 10pm I closed the station and locked the car in the wash bay and walked home. I had to have the car out of the bay by 7am the next morning so I would walk back to the station get the car and drive a nice clean car to school. I eventually got a better paying job but the Enco station was my hang out until the day it closed. I now have my own “Enco Station” in my backyard.

 

I was in high school in the late 70's and had a friend who worked at a Standard Station. One of the last ones in town with a sevicebay. He could use the hoist to work on his own stuff in the evenings. We'd hang around thinking we were cool. HaHa