Barely a day goes by lately that we don't get a call from a senior rodder (or their son or nephew) looking for their old plaque that their Mom threw out when they went to Korea, or Nam, etc. It's really great getting to talk to these guys and hear their stories - and you can almost see the huge grim on their face when they find out I have the original pattern (tooling) used to make their plaques 40-55 years ago. Just last night I got a call from a guy looking to see if I could make a plaque from a photo he had. When I asked for the name of the club you could hear the questioning in his voice like "Why does it matter what the name of the club was?" When I looked it up in my database and described it to him he gasped! And it gets better. He was an original member and knew the guy who had drawn the artwork back in the day. Well I was as excited as him because it turns out this particular plaque, Exterminators So. Cal., was the one that Chicago Metal Craft used in their first ads in Hot Rod back in the 50's!!! Neat huh!
This morning I got a heads up from the American Pickers TV show. They contacted me some time ago about a plaque they were going to feature on their show and asked me for some images. The message I received is below and I thought you might be interested in watching if you get that channel. Bill ---------- Hi Bill - I wanted to give you a heads up that the episode featuring your car club plaque images is scheduled to air this Monday night, December 5th, on The History Channel. Thanks again for your contribution, and I hope you can tune in! Sincerely, Dan Marcellus American Pickers
Reminder to tune in to American Pickers (9 PM Eastern, The History Channel) tonight. Especially those from Minnesota, I have 244 plaques from Minn. if you don't like the one they find And for those who are on Verizon FIOS here's a related interview (guess O'Brien Truckers isn't big enough to rate an interview) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/b...l=1&adxnnlx=1323111928-nUMpm95A2zLHYz0KoS4J+A Dennis
And before you ask, I don't have the pattern for the Pacemakers Nicollet in the 12,000 old patterns I have. It looks like a Speed Gems plaque which would have been made in Minn. / St. Paul but it's not one of the 4100 patterns from them. So, it must have been made in one of those high school shop cl***es (probably in the foundry cl*** as opposed to being made in that lathe cl***) It bears a striking resemblance to this one made by Speed Gems. $75 for an original isn't too bad. I like the four pictures they used from your site Bill!
Bill, The pictures they showed seemed to be slighly different from the pics on your site. Is there an inside story there?
When they first contacted me, I think they mentioned the Pacemakers because I seem to remember the number 500 coming up and I told him I had several versions of Pace Makers/Pacemakers plaques on our website. He asked if the club was around in the 30's and I told him I doubted that but added that I'm not an expert on the history of these older clubs so anything is possible. He was concerned about copywrite issues and asked if I had any high resolution images that I could send. I told him that once I resize the photos to the size I use on the website, I discard the original image and most of the images I add now are sent to me by other people interested in car club plaques. I then gave him a list of the plaques I have in my small collection, including the Bowl For Health plaque from O'Brien Truckers and a few others I've had made for friends, and told them I could take new photos of my plaques and several others that I know of around town. I sent a list of my plaques and a sample picture of this Magoos plaque taken with my digital camera at it's highest resolution to see if was good enough for them to use. But it has some copywrite issues with the image of Mr. Magoo. I guess no one was concerned about those kinds of things when the plaques were made since we were all kids and only knew there were laws about drag racing, speeding and having our cars too low (I got a couple of tickets in my 49 Fleetline). American Pickers then sent back a list of four plaques they wanted high resolution photos of, and a release for me to sign saying I owned the images and allowed American Pickers to use one or all of them. Two of the plaques were for clubs I beloned to, the Vampires and Strictly Fifties. The Toolers plaque was a gift from someone who found our site and the Oldsmasters is an original Koehler plaque I stole on eBay. I did like it when the owner mentioned how many car clubs were around his area (hundreds?) when he was growing up. I do have a photo of the Nicollet plaque on our website ..... and some other Pace Makers/Pacemakers plaques on this page that's not public yet ..... Pacemakers I did see my name roll by when they were doing the credits and hope to get a DVD copy of that show to share with my kids.
Great story Bill, thanks for filling us in. Feel free to add the Pacemakers I posted above to your Pacemakers page. So the next question would be, where did you get the Pacemakers Nicollet picture from before the show aired? Does that imply there are two of those plaques in the wild because the one Mike found on the show seemed to have been there for a long time - unless the director had them throw some dust on it for more drama And BTW, I got advanced warning that in two weeks they will be showing a Sinners plaque on the show. Happy Truckin', Dennis
I'm sure this one hasn't been posted, I've only made about 30 of them for the guys in our local club.
Lost my plaque and photos,but we did make 8 plaques for SCAVENGERS CC EST 1957 Miami Fla. in school metal shop,had buzzerd on a wheel with EX out the ***. Would love to fine something like it,or even a photo,a lot of time has gone by now.
They used a crucible on these, too. Thanks, Dennis...Once again you came through for us. We are having an initiation Saturday night, the newly minted plaques arrived today. All the Lonely Knights appreciate your efforts.
Had a guy in to town show me this one today. Said it is off of his grandfather's '32 Ford roadster. He said that it was channeled with a flathead during the 50's. Didn't see the '32..... That car is still in Muleshoe at his grandma's house. And for those of you wondering....neither are for sale haha I asked! I do want to try and see the car someday though! Sent from my iPad using TJJ app
Here is a plaque my uncle got from a guy cleaning out a barn. it was a club in town back in the 60's. This one has a date on the back of 68. I thought it would be cool to restart the club.
This hangs on my friends shop wall - he is in his 80s and a original Southern California - Revs Car Club member... thats him strapping into is home built A when he was teenager. Greatest stories on the planet from these living legends.
If you decide to restart the club, that pattern is one of 3 I have from Rochelle Ill that are part or the 12,000 patterns from Speed Gems and Chicago Metal Craft. (The pacers one is from CM and was made in port Chicago Calif.) <TABLE style="WIDTH: 552pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=735><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 32pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 1536" width=42><COL style="WIDTH: 221pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 10788" width=295><COL style="WIDTH: 110pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 5376" width=147><COL style="WIDTH: 97pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 4717" width=129><COL style="WIDTH: 24pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 1170" width=32><COL style="WIDTH: 68pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 3291" width=90><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 32pt; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl66 height=20 width=42 align=right>6869</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 221pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 width=295>Mill Modifiers</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 110pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 width=147>Rochelle</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 97pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 width=129>Illinois</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 24pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 width=32>IL</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 68pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 width=90> </TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 height=20 align=right>11898</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>Pacers</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>Rochelle</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>ILL</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>IL</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65> </TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 15pt" height=20><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 15pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65 height=20 align=right>22497</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>Road Devils</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>Rochelle</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>ILL</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65>IL</TD><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 0.5pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 0.5pt solid" cl***=xl65> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Happy Truckin', Dennis
Im not a member of the Glendale Sidewinders, I wish I was. But I do have this old what I think is a 40´s club plaque with the snake and SCTA logo on it. I just love the patina and the old El Mirage dust between the letters!
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