not drag cars but stock cars. we had a great little circle track in town and as a kid i would ride my bike from one station to the next to see what the guys were doing to get the cars ready. i had a regular route and would make a point to leave time at the stations thats car wrecked the previous week. i remember stations with the best "parts" cars stashed behind them. pedal up to the station, lean the bike against the window to the office. go around to the garage door and peer inside. "hey kid beat it" "huhhhhhh?....... hope you hit the wall"
No its in my back yard ,just something I built for fun. have my own little junk yard behind it. lucky I live in the country ,in Va.
I worked at the largest gas station in our town. It had 3 bays, 2 of them had hoist, one drive on, and one single post, and there was an outside alignment rack we did alignments on all through the spring through early fall. The station owner also taught auto mechanics night classes at the local college. The owner didn't have any race cars, but there were a string of mechanics that dabbled with them. By the time i was 18, I'd already worked there 2 1/2 years, and was getting to know my way around cars pretty good. I decided to get into dirt track racing (hobby stock), and that station was where I did a lot of work on the car. I was allowed to work on it after hours, but I had to take it home every night. My race car was the first, the last, and the only race car sponsored by Ben Lee Mobil, and I carried that sponsor for 3 years. The addition of the race car, even though it was after hours, brought a whole new level of clientele to the station, some good, some not so good. I changed a lot of racing tires on Saturdays for other racers, and we worked on a lot more performance cars. For the record, I never got a cent for having the gas station name across the side of my car, but the use of the tools & equipment, and a few words of wisdom occasionally shared was so worth the advertising space. Most of the service stations in town sponsored cars at that dirt track. It was a fun ride until I moved on to other pursuits and a different job. Gene
Lucky man you are! Thanks for the reply! I can't post the pic here but it does resemble the place I stopped at in Tennessee years ago. Joe
Worked at Shell station in college while attending WMU- they did mechanical work- specialized in Fuel Injected and Tri-Power- 2 mechanics drove Wide track Pontiacs- tri-power 4 speed cars- 59 and 62- taught me a little and I bought a full box of Craftsman tools for $40 from one of them when he upgraded to Snap-On- still use them-
Don't have pictures (which sucks), but growing up in Gloucester Mass in the late 50's , early 60's , I remember two places that we could hang out and work on cars; Clarence Roses Citgo- This was the Saturday night drag race crowd's hangout. Clarence let people use his garage and lift to get ready for Sunday at the Sanford, Maine (airport) dragstrip, and later the New England Dragway in Epping N.H. In return, if he got in a bind with too much work, guys would go help him out. Regulars were; Tommy Burns - '55 Chevy- 301- 4 spd, and a '66 Plymouth Belvedere, 426, 4 spd. Dougie Hiltz - '65 Chevy Malibu, 327, 4 spd. Bobby Davis- '65 Malibu, 327, 4 spd Billy Lopes- '57 Studebaker with a Buick ( I think?) and a '65 El Camino 327, 4 spd. John Wentzel- '66 Chevy Malibu On Sunday, everyone drove up together and we had a blast Other place was Leo's Esso on Western Avenue- Home of the stock car crowd. ( I know it said Drag Cars , but kind of the same really). Same deal with use of the garage bay pre- race. Cars were lettered up "Leo's Esso" Free tires from the trash pile. ( and sometimes gas!) Lots of guys that hung out, Tommy and Ronnie Strong, Kenny Herdman, Dave and Jimmy Eastman to name a few. Saturday night it was off to the Pines Speedway in Groveland Mass , home of some great "seat of your pants" racing. Closed down a while ago now, but every year in the fall they hold a reunion where the track used to be, and people show up with their old cars. They feature a driver every year, and at noon time the PA announcer says "Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES!" It's awesome hearing all those open exhaust motors come to life , and watching the faces of the "old timers" light up when they go back to a time when they were young, and had life by the balls. Nice idea for a thread- brings back a lot of good memories.
Good thread idea. Wish I had local photos to contribute. All I have is memories; (Grand Junction Shell/'Stripjack' Holden/Vauxhall E/G; MacDonald Bros. Pennington Caltex? AA/D; Shell Taperoo Holden M/P's Mobil Athelstone Monaros- and now, a potential art project.
Was working nights at a local gas station when I was 15. Circa 1969, Owner left me there by myself for several hours at night while he went home to supper. Imagine that in today's world. Used to let the local guys swap tires and open headers on the rack before a little action on a deserted back country road. Working at a gas station was the greatest job on earth for a young hot rod wannabe......and for the outrageous compensation of $1.00 per hour, which by the way was a step up from the $.75 cents I had previously earned at the competition's station just up the road.
YES, in Dee the - GOOD OLD DAYS - I was looking in some old boxes OOooo shit my old -- ESSO -- stuff -- very GOOD DAYS - very COOL DAYSSS & CARSSS
My first real job was working at a gas station with 3 repair bays. Friday/ Saturday nights were a blast and sometimes a weird adventure. After closing the car went on the lift to do anything I wanted. Miss those days. A simpler time for sure.
My uncle owned a gulf station in hershey. three service bays with lifts, los of hotrod activity after hours and sometimes during. I was just a little kid at the time, but fondly remember when a car pulled up to the pumps, my cousins would run out, pump your gas, clean the glass, check oil and tire pressure. You do not get service like that anymore. I thought it was the greatest place to be when I was a kid, and very important work was going on. The guys even let me help out. LOL. Good times ....
The gas stations around here were real centers of hot rod activity. Orvilles, next to my elementary school always had lots of cars around, a street driven AWB '65 Nova SS, red BB '66 Chevelle, and a Canadian flag painted '57 Chevy 150 2 dr sedan are 3 that I recall, Gerards Esso, just south of there at the corner of 232 and Dewdney Trunk Rd was a center of oval track activity, and he also had a Corvair pu with a BB chevy with baffled zoomies in the bed, Rob Charltons dad owned the Pacific 66 on Lougheed across from the A&W, Rob had a long string of cars ('64 Beaumont SD hot 283 4 speed, straight axle tunnel ram Chevy II sedan, V-8 Vega, ect.) and is still racing at Mission, that was also where we hung out, There was a guy who owned a Chevron on Dewdney across from the Safeway, he had the first tubbed street car I ever saw, a steel blue '64 Falcon 2 dr sedan with a crate Boss 351 and toploader and Cragars, this was around 1972, so a VERY trick car for the time, and farther west on Dewdney was Andy McKenzies garage, he had a white '67 Beaumont sport deluxe with a swapped in L-72/4 speed and 4.56s, one of the faster cars around, and there were always tons of cars hanging around there as well.
Story of my late elementary/early high school life right there.... except mostly drag race oriented around here, due to Mission Raceway proximity.
I think I had the perfect childhood. Grew up in Melrose Iowa, (pop. 214) with a large Crick running through it for fishing and swimming, railroad tracks to play on and best of all 2 gas stations. Buss Wolf fan the Mobil station where the old guys played cards, mostly euchre and pitch. Not much car activity but some good old timers hanging out. Paul "RIPP" Collected ran the Conoco station from an old rocking chair that he oversaw the main street being a state hissy going up out of the Crick bottom. Seems that from in front of Murphy's Cafe to the school stoplight was exactly a 1/8 mile so let's just say alot of farm boys would give Ripp show leaving town! When I got old enough, about 14 or so he would leave a couple of us in charge and he'd take the afternoon off at one of the local taverns. I learned a lot from him besides changing tires and changing oil, things that serve me well today. As for that rocking chair where Ripp surveyed his domain, My buddy and I have it in our shop where all the old timers sit and drink OUR best and talk about worldly events but mostly about Ripp. R.i.p ........RIPP Bent Valve aka David Dinneen
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