Art & Inspiration vintage car dealership photo thread

Gates Chevrolet on the near right.

Gary

 

Bob Ford
Michigan Avenue
Dearborn, Mi

 

Chevy Dealer in a small town in western Minnesota they had one demonstrator car and catalogs. The repair shop was around back.

 

^Lot full of new 1960 Chevys, yet the car up front is a 3 year old 'Vette^

 

...Probably wasn't even for sale. Dealer may have just been using it to draw in potential buyers. I can imagine that a lot of family guys were drawn into a dealer to look at the 'Vettes and wound up buying a new Biscayne when the wife put her foot down.

 

Unfortunately, no pics, but Hamilton Motors in Wakefield Quebec close to where I live is I believe one of oldest GM dealerships all of Canada.

https://www.gvhs.ca/digital/lowdown/lives/display.php?row=0&search=538

 

The location was in another telephone zone. We had a HEmlock 60457 number. The car dealers on American Ave. /Long Beach Boulevard had GArfield as a prefix.


Mel Burns Ford was on Long Beach Blvd. a.k.a American Avenue until 1959!

Hello,

We grew up in Long Beach, went to high school near the downtown area and close to all of the car dealers on the main drag running inland from the beach. But for some reason, the original name, American Avenue was changed to Long Beach Blvd in 1959. It did give credit to the city growing up and gave everyone a central city location that headed to the commercial downtown area and the famous white sand, coastline. Since all of the makes were represented on the Boulevard, as teens, we had a ton of choices to buy our new or used cars.

My brother bought his 58 Chevy Impala, new, from a dealer closer to the beach. Mel Burns Ford Dealership was closer to our house. My dad bought his long line of Buick Roadmasters from the dealer directly across the street from Mel Burns, but back then, the same street was called American Avenue.

Jnaki

Mel Burns Ford main showroom and service dept. was located at 2000 Long Beach Blvd., between 20th and 21st streets in downtown (old) Long Beach. Across the street, at 2055 Long Beach Blvd. was the used car dept.

“Mel Burns did sponsor a current model hi-po Fairlane 2-Door Sedan in 1965. Just prior to signing the Shelby franchise, Mel Burns also sponsored a 1965 Mustang 2+2. It was originally built by Les Ritchey who had been a service manager at Norman Ford Sales in Pomona, California, before moving over to Mel Burns. The following year this car was cosmetically upgraded to a '66 and refinished in '66 Candy Apple Red.”

“Les Ritchey; his Holman-Moody prepped '65 was upgraded to a '66 by Bill Stroppe Ent. with the addition of the SOHC 427 and other light weight parts for '66. The car was painted in a genuine "Candy Apple Red" with a Lime Gold base coat as related to me by Randy Ritchey while I was doing the gold leaf lettering on the car. Unfortunately, Les was killed in this car during testing.”
@Hermanpullersgarage Thanks...

Mel Burns was the Ford place to go in Long Beach, because everyone saw the dealer lots on American Avenue. (now, called Long Beach Blvd.) If you wanted any kind of Ford for cruising or for our friends, high performance, Mel Burns was the place to go. It was centrally located along this long stretch of American Avenue that housed plenty of car dealerships, from Downtown Long Beach up American Avenue towards Bixby Knolls.

 

I wish I could come across a Mel Burns license plate frame for sale. Or any memorabilia for that matter.

 

Tri-State Ford Co. ('48) was located at Riverside and Sycamore in Evansville Indiana. My best friend's mom and dad both worked there, that is how they met.

 

Where was this dealership? Same last name as mine.

 

A quick look on google said it was in North Hollywood. JW

 

Cool Lincoln-Mercury dealership...

 

Paging @jnaki

 

There's a couple of old license plate frames on ebay right now

 

I was thinking there might be a license frame for sale out there, but I'm not spending $200 on one.

 

The one thing that I take away from this thread is how I didn't take enough pics when I was young. Pics cost money back then the real answer is lack of foresight. In 1970, I was at Phil Long Ford in Colo. Springs and there was a whole row of Shelby Mustangs waiting for new owners. Many memories like that.

 

Are you Michael J.? I liked you in Bonnie & Clyde!

 

The Hudson Essex Terraplane Club are having their annual meet this week at the Hudson Museum in Ypsilanti MI. It was originally the Hudson Dealership started by Carl Miller in 1929 and then owned by son Jack Miller who died in 2014. It was the last surviving Hudson dealership.
https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2020/12/remembering-mr-hudson-jack-carl-miller-dies-at-82/
I visited in 2018 when I had my Hudson Custom in USA and travelled across USA including to Detroit
and Ypsilanti.

 

I went to the hudson dealer back in 2003 it was a blast. Jack had a lot of different stuff to look at and was fun to talk to. i spent a good part of the day there, just before going to the nats in Kalamazoo

 

Its amazing to look at those Chrysler Corporation dealerships and the proud employees with no idea what would happen to the brands they sold and serviced. De Soto, gone, Plymouth, gone, Dodge, almost Gone, Chrysler as a company, gone. Now called Stellantis and is Peugeot, Fiat, Chrysler. I used to belong to the orphan car club but it got too big! I now just belong to Willamette Valley Street Rods and its getting smaller as members die off. Oh well...

 

I’m my old home town

The downtown view

The dealership should be at the far end. Railroad tracks are on the left from this angle.
Same spots today

 

the town is just gone,no relics?

 

Pieces of foundations, a few walls.
The block jail that looks like a WPA era building is there.
Across from the dealership, the longest lasting business (now closed) is still standing.
The iron trusses in the dealership look salvageable. Would be cool to have.
Lots of areas like this where I live. Entire towns built by coal mines gone.
Growing up, we hunted on coal mine properties. Lots of old foundations, pieces of equipment, random tile floors from restrooms from a school or bathhouse…….

 

Does anyone recall the name or have a photo of the Chevrolet dealer in Sebring
Florida in 1964?

 

Now, it's Mission Ford....

 

McCoy Mills Ford, Fullerton, CA

 

https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+75227

The link should take you to 16 or 17 photos from Dalgety Ford, Adelaide, South Australia 1938. The building was very new at that time. Showroom, but mostly photos from service/workshop area. State Library of South Australia; photos by Keith Phillips