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long gone speed shops, anybody from Texas remeber Hotrod Exchange in Dallas?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by apound, Jan 21, 2009.

  1. Rattlesnake
    Joined: Jun 16, 2013
    Posts: 21

    Rattlesnake
    Member

    Different area but I still remember Competition Sales in Houston before they all disappeared. Back in the early 70's we used to also have Pettigrew/Smith Auto Parts off 43rd, which I worked at for a little while. We had a small area in the front where you could put your parts up for sale without having to pay a percentage. Just a little something to help sales of gaskets, plugs, wires, etc. You could come in there and tell them you needed a certain part, like a Ford starter solenoid, and they could find it without having to know the year/make/model. Damn I miss those days.
     
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  2. Am loving reading your stories about the place,since my trip to the LSR this year and my adventure through Texas to get there I am enjoying the stories.Can't wait to come back.
     
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  3. Snake,The original Comp Sales on Long Point is still there..not out of business..
     
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  4. 26Troadster
    Joined: Nov 20, 2010
    Posts: 786

    26Troadster
    Member

    i had been to competition sales a few times, but mostly jack's usa and texas speed shop (may have the name wrong) it may have been eastex speed, it was where homestead rd. came out to hwy. 59 north. jack's was on north shepard rd. and seems like they moved to a new shop just before i moved to bama.
     
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  5. Lagourney
    Joined: Nov 29, 2013
    Posts: 4

    Lagourney
    Member
    from Amelia, VA

    Chris Lagourney owned the old HOT ROD EXCHANGE in the '80's and it was called CHRIS'S PERFORMANCE CENTER THEN.. We bought it in 1985 and closed it in '91 when the ecomony got bad everywhere. Stan our son did die in the shop on 9/9/86.. from a gun shot to the BACK of the left side of his head.. He was right handed and was not alone in the shop. The guy that was there with him and a girl, ran and was out of sight for over 3 days. I will never forget the first time he came back into the shop
    WEEKS later to pick up his paycheck.. Chris slowly walked from behind the counter and hit him so hard he landed clear across the shop. Chris told him NEVER COME BACK EVER AGAIN!

    Stan was one of the best natural drivers I ever saw. Guys would call him in the middle of the night to come drive their cars for pink slips or cash. He was also a natural with carbs.

    We moved not long after up to Jefferson across from the old Sears store in Oak Cliff. It was a great shop with lots and lots of lifts, storage and sales floor. Except for the gun shots every now and then that shop was great. Then money got tight and our parents needed us to move home and take care of them.. so we packed up everything and moved to Big Spring, TX. We are now retired and live not far from Richmond, VA.

    We also lost a Grandchild Maxie at 10 to cancer in 2004. His brother Robert was 9 then and is 19 now. He has just got the car bug.. Runs in the family.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2013
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  6. Lagourney
    Joined: Nov 29, 2013
    Posts: 4

    Lagourney
    Member
    from Amelia, VA

    My Mom had retired and came to Dallas to help us clean up the shop the week after we bought it. We had a garden hose and brooms and started to scrub EVERYTHING. We were in shock when we found the floor under all of that goop. We left her ALONE one afternoon to go get some burgers or something. We we came back she said "NEVER LEAVE ME ALONE HERE! There are so many strange people coming by to ask when you are going to open." LOL For months the cops sat behind the shop to watch us. I thought that was great, protecting us like that till we finally figured out they thought we might be doing something no quite right with the law..lol

    I think the new store on Jefferson had been a Goodyear tire store. I so wish we could have managed to keep it not ever left DALLAS.. but that is hinesight. Please post any pictures you can and I will to if I figure out how!
     
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  7. oldspert
    Joined: Sep 10, 2006
    Posts: 1,263

    oldspert
    Member
    from Texas

    There was an auto parts store on Jefferson that was owned by a friends family. D & W auto. Robert Davis had the store when it burned in the 90's. The entire block burned and all he could do was watch it go. I think it started in a laundry at the other end of the block. Nothing was saved.
     
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  8. D&W was a good place...I moved out the house and to Arcadia Park my senior year with my Studebaker....they helped me keep it going for school and that all important factory job...the lots still vacant...

    lwf
     
  9. txcr13
    Joined: Feb 15, 2010
    Posts: 242

    txcr13
    Member

    Well, I have an HRE story or two. My younger brother, Bill Davis, worked at HRE as a mechanic's helper when we were going to school at North Texas State in Denton. Ben was the owner then, and Ken Mangum was the mechanic at the time. Bill went in to work one day and Ken says "We burnt Ben's pickup up!". I think it was his El Camino, but any way they let it catch fire in the back of the shop somehow and did a lot of damage.
    Like others have said, what a blast is was to walk in the shop and see all the big time stuff there! We were from near Tyler, and raced a D-Gas '55 Chevy at I-20 Raceway near Tyler, but were just getting into cars. We bought a Hilborn fuel injection system from HRE for the 301 we were running, but never did get it to run right. We also bought a 380hp 409 and put it in the '55. Bill later went to work for Bill Heilscher, "Mr. Bardahl" as a helper and traveled with them to Bristol, Tenn and some other spots.
     
  10. blackrat40
    Joined: Apr 19, 2006
    Posts: 1,167

    blackrat40
    Member Emeritus

    Did anybody mention AEECO on Irving Blvd.?(Automotive Engineering & Equip. Co.)
    We used to buy speed equipment over there in about 1961.
     
  11. apound
    Joined: Jul 13, 2008
    Posts: 542

    apound
    Member

    Been awhile since I checked on this thread. I remember the Hub in Greenville also. The guy that ran it had a 41 Willys called Black Magic if I remember correctly.

     
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  12. highway-08
    Joined: Mar 21, 2010
    Posts: 1

    highway-08
    Member

    Yeah, it was the coolest place! I often day dream as I travel around the state and country I'm gonna spot an old shop like Hot Rod Exchange still in business and stop by and enjoy the experience. Another pipe dream I have is getting my old '55 back on the road. The project will not include back side window replacement though....well, never had a problem with TDC or firing order but I can't seem to get a picture right side up :[
     

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  13. Gotgas
    Joined: Jul 22, 2004
    Posts: 7,175

    Gotgas
    Member
    from DFW USA

    Here ya go, highway-08.

    Look forward to hearing more from you about racing that Chevy.
     

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  14. OLD_GOAT_
    Joined: Aug 26, 2014
    Posts: 1

    OLD_GOAT_

    i've heard some dooosey stories before... and this is yet another one... i remember all this stuff about hot rod exchange... harry's hot rod... and chris's "perfomance" center well....

    I was there.... not specifically on stan's ill fated night (RIP) ... but i was there.... and i sure remember it differently....
     
  15. 1GreaseGuru
    Joined: Sep 24, 2015
    Posts: 1

    1GreaseGuru

    Chris, Most times i leave the past alone, but you still sling the b.s. as good as you did back in the day.......... i am the guy who rented the back shops from you......same guy who kept taking the .357 chrome pistol away from stan on the nites i worked late and he was up front huffing the nitrous.
    I TOOK THAT GUN AWAY FROM STAN AT LEAST 3 TIMES AND TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAVE IT UNDER THE COUNTER ANY MORE. stan did kill himself and it was suicide.......he was messed up from cheating on his g-friend and she dumped him and would not take him back. his death is part his responsibility and part yours for not keeping the gun locked up and away from stan/ not the least to say keeping him away from the nitrous which is proven to cause depression when abused. you also cleared out with quite a bit of my inventory i owned on the front floor. the worst
    part is remembering all this and then having to read your b.s. about stan/and then having to remember cleaning up what was left of him from the floor the next day. you did not show up for at least a month and Brian was not the one who shot him........he hung out with stan, but stan took his own life with your help. i am finally glad to get this off my chest. dont bother replying to me or trying to reach out to me, just another huxkster who has to move around because of bridges burned. dont even get me started about all the undertable and illegal activities you were involved with.

    e
     
  16. Atwater Mike
    Joined: May 31, 2002
    Posts: 11,625

    Atwater Mike
    Member

    Man...terrible story, with worse endings. R.I.P., Troubled Stan...
     
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  17. Byron Crump
    Joined: Jun 13, 2001
    Posts: 1,851

    Byron Crump
    Member

    1986, the year I got out of high school...heard all sorts of stuff about Hot Rod Exchange back in the day. The car lot my dad works for was on the corner of Oakland and Main still at that time. Most of us in Plano went to the Super Shops place in Richardson (IIRC that was the name) or Harrys...or waited for a swap meet because back then all swaps seemed to be really good.

    Off topic and I have asked this before on the HAMB and never got any response but anybody remember the movie "Storming Home" filmed in the area back then? Lots of locals were in it, I had the 69 GTO Judge.
     
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  18. Gotgas
    Joined: Jul 22, 2004
    Posts: 7,175

    Gotgas
    Member
    from DFW USA

    Here's some info on the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090085/
     
  19. When my parents bought it, the floor was crazy thick with dirt and oil. We thought it didn’t really have a tile floor. We used an actual garden tool to scrape it all off to find old tiles. People would come in and say there was a floor here??
     
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  20. That was my dad Chris and my brother Stan who was 21. The thought it to be suicide until the mortician prepared the body and said it was not possible. All these years later we are left with unanswered questions. It was a sad deal. He was a great young man with a great future.
     
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  21. I love that it still has the tag! Even though I'm just joining this site now, I love this. I worked at my dads shop as a teenager after school and weekends. I loved the life style of being brought up to know about hot rods. I hate that my son missed out on that era. He has that gene like my brother and I. We tell him stories of the stores. Mostly the old shop. I would tell him about Yellow Belly and me racing at Kennendell and cutting a great light. Good times. I’m our storage building here in VA we still have intakes with tags on them. Ha!
     
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  22. That’s my dads old shop. I wish I could get a picture of it now.
     
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  23. Thank you it’s a very sad story about a wonderful 21 year old that had big plans. Just many loose ends that were never connected. Just tragic.
     
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  24. 26Troadster
    Joined: Nov 20, 2010
    Posts: 786

    26Troadster
    Member

    pontiacmansdaughter welcome to the hamb. i'm sure some folks will be asking questions. i never got to go there but if you have pics i as well as the other members would love to see them.
     
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  25. Yes we have some pics, I will get them and upload them. I’m not sure about the back shop though.
     
  26. I'll get a picture of the Beckly place....give me a day or so....go by it most days.....finally sold the last of the new intakes I bought on Beckly a month or so back....it was a P600 3x2 intake for a mopar poly - sold to another Hamb'r.....the new spot on Jefferson in the old Goodyear store just never had the Vibe or the - Vega/Monza flipper body stashed on top of the roof? on the back side....kept the HRE tags........and a single stock chrome 426 Hemi valve cover - that was reluctantly sold off the wall.......
     
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  27. This is the shop on Jefferson when we had it with my mom’s Grand National parked out front. This is Stan my brother. My mom is getting some pics of the old shop. The HRE things are nice memory items. Except for the tragedy it was a great time to be a teenager around street rods. It was nice to be the daughter of the man that owned the speed shop. I always had a fast car and I could cut a great light. I could talk with the guys and still be girly with the girls. Good times!
     

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