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Folks Of Interest Your first visit to a Speed Shop

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by squirrel, Dec 4, 2021.

  1. COCONUTS
    Joined: May 5, 2015
    Posts: 1,161

    COCONUTS

    Dick Levy's in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, brought a set of chrome reverse wheels, 15 by 7 back in 1968 for my 58 Chevy. At the time he was working out of the old Post Office building in the center of town. I still have the sales slip somewhere.
     
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  2. stubbsrodandcustom
    Joined: Dec 28, 2010
    Posts: 2,273

    stubbsrodandcustom
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Spring tx

    We have an independent company here in Houston called Competition Sales. It used to be hotrod meca for speed equipment... One of the few places around you could pick up a tunnel ram, performance carb, distributor and install it that day. Now its more like a halfway stop to jegs, but they have good selection of tires and wheels now. I still go there for the hard to find AN lines and fittings when needed.

    There was a guy who worked the counter at the one I went to all the time. Taught me alot about how to match speed parts, how bigger wasn't always better... RIP Nolan... Its been 20 years and still remember you getting pissed any time someone picked up your handheld drag racing game.
     
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  3. hipojoe
    Joined: Jul 23, 2021
    Posts: 493

    hipojoe

    Growing in in So Cal there were many speed shops, but one that stood out, was one named Service center. They were a group of hard core racers that not only did they sell parts they also installed them. The owner of this particular shop was a tuff old bird named Dave he sponsored his own cars and many other racers. One day I am in there with a friend looking for some parts in the mid 70s and he asks my friend and I want to help me out? We said sure whats up? He says run out and block traffic on Sepulveda Blvd when we say so..... WTF- then I couple employees roll out a Top Fuel dragster from the back... He gets all suited up they have a tray of parts and starter and all the shit necessary to fire the car up. He motions now, and we run out to a very congested Sepulveda blvd and cars wait. He fires the fueler and makes a very strong hit about 3- 400 foot long, his guys drive a truck down the road to go tow him back.. This was one of the craziest things I had witnessed in my youth and kept thinking how I was going to explain to my parents how I got thrown in the clink. After it was all put away I asked Dave what if the cops showed up? He said he is best friends with the patrol officers , they come in and buy stuff from him all the time. No police, No explanations, No bail to be paid, no one got hurt. A good time was had by all!
     
  4. Same here....a buddy and I drove from Redmond, Oregon in '64 to Portland just to see this store. Can't remember if Baxter's was in business yet or not.
     
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  5. BuckeyeBuicks
    Joined: Jan 4, 2010
    Posts: 2,705

    BuckeyeBuicks
    Member
    from ohio

    1968, Jeg's in Columbus, Ohio. I went with my buddy who needed some header paint. I probably had about $4 in my pocket but could have spent a million with all the goodies I looked at!
     
  6. lcfman
    Joined: Sep 1, 2009
    Posts: 379

    lcfman
    Member
    from tn

    Honest Charlies in its heyday. It was the mecca of speed/custom parts in the south. I was a teenager and the place looked like hot rodder heaven inside with parts everywhere.
     
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  7. hepme
    Joined: Feb 1, 2021
    Posts: 519

    hepme
    Member

    Yeah, Comp. Sales was the only place in my day. They had a gasser that ran at the old Freeway drag strip, 37 chevy coupe i believe. Total bad ass then. I never could afford anything from them, but one time i did go there and bought a few feet of the colored fuel line, hot setup. I think it wound up melting a month later.
     
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  8. In the early '80s our local car club's inside 'joke' was 'Tim's Speed & Machine,' which really was the auto accessories section in Don & Dottie Bern's Gambles store in Wahoo. The owner's son, Tim, founded our club and managed to have a very healthy go-fast parts inventory (complete with him building his '32 Ford and '55 Chevy in the back room for 'product research') right up until when they decided to get out of the hardware business in the mid-late '90s. Oh, those were the days...
    Raceland in Lincoln and Clark - oh that brings back memories of the early '80s and soliciting donations for car shows I was putting on in Yutan. Going to Speedway when they were on VanDorn for the first time in '81 in search of gas tank sealer for my '55 and looking for parts for my '40 Ford still sticks in my mind (Fiberglass fenders for a '40 Ford? Yeah, we got'em in the warehouse). But I'm trying to remember where the speed shops were in Omaha in the mid-'70s-early '80s and can't think of any other than Charlie's Speed & Machine in Blair on Hwy 30, some place on the south side of 83rd and Dodge (Champion Auto Parts?) where Arthur's Lounge was (and is now an expanded Children's Hospital), I think a parts place in BelAir Plaza on 120th-Center, the aforementioned Super Shops chain store on 72nd north of Pacific (started out as a Denny's?, now a HuHot Mongolian grill) and Charlie Puls' ? in Fremont. Sorry to go OT, but that '34 Phaeton with the SOHC 427 - didn't that car attend the NSRA Mini-Nats in Lincoln, NE in 1981 or 1982? I think I took a picture of it with a Polaroid One-Step camera and have it squirrled away somewhere.
     
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  9. [​IMG]
    Hi - Gear was the 1st speed shop I went to. Bought ''The 500'' wheel for my Chevelle. Dad complained I could get a ticket because it was too small. He said the tiny ones were so people could drive with handcuffs on lol.
    upload_2022-1-11_7-7-26.jpeg
    Then it was back for Cyclone headers, Thrush header mufflers etc..
     
  10. 16419032621698388231580621934184.jpg
    Jeez, the crap I did to that poor car. Pedal covers, hood pins, Grump lump, nearly tore the upper crossmember out twisting the rear. Ladder bars came next so I could break more parts! Every cent went into my baby.
     
  11. ......That's classic! Bet your Dad was a fun guy.:)
     
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  12. I used to shop at the Karbelt in Pickering. I see they are still there. Used to be owned by Kevin.
     
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  13. 1-SHOT
    Joined: Sep 23, 2014
    Posts: 2,693

    1-SHOT
    Member
    from Denton

    B5A9CF7B-76FB-4033-8DB5-E62E38BBF388.jpeg Custom Automotive 1st speed shop I went to in the 50’s where meet I WBRW32 and have been life long friends ever since. Bobby currently resides in assisted adult home in Austin and his daughter takes care of him.
     
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  14. Boneyard51
    Joined: Dec 10, 2017
    Posts: 6,440

    Boneyard51
    Member

    I can remember my first visit to a speed shop, Simpson’s Speed Shop on Court Street in Muskogee in about 1965. I was amazed with the “ stuff” he had there. It was , I think, the only real speed shop in Muskogee! I didn’t buy anything the first time, but did buy a Mallory dual point distributor later on! I still have that disturber in my unmentionable 271 horsepower power car!






    Bones
     
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  15. earlymopar
    Joined: Feb 26, 2007
    Posts: 1,608

    earlymopar
    Member

    Mid 60's Salem Speed Shop Salem Oregon.
     
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  16. ne'erdowell
    Joined: Nov 30, 2005
    Posts: 561

    ne'erdowell
    Member

    Our local place was Deb's in Springfield MA. Late 60's, Carl Debian (sp.) owned it and had a set of rollers built into the floor. He tuned all sorts of stuff, grocery getters to full on race cars. Pretty cool to watch when you're 16 and don't know anything. There was a small retail shop above it that we would go up to and dream. Belmont's was in the eastern part of the state and I went a couple of times but had much less exposure (although it was a very cool and well known shop).
     
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  17. 4tford
    Joined: Aug 27, 2005
    Posts: 1,824

    4tford
    Member

    Gratiot Auto parts for parts to build my FE engine circa 1964.

    55100_156840861015201_7830466_o.jpg
     
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  18. JimSibley
    Joined: Jan 21, 2004
    Posts: 3,848

    JimSibley
    Member

    When i was a kid, portland had a 24 hour speed shop. One night while
    We were hanging ot inside eating donuts and having nitrous bottles filled, a blown small block camaro had its blower, heads and accessories stolen in the parking lot while the owner of the car was inside shopping. Welcome to
    Portland.
     
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  19. figure8
    Joined: Oct 4, 2006
    Posts: 95

    figure8
    Member

    IIRC it was Couch Auto Parts on 2nd Ave. in Des Moines. Would have been middle to late 50's
     
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  20. Growing up, my Dad managed a parts warehouse. It was import parts, but they had cool stuff like Weber carbs and they sponsored a formula vee race car. My first trip to a real speed shop was in the early 80s. Went to Loper’s Performance in Phoenix. Buying parts for the rebuild of my small block Mopar. Bought a Crane cam, lifters, valve springs, bearings, etc and of course, a t-shirt that I completely wore out.
     
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  21. dan c
    Joined: Jan 30, 2012
    Posts: 2,520

    dan c
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    i remember couch's having tons of flathead equipment for fire-sale prices. picked up a few myself!
     
  22. aircap
    Joined: Mar 10, 2011
    Posts: 1,748

    aircap
    Member

    When we were kids we used to ride our bikes over on 29th Street almost to Broadway and peer in the open doors of Nance Speed Equipment here in Wichita while they welded up frames, built motors, and shaped metalwork for Super Modifieds, dirt stockers, and even the occasional Indy car. Once in a great while there would be dragsters on trailers in the parking lot, or ramp trucks sporting sprintcars and racks of fat tires. We told ourselves we were seeing famous drivers, but we wouldn't know one if he stopped to wave at us. Talk about the stuff of motorhead fantasy - that was Nance Speed Equipment.
     
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  23. threewindaguy
    Joined: Jun 9, 2007
    Posts: 291

    threewindaguy
    Member

    Shells in Santa Monica i believe. Awesome place with everything you can think of. Curved front glass in the entry door. Anyone have pics. Please post.
     
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  24. Fordors
    Joined: Sep 22, 2016
    Posts: 5,372

    Fordors
    Member

    E8E329F2-3F66-4513-B403-E2734940B4AD.jpeg 5841CD50-CB48-4126-9617-2340A4E5D803.jpeg

    Here’s Lewie Shell in a couple of photos, the second one must be from when he opened the store. I believe Shell’s started as a buy, sell, trade operation more than a retail store.
     
  25. JC Sparks
    Joined: Dec 8, 2008
    Posts: 733

    JC Sparks
    Member
    from Ohio

    Weber Racing Equipment in North Ridgeville Ohio. First time there was early 70's.
     
  26. 57JoeFoMoPar
    Joined: Sep 14, 2004
    Posts: 6,138

    57JoeFoMoPar
    Member

    Being someone of younger generation, I grew up in a time when there were not a lot of speed shops around. Most everything I needed I could get from the Summit or Jeg's catatlog, which is how we rolled. Road Runners on St. George Avenue in Avenel, NJ was the closest speed shop, but they were mainly into late model jeeps and lift kit accessories than performance stuff. I was able to get some Holley parts there when I was in a pinch.

    The best speed shop in my area is definitely BBC, Bontempo Brothers Competition in Linden, NJ. They are a speed shop where you can buy aftermarket and performance parts, but they're also a full service machine shop and more that will do full-on engine swaps, set up rear ends, and make custom stuff. They're also a great bunch of guys. They bailed my ass out big-time a few weeks ago when I snapped a balancer bolt off in my crank shaft.
     
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  27. Blake 27
    Joined: Apr 10, 2016
    Posts: 1,504

    Blake 27

    My first speed shop was Tognotti's in down town Sacramento, (16th St.)? It was sometime around 1964.
    At the time the main draw was the King T displayed in the front window. That year, 1964, Don Tognotti
    entered the T in the Oakland Roadster Show and won the AMBR award. The T was built by Don and Gene
    Winfield and was one of the first to feature a Jag rear end.
    Don-tognotti-king-t-2010.jpg 82643_Interior_Web.jpg 82643_Engine_Web.jpg 82643_Rear_3-4_Web.jpg
    In 2016 the T sold for $39,600 at Barrett Jackson.
     
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  28. A Boner
    Joined: Dec 25, 2004
    Posts: 7,419

    A Boner
    Member

    Hot Rod Shop in Milwaukee...wouldn’t go into that neighborhood in an Armored Personnel Carrier now!
     
  29. Johnboy34
    Joined: Jul 12, 2011
    Posts: 1,588

    Johnboy34
    Member
    from Seattle,Wa

    Honest Performance in Renton, Washington, the old original store. Bought a cam, F4B manifold, 650 double pumper, headers, and 4.11 gears for my Falcon Sprint. Ported the 289 heads and that little car was really quick! Don't have receipts but still have the 289 & cam card!
     

    Attached Files:

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  30. Dennis D
    Joined: May 2, 2009
    Posts: 851

    Dennis D
    Member

    Bought a Hurst 3 speed shifter for my 55 from South County Speed Shop. Probably 1966-7.
     
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