So I was cleaning the motor up on the'51 wagon today, I pressure washed the engine compartment de-greased the funk on the block and came across a tag atached to the side of it. the tag said it was a remanufactered motor bored .40 over from montgomery wards. (it's a 216ci) I never knew that MW rebuilt engines , does anyone have any ideas on it ; how old it may be? it runs pretty strong still. just cuirious? Brian
Monkey Wards and Sear's both did rebuild engines. Sears had their own brand of heads for Ford's, sold their own car, and you could buy a 2/3 bedroom house from them.
There was a time you could get quite a few auto parts from both Sears and Monty Ward. I used to have a set of Appliance 5 spokes that I got from Sears about 25 years ago. Wish I still had those babies. They're hard to find now.
Couldn't you buy Henry J's from Montgomery Wards? I heard that from someone once apon a time I don't know if thats true though.
Bought a rebuilt 3 speed tranny for a 59 Rambler from M-W back about 1965. It was actually a pretty conveinent source for those kind of parts for those of us living in bumfuck So.Dak.
Waaaaay back in '71 when I worked for Sears at the catalog order warehouse in downtown Atlanta, we shipped out an assload of rebuilt engines and transmissions. Complete exhuast systems including headers and custom wheels went out daily. We sold Hurst shifters, Edelbrock intakes, Holley carbs, International mag wheels....all sorts of shit. Our engines were rebuilt by a company called Rogers. Must have been good 'cause I don't remember gettin many back. Oh yeah.....boats, motors and trailers too !! I'll bet Monkey Wards did the same thing.
Keystone wheels were sold by Sears in the mid/late 70s. I took two 68 Camaros and made one out of them in 1980, put a set of the Sears branded Keystone Rogues on it I had been hoarding for several years. Because Sears put their own name on them, they had their own center caps that looked just like the Keystone caps, but carried the name Sears called them by. For the life of me, I can't remember what they called them.
As a senior in high school, I worked at the M-W catalog store in my hometown. We would get 1 or 2 enginea a wek thru the store. I drove a ;52 ford 2dr. ht then. Got most all of my ''speed equip.'' thru the store at a 10*discount. Youngster
Monkey Wards made EVERYTHING... you could order a house from their catalogue back in the day. ...fer like, $500
Thumper, Those engines were remanufactured by National Engine Co., not Rogers. National Eng. was located on Dekalb Ave. They also had a facility elsewhere, I think it was St. Louis. The engines from the Dekalb Ave. plant were very good engines. The other plant, not so good. Occasionally, but rarely, if not available from National, Sears would buy/sell products from Jasper or possibly Rogers. But I never saw a Rogers. I also worked there, at Ponce de Leon, from 67-73 and installed those engines in their shop. Perhaps we know each other. Also, as I recall, Rogers was located near the Ford Assembly plant in Hapeville, Ga. and was the predessor to Fred Jones Mfg. the authorized rebuilder for Ford. Also, it was rumored back then that Sears owned Montgomery Ward. I hope this info helps. Oh yeah, I am pretty sure that all automatic trans. came from Jasper. One more thing, the reason that Sears sold so much back then, including engines was that they offered credit. No where else could you buy such as this on credit. Remember that there was no Visa, MC, etc back then. Damn I'm old.
"National ! ".......damn.......ok....I knew it was one of them outfits ! So you worked in Automotive? I was over in the big ass buiding in dept 187 & 188b in what they called "Borderline" shipping to Memphis and Greensboro so it could be sent to all them outlying cat. stores. We maybe crossed paths along the line. It was a cool place to work back then. Speed parts with an employee discount !
Fred Jones manufacturing started in 1938 in OKC. Known as 'little River Rouge' of the Southwest. Spread across US from there.
Just a few blocks from me is an original Sears-Robuck house. It was a kit. If you look in the attic you can see that all the beams are painted with numbers....just follow the instructions.
Yep, all painted green and it was a great place to work back then but started downhill in about 72 with the introduction of their affirmitive action policy. Look where that led to, K-mart now owns it. Yeah 10% off everything and also the EAA (employee accommadation account) where you could charge items at no interest and pay back with weekly withholdings. They also paid us in cash back then.
You'd be suprized how hip Montgomery Wards was... they used to have goKarts and all kinds of cool shit. I think they even sold drag slicks... I can recall seeing "Ward's Riverside" slicks on an OG hot rod... Sam.
Before the days of the Summits and Jegs we used to wait for the Sears and MW catalogs almost like Christmas to see what was in the automotive section. If I remember right they even had a seperate smaller catalog just for automotive stuff. This was a couple of teenagers in rural Minnesota in the late 1960s. They carried many items such as engines, speed equipment, engine parts, wheels, shop tools etc. Plus they would ship this stuff to your local "catalog store" which were in just about every small town.
Our local JC Penny's had a huge amount of speed equipment on display. Wheels, tires, intakes, headers, gauges etc. Brands they sold was A/FX, Edelbrock, M/T, Dixco, Holley, Hooker etc They also installed what they sold in their automotive department. I really miss those days. I live a couple hours from both Jegs and Summit but going into those stores today is nothing like going into the speed shops of my youth. The younger generation is really missing out.
I think at one time or another monkey wards and sears-roebucks built everything you needed,Ive seen catolags with everything amaginable.
My older brother's first bike was a silver 50cc powered model that came from Sears, some assembly required. I remember that when he took it up our street for its shakedown cruise (with no plates and our parents off somewhere, of course), the throttle stuck wide open and he dumped it right under the traffic light at the corner, rolling away from it as it spun in circles, pivoting on one of the foot pegs!
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