Glad to be in Pomona, we decided it would be a great day to visit some of the most famous Speed and Hot Rod Shops in the industry.
First stop was at the Early Ford Store in San Dimas... words cannot adequately describe the scope and scale of their collection of vintage Ford parts... they are stacked EVERYWHERE!
There are window garnish moldings hanging from the rafters, shelves stacked high with every imaginable stock part, axles, moldings, fenders, bumpers, etc. Then there's a complete section of vintage speed parts: Intake manifolds, carburetors, etc.
Here are some pics inside and outside this historic shop
A few flathead V8 engines
Front Axles
Variety of views inside
Some vintage Speed Parts
Ray and Bob in front of the Shop
Next stop was Lime works Speed Shop, in Whittier, to attend their open house. The street in front, and alley behind, their shop was chock full of Hot Rods. It was a nice event and the Lime Works staff were great hosts; they even had a catered lunch with Chicken, Pork and Beef enchiladas, beans, rice and soft drinks.
Here are some pics from our visit to Lime Works
The cars from the East Coast (our crew) got plenty of attention
And finally, Chuck showing off his fantastic, flathead powered, '40 coupe to "Limey Steve" the shop owner and founder
Next stop was Mooneyes Speed Shop... they actually have everything from T-Shirts to their own line of speed parts (some manufactured onsite in thier machine shop). Walking into the store to a Hot Rodder is like walking into a candy store for a kid... everywhere you look there are things that you'd love to have. It took a lot of restraint on our parts to limit what we bought there!
Here are some pics
Chuck and Ray posing with a statue of Ed Roth, creator of the infamous Rat Fink!
Lots of "Goodies"
A place to park your own "Moon" equipment
Some shots inside the machine shop
a gratuitous artsy fartsy shot of Ray and Dick's cars out front
After covering much of the Mooneyes shop we decided to drive over to the Kennedy Brothers shop... they are known for building old school, traditional, Hot Rods and they have an eclectic collection of stuff that is "neat" to Hot Rodders.
Here are some shots
an old minibike... like the ones we had when we were young and started our relationships with the internal combustion engine!
A vintage front engine slingshot dragster (rail)
A wall hanging in the shop paying homage to another set of Kennedy brothers!
hmmm...
below is an example of what smoking can do to you
vintage jet boat
The yard around the shop
A project underway
And an unexpected treat; none other than Vern Tardel, one of the founding fathers of Hot Rodding, showed up at the shop with an old flathead powered '32 Roadster. Vern is sitting in the roadster below
But wait folks, it gets better... a customer of the Kennedy Brothers was picking up a car, so I had to move Ray's Roadster to make room for their trailer. As I got out of the car, Vern came up to compliment me on the car! He thought it looked "bitchin'" and very tastefully done. I told him that the roadster was built by, and belongs to, Ray who then came over to say hello. Vern was awesome- he took the time to speak with us and actually compliemented all the vehicles in our group. Pretty darn neat!
Here are some picks of Vern speaking with the guys.
Our final destination of the day was a brief stop in at the SoCal Speed Shop. We would be spending most of Friday there attending their open house, but first had to ensure that we would be getting special tickets that allowed us to park "inside" their property... very coveted. Sure enough, we got the tickets and were set for Friday.
Stay tuned!
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