No this isn’t the finishing up the last trips notes, nope we just returned from there today 6/23.
We had stayed the weekend in Bisbee again with a couple friends and Lowell is 2 minutes away and so we wanted to show them the cool little town.
This time it was a bit earlier on a Sunday morning and the breakfast cafe was crowded and one other thing was different the Harley Repair shop was open.
We got to meet the owner Jim (real first named – last name omitted). As I alluded to in my earlier posts, Jim is a avid supporter of one of the largest motorcycle social events in the world – Sturgis, South Dakota. On this particular Sunday Jim had his shop open and was working on the brakes of his old Chevy pick up.
One of Jim’s many vehicles. He mentioned that we owns nearly all of the motor cycles and cars you see there.
Most of the cars and vehicles belong to Jim. He has a pretty large collection of cars – like a 1969 Mustang Shelby, Studebaker pickup, Hudson, 67 Corvette to name a few (Oh and this Caddy!!).
He has collected all of the Indian and Harley motorcycles you can see on display and parked along the street and I’d say they out number the cars at lest three to one.
This Indian racer has been well restored.
I didn’t get him on camera, hadn’t expected to run into to him on a Sunday morning and didn’t want to impose. As I stated, Jim was setting up to do a brake job on the Chevy pickup pictured above. As we approached we were greeted by two dogs, one named Blondie, the other dogs name I didn’t catch but both were older but cutie dogs. Jim was hauling out a Honda scooter with a for sale sign on it when we walked up followed by the two dogs. Next to the Chevy pick up was a 2004 Harley which he had just picked up from a when a family friend who’s patriarch had recently passed and the family offered the bike at a far price. The dogs belonged the same fellow and Jim adopted them (he had just lost his 12 year old dog).
Jim admits he has collected a lot of interesting pieces and let us know he has a Chrysler with an original Hemi coming in and a flat head Ford V8 engine, but needs a Ford to put it in, and a few more goodies. He laughed saying that he’s running out of friends with space to store thing. Being a fellow car lover, I offered to bring some things back to Tucson with me to help out….we both laughed….pretty sure that’s not going to happen.
Although Lowell is a legitimate Arizona city it has pretty much been left on it’s own. It has been slated to be torn down -(more on that later on). Jim explained that “they” pretty much let him and a couple others carry on business and Jim use most of the building for storing and displaying his treasures.
There is an effort to save the town of Lowell, AZ and make it a historic area. Look for more from me on that.
Let’s talk about the staging. Most of these are original, but staged (well staged) with some period correct signs, gas pumps and vehicles. Let’s check out.
But there are other, equally cool cars that you might take a fancy too and want to restore. Finding stuff can be a problem. My new feature “Wrecked” might help you out with finding those parts.
I’m doing this in conjunction with listing on www.PartingOut.Com they pull together a lot of cars and many are southwestern cars, that means less debilitating rest on the parts you need. And that’s where I found this very near complete parts car.
The 1964 Falcon came in 2 door coupe, 4 door coupe with names almost as long as the wheel base, like Ford Falcon Futura Sprint (yeah…that’s model) and the wagon.
The wagons were the work horses of the suburbs. They got the families to and from ball games and camping trips and the grocery store. 1964 was the first year the Falcon wagons were their own series.
They featured either a 6 cylinder or a V8 for power. Two 6 cylinder, the Falcon Six-Cylinder and the Falcon/Fairlane Six-Cylinder, 85hp and 100hp respectively were available. The V8 mustard up 164 hp, which was pretty respectable for a light wagon.
The Falcon wagon came as a 6 passenger hauler with 3 models, the Standard, Deluxe and the Squire. These were mostly all 4 doors (not counting the tailgate) but there were few with a very desirable 2 door wagon. I’m a sucker for 2 door wagons and I give it a collectable rating of “very”. Why? Well not only do you have a ‘first’ year model but you have a low production car as only 6,034 of two doors were produced.
As you can see used parts are available and they are easy to restore and two doors lend themselves easily to modification for – additional forward thrust. And you can do stuff like this:
Slightly hot rodded
Easy to add more breathing capacity.
Custom 2 Door. Very Nice!!
Have I convinced you yet? If so check out this and more parts cars at www.PartingOut.com
I really need to plan a trip down-under. I love these guys!!!
← The Reverend Horton Heat-Billboards Australia American Muscle In Albury Posted on June 4, 2013 by crcooperphotography A few weeks back A few American Car Clubs joined forces and bombed on Albury’s QE2 Square.
Ok…a little bit ago I started this article (http://wp.me/p2YxYx-1A1) and I just found it again and realized that I’ve never finished it – sorry 🙁 .
So here we go with more info on the cool little town that spans only about 5 blocks.
As the story goes this was set up by a fellow who was one of the organizers of the mega motorcycle event ever. Sturgis!!!
You can tell that by some of the items on display in the store window displays. He has a working custom bike shop there but it wasn’t open when we were there. Check these bikes out:
Yes, Indian Motor cycles
And Harley (this is the sign outside the working cycle shop)
But those are just signs. How about these?!?!?!?!!
This Indian racer has been well restored.
Great paint on this beauty.
This BMW is next on the list for restoration.
And I had to show you this one:
Indian wall sign restored
Notice the missing “R”
More coming up on Lowell. (No seriously….I will finish it up!!)
But there are other, equally cool cars that you might take a fancy too and want to restore. Finding stuff can be a problem. My new feature “Wrecked” might help you out with finding those parts.
I’m doing this in conjunction with listing on PartingOut.Com they pull together a lot of cars and many are southwestern cars, that means less debilitating rest on the parts you need. And that’s where I found this very near completed parts car.
So before the ’57 Chevy craze there was the 1956 Chevy’s (really?….yes!!). No glitz of big fins and gobs of super shiny chrome there were the still cool Chevy’s. The 1956 Bel Air was the one of the cool cars.
Chevy can in a several flavors, plain (One Fifty – 1500A), chocolate (Two Ten – 2100 B) and refined mocha mint (Bel Air – 2400C) – which include the very cool Nomad. With over 600,000 Bel Airs produced that year, (approximately 1.5 million produced over all) you are still bound to find some good used parts. (Who came up with the numbering systems – One Fifty – 1500A?)
They all came with station wagon variations but only the Bel Air came in a drop top (only about 41K of those made).
There were only two engines (six cylinder and eight). The six was iron displacing 235.5 cubic inches with overhead valves, a bore and stroke of 3 – 9/16″ x 3-15/16″, hydraulic lifters and four main bearing, producing 104 hp. All this goodness topped with Rochester one barrel on the automatic Powerglide Model 700200 or a Carter one barrel model 2101S and the standard shift, Rochester one barrel model 7007181.
The V8 was iron as well, displacing 265 cubic inches. The bore and stroke of 3.75″x3″ and compression ratio of 8.0:1 helped to produce 162 hp w/the standard or Touch-down transmission (topped with Rochester two barrel – model 7009909 ) or 170 hp with the PowerGlide transmission topped with a Carter two barrel model 2286s.
Normally I’ll stop there but there some cool power train options. Check these out:
– a four barrel Super Turbo-Fire V8 with 205hp and compression of 9.25:1 and any choice of transmission
– a 225 hp dual 4 bl carbs set up on the same engine block
The two door station wagon were call Handyman.
The taillight 0n the left hand side was in fact the fuel door.
1956 Chevy. No glitz but very cool.
Thanks for reading and drop a note if you own 1956 Chevy.
