Well, here we go. It’s the time of year when all the D family vehicles get sprayed with Krown oil to stave off the rust monster for another salty winter. I used to work quite close to this location, but since my employer saw fit to sell the building during the pandemic I had to drive over and wait while they applied it. This shop is in a light industrial area with lots of automotive businesses so let’s leave the Caravan and take a walk while we’re waiting:
Just around the corner here’s our first CC, a 1967 Camaro SS. Interesting wheels on this one, they look like the usual 15″ GM slotted steel wheels but are aftermarket 20″ or something.
1968 (edit – it’s a 1967) Chevrolet flatbed with dual wheels possibly getting some transmission work done at this shop
Mid 80’s Suburban across the street. Not in front of a repair shop so still a daily driver, amazing how this gigantic vehicle looks normal next to a modern F150.
I was a bit slow on the draw getting a photo of this 1965 Pontiac post sedan. It’s a narrow track Canadian car, and a bit rough but I was admiring it rumbling by and then thought of my phone camera.
Speaking of disappointments, this top & upholstery shop frequently has freshly painted classics out front awaiting attention. Just boats today.
This repair shop has been open for a decade, and always has at least a dozen Fox body Mustangs in various states of parting out scattered around the building. I love Fox Mustangs from the 1980’s, but don’t know how you can make a living parting them out in 2021. The sign says they service all makes, not sure about you but this is not the vibe I’m looking for in a garage.
Now that’s more like it. Another nice Mustang and vehicles that look like they could depart under their own power in front of this business. Mr. Vasko, my high school shop teacher had a Mustang exactly like this in the early 80’s. He covered the middle strip of each taillight with white hockey tape “so that it wouldn’t look like all the other ones”. 40 years later this is a car that stands out without alterations, I should have gone over and checked the taillights.
Another shop seems to have classics scattered around several buildings. Here we have a 1976 Nova wearing GM supplied slotted wheels, Jeep CJ-7, 1972-ish Ford F-150 bumpside pickup and mid 1980’s Chevy pickup. A real mix of stances here, both pickups are lowered and the Nova is probably missing it’s engine. It could also have big block front springs in it to jack the front up, a high school friend did that with his 72 Nova and although is looked like a drag car it did not enhance the ride or handling.
Oh yeah, saving the best for last. A genuine 1971 full size two door in metallic green, with faded custom flame job. I do believe this is a CC first, thank you very much. (I had been hoping it was a 1972 LTD like in Paul’s article here, but he caught my error before we went to press).
Can you imagine what this looked like in it’s full glory? Perhaps with some chrome wire rims to go with those whitewall tires?
I couldn’t get a good shot of the green vinyl interior, but here’s a wonderful detail to end this off. I sure hope that lights up when the headlights are on. Outstanding!
I returned from my walk just as the keys were brought to the office, so that was a fun way to spend an hour. Thanks for coming along.
Some great stuff! You’re a year off on the Chevy flatbed, it’s a ’67 which was the first year of the new cab style and last without sidemarkers.
Just sitting on those Foxbodies for the past few years would’ve been profitable for someone who didn’t have to pay for, or at least could write off, the space. If that were the plan I’d have kept them out back and used the front for customer cars though…
The ice-blue Mustang is a great, non-cliche color for them.
Much less so the Nova, black wasn’t a common original color for them but for whatever reason seems to be the most cliched repaint, most likely done sometime in the ’90s when the original yellow or metallic brown had gotten a bit too “Disco Stu”.
The Ford, otoh, is in THE color. Whoever did the flame job did a good one and it took guts to work with what was probably factory metallic pea-soup green paint.
Love that paint job! If Ford had offered that as an option in 1971, my feelings about these might be quite different.
That big, flamed Ford is wild. A bold choice that has unfortunately fallen on hard times.
I like that CJ-7.
I’m sure the owner of that shop isn’t making his living parting out Foxstangs. My guess is those are either his personal projects or he does sell parts to his loyal Foxstang customers. However there are still a least a few people out there who do make their living that way. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dmd=2&iconV2Request=true&_ssn=mpsautosalvage&store_name=mpsautosalvage&_oac=1&store_cat=0
I think it is a good vibe for a shop, shows that the owner is an enthusiast, probably sweats the details and does the job right since he expects to build long term customers. Yeah I wouldn’t expect for it to appeal to the owner of a brand new car, but if you want to keep your older car on the road and in good shape this looks like a great place.
That is quite the paint job on the old Ford, someone put in a lot of effort and did a good job, since it still looks pretty good how many decades later?
The Bumpside appears to have been the recipient of a Panther upgrade as that is not the 5 x 5.5 truck wheel pattern and those look like Panther disc brakes under that small bolt pattern wheel.
There are a number of companies that make 18″ and 20″ wheels that look like the original 14″ and 15″ wheels. Unfortunately the selection of 14″ tires is getting thin and there are very few true high performance tires available in 15″.
Nice finds! While not a classic, but still worth a mention, is the Explorer Sport Trac Adrenalin. Those are pretty rare and I’ve never seen a white one before. I always liked the way these looked especially compared to the regular Sport Trac.
Small world! I have my cars rustproofed at that same place and have done the same walk while waiting, but haven’t had nearly that same success with the CC’s. The canvas shop owner owns a nice 50’s Ford which was inside when I was there to get a boat cover repaired.
A nice tour – so, does that shop ever have a need for sealcoating the parking lot? Or do they just let the dripping cars keep the moisture out of the asphalt?
That cream/red Suburban is the exact twin of one owned by some inlaws – theirs was an 87 which they bought used when they lived in the Dallas area. They drove that Burban for a long, long time. I saw very few others with that color combo (and those wheels).
Yes, as a matter of fact I CAN imagine what that 71 LTD looked like when it was new – I think the first two new 71 LTDs I ever saw were that mid/light metallic green, and they were gorgeous, gorgeous cars when they were brand new. I still find those 2 doors attractive (though there is much about them that I later learned that would dissuade me from ownership).
That parking lot is so well oiled it’s treacherous. They put a paper floormat in the car so you can wipe the worst of it off your shoes before driving away.
Nice tour ! .
I don’t know what state but I hope you have no rust issues….
One shop I worked at told me “old oil is good for the asphalt !” .
It was a filthy place , I had to keep clean shoes in my car to drive home .
-Nate
I believe that this is Canada. The oil treatment is not available in the US afaik, due to environmental concerns. Living in SE MI my entire life, I have watched in dismay as so many of my cars rotted away under me. It only takes one salty winter for the process to start, and the only way to slow it down is the oil treatment. Of course I could have driven over to Windsor all of these years and had it applied there, as some have done. Can’t do that now though –
Oil-type rustproofing certainly is available in the States. Krown, for one.
Confirmed, this is in Burlington, Ontario.
Another thing that Doug maybe didn’t make clear is that the post’s title is appropriately “punny”: the Krown shop is on Industrial Drive.
That didn’t even occur to me 🙂
I love light industrial districts like this. In the equivalent places near me, I can usually count on some sort of interesting cars either on the street on in parking lots.
It’s amusing to me that the Nova in your photos has more ground clearance than the pickup trucks parked in the same row.
Rust yeah theres been lots of ideas for keeping that at bay my dad swore by waste engine oil for spraying the undersides in his prewar Chevy and 50s/60s Vauxhall days when he moved into Holdens he never kept them long enough for the termites to get in, but the best Ive found is PSA cars like NZ assembled 90s Toyota Coronas the factory galvanised the whole thing.
That Nova looks like something out of my high school parking lot in the early ’90s! Love it – great assortment.
PSA: Fluidfilm is now available for those of us not near a Krown dealer: I picked some up at Lowe’s last week. Lowe’s!
Happy motoring-and fingers crossed for real snow this year!
I use this treatment: https://corrosionfree.com/ after coming across this site: https://www.howtosavemoney.ca/which-rust-proofing-service-is-best
It’s available at Canadian Tire, but I go for service to an independent dealer in Etobicoke.