...Photo...Wombwell Auto Parts...Lexington...Kentucky...1930s...

...click photo for full size...

Photo broken.

wheels17 said:

Photo broken.

Click to expand...

...thanks...should work now...

Kind of a strange photograph -- the little man sitting up on the shelf, and the machines with kindergarten labels. No signs of any work going on. But duckboards, I like duckboards.

-Marty-

Lathefan:

Thanks for posting another great picture. As for the "kindergarten labels", some care went into getting a sign painter to make them up, and the one for the Jig Saw is hung on chains from the joists overhead. My guess is the signage was for an open house, possibly where representatives of car dealerships or repair shops were invited to see Wombwell's shop and get an idea of capability.

The wire wheels on the shelf would put the picture at the late 20's-into the 30's. The shop is sprinklered (fire protection), and may have had forced hot air heat as pieces of cardboard or some other material seem to be placed as baffles in the overhead- possibly to direct the warm air down into the shop area.

The fellow standing at the brake drum lathe is wearing a "Raybestos" mechanic's cap. Raybestos was perhaps the biggest supplier of asbestos friction facing materials for brakes and clutches. Back in the day, automotive machine shops relines clutches and brakes. The "brake relining machine" against the half-wall (partition or room divider) is for riveting linings to the shoes. The center machine in the three brake relining machines is likely for "arcing" the shoes to match the radius of the linings to the drums.

Automotive machine shops were once quite common. Now, in the age of super-sophisticated cars and "non rebuildable" parts, local automotive machine shops are getting scarce. Not shown in the Wombwell photos are machine tools for milling or planing heads and blocks, valve grinders, line boring machines, crankshaft journal grinder, and the "electrical bench" with a test stand for running distributors, and a means to run generators and test starting motors. An automotive machine shop in the era of this photo would likely also have an area set up for rebabbitting- as cars into the 30's used "poured" con rod big end bearings and "poured" main bearings. A boring machine or boring bar such as Storm-Vulcan or Van Norman made would also have been on hand for re-boring cylinders. In conjunction with the boring machine, there would have been a Sunnen cylinder hone, as well as a Sunnen (or similar) honing machine for sizing valve guides and wrist pin bushings. There would also have been several presses, usually a mechanical one such as Manley made would have been on hand in the era of this photo. One of those "giraffe necked" engine hoists on wheels would also have been in the shop to handle blocks or other heavy parts.

The photo shows a very obviously posed, and very obviously cleaned-up portion of Wombwell's shop. It also shows a small portion of what a rebuilding machine shop would have been like.

An air compressor and hot dip tank to clean parts would also have been likely in this sort of shop. As I type this post, I can see the old rebuilding machine shop at Marquette Auto Parts (Marquette, MI) in my mind. I had the run of that shop as the owner was a friend, and the place was also something of a Saturday morning hangout for Airhead BMW motorcycle owners/riders. That shop had pretty much all of what I've described here. In addition, I can smell the solvent from the hot dip tank and hear the sounds of the old air compressor and the "Simplex" time clock in my mind. Marquette Auto Parts is long gone, and the work they did is not in much demand anymore. Back in the day, they had a "Tobinarp" machine for "cam grinding" pistons to cause the skirts to expand as true cylinders rather than out of round. Piston blanks were turned to fit rebored cylinders and finished up on the Tobinarp cam grinder. They also had a piston knurler. This was used for people who were looking to coax a tired engine into running a bit longer- knurling the piston expanded its diameter to eliminate "piston slap". Local hotrodders brought their pistons in to be knurled as this was believed to cut friction and increase oil holding. Owners of antique cars or simply owners of older engines in boats or various things like old tractors or sawmills would show up needing rods and mains rebabbitted and the mains line-bored. They had an ancient geared head Reed and Prentice lathe, salvaged from a steam locomotive roundhouse. This was used for facing flywheels. When the regular machinist was off, I faced a few flywheels on that old lathe as a favor to my friend who owned the shop.

The crankshaft grinder was ancient, a van Norman I believe. It had been designed to handle the straight-8 crankshafts of the 20's and 30's. The result was the local 'Cat dealer and other shops working on heavy equipment would send diesel engine crankshafts to Marquette Auto Parts to have the journals reground. Some of the diesel cranks were so long that the tailstock on the crank grinder was only clamped to the bed for half the length of its base- the rest out in thin air.

A funny incident with the crankshaft grinder comes to mind. Marquette Auto Parts was divided into two entities: the auto parts and rebuilding machine shop was one entity, and the motorcycle dealership was an entirely separate entity. The regular rebuilding machinist did not have any use for the mechanic from the motorcycle shop. The motorcycle shop mechanic was charitably described as "some piece of work". This character was gifted as a mechanic and had a sharp mind, but he was some mix of outlaw biker and good old boy. He was known to pick his teeth with his lock-back Buck knife and get into assorted bar room brawls and scrapes with the law. The motorcycle mechanic brought an axe to work to sharpen it. At lunch time, he came down the back stair into the machine shop and fired up the van Norman crankshaft grinder and was putting an edge on his axe with the cranksahft grinder's stone. Reportedly, there was a yell from the regular machinist, and he bodily threw the motorcycle mechanic away from the crankshaft grinder and threw his axe after him, cursing and yelling and running him out of the rebuilding shop. The whole crew and all of the folks who were regulars at that shop for coffee all got a laugh out of it. There were any number of bench or pedestal grinders which the motorcycle mechanic could have dressed the edge of his axe upon. Most people in the UP have cut and split cordwood and know how to use and care for an axe. As everyone who ever used an axe knew, a file and round "axe stone" are about all you need, so everyone figured the motorcycle mechanic- who knew machine tools and machine work- probably put his axe to the crankshaft grinder's stone just to get the regular machinist to throw a fit. The regular machinist considered the rebuilding machine shop as his kingdom, and the motorcycle mechanic came close to getting hit with his own axe. I was OK with both the motorcycle mechanic (who used to crash at my house on occasion) and with the machinist, so could go into the automotive machine shop whenever I needed to. It's a bygone thing now. Other than people building performance engines and restoring old cars, I do not think there is much demand for automotive machine shops. When my wife's Chevy Blazer had a bad valve a few years back (GM warranty covered it), I was surprised to learn the whole cylinder head went into the scrap dumpster- no rebuild on it. This is the way of modern automobile repairs. We still get into automotive machine shop work in the rebuilding of the old Airhead motorcycles, and things like a Sioux valve grinder, the Sunnen hones, and making valve guide bushings in a lathe are all stuff we do. Rebuilding of parts or whole engines just is not done in automotive shops anymore. Rather, there is a "core exchange" for remanufactured parts. Unfortunately, a lot of the "reman" parts are junk, and it is not uncommon to have "reman" parts fail shortly after being put in service. The care and attention to detail that a local automotive rebuilding machine shop might have given does not seem to be there in a lot of the "reman" parts nowadays.

I've been past the old Raybestos plant in Crawfordsville IN many times. No idea what they make there, if anything now. I'm never near there in working hours.

...here's a link to a few more photos of the shop...I like the self contained brake drum lathe in the third photo...

CLICK HERE

Racing stripe conspicuously missing from the wall behind the lathe chuck- maybe this is a relatively new facility- perhaps an advertisement for a new shop. I wonder if the L shaped bar above the lathe operator's head runs a power switch for the (presumed) motor. OTOH maybe that lightswitch runs the motor and the L bar manages shipping the belt or operates a tensioner. I wouldn't think there'd be a lineshaft in a relatively modern shop like this. If its a real job it might be he's threading something, given the belt on the large sheave.

Can't quite make out the lathe's manufacturer though...

I want that press... love those things

The Chevy dealer I worked at in the 60's bought a press just like hat from a closed dealership in Fernandina for $50.00 It was at least a 50 ton model.
I happened to walk by one of the mechanics straining on the pump handle and looked to see what the heck needed that much pressure.He had a Muncie 4spd main shaft that had seized low gear on it(a not uncommon problem) trying to salvage the synchronizer and 2ed gear.The shaft had a visible "s" bend in it,I yelled at him to stop and back off the pressure now! Those shafts will shatter when pushed past their yeild and no telling where the pieces will end up.Told him I might have just saved his life.
Told him to use a lot of heat and lot less pressure or just use a cut off wheel.

I have a set of reamers like the one the guy is reaming the piston with.I have never seen any more with the blades made like that,three segments with opposite helices on one segment.Mine are apparently made for electric motor work as they have extended pilot shafts and slip on centering cones.They don't dig in and chatter like the straight blade hand reamers are prone to do.

Tuckahoe has a IIRC 30 ton screw press, for all intents and purposes it is the unstoppable force. Love using that thing, I've only had to put the handle on it once for a big push. The flywheel has a lot of inertia but enough diameter to provide a reasonable amount of finesse for arbor straightening etc.

Taken back in the days when people actually fixed things as opposed to just replacing them. Yeah the tools were cruder
and there was more work involved but parts actually did get fixed or rebuilt. And mechanics didn't wear freakin' rubber gloves
to protect their tender little hands...

Got an old Manly press at the Shop that we have had since time immemorial. If I remember correctly, I believe it is a 40T. Rarely ever use it, as I have a modern 55T press out in the shop area. The Manly is stuffed along the wall, and surrounded by the torches, stomp shear, and other assorted crap.

WWII gave a massive boost to shops like Wombwell. During WWII, new cars and even new parts for cars already on the road were almost non-existant to the civilian market. Coaxing worn engines and drivelines in older cars to run a bit longer was the name of the game for owners and mechanics.

A fellow at Marquette Auto parts told me a story of inventiveness during WWII. A flathead inline 6 cylinder engine broke a connecting rod and tore up the cylinder wall. The car owner needed his car to get to work. Parts were not available, and a proper repair would have meant boring that cylinder oversized and shrinking in a sleeve, then fitting a new piston. The mechanics did a stopgap repair: they took out the busted con rod, and wrapped the crankshaft journal with a piece of gasketing and hose-clamped it. This was to maintain oil pressure and flow to the rest of the engine. A wooden plug was turned to a tight drive fit in the damaged cylinder and driven into it. This let the remaining cylinders maintain manifold vacuum. Pieces of sheet metal were slipped between the manifold connections and the block at that location to blank off the exhaust and intake manifold. The car owner drove his car on 5 cylinders for the balance of WWII until new cars and parts came available again.

The automotive rebuilding machine shops were quite common when I was a kid in the 50's and into the 60's and early 70's. Working hand and hand with the machine shops were "ignition" or "auto electric" shops and "carburetor shops". Each of these shops specialized in rebuilding and bench testing of more specific parts. There were also shops that specialized in speedometer repair and made up drive cables for the mechanical speedos, along with working on taxi meters. Another facet of this sort were the automotive radiator repair shops. This was a messy sub-specialty. When I was in college, I had a 1969 Volvo 144S. It split a top seam on the radiator. I took my father's Prestolite torch (with its B tank of acetylene) and some lead-tin solder, soldering paste, wiping cloth and soldering copper out into the street. Try as I would, I could not quite get the leak to dry up. The only thing to do was to take the radiator to an auto radiator shop. I took the radiator out of the Volvo quite easily, since it had a manual transmission. I walked to the corner and got on a NYC Transit bus with the dripping radiator, riding it some distance to Bay Ridge (we lived in Midwood), and dropped off the radiator. The fellows there said they'd call me when it was done. They dunked the radiator into some kind of hot tank, probably mild acid, air tested it, soldered the leaks and air tested it again. I got a call a couple hours later, so was back on the bus to get my radiator. I think the tab, in 1972, was maybe 10 bucks. I got the radiator, still tacky with fresh black paint and a shop tag from the radiator shop soldered to it, and rode home on the bus with it. Back into the car and back in business before supper time. Today's auto radiators use a lot of plastics and aluminum, so not so easily repairable or rebuildable.

The automotive machine shops, along with the "ignition shops" and the carburetor shops all had their niches. The ignition shops rebuilt distributors and had a test stand for them, usually with an oscilloscope and a few meters. The carb shops usually had a flow bench to test the carbs on. All of these shops used to send out drivers to pick up parts needing rework and to deliver finished work. On some parts, there was a core exchange- stuff that was common like carburetors, distributors, generators and starters. Even electromechanical voltage regulators went to the auto electric shop for repair. Cars had mechanical fuel pumps, worked off the camshaft. These used to be rebuildable, not that there was a whole lot to them- a new diaphragm, valve discs and valve springs being about it. If you went into an auto parts place, you could buy the thin synthetic rubber to cut a new fuel pump diaphragm from.

The rebuilders all had either panel delivery trucks, pickups, or step vans for the pickup and delivery of parts. When I was a kid in Brooklyn in the 50's, these shops were using "trikes"- made by Harley or Indian. I remember them quite well. Spit shined, gold-leaf pinstriping, and the name and phone number of the shop in bold lettering. In the second set of photos Lathefan has posted, there is a fellow in what look like jhodpurs (riding breeches) and high riding boots. Chances are he was the delivery driver and ran around on one of those three-wheelers or a motorcycle with a sidecar. The delivery drivers who rode around on the trikes or motorcycles with sidehacks used to wear quite the uniform- shined riding boots reaching to the knee, breeches, a uniform jacket (with the shop name embroidered on the back) , a military styled cap, and a necktie. Different era, for sure.

The mechanics and machinists wore shop coats, also having the shop name embroidered on the backs. They wore caps supplied by the various vendors such as Raybestos brakes, or various sparkplug and ignition parts companies. If the mechanics did not have a cap supplied by a vendor, they took the crown of an old felt hat and cut off the brim, and cut the edges in a zig-zag pattern and turned them up. This made a handy cap to wear when under a car as it did not have a projecting bill. Some shops provided uniform caps styled after the US Army "overseas" caps, the kind that fold flat.

Our son was wrapping up a semester of study in Amman, Jordan a few years back. He speaks pretty good Arabic and is fearless. He and a schoolmate ventured into Cairo, Egypt on their own (long before the Arab Spring). As our son told it, they wandered around Cairo late into the nights. On one of these late night forays, they chanced upon what my son called "the street of the mechanics". As he told it, mechanics were working under streetlights on anything from scooters to heavy trucks and busses, doing heavy repairs in the street. I had told my son of my own time in South America and how the mechanics were resourceful and fixed stuff where it broke down and made parts. My son and his pal walked the streets, watching the various mechanics at work, kidding with them in Arabic. My son looked in the open window of a small shop and saw a fellow running a geared head engine lathe. My son knew what that was, and the fellow running the lathe made eye contact with our son. I had told my son there is often a special bond between people who work at the "real" crafts that transcends politics and religion- I had experienced it many times overseas. The fellow running the lathe stopped the lathe and my son called a greeting out in Arabic and then said in Arabic: "My father is an engineer". That was all it took. The whole shop stopped work and insisted my son and his pal come in, asking lots of questions about life in the USA and much else, and insisting they all have mint tea together. They showed our son what they did in that shop. The speciality was rebuilding automotive water pumps, and if it took making a new shaft and fitting new mechanical seals, or boring and bushing a housing that was worn, they did it. My son showed me the photos. I told him I was proud of him and to remember what he'd experienced. I also told him that was how things were in South America when I worked there, and how things were when I was a kid in the USA.

Our son said he had known the Arabic peoples to be hospitable, but he was surprised by the welcome he got from the fellows in that little automotive machine shop. There is no describing that sort of experience, and unless you work at some sort of "real" trade or profession, especially with your hands, most people never experience this sort of bond.

The other day, we went down to Kerhonkson, NY to do pushrod tube seals on a BMW Airhead bike. The bike owner has an oldtime repair garage. He repaired my chainsaw, and charged only for parts (a new chain bar) , lapping in the float needle to its seat. Having used my chainsaw for 25 years, it does not owe me anything. This fellow fixes chainsaws rather than throwing them in the dumpster and selling new ones.

In exchange, we came down to his shop to do the pushrod tube seals on his motorcycle. The woodstove was going, classic country music playing, and we got to work. It's an old shop with an ancient geared head lathe, anvil, and automotive rebuilding machinery. We worked on the owner's motorcycle, moving right along. A steady procession of local characters came in and out, one guy walking in barefoot despite snow and cold temperatures. We kidded, made all kinds of positively raunchy humor with double meanings related to mechanical work, talked of mechanic work, heavy equipment, welding, motorcycles, bad women and had a great time. We wrapped up the job, and I knew I was caught in a time warp. Old dusty chainfalls hung from the roof beams, rolling tool chest with the paint worn off, loaded with older US made tools, a wood stove and pile of split cordwood, and heaps of chainsaw parts to be reclaimed all filled the shop. Up our way, we still have a number of auto, truck/tractor and motorcycle shops heated by wood stoves, and customers are not kept out of the work areas. In the old shop in Kerhonkson, the fellow's father had sold Harleys in the 40's and 50's, and there were faded black and white photos of lineups of guys on Knuckleheads and Panheads outside the shop. Using a mike or knowing how to cut a gasket were all in a day's work in that kind of shop, as was making a bushing on the lathe or brazing up a busted part. Wombwell's shop and the shop in Kerhonkson we were at earlier this week are how it used to be. I am glad we have some of that still left.

Eh... Good one about the radiator. Mine was a 1971 wagon, and I took the radiator to the shop on the handlebars of a bicycle. (same with a driveshaft once). Waited for the repair, and watched. Those guys did it with an acetylene torch, in and out quick to melt the solder locally and not melt out the seams. I also had hit mine with a torch, but could not get it all tight.

Rode back with it on the bike after dark, and put it back in ready for the next day trip to work.

There used to be 3 radiator shops I knew of right nearby. All gone, one is an auto detailer's now, don't know what the others are, I think one has a dead shopping mall over the old site. Way too much unfixable stuff in cars now, and everyone only wants to put in new parts. If they can't get new parts they tell you to buy another car.

Joe Michaels said:

The automotive rebuilding machine shops were quite common when I was a kid in the 50's and into the 60's and early 70's. Working hand and hand with the machine shops were "ignition" or "auto electric" shops and "carburetor shops".

I am glad we have some of that still left.

Click to expand...

Joe -
I don't know about the big cities, but in this rural part of NY not far from you we still have the kind of shops you describe - although fewer for sure than the 50s-60s. We're lucky having two automotive machine shops/engine rebuild in the area. And a good electrical shop that also does radiators - took one there just last year. They patched up the leaks in that 1960 Chevy radiator I had just fine.

I'd almost think it is more in rural and agricultural areas that such shops survive, except for the vintage car places that are nearer urban areas.

Heck, we even have an excellent electric motor repair shop as well.

There are a few advantages for us geezers in the sticks who like to mess with old equipment....

Dale