Growing up in San Diego in the '50s, I remember a vehicle called the Powell. As I recall, there was one style, ala El Camino....2 seater with open cargo area. They resembled early Land Rovers, i.e. boxy, flat panels, no "curves". The "trim" was LR like too, it was galvinized steel. The motor was flathead 6, I heard they were reconditioned Dodge engines.
They were made in Los Angeles.
I tried a Google Search, 17,907 options, I didn't look at them all!!
Anybody remember them, any info?? ANY POWELL OWNERS???
Thanks, John Lennig / SignRider
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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I don't remember the Powell, but do you remember Mad Man Muntz? Sold a Muntz car, which was an open sporty car, for 2 or 3 years in the early '50s then gave it up. They were made by Curtis in El Monte and after Muntz dropped it Curtis sold them for a couple more years.
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My Father took me to the local BUICK dealership in Newark, N.J. in 1948. They were also one of the few designated TUCKER dealers. My Father bought the BUICK.....he thought the Tucker was a joke!.......Some joke....they're worth about a quarter million now!
[ March 04, 2003, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: Bob Burns ]
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Well, it's not a Powell, but I have a brochure I salvaged from some of my dad's lifetime of car sales.
It's the Vauxhall Victor. The car in the brochure shows a license plate with a 1957 year indicated on it. The brochure states the Vauxhalls are sold and serviced by Pontiac dealers throughout America. It was a 4 cylinder "square engine".
I can't remember ever seeing one on the street. It almost looks a little like the old Checker Cab vehicles.
Vauxhall Motors Limited was in London England and was the British Manufacturing Division of General Motors according to the brochure.
-------------------- EmpY Mayo Pardo #138 South Elgin, IL. Posts: 436 | From: South Elgin, IL | Registered: Nov 1998
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John, Frank "Curtis" who made the many CurtisCraft midgets of the 30's and 40's was operating in your area back then making custom order cars for the rich and famous, His son may know something to help you out. I believe their shop is currently somewhere in Indianana. (Indianapolis)??
J.G. Kurtzman
-------------------- John Kurtzman J.G. Kurtzman Sign Shop 97 Taylor Ave. Norwalk, Ct. 06854
----------------------------------- Creative communication since 1959 Posts: 213 | From: So. Norwalk, Ct. USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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I grew up at the corner of Rush & Merced in El Monte. A short block away was Seaman Street, and on one corner was a guy named Gemsa who built race equipment for the Model A Ford 4 banger engines. His daughter, Adelle, was in my Spanish class at High School. Gemsa also built and sold small midget racers (1/4 midgets?) and go-carts, and he may still be there. Across the street from him was Mickey Thompson's garage where he developed the half Pontiac engines - remember when he cut the V8s in half to make 4 bangers? It happened right there. With him in those days was Ray Crawford who had those giant plywood "Slo-Mo" hydroplane racers. Next door to Mickey was where they hand hammered the all aluminum Curtis bodies, and for years there was a pile of unused bodies stacked up in the yard, with Ray's Slo-Mo rotting away next door. I was working at Atlas Auto Supply in 1963 when a guy came in to buy new tail lights for a Curtis Jet - same lights as the '41 Chevy. This car had a Chrysler hemi, 4 on the floor and alligator upholstery! Real 'Gator! Options on running gear were Ford Flathead/crash box tranny, Chrysler with 4 spd or automatic and a 3rd one I forget, probably Caddy. You could have any upholstery you wanted but I think most of them went to genuine leather. There is a junk yard at the corner of Rush & Rosemead where back in the early '60s there was a Tucker - complete except for the missing transmission - which was the death knell for Tucker. The car had never been driven, and Mr. Cyrus said he'd never smash it up. I wonder. Up the street from these guys was Kay Sissel, famous for his work with Chevy 6 Bangers. He's gone, now but before he died he reworked the head on my '54 Shevrolay, back in '88. Mad Man Muntz' TV commercials -- he would say they were going so cheap, to come buy the cars from him because he was going to bulldoze them off a cliff if we didn't all run down there and buy them up.
ahhh, the memories . . .
I remember seeing Vauxhalls running around . Not a lot of them, but some. Remember the Amphicar? You could drive it right into a lake and keep going in the water. I was at Lake Havasu in about 1990 and two guys in an Amphicar drove down the boat ramp and right into the lake - it had about 3 inches of freeboard! A wonder it didn't sink! But they drove it to the next boat ramp up the river and out --
Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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If my memory serves me right... the Henry J was built by Kaiser. The same car was sold through Sears and Roebuck as the "Allstate".
Kaiser figured that he could apply the same manufacturing magic to automobiles just as he had with building the 90 day wonders.. The Liberty ship freighters of WWII.
Why do I remember this useless crap? Does anyone remember when Dana's birthday is?
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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The first ten TUCKERS had CORD transmissions with no reverse. The Tucker Co. had a deadline to meet for their introduction, so they petered out on the transmission. The 40 cars built after that had modified GM trannys hooked to the flat 6 cyl. FRANKLIN aircooled airplane mill, with water jackets crudely welded on for cooling! The Franklin mill was used in the STEARMAN airplane at that time. Im sure this is information that is highly saught after!
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Can't help with the Powell, although I have seen a few Vauxhalls, matter of fact I saw one in a junkyard a year or two ago, of course I can't remember where. I had a Clifford intake on a 292 I had in a 57 Wagon and a customer of mine has a Kurtis roadster along with a couple of Kurtis midgets and for my contribution to the obscure car makes, this customers also has six Allards. I never saw one with full fenders, yet he has two, one of which was painted and striped by VonDutch in the seventies. I got to redo some of the striping a few years back. It's outfitted with an SVO 302 and updated suspension. This guy's collection is mind boggling!
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
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Bruce: Great little car that Henry J...in its day was an economy car from the mind of Henry J. Kaiser, that imperial wizzard of ship building that helped the U.S. win the war... ohh the 2nd war, or WW 2 known by some in the world of brush painting sign guys. Economy was not in the vocabulary of this country then, so it fell victom to the larger size automobiles from the wit from Harvy Earl of G.M., however I remember an articlr in the 1960's in car craft about it's ability to out perform in speed and economy the Ford Pinto. Henry was well ahead of his time. In high school I had a 1951 Henry J myself. Wonderfull car, however the girls I dated back then wern't to hot on seeing the back of the solid lifter Iskenderian 270 dual quad 283 motor in the passenger compartment just under the dashboard.
J.G. Kurtzman
-------------------- John Kurtzman J.G. Kurtzman Sign Shop 97 Taylor Ave. Norwalk, Ct. 06854
----------------------------------- Creative communication since 1959 Posts: 213 | From: So. Norwalk, Ct. USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Well, I'm glad I was able to get the old Snapses going in you all
Us older folks need to do this to help stave off "forgetfullness" lol
I mentioned to my signpaintin' cohort The Botannie Kid, aka Al Graw, that I was going to post an inquiry re: the Powell. He said, between brushstrokes, "I have a book about old cars back home, after we finish this job, I'll check it out."
Well, yesterday, he calls me at the Studio, says, "found it....Powell, made in Compton, Calif. 1954 to 1956, 2400 made, used Plymouth frames, Plymouth flathead 6, 90 hp. Sport model, and Pickup model, said they looked almost identical." I had told him they were fairly ugly, he conurred.
Sold for 900.00, had white tops and and coloured lower halfs.
Next step..... find the Powell Owners Club, gotta be one, eh?
Finally, I can sleep at night!!
John Lennig / SignRider
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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in my memory...WILLYS, KIASER AND HENRY J....all came from same company. willys motors produced a car back in the middle 30's(see a lot of 33-41 willys bodys made into dragsters). willys motors stole the JEEP design from a small company in penna that made BATAM MOTOR CARS. these were small cars on the order of the CROSLEY. theres another obscure car. more on that later. bantam motors made the 1st design for the jeep, showed it to the military and a guy was there from WILLYS looking on. he went back to WILLYS(was a bigger company then BANTAM)and stole the design from the bantam and made a willys. since bantam could not provide enough production of jeeps, willys got the contract. when willys ran outa motors(made by continential motors)during war time, they went to ford. FORD tooled up an produced JEEPS with flathead v-8's(real rarity today) most of these got shipped to the pacific theater. after the war, willys wanted a "luxury model" so they designed the FRAZIER, which later became KIASER- FRAZIER, i think till 47-48. then it took on the KAISER name only. about this time they designed the HENRY J, not thinking that the JEEP would ever sell. in 50 they came out with the JEPSTER. HENRY J lasted 50-54 i think, FRAZIER was only 46-47. KAISER-FRAZIER was 48-50 then became the KAISER, which was trying to compete with PACKARD. some where in this period 50-55, PACKARD, WILLYS, STUDEBAKER ALL was intergrated into NASH, which became AMERICAN MOTORS. KAISERS last car was i think 54, was quite a looker, long sleek and the winshield at the top was "heart shaped".NASH changed name to american motors, 58 was the last PACKARD(it was a 57 studebaker, with some add ons) STUDEBAKERS tryed to hang on till 62-63. with the lark being last model. only the jeep servived under the AMC line which was bought by chrysler. as for the CROSLEY, CUTE LITTEL CAR!!! had a 4 cly engine i think it was 1000 c.c. or less, 4 speed, seated 4 and ran on 10-12" rims. was made by some golf cart company and CROSLEY was a big appliance compay of the 40-50's. made tvs, radio, refridgerators etc. car lasted 4-5 years only. to little power, gas was 18-20 cents a gallon!!!!!! so who needed a HENRY J or a CROSLEY. there you have the totality of my ed-u-ma-ca-tion!!!!
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Since 2400 Powells were produced from '54 to '56.... anybody out West seen one, own one, know of a Powell Owners Club?
John Lennig / SignRider
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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Mike, thanks, that's a fascinating story....
The Huge amount of energy that came out of the war years, and the big demand for "new" after 4 years of "for war effort only", well, there must be so many stories out there in many different industries...
That woodie lookin' car reminds me of the VW kit cars that had a woodie body.
John Lennig / SignRider
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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American Bantam of Butler, PA did indeed design the original Jeep but the design belonged to the US Army because of the way contracts were done at that time. Willys-Overland was the only other company to bid on the project and was selected to produce the Jeep beause American Bantam could not begin to meet the demand.
Ford did produce Jeeps during WWII but everyone was making stuff back then. If my memory serves me, wasn't Cadillac making tanks? Not those behemoth cars but real ones... LOL!
Willys brought out the Jeep for civilian use. It was christianed the CJ for "Civilian Jeep". They did make panel wagons and suburban-type trucks for awhile. I am not sure of how long. Tracy (my partner) owned one for awhile and has many a good tale to relate to that.
Who can forget those funky little square cabbed four wheel drives. Seemed like every gas station in SW PA had one parked along the side of the building.
Willys-Overland was purchased by Kaiser in the early 50's and continued in a fashion until the late 60's and was ultimately purchased by American Motors.
Studebaker and Packard merged in the mid 50's and was produced until '64 when economics forced the company out of business, although the Avanti did survive for awhile later. That was a neat car...
DeSoto was eliminated by Chrysler in the later 50's. Too many lines of cars and too many choices for the buying public, I reckon.
American Motors was the merger of Nash and Hudson. The Rambler division was the only reason that AMC had any chances of survival against the big three.
I remember the Hornet Scramblers and AMX's of the late 60's. The AMX is a car a car I consider one of the best looking cars ever made. Who didn't know someone, or themselves for that matter, who owned a Gremlin in the 70's?
Toledo Motors produced the Jeepster in the early 70's. I remember Danny Thomas hawking them on TV commercials... "Holy Toledo, what a car!". That didn't last long.
All in all, I have to ask... Why do I remember all this useless crap? LOL!
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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GM was the producer of tanks and the caddy motor, being the largest cubic inch wound up in the tanks. willys motor and overland trucks became one company yes, after 1941. KAISER bought into them,(after WW2) he was big man in STEEL figured he needed a car named after him.as for nash and hudson combining sorta, when nash took over hudson, they dropped the car completely. nash also tried a small car, the NASH METROPOLITAN, little 2 seater, body was made in the U.S. and BRITISH LEYLAND made the chassis(was an MG underpinnings) last hudson was 53 i think, and they were trying to become a "small" car. nash/stuebaker/parkard turned into AMC, JEEP was included after that. all jeeps were willys overland till mid 60's, then megered into AMC. studebaker held out till 63, then was part of AMC. AVANTI cars was studebaker till 63, last year model. after that they were made by some hand builder and used all chevy underpinning. same thing happened to CHECKER MOTORS,GM picked them up when they went belly up and produced their car the "checker" till the late 70's. all these were all chevy chassis, checker bodies. desoto....last year was 59, sorta fell in the same slot as the EDSEL, a car with no place to be. iam a "piston head"!!!!
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Crosley, a "cute" little car. Cute yes, fun to drive, no way. Way to crude for it's time. The front suspension was parallel leaf with a straight axle, just like a truck of the time so it rode like a truck of that time period or to put it mildly it rode like s**t. The engine was way to small for the car so it was really S L O W. The worst part was the transmission, non syncromesh so you had to double clutch unless you were really , really familiar with it. The gearbox must have had straight cut gears in it to as I remember they were noisy as hell. Cute , but basically a piece of crap. The only saving grace was the engines made good powerplants for 3/4 midgets of the time and the bodies looked cool on a supermodified.
And still nothing on the Powell
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
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i owned a crosley a hudson. the jeep got its name from the initals gp for general purpose vehicles
-------------------- Jimmy Chatham Chatham Signs 468 stark st Commerce, Ga 30529 Posts: 1766 | From: Commerce, GA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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just scroll back 4/5? posts to see my last post on the Powell, my friend Al Graw found it in a book he had. 1954 to 1956. see post.
John Lennig / SignRider
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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