Tucson AZ, M&J closed forever.

The oldest surviving foreign car shop in Tucson. On the Auction block on Feb

18, 2007. I worked here as a starving student in 1973. The foreign car

business as we knew it is long gone. Computers and diagnostics rule. Images in

this folder are quite small, only 3 images manipulated. Taken with an Olympus

Zoom 140 Point and Shoot. Kodak 200 Gold print film, Sam's club CD files shown.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=697439

John, I too worked at a Garage like this when I was a Kid. The old Mechanic named Les,would ground out a coil with the end of his finger. He told me I would never be a real mechanic till I could do this. When I pick myself up off the floor , I somehow knew what he meant.

When I worked here in '73, I discovered that the Champion spark plug testing machine had a ground fault. By "arranging" yourself against the metal worktable (visible in some of the pictures), other parties resting against the table would get zapped. Amazing, in these images, the SAME spark plug machine testing machine was still there and it got auctioned off. I just wonder who will be the 1st party to "discover" the machine's fault all over again, some 30+ years later :)

Nice tribute, John. I hung around Flint British Motors in PHX in the late 60s-early 70s when wimpy Brit sports cars were decidedly not the fashion.Great old shop that I sadly never photographed enough.Tough to see such landmarks vanish.

Gary,I used to own a MGA , so I was in Flint on 7th st many times while I owned that car. They used to have a MG-TD there that I lusted after.

I remember Flint. Then: I worked for the local Porsche Dealer who decided to send me to school in Mesa in the Seventies. How things have changed and how I regret not photographing the whole thing. The steely eyed lady at the motel: "NO Girls in the room, young man". Driving to Mesa by skipping the bridge and simply using the riverbed. Hot car at the time: VW Thing with the oopladi-ooplada colored top. My car (but not for long) Oldmobile Toronado. I think it got around 6 mph in hot Arizona weather. In my neighborhood, there's still one car shop that works on English Cars and another one on Wetmore. That's about it now.

Surreal. This is the sort of thing that's kept me around PN for so long--the connections with souls who've trod the same soil, in this case literally.Split from PHX 30 yrs ago for Toronto and frankly haven't enjoyed what's become of the Valley of the Sun--I don't even miss the weather!

Somewhere, buried in my archives I have a picture of Central Avenue, taken in the seventies. Looking like an album cover of Hotel America from the Eagles, no cars, a couple of palm trees, very few tall buildings.