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Gus and the Model Garage

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Harold

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How many of our "old car" lovers remember the old "Practical Science" magazine from the late '40's and '50's? One of the features each month was a little story about small town car owners
who had problems with their old cars--some post war and some prewar--No matter what the problem was, they ended up at the "Model Garage" of Gus Wilson--They were cute stories--2 or 3 pages long--and Gus always figured out what the problem was and how to fix it--Frankly, I don't see how he stayed in business--lot of free advice and 4 bucks to replace 4 spark plugs.
Of course in 1949 or so--spark plugs only cost 50 cents apiece or so--I was in high school 1949 to 1953--and could always spare 15 cents from my lunch money for the magazine each month-
I just read them and threw them away--(Which I did with my MAD Magazines--which was a mistake since original Mad Magazines in pristine conditions sell now for hundreds of dollars!)

However one of the advantages of my being 83--i can go on ebay and buy all these back issues (generally some one will be selling 15 or 20 in bulk for maybe 20 bucks or so plus shipping).
So, I have probably 60 or 80 back issues of Practical Science"--50 or 80 issues of Mechanix Illustrated--And i don't remember anything about them!--

I also have other interests, and buying back issues on ebay is great! I am working on 2 Nash Metropolitans right now--one mine, and one for a friend--so when I need a break, I brew up a
cup of coffee, and peruse one of my old mags!
 
Harold - that sure brings back some memories.

You can find just about all those Gus stories here:

https://www.gus-stories.org/

They're sure applicable for our pre-fuel injection cars!
 
TRMark said:
Mechanix Illustrated, Mimi.
Click to expand...

Wholly carp!! I'd completely lost memory of Mimi.

Mebbe I subliminally recalled Mechanics Illustrated when I dubbed Mitsy: "Wrench Wench"?!?

...I'd post a photo but then I'd be, umm... *unhappy* :smirk:
 
Hoo Boy. I've already got stacks of old magazines, including PS and MI, on the shelf. Read all of them at least once.

Now I've got a directory with 532 "Gus Wilson" stories to read!

Thanks, Tom (I think) !
 
TR3driver said:
Hoo Boy. I've already got stacks of old magazines, including PS and MI, on the shelf. Read all of them at least once.

Now I've got a directory with 532 "Gus Wilson" stories to read!

Thanks, Tom (I think) !
Click to expand...

You're very welcome! Those Gus stories will keep you reading for months!
 
Thanks for the link to the Gus stories I liked reading them years ago. They are like short stories, which I much preferred to the horrendous works of literature I was supposed to read (but refused) in high school.
 
Thanks for the link to Gus stories--I knew it was out there somewhere! I saw on ebay (?) a softbound book of all the Gus stories--but is was sold--and no reprints available--I'm a retired Airline Pilot--
So I have over the years bought old copies of several aviation oriented magazines--WW2--and airline mags--then since I also served about Naval Ships--I bought collections of Naval Ship mags--Ham radio also.
the point being, I've collected them faster than I have been able to read and recycle--and storage is a problem--I tried to hide them under the bed, but that is where my wife's pet Rabbits sleep.
So lately I have been storing them in which ever Nash Metropolitan I'm not working on at the moment--We live in a very small house 900 sq feet, built in 1925--no storage anywhere--built in 1924, and
the owners since then (4), including me, didn't worry about storage--no Amazon--no ebay--no dedicated space for a computer--
 
Something I learned the hard way : Don't store them in the garage rafters unless they are designed to support the load. The PO of this house had stuck a couple sheets of plywood up there, and I loaded them up with boxes of books when we moved in. Took quite a few years, but all of the overloaded rafters eventually snapped!
 
Randall, you've just given me bad dreams! :wink:

We've got boxes of books in the attic, boxes of metal car bits in the rafters of the garage. Now I gotta start checking the beams!
 
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