Long gone dealers of military and useful stuff

[Keith Webb]

Just splitting off from another thread this subject seems to have garnered some good responses.

David Mottram commented on one of the more famous yards in Melbourne which largely disappeared in the 1980s as land values (and taxes) increased to the point where they were uneconomical to operate as storage for trucks and parts returning only a small income. Here's my response to David's excellent summary of the structure of Vic Drew Used Trucks

Spot on David.

Val was a heavy smoker and was always highly made up and well dressed which looked very incongruous in that setting. She'd encourage me to stay if it was lunch time or for a coffee while waiting for Bill to come back from one of the yards. I well remember how unpopular Les was. He'd sometimes store electronics from Sanyo there - just how he came by them remains a bit of a mystery.

Originally Posted by motto

Vic Drew was the proprietor of Vic Drew Used Trucks. He had three children that inherited the business when he passed away, they were Bill and Les and their sister Val.
Bill knew no other life except the business of buying and selling parts for trucks belonging to bygone times and his knowledge was (is) quite extensive. He has an alert manner and is happy to share his knowledge and memories. He still runs an offshoot of the business in an old shop across the road from the original yard in Mt Alexander Road, Ascot Vale.
Val died many years ago, she worked in the business until overcome by ill health.
Les wanted nothing to do with the business except to get his hands on his cut. He and Bill were always at war and it took years to liquidate the property held by the estate.
One of the yards was Rosamond Road, Maribyrnong where Highpoint West shopping centre now stands. A very large quantity of ex government trucks and parts was accumulated there behind a corrugated iron front fence but no side fence and no security. Kids got in and smashed what they could. I remember sets of Harley Davidson engine bearings scattered on the ground and NOS CCKW open cab windscreens pulled out of the crate and broken. All very sad.

David

[Harry Moon]

I remember "3Vets" on Main street In Vancouver in the late 60's. rode my bike down to buy a bayonet for $1. Had barrels of guns and tons of webbing. Had no appreciation of what I was looking at. Passed up the Sykes fairburns for whatever was the biggest which i promptly used to split firewood.

[Mike K]

Another great place was AUTO SURPLUS in Mitcham . The guy on the counter Colin was very friendly and a WW2 vet . I asked him who owned the business and he said old man Hancock . Hancock had a finger in many pies .

Anyway, they had a large amount of WW2 parts NOS . US pattern tailights $5 EACH . Trico vacuum wiper units 10 bucks for the box of 2 . They had a lot of NOS Studebaker stuff , I remember buying the headlight units in the boxes .

Colin was telling me they were scrapping some of the Stude parts , stuff like shock absorbers as nobody wanted them, he said they had contacted Israel but they didn't want any ! He had boxes of the early CMP rubber tailights . I used to buy the packets of trico wiper blades , painted in various shades of OD .

Colin was telling me, just after the war, he was a buyer for HEALINGS in Melbourne, he said he attended many surplus autions , some held in remote locations. He said the best buys were vehicles that were not running because of a missing dissy or similar , he said they sold for next to nothing . He was saying HEALINGS had F15A Blitzes brand new .

They had a few White scout car bits too, I found NOS instrument cluster and speedo , didnt buy them .

[Bruce MacMillan]

Originally Posted by Harry Moon

I remember "3Vets" on Main street In Vancouver in the late 60's. rode my bike down to buy a bayonet for $1. Had barrels of guns and tons of webbing. Had no appreciation of what I was looking at. Passed up the Sykes fairburns for whatever was the biggest which i promptly used to split firewood.

I spent much of my allowance there as well. Came home one day with 2 helmets, 2 bayonets and 2 grenades. No one freaked out when they saw us playing.

I remember the $5 Lee-Enfields still in the cosmoline.

For radio parts there was R&P Electronics and Satellite Electronics and once in a while a trip to Boeing Surplus in Seattle.

Anyone in Winterpeg remember Sabre Industries?

[maple_leaf_eh]

The Sidney I Robinson of Winnipeg had a catalogue for various outdoor needs. I still have a badly photocopied pamphlet on fur trapping from their store on Ellice Street. The business was bought up by Cabellas (I think).

Princess Auto used to have a catalogue of assorted surplus items too. I remember seeing truck tarps and tires listed for sale. Not that I knew or cared about that stuff either.

Eaton's, Sears (Simpson Sears?) and Canadian Tire used to sell .303 Lee Enfields in their sporting goods departments. They were amongst the cheapest hunting rifles available too. I've been sorting the now-discarded long gun registry data, which was posted on the internet after some newspaper won its Access to Information case. There are plenty of guns identified as Eatonia. Some seem to be Italian Carcanos in 6.5mm. Sears' store brand was JC Higgins.

[Jes Andersen]

We had Capital Iron in Victoria, surplus dealers and ship breakers. Before they went modern, there were tables of old RCN uniforms, black and white navy caps, piles of webbing, helmets and gas masks. My favourite was the basement, where all the small bits from the ships ended up. At one time, I had a room full of old radios and other junk packed home from there. I still have a trunk somewhere with some of it. In my armoury, there are a couple of .303 Parker Hale Lee Enfields purchased from Sears in the early '70s for just over $100. I also have a 12guage JC Higgins that is still my choice for the camper and perimeter defense. Princess Auto catalogs provide many hours of entertainment and probably got me to learn to read...

3Vets. Lever Arms (are they still around?) and others were places to go in the day.

Good memories

[cletrac (RIP)]

In 1962 I went into a McLeods store and bought a sporterized 303, a box of shells, a hunting suit and a deer license all for $20. Those were the days!
Lever Arms used to have lots of stuff for a good price. I got a Martini Enfield handgun in 303 British from them. Kicks like a mule!

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

I used to visit to collect parts when I worked for Hughes Auto Spares and was allowed to go through the yards when it suited them.

Prior to that we used to ride our pushbikes all the way from Box Hill - always dreading that long final grind up Mt. Alexander Road hill! Coming back I recall racing trams downhill and whizzing past Moloney's garage on the left at a ridiculous rate of knots! On one occasion we left our pushbikes at Vic Drew's and were driven (by his son?) to a yard in Kensington - just an ordinary suburban block amid houses, shielded from the street by a high paling fence, with no entrance or access. I recall having to climb the fence, whereupon we were confronted not by a house, but a sea of old trucks jammed in like sardines! We were left there to amuse ourselves for a while and and picked up later on. Ahh, fond memories indeed!

[motto]

You mention Maloney's place on Mt Alexander Rd Tony. Maloney's were also dealers in ex government trucks and equipment and continued in that line of business after being taken over by Doug Weston and John Pistoni to become W&P Machinery.
That was late 60s, early 70s when the army was selling off a lot of WW2 vehicles and parts. Studebaker US6 and DUKWs were coming through regularly.
At one time W&P had a holding yard just down the street from their premises in which I remember there being a dozen or so Studes parked so close together you had to climb over them to get to the next. For $400 you could take your pick which one you wanted. None of them had more than 17,000 miles on the clock.
When the Studebaker spare parts got too slow moving I purchased W&Ps residual stocks for $300 a truck load. It took many years to dispose of it all.

David

[Dan Martel]

Does anyone recall the surplus store in Winnipeg that was located on the south side of Portage Avenue across from the Hudson's Bay? It had a huge sign above the door with a reproduction of the 101st Airborne's screaming eagle. I've never forgotten that sign. One of my strongest memories of living in Winnipeg. I think it's long gone now.

Cheers,
Dan.

[Ryan]

Some amazing memories being recalled here. I have nothing like that to share.
My fond memory is of Erskines disposals in geelong, lots of good surplus equipment in the 1980s. Including prc25 sets for $25.

[David Dunlop]

Dan.

That would have been United Army Surplus.

David

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Dan Martel

Does anyone recall the surplus store in Winnipeg that was located on the south side of Portage Avenue across from the Hudson's Bay? It had a huge sign above the door with a reproduction of the 101st Airborne's screaming eagle. I've never forgotten that sign. One of my strongest memories of living in Winnipeg. I think it's long gone now.

Cheers,
Dan.

Yep, United Army Surplus. I was at the closeout auction about 8 years back I think. They weren't selling very much by the each...it was by the box, or the row, or the room. I bought a whole room full of stuff for $125, and sold $500 of it before I even moved it. The basement rooms went just as cheap.....tons of stuff for $100 or so. They gave the guys 5 days to get it all out. I went there in the last hour they had, and picked up a last few things from the room I bought. The guy told me to make a pile, so I ran around like a madman. First stop was the textiles room. Picked up boxes of battle dress buttons, spools of thread, and the best thing of all was a set of 10" heavy duty black scissors....the real ones and not the chinese knock offs. Got the whole pile for $50.

I still have one of their signs in the wall of the shop.

[rob love]

There are still a couple of the old time dealers, or the remnants of what they once were, kicking around the prairies. There are certain cities which I do not pass through without going in to buy more.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by motto

Maloney's were also dealers in ex government trucks and equipment and continued in that line of business after being taken over by Doug Weston and John Pistoni to become W&P Machinery. That was late 60s, early 70s when the army was selling off a lot of WW2 vehicles and parts.

David that ties in with my '73 blitz resto for which I bought head gaskets, fan belts, radiator hoses, blitz side curtains, etc. from Maloneys. All at dirt cheap price of course!