Levy Auto Parts

[Jason Ginn]

I've found myself looking into Levy Auto Parts of Toronto lately and have found a few interesting references that i'd thought id share here. Surprisingly a look through MLU didn't reveal a good discussion on them so I thought i'd try to get the ball rolling here.

The following pics date from 1954 and primarily show streetcars and buses but a closer look reveals Universal Carriers, HUP's and other CMP's in assorted states of decay. Also of note is the massive stacks of parts crates that i've heard mention of in other discussions.

These pics were in the Toronto Public Library collection.

[Jason Ginn]

It appears that Levy's international dealings hadn't gone unnoticed in intelligence circles and in 1958 the CIA was working with British Intelligence concerning Levy's direct and indirect sales of military vehicles and parts to Israel, the Soviets and China. The report directly refers to the purchase of a large quantity of tank parts in Hawaii and their involvement is the offshore sale of M-10 tank destroyers.

A neat read!

[Jason Ginn]

Here are some aerials from the city of Toronto showing property in 1953, 56 and 1975.It is truly impressive how large the property is!

I have included some detail of the back of the property where the bank washed the M5A1 tanks into the Humber in 1954. you can see the changes and what appears to be at least one Stuart at the bottom of the bank.

[Frank v R]

the '75 photo shows how much stuff was scraped during the Seaway Corp. time , all the M-24's went , Approx. 200 ex US Air Force M-37's , Reo's, and some Sherman's , DUKW's , Diamond T's nd anything else that was at the back of the yard, Levy's also buried a ton of stuff in the yard, the M-37 wheels with tires were still in the ground by the rear gate in the 90's,

[Jason Ginn]

M-24's Eh? Frank do you recall at all if they were from the US or the Canadian ones?

[Frank v R]

I do not recall any of the tanks having stars on them M-24 or M4 , so my bet would be they were Cdn,

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

My recollection of Levy's is that they were of no help to vehicle restorers; they simply wouldn't deal with you for a handful of parts. They had a pattern room with treasure you could look at but not buy.

That all changed when they decided to close shop and sell the land for condominiums. Then it became how fast can we download all this crap. Tons and tons of new in the box parts were stored in disintegrating wood buildings. Each had multiple low, narrow isles, often with the roof falling in, with floor to ceiling bins full of parts on either side. When Levy's opened it up it was a mad panic to look in each bin, try to identify the part and put it in a pile for purchase if it was something you needed. I paid $250 for a mound of parts that I'm still working on.

The worst part was that just behind us MV scroungers were the scrappies. Whereas we were looking in the bins for parts, they were checking whether it was steel, brass or aluminum and throwing it into the corresponding roll off bin for melting down.