The Garage and Motor Agent.
This is definitely one of the more obscure motoring magazines getting a mention on the site. As is the case with Motor Trader magazine, The Garage & Motor Agent was aimed squarely at those engaged in the garage and motor car servicing profession. Unlike The Motor Market, another trade title, it didn't concentrate on parts supply only. The copy shown here dates to September 17th 1955, quite when this magazine title disappeared from market I'm not sure but this is the only copy I've got. This issue was number 2183, part of Volume 83 (25), approximately A5 in size.
Whereas a title such as Car Mechanics was aimed at the enthusiastic DIYer, who was only happy when lying underneath his old motor, gearbox oil running down his sleeve, the mag shown alongside was packed instead with trade-related advertisements, and articles of a motor-trade nature. No jazzy piece of artwork on the cover here then, no elongated Humber Hawk or Ford Zephyr Zodiac with tiny smiling passengers on board, no, just an advert for Motor Union insurance, offering "A motor garage policy without annoying restrictions".
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Magazine contents.
So what did Mr Garage Owner get for his weekly 1/6 purchase in September '55? Before finding any content to speak of, adverts were shown for John Bull tyres, Super Fina petrol ("no stalling, run-on or knocking in the hottest weather"), Nissen-type buildings, Hills number plates, Tecalemit servicing, and something called the Pierce Tyre Wrapper, an ingenious machine designed to make wrapping up tyres that bit easier. Tyres could be wrapped in 30 seconds a go, handling sizes upto 8.20x15. Tyres wrapped up in this way would stay cleaner, look better and therefore be easier to sell, so the blurb promised.
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The first main article looks at the design of lubrication bays in the modern workshop, written by a Mr A. V. Jay, who was Manager of the Lubrequipment Department of C. C. Wakefield and Co. Ltd. There were many things to consider it seems, when planning such a facility in your own garage. The size, shape and location of your building was the first thing to consider, along with the local client base, and then the type of work that the owner wished to see being undertaken in his or her premises, as to install a new lube bay was not a small undertaking. A smaller estalishment, perhaps targeting family motorists who lived on nearby estates, would have different requirements in terms of equipment, to a commercial vehicle service agency, which would need more substantial lifting gear at the very least. Two different installations were shown, both at Kidderminster Motors Ltd. One area in the service bay was given over to cars and light vans, and the other to heavy commercial vehicles. The former had two lifts, one shown with a 100E Ford in residence. The lorry bay used a pit arrangement rather than a lift.
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Following several more pages of advertisements (Dunlop, National Benzole and Bostik) is a profile of the Smiths Radiomobile trade partnership. The idea was simple. Most garages of the day were ill-equipped to recommend and install quality car radios into their customers' cars. So Smiths Radiomobile came up with the idea of working with certain car dealers, offering their service and installation expertise to each trader. Appointed dealers would then advertise within the trade, offering their car radio service to other local garages, the installers often driving around in Radiomobile-liveried vans, which were actually owned by the dealer rather than the expert installer behind the wheel. The A30 van shown actually belonged to Mann Egerton, but was liveried solely in the colours of Smiths Radiomobile.
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Bargain bucket motors at the car auctions.
Page 1628 outlined the joys of increased regulation with regard to income tax procedures, and the following three pages looked at some of the ways a good quality voltmeter could be used, rather than just as a test lamp. Recent results at car auctions were also listed, which can make for interesting reading some 50+ years later. With say £350 in your back pocket, you could have gone down to Southern Counties Car Auctions in September '55 and driven away in any of the following cars: 1934 3.5 Litre Bentley (£235), 1952 Ford Prefect (£327 10s), a 1949 Austin A40 Devon (£332 10s), a 3.5 Litre Jaguar from 1946 (£225), or a shiny 9-month old Standard Ten for £525, to name just a few.
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The Bentley wasn't the only mouthwatering car on sale either, how about a 3.5 Litre 1951 Allard for £320, a 1938 Hillman Minx Coupe for £107 10s, 1939 1.5 Litre Jaguar at £122 10s, or a 2.5 Litre Jaguar Coupe for a seemingly giveaway price of just £40? If you were on a tight budget, and looking for a real 'bomb site' special, then the 1934 Daimler Fifteen of 1934 might have been worth a look at just £10, although you'd be in for some bills if the pre-selector gearbox was playing up.
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Various results from a Dixon and Wallace sale in Glasgow were also featured. The day's cheapest buy was a 1937 Pontiac Six, snaffled for just £32 10s, the priciest car was a 1954 Vauxhall Velox, knocked down for a whopping £572 10s. And the cars to jump in a timemachine for and buy with the benefit of hindsight? probably the two Rolls-Royce 20/25 limousines (1934 & 1935), albeit with no warranty, but just £115 a piece.
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A selection of new gadgets were also looked at in this issue, including the Barwell Tyre Spreader, and a heated spray cup designed to fit onto all conventional spray guns. Anyone regularly servicing mopeds and scooters might have been interesting in the next product, a special grease gun designed specifically for the Lambretta scooter. Apparently these scooters came fitted with hexagonal grease nipples that wouldn't take standard grease guns, with their round nozzles. This new grease gun, produced by Ch. J. Neuman Ltd of South Croydon, came with a universal nozzle, and was only available direct from Lambretta retailers, for £1 4s 9d.
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Sombre news of how a garage worked died by ingesting a one-inch length of wire is also recounted in this particular magazine. It is believed that the wire somehow got lodged within his sandwich. The poor chap was found dead in his garage, and investigations showed that this small piece of wire, possibly eaten several weeks earlier, had caused coronary thrombosis.
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Return to the car magazines section.
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