Grand Spalding Dodge

-
H

Her1970

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
110
Reaction score
20
Location
Tipton, IN
I will be in the Chicago area this weekend. This may be a crazy question, but does Grand Spalding Dodge still exist? I tried finding it on the Internet and can't find it, so I was wondering if it has moved. Any Mopar museums in Chi-town?

Thanks
 
i use to live in chicago area,,,grand spalding dodge went out of busniess back in the late 1980s, they had several law suits,,from charging customers for work not done ,,and other things i just dont remember any more,,,more or less bad public relations,,,and im guessing norm was at retirement age,, closed it as a dodge dealer ship,, it was a used car lot after that,,i have no clue if there is any thing in that building these days,,it wasnt in the best of areas,,,not bad but not great,,,steel your hub caps while your rolling,,,
google or map quest grand ave and spalding,,
 
thats sweet! wished i could have been there in the late 60's and early 70's! would have had a very hard time leaving even after closing time!
 
I drove the GSS there last summer. The dealership looks terrible. Didn't spend too much time running around the building on foot trying to look inside because my daughter was sleeping in the car. I doubt anything of value is still in there, Mr. Norm still owns the building and just last year he took down the last "Dodge Used Cars" sign that was primed over and sold it. Here are some pics.

DSCF0933.jpg


DSCF0934.jpg


DSCF0937.jpg
 
A few more. These are all from the long lot on the same side as the main dealership. there is a large building across the street that was a warehouse for cars and later held Mr. Norms Kawasaki.

DSCF0939.jpg


DSCF0944.jpg


DSCF0951.jpg
 
Cool but I would be doing one of those URBAN EXPLORATIONS of the inside of the building!Never know what you might find!
 
Awesome video, we might have to head down there and just walk around.....quickly.
 
It would be really nice if some rich mopar Enthusiast would buy the place and fix it up to host a museum of mopars and memorabilia...If only !! =P~
 
Thanks for the video. Grew up in the area as a kid. Drove
past it many times as a kid. It's a shame to see the building
in such bad shape.
I grew up in a GM family. So we never stoped in. Maybe thats
why I'm a MOPAR nut now.
 
The older guy in the one picture is named Lucky. He was one of the first Sport Club members from GSD. I met him at his house that day and he took me over there. I believe he was the driver of the FIRST Grand Spaulding Dodge race car. No, not the 64 Dodge 330, but his own car, a 63 /6 Dart GT. He won the first trophy for the dealership and used to run his car with banners taped to the sides of his Dart that looked almost just like the graphics painted on the 64 race car. If anyone has ever seen the book titled "American Car Dealership" or something of that nature, then you have probably seen the picture of Lucky BITD with his 63 Dart in front of the dealership. The trophy and jacket he has on his car are still his. That picture hung in the showroom at GSD for years. I gave him a copy of the book and he was unaware of the picture being published. It really took him back. Here is a picture of him with my car and that same trophy and jacket holding the book.

DSCF0930.jpg
 
These pics are of some of the stuff that he gave me. The jackets were employee jackets of his.

DSCF0989.jpg


DSCF0990.jpg


DSCF0991.jpg
 
The decal sheet was taped to the left rear quarter window of his 63. He would remove it during the week in order to NOT attract the attention of cops and thieves.

DSCF0988.jpg
 
Here is a handout atlas and Lucky's nametag as well as some Dodge buttons from GSD that he had.

DSCF0995.jpg


DSCF0992.jpg
 
This shot is of a parking garage that was a remote storage lot for Grand Spaulding Dodge. It was about five blocks away from 3300 W. Grand Ave. The garage held about 1000 cars. It is still owned by Lenny Kraus, Norm's older brother and is a bustling flea market.

DSCF0952.jpg
 
kool video,, nice story about the employee and his 63 dart,,does he still have the 63 dart??
 
fstfish66 said:
i use to live in chicago area,,,grand spalding dodge went out of busniess back in the late 1980s, they had several law suits,,from charging customers for work not done ,,and other things i just dont remember any more,,,more or less bad public relations,,,and im guessing norm was at retirement age,, closed it as a dodge dealer ship,, it was a used car lot after that,,i have no clue if there is any thing in that building these days,,it wasnt in the best of areas,,,not bad but not great,,,steel your hub caps while your rolling,,,
google or map quest grand ave and spalding,,
Click to expand...

All that bad stuff went down after Norm sold his interest in 1974 and retired. Many of the performance oriented dealerships in Chicago when down hill after the muscle car era died. Nickey went out of business in '77, same year Grand Spaulding closed. The video you see there was shot by a friend of mine, Ken Smith.

He also shot the video of me interviewing Mr. Norm himself about the new GSS.
 
Did I mention we are currently working with Mr. Norm to not only develop the vintage line of GSS HEMI Darts, but also modern Mr. Norm's Performance Vehicles?

Here is a link to the new site: www.MrNormsPerformance.com

Cheers! :snakeman:
 
develop the vintage line of GSS HEMI Darts
Click to expand...

i've seen them pics before and i gotta say i'm really not impressed at all.. its a 68 dart with butchered up rear wheelwells with a hemi stuffed in it, big deal.. oh and Mr. Norms name plastered all ove the thing.. i expected alot more when i first heard about those cars. nothing real special abbout the car at all if you ask me. there are pleanty of guys out there that have built hemi a-bodies in their garage. i just don't see it.. Mr.Norms was the place back in the day. love the stories about that place back then. especially how they showed chrysler that a 440 would fit in a dart. but now it just seems he is trying to milk money from his name . don't mean to offend you or anything but its just how i see it.
 
I applaud and respect all the guys who take on a Hemi A body project in their garage, this car just isn't the same thing.

The rear wheel wells are redone to accommodate the rear wheel setup, the shape same as the factory lightweight Hurst Hemi Darts back in the day. As for "butchered", 400 hours of body and fabrication time with the use of virtually ZERO body filler costs money. The whole thing is engineered to handle 850 horsepower and turn a 10 second quarter mile out of the box, on 91 octane.

If he's trying to milk his name, there are easier ways to do it than to spend TONS of time and effort to put this program together. Norm did this because he got tired of seeing the crap wagons being turned out by other "vintage limited edition builders" and wanted to give the Mopar boys something to be proud of.

Next week Wednesday Norm will be at the build facility to see a couple of new GSS Darts begin the build, meeting face to face with customers, making sure they have everything is right before the guys turn wrench one.

A man wanting to milk his name doesn't work as hard as hard as Mr. Norm does to make sure the product lives up to it. He doesn't have to do any of this, he's 72 for cripe-sake. Like the new GSS or not, Norm does deserve the respect he's been earning since 1948.

Checking the score card you will see one very "unique" Ford "recreation" is no longer in business, another Chevy "continuation" is no longer in "motion", and the best is yet to come over at Mr. Norm's...:snakeman:
 
Pat, how is the registry coming? Any chance you can get out to Larry W's place and go through the remaining original paperwork to search for unclaimed GSS paperwork? I think the a better estimate of how many GSS Demons made could be found in that paperwork, and put a rest to the speculation. It would be even better if Larry kept a record of the ones he sold paperwork for.
 
gts340 said:
Pat, how is the registry coming? Any chance you can get out to Larry W's place and go through the remaining original paperwork to search for unclaimed GSS paperwork? I think the a better estimate of how many GSS Demons made could be found in that paperwork, and put a rest to the speculation. It would be even better if Larry kept a record of the ones he sold paperwork for.
Click to expand...

Once we have some wind in our sales, Larry and I will pour through it and put the statistics on a new registry website...I'd like to sell the rest of the Mr. Norm's Super Trucks before we get going on that project. (Did I mention special Mr. Norm's pricing on the NST for FABO members?) :cheers:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top