Tin Sign Info

The Schwinn Bicycle Company was founded by German-born mechanical engineer Ignaz Schwinn (1860–1945) in Chicago in 1895, became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles through most of the 20th century and is now a sub-brand of Pacific Cycle, currently owned by the multi-national conglomerate, Dorel Industries.

Ignaz Schwinn was born in Hardheim, Baden, Germany in 1860 and worked on two-wheeled ancestors of the modern bicycle that appeared in 19th century Europe. Schwinn emigrated to the United States in 1891, where he found similar difficulties. In 1895, with the financial backing of fellow German American Adolph Arnold (a meat packer), he started the Arnold, Schwinn & Company. Schwinn’s new company coincided with a sudden bicycle craze in America. Chicago became the center of the American bicycle industry, with thirty factories turning out thousands of bikes every day. Bicycle output in the United States grew to over a million units per year by the turn of the century.

This authentic reproduction tin sign makes a great gift.

Norton is a British motorcycle marque, originally from Birmingham, founded in 1898 as a manufacturer of “fittings and parts for the two-wheel trade”. By 1902, they had begun manufacturing motorcycles with bought-in engines. In 1908, a Norton-built engine was added to the range. This began a long series of production of single and eventually twin-cylinder motorcycles. When major shareholders started to leave Norton in 1953, the company went bankrupt and Associated Motor Cycles bought the shares. In late 2008, Stuart Garner, a UK businessman, bought the rights to Norton and relaunched Norton in its Midlands home at Donington Park where it will develop the NRV588 racer, a machine styled after the Norton Commando, and a new range of Norton motorcycles, with options including 1200 cc Superbike, and 750 cc Supersport variants.

This motorcycle tin sign makes a great gift for any motorcycle fan.

The Ford Motor Company  is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford’s former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. In 2010 Ford sold Volvo to Geely Automobile.

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford’s methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.

This reproduction tin sign makes a great gift.

The Ford Motor Company  is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford’s former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. In 2010 Ford sold Volvo to Geely Automobile.

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford’s methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.

This reproduction tin sign makes a great gift.

I was looking for tin sign to write about when I can across this one. I have always loved the old cars. We use to go watch street races when My husband and I first meet. Those were the old days according to our kids. I stared looking around on the Internet to see if there was a company called Deuces Speed Shop. Well I came up with a company called Six Deuces Speed Shop.  Here’s some info for you.

Six Deuces is currently made up of a three man team. Owner/ operator Corry Hunter opened the shop in the fall of 2007 at a young age or 22. Now 24 he’s determined to make Six Deuces one of the dominant shops on the east coast. Helping him do that is  Matt Piccolo and Gary Hunter. These two guys have been in the game a long time and know what it takes to build  a killer car. Each one brings  their own unique style and talent making Six Deuces the place to go for your hot rod and custom needs.

Well here’s a auto tin sign for any man cave or woman cave you would like.

With Father’s Day around the Conor I have been looking for a gift for my husband, and then I found this authentic reproduction Chrysler Plymouth tin sign for his man cave. Our son and him spend a lot of time there.

The Plymouth automobile was introduced on July 7, 1928. It was the Chrysler Corporation’s first entry in the low-priced field, which at the time was dominated by Chevrolet and Ford. Plymouths were actually priced a little higher than the competition, but they offered standard features such as internal expanding hydraulic brakes that the competition did not provide. Plymouths were originally sold exclusively through Chrysler dealerships. The logo featured a rear view of the Mayflower ship which landed at Plymouth Rock. However, the Plymouth brand name came from Plymouth Binder Twine, chosen by Joe Frazer for its popularity among farmers.

The origins of the first Plymouth can be traced back to the Maxwell automobile. When Walter P. Chrysler took over control of the trouble-ridden Maxwell-Chalmers car company in the early 1920s, he inherited the Maxwell as part of the package. After he used the company’s facilities to help create and launch the Chrysler car in 1924, he decided to create a lower-priced companion car. So for 1926 the Maxwell was reworked and re-badged as the low-end Chrysler “52″ model. In 1928, the “52″ was once again redesigned to create the Chrysler-Plymouth Model Q. The “Chrysler” portion of the nameplate was dropped with the introduction of the Plymouth Model U in 1929.

HME can trace its heritage back to 1913, over 95 years ago, when Magnus Hendrickson founded the Hendrickson Motor Truck Company in Chicago. Quite an innovator in his day, Hendrickson began building custom trucks including those for specialized applications such as heavy delivery, stone cranes, roofer’s hoists and scavenger bodies.

It was Hendrickson that developed and marketed the first tandem axle suspension, quite an innovation in its day, and was one of the first truck manufacturers to install Diesel engines. The company built its first line of fire apparatus in the 1930s, and was the first to develop and market the first tilt cab custom pumper chassis in the 1980s.

Hendrickson Motor Truck Company changed its name over time to Hendrickson Mobile Equipment to better reflect the diversity of products being produced. Over the road trucks, crane carriers, split shaft power take offs, cast spoke wheels, tandem suspensions and specialized prime movers such as a mammoth rig that was built to transport 500,000-lb. transformers to a Canadian hydroelectric plant, proved over and over, the engineering and manufacturing expertise of HME. In 1980, HME was the first to introduce a cab over tilt cab to the fire market in a custom design. Further enhancing maneuverability HME led the industry with the introduction of a standard 45-degree front axle cramp angle.

Today, HME is located in Wyoming, Michigan with over 140 employees working in a modern five-year old, state of the art, 150,000 square foot plant, producing fire apparatus, over-the-road Class 8 truck chassis and special mobile equipment units such as drill rig chassis and heavy-duty prime movers. The vehicles begin with the frame rails entering one side of the plant, and the finished units emerging from the other. This “under one roof” facility brings together the chassis, systems, pump and body engineering to produce rigs that are truly single-source from start to finish.

The company is the world’s largest single-source producer of custom, stainless steel fire apparatus, introduced a number of new products.

Drawing from its heritage of the innovative and legendary Ahrens-Fox line of apparatus, the RAT™, or Rapid Attack Truck, combines a fully rated Class A pumper engineered into the size of a mini pumper without sacrificing water, hose or equipment carrying capacity. The CAT™ or City Attack Truck is a custom engineered solution, perfect for departments with high call volumes that need a unit having heavy duty pumping power, easy service accessibility, replacement of corrosion-prone components such as aluminum tread plate, and user-friendly design elements such as an extremely low rear hose bed. The CAT™ provides an abundance of compartment space for storing EMS and firefighting equipment and is mounted on an HME custom chassis designed to be more maneuverable than the chief’s Crown Victoria.

The new Arsenal™ aerial was designed to outmaneuver a single axle quint, provide 600-gallon water tanks and to carry a full load of ISO required ladders, pike poles and equipment. New products on the mechanical side include Hydra-Technology™ water delivery system that uses stainless steel plumbing with ‘vic’ fittings and the new MAD DOG™, patent pending compressed air foam system that combines a high level of knockdown power with an affordable price.

A world leader in fire service innovation, American owned HME is one of the fastest growing custom builders today, constructing a diverse line of innovative, heavy duty stainless steel fire apparatus that is setting the industry standard for design, performance and long life.

This international fire truck chasis tin sign makes a great gift for anyone.

Mel’s Drive-In (not to be confused with Mel’s Diner) is the name of a restaurant chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California.

In October 1963, the Mel’s Drive in chain was picketed and subjected to a sit-in by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination over the fact that while the restaurant would serve food to African Americans and hired them as cooks, Blacks were not allowed to work “up front” where they could be seen by White customers. More than 100 protesters were arrested. The picketing ended when Harold Dobbs, a San Francisco City Supervisor who had run for Mayor and lost, settled with the protestors and began to allow Black workers “up front.”

Mel’s was used as a location in the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are out for a drive and Tracy pulls into Mel’s and orders Oregon Boysenberry ice cream, then has a minor traffic altercation with an African-American man. The Mel’s was located in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy never actually visited the location.

In 1972, the restaurant was selected as a feature location by George Lucas for his 1973 film American Graffiti. The prominent play given to the location has been credited with saving the company from possibly going out of business. The Mel’s used was located at 140 South Van Ness in San Francisco.

Mel’s restaurants have since been featured in other media such as Melrose Place (1996, Season 5, episode 1), Doonesbury comics (December 18, 1989), and the book The American Drive-in by Mike Witzel.

Some Mel’s Drive-In locations are not actually drive-ins, but rather diners, although the sign still says “drive-in”; none of the San Francisco locations serve food to patrons’ cars.
Universal Studios built a replica of “Mel’s Drive-In” on its lot, pursuant to the restaurant being used in American Graffiti — this must-see amusement attraction also served as a gift shop for years. There are also a number of “Mel’s” located in Northern California that share the same general American Graffiti/nostalgia theme and the similarly styled Mel’s logo. These restaurants are called “Mel’s Original.” Their locations are not listed on the official Mel’s Drive-In website, although an article from the Sacramento Business Journal shows that they are related. A family rift caused the Weisses to part ways and form two chains. The elder Weiss in 1994 sold his company to Larry Spergel, who formed a group of about 50 stockholders that now owns the chain. The Walnut Creek, California location features a history of the original San Francisco Mel’s.

This car hop tin sign makes a great gift. Like I have said before it’s blast from the past.

Steven Weiss and partner Donald Wagstaff opened the first of the “Next Generation” Mel’s Drive-ins in September of 1985. The restaurant, located at 2165 Lombard Street in San Francisco, appealed to families wanting to share the tastes, sights, and sounds of the 1950s drive-in era with their children. A little over two years later, a second location was established on Geary Boulevard, also in San Francisco. The next two restaurants opened in Los Angeles, one in Sherman Oaks and the other in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. Van Ness Avenue is home to the third San Francisco location, and the fourth opened its doors in November of 2000 next to the Sony Metreon Center in the Yerba Buena area. In the heart of Hollywood on the famous Hollywood Boulevard our fifth location was opened with a full-service Celebrity Bar. The most recent addition to the Mel’s family is the Rancho Cucamonga location located near Ontario Mills on the border of Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario.
 

This authenic reproduction tin sign makes a great gift. It’s like a blast from the past.

Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) (formerly International Harvester Company) is a U.S. manufacturer of International brand commercial trucks, MaxxForce brand diesel engines, IC Bus school and commercial buses, Workhorse brand chassis for motor homes and step vans, and is a private label designer and manufacturer of diesel engines for the pickup truck, van and SUV markets. The company is also a provider of truck and diesel engine parts and service.

The company’s products, parts, and services are sold through a network of nearly 1,000 dealer outlets in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico and more than 60 dealers in 90 countries throughout the world. The company also provides financing for its customers and distributors principally through its wholly owned subsidiary, Navistar Financial Corporation.

This International truck logo tin sign makes a great gift.