"What's at Willies?" - Innaugural Post

Willie owns a auto repair shop. It was founded by his grandfather in 1934, who ran it until he passed in 1972. Willie's dad then ran the shop until he passed in 1991. Willie has been running it ever since. Willie and my brother in law have been friends for years, they went to high school together and still work together on various car related projects.

 Willie's shop is located on the route that we used to get to and from the training tower when I was assigned at the healing place. One thing that I noticed when driving by is that there is ALWAYS something cool or interesting there. Whether it's a customer's hot-rod or classic car being worked on, or just someone stopping by, there was always a bitchin' car parked in the drive.

We actually stopped a few times on our way back from the tower. Though no one on the crew was really a "car guy", we all appreciated unique cars and the work that went into them. We didn't stay long, we needed to get back up the hill to protect it's denizens and Willie is all business when the shop is open. The last thing he needed was an engine company in his way, drooling on his customer's cars.

After giving it some thought, I approached Willie and asked him if he minded me stopping by once in a while to snap a few pictures of cars and posting them on here. Thankfully, he thought it a great idea. As a result, this is the first post of a semi-regular feature here on Report on Conditions, one that we will call What's at Willie's?

I stopped by late last week and was not disappointed. This beauty was parked in front of door #1, a 1958 Ford Fairlane.

I don't think that the Ford Fairlane enjoys the popularity of the various Chevrolet products of the same year, but this car is really well done. It is beautiful, and appears to be accurately restored to factory shipped condition.

I admired the grill, a tasteful compilation of chrome and form.

Someone has spent a great deal of time and resources on this car, the end result appears to have been worth it. Again, not being a car guy, I'm no expert but I found a high degree attention to detail on this project.

I enjoyed shooting this car, it reminded me of a late '50s Ford Galaxie that my grandparents had in the early '60s. I have to say that the Fairlane was a much better looking car.

If you want more info on Willie's shop, visit the Ed Martin's Garage web-page.


I hope you all had a wonderful and peaceful Christmas, we sure did at the Schmoe house. It was nice having relatives over at the crib, some that I hadn't seen for a while.

If you happen to watch the Saints - Falcons game tonight, please root for your team, but root for me in that neither team scores exactly 33 points tonight.

Thanks for reading,
Schmoe