Hot Rodder’s Dream Collection
By noderel:
Considering the popularity of Model A and ’32 Fords among hot rodders, Bob Le Mieux Sr. of Green Bay, Wis. has a collection over which any hot rodder would drool. Le Mieux has been successful at selling motorcycles, snowmobiles and Toyota cars. However, his first car was a Model A pickup truck, and his passion for 1920s and 1930s vintage Fords is reflected in the beautifully-restored “blue oval” cars on display in his large, modern Le Mieux & Son Toyota dealership showroom.
New-car shoppers who stop to look at the old cars in the showroom will see an exquisite collection of Model A and 1932 Fords, as well as three vintage Volkswagen Beetles and several classic Toyotas. Hanging above the cars is a World War II era Stearman Navy trainer bi-plane. Then there is a balcony with vintage motorcycles lined up along a screened railing. There are also more cars - mostly Fords - upstairs.
“A Whizzer Sportsman motorbike got me started when I was 15 years old,’ said Le Miex. “My dad put it up in the rafters, and now I’m going to restore it to go with my other motorcycles.”
The motorcycles are a nod to the company’s history. Le Mieux began selling BMW, BSA and NSU motorcycles in 1956. “Then we got Honda and things really took off,” he recalled. “We won a Honda sales contest in 1965 and the prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan. There I saw the Toyota cars, and I came back here and wrote a letter to Toyota asking if I could sell them here. In 1966, we got the franchise. By 1969, Le Mieux decided to sell only Toyotas. It was a good decision,” he says.
Le Mieux knows his Fords, too. The Fords in the showroom include a 1932 three-window coupe, the 1928 roadster pickup, a 1931 Deluxe roadster, a 1932 V-8 Deluxe roadster and a 1934 roadster. Another 1934 model - a five-window coupe - was in the dealership’s service department, next to a 1920s Fry gas pump that Le Mieux plans to restore. Other cars upstairs are a 1932 Ford with 70,000 original miles, a not-to-be-restored 1938 Ford, a 1931 Model A Victoria that sat in a garage for 50 years and another roadster pickup that belonged to LeRoy Shettle, a close friend of Le Mieux.
“I treasured that car and he was always going to sell it to me,” Le Mieux said, “but when he died the car got sold, and I eventually bought it from the person LeRoy’s wife sold it to.”
Le Mieux enjoys showing people the Fords and other cars in the showroom, which are backdropped by a 1950s soda fountain he will be restoring to work like it did 60 years ago. Anyone visiting the Le Mieux & Sons dealership at 2550 Oneida St., in Green Bay, can see those cars as long as they adhere to the “Please do not open door! Thank You!” advice printed on the magnetic signs above the belt moldings on some of the cars.