Z Frank

[Miserable Soul]

Anyone in the Chicago area remember this Chevy dealership? My dad worked there from before I was born(1974) until maybe 1985-6. It was originally located on Peterson Ave. then more down the street to Western Ave. I remember the Peterson ave. had a great diagnostic/dyno section and I think the name of it was Electraac or something. It had a cool logo with lightning bolts if I remember rite.

[High octane]

Yes I remember Z Frank Chevrolet and also remember the Electraac too. I mostly remember Nickey Chevrolet and Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge as I only lived a few miles from both of them and also bought a Super Bee from Grand Spaulding in "69.

[Harry P.]

Z Frank, Grand-Spaulding Dodge, NIckey... I remember them all! And as a kid I was at Z Frank and Grand-Spaulding with my dad when he was car shopping.

[Tonioseven]

There was a "Frank Z" Chevrolet in Dayton, Ohio.

[crazyjim]

And there was Stepil's Dyno out in Lyons, IL.

[mikemodeler]

"Nickey Chevrolet with the backwards K" ! Yep, even though I grew up in the far north suburbs, I remember all of the big Chicago dealers advertising on TV.

At one time I think Z Frank was the largest Chevy dealer as they supplied vehicles to fleets nationwide; one company that I worked for got their salesman's company cars from Z Frank, which meant about 90 cars every 2 years.

Whenever we went to Chicago to visit relatives, I would ask my Dad to drive past Mr. Norms or Nickey to see their cars but he would claim that we didn't have time.

Ahhh, the memories of the good old days!

[Joe Handley]

I remember those ads, been a loooooong time now. I think the new Nickey Camaros are being built somewhere near here, a friend of mine was working for the Firestone on the north end of St. Charles for a while the Nickey brought their cars to that shop for alighnment work prior to being shipped out.

[Dragline]

In my hometon New Bedford Mass we had George O'Hara Chevrolet. He had a 53 vette in the showroom for decades. I would end up doing their warranty rebuilds in later years as well as their Subaru stuff. I always hated working on the Subaru engines since they were so weak I would constantly snap bolts on em. It got to the point where i would get complete bolt kits when i would do their work. I would reuse Chevy bolts all the time and NEVER got one back. Whether that's a testiment to chevy or me is debatable but the bolts were always good. Now, it seems like a head gasket job demands head bolts every time.

Back in the 80's I picked up an NOS 68 camaro grill and hideway canisters for my friends car from O'Hara Chevrolet. How cool was that?

Bob

Edited July 4, 2012 by Dragline

[Draggon]

I lived just outside Oakland, CA thru most of the 60's. I was only a few minutes from Melrose Motors. I'd often see this parked in the front of their lot. Pretty cool.

[jdcar32]

Didnt Z Frank advertise on WGN tv alot ? I had my '73 340 Duster "Super dyno tuned" at Mr. Norms when it was 6 months old. It cost about $59 and I thought that was too much !!!

[CorvairJim]

A little web exploration came up with these hits that you might find interesting. The first is just a great photo of the front of the dealership as it appeared shortly after they went out of business:

http://www.flickr.co...ski/6963365669/

Here's an article thast was run in the Chicago Tribune back in 1986 about the man himself, the rather flambouyant Mr. Zollie Frank:

http://articles.chic...alerships-pinky