The firm's advertisements stated "since 1919" but little is known of Advance Auto Body’s activities prior to March 1926 when Bridgeman’s magazine reported that 230 tons of structural steel was used in the erection of the firm’s new 1-story factory.

Located at the corner of N. Mission Rd. and East Macy St., Advance Auto Body Works was primarily a commercial body builder who occasionally took on projects for LA-based designers.

It’s most famous creation was the W. Everett Miller-designed Arrowhead 3-wheeled prototype which was built during 1935 as a promotional car for the Arrowhead Spring Water Co. of Los Angeles.

The Arrowhead was pictured on the cover of the November 1935 issue of MoToR where it was referred to as the “Car of 1960”.

The rear-mounted flathead Ford V-8 was mounted backwards, transferring power to the front wheels via a standard transmission mated to a standard torque tube, axle and differential. The car was steered through the single rear wheel, and was similar in layout to Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxions.

Only one of the reportedly $8,000 vehicles was built and a circa 1960 article stated that the car still existed, however its current whereabouts are unknown.

In 1936-37 Advance Auto Body constructed a handful of motorcycle taxi bodies for a San Francisco cycle dealer who had intended on establishing a motorcycle taxi service in Shanghai, China. The Japanese invasion of 1937 put a hold on the plans and the vehicles ended up serving tourists in San Francisco.

In 1936 they constructed a streamlined remote radio truck for KMTR, a large Los Angeles-based radio station. When the station’s owner, Willard Fonda, got into financial trouble and stopped making payments on the vehicle, Advance Auto Body was forced to repossess it.

In 1937 the firm modified a plain-looking 3-year-old bakery truck into an attractive streamlined job for the Julia Lee Wright bakery of Los Angeles. In 1941 Autobody & the Reconditioned Car recorded that Advance Auto Body Works had constructed an unusual six-wheeled trailer body made of “duralumin parts”.

During the twenties Rudy Stoessel, the founder of Coachcraft, worked for a number of early Los Angeles commercial body builders, which included Advance Auto Body Works, Columbia Night Coach, and the Standard Carriage Works.

Although the firm may have lasted into the 60s, the last national attention received by the firm was in a 1951 article published in Welding Engineer that discussed their use of “production techniques” in the manufacture of custom bodies. By that time they had relocated to 4950 Anaheim-Telegraph Rd.

Advance Auto Body’s original factory is still standing, and forms part of a large factory complex situated at the corner of N. Mission Rd. & E. Macy St. (Cesar E. Chavez Ave.). Macy Street was renamed and is known today as Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

Two suburban firms with similar names; Advance Auto Body Shop, N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena and Advance Auto Body, 4121 Marine Ave. Lawndale may have been related, but evidence is lacking. A third firm, Advanced Auto Body, 8110 S. Broadway, was located in downtown Los Angeles, but the spelling - Advanced as opposed to Advance – is different.

© 2004 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com

© 2004-2012 Coachbuilt.com, Inc.|books|disclaimer|index|privacy