A Quick Tour Of Gary Grimes’ Collection And Some Customer Cars – The Tiger King

As I mentioned in my post about getting my truck’s transmission fixed, Gary Grimes gave me a tour of his premises when I dropped off the truck. We’ll start with this very fine 1948 Chrysler.

These Chryslers have such superb dash boards, and the radio is to die for.

The rear seat is superlative too; so tall and easy to get into. This is a very low mileage original car, down to the upholstery. Not the seat belts, obviously.

 

 

Here’s a car Jason Shafer will resonate with. Unlike his, this has the 289 V8 and automatic.

 

These are customer cars out here, and this one is wild: an old Chrysler wagon on a later 4×4 chassis.

This is where Gary’s collection is housed. Nice 914, and the first of several more Tigers.

 

This 1961 Pontiac Bonneville hardtop coupe really caught my eye. I really fell for these as a newly arrived kid in the US in the fall of 1960. My favorite of the ’61 GM bubbletops.

That goes for the interior too. Splendid.

Another Tiger.

An exceptionally fine ’57 Chevy convertible. Yes, they’re icons, but that doesn’t mean they can still be appreciated for what it is.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the ’36 Ford, and a sweet coupe at that.

 

I forgot the specifics of this ’68 Olds Cutlass coupe. It’s not a 442, but it looks like it’s spent a bit of time at the drag strip.

A blurry shot, but this is Gary’s first Tiger. He ended up selling it twice, and buying it back twice!

 

The early version had the 260 Ford V8, the later ones the 289. Some of his are stock, and some have been warmed up a bit.

A customer’s ’69 Mustang Mach 1.

A Metro awaiting a future build out.

Gary with another one of his Tigers. He’s the Tiger King!

 

Out back there’s some more cars. I don’t know if they’re all Gary’s, but I suspect maybe so.

The ’54 Studebaker coupe with the triple carbs intrigued me. A Caddilac V8? That was a popular swap, and there was even a factory Cadillac tri-power setup.

It’s a Buick nailhead V8. That was a popular engine swap choice back then, as the Buick was by far the lightest of the first generation V8s, until the Chevy sbc came along in ’55.

Nice Dart. Got me wondering whether it was stock under the hood or not.

Stock it is, the 225 slant six.

Is this one of the rather rare ones with the optional four speed? If so, it would be the first I’ve ever seen.

I didn’t get a chance to find out just which V6 was lurking under the hood of this Jeep Station Wagon.

And alongside Gary’s house is this splendid restore Ford F5 truck, from about 1950 or so.

Lacking any V8 emblems, it’s a six apparently.

And quite stock, presumably, from the looks of the interior.