Ellis Brooks Chevrolet San Francisco
 

I am currently restoring my single family owned 1967 Camaro. The car spent it's entire life in the San Francisco Bay area until I found it on Craigslist two years ago. The car is a very early built Camaro, fisher body build date 09B (1966) and NCRS shipping report said actual build date is September 16th, 1966. The original owner purchased the car at Ellis Brooks Chevrolet. I see the dealership closed in 2008/2009 and it was located in downtown San Francisco. Very cool building.

I am looking for Ellis Brooks San Francisco license plate frames and a dealer emblem! My car had holes on the tail panel for the emblem, but the emblem was missing and the family didn't have it. I welded the holes up as I didn't think I'd ever find an emblem. They also gave me license plate frames from Stewart Chevrolet (still in business today), was also in San Francisco (moved to Colma, CA in 1972 to build a more modern dealership), which is where they serviced the car when they moved to the suburbs. Upon retirement the original owner took the car to Santa Cruz, CA.

Does anyone have any plates or know anyone who might? Any leads would be awesome :beers: Doesn't seem like this was a "High Performance" dealership. Maybe others have more information about the dealership. Saw some of the commercials on YouTube. Very cool!

Hey Chuck!

Did a quick search, and i'm sure you have too, but I found it interesting they have their own Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Brooks_Auto_Center

which has a bunch of related links too of course.


And I saw this, not sure if the same or not:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-YREKA-...Cclp%3A2334524


Cheers,
Anthony

I have a 69z I just finished that came from Ellis brooks. The original sign from the building popped up for sale in Fresno last year. Was real tough to pass that up. I bought a pair of NOS frames from a gentlemen who sold stuff at the local Bay Area swap meets. But he passed about two years ago. I’ve never seen the dealer badge. But I’ve seen other frames over the years. They are out there. Good luck!

'

There's been a few past threads w/ Ellis Brooks Member cars.
Which sign was available and did you score it?
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Thanks Anthony! I dug up quite a bit of history on the dealership. I found out the grand daughter of the founder sold the dealership to Roger Penske (PAG) in 2009, who completely renovated it and made it a Nissan/Infiniti point:rolleyes2::rolleyes2: Yreka is different, but I'm sure it was the same Ownership.

As a side note, I sent out the calipers you sold me to Muskegon Brakes in Michigan. They overhauled them and they look great. Thanks!

Wow!!! I'd love to have one of the Neons. I think I knew the same License Plate guy you're referring to. Jim I believe? Strange Brooks was installing dealer emblems, not too common in California.

Awesome on all points Chuck!

Hope to meet up someday after everything calms down.

Cheers, and congrats again.
Anthony

Yup, Jim was his name. I couldn’t remember. The sign that was forsale was the “ok” sign. In recent pictures you see the same age spots so it was def the one from the building. My car was a late June of 69 and did not receive a dealer badge.

-mark

OH man... The OK is so cool. The predecessor to the "certified" label manufactures have today.

As previously mentioned, my late 66 car got the emblem. I looked at a picture of my tail panel before body work and the holes were in a diagonal line, just like the studs on the emblem in the picture I attached.

Ellis
 

Lots of old ads from 67 era:

5 pounds of coffee if you can make a better deal elsewhere..... That’s funny

Five pounds of coffee, holy cow.....what an offer.

I had a really nice 1967 red/red 400 horse Corvette that was sold by them.

I may have an emblem. I will check tomorrow.

Jason

Thanks Jason! That would be AWESOME:grin:

From the movie Shawshank Redemption.. :)

Hahaha!! In all seriousness, great movie.

Found it!

Jason

WOW! Jason that is awesome! Very cool novelty. I believe that is either an earlier or later emblem than the one I posted. Still interested in it! PM me if you want to sell it.

Thank you!!!!!

Its yours. PM me your address.


Jason

:headbang:

Great guys! Yay.

Jason is good people!

^ agree!

For sure, I've bought some really nice stuff from him!

I'm late to the dealer emblem party but there was a sweet unrestored '68 Z with 39k miles that was up for auction in 2018 from that same dealership. Check it out here.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/DA1018-36...camaro-rs-z28/

The emblem does look really cool on there.

Yea Jose! That is the emblem my car had originally. Like I previously mentioned, I already welded the holes up. I was under the impression my car was sold at Stewart Chevrolet, which used to be in San Francisco before moving to it's current location in Colma, CA in 1972. I have two old Stewart Chevrolet frames. I'm guessing the original owners serviced the car there sometime and the frames were swapped. I wish I knew the story about how the Ellis Brooks Emblem disappeared. EVERYTHING else on this car was pretty well intact. I bought the car from the person handling the trust and they didn't know much. I know there had to be more stuff to go along with the car but no one seemed to know much. Someone doesn't keep a car for 52 years and not hold on to practically EVERYTHING. The other bummer is the family members handling the trust and estate sale wanted the car to be driving before they sold it. They took the car to some mechanic who put a cheap gas tank in it. I bet the build sheet was still on the original... Not a huge deal, just would've been cool to have it.

You can see the three holes on the left side of the tail panel, before I started the restoration.

Ellis 68 camaro
 

1993 ad san franciso examiner:

Wouldn't mind that Z28... Plate number on my car is TCA 186. Original black plate...

Plate
 

See 67 Camaro priced at $!997, plate. June & Nov 1969

Wow! This story keeps getting more interesting. That explains why them emblem is missing. How’d you find that ad? Amazing!!

Ad
 

Just have a subscription to newspapers.com and searched for plate, rather easy actually but you do uncover some cool stuff

Paul

Good deal. Thank you Paul!

Jose, JBTECH, found me this one on eBay. Score!

Awesomeness!:worship:

Awesome!

Yay!

It came yesterday. It’s in pretty good shape. No manufacture on the back but it’s definitely pretty old. Probably 70s/80s. I still need another one...

'

Another Ellis Brooks SanFran emblem on eBoy...
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Elli...Cclp%3A2334524
:beers:
~ Pete

.

Nice! If I found the angled one I'd probably redrill the holes and mount it to the rear panel...

Hey, just came across this thread. Very interesting on the dealers and fsc66 finding the ad for your car new...CRAZY !!!

My '67 came from the Bay area too. I was told Point Reyes. My car was brought to WI before I bought it and I never got any plates with it. It would be interesting to see which dealer it came from. Unfortunately, mine must have been parked outside in all that salty fog, because it is rather rusty for a CA car. Still WAY better than anything from the Midwest.