History of Stockton CA DB Plant

[stakeside]

I drove by the Stockton Plant at 1400 Waterloo and took these photos. The building is occupied by a division of Lever Brothers called Unilever.

The building is in remarkable condition and shows no evidence of its previous glory. It must have been restored.

This is where Graham and Dodge Brothers built trucks late 20's early 30's.

My 1929 DB "E" series S 114xxx and S 115xxx was built here.

What a great place to have a Dodge Club meet.

[30DodgePanel]

Man thats incredible thanks for posting those.

[Guest 1930]

Thats neat, thanks for posting

[30DodgePanel]

I like to google map this kind of stuff and walk around the streets to see what is left from original photos. I have done that with other old photos in Detroit and sometimes you learn some valuable info and leads that way. For instance what stop signs were correct for the time period, what original architecture touches still remain, surrounding business names that may lend clues and so on.

Thats cool because those 2 photos on the right are seemingly the same vantage point, one taken recently and the other on opening day, great work on the black and white effects btw.

One can learn alot by studying aspects of the plant locations.

[stakeside]

Here is a site with Evansville Plant photos.

Check it out.

Historic Evansville - Tag: grahambros

[22touring]

Love it, Stakeside!

 

When I first got my DB in the mid-'80s, I bought parts from Jim Mallars of Stockton. He told me that in addition to assembling GB trucks, they had an engine-rebuilding facility in the Stockton plant where they did overbores, turned cranks and poured babbitt for the 4-cylinder engines. They offered exchange engines for the early DBs, including installation.

 

The son of the original owner of my car had the engine rebuilt in 1955 (long after the Stockton plant had closed) by one of the DB Stockton mechanics who formerly rebuilt engines there. He refused to pull the rear axle, etc. in order to remove the engine, so he torched a section out of the front frame cross member in order to clear the front of the engine and pull it out in the conventional fashion.  I commented to the original owner's son when I bought the car that I intended to weld metal into the cross member to return it to stock, but he recommended against it.  He said all the knowledgeable DB mechanics did that, rather than having to pull the rear axle and transmission and lift the body, as the service manual recommended.

[22touring]

I do not believe that replacement pistons for the 4-cylinder cars were available when the Stockton DB plant was rebuilding motors for the early cars, so they would metal (thermal) spray the old pistons and re-machine them. I believe they chose a thermal powder which gave an optimal wear surface, maybe even better than that of the original cast iron pistons. That's what the former DB factory mechanic did to my engine when it was rebuilt in 1957. It is a really sweet-running 4-cylinder (crossing my fingers).