MTFCA Forum

A friend of mine found an advertising piece for a radiator repair and plating service in Chattanooga, TN. Called:
U BUST ‘EM WE FIX ‘EM AUTO RADIATOR CO.
WILL BURTON’S PLATING COMPANY

It gives the address and phone number.
It’s a very interesting piece of Chattanooga history.
I like the wording “U bust ‘em We fix ‘em”

Question is, is part of this advertising prop missing? I’ve never seen anything like it but it seems there is something missing?
Has anyone else ever seen anything like this?

Thanks for any insight.

Robbie

I should have noted, he dug this up out of the ground.

A 4 diget phone number modern?

It may actually be a 5 digit, that first digit may be a 6 on the left side of the dash (-)?

Quick! Someone call the number on your hand cranked wood wall phone and see if they are still in business!

"Dial" indicates late 1940s-early 1950s. The shop and the design of the piece may be much older than that number. Anglin Radiator repair in Ft. Worth Tx used actual 1920s-1930s car radiators and shells on its many roadside signs along US 180. Some signs were 50 miles or more from Ft.Worth. A few of then remained as late as 1969. Some may yet remain on now-inaccessible sections of the old 2-lane highway.

Was that possibly meant to be attached to the radiator like a "badge"

The phone number is 1920’s. That’s when 4 digit were used , the letter in front of the - mark is the exchange. For example an ‘S’ would be Spring exchange. To call one would dial S-####.

Since that piece is cast, and since the shop did plating too, likely it was plated shiny, and used as a badge or coat emblem or paper weight. Without holes wouldn’t seem it was affixed to a repaired customer’s radiator.

We had no dial phones before about 1958. You simply picked up the phone, and the operator asked: "Number, please?" You then gave the street name and address you wanted to call, and the operator connected you. When dial phones became available, You would dial X-XXXX. Later on,
you had to dial XXX-XXXX. Now you have to enter XXX-XXX-XXXX or X-XXX-XXX-XXXX.