My Favorite Ride: Seeing double at the radiator shop

Rich Jackson, this one’s for you.

Back when Jackson was my boss, not all that long ago, he mentioned to me about nine times that I ought to check out the twin wood-paneled Jeep Grand Wagoneers parked side-by-side at Bob Jones Radiator & Auto Repair shop down the road from The Herald-Times office.

There’s got to be a story there, he said. The man was always pushing me to continue, never stop, he said, writing about real people. And sometimes cars, or four-wheel-drive V-8 Woodies more than three decades old that haven’t run in 15 years.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said. I’d get to them some day.

This week, I’m making good on that promise.

Jackson is leaving town for a new venture in journalism in Wisconsin, so it was now or never. He will hopefully drive that unreliable Subaru of his north with this edition of the paper lying on the passenger seat. This Ride — a final salute of sorts to a great boss and a journalist to the marrow.

So I took a picture of the Jeeps as I drove north on Walnut Street Thursday morning; just slowed down and pointed the camera out the window in that direction. Tricky. Then I circled back, parked and took more photos.

Close up, the Jeeps appear to be duplicates: same luggage rack, same upholstery, same fading brown paint accentuated with fake-woodgrain panels. One has a silver trailer hitch extending from the back; the other, a flat front passenger-side tire.

Later that day, I called. “Radiator shop,” a man answered. Yep, it was Bob Jones. But not the original one.

His father, also named Bob Jones, started the business in the 1960s. The son had his own shop in Mooresville, but joined his father in the early 1980s because reliable help was hard to find. Both were named Robert Michael and went by “Bob,” he said, so customers called him “Mike” for years. His father retired, and his son reverted back to being Bob Jones.

He retired a few years ago and left the shop in the hands of his son, the third generation to run the family business. “What’s his name?” I asked. There was a long pause. “Bob Jones,” he said. We laughed. The name of this local business could not be more genuine.

The second-generation Bob Jones didn’t stay retired long, rejoining his son after just a few weeks. “He couldn’t find any good help,” the 72-year-old said. “And besides, I’d probably go crazy sitting at home.”

I asked about the Wagoneers.

“I’m going to say they’re 1987s, but I’m not for sure. They belong to the same guy, and he bought one of them new and the other one later for parts,” Jones said. “They haven’t run in 15 or 16 years, neither one of them. He was going to bring us some stuff and we were going to get started doing some work and get them running. He wants to sell one and keep the one he bought new. They’ve been out there two or three years.”

The father and son have been so busy repairing radiators and doing other work on cars that the Wagoneers haven’t gotten any attention. But they aren’t going anywhere for now, and the owner is happy to be in line and have free storage for two big vehicles. “He comes in and buys us lunch every once in awhile,” Jones said. “We’re hoping to get caught up and bring one of them in here this winter to get started.”

I reminded him it’s February already. Another pause. “You’re right. I guess I wouldn’t bet on anything.”