Handy Andy TV and Appliance (Now with Photos!)

[spectre6000]

Does anyone in the California area remember Handy Andy TV and Appliance? I was sanding on my '62 panel last night and came up with a logo (removed by whoever did the previous paint job, but still came out in relief when sanding). I got the bus out of Sacramento, so Occam says it's probably from the Sacramento store. Here's a TV ad to jog any memories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExzLe852Nws

The logo and all related information is totally gone, it's just an outlined ghost where the paint of the logo left the paint a little thicker when it was sanded down last. I would like to recreate the logo, but need something more to go on. There's much more sanding to be done, then some daylight and a good camera are needed for photos. Hopefully by the end of the week. Until then, if anyone knows anything about this place, or knows of any pictures of what it might have looked like (aside from what's in the commercial linked to above) it would be very helpful.
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Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[aa390392]

not to get off subject, but did you ever make your trip to Europe with the bus?
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getting grumpy & less tolerant!


55 ragtop
56 delux sedan
56 Kabriolet

[tubdub]

yes i remember the store . it was/might still be on el camino next to a tognottis auto parts store

[Erik G]

right down the street from my old house

but, they did have stores outside of sacramento, in Tahoe and the bay area. it's on the video
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Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[spectre6000]

The Europe trip has been postponed. The in-laws to be "lost the farm", and we, as a result, our honeymoon budget has been reassigned to pay for the wedding. We will instead drive the bus up to New York City, DC, and a number of places along the way. Europe will have to be an anniversary trip instead. Sucks, but it is what it is. Neither of us have really been to any of the eastern states, so it will be fun all the same.

For those of you with some memory of it and/or are in proximity to it's former whereabouts (they went under in '93 it seems), if you know where anything that might have a color photo (although b/w is better than nothing) of what this company's logos and advertisements looked like that would be great.

Just before typing this I uncovered a bit more. It now reads,

"(cartoon man) Handy Andy
Appliance • TV • Stereo
Home of BLUE RIBBON (repair)
(oval with very faint something ending in O)"
_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[spectre6000]

I just got off the phone with a guy (for the second time) who worked at the Sacramento Handy Andy from '55 to the early '70s. It was his first job out of high school (and during the summer before his senior year) and he worked there for several years after. He remembers the buses, they were bought new from a dealership there in Sacramento, although he doesn't remember which one (I doubt it will be hard to narrow down) which is interesting, as the M-Plate lists the destination as New Orleans. The bus was originally red (check), and Handy Andy's colors were red, white, and blue. The Bus was original a TV service truck and was one of 4-6 buses. There were a total of 10 trucks including delivery trucks and service trucks (he didn't say what the other cars were). Two were '59s, and then they got the '62s when the new bigger engines came out. The little man character has a bowtie and a beanie hat with an antenna (blue or black, couldn't remember), blue pants. They ran the bus for 7-8 years. The motto that is partly missing is "Home of BLUE RIBBON SERVICE", and at one time around '60 it was rated the #1 TV and Appliance Dealer in the Nation. His daughter is scanning a larger sign and some photos to email to me. One of the photos has a truck (non-bus) that was of the later lineup and a photo of what he believes to be one of the earlier buses. He tells me he believes there is another logo of some sort on the front doors, but he doesn't remember what it was, something electronicky. I haven't sanded the doors yet, so while I don't know what to expect, I do know to be extra careful. I'll have photos as soon as I finish sanding through the old paint, and I'll post what he sends me. Extra special thanks to Agave58 for pointing me in the right direction!
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Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[Ea$y Money]

cant wait to see what you come up with.
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1966 Microbus Deluxe

[Erik G]

cool story bro

Andy's bowtie was BIG. and it matched the beanie.
_________________
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Agave58]

[tyzel]

[carterzest]

[Erik G]

[spectre6000]

Here's what was sent via email.

The rest of the bus has been sanded now save the roof, and there was still some paint on the doors! There was some sort of electron path type symbol, and the only words that I can see (this is flat and not in relief like the rest of it) is "association". Tomorrow I have access to the good camera, so there will be a bunch of photos.

Bob called me today to get my address. He's sending me the photo graphs. I'll scan and post those when I get them as well.
_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[spectre6000]

Bob called me yesterday to get my mailing address, and he's sending me the photos he mentioned. One of them is a Handy Andy bilboard on the side of a highway around Sacramento that will show some examples of the types of things that would have been present on the bus typographically and maybe some content. The second is a truck (non-VW) from a little after my bus that he believes has the same paint scheme. The third is a '59 bus they had that had a different paint scheme, but is just as applicable. I don't think either of the photos of the cars are actually intended to be of the cars so much as they're in the background, but every little bit helps in this exercise in modern archeology... I'll get those scanned and posted as soon as they arrive!

It didn't come out too terribly well in photos, but it's not easy to see in person either. When the bus was painted yellow (or white that proceeded to turn yellow) in the early '70s, they sanded the logo off with something relatively soft (by hand?) and the paint around the logo was sanded about as much as the logo itself leaving the logo in very faint relief. This relief revealed itself when we sanded it down with a DA sander. The plan was to rattle can the bus blue (fiancée's preference for our wedding this Saturday), so we were going a panel at a time until we found the logo in tact (sorta) under the paint. The reason it's so speckled is because you had to sand it down as evenly as possible to the white (either the unfaded yellow or a white primer), and then just barely let it go through to the red to see if it came out as a line or something intelligible. The only places that had any of the original paint left were the front doors. Unfortunately, I didn't expect any paint and it was dark, so I was continuing with the strategy that had been working elsewhere and got through some of the paint before I realized it was there... Here are the photos I promised.

Full driver's side. This side came out much better. Of the two of us sanding, I had the sander that ended up being more conducive to this particular brand of archeology. It's much more legible in person (I even heard someone in a car behind me and to my left at a stop light say "Hey look! It used to say "HANDY ANDY"!")

Andy's face, the bowtie is more or less gone because I did the rib first before we knew there was treasure hiding under the paint... His legs are difficult to make out, and they're missing in the scan I got from Bob, but they look very 60s cartoon.

"HANDY" There is a little bit of blue and white paint left on the very edge of one of the cargo doors where the yellow chipped away at some point in the past, and Bob told me the brand colors were red white and blue, so it fits) so I believe this was somehow outlined in blue and white... I need to photograph these edges for reference... As I recall it's something like a thinner blue line over a thicker white line, but the relief doesn't seem to bear this out...

"ANDY"

"APPLIANCES • TV •..." and "Home of BLUE RIBB..." and the top of the oval

"...• TV •...EREO" and "... RIBB...VICE" and the top right of the oval

"Home of BLUE RIBB..." and the oval in whole. Bob told me it was the blocks of color you used to see when a TV station went off line and that it said something related to color TV. It looks like it ends in "...CO" and there is only room for 5-6 letters given the size of the "O". It was suggested by an older gentleman here that it could be "PHILCO", but Bob said there was no way that's what it said...

All of the text in context.

One of the only two places that had any paint left. Bob mentioned that there was some sort of electrical looking symbol on the door, but couldn't remember what it was. Here it is! It's an electron path symbol and around the perimeter it says something about "STAR" at the top right, "ASSOCIATION" along the bottom left, and I can't remember what it says at the bottom left... Unfortunately I kinda ruined the rest before I realized it was there...

Passenger side macro view.

The same logo, less visible for the most part, but more of the bottom left text is legible, however I still can't remember what it says.

Everything on the passenger side is the exact same as the drivers side. Here's "...• STEREO" and "BBON SERVICE"

"...V • STEREO", "..BBON SERVICE" and the top right of the oval.

"ANDY"

"...LUE RIBB...N SE..." and the oval

"...ES • TV • STER...", "LUE RIBBO.. ER..." and the ever present oval.

"HANDY"

What's left of Andy's visage.

_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[Culito]

Cool excavation. Are you going to try to re-do them?
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© CJ Industries, Inc.
'64 standard w/2.0L type 4
'62 bug

[GLHTurbo]

Home of Blue Ribbon Service
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1957 Beetle
1966 Bus

[spectre6000]

Ultimately I would like to redo it to the original paint sceme. I'm waiting on the photos to come in (they should have been put in the mail either today or tomorrow). Red is my least favorite and the most expensive color paint wise, but this is about too much to pass up. Unfortunately, all of this will be buried again in the next week or so... The blue paint on the nose and the rear is because I'm cleaning it up and giving it a rattle can paint job in the color of my fiancée's choice for our wedding this Saturday. I'm not going too far out of my way to get out dents and such as it only needs to look good at 20' for wedding photos. It will be blue until I get my bug done, then we're getting her a new car later this year (Golf TDI), and once the finances restabilize after all of the wedding and new car expenses, the bus will go under the knife. At that point I'm hoping to restore it to it's original "TV service van" glory.

Does anyone recognize or know anything at all about the electron path star logo? Anyone have good enough photoshop skills to fiddle with the two images and/or combine them to bring out more of the writing? Enough that I have something to search Google Images for?
_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[Simon uk]

you mean your fiance doesnt want this bus as it looks now at her wedding????! It would be kind of a shame to cover the paint up again, see if you can take tracings of the logos before it gets covered, unless you figure it will be easy to take the paint back off again. If these logos could be reapplied this could be one of the coolest logo buses around!

good luck with the wedding by the way.

[spectre6000]

"_____ electronics star association" ring a bell with anyone?
_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[Dunebubby]

The most amazing thing of all is that your getting married this weekend and have ANY time at all for the bus! I was such a wreck for like 2 weeks before my wedding,I didn't have time for anything! Props to you
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"We buy things we don't need,..with money we don't have,...to impress people we don't even like".