David Eulitt

essays: Miles of Wheels

Truman Road in downtown Kansas City, Mo. is all about the automobile; Dealers, radiator shops, tire shops, body shops, fix-it shops and salvage yards. More than 50 car-related shops dot the five-mile heart of the corridor from downtown to Interstate 435.

"You gotta understand the people....I have a story for everybody...I can make 'em laugh, I can make 'em cry," --L.C. CavinessL.C. Caviness, 78, presides over the used tire sales at National Brake & Alignment on a stretch of road he has worked for 60 years.
   
A couple investigates the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car for sale at Bill Russell Fine Cars on Truman Road in Kansas City, Mo.
   
"I've prospered, I've had a good life."J.J. Miller, 80, who works as a salesman at Bill Russell Fine Cars with his son, J.J. Miller, 57, and his grandson, J.J. Miller, 23.
     
  
"For a lot of people here, this is about survival"--Tom Henderson, manager of the Pick N' PullThe Pick N' Pull sits on the site where cars once raced at the old Olympic Stadium on Truman Road. The 1,100 dead cars sit in waiting, scavenged by seekers of auto parts they remove themselves.
   
Flags flutter in the wind, beckoning prospective buyers to a used car lot on Truman Road.
   
Mechanic Rudy Opinick answered a phone call between working on used cars at Fletcher's Auto Service on Truman Road.
     
  
The arms of L.C. Caviness, 78, show evidence of the 60 years he has worked presiding over the used tire sales at National Brake & Alignment on a stretch of road he has worked for 60 years.
   
Guevara Gamboa Issa of Kansas City passed the time on a warm afternoon inside the garage at Jose's Auto Service on Truman Road.
   
Spot, a white pit bull, and Brixey, another pit bull at left, earn their keep as security watchdogs at Oakley Auto Repair on Truman Road.
     
  
At Ramirez Tire Service, tires are weaved together to save space.
   
Ignacio Gonzalez hoisted a 22" wheel on his shoulders during his work at Oakley Auto Repair on Truman Road.
   
The employees and their families break for lunch outside of Oakley Auto Repair on Truman Road.
     
  
   
22" wheels spin in the wind on a chrome display outside the Oakley Auto Repair shop on Truman Road. The spinning wheel draw attention to the shop's selection of oversized wheels.
   
The Pick N' Pull sits on the site where cars once raced at the old Olympic Stadium on Truman Road. The 1,100 dead cars sit in waiting, scavenged by seekers of auto parts they remove themselves.
     
  
At J&S Used Cars on Truman Road, you can buy a used Chevy Cavalier with air conditioning that blows "ice cold."
   
  
For almost 100 years, car dealers and repair shops have made Kansas City's Truman Road their home, a stretch of five miles were new cars are an endangered species.