JD Ball Ford, Miami, Florida

January 11, 2013

This postcard shows the dealership in the late 1950s. JD Ball was located at 9000 Northwest 7th Avenue, in Miami, Florida.

Most dealers didn't sell very many 427 Cobras. Ball sold nine! They truely became one of Shelby's "go to" dealerships. Ball was ranked number five in the country for Shelby sales.

Dick Postma gives his best sales pitch to a potential 427 Cobra buyer.

5S399 originally came through Ball Ford. The car was pressed into race service shortly after it was purchased. This photograph was taken at a recent SAAC convention.

It was not unusual for Ford dealers to pool their resources and use Ford advertising. Here eight south Florida dealers advertise together.

Brian sent along these pictures of 1966 # 479. It is an original JD Ball Shelby.

This ad came from the Miami News. Ball Ford sold nine 1965 Shelbys. That number jumped to over a hundred 1966s.

The dealership prepped more than eighty Hertz cars for the Miami airport. This is 1966 serial number 1625. It is an original JD Ball Hertz rental car.

This is a picture of the "Golden Shores" Hertz rental office in 1964. It was just a short distance from the airport. No doubt, many Shelbys came through here. Picture courtesy of Don Boyd.

Here is an impressive line up of 1967 Shelbys. Ball's slogan was "When the sale is done, we have just begun". This was a reference to their customer service. Ball had thirty two salesmen available to help you.

JD sent along some vintage pictures of 1967 # 26 an original JD Ball car.

Obviously, he has studied the early 1967s to perfection.

Unfortunately, the Ball ads were not very detailed and often lagged inventory by several months.

Freddy sent along a picture of his car. 1967 # 187 arrived at Ball in late 1966.

Geno Tolomeo was just 22 years old when he became a Ball salesman.

This car was not originally sold at Ball, but it has a JD Ball script. I am still tracing the history.

This is why the Shelby American Automobile Club is your best source of information on these cars. An original piece of JD Ball history shared by Vinny Liska. Vinny keeps track of thousands of cars.

This 1968 advertisement shows a few cars on the lot blended into some clip art. Remarkably, they didn't sell a single special paint car. Ball did prep almost three dozen 1968s for the Hertz program in 1968.

This ad shows a little humor. The obvious reference is to Mickey Mouse. The ad doesn't list any Shelbys.

I have found several Lime Green GT500s that came through Ball Ford. They sold sixty five 1968 Shelbys in total.

These two 1968 Shelby ads didn't appear in the newspapers until April of 1969. The GT500 KRs were nearly a year old at this point. You will also notice the reference to Ford's 1969 "Performance Corner" campaign.

I took this picture in 1997. Not much has changed with # 4084. It is a red, 4spd, AC GT500 KR sold new at Ball. The car is still waiting a proper restoration.

Miami Dragway was just 20 minutes north of Ball's dealership. No doubt some of the hardware sold at Ball found its way on the track. The track was consumed by Miami developers and closed in 1992.

Since 1983, Metro Ford has operated at the original JD Ball location. I am wondering if that sad looking palm tree, on the right is the same one from 1960 shown above?

P.S. If you get really bored, try watching the 1965 James Bond movie "Goldfinger" . A keen eye will see JD Ball Ford on 7th Avenue during one of the car chase scenes.

If you have anything to share from JD Ball, please email it to me and I will update the story.