Long-established Morton dealership, auto repair building comes under new ownership as Jim Van Cleve retires
Van Cleve Motors Inc. in Morton is no longer open after C.J. and Heidi Cooper of Ed's Morton Auto Parts announced the dealership's former owner, Jim Van Cleve, has finally retired in a post on their business's social media page.
In 2024, Van Cleve Motors Inc. announced the end to the dealership's long-time partnership with the Ford Motor Company, as Van Cleve was preparing to head into retirement, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
While the building will still house an auto maintenance shop and sell parts, it will no longer be a car dealership.
"We have kept all the shop/service staff at Van Cleve's with no changes to anything at this point except we are selling tires!!! We will also expand our scope of services. Lift kits installs etc.," the Coopers said on the Ed's Morton Auto Parts Facebook page. "No, we didn't buy Rod's Tire (Source) as rumored. When you call or stop by you will still get James, Patty, Todd, Darrin, and Mark with the addition of Terry Zook, who started his career at Van Cleve's, who had been doing our shop work at Ed's Auto."
Currently, though, the Coopers are carrying out renovations to the old Van Cleve Motors building, and the location is still not officially open for business. Customers looking for auto parts can find them at Ed's Morton Auto Parts current location - 184 Main Ave. in Morton.
"We are so excited for Jim and Julie Van Cleve to move to the next phase and start enjoying the retired life! CJ and I are excited to carry on what our family friends, the Van Cleve's have started," they added. "We are also happy to carry on as the 5th generation of Coopers to own businesses in our little town of Morton."
To learn more, follow or message Ed's Morton Auto Parts on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/edsmortonautoparts.
Van Cleve Motors Inc., originally Van Cleve Ford Inc., was founded in Morton after Jim's father, a World War II and Korean War U.S. Army veteran also named Jim Van Cleve, moved there and opened a dealership after leaving the service in 1953. The family's partnership with Ford stretched all the way back to 1937 when his grandfather opened a Ford dealership there.
A motorpool mechanic while in the Army, where Van Cleve Sr. tuned up cars for high ranking officers in Italy during WWII so they could be able to outrun German Nazi assassins riding motorcycles targeting them. He also worked alongside Vic Edelbrock Sr. - founder of auto and motorcycle parts manufacturer EdelBrock, LLC.
Following the end of the Korean War, Jim's father was approached by United Airlines to work for them as he was a skilled mechanic, but he would've had to move out of Washington state to take the job, which his parents didn't approve of.
During that time, he was also approached by Ford, which was looking to reestablish its Morton dealership. Given it wasn't far from home in Eatonville, it wasn't a hard choice for him to make.
Jim himself began working at the family's dealership in 1965 before he was even a teenager, and it's the only place he ever worked.
"I started from the bottom and worked my way up," Jim previously told The Chronicle.
With both his father and grandfather having close ties to Ford, he grew up loving and racing Fords.
Jim even competed in drag racing competitions at the former Los Angeles County Fairgrounds dragstrip, now known as the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. He's also raced at the Ontario Motor Speedway in California for the NHRA world finals.
First, he raced in a tuned-up 1964 Ford Falcon, and won his way up to earning a spot with a Budweiser-sponsored drag race team driving a wildly tuned-up 1985 Ford Mustang. Jim still races the 1964 Falcon along with a tuned-up 1967 Ford Fairlane - which does a quarter-mile in 8.3 seconds, hitting 159 mph.
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