Inside an unassuming warehouse on Park Avenue, engines are rebuilt, chrome is polished and more than a century of automotive history sits bumper to bumper.

Rollin’ Thru Time Auto Museum is home to more than 250 vehicles, the result of owner Joe Findysz’s lifelong obsession with collecting and restoring classic cars.

The museum opened nearly two years ago by car enthusiast and Ace Hardware owner Joe Findysz. Located north of Irvington Road, it’s a project he says he’s been working on his entire life.

Rollin’ Thru Time is home to one of the largest collections of restored Model T and Model A vehicles in the state and includes dedicated rooms filled with fire trucks, tractors, muscle cars, historic vehicles and movie props.

Findysz’s entire family is involved with the museum, with his wife and children working together to operate both the museum and their chain of Ace Hardware stores. He said the museum wouldn’t have been possible without his family fully on board.

Findysz’s love of cars started at a young age.

“When I was 14, my dad had a 1947 Ford and my brother had a Model T, so I kind of wanted a Model T,” he said.

Findysz remembers spotting a Model T for sale at a self-serve car lot. He bought it, allowing him and his brother to join the local Model T Club. It was there that his love of automobile restoration and car collecting came to life.

“I joined the club and they were thrilled that young guys were interested in Model T’s,” he said, describing the club’s membership as older but very experienced gentlemen who taught him and his brother about car restoration.

It was the club that gave Findysz the inspiration to collect automobiles.

“One of the guys in there was named Ken, and he had a big barn full of Model T’s,” he said. “I wanted to be like Ken, so I kept buying and selling cars to make more money to buy more Model T’s. Fifty-one years later and Rollin’ Thru Time is here with a big building with 250 cars.”

The museum houses some of Findysz’s personal vehicles, including his 1965 dark green Fastback Mustang and the original Model T he bought in high school, which still has his parking permit from his time at the University of Arizona.

But not every car or item in the museum was originally his. It took years of negotiating and meeting people at his Ace Hardware stores to build the current collection.

“People would come in the old days in the ’70s and ’80s and ask, ‘Where’s your for sale sign?’” he recalled.

Findysz described buying and selling cars repeatedly until he finally acquired the vehicles he wanted.

“You do that 500 to 600 times, next thing you know, you got a big car collection,” he said.

The museum houses more than just vehicles, with Findysz calling it a “working museum.” The former warehouse turned gallery also serves as a restoration center.

“We have our own machine shop here building engines. We paint cars, we build the engines, we do mechanical work, it’s a working museum, which most others aren’t,” he said. “We want to be a little bit different.”

The museum is staffed entirely by volunteers and retirees. For them, it’s an outlet to pursue their passion for car restoration. Many are people Findysz has known for decades.

“A lot of guys in the Model A, the Model T clubs have helped me through a lot of it. Some for all 50 years,” he said.

Some of the volunteers have even supplied their own collections to the museum, which is the case for many of the tractors on display.

Findysz also receives donations for items beyond cars, with vintage collections of Furbies, Beanie Babies, die-cast cars, Barbie dolls, PEZ dispensers, Kodak cameras and a shelf of chainsaws filling many of the museum’s walls and shelves. Findysz said the memorabilia comes from people throughout the state.

“A lot of the cars and stuff in here have a lot of Tucson and Arizona history,” he said. “We have a mock-up of Monte Mansfield, the first Ford dealer in Tucson because we’ve got cars that were sold there from back in the day.”

The museum also hosts private events, including end-of-life celebrations, birthdays, car club banquets and an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of Tucson.

Findysz believes the museum will keep the spirit of automobile history alive and thriving.

“If we don’t do this, it goes away. Nobody will know what a Model T or a Model A is because they were built over 114 years ago now. So just educating the young kids,” he said. “We get a lot of school tours through here, anywhere from first graders to U of A students, so we just keep educating them on the history of the automobile.”

Elias Bonilla is a journalism and political science major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact him at ebonilla1500@gmail.com.

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