The "street rod" version still had the rolled pan on the rear and the other wiper set-up. I'd say the second version Ed posted is after the rod phase. Looks like it already came back to the custom side! I just hope it stayed this time.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 20. 1950 Merc The Knight Rider Owner: Rusty Bethley Lindenhurst, Illinois Well, here we have another mystery custom. I have seen this car for so long on my videos, I thought it would be a pretty straight forward car to do the What Ever Happened To..........? this week. Boy, was I wrong! This '50 Merc had a ton of great mods done to it, 5 inch chop, frenched headlights, '55 Chrysler grille and '57 Buick taillights just to name a few. The real trademark of this car is the Pegasus painted on the bottom of the front fenders. This type of thing would probably be frowned upon today, but back in the whimsical, custom resurrection days in the 80s it was all good. It also had "KNT RDR" on the license plates. I've tried every way I know to try to read what state the plates are from, but the video gets too fuzzy when I zoom in. Now, in my research, the owner of the car was interviewed at the '84 Leadsled in Des Moines. It was a great interview with a lot of information about the car. It was completed in time for the '83 Leadsled in Springfield, Ohio. The only bad part of the interview is the gal that did the interview never asked the owner his name or where he was from! He did say that he was the Night Rider and this car was a copy of the Merc he built in 1951! I watched my videos and DVDs , but I never saw the car at the '83 Spectacular, but the owner said he was there in the interview. I did however see the car at the Leadsled in the videos from '84, '86 and '87. I also saw it on the '87 Sled Scene East tape. After that, it wasn't on any other tapes I have. I seem to remember seeing it in a magazine feature in black and white, but I'll be darned if I could find it. I found absolutely nothing on it in my magazine library. Also, this will surprise everybody as it surprised me. I was only able to find one picture of it on Rikster's site. The picture was named Dyno Don, so maybe that's the small clue we need. What the heck? I know somebody out there knows (knew) this cat and where he was from. So, I'm asking for help on this one from the great walking kustom encyclopedia guys here on the HAMB. Sancho, stanlow69 and Moriarity to name a few. Let's get this mystery solved and give credit where credit is due. 'Til next Tuesday, stay kool.........E
Hardly a "kustom encyclopedia", just a kustom fan who likes to research! I have looked but so far come up empty. Not giving up yet though.....
haha, me too, just a guy that loves customs. I remember that car being at the events in the eighties. but have no Idea what ever happened to it. I think he may have been from Illinois
How can you forget this car with the winged horse on the front fender. I`m thinkin I saw this car somewhere like Davenport`s Merc Duce Reunion.(around 96 or 97) It was along the fence. I made a comment about it`s been a long time since I`ve seen this car to the owner(an older guy sitting in a chair who was wore out from being at the show). He did mention the words Knight Rider during our conversation. I can`t make out the state on the licence plate in the pic I have of the car. I first saw this car in Kansas City at a KKOA show in about 83. It was a small show so I was able to look at all the cars there multiple times. Like I said, how can you forget the winged horse. Another great carto add to the list for the many you have written about.
I got nuthin' to add, but I really like the car. '55 Chrysler bars look so good in Mercs....but I might be biased.
There is a closeup shot of the frontend in Tex Smiths book, How To Build Custom Cars on page 127.But I still can`t make out the plate. And it doesn't mention the owners name. And I won`t mention I also have a pic of it my dad took(different than mine) since my computer guy hasn`t shown up to connect my scanner to my lap top.
Check out Straycatkustoms thread--Kustom Blues, I Need To See Customs. On post #6, there is also a pic of it.
I'll be dipped....that's my pic! LOL I took it at the Mid Century Mercury show in Kenosha, WI in 1990. When I get back to my computer tomorrow and can look at the full size scanned pic, I'll see if I can make out the license. Guess I might have too many pics and too little memory to recall what I've seen and have record of. Lol
Looks like an Illinois plate.... It may be because of the lighting/shadows, but in the photo Ed posted it doesn't appear to have the "teeth" on the leading edge of the fender skirt.
Great detective work guys! I never saw the pic Sancho posted by Dr. Dave. Was that from Carnut or Rikster's site? So, we have established that the Night Rider (or is it Knight Rider?) was from Illinois. Now we just have to figure out who the owner was..........E
I was just studying Dr. Dave's picture and I noticed that the Knight Rider was sitting right next to Dick Crouthers' '50 Merc (W.E.H.T. #1). I wonder if they were running buddies in the same club or something since Dick was from Waukegan, Illinois. Or, maybe they just lucked out and were parked next to each other at that show by chance. I doubt that though. Since they were both from Illinois and had chopped Mercs I'd bet they were buddies or at least acquaintances. Great shot Doc--that's some history right there! E
I went and got it from the "Kustom Blues" thread that stanlow69 mentioned. (It's actually in post #7)
Strangely enough, I didn't take a picture of Dick's car at that show, dunno why. I have pics of it from when it was brown, but guess I never took pics of it orange. Maybe because it was in the mags in the orange version, I was a poor student and film was expensive, so I focused on stuff that I didn't have in print? Who knows. LOL EDIT: I took pics of it when it was orange at the same show in '83, I guess I passed on it in '90. The pics I have of when it was brown are from about '81. The sign on the windshield says 1950 Mercury Kustom, but wouldn't ya know, the hood is in the way of the owner's name.
HAHA! You have pics of it in orange. I have seen them on Rik's site. (Sorry, couldn't resist) From the Kenosha, Wisconsin Mid Century Merc Show 1983.
Man, hard to believe after all these years, every time I see Dick's Merc it still makes my heart skip a beat. One of my favorite Mercs of all time. Thanks for posting, Sancho! Feels good to have the ol' ticker skip a beat once in a while! E
Lol. As I got all my old pics scanned, I started sending them to Rik, cuz I knew he'd enjoy them. Didn't even dream there would end up being a dedicated folder on his site for the "Dr Dave Collection." LOL I haven't checked it lately to see how far he has gotten posting them up....I know it takes him lots of time to set it all up and tag them all.
Amazing the amount of time Rik devotes to his archive site and his Custom Car Chronicle. If there is a more dedicated fan of customs on the planet, I'd be skeptical. Thanks again @Rikster for all your hard work and dedication! There are a lot of us out here that really appreciate it! E
As a side note, here's where they go and they are surely out there..... Just pulled into a show and this guy just picked this up from a guy's widow...been in the garage 20 years:
Wow, that is awesome! Reminds me of the purple one that was built in the early 90s. I think John D'Augustino owned it or had a hand in building it or something. It was later repainted in orange. I liked the purple version MUCH better. Always loved those big mid 50s Lincolns. When I was a kid one of our neighbors had a pair of hardtops in their backyard. I used to love to walk down the alley and look over the fence and check them out. One day I went over to look at them through the fence and they were gone. I've always wondered what they did with them..........E
I wish I could have went to the KKOA shows as well as other shows back in the 80s. As I watch the videos and DVDs, look through magazines and Rikster's site (as well as other sites), doing my research, it seems like the koolest cars always seemed to come from Illinois and Ohio. E
"Royal Empress". The story goes...D'Agostino was looking it over at Bill Reasoner's shop, and Bill made a remark about removing the trademark Lincoln fins. John replied, "I'll have to think about that!", to which Reasoner responded, "Well, while you're thinking about it, I'm going to do it!" The results speak for themselves.
The "Royal Empress"! I had the name on the tip of my tongue but just couldn't remember it. Thanks 'Mo, you saved me from having to dig out my box of Custom Rodder magazines to look it up. E
Thanks for the kind words woodbutcher! Comments like this and all the participation from so many custom lovers on this thread make all the work to keep it going worth it! E
You seem disappointed when you can`t find pics of cars you feature. Names of people and towns and states where they are from. This is what makes this thread neat. People can chime in and add info to the cars you post and we can do a little detective work our selves. We check in regulary to see the updates that are added. And we never miss checking in on Tuesdays. The large custom club back in the 80`s was Lincoln Land Kustoms from Illinois. I always looked forward seeing there cars at the shows. I told myself, when I got older, I was going to join.
The Jalopy Journal
