I'm trying to buy it myself. If I can't come to terms I'll pass it on Sent from my XT1650 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
This happened to SeaBurst John Rudisill got tired of explaining too People what was done too it and what it was So he never drove it anymore kept it in his garage too collect dust. Bought these frames for the magazine articles too explain its significance. Sent from KUSTOMS
I have been following this thread for awhile. I've never owned a custom. Built a few and worked with a few well known builders. Have had the bug for a custom for awhile. This one fell in my lap it might be meant to be. We'll see. Sent from my XT1650 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Try to get that car. It's beautiful and even if it's a bit pricey and there is some work to do, you won't be able to build a similar car with that money - and then you would not even have a car with history.
Clarence's white merc was the famous Tom Hickel car! It got creamed in the ass and was being fixed in some street rod shop, last I saw.
We need to see if Larry Wolf would make a couple for the guys that didn't win them. I'd buy one, They were just too kool....
What Ever Happened To..........? number 86. 1950 Mercury "American Beauty" Owner: Luther Parvin Fort Worth, Texas You faithful followers of the "What Ever Happened To..........?" thread right about now are probably thinking "Hey wait a minute, today is Monday, what the heck?" Well, since tomorrow is Halloween and I'm going to have a lot going on I thought I would post tonight instead of trying to rush through and squeeze it in tomorrow. So, here's a little early Halloween goodie for everybody. This week's custom was built early on in the resurgence of customs back in the late 70s. Luther Parvin built this car himself, including the impressive chop and filled side quarter windows. I've always liked this car with the filled windows, and the roses painted on the side remind me of the famous '64 Chevy Impala lowrider the "Gypsy Rose". Growing up in a lowrider family, and never missing an episode of "Chico and the Man" it's understandable how I like roses on cars. A Chrysler grille was a unique choice for the time it was built, as well as no bumpers. The history of this car was tricky to trace as it seemed to be around a lot in the late 70s, and then, like so many of these customs, it disappeared. The first sighting of this car that I found was at the Merc-Deuce Reunion in August of '79 in Kansas City, Missouri. I've watched video looking for this car for quite some time and I never saw it on any of my videos. So as far as I can tell, it was never taken to a Leadsled Spectacular that I have videos for. Extensive searching online only turned up one photo from the Carnut website that was taken at that Merc-Deuce Reunion back in '79. Magazine searching turned up a little more, but I really had to dig. I remembered seeing this Merc in a magazine somewhere, but where? After a few hours of searching, I came across the car pictured in a Custom Rodder from January 1980 on page 13 of their coverage of the Merc Deuce Reunion. A little more searching turned up a full color feature on the car in the July 80 issue of Custom Rodder on page 2. After that, my searching came up empty. I know that there haven't been very many Mercurys built as three windows, so if this car is still around, it doesn't resemble any of the ones I've seen. That doesn't mean that it isn't still around as a three window, or maybe a new owner bought it and decided to take it back to a "full window" sled and re-did the top. At any rate, this was a really unique custom and I hope it turns up a show someday and warms the hearts of us krazy kustom people! If you and your little ghosts and goblins go out for some trick or treating, have fun and be safe! Until next week, Happy Halloween! E
Luther D. Parvin Jr. (1936 - 2015) Luther was born Oct. 17, 1936, to Luther "Tack" and Eula Mae Parvin. Luther married Elizabeth Paules on Nov. 29, 1958. A daughter and son followed. Luther worked for many years at International Harvester in sales. He went to work for Rollins Leasing Co. until retirement. One of Luther's passions was restoring and driving his antique cars. He spent thousands of hours rebuilding, painting, and polishing his "babies," Luther and Elizabeth were active in "all things cars" and attended many car shows and rod runs. He had a special fondness for early model Mercuries. Luther was a wonderful husband, father, grandpa and friend. He will be greatly missed by all. RIP Mr. Parvin
Thanks for the information, @Sancho. Sad to see another one of the early custom "elders" is no longer with us. R.I.P. Mr. Parvin. E
Found this "Three Window" in a June 1960 Custom Cars Magazine.... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Phil Van Tassel`s( an earlier feature of one of his other cars) which was sold to Dave Barnes in Red Oak. Sadly it was destroyed in a fire. And was later rebuilt in a different style.
Back in the mid 80`s/ KKOA had a show in Waco. They showed a pic of Luther`s car. I thought the caption read---The yellow rose of Texas. So I was surprised to see it white. I think it was also in the coverage of Goodguys show at the South Fork (Dallas-TV show) Ranch in Texas. I did some digging but couldn`t find them.
The July 1980 Custom Rodder is the issue with Cool 50 on the cover (and inside). One of the first magazines I ever bought. I still remember being at the man made beach/swimming area in Oshkosh, WI we used to go to as kids. I had just got the magazine (we must have stopped at the mall on the way) and I sat on the sand and read every word of that magazine instead of swimming. I was never a big fan of the water and swimming anyhow. LOL It's a wonder that issue still survives in my collection mostly in one piece....I have flat worn it out. I loved Luther's Merc and thought the interior looked so inviting. Funny, cuz now I have the same style pillowy seat in my Merc. His still looks more inviting with the red velour instead of my pillowed white vinyl. LOL
This has been a wonderful thread and thanks to all the folks posting their snapshots and scans. I had a lot of these mags back in the day and went to a few of the shows as well and this thread has stirred a lot of memories about cars and builders from days gone by. I hope I'm not out of line here but there was a picture of a car in this post that started me down the low road a long time ago: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-20#post-11795551 It is Marv Engler's chopped yellow chevy from MN. I still vividly remember the day I saw this car featured in Hot Rod magazine (I was eating a bowl of wheat chex before going to school in fact, must've been '81 or 82?) and I couldn't take my eyes off it. It is still one of the nicest coupe chops I've ever seen. It had a late model inline 6 and a brown interior(!). Years later, when I moved to MN, I hoped to see the car and meet Marv at BTTF but we never did cross paths. So! Is this car still around? Got pics? Apologies again if I'm out of line here!
I read on the HAMB that this is the same car (looking better than ever!). EDIT: Misinformed. Correction in following post.
It is Marlynn Englert. and he still owns the yellow chevy unchanged from when it was first built. so the red chev above is not the same car.
@rad red Here is a pic of his car taken in Des Moines in 82 for those of you who don`t know what car we are talking about. I have seen the with in the last 5 years. Still unchanged as Moriarity said. And looks as good as ever. He doesn't drive it much as of lately because he acquired his old Custom back. And made a few changes. I`m sure you have seen this car. The pictures don`t do the car justice. Be sure and introduce yourself to him. He and his wife are the nicest people you will ever meet. Those are blemishes on my pictures.
Gotta love business coupes, huh guys? This red '51 is one of my favorites. It belonged to Steve Scott from New Carlisle, Ohio. It was W.E.H.T. #32 way back on page 17 of this thread. Here's a link if you want to read more about this sweet sled. E https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-17#post-11760181
Thanks for the posts stanlow69 and Moriarity! Glad to hear the car is alive and well with the original builder. Maybe I’ll get to see it in person one of these days! Dare I request one more? There was a 58 impala at Lead Sled West in Reno, 1983. It was champaign metallic, wire wheels, and hydraulics on all four corners. Won best mild kemp according to the small picture I saw in an old magazine. Does anybody have pictures of it?
Here`s a scan from the KKOA Leadsledder`s coverage of the 83 Reno show. Owned by Skip and Joni Newton from Las Vegas.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 87. 1957 Chevy 150 Sedan "Ghetto Cruiser" Owner: Charlie Edwards Lexington, Kentucky Back in the 80s, there were quite a few very nice custom '57 Chevys. They weren't nearly as popular as Ford shoeboxes or "bathtub" Mercs, but they were out there. Charlie Edwards was one of the lucky few that had one. He built this nice jet black '57 by doing most of the work himself. His list of body modifications included a tube grille, shaved hood and trunk, filled "gun sights" on the hood, shaved door handles and molded lake pipes. Louvers were punched in the hood and trunk lid. The car was chopped 5 inches, but the real trick here was using a '57 Oldsmobile roof instead of the Chevy roof. The two outer rear windows were shaved giving it a very different look. Charlie got the body straight and shot it a clean black, and then added the traditional flames. He called upon Taylor's House of Color to finish the job with pinstriping. With the outside done, he hired Hillerich's Upholstery to go wild on the interior. Lots of black vinyl was used with plenty of pleats and crazy stitching patterns, as well as "3-D" flames in the headliner. The dash out of a Vega GT was used as well as a few other "modern" changes. This type of thing is highly frowned upon today, but back in the 80s it was a fairly popular thing to do. All in all the car turned out pretty nice, and would turn lots of heads even today. I searched through lots of video this week and as far as I could find Charlie took his '57 to the Leadsled Spectacular in 1983 and 1985, both years which happened to be in Springfield, Ohio. These were the only shows I could find his car on video. He was interviewed at the '85 show, and there were lots of great shots of the car. In the video the paint on it looked outstanding--it was a very straight black car. My magazine searching only turned up one article, but it was a biggie! Charlie's Chevy was one of the cover cars on Custom Cars by Hot Rod Volume 2 number 2 from 1984. It also had a full two page black and white feature spread on pages 52 and 53. To me, being a part of this particular magazine was quite an honor as this series of magazines Hot Rod did back then has become a great reference for custom history. I scanned the cover and article for this week's post for all to see. As far as internet pictures go, I only managed to find one lone picture on Rikster's site that was taken by our own @KustomLincolnLady. I'm sure there are more pictures out there, but darned if I could find any more. So there you have it. The history on this '57 seems short, but if it's still out there, I'm sure you custom bloodhounds that participate in this thread will find out some more for all of us to enjoy. Let's all hope that Charlie is still cruising around enjoying the life of owning a chopped custom '57 Chevy! Until next Tuesday, stay safe! E
Haven't found anything on the '57 yet but found Charlie's Merc from 2006. From the article sounds like he had a bunch of cool cars. http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0601rc-1954-mercury-convertible/
Nice find, Sancho! Such a nice convertible Mercury. You just don't see many '52-'54 Mercury drop tops. E
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