I`ve posted this before, but here is a pic before he took the dip out of the door. I loved the car when it was in black primer. Not so much when he painted it white. But it improved greatly now that it has gray scallops. I have always liked scallops. Now someone post a current picture of it.
Yes duke of earl owned both Mercury’s and many more Some say he was the guy that bought half a dozen Mercs One year at show in Iowa. Alley oop he owned and changed it too Stardust. Was for sale on EBay not too long ago. Sent from KUSTOMS
Thanks for the photos, I don't think I care for the scallops as much as I thought I would. looks a little busy with the pipes and chrome IMO
What Ever Happened To..........? number 88. 1951 Ford "Cutie" Owner: Dick Dean Fullerton, California This week's "What Ever Happened To..........?" was without a doubt built by the most famous person I've featured so far. As a rule, I like to write about cars built by the back yarders or the "little guys", but this week I'm making an exception. Dick Dean built this great little sectioned shoebox in about 1985 or 1986 to re-create another shoebox he had back in '58. It was sectioned 5 inches and channeled 4 inches over a '51 Mercury frame. Wide whites and moon discs give it the true 50s flavor. There are a handful of sectioned shoeboxes around and all of them are pretty neat. Dick's was set apart from so many others due to the fact that it was built by one of the best metal masters of our time--possibly the greatest metal master of any time. The other thing that really does it for me is the wild paint complete with a full scallop job all done in House of Kolor burgundy and pagan gold kandies. I would have loved to have seen this car in person as I imagine it just glowed in the sunshine! Now, for being built by such a well known guy, this car was really hard to find pictures of, as well as magazine information. The only magazine mention I found of it was on page 50 of Custom Painting by Hot Rod volume 4 number 3 from 1986. I went ahead and scanned this page for all to see. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I found of it. I'd imagine such a beautiful car built by Mr. Dean was featured in a magazine somewhere, but I couldn't find any more on it in my collection. As far as videos go, the car was on my video for the 1987 KKOA Sled Scene West in Madera, California. Rowdie also interviewed Dick and he gave a very brief rundown on the car, but he mostly talked about how much better life was in the "old days" and how he, like many other guys built these great cars to "re-live" those times. This was the only video I could find with the car in it. I've been looking for pictures of this car online for quite sometime and haven't been able to come up with anything. Like I said, this car was really elusive. Also, I've never been able to find any information as to whatever happened to "Cutie", but such a stellar sectioned Ford has to be out there somewhere. Sadly, we lost Dick back in 2008. It was a very sad day for me as I grew up reading about him in magazines, eating up all the tech articles highlighting the awesome work he did as well as the many, many feature cars that he had a hand in. Was he the greatest car builder that ever lived? Maybe not, but someone with the nickname "The Sultan of Chop" had to be great. If I had to chose five of the greatest, he would definitely be in my top five! He is missed! Until next week, keep on cruisin'! E
I met Dick Dean at Darryl Starbird's museum back in 2001 or 02. He was a great guy and told lots of great stories about the old days. when asked about George taking credit for his work he told us a story about how George showed up at the hospital to see Dick (don't remember what his ailment was) but George paid the hosp bill in full for Dick. Dick said George always had his back that way...
Here is a larger scan of the same picture. 49-51 Fords are sectioned the most than any other years and makes of cars out there.
I drove my 56 Dodge to Dick Deans body shop in 1994,and at the time he had the Flintstones car in for repair,that Barris had hired to do some work on it,I will look thru my pix,but it may be in primer when I saw it.
Just heard from Kevin Anderson that this car had just registered and will be at the Custom car revival 2018
There was two issues still have both. The guy that put it out is still around he's on Facebook and Instagram. Sent from my LG-H910 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You know, @Ron, now that you mention it I vaguely remember there were two issues. I'm sure if there were two I'd have both as I always tried to support those little books back in those days. If I'm not mistaken, the guy that put them out used to go by "killer" here on the HAMB. I haven't "seen" him around here in ages. E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 89. 1950 Mercury Owner: John Thomaszewski Stevens Point, Wisconsin When I research customs for this thread, usually the information falls into place. Sometimes through watching video, searching the internet, reading books and magazines and a lot of the time from reading posts from all you well read and road educated custom folks right here on the good ol' HAMB. I'll find a custom that I'd like to try and find out more information on and I write a brief description on it from a video shot, picture or magazine article on my steno pad and go from there. Sometimes I can put it all together in a few evenings of research, other times it can literally take months to find out more. I have pages of little notes to myself on my steno pad on customs that I'm still trying to find out enough on to make a post on this thread worth reading. So, I have plenty of cars that I will feature in upcoming weeks, but I still have plenty of details to work out. That brings us to this week's sled. I have been searching for information on this great Merc for months and the information just doesn't seem to be out there. It's really a unique looking car, and I feel that it deserves a place among the other 88 WEHT cars that have been posted so far. The only video I found this car on was at the 1984 Leadsled Spectacular in Des Moines, Iowa. For some reason it seems that this car only made it there once. I also watched the other videos I have from the Sled Scene shows and didn't see anything. I managed to find one lone picture that was posted on Rikster's site from the Scott Pavey collection. I have no idea what the back of this car looks like. From that photo it looks like the car has Wisconsin license plates on it. I could be wrong though, as the plate can is frenched so deep in the front pan and the license plate area is so shadowy, it's really hard to tell for sure where the tag was from. You gotta love the asymmetrical style of the plate off to one side, huh? In Scott Pavey's picture, the car's flames had quite a bit of white in the front where they start out. In the video the flames were more yellow and orange, so maybe some rock chips or other paint problems were repaired sometime around the '84 Leadsled. Also, in Scott's picture the car has skirts, it had no skirts on the video. I'd love to know where and when the picture was taken. Merc-Deuce Reunion? Hangin Dice Nats? Where was it taken? As far as mods go, the car has a well executed chop and the canted quads and rolled front pan are awesome. If this car is still around in different paint and has the same front end mods, it would be pretty easy to identify as the same car. Another thing that might make some of the custom folks cringe is the use of '70 Buick Riviera side trim first made popular by Richard Zocci's "Cool 50" Merc built in the late 70s. I've always liked this trim on customs--it's like the designers of that particular Riv decided to throw a curve and put a neat piece of trim on it that should have been used on Buicks way before 1970! The strange thing that makes me scratch my head is why the trim appears to be painted. What the......? Maybe this was re-done at one point, but with no other pictures I have no way of knowing if this was it or if it was changed up later. This is where you guys come in. For this week's car I'm going to need lots of help to figure this one out. I have no owner information and just the one picture, and about a 10 second video shot of the car at the '84 Spectacular. Let's all dig and see if we can give this great custom orphan the identity it deserves! One last thing. Since we are just a few days before Thanksgiving, I'd like to take a minute to thank all of you faithful custom folks for following this thread for all these many months. Your participation, informative comments and nice compliments make all the work worthwhile. Have a great holiday and enjoy the time with family and friends. Let us all be thankful for the good fortune we have to live in such a great country, and be thankful for those who paid the ultimate price so we can enjoy our freedoms. Also, let us remember the less fortunate who may be struggling and lend them a hand. So in closing this week, let me be among the first to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving! Y'all take care out there! See you next week! E
This pic was taken an the first Holland Michigan KKOA show. He is a member on the HAMB. DaDodgeBrother? He is the KKOA Official. from Wisconsin. My dad, mom, my brother and myself road the ferry across Lake Michigan to the show. He was also on the ferry. He later sold the car and also dosen`t know where it went the last I knew. I`ll go dig up some pic`s and I think I have his business card. Met him again in Salina`s KKOA show.
His name is John Tomaszewski(Tski) and from a short few years ago was from Stevens Ponit Wisconsin. The first pic is from the 84 Des Moines show and the second is from the Holland show. I think I have a couple more I`ll post later as well as the cars he owns today. He`s a heck of a nice guy.
Are we talking about John who owns the gold and white 55 Dodge who got Jerry to do the Gorilla Stomp KKOA show in Wisconsin in 2012 and 2013?
Thanks Jim, I briefly met John at one of the Salina shows in the old park, probably to compliment him on the gold Dodge. I never would have made the connection like you are so good at doing. You truly take the time to visit with the owners and have a pretty impressive ability to retain all the information. I appreciate it. Here is the Merc cruising east on Grand Blvd at the 84 Spectacular in Des Moines.
Thanks for the information, Jim (@stanlow69). I knew someone would have the answer. I went ahead and put the owner and his hometown information at the heading of this week's post. E
Sure enough, I'd have to say you are probably right. ....and, I forgot to say in my earlier post....thanks Ed for all the hard work you put into this thread week after week. Every week I wait with eagerness to see if the car you post is one I have seen, know where it is or at least I have pics of. Usually Sancho and Jim beat me to it....often with my own pics. LOL All fun just the same. Happy Thanksgiving guys!
The Jalopy Journal
