Wow, the back of Mr. White's car was just as wild as I had imagined! This picture is a rare gem! Thanks for finding this picture and sharing @PasoJohn! The picture is from Sled Scene East. I wonder what year it was. E
The sun isn't doing us any favors in this shot, but it's good to see a rear view. I straightened it up a bit and lightened it as much as I can.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 218. 1951 Mercury Owner: Bob Ferenczi Staten Island, New York This week's custom is one that was around the custom scene in the early 80s. I only found video of it at one Leadsled Spectacular, but through magazine research I found out that it was at Lead East in the inaugural show in 1983. I found this picture of the car in the May 1984 issue of Classic and Custom on page 35 in their coverage of Lead East. The picture of the car had the caption mentioning that Bob's Merc had taken home a "Best Paint" award as well as "People's Choice" that day. Not a bad outing! The exact same picture and a similar caption also appeared in the great magazine Custom Cars by Hot Rod Volume 2 number 2 also printed in 1984 on page 76. Since it's the same picture, I didn't scan it. This Mercury was pretty easy to identify with the great burgundy paint, white top and the unique use of an Olds "frown" grille. Another unique choice was how Bob decided to use late model (then, early 1980s) Oldsmobile wheel covers. That was what made this car easy to spot as there was another convertible '51 Mercury, burgundy with a white top and an Olds grille hitting the shows at the same time. I'll touch more on that later. Mr. Ferenczi may have went to the Leadsled Spectacular early on, but like I mentioned before, I only saw the car on one video. That was as he was cruising into the fairgrounds at the 1985 Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio. The '85 show must have really been great as the footage of the endless line of customs rolling into the 'grounds is pretty unforgettable. The '85 video is my all time favorite (so far)! Strangely enough though, the only footage of Bob's Merc was when he came into the show. As the car crept by the camera you could see the beautiful mile-deep paint without a single wave in it. Who ever did the body and paint work on the car really knew what they were doing! In the next picture, even with the grainy video and my ancient TV's sad picture, you can tell the paint on this '51 just glowed! Definitely worthy of the numerous awards it must have collected! Now this gorgeous Mercury, like many other customs I research has been an ongoing project for quite sometime. My picture finds were far and few in between. Something that didn't help is that a gentleman named Bob Beverly had a very similar '51 convertible that was on the scene during the same time frame. The cars shared chops that looked very close to each other, both were a dark burgundy color and both had white tops. The only real big differences were that Mr. Beverly's Merc had '53 Buick side chrome and Mr. Ferenczi's had stock shortened trim. A few other quick ways of identifying the cars was Mr. Ferenczi's Merc had a blue New Jersey front license plate, and Mr. Beverly's had a Virginia plate. Also, the unique modern Olds caps on Ferenczi's Merc helped a lot too. Other than that, it was challenging at times. Confusing isn't it? Just typing it gets crazy. One other thing that throws a little monkey wrench in the mix is that both Mr. Ferenczi and Mr. Beverly have the same first name--Bob. I think I'd better quit with this whole name game thing before I blow a brain fuse (lol)! A few days ago, @PasoJohn posted a great shot that has to be rare of the two cars side by side! I don't know where the pic was taken, but there is some great leadsled history in that shot! The last shot for tonight is another @PasoJohn pic. Again, I don't know where it was shot, but it is probably on of the best shots I found. You may notice I have no rear shots of the car. I couldn't find any. I did find a few of Mr. Beverly's, but I'm saving those for an upcoming W.E.H.T. of his car. Ferenczi's Merc looks to have had '54 Mercury taillights, and Beverly's had 1949 or '50 Lincoln units. Even with the taillight difference, the cars were very close! After the '85 Spectacular Bob Ferenczi's Merc seemed to drop out of sight. I'd imagine he attended Sled Scene East a few times as well as being a regular at Lead East, but my limited amount of video found nothing else, and my magazine research finds are all I posted this evening. What Ever Happened To the beautiful Merc from Staten Island, New York that had a close twin sister from Virginia? Does anyone out there know? Well, by this time next week Memorial Day will be a memory. I want to be one of the first to wish you and yours a Happy Memorial Day, and remind you to honor those that paid the ultimate price for our freedom. I also hope that you can get out and have some car fun even though the Memorial Day car event calendar is pretty lean this year due to current events. Have a great holiday everyone! I'll see you next week! E
Here is a pic of it at the 85 Springfield show. I bought a photo album on eBay and all the photos were taken at that event
Great pictures guys! Thanks for posting! Mr. Ferenczi's Merc was so photogenic, such a beautiful car! E Man, you guys have been digging in your magazines, picture boxes and computer files and are coming up with some neat shots! I've never seen the pics of the updated Phil J. White Ford. There is a lot of work in the re-styled front end. It has moved far away from the style of a shoebox, but that's the world of customs sometimes. If you look closely there are no hood lines--tilt front end? And the headlight covers, were they Riviera style headlight doors? Did they open automatically or did they have to be removed manually at dusk to use the headlights? I'd like to see how that arrangement worked. I wonder if there was a single headlight or a pair of stacked lights on each side. Anyone have pictures with the headlights exposed? Does anybody have any idea when the updated version of Phil's car appeared? Funny how this car has seemed to disappear. With crazy styling like the last version was, if it was seen recently, I'm sure it would have been remembered by someone. E
Click here and read page 13. Looks like Bob and his son make conversions for the "retro" Thunderbirds. http://www.mdsenet.com/TBIRD/images/Newsletter_2018_10.pdf You can scroll down to the fourth car here to see Bob's Thunderbird. https://www.hobbycar.com/3.html
What Ever Happened To..........? number 219. 1955 Ford Crown Victoria Owner: Dean Stansfield Slate Hill, New York For this week's custom we are going to revisit the east. I don't know how it happened, but this week's car is from New York just like the fantastic '51 Merc from a week ago. Dean Stansfield put together this colorful '55 Ford and seemed to be on the scene quite a bit in the east. I've watched a lot of video searching for this car, but it turns out that it never went to a Leadsled Spectacular that I have a video for. This is quite understandable as most Spectaculars were a long way from New York. However, Dean did find his way to Sled Scene East at least two times though. The first time I saw the car on video was at the 1987 Sled Scene East show. The only real good footage of the car was when he was participating in "How cool can you cruise?" The distinctive red and black Crown Victoria with the east coast style pipes that exit out of the front fenders make it easy to identify as Mr. Stansfield's '55. Take note (although it's hard with the grainy pics) of the '53 Chevy grille with extra teeth and the stock '55 front bumper. After '87, I didn't see the car again until I watched the 1992 Sled Scene East video I have. Video Bob Huff took some great footage of Dean's Ford with some good close up shots of the details of the car. Here is a shot of the car with a new look. The stock Ford bumper was gone and it was replaced by a '55 Pontiac unit. Big difference. I wish I had a better idea of when the modification actually happened, other than saying sometime between 1987 and 1994. You will notice there is another Crown Victoria sitting next to Dean's. Sled Scene East was a haven for '55 and '56 Fords. Almost as many of them as Mercs! In this shot you can see the unmistakable side pipes and the cruiser skirts. Here is a close up of the crabclaw spinner with the side pipe in it as well as the frenched antenna, and then a detail shot of the striping around the antenna. Dean went the extra mile and had a generous portion of louvers punched in the hood. I've always liked the look of a louvered hood! Here is a shot of some striping in the area close to where the door handles used to be. I took this shot to show how beautiful the stainless trim was surrounding the rear windows and reaching across the top. How did Ford build these cars and make any money on them? The design work and quality of fit and finish was amazing! Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it? Moving on to the rear is the east coast style extended quarters with Packard taillights and a Continental kit. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the Connie read "Summer Love". Here is another detail of Dean's car that made it a little easier to trace among the many red and black Crown Vics I found--the New York license plates that read "Crown V". A look through the window shows nice red and white tuck'n'roll with various 50s style doodads. The dice shift knob looks like it's on a Hurst shifter. Could Mr. Stansfield's Crown have had a four speed? Can't see the pedals on the floor, but it very well could have! The next pictures were from when Dean was pulling out of the parking lot where the sock hop was later that night. Don't know if he had to go back to the motel to freshen up before the dance, or maybe dancing wasn't his thing and he was headed out for some cruisin'. Up until a few weeks ago, I had no idea who the owner of this fine Ford was. A few weeks back I found a picture of the Ford with a small description and the owner's name. It was on page 14 in the November/December 1989 issue of the short lived Custom Car Magazine headed by the late LeRoi Tex Smith. I was glad to find it as this was the last bit of information I needed to post the car. The next few shots I'm posting were posted by members here in the "Kustom Blues" thread. Some shots were posted recently, and others I've been sitting on for a while. These two shots were posted by @PasoJohn in the last week or so. These were of the early version of the car with the stock front bumper. The first picture of the two was taken at Sled Scene East. In the background is a view of the unmistakable stage at the park where the show was held. Our last shot this week was posted by @loudbang quite some time ago. I've been saving the picture for this post once I got all the information needed to present it. This looks to be a recent photo taken during the "digital" picture era and not from a camera with film. I hope that this picture is a good sign that Mr. Stansfield and his beautiful Crown Victoria are still burning up the miles hitting custom shows all over the eastern part of the country. How about it y'all? Anybody know the whereabouts of Dean and his "Summer Love"? I hope everybody out there had a nice Memorial Day and had time to reflect and spend some quality time with family and friends. Nothing like this pandemic to make a person appreciate who they have in their lives. Let's just hope that by the time the next great holiday of the summer comes around (July 4th) that the summer will feel more like summer and things will be getting closer to normal before this whole thing started. 'Til next week, cruise on, but keep your distance (lol). Take care everyone! E
I am no help on this one, great looking car, that 55 Pontiac starchief trim is a natural on it. every week I pull out my kkoa book and leaf thru it looking for the featured car , so Ed thanks for that, I get a kick out of lookin thru it.....
Here is a picture I took in 2002 in Lancaster Ohio`s KKOA show. One thing to mention is the red dice have stayed with the car threw the years.
Glad you're still along for the ride Mark, and nice to hear you like looking through your KKOA books as much as I do. I'm in mine all the time as well! E Ok, so we know Dean's car was sighted as recently as 2002. I have a copy of the 2002 Spectacular that my late friend Charlie shot. I rarely watch it though as videography was not one of Charlie's strong suits. Watching it you can get a big time case of "car sickness" for lack of a better term. Man I miss that guy..........E
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mospeedimages/14847018944 Here's a photo from 2014. Then owned by Howdy & Gloria Eckenrod of East Bensburg, PA.
The pics of Ferenczi's Merc: first one, with Bob B's, is from Lead East, at the Parsipanny Hilton, so after 1985. The other, with the gravel berm behind it, is earlier Lead East, 84 or 85, at William Patterson College. Ferenczi's was painted Candy Brandywine, hence the gorgeous finish! I believe it was also a late model front wheel drive transplant. That's why the choice of late model 'flat' wheel covers. He drove that car often, and FAST! I believe Barry Mazza may know the whereabouts of it, he was friendly with Bob F.
Great information Bill! That is the same picture that I posted that @loudbang originally posted. So it looks like the '55 changed hands somewhere along the line. Glad to see it's still around, but I wonder about Mr. Stansfield..........E Thanks for chiming in @chopolds, great insight! Maybe some more information will arise out of your lead. I know that you hit a lot of shows in the east in the 80s and 90s. Those must have been the days! Too bad things have changed so much. E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 220. 1951 Mercury Owner: Harry Hackett ? ? ? ? ?, Florida You guys that show up every week to read my babblings will notice that I'm posting this in the morning instead of the evening. Well, I might have to work late this evening, and not knowing if I have to work late or for how long if I do, I thought I'd better get it written up and out just in case my work day runs late into the evening. Good thing I'm somewhat prepared (lol)! With that being said, here we go.......... This week's custom is one that I've seen on a few of my videos for years, but finding information on it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Magazine coverage was scarce as well. The very first time I saw the car was in the January '84 issue of Classic and Custom on page 34. It was in their coverage of the 1983 Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio. The car was pretty plain as far as paint went, but the wild stacked quad headlights were already in place. The front of this car has always reminded me of custom work from the late 50s by the likes of Joe Bailon, Bill Hines or Gene Winfield. One of the great things about @PasoJohn's picture explosion over on the "Kustom Blues" thread is the abundance of great pictures he's posting. If you don't keep up on it, you get pages behind in a hurry (lol)! Thanks to John I've saved quite a few super pictures for future use on upcoming write-ups, including this evening's Merc. John posted the following picture a few weeks back. It was taken at a Spectacular, but I can't say what year. You can see the "Leadsled Spectacular" sign in the background, but the park or fairground surroundings look unfamiliar to me. It might have been in '83 like the picture from Classic and Custom, or even possibly '84. I guess it could be said the picture may have even been in '81 or '82. That is another wild guess as I have no video of either the '81 or '82 show, and I am yet to see a picture of Mr. Hackett's Merc prior to '83. I do know for a fact that the picture is from before 1985 as I'll explain in a minute. My first video sighting of this car was on the 1985 Spectacular video, once again from Springfield, Ohio. The car was only seen for a few brief seconds on the video in the famous Rowdie filming spot right inside the gates. He would set up on the side of the road into the 'grounds and film cars as they cruised by. You can see that some wild flames had been added to the car, changing it up quite a bit. I tried to get a few other shots of the car, but unfortunately when I paused the tape to shoot different picture angles, they were too blurry to use. The next picture is another courtesy of PasoJohn that was posted on the "Kustom Blues" thread. Judging by the surroundings, I'd say it was also taken at the '85 Spectacular. The background looks like what I've been watching for years on my '85 video. This great shot gives a a nice clear view of the car unlike my grainy video picture. Harry once again took his car to the Spectacular in 1986. There was a brief shot of it in the fairgrounds parked with other sleds, but it was another one of those times when I couldn't get a picture that didn't turn out blurry. None of the pictures I took were clear enough to post. After 1986, the video sightings stopped. I'm not sure what happened to Mr. Hackett and his Merc, but being from Florida I could understand him not travelling to the Midwest for the KKOA shows anymore as it was a long drive for him every year. One strange thing is how I couldn't find any shots of the rear of the car. If I've seen a picture of the back of the car I didn't recognize it. There were so many Mercurys close to the color of Harry's that I may have seen it but didn't know it was his car. Without seeing a back picture posted with the front, or even a 3/4 shot giving us a peek at the front of the car, tracing it becomes almost impossible. So there we have it, another great sled that seemed to vanish. I'm pretty sure that you custom faithful that gather here will come up with a few more pictures of this car as it was a custom with a very unique front end treatment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone will post a picture or two of the back as well so we can see if the rear of the car was as radical as the front. We'll have to wait and see. Just when we seem to be rounding the corner on the corona virus, along comes this social unrest. We are really living in some strange times. During all this, I hope that you and yours are safe. I know I've said it before, but He knows the reason for all of this. We just have to keep the faith and know that this will all be behind us soon. You guys take care out there. Have a great week! E
Thanks Ed for the weekly post. It amazes me how you come up with all of the back ground information. You can see all of your work and research with every post. Love this Merc, the front end as crazy as it is, still works on the classic Mercury foundation.
Thanks for the compliment Mick! Having a true, dyed-in-the-wool custom guy like you say something like this is very cool. Truly, I'm honored..........E Well hello Bill! How are ya' man? You must be busy as we don't see enough of you 'round these parts these days! Thanks for chiming in with the information. Those are some great pictures that were posted that I'll add to my custom library. If the back of the Merc posted on page 34 is this week's car, the rear treatment is very mild compared to the wild work done to the front. Page 34 was a long time ago and it seems like the longer I do this the more I forget. It's very possible I hadn't started researching Harry's Merc yet, and what little I did find out about the car I hadn't discovered yet. Sometimes it seems like when I learn something new about a custom, I lose something I knew about another one. It's like the episode of "Married With Children" where Al is teaching Kelly all about sports trivia for a sports quiz show on TV. Kelly learned the sports facts very well, but for every fact she learned, an old fact she knew disappeared. I can totally relate to that (lol)! E
I was certain I had seen this Merc in person, but I can't find any pics of it. Must be Paso John's recent postings that are stuck in my mind. LOL Thanks for all the work every week Ed, I sure enjoy it!!
THATS MY UNCLES MERC! I’ve grown up around him throigh my whole short life time. I’m 14 now and I’ve always been looking for picture of his award winning merc I’ve heard so much about! That’s so crazy to hear about it on here! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
The Jalopy Journal
