I can relate to that. Not to get off topic here, but I see "hillbilly" type conversions on motorhomes and buses scattered all around Denver with our recent homeless population explosion. E
A great car, I've never seen it in my life. It could be the owner's tire changes. They are replacing tires for their car in the winter. as this article suggested https://tireer.com/best-all-weather-tires-for-snow/
John Mueller is on Facebook and posted these pics 5/24/2020. He stated the car is now in Australia. I remember seeing the car at Lead East Hilton Parsippany, NJ often.
Great pic, Jim. But I have to ask, what the heck did the author mean by "frowned upon by more responsible members of the kemper community"? I guess flame thrower guys are irresponsible? Kind of a slam in my opinion. E Great information demmel! I wonder if Mr. Mueller is still into customs. If he is, what is he cruising? The Lead East videos I have show some crazy stuff going on as well as flame throwing like I've never seen. I've heard that Lead East is nothing like it used to be, so I doubt that Lead East is anything like this anymore, or is it? E
LeadEast is a great show but not like it was ... the flame throwers has not happened since the early 90s... DMC Wkd is great on Sat & LE on Both Sat & Sun ... I enjoy going to both .. best parties in NJ ... I been to All the Lead East shows since the 1st in Flemington and only missed 1 in the mid 90s ... of course 2020 did not happen for either ...
Remember the Canadian kid. From what I heard. Well he burnt off the flowers at the Howard Johnson`s hotel in Des Moines in 84 with his flame throwers. And like I said, I enjoyed the night life at the hotel more than I did at the fairgrounds. So lots of people were there as well. Then you add flamethrowers in and maybe a close call or two. So they got banned. In the coverage of the KKOA`s early days, you would see pic`s of the host hotel parking lot. Filled with nothing but customs. Something that doesn`t happen like it did back then. Here`s a pic from 84, must be very late at night with few people in the pic.
Oh... the good old days, I can see my old 55 in the above pic, nothing but customs, It was really something.. I was there for the flamethrower incident. several cars backed into their parking spots on the edge of the lot burned the grass, flowers and some shrubs....
Lead East 1990s - Gathering of Mercs / Shoeboxes! Recent years, lucky to see at least one Merc at a local show (only DMC & LE has them)...
You said a mouthful, Jim. The times have REALLY changed! Since the Spectacular has been in Salina, the nightlife is really hard to find. We cruise through the hotels every year and it is deadsville for the most part. The host hotel has been better in the last few years, but again, it's nothing like I've heard about during the early Leadsled years. Those custom elders were some party animals. @PasoJohn has told me stories of those guys sitting around the hotel parking lot telling stories and drinking beer all night. Then, after getting little to no sleep heading to the fairgrounds for the show the next day. They might catch 40 winks during the day crashed out on the ground in a blanket or in their car, but then that night they were back at it again. This happened the whole weekend! These days at the Spectacular, I think there are a lot of factors for the nightlife not happening like it used to. For one, those custom elders are getting up in years and they just can't stay up all night anymore. Another thing is that if you don't get to the park in Salina early you might not find a place to park, so they hit the hay early. The old fairground venues used to have more space (at least it looks that way on videos). Since the show is pretty much open to everything the customs have to really compete for the parking space. All that being said, the Spectacular is still about the best custom show close to Denver. If I had the means to travel and had enough vacation time, the CCR and Lead East or some other east coast custom show would be on my calendar every year. Same goes for Santa Maria. It just isn't possible for me to criss-cross the good ol' U.S.A. hitting all the shows. Another show that isn't too terribly far that seems to be growing is @straykatkustoms "Lead Ain't Dead". That is another show on my bucket list. One more thing. We all know the custom shows aren't what they used to be, and you lucky devils that were there in the early days got to be a part of the real deal! Sad that the younger custom enthusiasts will never get to experience what you guys did, and that my friends, sucks..........E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 239. 1950 Ford Owner: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, Indiana For the most part, lately I've been pretty lucky about digging up information about the feature customs every week. In the past we've covered a number of cars that I wasn't able to find any owner or hometown information on. I like to refer to these customs as "wildcards". It's been a while since we've had a wildcard, so this week I thought I'd throw one out there. After months and months of researching, I've had no luck finding out who owned this slick little shoebox. The car was a regular at the Leadsled Spectacular many times, but sightings were all I came up with. The car was at every Leadsled from 1984-1987, and then again in 1990. Many times in the videos, the car had a "for sale" sign in the window. This may explain why after '90 there were no more sightings. The car may have changed hands, then in turn, may have gotten a make over that made the car unrecognizable as tonight's feature. The first video still comes from the '84 Spectacular in Des Moines. The car had a vibrant baby blue paint job and what I believe is a now fairly rare Cal Custom grille. The car had an excellent chop with slanted "B" pillars, a frenched antenna in the driver's front fender, frenched headlights and just enough chrome to make it all work. In 1985, the Spectacular was held in Springfield, Ohio, and like I've mentioned before, judging by the video, it was my favorite year of the show. Lots of great customs came in from all over the country. Unfortunately, my video still shots of the '85 show were awful, so I'll just say I did see the car on video. In '86 the show went on to another Springfield, this time in Missouri. Rowdie had a lot of footage of this car on the video, and we get the best look at the details of the car from there. In the first photo, we get the requisite front 3/4 shot with the hood down. You'll note that the car had lake pipes on it at this time. When you look over these photos from '86, you might think, like I did, that aside from the chop this car was really kind of mild. No rounded hood, door or trunk corners and stock taillights. Heck, it even still had the bumper bolts. Nonetheless, the car was stunning and looked like the kind of car a young guy maybe just out of high school may have had in the late 50s or early 60s. In this rear shot you can see the license plate. I know it's hard to make out on my grainy still shot, but in the video you can see the plate was from Indiana. The next shot is just an example of plain old custom goodness. Bias-ply wide whites, a peek at the lake pipes and the classic look of four bar spinners. It doesn't get much better than that! Sorry about the "fuzziness" of the next image. An old TV (these shots were taken before my TV's world turned red) and VHS stills can sometimes be hard to make out. This interior shot shows a basic black interior with a little bit of pleats. Not too fancy but easy to care for and sharp looking. I'd imagine the car was hot to ride in on the warm summer days with little windows and no air conditioning! In the last photo from 1986, we get a peek under the hood of the shoebox and see a nicely detailed flathead with dual carbs and polished heads. Looks like the owner was a student of the 50s as the motor fits the whole old time theme of the car. Like I keep mentioning, the car may have been at the show in '88 and '89, but my video library from those two years is very limited and I didn't see the car. Maybe some of you who were at the show those years may recall seeing it there. In 1990 the car was in Holland, Michigan for the 10th Anniversary Leadsled Spectacular. The car looked the same as it did in the 1986 photos. After 1990, the video sightings stopped, but luckily I did manage to find a number of great pictures of this car on the internet. Thankfully they are nice clean and clear shots of this great beauty. They are all photos from HAMBers, and I believe they were prior to '86 as in every shot the car didn't have lake pipes on it yet. The first picture of this set was posted by @PasoJohn. The next shot was located on Rikster's site in Debb's @KustomLincolnLady collection. This one was also on Rikster's site in the Scott Pavey collection. Our last photo tonight was posted by none other than Jim @stanlow69 Stanley. I'm sure he'll know exactly where and when this picture was taken. Jim has a mind like a computer! That's all I have tonight folks. I'm sure that one of our custom faithful will remember this car and hopefully the owner. I'd imagine that since Debb (@KustomLincolnLady) is from Indiana, she might have some good insight as to who owned this car. If not, maybe Jim (@stanlow69), @Moriarity or @PasoJohn might know something as they were at the Spectacular nearly every year back then, as many others that I didn't mention. So put on your thinking caps like our elementary school teachers used to say and figure out this gorgeous mystery custom. C'mon guys, I know the answer is out there somewhere! It looks like the inevitable is going to come to be at the end of this week. They are talking about SNOW here in Denver. It is the least favorite four letter word I know. Hopefully it will be a mild one and the warm weather will return soon after. Heck, it better. I still have one cedar pine tree to get trimmed before the snow hits, and I'm still waiting on the special pole trimmer I ordered to get the job done. I've been waiting a few weeks now. Darn Covid has slowed production at the factory where they make the things. I hope it gets here soon. If not, I'm going to have a heck of a time shoveling snow on my sidewalk because the tree has gotten so fat. Man, winter is a drag! Anyway, there's still time to get out and have some car fun, so get to it. Winter is long. You guys take care and have a super week! E
I dug through my photos and as usual I am no help. I remember the car but did not know the owner.....
Here’s the same car in 1985 at the Hoosier swap meet & car show in Indianapolis. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Whatever happened to this 57 plymouth suburban 2dr gasser? No info on location owner or anything. birth day febuary 21 2008
What Ever Happened To..........? number 240. 1949 Ford Owner: Kelly Puckett New Albany, Ohio This week's custom is probably one of the more famous cars that I've featured so far, but the history of it seems to be a little vague. The car has changed hands at least once that I know of, but it has become very illusive and I can't say for certain if it still exists. Kelly Puckett has been one of the unsung builders of customs for many years. This particular Ford was a car that he finished sometime in 1984, at a time when sectioned shoeboxes seemed to be popping up all over the place. Since then though, the sectioned Ford trend has really died down, if not almost disappeared all together. When Kelly's shoebox hit the scene it caused quite a stir, and became a regular in the winner's circle at many shows it was entered in. Through my research I found that the car was at the 1984 Merc-Deuce Reunion in Wichita where it won an award that was very prestigious. Apparently, the "Best of Friends" award was a biggie. I only found out about this when I stumbled on a picture of the Ford in the KKOA Trendsetter Volume 6 Number 12 on page 23 (1991). This was from their coverage of the 1991 Leadsled Spectacular in Hamilton, Ohio. After the 1984 Merc-Deuce, Kelly took the car to the 1985 Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio. This was a great weekend for Kelly as the show was in his home state and the drive wasn't too long. The other thing that made this a great show for him was the fact that he won the Harry Bradley Award. This is one of the greatest honors a custom builder could get at the time as it was awarded to a car with great design, and not just style and custom work. This shows that Kelly had a great eye for building customs. Since my TV is on its way out, I never did get any good still pictures of it at the '85 Leadsled, but I did find some great pictures that were posted on Rikster's site that I believe are from around 1985 or so. This first picture is bad in the fact that the hood is up, but I had to post it to show the license plate. I believe this is one of the earliest show photos of the car. I think it might have been at the '84 Merc-Deuce or the '85 Spectacular, but that really is just a guess. This next pair of pictures are a little better. Note the car now has personalized license plates "RED SLD"--still from Ohio. I can't say when this was, but the background looks like the Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ohio. The Spectacular was there in 1983, 1985 and 1993. If it is indeed Springfield, I'd say it was 1985. Kelly once again made an appearance at the Spectacular in 1990. That year the show was in Holland, Michigan. Sorry, I didn't get shots of the car at the show that year, but it looked unchanged from 1985. I didn't see the car on the 1991 video, but the article I posted above that mentioned the Merc-Deuce Reunion shows the car was there. The '49 was there in '90 and '91, but I didn't see the car on the '86 or '87 videos. For '88 and '89 I can't say for sure as I don't have videos for those years (there's that darn video tape hole in my collection again). Maybe someone will remember seeing the car there between '86 and '89. Rikster did have some great shots of the interior. I don't know the time frame of these pictures. I never did figure out if the interior of the car was ever changed from when Kelly built the car. These are two of the three interior pictures that I found, and in all the shots the interior looks to be the same. Top notch work that screams 60s show car! The next and final time I saw the car was at Sled Scene East in 1994. Here we find that the car now had a new owner. A guy named Mike Churilla from Clark Summit, Pennsylvania purchased the car. He took the car to the show where it won the first place Sam Radoff award, which was something like the Harry Bradley award. The car was finished nearly ten years earlier, but it just goes to show that Mr. Puckett had an eye for custom style that never seemed outdated. Nice to see the car still looked the same as when Kelly completed the car. Many times a new owner will change up an iconic car to make it his own and it loses style points. That is definitely not the case here! This grouping shot was also on Rikster's site. Here we finally get a nice shot of the finely detailed engine. Note the owner's name at the bottom of the page. I wish I could tell you when the car was sold, but that remains to be a mystery. I did manage to get a few still shots from the '94 Sled Scene East video. You can see the car still looks the same as in years past. In this last picture you can see the only difference I saw, and that was the addition of Mr. Churillo's own personalized license plates from Pennsylvania, "REDIRON". After Sled Scene East '94, I didn't find any more information on the car. I do believe the car is still out there somewhere. It is too nice of a very well thought out and built car to just vanish, although it has happened to other great sleds before. So where is it? Anyone know? Well gang, the next time we meet Halloween will be in the rear view mirror. We had a snow storm over the weekend, and the snow is just about gone. It looks like the little ghosts and goblins will get a nice evening to go out and get their goodies on Saturday, that is, if the powers that be allow things to happen due to the virus. Last year the weather was awful and it seemed more like Christmas time than Halloween. Remember these pictures? Last year on October 30th and 31st we had close to a foot of snow! Thankfully the snow over the weekend was nothing like last year's Halloween storm, and they're saying the weather should be decent this year. I hope to get out and do something fun, but we'll see what happens. I hope all of you, my custom family, can also get out and do something festive for the weekend. What ever you decide to do, please be careful. These are some strange times we are living in right now. So until next week, let me be one of the first to say, "Trick or Treat"! See you next week! E
That's a great looking shoebox. Surely it has to be around somewhere, even if it's just been in hiding. I do love me a sectioned shoebox. They just take to it so nicely. Snow in October....geesh! Reminds me of my youth in Wisconsin and trick or treating in my snowmobile suit. Haha
I'm sure you don't miss all that white stuff Doc! Alot of people dig it (sorry, couldn't resist), but I'm over it! E
It seems I'm almost always digging through magazines and watching videos when I get some spare time. Lately I've been going through my early KKOA newsletters. Mostly the short lived Kemp Gazette. The Kemp Gazette was more like a newspaper than a magazine, and looking through them is a slow painstaking process. Time has caused them to get very brittle and if I'm not careful they tear pretty easy. Still very worthwhile reading though. I've been looking through the issues from from '85 and '86, and working my way further back into the early 80s. It has been fun as I'm finding all kinds of interesting tidbits for future feature cars. It's almost like I was fortunate enough to be at those iconic early Leadsled Spectaculars! Tonight I stumbled on a piece of information that I've been trying to find for quite a while now. This all goes back to our W.E.H.T. feature car #184. It was a chopped Chevy coupe from Iowa that was at the Spectacular a number of times in the 80s. I posted it back in September of 2019, without knowing who the owner was. While I was looking through the Kemp Gazette, Volume 2 Number 4 (1985) on page 19, I finally found out who the owner of this great custom was. It belonged to a gentleman named Glenn Fluegge. The picture and caption also said the car was a '48 and not a '46. It was hard to tell what year it was since it had been so heavily customized. I went ahead and made the changes to the write up. I'll post the picture I found tonight, then I'll post a link to the write up of the car so you can refresh your memory or to check it out just in case you missed it. I know it sounds goofy, but it always feels good to finally put a piece of the puzzle together and give credit where credit is due. So cool! Hope you guys enjoy the update. E https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-126#post-13248303
One last thing tonight. I was just going through my computer files putting the picture of the Fluegge '48 Chevy with my other pictures when I came across something that was interesting. Our W.E.H.T. #69 was a chopped '51 Merc that was converted to a panel truck. The owners were Dale and Kerry you guessed it, Fluegge! At first I thought it was a coincidence, but then I found this picture. @Moriarity posted it back when we discussed the '51 Merc panel. Look at the car sitting next to the Merc. It was Glenn's '48! I don't know if they were brothers, cousins, father and son or what, but I believe they were related. Here's the link to Dale and Kerry's slick Merc panel. Such a cool ride. I'm surprised more like it aren't being built. Wow, two updates in one evening, I'm on a roll! Have a good night all! E https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-45#post-12122131
Here are a couple pic`s from the Holland KKOA show. Notice the Georgia plates. That`s where Kelly resides now. For some reason my scanner pic`s aren`t coming out very clear. Another feature car sitting next to it.
Somewhere in my magazine collection there is a pic of his shoebox and Stucky`s Merc getting the awards at the Merc Duce Reunion. I talk to him when I see him. In our conversations, he asked if I knew about his shoebox. Of coarse I did and said I really liked it. He proceeded to tell me about it but for the life of me, can`t remember if he knows where it is at or if he owns it or what ? It`s KKOA Hall of Famer Kelly Pucket.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 241. 1951 Mercury "Plum Wild" Owner: Ron Wilson Dallas, Texas This week's custom is one that may have been at the Spectacular more than once in the early years, but I was only able to find proof of it being there once. Mr. Wilson took his fine Merc to the Spectacular in 1983 in Springfield, Ohio. But before I get ahead of myself, I have to back up a bit. The first time I saw the car was in Custom Cars by Hot Rod printed in 1982. It took me a while to put the pieces together, but I finally figured it out. When Mr. Wilson's '51 was in the magazine, it was more of a hot rod for lack of a better description. It had black wall tires on it with wire wheels, a little bit of a forward rake and no skirts. It also had a tube grille, was chopped and even had dummy spots, but it definitely wasn't your typical taildragging Mercury. The car must have made an impression though as it was on the cover of the magazine. In the magazine feature (page 36), you can see a nicely detailed engine compartment, and an interior that leaned toward some street rod trends. You will also notice the forward rake. This version of the car reminds me of similar Mercs built in the late 70s and early 80s like Jerry Titus'. Since it always takes a while for cars that are photographed to get into magazines, I'd guess that the photo shoot for this car may have been shot sometime in 1981. Ron may have had his Merc at the first Leadsled (1981) in Wichita, and even possibly the second show in 1982 in Des Moines. No magazine proof, and no video footage that I've ever been able to find. You have to remember, in the early 80s a video camera was a real rarity. That was still fairly new technology at the time. For the third time around in 1983, the Leadsled Spectacular landed in Springfield, Ohio. Lots of famous cars or "heavies" as I like to call them were in attendance. The video is super, and there are many cars on it that seemed to be at the show only for that year. This Merc seems to be part of that club. It didn't take long for the Merc to make an appearance as it was early on the video when the car came rolling into the fairgrounds. The car was a real looker, but it had made a transformation since the magazine feature in 1982. Upon first glance you will notice the tube grille is gone and an early Corvette grille took its place. A closer look shows the blackwalls and wires are gone replaced by wide whites and Olds flipper caps. Skirts are on the car, and the back end is now down like a leadsled should be. As the car cruised in front of the camera, a wider view shows the same scallops as the magazine version. Quite a change from a year or so earlier with the street rod rake to the custom transformation. As the car passes the camera we get a look at the back where "Plum Wild" is lettered on the quarter panels. You can also see some custom taillights, but I was never able to get a clear look to try and figure out what they were. As Ron starts to turn around to find a parking place we get a little better rear view. Hard to tell in the pictures, but the taillights look to be '39 Fords or possibly '49 or '50 Fords turned upright. They even have a slight look of '41 Studebaker lights as well. I hope a clearer picture gets posted to clear it all up. Note the license plate, "RONS 51". The last two shots from the '83 video are from some random cruising shots where Rowdie was setup doing interviews. The paint on the car was very vibrant, and really stood out. The car really was a classic sled! Aside from the Custom Cars by Hot Rod article and the video shots, I wasn't able to come across much more on the car. I did find one great photo that was on Rikster's site posted under Debb's @KustomLincolnLady Collection. This is by far the best image of the car in its leadsled style. I wish I had more to share on this car, but this was all I could come up with. I'd imagine the car was rebuilt with a new look and isn't recognizable as "Plum Wild". Maybe Mr. Wilson still owns it and it has been put away for many years. At any rate, I hope someone out there has a little information on the car, or at least some more awesome photos. Such a great sled! So how was your Halloween? It was very quiet around here. For the first time in years we didn't hand out candy to the kids. I have to admit seeing the little ghosts and witches was one of the highlights of the year for our family. People kept their kids home with the virus concerns I guess, as our neighbors that did give out candy said they only got a handful of trick or treaters. Quite a change from years past when three to five hundred kids is the norm! Just another chapter in the weird year that is known as 2020. Speaking of 2020, did you get out and vote? I hope you did. No matter who you are pulling for, we should all be proud of the fact that we are allowed to cast our voice in the choice of who will run this great country for the next four years. Whoever wins, I hope they will guide this country with wisdom and grace. God Bless America! Take care guys! I'll see you next Tuesday! E
The Jalopy Journal
