It will be interesting to see if it is the same car. I didn't call Sam yet, but I will. As far as the visor went, Sam didn't have a way to contact the owner of it as he apparently had already moved by then, so the deal never happened. If the visor was still available today, I would definitely buy it! E Thanks Mick, good to be here. You and the Doc are always good for a laugh or two. Our visits at the Spectacular are always great! By the way Mick, me, Mitch and his boy Thomas were going to go to Lead Ain't Dead last September, but at the last minute Mitch couldn't get the time off work and with the weird hesitation problem in my Merc that I still can't find, I was too chicken to make the drive alone. We WILL make it down there one of these days, and I hope the event continues to grow. Looked like a great time last year! I hope you find more pics of the Mopar. Ok, time to jump into the "Way Back Machine" and show the custom faithful Mick and Doc's cars back about 30 years ago. This first pic is from the first KKOA book on page 119. Mick had a clean '55. Looks like it wouldn't have taken much to get traditional. A little lowering, with more in the back than the front, some dummy spots, wide whites and a nice set of flipper 'caps, some lakes and skirts and you would have made people drool at the KKOA shows. So, I have to ask, "What Ever Happened To..........?" the ol' 55 Mick? E Next is Doc's '64 Pontiac convertible. This picture is from the first KKOA book on page 123. I've always loved the Pontiacs of 60s and I've always wanted one. Too bad they are getting untouchable like Impalas. I'm sure a single cat could easily fill every seat with pretty gals wanting to go for a cruise every Saturday night all summer long. I'm going to ask the Doc what everyone is always asking me about my Buick, "When you gonna get 'er back on the road?" Cool car Doc, and even cooler that you still have it all these years later! E
Praise the Lord I grew out of my original plans for the car and will be a bit more refined now....if'n I ever get back to it. LOL ......and I had thought I found the right girl, but a few years later she decided she didn't find the right guy and went her own way in the world. The right girl really is in the house now.
Way Back machine? Lol! Seems like it was just yesterday..... Three years ago I decided to sell my '55 Chevy to a relative. He had been after me for years and he finally broke me and I sold it. I wasn't doing anything with it and I turned into that old man telling people I'm going to fix it up someday. Reality, that wasn't going to happen. It was more of a project than he wanted so he sold it to a friend of mine. I've had the opportunity to buy it back but I've lost interest. I need to concentrate on my other projects. I saw a picture of it the other day in its current condition but I couldn't find it to share. The current owner loves '55 Chevrolets and plans to get it back on the road.
Here are my pics of the Dodge at Hang’n Dice. Pics don’t do it justice, very kool ride! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Does anybody remember this one Doug Thompson built someone else said Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
that is not the Doug Thompson built car. the one you pictured is a pontiac and it has been talked about here before but I don't remember who built it. Here is a pic of the Doug Thompson car which is a Chevy
Wasn't his last name Walker? I thought he was a Veterinarian from Missouri. Built a wild chopped candy red 40 ford coupe.
Yeah, I looked on @Rikster site and found in the comments on the bottom of his article on the Thompson car that it was Dr Stephen Walker who built it and it was named the Pontilac
Wow Ed, didn't know Sam was still around...good to hear he still is. He punched the louvers in my brother's '47 Chevy Aerosedan - hood and trunk, many many years ago...But the best part (?), I didn't even know he had a Lincoln kustom. Post up some pix can ya...??? Small world eh…??? R-
I was always crazy about Dan's Fleetline. His trunklid with frenched license plate was way cool! I also liked the sneaky way you guys customized his lake pipes to follow the curve of the lower body, true customizing genius! I miss seeing it around. By the way, how is Dan doing these days? I'll have to dig through my pictures to see if I have any of Sam's Lincoln. If you go back quite a number of years ago, before the Lincoln was completely rebuilt, Sam was cruising it around for a while. It had a very tired black paint job with a chromed trunklid! I still haven't called him, but I will. Stay tuned..........E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 251. 1952 Ford "Boopmobile" Owners: Dennis "Dirt" and CJ Goffe Racine, Wisconsin This week's sled was around the KKOA scene for many years. The car was pretty mild for the most part, but according to some information that I found, it was customized long before the Goffes got it. My first sighting of the car was on Rowdie's 1985 Leadsled Spectcular video. In '85 the show was in Springfield, Ohio. I've mentioned many times, the '85 show looked huge, and the video is one of my favorites. In Rowdie's videos, he always did a cruise through the fairgrounds in a convertible filming all the action. Neat idea that was almost like being there. Neat to go back some 36 years and relive the show, but how can 1985 be that long ago now? Sheesh.......... Anyway, in one of the last shots of the fairgrounds cruise, a nice little maroon Ford was being towed behind a mid-70s Monte Carlo. The first time I saw it I wondered why the Ford was being towed. These were the only shots of the car on the '85 video. It didn't take long to find out what happened.......... In 1986, the travelling custom show rolled into Springfield, Missouri. The show looked good, but not quite as good as '85. I might be wrong, so those of you lucky cats that were at both shows let us know what you think. At the show, Rowdie managed to catch up with Dirt, and one of his gals interviewed him. Dirt mentioned that "if you watched last year's video, this was the car that was being towed in through the gates." He went on to say the car spun a few main bearings so that was why it was towed. He never mentioned where the engine problems occurred or how the Monte ended up being used to tow the car. This goes to show you how the Goffes were hardcore custom people. Instead of just jumping in the Monte to go to the show, they took the pains to tow their Ford to the show just so they could say the car was there. Now that's dedication! One of the unique features on this Ford was the use of the Buick grille. The grille opening wasn't reworked, so it doesn't quite fit perfectly, but that's ok. It sure makes it easy to identify. On the rear was some nice striping. When you're around an area for a while, you begin to recognize the work of local stripers. If guys (or gals) do a lot of work to cars that you see around your town, you begin to recognize each striper's style. I know I can recognize the talented work of many artists around the Denver area when I see it on a car. Now this may be a reach, but way back at W.E.H.T. #174 we covered a slick '52 Ford convertible known as "Tuff Enough". We weren't able to find out who the owner was (yet), but in his interview he said he was a pinstriper from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Here's a link back to "Tuff Enough" just in case you missed it, or you want to brush up on an old post: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-121#post-13138464 The striping on the 'vert had a distinctive "curley Q" style on it that is very unique. I know it's hard to see, but the trunklid on the convertible had some striping on it. The style looks very similar to the Goffe's Ford. Sorry the pictures are so blurry, but these were about the only shots I have. Here is a shot of the "Tuff Enough" lettering on the convertible You can see some of the "curley Q" style in the artist's work. And here is a shot of one of the Betty Boops on the lower front fender of the Goffe's Ford. Sorry for the bad pictures, but shooting stills of my nearly worn out grainy video tapes is a challenge. Plus, shooting pictures of video tapes on the new T.V. is tougher than I thought it would be, but I think you can see what I'm talking about. I mentioned that this might be a reach, but I wonder if it is. The convertible's owner was from Milwaukee, and the Goffes were from Racine. The towns are not that far apart. When you get a few custom guys running in the same circle, word gets around and a striper might stripe and letter many customs in his area. Also, both of the owners of these cars were interviewed by the same Rowdie gal at the '86 Spectacular. Lots of coincidences. Make sense? Maybe not. The Goffes attended their third Leadsled in a row, travelling to Springfield, Illinois in '87. Their car was only on the video in one quick scene cruising down the hill from the entry gates and then down another hill to the show area. The hood looked to be in primer at that time, but it didn't look to be louvered yet. One more shot a little closer shows a window cooler was added for '87. You can also see the Betty Boop on the lower front fender. My next Leadsed Spectacular sighting was at the '90 Spectacular in Holland, Michigan. I have some video from '88 and '89, but I didn't see the car on them. Sometime between '87 and '90 the car underwent some big changes. From a caption I'll post in a bit, Dirt mentioned the car needed a paint job, so they decided on "Wynn's purple with Pepto Bismol pink flames". On the repainted version, the chrome bumpers, signal light housings and grille surround were painted pink. Maybe the parts were in need of re-chroming and the Goffes couldn't afford to have it done, or they were doing the mono-chromatic paint thing that was so popular in the late 80s early 90s. The hubcaps were also changed to some color matched pink turbine style with some "Ben Hur" or "Grease" style spinners on them. Going around back, you'll see the absence of chrome matching the front. Note the window cooler is still there, only it has been painted purple to match the car. Here's a shot of the new Rat Fink and Betty Boop artwork on the trunk. Under the hood was a healthy V8 with dual carbs. I'm sure Betty could get down the road! After the '90 show, the video sightings stopped, but I did find some more tidbits about the car in print. The Goffes sent in pictures of the purple and pink flamed version of their car to the KKOA, where it was selected to be put in the first KKOA book. It was featured on page 129. It was a nice write up with lots of details about the car. The last thing I found about this car would make any car owner proud. The Goffe's car was featured in the Mike Key book "Wild Leadsleds" printed in 1992. It was on page 42. The book is very large and I couldn't fit the whole page on my scanner. The caption mentioned that flames never go out of style, and that this wild Ford proves that. It is the best shot I found of the last version. The Mike Key shot is the last information I was able to find on this one. There are many things I'd like to find out about this car--like the Monte tow thing I mentioned above. Also, I can't imagine that "Dirt" is Mr. Goffe's real name. This is the only name I found and that was from the KKOA article. Why didn't the gal doing the interview at the '86 Spectacular find out Dirt's name? For that matter, why didn't she ask the name of the guy that owned the '52 convertible (W.E.H.T. #174) as well? I guess being in the eye of the camera and doing interviews it would be easy to forget things. I know that the last version of the Goffe's car isn't traditional, but let's be kind with the comments. The Goffes may see this one day and who are we to judge their vision? I just think it's cool they were around the scene for so long, and for that they get my enduring respect. Well guys, it's almost Valentine's Day again. Are you ready? Better hustle before the stores run out of goodies for your beloved. You know if you forget she'll never let you forget (lol). Go out and get a card and some flowers or candy. This means you gals too. Any guy would love a quart of motor oil or even a Burger King gift card or something along those lines. Remember, it's the thought that counts! Have a great Valentine's Day y'all! I'll see you next week! E
Here is the tuff enough Ford and the Dirt Ford at the 86 KKOA Show. These are pics my Dad took at the show and hotel.
. @Sum54ford Thanks for posting that pic. That`s my dad`s 51 Vicky in post 4487. He will be turning 80 tomorrow. Here`s a couple more crappy scans of it. Springfield Missouri and Holland Michigan.
Hey @Sum54ford, this is some great information. Thanks for chiming in! Glad to see that Mr. Goffe is still rolling around in the "Boopmobile". You have to admit that the "Wynn's purple and Pepto Bismol pink" paint looks to have held up well for over 30 years! E Hey Jim, wish that ornery Dad of yours a Happy Birthday for me. I always enjoy talking with him as he is such a character. Wow, 80! Good to hear he is doing well! E
Here are a couple more pictures I found online. @stanlow69 That is cool that your Dads Ford was in the picture , I have a 51 Victoria as well. Tell your Dad Happy Birthday!!
Saw you sitting by your car in Indy(CCR) a couple years ago. Was gonna talk to you later, But never saw you again by your car. Good looking car and I`m sure your Merc is just as nice.
Well I hope I see you at this years CCR as I plan on having my 51 Mercury there as well as having my Dad drive my 51 Victoria! Should be a good year for it. Hopefully it will happen.
The owners name of the 52 Ford is Dennis. I knew him when we were both members of the Nostalgic car club in Milwaukee Wi. I think the striping was done by Ronnie Winkler, Konnie Winklers son. Ronnie did quite a bit of striping for Nostalgic members as well as many other cars in the Milwaukee area
Buick boy hits the nail on the head! The 52 Ford owners, Dennis and CJ still cruise the 52 Ford, I saw them at a southeastern Wisconsin car show in 2019. Car looks the same as the pics in Sum54ford's post. I just talked to Connie Winkler, the Tuff Enuff Ford convert was his, we now know who owned #174 WEHT! The Ford got rearended hard, the impact totaled the Ford. Riding in the back seat was the Ronald McDonald Moon Man character and two other passengers. At the time, Connie was taking the Moon Man to various Milwaukee McDonald's for guest appearances. His son Ronnie did all the body work and paint. Ronnie moved to Las Vegas for a while, came back to Wisc. and passed away. Connie is in central Wisconsin, no cars, still playing blues harmonica. Curt R
Wow guys, what a great pair of posts loaded with information! I'll be making some edits to The Goffe's feature page, as well as the '52 Ford convertible (W.E.H.T.#174). When I saw these posts this morning I knew I had some digging to do for some information before I replied to these posts. So, when I got home from work I dug in and I came up with a few tidbits. I try to keep things updated as much as I can as this thread may be an invaluable resource for custom history, especially from the 80s and 90s, or as I like to call it, the custom renaissance. Even if it isn't that valuable of a resource, it may be fun to look back at it a number of years down the road and remember all the forgotten customs and their great owners/builders. While I was at work today, I started thinking about this thread and how it seems like we've had quite a number of Wisconsin cars featured. I did a quick search of past feature cars and if my math is correct, there have been 14 feature cars from America's Dairyland! Many of them are some of my personal favorites, and a few of these folks I actually knew. Right away when I think of Wisconsin customs, the late Ralph Schindel comes to mind. He was a super guy and he is missed. His son Jeff was also quite a custom guy. Here are the links to Ralph's wild customs in case you missed them. 1961 Chevy "Bel Camino" W.E.H.T.#180: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-124#post-13212047 1964 Chevy Bel Air W.E.H.T.#198: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-130#post-13375869 A few other favorites of mine are the Courtney Church '57 Chevy W.E.H.T.#179: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-124#post-13201916 The "My Way" '53 Ford Convertible built by the late Phil Iturbide (W.E.H.T.#168): https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-118#post-13079815 And the John Thomaszewski (@da dodge brother) '50 Merc (W.E.H.T.#89): https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-64#post-12316973 I can't say for sure if the custom movement is still as big up in Wisconsin as it used to be, but I do know of at least one club that is still hard at it--at least they were a few short years ago. This is the Brewtown Cruisers. @BrewtownPrez runs it but he hasn't been on the HAMB in quite a while. I know that as of a few years ago, they still had an annual cruise-in at a neat little old time drive-in restaurant called the Nite Owl. My better half's little brother moved to Milwaukee a number of years back to do some internship work before he became a doctor. Him and his wife loved it back there, but he said the winters were BRUTAL. Surprising coming from a Colorado kid, but I've heard the winters in the Midwest and back East are tough. I remember one time when they came back home to visit, he mentioned that he saw a bunch of cool old cars at an old time drive-in one night. Turns out they just happened to be going to the Nite Owl for dinner when a cruise was going on. His boys (very little at the time) just loved the place, and it was a treat to go there once in a while. He said if I ever went out for a visit, we'd have to go there during a cruise. Not long after my better half got to take a trip back there and she really liked it. Of course this was in the summer. I couldn't get the time off to go, so I had to stay home. Junior (my brother-in-law) has since moved back to Colorado and opened up his own practice, so if I ever go to the Nite Owl it will be on my own on vacation. It is one of those little things that's on my bucket list. Maybe one of these days. Ok, enough rambling. I've thought about the "Tuff Enough" Ford quite a bit. I remember when the owner was interviewed by one of Rowdie's gals at the '86 Leadsled, he said that his Dad was "heavy into customs and he says I need to get with the program." Now that @buick boy and @Curt R put the pieces together for us, we know that this guy (Ronnie Winkler) was the son of one heck of a custom guy, Connie Winkler. Connie has had quite a number of fine customs over the years, but I've only featured his '59 Buick so far. Connie's '59 was one of the first cars featured, being W.E.H.T.#8! Here is a link back to that write up: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-4#post-11559469 At the time of that posting, I didn't know much about Connie, but over the years I've learned quite a bit. Connie is a true Wisconsin legend. Heck, even though it sounds like he doesn't have any customs anymore, a guy that plays a harmonica in a blues band is a cool cat in my book! Saying this now might sound stupid, but I saw a video clip a while back that made me think that Connie was Ronnie's Dad. This was on a very short video clip that @PasoJohn gave me a while back. In that clip Connie was cruising his Buick through the fairgrounds, and "Tuff Enough" was following behind. It all fits now. I'm very saddened to hear that Ronnie has passed away. After seeing him on the '86 video in the interview, I can't imagine that he was very old when he died, because on the video he looked like a very young man. Rest in peace Ronnie.......... In closing, I went ahead and watched John's video clip this evening and I took some still pictures of Connie and Ronnie cruising the '86 Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Missouri. I tried to shoot the pictures in sequence so you can see they were cruising together. Boy, those old KKOA shows were pure magic! Those were the days! E
Oh yeah, almost forgot. There might be a few of you that are too young to remember McDonald's "Mac Tonight", the McDonald's character that @Curt R mentioned in his post. Out of many of the McDonald's characters over the years, I thought that "Mac Tonight" was one of their best. It seems like he wasn't around very long. Here's a commercial with Mac. They re-did the Bobby Darin classic "Mack the Knife". Nostalgia was big in the late 80s! E
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