Hey Dan, thanks for inquiry on the progress,(or lack of), on my old 52 Chevy. I haven’t been able to work on it lately. It got interrupted my moving and building a 64 Buick Wildcat. Right now all the body work is done and in primer. When I got the original car back it was in really poor condition. I got a 51 hardtop and am building it using the front sheet metal, bumpers, side trim and any thing else that was salvageable. I decided to change the taillights . I have another project that I should be finished with in about a month and then I’ll get back on the Chevy.
The great ones always make building customs look easy. Thanks for the update Mr. Pratt (@El Pratt )! E
An update and good news! Couple years back I posted that Hank's Pontiac had a engine fire and he decided to take the insurance money. Well a few weeks ago, the Pontiac showed up on Marketplace for sale and Hank's son bought it and it is back in the family again. Not much information at this time, someone got it running again and it is still pink and white, but was missing the Pontiac hood trim. (not sure if the fire destroyed it or just wasn't installed yet.
Was scrolling through some old posts on this thread when I came across the "Low Comotion" '54 Merc, and I immediately recognized it from seeing it up for sale in an add on Facebook marketplace a few months ago. I just went on marketplace to see if it was still up, and sure enough it still is for $28,500. It looks like it's in the same condition as it was in the 80s.
Don and Marilyn Kober were my grandparents. After the Merc was rear-ended, my grandfather cut out the piece of the fender with "Cotton Candy" painted on it and I now have it hanging on my garage wall. Sometime after the '86 Leadsled Spectacular, he added a second pair of headlights and repainted it a reddish brown color. He sold the car sometime in the 90s, and I have no clue of what happened to it after. It's already been said on here that he owned the "California Dreamn'" '54 Buick, but he also owned a '49 Buick called the "Blue Illusion", a '55 Ford Station Wagon mild custom called the "Goffer", a '57 Chevy pickup called the "Trick Truck", a '61 Cadillac hearse called the "Dead Sled", and a '73 Lincoln called the "Shadow Dancer". My grandfather passed away in 2005 and my grandmother passed away in 2017, but their kustom spirit still lives strong in me. I made a thread on my grandfather's cars a few months ago, but I thought I should update you guys that didn't know on the "Whatever Happened To" thread.
Thanks for chiming in @Chromesmokeandfire. Your Grandparents were true custom people, and it's nice to hear it rubbed off on you! Please feel free to add any more updates on the Kobers as we love finding out more custom history 'round these parts. Take care! E
Thank you for making this thread! Many of the cars you posted on here I remember seeing on old VHS tapes my grandparents had of shows that they went to. It's nice to be able to read their history after all these years. You really did your research on my grandparents Merc. I even learned some new things and I thought I knew everything about that car. I never knew that my grandfather welded on a '51 Merc rear end after the accident and repainted it pearl with yellow flames. That really blew me away! I always wondered what happened to the "NIFTY" license plates since my grandmother told me she forgot what happened to them. Sad to see that they're still lost to time. I have the plaque that was attached to the merc and a peice of the custom trunk liner that says "Cotton Candy" on it. I also have my grandfather's Wanderers jacket which I'll post below along with the plaque, trunk liner other memorabilia I have such as custom license plates, dash plaques, and awards. The Wanderers members that you've mentioned (Ray and Myrna Bozarth, Daryl and Deb Lewis, Larry Booth, and Nancy Adolphson) were all very close friends with my grandparents and would always travel to shows together. Other club members that were close friends with my grandparents were Pat and Dwight Swart. I think that they had two cars and one of them was a '59 or '60 El Camino. Ray and Larry have since passed away, but I'm in touch with Nancy and Pat. My grandparents were also good friends with Darryl Starbird and went to his shows annually. Darryl wanted my grandfather's '49 Buick, the "Blue Illusion" in his museum, but my grandfather insisted that he have the "California Dreamn" put in their instead. My grandmother took me to meet Darryl at one of his shows when I was 8 and he signed a copy of his book for me. My grandparents had more memorabilia that was given to my late aunt such as the show signs for the "Cotton Candy", "California Dreamn'", and "Blue Illusion" and several trophies. After my aunts death I was unable to get a hold of them.
Thanks for the updates and more info on your grandparents @Chromesmokeandfire. I never met them, but remember their cars well from the shows. I alllllllmmmmooooossst bought the California Dreamn Buick when it was for sale a while back. I spent one day too long thinking about it and it was gone. Win some, lose some. LOL
Forgot to post this one last night. These are the earliest show plaques that my grandparents had. The earliest being from the Early Ford Show from June 26, 1982. That show could've been the first show that they went to with a car at least. The Merc was my grandfather's first custom which he bought in '81. But you can see from all these plaques that my grandparents were hardcore show goers, going to several shows a years. According to these plaques, it looks like the last show they went to was "Cruisin' The Coast" in October 2002. 20 years of being on the road almost non stop, a life that I'd do almost anything to live. Maybe someday... My grandfather passed away a couple of weeks before my 4th birthday, so I have very few memories of him. My grandmother told me their car show stories growing up and I idolized my grandfather since I was 6 years old. Also @OG lil E, if there's anyway you could send me the footage of the '84 Leadsled Spectacular at least of the Merc I'd very much appreciate it, thank you so much.
Lots of great history there @Chromesmokeandfire. Your grandparents lived the real custom life during the true glory days of the KKOA. Shame it isn't quite the same these days, but everything changes. Nice to see you've been able to hang on to many of their mementos and keep their memory alive. So many folks who you mentioned are no longer with us or have gotten away from the leadsled scene. This is something that bums me out as I would have loved to meet them and hear their custom stories. The elders of the custom hobby are the real unsung heroes of the movement, but sadly they have passed away or are up in years, and with each one that we lose, some custom history goes with them. That was the purpose of this thread, to try and connect the owners and builders of these great cars through our own (the HAMB faithful) "historical archives", and build a record of many of the unknowns in the game from many years ago. It has turned out to be a great collection of customs, custom people and the organizations that helped bring back customs in the late 70s. Hard to think where the custom movement would have been without these custom elders and the KKOA. It truly revived a small corner of the car hobby that was pretty much left for dead. It's nice to see a guy like you (@Chromesmokeandfire ) that seems to love customs and has the fire to help keep the movement moving forward. As far as the 1984 Leadsled, I have no way to duplicate that show as it is on DVD. You could contact @49toad as he was Rowdie Productions "hisself" and he was the genius behind the camera at all those shows way back when. I haven't "seen" him on the board lately, but I'm sure if you try you can get in touch with him he can get you any show you need that he recorded. I did find a video on YouTube of Rowdie's 1986 Leadsled Spectacular that someone posted. The interview of your Grandpa and one of the Rowdie girls is at about 1:06:58 on the video. You may have seen this already, but I thought I'd post in just in case you hadn't. Thanks for all your information and kind words @Chromesmokeandfire, it is much appreciated! E
I've been searching for a while now, but is there any videos of the KKOA show in Holland, MI from the 80s and 90s?
I found a guy on Ebay who had some of Video Bob's stuff on DVD but he was in Australia. I can try and find him again if you want to contact him.
@OG lil E I did see the '86 Leadsled Spectacular show after I first saw your post on my grandfather's merc. I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw the interview of my grandfather as it was first time in years that I heard his voice and I had pretty much forgotten what it sounded like all together. The only other shows that I've seen where my grandfather speaks was in an interview at an indoor show where he took the merc before the accident and what believe to be a KKOA show in '87 where he and Dwight dressed up as pin up girls to prank a Wanderers car club from a different state. Both tapes a long with a couple of others were lost after my grandmother had passed away along with a couple others. Thanks for recommending @49toad to me, I'm definitely going to reach out to him. I'd do anything to have a chance to see the lost shows I no longer have and more. I talked with Nancy the other day and she mailed me her Wanderers jacket. It's a later version of the jacket and is red and yellow instead of gray and black and has a different design on the back. I'll post it once it arrives. Thanks again @OG lil E for being one of the few to keep traditional customs alive as well as shining a light on the original custom car revival of the 80s.
Hey guys, just checking in with some sad news. @PasoJohn sent me a message today letting me know that John Juarez passed away today at age 80 after an illness. He was the guy that owned the custom lowrider '51 Merc that frequented many shows back in the early days of the KKOA. We covered him back in 2018. His Mercury was W.E.H.T. #105. I'll include a link to the write up just in case anyone missed it. Ironic that he passed away on a Tuesday, huh? So sad to see so many of the custom elders leaving us for a better place. My deepest condolences to his family and friends. He will be missed. Vaya con Dios, Mr. Juarez..........E https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-78#post-12470402
This post is a bit old but my dad was very close friends with Luther Parvin and helped to build American Beauty. He has the whole history of American Beauty and more pictures if you are interested in connecting I can PM his email and/ph#. He and Luther built over 40 cars together from the late 70s on...
This is a great thread, so i was wondering if you guys could help here? Im looking for history on my 50 Merc, I picked it up last November in Cherry Valley Illinois, the guy I got it from didn’t know much about it, I’m going to assume it was built in the early 80s??, It has a or what appears to be a nova front clip under it, 12 bolt rearend, it had a homemade continental kit on the back of it that had Carl and Pat wild rose painted on it which has since been taken off, here are a few pictures of it when I first bought it, if anybody recognizes it and may know a little history on it I’d sure like to know, I’m trying to bring this old girl back to life, it seems to have been sitting for quite a few years
View attachment 6032345 View attachment 6032346 View attachment 6032347 View attachment 6032348 View attachment 6032349 View attachment 6032350 View attachment 6032351 View attachment 6032347 View attachment 6032346 View attachment 6032345 This is a great thread, so i was wondering if you guys could help here? Im looking for history on my 50 Merc, I picked it up last November in Cherry Valley Illinois, the guy I got it from didn’t know much about it, I’m going to assume it was built in the early 80s??, It has a or what appears to be a nova front clip under it, 12 bolt rearend, it had a homemade continental kit on the back of it that had Carl and Pat wild rose painted on it which has since been taken off, here are a few pictures of it when I first bought it, if anybody recognizes it and may know a little history on it I’d sure like to know, I’m trying to bring this old girl back to life, it seems to have been sitting for quite a few years
Hi @Mturner74, I did some looking around as I thought this might be the Paul Sexton Merc with a chopped top, but Paul's was a '51, not a '50. Nothing else I thought was this car even came close. I'd say the thing that will help identify this car the most is the interior and the heat shield with the rose on it. I'll keep my eyes open, but for right now I have nothing. Sorry I couldn't be more help. It's an awesome car and I'm sure you'll have a ball with it! Congrats on the purchase! I'm sure a few of the other custom sleuths around here might chime in with a better answer like @Sancho, @Moriarity, @lurker mick, @54delray, and @John B just to name a few. Where is Jim (@stanlow69) when we need him? I sure miss that guy..........E
Mike Scott- The Stripers 51 Merc "The Cool" Went to California, what's it look like now? How about "White Ice"
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