Customs History of the Custom display ~ GNRS ~ OFFICIAL thread info & photo's

Dude that statement just got me fired up ! Thats sounds so cool ! Like a ChrisCraft going across a lake,just like they were supposed to look. You are a lucky guy to go sleddin in that car.

 

The next Historical custom car to announce is the Gene Winfield "Reactor" showcar.




Another Custom car that has been on our most wanted list from the beginning. And we are very proud that we now can confirm it for the Customs Then & Now exhibition.
Gene Winfield has been responsible for a lot of famous custom cars in his career, and especially in the late 1950's and 1960's his creations where a big hit, and had huge impacts on the future generations of custom lovers and builders. The hand-built Reactor is a perfect sample of the cars that where built in his shop in those days.

Hartford, Conneticut resident and Hartford Autorama show promotor Joe Kizis commissioned Gene Winfield to built him an all hand-built – out of Aluminum – custom car. A car to be used as a promotional custom car for his own show. The car was going to be named the "Autorama Special".

Gene Winfield was one of the better know custom builders in the early 1960's and Joe Kiziz gave him a black canvas to work with. "Just build me a Custom car for my show", was all Joe asked for.

Gene chose the futuristic Citroën ID-19 as a base for his new Show Custom. The ID has a factory hydraulic suspension, and front wheel drive which was perfect for what Gene had in mind for this car.
Together with Chrysler Designer Ben Delphia a sketch was made from which the plans were drawn to build the car.





Ben Delphia artist impression to give an idea how the Autorama Special would look like



The Citroën was stripped of everything and only the frame and suspension was used. And an Corvair engine was addapted to work with the ID's front drive components.


The Citroën ID chassis stripped of everything Gene did not need.







The Team at Winfield built a wooden buck for the body panels and everything was shaped out of fresh sheets of Aluminum.




The home made acrylic wrap-around glass was custom made to fit the body. Gene painted the car gold metal flake with lime green fading edges. Once the car was ready it was flown out to Connecticut in time for its debute at Joe's Autorama Custom Car show in 1965. The car was a huge success with all the electronic funktions like remote controled doors, hood, top etc.

Photo from the Gene Winfield book



The Autorama Special just after completion and before it was send to Hartford.




Unique opening doors must have had a huge impact on the show visitors in the mid 1960's




After showing the car for some time. Joe wanted to sell the car back to Gene, since he had been having some mechanical problems and it was becoming an hasle to show it.
Once back at the Winfield shop the team sorted out all the mechanical problems and did a new paintjob gave it a new name – the Reactor – and then the car was put on the show cirquite again. Gene also came up with the idea to rent the car out for movies and tv shows.
Gene was able to get the car to apeared in Star Trek, Bewitched, Batman and the Invaders.


William Shatner with the Reactor at a Star Trek Movie set.





Photo from the Gene Winfield book




In the late 1960's Gene repainted the car in an warm orange gold color, and soon after that sold it to the Cars of the Stars, who sold it to the Reno Auto Museum. It later ended up in another car museum in North Carolina were Gene found it, bought it and took it back home with him so that he could restore it in the future.




Paul Kelly took this photo of the Reactor in 1998. The body was stripped mostly to bare metal, but everything is still there. The custom made windshield is wrapped to protect it from scratches.


In the late 1990's Gene figured it was time to start of the restoration. And a lot of work was done to get the car back into show quality. The new paintjob in heavy gold metal flake with green foging is close to how it used ot be in the mid 1960's.


Dave Lindsay Photo

After the car was restored it was show at the 1999 50th Anniversary of the Grand National Roadster Show

 

This is one of my all time favorites!Can't wait!

 

So does that mean Gene Winfield will definitely be there. He is someone that I look up too immensely, and would love to meet him.

on that note, what is the status of the Builders. Who is and isn't going to be there?

 

Thank you Rik, what a great write up on Gene and one of his historical cars. The car was on display at VLV one year and i remember one of Gene's assistants telling me that the car was built on a Chevrolet Corvair chassis . I guess that info was wrong.

 

Yes, Gene will be one of the many famous Custom people at the "Meet & Greet" which will be inside the History of the Custom building. All other special guests that will be in attendance will be announced very soon.

 

Awesome! thanks Axle. I am very excited for the "Meet & Greet". Being out in Wyo, this is a rare opportunity for me.

 

The koolest thing about Kurt is he actually drives all of his Kustoms. A couple of years
ago I got to see the Buick running down the highway, Wow what an experience. I think
that I screamed like a high school girl at an Elvis conert. It was soo kool watching her
move. Your going to love it!

Happy Trails, Mick

 

"I screamed like a high school girl at an Elvis concert". Thats priceless Stray Kat !

 

Axle,

I don't know that you'd made any plans to the GNRS to add in the Kustom Upholsterers of the day. A good friend of my Dad's worked for Gaylord back then doing a lot of the Carson Tops and tuck & roll upholstery. His name is Jack McNeil. I spoke to him today and thought I'd provide his phone number if your interested in giving him a call. If nothing else you'll learn a lot of what he did back then and the cars he worked on.

Thanks,

Chris

 

Will there be a GNRS "History of Kustoms" Hot Wheels, like the '33 for the 50th?

A Tail Dragger would be awesome, but HW is changing to a plastic chassis.
also the brand new M2 chopped Merc!

 

The Gene Winfield Reactor I mentioned a few post ago will be parked close to the Gene Winfield booth in the Customs Then & Now building.
And since Gene will be honored in the Hall of Fame he will get a little more attention in this building as well.

Along side the Reactor Gene will have another custom that he worked on.
The car a 1957 Ford owned by Bob Fryz was finished and painted by Gene Winfield at his Modesto shop. The body work on Bob's 1957 Ford with 1958 Top was done in the 1980's, and was inspired by Gene Winfield's 1956 Mercury the Jade Idol – perhaps Gene's most famous customs he ever built.



The front end was completely rebuild with quad headlights using similar styles as where used on the Jade Idol. And a scratch built grille opening now housing three rows of Winfield chromed bullets. The taillights where deeply tunneled in extended and peaked rear fenders.The body was de- chromed and in the 1980's the car was painted in a medium blue paint.


Photo of the car taken in the 1980's



This is how the car looked like at the 2003 VLV Show.






And in 2007



In the early 2000 the current owner Bob Fryz decided to have the car finished as a tribute Gene's Jade Idol. Winfield and team fine tuned all the body work, and prepped the body for one of Gene's signature fade blend paint jobs. And the color and patterns where chosen to closely reassemble the first version of the Jade Idol.






Bob named his 1957 Ford custom the Jade Idol II.










And on the other side of the Reactor there will be the Richard Zocchi 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix. (which was already announced by Axle some time ago)





A Semi clone of a Custom first built by Gene Winfield in 1961 when the car had just 30 miles on it (from the dealer to Genes shop) The car was built as a mild custom with a real bullet grille, double frenched headlights, de-chromed body, extended and reshaped fins on the rear fender and taillights made from 1962 Chrysler Imperial taillights. The original car was painted in a lime green and gold metalflake paint scheme first, and in 1963 Gene repainted the car in a pearl white with orange fades.


Photo from the Gene Winfield book

The car freshly finished in 1962.




Andy Southard photo



And repainted in 1963 with the Gene Winfield signature blended paintjob.


In the late 1990's Richard commissioned the crew at first ACME Autobody and later Lucky 7 Customs to built a replica of this car, but then take it a step further, with a chopped top. The body work was performed by John Aiello.

Paul Kelly Photo




The whole project would have the original feel of the Gene Winfield built car in late 1961. The 2002 version was painted by Marcos and Art Himsl in a pearl white and orange fade very much as how Gene Winfield did the first version in 1963.

Fred Childers Photos

 

How about anyone who worked at Gil Ayala's shop ?

 

I love the Zocci '62 chopped,how much is it cut?

 

Share some info on Employees of Gil Ayala ....please.

 

I would love to hear about your friends experience at gaylords,that would be awesome.They are such an icon when it comes to customs and would be an amazing addition to the GNRS

 

Either choice would be great!I'd buy them!

 

Ditto for me, I'd buy a couple of sets.

BB

 

Just booked my flight. Can't wait to see all these great rides. Wanted to do this show for a long time. Hope the weather in Tulsa at the end of Jan. doesn't get shitty.

 

Another historical Custom car announcement for the Customs Then & Now exhibit.
The Jerry Yatch 1940 Mercury Convertible "Romango".


KustomBuick photo




The car was built by Bill Hines in the early 1950's in his Detroit shop for Jerry Yatch. The car futures a chopped windshield, the rear fenders where molded to the body using a rather large radius. And the trunk was welded shut and the gaps filled in for an ultimate smooth rear portion of the car. The small 1940 Mercury rear wheel opening was reshaped and opened up, since the car was not going to have fender skirts like most other similar styled customs had in the early 1950's. The running boards where removed and a shaped panel now covers the frame where once the running boards where. At some point the car ran lake pipes, but when the car was restored it was decided to remove those. The taillights are Packard units.
The body was shaved of all its chrome, and the headlights where molded in. Then Bill painted the ultra smooth body with some very glossy black lacquer.
When it came time to do the padded top it was decided that the mail-slot rear window would not work on this car. So a much larger panoramic rear window was created. The three piece rear window was created out of shaped Plexiglass.

A set of 1946-48 Ford bumpers was used in combination with molded in splash pans front and rear. two 1949 Chevy license plate guards where reshaped to fit the Ford bumpers.


Photo from the Harms Way collection





Originally the car ran Cadillac hubcaps which where replaced with a set of 1956 Oldsmobile Vista in 1956-57. The restored car uses a set of Reproduction hubcaps, which unfortunately don't look exactly like the original versions.

The car was shown at the first Detroit Autorama in 1953, and many East Coast Car shows after that.


Photo from the Keith Ashley Collection





The car as it appeared in American Rodder Magazine in the late 1980's, with the blue tinted glass.



The car is now owned by multi car collectors Beth and Ross Myers. In 2005 they where asked if they where interested in entering thier Jerry Yatch 1940 Mercury in the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours Special 1940's Taildragger Special event. They where interested, but the car was not really in concours condition. So they send it out to Steve Babinsky Automotive Restorations in Bernardsville, New Jersey who did a fantastic restoration on the car. The paint is still the old paint that was on the car when it was first restored. However for the new restoration a lot of other things needed to be done. One thing was to replace the blue tinted plexiglass that was used on the top's wrap around rear window when it was previously "restored".


KustomBuick photos

The car at the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours where it won third price in its class. The molded rear fenders and the lack of trunk lines make the rear extremely smooth.







The chrome plated 1948 Ford dash and tuck and roll upholstery in black and white.


We are really happy to have this Mid West Custom by Bill Hines to be part of the Customs Then & Now exhibit, and many thanks go out to Beth and Ross Myers to ship it to Pomona in January.

 

OMG, my panties are wet

 

I just laughed so hard that tears came out. That was the last thing I expected to read after 40 Merc post. hahahhahahahaha

 

Wow another great car added! You guys are doing a phenominal job with this show!!!

 

The Jerry Yatch Merc "Romango" is currently at the 3 Dog Garage and will be coming all the way from Pennsylvania !

Thanks Rik

 

Oh no,what's gonna happen when you see it in person??!

 

btt

 

I am very happy that this car is coming to the show,what a great addition.

 

The holiday break off is much needed and we are all looking forward to time spent in california. i have the american rodder issue with this 40 merc in it.
counting the days

 

I am soo excited to go to this that I called my doctor. ...


I have had an erection lasting longer then 4 hours LOL

 

Please...somebody steal those hubcaps before it shows up...