History What was the FIRST chopped 1949-50 MERCURY

Im not filling they way they did the top. To me it looks like a Hudson now. Still a cool car.

 

Bringing this back up for some history lessons. Maybe someone new might see the big difference in what was done back in the day. They did things the right way. not over chopping and having everything laying on the ground looking like its broken.

 

HISTORY LESSON TIME!!

Just bring this back up incase someone might have missed it.

 

So did Bill Gaylord have a shop and he customized his own car?

 

Gaylord had an upholstery shop specializing in convertible tops and custom work. Someplace I have seen a picture of the shop in the forties with a dozen cars inside, all with custom padded tops. He must have turned out hundreds of them over the years.

 

Lets bring this vision of beauty dressed in white back to the top.This car was murdering on the streets of Los Angeles......... and people thought Mickey Cohen ran L.A. during these years...I beg to differ.

 

LOL!! That is great Jeff. I alwys wished this picture wasn't "highlighted" when published it makes it look so fake.

 

Well when it looks too fake to you, just pay close attention to Jerry's stance because it dont get any more real than that.

 

This post still holds water in my opinion.This is a pretty rough job and it just looks like it was a first time effort compared to Sam's mercury.Yes even with the slanted post.

 

Jeff...you live in southern California....have you ever or could you contact Frank Monteleon...? He was one of Georges buddies during that time and my have something to contribute....

 

K13
the reason they had to high light this photo is cause its a black and white photo of a white car. The body lines are not as sharp as they would be on a darker color car. You can also tell these cars where taken together. The shadows are in the exact same spots. Also who ever shot the photo took it at the worst part of the day. it looks to be noon. so the white will be very white and blow out any lines. I do love how low this car sit!

 

I understand why they lined the car in the photo I just think it makes an otherwise great photo look a bit cartoonish.

 

I wonder why out of that whole article they only used a stock mercury to compare what a chopped one looks like.They featured other makes so I wonder why they didnt show the other stock cars for comparison reasons.

 

If Sam's mercury was the 1st chopped mercruy why wasnt it featured in the article?HHHMMMMMMMM.... This leave me to think even more that Jerry's mercury was the 1st chopped mercury. Showing what a custom mercury looks compaired to a stocker. Just another thing that to me shows whos mercury was chopped 1st.

 

If you read through the thread this has already been discussed (page 2). It is more than likely that Sam's car had already been sold and was in the Mid west by this time. He sold it right after the Oakland show in February.

 

There is still something about this that just doesnt make sense to me
.I just dont see George doing this feature and not EVEN MENTIONING his brothers 49Merc that they completed.It just doesnt seem like George to run this primered Merc if they had already finished Sams.

 

We can conjecture about pictures all we want but without dates of the pictures they prove nothing.

The only things we know for sure are:

1) Given the 1951 license plates on Jerry's car when it was chopped the pictures Marcia took could not be any earlier than Jan 1st, 1951 (he couldn't have gotten '51 plates before Jan 1st it is in the California DMV code)

2) Sam's car was in paint by February 20th at the Oakland show.

I would think at a minumum it would have taken a couple of weeks for Sam to have painted and reassemled his car for the Oakland show so this means at the very least both these cars would have been chopped in January.

 

Rik, Thanks for starting this topic again, and also to all of the others who are sharing info as well as the photo's. Good Stuff !
firstnomad
www.angelfire.com/jazz/flatlandstudio

 

As mentioned in my post above at best Jerry's car was chopped in the first couple of weeks of January 1951 and Sam's was finished by February so even if Sam's wasn't done when they took these pictures it had to have been started so you would think, given they have other in progress shots in the article, they would have taken pictures of Sam's car being worked on. These pictures had to have been taken after Sam's was sold.

 

Well besides all of the "conjecturing" of photos nobody here can argue with the fact that it is a little odd that there was no mention or picture of Sams Merc.We all know how George was when promoting the shop.I dont give a shit about dates,plates or anything else when I say this..........There was a reason why Sams car wasn't in that article or even mentioned.Popular Science was a bigtime magazine and im sure the new owners of Sams Merc would of let someone from the magazine shoot his new green Merc that he just bought from Barris.

 

So dates now mean nothing to this arguement? Very logical.

 

Jeff, Talk to Peep Jackson. He was there at this time. I talked to him about this subject and he reambers it quite well. He can tell you some great stories about Sams Merc, like getting hung up on the train tracks ect. Chip

 

Logical??? Are you serious ? If you are so logical then read what I wrote.I said "I didnt care about dates or plates" for the sentence I was about to write and that sentence was ....." There is a reason why Sam's car was not in the article or mentioned." So dont twist my shit around as if dates dont mean anything in this whole subject or as you called it this "arguement".

 

So what is the reason then? That it wasn't started yet? If that is your arguement then dates play a huge role in that sentence and the dates pretty much prove that theory wrong.

 

I dont know the reason ! Thats why I wrote that in the first place.You think if I had a reason I would be holding it to myself and not writing about it? That was my whole point, why I didnt care about dates or anything else at that moment.All im saying is if Sam's car was finished when they shot these then I dont get why it wouldnt of been mentioned at all on in this article,I dont know the reason but I think there is a reason because I dont think it makes sense to put a white primered car in the article when you just finished a gorgeous green merc.

 

i am very upset . all this time i thought that Bad Bobs was the first !!!!!!!!! .. steve

 

But that is the point I am making the reason has to be that Sam's car was no longer there. The time frame of when Jerry and Sam's cars could have been chopped makes it the only logical choice. We are talking about 1951 here it wasn't like Popular Science would send some guy searching for a car in the Mid West for an article that would have been a "culture" piece in a science magazine. Like you mentioned yourself this was not a car mag they probably didn't really care one way or another. And I don't really think George would care one way or another either it was free advertising regardless of what cars were shown.

Just to add I don't think any of this proves that Jerry's wasn't the first to be chopped either.

 

I agree with some of what you wrote but I still dont think George would of done it without any type of mention.Im not saying that this proves anything but I just think their is some weird shit that happened during this time.Especially since George didnt really like Jerry too much according to Mr.Quesnel,he always talks about his adventures with Sam.

 

The thing is we don't know if George mentioned it or not. Maybe he did and when the car wasn't there the writer said what the hell do I care about a car that isn't even here and didn't include it. Or maybe George had already promised Motor Trend the first pictures of Sam's car and wasn't allowed to show it. Who knows? Without definitive dates on when any of these pictures were taken we may never know.

Not that they would care but it sure would be interesting to find out what kind of archive both these magazines have and if they have any date info on the pictures or the articles.

 

real kool post ! grate inof !!