Sold in 2014, here is the ad: http://blog.cars-on-line.com/2014/06/04/1950-ford-convertible-one-of-a-kind-custom/
This one was taken in Springfield, Illinois Sept. 2012. https://hiveminer.com/Tags/carsonconvertibletop/Interesting
Beautiful car! The flames add nothing to it and if'n it were mine, they'd be gone....but of course I said that about the ghost flames on my Merc and nearly 8 years later, they are still hanging on. LOL Here are my pics of it from Hangin' Dice '88:
We need to see more pic`s of the car without the flame job. Here are a couple pic`s my dad took. The first one is from Springfield Illinois, the first year the car was built. The second photo was from a KKOA show called The Last Pass held in Des Moines Iowa. You can see the car had pinstripes added. My dad did not like the front end due to the headlight hoods. So he never had a frontend shot. He has more pic`s of 49-51 Fords than 49-51 Mercs. That's what he had back in the day. And that's what he has today.
I had to go back and look, but no it's not. LOL. By '88, I had a "real" camera instead of my 110 instamatic, so dad wasn't taking pictures too much any more and just got copies of mine. I assumed it was me taking all four pics, but you got me wondering so I double checked....especially since I seem to be in so many of "my" pics from those years. LOL
Frank Bedacht built 1951 mercury called fugly from jersey Then Bob Barkoff owned it and was purple then painted magenta pink Anybody have pictures of it when it was black besides these two Sent from iPad
What Ever Happened To..........? number 57. 1940 Ford Coupe Owner: John "Shaggy Dog" Jordan Chicago, Illinois Wow, can you believe that tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of this post? It has been a lot of work, and it has gone fast. I've learned a lot in my research, and with the help of all you regulars that check out this thread, I've learned even more. Thanks for sticking around! Since a one year anniversary is kind of a big deal, I thought I'd do a "Two fer Tuesday" this week. The format will be a little different than the other "Twofers" I've done in the past, but I think you all will still enjoy it. John "Shaggy Dog" Jordan was a custom enthusiast since he was a youngster. In 1974 he finally fulfilled his dream of owning a custom and purchased a '40 Ford coupe that was a survivor from the 50s. He took the car to the 1985 Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio where he was interviewed and he gave the scoop on his car. It was chopped 5 inches and Carson topped. Skirts, frenched '59 Cadillac taillights and '61 Chrysler headlights were used. The car was painted pearl white with Metalflake brand Mirra rainbow flake. A nice subtle combination that has never been real popular. In his interview, he mentioned that he saw the videos from Rowdie Productions for '83 and '84, and that made him decide to attend the event in '85. He said he could only kick himself for not attending sooner. His car was seen in various cruising shots throughout the video. These were the only sightings of it I found. I never saw it at another KKOA event that I have videos for, and I'm yet to find pictures of it in a magazine or on the internet. Thankfully John Stanley (@stanlow) had a lone picture of the rear of the car that he took personally, and with his help and sharp memory, as well as the '85 video, we were able to put together this post. Thanks Jim! I apologize for the lack of information on this car, but information on it seems to be almost non-existent. It is one of the first cars that I have on my list that I wanted to feature here. I thought it is too nice of a car to leave out just because there is so little information on it, and John was such a great custom enthusiast that it deserved to be featured here. I'm hoping that more information on the car comes to light from this post. I'm sure John would like that..........E What Ever Happened To..........? number 58. 1951 Oldsmobile Convertible Owner: John "Shaggy Dog" Jordan Chicago, Illinois See, I told you this one was going to be different. Different cars, same owner! Like mentioned above, John was a custom enthusiast for a long time. He also seemed to have a nose for finding cars with history and buying them to cruise around in and enjoy. His Olds was also a survivor that was originally found by Connie Winkler (W.E.H.T. #8). Connie is another big custom enthusiast that has had quite a few great sleds over the years, but that is a story for another time. When Connie had this Olds, it was a brownish burgundy color with lots of scallops on it. It was pictured in Custom Cars by Hot Rod from 1982 on page 51. It is a great picture that was taken at night. The way the camera caught the light coming from the headlights was really cool. A shot to be remembered. A few weeks ago John Tretten (@PasoJohn) and I were talking about Connie and his customs, and he sent me a great photo he took of the Olds. It was taken at a KKOA show (sorry, can't remember which one), and it was a rare shot with the top down! Thanks for the great picture, John! I can't say exactly when, but sometime in the mid 80s John purchased the Olds from Connie. With some more help from Jim (@stanlow69), we put it all together that the Connie Winkler car was the same car John Jordan owned. John had the car repainted in a pinkish purple, and he added bullets to the ends of the '54 Chevy grille. Out back, John left the great '55 Chrysler taillights that were installed years before. In the pictures, it looks like John may have raised the rear some. It looked lower when Connie owned it. Maybe part of the reason is it looked like Connie had bubble skirts on the car, and the skirts looked like stock, Foxcraft style skirts when John owned it. I wonder if the bubble skirts were damaged or something requiring a change. Hmmm......... Jim told me that when Connie owned the car it had candy stripe tuck 'n' roll. If you look closely at @PasoJohn's picture, you can see the candy stripe tuck 'n' roll sunvisors. "Shaggy Dog" had the candy stripe changed to plain white tuck 'n' roll. The only reason I know this is because I found video footage of the car at the Sterling/Rock Falls, Illinois Lowrider Show in 1988. Believe it or not, that is the only video I found on it. I never saw video of it at another show. Also, I couldn't find any magazine coverage of it. I did find a picture of it on Rikster's site, and a picture that Jim personally took, scanned and sent my way for this post. Thanks again, Jim! So, the trail pretty much ends there. John Jordan seemed to fade away into the woodwork and his customs seemed to fade with him. Are they still out there? Let's all hope so! 'Til next week, take care! E
great post. I always wondered what happened to Connies Olds. Man, I liked it a lot better with the scallops and bubble skirts....
E, got an update on John Funk's "cool it 52", it's available on craigslist. Haven't seen or heard from Mr. Funk in years, we used to run with the same croud here in the local cruise ins, with a gentlemen named bob miller, had a blue 49 merc at the time, it got sold at the James dean run which he always regretted doing. He later got a 49 chevy, yellow cnvrt. With 57 pontiac v8 power, John had a similar 50 yellow cnvrt, both yellow with black tops. Bob passed away a couple years ago, haven't seen or heard from John or his 37 truck, seen the truck alot back in the day but I don't have any pics of it.
Thanks for the update, @DANSLED. I know Mr. Funk is a Chevy guy. Hopefully his coupe is for sale to make room for a new project or something and it's not because he has passed. His truck is one of my favorites. Great link, Sancho. Too bad so many of the pictures are gone. The magazine article that @BrewtownPrez posted is great. Anybody have any idea what magazine it was in? Looks like Classic & Custom article. E
He said it was in that post. Photos by Lee Pratt taken during the first Spectacular. He shot a lot of features at that show for Classic & Custom. Those photos were taken just south of the Kansas Coliseum.
Yup, pretty sure that article is from Classic and Custom. I remember the pic of his finger in the hole at the bottom of the tail light lens. Funny pic to remember. I agree with Mark and Ed, I sure liked the car better with the scallops, bubble skirts and candy stripe interior. Not throwing rocks at the later version, just stating a preference. Never saw either car in person, which makes me sad.
It's in the issue of classic n custom with the misty blue merc on the cover, nice ride. I've seen it a few times over the years, at the Dean run and another show, didn't know they were same car, like both versions, like the lower look of the bubble skirts better tho
Please 'scuse my interruption here, but could you fellas clue me in on Classic & Custom magazine? I don't have many mags from the era between the little pages and, say the late '90s and an internet search of images of this title reveal nothing. Because the title is referenced fairly often I just wondered about it. Thanks, Dave Fascinating thread by-the-way!
I had gotten the Grease Machines book for Christmas and a few months later we were at the magazine stand in the mall and I saw my first issue of Classic and Custom. I devoured it right there while the rest of my family left. I ran out the door with the magazine still in my hand hollering after my dad, "Dad, a Grease Machine's magazine!!!' Naturally the clerk was out the door after me and I only made it about three running steps before I realized what I had done. Sheepishly, I reentered the store and fortunately my dad followed me back in and let me get the mag. I instantly subscribed and got every back issue (which at that point was maybe only 6 or 8 issues). I loved each and every page of that mag.....and learned pretty quickly they were called Customs (or Kustoms)....not "grease machines." LOL
That's a great picture @BrewtownPrez! It's the only rear shot I've seen with the top down, and dig that candy stripe tuck'n'roll! So cool..........E
Ed, the last scan came from the book, The American Custom Car by Pat Gahnal. It`s the one with the Hirohata Merc on the cover. Here`s a scan of Rogelio`s business card. He was selling complete sets of C and C in Salina a couple years back. $575. It came to like 6 or 7 dollars an issue. I think. Would C and C survive on the newsstands today. Maybe not. But back then, it was all we had for custom coverage in a monthly magazine. Somehow these magazines found our way into our hands. Grease Machines was in our school library and I happened to find a copy back then. Here is a scan from Hot Rod that Ed posted earlier. It needed to be posted again. I love scallopes and bubble skirts.
I'm going to have to get my copy of The American Custom Car out and go through it again. It's been a long time since I've looked through it. If I recall, Classic and Custom has tried to re-launch itself a few times, the last being in the mid to late 90s. I don't think it went too well. Putting together a magazine in this age of the internet is almost impossible. A lot of magazines couldn't make it today. Nowadays people would rather stare at a computer screen or smart phone to find what they are looking for instead of flipping through a magazine. Too bad.........E
In the post above from Jim, where it is larger than the first post by Ed, I am now wondering if the car had a 53 DeSoto grill at one time? Obviously a 54 Chevy grill in the C and C spread. Maybe it is just an optical illusion in the Hot Rod spread, with the special "motion" effect.
I was at a KKOA event in the 90's when Rogello (sp) had a booth set up trying to re launch Classic and Custom . he had an issue (really poor quality photography) and was selling subscriptions. He got me for something like 20 bucks and I never got another issue.....I still have the one issue he was handing out and it literally looks like instamatic photos printed on rubber and stretched to fit the page... Lol
The Jalopy Journal
