OK, so this is gonna crack you guys up.... the other night I was dreaming about George's Merc for whatever reason. We were all there standing around it in the garage of whoever owns it now in the red version, and Mark was introducing us all to him. The guy gets to talking about it and we all were kinda talking about how much we loved the yellow version and even the old interior. So then the guy says, "well, you should check out my bathroom." We are all, uhhhh, welllllll..... Ed goes in and is beside himself cuz the guy took some of the yellow fuzzy interior and wrapped the toilet tank with it.....like the old fuzzy toilet seat covers all our moms used to use. We all flip and start asking the guy if he would cut pieces off of it for us so we could all have a chunk of George's Merc on our shelves and desks. ......Oh my, where do I come up with this mess? LOL
LMAO!!!! This is a good example why I'm on the HAMB to read kool post. The funny thing is we would all want a chunk of the old fuzzy yellow interior. The one covering the tank.
....musta been the inspiration of staying in the Price Tower and the talk of customs over dinner the other night (we were in town hanging with Mick over the weekend and staying at the Frank Lloyd Wright Price Tower). LOL I have no other explanation how on earth I would have dreamed up a crazy scenario like that. Well, maybe it was the green chili burger talking. LOL
What Ever Happened To..........? number 82. 1954 Chevy Bel Air "Touch of Class" Owner: Don Curtin Greenville, Pennsylvania This week's W.E.H.T. is a car that I've admired for quite some time, but information on it was slow to find. Thankfully last week on the "Kustom Blues" thread the car was posted and I decided to really dig in and see what I could find. This '54 Bel Air was a rolling piece of art that was pretty much an all out show car. It had tons of body mods, the most notable being the grafted on Plymouth tail fins. The car was also chopped 2 1/2 inches and had the usual shaving. Some other nice touches include the Cadillac style headlights, rounded hood corners, Pontiac grille and the white paint with the candy burnt orange scallops. Oh yeah, can't forget the requisite 50s style name "Touch of Class" lettered on the bottoms of the front fenders. The car also had an amazing trunk display set up complete with tuck 'n' roll panels and spare tire cover, custom painted water, oil and gas cans and lots of chrome tools mounted on the back wall. Rowdie video taped the trunk on the '83 video and it is a treat for the eyes! All in all the car was a true standout among a sea of sleds at the shows. It seems that Mr. Curtin and his Chevy attended the Leadsled Spectacular in 1983 in Springfield, Ohio, and again in 1984 in Des Moines. I was able to find the car on both videos, but after '84 there was nothing. I did find plenty of good pictures in both magazines and online. The first picture I scanned out of Custom Cars by Hot Rod volume 2 number 2 from 1984 on page 22. This is where I found the custom information on the car. The next picture was taken by Scott Pavey and was found on Rikster's site. The next pictures were posted on the "Kustom Blues" thread by @rudestude and @LOST ANGEL. Thanks guys! In @LOST ANGEL's post he mentioned seeing it at a show in New York in the early 80s and I'm guessing he took the great pictures. You can tell in those pictures that the car's engine compartment was heavily detailed. What a ride! On page 215 of the "Kustom Blues" thread, HAMB member @akustom57 mentioned that his father once owned the car and that it has been stored away for "20 sum years". Hopefully @akustom57 will chime in and give us more details on this wonderful custom and his Dad. So, this week's car isn't exactly lost, but in hibernation. It would sure be nice to see such a great car back on the streets. Let's keep our fingers crossed! Until next week, keep on cruisin'. Won't be long before the snow flies! E
I DO like this car. Had the pleasure of seeing it in person at '84 Des Moines Leadsled Spetacular. Ashamed to say I didn't take any pictures of it. Just noticed another detail that makes that front end so perfect. It has a '56 Chevy front bumper. It looks like it is going to "kiss" you. StanLow told me that Don Curtin was at Custom Car Revival with two kustoms. Certainly he would know what happened to his old car???
My pic is a little butchard up. You can see I was short back then from the low angled shot. I love this car. Met Don and his son in Indy. I`ve always remembered the name Don Curtin. In talking with his son, I asked what cars he has owned. Touch of Class came up in conversation. I told him,I loved this car. The past 4 years, they have brought 3 cars to Indy every year. Now that's dedicated. Here are a couple scans that shows the detail of the car. It looks like Scott Pavey takes better pic`s than the professional photographers.
Looking at the close up trunk scan that Stanlow posted, I suspect the back bumper is 51-53 Oldsmobile? I could see it wasn't stock, but the close up shows a curved line similar to Olds bumpers. LOTS of kool touches on "Touch of Class"
Another cool little detail are the portholes next to the back-up lights. You can see them best in this Scott Pavey photo.
The car still sits in the same garage as the guy dad sold it to, probably around 85 less then 15 miles away. I think last time car was out was around 88 and that was the last time ive seen it. Dad recently reached out to the owner about trying to get it back but he really wasn't interested in selling it. Dad bought the car out of a museum in Nova Scotia, it was on its way to Carlisle to be sold. After purchasing the car and tracking down its history turns out a couple of years earlier he unknowingly came across the tow vehicle used for the 54, it was a mild custom 57 chevy conv that had the same tool layout in the trunk, the car was in rough shape. In the one pic posted above from Springfield you can see dads Miles Masa built 51 conv sitting next to it and that is the late Miles looking inside the 54. Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks for the great fill in information @akustom57. Sad that someone would buy a great sled like the "Touch of Class" and then just store it away and not drive it and enjoy it. If it was sold around '85, that would explain why it disappeared from the car show scene after the '84 Spectacular. E Funny stuff, Sancho! I can remember many times as a kid going visiting with the folks and using the bathroom at someone's house and finding the fuzzy covers and all the accessories. Ah, the good ol' days (lol)! E
That Chevy is too cool. All the detail is astounding and really nails the late 50's style. Thanks for posting the Merc interior Jim. I should not be surprised Sancho was able to find a pic of the toilet covers. Hysterical!!!
How come no one mentioned the mirror muff on "The touch of class"? An accessory that was beaten to death on another forum.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 83. 1950 Mercury "Low Life" Owner: Rocco Chiero Chicago, Illinois This week's W.E.H.T. belonged to a guy that was fairly well known in custom circles. Rocco Chiero was a true custom enthusiast, but from what I've read about him from the custom historians here on the HAMB, he was more of a "wheeler dealer" when it came to customs and not really a builder. Some might not like that, but regardless of how Rocco acquired the cars, he still laid out the money to buy them and he showed them at shows all over the mid-west. Rocco's '50 Merc known as "Low Life" was surprisingly hard to find information on. According to my research, he also had another Mercury at the same time or very close to the same time known as "Lo Down", which was very similar. I found a few pictures that the two Mercs were side by side and they were very similar. The "Low Life" car was harder to find pictures of for some reason. Maybe the '49 was a better driving car or something--who knows? In my video research, I never saw Rocco's '50 at any Leadsled Spectacular or Sled Scene East show. It seems that Rocco also had an awesome Ford shoebox as well as a Carson topped '49-'51 Mercury, so that might be the reason the '50 was never seen at one of these shows. He might have been there in one of his other great customs. I didn't research if one of Rocco's other sleds was at any of these shows, as trying to find information on "Low Life" proved to be very time consuming in itself. The '50 had a super chop and great roofline profile, as well as custom taillights fitted in the rear bumper guards. This was something that wasn't being done much back in the early days of the "Leadsled Resurrection" days of the late 70s and throughout the 80s. Rocco's '49 was also chopped, but in the pictures I found it doesn't look like it was chopped as much. Both had Pontiac grilles in them, but the main thing that set them apart is the flame job on the '50. You'll notice in the pictures that the flames were changed at one point, and Rocco tried a few different looks with hubcap changes as well. The '49 's paint was much more mild, but it was white like "Low Life". It had a name lettered on the front fenders which I couldn't make out. Rocco's choice of wheels on the '49 were Tru Classic wires. In a few later pictures I found of it the car had personalized Illinois license plates that read "Lo Down". I didn't post those pictures for this thread, but I'm sure that they may pop up here once the Rocco Chiero collection starts coming to the surface. The pictures for this week's car all came from Rikster's site, and were taken by Peter Pan of Chicago, Scott Pavey and our own @drdave. The Doc's pictures were the only ones that mentioned where they were taken. These pictures were taken back in 1983 at the Mid Century Mercury Show in Kenosha, Wisconsin. From the pictures, it looked like a small show, but it was loaded with some "heavy hitter" customs from that time. @stanlow69 started a thread on Mr. Chiero a while back, and I'm including a link to it so that everybody can see a few more of the great cars he had over the years. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rocco-chiero-and-his-customs.1076180/ According to that thread, Rocco was still into customs as recently as 5 years ago. Nice to hear! Hopefully he's still behind the wheel of a great sled on his way to "no particular place to go". Cruise on Rocco! Until next time, stay cool! E
Maybe it's because a lot of the guys that hated mirror muffs are hot rod guys and not custom guys. Sometimes you just can't help those who don't "get it"..........E
Low Life is alive and well and living in my garage in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Rocco sold the car to a fellow member of the Lucky Stiffs, @showrod here on the HAMB. Showrod is also the caretaker of the Von Esser built Von-T. About 5 years ago, showrod told me that he was thinking of selling the Merc. I brokered a deal between him and my uncle, who ended up buying the car. After owning the car for a couple of years, and not really driving it that much, he passed it back to me...which is what I was hoping for all along. The info that I have on the car is that is was originally built by Paul Brewer, who is the brother of Charlie Brewer, out of Hamilton, Ohio. The car was originally given a quickie paint job for a show after it was finished, and was some shade of red or maroon. After it was sold to Rocco, he took it to a shop in Illinois and had it painted white with the purple ghost flames, and had the purple velour interior done. Some time later, he had the flames redone in the solid plum crazy purple version. The car looks exactly the same as it did back then. Nothing has been changed on it, however the paint is beginning to crack and fail in spots. It needs re-painted, I just can't quite bring myself to pull the trigger on painting it just yet. Everyone I talk to about it, wants to repaint the flames in a different pattern. That's not going to happen. Those flames are going back on there just like they are now.
If you notice in the 2nd picture behind Low Life is my Merc SLO POK, that was at the World of Wheels at McCormick Place in 1983 and we were next to him. As to the cars whereabouts I cannot say, however Rocco is still wheeling and dealing in customs!
As far as I know, Low Life was only featured in one magazine. It appeared in an issue of Low Rider Trucks of all things, but it was given a full rwo-page fold out feature. Pretty cool. I have the only copy I have ever seen.
Thanks so much for posting @37hotrod! I love it when we find out that one of these super customs from the past is alive and well with a great caretaker. You really are a "Lucky Stiff" (lol)! E Hey @Slopok, looks like you've been in the game for a long time. Dig your Merc! I'm assuming you still have it, right? Seems like the mid-western states still have a lot of Mercs around. Must be nice. I rarely see them around here anymore, and if I do they are Mercs that I know the owner and have seen before. E
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