http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_...om_cars/les-cove-customs/manny-bastio-51-mer/ You can see the "B's" around the antennas in this photo:
You're right, Chaz. They look like they would go out of alignment if anyone barely leaned on them. The fragile look of them adds to their artistic appeal (lol)! Thanks for all the great pics, @Sancho! You had better luck searching the 'net than I did! @John B was nice enough to do a search and he sent me some information about Mr. Bastio. It looks like he is still with us, but is no longer living in New Jersey. Thanks for the search John! E Manny Bastio is 77 years old and was born on 05/13/1940. Currently, he lives in Ferrum, VA; and previously lived in Reidsville, NC and Clark, NJ.
Wow, What a cool car, Lil E. I've never seen this one before. I'm interested to know what was done to the body. My amateur eye tells me the whole roof and trunk section was lowered into the car. That or the shoebox rear glass gives the optical illusion of that. I'd say sectioned thru the tops of the quarters, and maybe the bottom of the deck lid. Odd to me that the doors appear stock height from the belt line down to the body line. Makes me wonder if sectioning was done on the door bottoms, and maybe even front fender bottoms. Front wheelwell looks to be raised. Interior 'space' looks reduced, maybe body is channeled over frame a bit. Whatever was done, it was pulled off exceptionally well. Proportions are righteous. Too many customs got a bunch of modifications that don't work well together. Thanks for doing the research and posting. p.s. just noticed the cool placement of exhaust tips on the finished version. Neat!!
I'm fairly certain this car was on eBay as well about the same time it was in Hemmings as Mark said. I bought my Merc in '08 and was hitting the all the classifieds, eBay, etc pretty hard at the time and I'm nearly certain this one was in the mix of available cars at the time. Seems to me the price was pretty reasonable, too, considering all the work done to it. With no windows, however, I didn't seriously pursue it. Here's a later pic from the rear once it was painted and shows your antennas Ed....
LOL....somehow I missed the rear pic Sancho posted when I added the same rear pic he did. I guess I didn't see there was another page on the thread and responded at the bottom of the previous page before reading the rest of the posts. LOL Oh well, it's a cool pic and worth posting twice.
Is that a little "running light" in the crook of the fender line/skirt? I love the blue shade on this one! Dave
Dave, I went back and looked at the other photos in Rik's file. I think that is the reflection of the end of the bumper, part on the "skirt" and part on the body. You can kind of see it in this shot: And in this profile photo you can see that there is nothing there: Since the skirt is now the lower quarter, it is wide at the rear body line as it goes back to the bumper.
I see what you're saying Sancho, ..that reflection had me puzzled! You are right 'tho - no sign of any light in those pics! Very cool 4 door though ain't it? Dave
VERY. I'd still like to know where it is now? You would think that one for sale that recently would turn up somewhere......
Hi, Guys! Here's the dope on Manny's Merc. VERY cool story! A young Jimmy Nolan, back in the late 50's, bought a 39 or 40 Ford with a Caddy engine, 39 Olds grill, chopped top (Carson?), all the custom mods. He made all the local cruise circuits, and hang-outs, as well as being a terror racing it on Route 22 in Jersey. He bought a low mileage 4 door Merc to get customized by, probably the greatest customizer in the area, Les Cove (also built the 'Fabian Continental', 48 Chevy). 16 K miles on it. It was chopped and sectioned, converted to a hardtop, with rolled over door tops (no glass), and had removable lower quarter panels, with the cruiser skirts welded onto them. It sat in Cove's shop for a few years, never really getting finished. Some time later, Jimmy sold the cars to his brother who stored them together in a garage in Elizabeth, NJ. Manny knew of the cars, and eventually talked the brother into selling them to him. He actually got the Fordillac for his good friend Donn Lowe (Manny had lived and had a junkyard in Colorado Springs, when Donn also had a shop there. Donn did a 56 Merc there for Manny, who had put it on a Grand Prix frame, my mentor and I finished the 56, and painted it when Manny returned to NJ,I've got pix of it). Donn restored the Fordillac and sold it, it debuted at one of the Leadsleds in Holland MI. Manny got the Merc. When Manny got the car, it was unfinished, as I said. It did have the Lincoln tail lights, but the front end was unfinished (stock). I was doing bodywork for him, and I made a 50-ish grill surround for him, and mounted, and shortened the 55 Pontiac bumpers to reduce the grill height to match the sectioned body better. I also took the usual 54 Ford Headlight buckets used for Frenching, and sunk them into the body to fit the curves of the Merc fenders better. I even did a how-to that I sent to the KKOA magazine, Don't remember if it was published. Manny built the grill itself out of tubing and 57 Olds parking lights IIRC. The flattie in it, even though low mileage, gave him fits overheating. In a move I'm not real carzy about, he had Bob Miller in Linden NJ, subframe the car, with a 350 Olds in it. This is the version that was able to go cross country to the Leadsleds, often accompanying him with my chopped 55 Olds. Bob also painted the car for him, as I had left his employ to open my own shop. Manny drove the car for many years, but eventually sold it to buy a farm in NC, where some of his Leadsled buddies lived. I saw the car up for auction at the Atlantic City auctions many years ago, but, of course, the auctioneers had NO idea of what was done to it, or it's history. They referred to it as a "street rod"! That's the last I saw of it.
Always loved Manny's car. He pulled into a gas station next to me at the Hamilton show, and I was in love with that car instantly. It looked even better in person. One of my all time favorites, as is this thread. Thanks to everyone who's keeping it alive.
Neat story! I especially like the construction pics of the front end. Looks like when you sunk the headlight rings back to fit better, you moved them up and to the outside?
No, Dr Dave, just straight back from where they were. Had to make some filler pieces to continue the lines of the fender, though.
So awesome! Thanks for the neat history lesson on Manny's Merc @chopolds. Great to see pictures showing how much work went into this car. I hope it resurfaces soon as a car with this much history and radical work deserves to be cruised and shown everywhere again! E
Dick still has the car and it is in the process of being redone he got sick a few years ago and the car sat outside. But his son has the car and is getting it done... Dick lives in Reynoldsburg, Oh
What Ever Happened To..........? number 111. 1955 Ford Owner: Wes Downing Timonium, Maryland This week's custom is one that seemed to appear on the custom scene in the early 80s. It is very mild--almost stock as far as the body goes, much like Dave Losen's '55 Ford "Sugar Daddy" (W.E.H.T. #44). This car is another sled that blurred the line between custom and lowrider, maybe even leaning more towards a bomb than lowrider. All of the chrome trim was retained, as well as a very detailed and heavily chromed engine compartment complete with a 223 Ford inline 6! The velour interior is far from traditional, but was very much in style back in the late 70s and early 80s. As far as video research went, I didn't have any luck finding it on any of the videos I have. It seems that deep in my memory banks I recall seeing it on video somewhere, but I couldn't find it. Maybe it was on a YouTube video of Sled Scene East or something, but it wasn't on any videos in my collection. The car did manage to catch the eye of a few different magazine people as I found it in a few different magazines. Funny thing though is that both articles I found were from 1982. The first article I came across was on page 50 of Custom Cars by Hot Rod printed in 1982. It is basically a one page write-up, unfortunately in black and white. You can see a few mild custom touches like the Lee Lenses on the taillights, but the stand out photo has to be the engine compartment. Stunning even in black and white! The next article was in the March 1982 issue of Custom Rodder. This time it was a nice two page spread with one page being in full color. You can really appreciate the effort and detail that went into this car in the color pics. I also seem to remember this car being featured in a book of customs, but I looked through all my books researching this car and it wasn't in any that I had. I'm sure that if it was featured in a book, Jim (@stanlow69) will let us know. Those two features were all I was able to find. Pictures on the internet were very scarce. I did come across one picture of the car that was posted on Rikster's site. It was taken by Hot Rod Willie at the 1988 KKOA Sled Scene East in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That was the only picture I was able to find, and the latest date with a car sighting. It appears that the car was last seen in 1988. This car really had a cold trail, and since it kind of fell in between a custom and lowrider (or bomb), it might have been in more obscure magazines or maybe even in early Lowrider Magazine. I can't check that out as all of my early Lowrider Magazines from the first time it was printed before they ceased publication and re-launched the magazine in 1988 or '89 were lost in my not-so-infamous basement flood. Well, there you have it. Maybe we'll get some more great help from our faithful east coast custom folks and we can see if this Ford managed to survive and is tucked away in a garage somewhere. Or, it is still out and about looking the same way or has been re-done and is cruising around in "disguise" (lol). Until next Tuesday, take care out there! E
I don`t recall it in a book, but it was in the ISCA publications. I`m thinkin someone posted a pic of it after seeing it at a cruise night 5 or so years ago. Still looked good and unchanged for the most part. So yes it is still around. Never saw it in person. Yet.
I remember seeing that black and white article in the mag and tried to imagine it in color Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks Sancho. Sorry Ed. It took me a little while to figure out what you were talking about. He knew I had the book. It`s the one KKOA put out.
In post 9849, in the Kustom Blues thread. You can see Mannys Merc in the pic of Harold Olsons scalloped Buick.
Great detective work guys! I knew you would find more pictures @Sancho! Beautiful paint on that car. The magazine pictures didn't do it justice. I would love to see the car in person. If this is the paint from the early 80s, it looks like it was well taken care of and has held up very well. Wow Jim, I look through my KKOA books all the time and I just missed it. I knew I had seen it in a book somewhere. Now the big question..........Is it still owned by Mr. Downing? E
That is becoming an art form for me Doc. I've been looking at black and white pictures of customs in books and magazines like Custom Cars by Hot Rod for years trying to imagine what a custom that was shot in black and white would look like in color. Sometimes after much searching, when I finally find the car in color it looks so different that it takes me a few minutes to figure out it's the same car! I guess that after reading descriptions we get a mental picture of what the car might look like and when we finally see it in color sometimes its nothing like we imagined. E
There's those eagle eyes again Jim! Once again I missed that. But in my defense, Harold Olsen's Buick is so beautiful that its hard to take my eyes off of it! E
Photos are gone, but some info on Wes and the '55 here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-wes-downing-story.435822/
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