Been off the grid for a couple weeks, but just got all caught up on this thread. Cool stuff Ed! Thanks for our weekly fix! Neato that carnut is back up! Was bummed to see it gone...thrilled it’s back up. Wonder who took it over? Hope it keeps going. I’d be happy to contribute to the cost of hosting and the domain registration to keep it up. Maybe a go fund me or some crazy thing could be set up for contributions Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I don't remember this car Ed, and I should because I was one of the 100 people at the event in Huntsville that year. I remember it being real hot and the show was on 100% blacktop with no trees... the good thing though was finding the NOS cal custom tube grille that is now in my impala at the swap meet there for a 100 bucks. And travelling there with @PasoJohn we stopped at Elvis presleys house in Memphis for a tour
Thanks Doc! I've been wondering where you've been. @Sancho has been MIA lately as well. I agree about chipping in for Carnut. It is a priceless collection of pictures and information that needs to be preserved. We'll see how it plays out. E I've heard opinions about the Alabama Leadsled for years. Mostly negative things, but the fact that you found your ultra rare Cal Custom grille there as well as spending time with John at The King's house made it a good and memorable trip, I'm sure! E
I've been unbelievably busy with work and working OT lately. End of quarter you know, and it was a crazy one!
Okay this is a grainy photo as it's from a "dead" link. I found this online listing (link is gone), appears to have been a UK classified site. No idea on actual location or date... Notice the added front tag (or plaque), split bumpers, headlight visors, windshield visor, and triple outlet pipes.
This ad shows a US location but I'd venture to guess that this was prior to the listing I posted above. It doesn't have all the added stuff here, except the triple outlet pipes. http://smclassiccars.com/chevrolet/...er-deluxe-coupe-350-cid-must-see-showcar.html
Another thing I just noticed; in this photo from the UK listing it looks like they added Chevy tail lights to the rear pan.
Yep, I'd definitely say that's the same '41--even though it kinda got over-accessorized. Nice find @Sancho! Glad you're back--we've missed you pal! E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 186. 1954 Chevy Bel Air "Bad Moon Risin'" Owner: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? Well, here we go again. I know the last few weeks I've posted a car with no header information, and today's custom is no different. I'm trying to post a small group of customs that I've been researching for a long time that the information trail has grown cold on. It's just that this group of cars is so cool it seems a shame not to post them and see what you guys know about them. So far we haven't had much luck, but looking at customs is fun anyway, right? On we go! This week's custom is a heavily chopped '54 Chevy Bel Air. In my research, it seems that the car was only at a few KKOA shows. This might make it harder to recognize to all of you out there that went to these shows all the time. I first saw the car on the 1991 Leadsled Spectacular video shot in Hamilton, Ohio. Video Bob must have really liked the car as he spent a good bit of time filming it. There are a few things about the car that are a little bit "out there" like the unusual scallop job on the trunk and little pictures and murals that were on it here and there, but the way it was chopped makes the weirdness worth it. Another thing that seems strange to me is that the car ran without skirts. I know there are guys out there that don't think a lot of cars should have skirts, but I think skirts look better on just about everything. The nickname of this car was on the side quarter windows. I can't tell if the lettering was painted on or was the vinyl type. It kind of follows along the trend of quarter window names that were popular with custom and lowrider guys from the late 60s through the 70s. The car also had a small mural on the gas door that had a small moon on it in the upper left hand corner. It had some moon beams coming down diagonally to the lower right. Definitely different to say the least, but kinda cool in a Dean Jeffries/Von Dutch sort of way. Video Bob took a lot of good video of the front of this Chevy. The extra teeth on a '54 Chevy are always a good choice--even in a '54 Chevy. You will notice that the car's scallop job on the front of the car was nice. The weirdness was on the trunk which I'll touch on in a minute. For some reason it seems like the owner of the car or the painter ran out of ideas for the trunk. The scallop choice is strange for lack of a better word. It looks like a graphic in a comic book that Superman will be popping out of a few frames later. Also, the Betty Boop on the back looks to be an after thought. I don't like bashing anyone's work or their car, but you have to admit, this trunk has one of the more unusual paint schemes we've ever covered here. The next time I saw the car was on the 1993 Sled Scene East video shot as always in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I've watched this video a number of times, and if you don't pay close attention, you'll miss the car. It's a very quick shot that is on the last part of the DVD. All it shows is the car pulling out of the park on to the road to leave. The car looks the same as it did in '91. On the '91 video I tried to freeze the video to see where the license plate was from. All I could tell is that the plates looked to be white. The car had one of those louvered plastic covers on it that distorted the shot enough to make it impossible to read: On the 1993 Sled Scene East DVD, the louvered license plate cover was gone, but the shot was so far away that I still couldn't make out the plate: This Chevy looks the part of a car that could have been from the Ohio or Indiana area. When you follow customs closely like a lot of us do, certain regions have styles or trends that are done according to where the car is from. I watched a lot of the great videos @John B has sent me from various KOA events in the midwest searching for another glance of this car, but found nothing. Let's see if any of you sharp eyed custom faithful know more about this heavily chopped Chevy from years ago. Well, I think fall is really upon us. My next door neighbor and his little girl were putting up some of their Halloween decorations yesterday in upper 70 degree temperatures. Today it's in the mid 40s with rain and drizzle. The leaves were changing slowly, but this weather will put them in "turbo" mode. Man, it's almost time to put the cars up for winter. Damn.......... Until next Tuesday, y'all be good! E
If that plate on the front is not a vanity plate it leave Indiana out, as we do not have to run front plates! Thank goodness! Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Now my vision ain`t the greatest,but could the first 3 letters on the tag be CPY or maybe EPY? Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
I haven`t seen the car before, But the trunk looked real familiar. The Hatfields from Ohio. Not the same car. When the show went back to Ohio, we stopped going, to far away. Life got in the way.
I was typing when you posted this^^^. If it helps, I do have pic`s of the bubble skirted white and blue Chevy sitting next to it. (You can see it in the pic of the trunk lid that Ed posted)
Thanks all for the interest in my old 52 Chevy. Twenty eight years ago I sold this to finance my move to a live-in work space near downtown Los Angeles where I lived for the next 19 years. I had lost tract of it but heard rumors that it was not in the best of shape and was missing the top. About two years ago I got a call from Bill Ganahl saying he knew where it was and that it was for sale. At that time I was in the beginning of moving back to California from Texas and was unable to pursue buying it. Once again I lost tract of it. Two weeks ago it resurfaced and last weekend I picked it up and brought it home. At this time I'm not too sure what my plans are for it as it's had a pretty tough life since I sold it. The doors have been converted to open suicide and the hood and trunk where in the process of being changed as well. Consequently the trunk and hood hinge areas have been cut out and the door hinges look as though they were made by a blacksmith. Thanks to OG lil E for starting this thread, it's brought back a lot of memories. Now you know what ever happened to number 125.
Wow! Lee I am thrilled you got your chevy back. This is one of my favorite customs. I hope you will be able to bring it back to its former glory... whoever ruined it should have all their tools taken away
Are you sure the guys who did it weren’t “tools “ themselves? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks for checking in Lee! Glad to see that your Chevy made it back into your hands after all these years. If anybody can return it to its former glory it has to be you. Thanks for letting us in on the news! Glad you are enjoying the thread. Those were some great times back in the old KKOA days. Take care! E
That '51 Ford was owned by Ron Sokoloski from Stevens Point WI. It was old at the '82 KKOA Des Moines show to somebody from the Des Moines area. Ron never heard from the new owner and has no idea of whatever became of the car ... It did have those clear bubbles over the headlamps. The tailights were the stock units turned sideways.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 187. 1949 Ford Business Coupe "The Vulture" Owner: Dave Dietz Palmerton, Pennsylvania This week's car is one of those that never seemed to venture west to any Leadsled Spectacular. Mr. Dietz was a regular at Sled Scene East though. Like I've mentioned before, I don't have much in the way of video from the Sled Scene East shows, but I did find Dave took his '49 Ford there for three straight years that I know of. He attended the show in 1992, 1993 and 1994. The car underwent some small changes during that three year period, then after that, the information trail ended. The first sighting of the car at the SSE in 1992 showed that it was a clean mild custom. It had nice red paint, Moon discs, frenched head lights and taillights, three rib skirts as well as a Vulture painted on the trunk. It's hard to see, but the trunk read "The Vulture" with "Chevys....Taste Great! Less Filling!" printed underneath. Video Bob shot quite a bit of footage of the car at rest and rolling around. Dave definitely was not one to let grass grow under his wheels! Inside of the car Dave had a unique center console that housed a large array of gauges. I'm sure he needed them to take care of the nicely dressed flathead. At the 1993 Sled Scene East the car had gone through a few minor changes. The Moon discs were gone replaced by four bar Lancers that had a red painted background with chrome spinners. Also, one of the front license plates (that I could never see clearly enough to read) was gone. In the video, Video Bob mentioned that he felt bad for Dave as he was having mechanical problems all weekend. Apparently he was having fuel pump issues. The next picture was taken in the parking lot of the hall or restaurant where the sock hop was on Saturday night. I do believe what Bob said too, as the little shoebox wasn't shown that much on the '93 DVD. There were still a few shots of Dave cruising around with his faithful stuffed Vulture keeping an eye on things out back! In 1994 Dave decided to step up and do more to the car. There were many changes you can see that were different from 1993. I don't know if the car was starting to look tired and needed a facelift, or the car had a fender bender or something that required some repairs and changes followed. You can see the front license plate was gone, and that dummy spots and a visor had been added. The three rib skirts were gone, being replaced by a set of cruiser skirts. Dave also shaved the door handles. You will also note the large "For Sale" sign under the hood. For some reason when I took pictures of the car with the DVD paused, the bumpers looked to be more pink than red in the photo. This was only in the picture. On my computer screen the bumpers looked more like red and matched the car. One thing that didn't change was Dave's trusty lookout, the Vulture on the package tray. You can see Dave followed the cool east coast tradition of putting drive in speakers on the package tray. I wonder if they were there for looks or if his radio speakers were in them to blast out his favorite tunes.......... In the back you can see more changes. The Vulture and lettering on the trunk were gone as were the old turn down tail pipes. They were replaced with echo cans with spark plugs and wires in them for flame throwing. More east coast traditions! After the 1994 DVD shots, I couldn't find anything more on this '49 coupe. I think this one might be hard to hunt down since it is so mild. @Sancho has always said that the mild cars are much harder to track down just because there are so many other cars that are similar without radical mods to make them easier to identify. I even tried searching the web for Mr. Dietz to try and see what part of Pennsylvania he called home but had no luck. Maybe some of you that frequented the Sled Scene East shows will recall the car or even better yet know (knew) Dave and can give us more information on what ever became of Dave and his loyal little Vulture. I hope everyone is well and you're enjoying your car and cruising while the weather is still somewhat decent. They are saying we'll have snow in the Mile High City in a few days. I guess that's to be expected as Halloween is just around the corner. Until next time, stay cool! E
@El Pratt. If you're serious about bringing the old girl back, I'd love to see it back in the dark purple over gold! You're fortunate that the grille survived. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to find a decent donor vehicle for the butchered parts. Whatever you do, I hope you have fun on the journey!
After considerable searching I found this from 2001: (I added the bold) "Nearly 1,300 classic cars, antiques, street rods and custom cars filled the Wildwoods, N.J., boardwalk Sept. 21 and 22 for the ninth annual Classic Car Show. Local winners of the top 25 were: Dave Dietz of Palmerton for his 1949 Ford Club coupe; Chris Remmer of Coopersburg, '34 Chevrolet Cabriolet convertible; and Bryan Moyer of Albrightsville, '71 Dodge Challenger." Here's the link:https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2001-10-18-3386183-story.html @OG lil E Is it possible you have the spelling incorrect?
This is from 2019! (Again, I added the bold) https://www.mariettastreetfest.com/car-show-registration/ "Thank to all of our 2019 Hubcaps & History Car Show Participants! Our winners were Best Paint–1968 Chevy Camaro owned by Larry Barnaby Best Muscle Car–1969 Chevy SS Chevelle owned by Ricky Jackson Best Hot Rod–1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe owned by Bugsy Romaniello Best Custom Car–1949 Ford Coupe owned by David Dietz Best Classic Car–1959 Mercury Monclair owned by Herb Sander Best in Show–1959 Ford Skyliner owned by Robert Seckler Viewer’s Choice–1957 Rolls Royce Phantom V owned by John & Eloise Haulbrook We hope to see you all again on Saturday, September 19th, 2020 for our 16th Hubcaps & History."
It looks like the HAMB's number one information hunter has struck gold again! @Sancho sent sent me a link to a web page with information on Dave. Apparently he is alive and well living in Georgia and is 78 years young which is great! According to the page he also once lived in Lehighton, PA and Palmerton, PA. Since Palmerton seemed like the most recent PA address, I'll update the header page with that town. Bill didn't want to post that page because there was some personal information on Mr. Dietz and I agree that it shouldn't be posted because of privacy concerns. Bill also sent me a picture of the Ford that is fairly recent if I understand all I read correctly. The car has some of the consistent features from the pictures I posted so I think I can say that the car Bill found is it, but the car is no longer HAMB friendly so I won't post it. If there is a lot of response to post it I might, but I don't want to upset anyone as it's no longer the type of car allowed to be posted here. Bill also found that it looks like I had Dave's last name spelled wrong. Video Bob said Dave's last name on the DVD and I spelled it like it sounded. When I posted it I thought the spelling looked strange as Deets is a name I've never seen before. I'll correct that in the post as well. Great work as always Bill! Your searching skill is always helping this thread to keep moving along. We appreciate your efforts! Thanks a ton! E
The Jalopy Journal
