Rod Powell shared the following kool pics from the Merc Deuce Reunion. Thought it would be kool to share them.. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Helluva show. First time I ever flew on an airplane, went by myself, even had a travel agent "arrange" everything. First night was OK, second night the hotel told me I didn't have a room anymore. Slept on the floor of a room my new friends from Iowa had rented. Identical twin guys, one driving a yellow 32. A very cool bunch. IIRC, one of them ran the phone company credit union in Iowa, and the other one had a garage/muffler shop? Maybe these guys are HAMBers? Don't remember names, unfortunately. I've gotta dig out my pics, and find the event t-shirts I've got stashed away. I'm too fat to wear them, but they'd look good on the wall. A very cool event.
Jerry Titus's dark green Merc is one of my all time favorite's and the inspiration of my own 51 and proves Merc's can make Bad Ass Hot Rods. Every time I see this car I want to radius my wheel wells. But lol even though I have cut every thing else on her I just can't quite bring myself to cut a set of cherry quarter panels! But that car screams the influence that Daryl Starbird had om him and his late brother Eldon. It is almost heartbreaking that Jerry and Eldon redesigned her into a more traditonal style skirted custom for the first leadslead spectacular. Larry
Notice how young we were back then. The amount of work done on the cars wasn't on the level of the really nice today. Very few were real low because they were driven alot.
How cool! I remember that one...I was in the Rod-Tiques back then and this was held at KCIR (all these photos show the KCIR parking lot). Somewhere in the background of these shots is my '40 Plymouth coupe. The cruise up Noland Road into Independence was epic as well.
I had just finished my first year of teaching high school auto mechanics and along with being broke as a church mouse, just having had my daughter be born on July 9 I was in a two week vocational teachers training class at that time. With that I remember that it was a really big deal in the rod mags at the time. I hadn't yet started putting my 51 Merc back together (it was still behind my grandfather's shed here on the farm where I had put it before I left for the army in 1967) but I sure studied the photos of the cars that were there.
Denny and Dallas Abrams from the Mason City, Iowa area I think. Pretty sure they aren't HAMBers, but the yellow coupe is now owned by a HAMBer in Arizona. I can't remember which owned the yellow coupe, but the other brother owned an almost twin 32 3-window in candy brandywine. I remember riding in the rumble seat of the brandywine coupe as a kid during the poker run at the River City Rod Run in Clear Lake probably around 1980.
I remember Dallas Abrams from about 40 yrs ago. He was in the Waterloo/CF area at the time and working on a '32 Chevy 5 Passenger Confederate Coupe ( like a Ford Vicky). Gary
I was Blessed to have the opportunity to buy the shirts a few years ago. All of them my size and only the first one was worn before. I have my 1984 Merc Deuce Reunion shirt but it’s a medium. What was I thinking I can’t wear a medium shirt.... Lol! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Yea, I drove my '32 5w to the '84 Merc / Deuce reunion. Went alone, long trip from Va. Beach, I was 40 years old. Had couple troubles but wired it up & made it there . Coming back alone at night was a trip n those days. Slept in the car at rest stops. Lots of cool guys there, many gone away, too bad. Still have my '84 sticker on a tool box. No T shirt, probably no xtra $$. Always wanted a Merc after that. Finally got a half finished one w/ sbc. Wasn't like a '32 hot rod, sold bought another 32. Good ol days. Now we drive cross country and don't think about it. Great !
This was a Detroit area car, by 1985 it was all black, the chrome side pipes, spotlights and mirrors were gone and it had truspoke wheels. Later it was tubbed and had either a tunnel ram or supercharger out the hood. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have a few photos from the show that I got from a friend of mine. The Gateway Ford Mercury Club here in St. Louis went up with a big group.
The 51 Merc in the corner of this picture is Rich Yedlicka, his Merc has a 57 Pontiac 370 with tri power and a Muncie 4 Speed. He has had the Merc since 1958 and still drives it today at 80. Gene Elgans Merc in the middle and Paul Vitale with the chopped Merc.
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