Sorry to hear of your brother's passing Ed...that's a tuff loss... Hang in there, I'm sure it'll get better...for you and for the rest of us... R-
Thanks guys. Life can be a funny thing. Not funny ha ha, but funny strange. I talked to my Mom the other day and she said something that really made a lot of sense. "Life is short no matter how long you live.........." E
It's tough losing loved ones and Family. I'd be interested in seeing your other ot work. can you post a link?
Thanks Ed for sharing your thoughts and kind words. Jeff was very impressed with your thread, we talked about it a lot. It is easy to see the hours of research that goes into to each post........I'm so sorry for your loss and we will be praying for you and the family...
Thanks for all the kind replies everyone. You don't know how much that means during difficult times. @Wayne67vert, I can send you some pics. I haven't posted much on the OT cars online. Let me know what you'd like to see. E
Ref #248: Saw it for sale last year, listed in Hortonville, WI and there was another ad (still for sale) by the same person for a 1950 Conv built by Gene Winfield -attached are the Pics QUOTE="OG lil E, post: 13870352, member: 90"]What Ever Happened To..........? number 248. 1951 Mercury "Bobsled" Owners: Bob and Janet Barkoff Rahway, New Jersey This week's custom is another on the growing list of cars that never seemed to venture west much, staying in the east and attending shows there. I wish I had more east coast custom show videos, as there always seem to be a lot of cars that I've never seen anywhere else. It's always neat to see a new sled you've never laid eyes on before. The story on this sled is one that I couldn't find much information on, and I find it hard to believe that this car isn't around somewhere. It had a number of unique mods that would make it easy to identify today, even if it is a color that is way different than it was in the mid 90s. Bob and Janet Barkoff bought their Mercury around 1990, but it wasn't until Sled Scene East 1994 that I found this car. Video Bob spent quite a bit of time filming the car as it was a real show stopper. It had many of the traditional east coast styling queues including bubble skirts, molded lake pipes and Packard taillights. Surprisingly there was no Connie kit on this one, but that's ok, not every east coast sled has to have one. Another great addition is the '54 Chevy marker lights and grille with extra teeth. Also, don't forget the rounded hood corners and frenched headlights. View attachment 4917849 Here are a few other views of the front of the car. One thing I noticed is the front bumper. I could be wrong, but it looks like a nicely shaved '52 or '53 DeSoto unit. Using these in the 80s and 90s was a common mod, but it seems to have faded away a bit. This is the first time I've seen a DeSoto bumper on a Merc without using a DeSoto grille with it. Notice the peaked hood and how the peak curves to the leading edge of the hood and then fades away along the bottom edge. This seems like a hard modification to pull off and make look right. Whoever the bodyman was, he did a great job on the hood! View attachment 4917850 View attachment 4917851 Here's a shot of the tops of the fenders. They have molded peaks to match the hood. Very cool and subtle mod. View attachment 4917859 Couldn't have this many front shots without including a shot of the cool novelty plate on the front bumper. Chopped Merc owners are definitely a small group that could be referred to as "THE FEW"! View attachment 4917862 The last front shot I have is of Bob doing the dirty work shining up the car for the show and shine at Sled Scene East '94. View attachment 4917864 One of my personal favorite custom mods to do to any '49-'51 Merc is the addition of Buick side trim. Bob's Merc had the Buick side trim, molded lake pipes and bubble skirts. How could you lose with that combination. Custom tricks at their best! View attachment 4917865 View attachment 4917866 Moving around to the rear is the classic custom touch of Packard taillights. Although it is done a lot on '51s, I never get tired of it! View attachment 4917867 Every custom needs a sunken antenna, and Bob's is very unique. Hard to describe what exactly was done, but it is one of a kind. View attachment 4917872 Under the hood Bob took no shortcuts and he went crazy on chrome plating. Love the wild air cleaner assemblies! View attachment 4917878 For the interior, it was nothing too crazy, but a very comfortable and functional cockpit. View attachment 4917880 View attachment 4917882 I spent many hours searching for this one, and I didn't find a whole lot for quite some time. A short while back, I finally had a breakthrough on this Merc when I found this great shot of the Barkoff's sled. In the KKOA Trendsetter Volume 9 number 5 on page 12 from 1994, I found a great shot of the Barkoff's Mercury from the show coverage of Sled Scene '94. Before I found this picture I had no owner information on the car at all. Nice to finally come up with missing information! View attachment 4917892 The only other picture I managed to find of the '51 was once again in a KKOA Trendsetter. This time it was in Volume 9 number 10 on page 24 from 1995. This issue had some great coverage of Sled Scene East '95. The caption under the picture mentioned this was the second time the Barkoffs took their righteous custom to Sled Scene East. View attachment 4917896 After I found the second shot of the car at Sled Scene '95, I thought I should go through my Trendsetters and check out every Sled Scene show and maybe I could find out a little more about the car and it's owners. This didn't work as I checked coverage of every Sled Scene from 1996 through 2003 and the car never made another appearance at the show. I also have a DVD of Sled Scene East 2004 and the car wasn't on that either. Talk about falling off the scene! Do any of you custom faithful that used to frequent Sled Scene every year remember this car or the Barkoffs? Strange how for two years this sled was killing it at the shows and then it seemed to suddenly disappear. Anyone remember it? I hope we find more on this one as it was one cool "Bobsled"! Just a few days until Christmas folks! I'm happy to say that my shopping is done! I managed to dodge the crowds by shopping early in the morning, and doing a portion of my shopping online. Shipping has seemed slower this year than in the past, but with this mystery virus going around and many more people shopping online I guess that's to be expected. I hope you guys have been steadily getting your shopping done as waiting 'til the last minute can be the pits! Nothing like fighting the clock on Christmas Eve looking for that last gift! Been there, done that, and I won't ever do that again. So nice to be done three days before Christmas and now all I have to do is wait for the day. I hope that you get a little time off and have some nice family time and you enjoy the rest and this special time of year. I know that we get all wound up about gift giving, great eats, and maybe watching a bowl game or two, but let's not forget the real reason why we celebrate. Let me be among the first to wish all of you in my custom family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Have a great holiday everyone! See you next week! E[/QUOTE]
What Ever Happened To..........? number 249. 195? Chevy Business Coupe Owner: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, Illinois 2020. When you see that not much more has to be said. This is the strangest year I've ever lived through in all my years, and I'd think most of you would agree. Every generation experiences some kind of event that makes a permanent mark in your memory. For our grandparents and possibly parents, I'd say it had to be Pearl Harbor. Something else I'm sure older folks would remember is the assassination of Kennedy. Another event of the 60s many remember is the moon landing. Being born in '67, all that is before my time, or at least my earliest memories. I guess if I had to choose a few events that I will always remember, one would be the space shuttle Discovery disaster. I was home sick that day during my senior year of high school. I was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of corn flakes watching the launch. I couldn't believe when it exploded. I thought "What the......I don't think that was supposed to happen." Another event was the beginning of the Persian Gulf war. I had driven over to our local drug store to go buy a car magazine, go figure, and I can remember listening on the radio when at 6:00pm our time the guns started firing. I'll always remember that. The one I'm sure everyone will remember is 9/11. That event has changed daily life in America, and even after close to 20 years I still get chills when I see images from that terrible day. 2020 is a year that people will be talking about for years to come. In the future I can imagine conversations of the events of the year like wearing masks, toilet paper shortages, a controversial election, and the losses we all have suffered through. I don't want to sound like I'm not happy to be alive today, but I'm a ready teddy for 2021. It has to be better than 2020 was, doesn't it? For this week's custom I decided to do one of our wildcard customs that I have found very little on. Since this is our year end post, and 2020 has been so strange, a mysterious and elusive custom seems fitting to close out the year. This little tu-tone Chevy coupe only seemed to make its appearance at one Leadsled Spectacular, 1983 in Springfield, Ohio. On Rowdie's 1983 video, the only time it appeared was when they were cruising around the fairgrounds filming all the cars as they were parked all over the show grounds. The car quickly cruised in front of the filming car and was gone. In those few brief seconds, you could see the car was cool. It was two toned burgundy over white, separated by what looks to be '55 Buick side trim. The car was sitting on narrow white walls and wire wheels. The wires looked like Appliance baskets or something similar, but it is really hard to tell from the grainy old video. It also had shaved door handles and molded lake pipes. Once the car passed the filming car, we got a quick glimpse of the back of the car that had an unusual rolled rear pan. It looks like there is mesh mounted within the rolled pan, and a set of four taillights. I've tried magnifying the frozen video a number of times to try to see what the taillights are, but it just blurs out. I'm guessing that they are '50 Pontiac. What do you guys think? For the longest time, I had this car mixed up with another pair of Chevys that we covered about a year ago. The original feature car was a '52 Chevy known as "Tuff 52" owned by Larry Fleming. Turns out it was a hardtop and not a coupe. The other car I had confused with Larry's car was a business coupe called "Puppy Love". It was a business coupe with a lot of similarities to this week's car. One big difference was "Puppy Love" was chopped, and this week's car wasn't. We never did identify the owner of "Puppy Love", so there is another of those custom mysteries that we are still searching for answers to. Here is a link to that write up. Maybe someone will check it out and remember something from those Chevy's past. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-128#post-13294736 The only other speck of information on this week's Chevy is a picture I found in an early KKOA Leadsled'er newsletter. It was in Volume 2 number 5 on page 16. It was the KKOA's coverage of the '83 Spectacular. Unfortunately there was no owner name. There is one little clue though as you can see the personalized license plate that reads "NICE 23". It's very hard to see, but the plates look like they are from Illinois. Virginia plates also had a similar look to them back in those days too, but I'm leaning towards Illinois. And that is where the cold trail just freezes over. Not much on this one at all. I'm sure if the car has survived that the unusual rolled pan would make it easy to identify, but all my picture searching, video watching and magazine reading has never turned up anything even close to this coupe. How about you guys? Does this car ring a bell at all? I know '83 is getting to be quite a long time ago now, but many of you went to the Spectacular in those days. Do any of you custom faithful remember seeing it there? I'd be real interested to find out more on this cool little Chevy. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Our was nice, but it was a holiday filled with some sadness like I mentioned a few posts back. Everyday I'm getting better, knowing that my friends are in a better place. With that, let me be one of the first to wish you all a fabulous New Year with joy, prosperity and good health. Before I sign off tonight, I wanted to remind everyone that I'll be taking January off. I mentioned this a few posts back, but I wanted to bring it up again in case anyone missed it. Everything is fine, I just need some time to rest a bit, reflect and reorganize. I usually do this a few times a year as my research leaves my files, magazines, notes and office a total mess. Since my last break things have actually stayed in pretty good order, although they do need a little straightening out. The big thing is all the recent developments I mentioned a few posts back. I'll be back on Tuesday, February 2nd with another forgotten custom, and I'm sure we'll have more great discussions then. In closing, I'd like to thank you all for your friendship and support, and for sticking around reading this grown up barrio kid's ramblings every week. I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I have. I couldn't do it without you. Thanks so much! Happy New Year guys! I'll see you again real soon! E
Like many have said. This is the best thread on the HAMB. Take as long as you need. We all understand. If you look at the pic that says Leadsled`er, it a wide open space with tall trees in the background. Telling me It is from 82 when KKOA was in Des Moines. In the book by Mike Keys of the 82 show, it has this pic. Illinois Nice 23. No mention of owner or town. If you have any Christmas money left, buy this book. Color on scanner is iffy. Looks like the 2 pic`s were taken the same day as the wheels are turned.
Enjoy the break, Ed. Hope you can get some good organizing done. Man, organizing is something I need to do in the worst way....the shop is a total disaster and getting disaster-er by the moment. LOL I don't know anything about this week's car, but I recognized the tail end right off. I saw it at the Mid Century Mercury club show in Kenosha, WI in '83. Film being expensive to a high school junior, I took combo pics catching several cars in one shot.
Thanks guys, I think the break will be nice. Wow, I can't believe you guys have some pictures! Nice to finally see the front of this Chevy. Now we know what my blurry images couldn't prove, that this cool Chevy is from Illinois. I'll update the header on the write up right away. I think I have that book Jim. I just can't get to most of my books right now since the living room has Christmas still going on full swing. It seems safe to say the car was at the second Spectacular in '82. You don't know how much I would love to find video of the first and second Leadsleds! I've been a fan of the Mid-Century Mercury Club for a while Doc. The first time I ever heard of them was on the 1985 Leadsled Spectacular. At that show, Dave Purdy had his "Slimer" Merc there in gray prime with scallops before the bright green paint. He had those cool split rear doors open, and his Mid Century Mercury Car Club Jacket was draped over the back seat. I immediately fell in love with the doors, as well as the primered scallop look. I remember thinking if the Mid Century Merc Club had cars like this one they are a cool bunch! If I ever get a Merc more than likely it will be a four door as the two doors are getting so expensive. If that ever does happen, I want to copy Mr. Purdy's back door treatment, with a few minor changes. I think it looks so cool. Also, the way the doors were shaped to clear the bubble skirts is killer! I can't say when these pics were taken, but in one you can see Dave's car club jacket on the back seat. I'd imagine that it was around the '85 Spectacular. A while back I got these on Ebay. I'm always on the lookout for stuff like this from the renaissance days of leadsleds in the 80s and 90s. It's a little more custom history that most people could care less about, but I like it. It's a small way of saving the past and showing respect for our custom elders that paved the way for us today. E
Ed just reading on your loss, my condolences and wishes for happiness for the whole family in the up coming year. Also, Thank You again for providing a Forum that one looks forward to reading and contributing. Dave
I never saw this thread or I would have posted in this car here. You can read the thread on it if you'd like and how I came to meet the owners: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/alan-reasons-1950-ford.1206029/#post-13752938 I still haven't made it over to see their car, but I'm planning on going asap and updating when I can.
Thanks Dave. E Cool custom that most would consider over the top. I have some video somewhere of an interview with the owners. I can't recall if their name was mentioned. I'll dig around and see if I can find it. Whatever you do, get over there and see the car and visit with those folks. We never know how much time we are going to have, and nothing is harder to live with than the regret of a missed opportunity..........E
I met them 3 years ago. Go see them as soon as possible. He has a mini museum. Only seen pic`s. He is a very interesting person. Ask him about Iggy.
That's cool. Very nice folks. He wasn't in very good health last I talked to him, and they're pretty worried about covid, quite understandably. But asap for sure.
Yes. He had the scale model of the Golden Sahara he built. He also wore his sunglasses upside down. I got to see Iggy and there Baby Monkey( Doll).
Weird I came across this but I instantly recognized the car. I remember my dad always talking about how it had a unique screw suspension. My father bought this car from brick nj around 1984 before I was born. He had it until the late 80s and then sold it and had no idea where it went. About 5 years ago I saw it posted and if I remember it was in wayne New Jersey. I can probably dig up old pictures of it and possibly a video. I know the car was white when he got it then went back to the green with scallops. Again all from remembering pictures but I have them somewhere. [/QUOTE]
Larry is my dad and Is still around he has a chopped 1950 ford that's almost the same color green as the chevy was. Funny I have a 1949 chevy but a styleline that's chopped and all. Bought it because I always wanted something even close to the fine 49. Have to dig pictures up of this car.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 250. 1950? Dodge Wayfarer "Kathy's Clown" Owner: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, Arkansas Well gang, I'm back! I have to say the last month just flew by. I managed to get my office, files and magazines back in order in just a few days. After that I took about a week off with very little magazine reading or any other research related activities, but after that week I felt the need to get back into action. So, I guess you can say that I really only took about a week and a half off, with it being pretty much my same old routine with the exception of writing for a few Tuesdays in a row. I seem to be amassing a large number of "wildcard" or "mystery" customs that I can't find much owner information on. There is only so much material out there, and with the custom elders getting away from customs or passing away a large amount of information is lost everyday. On these mystery customs, I hope that you custom faithful have more information or input than I could find. It's always nice to clear up these mysteries, and as I like to say, "Give credit where credit is due", with some good answers. With all that being said, here's the first "What Ever Happened To..........?" of 2021. This neat little Dodge (I think, could be a Plymouth but I don't really think so) seemed to first appear at the Hangin' Dice Nationals in Fort Smith, Arkansas back in 1988. I came across a rare picture of it on Rikster's site in the Dr. Dave (@drdave) collection. The Doc had a nice set of pictures from Hangin' Dice from '87, '88 and '89, but the only picture of the car was from '88. It might have been there other years as the car had Arkansas plates on it. Maybe Doc, like many of us back then had to be selective about what cars to take pictures of as film and development were very expensive. The development of digital photography and smart phone picture capabilities are one of the few modern things that actually seems better than old cameras, film developing, and so on. The next picture I found of the car was again from Rikster's world renown picture site. This was in the Scott Pavey collection. I have no idea what show this was at, but it is another nice shot of the car. As far as my video research goes, I only saw the little Mopar at the Leadsled Spectacular once, and that was in 1992 in Holland, Michigan. That is a long drive from anywhere in Arkansas! On the video the car cruised by the camera only once, but we finally catch a glimpse of the rear of the car with frenched taillights and the molded rear bumper matching the front. It is hard to tell from my grainy still, but you can see something lettered on the trunk lid. It reads "Kathy's Clown". More on this in a few. These fastback Mopars aren't customized very often, but I must say seeing one is a treat that is a break from the usual custom fastbacks that are way more popular. My last shot from the '92 Spectacular is somewhat of a 3/4 shot from further away. You can see how the lowering and customizing took away some of the Mopar frumpiness (is that a word?) and took this car to custom cool. I wish the image was closer and clearer as it really is a nice looking sled. My last pictures tonight are courtesy of Debb Butler, a.k.a. @KustomLincolnLady. A few years back she was kind enough to send me some great car show DVDs. They have been a great addition to my collection, and every now and then I find a nice piece of our custom puzzles on them to share here on the W.E.H.T. thread. One of the DVDs is an Action Video produced by "Video Bob" Huff called "Kustoms Galore". This DVD was a large collection of many different customs that were filmed at various custom shows all over the country. It was on that DVD where we get some nice close up shots of some of the details of the car. The next picture is of the owner doing a little show and shine wipe down. Note the frenched antenna. In the next shot we get a nice look at the frenched taillights that I still haven't been able to identify. They might very well be some home made bases with old truck clearance light lenses or something. Any ideas? Here we get the best look at the lettering on the trunk, "Kathy's Clown". This last picture really plays with your eyes. The shot appears to be late in the afternoon or even close to dusk. The shadows make the car look like the roof is a different color. Gives you an idea of what this car would look like as a tu-tone. Over all, I guess I should feel good about finding so many shots of this car, but it is always disappointing when the owner's information never comes out. Does anyone have any more on this unique sled? Funny how it seemed to be around for a number of years, but not much coverage of it has surfaced. Let's hope we can all figure out more about "Kathy's Clown". I hope the last month has been good to everyone. This time of year is my least favorite as I think I've mentioned before. From January 2 to St. Patrick's Day I just dread this time of year. The weather is still iffy, no holidays or many fun events to look forward to, and the days are still pretty short (daylight wise). Factor in the weirdness that we are still dealing with and it makes for some strange times. So many swap meets and car events that we usually checkout this time of year have pretty much all been cancelled because of the virus. Even other things like going bowling or just going out to dinner with friends are not allowed. Then to top it all off that darn groundhog in Pennsylvania sees his shadow so supposedly we're in for six more weeks of winter..........man, all I can say is c'mon Spring! Hang in there! 'Til next week, be good! E
Welcome back Ed. I have really missed your weekly posts on this thread. I totally remember this car I don't remember if I saw it in Fort Smith or at the Leadsleds. But as usual I am absolutely no help with any Info on it....
Good to have you back Ed! Been missing my weekly mystery. I remember the car, and yes, as you said, film and developing was expensive to a college guy wanting to spend all his money on his car, so no way I could take pics of every car at the show every year. I would have thought being an Arkansas car surely they would have had it at Ft Smith every year, so I went through my pics looking to see if I could find it in the background other years even though I didn't take a direct picture of it. Sure enough, I see it in '90 next to this drop top Ford. Even though I see pinstriped flames on it this year, it has to be the same car. Same visor, same lake pipe and same curb feelers. Another side note to this picture, which ends up being one of my favorite ever Ft Smith pics for this very reason....walking behind the Ford and looking right at me you will notice our own Mr Stray Kat himself @straykatkustoms long before we ever knew each other much less realizing we were brothers from other mothers.....just two introverted dorks wandering about drooling over kustoms and being the only kustom dudes in the towns we each lived in. Wish I'd known him then so that our friendship would be even longer.
Thanks Mark. Feels good to to be back at it. As far as not much help, I don't buy that for a minute. It's just hard to remember every sled at every show, especially as many shows as you've been to. Plus, time is passing us by. I know lately my mind doesn't seem as sharp as it used to be (lol)! E Oh, it won't go to my head, I promise you that. I appreciate the kind words. Thanks John! E Thanks Doc, nice to be missed. I was hoping you might have more pictures to share. I think you went to more Hangin' Dice than anyone I've come across. What we can see of the pinstriped flames look good on the little fastback. As for Mick (@straykatkustoms) he hasn't changed much. Neat to see his smiling face in the background. By the way, many of you out there might not realize it, but Mick's '55 Chevy more door was in the first KKOA book, and in the caption he mentions future plans to make it a traditional mild custom. I'll scan the article and post it later on. Oh yeah, Doc's Pontiac 'vert is in there too. I'll scan it as well. Hard to believe many of us have been in the same scene for years, and it wasn't until just a few years ago we all met up and were able to put names, faces and shared shows all together. Great friends, that's for sure! While I was researching this week's custom, a story that was told to me years ago kept going through my head. Our local louver guy Sam Jamison is an old time hot rod/custom guy. He has a stack of photos in his shop from car shows (mostly from the Denver area) from many years ago. Very cool almost all black and white shots. He also has photo albums crammed full of pictures of louver jobs he's done over the years. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of pictures, and Sam remembers most jobs very well. One time when I was over there getting some louver work done, we were going through his albums for louver layout ideas and I remember seeing a fastback Plymouth or Dodge in his pictures. If memory serves, it was in primer in the pictures, and the guy came over to get a Fulton sunvisor louvered. Sam said that after the visor was louvered the guy didn't like the way it looked, so he never used it and put on a smooth one instead. Sam also mentioned that the guy eventually painted the car pink. Sam knew that me and my friend Mitch always had a collection of sunvisors, and the louvered one might be one we could've bought from the guy to add to our stash. Only thing was, Sam seemed to remember hearing from somewhere that the guy moved to the South. I haven't talked to Sam in quite a while (shame on me) and I think I'll give him a call to see how things are going. Him and his beautiful bride are getting up in years and I worry about them. They still live in the old neighborhood I grew up in, and things are getting rough over there again. I'll bring the Mopar and the visor up again and see if Sam remembers it and can shed more light on it. It may be a whole other car, but some of the story is too coincidental to this week's car to be another. I'll get back to everyone at a later time on this one. In closing, here's a picture of Sam and Diane Jamison in their awesome '50 Lincoln I took a few years ago at the St. Jude Car Show. They are super folks that I've known since I was in high school! The St. Jude gathering was an awesome car show for a great cause. One of the best shows I've been to in recent years! I sure hope things get closer to back to normal so we can all get back to doing fun stuff like this..........E
Welcome back Ed, All of us and the Custom section of the HAMB sure missed ya.... LMAOl! @drdave "...just two introverted dorks wandering about drooling over kustoms and being the only kustom dudes in the towns we each lived in." Lol!! that should be on my business card.... If we had the chance to go back in time. Today I have so many good friends that was at the Hangin Dice show. Seems like when our group gets together, we always talk about that show. Blessed to say, many years later they became family. I was very shy back then and over whelmed with the kool rides and the people. I drove one confused '55 Chevy four door. It was a covering a lot of different trends. A little Kustom, little Mini Truck and whatever else was popular. Thankfully I grew out of chasing trends.. It was what I had since high school so I made the best of it. Lot of good times. I have pics of the Dodge, I'll see if I can find them.
It`s me again. Never thought it would be from Arkansas. I took this at Holland Michigan`s KKOA show. Guess the scanner is acting up again. Never made it to Ft Smith. I tried to take a pic of every custom. Was thinking the guy that rode with Doug Shoemaker in his Dodge to Holland loved this car. He wanted to clone it. Was mentioned earlier in this thread. The 54 Ford above is(was) from Council Bluffs Iowa. He was a barber.
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