History Merc Deuce Reunion 1979

This was "The Rose", a car I learned about with its distinct 3 window conversion.

 

This is what this car looks like today. The top pick is from the 79 Merc Deuce Reunion. A good friend owns it. Very nice transformation, chopped by the great Ed Lepold from Lincoln Land Kustoms.

 

I've always loved this Merc, even though a three window version wouldn't be very well accepted today. Actually, the car was called "American Beauty". It was owned by Luther Parvin. He drove the car to the show all the way from Fort Worth, Texas. We covered this Merc on the W.E.H.T. thread way back in October of 2017. It was #86. I'll include a link to the write up just in case anybody wants to learn more about Luther and the "American Beauty".
@Sancho did some deep searching on the Merc and owner, and sadly, we found out Mr. Parvin passed away in 2015. E

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-61#post-12288326

Great information and pics Sum54ford! Love the chopped version of the Merc you posted above. The purple with yellow flames is cool, and very different.
I learned something new today, I had no idea Ed Lepold chopped a Merc. Does anybody know if he's chopped more than this one? Did he chop his own? What ever the case, Ed just earned another gold star in my "hero profile" of him. Man, so many guys can do so much!
Can't talk about Ed's Merc without posting a picture or two. These two are courtesy of the Dan Greenberg and Tom Davidson collections.





Sorry guys, didn't mean to take the thread off course. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming..........E

 

YES!! Ed has chopped all of these cars shown here as well as other Mercs. Ed fully built his Mercury as well! He is a heck of a builder and very well recognized here in St. Louis.

 

love the older pic's keep'em coming

 

Photo from the Street Rodder Magazine coverage of the event.

 

@straykatkustoms I found some more pictures from the show searching around on the internet on the carnut site. Gene Elgan’s Mercury here from St Louis. “Low Rider”

 

The Titus Mercury.

 

Not sure what’s going on here with this Kustom. Looks like a sectioned Mercury from the doors forward and a humpback Ford from the doors back?

 

Thanks for posting your pics. Would have been so kool to have been there.

I wonder what happened to this kool ride. Would make a kool 60's style kustom.

 

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. Great bit of custom history.

 

Pretty sure this car was a Fremont NE car, chopped '51 4 door. Guy that owned "Details by Dale" owned it. I'm curious now about the history. Did Dale build it? Buy it?

 

I was there! I was 12. Same Merc, same dumb kid.

 

My Dad made the trophies for best merc and deuce the first year. We carried them in our station wagon from Dayton Ohio to Kansas City with the merc in tow. We got lost I don't know how many times, blew tires and Dad got thrown in jail upon arrival in the middle of the night. By the time the 81 Leadsled arrived we had all the bugs worked out and became better travelers. haha

 

Bob Johnson from Council Bluffs Iowa won the Best Merc. King of Customs. And the Roadster won King of Hot Rods. .

 

Nope. It was Bob and Larry Phillips from Des Moines Iowa with his 3 - window.

 

That roadster wasn't the best deuce but that pic was in the magazines. I think everyone knows that though. The Merc ended up in Dayton Ohio. I think Tom Gidzinger bought it. I know I just slaughtered his name. I have no idea where it went to after that.

 

The article that appeared in Custom Rodder and Street Rodder only had the roadster pictured. Not the coupe. Neither mentioned who won the King Of throphys. It was in the Best of Street Rodder Special issue that had the Coupe pictured wiih the listing of the winner of the King of Customs and the King of Hot Rods. I believe the car went to Gitzinger. I have a call into his son for conformation but no word back yet. Met him in Indy`s Custom Car Revival 3 years ago. He had the red Studebaker.

 

Jerry Titus always had an itinerary for every night. One night he showed old B rated hot rod movies on a white cinder block wall in a garage at the hotel. One of the movies had roadsters curb racing and there was a few shots of the Ala Kart in the background. I think Jerry ran the 35mm projector. The kind you would see in high school. Everyone was sitting in lawn chairs, eating and telling stories. A much simpler time. I still find myself smiling how the reunion and leadsled shows started. A special thank you to the Titus family who got it started.

 

Thank you for sharing your memories. I would love to be able to go back and enjoy the early KKOA shows. Sadly I was not able to attend most of the events in the eighties & nineties. So I enjoy hearing about what I missed. So Blessed over the years to become friends with the Titus family. They don't get enough recognition with their efforts bringing back Kustoms.

 

Same car?

 

AMEN !

 

Looking at the top, I would say yes. Kool to see it is still around...
Thanks for sharing the post.

 

And the Roadster belongs too ---- Mr Lobeck.

 

The Merc in the above post by @straykatkustoms and a subsequent post (#54) by @Gingie was built by the late, great Miles Masa of Downers Grove, IL. I’m surprised nobody mentioned him, it was one of a number of customs he built at his shop.
RIP Miles.

 

Thank you Fordors. Miles Masa knew how to do them right!