My point was, you're willing to still post snide, smartass, worthless comments... even after reading the post from the builders grandson... well, I guess we don't belong to the same school of thought. The kid shows class yet all you return with is crass. Nice. Believe me, I can post snide, smartass, and worthless with the best of 'em, I just choose to do so where it seems appropriate, and to me it's not appropriate here, but that's just my opinion.
These cars are Icons of our hobby to be respected and treated as pieces of history. What gets to me is that some people have to be nasty and insulting. It takes very little to be civil and it is a shame that the family of a good man has to be subjected to all that.
Thanks Evel- x2. A few fuddy- duddies here. Thacker/ Southard's 'Custom Cars of the 1950's' has a crisp frontal shot of the car at the 1960 Oakland show with a dapper Mr. Wilhelm. Car had super body & paint, judging by the excellent Southard shot.
Like I said a couple years ago, a good percentage of this board hates full on customs, anything with more than a dechroming, lowering and maybe a chop is "ugly junk" ...
I'm glad that I did not see this thread when was active. All one needs to do is look at the avatars of the haters to see what their taste is........
Let's take this one step further for those who might be interested. When Joe passed back in '98, he owned the Mark Mist. It had been stored for many years. His widow, Marion, wanted to sell it, but at that time, customs did not bring much. I worked a three way deal between a fellow in Danville, CA, Kurt McCormick, and Mrs. Wilhelm. Kurt got the Cad, the fellow from Danville got the Mark Mist, and Mrs. Wilhelm got a new car. Those who don't know the car intimately know nothing about it's build. The bugger had Jag front suspension, a full bellypan, and the inside was to die for. It is small, by comparison, and meant to be similar to a European road with custom Ford styling. It was never painted black!!
Thanks for helping to save it Cabong. Whether its to everybodies taste or not is beside the point. Its an important piece of Hot Rod /Custom history, and it needed to be preserved.
Just saw this thread from years ago, read a lot of posts without knowing what car was being discussed, and was shocked to finally see the car on page 6. Hell yeah, I remember the car from when it was first built, and I was a little kid soaking up every hot rod or custom magazine I could afford to buy from when they sold for 25 cent, 35 cents, whatever. Car is cool as hell. The only thing I didn't like then or now was the squared off windshield opening. Amazing quality of work. Different, sure. Typical response here to anything slightly different, of course. My avatar has riled up lots of HAMBers whenever anyone has posted a pic, That's OK, too, and since it's in my garage, I obviously didn't ask the HAMB experts what to buy or build. The Merc I'm building now won't be HAMB approved, either, except by the ones who understand what a custom was and is. I love slick, understated, smooth customs, too. I also love some of the radical, fuck you customs from back in the day, too. Just venting, so ignore this post.
Looks black, but it was actually dark purple. Joe's wife insisted it looked like crap so he immediately painted it a pearl silver. He also made a couple body mods, like the license plate area in the front. This critter is in amazing shape today.
I would love to have that car! I would want to remove the front license plate surround, and restore it to its original configuration. Other than that, I would keep it exactly as designed…
You can't like everything. It is still nice to see old customs that have survived the ages whether you like it or not. I don't think it deserves all the negative responses it got. It is like looking back on famous people in history and judging them by today's standards.
The Jalopy Journal
