A friend of mine bought the car back in the '60's from a local car lot, and drove it to high school. It was brought back from Alaska by a returning serviceman. The chromed out flathead had a cracked block, but still ran well, since it only leaked to the outside. He eventually sold it to a friend who sold it to another guy and it disappeared, only to emerge years later door deep in mud in a local junkyard, eventually crushed, and probably used to make toyotas. This all came up again as we were talking about the Kopper Kart post, and he told me how he still kicks his own *** for letting the coupe get away. His mother "lost" all his old pictures years ago, and I was wondering if anybody here has any pictures of the car. I did a google but no luck. Thanks
Check here: http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/ Rikster has a TON excellent photo's of most of the great old customs. He may even chime into this post and put them up here.
Thanks, I checked and couldn't find it there, my God, what a collection! It would probably have been under Barris, since Junior (real name Hershel) worked there in the 50's when it was built. This might be a hard one to find, but there should be some pics floating around, I know it was in some mags back then.
It sure is in the Barris folder.... Herch Conway Here are a few photos Early stage. single bar grille and small fenderskirts With all the modifications.. New modified Turnpike skirts... Motor Trend cover...
Rik, I've never seen the picture of the early version with the straight bar grille and minimal body mods. Junior was probably 18 then. I like it better that way! Thanks for the great (as always) pictures.
Me to... Here is a color photo of it with the single bar grille with Sam Barris in front of it. In the Barris of the 50's DVD Junior holds this same photo but then a 8x10 print and it shows the complete car... I would love to have a full scan of it. I really like the car in this version. I think thats Sam 52 Ford convertible sitting next to it.
Wow, that is a nice shoe box, not to sure about the Turn Pike skirts though, the first ones seem to suit the car a little better but then again I have piss poor taste and don't know ****.
That pic is kick***. I have a coupe Im chopping 4/4.5, wanted a slick but close to stock front end to use. Something like that would be right on the money. Thanx for the great pics!
Thanks Rik, I knew you had to have it in there somewhere (I can't find ****!). I sent the pics off to him (his wife really, he's not a computer guy), I just thought I'd rub a little salt in his wound,----- that's what friends are for. Sure is a shame it ended up the way it did.
Junior is a really interesting guy. He was very accommodating to me when I dropped by his shop a couple times. That car got me into Shoeboxes as a teenager. Junior's very quick to point out that he built that car when he was 17. Given that fact, he doesn't understand guys building ****py cars 'Rat Rods.' Point is, he has a really high standard for what a Kustom should be. I don't think he quite understands the fact that his shoebox (and the H-Merc) was only a couple of years old when he started customizing it... He's also one of, if not the best, custom auto painters in the world. He does amazing work. He painted the current version of the Hirohata Merc. Or prepped it. And the last time I was there he had one of Leno's Duesie's there. He also was tearing apart a show-quality shoebox to repaint it. I couldn't see where it needed to be repainted but after words it looked like gl*** and was in a few mags. Great guy. Extremely talented. An excellent example of how a young kid with p***ion for cars, elevated his gifts to the pinnacle of what could be done with them, and turned his p***ion into a successful career, and became a legend for it.
Thanks to everyone for your response. I sent my friend the pics and he said he'd love to find some old mags featuing it, and low and behold epinut posts one, thanks for that. My buddy actually feels a little responsible for the loss of this custom since he owned it, sold it to a close friend and told him if he decides he doesn't want it, that he'd buy it back, but he sold it to someone else, who had trouble with the door solenoids, so just replaced both doors (don't understand why he didn't just fix them, since he still had to round the corners on the new ones). The doors hung in a garage in Vandergrift Pa along with a bunch of other old stuff, till about 10 yr's ago when someone cleaned out the garage and threw everything out!
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