History Willie Wilde Custom Cars

Willie Wilde at Wilde's Custom Shop in Gonzales California must have turned out some nice custom cars.... but one rarely reads about him.



The first time I read his name was in one of Andy Southard's books. A nicely chopped 1951 Ford Victoria with a proud Willy smiling next to it

EDITED
This photo has been removed by request of the copyright holder.

And some time ago I heard about this great early style 1946 Ford Coupe that Willie Wilde did the body work on. And he did it recently so he is still at it.








Then Rod Powell posted this great looking 57 Chevy (photo taken in 1958) some time ago...




And today Paul Kelly from Australia scanned a few pages of an old Ford book for me and a**** them was this small article on Willie Wilde. And it says that Rod Powell supplied the photos.

So Rod, if you have any more photos of Willie Wilde's custom cars.. please post them here. I really would like to see how this merc looked before the accident.




Top section of the mage is the Willie Wilde article...





I guess I have magazines that show more of Willie's work... but so far I have not found much more than these photos....

Anybody else has some Wilde custom car Photos?

 

YES!This was out of the Ford book and it was the first book on Kustoms I ever had.It was a few pages away from the Willie Wilde pics that I saw the Hirohata Merc for the first time.I was 9.Most of tye book featured van and stuff but there was a great article on Earl Bruces 40 also.The "Mul***ude of Mercs section was the best!

 

That '46 Coupe belonged to HAMBer Sweats, He doesn't post much, but he may respond to a PM eventually.

Link to the for sale ad with lots of pics:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=242147

 

Paul Kelly scanned all those intersting pages.. and they can be found HERE.. from photo 68 and up.

 

Although it was not exactly period correct,I was as thrilled about striping a Willie Wilde car as I was the few Barris cars Ive done.Sweats asked me to do a little number above his licence plate last year at the Orlande Rumblers show.Sorry about the bad pic.I knit picked and "fixed" the striping an hour later EDIT...I meant to say that my striping was not period correct.The car is on the money!

 

That 46 is a great car it now lives here in the UK

 

Looked at that book for many hours,still one of my favorites...

 

Thanks for posting that, interesting reading (got a good laugh out of "La Pariseinne - A ton of work but not much taste was involved"). Whats the story on the Lincoln, #9 at the bottom of the last page?

 

Its the famous Barris built Golden Sahara.

 

Great thread.

 

If you look at the photo credits of Willie Wildes merc in the article, they are from the Rod Powell collection (RodP on the HAMB)!!

Also, anybody notice the 57 is a 4 DOOR HARDTOP!!!!

 

Yes I noticed. Thats why I mentioned it in my initial posting, and asked Rod if he could post more... but I guess you are like me and look at the photos only

 

I think that 57 4dr hdtp is in southards book as well, it is gold , an has a 58 rear bumper, and molded fins- 57 olds rear window. I have seen a few other pics of it in various publications that I have, but I don't have a way to upload them.

 

Willie's a cool guy, he's into V-Dubs now, he's still at it.
I wish swaeats had never sold that car.

 

Thanks... I looked it up and it sure is. Will scan it tomorrow, and add it here.

 

that 57 also has 2 shots in the big book of barris, on pg 78, and 85.

 

i know sweats...i think... that's Eric, right 4T64RD/Nads ? just met him in NYC this august. I just noticed on his myspace page a couple days ago that he had the car, at one point anyhow. I had no clue until i read his hamb post on that that willie wilde did the chop. Too cool. i'll have to ask him about that. Thanks Rikster. cool photos, as usual.
-ace

 

I was looking at Andy Southard's book last night. Checking out
the stance of the Ford. Todays standards this sled would be way too
tall. I guess to be a traditional Kustom we need to have the proper
stance to fit the time peroid.

Great post Rikster, Looks like I have a lot of reading to do.

Happy Trails,

Mick

 

I'd call this a hot rod, instead of a custom, but I guess it depends on what its got (or not got) under the hood. It shows that the line between the two is not always clearly drawn.

 

Here are three more photos Of Norman Riparetti's 1957 Chevy four door by Willie Wilde's custom shop.

Apparently the car underwent some body and paint work over the years. The photo Rod Powel suplied (above) shows the car in what appears to be white with some elegant racing stripes.
The photo below (from Any Southard's book) shows the car in gold, and with more body work added.I cant see the Olds rear window in the Rod Powell photo so I ***ume it was added later.
The Oldsmobile rear window must have been a bit wider than the 57 Chevy top. So willie added some scoops at the C-Pillar to solve the problem.

Andy Southard photo


New paintjob with outlines and scallops...




Nice details...

 

A couple more notes.. notice in the southard photo there are no hubcaps, he mentioned in one of his books that the guys would keep them in the trunk and only use them at shows, I guess that theft was a problem.
there is a reflection of the buildings window on the roof, that makes the scoop look like it continues to the middle of the roof, and I also thought it was interesting that the olds roof was molded right over the trim above the rear door (that trim is one piece that connects the side window trim to the rear window trim on a 4dr hdtp).

Also notice the cracked windshield , even though the car was done..must not have had the cash to cut another one.

 

Look at the post crash pictures of the Merc, notice that all the areas metalworked and altered by Willie have not cracked nor are there great chunks of lead everywhere, that shout tell you something about the level of his work.
If you ever saw the inside of Eric's Ford you would have seen the beautiful hammer welded seams that Willie did.

 

This where the photos Eric listed... Wonderful workmaship

 

Rik
I do have some more info about Willie but I am using some of it in another project I am writing. I should be done soon and then we will see what is available. It is good to see my friend getting some attention. His hammerwelding skills are amazing. To me, Willie Wilde was the original "Devil with a hammer".
By the way, I think I did the striping on the dash board of that coupe of Eric's. Willie mailed it to me while he was working on the car.
RodP

 

This is a great thread and Im gonna revive it!....heres a few things Willie has done in the past year..I got more pics of stuff just gotta find them..but heres a shoebox he chopped for a local..and a *****in 34 that got hammered...oh and heres pic of me and Willie I took about 3 weeks ago...hes still at it..aint gonna stop and glad I know him!..Oh and Rod yes you did th dash heres a poor pic of it but it always looked *****in..and just so you know I swapped the guages out and kept the ones you did the skulls on..I had to..I needed them as a momento.

 

Here is the latest of him working on Erics shoebox!

 

Hey Rickster,if you can find a copy of Tex Smith's "How to Chop Tops",there are some good pics of Willie chopping a 72 Chevy truck. If i wasn't such a computer idiot i would scan my book for you.Maybe someone here has a copy? Willie and i recently chopped my 53 Mack A model 3". I am going to try to get someone to post some pics of it for me,and also of a lot of early pics of some of my father's old hot rods. Thanks for posting about my good friend and fellow trouble maker,haha! I'm going to go up and check out your shoebox soon!

 

Here are some scans of Norman Piparetti of Castroville, California built 57 by Willie. Number 9 top custom of the year in the June 59 issue of Motor Life.

 

Don Garlits, T.C. Lemons and Willie restored the Swamp Rat VI-B in 84.

 

I have never seen this much attention and info on this great artist, thanx. The 46 with the beautiful Plymouth grill is just the bees knees. ~sololobo~