Customs Homebuilt custom from 1962.

Attached is a link to pictures of this cool old custom built by a 14 year old kid back in 1960-1962. Art Fortin ,then of Adams,Ma. built this car with some friends after his parents bought it for him at the age of 14 (what great parents !) and supported him throughout the build.
He started with a solid '53 Ford convertible and took two years to finish the car.Art drove it for one year and sold it. It disappeared from the local scene shortly after that.
The new owner stripped off the paint using a chemical stripper which ruined the fiberglas work and the car sat in a barn for years.

A friend of mine saw it in the late '60's sitting in the barn looking pretty bad. As far as we know ,it never saw the road again except maybe to be hauled off to the junkyard.

I'll post more info as I get it from Art who lives out in California now. Incidently, a picture and story of this car ran in Readers Rides in R&C a few years ago.

Enjoy the pictures . http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=a23127409f89ed7a&sid=0Ics2bNyzYsWR2

Glenn

 

Pretty cool. Would be a shame if the car really did go to the junk yard. Great effort for 14 year old kid, I was lucky get a model car built at that age.

 

Cool car, hope it didn't get crushed.

 

With a build like that he should've continued on in the custom business.

 

Wow...Very nice car, I love what he did with it..Amazing work for a 14 year old..It's a shame it had such a short life..

 

Art has built some nice cars over the years,including a '55 Nomad,32 roadster and his current woody wagon that was featured in a car mag a few years ago. He's always been a gear head and a talented one at that.
He continues to build hotrods for himself.

 

cool car...the hamb has been lacking good threads like this, thanks for posting...

 

Apart from the lic plate treatment.....i like it.

 

I love the color!!

Billy

 

My first car was a 54 Ford. I also got it when I was 14 and did all the work on it myself, with some guidance from the older guys. Difference is, mine actually looked like a 14 yr old had been workin' on it.

 

Funny you say that. Art told me the guy who bought it didn't like the color and stripped the car with a grinder (not chemical stripper as I reported above) and let the car sit outside until it had rusted up pretty bad.

 

Thanks for sharing Art's story and photos. That sure is an incredible build for a 14 years old kid...and it absolutely screams early 1960s

 

All the latest trends of the day integrated so well into one nice ride just over the big hill from me. And at the time I thought I was so isolated and far away from any such nice iron!

More than a little biased here, my first car was a '54 2 dr Customline 6 cyl in '60. Always thought the '52 -'54 Fords and Mercs never got the recognition they deserved.

This thread brings back a lot of great memories, thanks for posting. Please p*** along to Art my appreciation for his vision and efforts to complete what I could only dream of at the time.

Looking forward to any more history on this car that anyone can come up with.

Ed

 

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?***le=Art_Fortin's_1953_Ford


SuperFleye has posted Art's car on his wonderful website.
Art has joined the HAMB as LoggedOn . The logged on is a pun because he owns one really nice woody wagon that he built himself.
That's another great story but I'll let Art tell it if he wants to.

 

Thank you all for your positive comments. I never thought that something that I did all those years ago would be viewed in such a way today. As Glenn mentioned in his comments, I was 14 when I first got the car. It was built during my sophomore and junior years of high school. My parents were very supportive of me, but much of the credit for bringing it to completion has to do with three adults that I worked with and mentored me. The 1<SUP>st</SUP> was a handy man type that helped convert the Fordomatic to a stick. The 2<SUP>nd</SUP> was a local body man that worked for a dealership, and did side work at home during his off time. He did all the metal work, and I worked along with him. Once done, I did the finish body work and he did the final paint. The color was a stock 62 GM lavenderish burgundy. The 3<SUP>rd</SUP> person mentioned helped with the 283 Chevy install. So much of what was learned from those folks, I still use today.
Also during that time, the guys that I hung around with were all older than me, out of school and working. The guys my own age, (to me at the time) didn’t get it. They were still riding bikes and playing sports. The older guys had the cool cars and they were the ones that I wanted to be with.
The car was built to look like the cars I saw in the magazines from California. Then, as today, the magazines were also full of “how to” articles that I couldn’t get enough of. But by the time I finally got the car done, trends were changing, and performance cars were coming into vogue. Big bodied muscle cars were coming out of Detroit and customs seemed on their way out. By the middle of my senior year of high school, the car was sold and replaced with a 58 Corvette. That is another story in itself.

 

Thanks for filling in the blanks,Art. The '53 was just the beginning of a lifetime of great cars for you. But for a lot of us local guys, your '53 represented something that we only saw in magazines in 1962.

Glenn

 

come on, tell us the story on the 58 vette

 

Very cool story and car,welcome to the HAMB ! I got my first car (55 Chevy) when I was 14 in 1979...