Customs 49 Ford truck full custom. Updated info

John's road trip stories were amazing. John was a deeply religious man, and maybe that helped because it always seemed like God was on his side.

He told one story where he drove across several states at night in the coupe, "They wuz nobody b'hind me for miyuls!". When in reality his trunk latch failed, the trunk opened, and every time he looked in the rear view mirror whatever limited view he had out of the chopped rear glass was of the open decklid.

Another time he drove for several hours and pulled into a gas station to fuel up. When he got back into the car to start it, the car wouldn't start. Like, no crank or nothing, not even a click. So he opens the hood, and finds that somehow his starter has fallen out of the car. How he didn't notice that leaving is beyond me. Minutes later, a truck driver pulls into the station and says, "hey you dropped this like 50 miles back", and hands him his starter. He puts it back in with some spare bolts and continues on his way.

 

As correctly mentioned in his obituary, John was a member of several local car clubs. John was a member of the Kustom Knights and the Road Lords. The latter of which was a more local club, and the former of which spanned a larger swath of North Jersey. In fact, I remember Manny Bastio running a Road Lords plaque off the back of his 1956 Holiday 98 coupe, which would come into my possession 20 years later.

Now for some historical context, my involvement in this whole scene here starts around 1999. At that time, in the traditional scene, car clubs were prominent in my area. That is much less the case now 20+ years later. But then, it was very popular, especially when we saw the really prominent clubs like the Burbank Choppers and Shifters on the covers of magazines, and more locally, the guys in the Beatniks. As young guys, we thought that stuff was cool as hell, and we had club called The Hellcats. As young guys, many of us still in high school, we ran some of the shittiest cars you could imagine haha. Clapped out 4 door sedans, rotted shitboxes, nothing was off limits. There was definitely an inferiority complex with the Road Lords, since these were all older, more established guys, with real nice cars.

There was a guy in the Hellcats who went by the nickname "King", and had a '53 Olds 88 coupe. As a "go fast" guy he wanted more power. The 303 got swapped with a later Olds 425/TH400. King was mouthing off about how fast his Olds was and Rebel John decided he had heard about enough of that. A date was set for a grudge match on the street between King's Olds and John's "whispering sorrows". We'd all meet at Dunkin' at 12 am, and cruise over to the access road behind the GM Plant in Linden, parallel to Route 1&9. One guy ran ahead to mark out 1/4 mile and the cars lined up, and were signaled to go. Rebel John absolutely dusted King's Olds, gapped it to the point that it wasn't even really a race.

A couple weeks later I was down in Elizabeth at Phil's garage to pick up some parts. I pulled in with my 57 Chevy and we started talking. I mentioned the race, and that King was pissed and wanted a rematch. Nitti looks at me deadpan and just says, "King will NEVER beat Rebel John.", as he's gesturing over a FED with a blown hemi in it. WIth that, the message was sent that these crazy bastards would engine swap that shoebox coupe with a blown hemi just to win a race for nothing. Needless to say, there was never a rematch.

 

Thats a party deck on the back!

 

As I recall, my ‘48 had a Dana 41.

 

Dang @57JoeFoMoPar your stories are awesome!

 

Hey @anthony myrick saw one of your pics of this on the internet cesspool, did this one get bought?

 

Don’t think so

 

I wouldn't drive it.

 

I would.
I’d probably have to have surgery to remove the smile.

only thing I’d change is the wheels.
Chrome steelies and skinny white walls.
Drop the rear some more

 

No offense to anyone or anything: The shoebox is strange. And that continental kit is too much.

 

Normal is strange and odd to me
I’d drive that shoebox as well.
Same guy put this together

I’d rock this.
Dude was crazy cool

 

100%.

I get that mild customs are more easily digested. I like those cars a lot, too. But there is something to be said for building something radical that isn't going to be everyone cup of tea. Whether it be canted quad headlights like the truck, a shoebox with fins like "Wild Child", or even a Buick with no visible headlights like Cody Walls built. These cars are examples where the builders took big risks stylistically. And the IDGAF of those builders, I think, is totally cool.

 

The more I hang around here the less and less I want to build a hot rod.
I dig em
But a custom………mmmmmmmm

 

It's not a mild versus full custom thing for me. Here's a full custom that I like:

Sectioned 1950 Chevy PU build

 

I’d drive that too

 

I totally understand. Both the pickup and the shoebox are cars that are somewhat left of center. They're not for everyone. Even people who also like radical or full customs, the treatment here isn't for even for all of them.

That was John's taste. Totally wild and over-the-top.

On a personal note, I find it so interesting that someone like Rebel John would have such radical taste in cars, because it would appear that those radical tastes would be otherwise absent from his life. By most accounts, John would be more of your "every man" type of guy. A religious, God-fearing, blue collar guy who drove a truck, lived in a nice but modest home, wore a T shirt and jeans... we all know the type. Sort of the opposite of flamboyant. But then the cars are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Radical in every way. It's a really unique dichotomy.

 

^ It's hard to pull off flamboyant customs. It's hard to pull off exceptional hot rods, too. If I were more into full (radical) customs, then maybe I'd be able to pull off a thread about gawdy versus good-looking.

 

The ugly customs thread is still here but locked
As bad as the worst of the worst is id still cruise it

 

I'm reminded of another time I was down at the Road Lord's shop. I was talking to Rebel John and Bob Nitti. I was a 17 year old kid with a 57 Chevy. I had put a 59 Imperial grill in the Chevy and taken the script and V off of the trunk and hood. Notice I said "took off" since I didn't know how to weld yet the holes were all still there. Dummy spots, lake pipes, red steel wheels... the basics. I was telling Rebel John and Nitti about my plans for the car.

Nitti looks at me and says, "Joe, why are you building your parts car?"
Me: What do you mean?
Nitti: It's a 4 door sedan. That's a parts car.

I laugh about it now, but they totally shriveled me there haha. Honestly I've never recovered from that burn, I still look at 4 doors as parts cars. Some tough love there from the old timers

 

I’m building 2 more doors.
I like em.
Specially when my older friends gave em away

wonder if anyone has done a 2 to 4 door conversion.
Hmmmmmm

 

Listed in marketplace now
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Dv186ptaw/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

After looking at it again, it reminds me of an AMT model kit.

 

Same truck
15k

 

No.


And I’d drive the crap out of it

 

Same guys who hose off their car and then post photos of it dripping wet sitting in puddles.

 

Sold pretty quick!

 

Dang
That’s.crazy