Insted of 40s kustom like it was built in the 40s. I should have said 40 ford kustom built in late 50s.. Cause I should have known somebody was goin to call me on it.
The only thing that is 40s about that car is the original body parts. The front end mods and rear are later, later and though good work, stylistically I can't get it.
Rik,thanks for the flash back!This is the way I remember it from when I was young! Had to be in the early 80's at least.
Its a good lookin car. man we sure do tear peoples art apart on here. What a bunch of heartless thugs.
is the car ****in COOL or NOT,,,look at it again,,,if you saw it rolling down the road ,,would you filp the **** out,,,or would you rather pick it apart??? if you chose the later,,then you should probably start looking for a new hobby...stamp collecting? i still dont understand why some people here need to over ****ize everything...
Oct 07 issue of old car trader. page A6 has a photo of this merc and says 1940 Mercury Convertible. original Barris creation, recreated in 06. carson top chopped, candy cranberry, white tuck & roll,pw, ps, ac, am/fm/cd, chrome 305 ci, th350, 8" rear. fat man front. 53 buick heaflights w/ scoops 57 cad frt bumper, 52 ford rear bumper, 53 olds tail lights, Appletons w/handles, independant air ride, 4 link, lokar,, cokers, metal body leaded. 130,000. Chet 408-966-**** I guess it's good enough to fool the HAMB experts. NO way could this car be built for $130,000 I dig it man!...Jim
Yea, Chet in San Jose , Ca owns it now, apparantly trying to sell it. I rememeber that car when it lived in Scott's Valley, Ca. (half way between San Jose and Santa Cruz). In my opinion it was a lot nicer when it was purple. It was for sale for $50k in the mid '90's (I think that's when Chet bought it), it was a very cool car back then.
I agree. To bad, a bet alot of poeple (like me) are getting to not want to post pics of there cars on here. The car is cool!
Here's a picture I took at my Picnic / Car Show in the 80's. This is how it looked when it came from Colorado. I did some work on it a few years later. I'll try to post some more pics soon. It was a Barris car then but with all of the so called "improvements" that have been done by the past few owners it may not still qualify as one. It looks good now but I feel it is too bad the original version had to be sacrificed to make the newer one. RodP
Jim are you kidding me that car is nuts the stance the look you haft to be kidding i would not park my car a mile near it!
These pictures were taken the day car arrived at my shop over 20 years ago. John Gimelli the owner had us re- chop the windshield to make the front header fit better. We straightened up some of the bodywork he had already done, block sanded it and painted it Purple. Jesse Cruz was working with me then. I had him paint it. The car had an original Carson style top that was old but still intact. When the outer canvas was pulled back we found written on the padding. 11-1-1949 American Top Shop 10847 Dury?? Lane Lynwood, Cal It looks like it was chopped in 1949 and ended up at the Barris shop for an update some time in the fifties. The later model bumpers, headlights, tailights and scoops were what was popular at the time they were done. Most of the custom shops were doing this kind of work. Custom cars were always being changed to keep up with the latest trends. A couple of years or even months later they were old stuff. I heard that the original owner was a businessman from Colorado who wanted a Barris custom. Apparently he did not use it much after it was finished. I wouldn't consider it one of Barris' best efforts but it certainly wasn't the worst. It had a style that looks better to me today than it did in the fifties. RodP
He had us change the shape of the windshield because the original wooden top bow was breaking on the peak in the center when it was tightened down. The original chop was done quick and dirty and you might say so was our fix. The top disappeared when it left our place. It was pretty rough under the padding. Tom Cutino did the windshield modification. The first picture shows the peaked center and he is making the first cut. The second pic shows Tom and John welding the cuts. I just remembered that they threw away the old gl*** and replaced it with new. There was an original "Kustoms of America" Decal on one so I dug it out of the dumpster and still have it today. I will get a picture and post it tomorrow. There wasn't much respect for the old traditional stuff in those days.
Thanks for posting, Rod. Just to illustrate the earlier quality of this car, Jesse Cruz (who painted it purple) as some of you may already know, also painted the (this year Pebble Beach and GoodGuys winner) Lloyd Bakan '32 Coupe and the multi-award winning black '36 3/W for Cole Foster (the Metallica Coupe). Jesse now works for Don Orosco.
wow,,RodP,,,,thanks for posting those cool pictures and giving some of the history on the car,,,i am doing a 40 merc convt myself right now..it was originally chopped back in the 50s,,
I got a pic of Jesse working on the 40 and he looks like he's about 14. He probably was. I will see if I can find it. The first picture shows how it looked when it left the shop. The second shows it the next time we worked on it.
Yea, Rod P made me wonder if it was really Rod Powell. Thanks for joining in. This is really getting interesting. I'd love to see some pics of it from the early 50's. Rod, did it have the Caddilac bumper when you worked on it 20 years ago?
Totally agreed. That flat on the deck stance might work for some people, but that pic of it as an old kustom does way more for me. The ***ian red and side trim are so cool- just don't like the TINY cambered tires, removed trim and modern paint color. Jawdroppn- you know we liked your cars, but do you remember we asked to take the pics WITHOUT the cars laying on the deck? I know "layin frame or rocker" the ultimate with the mini truck crowd, but us "old guys" (just turned 41) like 'em up a little higher. Years ago I had an airbagged '68 Chevy Shortbed- I layed it out the first couple months- then set it where it looked good and NEVER dropped it again.
Absolutely, and with the dagmars tilted like they are on that old pic, they look like the fit the car much better.
I think I like her because of her face. Not beautiful ... but different and intriguing. I wouldn't kick her out of bed myself.
I actually flew to Colorado when I heard this car was up for auction in the late 70's, I believe. It had the KOA decal on the windshield and as I recall, an original Barris price list booklet in the glove box, however I wasn't convinced it was a Barris built car at the time. (I'm still not) But if Rod Powell feels it was done by Barris I certainly won't argue. Lanny Pearson of Colorado bought the car before the auction and owned it for quite some time before it changed hands several times. I've included some [pics taken from the June '82 issue of "Cl***ic & Custom" magazine as the car appeared when Lanny acquired it. Mick
WOW... This post has sure tured directions since Rod Powell joint. What a great history... thanks Rod for sharing this with us custom enthusiasts. I had heard some rather different stories abut this car... but those where not first hand.
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