Hi all, I posted some old pics recently, and it got me thinking about some of the old guys who really made all of this custom stuff possible... Then, that got me thinking about this really cool old guy I met about 6 months ago who had advertised a car for sale in the local paper. I thought I'd post a pic of this guy with one of his very EARLY custom creations that he built back in the 50's in Belleville, IL. He still attends the annual show the club puts on, that he was a founding member of... They're called the "Gearjammers", although I had never heard of them before he mentioned it. Anyway, his name is Charles (or Charley), and here is a photo that I snapped of him holding a photo of a '41 or so Merc that he built way back when... He spotted the car at a local show a few years ago and took the photo you see him holding here... I suppose he was very happy to know that his creation had survived the years. Does anyone know the current whereabouts of this very cool car? Just curious... Charles is quite a character... At 87, I can't help but think of him as sort of a Salvador Dali-like character with that mustache... I'll post another pic from his ranch, showing a rusty old Plymouth that looks like it's been up on those ramps for quite a few years. Check out the "Duck" that he grafted a school bus top onto... Some guys don't know when to quit... You just never know who you're gonna meet. I'd love to hear some of your stories about interesting characters you've stumbled onto in this hobby. There are MANY of them out there... Kevin
That's the Johnny Zaro car built by the BARRIS BROTHERS in the late 40's! He may have owned it at one time, as it did end up in Belleville, IL after it left Zaro's hands. It's now in Missouri somewhere near where Kurt McCormick has the old Zaro 40 merc coupe. Barris Techniques volume 3 has a bunch of pictures of it when they built it and a interview with Zaro. I know it was also featured in a magazine a few years ago as it is now, but I can't remember which it was. I met a guy like that the same way years ago. He had an ad for some old fords for sale. We went to look...what a gold mine! A bunch of old rods and 32-40 ford stuff every where! Sad part was, he was an old body man who spent way to much time painting without a mask/drinking booze. Poor guy was barely understandable because of loosing so many brain cells. But he still had incredible talent! He had a 32 roadster body that he was working on that was blown into 7 pieces, and he was metal finishing the inside of the body as nice as the outside. he said it had been an old cobbled up channeled rod. There was absolutely no bondo in the body, and it looked like it was a brand new Brookville body...well before they were repoping 32's! He pointed out where had had done a ton of patching, but there wasn't a sign of it, inside or out! Ioften wonder what ever happened to him and all the stuff he had. It was on an old farm on the outside of a town that was quickly growing...I should drive by it sometime again.
Hi all, The original thread for this started about a month ago, but I recently added a whole bunch of photos from this road trip on my site... If you like rusty old cars, this may interest you. Go HERE for more photos: http://www.huffreport.com/2007/charley.htm This page may be a TEMPORARY feature, so if you are viewing this msg after perhaps May, 2007, it might not be there... Enjoy... Kevin
YES YOU SHOULD.....TOMORRROW!!!!! the word SOMETIME or SOMEDAY never comes.....a LOT of times...and things get lost....GO!
That DUKW is a great RV! Little expensive in the fuel line though, and I bet tires ain't cheap either.
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