Customs History of the Custom display ~ GNRS ~ OFFICIAL thread info & photo's

Thanks Jeff it dawned on me after I wrote it to put your name in there too! Sorry about that.... Damn I really ws hoping it would be in there.. I think it is the best of the best!!!!

 

Dont be sorry man,happens all the time. I agree man,that car is just AMAZING and we were trying to get that one right from the start.I wish we would get a phonecall from the owner to tell us he was bringing it. Neil Emory was so GREAT I get fired up just talking about his cars.

 

I had the auction contact the new owner (who i understand might be VP of the Marriott Hotel chain) but never heard back.

 

I hate when great cars go into "hibernation" and the public can't enjoy them.

 

Well said. That was our thought exactly! We have tried really hard to get in touch with the new owner, since this would have been a perfect car for this show. In fact I really had hoped I would see that car at least once in my life time... and this would have been the perfect opportunity... but it looks like it will not happen. Possibly one of the best designed custom cars in the world!

 

Nice the Aztec and the Kopper Kart together will be grate!!

 

Here is the announcement of another great late 1950's early 1960's Custom Car, that was just confirmed for the Custom Cars Then & Now exhibit.

The Otto Rhodes 1953 Ford Pick-Up truck "Mountain Pearl" And once again this historical custom car has a rich history, and luckily for us it has been well documented with a lot of photos from the time it was built in the late 1950's till the time it was showed at various shows from 1961 on.



Photo from how the car looked in the early 1960's




In 1956 Otto bought this 1953 Ford Pick-Up, and started to work on it right way. First only minor things like chrome plating the front bumper, since he was still young, and had a very limited budged. Together with father in law and body man Bill Dickey they decided the car should be chopped and go the full custom car route.




How the car first looked in 1957, soon after this Otto started on the chop







Chopping the top in 1957



The chop took two tries to get right, and at the same time several Ford pick-ups where built by the Barris Shop (Wild Kat amongst others.). And those influenced Otto to modify the whole front end of the car with the canted 1958 Lincoln headlights.

They made a grille out of kitchen cabinet knobs sitting on expanded chrome mesh, inside a modified 1955 Chevy P-U grille.
The rear was modified styled after the front using 1958 Chevy taillights.
The car was painted by Otto's father in law and Bill Dicky in pearl white and candy red accents.




Creating the Custom front end.







First the car was showed with a red primer, but it already had a fully detailed engine bay.

Otto debuted his "Mountain Pearl" Custom Pick-Up truck at the Denver Coliseum show in 1961, where it won 5 awards.






Tom Pagano from Pagano Rod & Custom in Sacramento bought the car from Otto Rhodes, and over the years he and his team at his shop have finished the restoration and rebuilt of this famous Custom Pick-Up. Otto had started the redo his Pick-up in the late 1960's and early 1970's but never finished the work. So when Tom worked on the car he had many conversations with Otto how he would have finished the car if he had done so. All the updates that where don to the car in the interior, the fire wall etc where all done under supervision, and approval of the original owner/builder Otto Rhodes.






Tom had stripped the body all to bare metal and fine tuned it with fine lead work before the new paint would go on.








Completely restored Mountain Pearl.

 

I have been watching and reading about this growing selection of customs that will be on display for some time. And what a great collection of customs that will be there.
But, where are the stand out customs from the 60's and 70's?
And in the last 30 odd years, John D'Agostino and Richard Zocchi have concistantly build and displayed more new customs than possibly anyone else. Why is there not a couple more of their cars being displayed.

 

40 days left, crunch time, got to go pick up the new tires,and paint for the car today . its raining today people in Socal dont know how to drive in the stuff.wish me luck

 

Hi Smooth Customs,
Thats a valid question and here is the answer. Unlike many other gatherings/shows/displays for the custom automobile our emphasis has been about history and finding as many original survivors from the 40's,50's, and yes, the 60's as possible, then we've looked at (and approved) a handful of contemporary cars that meet the accurate vintage look like cars designed by Jimmie Vaughan , Lee Pratt, and others. We have recently approved Zocchi's 62 Pontiac and we're still not finished yet. I'm sure when the doors open there will be something to admire for everyone. Thanks, Axle

 

Great thread

 

Axle
As far as representing history accuratly.
The late 50's and 60's were were the turning point for customizing, and customizers. This decade exposed custom cars to the world, and to the general public not just car people. and made the customizers of the late 40's and 50's famous. Some of their creations were seen daily on TV shows, and in teen movies.
Model companies signed them on as design consultants, and hundreds of thousands of budding young customizers the world over bought and built models of their creations. This later led to older kids wanting to build real customs, some who are now well known builders.
The major car manufacturers also sought out these now famous customizers to be involved in the building of special show cars and even prototypes.
This didnt happen because of some really nice CONTEMPORARY customs, but from the way out cars that sprung from the creative minds of their talented builders. And lets not forget the wild paintjobs, some that are being replicated today on new customs. And being applied by the people who developed them almost 50 years ago
Like every decade, their are changes in almost everything, some good some not. But Customizers must move with the time and they have. Otherwise they would not have survived till today.
We now appreciate the customs from the 40's and 50's for what they are, and their builders. But for several decades they were forgotten and overlooked.
But ask anyone into cars today that is between 40 and 60 years old about what customs of the 60's they remember. And i would bet they are what i have mentioned. ( built by the same customizers)And they would liked to be seen again.

Does this documented history not deserve representation in this great display you are working hard to compile.

 

I know of a good substitute...

 

You're preaching to the choir my friend . Most people i know don't dig Elvis after his post "68 Comeback Special" days, i appreciate and respect all of his stuff . Again, we're not done yet, so hold tight, and i'm sure that by the time the doors open,the Jazz is playing,the Custom guys are doing their meet-n-greet,the memorabilia is being displayed in showcases,the surprises we have in store are hung from the ceilings, you'll enjoy it. By the way, what day are you coming? I'd like to meet ya. Thanks, Axle

 

Is Dick Page in with the Summers car?

 

WHOO HOO! I booked my flight today!I can't wait!Now I just gotta figure out where I'm gonna stay.

 

That was my wife's Christmas gift to me!And my birthday,and next Christmas....

 

First saw the beauty at the Revolution in Austin. Nice job Steve.

 

Not sure if you're interested in the "ugly" kustomes, but I've got this one in the garage.
You going to have an area for "yet to be restored" cover cars?

 

I vote for the double thick special historic kustom issue! Both hands up.

 

Another announcement of a great custom car that will be at the Customs Then & Now exhibit at the GNRS 2011

We have wanted to ad at least one more Ayala custom car to this exhibit. But unfortunately there are not many of the original Ayala Customs left, or even restored.
So we are extremely happy that Kurt McCormick will not only bring his Harry Westergard 1941 Cadillac Convertible, and his Pisano Bros/Barris/Mazza 1941 Buick Convertible, but now also agreed to bring the Ayala/Barris built Buddy Alcorn 1950 Mercury.



The car has been shown a lot by Kurt in and around Missouri, but since it was restored the car has never been to the West coast where it was originally built. Thank you Kurt for bringing it out to this event.

The car was originally built by the Yala brothers Gil and al in Gil's Autobody Shop in 1952. The car received a wonderful flowing - almost fast back - style chop, with angled forward B-Pillars. The dip was removed from the doors and made into a full fade away. Then the rear fenders including the taillights of a 1952 Oldmobile where grafted in. As with most of the Ayala customs from those days every corner was rounded, and all body panels smoothed and the drip rails shaved. Once all the body work was finished the car was painted maroon. We don't know the name of the original owner or even seen photos of this version as it was finished by the Ayala's , but hopefully one day photos or info will show up so that we all can see the finished first version of this great custom car.





In the last Blue Book Of Custom Restyling published by Dan post there are two photos showing this car unfinished and in primer.



In 1955 Buddy Alcorn bought this car and took it over to the Barris shop for a redo. The rear fenders where modified, the Old headlights had to make place for a set of 1955 Plymouth units. And another major change that Barris did to the car was the scoop in the rear quarter, and the unique side trim made out of 1955 Chevy and a turned upside down 1955 Plymouth trim piece. The car uses a 1951 Mercury front bumper and a 1952 Ford rear bumper, but we do not know if those where on the car from the Ayala's or if those are Barris additions. The hubcaps are 1956 Mercury units with body color accents added to the center. The body color was a deep dark purple paint.



The car had really unique lines and use of grille and side trim. And especially for 1955, when the less is more was starting to get a little out of style.




This photo at "the" house shows how nice the Ayala chop looks with its angled forward B-Pillars.





One more color photo with Buddy Alcorn on the right.


In 1957 Buddy traded his 1950 Mercury with Dick Jackson for his mild custom 1957 Ford. Dick made a few changes to the car, mostly with paint. Adding scallops in silver and also silver below the side trim. He also added a set of Appleton Spotlights... which was strange that they had never been on the car when first built in the golden age of Appleton's.





Dick Jackson with his Mercury at the Barris Shop in 1957. Note the addition of the Spotlights and two tone paint.







Dick eventually traded the car and somehow it ended up on a car lot and changed hands a couple of times after that. Eventually in the early 1960's Bill Hines bought it with plans to restore it or at least rebuilt it. But that never happened.



This is how the car looked when Ron Jones bought it from Bill Hines.


In 1972 the car had suffered a lot from sitting outside and was in pretty bad shape but Ron Jones was still interested in it. Bill traded it, and Ron took it home where it sat under a tarp awaiting further action, which never happened until 1998 when Kurt McCormick bought it with the plan to fully restore it.




1998 photo


The car was in bad shape when Kurt took it home. There was a lot of body damage on the drivers side, an accident and rust had left a mess. The interior was mostly missing as where the grille, spotlights and most of the side trim. Kurt McCormick, Jimmy Hervatin, Dave Conrad, Bill Kline and Jeff Graham all performed great work to get this old custom back into shape and to make it look like it just had left the Barris Shop in 1955.


Dave Darby photos









The first three cars in this photo taken at Kurt's home will be at the GNRS Customs Then & Now.... WOW!

 

Gee whiz, Rik, Axle, jeff, all you guys involved in creating this are swell. This thread and this event make my day everyday. So bloody excited to be going to this Event.

 

YES!!!!! This is one of the best Mercs.I cant wait!!!

 

The Buddy Alcorn merc.......... now this is crazy.I have been bugging about this car since the start of this and im sure Axle and others are relieved to finally shut me up about this merc. I have been wanting to see this one for years it has always been up at the top of my list.I love it when a plan comes together and has results like this.

 

K13 ... I have a plan.... tell your doctor about the show,show him some pictures of the cars and then offer to buy his admission and then you guys can all come down.When the big moment comes there will be no need for panic,he will have all his stuff with him to do the delivery and someone will be able to drive you guys to the closest hospital and your baby will be born here on a very important weekend in custom history. Totally messin around man.

 

Another great recent built and possible future historical Custom car
that will be at the show is the Mark Morton 1954 Mercury.

Howard Gribble photo


The car is based on a very nicely restored '54 Mercury Monterey, and
inspired by the Barris built 1954 Mercury for Ronnie Dragoo.

George Barris photo


The Ronnie Dragoo 1954 Mercury by Barris.



The car was suposed to be a regular custom car at first. But along the
way the car became so nice that a lot more extra workd was done to it to
make it absolutely perfect. A lot more work than ever was anticipated
when the project started.

Sam Rambo was hired to chopped the top, and Mark Morton was really critical about the rear window. he 1952-54 Ford/mercury bodies look very good with a chopped top, but the instalation and shape of the rear window is crusial for a good look.
Sam succeeded very good and the shop on Marks Mercury is absolutely perfect. The stainless steal frames where cut, reshaped and welded back together to look like factory stock units.



Then the car was send to Tim Goodbar, who worked on the car filling,
frenching, and shaving it for the ultimate smooth look. Jason Smith was hired to do the body prep and painjob. After debating for a long time
the final color choice ended at soft pale yellow pearl on the main body
and solid white on the three inch chopped top. Clint Ring was responsible for putting the car back together, and making it look like it came from the factory... or better!



Rod & Custom magazine photo


Dan Kirkpatrick stitching up the rolled 'n' pleated off-white vinyl interior to finish the mostly stock interior.



Howard Gribble photo


The attention to details, the fit and finish, and above all the perfect
styling of this car make this car a real pleasure for the eyes to look
at. And I think this will for sure be a future historical custom car
that will still be discussed in decades to come.



I was able to check out this car in person at the 2009 Mercury
Gathering in Sacramento, and I was extremely impressed with it.
Thank you Mark Morton for brining it to this Custom Cars Then & Now
exhibit.



Check out a full feature of this great Custom on the Rod & Custom website

 

LOL Thanks Jeff. I ran your plan past the wife but no go.

And now Rikster has posted another great car. Sigh...

Ah well the good news is being the awesome guy that he is Rikster has my back on this one so it's won't be all bad.

 

Looks like funds allow me to go there too. First time in CA as well!

 

Morty's Merc...YEAH !!!!!!!