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

Thanks very much, that means a heck of a lot coming from you.

 

Axle, do you have a confirmed list for the "Meet & Greet" or just an invited list? Would like to dig out something cool to get autographed if I knew who would be there. Got my airline ticket and room booked. I'll be there! This is the show to make in my lifetime!

 

Yes, the staff will be announcing this soon. Thanks

 

Axle is there a list of bands and what days they are performing or are there any bands performing?

 

hey gentlemen if your in need of something to do on sat night after the car overload, come check out our post party, in old town pomona..good music, good people, stiff drinks...

 

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

Suede Palace.
FRIDAY Jan. 28.

Vicky Tafoya & the Big Beat - 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Jump Blues & Doo Wop

SATURDAY Jan. 29.

Russell Scott & the Red Hots - 12 Noon - 1:00 p.m. Jump Blues & Rockabilly

Lil Mo & the Dynaflo's - 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. , then again from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Doo Wop

Suede Palace Awards ceremony - 6:00 p.m.

Pin Up contest - 7:00 p.m.

SUNDAY Jan 30.

Second rate Royals - 12 Noon - 1:00 p.m. Jump Blues

The Mighty Mojo Prophets - 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Blues


HISTORY OF THE CUSTOM BUILDING #9

Saturday Jan. 29.
Famous Custom People "Meet & Greet" / Autograph signing party - 3:00 p.m. (Right after the Hall of Fame luncheon)

 

Thanx Axle, You and everyone else involved has put together one hell of a show.

 

Which day is the "meet & Greet"

 

Saturday!

 

Wupps, sorry. I just edited my info on my previous post.

 

The fact that he drives it is so great i agree.
Im all for drivin classics, but drivin such an old and important car as your only car is so fkn awesome!

 

We have another announcement for the 1980's section of the Customs Then & Now show.
The Joe Moreno 1940 Ford Coupe.

photo by Dreadman



Originally the car was built under direction of Richard Zocchi in 1985. Body man Paul Blatt gets the credits for the really smooth chopped top with angled back windshield and forward B-pillars. The goal was to built a really smooth custom cars based on the style form the late 1940's Barris and Ayala built customs.
The fenders where molded to the body and the running boards where covered with extended panels for the doors and rear quarter panel bottoms.
1952 Mercury headlights where frenched into the extended fenders. The hood was slightly pie-cut to remove the factory up-slant towards the front. The body was stripped of all its unwanted trim, except for the side, but that was just like in the old days shortened on the hood.
A set of 1946 Mercury bumpers was smoothed and used front and rear. A lot of attention was payed to the panel line gap, to get them as small and even as possible.
The car was first finished by Bill Reasoner and painted in a solid red color.



The 1985 version of Richard Zocchi's 1941 Ford.


In 1988 it was redone by Bill Reasoner, with some updates. The most obvious are the 1947 Oldsmobile grille replacing the stock 1941 Ford units, the '56 Oldsmobile headlights, and different skirts - and repainted in Ivory color with gold Murano Pearl by Bill Reasoner.



The 1988 version of the car.


In 1990 the car was again redone, now owned by Joe Moreno, subtiel body changes.
The care was repainted in a mauve color with silver Murano Pearl Pink flame art work by Art Himsl.

Bo Bertilsson photo



In 2005 The car was updated another time. Keith "Kid" Dean reworked the rear fenders with a flair to flush mount a set of Joe Moreno's own Custom Skirts. This time the car was repainted by Bob Dutton, and Art Himsl.

Dave Dale photo





Joe Moreno has owned the car for many years now and has been entering the car is a lot of shows, winning a log of trophies, including the presigious ISCA Best Radical Custom award and the coveted George Barris Custom D’Elegance Award.


Parked in Joe's Garage...

 

^^^ that is one beautiful car^^^
Whats the car w/ twin "diffrent color" flames beside it? Almost looks like its its negative version, aha ah!

 

Good eye. Its a 1941 Ford Sedan with a heavy chop and full fade-away fenders with nearly identical flames. Once in pink just the the coupe, but they look to be green in this photo. It was on the cover of one of the four Tex Smith Custom Car Magazine's... don't know who owned it.. This was a Bill Reasoner custom.... And was later modified further and is now the Joe Moreno mint green sedan "convertible" with full fade away fenders.

Here is the photo of the car from the cover.




And the complete cover... very nice shot.

 

Lord, just let me make it through the next twenty days, and I will be the happiest person on the planet.

 

I believe the 41 Tudor was zocchis ..it was white primer chopped by reasoner and a chassis by Bob Westbury ..believe it or not alot of those 8os zocchi cars had box tube chassis with late model clips and back half's.

 

Any sneak peeks of the attendence plaques or T-shirts??

 

My mistake. You are correct. Thanks Steve

 

Axle, I just got back from my local O'reilys to get the tickets. All I got was a normal reciept like I had bought parts. Is that going to work? I wanna make sure that I didnt just buy tickets for all 3 days and then have to pay again when I get there.

Thanks

 

I need to correct myself.. the 41 Tudor was bill reasoners ..later owned by Joe Moreno.it is now the padded topped light mint green 41 with the fadeaways..very nice car. Anyone know if you could get him to bring both!?!?!??

 

Hotel is booked and the plane tickets are in, can't wait to get back to California and be part of this gig. Congrats Axle on your hard work for pulling this thing off. TBJ

 

Hey John, where are ya staying? It will be good to see you again.

BB

 

Hey Bob it will be great to see you as well. We will be at the Radisson Suites in Covina. Landing on Thursday and back home Monday. You have my cell # ??. TBJ

 

This morning I got an email from Jerry Yatch about his old 1940 Mercury.
He told me that over the years some of the information about who built the car was "lost in translation". Jerry had visited my website, and noticed that even his younger brother had submitted some incorrect information about his old car.

I figured its best to add this information here as well.
So here is the right information about who built the car in 1953, and after that.


"This Merc was originally built by Dick Rheaume of Dearborn, Michigan as it appeared in the first Detroit Autorama in 1953. I purchased the car in late 1954 and proceeded to do a complete cosmetic and mechanical restoration. All new metal work and paint was done by Bill Hines at that time. This car has always been attributed to me because of its high show profile in the mid to late 50's and its extraordinary fit and finish provided by Bill Hines in 1955. My thanks and appreciation go out to Harry McAuliffe and the current owners, the Meyers, for their outstanding contributions. I missed the car at Pebble Beach and would love to once more sit behind the wheel and reflect. Regards, Jerry Yatch"

 

Well guys we are almost there... we almost have the 75 Custom Cars announced that will be at the GNRS Customs Then & Now A historical gathering. To see the nearly complete list go to my site HERE.
I think that the team of Axle, Jeff Nepple Luke Karosi, John Buck and myself have collected an amazing collection of historical Custom cars for this exhibit.

There are still a few cars we have to announce, and one of them is the Polynesian II. The clone of the Valley Custom masterpiece that was built for Jack Stewart (the one from Ohio) from a 1950 Oldsmobile in the early 1950's.



Jack Stewart knew exactly what he wanted when he contacted the Valley Custom Shop about his Oldsmobile. Together with Neil and Clayton he discussed the desing elements. And the end result is an absolutely amazing Custom Car, and so totally different from anything else built in those days. The original car is also still around, and fully restored by Gene Blackford, but was not available for this show. And since the Polynesian II is an exceptional clone of the original car and fully approved by Neil Emory, the team decided it was the perfect car to show the quality and style the Valley Custom Shop produced.



Along side there will be the original and unrestored Valley Custom built Ron Dunn sectioned 1950 Ford Coupe, and the Ina Mae Overman 1952 Lincoln, also unrestored original Custom.




Building an original custom car is one thing, but building a dead on clone is possibly even harder. You have to get every detail just right otherwise it just wont be the same. Luckily for John Ballard the built of the original Polynesian is extremely well documented. A full 47 pages was devoted to the built in the 1954 Custom Cars annual, and besides that many other photos have been around, and found to help the recreation of the clone. Why a clone while the real car is still around. Well John Ballard has been looking for the Polynesian for a long time, and all the leads he had ended up dead. So in the end he believed the car just did not survive. And he decided to clone the car.

After the clone has been debuted Gene Blackford figured it was time to unveil the fact he had the original Polynesian in his shop, and that he was going to do a full restoration.

Back to the clone. John Ballard and his friend Gary Rafe took a lot of time to study all the material they had collected on the real car before they started to cut into the 1950 Oldsmobile Holiday 88. And eventually it took the team close to 5 years to finish the car. And as far as possible they used the same techniques and materials as the Valley Custom team did in the early 1950's. The end result is absolutely stunning, and on the outside nearly identical to the original Custom. For reliability a more modern engine and new drive train was chosen.



The team even went so far as to recreate the special badge to go on the C-Pillars, but adding a II to the name to make sure nobody would ever mistake this clone for the real car.

Rob Radcliffe photo








After finishing the clone John showed it for some time, and drove it as much as he could. Unfortunately the car was in an accident which damaged the hood, windshield and top.
Jack Walker (we know him of the Hirohata Merc and Blue Danube Barris Customs clones... amongst others) had already been looking into buying the car to add to his collection, and this was the time to do it. Jack had all the damage on the car repaired, Chuck Miller gets credits for the orchid flame paint job. and showed it on his side of the Stated for several years.



Jack Walker sold the car again and now for several years the car has been located in Las Vegas. The cars new owner Bobby S. will bring it to the show for everybody to enjoy.

 

That is



I can't wait to see it again. Personally I think the interior color on the clone is much nicer than the original. But that's just my opinion and you all know what they say about opinion's.

BB

 

Hi, the office just replied to this question that i forwarded . This is what they wrote:

Hey Axle,

Yes, the Kragen O’Reilly receipt is what they will bring to the show for admission

 

Cant wait to see this one in person.

 

Well things are starting to come together.

Here is the burgandy plaque that will be presented to the owners of all 75 cars entered in the Customs Then and Now exhibit in Building 9.

And one for the spectators to purchase. (the copper colored one)

Dennis

 

Thanx Rik, i knew you had a story for it.
Beautiful car btw. i might even like it more then the white car.