Previously sold in 2012 Barret-Jackson Palm Beach. https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Eve...HEVROLET-BEL-AIR-CUSTOM-2-DOOR-HARDTOP-125341
Thanks for reminding me about the '99 Double Date, John. Went back and watched it and it had the best video footage I've seen on Ron's '55. I need to make sure I watch your videos more for important W.E.H.T. information! Great picture of the Buick, @Sancho! I don't think I've ever seen it before. A real beauty! Sounds like Mr. Monnin is still building customs and enjoying them. It looks like the 'Vette grille was the last grill that was in the '55 before it was sold a number of years back. Thanks for the sale and Ebay information guys! Maybe you should have bought this '55 too, Mark. We know it isn't a real Barris car, but it would have been a great addition to your '55 Chevy kustom kollection! E
Wow @alchemy--I totally missed that! I agree, who needs door handles? Also, the trim doesn't add to the car, it takes away. E
I just found a pic I took at the 1985 KKOA show in Springfield Ohio Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I prefer it with bumpers. Roll pans on 50's cars hardly ever look right to me. Same with painted bumpers. My brain has been trained to want some chrome at the lower ends of a big square car.
It depends but in this case I like the version with the roll pans much better. I also prefer the first version's taillights. It flows, the new version not. The new front end is clumsy and square like Herman Munster's forehead.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 148. 1951 Mercury Owner: Steve Badgett Knoxville, Tennessee Schedule changes, schedule changes, schedule changes! Things like this can drive a person crazy! I apologize I'm posting this week's W.E.H.T. a little earlier than expected today, but I have company coming into town earlier than I planned so I have to post earlier in the day. Hope that's ok. This week's car is one that I've been saving pictures of for quite some time. I've been researching it as we go and I'd about given up on finding anything about it. I found this picture of it on Carnut's website taken at one of the James Dean Runs. I've watched every video I have and I never saw it at any of those shows. To be honest, the car is very mild, and information on these types of customs can be hard if not impossible to find. The car would have been so mild (before the flame job) that finding it would have been very tough. A lot of mild cars are so subtle that they miss the cameraman's eye shooting the shows. This car might have been at the Spectacular, but it really had no type of customizing to make it stand out from many clean dark blue or black '51s. I did find it in the 2nd KKOA book on page 14, and even though the picture is in color, the custom flames in the Carnut picture are much more vivid. The flames are what drew me to this Merc, and after lots of searching I finally found something. A few weeks back I was searching through magazines for information on another custom, and I came across the 1996 Leadsled Spectacular coverage in the November 1996 issue of Custom Rodder. That year the show was in Hamilton. Ohio. While reading about the coverage, on page 42 there was a write up on a Mercury that was getting some custom paint work at the show. According to the article, the KKOA had a random drawing, and the winner would receive some free custom paint work on their car at the show. It sounds like the plan was to do a scallop job, but the winner wanted flames. The really cool thing about the work is that Jerry and Elden Titus were going to be the guys doing the work! Even Dennis McPhail jumped in to help with masking chores. It had a few pictures of them doing the layout, masking, prep work and eventually Elden shot the flames. His choice of colors and the way he tied it all together with fogging was excellent. I think this is one of my favorite flame jobs ever! Elden was a real master--one of the underrated customizers of his time. He left us way too soon! I went ahead and scanned that page to share here as it is a great read. That is really all I was able to find on Mr. Badgett's Merc. Since I don't have any KKOA videos from '95-'99, I can't verify if he ever attended after the 1996 show where the paint was done. I've been to a few Leadsleds from 2000 forward, and I can't recall ever seeing it there. You have to admit though, it's a long way to Kansas from Tennessee. Being from the south, maybe he attended more KOA shows as they were very active in the south. I have very little KOA material, but I did search through what I have with no luck. I'm hoping that our southern custom faithful will remember this Mercury and give us more insight on the car and Mr. Badgett. Just a few days 'til Christmas. I hope everyone is ready--or almost that is. It will be here in a flash! Merry Christmas all! E
Thanks for all you do to keep this thread going, interesting and exciting E.. Merry Christmas to you and everyone following W.E.H.T.! Dave
I was at the Kkoa event that year and remember that car getting flamed there . they masked it off during the day and Elden painted it at night when no one was around. thought it was pretty clever the way they went around the mercury head with kind of a scallop
I got a PM from @John B earlier this evening. He sent me a link for Mr. Badgett's obituary. Sadly he passed on in 2014. Rest in peace..........E https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/knoxville-tn/stephen-badgett-6187374
Thats probably Bobbie Simpson next to Chuck in that pic. Chuck went by a Nickname: Cool 50. See the tags on the car.
I have one of Chucks tags on my car, its just to look at and remember a friend. Heres his car in green.
Was it ever Maroon with Cruzier skirts. Without the upper piece of chrome. @sideswipe Or was that a different car.
Before everyone gets into the full swing of things with family gatherings, church services or whatever your family does to celebrate on Christmas Eve, I wanted to wish all my HAMB friends and the custom faithful a very, Merry Christmas! Here are two small gifts for you to enjoy. This is a picture I found in the November/December 1995 issue of the KOA's Styleline. It's a neat rendition of what an artist thought Mr. Jimmy Jones' skirt shop operation may have looked like. And last but not least is the video I shot of our Christmas tree last year here at home. I wanted to shoot a new one for 2018 with all the changes on our tree, but things have been very hectic around here getting ready for Christmas this year and I never got it done. I hope nobody minds. I also hope that in 2019 we can all gather at a custom show somewhere in this great country of ours like we did in July 2018. Feliz Navidad Amigos! E
Hi OG.Thanks for a great video.Classic artists and Christmas songs too.Merry Christmas and a healthy,happy safe and prosperous New Year. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
Hope you guys all had a Merry Christmas and will have a blessed 2019 ahead!! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
This one shows some apparent Junior Conway influence. BTW...If anyone does not know, Junior became widely regarded as the world's best auto painter, sometimes commanding SIX FIGURES for a paint job!!! https://www.si.com/vault/1993/11/29...-the-driveway-takes-pains-you-wouldnt-believe
Good eye 'Mo. It was strongly influenced by Junior's car. Jack Webb also had Bill Roark do a convertible as well. That is Jack in the pic. He had a lot of cars and Bill did a lot of work on most of them. They were grade school friends and Kustom guys. Both have passed on but they're work and influence are still with us. I don't know what became of the convertible. You can see the coupe there as well.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 149. 1954 Chevy "Barbara Ann" Owner: Mike Townsley Bellevue, Kentucky I don't really know why it has happened, but it seems like the customs I have been finding the most information on lately have been from the south. Maybe it's because I have been looking through more KOA Stylelines in the last few weeks. The information on Mike Townsley's Chevy seemed to jump around quite a bit. I recall seeing it in magazines many times, but my search didn't turn up much. My faint memory seems to recall a full color feature on it, but I couldn't find it. I did find a small picture of it in a KOA Styleline from the August/September/October issue from 1993 on page 15. It was in their coverage of a KOA show called The Kustom Kar Celebration in Hamilton, Ohio. I'm glad I stumbled on this picture as it's where I found the car was owned by Mr. Townsley. You can see in the picture that it had sort of a clumsy chop and didn't flow too well, but the pancaked trunk lid and the wild paint made up for it. It is so hard to tell how nice the paint was in the black and white photo. It was kandy red with silver scallops and TONS of 'flake. It was so brilliant that the video camera had a hard time shooting it in the sunshine. Very beautiful! On the upper front part of the doors above the chrome trim it had "Barbara Ann" lettered on it. It can't be seen in the photos I found, but you could clearly see it on video. I also saw from the video the Chevy had Kentucky license plates on it, but I was never able to find what town Mike called home. I was lucky enough to find one color photo of the '54. It was taken by Scott Pavey and was posted on Rikster's site. I'm unsure when and where it was taken. I watched hours of video the last few weeks, and I saw the Chevy at just a few shows. It was at the 1987 Spectacular in Springfield, Illinois, and again in 1993 in Springfield, Ohio. On the '93 video it mentioned the paint still looked great for being nearly 10 years old at the time. I watched my early videos from '83-'86 and I never saw the car on any of them, but again, I seem to recall seeing it in a magazine somewhere in the early to mid 80s. After the '93 Styleline article and the 1993 Leadsled Spectacular video, I found nothing more on the Townsley Chevy. Where is it today? Did the heavy 'flake paint job crack out or fade and had to be re-done? Maybe the Chevy is still cruising around with a new paint job, or it's tucked away in a garage somewhere patiently waiting for many more days out in the sunshine. I for one hope it's still in the 'flake paint--I'd love to see in in person someday! Well gang, that's the last W.E.H.T. for 2018. Remember, we'll be back on our regular schedule starting on Tuesday, January 8th. Thank you for sticking around and reading each week and participating with great photos, insight and lost, rare information. I'm sure we'll find more interesting customs to bring back from the archives in the next year. All the best to you and yours in the upcoming 2019. Happy New Year everyone! E
Hay, is that a sunroof in Scott`s pic. Here is a photo I took at the Last Pass show in Des Moines. I do remember the vibrant paint job.
The Jalopy Journal
