Learned something new today--never heard that song before. Now it all fits. Thanks for posting @Sancho! E
Wow, the Mar-Keys, thanks Sancho for posting that. Wish I had the moves now that I had when I used to dance to "Last Night."
What Ever Happened To..........? number 192. 1955 Chevy Owner: Bill Daniels Jr. Worcester, Massachusetts Now that I've been doing this thread for quite sometime now, it never ceases to amaze me how some customs become mainstream and you see them everywhere over the years if they survive. Others make a few appearances at shows or manage to get a small shot in a magazine and then they're gone. Strange how that works. This week's custom is one that only made it to one show on video that I was able to find, and then managed to be featured in a magazine about 12 years later. After that it has been a no show. Bill Daniels took his cool blue '55 Chevy to Sled Scene East in 1992. Being that he was from Massachusetts made it a natural that the car would be done in true east coast style. The car wasn't chopped, but it had classic east coast style touches like peaked headlights, bubble skirts as well as a '54 Chevy grille, lake pipes and the typical nose and deck job with rounded hood corners. It had a rolled pan in front with custom nerf bars. The car was painted blue with lighter blue scallops. Moving around to the side it had a single antenna frenched into the quarter panel just under the side rear window. Going around to the back it had more custom stuff going on. It had the license plate frenched in the trunk lid, as well as a nicely executed pair of Packard tail lights added. I was a little surprised that Bill didn't extend the quarters before adding the Packard tail lights with the possible addition of a Connie kit. This seems like what most east coast folks do when they add Packard lights, but maybe Bill just wasn't a Connie kit kind of a guy. Peeking into the window, you can see some neat bucket seats in the back of the car, as well as swivel buckets up front. Now that is something you don't see everyday! Early on in my research, the only clue I had as to where this car was from was the Massachusetts license plates. Hours of searching turned up nothing, but at least it was a start. Since I had very little luck finding information on this Chevy, I had put it on the back burner until I found more information on it. This is what I do quite a bit. Research a while and then when the trail gets cold, put it aside and start looking around for information on another car. After that trail dries up, switch to another and on and on it goes. Every now and then I stumble upon a nice nugget of history on a car that I did have a little information on, and after adding the new information I find I have enough to do a post on it on this thread. Time consuming I guess, but it seems to work pretty well. This Chevy finally fell into place last week. HAMBer @Indy47Caddy made a post asking who the Bob Politz Mercury belonged to. Having been a fan of wild east coast customs for quite sometime, I knew I had pictures of it saved somewhere, but where? I searched on my computer and found nothing. Checked in a notebook that I have of pictures of customs that I've saved from the internet and printed and found nothing there either. Finally I gave in and did a Google search and found some great shots of the Politz Mercury on the Custom Rodder website. Sometimes I forget about the Custom Rodder site and I shouldn't as they have a TON of great pictures of customs! After I replied back posting the information from Custom Rodder of the Politz Merc, I decided I had to look through some magazines for more information about the Politz Mercury. I figured a good place to start was by looking through my stack of "modern" Kustoms Illustrated little books that I hadn't looked at in quite sometime. I started from the beginning with the Volume 1 Number 1 issue and began to work my way through. I figured I could look at a few each night and maybe find some information on cars my research had stalled out on. It didn't take long and I was seeing all kinds of neat sleds that I had forgotten about. When I got to the Volume 1 Number 3 issue from 2004 I hit the jackpot! There on pages 4-7 was a nice layout of the '55 Chevy. I finally had the owner's name on the car as well as the town he called home. Not to mention a nice write up with great information telling how Bill had owned the car since 1988. Even if the magazine didn't mention that Bill had owned the car for about 16 years (as of 2004), I knew it was the same owner as the license plates from the '92 Sled Scene East matched the plates on the 2004 Kustoms Illustrated layout. Thanks to this find you guys finally get to see some nice shots of this car, not just my blurry stills from the DVD shot on the screen of my computer! The mystery was somewhat solved, but after the '04 magazine I found nothing more on the car. Does Bill Daniels Jr. still own the car after some 31 years or so, or did he sell it and move on to a new project? Maybe it's stored in a garage until he has the time to pull it out again and hit the road. I hope he still has it, as the car is in good hands with him. You have to admit that Bill really knew how to build a cool east coast cruiser! Before I go tonight, I want to apologize to our veterans out there that check in to read this thread every week. I meant to say something about Veteran's Day last week and I got so involved in writing that I spaced it out. I am so sorry. So, let me be the last to wish all of our great vets Happy Veterans Day, and a heart felt thank you for all you do and have done for our great country! You guys be safe out there! See you next Tuesday! E
Thanks Ed, Lots of time/research to bring us another ultra cool one. That car would be a standout in the lot around Edward's Drive In at CCR Indy.
Neat how things lead from one to another sometimes. I'd be willing to bet, had you posted this car without the Kustoms Illustrated, steel-trap memory Sancho would have pulled that up within minutes. Surely the car is still around and I'd be willing to bet in Bill's garage.
Thanks for the kudos Bill! They always make all the work worth it. Since this Chevy was around as recently as 2004 (according to the magazine), I thought that maybe it had been at the CCR at least once. I searched around the HAMB looking for everyone's pictures from each year of the CCR but found that the Chevy has never been there. I'm sure if it was, @Sancho, @Moriarity, Jim (@stanlow69) or many of the others that go every year would have mentioned it for sure! E Oh yeah, our pal @Sancho is like a walking computer! E
Well, these days, anyone that can remember what they had for lunch is doing better than me and has a steel trap memory as far as I'm concerned....so I AT LEAST gave you enough credit @Sancho. LOL
thought I would chime in I don't post much but on page 83 Austinrod posted some pics of my chopped 53 as seen on craigslist (Baltimore) a year ago, where I found & purchased the car. I have been reading this great thread for a week enjoying the pics & all the knowledge. the 53 being my 1st custom I been soaking everything up best I can. I have wanted a custom for a long time & can't believe I was able to pick this one up. I would love to find out some history on the car. I was told the car came from Conn. & was built in Fla. but I found a New Hampshire tag under the rear seat from 2000 or 2001, thats all I got ! heres a recent pic.. thanks to Austinrod for his post & I would like to thank everyone for this big time thread.. Dave
I bought car in Oct 2018.. belive it or not it is C notched in rear w/ stock leaf springs and air shocks w/ a pump, I think the guy bought the wide whites & artillery wheels with wrong backspacing so his mechanic removed cut front springs & replaced w/ stock (trashed springs & steel wheels) then thet pulled shackles in back and made 1/4" plates jacked back of car up & locked them down tight to raise it, when I loosened plates car dropped 6-7" good thing I was off to the side. I'm still going thru the whole car, it's on the road
What Ever Happened To..........? number 193. 1957 Chevy Owners: Don and Tammy Curtin Greenville, Pennsylvania This week's custom is following the trend that we have been going on lately. A very cool car that was seldom seen back a number of years ago, and only seemed to get to a few shows. Don and Tammy Curtin took their gorgeous red '57 Chevy mild custom to the Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio in 1993. I can't understand why, but the car was only on the DVD one time, and the shots of it weren't the greatest. The car had the passenger door open and a guy (I'm assuming Don) was wiping the car down with a chamois. In a sea of round bodied customs like 50's Chevys, Fords and Mercurys, this car stood out like a red rose in a field full of sunflowers! The Chevy was very mild with only a few minor modifications, but heck, we all know that '57 Chevs didn't need a whole lot to get to koolsville! The Curtin's car had shaved door handles, a pair of frenched antennas under the passenger rear quarter window and the chrome that is normally on the front edge of the hood was molded to make a nice smooth grille opening. The chrome pieces that were on both sides of the hood weren't molded (maybe because they were cast?), but they were stripped of the chrome and painted the body color. It was a very simple modification that worked really well, and most people would miss it if they didn't look close. Don decided on a 9 tooth Desoto grille that looks to have the '57 Chevy turn signal assemblies on each end. It's hard to tell in the photos, but possibly Don used the '57 Chevy grille bar and added Desoto teeth to that. You be the judge. Either way, you have to admit that it looked very sharp! The car ran no skirts, but it did have single tip lake pipes on it. As far as the rear goes, I wasn't able to find single shot of the rear. I have no idea what mods were done to the back of the car. This car was a little tricky to search for information on, as I found another red '57 Chevy that was around about the same time frame as the Curtin's was. Lots of similarities, but just enough differences to be able to tell the two apart. Once I find a little more on the other red '57, I may feature it here in the future. The fact that I kept stumbling upon that other '57 stalled out my hunt for information on this car. Just when I thought I found more on the Curtin car, a closer look revealed that it was the other Chevy. This went on for quite a while until this Chevy went to the "back burner" like I talked about last week. Speaking of last week, do you all remember me mentioning how I stumbled on information on the Bill Daniels Jr. '55 Chevy (W.E.H.T. #192) in Kustoms Illustrated? Well, the same evening I found the information on that Chevy, I found one important morsel of information on the Curtin's '57 that finally brought it all together. In the same Kustoms Illustrated (Volume 1 Number 3 from 2004) on page 18 there was a nice picture of an awesome red '57 mild custom! Could this be the mystery car I'd been searching for? As luck would have it, it was. This was the red '57 with the Desoto grille that I was digging for information on for quite a while. Nice! I also got the owners' names, as well as where they were from. Gotta love it when that happens! Turns out the Curtins were from Greenville, Pennsylvania, and they drove their sweet sled out to Hartford, Connecticut for the '04 Road Agents Rockabilly Rumble. The picture of the Chevy was in Kustoms Illustrated's great coverage of the event. I agree with the writer's sentiments in the caption above that we need more people building tri five customs! After the above picture, the trail of this Chevy ended. Further searching turned up nothing. I know this car is very mild and that can make searching a little tougher than a radical car, but the DeSoto grille is a dead giveaway, plus, how many custom '57 Chevy hardtops have you seen lately? Not very many as now they are considered "too valuable" to cut up. Yeah right--get out the body tools boys! So that's where we end this week. I'm leaving any further information finds up to you custom faithful out there. Let's see what you guys come up with. Just a little over a week 'til Thanksgiving. 2019 is almost behind us. Man, where does the time go? It seems to fly by one Tuesday at a time! I hope this evening finds you all well! 'Til next time, take care everyone! E
I'm friends with a Don Curtain, also from Greenville PA, he comes to CCR every year. I sent him a message to see if this was his car. Stand by Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just found this on his FB page he just replied that it was his car. Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Don is on the hamb, he is going to check it out [emoji4] woo hoo finally I got to contribute something lol Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I bought the car in Cincinnati from the builder, Carroll Hamilton in 99. I was looking for a chopped merc at the time and dad called me and said he found this 57 in autotrader, i went and looked at it and struck a deal. He reformed it from a street machine, he collected goodguys and kkoa awards with it. I took it to Holland, Mi and got a fine nine award. Drove it to Gettysburg for kkoa east several times and also ducktail andjames dean run. It was a 327 tripower/4sp...i replaced the worn out 327 with a fresh one, finished tuning it a Thursday night and left for ductail run at 5am Friday morning in a monsoon running it 80mph across the turnpike. I sold it around 05/06 to a guy in Gilbert, AZ who also had a place in Lobeck, TX..he was gonna register it in Texas. Never seen or heard anymore on it? The back was just nosed and decked and license plate was moved to the bumper. It had red pinstriped flames, i had tom culbertson from Indianapolis lay some lines on the dash one year Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The grill was all desoto with just the 57 Chevy turn signals and grill bar added under the last desoto tooth Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Don`s dad owned this one featured earlier in this thread. He has owned more than a few customs over the years. He is a regular at Indy`s Custom Car Revival. As well as is his two sons. They take 3 cars when they can. It`s nice too see his boy (Don) getting coverage as well.
Dan McBroom or McBride I believe. He had a daughter that I was chasing for awhile back when I was in high school around ‘90-91. I’ve often wondered what happened to this car. I had a ‘54 Chevy at the time. I’ve always been more of a hot rod guy but I always thought that this little coupe was neat. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Thanks for all the fill in information @KustomLincolnLady, @akustom57, and Jim (@stanlow69). Sounds like the car was well travelled and we can all see that it was a stunner! Man Jim, I don't know how you manage to remember all the names of the car owners and what cars they own or used to own. I can remember quite a few, but after a while it all seems to run together. Until you mentioned it, I didn't put it together that we had another W.E.H.T. car that was owned by another Curtin. Now am I to understand that the '54 Chevy (W.E.H.T. #82) owned by Don Curtin is Don Curtin Sr. and this week's '57 is (was) owned by Don Jr.? They aren't the same guy right? Also, @akustom57, are you Don Jr.? I've seen, read and enjoyed your posts here on the HAMB for ages and now I see a connection--that is if I'm not totally confused (lol)! This all has my mind spinning. I think I'm going to blow a brain fuse! I went back and looked over Don's '54 and it is worth another look. Such an amazing sled! Here's a link to the write-up in case anyone wants to check it out: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-56#post-12249391 E
Yes I am Don Jr and my dad is Sr and the one that got me into the scene with his Miles Masa built chopped 51 Merc Conv Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I recently scanned some old film shots I took in the 80's and 90's. I have no info except where they were taken.
Tom, the black '48 convertible at the top of your post belonged to Freddie Bohacek Jr. from Bedford, Oh. He and his dad built it and it was his high school graduation present. Later, Fred Sr. bought it from Jr., so Jr. could build a '33 coupe. Sadly, Sr. passed a few years ago, but his son still has the convertible.
DOon's dad bought this car back, they had it at CCR 2 yrs ago Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
No, the same guy still owns the 54 chevy, the opportunity of buying it back is still open tho, we brought this 51 ford out a couple of years ago thats an original old custom Sent from my SM-G955U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'm pretty sure, but not positive, that the '57 got a one page feature in either R&C or Custom Rodder back when Carroll owned it. (could even have been Classic and Custom, if it was still around at that point) Carroll and my Dad ran around and showed back in the late 50's and early 60's. Along with a bunch of other friends, they traveled to all the shows within driving distance of Cincinnati. (Detroit, Dayton, L'ville, etc) I don't have pictures, but he has a custom '62 Chevy that everything was electric operated. (sort of like the Golden Sahara) After the '57, Carroll built a early 60's style chopped Model A coupe. Flat black (before it became the "in thing", chrome wheels, '50 Buick taillights, padded top, etc.
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