Hey kiddo, the thread gets updated with a new car every Tuesday. Let us know what happened to your Uncle's Merc. Ask him and find out. That's what the thread is all about. It's the best way to bump the thread, we like updates with info and pics.
@Boden send me a PM with your mailing address and I will put that photograph in an envelope and mail it to you
What Ever Happened To..........? number 221. 1955 Buick Four Door Hardtop Owner: Ron Nelson Circle Pines, Minnesota This week's write-up is going to be a little different than the many others I've done. First off, if my records are correct, this is the first time we'll be featuring the same owner of two different customs. The other thing is that the location of this car is not a mystery. The car is still alive and well with the family, but it deserves to be remembered in this thread as it's a real survivor built by a man that was a true custom fan. I guess this week's post is more of a request for more pictures and information from all of you custom faithful out there on Mr. Nelson's "other" Buick custom. I don't have much on this car in the way of pictures, but I'll be mentioning alot of other custom Buicks and past W.E.H.T. feature cars that all gathered one day at a Spectacular long ago and made history. That being said, I hope it's not too confusing to you, or even to me (lol). I hope I can get through this without goofing up all the facts. Hang on, here we go.......... Mr. Nelson was a big time custom guy that had a number of cool rides over the years, but he really seemed to like Buicks. He had a chopped '56 Buick affectionately known as "Onyx" that was a real stunner. Beautiful black paint and bodywork that was straight as a pin. It was W.E.H.T. #101. I'll include the link back to the write-up for those of you that may have missed it or just want to check it out again. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-75#post-12428315 Now the attendance history on Ron's Buicks at Leadsled Spectaculars is a little confusing. The "Onyx" was supposedly at the Spectacular a time or two, but I've never been able to say for sure what years it was there. Ron's '55 hardtop though, I do have solid information as to it being there twice that I know of in the mid-80s. Usually when I write about these cars, I go from the earliest sightings to the latest, but this week I'm going to deviate away from that because the meat of my story is from 1985. Ron was at the 1987 Spectacular in Springfield, Illinois. The '55 can be seen sitting among the customs parked all over the fairgrounds, but they were quick glimpses that I couldn't get clear shots of. Sounds familiar, huh? However, the distinctive custom grille is a dead giveaway of this car--it was there! Now, the 1985 Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio was a totally different matter. The Buick wasn't seen anywhere else on the video but in one place, and to me, it's one of the biggest historical events in the (close to) 40 year history of the show. It was from the ingenious idea Rowdie (@49toad) had to gather a group of Buicks together and interview each owner. That gathering of customs produced a number of cars that we've discussed here, as well as one particular owner building another custom that we covered. It was a truly legendary custom moment. I'll lay it all out in a few minutes. I covered all this in the write-up on Paul Sumrell's '58 Buick, W.E.H.T. #164. I'll update it though as there have been a few changes since feature #164. I'll include the link to that write-up if you want to go back and check that out as well. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-116#post-13041739 ..........at the '85 Spectacular, again in Springfield, Ohio. It was there where a historic custom event took place that we have touched on in this thread a few times. Rowdie (@49toad) gathered a group of Buick customs together for short interviews with each owner telling a little about their cars. The late Harold Olsen did the interviews. There were eight in all, but one Buick (a '57) that was sitting in the row was never identified and the owner was never interviewed. The other seven were awesome Buick customs, a few of which became fairly famous in their time. The first Buick was a black '58 belonging to Richard Anglin from Springfield, Ohio. Mr. Anglin later went on to build a wild '60 Cadillac that we covered not too long ago in W.E.H.T. #207. Here's the link to that write-up: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-134#post-13471584 The second was our featured car this week, Paul Sumrell's red '58. Paul mentioned that his car was Chevy powered "unfortunately", but he was building a '59 that was "all Buick". The next car was Harold and Gail Olsen's '54. I've never featured this car as it was a pretty famous California transplant Midwestern custom that I'm pretty sure everybody knows the history on. I may feature it in the future, but it is definitely on the back burner. The fourth car of the set was a '59 Buick that belonged to Connie Winkler (W.E.H.T. #8). He had a number of great customs over the years, and last I heard he is still at it! Here is the link way back to #8 to read about crazy Connie and his '59: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-4#post-11559469 Number five was the wildly scalloped '55 Buick of Jerry and Mavis Newman of Madrid, Iowa (W.E.H.T. #14). I've always had a huge appreciation for this car as many of us that were following the 80s custom renaissance as youngsters through magazines remember seeing this car everywhere in magazine coverage. It really was a famous car in it's own right. Here's the link to the Newman's colorful "juiced" Buick. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-8#post-11608932 Number six was a great '55 Buick 4 door hardtop owned by the late Ron Nelson. I guess Ron was camera shy as his daughter Adair did the interview with Harold. She did a good job and didn't seem to mind the spotlight at all. Mr. Nelson had another Buick that we covered earlier in this thread. It was a great '56 2 door hardtop affectionately known as "The Onyx". Ron's '56 was W.E.H.T. #101. The next Buick was a '54 that belonged to Roger Weller (W.E.H.T. #39). Roger's brother Ron did the interview, explaining that he had the car there at the show for Roger, who was back in Annapolis, Maryland. In another interview at the '85 Spectacular, Rowdie got Mavis Newman and her '55 Buick to park next to Roger Weller's '54. One of Rowdie's girls interviewed Mavis and Ron (Roger's brother) and asked them questions about the cars. Ron mentioned in the interview that the Newman's Buick was the inspiration for his brother's '54. The cars were very similar even down to the paint jobs which looked very similar, only in different colors. Here's a link back to Mr. Weller's '54 Buick: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-21#post-11816860 The last Buick of the group was a '55 belonging to John Keow of Holland, Michigan. This car had a chopped lift off top, canted quads and was sitting on a complete '76 Olds 98 floor and chassis. The car was still under construction, but it was eventually finished and was a stunner! This was quite a gathering of Buick customs. You rarely see things like this today........... Mr. Nelson's '55 hardtop didn't get a whole lot of coverage that day among the great gathering of Buicks, but the car deserved to be there with them. The thing I really like about this Buick is the fact that it's a 4 door hardtop. It has the cool look of a hardtop with the functionality of two extra doors. I've never been able to figure out why there aren't more four-door hardtops being built. I guess not many have survived, I really don't know. Here's a great snapshot of Mr. Nelson's '55 from our own Jim Stanley's (@stanlow69) famous custom wall photo collection. Jim might have to correct me on this, but I think he took this shot at the Spectacular in '85. The only other picture I have this week is a shot that @PasoJohn sent me a while back. If I've got my facts straight, this picture was taken at "Back To The 50s" within the last five years or so. One of Mr. Nelson's family members is behind the wheel. The car has stood the test of time very well and still looks super. A ride I'd be proud to cruise around in! Unfortunately those are the only two pictures I have this week. Maybe some more will be posted. Here is an excerpt from the write-up on Ron's '56 Buick the "Onyx", W.E.H.T. #101 that pretty much sums up the kind of guy Mr. Nelson was. "As I mentioned above, Ron was a regular at Back to the 50s and John told me he saw the car there many times. Sadly, Mr. Nelson passed away in October 2009, but he did have the foresight to leave the cars he still owned to family members. His family has carried on the tradition of attending Back to the 50s, and John (@PasoJohn) sent me some great photos of the car taken there just a few years ago. The Nelson family has taken super care of the Buick as it is still in beautiful condition. The awesome black paint is still gorgeous and the body is straight as a pin." Nice to see the family still uses these cars, that seem to have become members of the family as well. Rest in peace Ron. You are missed.......... I hope that you all enjoyed the column this week. It was a little different than usual, but sometimes a little change is nice. I also hope that you take the time to go back and check out some of the other legendary Buicks gathered for a historic moment from that great show and interview in 1985! I hope everyone is well and getting out and enjoying our late spring weather. Car show season is very strange this year, but you have to do the best you can and get out and have some fun. Cruise on, everybody! See you next time..........E
I showed in the same club display (kustom kemps of Mn) with Ron and this car (I had my black 55 chev) at the GSTA rod and custom show in 1984. I looked and looked and can't find my pictures....I'll keep lookin....
The photo above that I took was at a KKOA show called Last Pass show in Des Moines. Here is another one from the same show(I Posted earlier in this thread), Not sure if it was the same year.
No sir. I haven’t been able to find Nd any pictures. That’s the reason I was so excited to see this in the thread Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Wow! Thank you very much sir! That would be extremely appreciated! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 222. 1952 Ford Victoria "So Fine" Owner: Kent Burns Pecatonica, Illinois Before I get going this week, I want to send out a big thank you to Mike Furmanek (@LOST ANGEL) here on the HAMB. He offered up a huge collection of KKOA newsletters and I was fortunate enough to be the first one in line interested in them. He packed them up and shipped them to me in his rare spare time and they arrived in no time. I've just barely started looking through them as it is a very large box. They have already proven to be a valuable tool for my research information for this thread. Matter of fact, tonight's custom was in one of the first issues I looked at. I had all my information on the car from past research except for the owner's name and hometown, and there it was in black and white, the information I was missing. So thanks Mike, I really appreciate your efforts and the newsletters as well! I'll be sure to put them to good use! Tonight's custom is another one of those cars that seemed to make a single appearance at the Leadsled Spectacular and then disappeared. The Spectacular in the early 80s was tricky in a number of ways. The first thing was Rowdie (@49toad) was no longer doing the video at the shows. Video Bob Huff took over sometime in the late 80s and that was not necessarily was a good thing or a bad thing, it was just different. For some reason Rowdie's videos seem a lot harder to find (if you don't know the right people). Bob's videos seem easier to find on Ebay or wherever, but there are many different year videos that I'm still searching for. The other thing was the dreaded 1994 Leadsled Spectacular in Huntsville, Alabama. That move to the south nearly did in the KKOA, and it took a few years to recover. For some reason, it seems that videos for the Spectacular after 1994 are very scarce. So after 1993, car sightings dropped dramatically in my video research. With all that being said, Kent Burns showed up at the 1993 Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio in his awesome '52 Ford Victoria. According to Ken Ryan, the deejay that did the narration on many of Video Bob's videos in the late 80s and early 90s, Kent's showing of the Ford at the '93 show was the first show with its new paint job. Here is the photo from the September '93 issue of the Trendsetter on page 27: Judging by the black and white picture, it was really hard to tell what color the car actually was. The biggest hints that helped to identify the car were the fact that the car was a rare Victoria (hardtop) and the fox tail hanging from the antenna. Seeing the antenna was a dead giveaway for the car I had video still shots from the '93 show. The first sighting of the car on video was on Friday morning when the car was cruising around the fairgrounds checking things out. The purple body with lighter purple scallops made the car a real standout! The next good shots of the car were from Saturday morning as the Burns' cruised into the show and found a spot to set up for the day. You can tell by the lighting that it was early in the morning. As Ken drove past the camera and got lined up to back into his spot, you can see the nice fit of the bubble skirts. As a rule, like most custom guys, I hate to post pictures of cars with the hood and trunk open, the doors or whatever, but shots of the car parked were hard to come by on the video, so we have a few of the unpopular "car show" shots. Here's one with the hood up: I guess it was a good thing the hood was up, because Video Bob took some great footage of the fully dressed flathead. The detail with paint and chrome was unbelievable! Moving to the interior you can see the nice white interior with "horseshoe" tuck'n'roll inserts. Please excuse Mrs. Burns sitting in the passenger seat checking out the KKOA list of activities sheet (lol)! The back seat was done in the same style and was spotless! Another nice detail that the video camera captured was the nice headliner with tuck'n'roll inserts. Note the tuck'n'roll sun visors as well. These are details that many folks might miss as they peek in to check out the interior but don't look up. Later on into the early evening on Saturday, customs were lined up to do "How Cool Can You Cruise". The Burns' were in the line as not to miss a chance to wow the crowd with their newly painted sled. Here's a shot of them rolling up to talk to Jerry Titus. You can see the early evening shadows creeping in. As Jerry started talking with the Burns', Bob walked around the car to get a nice all around review shot of the car. Here is a shot of that telling foxtail: This is another shot showing the nice fit of the skirt and the cleanly shaven trunk. I think Jerry really enjoys talking with the car owners and show goers. These interviews are always good for a few laughs. Here he is discussing the finer details of the '52 with Kent, as well as mulling over a few things about married life, customs and double thick chocolate malts! After the interview, the Burns' rolled off into the evening to search for adventure, or maybe to get a cheeseburger and that double thick chocolate malt that Jerry mentioned. My last picture I found this week was shot earlier in the day on Saturday, but I thought it would be a nice picture to post last. This is a shot of the rear of Kent's 52, with Video Bob's '49 Merc (W.E.H.T. #195) grazing in the grass behind it. Here's the link to check out the feature on Bob's Merc in case you missed it. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-130#post-13349584 It just so happens that both of these cars made their debut at the '93 Spectacular, so I thought this was a fitting shot to close with. I wonder why the Burns' never seemed to make it back to the show. So many things can happen to change a person's path in life. Hopefully they are fine, and cruising around in style in "So Fine"! I hope that everyone out there is doing fine. The things that are going on in this country that are affecting everyday life right now are exhausting. Keeping a positive outlook can be tough, but hopefully you are lucky enough to stay busy and roll with the punches. A little diversion can help. If all else fails, take a little advice from Jerry Titus. In the very near future, jump in the ol' sled and take your better half out to your local drive-in style hang out and get "a double thick chocolate malt with two straws"! Take care out there! See you next Tuesday! E
Thanks Mark, I really appreciate that! I just love the history of custom life from the forgotten 70s all the way up to today! E
Congrats on your new collection of KKOA goodies ED. A good offer on behalf of @LOST ANGEL OK, is this the same car. Not sure where Dad took these two pic`s. Never been to the 93 show. Maybe Michigan`s KKOA show for the first pic. It`s more of a Magenta in color. I have a couple more pic`s I`ll post later.
Ed, glad someone like you got the collection. I hate throwing away history and information. Glad I could help with your research.
I'm having a ball with the KKOA newsletters. I'm beginning to think it will take me months to get through them. I've been so busy with outdoor home projects and car stuff my time to sit and read is minimal. But, wait 'til it gets cold again! That very well could be the same car with a makeover to the wilder, mild custom side of things, Jim. Victorias are scarce, plus the fact that the magenta version looks to have Illinois plates makes it very possible that it is Kent's car. Great pictures by the way. Dig the tuck'n'roll in the wheel wells of the scalloped version! One other quick thing. Is your Dad going to the Spectacular this year? Did he get a new sled to replace his Victoria? I've been thinking about him and wondering if he got his new cruiser yet. E Don't mean to sound like a broken record, Mike, but thanks again! I'm really digging the old newspaper style newsletters. They are packed full of tidbits. The only tricky thing is getting them to fit in the scanner to share the information, but I'll figure it out! E
Dad bought his Vicky shortly after the 82 Des Moines KKOA show. Turned it into a Custom and a couple paint changes over the years. No replacement yet and he is planning on being in Salina. The first version of Kent`s car was red. The second is more of a Magenta color. This was taken at a Goodguys show in Des Moines. Year ? ?
Hey guys, what ever happened to rodncustomdreams? he hasn't signed on since jan 2019? https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/members/rodncustomdreams.47655/
Dunno why he hasn’t logged in here but I see him on Rik’s forum from time to time and he has posted there recently
What Ever Happened To..........? number 223. 1953 Ford "Blue Heaven" Owner: Angelo Pupillo Binghamton, New York As custom people, there are certain customs that we remember because of a name. For example, it may be because it was a "Barris built" Mercury. Or maybe because it was a custom that Winfield or Bill Hines had a hand in building. Other times it may be because of the owner's unique name. Now there are a ton of John Smiths or Bill Andersons out there, but a unique name can strike a real chord in the memory banks. This week's sled is one of those that I had pretty much completed my research on. It seems that it was only at Sled Scene East one time in 1994, at least in this version. I also searched my other videos and never saw it on any other one. Magazine searching had also turned up a goose egg, so this custom was just simmering on the back burner until the puzzle pieces would fall into place. That's where this week's custom comes in. You may remember last week me sending out a special thanks to Mike "@LOST ANGEL" Furmanek for his generous gift of the KKOA newsletters. It was because of that gift that last week's car was finally identified. So cool! For the last week or so I've been sorting out the newsletters, trying to find a place to put them where they are both out of the way, but easily available for my research. It has been a slow process though as it seems I'll be making good headway and then a cover will strike my interest and I start looking through the magazine. Before long I look up at the clock and find I've been reading for 45 minutes! One of those magazines that I spent close to an hour looking through gave me the crucial information I was looking for so I could share this week's custom. In the KKOA Trendsetter from 1995 Volume 9 number 5 on page 8 was a car I had been looking for. The picture had both the owner's name and where he was from. Jackpot! Now I finally had the information I needed to post the car. Awesome! That was probably last Wednesday or so. In the next few days following as I was working here in the yard or on my never ending, non-HAMB friendly custom fender skirt project, the name Angelo Pupillo kept going around and around in my head. I remember thinking, "Where have I heard that name before?" Finally Saturday morning as I was sanding that same stubborn skirt the light bulb went on. I remembered that Mr. Pupillo had also owned an incredible green Merc that we have covered right here in this thread. I put down my sandpaper and after a quick pat down to try and clean the sanding dust off my shirt and pants I headed into the house. A quick stop in the bathroom to wash my hands and then I sat down at my desk and got out my notes. My notes are not very organized, and my chicken scratching is tiny and hard to read, so sometimes deciphering it all takes a while. "Hmmmm, Pupillo Merc, Pupillo Merc..........there it is, I knew it!" Sure enough, way back about a year and a half ago we discussed Angelo's Merc that was a fixture at Sled Scene East. It was W.E.H.T. #135. Here is the link to the write-up to refresh your memory about the Merc just in case you don't remember it. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-96#post-12762214 By chance, two strange coincidences happened here for the last two feature cars. Last week's custom was a '52 Ford, and this week's was a '53 Ford. Although one was a hardtop and the other a sedan, they are still Fords close in year and style. Also, last week's custom was the first time we featured a second custom owned by the same person, and this week's custom is also the second custom featured owned by the same person. Honestly, I didn't plan it this way, it's just how "the chips fell". One other strange thing I discovered was about the attendance of Mr. Papillo and his customs at Sled Scene East. I went back through my notes and re-read the W.E.H.T. post on the Mercury, and it seems the Merc was at Sled Scene East from 1991 through 1994. In my research of "Blue Heaven", it was there in 1994 that I know of. Did Angelo sell the Mercury to someone that then took it themselves to SSE '94, or did he have another driver--maybe his wife or a close friend or relative drive the Ford and he drove the Mercury or vice-versa? We may never know the answer to that, but it is very interesting to see that two of Angelo's cars were at Sled Scene East the very same year. Well, enough of my fact chasing, here are the frozen still pictures of Angelo's Ford from the '94 video. Here is a picture that looks to be in taken in about the same place as the picture from the Trendsetter that I posted. This is a shot of the car from the opposite side, plus a close up of the terrific looking Plymouth grille and the New York license plates "BLUE HVN". The next shots are of my favorite part of the car. I love the way the back of the car looks with the inverted Lincoln taillights, and the style and color choice of the scallops. Super vision and execution! Here's a peek at the custom dual frenched antennas on the left rear quarter panel: Moving on to the inside, you can see lots of white tuck'n'roll, custom center console and striping on the dash. The car was done top to bottom and front to back! The back seat area looks nice and comfy as well. The last shot this week was from the last few minutes of the video. Angelo, or possibly another driver was seen cruising through the 'grounds probably headed for the exit. I wonder if "Blue Heaven" won any awards that weekend. Definitely a cool custom that any of us would love to cruise in! After '94, both of Angelo's customs disappeared. I've written a number of times about how after the mid 90s KKOA videos are fairly scarce, and magazine coverage usually covered what I like to call "the heavies". You know, the customs that were built by the big names and were at whatever show for the first time turning heads. A lot of times the "little guys'" cars didn't make magazine coverage for lack of space or whatever and many of these customs for the most part were never seen. The exception to that was those that were at that particular show, or through snap shots that were taken and saved, or those that have old video to watch. At any rate, it's always good to look back at shows from "the good ol' days" and remember or discover a custom that you either don't remember or have never seen before. That's always fun! Let's hope that Mr. Pupillo is still out there enjoying one of these customs, or perhaps a new one that we've yet to identify! Just a little over a week to go before what I like to call "my unofficial halfway point of summer". To me, the 4th of July is roughly the middle of summer as it is close to the half way point between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Ughhh, the thought of Labor Day. Basically the end of summer and that means the cold weather isn't far behind. But enough talk of the cold weather, let's get out and enjoy the nice weather and do some cruisin'! Have fun everybody! See you next Tuesday! E
Great write up Ed!! Funny how the pieces fell into place with so many coincidences. Really love this Ford. The scallops, Plymouth grille and a Lincoln tail lights are all tops. Sad I never saw it in person
Thanks Doc! I would have loved to see it in person myself! E Leave it to Jim to bring up good points I hadn't thought about! Also Doc, stay tuned, the coincidence wheel is still spinning here. Funny Jim brought up this convertible Ford, that coincidentally is also blue with pinkish scallops. Both the convertible and Angelo's car also both feature inverted taillights, although one's lights are Packard and the other are Lincolns. The last coincidence is the convertible was W.E.H.T. #174 that I wrote about on June 25, 2019--which will be a year ago tomorrow. Very strange! I am still searching for the owner's name from the convertible. It is one of a handful of feature cars that is still a mystery as far as who the owner was. Here's the link to the mystery Milwaukee convertible to refresh your memory. Maybe someone will look back and remember who the owner/builder was. Now that would really be a coincidence, huh (lol)? E https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-121#post-13138464
Don't have anything on the car yet, but it looks like Angelo is still with us at 77 years old. Still in the Binghamton, New York area as well.
Alot of them make their way over from Facebook. I have an East Coast Customs group on there. I also took a few nice pics of that Buick 4-door above. The guy was talking about how 37/38 Fords were ann of a sudden not worthless as he was wiping his Buick down. How random !. I was 11
The Jalopy Journal
