Wonder if anyoune as ever came across and old car that was famous

my dad delivers mail to the house where the "California Kid" was built

 

No, I just saw it online.

 

In the 1970's I painted an old Packard that was restored by a friend .The car was at one time owned by a movie star.....the "Blond bombshell"....Jean Harlow.

 

my dad owns a 42 lincoln continental convert that was bought new by Phil wrigley
owner of the gum company and the chicago cubs
special ordered double mint green, no power windows or overdrive
still has the chicago cubs press pass sticker in the window
tk

 

I bought a few cars from a geezer just outside of Tulsa OK that also owned the original customized "Topper" movie car. This was 1937 Buick with many, many modifications. He was letting it just deteriorate horribly, and wouldn't sell.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104643&highlight=Topper

 

In 1969 I was just out of high school and still living with my parents in Gardena, CA. A good buddy of mine called me up one evening and asked me to go down to Lomita with him to check out an "old custom Merc" another of our former high school buddies had come into possession of and was trying to sell. The car belonged to some guy in the Navy, who had left it in the care of our friend when he shipped overseas. Our friends Dad was tired of seeing it parked in the street in front of his house every day (it didn't run) and wanted it gone, the sooner the better, no questions asked.

By the time we got there it was pretty dark, but as we pulled up we could still make out the unmistakable shape of an early-style, chopped and hardtopped '51 Merc. The most prominent feature of this particular Merc were the stacked, vertical quad headlights, which seemed ponderous and out of proportion with the rest of the car. (The Packard tailights flowed much better) Dark gray primer covered the many dents and scrapes a car collects once it has fallen out of favor with it's owner and ended it's days as a daily driver, although it was clear that this car had not served in that capacity for some time. The butted windshield and rear glass were intact, but I do not recall there being any side glass, which probably accounted for the fact that the blue-and-white pleated interior panels had been removed and placed (along with many other trim pieces) in the trunk. By any standards, it was in rough shape.

The one thing that wasn't too bad was the dash, which showed a string of small, hand-painted figures emanating from the speaker grill. They were playing musical instruments, with the notes superimposed above. I later learned that this was typical of Dean Jeffries style of pinstriping in the 50's.

The story we got on the car was that it was a "famous show car" that had been "built by Barris" and had "won a car show in primer before it was even finished" There was a box of old, yellowed car magazines in the trunk which featured the car, and which lent credence to the claims of former glory. However, styles and fads change. By 1969, "Flower Power" was in, custom cars in general were fading from popularity, and nobody wanted chopped Mercs at any price. The initial asking price for this one, as I recall, was $400. Then $200. Then...???

In any case, the price probably didn't matter. This was a project well beyond either of our capabilities at the time, so we passed on the deal. The car continued to irritate the caretaker's father until such time as it was sold for a token amount..."maybe 20 bucks"...and most-likely scrapped.

The friend with whom I had gone to view the car that night was killed in Viet Nam 18 months later, and the world lost one of the most intuitively-gifted "car guys" I ever knew.

Which Barris Merc was it? Well, in the late 80's, one of the car magazines did a feature on early Barris customs. I turned the page, and it jumped out at me, hideous headlights and all. It turned out to be the Dave Bugarin Merc. It had gone from an award-winning, $5,000 custom to a $20 scrapper in just a little over 10 years.

Kinda like my first wife...

 

What a great, and very SAD story.... Thanks for sharing

 

That,s to bad. How long ago was that ? Probably a streetrod phaeton by now.

 

Year's ago my brother and me were working for a guy who collected Packards. He had an open driver limo, and one of Al Capone's car's. The limo had been used in movies back in the day, and unfortunately Capones car was from after his stay at Alcatraz, too late model for me, no bulletholes, but it might have had syphilis.

 

I had the '67 Caddy drop top that came out in the movie Tu Wong Fu with Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze. I sold it on Ebay. A friend of mine had the '54 or so Olds 88 that was wrecked in one of the final scenes of the original "The Getaway" with Steve McQueen, that same friend is the one who found and bought the Orbitron.

 

My wifes grandpa bought a Ford sedan years ago. When he started stripping the car he found lead filled holes down the side. After the lead was pooped out there was bullet size holes. Come to find out this car belonged to the "Pinkerton Private Eyes" in Chicago.

 

Nice thread!

Here are 3 of mine, I don't have a lot of time to tell the stories of how I found them, but I'll do as best as I can.

1) 1937 Mercedes. I purchased this car last year, it was used by a Nazi German officer as a staff car in WWII, taken to Chile with the officer and then abandoned and deemed an open rec. after the war. 1542 original miles. I need to restore it. I have the paper work, documents, Chile license plates, and trinkets from the war.

2) 1956 Mercedes. I purchased this car this past summer from the 3rd owner. First owner was Mr Rogers Neighborhoods Fred Rogers. This car does not need restored it is showroom.

3) I am closing a deal on a 1960s Jaguar limosine with a full open leather sunroof, right side drive steering 2nd owner purchased 30 years ago from original owner in CA(who brought it here) Bob Hope (actor/commedian) This car needs the paint refreshed and a tune-up.

 

That staff car might have some serious history. If I can remember right, I think Gerbels or Mingelah(not how their names are spelled but I don't want to look it up) evaded police and never stood trial for the attrocities at Auschwitz and Berkinau. Whichever it was, they fled to Chile and worked as a childrens doctor until their death. The only way the identified him was through dental records.

 

Not famous but noteworthy somewhat.

After several years of driving past this '63 Fairlane post car sitting in a side yard of an abandoned house in a little town going back and forth to college, I come to find out that the owner (4th owner) was the ex-husband of one of my friend's older sisters. We go to talk to him to see if it's for sale.

I could tell it had been a drag car at one point, there was a Ford oval painted on the deck lid and a sponsership by a local machine shop on the quarter panel. The car had no hood but had all the glass even though some of it was cracked. The trim was in decent shape except for the tail lights (like all Fairlanes, Falcons and Galaxies of that era it seems) but it had no interior save for the dash and door and interior quarter panels, there was no motor or transmission and the rear end was just a housing laying under the rear of the car, the leaf springs sunk into the ground so the car rested on the rear floorboards. The front hubs were buried up to the lower control arms and there were no wheels there either.

I had been looking for a '64 to turn into a T-bolt clone and I figured I might be able to get some rear quarters off a '64 and convert this car and the $150 price tag was right. So I pay the guy and drag it home. My roommate at the time has a chassis shop and builds drag cars and told me I needed to lighten it up, I had a hot little 289 we were going to put into it with a 4-speed, so out came the dash, took the metal out from behind the door panels and the interior quarter panels, you can no see the inside of the quarter panel from the door strike to the tail light as I took out the package tray and rear seat support. I stretched the rear wheel well forward about 2 inches and cut out the wheel tubs.

A month or so later, the old racer stops by my buddies shop and see this car sitting out back, asks my buddy who owns it around the time I came around and turns to me as says, "You ruined my car!!", not exactly the way to introduce yourself to the present owner. This guy (third owner) sold the car to the guy I had bought it from and when he had it, the car held a national record in 1967 in a class called 2bbl Stock Automatic (as I recall). It set the record in Oklahoma City, I have no idea how long it was held or what sanctioning body it was in. In 2004 I put on the 2004 FordFE.com Spring Nostalgia National and 40th Thunderbolt Reunion at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, OK and a guy came up to the registration booth while I was sitting there resting and told me about a 1963 Fairlane he had bought in 1964 from the original owner and drove to school at the University of Oklahoma and how he sold it to a guy who set a national record in the car. As he's telling me this, I start to smile. I let him end his story and told him, "I've got a story for you, your old car is sitting next to my house." I told him of my plans to turn it into a Nostalgia Super Stocker and I told him about some of the things I was having to do to it, the biggest body damage (other than the pin holed rear floor boards) was a slight crease above the lower body line that I had assumed a riding lawnmower had put in the body when it sat where I had picked it up. He told me that that had happened in a parking lot on campus, it had never been repaired, only painted over.

I'd like to find out what sanctioning body the car was raced in and what the record was, I plan on painting it the original Corinthian White but I was thinking of paying tribute to its former record by painting the info over the driver's door on the roof. When I (5th owner) bought the car and cut the dash out, the odometer showed about 32k on it which I believe to be about right. When we put wheels on it and bolted the rear end up and stuck some axles in it, once we got the dirt in the front drums to losen up, the car rolled freely on the hubs and the doors on this car open and close like a dream.

 

About 1970 I was working on a line rebuild in the mountains near an old town (Auberry Ca.) Came off of a pole and spotted a 36 Ford sedan delivery in the brush with some extensive body work and a Barris Crest on the cowl---condition was not too bad--probably not there anymore--never went back as I had no money with a young family.

 

I'm not sure if I'd call it famous. I bought the gunmetal grey 64-5 Elcamino from Hollywood Knights. The one Newboum, or whatever his name was took it without his brother's permission and it got towed from the Prom dance or some shit like that. Had SS Cragars and a Teardrop scoop off a T-Bolt Ford (common in my day to put on non Fords)

 

Are there any cars you havent owned?

 

picked up a truck with my buddy. It was a old international that was used in some porno movie. The movie came with the truck. 80's afro muff and all.

 

My old boss from the local garage gave me a call asking me to swing by and tinker with an "old heap" that was dropped off to get it ready to sell...so i abliged and showed up to work on an old chrysler! After parousing the car i popped the trunk and there was a picture board of the car from the film "driving miss daisy"! There was alot of oldies used in the movie, this car was the one miss daisy drove over the wall..it was actually placed nicely by cranes...well i got her running swell but couldnt afford the asking price...my closest to hollywood car fame!

 

-I've been pretty fortunate. I owe a lot to one guy. My buddy "Fatboy". He was an inspiration on how to make each deal sweeter than the next

 

Not too exciting, but I used to have a '61 T-bird that I found out originally belonged to Y.A. Tittle, who was a famous pro quarterback back then. Y.A. Tittle had won the car as a prize for "fan appreciation day" or something when it was a new car. The old guy I bought the car from had bought it from Y.A. Tittle in '63 or something. He told me that Y.A. Tittle was using it to haul his laundry to the laundromat once, and that he had spilled a whole gallon of bleach on the floor, and that's why the carpets didn't look like the right color. The dealer replaced them with new carpets from a '62 or '63 or something.

 

my dad had, before he passed away a 1926 Jewett. It is not only a rare car but it was in the movie "The Night They Raided The Minskies"(sp) I will try and get a pic from his wife. Wish me Luck

 

Good lord the grecian is ugly.

 

Do parts of a kinda well known Texas race car count?

 

Famous cars I didn't buy over the years: Roth's Beatnik Bandit in the KC Star autos for sale section. Show car "The Boot Hill Express" in a speed shop. And one I don't remember exactly, it was a fenderless Deuce coupe, I think it had scallped paint, and had vertical quad headlights molded into the '32 shell. It was in some magazines. It was parked on a street in El Dorado Ks, and I recognized it from some magazine articles. The Mercedes Benz that was in the old Hart to Hart tv show. It is still in the area. All but the last one were available in the '70's and '80's.