I first saw Jay Johnston's shoebox in Andy Southard's "Customs of the 1950's" book and as the owner of a shoebox Ford at the time, I freaked out. Sure, it's a pretty extravagant custom and I typically don't go for such cars, but this one is different... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Good to see Jay's car getting some public attention, It sure is a great looking car. Loved it since late seventies when I got my copy of mentioned CC. What happend to it? Got repainted in some kind of blueish color, I believe. But then it dissapeared.
I first saw it in CC when as an early teen in the 70's, starting to get into ods and Customs and started collecting vintage car magazines. Always dug the car and though it seemed to be chopped a bit too much, that roof somehow "made it all work". The flow of the roof C pillar into the Olds side trim was sweet. IIRC, it hailed from the Desert area of Socal (Windfields territory nowadays). Always wondered if it survived. Would be a great car to restore/show up at a run with!!! Ryan; We need to find you a better copy of that CC issue.
I wonder if the designers of the Volvo P1800 got their inspiration for the rear fender/tail light treatment from this car?
Bill Bowmen did some work on the car too, he also built my dads car 51 chevy the Gator, the gold one, we are fixing it now after a crash .
one of my pet peeves is messed up "hardtopped" cars. that one looks to have been a hardtop or vert from the getgo with a sedan top. ?? or am I still tweaking from too many Christmas cookies? either way it looks good.
RYAN...thank's for sharing, NAA i've never seen it. but i truely love that old custom! but i must say there was an even finner one at the car show in fort worth this year. and he's a H.A.M.B. member...POP.
Very cool.. Jay is a very good friend of mine.. I took him to Winfield and Watsons show this year.. It was the first time Jay and Larry had seen eachother in almost 50 years. He had a ball. Even started talking about another build. Just for bragging rights here... I have Jay's copies (original photos) from the CarCraft shoot.
Wow nice magazine. That smell of old paper. Nice and musty!!!! Thanks for posting that. I have some old hot rod ones i will have to pull out. If i can only remember where i put them. Knuck from indiana.
I like how the trim lines up with top as great breaking/transition for the paint... Great trick and flow.. Hope that makes sense!!!!
I bet that if you can brag about the fact that you own the originals... you also can share them with us here.... Now that would be really cool!!! Here are two photo's of the Shoebox that I Kololrized for the Rodder's Journal. The first one is in the two tone purple color and the second one - a section from the Parking Lot Custom Car Show photo - in the better known color combination. I have always liked this car a lot... although the top looked a bit strange And two great color photos from Pat Ganahl's excellent TRJ article on Custom Cars...
I scanned a few.. Don't know how they will look here.. Rikster, I sent Jay that copy of the Rodders Journal with his car colorized.. He loved it. Rikster, here is an offer to ya.. Give me a snail mail address and I will send you my originals of all the photos Jay gave me so you can make copies of them.. Just make sure they make their way home when your done.. Anyway.. I am kind of a computard.. Lets see how these came out..
WOW!!!!.... Thank you Those photos are amazing... and they sure gave me some more insight in the different versions of the car. I thought the yellow and orange version was the final version... but now I think that the last version is a Blue and Silver painted Shoebox with modified front wheel openings. For long I had this enlarged section of a photo taken at the Peterson Motorama in 1954? at the Pan Pacific Auditorium. It looked like Jay's car.. but I never had seen it in this color combination. And the taillights looked different than on Jay's car in yellow and orange. gt350lady photo collection But now with these two photos I know its Jay's car in its final? version in white/silver and dark blue? or is it green like in the faded photos?. and new Mercury taillights. The new front wheel cutouts looks fantastic on the car.
Fantastic! Seeing pics of it in green was a big surprise. That was a big kick with inspiration! Many thanks for supplieing the photos to Rik to get them shown for all us die-hard custom fanatics in the world.
While I dig hot rods more than customs, I really like the pic "jay11" that Tumbleweed posted above. Can you imagine showing up somewhere in '56 in that bad-looking custom?! Very cool. Thanks for posting these.
So....... Does it still survive, or has it gone to the great Kustom show in the sky? Was it know as the "Desert Beauty, or was that a different shoebox? If so, I remember seeing ads that it was For Sale back in the Mid 80's.
I have no information about the cars current whereabout... Or that it might have been crushed or anything like it. Perhaps Jay knows more about. I hope to get in contact with him soon. As for the Desert Beauty... that is a different car. But they sometimes do get mixed up. Similar colors (although reversed), side trim and heavy chop. Desert Beauty was built by George Gowland who had a shop in the desert... Another cover car George Gowland's Desert Beauty, but this time for Rod & Custom. There is a nice HAMB thread about this car here If anybody has any information about this car... please post it here.. Also a scan of the ad you mention from the mid 80's would be very welcome.
Rikster, When you talk to Jay (check your pm's) Ask him about the grille on the car at the c.c. photo shoot...