Customs Montebello Car Show 1951

[JeffSled]

Yes I think you are right Rik,the spots seem to be in the exact spot as this picture.
I really wish there were some more photos of this show,it was so good and not having many pictures is a tuff pill to swallow.

[Rikster]

Originally Posted by JeffSled

Rik, Where did Gil run his license plate on the 42 ? I dont see nothing .Do u have any other rear shots of this gorgeous sled?

Jeff, I asked Memo Ortega, who owned this car from 1958 to early 1960's.

This is what he wrteo back to me...

"As far as I can remember when I got the car the plates were in the trunk and one of them had a licence light attached to it. It had a bracket for it on the two lower holes for mounting the plate to the bumper.
The bottom of the bumper had two drilled holes in the center for mounting the plate. Thats where I installed it back on the car.
Also I found the autobuchers plaque in the car. When I finished the car I hung the plaque to show it off and some so and so stole it.
Good memories frome back then. I hope it will help."

[JeffSled]

Originally Posted by Rikster

Jeff I asked Memo Ortega, who owned this car from 1958 to early 1960's.

This is what he wrteo back to me...

"As far as I can remember when I got the car the plates were in the trunk and one of them had a licence light attached to it. It had a bracket for it on the two lower holes for mounting the plate to the bumper.
The bottom of the bumper had two drilled holes in the center for mounting the plate. Thats where I installed it back on the car.
Also I found the autobuchers plaque in the car. When I finished the car I hung the plaque to show it off and some so and so stole it.
Good memories frome back then. I hope it will help."

So to me it seems as if the plate could be mounted but wasnt always being used.Maybe Gil didnt want to hang the plate since he was always racing the shit out of that car.It sure looks like he wouldnt run it when he went to a show like in this picture.Thats pretty cool Rik that you get to talk with this guy who owned such a heavy custom.

[JeffSled]

Update..... I have spent many hours in the city of Montebello researching this and looking thru a ton of microfilms of the 2 newspapers the city had back then.One of the papers didnt have anything about the show and the other city newspaper which was the more detail of the 2 was missing the last month of 1950 and the first 6 months of 1951.I have someone looking for it but there is almost no chance it will be found.So I have spent many hours trying to find out more info about this great show and I have not found much.It is very weird that almost nobody remembers this show but it had some of the heaviest customs in attendance.

[JeffSled]

I look at this picture and still have questions....
- since this thread was started we have found out that Sam's merc was at the 51(feb) oakland show foresure.So looking at this picture I just wonder why Jerry would want to bring this car to the show if it wasnt finished yet? No windshield wipers, no stainless trim around the side windows,it is a little weird to me if they had already showed Sams merc in oakland.

I also find it a little strange that the Ayala's didnt bring any 49-50 mercs to this show.Louie's wasnt done yet and Wallys debut was in November 51.So that maybe narrows this Montebello show to being early 51 just liked we talked about earlier in the thread.This picture just still raises questions when I look at it.

[Rikster]

Originally Posted by JeffSled

Update..... I have spent many hours in the city of Montebello researching this and looking thru a ton of microfilms of the 2 newspapers the city had back then.One of the papers didnt have anything about the show and the other city newspaper which was the more detail of the 2 was missing the last month of 1950 and the first 6 months of 1951.I have someone looking for it but there is almost no chance it will be found.So I have spent many hours of my time trying to find out more info about this great show and I have not found much.It is very weird that almost nobody remembers this show but it had some of the heaviest customs in attendance.

Great you have been looking into this Jeff... Someday someone will show up remembering this show, and providing us with some more details.
It has to be.

[JeffSled]

Just bringing this back up incase anyone has any new info on it.

[BICKFORD]

Bringing this back up for some history lessons. Maybe someone new might see the big difference in what was done back in the day. They did things the right way. not over chopping and having everything laying on the ground looking like its broken.

[BICKFORD]

HISTORY LESSON TIME!!

Just bring this back up incase someone might have missed it.

[JeffSled]

[Pro Stock John]

I'm just now noting the primer over spray in the wheel well.

Jerry and barris put the side trim back on the car over primer. .. For shows.

This is as said a heavy hitter show... Perfect place to debut the first 49 chopped mercury.

[JeffSled]

Originally Posted by Pro Stock John

I'm just now noting the primer over spray in the wheel well.

Jerry and barris put the side trim back on the car over primer. .. For shows.

This is as said a heavy hitter show... Perfect place to debut the first 49 chopped mercury.

Great post John,I have always liked seeing the white primer in the wheel Wells,adds character. Long live the White Ghost.

[BICKFORD]

Originally Posted by JeffSled

I love the fact that he was running Hollywood Flipper caps on it. You never saw that on any other custom 1949-51 mercury.

[jick]

i wish i had something useful to add, but i've really enjoyed reading these 6 pages....fascinating stuff...Columbo ain't got nothing on you dudes!

every old time shot i see of Snookys car makes me smile and think to myself " i touched that car in January at the GNRS" simple pleasures n'all that.

[JeffSled]

It is nice to hear that somone else cares about this old stuff enough to read the thread.Glad you liked it and I also really Dig Snookys car too.

[Pro Stock John]

I still think he showed the car unfinished, in primer with the side-trim reinstalled, because like you said shows of that magnitude were rare, so this was an opportunity for him and Barris to show off their first chopped 49 Merc.

Seems like between the old timers you can reach out to and Rik's vast knowledge, that the number of possible shows has been narrowed down. How many shows were there around then that pulled all those cars, say in the 12/50 to 8/51 time frame? And this is obviously an outdoor show in a tent. And I think Jerry pulled the car out on the last day of the show since he could just lift the tent up. Whenever I've showed cars indoors we all sit around Sunday and wish we could blow it off after lunch.

I tried blowing up the reflection, nothing jumps out at me, was hoping to get a better idea of what car that is...

[K13]

Originally Posted by JeffSled

Update..... I have spent many hours in the city of Montebello researching this and looking thru a ton of microfilms of the 2 newspapers the city had back then.One of the papers didnt have anything about the show and the other city newspaper which was the more detail of the 2 was missing the last month of 1950 and the first 6 months of 1951.I have someone looking for it but there is almost no chance it will be found.So I have spent many hours trying to find out more info about this great show and I have not found much.It is very weird that almost nobody remembers this show but it had some of the heaviest customs in attendance.

Great idea on trying to narrow down the dates. What are the chances that the 12 or so months that would be of interest to us are missing it just seems to be the way things go?

Are their any cities close by that might have had some interest in the show and run something in their paper?

[JeffSled]

Notice the rope and the way it is tied on the upper part of the wooden post.It matches up with the TRJ pretty good.

[K13]

Jeff have you tried contacting the Armoury to see if they have any sort of historical documents about when the tent was used? I would think the military would keep pretty meticluos records of when things were done and they don't tend to throw anything away. I know in the article Ron had asked some soldiers he ran into there but it didn't sound like he proceeded any farther than that.

[JeffSled]

I still cant get over the lineup of customs that were under this one tent at the same time.Whats even crazier is that we cant even see everything,we only have a couple of pictures of certain area's in the tent.

This picture is like Murderers' Row the old yankee's lineup from the 1927 team.It was one Heavy Hitter after another.