I thought I would do a companion thread to my" Oakland HotRods...1954"story. Here are some Customs from the same show. Most of these are mild ,but it is interesting to note there are no cookie-cutter cars.There were no guidelines, everyone was trying different things on different cars.Again the captions were from the program.
I wonder when exactly did Gene put the 54 quarters/taillights on the Merc, considering this is Feb of 54...
ron, thanks for all the great pictures lately. we always see the famous show cars but it's really cool to see what the average customizer was building and driving. some great cars there, especially like the shoebox convertibles. really surprising to see a fairly new packard as a custom! thanks again for posting, jerseymike
You've got a good point Louie , I got out the program to make sure the caption was from 1954 and it was correct. I wonder if new cars came out late in the prior year? Otherwise maybe its a typo.
Usually the next years model was available like in November of the previous year. I have no exact info on the 1954 Merc, but I don't see what they would have changed it for that year. So it could very well be that Gene ordered the taillights right then and added them to the 1951 Mercury rear fenders which he installed on his 1950 Mercury. The rear quarters are not 1954, just the taillights.
I am trying to date this photo from the Gene Winfield book. Rikster you have a similar photo from the same run on your site. You can just make out the taillights of Gene's Merc in the lower right corner. I havent been able to find any early time frame info regarding Gene's pick up behind Ray's roadster. I am under the impression this is a run in the Sierra foothills, so the lack of leaves, and green grass along the side of the road leads me to believe its probably fall/winter '53...just a guess Photo from Riksters site:
The Jalopy Journal
