History Arctic Sand

Does anyone know what happened to the Arctic Sand 48 Ford custom? It was on the cover of the July 1957 Rod + Custom Magazine.They show it on the back page of this months Rod + Custom magazine. It was from the Detroit area. The owner was Ken Peterson of Lake Orion And he worked for General Motors. The magazine said it was built at the Clarkaiser shop. Dave Miller

 

The car met its end some years ago..I am friends with one of the owners after Ken Peterson.. I am going to have to get the more complete story from. The clone of it was known as Arctic Gold. Reasonably good job for the era. The owner of it died this past year. I don't know what became of the car.

 

There's photos and some info about both cars in this thread...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108801

 

Saw the Artic Gold in Springfield Ohio in the 80s at the KKOA show looked good!

 

If my memory serves me I remember the original being for sale in the Detroit News want ads in the mid 70's. I saw it right after I bought my Clarkaiser original.
I believe that it was in fairly rough shape at that point. I heard that it ended up being scrapped due to it's condition.
Don't know if this is when FASI's friend owned it or afterwards.
Great car. I would love to get my hands on the clone...
Torchie.

 

Thanks for the info. You guys always come through. Dave

 

So here is a question.
Was it based on a Ford coupe or a Mercury?
I know that they used Merc front fenders and hood which are I believe are 6 inches longer than the Ford. Did they make the front of the frame longer? I think that the Mercs used some sort of bracket to allow for the wishbone to mount forward of the Ford location but you still have the crossmember to deal with.
FASI. Your the man when it comes to this era of builds. What say you?
Torchie.

 

Got to love the internet. I was able to answer my own questions.
It appears the the 46-48 Mercs used the same frame as the Fords.
In the front there are 2 sets of holes for the crossmember so it is just a matter of moving it forward. The Mercs used a stand alone mount that was located in the same place as a Ford bringing the engine back to the same location as the Ford.
And last but not least the Mercs had a wish bone spacer that allowed for the forward position of the Merc cross member.
So I guess that it was a 48 Ford that was the base, with the Merc sheet metal added on.
Torchie.