Customs Old Custom Found Looking for any History...Help!

We drug this thing out of a yard last night.

It was originally a 51 Ford English Prefect. Best we can tell is that it started life as a 2-door sedan.

We're guessing it was done sometime in the late 50's.

We're hoping someone my have any old photos or recognize it from an old magazine. Last registration was 1971 and title shows an Orange County address. The previous owner died, so we got no info with it.

 

maybe a James Bond car

 

Were mini-customs ever a thing? Got no ideas, so no help here, sorry. Gary

 

I saw that when it was on ebay and was intrigued by it myself. Glad to see someone got it and it may be saved.

What's the plan for it?

 

Cool one.

 

What's it titled as? From the side it looks more like it started life as a TR2 or 3.

 

The rear bumper shares some but not all design characteristics of the 1955 Chevy bumper.

 

Did it come from Whoville?

 

Titled as a 51 ford. It has the prefect grille and hood. The sides were grafted on. We're guessing from a triumph. The tail lights are 56 stude.

We just got it to fire. Sounds pretty good.

 

Interesting.......weird, but interesting.

 

wasn't that in the last "Cars" movie?

 

When I saw "CUSTOM" in the title, I was expecting a "real" custom, not Stuart Little's car

 

Those back fins look Daimler to me. The rest who knows.

 

Adorable. That car took some serious effort to build and looks like it was finished to a pretty high degree at one time. The "trunk" area looks like a 53 Studebaker hood skin.

 

I think it's a different genre...it fits in with the "build your own sportscar" movement. Plans for several (generally early Ford V8 based, much like bigger versions of this car) were published in the various Popular mechanics type magazines, and there were commercial plans with lists of donor parts sold in the classified ads too. These were not really related to customs, or to the sports racing rods (Manning, etc.) that were popular before hotrod and sports car people decided that they were not in the same social set. By the end of the '50's, sports cars were getting sleeker, and the hobby responded with streamlined fiberglass bodies meant to go on American frames.
This one does, though have some custom conventions like the fins that separate it from most of the others and from the British Ford and Austin 7 based trials cars...

 

Tattoos car?

 

I appreciate the cars that were customized back in my childhood, they show creativity, something that seems to have faded badly in todays world.
I love it !

 

yep.....

 

Looking at it I imagine it's got the thumping great 1172 cc flat head 30hp ( going down hill of course) powering it. The whole front albeit modified at the rear of the front fenders appears to be from a 49 to 53 defect.. So presume it's frame is from a Defect also. The rest is interestingly European with some flair.

 

Looks like it could be a Martz inspired build to me. Charles Martz of Aurora, Missouri, who built his own custom Hudson, then wrote a book about it (“Build Your Own Custom Sports Car”) and saw his project featured in the January 1952 issue of Motor Trend.

 

That's cute!

 

it needs a baby daimler hemi 8

 

Batman has the Bat Mobile, now Robin has a car of his own.
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Yep, our older brothers had their way with some old cars.

 

The sides bear only the slightest resemblance to a TR2/3. I'm sure they were made from sheet metal by the original builder

 

The matched license plates are probably worth more that the car.

 

Cool car glad you saved it . It has a European flare to the style . Fix it , drive it and enjoy .

 

I like the wheels.......

 

Interesting Indeed!

 

that rear bumper LOOKS NUTHIN' LIKE any 55 Chev bumper I have EVER seen..