History What Ever Happened to..........?

my Dad bought that el camino around 82 or 83. we hit some bad road construction in Cincinnati and it cracked the oil pan and ripped a brake line loose. he sold it back to howard around 85 and he put a 350 in it. not long after that he sold it. howard built 3 el caminos like that. the second one was a 64. same colors. I never seen the 3rd one. he lives in Cookeville now.

 

Awesome car...! Wonder where his sons 36 coupe went?

I knew Connie Winkler as well as his son who played guitar at my wedding

 

Stanlow, that black car you posted is also a '56. It has a '57 front bumper. You can just see the contour line that begins below the headlights and wraps around the front wheel wells.

 

the black 56 was an Ohio car. I remember seeing it often back in the 80's. it belonged to Jim Walker of Dayton or Steve Anglia of the Hamilton area. I'm leaning toward Jim. Both had a lot of really nice cars.

 

Trying to work out the sizing problem. Here are the pic`s of HOPCAT as mentioned ion page 8. And since I have room. 55 WHAT.

 

Appears to be shot outside of the Kansas Coliseum grounds in Wichita. I think Lee shot a few features there during the 1981 KKOA show.

 

UPDATE--A guy drove over 2 1/2 hours down to my shop today for an estimate and some advice from Madrid. I asked about Jerry Newman`s 55 Buick-55 WHAT. He still has it. It hasn`t been out of the garage in over ten years. It still has the hydraulics as well as the same paint scheme. They have a carshow there the Sunday before Labor Day from what I hear, gonna half to try and make it this year.

 

That's some great news Jim! Glad to hear that the Newmans and their '55 Buick are still together. Be kool if they would roll it out and go to the CCR or the Leadsled again in the near future. E

 

What Ever Happened To..........? number 37.

1957 Ford Convertible
Owner: Ron Rainey
Springfield, Missouri

Ron Rainey's mild kustom '57 Ford convertible is a total knockout. Not only was it painted a bright red, but it had a great white tuck 'n' roll interior. I'm sure when Ron was out cruising around, the car stopped traffic!
It was super mild with very few mods like shaved door handles and emblems, louvered hood, tube grille, cruiser skirts and Lee lenses. A car like this doesn't need much. It was really beautiful!
Mr. Rainey was interviewed on the 1986 Leadsled Spectacular video, and that's where a lot of the information on the car came from. Aside from the '86 video, KKOA attendance was hard to figure out.
During the early years of the Spectacular, in my research, I figured out that there were two red '57 Ford convertibles that were going to the shows in those years. There was Ron Rainey's, and another red '57 'vert owned by Glenn "Moose" Marion. Both cars were red, both had tube grilles and both had Lancer caps. I've watched video 'til my eyes were spinning this week, and figuring out which car was which got really confusing. After hours of watching video, I finally got the right views to tell the two cars apart. Glenn's had a Continental kit, a 5 tube-tube grille, a red interior and the door handles were not shaved. Ron's had no Connie kit, a 6 tube-tube grille that was slightly different style wise, shaved handles and a white interior. One thing that made it a little easier to tell the two apart at a glance is that Ron's also had really cool dual stripe skinny white wall tires, where Glenn's were regular wide whites.
Another strange coincidence is that both guys lived in Missouri--Ron in Springfield and Glenn in Independence.
As best as I can tell, Ron was at the Leadsled in '86 and '87 according to seeing his car on those videos. He did mention in his interview at the '86 Spectacular that it was his sixth Leadsled. It was a little vague--maybe he meant that he had built five leadsleds before the convertible and it was his "sixth leadsled", or, that he was at every Spectacular up to that point. Not really sure what he meant. I didn't see his car on any other videos before '86.
He also attended the KKOA Hangin' Dice Nationals in '87 and '88 according to photos I found on Rikster's site that were taken by our own @drdave. I also found a nice picture by Scott Pavey.
As far as magazine coverage goes, I didn't find anything on Ron's car, but I found a small picture of Glenn's '57 in Custom Cars by Hot Rod Volume 1 #5 from 1983 on page 61. It was in an article covering the second annual Leadsled Spectacular in Des Moines in '82. I'll scan that picture and post it as well. The similarities on the two cars are unbelievable!
The thought of two custom '57 Ford convertibles being around at the same time is amazing. It seems like I've only seen a handful of '57 Ford customs at shows over the years, let alone convertibles. This just goes to show you how great the early days of the KKOA were! Guys were customizing CONVERTIBLES! Almost unheard of nowadays, huh? Too bad for us!
'Til next week, you'd better get in that sled and get some Christmas shopping done. Only 26 shopping days 'til Christmas! Sorry guys, couldn't resist. See you next week! E

 

Terrific headlight treatment on this one!



Compare to this bug-eyed stocker.

 

Speaking of headlights, that's another quick way to tell the two apart. Glenn's has chrome bezels, maybe F-100?

Also, is the front gravel pan behind the bumper plated on Glenn's car?

 

That magazine page is full of custom history.

 

Haven't found anything on either '57 yet.

Sadly, Glenn Marion passed in 2006. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=66283029
He was a member of the KC Kustoms car club and I saw that Dave Wolk ran with some of them. Maybe he can add more....

 

I took a pic of Ron's at the '90 Hangin' Dice as well, although those pics aren't up on Rik's site yet. Here it is...

 

Couldn't agree more @'Mo. The (subtle) work done on Ron's car really makes a difference. '57 Fords are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. E

Man @Sancho, you really study these pictures and come up with some subtle differences. By the end of the research time on these two cars I was seeing red Ford convertibles when I closed my eyes. I'm glad that you have seen more differences between the two. What a pair, huh? E

Hey @John B, if you can find any of the Custom Cars by Hot Rod magazines, buy 'em! They are loaded with tons of great kustom stuff. To this day I wonder why Hot Rod didn't print more of these books--maybe even have made it quarterly or bi-monthly. Especially when you consider how big the resurgence of customs was back in the early to mid 80s. E

Like I've said so many times before in this thread, finding out that a lot of these custom guys are gone really puts a damper on things. Rest in peace Mr. Marion..........E

Great pic Doc! Nice to know it was still around in '90. Looks like sometime between '88 and '90 the dual stripe thin whites disappeared. E

 

I can only figure out how to scan a full page, so I`ll make the most of it. Found another pic of 55 WHAT. If you look behind the first pic that OG Lil E(ED) posted of Ron`s Ford.#581 You will see the Green merc #6 on page 4. Here is a pic I have. I don`t happen to have a pic of Ron`s but I do have one of Glen`s taken in 83 at a smaller KKOA event in Kansas City. A great little 3-day show. Had time to study every car there and took a lot of pictures. Since we are on the subject of 57 Fords. Here are the shots of The Wanderer, #12 featured on page 6. The reason I have multiples is because I acquired my dad`s pictures when he moved into a ranch style house 3 years ago. The were stapled on his wall in his garage(a 24 footer). We spent many hours looking at the pictures. I did the same thing in my garage as well. But I organized my pics by year and make. I have a 24x30 garage and all three walls are covered. See enclosed pic. The first pic is from my dads garage. Enjoy. Is Glens roll pan painted white?

 

See, I told you Jim (stanlow69) had kustom pics. Thanks for figuring out how to scan 'em and post 'em. Now I gotta get on the ball and do the same, although I will run out of pics LONG before Jim does.

 

Man, Jim, you have done better with your pics to be able to enjoy them all these years than I did. Mine were just stuck in their envelopes until I finally got them out over the last few years and started scanning them so at least I can pull them up on my computer.

 

It sounds easier to pull them out of envelopes than pulling out staples from the wall so I can scan them. I`m just glad that I now know how to post pic`s so I can share them with everybody. I`m learning a lot from this thread with the research that Ed is doing. I`m a little surprised more people aren`t contributing info on this thread. I guess I assumed that all kids(and adults) dreamed about customs.

 

LOL....not all kids Jim, just us few "kool" ones. All those football and sports "losers," what do they have to show for their formative years now? We have great pics, happy memories and with any luck from the research of this thread, finding some hidden gold that's still there waiting for us. ;D .......(no offense to any of you guys that played sports....I'm too dorky and weak to actually have played any sports. LOL)

 

Man, you guys are crackin' me up tonight. Next show we are all together at we are going to have to spend more time together--for sure!

Nice pics Jim! Glad to see you got the hang of using your scanner. If I'm ever up in your neck of the woods I'd love to see those photo-walls you have! E

 

Room is booked. The problem back then was there was only one big show to go to. KKOA`s spectacular and maybe one small KKOA show. Usually the Des Moines Last Pass show. That was our only family vacation for the year back then. Had to buy magazines to keep my fix going the rest of the year. In Ninth grade, I gave a speech on Customs in one of my classes. I talked about the Barris`s, Winfield, Cushenberry and Frank DeRosa. I showed the Pic of his Golden Piranha and The Shark. The kids loved um. Remember, Barris always said, girls loved customs. My car looked more like a lowrider back then, so I just confused them. As a side note, a lot of people that come to my garage, think I have worked on all of those cars.

 

I got in trouble in Graphic Arts class in the 9th grade. We did photography, screen printing etc. All of my projects were of cars I liked. The next assignment was to do an etching and print. I had a photo of the Midnight Sensation Mercury I wanted to do. I believe it was from Classic & Custom. The teacher let me have it good and said I had to do something that wasn't car related. He gave me a picture of ducks on the water that he cut off the bottom of a Kleenex box and made me do that!

 

Lol!! I had the same problem in photography class in 7th grade...."Could you please take and print pictures of anything other than cars?"


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Here`s for a Sunday night bump. George West, Number 7. Page number 4.

Now that I can post pic`s now. He was standing by his car when I took the pictures. I asked if I could take a picture of his door panel. He opened the door and was proud of the interior of his Merc and seemed happy I was taking a pic of it. We chatted a bit and off I went. He seemed older than most custom owners at the time, but then again I was only 14 at the time. I always loved the Taildragger stance of his Merc.

 

George West was a really nice guy. We met him first in Wichita 81 with that merc, still in progress at the time. He told us a story about building a chopped merc and driving it to California on a family vacation. Little kids and all. Barris's shopman wanted him to come out there and work. He turned them down and went back to Kentucky. He mailed my Dad some 55 Pontiac side trim free of charge. Looks like it was never used on a car. He was one in a million.

 

Great stories guys! I never "met" George, but I feel like I did kinda know him from his interview at the '86 Leadsled. He seemed like a real character with a friendly, ornery way about him. I bet he would have been a kick to hang out with.
Neat thing about his Merc, from what I've read, is that it was pretty much all owner built with a little help from his friends. That's the way building cars used to be. Not everybody could afford to hire someone to do any work for them.
George and his friends definitely had some skills! E