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

I appreciate YOUR efforts @OG lil E!!!

You have way more time and work in this thread than I do. Thanks again!

 

What Ever Happened To..........? number 188.

1960 Cadillac "Badgirl"
Owner: Edward McFadden ?
Sayreville, New Jersey

This week's custom is another one of those that seemed to only go to the east coast shows. In my research, I never saw this Cadillac at a KKOA show other than Sled Scene East in 1992. Other sightings were limited, but in magazine research I found the car featured twice in Lead East coverage in Custom Rodder in 1994 (Lead East '93) and 1996 (Lead East '95).
You might have noticed a question mark after the owner's name in the header this week. This is because I found a little discrepancy in who the owner was which I'll touch on in a few minutes.
This '60 was overall pretty mild, with the exception of the three inch chopped top. Other than being fully shaved, the only other modification was the addition of a Mopar style Connie kit on top of the trunk. It is very similar to the type of trunk bulge found on Valiants as well as other Mopars of the era.
My pictures this week aren't very good as the video freezes were hard to shoot since the car is white with light pink flames. The car's only KKOA video appearance was at Sled Scene East in 1992. It was shot many times cruising the fairgrounds and laid out on display during the show. The car had hydraulics, and the owner was on the switch quite a bit.
On Friday night, many of the car show participants went to a famous drive-in restaurant called the Distelfink. Apparently the restaurant opened in the early 50s and was in operation until the early 2000s. The highlight being a highly detailed animated neon sign of a bird that is a symbol of good luck in Pennsylvania Dutch culture. Sadly, the restaurant closed a number of years ago and from what I've read, the property has fallen into a bad state of disrepair.
There were many nice cars that went to the drive-in, but pictures were tough to freeze and take pictures of as it was in the evening and the sun was going down.





On Saturday of the car show, participants took part in a poker run. It was there that a few people got into a little trouble with the law, including Video Bob himself. Apparently as he was filming out of the sunroof of his van, his driver drove through a right turn lane continuing to go straight as they were filming. An undercover policeman pulled him over as well as a few of the poker run participants nearly causing an accident with some of the old cars. Ironically, the '60 Cad was pulled over as well! The owner of the Cadillac as well as a few of the other car owners that got pulled over were interviewed by Bob. Every owner interviewed talked about how unprofessional and rude the policeman was. This incident was the first I've ever heard of during a poker run. Here is a picture I took of frozen video of the policeman giving an earful to the owner of the Cadillac:



According to the video, Video Bob got a ticket for $83.00, and the owner of the '60 got a verbal warning for playing his stereo too loud. No further details were given about any other tickets that were handed out.
Later that day the show as going full swing. The Cadillac owner was having a great time cruising through the fairgrounds, hitting his hydraulic switches and turning heads.







You can see the name "Badgirl" painted on the trunklid, as well as his custom "Badgirl" New Jersey license plate on the front of the car. I think the whole "Badgirl" theme was in part due to the fact of having a mannequin's legs sticking out of the right rear window. This may have been a coincidence, but this is the same thing that Calvin Sampson did on his pink and black '54 Chevy (W.E.H.T. #119).



As the Cadillac was cruising the show, in one shot as the car drove in front of the camera, you could see the name "Frank" lettered on the door. I tried to get a picture of the name on the door, but with the car moving in the shot it was too blurry to read.
When Bob interviewed the owner over the traffic incident, the owner never gave his name, so I'm not sure if his name was Frank or something else. Here is a still shot of the owner during the interview:



The next picture I found was in Custom Rodder's Lead East 1993 coverage. It was in the March '94 issue on page 58. There is a nice picture of the Cadillac taking part in the neon contest during the night at the show. You can definitely tell this is the same car.



The last picture I found of the car was again at Lead East, only in 1995. This was in the March '96 issue of Custom Rodder on page 39. It was from this picture where I got the owner's name as Edward McFadden. I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that maybe the first owner of the car (Frank) sold the car sometime after Sled Scene East 1992, and Mr. McFadden was the new owner. Another possibility is that Edward McFadden's nickname was Frank. Hmmmm.........



After the Custom Rodder magazine picture from 1996 I found no more on this car. It may still be around looking like this but has been put away for a long slumber. Maybe it was sold and redone and looks different these days. Either way, with so few chopped '60 Cadillacs around, you'd think this one would be easy to track down, or maybe not! Let's see what you custom faithful have on this one.
Just a few short weeks and the little Trick or Treaters will be running around ringing doorbells. Have you started stocking up on candy yet? Better hurry! And for those of you that already have some goodies in the house waiting for Halloween, no sneaking Skittles once the Mrs. has gone to bed (lol)!
You guys have a great week! See you soon! E

 

Ok guys, we have a small update on the '60 Cadillac. One of our super information custom sleuths found a little nugget.
@John B found a profile on Edward McFadden, his middle initial being "F". John suggested that maybe it stood for Francis, Frank or even Frankie. Maybe Edward put his middle name of Frank on the door.
Incidentally, if this is our Mr. McFadden, he is 78 years young now living in Ft. Myers, Florida, with a mention of a past residence in Sayreville, New Jersey.
I've got to send out a thank you and an atta boy and nice job to John B for the information! Like has been mentioned before, if a person ever got into trouble, they wouldn't have a chance with guys like John and @Sancho looking for them. They'd be caught in no time (lol)! E

 

This might be a long shot, but some of you who've attended these shows in the Holland, MI area from the 80s-90s may have some info. There was a guy who would regurally attend the shows in the area he had a blue full fendered Ford Model A coup done up in the 60s-70s style with black vinyl running boards, and top insert. I'll have to do some digging to find any pics.

 

What Ever Happened To..........? number 189.

1952 Chevy Business Coupe "Tuff 52" and "Puppy Love"
Owner: Larry Fleming
Arkansas City, Kansas

In doing this thread for quite sometime now, I always try and get the facts as straight as possible. This is not always the case as I've found many mistakes in my research after the fact, and all you custom faithful have pointed out some differences in the facts as well. As time goes by names and memories fade, and all that makes keeping everything straight a little hard to do. That is the real challenge of this thread. With all that being said, I'm not real certain that I got everything right on this week's custom. There are enough differences in the two versions to say that these might in fact be two different cars, but still, there is a chance it is the same car. I'll write about what I found, and we can debate whether this is the same car, or two totally different ones. I think this car, or should I say these cars will be a real mind bender. Hang on for the ride (lol)!
The first version of this car had a very small picture just of the back of the car in the Custom Cars by Hot Rod magazine back in 1982. It was in the magazine's coverage of the very first Leadsled Spectacular in Wichita in 1981. The real distinguishing feature on this particular car was the unusual choice of '64 Buick taillights. I think this is the only time I've ever seen this done on a custom Chevy, or any other make for that matter.



This '52 Chevy was owned by Larry Fleming. I'm ashamed to say I really don't know much about Larry other than he was around the KKOA in the beginning. He is the guy that came up with the infamous KKOA USA/lowering block logo. I'm guessing he was an artist. He presented Jerry Titus a hand painted picture of the logo around 1980. And as they say, the rest is history.



The picture of the Chevy in the '82 Custom Cars by Hot Rod magazine is the only picture I found of Larry's Chevy in the early days. I'm sorry to say I have no idea of what the front of the car looked like back then.
Fast forward to 1992. In 1992, the '52 Chevy that could be the Fleming car had a busy summer, making appearances at both Sled Scene East (Gettysburg, PA) and the Leadsled Spectacular in Holland, Michigan.
On the '92 Leadsled Spectacular DVD, I only caught a quick glimpse of the car and it was so brief I couldn't get a picture of it.
On the 1992 Sled Scene East DVD, there was only one good shot of the car. It was seen driving away going up a slight hill, showing the back of the car.



You can see many differences on the back of the car when you compare it to the 1982 magazine shot. The car now had molded '49 Plymouth bumpers and to me it looks like half of the '64 Buick taillight was eliminated.
On to the 1993 Sled Scene DVD. There was way more footage of the car, but these were the best photos I could come up with. We finally get to see the front of the car which had a '57 Buick grille in a molded opening. The opening looks like it might have been a '53 Chevy surround, but it looks a little different in spots possibly making it a home made assembly. You will also notice a molded '49 Plymouth front bumper, frenched headlights and turn signals and a nosed and louvered hood.



In this shot you can see the louvers in the hood a little better.



In the next picture we get a rare look at the inside of the car. I'm not certain what all the dash components are, but the speedometer looks like it might be late 40's Cadillac or even a '52 or '53 Ford. One thing for sure, I know this dash looks nothing like a stock '52 Chevy!



A wider semi side shot shows dual tip lakes just like in the first photo from the '92 Sled Scene East.



In some rear shots you can see the Buick taillights. Because of the molded bumper, it looks like part of the taillight was eliminated, as well as the frenched in license plate from the '82 photo. If you go back and look at the '82 photo, you can see how much lower the plate sat.



You can also see that between the '92 and '93 Sled Scene East a CB antenna was added, and the "Puppy Love" was moved from the center of the trunk to the right side. I tried to get a close up detail shot of the license plate and taillight to show taillight detail as well as where the plate was from, but the image isn't very clear. The plate looks to be yellow--maybe from Wisconsin, but you can't read the state because the old video just can't be read when blown up.



On the 1994 Sled Scene East video, it was another quick shot and still photography produced a blurry unrecognizable image.
After the '94 DVD, I found nothing else on this car. Is "Puppy Love" the same car as "Tuff 52" with a facelift? Are they indeed two different sleds? If they are different, does anybody have old pictures of "Tuff 52" besides just the rear photo I found? And as far as "Puppy Love" goes, if it is a different car, does anybody have an idea of who owned the car or where it was from? Definitely a mystery this week. Think of it as a rare "two-fer" Tuesday that we used to do in the early stages of this thread. So all you custom faithful need to get to digging in your old photo albums, magazines and in the ol' memory banks to see if we can figure out if this is one in the same, or two completely different sleds.
Here in the Mile High City, the cruising has slowed to almost none. We've had our first snowfall already with more on the way this week. Typical of late October in Colorado just a little over a week ahead of Halloween. Pretty soon conversation will turn to talk of Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Man, where has this year gone?
Take care everybody! See you next Tuesday! E

 

Your assumptions were dead on Ed. Pull out your December 81 Issue of Hot Rod. One of my favorite issues of all time.

 

Could this be the second car from about 2000. A KKOA official from Des Moines Iowa owned it at the time. And it was for sale in about 2005.

 

Hmmm? I don't think they are the same cars in your post, Ed. The black and white inset of the taillights in your post appears to be from the page that Stanlow69 (Jim) posted. His post shows the car as being a hardtop. The red car from your video freeze appears to be a chopped business coupe.

 

I know you have a bunch of time and effort, invested ... in all that you post, on this thread. It amazes me that you find, what you do ... to tabulate here in the first place.

An intermission gift, so to speak ... coming.

I routinely clear out old photos saved, to make sure I have room for my kiddos' pictures on my amazing electronic photo taking machine/digital rotary cellular device ... and thought this custom would be fun to share, with you. < Kiss kiss. >

Not a fan of the color. I like the flow of the black and white photos, best ... but in any event, Warren Gonzales' 1950 Ford convertible, out there somewhere ... at the least, within the pages of July 1956 Car Craft.







Also in Custom Cars Magazine Volume #4





Would look great in a silvery salmon and black. Maybe lustrous pearl and salmon interior.

( I can delete here also. No toe stepping intended. )

Thank you OG Lil E

EDIT : Wow. Reverse image search found this as a Rik Hoving contribution. Kustomrama and Rik Hoving, thank you sir !!

 

I don't remember whether this has been here before - to me it looks very Mopar-like but I don't think it's one of the 50s dream cars done by Ghia in Italy. Anyone knows what it is and where is it now?

 

This one I know.

@OG lil E as @54delray pointed out, Puppy Love is a chopped coupe. Larry's car is an unchopped hardtop.
Larry's Chevy is sitting in his garage in Arkansas City, Ks. It still looks just like it did in this photo @stanlow69 posted:


I don't think it's been out of the garage in decades. I don't think Larry gets out a whole lot himself. For the record, yes he is an artist. A damn good one at that. His paintings are phenomenal and what I would consider "photo-realistic".

 

Thanks for all the input guys! Things sure cleared up quick. Now we know that the Chevy(s) were two different cars. We found out Mr. Fleming's Chevy was a neat hardtop and "Puppy Love" is a coupe with a nice chop.
Thanks for the update @Sancho. Glad to hear Mr. Fleming is still with us, even though he doesn't get out much. I figured one of the Kansas kustom boys would know something about him and his cool ride! E

Also, a nice piece of detective work from our good buddy Jim (@stanlow69). I know I've seen the pictures of Larry's hardtop in that issue of Hot Rod. Turns out I made a bone head mistake. I was so busy looking for a chopped business coupe that I totally missed that in the rear shot I posted of Mr. Fleming's Chevy that the hardtop was in the picture. The picture I cropped down and posted is the exact copy of the shot Jim posted. The answer was there all along. I look at so many customs all the time that sometimes I miss the obvious. Ooops! Goofed on that one (lol)!
I went ahead and looked through my magazines and the Hot Rod that Jim mentioned is one of the ones that got lost in my basement flood a while back. Definitely have to track down a new copy of it as I remember it being a great issue like Jim said.
One thing I wonder though. In the snapshot Jim posted of the Iowa business coupe, the car looks like a dark maroon. On the 1992 Sled Scene East DVD the car looked to be bright red. On the '93 Sled Scene East DVD the car looked to be a darker red, possibly a kandy red over a darker base. Jim's picture made the car look much darker than in '93. Could this car have possibly been painted yet a third time by 2000 or thereabouts, or is it the typical camera, video tape or other methods of saving images playing tricks on the human eye? E

As for the wild Mopar custom @T. Turtle posted, something in these old memory banks seems to recall a custom coach built Mopar being built somewhere overseas. Once completed, it was put on a ship to come back to the states and was lost when the ship carrying it across the ocean sank. This story sound familiar to anyone? Is this that lost custom? E

Thanks for the nice break @kidcampbell71. Such a beautiful custom! Is it just me, or do the rare color images of customs photographed in the 50s and early 60s look more vivid than the paint on cars today? The cars seem to jump off the page.
You can imagine the stir it would have caused seeing something like Warren Gonzales' '50 Ford 'vert cruising down Hollywood Boulevard in 1958! Man, only to have been there in those days, huh? E

 

Hi E,

I think you're mixing it up with the Chrysler Norseman, built by Ghia in Italy, which sank with the Andrea Doria. One of my favorite 50s concept cars, btw.

 

There you go guys, mixed up again (lol)! At least I was kinda close, right?
Thanks for clearing that up Surfcityrocker. It sure was a beautiful car! E

 

This is just an awesome thread. Thanks to all those who contribute and a special thanks to OG lil E!

 

Thanks Barn Hunter. Nice of you to say! E

 

What Ever Happened To..........? number 190.

1951 Mercury "Just a Dream"
Owner: ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ?, Illinois

This week I was looking back at the list of cars we've covered here and I realized it's been a while since we featured a Mercury. So I dug through my notes and came up with a Mercury that I just couldn't seem to come up with very much information on. I'm sure one of you custom faithful will recognize it and be able to fill in the blanks.
The only place I saw this Merc was on the 1988 Sterling/Rock Falls Custom and Lowrider Show. I've mentioned this show many times before as it was a nice gathering of customs and lowriders. The venue was great with many famous cars from the early KKOA days of the 1980s. They had some great musical entertainment as well as flame throwing and a muffler rap contest. Another great activity was the final cruise out to a lake for breakfast, awards and the closing ceremonies. Fun stuff!
It didn't take long for this Merc to pop on to the screen towards the beginning of the DVD. The car had a heavy chop with a hardtop conversion as well as a nicely laid out scallop job. On the disc the car looked black, but it may have been a deep navy blue. The light blue metallic scallops were an excellent choice!





I know it's hard to see in the picture above, but the car had "Just a Dream" lettered under the quarter windows, as well as some nice pinstriping around the frenched antennas. Here is a close up shot of the name under the window:



As we move towards the rear of the sled, you'll notice the car was very mild with the trunk shaved, stock tail lights and some more nice striping on the trunk lid.





I am really surprised that I couldn't come up with more information on this Merc. We all know and love the history of one of the true custom renaissance clubs, Lincoln Land Kustoms. The owner of this car must have been a member as his custom was proudly dragging a Lincoln Land Kustoms plaque from the rear bumper. It's hard to see clearly with the DVD frozen and a picture snapped, but on the DVD it is clearly their plaque.



On the above still picture, I repeated the frame over and over again and the license plate looks like Illinois to me. I could be wrong, but since he was a member of Lincoln Land Kustoms, the Illinois plate makes sense.
Going back to the front of the car, there are a few unique features I want to point out. The car had a nice tube grille with two bars and the unique choice of mounting the turn signals on top of the top bar. Also note how the scallop has a "window" opening that is next to the head light. Most scallop jobs would have filled this with color instead of leaving it open for the color underneath. Very original idea. In keeping with an original scallop style, notice the scallop on the A pillar that looks like an arrow. Never seen another A pillar painted this way. I'd be willing to guess that the person who did this layout was a regular reader of the "Little Books" as this scallop job screams 1950s!



It's strange that I never found this '51 on any of my KKOA videos and DVDs. If he was from Illinois, he was around the mid west custom hot bed of the 1980s. Heck, in 1987 the Leadsled Spectacular was in Springfield, Illinois! He might have lived a long way from Springfield, but anywhere in Illinois was closer to many of the locations the show was held at many other years. I watched the '87 Leadsled Spectacular video especially close and I didn't see the car.
Magazine and internet picture hunting came up empty. I've been researching this Mercury for a long time and it has proven to be an illusive search. I hope you guys have more on this car 'cause it sure is awesome!
It's been snowing here in Denver on and off since Sunday night. We've had high temperatures in the teens with around eight inches of snow on the ground with more on the way tonight. I guess all the little ghosts and goblins are going to have to brave the cold and fairly deep snow to get their loot Thursday night. When I look out my living room window I'd swear we were two days from Christmas not Halloween. Crazy weather! Let me be among the first to wish you all a safe and Happy Halloween!
Have fun! We'll see you next week! E

 

Guess what. Printer is on the fritz again. I have a picture of it when it was at one of the KKOA shows in Davenport Iowa. It looks to be white with dark blue scallopes. Same pattern as what Ed posted. Look at the grille in Class of 57. Appears to be the same. You can tell by the picture I have.

 

They were here a couple weeks ago fixing the same problem. Just talked to my computer person, they told me to go get a different printer-scanner. It`s not even a year old yet.

 

Morning everybody! Don't mean to derail the thread and get off topic, but I just thought I'd share a few pictures I shot out of my living room windows this morning. Here is a picture of my neighbor's Halloween display all covered with snow. The witch that is all bent over is usually standing up and is at least 10 feet tall. I guess the 9 degree temperature is giving the air in it a hard time keeping it upright!



The snow usually doesn't pile up too much between our houses, plus we've been doing a lot of shoveling so the snow doesn't look like much. I took this picture out of our other living room window facing the street.



The storm moved in Sunday night and it has been snowing ever since. I haven't been outside yet to check things out and shovel the walks again, but at last measurement we had 8 inches of snow on the ground.
Looking at the picture you'd swear it was Christmas Eve and not the day before Halloween! Definitely not a treat and this is no trick. Man I hate winter, but the calendar says it fall. What the heck? E

 

....unlike. Technology sucks!

So does snow, Ed! Crazy to see snow like that in October. I do remember trick or treating in Wisconsin as a kid in a snowmobile suit, though. This is exactly why I live in the south. LOL

 

What Ever Happened To..........? number 191.

1956 Chevy "Walkin' With The Duke"
Owners: Greg and Sharon Isles
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

This week's custom is yet another wildcard without much information. I hate to keep doing this, but maybe someone will recognize the car or know who the owner was. Anyway, it's always fun to see a custom that you may have never seen before. With that being said, on to the sled..........
This cool '56 Chevy is a car that stayed mostly in the east, or it was completed a short time prior to 1992. The only place I've ever seen the car was on my copy of Sled Scene East from Gettysburg, PA in 1992. The car had a host of modifications that scream east coast. It had long list of custom goodies including a healthy chop, frenched antennas, molded lake pipes and bumpers and bubble skirts just to name a few.





Moving towards the rear you can see the custom side trim. It looks like '55 Chevy side trim that has been modified to me, but I might be off. This is the one thing that confused me on this car. At first I thought it was a '55 with a '56 front clip, but the Lee lens taillights are '56 Chevy, and the rear bumper looks like '56 Chevy to me, so I think it is a'56. You can see the molded rear bumper and the awesome bubble skirts.





Here is a close up shot of the frenched antennas and nice striping work:



On the trunk lid the license plate is frenched in around a nicely sculpted opening. Lots of work to do this but the result looks super!





I don't really understand where the name "Walkin' With The Duke" came from, but it does have a 50s ring to it. You could kind of see the name in one of the images above but it was a little fuzzy. Here are a few shots of the lettering, as well as a closer view of the sculpted license plate french and a small peek at the Pennsylvania plate:





Something that might help you Pennsylvania custom lovers out there as well as those that were regular attendees of Sled Scene East identify this car is the drag plaque. I tried to get a picture of it, but every time I shot a picture it was too blurry to read. With the DVD playing, I was able to read the plaque. The club name on it was the "Steel City Cruisers". It didn't have a city on it, but I'd venture a guess that the club was based in and around Pittsburgh. Anyone ever heard of this club?
Inside the car had a nice white tuck 'n' roll job. The pictures I took of it made it look like plain white upholstery, so I won't post them. One interior picture that did turn out ok is the shot of the '59 Impala steering wheel it had on it painted to match the color on the car.



I know these pictures are pretty blurry and not real good. The car was only on the DVD a few times and these were the best shots I could get. I looked online and through a lot of magazines and I couldn't find anything else on it. I hope we can find more information on this cool '56 that may have never ventured out of the state of Pennsylvania.
I hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween. Brave parents and little ones came out in bunches in upper 20 degree temperatures to get some goodies. After working all day in those cold temperatures this doesn't sound too appealing to me. I must be getting old. Oh to be young again, huh?
Until next time, take care! E

 

Crickets....lol. I do really like his bubble skirts though with the points on the front corner. The ones on my Merc are rounded and I would really like to reglass them to have a nicer point ala Jimmy Jones skirts....which I have been unsuccessful in landing a pair that fit a Merc, so the glass ones will have to make due for now. LOL

 

I really like the rounded corners ... but I'm talking the hood corners! We so rarely see a kustom '56. Most builds nowdays are (ugh) restomods, stock looking body with 20+ inch wheels.

But look at how kool the front of this '56 is modified. Lower hood and hood bar moulded into a nice grill surround, then the slight angle of the front hood edges that flow into the rounded corners ... NICE.

Hope it is still around as a kustom. Come on you east coaster's. Where is she?

Thanks for the work that goes into this weekly custom buffet Lil E. Much appreciated.

 

Thanks Bill! E

 

Thanks Lil E for putting together such an awesome thread. I've been watching this thread since the beginning although I never have anything to contribute. I was just a young kid in the 80's and my father was more of a Rodder so we didn't attend the sled scene or any KKOA shows. However, I recognize some of the rides from the James Dean Run and other midwest shows we did attend regularly. While most of my family members have 32's, I've always loved the customs more...

Here is a pic I've come across here on the HAMB in an older thread... I don't know if it is an older build, or a more modern build with some old style custom touches. Pic is save as a 51 Mercury (looks like a 4 door). I would like to see other angles of this car if anyone has any...especially the custom lake pipes, I'm in the process of frenching lake pipes on my custom Caddy.

 

The pink 4 door Merc belonged to Bob Politz, from NJ. Not sure if he built the whole car, but he did finish and paint it. Kept it a few years, and then sold it to buy another Kustom. I had the privilege to paint his cu rrent one.

 

Glad you've been enjoying the thread @Indy47Caddy! Also glad that you're the "black sheep" of the family and you're a custom guy!
I used to have some shots of the Politz Mercury on my computer, but I think that was my last computer that crashed. I searched around and found some great shots on the Custom Rodder website. There are a ton of customs on there and if you aren't familiar with the site you're missing out.
I tried to copy the pics and post them here but the site wouldn't let me. Maybe some of you more computer savvy folks out there can do it, but 'til then I'll just post a link to the page.

http://customrodder.forumactif.org/t3092-1951-mercury-bob-politz

Hope this helps you out Indy. Thanks for stopping in! E

 

Your wish is my command From the above site.