Rikster, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, etc for posting the KUSTOM PIX and stories. I really enjoyed looking and reading about who built them and how it was done. I can't help but wonder where the many young craftsman shown in the photos are now. I am sure many have passed on, but their work still honors them as a lasting memory that we all still enjoy. Kind of makes you wonder about what life is all about and what each of us is suppose to do in our time on this planet.
I would like to mention that the Dick Flint Roadster was instrumental in bringing my mother, Ina Mae Overman, together with Valley Custom. Dicks father, Larry, and my mother worked together as draftsmen for the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering. She liked the work that was done on the roadster and decided to have Valley Custom execute her designs. Larry Flint liked her 52 Lincoln so well that he bought one a year or two newer. In 1972, I happened to be a Letter Carrier in Canoga Park, California, where I delivered mail to Dick Flints house. Parked out on the street was his dads Lincoln.
Awesome stories you have. Can't wait to meet up and hear these stories first hand.. still figuring the date.
I've posted a few new photos on my web site, including the '55 T-Bird that Valley Custom did some of the work on. They frenched the headlights, modified the front and rear valances to accommodate the Model A bumpers. They bent the front bumper in the center to follow the body contour. My mother spent her weekends in the driveway removing the emblems and filling the holes using fiberglass. Bondo wasnt really available yet. She learned the hard way that you dont fiberglass over seams. The gas filler door in the trunk lid was bolted down and she fiberglassed the seam which later developed fine vibration cracks. (From then on the gas filler was accessed by opening the trunk). At one of the car shows, George Barris photographed these cracks in an attempt to put down the workmanship of Valley Custom not knowing it wasnt their work. Rather than redo the work, which would require repainting the car, she had Von Dutch pinstripe it. This camouflaged the cracks and no one noticed them after that. The T-Bird and the Lincoln were painted the same custom mixed gold. The Lincoln was sandblasted on a trip across the desert to Vegas and the front end was repainted, but it never quite matched. My mother could always see the difference, even if no one else did. That led to the green paint job, which was done by a friend of hers, and being of poor quality and metallic lacquer, Im surprised there is that much green left on it today. The person who bought the T-Bird taught his wife to drive in it and it was banged up a lot. It got to the point that the mismatched gold was so bad that it was repainted blue. Where it is today, we have no idea.
Mary, Thank you for the new update. The photo of the Lincoln is absoluteley gorgious. I had never seen any photo's of the finished car with the wheel cut-outs. Very interesting story about the T-Bird as well. Thank you
First of all I would like to say that I appriciate all the pictures that everyone has posted up. Because my Grandma (and dad) did not have all of these pictures of my Grandpa's work. It's kind of nit picky of me, but I also wanted to mention that Niel was basically the spokesman and front of the shop/books man (he did do a significant amount of work on the cars though) Clayton actually did the majority of the work. So it kind of annoys me when I see a lot of the valley custom shop work goes as credit to Niel only. Which wasn't done completely here, but was done a few times. Again, sorry for the nitpick, and again thank you for providing a venue to get a lot of these photos. I am actually living with my grandma at the moment (clayton's wife) so it was nice to be able to give her some of the pic's we did not have.
Don't be afraid to ask for credit where credit is due. My mother always said that Neil spent too much time bullshitting, leaving Clayton to do most of the work. Your grandfather was a fine craftsman. You should be proud.
Cool pics! Thank you.. I always liked the lighter open wheelwell style,as opposed to the skirted, heavy appearing sleds of the East Coast. My dad was a bodyman ,and worked with lead,I remember playing with the silvery"splatters" of lead...Toxic?? (the word didn't exist in those days) ha ha ha .... Sparky
I know this is an old thread that keeps getting ttt'd, but this Lincoln is phenomenal! I hope the restoration is taking the car back to this configuration...
That is cool, I think this is the best version. At first I loved the original version best... but the whole car sat just to high to look really cool that way. The wheel cutouts make it proportions much more in balance. Plus it made it so muc more a real Valley Custom Shop creation. Here is a Motor Trend magazine cover featuring the Lincon on the left.. So do you own the car, or? If so can you post some more photo's of how it looks now/
Here is the updated link: http://gt350lady.com/1952-Lincoln.html I've been reworking my website so the old link no longer works. Best viewed in Firefox.
Yeah, I own it. It looks basically the same, except some more of the paint has flaked off. I got all the parts to restore it correctly, and now it's on the back burner. I'm unsure if I want to, or can do the pebble beach quality restoration that the car deserves. So it's probably going to sit for a while, unless the right person wants to buy it. You never really own a car like that. You're just a caretaker. I want whats best for it.
It looks great. The picture of the T bird in front of the Thunderbird Hotel is fantastic. Thanks again for taking the time to sit down and talk with us about the Lincoln. It was great to hear the stories of you and your mother and the car in the early days... louvering of the hood... taking it to mexico... the stories of having it at those early car shows. It was fantastic.
For anyone that's interested, I added a section to the Lincoln page with links to PDF copies of the magazine articles I have. Mary Ellen
You guys sure have a nice collection of the early customs photo. I was born in the valley but moved to Orange County in '49. kn ewNeils sons for awhile. They were driving a Black 50 Chev at the time, then a 55 Nomad later Thanks for the great post
Not all the vehicles listed have pages yet so therefore do not have active links. I've been adding a few pages a week, as time permits. The automobile section is the only one I've been working on ( I considered that the most important for now). I also need to take some photos of some of the currently owned family vehicles. Mary Ellen
The Jalopy Journal
