These pics were taken in Asbury Park N.J. ,Teaneck N.J. and Hartford conn in the early to mid 60s .I got these pics and $350 for striping a P.T. Cruiser.When I pulled up in the merc,the guy goes,I used to bwe into that stuff!
I actually forgot who s 57 Chev and whose T-Bird that was but the 40 pickup was built by the famous Drivin Deuces car club in Lyndhurst N.J. and the 51 Merc was chopped by its owner Bobby Barkoff and Jersey pinstriper Bunkie in a Boat Yard in Linden N.J. in 1962.It still exists to this day!
The wacked out gold sectioned shoebox was the work of Les Dunham,The red chopped shoebox convert was the famous"Yankee Clipper "built by Jim Karcher in Stamford Conn and now owned by Ray Soff.The chopped and sectioned 46 Merc was built by Lenny Legere from Mass and last but not least the white shoebox was owned by Herb"Slim" Gellings and was torched .He came back strong in the early 90s and has put many nice kustoms on the scene!
The 32 of course was Kassas and who knows about the Vette.As for the 34 I think it was from New England but I dont know nuttin bout no Hot Rods
I don't actually like corvettes that much, but that gold one looks pretty darn cool and if I had to have one, it would be like that. Of course an authentic one like that these days will set you back about $4 billion dollars.
Everytime I see these old customs I keep thinking.. "I wish I knew where that is today" There's lotsa nice old customs in those photos....
This is the Redding and Lajoie " Blue Bird Special" from Massachusetts. It ran an injected 312 Y-block Ford, distinctive Desoto grille, and America 12 spoke mags. In my opinion this car ranks in the top ten of all time 33-34 Fords. It has been discussed here before, the car was converted into an ordinary billet street rod in the eighties.
Les Dunham's the man. He's got a cool shop and wilder stories. I've always been a fan of his cars. I'll see if I can find some more pics of his stuff.
Yep ,The Blue Bird special showed up at Hartford and no one recognized it!Dave Paras shed the light on it .
Neat shots! The '40 PU is the "Sierra Pick-up", and as you stated, built by the Drivn' Deuces, it is rumored to still be around in the hands of a former DD member, but I've been hearing that for thirty years.
I could be wrong here,but I think that coupe was built by Dick Morse in the 50's,not looking like that,but I think he was the one who first owned it.
Anthony:That chopped and sectioned Merc was owned by Len Legere but was originally started by John Silva from Peabody MA.John did most of the bull work on it before selling it to Len.I met John around 1959 when that car was displayed at a car show at the Topsfield Fairgrounds.John went on to build many show cars including one for the Ford Custom Caravan.Sadly he passed away several years ago. Not to take anything away from Len;he is a good friend and very talented body man and has built many custom show cars.
I immediatly clicked the blue Merc, and thought for a few minutes "Hey that cant be Bobs can it?" Sure looked like it! Who knew if I scrolled down another 3 inches...haha. Great shots.
BTW the blue Merc in question I believe is in the Jersey shore area, still around today, but unclear on if it still has the 11 gallons of fill in the roof or whatever it was haha.
Nah....your uncle and I cut out the huge warped mess of a roof on that Merc. In fact, we spliced in the remains of the 57 Olds roof I used to chop my 55. I wish the current owner would do something with it. He called me some years back wanting to do more work on it, but was always at a loss for funds. What a shame, won't sell it either.
As a matter of fact he did>When I first met John,the car had the original Merc nose on it and sat 41" high at the top.My cousin Dick has a picture from that day with John and(I think)Stu Lord with their faces behind the headlight openings.The car had no engine at the time.I'll see if I can get some of his old pictures and post them. John purchased a channeled 40 Ford sedan from Bill Welch(who used to run New England Speed Equipment's Saugus store)and did some radical customizing to it.That was the tow car for the 41 Merc for awhile.John also has a V-8 51 or 52 Chevy he used for a tow car and I remember him towing the Merc to Maratta's show in Hartford one year and having the hitch come off at about 75 mph.The only thing that saved the car was the safety chains! John was the guy who customized the 68-up Corvette to resemble the Mako Shark show car(he called it the MACO) and made body molds which were subsequently acquired by Joel Rosen of Motion Performance. John was a great innovator;he built a scale drag strip that used electronics to simulate cars shifting through the gears with real sounds;all this before modern day electronics. There were many other ventures.Unfortunately John wasn't the greatest businessman on the planet;typical of most geniuses.I had many good times with him over the years and was very saddened to hear of his death.
I think the 54 Ford was built by Dick Korkes who later went west and worked for Barris. Lot of body men that were famous in the east went out to Barris and went to work until they could start their own shops.
Yes 1940 ,That was Korkys Parisienne in one of its many states.The car was later changed again with tubular bumpers and grille work front and rear.The car was recently on EBAY.
i love posts like this,,, too bad they fade to page 4 or 5 so fast,,,and all the drama bs stays near the top,,, these cars are so neat to see because many (not all) of them didnt receive magazine coverage,,so basically being seen here for the first time in many years,,thanks for posting the pics,,looking forward to seeing the rest
The Jalopy Journal
