Apparently Mr. Street had had the car modified even further than we thought!!! Mr. Von Franco, sir, you have my address.
I have always wondered if the driver in Cinderfella, that was painted gold, was Mr. Street. At the beginning of this thread I said that I thought that MilnerCoupe 32 was Mr. Street lurking. Has anyone else noticed that he never posted again? Hmmmm, just wondering. Naw!!
It looks like Wally from Andy Griffith.The actor shows up in all kinds of movies and TV shows from the 40' thru the 60's.
Possible... look at the dates to his 5 posts. If you were once a well known person in a certain public field, would you google your name occasionally as time marches on? Google his name(s) and you will arrive here on this thread
If he is lurking, I again will say that his cars really inspired me as a young guy. I stood in the local Ford dealer showroom and was totally awed by the Golden Sahara and I still am to this day. I really hope that it could be seen again, regardless of condition.
On the thread about Billetproof Michigan post #106 by CHOPTOP he says Bob Fryz was going to take the Golden Sahara to the show but the brakes went to the floor so he took a diffrerent car.Different Golden Sahara??
Now Franco.... You know me better than that...I'm getting the info from those who are in the know... It's not ez to approach a guy who is as much a mystery as his cars...Be patient and I'm trying to see what I can do.. As per our discussion.....doing the best I can with the resources I've got..
HAHAHAHA!!! Franco that is HILARIOUS!! Didn't somebody famous once say, "If you put a typewriter in a room full of monkeys, eventually they will quote Shakespeare"? Well maybe they haven't quoted Shakespeare yet, but they could've joined the HAMB and logged in anonymously (Milner32)!
my mistake... Bob was not going to bring the Golden Sahara, but a different Barris custom. I mix up some offline conversations when I posted that.
It's time to jump down from the soap boxes, and slip out of the saddles on our high horses. Bottom line..... These cars are Mr. Street's. He owns them. He didn't fuck anyone out of them. He more than likely paid top dollar for them at the time. He showed them to the public. Now he doesn't want to. It boils down to the hot rodding and custom communities wanting to see the cars again, and Mr. Streets ability to see these cars any time he wants. Mr. Street wins. I say do whatever you want Mr. Street. You don't owe anybody a damn thing.
You`ve been a member since Oct of 2005 and have no friends, that`s what you get when you agree with Mr street.With over 600 posts. NO FRIENDS. In Rod and Custom they showed a picture ofthe Lincoln wrecked while towing the Rod & Custom Dream Truck, sombody the pic. It might be in the build book of the R & C Dream Truck.
Getting back to the topic of the Golden Sahara, I would be curious as to who actually made the design decisions building the original build. Barris owned the car, so I would imagine he and Sam started the project. When did Jim Street enter the picture, what did he contribute, and when. I imagine there are some of the old guys who were there that could tell some of the story. I see a lot of Kaiser stuff, including the original taillights, and I think, the rear fenders. Just interesting stuff.
On with the subject. I FOUND IT!!!! Barris Kustom Techniques Of the 50`s VOL 3. Page 94 on. Tells the whole story53 Lincoln Capri towing Dan Landons 49 Chevy(blown motor). Gets wrecked. Jim Skonzakes(Street), Long time customersteps forward as buyer. Billed as the $25,ooo custom car on the cover of the May 53 issue of Motor Trend. Re done a couple years later. Simalar styling trends as the 53 Cad(Harry Karl) and the tailfins as the Modern Grecian in the same book. SOMBODY POST PIC~S--- It`s all there in black and white.
Okay let me get this strait. The bottom two pictures of the Golden Sahara on the top of page 8 is the way it looked when Street got it, and the top two are after he had his work done on it. Correct me if I'm wrong but if that is true didn't he do to it the same thing to it he did to the Kookie Kar. Just add a bunch of do dads to it and junk it up?
The Golden Sahara (the project had not been given its name yet) was mentioned being made for Jim in the 1954 Motor Trend issue that featured the Jack Stewart 1941 Ford that Jim had bought from Jack. And here is what Barris started with... after the crash, from the Barris books. In Progress
I cant speak for the Kookie car since I don't know anything about Hot Rods... But as far as the second version of the Golden Sahara. Jim was in its own rights to do that... and everything he did to that car in its second version fitted PERFECT within the days ideas about show wining custom cars. If you wanted to compete with a custom car you had to make changes for the next season. And whatever Jim decided to do to it was extremely nicely done... especially for its time. Jim had owned the car from the beginning. And was very much involved in the design of the first version. Yes I like the first version better myself as well.. but the remake was very nice as well. And yes I also would love to see the car being showed to the public again. But like said before. Its up to Jim to decide if he will or will not!
stanlow69...May 1953 you say? Here it is. I'll flip through it for more. My brother and I just picked up a ton more mags at a local auction. steel rebel...Yes I guess you can say all he did was buy them and restyle them. IMO the GS was much more successful than the KT although the in between stages from Norm to the dual blower were nice. Still they're his cars and he had some good taste...just needed a deft hand.
Rikster, thanks for the photos. The amount of work that went into that car must have been terrific. It says Bill on the shirt and my first guess would be Bill Hines, but I don't think if he was there that early. He didn't leave Detroit until around 1958. Maybe Bill Carr, interesting stuff. Somebody working in that shop could tell stories for sure.
In the Barris book, It was Bill De Carr who worked on the first version and Bob Metz worked on the second.
Ah. I was just gauging the stature of the man working on the car in relation to the height on that car.
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