Peabody MA 50/60s Christy Massio photos

Christy Massios set out to build this custom but never finnished it. Got tired of walking and sold it for $20.00

 

Whole lot of cool things going on there! Any more photos?

 

Little Pixie



32 ford 3 w snow plow...

 

Cool pics - back then an unfinished radical custom might have been a hard thing to sell.
"if only" kicks in. wonder if it was ever finished.

 

Christy's 50 Merc


I asked Christy the same thing. "Any more pictures of that car ?"
His responce... "Somebody else took the photo, I couldn't afford a
camera back then !!" He's still building stuff..as in 2 40 Ford pickup truck hot rods
at the same time.

 

GREAT OLD PICS!!!! Don't recall ever seeing that 40 but I didn't meet Christie until around 1968. I wish I could still post pics here but my computer won't let me(I must have deleted something out of it that allowed me to do that) as I have pictures of several of his cars and ones that he built or had a hand in building.
I bought a chopped 54 Chevy(Olds powered)that he had done a bunch of work to and was sitting under his barn for years and full of hornet's nests.He also had a kickass 34 Ford 2 door sedan and a wild 29 Model A pickup both of which got a ton of striping by me.The RPU is still around and still has most of the striping on it.Saw pics of it on here at the last Ty-Rods show.
As for the posted pics;I believe the chopped Shoebox belonged to Len Legere and I remember seeing it at the Adventure Car Hop on Route 1 in Saugus(MA)around 1960.He built two of them;one of which was a convertible and had a Hemi with 8 carbs in it.Don't know what became of it but it was finished in a nice metallic green.
The only other car I recognize is the green Model A coupe with the Hemi that was owned by Paul Protz.I striped that one around 1970 and it is still around although it is painted black and has a 6-71 on the Hemi.
That Merc may have been owned by Paul Pronco whose dad owned a sign shop in Peabody;I'm not certain on that one.Some of those pics may have been taken down around the leather factories in Peabody.If Dave Paras is still on here he may recognize the area as his shop is close by.
There was a great garage on North Street in Salem that housed some great cars in the late 1950's and early 1960's.A couple of the guys belonged to the Peace Pipes car club. John Silva had his chopped.channeled,and sectioned 41 Merc that I believe Len Legere still owns and also a channeled 40 Ford sedan originally built by Bill Welch of New England Speed Equipment.Frank Manos had a 39 Ford sedan with a blown Cadillac engine;Paul Protz was building his Model A there and Gil Corrain was working on his Deuce Vicky(I think).My cousin Dick Manley had his 34 Ford roadster that had been turned into a coupe that was originally built by Fred Manning of Saugus.
Stu Lord had a beautiful 57 Ford retractible painted maroon with bubble skirts that I striped around 1962 or 63.
The Salem/Peabody area had quite a few hot rodders and still does although they are scattered all over the place now.A lot of them wound up in Maine for some reason.

 

I wish someone would do a book with these old customs in it.

 

that poor old 32 3 window. oh the humanity. lol great pics! thanks for sharing!

 

Any more pics from Christy???....He built my 3-window back in the day and then traded it to Ron Ripa. I hope it didn't start out as that snow plow !!!

 

Very nice old pic's !!!!!

 

Safariknut might recognize the work on Christy's 34 & roadster pick dash ??

 

Bad Penny

Christy recalls that your 32 Ford was not the snow plow but was an early channeled show/magazine car from MN that he bought as a basket case and redid & sold to Ron Rippa pictured. He got a 34 Ford coupe in trade.. see frame in prior posts.

 

RB: Thanks for posting those pics and clearing up the confusion over the Shoebox.I thought that both of the chopped Shoeboxes that Len did were convertibles.The resemblance to the green one with the Edsel taillights is remarkable. I don't recall what taillights he used on the blue one.I have a video that features Lennie and Kelsey Martin that Vito sent me awhile back along with some pics of an old Frank Maratta show schedule that it is in also.
BTW I think that drawing of the 46-48 Coupe may have been done by Dave Page;another friend of Christies who lived around Wyoma Square.He and Paul O'Neil who built the 54 Chevy that Christie chopped and I owned for awhile were best friends.Dave was building a supercharged Cord Beverly sedan when he passed away at an early age. Paul wound up buying Dave's father's 31 L-29 Cord which I striped years later and he also bought back the 54 Chevy when Boots Ripley passed away.
I had purchased the 54 from Paul in 1974 by trading a Delco AM/FM radio for a Studebaker.Paul wanted it for an Avanti he was building.Strangely enough he still has the radio and the Avanti and it STILL isn't restored.
Paul Protz is still building cars and the last one I saw was a T roadster that he sold for some really silly money.The construction was top shelf as usual with Paul's cars.I remember the Model A coupe was set up so that by disconnecting the wiring harness and removing a half dozen or so bolts the entire body could be lifted off.He used angle iron to make a subframe of sorts and it worked great.
Those pics bring back a lot of memories;thanks for posting them.Tell Chris I said hello when you see him again.

 

Thanks for posting. I LOVE old New England hot rod and custom pics. Our 32 coupes were ruty piles even back then

 

Really great stuff! Good to see early pics of Brett's car. Ron took really good care of this car. The build quality and the paint is still excellent.



Different wheels on it now though

 

George Sellius Chopped conv.

 

July 1971 Ct



Dave Page's green Model A

 

Thanks for the pics of the 32 coupe rbantique. It's great to have some history behind the car. I've been told by a buddy that he has pics of the coupe when it came from the mid-west as a channeled car, but so far he hasn't found them. It's my understanding that it was channeled when Christy re-built it ?? Any pics of it pre build ???
Thanks again, Brett

 

WOW!! I remember this one very well.Before the Ford George owned a white 68-69 Corvette and he wanted to get it striped.He brought it down to the Mercedes dealer I worked at one night in Salem but after trying a few designs on it he just wasn't satisfied whereupon I packed up my gear and told him I couldn't do the car.
When Christie finished the chop on the convertible he asked me to come up and stripe it but didn't tell me who owned it. Only after I had finished did he tell me it was George's car.He was afraid I wouldn't do it if I knew it was his car. I believe Tom fleming owns the car now;I ran into him at Lead East one year and he was driving it.
I had forgotten all about Dave's Model A;don't think I put any lines on that one.He was a real craftsman and left us way before his time.
Ed Murray's panel was another wild machine;had a beautiful dragon airbrushed on the panel by a girl(forget her name).I did a couple cars for Eddie(his 79 Chevy wagon with the turbocharged 350 and the orange 33 called,"White Line Fever")and his girl Sally's white Corvette with all the flames over it.Eddie was another craftsman who built some kickass custom guitars for a lot of musicians in the Boston area.I striped a few of them and the last one we did was for Ric Ocasek of the Cars.That was just before Eddie died at the age of 41 from a massive heart attack.Horrible story too.
Hope you publish some more pictures and hope you don't mind that I'm downloading them onto my computer while it's still operational.

As an aside a good friend of mine and fellow gearhead from Saugus(Ken Frederick who owned the Iced T among other cars)is trying to put together a reunion of sorts for guys from the North Shore this coming September;probably around the time of the Ty-Rods show.Nothing final yet but it should be a blast. Don Cavanaugh is going to be working with Ken on it and I'll keep you posted.

 

None that I've come across so far.. It sounded as if it was all apart when
Christy bought it ... hence no images that i've seen to date

 

Neat 3 window from CT. Anyone know who's it was or what happened to it?

 

Just noticed you posted a couple more pics.The Deuce 3 window with the CT plates was owned by a guy in the Conn Street Rod Ass'n and was taken at the Sears shopping center in Saugus.Remember that one well as a bunch of CT guys drove up(Mickey Lauria in his T tub and Kevin Maloney in his shortened T touring among them).I have pics of that car taken at Sturbridge MA rod run when it was in gray primer.Beautiful car,
The KKOA show pic you can just see Jimmie DeCotis' 34 Ford coupe.Mike Guiffrieda from PV speed built most of it and Kelsey flamed it.I striped it over the speed shop on Main St Malden just before the cemetery.

 

I have the roadster pickup Christy built around 1978 Drive it every where,still has the black laquer paint and all Rays pin striping intact even the frame is striped as when built.

 

Welcome aboard RPU 1929...How 'bout some pics ?? Oh, and you might want to do an intro before some guys jump on you !!!

 

wow there is so much in this thread that i want to talk about!! i have to read it again ,and make notes, and collect my senses!! i am sooo excited your shedding lite on christy!! an over the top fantastic craftman, and FRIEND!!!!!!!!

 

Just another quick note about George's 63 Ford.If you'll notice in the picture the car doesn't have a windshield.As I recall there was a problem with the convertible body flexing enough that it kept breaking windshields.If I recall they put about 3 or 4 windshields in the car and when I saw it at Lead East around 2000 the windshield it still had a crack in it.

 

Black laquer with Ray's pin striping .....

 

If I am not mistaken, the 32 3w is Jim Maltaglioti's car from Glastonbury CT. He bought it in about 61-62 and still owns it. It was a Calif. hot rod when he got it and has been through several renditions in the past 50 yrs which he has owned it. It is once again being 'freshened' up. Gone is the v-belt 471 huffed small block in favor of a more street friendly small block. A few changes to the chassis/suspension but all the original lead work from the chop done back then. The car has been in a few mags over the years and is in the Rod n Custom hard cover book that came out a few years back.