Customs SEARCH FOR LONG LOST CUSTOM - CAN YOU HELP?

I was contacted through my car club plaque website after Barry Thompson wrote and sent a photo of his brother's car club plaque that he ended up with .....

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He was looking for info about what the WWTA was. He also mentioned that his older brother, Larry Thompson (born in 1937), had passed away a couple of years ago. His brother had a chopped 50 Chevy coupe in the 50's and he wondered if I knew anything about the car.

To make a long story short, Barry ending up coming to stay the winter here in Lake Havasu City and brought some photos of the car that I will post here. This is what it looked like after he aquired the car .....



In this photo you can see the louvered hood and 55 Chevy type headlight brows.

 

Here are a few more photos of the car in the early stages. You can also see the lakes plugs under the door and that all the stock chrome has been removed. It was also decked when these photos were taken .....

 

Here are some photos of the car after it was chopped and one unique feature is the 57 Chevy truck grill and surround. The rear wheel opening has also been reworked and a scoop cut into the front of the rear fender .....

 

Barry was told the car had a Pontiac engine with three carbs but in the photo he has it looks like an OHV 6 and I'm not sure Pontiac ever made one. The only reason could be that it came out of a Canadian Pontiac that actually used Chevrolet engines.



A close up of the rear wheel opening and what looks like a 56 Buick porthole in front of the rear bumper .....

 

Here are the final four photos of the car that were taken just after it was painted and before the grill was installed .....

 

Note that the final photos have a November, 1959 date on them. Barry's brother lived in the Greenwood, WA area when the car was being built and he remembers a story that the car was sold to an oriental guy in the Puyallup, WA area when his brother went into the service. He's wondering if anyone can help him track the car down, as he'd like to know if it's still around.

Here are some other custom touchs that may help identify it ....

It was chopped by a shop in the Seattle area. The louvered hood also had the front corners rounded. Barry was told it had frenched 53 Buick taillights, but in the fuzzy photo of the rear end, I don't think they are. They may be 52 Buick. I also can't tell what that heavy looking split rear bumper is. The car was painted a 1958 Pontiac Burma Lime color and it had a cartoon of Thumper painted on the front fender.

If anyone had info about this car or know what happened to it, please respond to this thread and I'll pass the info on to Barry.

Thanks,

Bill Junge
Lake Havasu City, AZ

 

Check with Rainguy here on the hamb. Dick Page may remember that car. Lots of Japanese farmers in the Puyallup Valley back then. WWTA is the Western Washington Timing Association I believe. Good Luck.

 

Starting this thread on Christmas Eve probably wasn't a good idea so I'm giving it this bump on Saturday AM for the people that may have missed it.

Hoping that some HAMBer will know the car and provide info about what happened to it.

 

Thats a be-a-u-ti-ful custom!
Being to young and more three thousands miles away, I got nothing else to offer, except a BTT for a deserving case!

This car deserves a clone or a recreation!

 

Cool car. Western Washington Timing Association would be my guess on the plaque.

 

I'm also pretty sure WWTA is the Western Washington TA but don't know if they are still an active association. I've tried contacting some of the people that sent plaque photos for other clubs in the WWTA but have come up empty.

 

I like what was done to it. Hopefully it can be found. I want to see what it looks like today. Anyway, I haven't seen it in the Midwest.

 

Creative Castings in Tacoma Wa. may have car club plaques with the WWTA on them. They are not active anymore. Check them out. They have a website.

 

The motor in that cool custom just looks to be a 216" Chevy 6 w/3 carbs to me. BTW Bullet Nose, did you ever happen to be a TRT member in the LA chapter?

 

Not me. I grew up in Redondo Beach and belonged to a couple of clubs in the South Bay.

 

Bump for February.
Still looking for info about this car.
Anyone?

 

Did you check with Dick Page? He may know.

 

I tried sending him a PM (or whatever you call it now) yesterday.

 

Another bump for March.

 

Seeing Ryan's thread about 49-52 Chevrolet customs reminded me of this one I started.

So here's a bump for you April Fools.

 

No info on it but neat car and great in-progress photos.

 

Missed giving this a bump last month but I'm still interested in getting info about this car, if there is any.

 

Great looking car!! I can't give you any info but I hope somebody has something for you.

 

The chop is spot on,headlights resemble caddy,nice car!

 

That car was seen on a regular basis in Kent, Wa.. '59-'60 with a bunch of Jap teenagers in it. I think one of them went to Kent-Meridian High school. The car was known for parking at the shell station full of kids and everyone of them filling the car up with cigerette smoke until you couldn't see in or out.. That's all I got. I was there.

 

Thanks for your interesting input. I'm still hoping that someone will know what happened to the car and I'll give this thread a bump every once-in-awhile.

 

Three months have passed since my last bump and I thought I'd try again to see if anyone has info about this car.

 

This is 2/25/16. In the late 50's I belonged to the Igniters (Renton,Wa.) If you look at the plaque on the Western Washington Timing Association site you can see the letters WWTA spread out across the plaque. This was indeed for the Western Washington Timing Association. I have never seen this car in Kent, although it may have been there. I went to Kent Meridian class of '56, wife class of '59. I stayed active with the cars and kids there so I would have been familiar with it. Strangely enough several years ago we pulled a 1951 Chev coupe out of the brush, not your car, and it has a (2) row louvered hood on it. It has been leaded down the center seam. The hood does not belong to this car. I will phone my son and have him look to see if the corners are rounded. There was a Japanese kid from Auburn, next town over, who was really into cars and may give you some info. His name is Ben Tichakawa, may be spelled wrong. Hs parents owned a pottery business in Auburn. I still am in contact with a Kent guy that we got the coupe from. If the hood is the correct one, I will phone him and see where it goes from there. I think the hood is painted a light purple? but could have been repainted. The coupe my Son has is in Maple Valley, currently I am living in Georgia. Feel free to contact me if you would like. [email protected]. PS If anyone out there has an Igniters plaque with the WWTA on it I would be willing to pay pretty good for it.

 

Dick Page passed,, But Bob Jasper in Tacoma, Wash. Might know a lot.
Jaspers Upholstery..knows good stuff.

 

March, 2016 Update .....

Barry returned to winter here in Arizona and gave me the following copies of a 2 page magazine article that featured his brother's car. It does say the car was owned by Del Wiggins from Kent, WA and it's believed he was the guy that did the work on the car.





Yesterday I spoke with Dan Holms and he will be checking with some of his contacts as the search for info about this cool car continues.