History Lost? 1951 Ford Vicky Dick Dean Custom

Hey Fellas, close friend of mine, sent me pictures of his old '51 Ford Custom. Car was sold, before it ever was completed. just for fun, thought I would try and track it down, to see if it still exists. Hell, for all I know, could be in Sweden. Here's how much of the story I know.
Bert Kager, from Santa Anna brought this '51 Ford Shoebox, to Dick Dean's shop to be customized. The whole deal went bad and he threw in the towel. He said, from what he remembers, "What I remember is this, 55 Desoto Grill, Olds head light rings , tail lights 65 Nash Presidential I think, all corners rounded license plate area filled in ,nosed and peaked hood, side spears removed, 53 Buick side trim, frenched antenna in a music note, Carson top, Desoto bumpers? Rolled pans to bumper, custom high arched rear fender skirts, shaved door handles,65 T bird interior,and bumpers smoothed. I think that's most of it. Also car start as 51 Victoria, gas door replaced, mustang Fuel tank with filler in trunk, false trunk floor, car was chopped six inches and had power windows

 

A few more pictures.

 

He nor I have any real interest in buying it, just for fun, to see whatever happened to it.

 

jakespeed63...

Interesting post & pics ! I can see by the date on the pic above that the car at was at Dick's shop in 1993. But what does "The whole deal went bad and he threw in the towel." mean ??

NOTE: The taillights are '65 AMC. They're from the Rambler Ambassador (you were close !). My Dad had a '66 Ambassador...really pretty good car.

Good luck in finding out where the '51 is !

Jonnie www.legends.thewwbc.net

 

TO THROW IN THE TOWEL IS TO GIVE UP & WALK AWAY WHAT A SHAME

 

Was able to gather a little bit more info, on the Vicky.
Apparently Dick's son, Keith, did some of the handy-work. Motor out of the car, at the time, but was a
fully built Merc flathead. Had Edelbrock heads three pot manifold , 97 carbs, Fenton headers.
Sold to Bill Papke who had a little shop that specialized in 49-51 Ford and Mercury's in Huntington Beach.
OK, that's all I know.
JT

 

Still searching. Saw a mild custom '51 Victoria, at last weeks Billetproof.
Man', they look cool with the stock roof.

JT

 

If you throw in the towel in a boxing match,
means I am tired of getting beat up, I quit..

 

"Sold to Bill Papke who had a little shop that specialized in 49-51 Ford and Mercury's in Huntington Beach."

When Bill Papke passed away a couple of years ago, HAMBer "Justin B" handled liquidating the bulk of Merc/shoebox parts inventory. I don't know if he had any involvement in actual cars, but maybe contact him to see if he knows what direction the car went if it was part of the estate...

 

H.R.T.H., Thanks, I will.

verde742, Following through on these major projects, takes allot of persistance, money and passion.. Sometimes peoples life takes major turns and they just loose steam and interest. Right now, I am going through some crap, that is slowing down mine, to the point, that sometimes I wonder what the hell I'm doing. Not easy, but if it was, everybody would be doing it.
JT

 

Well, it's been a few months, since my last post. So many old cars, coming out of hibernation. Still curious, if this one still exists. Not necessarily an old Custom, but worth digging up.
JT

 

I was a very nice kustom ! and those tailights are awesome ! thanks for sharing those pics

 

Winding up 2015 with this "Lost and Found" post. Still in search of any info.
Also going to send it to the boys at KustomRama online encyclopedia. http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Lost_and_Found

Happy New Year to all my Hamb family. Praying that 2016 is better than this one.

JT