Event Coverage The 1982 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular

Truly like looking at color photos from the small books. The styles are what we would now called dated, but they held on to the look that they remembered/owned/built.
I remember reading about Lee Pratt's Buick build in Street Rodder, it was shoved way in the back of the book as an afterthought. At first I thought 'Low Rider', having been living in Oxnard Ca at the time which was the hot bed of Low Riders. But as I watched/read the build it was like 'Wow" that is really cool stuff, as back then the Buick was in-between the Model A hot rods and the 55 Chevy street machines that were in the High School Parking lot.
As for the Harry Benton Bradley design,, it was Car Art and still is.

 

Yellow Ford is a sweetie.

 

That the Jack Stewart ford? These posts are awesome, finding photos like these are what I dream of when I wander three estate sales thumbing threw piles.

Thanks for posting them for us

 

That sectioned 49-51 Ford hard top used to run around Dayton Ohio up until the early 2000's

 

The hotel photos are (I believe) the Howard Johnson's on Merle Hay Road. In 1982 I was 5 and lived 1 mile from there. I was hoping to see my dad in the background somewhere.

As for cars, I did recognize a few, but they might be just local Iowa cars I remember from back then.

 

I was there with my ex and my 3 year old daughter. Doesn't seem like that long ago. Got a lot of pics from that show, most of the Merc Deuce shows, and several KKOA shows. Need to figure out how to post them. I give Titus and gang a lot of credit for those shows.

 

Yes it is. Thanks for posting these Ryan and thanks to Lee for sharing them.

 

Not to hijack, but here's another person's coverage of the event. http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/NitroMarty/vehicles/35902

 

These are so awesome. I remember the shoebox with the Olds grille but don't remember the owner's name. Yellow '36 was Posie of course, and the maroon Chevy hardtop was Richard Glymph's (in fact that's Richard tuning it up in the hotel parking lot). Lee's Buick has always been a favorite. It's great to see all these photos.

 

LP getting the love....

 

This one is Marlyn Englert's 56. The car has been a custom since he bought it new in 56. The car is amazing in person - especially now that Marlyn redid the car. See the whole story here: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Marlyn_Englert's_1956_Chevrolet

 

Wow! There were quite a few tasteful customs there and of course Pratt's beautiful Buick. Great stuff!

 

I remember a lot of these from my days as a youngster longing to have a cool custom. Of course I am a huge fan of Sonny Daout's blue Dodge. This white shoebox was a Wichita car. I believe the owner was Tony Sackett (?), I met him once. He was a friend of my grandparents' neighbor.

 

Thanks for sharing pics & stories & info

 

Great pics!

 

nice collection of kustoms

 

This one is Jack Peed's.
It was previously in the little pages in lime green, with a Nailhead Buick and Packard box. The last I knew, it was Chevy powered. I believe Sonny Daout (owner/builder of the blue Dodge) may have had a hand in it.
It has since moved to the West Coast, and been redone. Still looks good!



This one belonged to Jim Wilkens.



To the best of my memory, the Merc with the Pontiac grille was crowned "King of the Mercs" at the first Merc/Deuce Reunion. It was named "So Fine", and I believe was owned by Bud Millard. (I'm surprised to find that I can't find confirmation, as I consider that pretty significant.)
Millard went on to restore Bill Cushenberry's "Marquis" 1956 Ford, and remedy the horrible rear wheel radius (with Cushenberry's blessing), as well as Cushenberry's "Limelighter" 1958 Chevy (which he had chopped).

 

I was there, but just 15 years old. I was probably most impressed by the Posies cabriolet back then, but now looking at the pics I see there were a lot more important cars there. I recognize a whole lot of them from back then, and even more from my 50's magazines.

 

Because I'm bored at work, I did some internetting, and the SO FINE Merc was owned by Bob Johnson, of Council Bluffs, Ia. I read that in 85 it was flamed and went east somewhere.

 

The 57 Chevy truck and that maroon, chopped 54 bel air are pretty sweet...wonder where either of them are now

 

This is

I didn`t know Maryln owned this back then. At this show He had the chopped yellow 50 Chevy coupe with chrome reverse wheels with blackwalls. It was the one that had power everything with the switches in the console.

 

I t is rare that you didn`t see Bob Johnsons from Council Bluffs Iowa 50 Merc, So Fine sitting next to his 40 Merc-Sweeter Than Wine. I rarely saw these two cars not together. You can see his 40 sitting next to Sonny Daouts Blue Dodge. It is in Wisconsin in a private collection.

 

I think my dad took 10 or 12 pictures of this car. He really liked the Ford. When we left the show the first day, we went straight to the store to buy more film for our cameras. About 7 or 8 years ago, we saw the same car at the KKOA show in Salina. The car looked like it did in 82.

 

Great pics. Some of these cars look like they could have been built in 1959, 1985, or last week, they're timeless, and others are clearly 1980's builds although traditionally styled for the most part. I think the current crop of traditional customs will fall into one of those two categories as well, 30 years from now.

 

YES! Lee's Buick was/is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Very Kool pics thanks for posting them. Oh how I wish that I could go back in time. If I could I wouldn't have missed a KKOA show.