As a teen I was always fascinated by Bill Cushenberry's Silouette after getting the AMT kit. I read some where that the car was stolen & never seen again, can any one of our very knowledgeable HAMB brothers shed some light on this. Has it ever been found? Thanks in advance.
A little bit more about right here from 2012. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bill-cushenberrys-silhouete.759454/
Thanks Sporty45 that answers a lot of my questions, & tells me I should use the search function more accurately . LOL
What's funny is that I didn't search here for info, I did a google search and it led me right back here!
Look for a really awful 1965 beach movie, called Beach Ball. It featured the Silhouette in an action scene, and quite a few other show cars of the day at an indoor car show including the Barris Surf Woodie, Gene Winfield's Franciscan, and more from the Ford Custom Car Caravan.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/where-is-the-bill-cushenbery-silhouette.814678/ good stuff here, any updates?
The Silhouette was mentioned by name in the trailer. Along with a bunch of pretty well known musical groups groups. Silhouette did some genuine street driving. May have to find it somewhere to watch
One of the coolest cars from my childhood. Built the model several times, had the Hot Wheels, cut the pix out of the mags. That car ruled.
Hi Bill was my dad's best friend. All I know from What Bill told us years ago is that the car was stolen in 1983 in Bakersfield. He never got over the fact that it was never recovered. He believed that who ever took it either buried it or completely destroyed it. It's anyone's guess really and even Bill had his guesses. I do hope that if it is not destroyed that one day it will be found. It would be awesome
Cushenbery was a genius in the custom car world, I had always wondered about the silhouette too, pretty hard to hide a car like that. Heard a rumor once that someone had a few parts from it and was going to clone the rest.... Here is a few pics of my Cushenbery car the car craft dream rod Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
the Silhouette was built on a shortened Buick chassis, while the car craft dream rod is on a 1952 Jowett Jupiter chassis
Is that what he said?? I always wondered what the hell he was talking about when he said that lol!! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A mate of mine was involved in the restoration of a Cushenberry car whilst he lived in Calif. (maybe 15, 20 years ago?)... though I think it may have been Silouette II. I’ll chase him down and see if he still has the pics he showed me.
Sometime in the mid 70s I took a dining room table to be stripped of its finish to a shop in Bakersfield CA. Shop was in that old warehouse @ 24th St. and North Chester. In the back of the shop sat the Silhouette, its chrome all rusty, top cloudy and scratched and painted in the obligatory lime green metal flake that all old customs seem to end up in. Found this photo on the internet a few years ago to confirm my memory was probably correct. That looks like a Bakersfield background.
The mystery continues. It has been my thought that more of the historic vehicles were destroyed than saved. Whenever I look at the 60's mags and wonder what happened, I'm very aware of how few I have seen in the last 30 years. That includes drag cars also.
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