Yeah, please delete those, you've muddied a great thread, then Rikster and I will delete these, and it'll be like it never happened.
Heres a couple from the mid 1970's... In the first pic, taken in Santa Rosa, CA in 1976, a '56 Olds and '51 Merc which were both chopped by Vallejo Body Works, but about 16 years apart...the Olds was built in 1958 and the Merc was started in around 1974. The next pics are of the same Merc and a '49 Ford Convertible (with a Vicky roof) taken at a street maching show in San Jose around 1977. The Ford was supposedly built in the late '50's, but the owner never found any proof of it. The Olds and Merc were later featured in Street Rodder Magazine, July 1978 , while the Ford was featured in the March 1979 issue.
Billy Crewl shared a few more great photos from the Jack Calori photo album with the Custom Car Photo archive. This time some photos of Jack's own world famous 1936 Ford coupe. which he bought in 1947. The car will be auctioned at the Mecum Auction in Anaheim this weekend. And it will be very interesting to see where the car will go and for how much. But lets get back to this photo from Jacks own photo album. It shows the car shortly after Herb Reneau was done with the body work on the car. He had chopped the top, smoothed the rear fenders, created the set in license plate, added the 1941 Hudson taillights close to the plate, and added the 1939 LaSalle grille in the newly shaped front and molded in a set of 1940 Chevy headlights. But the car was still in primer in this photo, and the 1941 Ford bumpers have not yet been installed here either. Another photo from the Jack Calori Collection shows the front of Jack's 1936 Ford shortly after all the body work was done by Herb Reneau. This a bit blurry photo shows the work that Herb did to the front. Here he removed the original 1936 Ford grille, shaped a new steel panel to fill the hole and made a new opening to fit the 1939 La Salle grille. Herb also set a set of 1940 Chevy headlights low on the front fenders and removed the hinge in the hood top and welded the two pieces together to form a solid hood. The hood sides are all smooth units. Possibly aftermarket units. Later a set of louvres was punched into them, but they are not there yet in this photo. This front view also shows that the 1941 Ford bumpers have not yet been installed at this time.
Thank goodness folks were taking pictures all along - never mind actually saving them for us to enjoy now. Thanks for the images everyone!! Dave
Baremetal48---Here is a scan from Hot Rods Custom Painting Special from 86. It`s Harold 48 in primer.
Chop32-Here are the scans of the three cars you mentioned in your post. It was pretty rare to be featured in a magazine in that time period. Enjoy. I`m sure some of you guys will remember them.
Thanks Stanlow for posting the pics! Id forgotten that they mistakenly said the Olds was owned by Al Asnicar, he was the owner of the Merc...the Olds was owned by Earl Steen. All 3 of these cars were from my hometown of Vallejo Ca.
The merc came east in the 80,s and was painted bright fire cherry with Riviera sidetrim ala "Cool 50" It was awesome. It was owned by hardcore custon fan Al Liverman who also owned the Venturian 56 Chevy Convert by the A Bros.
I often wondered where the Merc ended up, glad it went to a good home. The Olds is about 5 miles up the road from me and has undergone a mechanical restoration, Ive heard that the '49 Ford is somewhere in the Bay Area with its headlites cut off and a black rattle can job covering the chrome dash.
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