I guess there's always a chance, but I find it hard to believe that they would change it that much and remove goodies like the Desoto grille. Man, we need some good color pictures of this car! E
The customer brought his car by a couple weeks ago, It was the first time I met him so I didn`t want to ask him 20 questions. But I did meet a guy from Trenton Missouri at The Leadsleds in Salina and asked him about the 59 Ford Convertible owned by Bill Wilson. He said he was there Friday(didn`t get to meet him) and he still has the car and drives it on a current basis. It is still unchanged. I told him about this thread and he was gonna tell Bill about it. Hopefully we will find out something soon. With current pic`s.
Talked to the builder at a KKOA show in the 80s or 90s, and I remember him saying it was a Camaro rear window.
I don't claim to be a traditional custom expert like many (most) of you guys are, but I wonder if this thread should concentrate on more classically-styled customs. Camaro windows, 80's Cadillac taillights and tilt/tele columns, and any square bumper that has a rubber strip just don't do it for me. There's gotta be more customs out there from the 80's, built with the right parts, that we could be searching for. Let the abominations stay hidden. OK, I'm ducking now. Fire away. .
Regarding DeWitt's car, I believe it was bought by a guy who owned a garage in Roselle, NJ. I talked with the Powells every year at the Gettysburg events, and they told me. Yes it was a Camaro rear window, and I have seen, probably 3 Mercs with that done to them. Not a huge fan, but it does catch the eye. Being from NJ, though, I haven't seen the Merc around anywhere. Could just be sitting in a garage somewhere. It's not a car you would miss!
You have to understand, these were built when the Street Rods were painted with easter egg colors and painted bumpers. Not to mention the graphics, Very few Rods had wide whites. Unlike the customs. Very few after market parts were available and the cars were driven for the most part. Unlike today. This traditional fad(for most people) didn`t start until about 20 years ago. Thus the traditional Hot Rod and Custom shows with no Billet allowed. Sorta an anti Goodguys crowd.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 127. 1946 Chevy Coupe Owner: Tom DeRosa Colorado Springs, Colorado This week's car is one that I thought it would be pretty easy to find information on. Well, after months of searching, I've come up with very little. This custom is one with a "pedigree" as it was built by Donn Lowe of "Lowe's Customs" back when Donn lived in Colorado Springs. Donn is one of the great custom builders that not many people know about. He has built numerous customs over the years and they have all been standout cars. The best information I found on the car was on video. It was at the 1983 Leadsled Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio. That year the car was there in primer, and looked like it was real close to being ready for paint. The car then re-appeared at the Spectacular again in 1984 in Des Moines, Iowa. One of Rowdie's gals did an interview with the owner Tom, and he gave a quick description of the car. The thing he seemed to like the most is that the car was set on a Monte Carlo frame. He made no mention of the slight top chop the car had. The car's grille was pretty much stock with the top bar either being molded or painted body color. The rest of the grille was '48 Chevy in bright chrome. The hood was filled and peaked. The bumpers were shaved and it had a frenched antenna in the driver's side fender. The "Fleetmaster" chrome spear on the hood sides was still present, but the door handles were shaved. Out back the trunk was shaved and the license plate was relocated to the bumper surrounded by a '49 Chevy license plate guard. It had personalized Colorado plates that read "48SLED". The stock taillights were molded. It still had the stock hinges mounted on the outside of the trunk. The car had been painted and was a nice purple color that Tom said was a 1975 Cadillac color. I watched the '85 video closely and I wasn't able to spot the car. The car reappeared on the 1986 video from the Spectacular in Springfield, Missouri. On that video the car looked like it had been re-painted red or an orange close to red. Remember, I am watching a grainy video on an ancient TV, so the color might be off. After the '86 video, I found no more footage of the car. All my searching in books and magazines turned up very little. The only place I found the car was in the show coverage of the 1983 Spectacular in the January '84 issue of Classic and Custom on page 35. Its a small black and white photo, but its a nice shot of the rear of the car. As far as internet picture searching, I found nothing. Every time I found a picture that I thought was the Lowe/DeRosa coupe, closer inspection of the pictures proved it to be another car. This body style of Chevy has always been a popular choice for customizing, so as you can imagine, there are tons of pictures of them out there. Unfortunately I found none of this custom in particular. I had a hunch that maybe the Lowe/DeRosa Chevy is the Shane Savage car now owned by Rich Cordova that has been extensively re-worked over the last 20 years or so. Since Shane and Rich are from the Colorado Springs area, it would make sense, but again, this is just a hunch. So there we have it, another custom that may be lost, or may be in a town near you wearing a new look and prowling the streets. We'll see what turns up on this one. Until next week, we'll see you later! E
Not Shane's. "Shane Savage owns the car, he's one of my fellow Lonely Knights. It wasn't chopped until he fell asleep and rolled the car. Dave Pareso, (also a Lonely Knight), at Backstreet Kustoms chopped it and put it back together. It's now a Rose colored primer with no flames. Very cool chop on that Chevy." From this thread: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/barris-built-high-school-confidential-chevys.193178/
@chopolds's buddy Manny did the Monte Carlo frame swap on Tom's Chevy. @OG lil E I believe Donn is with 2 n's....
Found this on Kustomrama. 1948 Chevy by Donn Lowe, the only info was that it was "built in 1977"... LOTS of similarities. Is it possible it got fade-away fenders later?
Although this question has already been addressed, I will mention that I'm pretty sure Rich has sold his Chevy.
Thanks for posting such great pictures @Sancho! I don't know how you find the information you do. I'll correct Donn's name (lol)! I'm always behind. I didn't know that Rich sold his Chevy. I never knew it was for sale. I don't think I could have parted with that one. Its such a sweet car. E
Here is a pic of Tom`s Chevy I took in Springfield Missouri KKOA show in 86. I think Donn was driving it at the time. I recognized him and had to take a picture of the Chevy. Donn was high on my list of builders then, and still is. It still has the Cadillac color Ed mentioned above. Looks like it is close to the one Sancho posted with fadeaway fenders, even the color is close. Maybe even the same kind of hubcaps.
Looking at the front photo that Jim posted, the molded upper grill bar seems to match the fadeaway car as well.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 128. 1950 Mercury Owners: Lee and Adie Krueger Richland, Nebraska How can anyone that's into customs not love a chopped Mercury? Lee and Adie Krueger built one in the 80s that had all the good stuff. Nicely proportioned chop, rounded corners, louvers, custom grille and on and on. One of the things I really like about this car is their choice of wheel covers. The Plymouth Satellite covers have always been a favorite of mine, but aren't used on Mercs much due to the fact that they are 14 inch. To me, the Krueger's Merc looked great from top to bottom. Lee and Adie Krueger seemed to take to the smaller KKOA shows. Their favorite seemed to be the "Last Pass" show that was in Des Moines in the late 80s. I did extensive searching and I wasn't able to find it on any Leadsled Spectacular or Sled Scene East videos that I have. As far as pictures go, my usual internet sources came up empty. The first pictures featured in this week's post were sent to me by @PasoJohn who took them himself at the "Last Pass" show in Des Moines in 1988. Thanks John for sending me the pics! John told me that he remembers seeing the Kruegers many times at the Last Pass over the years. The Kruegers car had a unique interior that was maroon and white candy striped tuck'n'roll. The one thing in the interior that was an unusual choice was the chain steering wheel. Common in lowriders but rare in a custom. Looking for other pictures and information in books and magazines didn't turn up very much. The only other picture I found of the Merc was from the second KKOA book on page 35. According to the book, the Kruegers still owned the car as of the time of the book's printing (2003). The car had under gone a color change from the reddish purple to a brilliant gold, but other than that the car looked pretty much unchanged (at least from what I can tell from the picture). The candy stripe tuck'n'roll was still present. After the 2003 KKOA book I found nothing more on this rare leadsled Merc. I hope that Lee and Adie are still enjoying the neat Merc they put together over 30 years ago. Where does the time go? Until next time, see you around..........E
I remember that merc from the last pass shows. If you look at the first pic you can see @PasoJohn s 61 chev in the background
You can also see Ron Nelson's '56 Buick (Onyx, W.E.H.T. # 101) in the background (to the left) in that first photo.
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