I searched last night and again this morning. I thought this one would not be hard to find but so far absolutely nothing. I wonder if Joe was inspired by the Aztec... Photo from Rik's Archive.
Could be @Sancho. Lots of similarities in those profiles! Man, I hope something turns up on Mr. Post's Mercury. I'd love to see more of it than just the one photo from the KKOA book! E
Man, I have no recollection of ever seeing it in person. and that is not a car that would be easy to forget!!
I know it’s kind of hard to see these but this is an article in a Lincoln Land Kustoms newsletter from 1988 that shows George West and Joe Post working on Joe’s Mercury. I have quite a few of the LLK newsletters from 84-94 and Joe Post was definitely a member and I think I have some more articles on his build but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to look tonight. I’ll see tomorrow if I can find anything!
Here's yet another update on What Ever Happened To..........? number 36. 1967 El Camino Owner: Howard Henry Picked up a "Street Rod Round-Up" (auto trader type magazine) on the way home this evening when we had to stop at the grocery store. Was surprised to see this:
Wow, that's a lot of money when you consider what the El sold for at the last auction. It drives me nuts when someone buys a car just to make money on it. I'm sure there are many, many folks out there that would have bought it to use, cruise and enjoy and could care less about ever selling it to get paid. E
Yup, I think that sold for 9 grand at a mecum sale just 6 months ago.... Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
@sideswipe Also @Sum54ford George always had a passenger with him when he went to KKOA shows, would of Joe went with him. Or did he(Joe) take one of his other cars.
It sounds like George used to travel all over with his Mercury for events and Lincoln Land Kustoms functions. I don't know if Joe cruised with him much, but in one of the memorial articles @Sum54ford posted it mentioned that George was very close to his grand daughter Monica. On the 1985 Leadsled video from Springfield, Ohio, Lincoln Land Kustoms were honored as "Koolest Club". Towards the end of the video Rowdie lined up the club members and each one gave their names. Among the members were Jon Gullet, Ed Lepold and George. George's grand daughter was there with the club too. She was also standing with George when he was interviewed at the '86 Spectacular in Springfield, Missouri as well. One of Rowdie's gals asked him questions about his Merc and he gave a good run down on the car. He mentioned that the girl with him was his grand daughter. Sounds like they were very close. E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 163. 1955 Ford Crown Victoria Owners: Wayne and Judy Thompson Holton, Michigan I have learned so much in doing this thread and enjoyed the many conversations we've had. We've talked about how many '49-'51 Mercurys were red in the 80s. We've mentioned how bright yellow customs were more popular back then too. We've also touched on how a pair of customs (no matter the make) looked very similar and could be confused for each other. This week's custom falls into the last category. Have any of you out there actually stopped and thought about how many '55 and '56 Ford Crown Victoria customs there were back then? In researching this week's car it seemed like every 7 or 8 out of every 10 were pink and white. That made researching this car tricky, but I think I have the information relatively straight. In researching this car, it seems like the first time Mr. and Mrs. Thompson took their '55 to the Leadsled Spectacular was in Holland, Michigan in 1992. The car was all over the place on the '92 video cruising around and looking sharp. The car was relatively mild, as these Crown Victorias looked customized from the factory. The one thing on this Crown that made it easier to identify from all the others was the rose air brushed on the Connie kit. Also, the triple cap lake pipes and bubble skirts helped out as well. The interior was done in pink and white like many others, but one thing that stood out for me was the use of angel hair on the sunvisors. Very unusual yet very cool! I watched my other videos looking for more footage of the car but found nothing. I was a little surprised that I didn't see it on the other Michigan Leadsled videos. These include Holland in 1988 and 1990, and Lansing in 1995 and 1997. I guess the Thompsons only made it to Holland that one year (1992). The Thompsons did submit a picture of their car to the KKOA for their first book (1993). It was accepted and proudly printed on page 174. In the picture you can see the rose on the Continental kit and the really cool sunken taillights. This was the only picture I found of the car in print--at least I think. Like I mentioned before, there were so many custom '55 and '56 Crown Victorias in pink and white back then that I might have missed the car thinking it was another. Maybe it was further customized and changed making it hard to tell if this was still the Thompson's '55. Since I couldn't come up with any other printed pictures and nothing online, I decided to take a few from the DVD frozen on my computer. I've said many times before that I really don't like doing this, but I'm going to start doing it on feature cars that I can't find many pictures of to help keep things rolling along. These were from the '92 video. The first picture is a shot of the front of the car showing the nice tube grille and how clean these cars look with the door handles shaved. The next picture is of the dual frenched antennas. Always a nice touch on any custom. The last picture I took was of the wild angel hair style sunvisors. I've always liked crazy stuff like this. They remind me of a pair of wild orange angel hair fuzzy dice that my late friend Lefty had in his custom quite a few years ago. Ironically, it was a '56 Ford, but it was a basic sedan and not a Crown. Well, yet another custom without a whole lot of history. I hope that some of you custom faithful can fill in the gaps and send some other information our way. I was finally able to get out and cruise a little last weekend and enjoy some nice weather. I hope you did too! I don't know when I'll get another chance as another spring storm is set to blow through here in the next few days. Let's hope the snowy weather is almost outta here! Until next time, have a good one! E
There were a lot of them that were pink/white. However, this one is reverse of most which had pink below the trim and white over it. That will help narrow it down some.
Flipping the pink and white must have been a popular thing to do with these Fords. I found two other Crown Vics that had the same pink with white below the trim. One in particular was called "Ramblin' Rose". I think it was on the 1993 Sled Scene East DVD. The car had the same pink over white and a Connie kit with no picture on it. I came to the conclusion that it was a different car as a guy would have had to undo some of the custom mods on it for it to be the same car. The "Ramblin' Rose" had stock style taillights, no frenched antennas and a fairly stock grille. E
Undoing the tail lights and grille would have been fairly easy, the frenched antennas would have required a little more. Maybe it is the same car. Back in the early '80's, there was a Crown Victoria from Lancaster, Ohio that used to show up at the old car club show at their fairgrounds, with red cobwebs over some light gold pearl. The biggest thing I recall about it was that the roof had been cut out between the stainless band and the windshield, like an old town car style limousine.
Ed, did you notice the large numbers of 55- 56 Fords at the show in Holland in 92. And a bunch of them had continental kits. Sorry, no pic`s of this one.
Yes, there were quite a few. I wonder if they all organized the get together at the '92 Spectacular or it was just a coincidence. E I tried to see what it said but the video was too blurry. Another mystery..........E
John B asked this question last week and he managed to find the answer himself. I have to admit that I haven't had as much time lately to devote to research with work, yard work and all the other stuff all of us have to do once the weather starts warming up. I appreciate any information that you guys dig up as it helps keep this thread moving along. So, for all of you that were wondering what the front plate of the Thompson's '55 was, here's a picture of it John B sent me. Thanks John! E
I FOUND THIS CAR! A guy I work with inherited it from his grand father. It lived in Springfield mi up until 2 summers ago. Still looks the same. He's been driving it in the summer here in minnesota!
What Ever Happened To..........? number 164. 1958 Buick Owners: Paul and Betty Sumrell Virginia Beach, Virginia This week's car is another in a long list of cars that didn't seem to be around very long. It also fits into the category of customs that were hard to find information on. Paul Sumrell and his '58 Buick did make it to the Leadsled Spectacular, but I can't say for sure how many times. I think I might have caught a glimpse of it at the '83 Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio, but it was a shot that was very quick and I couldn't tell if it was Mr. Sumrell's '58 Buick or another one. I do know that he was at the '85 Spectacular, again in Springfield, Ohio. It was there where a historic custom event took place that we have touched on in this thread a few times. Rowdie (@49toad) gathered a group of Buick customs together for short interviews with each owner telling a little about their cars. The late Harold Olsen did the interviews. There were eight in all, but one Buick (a '57) that was sitting in the row was never identified and the owner was never interviewed. The other seven were awesome Buick customs, a few of which became fairly famous in their time. The first Buick was a black '58 belonging to Richard Anglin from Springfield, Ohio. The second was our featured car this week, Paul Sumrell's red '58. Paul mentioned that his car was Chevy powered "unfortunately", but he was building a '59 that was "all Buick". The next car was Harold and Gail Olsen's '54. The fourth car of the set was a '59 Buick that belonged to Connie Winkler (W.E.H.T. #8). Number five was the wildly scalloped '55 Buick of Jerry and Mavis Newman of Madrid, Iowa (W.E.H.T. #14). Number six was a great '55 Buick 4 door hardtop owned by the late Ron Nelson. I guess Ron was camera shy as his daughter Adair did the interview with Harold. She did a good job and didn't seem to mind the spotlight at all. Mr. Nelson had another Buick that we covered earlier in this thread. It was a great '56 2 door hardtop affectionately known as "The Onyx". Ron's '56 was W.E.H.T. #101. The next Buick was a '54 that belonged to Roger Weller (W.E.H.T. #39). Roger's brother Ron did the interview, explaining that he had the car there at the show for Roger, who was back in Annapolis, Maryland. The last Buick of the group was a '55 belonging to John Keow of Holland, Michigan. This car had a chopped lift off top, canted quads and was sitting on a complete '76 Olds 98 floor and chassis. The car was still under construction, but it was eventually finished and was a stunner! This was quite a gathering of Buick customs. You rarely see things like this today. At the '85 Spectacular, Paul's '58 was painted red and had semi-rare polished stainless skirts that matched up to the lower quarter panel trim. There has never really been many '58 Buick customs, so seeing one is something to remember. After the '85 show, the sightings stopped, although I have read in a few different places that Paul used to frequent Sled Scene East. I don't know which years, but I never saw the car on any of my Sled Scene East videos. The car was featured in the first KKOA book (1993) on page 99. As far as I know, this was the same car, but it looked different in the picture compared to the video. In the book the car looks like it's black, and the skirts are no longer the polished ones and the matching lower quarter trim above the skirts is gone. Could be the same '58, but maybe not. Who knows? The only other picture I found was also from the first KKOA book on page 25. It's a super picture with Paul's '58 and the late Blaine Kauffman's heavily chopped '56 Mercury (W.E.H.T. #71) sitting in the street together. The caption explains that Paul and Blaine were getting ready to cruise to another Sled Scene East. In the picture, the Buick looks to be red, or at least a lighter color than the other book feature. After searching through magazines and books and the internet, this is all I could find on this one. I hope you custom faithful can come up with more. Before I close tonight, I'd like to be one of the first to wish you all a blessed and Happy Easter. I hope you enjoy the holiday however you celebrate it, and most of all, quality time spent with family and friends! Until next week, take care! E
Oh my, so glad my photo taking skills have improved. Horrible pic! I imagine it was from my 110 camera lol Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not skejoes photo ! Looks like I was commenting on his Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Sadly, it looks like Mr. Sumrell passed yesterday. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/norfolk-va/paul-sumrell-8252122
I don't know how you do it, Sancho. That is amazing! Strange how a few times in this thread there have been customs that I featured and we discussed, and come to find out, the owner/builder recently passed away. The person that immediately comes to mind is Richard "Dick" Crouthers. His incredible Merc was the one that kicked off this thread, way back at W.E.H.T. #1. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/ I wrote about Richard's Merc on April 19, 2016. Sancho soon found that Mr Crouthers had passed away on March 17, 2016, just 34 days prior to that first post. Very ironic as I didn't personally know Mr. Crouthers, and I chose to write about his Merc first because it's one of my all time favorites. Now we find out that Mr. Sumrell passed away yesterday, the exact day I posted W.E.H.T. #164 featuring his kool Buick. That's just a bizarre coincidence, don't you think? Something I noticed is that Mr. Crouthers and Mr. Sumrell were both born in 1933. Also, one other interesting fact to me personally is that Mr. Sumrell was just four days older than my late Dad. Paul's birthday was October 9, 1933, and my Dad's was October 13, 1933. This just goes to show that the pioneers of the custom renaissance of the late 70s and 80s are getting up in years and many have left us. Very sad. My deepest condolences to Paul's friends and family. Rest in peace Mr. Sumrell..........E
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