Hot Rods Larry Ferris tempted once Model A Magazine features?? AND WHERE IS IT TODAY???

When he sold it he got big money at the time. He got $10,000.00 or $12,000.00 for it. Huge money at the time. The last time I had talked to him or seen him was in the late 90s. I think he has passed on by now. I think he said he got all or most of the build money back when he sold it.
I remember why the car was never driven or cruised. It had little to no radiator in it! Can’t remember which though. That’s why it was never driven more than a block at a time.

 

@Moriarity is your friend making a model of it , ie forming pieces to glue together?
If so, I’d venture to say that would be as tough as building a replica car.

 

A lot of people were playing with the oval/rectangular headlights developed by Hella for the 1960 German Ford Taunus P3 and by Cibie for the 1961 Citroën Ami, despite their illegality in the USA, including the American OEMs.

As a design compulsion they are definitely traditional. Ferris innovatively diy-ing them is proof of that.

 

I'm probably wrong, but I was thinking Model Car Science or Car Model did one of their features where they told you what parts to use to duplicate famous rods. I know I have an issue that showed how to duplicate the A-Bros' Grasshopper.

 

I think the reason this car never received a lot of ink was many. Here is this 20 somethin year old kid from a little Indiana town (next to Chicago Il) that no one ever heard of. He was kind of shy and quiet. Not a self promoter. And this was his first and last full on kustom build.
Can you imagine being that young and to come out of the gate swinging a sledgehammer like that? Beating all of the greats at the time. What’s left to prove? He was starting his family and business and that was all he cared about.
By the way I had heard the car went to Texas for a while sometime in the 80s. Mark you need to find it and bring it back to its former glory! You would be the right man for the job!

 

Hooray! My sentiments exactly. I have to believe, most of the criticism comes from those who have no idea of that era. And now, let the negative comments begin.

 

Weather people like it or not is irrelevant. It’s history, I have known it since I was a toddler. It was a winner. A big show winner at that. How many can say that their very first car was a champion show car that they built? Not too many. There was no phase one or part 2. This is right out of the box. One and done! Let the nay sayers say what they want.

 

Hey Mark, do I see acrylic in the grille area on that A?

 

I'd like to know who made the clear valvecovers. I have a set of the 70's Mr.Gasket ones but these must have been custom made back in 64 or 5. Sure would like to see them up close. Lippy

 

You sure do. As for the clear valve covers they were gone before I got to really know the car. They leaked and were replaced with polished corvette finned ones.

 

Were is it now? That would be fun to find ... as most show cars go ... I'm sure its been changed and modified over the years,, But one never knows... could be hiding in a garage ...

 

Fuzz out the wheels on the 90's pic and post it here.

 

Thank you ! ... ok power of The HAMB.. lets find out were its at !

 

Warning: I made the mistake of following that link to the Citroen, don't anyone else do it!

 

I've searched for a bit but got nothing. Not giving up yet....

 

The fire wall has been smoothed also. Here’s what I remember from Larry. I believe Darrell Starbird either bought it or brokered the deal where it was eventually sold to a guy in Texas. This would have been in the early 80s. In 80 or 81 Larry sold it. It landed in Texas about 85. After that Larry lost track of it.

 

I don't understand why people aren't building more cars like this now. All the show cars are so generic now. JMO Lippy

 

Moriarity, I hear ya about all the 32 Grille shell comments, that being said, I think if I had it, and wanted to make it drivable, I would leave what it originally had on the car and cut down a 32 shell with a custom insert to integrate into the original shell. I don't like what it has in the last picture. That was a great car, and I remember seeing it in the magazines back in the day.

 

Is this an early version?

 

Pretty typical of the radical show rods of that time frame in that it wasn't actually drivable for any length of time.
One has to remember that in that time frame ISCA show cars were allowed to be shown in competition in the same presentation if you will for two years and then they had to have X number of changes to be shown again. That caused a lot of cars that were fantastic the first time around to turn to junked up messes the next time to earn show points and others like that coupe to fade away to the corner of the owner's garage and stay out of sight of the car folk public.
That short two year time frame also causes most folks to either not know about a lot of these cars or not remember them until a photo pops up. Ouside of the feature the car showed up in actual show coverage a couple of times but if the same photographer was doing the whole show circuit in that region they probably didn't put a photo of it from every show it was in. That seldom happens even now.
I'm a visual person and rememember images that I saw decades ago but 99.999% of the time the names attached to such image escape me. I'd think that might be the case with a lot of us, The name of the guy who built it evades us but we know the look of the front end of that car like it or not.

 

That picture was taken behind Whiting high school. He switched the tires and rims between the chrome reverse and the Radir wheels. That is with the chromed a radiator and grille face that went behind the kustom nose. I actually only saw it in the car 1 time. But the car is in its final form there. Like I said the car had 3 slightly different looks.

 

@SS327 pretty cool you you have some history with the builder and the car. First hand accounts are always a great thing.

 

Perhaps less traumatic if you're primed for it. Imagine an anglerfish wearing horn-rimmed spectacles.

 

If you built something like this today it would be a very good contender for top awards if done right if you are into that sort of thing. I totally agree that the show scene these days is a lot of copy and paste, paint by numbers junk and this would be over the top. Copy of a copy of a copy. Roger Copy?

Its real easy to wrap 6 figures into a car that doesn't drive or do anything other than look pretty in the garage and in the trailer or shows... It's an empty soul of a car at that point, kind of like a trophy wife that snubs her cabana boy; you can call it yours, but you can't enjoy the ride.

Honestly, I'd rather see the real car resurrected rather than a clone be built and wish your bud the best with it Mark. It's going to be a hell of a task either way he does it... Keep us posted for sure as we would love to see where this goes.

 

I wish at some point there should be another show like this; a show where as many kustoms from that era that survived (no matter the condition they are in now) go for a show like this. that's something I would drop what I was doing and attend. even modern tributes are allowed so long as they are era correct and fit in.

I doubt it will ever happen though