I have an OT '34 Ford 3 window coupe and was wanting to get rid of the billit wheels and make it into a custom by adding/making wheel skirts and air ride to make it into a custom instead of a street rod that it currently is. Does anyone have any pictures of a '33-'34 with the rear slamed with fender skirts? I know of Rick Dore' 34 green one, any others?
I don't have a shot, but there's a vintage one in Don Montgomery's 5th book. Maybe someone can scan it?
I don't have a picture but Alex Xydias, the founder of So Cal Speed Shop, had a 1934 Cabriolet with skirts leaded to the rear fenders. It was a beautiful and elegant custom, way ahead of its time.
I believe the skirted rear fenders on Rick Dore's roadster are 36's, which lend themselves to the skirted look much better. I have an idea myself for a skirted 33 Ford.....more of a Coach built style car than a custom per se.
Codeblu is right. Rick's 34 usses a much deeper/higher 1936 Ford rear fenders. The stock fenders on the 33-34 Ford are not high enough to really use fender skirts and have a nice white wall tire and a nice stance. The car cannot be lowered enough in the rear for this. However there are a few very nice samples of 34 Ford being customized from the 1940's and 1950's. But they all are still rather hight in stance. Black wall tires help here on Alex Xydias his Ford THis one was also built in the 1940's. High stance, but most customs had that in those days. Very nice early Custom.
Doesn't the boxing agent in the Russell Crowe movie Cinderella Man drive a black 33/34 coupe with fender skirts. I think it has E & J headlights as well.
Hate the skirts, but LOVE the 15" GENERAL JUMBO wheels like on this car and available in 1934! Had a NOS set with caps in the '70s.
These are the General Jumbo wheels available in 1934. The 15" wheels spokes came chromed. Wide (about 7") tires were available also.
Hello Dick... good to see you here again. How are you doing? I had no idea Alex his 34 Ford Cabriolet was done by Jimmy Summers as well...!!! Great info.
Hi Rik, yes Alex went to Farfax highscool across the street from Jimmy Summers shop and would hang out and watch the customs and hot roadsters being built. In the signed photo you can see the familar lettering on Jimmys shop side.you can see more of the lettering on the Kustomrama picture of jimmys 32 rdstr.with the fat bottom grillshell note the "S" for Summers on the front nerf bar. Jimmy was a racer, his merc had a hot merc. with alum. heads, dual carbs, cam ect..NO LEAD SLED HERE. THANKS for asking Im pain free no drugs needed. Im still in the wheelchair but can walk couple hundred feet a day with a walker and can stand for a brief time..PROGRESS! lol You can see last weeks pictures taken by Jack Butler [so cal shifter] on his hotrd32 [no 0]profile page titled "a day with Dick Page". Boy do I look old. LOL He shows a small peek at what I have in my huge collection of local cars from the 50s and 60s. Check it out thats:.hotrd32 profile page.
This is great information rainguy, I didn't know that Jimmy was involved with this build...do you have other "unknown" Jimmy Summers kustoms up your sleeve as well? According to the So-Cal Speedshop book, Alex's cabriolet was named Jewel after its gold metallic paint applied by Valley Custom. Do you know if this is correct information as well Dick? I mean that Valley Custom painted the car? From what I understand, it seems like the car was first black with a black carson top, and then the Valley Custom Shop painted it gold.
I know it's a roadster, but there is an interesting feature on Wes Collins' beautiful '34 in the current issue of RJ.
You are right it was black over black. How did you know that? Rikster has a wonderfull pic. of it nearly finished the first time, missing only the grill. You can find it under "customs by Jimmy Summers" on Riks site. Where does he find this stuff?? I hope everyone knows what a great service Rik provides to all of us...He has saved our history like no other and we all owe him a lot! rainguy
Hehe, after reading your post I pulled out my So Cal Speed Shop book in order to find out more about Alex's cabriolet. From reading the info on the car in the book, it seems like the car was already customized when Alex bought it, and that the only thing Jimmy did was to lead in the fenderskirts.
Superfleye: We have so little correct info. on some of this stuff its easy to assume to much [or too little LOL] . I didn't know the car was black untill you told me. I'm no expert on Jimmy Summers just a fan. I've read that Alex moved the gas tank into the trunk after he bought it. I assume that was so Jimmy could mold the new tank cover panel after he removed the spare tire mount. Makes sense if you think about it!...See what I mean? Can I prove it NO .. Yes I also read that the car was modifed before Alex got it. Its been said that he had a Carson top made. Was it chopped when he got it or did Jimmy do that when he was giving the car his rear treatment that set it appart from the Hot Roadster look that was the norm in the '40s? More questions than answers. Last year my efforts to contact Alex about his friendship with Jimmy were unsucessful...Its very hard to take third or fourth person info. as fact...I've had my 40 year history with Jimmys Merc. twisted by all the retelling on the web and in print until it no longer represents the true story. It's been said that I sold it, then bought it back [not true] people have been named as helping me work on it [who didn't]. Even the timeframe is wrong. Someday someone will open a book and point to this stuff as FACT cause its in print LOL LOL. Oh well..Thanks to you and others for trying to fill in the gaps. Dick Page
I couldn't agree more Dick! Even I mix up details on my own cars trying to remember what happened 7-8 years ago! So trying to remember the correct stuff that were done 70 years ago ain't that easy. Because of this I always adds my source and reference on Kustomrama. A fact without a reference ain't worth a tad in my eyes. And if there are several versions of a story, I try to add them all, so that it's up to the reader and judg what he think is the true story. After you brought up the info on Alex's cabriolet in this thread I did a story on the car on Kustomrama. Most of the info collected here comes from Alex himself, from several different books: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Alex_Xydias%27_1934_Ford_Cabriolet It would have been nice to be able to ask Alex about the questions you posted above
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