A few more of the Johnnie Luna 1951 Oldsmobile... First version Kustomrama did a nice feature on this car... click the link below. Kustomrama scan... And yes George loved to "drive" his cars
The Color photos of the Buster Litton Ford are from the Collection of Dave Cook. TRJ did an article on them.. and I "copied" them from their Digital Issue which can be found on their site. Amazing photos.
And one car I always loved a LOT was Hall Peterson's 1941 Mercury Convertible. To me a perfect custom. Early style, built in the late 40's. With just the right amount of chrome removal, perfect stance, perfect proportions. George Cerny did the body work on this one.
Yeah, the color photos of the Buster Litton ford are really great! Below are a couple of more cars restyled by Cerny's Body Shop. Do you have any other photos of these Rik? First out is Ed Levinsky's 1953 Oldsmobile 98. It seems like George was a big fan of olsdmobiles. Anyone know btw how much George's brother Carl was involved with the cars that were built at Cerny's Body Shop. It seems like it is George that it is written most about. Click here to read more about the Oldsmobile Another Cerny custom car is Gilbert Cruz' 1955 Chevrolet. This one did also receive som Oldsmobile parts, as the Cerny's grafted som 1955 Oldsmobile taillights onto it: Click here to read more about this car on Kustomrama
Anyone have any insight into how the window moldings were done on this car? Was there ever a how-to article on making this sort of trim? The moldings make a huge difference in the finished look of the hardtopping of this car.
You know Rik, I really like that Kaiser he did. I first saw it in the 1955 Custom Cars Annual. I wish there where some more pics of it. Very elegant and simple. Are they pics that survive of the rear end?
I"ve always wanted to correct Andy on this photo (he's taken so many fine ones it would be hard to remember) this was taken on Marvin Lee's car lot in Pasadena Ca. on Colorardo Blvd about a block east of the city college. Larry Lee (Marv's son) owned it and was a pretty well known local pinstriper at the time. I sat in the car thinking that was a great car for the price. I was about a grand short at the time. this car was a magazine build that many top builders worked on......Jim
I thought these should be added to this thread. I scanned page 25 from the book I mentioned a couple years ago. I hope Tex Smith and Tom Medley don't mind. Sorry for the poor quality of the scan of page 25. The caption reads: "George Cerney's (name mis-spelled) stock-bodied '32 tudor with a 3-inch top chop drove the boys mad at Santa Ana dragstrip during the '50s, where he ran 123.45 mph on gas. The engine is a Cadillac with dual 4-throat carburetors. This is the same engine that smoked his 1953 Olds passenger car through the Bonneville lights at 135 mph. The addition of an Isky cam to the engine jumped the '32 tudor 1/4-mile speed from 117 mph to 123 mph." I met both George Cerny and George Cerny Jr. in 1990 and they told me about this book and that George Sr. had supplied the photos and information. I haven't been able to find any other pictures of the tudor, including the one at the bottom of this page, on the web. I believe the fordor in the background was George Jr's.
The text says that George later used the engine from the tudor in his 1953 oldsmobile that he ran at Bonneville. Anyone know anything about this car? Could it be Luna's 1951 Oldsmobile... has George Cerny owned that car?
Bringing this back up for some history lessons. Maybe someone new might see the big difference in what was done back in the day. They did things the right way. not over chopping and having everything laying on the ground looking like its broken.
Growing up in the 60s I was aware of Barris and Roth and loved custom cars(still do).I didn't discover George Cerney until much later,mid to late 80s.Thumbing through Sept 53 Hot Rod there was an article "What you can do to your Olds".It featured several cars including George Cerney's Cad powered Olds.Elsewhere in the mag was a pic of the car at the strip.Man I liked that car!and have thought about it here and there since.Thanks to this thread I learned more about the car,George Cerney and his work.I really enjoyed it! Thanks
"having everything laying on the ground looking like its broken." I agree 100%.....however when I made that comment on another thread my quote: "is that car broken" I was deleted by the administrator for causing "drama"...?<!-- / message -->
I understand that the Plymoth wagon has been located, I think by a daughter...is there an update on that..?
Also I believe that Kurt McCormick had to purchase that odd looking 36 Ford that Cerny did, in order to trade it for the Westfield Cad that he has restored....
I believe it was found and bought my his son(s). I have not heard anything about it in several years. I tried to contact them to find out if they had made any progress, but my contact email address bounced back. You are talking about a Joe Wilhelm's 1936 Ford here. George Cerny had nothing to do with that one. And Westfield is a combination of HArry Westergard and Gene Winfield. Kurt traded the 36 Ford (Mark Mist II) for a Harry Westergard Cadillac.... Just for the record!
I remember talking to his son at Paso when they brought the wagon out for the first time since getting it back in the family. It was great talking to them and a privilege to push it into the park, hopefully it is on its way to being restored.
are there any better pictures of the dashboard on litton's shoebox? id love to see a close up of the artwork on it.
Great addition to your list of customizers of old.do any of these cars exist today?lets see them...in whatever condition they may be.thanks Rik.
The front fenders on the Buster Litton ford are they grafted on from a studebaker? Please excuse my ignorance if this was posted somewhere else. It amazes me how you guys keep all this info straight and know who did what and in what time frame. I'm still learning.
The front part of the Stude fenders are spliced into the Ford ones, hammer welded together and leaded over. Thats my guess.
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