Back in 1957 John Sak of Syracuse, New York set off to restyle his third 1941 Ford, a Converible named "Barbie". After three years of hard work Barbie made it's public debut in 1960. John took home first place at the 2nd National Syracause Autorama with his new creation. He sold the car in the 1970s and eventually lost track of it. For several years John tried to trace it without luck. He had heard rumors about the car being sold to Arizona or Nevada, and he had no clue where to look for it anymore. In October of 2011 he wrote Kustomrama and asked if we could help him find his long lost custom. We were honored to be able to help John, so we ran his story in our "Lost & Found" section and used our extensive network to try and locate it. More than a year went by without anyone answering our ads and yells. Then suddenly earlier today Kenneth Groth of Branchville, New Jersey sat down in front of his computer and wrote me a long email. Kenneth attached five photos to the mail and told me that he was the current caretaker of the car. He had owned the car since 1999, but due to illness in the family, he hadn't had the time to get it on the road. I was thrilled to receive the mail, and could not wait to tell the news to John. I emailed John, who went ecstatic about the great news! We had finally located his long lost love! It's a great story about an ordinary man and his dream! John never gave up looking for Barbie, and we found here in the end Below is a story of the car as it currently sits You can find the full story on Kustomrama: http://kustomrama.com/index.php?title=John_Sak%27s_Third_1941_Ford
I actually like that DeSoto grill in there...if you were to tell me you were putting a '55 DeSoto grill in a '41 Ford, I probably wouldn't picture it looking as cool as this...
Nice story - would be great to have the car back with John Sak It is always great to have a car return 'home'
Very cool. Glad to hear the car survived. That super narrowed desoto grille strikes me as being out of proportion with only three teeth and full size lights. Sort of like a 4 dr. car that's been shortened into a 2 dr.
The Jalopy Journal
