Vintage shots from days gone by!

Reminds me of the days when I was a kid and we dabbled at racing a go-kart. Not fancy roof top racks on a station wagon for us. We stuck ours in the trunk of my dad's 1961 Catalina, tided the trunk down with rope and off we went.

 

A cool old photo from my home town. It almost appears staged - the buildings looks like Western movie props, but it is a real photo from that time period.

 

I like this one; at first I thought it was a Plymouth but it's a '58 Dodge Kingsway export model. From the looks of the proud papa and the building I'm thinking this was taken in Mexico or maybe Cuba?

 

Was this a warning?

 

Whoa.

Somehow I've never seen or noticed this Mercury before. I did a Google Image search and found that it was built by Valley Custom for Neil and Clayton's brother-in-law Glen Hooker.

The last update on Kustomrama is that this car still existed in the '90s. Does anyone know where this beautiful car is today?

Photo from Rikster's archive:

 

Betty Grable?

 

supposedly this same gas station would be where the Manson family stopped to wash the blood off their hands after the Tate murders - history can be a dark little place.

 

I spoke with Glen and the Jensen brothers at GNRS 2011 " Customs Then and Now " . The car is a family treasure and they have it safekeeping . Does anyone happen to know how Glen Hooker is doing ? He was having health issues at the time . His stories of early Valley Custom Shop history were very interesting .

 

Yep.

 

The Merc was purchased from Glen and has been in Utah for several years and is awaiting restoration.

Mick

 

Gotta say...that ragtop Merc is about as sweet as a ride can get! Hope it sees some road soon. Blessings on the people who keep'em alive & kicking.

 

High tech of the past, steam trains and piston engine lighter than air ships