History Matranga Mercury at the 1951 Oakland Roadster show

Jeff, you remind me of the homicide detective who decides who he thinks did it and then tries to contort all the evidence to support his belief.

And I mean that in a nice way...really.

Earlier in this post Rik with the help of Ron and others, I believe did decipher a bit of historical evidence, but now we are back to just conjecture.

It is fun though
and we get to see more pics

 

Perhaps Jerry's Mercury was cut as the first 1949 Mercury by the Barris Shop, Perhaps Sam's was. Perhaps the Ayala's cut one before that.
It all does not really matter that much.
The problem is that George Barris claims Sam's was done first. And this is taken over by many others. He claimed this by using photos of Sam Barris chopping Jerry's 1949 Mercury, we know this now.
Perhaps Sam did chop his Merc before he did Jerry's, perhaps not. In any event there most likely where not taken any photos of Sam chopping his car. And there can be many reasons for this.

Lets not make a big deal out of it. Lets just enjoy the photos, study them and make observations... but lets not make a big deal out of who was first or who has the most toys or who ...
Lets just enjoy the photos we have and that are shared here!

 

Yes first place full custom class!

 

Wow, just found the thread and went through all posts.
Plain amazing stuff!

Rik (and others)
Thanks for digging even more in to the most exciting era of customizing of automobiles.

 

I really hope I did read correct and this was the winner of the best custom at the show,this car deserves it.

 

To me this shows a lot. it shows that there is a small group of guys who do care about the HISTORY OF CUSTOM CARS. It feels awesome that there is still a lot of love for this stuff. Yes i might of fell off the wagon 8 yrs ago and bagged my chevy. Now im in the proces of taking the bags out for a true stance. I want to thank all of you for helping me back up and dusting me off.Without you guys i might of been lost a long time.


LETS KEEP THE TRADITION GOING!!!!

 

I have that magazine sitting right next to me. I love that car and the cover.

 

How long had Gils car been out? It's funny that Sam's car a brand new model now considered by many to be the quintisential custom car shown customized for the first time was beat out by Gil's car. Says alot about the skills and vision Gil had.

 

I think it had much to do with the extent of the modifications.

 

Cleatus in a nice way of coarse,when there is this much evidence of lies we have been told and the person who we have believed has a long history of exagerating the truth(in a nice way) there needs to be people that look deeper and dont just believe what they hear.I didnt just "decide" this,I talk to Jerry quite a bit so it runs a little deeper then just deciding eveidence to support my belief. So you can believe George who has a great record of truth or you can believe Jerry who has not called mags or anyone else to try and get glory. Great analogy though.

 

Back to the show........ who came in second ? Was there a second place?

 

I am sure it had some bearing but Sam's car wasn't basic. Chopped, full fadeaways, frenched headlights and taillights, custom grill.

Don't get me wrong I love Gil's work. His organic flowing take on Customs make him my favorite builder it is just interesting to see that the wow factor of a brand new style custom didn't overwelm the judges.

 

I never said I believe George. In fact I had a part in proving the photos weren't what George said they were.
I know you are close to Jerry and that he has told you his was first - and so far, that is the best evidence I know of - that Jerry is still with us and says so...
I don't know Jerry, but given George's past record...I'd lean toward believing Jerry.

 

When you look at this car from this angle I can see why he won best custom.This thing just had flow and the fadeaway running into the Cad rear quarters is nothing short of Breathtaking.Even in the picture of Sams car (the one Rik enlarged) you can see the group of sailors just standing next to this gorgeous sled.This is tied with one other car for my favorite 40 merc of all time.

 

Ron's list from the 1951 Roadster Show helped me identify another car I had a photo from. Well I had the name, since thats on the card in the photo, but not the description of the car...

This photo is how ever taken at the 1952 Roadster show, and the car was running a different number than on the list of 1951, but the names and facts are still the same.

Interesting photo with a lot of neat stuff in the back ground as well...

 

I can see why it won best custom. if you put both car next to each other like they did at the show. Your eyes are gonna move to Gil's more. There are more lines and the who ever was judging the show is use to these line then on a 49 mercury.

 

When I studied the scan of the photo of Sam's Mercury at the 1951 Roadster show I noticed its interior.
To me it looks like the interior is not done at all... but just covered with some light colored fabric. There are wrinkles on places where there should not be any wrinkles when an interior job is done well.
So it looks like its right what is said and Sam's Merc was really rushed to get done for the show... but they could not get the interior done in time, or they did a temporarily interior to make it look good from the outside?

To me the upholstery in this photo does not look like Gray Mohair pleats and rolls. The wrinkles are on both the front and rear seat.

 

Gil's 1940 Mercury was far less subtile than Sam's 1949 Merc. And having a very subtile but gorgeous Custom does not always bring you the awards.
Perhaps the fact that it looks like Sam's interior was not finished might have also contributed to not winning the top award in its class.
I love Gil's Merc, I have some doubts about its front end styling on the finsihed version. At one point when Gil and Al had most of the body work done, but the car was running a 1946 Ford? bumper and stock headlights in primer.. I liked it a bit better from the front. But the rear and side views on this Merc has always been exceptional. Somebody should clone it.

Jeff, I guess you are talking about the Matranga Merc as the other Merc

 

I'm too young and am more of a HR guy than a custom guy, so please understand this is newbie talk. First, thanks so much for this thread; amazing stuff!
Second, I can understand the "Who came first" question, but it's really not a big first since it seems there were at least 3 all being done in roughly the same period, more of a trivia thing. Also, is it the first cut, the first in primer, the first in paint or the first done?
As far as the modern Merc being in the '51 show with the early Merc and the early winning, it may have been a matter of the judges being more traditional and that the new one was a bit too modern at this first(?) showing. Consider the HAMB mindset on newer show cars and trends....

 

Lets not get the whole "who was first" thing started all over please!
Only if new fact surface!

As far as Sam's 1949 Mercury was to Modern. I don't think that was an issue back then. Customizers always tried to make the older cars look more modern by using as many brand new car parts on it.

 

Rik I was going to write something about Sams interior earlier but I was too hot on the Quesnel topic.It looks like there are covers or something on top of the seats you are right Rik.That interior is not done.

 

I bet people looked at this and never thought this would be winning best custom at the Oakland roadster show.During this time the show wasn't even going yet but im sure people just looked at this as more of a rough car and not a winner of a prestigious show.I bet George was not happy when this car won the top honors.

 

A common misconception about the National Roadster Show is that people think the 1st show was in 1950 with the Niekamp roadster winning the 1st AMBR, truth of the matter was Al Slonaker started the show in '49 and in 1950 added the 9 footer as a promotional tool.

To be honest the Gil Ayala Merc to me was fugly! The only pics I had seen was of it at the dry lakes (as above) dusty, rough and unfinished. When I first saw it painted ,skirted and tail dragging I instantly changed my mind it was gorgeous and very worthy of being called a beautiful Custom.

 

Besides being a beautiful custom I love the fact that it ran 129mph,not to bad for a flathead powered custom.

 

Well according to my information Al Slonaker and his wife Mary did indeed have their first show in this "Expostion Building" in 1949. But it was an international auto show. A cars show for "exotic" / "foreign" cars. During the preparations for the show Mary and Al where approached by a group of local Hot Rodder's who asked if they could have a display of their Hot Rods at this event.

The Slonaker's agreed and 10 or so Hot Rods from this local club where displayed in one corner of the building.

When the Hot Rods drew a bigger crowd during the show than the Exotics Mary and Al decided that the next show (the first Oakland Roadster Show) would be only about Hot Rods... and Custom Cars.

 

Man you guys really do your homework...it is very inspirational to read.

 

Goodmorning Rik How much sleep did you get? Do you talk in your sleep about customs? Are you in the same timezone as Amsterdam?


That is great info about how the first roadstershow started,I didnt know that.

 

Yes I'm in the same timezone as Amsterdam.

I got about 4,5 hours... enough! ANd I can's remember if I dreamt Custom Cars on not... I must have!

 

I have that issue of R&C as well, and read the article many times.
The info I have is from some people that could know. And as well from the Andy Southard and Dain Gingerelli "The Oakland Roadster Show" book published in 1998. 9 years after the R&C article.

Edited:
I have now also read that this first show in 1949 was mostly about Exotics, and besides the few Hot Rods there where also a few Custom Cars invited.

Including this 1941 Buick...

Photo from Fredslides - Skeezix


And here are some other photos (thumpnails) of the photos from Fredslides. And the fact that there is a mix of Exotics and Hot Rods/Customs could be a very good indication this is from the first Oakland show in 1949, when it was not yet call the Roadster Show.



Ron will be scanning some pages of the 1950 Roadster show program. Perhaps that can be used to identify some cars in the photos and date the show. And if none match then perhaps there was a 1949 Hot Rod Show.
Another mystery to be solved.


The think that always bothered me about the above R& C article is the lack of custom car knowledge by the unlisted writer. The article shows three "milestone" Custom Cars, and none where named!