History The best 1949-1952 Chevrolet Ever Built

ftfy

 

I'm not 100% sure, but the grille bar on this car looks to be borrowed from an FJ Holden. If it isn't, it's a very similar design.

 

The last I heard was that @ERNST owned it, but I remember he was trying to sell it at one point.


Robert House's 1950

 

I agree on the sectioning... But sorry, if you just bolt on some Corvette teeth to the grill, throw on some lowering blocks and buy a headlight frenching kit from a speedway catalog... That doesn't make it custom. It takes a lot of balls to chop or section a car. I guess maybe there is just different degrees of a custom car. That's what I was trying to say. But to each his own.

 

I'm on it Ted! This 49 was built back in the day when I was just barely a teenager. The owner my cousin and tb33anda3rd's uncle was known as Midnight Joe! He was never seen without his shades, day or night. Anyway I lived on a street that was wide and straight and just paved. I was about six houses up from the corner and Cove rd. So late at night we would sit on my front porch and wait for all the older cool guys to come around the corner and up our street going through the gears. Me and my friends would try and guess who was coming up the street. You could always tell Joe's 348 powered 49. It had a sound all it's own. It just was all out fast and bad ass looking. Here are the only shots I have of it. It was Caddy Arlington Green.



Joe is second from the right. Picture when he drove it down to Florida from Connecticut. Joe was the best Chevy motor guy there was. For me there will never be a better 1949 Chevy ever.

 

You are correct!

 

car was wrecked at the track by a disgruntled loser of the race that hit him on the return run.

 

They do make bitchin customs but I think they look Damn sweet stock too..
I've had a couple of them and miss them both

 

I'm pretty sure I saw that around Fremont Ca 10 (?)years ago by my shop. then I saw the top of it sitting in the dirt by the freeway, and the car driving around with no top. haven't seen it since.

 

Not sure who built it or when, but there is a beautiful Chevy in one of the threads here I think from "Pan Blanco"

 

I like them all, mild to wild.
I'd have to include Doug Thompson's near the top.

 

Call me a jerk, but I like lowrider versions of the '49-52 better than hot rods and customs. Just one strange guy's opinion.

 

Has everyone forgotten the Jesus Valencia Chevy already? We may never see it again, but it shouldn't be forgotten.

 

That is beautiful !
Why might it never be seen again ?

Oh, so I guess it was sold to someone in another country ?

 

It was sold to a guy in Russia.

 

Of all the examples so far , Valencia's has the best flow and proportions and is just stunning in its simplicity. But hands down my vote would be Bob Klessigs convertible . It is not only a beautiful custom but it has been driven all over the United States a million times ! And for all I know it probably has been to Mexico and Canada and maybe even Alaska !!! And he drives it like he stole it! And to me that makes it the best 49-52 Chevy custom ever built!!! I don't have a photo ,but I am sure most know what car I am talking about. Larry

 

Amen to Bob K's, for the reason's mentioned.
.
Fabian Valdez' probably tops my list. Trump is the Studebaker V8 mill!!!


!

 

Kenny Dean's CHEVY KUSTOM PERFECTION

 

Bill Hines layed out the lines perfectly for Masterson's tools!

 

Love the 49s , in my mid Teens there was one in the back yard of the the folks behind us next door I tried buying it but were not interested in selling it just sat rusting away

 

"perfection" is debatable but the fact that it is a'54, not '49-52, is not.

 

Brothers Car I built a few years back. It's a copy of his H.S. car.

56 Packard taillights by oldcargary posted Mar 26, 2015 at 9:55 AM

 

With all due respect, that is a ridiculous statement! It is one thing to say "I much prefer chopped customs to un-chopped customs", in which case most HAMBers would agree with you (myself included). But it is quite another thing to say "An un-chopped car cannot be a custom." Absurd.

Guess Junior Conway's Ford (and Jerry Damon's beautiful clone) is not a custom? Well, of course it is.
And somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but the '50 Chevy "Grapevine" was not chopped, correct? Think it would qualify as a custom. There are plenty of other examples of un-chopped customs. Peace!

 

The vast majority of Larry Watson's customs were not chopped. But every single one of them was a custom

 

I don't know how old "Driveway Builder" is, but I'll guarantee, when I was growing up in the 40's, 50's & 60's
there were a hell of a lot more unchopped customs around than there were chopped ones.

Mick

 

I would say that is far from the best '49-'52 ever built.

 

yup! this one is pretty fucking hard to beat.

 

This car's beautiful.