What Ever Happened To..........? number 262. 1956 Ford "Mr. Kool" Owner: Bill Metson Weston, Ohio Those of you that check in here every Tuesday are probably thinking it's a little early for this weeks W.E.H.T. post. Well, if you're thinking that you're right. We had a mechanical breakdown at work today that caused us to have to shut down, so the boss turned me loose early. I figured why wait, so here we go! This week's sled seemed to be around for a long time, but I was only able to find video of it a the Leadsled Spectacular two years. The first time I saw it was at the '90 show in Holland, Michigan. Not too long into the video this sweet white '56 Ford rolls on by the camera. The thing that really jumps out at you is the rare (at least here in the States) Canadian Ford grille. Bill decided to participate in "How Cool Can You Cruise" at the show that year, and our next shot is from that. At the Spectacular in Holland in '90, there was a large grandstand that seemed to sit on a dirt racetrack. I could be wrong on that, so any of our custom faithful that went to that show let me know if I'm wrong. The cars lined up and then used the track to roll by the grandstands for everyone to see their car. A few of the cars stopped and talked to Jerry, but many just cruised on by letting their car do all the talking for them. In this next shot we can see the rear of Bill's car. We can see all the East Coast styling that went into the car. The requisite Continental kit, as well as a set of cruiser skirts, lake pipes and a set of aerials frenched in the driver's side rear quarter panel. Also, note the name "Mr. Kool" lettered on the quarter panel as well. The last shot from '90 was when Bill was cruising around the fairgrounds checking things out. It is another rear shot. The next time I saw the '56 was at the Spectacular in Springfield, Ohio in 1993. I'm sure Bill was thrilled to go to the show that year as his hometown of Weston wasn't too terribly far from home. Once again Bill participated in "How Cool Can You Cruise" that year. I'm glad that he did, because this was how I found out who Bill was and where he was from. When Bill came rolling up to talk Jerry said Bill's name. You could understand Bill and Weston, Ohio when Jerry said it, but Bill's last name was hard to hear. I played the DVD over and over and over again and it sounded like Metson. I hope this is right. If not, please let me know so we can get Bill's name correct. Jerry chit-chatted with Bill, although not much was mentioned about the car. I'd like to know if it was a true Canadian model as the grille, side trim and "Niagara" badges would suggest that, but sometimes people will go through a lot of work to make something look like something else. At any rate, the car looked great! Here's Jerry doing his thing talking with Bill. As Jerry shot the breeze with Bill, "Video Bob" Huff did a slight walk around of the car. Here we gat a close up view of the "Mr. Kool" lettering and small dice that were on both rear quarter panels. The next shot was after Bob panned out from the "Mr. Kool" lettering and we get a nice side view of the car. Notice the unique way that Bill molded and frenched his triple cap lake pipes. The next shot was when Bob was still panning the car from back to front. Here we get a little closer detail of the front of the car showing the Plymouth Satellite hubcap (one of my personal faves) and the curb feelers installed to keep from scuffing Bill's whitewalls on high curbs. Our last shot from '93 was when Bill and Jerry finished their chat and Bill drove away. The car looked just as good going as it did coming. Jerry even mentioned how good the pipes sounded. I couldn't agree more! Those were all the picture I was able to get off of video, but luckily I found a few really good shots on Rikster's site courtesy of Scott Pavey's collection. From what I've learned about backgrounds and research, most of Scott's pictures in his collection on Rikster's site seemed to be before 1990. However I could be wrong on that. Also, I don't recognize the show grounds that Mr. Metson's car was sitting at when the pictures were taken. I'm hoping that Jim (@stanlow69 ) will recognize the background as he has a keen eye and a memory like a steel trap. If Jim was at this particular show, he'll remember exactly where and when it was. These nice clear shots really show how nice Bob's sled "Mr. Kool" was. You'll notice in these pictures the Plymouth Satellite hubcaps aren't on it, and a set of four bars are on the car instead. Either way, the car is killer! If you look close you can also see plenty of chrome and engine detail, including a nice tri-power set up. I'm sure this little Ford could eat up the road! Our last shot this week shows much more detail than my blurry still shots could. First, you'll see the hood was louvered. If you look closely at the taillights, there's a lot of little detail work that went into them that many people might not see. The upper dummy back up light plate has been replaced with some other kind of light. The lens looks red, and it has a blue dot. Also, the taillight housing insert looks to be off a '63 Ford Fairlane. In '63 the taillight housings had reflectors on them from the factory, and I believe they were gone in '64, but they might have been used both years. Then, Bill took what I think are large Superior ambulance bullet lenses and added them to the housings. I know these are Superior bullets, as I had managed to collect quite a few of them back in the good ol' early days of Ebay when cool stuff was cheap. My friend Mitch talked me our of my last pair that he installed in the taillights of his '63 Chrysler. Another neat (and expensive) detail is the fact that Bill had the Continental kit tray chrome plated. I can't say that I've ever seen another custom owner do that besides Bill. We also get a good look at the nice striping work on the Connie spare tire cover. And with that final shot, Bill and "Mr. Kool" seemed to ride off into the sunset. I know that Ohio and the surrounding states have always been a hot bed of custom activity. I'm sure that one of you great Mid-Western custom faithful will remember Bill and his slick '56. Anybody know? Where is "Mr. Kool"? I still haven't had any time to pull out a car and go cruise. We finally got the downed tree branch hauled off, but now it's yard work 101. Plus I've been helping a few friends out on their cars so the cruising has been on the back burner. My days seem like they are only about 16 hours long these days. Never enough time to get everything done. This weekend is Mother's Day, so be sure to remember Mom with some flowers or at least a phone call, and sending a bouquet to your wife wouldn't be a bad idea as well (if you have kids). Maybe you can get the custom out and take your Mom and your wife out for dinner or a nice treat. Not only do you impress the ladies in your life by remembering them and doing something nice, but you also get to get out your wheels and enjoy that as well. To all you great Moms out there, let me be among the first to wish you a Happy Mother's Day! I'll see you next week! E
Ed, we mentioned this car earlier in this thread. It was owned by or built by the guy that owned this car as well. It appeared in Custom Rodder ? Remember. Not sure where the pic was taken you mentioned to me. Didn`t hit as many shows after 91. @OG lil E
I knew you'd bring something to the surface Jim, and your post got me to thinking. I had to do a little quick research and you're absolutely right. The man you're referring to is Paul Brenner from Kirchner, Ontario, Canada. His '59 Buick was W.E.H.T. #55 which we covered just over four years ago! I went back and looked over the post and I remembered the Custom Rodder article you mentioned as I posted it back then. I completely forgot about that. I've been doing this for so long now it's all starting to run together. Here is a link to the Paul Brenner '59 Buick just in case anybody wants to go back and check it out. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-37#post-11992457 And here is the scan from Custom Rodder that I posted back then. It tells the whole story of Mr. Brenner's cars from recent years (as of 1997) just like Jim said. I'm curious when Bill Metson bought the car, and if it was purchased from Paul. Always lots of questions within questions when you're tracing custom history, huh? E
Another cool custom featured this week, Ed. Thanks for posting. Just wondering about the rear glass on the car above. I've never seen a 3 piece rear glass on any U.S. Ford from either '55 or '56. Not on a Town Sedan, or a Club Sedan, which this car is like the Canadian version of a Club Sedan. Is it a Canadian thing? Any HAMBers know?
Thanks Bill! E I was wondering the same thing. I meant to mention the unique rear window in the post but I forgot to write about it. I'd like to find out more on the glass myself. E
I can honestly say I've never seen that on a 55/56 rear window either. The rear window strips are for sure not exclusive to us Canucks, but almost look like a pair of dividers from a 51/52 Ford Victoria rear window, added for accessory, or good discussion purposes!
Very cool John! Nice to see "Barbara Ann" out and about. Couldn't have said it better than chryslerfan55 did! E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 263. 1960 Dodge Dart Owners: Buster and Shannon Congdon Colchester, Connecticut This week's custom is one that I know I've seen more of than I could find. I also seem to remember seeing it in a magazine feature somewhere along the line. I've been searching my library of magazines for weeks and the feature article has seemed to elude me. After I dug in and decided to feature this unusual Mopar, it proved harder to research than I originally thought as it seemed like maybe the car hadn't been around as much as I seem to remember. At any rate, it's a cool sled that was an unusual choice to start with, and proves that any car can be cool with enough planning and hard work. The first article I scanned for tonight's feature was from the 1st KKOA book printed in 1992. It was on page 125. According to the article, the Congdons built this Dodge in the late 80s. It started out as a simple project that kept getting more and more involved until this crazy sled was completed. According to Buster, he took his wife to Lead East and when they got home she took over the planning and the simple mild custom project turned into a more radical car. The biggest task was chopping the top 3 1/2 inches. I remember seeing the car in color somewhere, and I know the main color was black, but I can't remember if the scallops were a light purple or pink. This is something that I hope can be cleared up by one of you guys out there, as the only pictures I have of our feature car this week are in black and white. I watched hours and hours of videos from the late 80s through the early 90s looking for this car and I never was able to find the Congdon's elusive Dart. I lucked out and found the car on a video that wasn't even in my collection. I found a video of the 1991 Sled Scene East on YouTube a while back that I watch occasionally for information. The thing that makes it tough is that this video was shot in black and white. Don't get me wrong, black and white always makes customs look great, but when you're trying to identify customs like we do for this thread every week, black and white makes identifying many cars very difficult. The car was only shown on the video briefly two times, and one of those times was when it was passing another car on the back side of the video camera, so it was pretty much blocked by the car going the opposite way. The best shots came when the Congdons rolled up to the "gate" where you entered the show and a KKOA official pointed out where they need to go to park. You can see the Dart had a low roofline as the KKOA colonel towered over the car! In the next shot you can see the car had a great tail dragger stance. Personally I would have ran skirts, but some guys like their sleds without them which is cool. Like my Mom always says, "Variety is the spice of life!" Even though I'm a fender skirt guy, I have to admit that the Dart gets away without them pretty well. These cars had very low rear wheel wells, so it almost looks like it had skirts on it even though it didn't. In the next shot you can really see the dramatic difference from the stock roofline. Coming at you it's very easy to see the car was chopped. Aside from the chop, the car really was very mild. The door handles and badges were removed, but the body is relatively stock. As wild as the Dodge looks coming at you, you have to admit that the rear looks like it has had a lot of work done to it. The most obvious feature are the fins, which are just as Mr. Exner designed them. I think the Mopars always had the biggest and craziest fins, but a few might disagree as the GM camp had some crazy fins all their own. The '59 Cadillac immediately comes to mind. One other cool feature on the '60 Dart was the taillights. Many sets of these taillights ended up on other customs, especially '55 and '56 Fords as well as many others with round taillights. My pal Mitch scored a set of these taillights at a wrecking yard up north a number of years back for his '56 Mainline. We got a great deal on them since one of the lenses was badly cracked. At that time there was no Ebay or other online sources for parts. Luckily, we were good buddies with one of the biggest Mopar guys in Denver, our late friend Charlie. We told Charlie about the '60 Dodge lights, and when we told him you could almost literally see "the light go on" over his head like in old cartoons. He said "I think I have one of those taillights, but I think it's smashed up". He went into "The Dungeon" to take a look. That's we called Charlie's dark rickety garage. Hard to believe such cool cars came out of there, as well as his large stash of cool parts. After a lot of banging around and a few cuss words, Charlie emerged from the garage with the light. It was badly pitted and it had some "Grandpa rash" where it scraped a garage door opening or rubbed against a parking pole or something, but other than that the lens was fine! Mitch asked Charlie what he wanted for the light and Charlie said he was hungry. Mitch was quick to say "Ok, let's go eat!" Charlie said he would drive and me and Mitch climbed into the back seat of Charlie's old slammed '65 Coupe de Ville, and Charlie's wife Opal jumped in the front seat. Charlie decided he'd like to go to Griff's down on Broadway and away we went. It was a fun ride as Charlie had a Chuck Berry 8 track in the stereo and he blasted tunes all the way there and back. I remember it was a beautiful summer evening, perfect for a cruise to grab a burger, onion rings and a cold root beer. Such great memories. Man I miss that guy.......... Anyway, it's cool to see a '60 Dodge taillight stay where it was born. Well gang, unfortunately that's all I have on this one tonight. I hope that one of our East Coast custom faithful has something to share on this one. Maybe a few of you lucky folks that went to many early Spectaculars over the years remember seeing the car there that the video camera never captured. I'm sure it won't be too hard to remember if you saw it at one time or another. I mean, when was the last time you saw a chopped '60 Dart two door sedan? I hope all of our Mothers out there had a nice Mother's Day. This year is really going by fast. Wow, Memorial Day is in a few short weeks. What I like to call my unofficial summer kick off. I still haven't had much time to enjoy many car activities, but believe me, I'll get to them very soon. The weather hasn't been real great yet, so I haven't missed much. Summer and the real warm weather can't get here soon enough for me--but not too fast. Summer goes by so quickly. Be sure to get out and enjoy the time of year, as we'll be dreading the cold and snow soon enough. Until next Tuesday, keep cruisin'! E
Sharp looking car. Funny you mention the '60 Dodge tail lights for '56 Fords. That's one of the tail lights I've been considering for the new '56 T-Bird. Think I'm headed towards '59 Buick though....hard to get bullet shapes out of my system. LOL
What Ever Happened To..........? number 264. 1964 Ford Thunderbird Owner: Peter S. Harris Manchester, Connecticut The 1964-1966 Ford Thunderbirds are a sneaky bunch in the custom world. It seems like you don't see them much, but once you start paying attention there have been quite a large number that have been turned into sleds. They've always been a favorite of mine as my Uncle Lee bought a brand new one in 1965. He always talked fondly about that car until the day he passed away, and he always made it a point to say that it was the only brand new car he ever bought. The car came to a sad end in the early 70s, and I remember he mourned that event like a member of the family had passed away. I did get to ride in the car a few times, and I remember how it looked perfect in and out and it rode like a dream. One thing in particular I remember is the way the interior smelled. To this day every time I bend down to check out one of these Birds at a show, the interior smell takes me right back to those rides in my Tio's white '65. I couldn't find a whole lot of information about this week's car. As far as I could find, Peter Harris put this tasty '64 Thunderbird together sometime in the late 80s. The car had many mods, but it was what I'd call a mild custom. It had the usual shaved door handles and trunk, and some scoop work added to the trunk and front fenders. Peter also had the rear quarter windows filled and the rear window "enclosed" as he called it to give the smaller limousine rear window effect. It doesn't take much to customize these 'Birds, as they were pretty wild looking from the factory. Our first sighting of Peter's '64 was in the first KKOA book (1992) on page 112. Hard to see much of the details on the car in this article. It doesn't do the paint much justice. Luckily Mr. Harris submitted his car one more time for the second KKOA book that was printed in 2003. It was printed on page 80. Here we get a look at the great raspberry paint. You'll notice that in the picture in the first book the car had skirts, and in the picture in the second book the skirts were gone. Finding the '65 in the KKOA books was the easy part. Finding other information on the car proved out to be a little harder. I can't say if Peter ever took his car to a Leadsled Spectacular as I never did find it on any video I have. After I didn't see it at a Spectacular, I figured that maybe Peter was one of those guys that stayed primarily in the East as he was from Connecticut. I searched my Sled Scene East videos, and I did find it at Sled Scene East '94. I was surprised it wasn't on any of the other Sled Scene DVDs I have, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Fortunately there were many good shots of the car in '94. It didn't take long for the Thunderbird to be seen on the DVD. Just a few minutes into the show we see Peter as he is rolling through the park looking for a parking spot. Here we see the back of the car as it passes "Video Bob" Huff. Notice the cool little rear window. After Peter found a place to park, Bob came up and did a nice walk around of the car, showing lots of the neat details on the car. Here is a shot of the nicely shaved hood and the re-worked grille. This close up shot shows the scallop around the hood scoop and the nice outline and intricate scroll work to finish it off. A look at the back shows a scoop with a scallop in the body line recess. Very nice work. It mentions in the first KKOA book article that the scoop houses a third brake light. As Bob panned out his shot, we get another look at the neat rear window. I'm sure this modification took a lot of work. I wonder if the chrome around the window had to be handmade. For the interior, there are white vinyl seats with tuck'n'roll inserts. The door panels are burgundy and white vinyl, with a touch of burgundy velour. Like I mentioned before, these Thunderbirds didn't need much to make them standout. The interiors were awesome from the factory. Looking to the rear, we see the iconic wrap around back seat with nice narrow tuck'n'roll pleats. Not much else has to be said about that! If you look up, you see a nicely detailed headliner with burgundy velour and white vinyl sections. The white welt cord is a nice detail. The last interior shot tonight shows a close up of Peter's white vinyl steering wheel cover. Seems like people aren't doing the "show only" steering wheel covers much anymore.......... Now here's something I rarely get to share. A person getting some custom work done to their car at a show. In the next few shots we see Peter employing a guy at Sled Scene East to engrave his windows. Window engraving has pretty much fallen out of favor with the car scene with the exception of lowriders. This art is still alive and well in that circle. Here's a shot of the progress so far. I have no idea what the art was. It was hard to see on the DVD, let alone on a frozen still. In this close up we can see the engraver doing his thing. Here is a picture of Peter's car sitting in the park Saturday night. You'll notice the car's undercarriage is basked in light from his neon lighting. I remember in the 90s the "neon parades" and neon contests were quite a big thing. The whole neon thing has pretty much gone away. One interesting thing is that 1994 was the first time they had night activities in the park at Sled Scene East. Up until then there was no lighting at the park. The night activities before '94 were going to the sock hop and hanging out at the hotel. I wonder if the other activities stopped once the park lighting was in place. "Video Bob" mentioned that the KKOA's use of the park for a number of years and their fund raising efforts helped get the lights installed in the park. Shame they don't have the show there anymore.......... Sunday morning and it was time to go. Here we get a shot of Peter in the Thunderbird heading for the highway. ..........And one last look as this cool custom cruises off into history. "What Ever Happened To..........?" Peter Harris and his subtle Thunderbird? We may never know. Another one in the books y'all. I hope everybody is still enjoying the thread. Next week I'm going to try something different that I hope you'll enjoy. That's all I'm saying for now, so be sure to be here next week for a new twist. I have my work cut out for me for that, so I'd better get on it! Until next week, stay cool! E
Nice looking ‘bird. The top with the filled 1/4 windows and rear window reminds me of the custom parts in the old AMT kit to do the same thing and make a “formal” top.
What Ever Happened To..........? number 265. Harold Olsen Carmel Valley, California This week I'm going to try something a little different than we've been doing all this time. There are many times I'm reading through old magazines or watching a video and a name comes up and I have no idea who that person is (was). It even happens from time to time here on the good ol' HAMB. You see how a person influenced our hobby and you want to learn more about them and all the things they did. Over the years of following customs and doing research, there are a few folks that were pretty much "little guys" that really made an impact on customs, and one of the main points of this thread, the KKOA. I decided to try this format this week for a few reasons. First of all it seems fitting as Memorial Day is next Monday, and the other reason is that Mr. Olsen built at least a pair of dynamite customs that are still talked about to this day. This is quite a feat from a guy that passed away over 30 years ago. I'd definitely call that making an impact. On a side note, I really don't know when I'll try this again. I have a few other folks that I'm doing research on for future features like this, but compared to the sleds, this has been a huge undertaking. I never thought it would be, but it has turned out to be a lot of work. We'll see how it goes over and we'll move forward from there. So without further adieu, let's get to know the late, great Harold Olsen a little better. Early information on Harold has been non-existent. The first mention I found of him was when Jerry Titus talked about meeting Harold in 1980 in a nice write-up following Harold's untimely passing which I'll post later in this write up. At that time Harold's incredible Buick was already on the road and making a big impact on the return of customs. The car's style was from the past, but it was light years ahead of the curve when it came to the return of leadsleds that the 1980s ushered in. The car seemed to wake up a lot of guys that loved customs as kids in the 50s, helping them to realize now that they were older, they could build the custom of their dreams, and the custom renaissance began. Here is a picture of Harold's Buick from the '85 Leadsled Spectacular from Rikster's site in the Scott Pavey collection. I guess it's possible that it was the '83 Leadsled as both were in Springfield, Ohio those years, but on the '85 video there was a big lead in showing that a few cats from the Lincoln Land Kustoms were meeting some guys from California that were out in the Midwest for the show. The beginning of that '85 video was so great! I've described it before and it is one of my favorites. In one part of that intro there are a number of sleds on a long drive way of a great looking house. If my research is correct, this was the late Dave Losen's house, president of Lincoln Land Kustoms and owner of the '55 Ford "Sugar Daddy" (W.E.H.T. #44). https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-27#post-11869259 After you quit drooling over the cars lined up in the drive, the shots move into the garage where Harold's Buick is up on jack stands getting worked on. Gary Minor is under the car replacing an electric fuel pump and Harold is laying on the ground beside him helping him out. Lots of custom talk was going on in there, and there were some real custom guys telling some great stories I'm sure. Harold jumped right in and helped the KKOA out that weekend conducting interviews, as well as being interviewed himself. He did the great interview with the infamous gathering of the "crazy Buick owners" that Rowdie gathered for the interview. There were a total of 9 Buicks, many that have been featured in this thread. I'd post links to all of them, but I'm really worried about space for this thread as I have a lot to cover. If anyone wants the links later, post it in this thread or send me a message and I'll be glad to post it up. Besides all that, Harold still had to keep his car looking sharp as it was in competition in the show area. I don't know when this picture was taken, but it shows him wiping his car down. Harold's hard work and the long drive paid off as he won one of the big awards at the show that year. He picked up one of the coveted "lowering block" trophies that are talked about here from time to time. This picture is from page 8 of the first KKOA book. Harold was one of the first fifty members of the KKOA, and Titus mentions that in his tribute write up. Harold eventually moved up and became a National Division General of the KKOA, which is a high ranking position that he did very well. Not only did he go to the Spectaculars, he also made it a point to attend other KKOA shows all over the country. Here is a shot from the Kemp Gazette Volume 3 number 7 from 1987 on page 8. It's a shot of many of the KKOA officials getting some work done at the '86 Last Pass show. Lots of KKOA history in this picture for sure! In 1986, Harold and his wife Gail once again returned to the Spectacular, this time in Springfield, Missouri. Having an outgoing personality, Harold once again took up some interviewing tasks. He did the interviews with the big winners of the weekend. Here is Harold interviewing Mr. Bob McQualdy towards the end of the show. Bob picked up a lowering block trophy for "Koolest Interior". Bob's Merc "Fiftys Forever" was W.E.H.T. #94. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-69#post-12366230 The KKOA had a few shows on the west coast over the years, but the numbers always seemed to struggle for some strange reason. One of the "biggies" of these shows was Sled Scene West. I only have two videos of Sled Scene West, 1986 and 1987. Rowdie did a great interview of Harold and his '46 Chevy rarely seen in the tu-tone suede. In the following pictures you can catch a hint of the greatness that was to come later with this car. Here's a close up of the frenched antennas mounted in airplane strut tubing. You have to admit these are some of the coolest frenched antennas ever! In this shot you can see the cool bumper guard taillights that were on the car for quite a number of years. These cars look so nice with the back all shaved clean. Dragging along behind the Olsen's Fleetline was a little teardrop trailer. It is common to see them being pulled behind old cars and at shows nowadays, but in the 80s it was pretty rare. I can't say for sure if it's an original trailer from the old days or a new build back in the 80s, but it was nice. Harold must have had a good sense of humor as in the interview he mentioned the trailer. He called it his "lunchbox", and he said "if you look at me, you can see I need a lunchbox". His interview pretty much wrapped up the '86 Sled Scene West video, with the exception of the show winners being filmed and the closing comments for the show. Sometime between the end of Sled Scene West '86 and the Leadsled Spectacular of 1988, Harold put his Fleetline in the shop for the full chop, fadeaway fender and hardtop version. The car caused an absolute sensation that still exists today. It seems I come across posts of this car a few times a month on the HAMB. I'd have to say it is one of the best humpback Chevys ever built. Here's Harold wiping it down in the show area in Holland at the '88 Spectacular. Here's another shot I found online that I think is also from the '88 Holland show. Our last shot from the '88 Spectacular is Harold and his wife Gail cruising the fairgrounds. I'm sure he was off doing some official car show business. Now here is where the history of Harold's car got a little confusing to me. I read that the orange paint went south pretty quickly and it had to be redone. If I'm not mistaken the car was then painted the brown with ghost flames. The car has been repainted quite a number of times, so I might be off on this. I don't know if this is the same brown paint job as above because of the scallop just under the door trim, but I had to post it to show the incredible Hirohata style windows and frames. It's rare to find a photo of this car with the windows up. As far as I know, this green version of the car was done after Harold passed away. Look how radical it looks parked next to a stock Fleetline at this show. Harold's Chevy was a wild one! I found a super article on Rikster's great Custom Car Chronicle site that documents the history of Harold's Fleetline much better than I can. I probably missed a few things in my write up about the car that I'm sure this article can fill in or correct that I was wrong about. Rikster is a true custom historian that does excellent work. If you want to know more about the Chevy including work as recent as last year on the car, you need to check out this article. The pictures are incredible! https://www.customcarchronicle.com/forums/topic/harold-olsen-1948-chevy/ Mr. Olsen was around the KKOA for only about 10 years, but he made a big impact. The last show he attended was Joe Bailon's Candy Cruise In in September of 1989. The Chevy was there with it's brown paint looking sharp. Harold had a heart attack in the early morning hours of October 25, 1989 that he passed away from a few hours later. He was just 50 years old. At the 1990 Leadsled Spectacular, the KKOA debuted the "Harold Olsen Memorial Award" in his honor. I don't know if this award is still given out, but at the time it was a nice tribute to a great man. The KKOA really respected Harold, and in his honor not long after his passing, the January 1990 Kemp Gazette did a big tribute to him. At the top of the front page he is mentioned. Inside in the tribute article, we find a picture of Harold and Barry David. Here is a nice write up by "The Phantom". I never figured out who the Phantom was, but obviously he was a good friend of Harold's. They couldn't have a tribute to Harold without including at least one picture of one of his cars. Here is his '46 Chevy in the orange paint. This is a thank you written to the KKOA by Harold's wife, Gail. And to finish things off tonight is the nice letter written in the Gazette about Harold by Jerry Titus. This basically gives the history of Mr. Olsen and his time in the KKOA. You can tell Jerry was very fond of Harold and he respected him quite a bit. If you read through that whole article, you saw that Harold was going to give up his National Division General position to take it easy at the shows and relax a little. He was set to step down on January 1, 1990, but God must have had other plans for Harold as He took him. Life can be funny sometimes, so you have to make every moment count. I hope everyone enjoyed this little change up article, and I hope that everyone has a great Memorial Day holiday. Let's not just remember the loved ones we've lost, but also the people that paid the ultimate price for our freedom in this great country of ours. Things are pretty rough here right now, but it's still the greatest country in the world! Y'all take care out there! I'll see you next week! E
Great write up Ed. Harold's Buick is on display at Starbird's museum still in original paint and looks just as good as the first time I saw it in the mid 80's
As the Phantom said. Harold was the ultimate Gold Chainer and lived that lifestyle. He wore gold rings, necklaces and a fancy gold watch. Gary and Liz Gerbding became close friend with Harold and his wife. They went out to visit them and Harold showed the the sights in all the glory. Harold also talked Ray and Myrna Bozart in taking their car out to California for the Roadster show, Ray took home more than a couple big trophies. Harold wanted to show the Californians, custom from the midwest can stand with the best of them. Met Harold when I was about 15. He was nice as everyone says he was. You would of like him Ed. A very nice tribute. He would be pleased. I found a pic of a 78 Dodge van all fixed up in a magazine from the late 70`s that was his. A little off topic but I`m glad he found customs.
Thanks Mark! I was going to mention the Buick was at Starbird's and that the Kobers owned the car for a long time, but I was worried about space for the thread. I didn't want to run out of room and have to finish the write up in a second post. I don't know how much room you are allowed for a post, but I know I was close to running out. I found out you can only post 30 pictures in one thread. I had to leave out one picture, but that's the way it goes. (lol) E Thanks for the extra info Jim! Even though you were young at those early Leadsleds, you were around a lot of the KKOA legends, many of which are no longer with us. Very cool! Hmmmm, Harold came from the van craze? I can see that. I too am glad he found customs. I would have loved to have met him, but he was gone way too soon. I'd like to think he would like the fact that he is still in the hearts and minds of people all these years later..........E
Great write up Ed! You might have not done yourself any favors now....you may have set yourself up for more just like it of countless other custom legends. Never met Harold, but saw both his Buick and Chevy at Ft Smith. It's so awesome both cars are still with us in super shape out and about. Neat that you found him in a van mag, too, Jim. Lots of the van guys were original custom guys that were in need of family rigs in the 70's and vans were a natural evolution of their custom dreams, family sized. My dad was one of those guys, although his van was not full on like you think of so far as custom vans, but did have a spoiler, traditional pinstriping (I still remember spending the afternoon watching the guy do it....some dude named Tip) and tinted windows. Of course, dad got all the van mags, which was really, my first introduction to customs other than my dad's stories. Still have a soft spot for custom vans....
Thanks Doc! Oh man, like I said, it may be a while before I do another post like this one. So many deserving folks, and it was so much work. We'll see.......... I too am a van fan. When I was a kid my brother was a back yard drag racer and he used to get quite a few magazines. For some odd reason he got a van magazine, too. Maybe it was Truckin', I can't recall, but I remember seeing all those neat vans thinking how cool it would be to have one. My folks used to stop at any cruise night we passed while driving around town back then, and I remember lots of vans always being at them. The van owners were always friendly folks allowing me to get inside and look around. My Dad would always cringe when they'd let me inside, but he always gave me strict orders "to look but don't touch." I wouldn't mind building a custom van someday, but with rising gas prices it might be rough on the wallet to cruise one! E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 266. 1950 Chevy Fleetline Owner: Tony Jobson Mattydale, New York This week's custom is one that I'm sure was at more KKOA events than I could find, but I only found it at a few shows. Tony Jobson had a good run in the KKOA in the early 90s, then seemed to fade away from their shows. From what I could find in my research, he was at the 1987 and 1992 Sled Scene East shows, as well as the Leadsled Spectacular from 1991-1993. Again, Tony may have attended many other shows, but these are the only ones I found Tony's car on the video. The first appearance of the Chevy I was able to find was on the '87 Sled Scene East video, where we find Tony's car sitting in the show area. The car seemed fairly mild at this show, as big changes came to the car later on that I'll point out. The first thing that really grabs your eye is the beautiful paint with the heavily pearled flames. Note that the car has a stock grille, but it had frenched headlights as well as molded lake pipes. Moving to the rear we see frenched '59 Caddy taillights (although they are hard to see in this picture) as well as a shaved decklid. A closer shot shows some nice pinstriping, as well as a shot of Tony's license plate, "SLO RYDE". Being from New York, Tony seemed to know a lot of the kustom folks that were from there, and at the '87 show he was parked with a group of about a dozen awesome sleds that made the trip from the Empire State, with a few from other states sprinkled in. This next shot I'm crazy about, I just wish the quality was better. Tony's car is sitting between two cars that we've covered here on the "What Ever Happened To..........?" thread. The Chevy is none other than Jim and Cheryl Washington's '51 Chevy from Maryland that was W.E.H.T. #92. It's a great custom that has undergone many changes for many years, and as far as I know the Washington's still own it. Here's a link to check it out one more time: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-68#post-12347039 The other you can barely see peeking out in the shot. It's the '55 Ford Crown Victoria known as "Summer Love" owned by Dean Stansfield of Slate Hill, New York. It was feature car #219. Here's another link just in case you missed it: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-138#post-13601452 And here is the shot of the cars sitting together. Those early Sled Scene East shows must have been really great just like the Leadsled was! In the next few shots we see Tony and his girlfriend (or wife?) participating in "How Cool Can You Cruise". Their skit was the girlfriend pulling up by the stage and picking Tony up. I guess the announcer was a little mixed up as he directed his dialog to the gal driving the Chevy but he kept saying something along the lines that "Tony, in the 50s girls didn't pick up guys". At any rate, Tony was taking pictures or filming with a tiny camcorder without a shirt on, and when the Chevy pulled up he jumped in the car and they drove away. This was the last time I saw the Chevy on the video. The next sighting was from the December '91 issue of Rod & Custom magazine on page 71. There was a small picture of the Chevy in their '91 Leadsled Spectacular coverage from Hamilton, Ohio. You'll notice the car had undergone some changes. The stock grille and signals were gone, tossed in favor of a DeSoto grille. The car also looks to have been repainted as the flame layout was quite different on the hood, and the flames didn't extend as far back on the sides of the car. You'll also notice the Olds Fiesta flippers are gone replaced by single bars. I saw the car on the '91 video, but it was parked in the shade and the shots were horrible. The video was too dark. Moving on to '92 the car looked to be about the same as the '91 show. The first shot is one showing the pearl in the flames and a close shot of the grille. Notice the hubcaps. Here is Tony polishing 'er up for the show. Since many guys used to hop in their sleds and drive long distances, sometimes certain precious parts were taken off to later be installed at the show. Don't want to chance losing an irreplaceable hubcap on the way to a big meet! You can see whatever hubcaps that were on the car in the first shot from 1992 had been changed to some highly modified Jack "Bubba" Hughes style '57 Caddy 'caps. Tony must have had 'caps for the road, and his show caps were in the trunk to be put on at the show and for cruising around Holland, Michigan. Here's a better shot of the hubcaps with the large bullet on them. East coast style all the way! One close up of Tony's plate.......... And another shot of the back of the car. Seems like the whole car was repainted when the grille was changed. Notice in this shot in '92 the 'striping was gone. My last rear shot from the show is a close up of one of the frenched taillights. Lots of work as those babies are way in there! In '92 we finally get to see the interior of the car. Nothing too fancy here, just plain black vinyl with top stitch pleats. Good and durable for long road trips, but a tad warm! The next shot goes back to Tony cleaning the car up for the show. Notice the big bullet Eldo caps aren't on the car yet. Tony was just getting ready to tackle the road grime under the hood from the trip. I was trying to show the polished brass at the top of the radiator in this shot, but it didn't turn out very good. As we peek under the hood we see a very nicely detailed inline six with all the goodies! Tony did his homework on this one! It must have ran great as it's a long way from Mattydale, New York to Holland, Michigan--just over 550 miles each way! The trip to the '92 Spectacular was great for Tony as he nabbed one of the coveted "One Fine Nine" awards that weekend. This is quite an accomplishment! This shot was in the closing credits of "Video Bob" Huff's '92 video showing the big award winners for that weekend. I took a few pictures from the '92 Sled Scene East video and the '93 Spectacular, but they were pretty much the same as the shots from '92 with nothing new to see, so I left them out. I did find one other clear picture of Tony in his Chevy at one of the Spectaculars. This shot was taken by none other than @PasoJohn (John Tretten) "hisself". John has told me many stories of hanging out with Tony at a few Leadsled Spectaculars, as well as at Paso Robles a time or two. Hopefully John will chime in and share a story or two and some much better pictures than my video stills. The Chevy is just oozing cool! Tony went on to join the Beatniks and still seems to be building some neat cars. In my research I found a great write up of a little Model A hot rod pickup he built a handful of years back. I'm not a hot rod guy and will probably never build one, but I can appreciate a nice vintage style rod when I see one. Tony's nailed it on every level for me--this thing is awesome! Here's a link to the article with the whole story on the little truck, as well as a mention of Tony's Fleetline. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/196...pickup-brings-era-life/?galleryimageid=767487 The article was never clear as to if Tony still has his '50, but it's good to see that as of 2017 he was still into rods and customs. If anyone out there knows Tony you might share this with him. We'd love to hear more about his neat cars from the man himself! I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend and you were able to take some time out to honor our Veterans that paid the ultimate price to keep us free. Saturday we got to see an awesome fireworks display over a cemetery not too far from my house. It was quite a sight to see all the little flags on the fallen's graves, and then the nice fireworks display. It is something I'll never forget. To all of our Veterans that are still with us out there, Thank you for your service! This country owes a great debt of gratitude for all you have done. Thank you so much! And with that I'll close for tonight. Y'all take care out there and we'll see you soon! E
Man, finally one that I know about! We hung out with Tony and his wife Lisa all weekend in Holland at the 92 KKOA event. Tony is a great guy and that fleetline was really beautiful. I am surprised that he didn't rub right thru the paint that weekend as much as he polished that thing. Here is a shot showing my old 55, Johns Plymouth convert, Tony's chevy and Doug Shoemakers chopped fleetline here is a pic of Tony with his video camera
Great pictures Mark! Also nice to hear stories from the good ol' days. Like I seem to say all the time, those old KKOA shows were the best! E
What Ever Happened To..........? number 267. 1958 Ford Sedan Delivery "The Mad Modeler" Owners: Dave and Patty Williams Indianapolis, Indiana This week's custom is a slight departure from what we're used to seeing here every Tuesday evening. This car has no whitewalls, and very few body modifications, but it struck a sentimental chord with me since Mr. Williams was a big time model car builder. I think that if nearly everyone here thought about it, you'd have to say that you might have gotten your love of custom cars through spending your a hard earned allowance to buy a model car, and then spent many hours building the car of your dreams. I know many of you out there still build models, and I'm always amazed by the fact that so many people find the time to do it. I haven't put a model together in more years than I want to count. Time has a way of slipping through my fingers and I never seem to get things done. I remember as a kid my older brother always built model cars. He also liked hot rods, customs and drag cars, so there was always a lot of neat things around. He also liked the Rat Fink and all the kustom kulture stuff that was popular in those days, even though it was kind of a new thing. All that rubbed off on me as I was a model builder too, and liked rods, customs, drag racing and so on, and I'm crazy about all that stuff to this day. Dave Williams must have liked this type of thing also as his '58 Ford sedan delivery was a rolling tribute to model car building and the Rat Fink, or maybe better yet, the man "hisself", Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Dave sent a picture of his car in to the KKOA for submission in their first book that was released in 1992. It was chosen to be featured, and was printed on page 38. The write up was very informative about the car's history, and described how it came to be. Those of you that have sharp eyes and really play close attention to things (that's pretty much all of you) will notice that Dave and Patty were from Indianapolis. This is another reason I chose to feature this car this week. I'm sure you know (unless you've been hiding under a rock) that this is CCR week, and people from all over are getting geared up to head to Indy for the big show. It seemed fitting to post this car right now. This was a hard car to find information on, so I really don't have a whole lot on it. As best as I could find, it was only at the Leadsled Spectacular two years. In 1987 Dave and Patty made the trek from Indy to Springfield, Illinois. According to the write up in the KKOA book, the paint was completed in 1987, so I think the paint may have been done just ahead of the show. It was blue, but all the lettering and striping weren't on it as of yet. I tried to get pictures of the Ford at the '87 show, but they were really blurry. I didn't think they were good enough to try to post. Luckily, Dave and Patty took the Ford to the Spectacular again in 1990 that was in Holland, Michigan. This time there was better footage of the delivery in the show area. In the first picture you can see the louvered hood from a '57 Ford that replaced the '58. You can also see louvers in the rear door and a nice set of lake pipes as well. As we move to the rear, you can see some Lee lenses replaced the factory taillights, and we catch a glimpse of the art on the panel sides of the car that read "Mad Modeler". It says in the KKOA book that the art on the car was done by a guy named Rick Sanders that was also from Indianapolis. I don't know if Rick was a "student" of "Big Daddy", but he must have known about Ed's style as Rick nailed it and it looked like "Big Daddy" did it himself. You be the judge. Don't you think the lettering looks like Roth's style? No self respecting Roth fan would ever have a rod or custom without the Rat Fink showing up somewhere. Dave was no exception as he had a Fink put on the sides of the delivery next to the "Mad Modeler" lettering. There's an old saying about how old Rat Finks never die, they just fade away. I'm sure everyone here has heard it. Well, Dave made a sign that he stuck next to the Rat Fink on the car. It was hard to tell in the video, and it's even harder to tell in my still photo, but the artwork looks like it was intentionally "faded" out in the center to help get the point across. It may have been that the Fink had some paint problems and some of the art had washed away or fallen off, but I doubt it. The One Shot in the late 80s was still good with all the lead and things the EPA took out deeming it was unsafe, making modern One Shot not as durable. Whatever the case, I think it looked pretty cool! My last shot tonight is of Dave and Patty sitting in their lawn chairs enjoying the show next to the '58. You'll notice a large number of models stacked in a third chair that looked to be for sale. Always nice to supplement your cash flow when you go to a car show. Heck man, travelling can be expensive, right? And with that the "Mad Modeler" seemed to "fade away". Does anyone remember the car or Mr. and Mrs. Williams? It was a very cool cruiser that I'm sure drew lots of admirers everywhere it stopped. I hope someone out there can give us more information, because we all know "Once a Fink, always a Fink"! Before I close tonight, I wanted to be sure to wish all of our custom family and friends a safe journey that are venturing out to the Custom Car Revival. Be careful and have a great time, but most important of all, please, please, please take lots of pictures to share with those of us unlucky stiffs that had to miss it! Have fun! I'm outta here! We'll see you next Tuesday! E
I think his name is Jobson "Little" Tony Jobson and his chopped 49 Chevy at the Rockabilly Rumble East Hartford Conn 2002. I got to know Tony pretty well after he joined the Beatniks. Tony and I being Blue Flame Chevy devotees. The last time I saw Tony was 2015 Columbus day weekend at the last race on the "Moody Mile" The dirt mile on the NY state fairgrounds.
In August of 2016, My Dad and I acquired the Mad Modeler as the William's were moving and didn't wish to take it with them. At that point the car hadn't been on the road for some time and needed quite a bit of work to bring it back to its former glory. We ended up reselling it and the last I know it now resides in Northern Indiana.
It's been a while since I had an update on an old post, but I think I found something. Last week when I was doing some research, I came across a picture of a car that I believe was a custom we featured about a year and a half ago. I waited to post on it as our custom family was very busy attending, covering and enjoying the CCR, and I wanted to make sure all of you that watch this thread saw the post. I can't be sure if the latest picture I found is the same car, so I thought I'd post it up and let all of you decide if it is in fact the same car before I update the feature. I still haven't been able to determine if the car is a '51 Chevy, so that is still a mystery. In the picture though, the owner's name was mentioned as Buck Owen. It was a chopped Chevy business coupe that underwent a number of changes during its long run attending KKOA shows. It was W.E.H.T. #194. The picture was in the Kemp Gazette Volume 2 Number 3 on page 12 printed in 1985. The article was covering Sled Scene East 1984 which was at its early location in Virginia Beach. The show was moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania shortly after. Here is the picture from the '85 Gazette: And here is a still picture from the 1986 Sled Scene East video that I posted in the feature article. The picture from the video shows the car as a candy turquoise or teal, which you can't tell the color in the black and white photo from the article. Also note that the Chevy in the Gazette picture had no skirts, but in the video pic it had them. The last comparison picture is of the rear of the Chevy that was taken at the '91 Leadsled Spectacular in Hamilton, Ohio. Last of all is a link to the write up so you can read up on the Chevy and look over all the pictures. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/what-ever-happened-to.1016572/page-130#post-13340111 So what do you guys think? Is this the same car that Mr. Buck Owen built and cruised for many years? Let me know what you think and if you agree with me that this is the same car. If so, we'll finally be able to put an owner's name with one of our mystery customs in the thread. See you tomorrow night! E
I suspect it's the same car. Tail lights look the same, same pod on the front of the lake pipe, mirror on pass door. The only thing that makes me second guess it is it looks like in the Gazette photo the side trim finishes higher in the back than the teal picture you posted, but it could have been repositioned during the repaint.
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