Custom Car Chronicle
Bruce Bartlett CollectionEarly Custom Cars

Bartlett Collection

 

BARTLETT COLLECTION

 

Bruce Bartlett is a member of the Ramblers Car Club formed in 1950. He is currently working on digitallyĀ restoration the old Ramblers Club Photo Album that contains some amazing material.

 
The Ramblers of Long Beach Car Club was formed in 1950, and the club just had its 64 year reunion September 13th. Some of the have just turned 80, but they are still going strong and enjoy cars and love the get back together and remember the good old 1950’s on their annual meeting. The Club has created an very nice photo album with club member cars and activities. We like to give you a preview of some of the material in this book. Some of Bruce his personal cars and a few other custom car photos. I’m working together with Bruce to get theĀ old photos scanned the best way possible.Ā Some of these photos are early color prints and they have been very badly faded and shifted to yellow red tones. We try to get some of theseĀ restoreĀ to show at least a bit more color like they used to do. This album and Bruce his memory about the car club and the whole scene back then is amazing, and we hope to be able to share you a lot more about this in the not to far future… stay tuned.

Most of the photos in this introduction article are from Bruce his personal 1936 Ford three window coupe. A very nicely done mild custom. The photos of this car and a few others are all taken at Bruce his father’s gas garage / gas station.
 
CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-041936 Ford not too long after Bruce bought it, in front of his fathers garage. A place where Bruce spend a lot of his young years.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-02Bruce with his 1936 Ford after it was paintedĀ Matador red by one of theĀ members father. Look at the stance the car has… just perfect. This photo has been color corrected, but was based on a rather bad scan. We hope to have much better scans, and options to do better color corrections in the future.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-03Side view shows the 1940 Ford fender skirts and the slight speed boat stance. This photo has not been color correction and shows how badly these color photos have faded and lost most of its colorĀ since they were taken in the early 1950’s.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-01Another photo that was color corrected shows the 1946 Ford bumpers and smoothed trunk. Bruce sure had a good taste for style.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-091941 Packard owned by Bruce hisĀ brother Caz. The windshield wasĀ chopped and a Carson top was added back when he got out of the Air Force in ’45.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-05Another amazing early looking Custom is this chopped 36 two door sedan.Ā When this photo was taken the carĀ belonged to Eddie Hemry, another member of the Ramblers. Originally owned and possibly built by Bobby DeMarco.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-08Frank Benson’s Chevy Pick Up Car Craft cover car.Ā 
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CCC-frank-benson-chevy-01The rear of Frank’s Chevy Pick-Up. We will be doing a full CCC-article on Frank’s Chevy in the near future.
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CCC-frank-benson-chevy-02Frank Benson with his pick-up
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-06Later in the 1950’s Bruce owned this nice 1953 Studebaker with some mild body modifications done by none other than Sam Barris. I also tried to restore the colors in this photo, but again it was based on a poor scan. We hope to get better results later, when new scans are made.
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CCC-bruce-bartlett-36-ford-07Nice interior in maroon and white tuck & roll in Bruce his 1953 Studebaker.
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We are looking forward to share many more unique images from the Bartlett Collection and the Ramblers of Long Beach Car Club photo album in future CCC-Articles. And also share more of the amazing stories Bruce remembers about his bike trips to the big name custom shops when he was a kid. And many other car related stories…. Stay tuned.
 
 
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Rik Hoving

Rik is the CCC editor in chief. As a custom car historian he is researching custom car history for many years. In 2004 he started the Custom Car Photo Archive that has become a place of joy for many custom car enthousiasts. Here at CCC Rik will bring you inspiring articles on the history of custom cars and builders. Like a true photo detective he will show us what's going on in all those amazing photos. He will write stories about everything you want to know in the realm of customizing. In daily life Rik is a Graphic Designer. He is married to the CCC webmaster and the father of a 10 year old son (they are both very happy with his excellent cooking skills)

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