John Quintal 1956 Album

 

QUINTELL 56 ALBUM

 

Nor Cal Custom Enthusiast Ron Brooks has an amazing collection of Custom Car Historic material, and the great thing is, he loves to share it. This time Ron shares Swanx member John Quintals photo album pages from 1956 with us.

 

The original Swanx banner hand stiched in 1953. (From the Swanx Vallejo facebook page)
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Ron Brooks has shared some great material from Oakland Swanx Car Club member John Quintal 1956 Photo album with us. The scans were made of copied pages of this album, hence the bit blurry effect on some of the material. John created this album from the roads trips he, andhis fellow Swanx members made showing their cars in California. The photos shown here are all from 1956, and most of them come from the trip John and the guys made to Los Angeles when they visited the 1956 MotoRama show with their cars.

 

The Oakland Swinx members…
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John Quintal owned a mildly customized in a nice 1940’s style 35 ford Roadster. There are no photos of John’s album at the LA Motorama show, so most likely he did not bring his own car to this event. The photo showing John’s Ford was taken at the 1959 Oakland Roadster Show, closer to home. Ron Brooks has heard many stories from the early/mid 1950’s Nor Cal car club members, and how they went on the road trip to the famous Los Angeles shows. Those trips where a real big deal back then. Hence the many snapshots taken, and the creation of the album. Lets take a closer look at some of the photos from John Quintal 1956 Album.

Beautiful mild custom 1935 Ford owned by John Quintal at the 1956 Oakland show. The car has a chopped windshield, shaved handles, 1940 Olds bumpers and smooth hubcaps on white wall tires.
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One of the pages of the album showing the guys in Hollywood, a car show vendor, and what appears to be a motel lobby.
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Getting some new decals at on of the show vendors.
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John’s album contained two photos of this really uniquely styled 1951 Studebaker at the LA MotoRama show. Sadly there is no info given on who owned the car or who created it, and so far we also have not been able to find out anything about it. First time we have ever seen this car.
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The almost track nose shaped grille opening fits really well with the shape of the front fenders. The hooded headlights and bumperettes all help to create a very unique Custom.
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The Album also contained two photos of the 1946 Mercury Coupe the Valley Custom Shop guys created for Bob Hoshiko.
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The pink, white and dark gray 1941 Ford the Barris Kustom Shop created for Frank Monteleon is part of the Barris Kustoms Display wall in 1956.
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Swanx member Ted Leventhal posing with his 1950 Chevrolet convertible that was restyled by Emory Robinson’s Custom Shop. Mel Pinoli’s Body & Paint Shop added the green Candy Apple paint in 1955. Which is also known as the very first car painted in a transparent color which would later be known as as Candy Apple.
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The gang “Swanx”. It looks like a few of the girl-friends or wife’s also joined the guys to Los Angeles.
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Barris Kustoms restyled Cadillac Lemans show car. The listed value of $52,000 must have made a huge impact on John.. and most likely many people in 1956. Thats the Barris Wild Kat Pick up in the background.
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John also included this snapshot of George Barris driving a Barris Kustoms painted midget on the same page which showed the Cadillac Lemans., although the markings indicate the photo was taken at a different show in Monterey, sadly we cannot read the year in the top right corner.
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John’s album also included a number of photos from Hot Rod’s he liked included this ’22 T from Norm Grabowki. The “Lightning Bug” version. (marked as a 27, thanks Marcus Edell for the info)
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The Sport Car and Fiberglass section of the show.
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The guys getting some rest in the Worlds Most Comfortable chairs.
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The album also included this full color post car from the TAPKITS company, showing Johnny Johnson’s 1951 Kaiser custom. Possibly a souvenir taken from the show.
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The guys at the 1956 MotoRama show in front of the famous NHRA Trailer.
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Manny thanks to John Quital for creating this great Album and Ron Brooks for scanning and sharing it with us.
 
 
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(this article is sponsored by)

 
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Contact Rob Radcliffe at King Kustoms for more info on these T-Shirts Email Rob

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