MISSING: Bert Hamrol 1950 Ford

BERT HAMROL 1950 FORD

Originally built for Bert Hamrol in the later part of the 1950’s the car was perhaps better known as Bob “Red” McCormick’s ’50 Ford. Where is this car now?

This is how Bert Hamrol’s 1950 Ford looked like in the late 1950’s. Note the use of real Appletons spotlights.
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Robert Stickels contacted us at the Custom Car Chronicle to help him find out more about this car. Robert repainted the car in lime green for Red in the early 1980’s.
The late Bob “Red” McCormick family asked Robert to trace down the 1950 Ford that Red owned for many years. Red of East Hartford, Connecticut, sold the car in the late 1990’s to a guy in Pennsylvania. There the car got flooded and was partially submerged in water and mud! Somebody else found the car it, took it home and pulled the Olds motor and replaced it with a 350 chevy. After that it disappeared.
[box_light]Does anybody know what happened to the Bert Hamrol/Red McCormick’s old 1950 Ford custom in recent years. Anybody knows the current whereabouts of this car. If you know more, please let us know.[/box_light]





About the car

Bert Hamrol from San Francisco had this very stylish 1950 Ford sedan built by the relatively unknown Hal’s Auto Body in the mid 1950’s. Hal’s Auto Body Shop was run by Hall Hutchins. Hal also did the initial work, including the sectioning, on the famous sectioned 1940 Ford for Bob Crespo, named “les Popo”. Bert’s Shoebox recieved quite a bit of magazine exposure back in the day. It was in the November 1958 issue of Hot Rod magazine, Car Craft October 1959 and even on the cover of the Popular Hot Rodding, September 1964 issue.



Bert’s Shoebox had chrome reversed wheels with 1950 Mercury hubcaps.
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The Ford was really nicely restyled in a very clever way. Many people think the car is actually sectioned, but it is not. Hal raised the front and rear bumpers and radiused the wheel openings. And the combination made it look like the body was a lot thinner. Hall added 1957 Chrysler taillights and reshaped the windsplit’s on the rear quarter panels. The grille opening was reshaped and a nice lip was created around the new opening. This lip flowns into the molded in and raised splash pan and into the lipped new wheel opening. A very atractive restyling on this car. The grille opening was filled with a horizontal bar grille. 1952 Mercury headlights where molded into the front fenders. All handles were removed and the side trim shaved.



Photo from the Barry Mazza Collection shows the Ford in the early 190’s when Red was in the process of restoring the car.
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Red McCormick found the Ford in 1978 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Even though the car had been sitting outside for ten years in somebodies back yard, it was still in relatively good condition. He stripped the paint and the car was painted in Ford Truck Lime metallic paint. And then Red drove it all over, to many local and not so local car events. In the April 1991 issue of Rod & Custom magazine Pat Ganahl did a nice article about the ford called High School Envy.



Scott Pavey photo taken at the Leadsled Nationals – Holland, MI – 1990 shows Red’s finished version of the car. Now wearing 1953 Cadillac hubcaps.
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Pat  Ganahl photo. The real Appletons were missing and are now replaced with Dummy Spots.
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Pat  Ganahl photo
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At the Jalopyrama number 3 (2007) in Glen Burnie Maryland.
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Red McCormick’s old business card. (photo by Ulf Christiansson)

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