Random Custom Car Photos
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Trey Burke shared these pictures of a really clean ‘57 Chrysler on his Instagram.
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Pat Ganahl shared some really great 1940’s photos on his blog yesterday. Mostly Hot Rods, but there were three photos of an very interesting Sports Custom that I knew I had seen before…
” Word by Pat Ganahl… What in holy hubcaps is this thing? Well, I can tell you right off that it wears 1945 New York license plates (but the billboard in the photo above advertises Ida Lupino in something at the Wiltern Theater, so this is L.A.). It has right-hand steering and left-hand exhaust (denoting an inline engine). And it’s obviously custom-built to resemble–though not mimic–a Bugatti Type 59SC Atlantic of the mid-to-late 1930s. But what’s really intriguing, especially to our rod/custom photographer, is that it appears to include some Ford components. Notably the headlights and taillights, and in fact the whole front and rear fenders, look like they started life on a ’38-’39 (Standard) Ford. Most of the rest looks like it was deftly formed from sheetmetal by hand with help from rollers, wheels, or brakes. Who knows what the bumpers came from. Even the Bugatti-like grille is unchromed, suggesting it was hand-formed as well.”
Well I knew I had seen it before… and I also knew where. In an article on Sports Customs that Geoff Hacker had shared with me a few years back…. so I went to look for it and sure there it was.
That gave me a bit more info on the strange Sports Custom… and good Google search brought me some more info… and it turns out the car survived….
The best info came from the Old Motor website.
“By Tim Martin:
One might say this Bugatti T43, chassis 43264, has led a busy life. It is one of the three T43’s Leon Duray received in exchange for the Packard Cable Specials (the two front-wheel drive Millers which were rescued by Griff Borgeson in the late 1950’s). 43264 was originally bodied as a Weymann cabriolet and received this one-off two seat aluminum coupe designed and built by the Derham Body Company of Rosemont, PA, reputedly for owner, John Fritsche, Jr.
The T43 engine and running gear were removed by the next owner, a Los Angeles high school teacher named George Banquet. This was probably shortly after WW2. The singer and dancer, Donald O’Connor was a subsequent owner and he competed in local hill climbs with the car in the early 1950’s.
It disappeared for several decades until the late Bill O’Brien found it in 1982, chained to a tree after looking for the car for years. He bought it and it remained with his collection until after his death, a few years ago. His son, Gordon, sold the car to a British restorer, who in turn sold it to Swiss collector Guy Huet who it is believed will rebody the chassis with a Neuss-designed open tourer. The Derham body reportedly remains in California. For nearly 60 years, the car had a six cylinder Ford engine, but it now has a Bugatti engine once again, and is undergoing restoration.
Many thanks to PreWarWalt for the photograph, and Sandy Leith for the history of this interesting car.”
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What a lovely sleak sports custom , quite sad that the Bugatti chassi is on its way to be restored back to a Bugatti ? How much percentage Bugatti parts will be used in the recreation of the Bugatti T43 , as a Derham one off coachbuilt sportscustom its unique car , one of one in the world , hopefully the remaining bodyparts is picked up by someone that makes a chassi and puts it together as the Denham coachbuilt car as it once was to continue to beautify the world …
Wolf
@elgin_industries shared these on Instagram.
“Saturday after the rally we visited a fellow member’s Shop, and saw this 1950 Ford that was customized in the early 1960’s. It sports a flathead v8 with dualcarbs and aluminumheads, the interior is out of a fordfalcon. The rear wheel wells are opened up and radius’d. Customsidetrim and a Chevy grill compliment the twotone metallicpaint . I’m doing my best to remember the whole history as I heard it, and I think he said the original builder drove it to high school everyday in 1963, and it was parked shortly there after. This is one of the coolest unrestored period customs we’ve seen in a while!”
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I was helping out my friend John Canepa to find some 1956-57 photos on the Petersen Archives of the Tom Hocker 1940 Ford Barris Custom he is restoring, when I came across two pictures of a really interesting Custom I don’t think I had ever seen before.
The pictures were taken at the 1957 Oakland Autorama, and the car, possibly an early 1940’s Chevy? looks to be an older Custom done perhaps in the very early 1950’s. It has all the characters of an late 40’s early 50’s Custom, with it chopped padded top, Cadillac rear fenders, molded (Merc) grille surround…. Anybody knows more about this one?
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This car was built by Joe Bailon. There was an article on him in Custom Rodder magazine around 1992. One of the photos in the article was this car, (a little beat up and with 1960s-1970s black California license plates on it) sitting in a vacant lot. I assumed the picture was probably from the 1970s or 1980s. I think it said something about the car being “about to undergo restoration” and that it was a Buick.
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www.trendcustomcars.comAbsolutely correct Justin.
Bruce Heather mentioned it to me yesterday. He is looking for more info on the car.
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Paul Joseph Bourjaily shared this interesting picture on Facebook.
He had no info on it other a guy he knew had scanned a bunch of pictures his father took in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Hope more will show up…
This looks to be a Kaiser with an top/windshield that must have been inspired by the original version of the Golden Sahara. I do not recall ever seeing it before.
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I haven’t seen this Ford before, so i thought i post it here, sadly it’s just this single page i have, so i don’t know from wich magazine this is. It’s from a big size magazine like Motor Trend. The license plate reads 1951, sorry for the blurry photo.
I think this is a very nice mild custom, red with red interior!!
Yes, that’s it! That’s one of my favorite Bailon customs.
Trend Books Custom Cars Annuals
www.trendcustomcars.comPaul Joseph Bourjaily shared this interesting picture on Facebook. He had no info on it other a guy he knew had scanned a bunch of pictures his father took in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Hope more will show up… This looks to be a Kaiser with an top/windshield that must have been inspired by the original version of the Golden Sahara. I do not recall ever seeing it before.
This Kaiser was owned by Ted Lundquist in Northern California. It was featured in several period magazines and still exists. There are also more photos of it on the Barris Kustom Photography DVD from a few years ago.
Trend Books Custom Cars Annuals
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