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BACKGROUND MYSTERY CUSTOM

In the background of 2 early 1950s drag strip photos I spotted this unidentified Mystery Custom Convertible with Padded Top.

Most of the readers on the Custom Car Chronicle know that I love old photos showing car. And how I love to search the background of city views, cars shows, drag races etc to see if there are any Custom Cars hiding in the background. While I was browsing the online Revs Digital Library I accidentally came across a photo of a drag race I had not seen previously. Some of these large online photo collections use search terms to help you find what you are looking for. But often the search terms are not always added to the photos in a correct way. Making it near impossible to find certain photos that have been archived. None of the “make sense” search terms could have found this photo, and it was even filed under a completely wrong years (1980).

The photo was taken by William Hewitt and part of the William Hewitt Photograph Collection in the Revs Archives and alone his collection contains 21,240 photos. William Hewitt took mostly photos of road races from 1953 and up, but, judging his photo collection, he also was interested in land speed records, and apparently went to a few early/mid 1950’s drag races in California. In the first photo I found of William I spotted and padded topped custom in the background. BINGO… I zoomed in on the photos and noticed this really nice looking, most like ’40 Ford, convertible with heavy chop, padded top and Buick kind grille sitting next to the drag strip. It was a Custom I had never seen before. So I searched for more photos from this series, and found a few more, but sadly one one other was taken at a similar angle and showed the same Custom Car in the background.

The full photo shows the ’40 Ford Coupe Hot Rod getting ready, or just starting its run on the dragstrip. Cars are parked next to the strip with the Custom all the way to the right.
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At first I thought that it looked very much like the Al Garcia 1939 Ford Convertible Restyled by Harry Westergard and Less Crane in the late 1940’s. But on closer inspection I don’t think it is the same car. First because the car in these photos has vent windows (’39 Ford, and also Al Garcia’s do not have vent windows) plus the hood line towards the custom grille is different. So I do not think I have seen this great looking Custom ever before, and hope somebody does recognize it.

The ’40 Ford has its door handles removed and some more body work done and was partly in primer.
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This is as large as I could get the Mystery Custom. To bad there is a pole in front of the car. The nose appears to be more round than a ’40 Ford nose. The hood appears to open up all the way to the Buick like grille with vertical bard. The windshield has a rather heavy chop with small side windows and angled B-pillars on the padded top. The front bumper could be a 46-48 Chevy unit.
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There is not much to go on when it comes to identifying other than what we see in these two photos. There is no date when the photo was taken (yes 1980 according the Revs site, but that is wrong). We can see that the Hot Rod photos in the first photo has 1951 California license plates. Those were used from 1951 to 1955, so anywhere in between those years these photos could have been taken. William started taking photos in 1953, and the newest car in the photos looks to be a ’53 Chevy. So the photo must have been taken between 1953-55, most likely at an airport strip that was used for drag racing from time to time. The car looks to be based on a 1940 Ford, but even that I’m not 100% sure. It looks like it has a 39 model hood, wheel openings raised, a Buick based or styled after grille, 46-ish bumpers, heavy chop, padded top, Spotlights, and running boards removed. All very typical for an early to mid 1940’s created Custom.

The second photo I found with the same mystery Custom in the background shows a rather beaten up mid engine Model T Drag Racer as the photo focus point. I think I have seen the car before, but cannot identify it at this moment.
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The close up shows that the car had its running boards removed and a cover added to hide the frame. There is a line in the photo that looks like a possible side trim, which fooled me in the beginning, until I noticed the “trim” extended on the hood of the 53 Chevy parked next to it. The ’53 Chevy is also the newest car in both photos.
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I combined the two photos to create the most complete photo of this Mystery Custom.
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If anybody recognized this great looking Custom in the background of these two drag strip photos, please email Rik here at the Custom Car Chronicle so that we can add the information to this article. Thank you.

(This article is made possible by)

WESTERGARD CUSTOM FOUND

Rick Atterberg posted three photos of a 1939 Ford custom convertible on his facebook. Rick Amado possible id-ed the car as an original Westergard Custom.

Close to midnight on October 28, I was just going to shut down the computer when I spotted three photos of an very interesting late 1940’s looking 1939 Ford Custom Convertible on Facebook. Rick Atterberg posted these on this Facebook page for his friend and Car owner Larry with the following message;

[box_light]”Would anyone have any information on the original builder and owner of this 1939 ford convertable? It has been chopped 3 ” with a gaylord top it has a 1940 dash with a maroon and white rolled and pleated interior with a black exterior. It left Sacramento California in 1953 to Burlington Iowa I think it was built in 48-49 after finding a Sacramento paper in the inside passenger rear quarter panel. Any information or pictures would be great.”[/box_light]

The 1939 Ford as it sits in 2014. It looks like the body is in really great shape. The hood that is now on the car is an original Ford hood. The Harry Westergard modified hood is being worked on at the moment.
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I got very excited, but right then I could not find it in my memory database. So I figured that if I would show them on my own Facebook it would be seen by many more Custom Car enthusiast, and could possibly, or at least hopefully be identified during the night. Rick Amado found a small black and white photo on the Custom Car Photo Archive showing an 1939 Ford Convertible built by Harry Westergard in the late 1940’s. A Custom that has a similar style grille opening, the same headlight treatment, chopped windshield with padded top, same bumpers. And even the location, Sacramento sounds right. Looks like the Custom Car Photo Archive has helped identifying another early Custom Car again. Great!

Al Garcia’s 1939 Ford Convertible build by Harry Westergard in the late 1940’s. The Garage magazine mentioned this photo was taken in 1948. But according to Dick Bertolucci the photo was taken at the 1952 Autorama show.
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Sadly at this point this grainy photo showed only very small in the Garage Magazine Harry Westergard article is all we have of the car when it was just finished and owned by Al Garcia. The photo caption reads Al Garcia’s ’39 Ford seen in 1948. The only thing I cannot see in the black and white photo from the late 1940’s is the rather wide rear window in the padded top. The rear window in that photo looks to have the more regular proportions, while the top as it is on the car in 2014 has an exceptional wide rear window. But that, could of course have been changed over time to help improve visibility.

Well, I have in the meantime spoken with the owner of the car, Larry May. And he confirmed that the wider rear window was done by a previous owner, but that he still has the original smaller rear window… as well as all the other parts we cannot see in the photos Rick shared first. The original grille was create from brass tubing and Larry already has re-plated it for the restored car.
Larry also mentioned that he has two old photos from the early 1950’s showing a little more on the car. Hopefully we can share those two with you here shortly. Larry also knew the owners name was Al Garcia, but never was able to link Harry Westergard to the car. Well the Garage magazine article conformed all this.

Rick Atterberg spoke to Dick Bertolucci in early November 2014. Dick mentioned that that the car in all the old photos shown and the car that Larry now owns are indeed the same car and that besides Harry Westergard, Les Crane and Dick Bertolucci himself also worked on Little Al Garcia’s 1939 Ford. Dick mentioned that he did the taillights, molded in 1939 Chevy units on the car, and ended up painting it black. Little Al and Dick were good friends and Al really wanted Dick to build the car for him. But Dick had several people in line, before Al to have their car build for him. Al Garcia did not wanted to wait, so he ended up having the car done by Harry Westergard and Less Crane, but did find Dick willing to spend his spare time putting the taillights on and have him do the paint work on the car.

I’m trying to get in touch with Sully Hake, who wrote the great story on Harry Westergard in Garage magazine back in 2004. This article shows the 1948 photo of Al Garcia which I have added to this article. The current owner of the car would really love to have a better copy of that old photo to help him with the restoration of the car. Or anybody else who knows about this photo, or perhaps other old photos of Al Garcia’s 1939 Ford. Please let me know by sending an email to: Rik Hoving

If there is anybody who knows more about Al Garcia or this 1939 Ford, please let us know.

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Larry mentioned that he knew about this car since 1958, and he has been trying to buy it from the then owner in Iowa ever since. In 1990, he was finally able to acquire it, and has been working slowly on the restoration. From time to time Larry was asking around to find out more information on his car, but nobody really knew. He even asked Custom Car Collector and Historian Jack Walker, he also had no idea who originally build it. But he sure tried to buy the car from Larry…. Larry always said, No, its not for sale. I have been waiting to drive this car since 1958, and nobody is going to take that away from me. Together with Rick Atterberg they are now working a little harder on the car. And with this last piece of information… a real harry Westergard Custom, my guess is they really want to get this one out on the road as soon as possible.

The Harry Westergard 1939 Ford current owner Larry May with the car.
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Larry send these digital photos made of the photocopied photos he got when he bought the car. Its all he has, and will help a lot with the restoration. These photos were taken in Iowa 1954, and Al Garcia had already sold the car by then. Some changed have been made, like the hubcaps which now appear to be 1953 Studebaker units. These photos show that the car has 1949 Chevy bumpers front and back. So perhaps these bumpers have been added to the car at a later date, since it was mentioned that the car was build in the 1946-48 period. We have seen that happen before on another Harry Westergard Custom.

Early photo of Al Garcia’s ’39 Ford with the chopped windshield and padded top, but without the grille work. Photo taken around 1949-50, thanks to stillrunners.
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Early photo of Al’s ’39 at a local rod run. (stillrunners)
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Al’s ’39 Ford all the way on the right at the Car show held at Capitol Chevrolet in Sacrament on November 4-5, 1950.
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The hand made grille looks really good in the car, giving it some more width, and making the front looks a bit aggressive.
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This side view shows the 1953 Studebaker hubcaps on the wide white wall tires. It looks like the teardrop skirt is in primer, perhaps a mishap, or the original went missing and had to be replaced.
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The photo from the rear shows the original smaller rear window still in place in 1954.
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Ford Crestliner steering wheel. To bad we cannot see more of the interior, and it looks like the glove box door is missing.
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The previous owner of the car had trouble looking out the back of the padded top, so he widened the rear window. Larry still has the original trim piece for it, which will be used on the restored version.
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With the rear bumpers held in place.
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The grille is hand-made from brass tubing by Harry Westergard. Larry already restored it and had it re-plated. Its just sitting inside the hand made opening just for the photo.
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The interior was done in black and white as the headliner in the padded top shows. The inside of the top is still in remarkable shape after all these years.
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