Joe Gertler 1941 Ford

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Rik Hoving

JOE GERTLER 1941 FORD

From the Jamie Barter Photo Collection comes this series of slightly oddly restyled 1941 Ford Convertible photos. The car was created by Joe Gertler at the Raceway Garage in the Bronx around 1950.

Jamie Barter shared a new set of photos from his collection with the Custom Car Chronicle. The car in these photos are two versions of an 1941 Ford Convertible Restyled by Joe Gertler Sr. at his Raceway Garage in the Bronx (New York) around 1950. Joe Gertler Sr. started the Raceway Garage in 1939. He was an innovative perfectionist in custom building well-known racing craft, from airplanes and exotic sports cars, to the many racing cars and boats that came from his shop. It is estimated that he built approx 200 complete cars from 1937-1990

The cars created at the Raceway Garage are an odd mix of Sports Custom, Coachbuild, and Custom Restyled Cars all blended together. Joe Gertler was a pioneer Car builder on the East Coast of the USA who won many trophies with his uniquely restyled car. He was well known for building competitive Midgets and Sprint Cars, as well as Le Mans winning cars and Cars for well known people around New York City. Some had Custom body work, others received complete hand made bodies. The Raceway Garage was able to handle it all. More information about Joe Gertler and the Raceway Garage can be found on the Memaerobilia website.

Most of the cars created at the Raceway Garage shop are not really suited for the Custom Car Chronicle. But the car in the series of photos from the Jamie Barter Collection shows a very interesting mix of Custom Restyling inspired from sampled from the West Coast, as well as European Coachbuild influences. The photos show two versions of the same car. The first most likely photographed in the later part of the 1940’s the second most likely around 1950-51.

First version

The photos in Jimmie’s Collection came with no additional information, other that the car was based on 1941 Ford convertible and created by the Raceway Garage in New York. From what we can see in the photos it looks like the car was channeled over the frame, the fenders front and rear where raised to meet with the bottom of the body. The running boards were removed, and all four fenders were molded to the body. Possibly a different year and brand set of front fenders was used, or the ’41 Ford units were heavily modified. The front fenders were further modified into full fade away fenders. The hood was modified and a new much wider than stock front section was added, and a new hood line was cut along the belt line, and about a foot from the front of the hood. The front section of the nose was molded to the front fenders.

The windshield was chopped a few inches, vent windows cut accordingly and for the first version the working soft top was modified to fit the chopped windshield and covered in dark material. There is no photo showing the back of this version of the car, so we cannot see what kind of taillights were used, possibly 1948 Ford units turned 90’s degrees from original, possibly on custom made pods. It appears in the side view photo that the car already had exhaust tips in the rear portion of the rear fenders above the rear bumper. The first version of the car was painted dark and a set of fender skirts mounted on the rear fenders.

Side view shows the fender skirts, rounded front wheel openings, Lyons hubcaps on wide whites, and heavy stainless or chrome plated rocker trim, possibly created from 1947 Frazer rocker trim.
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The grille on the car looks to be made from 1946 Studebaker components. The front bumper appears to come from an 1947 Dodge. Notice the wide front of the hood and one continues shape with no hood lines.
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This photo shows the round front wheel openings a bit better. The car is parked in front of the Raceway Garage shop building. The Raceway Garage sign can be seen on the left side of the building.
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Second Version

Some time later, most likely around 1950-51 the car was updated by Joe, we are not sure if this car was Joe’s personal car, or one of the many he created for his customers. The car was modernized with reshaped front wheel opening, a new all custom made grille very much inspired by some European Coachbuild cars. New taillights with what looks like 1951 Lincoln taillights lenses and surrounds on new larger molded in pods. A Continental kit and long molded in splash pan at the rear. The bumpers were replaced by 199-50 DeSoto units, hubcaps update with a more modern set of aftermarket units. The folded top was replaced with a padded top covered in light colored canvas and now with the rear quarter windows filled in.The fender skirts were removed, and the car was painted a new, lighter two tone color. Personally I think the original version looked a lot better than the more Coachbuild inspired second version.

The new lighter color, the padded top, and the lack of fender skirts changed the looks of the car completely. It also appears that the front end was lowered a bit giving the car an kind of odd looking forward rake.
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One other modification done to the car was a new hood line cut into the front section following the belt line all the way to the front of the nose.
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The rear bumper most likely comes from a ’49-50 DeSoto woody with its distinctive cut out which was perfect for the added continental kit. Notice the rather large (for a padded top) rear window.
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Not sure if this is the owner of the car, or Joe Gertler Sr. posing with the car.
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The new version of the car now has a set of 1949-50 DeSoto bumpers, and in this photo we can see the new hand made grille, and how the hood line was extended at the front so that the hood opens all the was to the front now.
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This a bit higher point of view shows the long exhaust tips mounted underneath the most likely ’51 Lincoln taillights on molded in pods, the long splash pan and continental kit. I have to say that the new version of the cars rear is not a improvement over the early version.
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Another odd thing from the updated version is the round rear wheel openings, while the fronts were squared off. Fender skirts might have looked better on this version as well.
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The car was painted in a new lighter color with the trunk and above the belt-line till the A-pillars in a darker color. This photo shows how the new taillights, long exhaust and spare tire are not really working to well. The original version of the car was much more in harmony.
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We came across a few photos of Joe and another guy working on new bodies Sports Car in the Raceway Garage Shop.
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Looks like there are plenty of project going on at the New York Bronx Raceway Garage Shop.
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Barter Collection 36 Ford Cabrio

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Rik Hoving

36 FORD CABRIOLET

Jamie Barter has shared a few more photo from his early photo collection with us. This time he shared 3 photos of a heavily restyled 1936 Ford Cabriolet taken around 1948.

Jamie found these three photos at an recent (autumn 2017) eBay auction. The three photos all appear to have been taken in the later part of the 1940’s The license plate tag on the car is from 1948 or 1949. The only information that came with these three photos was that the photos were probably taken near San Jose, Gilroy, Salinas area. No other information was given by the ebay seller. So far Jamie, nor anybody else who has seen these photos has been able to identify the ’36 Ford Cabriolet in these photos. It appears that the photos have been carried with the owner in his wallet for many years, looks like he was very fond on the car. If you know anything about this ’36 Ford, please email Rik Hoving so that we can share the information here.

The car in the photos is a ’36 Ford that has been channeled over its frame and to witch ’40 Ford front fenders and heavily sectioned hood have been added. The running boards have been removed after the body was dropped over the frame to make the bottom of the body sit near level with the bottom of the fenders. The windshield frame has been cut down at least 3-4 inches, and a padded top was created to fit the new lower windshield. The sectioned 1940 Ford hood had its top portion cut out to create a new hood opening. The hood sides were modified to fit with the ’36 Ford cowl. The door and trunk handles have been removed, and a custom gas filler door,possibly taken from a newer car, has been added to the drivers side rear fender.

Possible the owner/builder posing with his ’36 Ford with ’40 Ford front fenders and hood. It looks like the firewall was fitted with a an engine turned panel.
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It appears that the car is still under construction. Looking at these photos I think that the flat front bumper (brand unknown) is too close to the body to make it possible to install a ’40 Ford grille in the opening. Perhaps the owner was still trying to figure out what to do for a grille. Also interesting to see is that the front bumper mounts have been lowered, after the channeling, to fit the stock holes in the 1940 Ford front fenders. While at the back the mounts seam to have been left in the stock position on the frame, which made it necessary to cut larger holes into the body and mount the rear bumper – a 1941 Ford unit – higher on the body compared to a stock ’36 Ford rear bumper position. A set of black wall tires are used, an indication that the car might have been created during or shortly after WWII when white wall tires were impossible to get. A set of single bar flipper hubcaps and beauty rings are used to dress up the wheel.

With the raised ’40 Ford front fenders, sectioned hood and heavy chopped windshield the car has become very low in overall height. Hard to tell the brand and year of the front bumper, but it looks to have been flattened to fit the Ford bumper mounts.
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Another interesting detail is the “sunrise” interior door panel upholstery. A typical Art-Deco feature seen in some coachbuilt cars. It appears that the dashboard was home made and upholstered with a flat panel with gauges added set into it. The steering wheel is a 1940 Ford unit. The rear quarter photo were we can see the car with the door open shows how much the body was dropped over the frame. It also shows that the panel created to cover the frame has a lot of road debris on it. Once the running boards were removed the road dust and rain from the road would find its way into the interior between the frame cover and the upholstery panel on the door.

It reminds me about a story Bob Drake told me about his road trips in the Jack Stewart Ford. That custom had the same situation, it was also channeled and door upholstery clamped against the frame cover was not enough to keep water from the road coming into the interior when he drove the car in wet conditions. He always carried several towels in the car which he would stuff in between the door and floor of the car to prevent the interior getting all wet and dirty. It sure looks like this ’36 Ford had a similar issue going.

The sunrise upholstery pattern give a very classic feel to this ’36 Ford Custom. The gas filler door and other body modifications indicate that the owner either was very handy and creative, or was able to spend some money on his dream car to have it built by a body shop.
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Close up show the engine turned fire wall panel.
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Close up of the sunrise door-panel upholstery, the padded dash with custom insert, and ’40 Ford steering wheel.
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Close up of the rear shows the custom gas filler in the rear fender, the 39 or perhaps 41 Ford taillights sitting very low on the fender and what appears to be a ’49 license plate tag.
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I wonder if this ’36 Ford was ever finished with a nice gloss paint job, a new grille and possibly new front fender to clear the grille. There are pictures around from several ’36 Ford’s with ’40 Ford front ends grafted on, which was a common restyling method back in the 1940’s, but none looks to be similar to this one. Perhaps one of our readers will recognise this car, or perhaps the guy in the picture and shed some more light on this mystery Custom ’36 Ford.

Thank you Jamie to share these great Custom Car snapshots with us.

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Jamie Barter 34 Ford

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Rik Hoving

34 FORD ROADSTER

Jamie Barter has shared a few more of his early photo collection with us. This time a series of photos of a customized 1934 Ford Roadster taken during WWII.

Jamie found these four negatives at an recent (summer 2015) eBay auction. And they show an early customized 1934 Ford Roadster. So far Jamie, not anybody else who has seen these photos has been able to identify this nice ’34 Ford Roadster in these photos. So if you know anything about it, please let us know. One of the first things you notice on this ’34 Ford Roadster is the V-windhsield. It is hard to tell from these photos if the owner/builder used an v-windshield from another car, or if it was home made to fit the 34 Ford cowl. We do know that it looks really good on the car. The top, possibly a modified soft top to fit the V-windshield, but perhaps it is a custom made padded top, hard to tell. Another Custom touch are the removed running boards and the slightly modified fenders where the running boards used to be. The “double” front bumper is something we have seen before, another real early custom touch.

Images from the eBay auction show the original negatives and inverted samples.
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This side view photo shows the nice rake of the V-windshield and that there was no filler panel made after the running boards were removed.
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“Double” front bumper, fog lights, and a really great looking V-Windshield.
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This rear 3/4 view shows that the rear bumper did not have the double up section added. It does show that the passenger side has the custom made side window curtain installed.
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In this photo we have a good look at the License plate with the “V” tab attached to the upper right of the plate. This dates the photos of the car to somewhere between 1941 and 1944.
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Thank you Jamie for sharing another nice set of early photos, very much appreciated. A nice, perhaps a bit rough around the corners 1934 Ford early Custom. It makes me wonder when it was actually built, possibly even before WWII. It also makes me wonder what happened to this nice 1934 Ford Roadster. A car with a V-windshield like this but have been noticed. These photos show one again that also the 34 Ford was used back in the early days as Custom Material, and not only for Hot Rodding.

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Barter Collection 40 Merc

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Rik Hoving

BARTER COLLECTION 40 MERC

Jamie Barter recently added these four old photos of an 1940 Mercury Convertible Custom to his Collection.

Jamie Barter loves early style Hot Rod and Custom Car, and has been collecting old photos for many years. Fortunately for us, he loves to share these photos. He is not, like some collectors, keeping them in private files, but he scans the originals and shares them with as many people as possible. Just sharing the things he loves, knowing other people will enjoy them as much as he does, and sometimes to see if somebody else knows more about the subject of the photo. We have recently added a CCC-SECTION for Jamie’s Photo Collection and we will be sharing some more of his collection in the near future.

Lets take a closer look at the four photos Jamie recently added to his collection.
At first glance these photos have a very much late 1940’s feel, but when I took a closer look I noticed that the License plate on the Mercury was the 1952-55 Style. I could not make out the actual date from the scans so I asked Jamie if he could see it on the original photo. 1953! was his reply. Not really what we both expected, we both had the feeling it was more like 1948. So it appears that this Custom Mercury was already kind of outdated when these snapshots were taken.

So far we also have not been able to identify the car, it is a pretty “generic” Custom with no real details that set it apart from others making it rather hard to identify. The only two items I can see that might help are the 1940 Chevy taillights and the license plate protection bar. The padded top looks to be in a style that the Carson Top Shop was best known for, a little more boxy than what Gaylord or others would do. Most likely made on the special jig the Carson Shop was using for these tops. All the work looks to be done several prior to when these photos where taken, most likely in the mid 1940’s judging the style of the restyling.

This rear 3/4 view is my personal favorite since we cannot see that the hood is actual missing in this photo.
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The taillights used on the Mercury appear to originate from a 1940 Chevy, not a taillight that was used a lot. But they do look good. The license plate guard is another unit that is not seen a lot, and is one more thing that makes me believe this is an older custom. The 1937 DeSoto ribbed bumper is a classic touch, that suits any 1940 Mercury really well.
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The interior photo is sadly a bit blurry, but we still can make out the Ford accessory steering wheel, the Appleton Spotlight handles and a pretty plain upholstery, another indication that this is an older Custom.
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The last photo, the front 3/4 shot shows that the car was driving around with no hood and no grille. We can only speculate why this was done. Perhaps the owner was a racer, perhaps the “old” engine was overheated a lot. We can see a two carb intake, and some chrome goodies on the engine. The left on door handles and the well used character are more signs of the age of this Custom.
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Thank you Jamie for sharing these great photos with us, and hopefully somebody on the CCC will recognize the car, and can shed some more light on the history of it. We all would love to know more about it, who owned it originally, who restyled it, and where were the photos taken? If you know anything, please leave a comment, or email Rik.

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Bob Giovanine 1939 Chevy Coupe

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Jamie Barter

A HOT RODDERS CUSTOM CAR.

Bob Giovanine is not a name normally associated with Custom cars but in 1939-40 he owned a cool Chevy custom. As a member of the Albata club Bob is widely known for his exploits on the dry lakes in the 30s and 40s.

Post war Bob teamed up with club mate Chuck Spurgin to claim the 1948 S.C.T.A. points championship with a 1925 Chevy roadster, Hot Rod Magazine selected the roadster to appear on the March 1949 cover.
I will delve into this and other cars in future articles.

After leaving high school in 1937 Bob found employment at Vultee Aircraft & in 1939 he purchased a brand new 1939 Chevy Coupe. Like many Californian youth Bob customized his new ride with nosed hood, white wall tyres, baby moon caps & fender skirts. The license plate wasn’t recessed which one might have expected from the time period, this may have been left high as Bob towed his and other club members race cars out to Muroc & El Mirage.

The interesting area of customizing is that of the front sheet metal, the top half of the grille was eliminated and filled with sheet metal (much like George Bistayne 1938 Ford convertible sedan). The new filler panels weren’t moulded to the hood but to the fenders. The headlights appear like they have been moulded also, the stock fender grilles were retained.

Unfortunately Bob was rear ended at the corner of Western & Florence by a drunk driver and as you can see from one of the photos did extensive damage. From what I understand the car was not repaired, a sad ending.

Who knows, had he not been rear ended Bob may have customized his Chevy coupe further. Bob’s custom Chevy is not famous like the So-Cal Plating’s ’35 Ford Phaeton but is a great example of what you would have seen on the streets of LA. The Chevy was present among many greats of early hot rodding, it had towed the Bob Knapton’s modified (later owned by Doug Caruthers & restored today as Chrisman #25 dragster). The Chevy also towed Bob Rufi’s streamliner wreck home in November 1940.

Photos courtesy Curt Giovanine.

Found Treasures

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Jamie Barter

SNAPSHOTS FROM MY PERSONAL COLLECTION

For this first article for the Custom Car Chronicle I wanted to show some nice snapshots from my own personal collection.

From time to time some individual snaps shots show up for sale, and sometimes larger collections or even whole photo albums are offered. Most of the times this material is found when the old guy who took the photos passed away, or perhaps had to move to an elderly home. And lost of stuff gets sold on yard and estate sales if we are lucky. Other collections are not so lucky and might end up in the garbage. I think we all have heard some of those hours stories.

In any event the photos I will be showing here have had better luck, found their new home at a real enthusiast and even better the photos now get to be shared world wide with all who love to watch them.

Some of the cars in the photos I show are identified, and we know a lot about them. But others remain unanimous so far. So we do encourage you, the viewer to help us identify the cars in the photo. If you know more about them, or recognize cars in the background, please sign in and leave a comment on the article. When new information comes available the older articles on the CC Chronicle will be updated.

Now lets see some nice photos taken at the lakes…