Jonnie King interviews Frank Livingston on his 49 Chevy!

“Hi everybody !   Hope everyone reading this is “storm free” and able to be Crusin’ once again !

The work that my friend Travis does on this Site is awesome…hope you come back often to check-it out

Here’s an important story that I want to share with you right now…

LONG-TIME HALL OF FAME MEMBER, Frank Livingston, wow’d the crowd’s over a decade ago when he unveiled his Pagan Gold, Oz Welch-built ’49 Chevy Fastback !

It was very similar to his 1955-built ’49 Fastback…but it was not quite a “clone” for a number of reasons that he explains, and you may have seen the car in-person at the GNRS, or, at Santa Maria.

Frank’s an old friend, and the story about how the idea for this build was put together is just super-cool….and what he say’s about the paint work alone is something you won’t want to miss !   Simply Click-On-Right-Here to Listen !!

Thanks again, for visiting here with Travis…and come back often !

Jonnie

Shop Visit: Shoebox Central

The second stop on my trip down to Pistons and Paint (see show coverage here and 1st shop visit here) was at Oklahoma City’s Shoebox Central. Owner Chris has owned shoeboxes as far back as high school, so he knows them inside and out. He has a ton of parts cars out back and shelves and shelves of various parts inside, pulled from parts cars, some N.O.S., some reproductions, all kinds of parts for just about anything else you could need.

 Shoebox Central is my number 1 stop for anything shoebox or Merc related. Chris has a great selection of parts on hand and is very cool to work with.
Shoebox Central is my number 1 stop for anything shoebox or Merc related. Chris has a great selection of parts on hand and is very cool to work with.

 

 

 Dashes and inner door frames from various shoeboxes and mercs.
Dashes and inner door frames from various shoeboxes and mercs.
 Tons of parts on hand to replace missing parts on your ride or ones that are damaged.
Tons of parts on hand to replace missing parts on your ride or ones that are damaged.
 These corner lights and housings got banged up a lot being right where most accidents happen, this stack will ensure you can always find one.
These corner lights and housings got banged up a lot being right where most accidents happen, this stack will ensure you can always find one.
 1 clean 1950 Ford 4 Door.
1 clean 1950 Ford 4 Door.
 1 clean 1950 Ford 4 Door.
1 clean 1950 Ford 4 Door.
 Projects in the work room for the long winter months when folks aren
Projects in the work room for the long winter months when folks aren’t buying as many parts. These projects keep Shoebox Central busy and help keep the doors open when folks are spending their money on Christmas instead of on their rides.
 Bumper guards galore
Bumper guards galore
 Bumpers too!
Bumpers too!
 Dash pieces for Mercs hanging out waiting to dress up another car.
Dash pieces for Mercs hanging out waiting to dress up another car.
 2 1951 Ford Dashes
2 1951 Ford Dashes
 1949 Parts car in the boneyard.
1949 Parts car in the boneyard.

 

See you at a show,

Royboy

Car Feature: Doug Reed’s 1949 Oldsmobile “The Toad”

It’s hard for me to come up with something to say about this car and it’s owner, Doug Reed. Doug has become a great friend and mentor of mine over the last few years. He’s been covering the hot rod/kustom scene in this area for over 3 decades, doing his part to get publicity for the talented builders and dedicated car owners of the region, just as I am attempting to do now. No words that I come up with express how much I dig this car and the man that owns it.

Continue reading “Car Feature: Doug Reed’s 1949 Oldsmobile “The Toad””

Vehicle Specific Galleries

A while back someone asked me if I had a way to search for a specific kind of car on my website. I don’t. It would take a tremendous effort to go back now and label each of the 36,000 images as to what the cars are. So I decided to try to find a work around. The solution for now is having Vehicle Specific Galleries. The goal here is to gather up images of similar cars so you can quickly and easily see many different ways that each body style can be done. The hope is that you might find inspiration in these photos and go build something of your own to enjoy.

Right now I just have 3 up:
Ford Shoeboxes (1949-1951 Fords)

 Tri-Five Chevys (1955-1957 Chevrolets)

and Mercury (1949-1952 Mercs)

The last 2 are not 100% up to date, I try to go and add a few each night until I’m done but they have a good start.

I hope to have more in the near future but it does take a significant amount of time to collect these images together so bear with me. If there are any specific models that you would like to see collected as a gallery let me know by using the email form at the top of this blog or by commenting below.

I hope you enjoy them, see you at a show,

Travis

More Shoebox Ford info

A while back I did a post about the Shoebox Fords, 49-51 models. Click here to see it.

Howstuffworks.com has a great series of articles, this one on the origins of the 1949 Ford design was particularly intriguing to me as a new shoebox owner. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1949-ford.htm

There’s much more to the story and its all assembled nicely in this thread on the HAMB.

Also on the HAMB are a whole bunch of great build threads on shoebox Fords

Here’s the build thread on my buddy Jack’s kustom 51. 

This one has been a really great thread, lots of info in it.

My buddy Arturo has kept a pretty kool thread on his shoebox, chopped by Jeff Myers & Ian Berky
I got to see the car at Jeff’s shop back in 2010.
DSC_3563

DSC_3565

That’s it for now, see you at a show,

Travis

Shoeboxes shoeboxes shoeboxes!

Those of you that know me know that I’ve recently purchased a 51 Ford, affectionately known as a shoebox. I’ve loved this body style for quite awhile and I’m excited to get started working on mine later this year (after finishing some upgrades to the 63 Galaxie).

So as I was looking through my site I realized that I have a ton of shoebox photos! I started gathering them up and so far from the first gallery up through the 2012 Lonestar Roundup gallery there are over 414 photos of shoeboxes of various forms and levels of kustomizing.  You can see the whole gallery here if you’d like to look around.

I am no expert but here is some info that I’ve been able to pick up along the way. (for more detailed info you can go to the Wiki page here)

So what years of the Ford are considered shoeboxes?
1949-1951 due to their “slab side” design, gone are the bulging fenders and they are replaced with a relatively straight body shell.

Here’s an example of the side of the body.

Compared to the 46-48 style before it.

How do you tell the years apart?

Here is an example of a 49, note the single “bullet” grille, triangular turn signals at the end of the grille bar and the FORD letters on the hood.

The 50 carries on the single bullet design but moves to a  rectangular turn signals in the trim pieces that wrap around the front bumper and badge at the front of the hood.

By 1951 they moved to the easily identifiable double bullet grille design and round turn signals.

Roofs
While many chop their shoeboxes, I am torn on what I will do. Speaking of roofs though, here’s an example of the Victoria model roof.

VS. the standard sedan roof

Here’s an example of the factory coupe roofline

They also came in the Country Squire “woody” version
2011StrayKat500_0729

Drivetrains
From the factory these cars came with flathead 6’s or 8’s. My 51 came with a 239 cu. in flathead V8 “8BA” motor and a 3speed with Overdrive transmission. I have heard that there were automatics available in 51 with the Ford-o-matic transmission. Atomic Hot Rods just released a cool documentary on the Flathead last year called A Sweet Sickness: The Flathead Movie Go to the site to order a copy for yourself, click here to see the trailer.

Suspension
These cars all have coil springs in the front and leaf spring setups in the back. The most common way to get them down a ways is to use Moog CC850 Variable Rate Coil Spring in the front and simple Lowering Blocks in the back. For a ton of info on that see this thread on the H.A.M.B.

Some kool kustoms that have inspired me

Clean, low and with a tricked out flathead under the hood. I’m told this belongs to Roy Fields and I need to meet him to say thanks for the inspiration.
 

Another very clean example this time with I believe a 53 Chevy grille, I don’t know the owners name but this appears to have been at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular in Salina, KS at the old location.

My buddy Jack’s 50.

 

Another buddy’s sectioned shoebox

With kustom work by Premier Body & Paint’s Jeff Myers in Arkansas City, KS Michael Shea’s shoebox is way kool.
DSC_3561

Another way kustom version, chopped top, Olds grille, lots of kool touches all around.

Yaril drove his 50 all the way from Miami, FL to Salina, KS for the 2011 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular.

Here’s a clone of Junior Conway’s 50. For more info on the original go to this link at kustomrama.

2011 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular Friday

That’s it for now, I may revisit this later and talk some more about these cars.
Oh I almost forgot a silly cell phone pic of mine.

See you at a show,

Travis

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9/14/13 Update: I had my buddy Chris over at Shoebox Central look through here for any errors, thanks for taking the time Chris! If anyone needs parts for their Shoebox Ford or even some Merc stuff of the era, head over to Shoebox Central.