Car Craft magazine was one of the bibles for the rapidly escalating interest in car customizing when, in 1963, it published a special edition identifying the 10 best custom cars for 1963.
This was at the peak of the car customizing craze that swept North America with owners transforming their rides into moving art and sculpture. The synergy of vision, opportunity and skills required to turn a mental picture into moving metal art is rare. Only a few achieve international exposure.
was a young car enthusiast in Vancouver who was looking for a car when a friend of a friend told him about a 1951 Chevrolet two-door sedan best described as “a work in progress.”
The Chev was owned by George Wosniak and had some minor body modifications, including “frenched” headlights and a louvred hood. But George wanted something more elaborate.
Car Craft magazine did a two-page feature on Cort Elliotts 1951 Chevrolet from Vancouver named as one of the 10 best customs for 1963.
PNG Merlin archive, Driving
He took the car to legendary Vancouver customizer Jack Williams for “further modifications” — the beginning of a process that would later result in the car becoming known as Carried Away, as first reported in the original Car Craft feature article.
At the time, Jack was working out of the garage off the laneway at the rear of his mother’s house in East Vancouver. A photo shows him standing in the trunk of the Chevy cutting the roof with a hand saw.
The original plan was to ‘chop’ the top and install 1956 Packard tail lights. But the car, originally from Eastern Canada, had serious rust issues so new fenders, doors, hood and quarter panels were purchased. Work progressed with new parts being fitted and modified to suit the changes being made.
But George had found another love, wanted to get married and needed money for a down payment on a house.
Cort Elliott recalls seeing the car for the first time in 1958: “When I saw the car in grey primer, it was quite simply an exquisite piece of work.”
At this point, the top had been chopped and the Packard lights were in place. But there was no upholstery except for the original front seat, and the front end was still all original. Very impressed with what he could see beyond the primer, Cort bought the project and asked Jack to continue the customizing work.
Well-circulated photo of Jack Williams chopping the roof on the 1951 Chevrolet custom with a wood saw in the late 1950s.
PNG Merlin archive, Driving
Although Jack Williams had used a hand saw to chop the top, the bodywork was all hammer welded with very little lead filler required and there weren’t any seams visible either inside or outside so the car looked factory built.
Cort was still living at home and using the money he earned working in the insurance business to continue the project. Cort and Jack put much thought into the overall design to keep the car “clean” without any gimmicks such as fender skirts, Appleton spotlights or unnecessary scoops.
Cort had become a member of the Shifters Car Club and the club’s first show was held on the roof of a grocery store at 14th and Main Street. Despite the car being in primer with the original stock front end and windows “blacked out” to mask the lack of finished interior, the customized Chevy took top honours.
Cort and Jack selected 1958 Lincoln canted quad headlights together with a hand-crafted tube grille for the front end treatment and then recruited noted painter Fred Welsh to apply burgundy lacquer on the finished body. Vancouver’s Autocraft Upholstery installed 1958 Thunderbird seats and interior trim in bronze vinyl with dark brown carpeting.
The first time that Cort took the car out in public wearing grey primer and stock front end was to get a cup of coffee at King’s Drive-In Restaurant on Kingsway with his father. That was cut short when restaurant management became concerned.
“Such a big crowd developed around the car that they told me I had to remove it,” Cort recalls.
On the Pacific Northwest show circuit, the customized Chevy was an even bigger draw. The car won a roomful of trophies at shows including the 1961 Motorama at the Pacific National Exhibition and the Portland Roadster Show and the Seattle’s World’s Fair show in 1962.
“It was ironic that two of the top honours at that show went to Canadian cars: the ’51 Chevy as well as Fred Welsh’s 1940 Ford called The Treasure,” says Cort.
Cort Elliotts custom car ate up the west coast car show circuit winning dozens of awards.
PNG Merlin archive, Driving
Sometime later Cort had Jack Williams replaced the original six-cylinder engine with a more modern 265 cubic inch Chevrolet V8.
By 1966, Cort had finished paying off the most recent bank loan for the customization project, and was open to passing the car on to a new owner. Fellow club member Bruce Metcalfe purchased it for $1,200.
“I knew the car was worth a lot more, but I wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it,” says Cort.
Bruce, who now lives near Prince George, recalls that wherever he went people would say he had “Cort’s car.” So he set out to brand it as his own.
After a new white interior featuring front and rear bucket seats and full length console along with a candy green paint job, the refreshed custom was ready to go back on the show circuit.
In 1967, Bruce and a few other Vancouver custom car owners shipped their cars to Calgary on a car carrier.
“The car won trophies everywhere it went, and it won in Calgary,” he recalls. Bruce kept the car for five years and then sold it.
In the 1970s, the car ended up on the Belmont Motors used car lot at Fraser and Broadway. Current owner Terry Kong says no one wanted the old custom at that point because all the young guys were into muscle cars. He became determined to buy the old custom car.
Terry eventually spotted it at a service station on Main Street buried in a snow bank. He went and hand dug the car out and bought the Chevy for $800.
He has now owned the car for 40 years.
The car was once again in the limelight for the 50th anniversary of the British Columbia Hot Rod Association, an event attended by Terry Kong and previous owners Cort Elliott and Bruce Metcalfe as well as customizing legend Jack Williams.
Some restoration work has been done on the famous Vancouver custom previously known as Carried Away and owner Terry often drives it to car shows.
“It’s nice for people who were around back then to see that the car and the ‘art’ it represents still exists. It will always be the Jack Williams/Cort Elliott car — I’m just the caretaker.”
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com
