Tucker restyled by Joe Bailon for Al Sloakner

[SuperFleye]

Hi folks, in The Rodders Journal 49, there is an interview Spencer Murray did with Joe Bailon. As many might know Joe Bailon is a well known customizer that invented the Candy Apple Red back in its days! Anyhow, when Spencer made the story about a year ago Joe let him go through a myriad of boxes with photos. One of the photos showed a Tucker that Joe Bailon had restyled for Al Sloakner. Al is the founder of the Oakland Roadster Show, that today is known as the Grand National Roadster Show. Anyhow, there was little actual customizing on the car, but Joe had done a wild paint job on the car! This info was new for me! The Rodders Journal did not run the photo in the story, and Spence hasn't been able to get me a copy of it. So I was wondering if anyone on this board know the car? Or know what Tucker Al Sloakner had. Photos of it would also have been really cool to see!!

[Tucker Fan 48]

Photos would be awesome!!! I've been working on the history of this car for the
last few years and would love to pin down the period that Slonaker owned it. I
had information about Bailon painting a Tucker but have not been able to confirm
it until now.

If it is the same car that was at one of his first Oakland Roadster Shows then
the car was there in 1953.

You'll notice that the hubcaps on the car at the Oakland Show are the same ones
that were on it at Bob Held Berkeley Auto Mart at 2525 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley.

Slonaker Show 52 or 53.jpg (184.46 KiB) Viewed 930 times

Berkeley CA 1954.jpg (24.26 KiB) Viewed 932 times

[SuperFleye]

Wow thanks for the reply Tucker Fan 48! I feel the puzzle is starting to get unsolved here. My guess is that the car that you have a photo on from the Oakland Roadster Show is Sloakner's own car. Spencer Murray attended the 1952 show with his 1949 Chevy, and he said there were no Tuckers there that year! Do you have more photos from the show then the one with the tucker on? Seeing other cars there could help me identify the year.

OK, the "goofy blue color" is probably a blue candy paint job, as Joe Bailon is known as "Candy Apple Joe". The "custom" hubcaps are also pointing in Al and Joe's direction! Wow, this is kool!

[Tucker Fan 48]

The goofy blue color I refered to was its current paint job. I'm sure Bailon would
have done a little better job. That is the only photo I have however I can see that
Frank Rose and Paul Dallmeier had cars there as you see their names on the posters.

The program and newspaper ads put it at the 1953 show

[SuperFleye]

When I think about it, Joe laid the first candy paint job in 1955, so it had to be prior to this custom fever. Before they found the formula on candy paint jobs they experiment with a lot of crazy stuff in order to achieve the effect. For example translucent colors, and ink. Anyhow these paint job faded really fast, and didn't look good after about a year. That was why I thought it could have been a candy-ish paint job on the car. But according to Spence, Bailon did this car for Al in 1951 or 1952. So chances are that the photo you have is from 1951 or 1953. I have started to make a list over attending cars here:

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?tit ... dster_Show

But as you can see this is far from done And those names are not on my list...I have Andy Southard's book on the Oakland Roadster Show, I will look through that one after work today looking for any photos that can help me identify the year of your photo!