Jerry Drake's 1957 Ford
1957 Ford Fairlane owned by Injectors of Lyons President Jerry Drake of Lansing, Michigan. Jerry bought the car in 1959. At the time he drove a customized 1955 Ford known as "India Ivory." One day, while driving down South Cedar street in Lansing he spotted the clean looking '57 on a used car lot. He pulled in to look at it. The owners of the lot were really interested in taking "India Ivory" in on a trade. "The '57 Ford was really clean with low mileage on it. I made a deal on the car." The Ford was mildly restyled by Larry Cooper at Cooper Body Shop, before Jerry gave it a modern scallop paint job. It was nosed and decked, and featured custom taillight lenses and an aftermarket tube grille. The headlights were also molded in and modified to accept 1956 Ford F-100 headlight rings. "My car was painted in July 1960 in my one-car garage by Dave Edmonds. He did it in exchange for me laying out a panel paint job on his '60 Corvette and then putting the finishing striping on it. It was quite common to "trade" work." The scallops were painted red before Dave applied grey fading. Jerry applied yellow pinstriping. Jerry named his second custom "Candy Cane." Jerry kept the upholstery untouched, but he installed a tarp over the back seat. "The tarp had a Viking character on it. I don't think there are any known pictures of it but everyone commented on how neat it looked. The tonneau cover had snaps on it and could be easily removed if I wanted passengers in the back seat."
In 1961 Jerry had seven cars on display at the Grand Rapids Rod & Custom Show, the "Candy Cane" was one of them, and it took home the 1st place trophy in the Mild Custom class at the show. It had been sold prior to the show to Fred Janz. It made many shows after this.[1]
References
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