George Egan's 1950 Ford Convertible - The Apollo

A photo of George with the Apollo as it appeared after he had completed the first round of modifications. When this photo was taken, George had joined the Drivin Deuces car club, and he is wearing his club jacket in the photo. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

The rear quarter panels on the Ford were reworked to house custom made and scooped taillights. A Bahama blue metallic paint job, custom side trim, wide whitewall tires, bubble skirts, and dual spotlights wraps up the style. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

G for George. Inside George's Ford featured a beautiful black or dark blue and white rolled and pleated interior with white piping. Classy. Notice the teddy bear in the backseat. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

Radical times ahead. When Egan returned from the Army the car was outdated, sho he decided to redo it himself. The front was heavily sculptured, and Egan gave the car what he described as a "Ferrari" style appearance. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

George proudly posing next to the second iteration of the Apollo. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

George gone wild. The rear end of the reworked Apollo was just as radical as the front, and it featured molded in arching character lines that George used to break up the slab sided Shoebox Ford. A chopped wraparound windshield was also grafted on to the body of the car, and it ran a padded top with a shade above the windshield, a wraparound rear window, and a 1958 Chevrolet type scoop. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

George kept the dual spotlights and the bubble skirts. The rebuild took about two years to complete. By then customs were outdated, so he drove it for a while before he decided to put it up for sale. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

Inside, the second iteration of the Apollo featured a redone white rolled and pleated interior with blue carpets and chromed garnish moldings. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

George replaced the stock Flathead with a more powerful Hemi-engine. According to a for sale ad that he ran in a local newspaper February 21, 1968, the car ran a full race 7000 rpm camshaft, four chromed Stromberg carbs, a Weiand manifold, a Mallory distributor, a chromed radiator, chromed valve covers, a LaSalle floor shift transmission, a heavy-duty clutch, and a Packard driveshaft. Photo from The Ray Soff Collection.

Egan wanted $1500 for the Apollo in February of 1968. No one wanted the car, so he ended up putting it away. The reason Ray Soff had this issue of The Want Ad Press laying around was that he had his 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible for sale in the same issue for $400.

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1950 Ford Convertible owned by George Egan of New Jersey. George bought the Ford in 1955. He wanted a custom, so he took it to local a body shop to have it restyled.

Moderate makeover

The first iteration of George's convertible was nosed, decked, and shaved for handles. The front was modified to house a 1949 - 1951 Mercury grille shell and a shortened 1954 DeSoto grille that greeted motorists he was passing by. After removing the original grille, the hood had to be filled in at the leading edge, towards the grille opening. The hood corners were rounded, and the headlights were frenched, tunneled, and hooded. A popular 1952 Kaiser bumper guard made it onto the stock bumper for a final little touch. The rear quarter panels were reworked to house custom made and scooped taillights before the car was given a Bahama blue metallic paint job.

Chrysler heart transplantation

The body was lowered by C'ing the frame. Inside it featured a beautiful black or dark blue and white rolled and pleated interior with white piping. Custom side trim, wide whitewall tires, bubble skirts, and dual spotlights wrapped up the style. Under the hood, the stock Flathead had been replaced with a more powerful Chrysler Firepower Hemi-engine.

Everyday driver

Around the same time, Egan joined the Drivin Deuces car club. He drove his custom every day, and according to Ray Soff he even took it to Florida on vacations.

George gone wild!

When Egan returned from the Army the car had been outdated, sho he decided to redo it himself. This time, the front was heavily sculptured, and Egan gave it a "Ferrari" style appearance that featured canted quad headlights inside a reworked grille opening. A custom made tube grille was mounted inside the reworked opening. The hood was pancaked during the process, and it featured a beak in the center that aligned up with a beak in the center of the grille. The old bumpers were replaced with split bumpers. Named "Apollo" Egan placed a name tag in the area between the bumpers. A chopped wraparound windshield made it on to the body of this iteration. It ran a padded top with a shade above the windshield, a wraparound rear window, and a 1958 Chevrolet type scoop. In lieu of chrome side trim, George sculpted molded in arching character lines that ran from the front and down the body side where they were joined with the sidetrim from the first iteration. Another molded line ran from the rocker panel behind the door and onto the original taillight housings. These lines then continued onto the decklid, where two lines from each side met at the center of the lid in a 1959 Chevrolet Impala fashion. Small fins were grafted on above the taillights, and the stock rear bumper was replaced with a later model bumper that had the exhaust extruding out from the corners. The interior on the second iteration was redone in white leather Buick bucket seats, royal blue carpeting, and chromed garnish moldings. George kept the dual spotlights and the bubble skirts, and the rebuild took about two years to complete. By then customs were outdated, so he drove it for a while before he decided to put it up for sale. According to a for sale ad that Egan ran in a local newspaper February 21, 1968, the Apollo ran a full race 7000 rpm camshaft, four chromed Stromberg carbs, a Weiand manifold, a Mallory distributor, a chromed radiator, chromed valve covers, a LaSalle floor shift transmission, a heavy-duty clutch, and a Packard driveshaft. He wanted $1500 for the car. No one wanted it, so Egan ended up putting it away.

Last seen in front of a bar

One day a guy saw it and bought it. Back around 1970 Ray Soff spotted the car in front of a bar. "The windshield was out and it had no hood." Around 1990 he met George, who gave him his old photos. "Then I knew who had built that car in front of the bar," Soff told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama in 2018.

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