D'Agostino Kustoms | John D'Agostino Kustom Kars of California

D'Agostino Kustoms
John D'Agostino Kustom Kars of California

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In the summer of 1973, John spent some time with car customizer Bill Hines and his son Mike in Los Angeles. One night they took John to see the movie American Graffiti. "I immediately wanted a custom '51 Mercury," he says. He found one nearly restored in nearby Concord, but the car was so nice that he simply finished the restoration and showed it for the first time at the 1973 Santa Rosa Autorama. He decided to buy another Mercury to customize; this one was owned by a fireman in Castro Valley, CA, and would later become the "Midnight Sensation." D'Agostino took that Merc to Rod Powell's shop in Salinas, California, for a top chop--the first such surgery on a Merc that was done at Powell's. Next John took the Merc to Bill Hines' shop in Bellflower, California, for a lowering job. At the shop he decided to have some additional customizing work done, including the installation of a '54 Pontiac grille, '52 Lincoln taillights, and '53 Buick teardrop headlights. "With all the work done and the car in white primer," John recalls, "I remember cruising down to the parking lot at the 1975 Oakland Roadster Show, then finding the car surrounded by people." Chopped Mercs were very rare to see at the time. The car was garaged and later sold to Harry Craycroft.

After the '82 Oakland show, John owned and showed the custom Winfield-built '58 Chrysler "Golden Sunrise." "It just happened that I traded the Chrysler to Harry later for my old Merc," he says. The "Midnight Sensation" was taken back to Powell's again to be completed and painted. With a candy ultraviolet and lavender pearl paint job and a new Kenny Foster sculptured interior, it finally made its debut at the November 1983 San Francisco Rod & Custom show. Later, at the '84 Oakland show, the "Midnight Sensation" won several top awards, including the Sam Barris Memorial Award, presented at the Sacramento Autorama.

D'Agostino's next custom, which was also a hit on the show circuit, was a Bill Reasoner-built '53 Merc named "The Royal Tahitian." It was a mild custom with a candy apple red paint job, and it won "Best of Show" at the popular West Coast Customs Paso Robles show in 1986. John showed it at the '87 Sacramento Autorama before trading it for the Gene Winfield-built '56 Merc, "Jade Idol." "We traded right after the awards ceremony at the show," says John, "and it was a childhood dream to drive the Idol home that foggy Sunday night. I could not wait to call Winfield Monday morning about it." The plan was to have Winfield redo the car exactly like it was when he built it in the late '50s.

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