From what I gather, Ron Volpe, a service station owner, was the president of the Illinois Valley Mis-Fires Auto Club. I can't find any record that the car was built by a famous shop such as Barris. I believe that it was built by Volpe himself, with a high school buddy (possibly club member Dick "Fuzzy" Fuerholzer), wose father owned a body shop. They had started with the first of Ron's cars, a 1951 Mercury. All the photos of the car seem to come from Fuzzy's collection.
Ron Volpe built this ’51 Merc in 1957 with the help of his high school buddy, whose dad owned a bodyshop. With the Merc finished in 1959, Ron embarked on a new project, this time a ’57 Ford convertible. We ran the ’vert on our Dec. ’62 cover, about the same time as it was a trophy winner at the 1962 National Champion Show in Indy.
The ’vert was restyled again in 1963, with the tailfins abbreviated just aft of the leading edge of the decklid, an assymetrical hood scoop, and radiused rear fenderwells, as can be seen in the picture hereabouts. As Ron tells it, “Marriage forced the sale of the completed car, and it’s never been seen since!”
