RIP Radical Ray Erickson

Ray “Radical Ray” Erickson, passed away Saturday night, aged 86. Ray was a great guy and skilled car customizer. Just a real hands on, work it out and make it work kind of guy. He is a legend in the Kansas area and at the very least equal to the famous left coast customizers of the day. He might of been too humble for that, but I’ll say it for him.

Ray gave me pics of his cars to scan when I started the website for the Misfits. He’s worked on a lot of cars, a lot of chops, and he could tell you every detail about every one of them (better memory than me and I’m just over half his age). Check out some photos of Rays cars, magazine articles and cars he has worked on here (I’m sure there are more, especially ones he’s worked on).

The message from Joan read “I want to inform everyone, Ray made his transition last night at 8:40PM. He fought the cancer valiantly, but it was more than he could fight. He passed quietly in his sleep.”.

We knew when we held our Misfits meeting at Rays a couple of weeks ago, it would probably be the last time we see him. I only took one photo that night, it was of Ray and I am attaching it to this post. Along with a picture of his Packard, that I took at our Wednesday meeting on Sep 3rd (It was the last time I saw the Packard out and about) and finally a picture of “The Blade” taken a few years ago at the World of Wheels. That photo has Kaleb sitting on it. I hadnt known the misfits that long and Kaleb wanted to get on it. I of course told him that you cannot touch any of the cars and certainly cannot climb on anything. Ray came along, saw his excitement, smiled at Kaleb and told me to put him up on it. Ray told Kaleb all about it, it really made our day.

We are going to miss you Ray
RIP