Not to get too commercial, but I do mail order shipping damned near everyday for individules and shops all over the country... Heck, the world too. When you are ready, give me a yell, and check out my Facebook page. Commercial complete...
Thanks man! I wasn't there, and it wasn't widely covered 'cause customs were nowhere, but it seems to be a "lost" time frame in the evolution of the custom car. Ya gotta dig for research materials, but as I said, Watson's photographs are the best archive out there. And ya, for the record, I think it's my favorite era, too! Neat stuff who's time has come.
Like Jumbo Shrimp? That must be a Known Secret that would be Pretty Ugly and Clearly Confused and met with Deafening Silence from the Living Dead but at least Overbearingly Modest.
Keep roof white - same color as rest of car. No white walls. Keep current wheels and tires. You want to keep the "The Sleeper" look - not make it look like a restored collector vehicle.
Also, does anyone happen to have any pictures of some good 55/56 custom fords? Anything would be appreciated!
This Watson painted '55 is one of my favorites. (From Kustomrama.) This one is also nice. Tail lights are '59 Buick.
YUP! All of the above! I do stand by subtly wild though. It is possible to do stuff that is neat but doesn't reach out and smack you across the face when you first see it. That's the stuff I dig. Hard to explain though, but maybe on the top of this car, rather than doing it in 16 shades of flake over lace with acetylene soot borders, you do it in a white flake with some very subtle lace work in a non flake a couple shades different than to base color. Something that draws you in 'cause it's just a shade different, then surprises you with something mind blowingly subtle when you get there. I could do the self serving thing and explain how I do the same with louvers, but I think you guys get it.
I think a lace or flaked roof would look way out of place without some other custom touches, look at 'Mo's 57 for example, the scallops on the roof look great along with the pipes and spots and the rest of the cars paint work, a perfect 57 custom. I'm with HRP once again, car is perfect sleeper material just the way it is. If you have to have a flaked or lace roof go the rest of the way and do the car right.
I vote leaving the paint as is. Black wheels 15 x 7 rear, 14 x 5.5 front with dog dish hubcaps lowered a touch with slight rake. This is a 68 GTX I had back in the 80s with the same treatment. Picture of a picture, sorry for the weak photo, but I always loved the stance and wheel combo on this car. But, not everyone is pleased with my choices sometimes.............. Damn...gives me a woodie thinking about it.
lovethe game777, Ron Brown X2. Scallops. lace and full length lakes pipes looked gay back in the day. They look even worse in 2016. Their day and age has come and gone 40-50 years ago. Your 56 Ford looks bitchin just the way it is. Blackwalls make it look bad in a good way. Less is always more. My last five builds have all the chrome and stainless they left the factory with. Lowering and adding decent wheels and tires is all most cars need. Attached is a picture of my 64 Biscayne that is done that way. Why screw up an other wise great looking car with excessive garbage no one needs? Gary
My opinion? I voted plain white. I'm have pretty simple taste and try to think of timeless mods when building cars or era specific. While flaked roofs look good with some other custom elements. It's getting a little trendy much like the 90's graphics era. At Btt50's I seen too many otherwise stock appearing cars that had the roofs flaked cause its the in thing to do.
Another bit of mid-sixties inspiration from the photo album of Larry Watson. Again, it's a Chevy, but same sort of deal. I noticed a lot of the guys were steering you to a fifties style custom... Nah, this stuff was far cooler! This picture I'd have to guess is about '63 or '64, so about a year, year and half before Cragar S/Ss came out, and they did supplant the Supremes and chrome reverse. Gone by that time was lakes pipes, Fake spots, wide whites, scallops, hubcaps, skirts, dumb-assed tail down rakes, wild body mods, etc. In was mild de-chrome, narrow whites, lowered and sometimes hydraulics, mild rakes, lots of white undercarriage stuff, typical mild custom stuff. 'Bought the only thing I didn't like from the era was those gawd awful "Bellflower tips" that ran along the rear quarters... Strange for Watson, after years of absolutely wild custom paint, suddenly he was spraying a bunch of single tone paint schemes with very rich, very custom colors. 'Bout five to seven years later, the "custom" was done, but in it's place was the low rider...They'd carry the torch for the next coupla decades 'till the custom made it's come back. Oh, found a little Ranchero goodness from the era too.
I had a dark blue '55 Fairlane Club Sedan back in the 80s, with dog dish hubcaps, 272 and 3 on the tree. It was one of the sweetest sounding engines I've ever had. I wish I had it back. I need to see if I can find any photos of it.
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