Nosed and decked, Shaved door handles, Teaneau cover, Brody Knob, Primer spots, and dual pipes with Smittys mufflers and chrome pencil tips.
This is accurate. The idea is to put together a cohesively styled vehicle. Sometimes that means more, sometimes that means less. It's up to you to put the formula together based on what you like and the overall look you're going for. But just simply throwing old or traditional parts on a car does not necessarily make for traditional styling, the same way you can achieve a very traditional look and not use any old parts at all. But there are no "must haves". Arguably, there are more "must not haves". A good rule of thumb is that for any visible component of the build, it should not be dated after the target styling year.
I can think of a must-have. More for function rather than aesthetics, though it has a certain look. Early Customs are chopped and lowered in the rear. So the interior rear view mirror needs to be brought down from the roof to the top of the dash. Non-negotiable. Unless you don't wanna see out your back window.
Look at the same era European and coach built cars. Then you’ll see where the early custom influence came from
Must not have. Big, gaudy, multi-colored, plastic dash knobs. They didn't do that in the early customs.
Another must-have. Custom paint. I don't mean multicolored flamed tangerine root beer and lime green paisley candy flake. I mean a real true custom paint job. It can be one color. But with prep work beyond ridiculous and a final finish that you can shave in. That's a custom paint job.
As an example of what you are saying, look at the Album cover car for the Beach Boys "Little Duece Coupe" and then listen to the song. The car pictured on the album bears no resemblence to the description of the car in the song. Now I've always loved that song..........but even the song wasn't very accurate in its homage to hot rodding. The song describes a flathead engine that does 140 miles per hour..........on the street. Back to making an Icon of the car. It has quality work done, but (IMHO) its a mismatch of trying to include too many styles into one car. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think its one of the ugliest duece coupes ever built. Its not about how many different things you can include on a car, but how well those things compliment each other. Yep, it made magazine and record album covers, so it became a legend. (What are those godawful fins for? It just looks like all the components compete with each other for attention. Below are some random pics that show lesser known cars that aren't icons but I'd rather have any one of them to drive.......they show a lot of thought in making components accentuate each other....some even subtlely. So its not about checking as many boxes as possible, but about checking the boxes that work with each other. All done differently, but all very fine looking vehicles............
^^^ Quote of the day: "So its not about checking as many boxes as possible, but about checking the boxes that work with each other."
Wonder what magazines the original customizers were looking at when they decided to copy what the mag said was cool
Very rare and insanely expensive if you do find them, but Custom Car Magazine from 1946 is an excellent resource.
The reason why any particular car or style became popular doesn't really matter. It did, and we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss any of it. It's all part of our history. Okay, Milner's grille shell was too short. Are we gonna change it? No.
What mags were they reading before these? What was first, the custom car or the article on the custom car
This was first published in 1944. I would guess it is one of, if not the earliest publications focused on customizing cars.
Your thought that the mag @K13 came up with started the whole custom thing works for me. Not saying that it has any bearing on that but that WAS the year I was born . OMG, I'm a child of the Custom Era!
A bunch of magazine guys photoshopped a bunch of customs and printed them. Started the entire thing. I actually was responsible for some of it. Some of my time traveling shenanigans.
So that's why the hood was warm the other morning. And stinky melted rubber... all over the wheel wells.
No one is saying that there weren't customs and hot rods before there were custom and hot rod magazines. What is being said is that once magazines became available on the subject that created the ability for the guys in Detroit and California and even New Hampshire to see what each other were doing. It became somewhat more ordered and the high profile cars became legends instead of local cars. Hard to believe that all of the professional car builders of the day on different coasts imagined exactly the same things on their own and didn't apply things that they gathered from media as well as personal imagination. Look at the Kookie Car designed by Norm Grabrowski. Hard to imagine that thousands of similar looking vehicles like this were originated by only the builders imagination and media didn't play any part in convincing people they were Kool.
My mag comments are twisted sarcasm. I was “accused” of being a sheep because I like low rides. According to my accuser, I only like low rides cause a magazine told me too. I guess whatever style this guy didn’t like, the magazines were the boogeymen that perpetuated this evil. Then he showed me a pic of his “non sheep” ride. A stock truck with 80s chrome wheels. The ones with the triangle holes that thousands of trucks had. What a trailblazer this guy is. anywho, were magazines making $$ covering popular trends (4x4, low riders, street rods, tuner, VW……) or were they creating these styles to make $$$$? Or a combination of both at times. but to answer the OPs question, the must haves for a pre-50 custom is pre-50 parts. And yep, that probably means doing some things already done before. That’s cool. I giggle at this cartoon. Some truth, but many times people marginalize things they themselves can’t achieve or understand.
Anthony, let me be the first to say that you are NOT a sheep. I enjoy your knowledge as well as your sense of humor. I think anyone building a period perfect car will have a very difficult time using ONLY parts made before 1965, or 1950 if thats their goal. They almost always have to give in and compromise. To me buiding an old hot rod is about capturing the "essence" of the time period by building something that resembles those decades............but not limited to what was available then. Within that window, a builder can actually build a car that is different and reflects their taste, and even stands out from the others.......if they have the imagination, talent and resources to do so. Many though are not concerned about rising above the norm, but only being a part of the norm. If someone creates a beautiful car (not a show car) that has components that work together and compliment one another (astetically), why should they feel bad if there are thousands of other cars built similarly? It simply proves the old adage that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". That doesn't make those people sheep, just because they all have similar thoughts on what they like. Again Anthony, I don't think you are a sheep...........I think you are Baaaaaaaad Ass ! (pun intended) Tell your trucked up friend to be wary of sheep like this......... Baaaaaaa
I’ve got a friend with a 37 Ford cabriolet shell. The original chassis was sold to build a modern vette suspended pro touring kinda build. If I can ever talk him out of the shell, I’d probably go late 40s tail dragger. So instead of being a modern sheep built ride, I’d go trad sheep build. Both sheep. Just a different species of sheep.
The Jalopy Journal
