History Transitioning from Customs to Low Riders

Lets document the history of the custom car into the early days of lowriders... Most would agree this transition took place between the 60's to the 70's. During the 1960's we started to see many custom vehicles with less radical modifications, and focus more on wild paint, cool wheels, heavily lowered stance with some adding hydros.

Of course we saw these transitional vehicles into the 80's, 90's and following, yet the Golden Age was definitely in the sixties and the seventies...

O.G. low riders definitely consider their ride a lowrider without hydros, yet hydraulics definitely became a must have. They wanted a custom vehicle. The term Low Rider or Lowrider morphed out of monickers given to these custom cars and that term was embraced by many. Very similar to how the term Lead Sled was a name given to early custom cars, then adopted by the custom car culture proudly. Presently we see many lowriders without hydros, though the majority are equipped with hydros and the very occasional have air ride setups. Of course some of the earliest were equipped with screw motor setups, though these setups were not prevalent at all.

Stylish wheels were a must and reversed steel wheels usually chromed, Astro Supremes, Cragar S/S 5 spokes, Radirs, Keystones, Buick Skylarks, Cadillac Wires, McCleans, Roadster Wheels and, and, and...
Another must have was Pinstriping, Panels, Scalloping and Flames along with Murano's, Pearls, and Flakes utilized into the paintwork. Some definitely had a lot of custom alterations, yet as previously mentioned they slowly became less radical in terms of modifications and more focused upon the stance and paint jobs.

Many will point to Larry Watson or Bill Hines as the original individuals which were pivotal in the creation of customs and their builds were making a transition to low riders. Of course we have to mention Ron Aguire's X-Sonic, Tats Gotanda 59 Impala which were pioneering vehicles of the era.

The stance definitely went back and forth between more of a taildragger boat stance, to a forward rake, to tail dragging and again the forward rake and a straigth across stance as well.

Paint being an integral factor amongst Customs and Low Riders We even saw many of these custom paint jobs manifest onto Gassers, Vans, Hot Rods, Trucks, Boats and even some Aircraft during the same era's previously mentioned SHOWING how popular this art work was and the timeless aspects with which they still exist to this day.

 

There is already a 55 page thread on Lowriders.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/low-riders-zoots-suiters-and-pachucos.1268558/

 

This is about that "transition period", very different from the common low riders.

 

64-65ish. Top 2 have hydros

 

There has been a lot of articles, films, books on much of this. even right now in Washington D.C The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition in collaboration with The National Museum of American History and The National Museum of the American Latino History has created a sister bilingual exhibition "Coraz'on y. Vida: Lowrider Culture in the United States. Launched in September at the Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center in Anaheim, California.

 

Hydro setups in their heyday!!! So cool

 

Ron's Corvette looked awesome like that. Awesome with all the other mods as well, yet I really liked it this way....

 

We LOVE this era. So much cool stuff going on with the transitioning cars and so many incredible innovations happening with the paint. Larry was a family friend and he loved this time in his career.

This is my 23 year old Daughter’s self built 64 El Co. She is heavily influenced with this era, Watson and this style of cars. Bellflower pipes coming soon, Watson inspired panel, flamed and scalloped roof in candy, pearl and flake, that she painted with Herb Webber who is from that era. Static dropped about as low as it will go, scrapes everywhere, Astros and pinner whites.

The dash and inside metal is all candy blue over silver with pinstripes. Eventually the body sides and hood will be paneled, faded, flamed and outline pinstriped.

 

You are so right, they were very innovative and pushing boundaries for sure. Larry was such a great artist and very nice to boot!!! I remember cruising my 57 out to his shop in Norco and he was so stoked to see a custom 57 (not a radical custom at the time, but it was sitting very low, had some mods and cool wheel covers with wide whites, like many he had painted) because in the early 90's they were almost exclusively street rods or stockers...

Your daughter has great taste!!! Her ride is awesome and has all the right mods. Thank you greatly for sharing.