about a 1/3 the cars at gettyburg this year and more rods at the road agent show and less customs i,m just wondering .myself i love them all pre 48 hot rods ,breaters, street machines,but most of all customs i beleve they express the most of the person that own,s it but that,s my 2 cents i like to hear what the hambs think and those that have customs or building them feel free to post pictures
All you have to do is surf the HAMB to see that there are some cool customs under construction. ...so they are still being built. However, I think building a custom takes a lot bigger commitment than building a regular hot rod due to the extra, labor intensive work involved. ....more sheetmetal, more chrome, curved gl***, more upolstery Also, customs are harder/more expensive to update (or remodel). On a 32, new wheels and exhaust.....and it is damn near a new car.
Hells yeah they are. And hopefully, soon, when they do I can buy all the 49-51 Mercs around! I dont know that they are dying out so much, but I think when I first started going to the Conn show it was more of an even split, I think judging by the pics it may have became more of a hot rod oriented show. Lead East tho, I feel that is mostly customs.
This might be a generalization, but I think for the most part it's true. Speaking for myself, it's been a year since I got started and I'm moving at a snails pace, and I've come to the realization that it will be a LONG time before my custom rolls out of the garage on its own power. I know there are still a butload of customs being put together, they're just too damn cool to let slip away. However I've started looking for a hot rod that I can fix up relatively quickly and esily and be a lot less concerned with looks, aesthetics, and perfection. But then again, that's just me.
There are still customs being built. It just that a hot rod is a faster build and are selling like hot cakes right now
i think a well done NICE hot rod takes just as long as the same quality custom... a rat rod (HATE taht **** but it applies here) obviously can be tossed together... however, a custom and a nice hot rod have the same basic principles.. clean lines, perfect proportions, well done tastefull details, and they all have to come together for the all aruond "look" if the car this being said, you could buy a 51 chevy for $1000, chop the top yourself, and throw it together ghetto for a few grand total, the same as you can with some rat rod piece of **** the good cars have VERY expensive ends on both sides of the story... a good set of tailights for a conversion can be $1000, a chop top can cost $10k for the right guy, but you can throw a crate 350 in a custom... that being said, a clean model a body alone can cost $5k, custom framework, rebuild on a nailhead, rocket, caddy, flatty can be $3k in parts, plus trying to find the speed parts is a *****.. everything has its angles... some good some bad, but all ******** aside, work done by the owner, a custom is cheaper, work done by a shop, a hot rod is cheaper... its not about the money its about the car, and right now plenty of guys are drivin hot rods, its the hot item... but remember, most of us want a hot rodAND a custom, so lots of those guys at shows with cool roadsters probably have a cool 40s 50s custom right at home int he next parking spot
i would love to build a custom but i do not have the skill to make it nice custom builders are artists.... and i just have a pencil tk
They aren't dying in my book! It could be that a lot of guys who had them also wanted a hot rod. So, they built or bought one, and they have been driving it lately instead of the custom, because it's a new toy to them. There does seem to be a lot more hot rods coming out than customs these days. Thats what I'm thinking it is anyways.JMO.
The whole "cruiser" element of a custom is lots easier to pull off with a late model, and lots of builders get siphoned off that way.
There are alot of nice street rods out there that could easly be a custom, but for some reason alot of people think customs start with the 49s. KKOA goes from 35-64 and with New Concept Customs till present date.
I've been around the car deal for a lot of years. Customs WERE pretty much goners for a while. But they're back in a big way now. And that's a GOOD thing, to paraphrase Martha Stewart.
yeah right, this hotrod has taken me 3 years and all my extra time and money. after this im never building one ever again. i could get a 51 chevy ect driving in a matter of days and then get it chopped and customized in no time flat.
I don't really think that they are dying out. I think that you will see more hot rods at the bigger shows, and more customs at the small. I usually see more customs and have a better time at the shows with less than 200 rods. I think that the reason that I have a better time at those shows is because the owners of the the customs and the rats will usually talk to you and share their secrets more than the street rodders will. Here in Alabama, the street rodders kind of look down on the custom builders. I'm not sure why that is. Cheers,
I think it takes more time to build a Hotrod,cause so much of it is visable. If you really want it to look nice,you need to pay attention to the details. You can hide many things on a Custom,except bad bodywork.
Myself I love customs just lack the skills to do one justice, So I am building my J into a g***er instead, After I learn on that and build it right then I will build the custom, Prolly out of my 49 Buick daily driver. But like Bad Bob said it takes perfect body work to do it right. And that my friends takes a lot of time patiences and skill.
For the amount of $ as I am building my sedan for, I am going to have just in my drive train in the Merc. So I get quicker satisfaction from driving something I built. I have had the Merc for almost 9 years now, and only been workin on the model a for 2 years.
I don't think they're dying out--they're just tough to do right, expensive, and--perhaps--tougher to do than hot rods, for all the reasons everyone ahead of me on this post has already hit on. Nothing against hot rod builders--hot rods are tough to build too. BUT--you can go right out right now and buy a bunch of cool **** repro--a '40 Ford wheel, smoothies that look okay, a beehive oil filter, taillights all day long--and expecially repro bodies and frames. I'm building a '49 Ford Club Coupe, and try finding an original metal ball-knob light switch, or any of the knick-knack **** (how about the hardware for those rear quarter windows, or original gl*** lenses for the interior B-pillar lights) or--ESPECIALLY--Appletons. Nobody's remaking Appletons. I think. There were always more hot rods, so more is known about them, and more **** is out there. Also, and again I hate to say it, but there's so much crazy **** to figure out with early customs--in terms of building it in an early configuration--that I think you're dealing with a little bit more. But that's just my opinion. (And by all means, if you guys wanna sell me some Appleton 112s that are taking up space on your shelves, knock yourselves out. I'll buy 'em.) Late,
Is this one of those "I never saw one of those cars until I bought mine, now everybody has one." situations.
teddyp, Customs are alive and doing well now days. At the West Coast Kustoms car show in May, most of the cars are customs. Sacramento indoor show brings out the nicest customs in the land. I've built both customs and hot rods in the p*** and in my opinion a hot is much more straightforward and easier to build. A mild custom isn't to hard to build when you don't make major changes. A more wild custom is harder to build when your changing headlights, tail lights and changing body panels. Ideal thing for me would be a '49 Caddy sedanette custom and a '32 5/W highboy coupe. Customs are the cool cruisers and hot rods are for the go fast guys. "Customs are for getting the girls and hot rods are for getting rid of them" R.W. Cruiser
Same here in Nor-Cal, Bob. Just look at the diversity of the cars at Paso this year. My car is somewhere in between.... I think that makes it a street-rod! I like both; Rods AND Customs!
DUDE,we have a seen YOUR 'COAT HANNGER' welding before here on the HAMB,,,,,i DOUBT you could do all that what you are talking about! hahaaaha here's my 51 chevy.....it tOOk MORE than a few "MATTER OF DAYS" OR "NO TIME FLAT"...HHAHAHAHAA
hahaha wanna make a bet? ***** eating grin* oh if i only had a car to do it on right now. the people who know me in person could all tell you. and i dont always use coat hangers to weld with or oxy acet, only on my hotrod body. ill bet anyone i can chop a car in a day. ill bet any amount, to bad i dont ahve any money to put down. but if someone brought me a 49-52 chevy or something id do it just for you, for free.
also, as far as getting a car driving in a few days, i can give you the number of more then a few people.
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