Perhaps not this would qualify more as a Sports Custom than a Kustom, but I really love the Frank Kurtis 1941 Buick with complete custom body work. Next two photos come from the AHRF files... Another AHRF photo is this one showing Art Lelles 1939 Ford Convertible built by the Olive Hill Garage in LA. Art was one of the shop owners. Later Tony Nancy owned this car for a while as well. Two more Barris Custom Color photos. Jack Nethercutt's 1952 Olds (photos from the Glasit collection) And one photo of this car from the Life Magazine files...
Yes please!!! We need some more people to post some old custom car photos on here. Looking forward to it.
A few more old Black and white photos... Snooky Janish 1941 Ford by Barris. This car is still around and the two brothers who own it are restoring it back to how it first looked (so, no ugly pinstriping)... But they take all the time they need... From the Barry Mazza Collection... Another Barris, this time a 1942 Ford Coupe for Anne DeValle... Also still around!
It amazes me that people with such a feel for perfect styling would have put something so ugly and erratic as 50's style California striping on customs.
I think Arthur Bentas' "Raven" deserves to be seen here, so I pulled it over from another site. It won "Best Custom" at the NHRA National Custom Show in 1959, and has recently been restored. It was actually built on a Plymouth chassis, using modified '51 Kaiser panels bought new from the factory.
I believe the Kurtis '41 Buick is in Minneapolis being restored. I will check for more info on this and post it when I find out. This is a great thread that should fire up the "traditionalists" and help keep this part of the hobby alive and well.
Mark Murray ( RodnCustom on here) has a great collection of photos from some early customs cars. THey have been posted on the hamb before, but I think its just very nice to add them to this album of Kustom cars since they show the late 30's to late 40's style really good. All photos from the Mark Murray Collection... I really like this 1936 Ford two door sedan. Very nice chop with molded in fenders and molded in splash pan with 47 Ford bumpers both front and rear. Hubcaps are Packard... Somebody should built something like this today!
Very interesting... I had no idea it was still around... Here are a few of Fasi's photo collection... Fasi has been a great supporter of the traditional custom car movement... and has a great collection of photos and stuff. Photos from the Keith Ashley (FASI) Collection
This question is for rikster,or anyone else that can answer it,where can i get this time life articles with these custom photos in them? these articles are killer! this thread is killer!
In an effort to contribute to this awesome thread. Don't know the details of who's Olds this is, but I also have a series of photos of this car being chopped by Sam Barris:
Here is the picture I took of this car at a car show around 56 or 57..... Not sure what was going on with the pinstriping on this one but it sure doesn't do anything for me.
Hi Cleatus, glad you joint with some absolutely great photos. The Sam Barris 1940 Merc with black wall tires is amazing... WOW, thank you so much for that. The Olds is actually a 1952 Buick. Built for Lyle Lake "The Blue Danube" Barry Mazza Photo... Magazine scanned photos...
The Life magazine photos are all from the web. Life magazine has posted a lot of never before published (at least as far as I know) photos here You have to be creative to find the right photos though. Or you can go to my site where I have collected most of the custom car related photos that I could find. I do not know if Life Magazine ever did an article on custom cars. But they do have these photos on file, and luckily for us they decided to share them.
Does anyone else remember the tv episode of Outer Limits where the Blue Danube is the "futuristic" vehicle the aliens are traveling in? Interesting use of a custom car.
Still from "Twilight Zone" episodes #14 called "Third from the Sun" Go to the KustomRama site to view the episode.
The Jalopy Journal
