Customs Most Influential Customs of the past 15 years?

Thanks for setting me straight on that Miguel.
I was speaking of the order in which I had been exposed to and influenced by the cars, and inadvertently made it sound like I was giving the chronological order in which they were built.

 

BASS nice to hear you are keeping busy and that we'll be able to see some finished Brian Bass work in the near future. I am stoked to see your coupe, the Wade Coupe, and your roadster finished as well as one of those customs. They are just so nice they deserve to be finished.

Oh and don't worry about those 265 specs you said you'd get to a couple months back. I think I am on the right track now. hahahaha!!!!

 

hey any pictures of your car posted anywhere?

 

Rikster has a pretty good collection of it from its various stages through the years with fairly recent ones on page 2:

http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_...tom_cars/40-41_chevy_customs/the_cleatus_hard

 

One of them for me was James a. Dana's 1936 Plymouth Coupe

 

I think thats the first time Ive see the 36 not laying on the ground, dare I say I like it a little more with some of the back tire showing?
I also think Coles blue 54 and RF's 53 are great customs that have gotten a lot of coverage. I think those two cars really define the early chevys , for me at least.

 

Here's a few more from socal in the 90's

Shifter Billy's Carson topped, flame throwing plymouth.

Rudy Rodriguez' merc with naked lady hubcaps. I remember seeing this at pomona around '97-'98 and he was parked with the Viejitos (lowrider club with super clean cars) and this one really stood out. He had everyone cracking up.

 

I finally found the pics I was looking for. THis was from VLV'99
If this wasn't influential then I dont know what is!

 

There's something odd about this car that I really like.

 

I'm only goin by ink so I'm no judge, but-


Your '60. You took the chop & stood it on it's head. I like it anyways.
Chezoom- pre '95?.. BILLET?, CORPORATE? aww, don't get your knickers in a twist..
D'Agostino '40 Packard
Weezner's '50
Mike Young '63 Riv
Lil' Bat- I know it's old but it got to the kids again..

Down here?- The bare metal Merc, the Mark Rudolph Hudson & the other (very nice ) one, and Mr. Katsanis' (Chopper's) FJ.

 

I just had my headliner done the sameway, looks great, old style.

 

I can't let this post go by without adding a pic of Elden Titus and the Voodoo Spider! I might as well toss in The "Roswell Rod" also.
FRITZ

 

Lets not forget Shoe's 38 Dodge.

 

Yeah, I don't really get most of the things they did to that car, and I think that it was way too over done but if I had it... simplified sweet lines and less cluter.

 

I will give both you and the car props. I have seen pics of this car but never any facts. Thank you.

 

Fabian Valdez' 50 chevy coupe. Here it is at paso 99. I remember I first saw it at Mooneyes 98? and thought it was cool. Cool chop, extended quarters, sectioned trunk, packard bumper...and while Im sure that someone must have rocked a "bare metal" car before sometime in the past, this was the first one I remember seeing at a show. Now you see them a lot.

photo from rikster's site:

 

This one does it for me

 

The only questionable thing that you could possibly call "over done" on that car is the Moon tank in the grille. Where exactly would you simplify it?

 

Heres more of the Black Daliah and its "sister". Just for the sake of it.
Theres a few other black cars of that era that is worth showin. I'll try upload'em on fotki so that i can post'em in the big format.
Later!

 

You as a person had a great influence on me and my build. Because I really liked your car and what you were doing, I respected your thoughts and ideas. Therefore when I aksed a question, had a concern, or just posted progress photos of Big Olds, your answers/comments had major weight in my world. Thanks for taking the time for me and Big Olds during a very influential time in my build.

I'd have to agree. For many years a person couldn't open a mag, any mag, without seeing a picture of it in an ad. Like it or not, major repetitive viewing has influence on a person.

 

influential?
1)Cole Foster's suede shop truck and `54 hard top. The `36 goes without saying, Cole raised the bar with that one.
2)Keith Weesner's chopped shoebox
3)Mike Young's `60 impala by Gary Howard
I would be remiss to not mention D'Agostino's `54 caddy and Zocchi's `56 lincoln premier

 

I'm sorry if this car has been posted before, but you can't see it too many times. The Rick Reynoso Ford.

 

never cared for a chopped a d truck until I saw this one.

one of the nicest trucks ever built in my opinion.

 

I've read "influential" in the title, and for me , but i'm just a fuckin frog eater, that mean customs that have an influence , meaning some other cars were done the same way, the same style ! I saw lotsa fuckin kool kustoms in that tread, another great thread with lotsa right click save BUT not a lot that are influentials except may be for the Choppers cars !

The first dumb ass that had fucked an antique with a mailslot chop and painted flat black HAD an influence !! the first that had striped the paint off his car HAD influence , the first that had displayed his car without the hood HAD influence !!! I hate those trend, those car looks stupid like that, but man, i can see zillion of them !!!

That's a pity, but all the great examples you've posted didn't had that kind of influence !

Not to mention the first guy that decided his custom had to lay on the ground with bags ! Man, i dig lowriders, and they look great on the ground, but a kustom look stupid with that kind of stance !

And, oh, i forgot one : the first guy that bought a perfectly restored car, put it on bags without any kind of body mods and call it a kustom had influence !!!! those are lowriders ! and some of them would be some fucking great lowriders if labeled correctly

don't misunderstand me , when i see a stocker that lay on the ground,i like it ! but i see a lowrider, even if it's a 51 merc !!!!

 

Any finished pics?

 

Not done yet. Here it is with the Buick tail lights from last year's LA Roadsters' show:



And here is a pic from this year's Round Up, with the '49 Caddy grille and tinted clear:

 

John D'Agostino's Royal Empress

This car is about twenty years old, but really a ground breaker. It was one of the first "modern" customs to use a car almost no one had tried before. It was built by Bill Reasoner, paint by Gene Winfield, interior by Sid Chavers. Won a KKOA Bradley Award when new.

Not a line out of place - still looks perfectly-styled today.

 

The D'Agastino car is a perfect example in the spirit of this thread. Assuming it was the first example of someone using an unusual car for a start would make it highly influential to me.

I remember seeing a '56 Lincoln in the late 60's and thinking what beautiful lines the car had that would make it a good start for a mild custom. I always liked going against the grain in subtle ways.

So, not only was John's choice a precurser to building unusual models as customs, but, by using a '56, he extended the longstanding tradition of customizing earlier Merc/Lincolns. That trend later has extended subsequently forward to the beautiful classic lines of the '63-'64 Lincolns which make such excellent mild customs.

I don't have photos of it, but Independence, Mo's Sonny Rogers built the definitive mild custom '63 Lincoln back in the early nineties, forseeing that trend. Too bad Sonny's never got any magazine ink.

 

Another influential custom from twenty years ago, maybe my all-time favorite. Like the Royal Empress, it was an unusual car to customize, radically restyled, yet still 100 percent Packard elegant. Also a KKOA Bradley winner.

Doug Thompson built the car in 1989-90 for Richard Ratty.
The rear windows are upsidedown '38 Dodge. Virtually every panel was reworked after the 3 inch section. This car flows like hot molasses!

 

It would be easy to make the case that Doug Thompson is the single most influential customizer of the past 35 years. During the period from about '62 through about '70, Doug was virtually the only builder keeping the flame alive.