Man, what a perfect transition into next week's threads.............the "Customs of Gary Howard"! DO IT, I DARE YOU! Nads, thanks for the Elco shots, can't pass '59 and '60 without 'em!
The grille is 63 Ford. I love the car, saved a pic of it on a couple 'puters. Would I change anything? Only the angle of the hood scallops. I can't see the whole car and for some reason those "fight" with my eye. Perhaps If I saw more of it, or in person. Ok, I take it back on the grille. It looks more like 61-2 Caddy in some of the other shots. I thought I read somewhere that a 63 Galaxie grille was used. Oops...
I was in the 7th grade(1994) when I saw Mike Young's 60 and Jimmy Vaughn's 51 Fleetline for the first time. They were sitting in the main building of the Houston Autorama. I had never seen such perfection before. At the time, I had no idea what a traditional kustom was, but I knew I liked those two cars more than any other cars I had ever seen in person. I truly owe my love for well executed kustoms to Mr. Howard and those two Chevys.
I'm always a*****er for a cool ute, especially an exceptional '59 like yours Nads. That chop was worth the effort, combined with the stance, it makes the tray look 9 miles long.
the best 59 ever was drop top out of joplin belonging to steve grahm ---anyone got pics? pearl white with candy scallops...
Actually interior by Vernon McKean on Mike Young's Chevy. Vernon is one of the best truest craftsmen out there. He's in his 80's and still producing some of the finest trim jobs out there. He did the seat for my dragster and its period perfect. His kids ain't to shabby either. They did my caddy and the Black Dahlia for me.
Check out these links. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmunozphotography62/sets/72157634144666883/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmunozphotography62/sets/
I have always loved that car and gave it an honourable mention in my post on "your top three Customs" thread. But I have always thought the flames were distracting. A simple double scallop off the backside of the front fenderwell would look cleaner and add more to the lines of the car, in my opinion. Less is more. Still one of my favorite cars. Expecting to catch a bunch of***** for expressing an opinion on this, oh well.
The rodders journal spread on MIke Young's car ruined me for life. We even did my friends jetta in abalone flake right after that issue came out.
It also made it onto the box art for the 'Hot Rods and Custom Classics' CD set. Album Notes HOT RODS & CUSTOM CLASSICS: CRUISIN' SONGS & HIGHWAY HITS comes in enhanced packaging which includes four digis, a keychain, decals and fuzzy dice.Includes liner notes by James Austin, Tom Wolfe, Jim Pewter and Pat Ganahl.Digitally remastered by Bob Fisher.HOT RODS & CUSTOM CLASSICS: CRUISIN' SONGS & HIGWAY HITS was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Boxed Recording Package.Personnel: Duane Eddy (guitar).Audio Remasterer: Bob Fisher .Liner Note Author: Jim Pewter.This is certainly one of Rhino's more elaborate box set offerings, no mere four-disc set of car songs, not by a long shot. It comes housed in a Revel Authentic Kit-sized box that also holds a bound booklet designed to look like the cover of Hot Rod magazine, an accompanying Mooneyes mini-catalog, window adhesive hot rod stickers, a set of fuzzy dice, and a Mooneyes bottle opener/key ring, with each of the four discs housed in a custom hot rod color package of its own. The music not only covers the early hot rod hits of the '50s and early '60s, but plucks worthy contenders from modern rockers like the Stray Cats, Dave Edmunds, the Ramones, David Lindley, Canned Heat, the Doobie Brothers, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Rod Stewart, Pure Prairie League, and roots rockers like Denny Freeman, John Hiatt, Deke*****erson, and Tex Rubinowitz. Hot Rods & Custom Classics is the kind of box set you want to leave out to show people all the goodies, with a pile of great music to go along with it under the hood. One of Rhino's best productions. ~ Cub Koda"
I thought I better take a few minutes here and fill in a blank or two. My bad for just reading and moving on. Exotica was never owned by Jimmie. Mike Young was a friend of his and basically let Jimmie and I have free reign in building it. It started out to be just lowered and remove the door handles. Jimmie and I went through a pile of different ideas to end up where it did. The car is absolutely "design" by Jimmie Vaughan. Jimmie looks at cars from an artistic side almost completely, as he does his music,........ With cars, If it doesn't look right then it's just WRONG!! I found while working on Mike's Chevy with him that his artistic side was never hampered by how hard it was to do it. It sometimes caused some really deep conversations and a helluva lot of work on my end, but in the end the car was really thought out a lot. There is a book of untold stories about the two years of building it but that's for another day. Oh yeah the The Rambler grille come from one of our Junkyard "walkarounds". We didn't tell any one what it was for years because it was so "new" compared to the cars wide whitewall era. It's just a great car!!!
I absolutely love everything about the car except the flames and scallops. They really aren't needed. An amazing piece of work!
I love 59/60 chevys especially the bubble tops and I love the 60 that started this thread the only thing that bugs me is what was done with the side spears in my opinion(that doesn't mean a damn thing btw) they are the thing that makes the 60 soo cool I could understand shaving the chrome off of them but I would of left the basic shape to them
I was doing a search on 60s customs and came across some pics of Vernon McKeans unfinished 60 El Camino. Does anyone have any more pics of his El Camino, or know if its been finished??
This needs to be brought back to the top....Does anyone know what Gary Howard did to the suspension to lower the front end? The stance is purrfect and I would like my flat top to sit the same way...
The Jalopy Journal
