Something we over look are the interiors of Kustoms. Wow, I forgot how wild the interiors were back in the 50's & 60's. Jeff Myers has opened my eyes to look at that side of kustoms. My Merc is due for an interior so I've been looking at a lot of kool ideas. It would be kool if we could see more wild interiors at car shows. If you have any other kool ideas please share them on this thread..... Check out this kool article in Popular Customs 1963 spring issue...........
Like to see a full shot of the Henry J convertible Love that rotary phone, complete with a perfect curlie Q cord
this truck was built in the 50's and restored a few years ago. it has an upholstered frame that was done before the body was bolted on, can see it behind the frt brake drum
I'll send ya some info on one I built in 1960. That one above may of used the same front windsheild I did,a 53 Studebaker coupe rear turned around.
There was a guy at the Iola swap meet a few years ago who had an old bus packed end to end with old upholstery fabric including vinyl and I was able to get a few rolls of some really neat looking stuff from him, including a roll of pre-made white diamond vinyl that I want to use in my Merc build. The array of pre-made vinyl patterns and colors he had was really neat to see, it must have been much easier to make custom interiors back in the day, for door panels and such all you'd have to do is cut out the shape and glue it to the board, and seat covers would only need the seams sewn. Great stuff.
We had a bit of a chat about this over on the CCC site a while back. Mainly about the trend to use house phones when doing a custom car interior. Seems like the interiors got wilder as the customs got more radical..... My high school ride back in the mid 70's was a 56 Merc Montclair done sometime in the 60's as a mild custom. Black with gold cob webbing in the trim that went under the side windows. A bit of rim removed, skirts and a fully done interior. The material was heat sealed, pleated vinyl. Seats ,doors and dash pad. We called it the "Poor man's" tuck and roll but it looked really great. I see that it is still being produced. Torchie
So the wireless technology works for phone to phone but the handset needed a cord to the phone. Or are you supposed to pull up to the telephone pole and plug the cars phone in. Remember all the drive up pay phones on every corner? Pretty damn impossible to find one now
I remember those days, no matter how hard I try not to. What some guys would do for show points, geezzzz. I liked Diamonds, and Tuck-n-Roll but not everything all mixed together. I'm glad we finally came back to just plain nicely done. The Wizzard
While many of them were over the top, you used to see some pretty cool interiors. Too many 'modern' builds have interiors that look like they were swapped out of a late-model Cadillac and just don't have the 'trad' vibe to them.
There were a handful of CB radios built with a telephone headset and rotary looking dial on them, not sure if that's what those early customs were using but if I were to build an all-out show car with a phone in it that's what I'd look for, at least it could be made functional that way. I wonder how many of those in-dash TV sets actually worked when the car was driving and not just plugged in at the show. Working or not, stuff like that sure sold the futuristic vibe and was a real predictor of the future.
The lucky Penny by Thulsa Doom is one of my favorite new traditional interiors. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
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