I love your writing @Ryan! & That Chevy is as cool as a cool thing, I love that the flames were born out of a desire to hide that which was not perfect, the best efforts of a young fella having a crack at doing something that he was inspired to do
Given it was 1957, this thing was pretty simple man... Just a shave and a deck... and a bad *** paint job. Hell, I'd call it simple. I love the stock grille with just the vertical bars removed.
I was referring to the amount of fire.... but yes, overall mild. I have seen those grilles with the vertical bars removed, the horizontals are very flimsy without support. they did leave the ctr bar in, does look clean though....
Great read Ryan, and the pics also rule!! Those flames must have taken days to layout, especially with 1/2" tape. That 55 is perfect, checking all the mild Custom boxes. Anyone know if it survived?
I would have credited the great architect Mies van der Rohe with this phrase, but here is the rest of the origin of the phrase: https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/arch...t-did-mies-van-der-rohe-mean-by-less-is-more/ And yes, it is a neat '55 mild custom with a wild paint scheme.
It's a shame these days that most '55s are done in stock paint schemes with hood birds and all the other hood and trunk trim.
That just makes the nice ones all that more special...you are right though very rare to see someone around here giving Tri Fives the Custom manicure...
That is one masterpiece of a Custom...both mild and wild. Never gets old...and Larry was quite the artist extraordinaire... Thanks @Ryan for some summertime heat...
@Ryan This is a great piece on a great car. Always love reading your musings.... Brings back memories of the old "back pain med induced" writings! Al's '55 is one of my all time favorites. Why has no one cloned this yet?
All these detailed pics of the layout are great because I have a 56 model kit I want to build with flames like these...
Al was into motorcycles,and had a shop next to Bill Decar’s. Later in life he sold Larry’s stuff at Paso Robles , and had a store front in Bellflower.
The Jalopy Journal
