Featured History Transitioning from Customs to Low Riders

WHAT???

Hello,



As teenagers in 1956, we had options of a full-fledged daily driver and hot rod for the drags in Long Beach. There were several hot rods that were fast and won trophies at the dragstrip located a mile or so from our house. Iin the same time period, there were a bunch of cars that were the lowered style cruisers with fancy paint jobs that were shown at the local car shows. Some were daily drivers and others, well the term “Garage Queen” was not around back then, but we all knew if the car was driven daily or not on the popular street scene in the Long Beach area.

So, my brother was in a quandary. Should he modify the 51 Oldsmobile sedan as a fast hot rod sedan with bored and stroked motor to use daily to school and cruising? Or should he keep a reliable modified sedan to make the scene with a few custom touches, but still be reliable to get to the job he had after school… to pay for the 51 Oldsmobile sedan… what a choice.

thanks to @themoose the color and custom touches were brought to life.

Add in a set of below the door lakes pipes that actually worked and that was a custom car for the times. The lowered stance necessitated the under door pipes to scrape and so it was pipes or raise the car… The pipes were sold to another guy in a higher stance sedan. Now, the 1951 Oldsmobile sedan can be back to a low stance without any other “lower” position for the cruising scene.

A high school cruiser or modified sedan or a mild custom car. All it needed was a white tuck and roll interior so it could be officially be called a custom car.

Jnaki

That phase was gone by the fall of 1957 as a new arrival took over our lives for the next 2 years. The new 58 Impala was a fast sedan from the showroom. It held its own as a cruiser and drag race sedan at the local Lion’s Dragstrip. The whole car scene for my brother was that now, he had a car to be competitive with his friend in the 34 Ford 5 Window Coupe with a big Oldsmobile motor. But, for the whole time, they never raced. HA!

The transition from a whitewall fast sedan to a lowered rake cruiser with a more modified motor and a new C&O stick hydro fell into two categories for me. One, a fast drag race sedan that had advantages with the C&O Stick Hydro making the advantage in all races. But, then I fell into the custom car look and had saved some money to have the modifications done professionally.

A set of Buick Skylark Wire Wheels on our 58 Impala sedan. No Impala had Skylark Wire Wheels in any part of So Cal at the time. Fast and a custom car? Is that a “polar opposite” for a teenager wanting to cruise all over So Cal at the time and go fast?

So, does that allow me to enter the custom car stage or the fast drag race sedan situations? YRMV

Thanks, again for the custom work @themoose We did not have our 35 mm film cameras until much later.

 

I dig the stupid low rides from the 50s

here’s a “transition” ride I guess
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Pete_Limpert's_1936_Ford
Mid 60s build. Mostly stock bodied with hydros and wires then supremes.
Perfect early lowrider

 

Thanks for sharing some history

 

Yeah, me too. I drove my old 53 hybrid 54 Chevy "Impala" with a static drop at a similar height to those. I installed a hopped up V8 with a 5 speed, so it was a cruiser, but I was able to race it around, being young with a less developed mind, haha... I had that for many years and then it wound up going to another country. I do miss that car for sure...

 

Cragars look best with pinner whites

 

Great pics... I do not recall seeing that tangerine 56 Nomad before