History during and pre ww2 customs and rods

Lately the past few weeks ive been deep diving pre war and post war rods and customs mostly custom focused and i realized.... Aint really much do***ented as in during the war since so many young men were on the front lines and so with that ive been gathering what i can to do***ent what they would've drove during either before they enlisted, on leave, or right after the war ended in '45 before the new 1946 models hit the showroom floor. Main focus of dating photos is either 1942 plates or a big one is the V tag over the california 1942 license plates and black walls or fake white wall beauty ring hubcaps heres a sample of what i gathered

 

Word that I heard was the first thing to do was, get some glaspaks ( Smittys ) on it.
Looking at old pics of cars then, I decided to remove the grille of my '53 Ford .
My step Dad protested to say that the neighbors would all ***ume that I had had an accident.
That was an Omen.

 

^ Zootrod

 

My father told me a story, long ago about serving during the war on the Oregon Coast down around Winchester Bay. They had to patrol the beach in front of the dunes to watch for Japanese invasion forces. I've been down there in daylight, I can't imagine the dunes at night. Anyhoo, one night a car had stopped on an overlook (likely kids neckin...damn I miss being a kid). They had parked with their headlights on, pointed out over the Pacific and someone was walking (he guessed) in front of the car making it appear like they were signaling. He and his buddy in an amphibious duck, opened up on the car with Thompson machine guns they carried, and continued firing until the lights went out. They never knew who or what they shot at that night. Might be safer to be deployed than stay home neckin. Damn kids.

 

with the photos ive been finding more so far is during the war the alot more common was surprisingly 2 and 4 door sedans due to using whatever car you could get your hands on