Please explain the K in Kustom, Kulture & Kool

Was this something Barris and his brother thought up to make themselves
different? I know I've read stuff about it years ago.
Who put the K in Kustom and why?
Cool and Custom and Culture and Cars looks better to me.
The K spelling has always seemed Kartoony.

Thanks

Great Forum!

 

To me i always thought that the "K" was supposed to be cartoony, and that the Kustom Kars were a little bit more wild in their style. But thats just my opinion.

 

Gentlemen, kindly post your intros first-okay, first read the RULES? Then we can properly welcome you, then we can all properly give you all the***** you undoubtedly deserve as FNG's-though we all started somewhere.

The "K"'s were meant to make them stand out, different from the rest and now totally overdone. Today, the K has been replaced by the "Z" instead of the "S" and also grossly overused to the point of being stupid.

 

I think the K was a bit of show business flash by the P.T. Barnum of the fifties known as George Barris.
I mean that in a nice way of course.

 

Somebody Kouldn't spell...

 

Originally Barris did use the spelled customs with C. But when Von Dutch painted their shop sign he played a trick with them and spelled it with a K. After that it is customs with K when it is a Barris. I prefer to spell words as they are intended, never with silly use of "k" or "z". But for Barris cars its OK, it is more of a trademark then...

 

I just use a K in Kool because of the cigs. and for Koolsville, daddy-o!

 

The Von Dutch theory certainly is plausible, and makes a good story, true or not.

 

I would take it a step further: "Kustom" refers to a particular STYLE of custom car (late 1940s-mid 1950s, along the lines of the Matranga Merc and so on). Smooth, dark, low, and (most importantly) era-specific. ANY car can be a "custom" or "customized," but only a pre-1955 car done in the right style can truly be a "kustom."

(And the Barris/VonDutch story may or may not be true, but Barris' sign did say "Kustom" and he used the K-spelling all through the 1950s and 1960s in his ads and such.)

 

Thanks for the answers. The Dutch story sounds familiar.

 

Ding ding ding we have a winner.

 

According to Barris' web site, he and his brother first formed a car club called the Kustoms CC, then later Kustom's of LA, which eventually evolved into the KOA. If that is true, then I think the use of "K" is very similar to kids using "Z" on Rod"z", etc. The Von Dutch story may (or may not) be true, but it doesn't seem likely this is where the "K" originated.

 

I think using K's to spell words properly spelled with C is stupid... lol...

I remember when I was 14 or 15 and first reading about all the old car builders and pinstripers and seeing kustom spelled with a K and thought it was so, well, KOOL!!

I started doing it when I was 15... now I'm 19 and I don't think it is nearly as cool as I did when I was 15...

 

That story about Dutch sounds like every other Dutch story... take some fact, take some fiction, mix them together and you have the legend that is Von Dutch.

 

Okay,and you at 19,must know everything about custom auto history? LMFAO Many,of the incredible tales ,about the eccentric Kenneth Howard (VonDutch)are well documented by others who were there. He wasn't a clothing designer!

 

i always thought it started on the barris shop, didnt know about the von dutch bit, i used to use the "k' a bit but not so much these days since its spread outside the kustom scene and now used by ricers, mini truckers, skaters its no fun anymore .
I never knew it related to a style or era but when i think of kustoms or customs i think of cars late 30's to early 60's no matter how its spelt and i am aware of wild customs too.

 

A little hard on the Beaver, don'tcha think Ward!?! LOL!

The kid has a point though about some of the Dutch stories.

 

I think you guys might be getting a little too critical...it's like looking at music:
There's rockabilly, then psychobilly, then psychocountry, then country rock, then traditional rockabilly, then...it's all good, and all basically the same! Kustom, custom, whatever...at least it's not gold chainer,pastel colored, splash graphiced, tweed office furnitured, billet wheeled, fake rusted, $100k plus rolling trophy hunters!

Call it whatever you like...just don't call it a street rod!

 

What about Campgrounds of America? KOA? How long they been around?

 

Here is what I learned (and I do not claim it to be correct)

Custom- any modified vehicle that was originally manufactured after 1934. Typically, these vehicles will incorporate more body modifications, to improve sleekness and smoothness, than performance upgrades. A custom may or may not include upgrades of the suspension and drivetrain. The custom category may also include new production vehicles.

Kustom- A custom with a "K" typically designates a post '34 vehicle that has been modified in a nostalgic '50's or early '60's style. Typical Kustom modifications may include chopped tops, channeling, sectioning, tail dragging suspensions, and quite often fender skirts, spotlights, and wide white walls. A true Kustom will be limited to vehicles originally manufactured before the mid-sixties. The word "Kustom" with a "K" originated in the early 1950's with legendary customizer George Barris.

I never heard the story about Von Dutch doing it as a joke. That's cool if it's true

 

Im going with this. I think it came about using the "K" because it was different, just like the cars that "Kustom" was being used to describe

 

Killer Kool Kustoms and Krazy Kruizers Kar Klub....

Seen that Kar Klub here hehe.....

Dont ya'all know that REAL customs are Kustoms?


Rat

 

This is the one I like and I think I'll stick to it right or wrong. I like my "K's", I like the fact that very few people get it, and I like to think of my Kemp as a "Kustom" with a "K". Not so keen on the "Z's" though.
Paul.

 

I heard Von Dutch was asked to paint a sqaure around the letter K for a store logo but the trickster decided to paint a circle instead.

 

This may be a little out there.. but...George and Sam Barris are Greek and alot of the Greeks use the letter K instead of C..They usually replaced the C with a K when it was a hard C. Just a thought but that might be the reason why it is spelled with a K instread of a C...

 

Don't you mean Krap??

 

Who Kares....

 

Well, I'll try to make it a bit more clear...

In 1942 George with some other guys formed Kustoms Car Club in Roseville, and later around 1948, he was involved in forming Kustom's Los Angeles.

Looking in my old magazines: In Hot Rod, Feb 48 there is an ad for "Barris's Custom Shop" (only C spelling...) the same ad is in April 48
In Hot Rod, May and June 48 an ad tells about "Barris's Custom Shop and Kustom Automobiles" and also about "Kustom Auto Painting" (then you can see a mixed spelling and note the spelling "Barris's" as well...)

I have no Hot Rod magazines from -49 but two coipies from 1950 (Aug and Sep), but sorry to say, they have no Barris ad's. In 1950 Barris moved his shop to 11054 S. Atlantic Ave. Motor Trend, July -50, shows a Barris kustom on the cover, with a Kustom's Los Angeles plaque.

If you look closely at the shop sign, for instance it is visible in the book Barris Kustoms Vol 1, you can see that the sign really was painted by Von Dutch (the sign was painted in 1950). He was not told to spell it with a K but from that day and on, Barris Kustoms was only kustoms spelled with K. And that was the story George told me... and this time I do believe that it is correct

And looking in "newer" magazines an ad from 1953 says Barris Kustom Shop and "Kustom Kars by Barris" (also notic no longer "Barris's" spelling...)

 

OK, this has been a good thread. Thanks for the answers.

 

There are more Dutch stories out there that there is no PROOF of... but damn they make good stories...

Like the guy that insisted that he pinstriped his motor cycle in red only.. Dutch told him to leave and come back in a few hours, when the owner came back he found the ENTIRE bike to be covered in red paint, tires, seat, engine... everything!

Or the car that he supposedly striped for 24 hours at Autorama... they have pics of him stripping a 30's era car, but the story says he striped non stop for 24 hours and covered the whole damn car in striping...

What about the plane mount artillery gun he supposedly found and dragged home when he was a kid?

I definitely don't know everything, hell not even MUCH about the history of hot rodding and the culture surrounding it... but nobody knows everything.... I'm only 19, I've got a few years more to get learned.

BTW... if you have read any of the multitudes of books about Dutch they all overlap stories but they are never quite the same....