So I got this question running around in my head. A little background first. A few years back I had the opportunity to help with the restoration of an older custom, as a matter of fact as I recall some of you fellas helped me chase down a few of the pieces for it. One of the things that I noticed was that for the time it had a hot rod engine. <O</O Since then I have been kind of looking at some of the older customs, and the vast majority of them had from warmed over to really built drive trains in them. Now as most of you know I am not a real custom guy. As a matter of fact there is no doubt that a lot of you fellas that know a lot more about customs and custom history that I do. <O</O So here is the question, when did customs make the turn from warmed over smoothies to the low and slow type of car? <O</O Pretty simple question so lets hear your thoughts and historical conjecture.
From day one, A custom guy puts all his love in the body. Roddeer generaly all love (cash) goes into drive train. Couldnt care less what body looks like till hes confident it will boil the tires first. Show guys blended the go fast look cool custom. A hooded custom dosent ever need the hood up to show off engine. (ruienes the body lines (look).
Hey Pork, If ya go back to the origins of real kustoms, ya see a clear pattern of low streamlined builds. Westergard, Valley Customs, Ayala all were racers, and their builds reflected that in the power trains they ran. The 1/3, 2/3s build profile was a measure, probably patterned after aircraft design, to keep the greenhouse low to the body inorder to save wind drag and increase speed. The ''poser-boy'' builds i.e. all show & no go probably started when the prize money for shows got serious. No longer was a winner judged by how fast it ran on the dry lakes, but how much chrome and loud painted it sported. The kiss of death for kustoms came in the late fifties when it wasn't about how hot a build would run on the lakes or street, but how many mods had been worked into the sheetmetal & trim to turn the build into show jewelery, not hardware. Street rods & low riders are the scion of true hot rods & kustoms. " Life ain't no Disney movie "
Pimpin Paint The Westergard Fadeaway was what got me curious. It wasn't built to be a show car it was a street driven custom. It had a full house (for the time) flatty. When I found out I just blew it off as an oddity. Then awhile back I was reading about an early '60s Caddy that is a recent build, with the hood up it looked a lot like something I would have built when I was a kid. The text in the article mentioned that a lot of early customs were influenced by luxery cars and had hot mills because the luxery cars of the time had hotter mills than their low dollar counterparts. That got me curious. So I started looking for everything I could find on the earlier customs and sure enough show cars and streeters alike had hot mills. Multi carbed caddys, Olds motors etc. Anyway, I'm not interested in changing the current culture, I was just curious when you fellas noticed the change. They say curiousity killed the cat, good thing I'm not a cat.
Listen Beaner, Youre a cool cat...LOL. I enjoy reading your comments and all. But, I thought it was more a west coast kinda thing. In the southwest I don't remember seeing the "custom" so much as the "gasser", street rod fella like carkiller spoke of. The guys who had the killer drive train far outweighed the guys who just tricked the chrome pieces etc. In our neighborhoods it wasn't bling....It was the go, cat go.... I didn't notice the csutom west coast thing until a few friends went out west to California.
TTT for the early afternoon crowd. I know some of you remember or know something about custom history. When did you notice the change?
Hey Pork, From all I've been told, Harry Westergard only ever drove one way- with his foot in it! The '' fade-a-way '' design treatment to the sides of early kustoms ( Westgard, Summers & later Barris ) I think came from late 30s French designs being copied by builders to ape more expensive iron. I find it a total howl that now the ''well moneied'' have discovered real hot rods & kustoms and feature them at '' bonfire of the vanities '' more and more! The very kinda iron that 40-45 years ago ''they'' turned up their collective noses at. The very iron built to ape the performance & look of the well moneied iron i.e. Caddy, Packard, Dussie & Cord. What was it grampa Munster said about the cat? " Cuirousity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back " '' Meanwhyle, back onboard The Tainted Pork "
usually you only had enough money to follow your love.....spend it on LOOKS or spend it on GO....1960...made enough money one summer of high school to put an Olds V8 in my 49 Chevy that was a mild custom...nosed, decked, custom taillights, painted gold....Wasn't the fastest car in town but sure was a lot more fun and respectable than the old six....(didn't sound as good tho')
I was actually refering to the car called The Fadeaway, it could be the name was coined later in life. Rumor has it that it was the first car that Barris worked on while working for Westergard. A customer car '39 Merc as I recall (I should write this stuff down I guess). But your statement about Harry driving everything like he stole it could have something to do with the warmed over flatty. Good builders usually have quite a bit of influence on the client. Some recognize Westergard as the father of the fadeaway. I was looking at some pics of a '39 Ford vert the other day that was stuffed full of bored and carbed Caddy. It was a copy of a car the guy new when he was in high school in '58. My thoughts on it are that sometime in the later '50s the look became more important than the whole car. But even into the early to mid '60s I recall customs in the neighborhood that would cut a fat hawg . . . Like I said its just a curiosoty for me. Like to know what other folks remember or know and if its a regional thing. It seems to me that Starbird from Witchita built his customs somewhat souped ans was known to drive them. If I recall the story correctly he built one of his bubble top cars with joy stick steering and drove it to Ohio to a show. Could just be a legond. Does anyone recall???
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