some of dad's starting with the '37 ford, '40 & '41 plymouths. all done in the '40s. notice the 4 doors... wonder if any of them survived....
Awesome thanks for posting these! That Plymouth rag top with the full fadeaways must have had alot of hours into it
Great photos! Always great to see customs from the 1940s, especially when you can connect them to a builder or owner. Did your dad restyle them himself? Sent from my iPhone using TJJ
yes.. they were his own work.... al twitchell was born and raised in hollywood... the family moved there around 1920 from maine. dad's interest and employment was the 'body shop' until 1955 and along with repair and paint included some custom work (and some of his own cars). his last custom was a '52 ford wagon that was on the cover of r&c... oct. '54. after that car he kinda lost interest in building customs... although he would do minor 'touches' on almost any car he owned and allways enjoyed looking and talking about them... (and about cars in general). he passed on last november... driving up until a couple of days before massive heart failure at 86. it is amazing he lasted that long... all the sanding dust.., lead fumes, painting and all... usually without a mask. (forgot the dirt bikes too....)
I have a new found respect for four doors. Who said they couldn't be cool? Easily my favorite thread on the hamb, back to the top!
Thank you for posting your fathers cars and photos on this thread. Not only are the customs your father build really nice, and so typical for the time they where built. But those photos and the way they aged are so awesome! They give even more character to the custom cars in the photos. Wonderful!
Here is a small article on your fathers 1941 Plymouth. The Motor Trend May 1952 showed two photos of the car and a write up on it.
Rik......I have a question that you might be able to answer.....I have an alloy car club plaque that I picked up here in Oz 35 yrs ago, from the Throttle Stompers, Long Beach. Do you have a pic of the rear of the 1937 Dodge Convertible that Neil Emory from Valley Customs built in the early 1940's. On page 18 of Pat Ganahl's book The American Custom Car there is mention that both the partners in Valley Custom were members of the Throttle Stompers but it doesn't say for sure where that club was.........can anyone else here help with an answer?.......what did the Throttle Stompers car club based in the Burbank area have as their club plaque....have attached a scan of the plaque I have.....was thinking that it maybe more 1950's than 1940's......interested in any comments....thanks, Andy Douglas
Wow, great to see a featured story on this Twitchell custom!! As the car was built 4 years before it was featured in Motor Trend, I wonder if the car was built by Al for Charles Kemp, of if Mr kemp bought it later. Do you know this mrspeedyt?
Hi Andy, below is another Throttle Stomper plaque...can't read what it says under the club name though. This photo was taken in 1952 at Pomona: I have started a page on the club, but not added much info yet: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Throttle_Stompers You can see some member cars there...but none of them has any visible plaques unfortunately
Superfleye, thanks for the reply, the plaque in the pic is obviously different to mine but maybe they changed them thru the yrs, also that pictured on is numbered........neat pic.....thanks.......andyd
Rikster you have an amazing collection of old information, it really is priceless and you are doing an awesome job of preserving and 'passing on' this information/knowledge for future generations. Lots of grouse information on early Customs on this one, pitty there's not more Aussie stuff!
A book I have called Hot Rod & Custom Car Clubs has a list of clubs from the 40's, 50's and 60's and the Throttle Stompers are shown in ..... Burbank, CA El Cajon, CA Grass Lake Hood River, OR Salome, AZ Thermal, CA In addition to the photo you posted, I only have the Thermal plaque on our website ..... My best guess would be that the Emerys belonged to the Burbank club.
Would you mind scannining the cover of that book or at least supply the authors name ? I would love to get a copy.
I assume you mean the 'grouse' bit? That'd be an older term down here meaning cool, great, awesome etc, it's positive!
So can someone help me here.......Is Burbank Ca. near Long Beach Ca.????????..........what I am trying to find out is whether the Throttle Stompers plaque I have could have been the same as that used by the Valley Custom guys.........have no intention of selling or otherwise using this info other than to have something that might date from when real customs were built........lol.........andyd
Burbank is maybe 25 miles from Long Beach as the crow flies, but they're pretty different. I doubt that Valley Customs guys would belong to a Long Beach club unless there were different chapters of the same club around the city.
I asked my mom about it... she remembers the car but gets it confused with the '50 ford conv. that came later as our family car (until dad traded it for the '52 wagon.) so... let's go with the article's version of the story.
It sure is nice to hear someone else say that,last night we got "Early custom pick" thread going and it was pretty good.
How about this recent dicovery? This car is elegant to the core but if it were mine I would have to have flippers on it.This custom is just pure class.
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