Art & Inspiration A Study in opinions. Favorite historic customs

The Victorian. It was found in Hemmings years ago by a fella here in Michigan. He had it in storage for years and when he passed another guy here in Michigan got it. It was on display at the Gilmore Car Museum 3 or 4 yrs ago in as found condition. I don't know if the guy has gotten started on it's restoration or not but that has been the plan

 

That’s good to know it survived.

 

The Emperor is one of my favorite kustoms. …and also an AMBR winner, 1960, mol.

no photo, but the Little Deuce Coupe qualifies as a historic kustom as well.

 

My friend owned this Dick Bertolucci custom in the 60s. Dick Bertolucci reacquired it and started to restore it. It was originally a maroon color and my friend had it that color when he repainted it.


Photos from Rik Hoving’s fotki site.

 

How about this one…sure do miss Bob!

 

Freddy Rowe Merc

 

Too many to winnow down, but around 1975, reading one of those thick Petersen Ford books; Eight year old me seeing Brumbach's '42 got reeled in! Has to have skirts, and the clincher is it ONLY looks dramatic in this pic! On the Street, it sets a different tone, if that makes any sense..

 

Jim Lynch Stude is perfect in my eyes, and Sam Barris's Buick, never get tired of looking at them

 

Posted from another thread, but pertinent to the topic on hand. One of the first custom trucks in Long Beach during the “no truck build” era.

Hello,

Wow, that chopped stance is almost the same as the first custom truck in the Westside of Long Beach back when I was about 10 years old. We had just moved to a new (our last house until 1998) old house that was built in 1946.

My Brother's 1951 Oldsmobile sedan is in the garage space, as our dad had already gone to work.

We moved into this house as our old Craftsman style house was demolished to make room for the large new elementary school. The numbers of new kids in the area demanded the new elementary school be built on the exact block of our old first house.

Today, the school is closed as the age group is gone and no families with school age children will go to that school. The remaining enrollment will be spread out to the other schools nearby. So, planning for a new school demolished the homes for a school and it remains closed due to declining enrollment 70 + years later.

One thing happened for our move. We stayed in that second house past college and our mom stayed in the house until 1998. Many years of adventures started there and today, the house has its own stories, much like ours up to 1998. When we walked to the nearby shops, they included a small popular grocery store, an jewelry store, a bakery and liquor store a block away. But the one thing was an optometrist shop that supplied most of all the glasses worn by families in the Westside of Long Beach.

But, not only was he an optometrist, he was a hot rod person. He built the only custom 1956 Ford Truck in all of the Westside area. It was one of the only custom trucks in So Cal. It probably was in a few magazines in the L.A. area, although the owner was not a part of the “hot rod/custom car scene.” He enjoyed cruising and he parked his custom Tahitian Red/Candy Apple painted 56 Ford Truck in front of his shop for all to see. Yes, it attracted customers to his shop, as if he needed it. He was one of the only optometrist's shops for miles and very convenient for school children/families nearby.

(Yes, our family had glasses from that shop, all except for me… I did not need glasses until several years ago. Ha!)

The truck was lowered, painted a Tahitian Red or Candy Apple Red, had chromed reversed wheels, side pipes and it had all white tuck/rolled upholstery completed just down the street in a small Westside shop.

The one thing that made it stand out was the chopped top. Nice stance of the overall truck profile.

It looked almost like this truck by @123 if one were to repaint the white top Tahitian Red or Candy Apple Red, put on some chromed reversed rims and raise the back slightly for an attention grabbing rake stance, then, it would be a moment in time. The chopped top was not the straight, level chop of several inches. It was cut to allow more clear space when viewing out of the front windshield, without feeling pushed down like most chopped tops.

The white tuck and roll was done in a small shop down the street behind a neighborhood Mobil Gas Station. The custom work was also worked on in this set of garage stalls behind the Mobil Gas Station. The chrome shop was down the street in the industrial area, too.

For me, I remember the owner of the gas station who knew our family and me, as I stopped everyday at his gas station. He always was a fun guy and asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in a custom truck. What? The Tahitian Red Custom Ford Truck? Yes… it was in the back garage stall, finished with some upgrades and installations, so he was going to drive it back to the Optometrist’s shop, just a few blocks away. Yippee! It was a cool thing and I remember it to this day…

It was a little rough riding as it was low to the ground, but the white tuck and roll upholstery was padded well with the rolled pattern and it was a custom truck!!!

Jnaki

It was out in front of the Optometrist shop for as long as I could remember. In time, he moved to another building on the other side of the Los Angeles River and the L.B. Freeway. From that time on, the truck more or less disappeared and what is left of the family, has no clue as to the whereabouts of the custom truck from the 50s. YRMV

Note:

For all of the magazines we read or saw up to the time we quit drag racing, the custom truck may have been in a magazine or two. We never saw it presented in a magazine, although it may have. It was during the time of small Rod & Custom Magazine and of course the whole larger, hot rod/custom car mags, too.
Iconic? Well, it was built locally with folks not famous or in the So Cal Magazines, but it was during the time of the Barris, Watson custom car builds... Also, a few miles up the streets from our own neighborhood, too.

Those that have huge collections dating back to 1956 of the popular magazines, was there a feature in any of those magazines? That would be a great find and would be rewarded for the article. The adult sons have no recollection of their dad’s “work truck,” as they were in their own world growing up.

Any one recognize the unusual chopped top truck from the 1950s-60s, in So Cal or from the national magazines? Please let me know, ASAP

 

Pic I took of the X Sonic at the GNRS in 2022.

 

Much more of a hot rod guy than a custom guy. Many of the cars already mentioned are on my list, but one that hasn't been mentioned yet, even by @Gotgas who obviously was motivated is this one.
Cliff Inman Chrysler.