Custom Rodder after 03/07 RIP ???

I heard from more than one person that Custom Rodder will be no longer be
published after the March issue. I'm cannot believe this because Kustoms
are so hot right know. I don't agree with everything in the issue, but it is still
a kool magazine and I buy it every time it is on the shelf. It is probably not
on the top of the list of sellers from Primemedia, but why kill it?

A couple of weekends ago, abunch of us were talking shop. I mentioned if
anyone saw Odell's '57 Caddy in the latest issue. Most of them looked
through the magazine at the store and didn't buy it. (These guys are diehard
kustom guys.) I know that I don't have a life and I may read my magazines
way too much, but why wouldn't you buy the magazine that help support our
Hobby???

I don't have to say it but a Kustom magazine will never be a top seller but if
the kustom guys out there do not support it it will eventually die off. Kustoms are not for everybody and being different is what makes it kool.

Thank God we have The HAMB, Kustom Illustrated and Kustom Kemps of
America to keep the movement going. Have you subscribed yet? Have you joined yet? I would encourage you to get involved.

I wish all of the guys directly involved with Custom Rodder the best.

PRIMEDIA Thanks again for screwing something else up!!!!

Happy Trails,

Mick

 

I did not renew my subscription to Custom Rodder two years ago. Seems like almost all of the feature cars were late 50's thru mid 60's models. A lot were professionally built, sporting 20 inch wheels and modern leather interiors. Not just my cup of tea. I found Kustoms Illustrated-now that's what I'm talking about! Mostly owner built cars from the 50's. Just my personal preference.

 

You can ask RF on here if it is true or not. He has pretty close ties to it from what I believe. KNUX!

 

I have a subscription to Custom rodder. The fact that it's only published every other month and that it's kinda lite on content really hurt this magazine!!

 

Man I hope this isn't true, I love that mag, yes they do have some stuff with 20's but I find it better then the jump on the rat rod bandwagon, Don't get me wrong I love em but some of the stuff being built now just lacks some taste, custom rodder gives me insperation !! I will really miss this mag if it is true...... tell me it aint so ........ oh please, oh please !! that mag has show cased more kustoms then any other mag out there, I am very loyal to rod and custom and custom rodder. I like looking at all the other mags also but spend my coin on these two religiously, I have issue 1 copy 1 of custom rodder and have subscribed since they came back in the 80's. And to top it all off damon shot my car at paso and it hasn't came out yet !!! damn the luck . I don't know if I can live with out this mag !! We have rod mags and we have street rod mags please leave our custom rodder alone and let it live !!

 

I haven't bought an issue in forever. I loved that magazine, befor all the "lifestyle" stuff, CR was it.
When it appeared I was ecstatic, as a custom car lover first and foremost it was the one publication devoted to us.
If it's gone I'll be sad but I wish I could say it was something that I'll miss.

The irony is is that I think customs have never taken a nose dive in popularity since CR's inception, but the mag became thin and obsolete.

Customs are voluptuous and forever.

 

Something that's alwasy been frustrating is the age focus on year for custom rodder and street rodder.
Most of us tend to think of a custom or a rod, reguardless of year.
Primedia thinks anything with fat fenders is a rod. Period
And they think anything without is a custom. Period.
I thought of my 39 as a Kustom but they featured it in StreetRodder. As they did Rick Dore's 36.
Maybe if we are lucky they'll just have one mag for both.

Craig

 

if that is true, I wonder if Primedia would sell it off cheap?

 

Although the majority of the recent content didn't appeal to me as much, I'm kinda surprised that the magazine didn't gain as much popularity. Seems like the content they put out would have a pretty broad appeal (at least on the newsstand... and eventually subscribers), and I woulda made the same call they did deciding what to put in there.

I really enjoyed it the first few years.

^^Man, there are some people that could really take that and run!

 

You CAN'T follow trends in anything without eventually running out of "market support"! The problem with the 20's/billet/boom-box stuff is that it's a trend, & NOT as historical as the old school hot rods. It's as much a reiteration of history as anything else, & that's the main reason it is not destined to fall to the way-side like all the "trendy" stuff we've all watched disappear over the last few years. My well-earned opinion only.

 

I used to subscribe, was my favorite mag for a long time. However, the bi-monthy thing sucked, the mag was always super thin (compared to Street Rodder which was a frickin' book and was monthly) and the other thing that bothered me, I never liked the name Custom Rodder. Who would call their car a Custom Rod? Sounds gay to me.

Good rag though. With all the competition from the small, privately run mags, the ones that guys collect and pay a premium for, I'm not surprised that a small-circulation car mag would get cancelled.

Do they still do the renderings in it from "Dave Hill Design"? Those were my favorite, great photoshop custom car ideas.

 

I stopped subscribing to Custom Rodder because I was getting the same photos with the SAME CAPTIONS in another Primedia subscription

 

Buy Kustoms Illustrated. Luke needs a cable modem.

Spike

 

I did support it (subscriptions) but they didn't support me (custom guy).

When I first found it on the shelf, I though COOL!, a magazine just for customs! Then, after reading it, I realized it was only for cars from 49 & up, so I wrote what I thought was a nice letter to the editor to ask him why they left out all the other customs (there's lotsa pre49 customs, right?) to which I got a pissy response from Jerry about how he was sick of getting those letters and how "if it ain't broke don't fix it!" Which made me think, "if he's always getting letters about it, maybe it IS broke?"

But I renewed my subscription, just to support it and because the new editor promised there would be more content about real customs now that he was taking the lead.

Then later, when it became less & less about what most would consider "customs" I again asked the new editor about it and got another smart ass response about "why can't people just accept that Custom Rodder is not about 'Customs' and that "I could use my issues to make origami for all he cared" and also that "if I didn't like it, I shouldn't buy it"

So...I took the advice.

 

Since a lot of you "read" car books at the news stand instead of paying cash to support the publications, take a minute and check out the actual number of titles on display. Display space has to make so much a square foot. If Custom Rodder isn't selling, that 9" of vertical space will be used to display a quilt magazine. (Primedia owns a bunch of quilt mags).

The retail outlets also have a lot to say about what titles are on display. If CR isn't selling X books a month, out it goes and it will be replaced with a title that sells.

I've toyed with the idea of buying a magazine, but the key to success is distribution and single title publishers rarely make it. Who ever wanted to buy CR should call the company and ask! About all you're going to get is the title, a second class mailing permit (maybe) and a sub list if you put up a bond to guarantee fullfillment. Off the top of my head, I'd say you have to come up with a quarter of a mill plus 90 days of operating (printing, staff, etc) working capital.

PS...I've always enjoyed CR and I have it on good authority that it was profitable.

 

That's a mag that deserves support.

 

Custom rodder went downhill when RF left.

 

where do I get a subscription?

 

Hi Thomas,

www.kustomsillustrated.com

 

I remember plenty of 1960's chevy impallas sporting 20" wheels under RF as well. I haven't heard him chime in, but I believe he had attributed that to being what his bosses wanted it to be. They probably wanted that style becuase they could sell advertising space to all the billet companies. Who knows... the market has plenty of alternatives now.

Hyfire

 

I am waiting for the HAMB magazine.

 

I subscribed to CR for 5-6 years, ending 2 years ago.

I was tired of the 59-64 Chevy's with big inch wheels. It seemed there were way too many.

I really did like it originally, but just found myself flipping through it and tossing it pretty quickly at the end.

And I won a Custom Rodder Top10 at the 01 Columbus GG's show. Given by RF hisself. I still have the coat and award. The car is gone.

I wish the content would've been different. I'm not sorry I decided to not subscribe any longer.

 

I always felt CR was a magazine trying to find a way and never really hit on it. Not surprised, or disappointed in it going. There are so many good niche start up rags right now I enjoy reading so much more.

 

Hey Cleatus,

I did the same thing, I wrote a letter to Wez and got a real smart ass
remark even mentioned my letter later on in the same issue. After reading
other responses to our demands (the Kustom consumer) it seemed like they
didn't care. I didn't buy it for a couple of issues. I hope that the replies
were from Big Corp Pimedia talking and not the editors. The past few issues
(six months) I thought Damon Lee was turning it around and heading in the
right direction. I guess he was turned loose because Primedia was going to
pull the plug anyway.

This post was not to blast Custom Rodder for the 1,000 time on the HAMB.
I want to use Custom Rodder (a magazine that I did love) to remind people to support
the only 100% kustom magazine Kustom Illustrated. Don't take things for granted.

Rod & Custom and a few others on the shelf try feeding my kustom lust and
they're doing a good job. But they are still stronger in the Hot Rod side of
the hobby.

I was cruzin around one day and I saw a Model T show. I stopped to check them out,
day dreaming and looking at all of the good prospects for Hot Rods. On the way
home, I was thinking it was so sad to see twenty cars in a parking lot by themselves
and no one stopping to look at the cars. Twenty years from now, I don't want the same thing
to happen to the Kustom car market. I'm in this for the rest of my life and I'm encouraged to see
all of the younger guys working on Kustoms. I don't want to be the only 70 year old at a car show
trying to explain why this "WAS" considered kool.

Happy Trails,

Mick

 

No loss to me. It was totally thin, too expensive, and had dubs on most of the cars. I'm surprised it didn't go under sooner.

 

No shit!

www.kustomsillustrated.com

 

got my subscription PLUS the complete set..... thanks guys.

 

wow...they killed VW TRends...now this. How dumb are they?

Who needs them when we got this place