well maybe if someone would help me. it is true about the hotrod, its my first one, and ive had no help what-so-ever, and i honestly DONT know what im doing because ive never done it before. so im just going with what ive seen or what works. my emo gl***es? i use my gl***es to see.... there not a fashion statement.
Jonnycola...I'm gonna step out on a limb here and say you don't care for ol' Dragginbreath, do ya? call it a hunch.
took off and ran with hambers cash? thats not the case at all. god i love it when people who arent even involved with the drama talk about it like its there business. here, you want the damn story!? but i have paid back most of it, the one guy got my paypal blocked so i had to clear that up and then pay him, that clears on the 14th of this month according to my paypal, dont ask me why it takes them so long. ive offered the other guy to send him his money, and he told me to send him the parts. im going to end up having to drive the parts to his house because its cheaper then shipping them. i just now got a car after a few months of not having one(hence me slacking on everything) and im just now able to do things that i need to do without waiting on other people, or having no ride at all. i live an hour (car drive)away from my bank because they closed there branches in this area, so i cant just ride my bike. i also had to help my best friend move to cali, as well as look at places for myself. then i had to come back and finish my car for the guy who bought it. also, my grandmother(not the one that died when i was working at that one place, ect) was sick too, and she p***ed away last saturday. so i have been dealing with family drama too. there, now everyone knows my business.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=192266&highlight=draggin+*** That was the second round if I remember of issues with people buying stuff from you, and never getting it, the first time you were temporarily suspended from the HAMB. Weather you give the money back months later or not, you still took money, didnt deliver the goods within a reasonable time, held the money for months, and that is a crime. Legaly, there is no denying it. In fact, if you were taken to court, you would be required to pay interest on the money. There are some people who have an excuse for everything. I have known people like that, and they always wind up going nowhere. Anyway, Draggin has gotten the bit of abuse he deserves now that he has returned from running off with HAMB'ers money, lets get back on topic....
i also sold a bunch of stuff before and did fine too. both before the first time i ****ed up and then after(till the second time). also i been selling regularly via ebay(before all this happened) mostly its just because i didnt have a car(the 60 caddy i sold) and if you look back at the AD i posted for the caddy it just so happens to be right around the time i started ****ing up. SO what im saying is. selling my car was a BAD idea. also another bad idea was loaning my buddy some money to fix his truck, and another friend money to get medication for her liver. i saw none of that money when i was told i would get paid back. so its not like they are the only ones that got screwed out of money. im not saying what i did was in any way acceptable, im just stating i did things that werent such a good idea, but seemed ok at the time.
Man, what a great thread... I agree with a lot of whats been said in here. I think Kustoms are still being built by guys who love kustoms AND rods. I started building a 50s car because I thought i could tune the stock 215 ci six and spray a quick coat of primer on it. I figured it would be on the road faster than my model-a project. When the 53 got an overhaul instead of a patch job it changed my outlook a bit. --even though the purchase of a 50s body is cheaper than a decent five window coupe, getting it finished is another story. A guy building a Model-A doesn't have to change his game-plan on the availability of some pitted piece of chrome plated pot-metal! I love building a car as much or more than driving a car ...IMHO kustoms are more satisfying to put together. Guys build kustoms to get women. Guys build hot rods to get rid of them. --Robin Williams
customs are dead...at least mine is...I have to charge the battery, then it will be alive again. Draggin, is that the same chevy that had the galvanized steel roof for the chop??? And I remember the pic with the galvanized steel spot welded with the ball peen hammer...that was PRICELESS
welded with the ball peen hammer? it was mig tacked together. yeah it did have galvanized on it, but i didnt have any money to go buy another sheet of metal. all it needed was someone to take the wire brush to it and get the zinc off. then prime it as usual. if anything harms way could have used those pieces as templates.
haha, no not welded with a ball peen...the pics had pictures of your spot welds then it had a ball peen hammer sitting there in the pic too....
yeah that was my buddys flux core mig. i hate that thing, welds like bird ****, let alone on galvanized. ive learned alot since that chop, mostly that i shoulda cut below the drip rail, and not try to save the beltline trim.
The kind of customs from the late 50s/early 60s arent being built like they were back then with the crazy ideas. Mild customs seem to be the way people are building them now. My buick is a mild custom and now I am building a hot rod. I like them both but the buick is the 2nd custom I have had
My professional opinion is that we'll see kustoms on the rise in the next few years. Hot rods are definitely a hot commodity, but that is why the market is getting flooded. It's hard to build something truly unique and showstopping on any kind of a decent budget. That will push those who want to be noticed over to kustoms, where the playing field is wide open. Hot rods aren't going away, but kustoms will become much more prevalent. It's the same cycle over and over.
Having built only O/T cars and bikes to this point, I decided to start on a mild custom for several reasons. One, I'm a ****ty welder and hot rods have plenty of 'MISSION CRITICAL' type welds, whereas most of the welds on my kustom are only cosmetic. Additionally, by starting with a '58 Olds, I already had solid underpinnings, a REAL V8 from the 50s, and brakes/suspension that are completely up to the task. Also, it's easier to get the woman acclimated to the continual drain on our budget as well as collecting tools if we have something to tool around in while we do it. It's doubly easy when it's something she thinks is pretty, unlike most hot rods IN HER EYES. Add in that we can stuff 6 people in the Kustom and have a rolling party complete with luxuries like HEAT and WINDOWS and there's another good reason to start with a Kustom car. That being said, I'm collecting parts for a Model A with a big overhead motor and three pedals for when I'm a better welder and done with this BOAT...
wasnt my car, he didnt ask me to fix the rust. he asked me to get it driving(fix the brakes and put a motor in, and wire it.) and chop it. so i only did was i was asked to do.
Yeah, I wasn't trying to rip on you, just on whoever made the decision that a chopped top comes before rust repair. I've got a ton of rust repair on my project as well, but I kind of look at it as my primer in metalwork before I start on my body mods. Fix it, then customize it...
Lots of good points on here. Being a custom guy myself I'll drop my opinion.... Kustoms aren't dead, they're evolving. This is both good and bad. The good side is that A) people are still building them & B) there are still some fresh ideas out there. I'll tell ya what though, kustoms aren't built the way they used to be though. Lots of oddball, whacky ideas, cartoonish chops, mixing of styles and out of proportion stuff. Very few cars built in the true nostalgic sense. I always get a kick out of the guys on here that make fun of dummy spots and non-functioning lakes. Popular now or not, they were a staple, especially on the east coast, on kustoms. Continental kits as well. Totally correct, especially for a right coast car, but seldom seen today. Besides, a nice two door from the 50s is gonna cost some serious coin, then you need to fix the rust, do the motor......kustoms cost waaaaayyyy more than your typical rod. Any schmuck can slap together a ****ty kustom with a 1 day chop, but it'll never blow minds like a properly executed chop and custom job. Ask chopolds or gl***guy. Mark spent 100 hours in a door jamb....not too many builders aspire to that level
Another point might be that many customs of today use late model parts, like headlights. They ARE customs, but they don't fit the HAMB idea of what's cool. But they ARE customs.
I don't think Kustoms are dying, but guys who weld filler panels out of Galvanized tin sure are. Breathing that stuff mixed with flux core wire does permanent damage. Lung and brain. And grinding it off is just as bad. If that ain't enough, mud and paint won't stick to it unless you acid etch it, which is also hazardous. buflochp Just because you can, don't mean you should.
They will never die. Alway's loved the chopped Merc's.............the new paint's will only enhance their shape's. And this board will continue to allow the youth to discover the 'lost' art of lead, and the old timer's who still work at their crafty way's. How 'bout a tribute to Bill Hine's for a starter?
You hurt my feelings. I'm building a custom Merc near you in Exeter. If they are "dead" good! I'm not doing it because it's a trend, It's cause I absolutly love lead-sleds and the challenge they present. Why don't you come by and help me build it......you "Punk!" ___Trout
Long story short your mouth on building a custom in just a few days has been shut for you by numerous members on this thread alone. Obviously your couple days of work yields a product such as the aforementioned, and we can all see the lack in quality. My advice don't run your mouth back to a person like Tomas, or anyone else on this board for that matter. Based on my conversations with him, he's built more **** than youve ever seen. Leave it at that, he knows his **** and knows when he sees ****.
Hot Rods are popular these days. I have one in my mind that I would like to build someday, but Customs are my first love. California seems to have both Hot Rods and Customs around covering all the eras (40's - 60's). I guess it depends where you live. Here's one that's taking shape, soon to be on the road: http://www.fullertonfabrication.com/1940mercurycustom.html To bad Paul's not here to give the updates? Ken
hey, i did that **** with no money. i had that galvanized laying around doing nothing. and the car was a turd to begin with. nothing gained nothing lost, nothing spent. if i had the welder i got now, money to buy a big *** peice of 18g sheet of steel and a place to do it. i know for a fact i could do something you all would think is awesome. ive never built a custom for myself, and most of the time they ask me to do it for them on a weekend, so that they can drive it. i dont have time to make things the way i wanna make them. nor do i have the money to spend on someone elses car unless they pay me. if youve seen the floors i did in that packard that was about the only car i was paid good money for, and i think it turned out great. i honestly stopped letting what all of you say get to me, because i know for a fact that if i had the parts, time, and money. i could build something absolutely amazing.
Point being, don't come on hear and say I can build a custom in 3 days when obviously you can't. You've built **** in 3 days out of **** materials with **** tools, but that **** aint no custom. I could, I can, I would... holds no weight.
I think it would be safe to say that more customs currently exist now than at any other time in the past. There are those treasures from the past that are being kept and more and more that are being found and restored. Then there are all the customs that have been built throughout the years that are still going strong or are having a face lift to do away with the attrocities of that long dark period of time when no one seemed to understand what a "custom" was really about and now, it seems like every time I turn around I hear about and see more customs that are being built or recently finished. Some very cool **** too - not just beaters with a quickie chop - very tastefully done cars built by people who have obviously studied up. All you have to do is check out some of the HAMB threads pertaining to customs currently being built/or on the road and they go on for pages and pages and have like 70,000 hits. Obviously lots of people interested. Saying that they are dying off because they are greatly outnumbered by hot rods is ignorant of the fact that there are also more hot rods being built than ever before. I guess it all depends on your perspective, but I'd say the number of people who understand and appreciate a true custom is definitely on the rise.
Kinda odd logic........if someone asks me to do work on their car and I agree, whether they pay or not doesn't matter, I do the BEST I can.......if you don't have the TIME to make it how you'd like....don't do it.....
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