everything in my area that calls itself a kustom has lakes pipes. in my pretty thourough research of all things kustom, i find few of the original cars had them. seems to me that they came along in the 60's. any real hot rod and kustom veterans have insight as to when and where these things came about? seems more east coast cars have them, but the "lakes" are out west.
When I was planning my old time highboy, I used the Don Montgomery series of books to see what details I should try to follow. Lakes pipes were on most of the early cars from the early forties on up. The rods of the day were dual purpose and needed a way to drive on the street without getting a noise violation.
50Merc, you need to research this a little further . Lakes on kustoms was pretty much standard stuff in California in the last half of the fifties. But not tripplecaps... These pics are just from the HAMBs last few pages. Both very much have the typical Watson-look of California kustoms of the late fifties. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/image_uploads/221171-Ford55%20DollBuggy%202.jpg http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/image_uploads/220681-193642-DaBorepont.jpg
think for a moment (don't hurt yourself) what the name implies "Lake Pipes, Lakers, ect" those weren't on boats we're talking dry lakes and hot rods, the custom boys started running chrome one in the fifties and it was hard to find a pick up after 55 that didn't have chrome stacks up the cab or under the bed rails. by the late fifties the rodders switched to cut outs (short capped pipes) in the wheel wells for less back pressure, the dummy pipes were just for the dummies. I wasn't into customs much back then. I still like to run lakers (the uncapped one there cheaper too!) but I always hook them up and never think of mufflers. over a hundred inches of small pipe from the block to the tip quiets it enough for me now that was in california, other parts of the country you might have to set your watch back 20 years ! haha!
let me clarify a little. my favorite era is from the early 40's to about 54 give or take. i realize where they got thier name. and i know what thier purpose is. what i was wanting to know if anybody remambered about when they became standard fair on kustoms. i don't have every piece of literature put out on the subject, but i do have a pretty extensive library on kustoms. and they just don't show up in my books. at least on the famous stuff.
I dont quite get what you are saying here. Larry Watsons Grapevine had lakes through 3 different paintjobs between ca. 56 and 58 when he sold it for a brand new T-bird. That should be a pretty famous one and there are pics of it in a most of the basic kustom books (Barris tech. no.4, Ganahls book etc.). Same with Floyd DeBoers 58 Poncho (see the pic in my post further up), which was brand new when it got the paintjob, lakes etc. Sure these are post-54 kustoms, but kustom history didnt stop in 54.
We had the "lake plugs" before the full length lake pipes were popular. I think the long ones started in late 1955. But I was in Oregon then, would have been earlier in Cal. I think they were for guys that couldn't get their car low enough. Never had room for them myself......OLDBEET
THANK YOU OLD BEET, that is exactly the answer i was looking for. you are the man! and thanks for the other info, as in the cars not being low enough. i was about to list all the cars that didn't have them.
I lived in Oregon too and by about '62-63 they had been fazed out in my town. The hot setup was 4 foot scavengers under the car and "sneaker pipes" that came out right behind the front tires...had caps like lakers. But, that's not what you asked, huh.
I think the use of them depended alot on the personal preference of the car owners. They seemed more common in the later Watson style era where the paint jobs were used more to custom the cars. Alot of those cars weren't even nosed and decked. Adding the lakers to make the car lower is in tune with that method of customizing a car. Seems most of the earlier era customs with all the radical sheet metal mods did not run them. I've heard some of those customizers refer to them as "too bolt on". The early era customs then used channeling, lowering, chopping, and ran real spotlights. Most didn't run the dummy spots or dummy lakers.
who cares when they started, if you like them put em on your car. I love lake pipes but I decided it would make my car too busy or cluterred, late 50s to early 60s cars have too much trim and chrome for pipes, but a 50 merc is just right.
This pic is probably from 56. Judging by the little books, 55 or so should be a good estimate as to when the first kustoms with lakes began to show up. After 57 or so, a bunch of the famous cars from both Barris, Winfield, Alexander Bros. etc. and most rides Watson ever thouched ran them.
Sailor. that Watson picture is how I remember lake pipes, no caps and running live. 5omercfan I wasn't trying to be a jerk, just telling you what I remembered and a little history. Beet and Rocky I heard many rod and custom stories coming out of portland area in the 50's and 60's probably why I live here now
hemi, it's cool, i was expecting a bunch of different answers based on region. thats what i wanted different views. oldbeet confirmed about what i thought. i'm not running them myself because i'm going for an earlier look. i like them just fine, though. i don't like to mix my accessorys from different era's. i like it to be "right" for the time frame i'm going for. i guess thats silly but it's what i like to do. and i figured the guys lucky enough to have lived in this era could help and they did. thanks everyone.
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