Customs Most Influential Customs of the past 15 years?

I like Brad Masterson's '51 Chevy...a lot!!

 

The cars out of the bay area, my grandfather is the builder Robert Acosta, took him about 10 years to build it all himself from the engine, to the body work and paint. It first brought out around 97 billetproof was its debut. It's got over 28 different cars in it that's where the name "Franken Chevy" comes from.

 

The first two pics are of a different car

 

That's the same car?

I remember thinking it was on its way to looking sorta like the Saint Vasquez Chevy when I saw it at Paso in '89 or '90-

 

bttt.

 

One of the coolest best looking pictures I have ever seen at the coolest place I have ever been to.

 

Here's mine from east coast shop JOE SULPYS shop in ledgewood N.J.
Done 12 years ago!!!!! BO HUFF pick at Lead EAST




Thank's Frankie C




38 sled

 

^^^ Has it influenced a lot of people ?

 

Guess the most influence means magazine coverage in some fashion.

 

Justin Hills Buick, build by him here in Australia, Called it ARTDECO, absolutely beautiful. He took the car to the states last year. This has got to be on the list.

 

That car fuckin dominates !!! So heavy and just shuts it down anywhere it goes.I love that car.

 

He seems to like posting pictures of his car regardless of what the thread is about. He somehow had the idea that it belonged in the "1940 Period Correct Customs" thread as well???

 

JEESES GUYS SORRY but we took from 40's& 50's kustoms & did the best to capture the era!!!!!!!
not on par with your merc Jeff KOOOOL SLED!!!!!
I got a lot of press on the east coast & proud of it

THANKS GUYS
FRANKIE C
38 sled




SORRY K18 I FORGOT TO ADD A PIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Whoa..........FrankieC.. Did I say something wrong ? Didn't mean to,all I did was ask a question about its influence.I wasn't bagging on your car,I respect what you did it especially being a sedan.It isn't my exact taste as far as some of the custom touches go but who cares,it isn't my car.I actually really want to buid a sedan.JeffKooooolSled ??? Thats so KKKKKKKKustom.As far as being up to par ??????? All I have is a plain old Merc with stock bumpers & trim.

 

I would like to put a vote in for Yaril's (tylerburden here on the HAMB)50 ford shoebox with the carson top. It was the first build I read here on the hamb and deeply inspired my love of early customs. So simple yet so elegent and driven all over the country as it should be!

 

Well, i really lioke it actualy, maybe its not exactly the most influential but its very nice. I'd only swap the wheel tire combo, or even just slap a set of bias skinny whites on the wires. I love sedans thou, so i might be a tad biased.

 

I'm not sure there has been anything done in the past 15 years that is original enough; all influential cars were created during the original 1930-1998 period.

The current revivalist movement had its roots in the late 70's when people like Doug Thompson, Jack Walker, Lee Pratt and others saved customs from obsolescence by keeping the original movement alive.

 

^^ Oooh! Harsh words, and I'm not sure I can agree with you. If you had said that nothing influential had been built since 1960, I would understand that you were talking specifically about radical customs in the early tradition of Summers, Barris, Ayala, and Valley Custom. But starting in the late '50s, radical body modifications pretty much went away, and the Watson style of elaborate paint on a nearly stock body took their place. As you say, a revival occurred about 20 years later, but what would you consider the influential cars between 1960 and 1998? I would think that Cadzilla, and the cars commissioned by Zocchi and D'Agostino are pretty significant, but they are not in that earliest '40s-'50s style. And if you are considering those significant, what about the cars that those guys have done since '98?

I notice that the guys who are most prolific and visible these days like Foose and Trepanier tend to do extremely subtle body mods, with more attention to mechanical detail and interiors. A few others like Donn Lowe have done more radical bodywork, but I'm not sure that their work has been particularly influential in the sense that others are imitating them.

Oh well. I'm not sure that it makes any difference anyway. On to the GNRS!

 

So.. did the poster ever get painted?

 

Of course Tony, I agree...Zocchi and D'Agostino are two that didn't come to mind and that's why I said "others" to include any I might not have thought of right off. Those two did as much as any of the others in that they never stop building customs when they lost favor with the magazines. But all of the bunch were influenced by the earlier customs (though Cadzilla was mostly original).

The influence of Zocchi and D'Agostino has been to popularize the customizing of more unusual body styles, which is a very good thing.

My main point was the question posed by the topic. The current revival examples of the past fifteen years, given the phenomenon that it has become, has inspired thousands of individuals to customize once again and that's a good thing.

But any one car(?), maybe the first revivalist "tribute" '41 in the Matranga style. Even that would be prior to 15 years ago.

And yeah, probably doesn't make much difference. Hope to run into you at GNRS. Haven't seen you since Lonestar 2010. I like the way your custom mind thinks.

 

awesome cars.

 

Most influential custom of the past 15 years? I vaguely remember a '39 Zephyr called SCRAPE built by Ramsey Mosher of Dover, DE. I may be mistaken but wasn't that the first rod or custom in hot rod history to "Lay Frame" putting the entire rocker panel on the ground, kinda like EVERYONE does now?

 

Please dont ever say "EVERYONE" lays frame now.

 

How about a '39 Zephyr with '40-41 front clip called SCRAPE built by Ramsey Mosher in Dover, DE? I may be mistaken but wasn't that the first rod or custom in history to "lay frame", putting the rocker panels flat on the ground? Since that is common practice today, I'd call that influential.

 

Layin' frame is lame.

 

OK, I apologize. I was exaggerating. It's what i do. Not everyone lays frame. Each to their own. But the thread had to do with influential customs, and SCRAPE was certainly that.

And it WAS a true pioneer. Admittedly as inspiration, before i had (first Dave Cronk) then Ramsey Mosher build SCRAPE for me, I saw a mini-truck pic that had a "body drop" with rockers flat on the tarmac. I was sitting in a bar and turned a glass upside down and visualized a Zephyr kissing the ground and said to myself, "Whoa". A moment that to a certain extent revolutionized rods 'n customs. Hot rod history.

 

So out of 265 replies and who knows how many submissions, what are the most influential? Do they have to have been built in the last 15 years?
People need to know if the teenagers building cars today have a chance of catching up with the guys on Medicare!

 

I really can't say which were the most influential, but I'd guess they were among those that didn't need to be submitted by their owners.