Folks Of Interest Non-White Custom Car Builders

Does anyone know of any older car customizers who are from diverse cultural or ethnic backgrounds, particularly those who are not commonly represented? Please excuse my ignorance of this topic. A friend asked me if there were any and I didn't have an answer for him.

 

I'm sure there were plenty. But as many times as I was out at Starbird's Hall of Fame. I can't recall seeing many.

 

Joaquin Arnett, one of the Bean Bandit founders, was better known for building dragsters and Bonneville cars, but also built some great customs. He built a chopped, channeled and sectioned ‘34 Ford coupe that was entered in a number of shows and was bought by Andy Granatelli of STP fame. More Hispanic names you never heard of built some outstanding low riders like the Gypsy Rose that was featured on a postage stamp.

 

Wasn't Jimmy Jones of Inkster fender skirt fame a black man?
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/jimmy-jones-fender-skirts.1159401/
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Jimmy_Jones_Bubble_Skirts

 

This thread has some names and links for Latino builders
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/low-riders-zoots-suiters-and-pachucos.1268558/

 

If you go thru the California hot rod magazines of the fifties you will see names of Greek, Portuguese, Hispanic, Italian, Chinese, Japanes etc first generation or second generation immigrants and very few Plymouth Rock old time American names. I don't know if this means anything or reflects the cultural diversity of the general population.

 

http://losboulevardos.blogspot.com/2011/05/ron-aguirre-your-legacy-lives-on.html

 

Steve Stanford great illustrator . loved his work in Rod and Custom magazine.

 

I'm sorry if it came off that it matters. This was simply for my educational purposes.

We always see Barris, Winfield, Hines, Starbird, etc. I thought it would also be awesome to see the work done by different cultures at the time. Maybe the question should be, "Who were the less well-known builders of that time?"

 

If you are on Instagram, check out 46to64 he seems to be building a library of this info on all this. https://www.instagram.com/46to64?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

Flip through a fifties or sixties issue of hrm. Youll notice a crap load of Hispanic last names. Have to remember the juiced lowrider craze(hydraulics and 100 spokes) is a direct descendant of the kustom kemp era. Honestly there were so many names that fit your criteria it'd serve disservice to countless others to mention them solely over nationality

 

The Ayala Bros were of Mexican decent. They were born in the US but their parents were from Mexico.

 

The iconic Hirohata Merc was the inspiration of Japanese Bob Hirohata

 

I'm pretty sure Ed Roth was from another planet...

 

I seem to recall he was quite proud of it too

 

Have you checked out lowrider builders?

 

I'm old, of ethnic minority, but probably don't have enough time left to get famous.

 

Don't forget our own world famous jnaki.

 

I understand the OP’s question but I’m more interested in colour of the vehicle than the builder/owner...

 

The Armenian community in So Cal had great representatives. John Mazmanian, his nephew Richard Siroonian, Rodney Agajanian, and Tim Sousamian did custom trucks. There are a bunch of others that you would know the cars but not the names.

 

Again, I think you need to look toward California. Pre WWII and for sure after, it was , probably still is, one of the most diverse places in the USA. If anything was going on, it was there, and by people with all kinds of heritage. Not saying other areas didn’t have that mixture, but in my area there were more Smith, Jones, and Moore’s than Weiand’s or Edelbrock’s. The name or heritage probably didn’t have a lot to do with the creativity from a lot of them, it was probably more exposure to different ideas.

 

I appreciate all these answers. Thank you guys for helping me out on this topic.

 

Those Impala low riders are awesome to me. They put a fortune into the chrome and paint. I would like to see more of them locally but there just aren't any around this area that I have seen. I don't get the hoppers, but they do look like fun to see.

 

I once read a quote here on the Hamb.
"The only difference between a Lowrider & a Kustom is the zipcode"
Lowriders were my intro to this thing we do. I was turned on by them long before I knew shit about Traditional Hot Rodding.

 

I have had the chance to see several Low Riders up close and personal and the thing that always gets me is the attention to detail. To me, it screams pride. I'm sure competitiveness has driven some of it to insane levels as well. But there is no denying the craftsmanship, time and effort put into their cars. Everyone time I stopped to look at one of the cars, someone, either builder or owner was there to answer questions and share the story. Loved the experience!

 

My first showpiece was a LowRider Bicycle, showed it for 3 years, and 2 of those years were on the ISCA circuit. So I understand the connection in that sense. I used to have stacks of LowRider Magazines growing up and got many of them taken away in high school haha. I'm a car guy all around and Kustoms are my jam. I just wanted to have an answer for anyone if the question was asked. I don't know how many times I've been told Custom Cars was something that "white people do" which I know from growing up in the car show scene is far from true. I was just curious to see how many builders in the early days were of a different decent.