hey guys, i would like to know what ideas you guys have as far as traditional customizing. i want to turn my chevy into a sort of "period correct" custom with a clean and sleek look. ideas? thanks!!
nose, deck, shave, and lower that mutha'. add some decent wheels n tires and you got a decent mild kustom. do some flashy paint and body work later if you so wish to push further... You could keep or lose the sidepipes/lakes.
If you're looking to do the '50s thing, don't use custom wheels, they didn't really show up until the late 50's/early 50's. Use hubcaps instead - like 3 or 4 bar Olds-style 'flippers' During that time period customs usally included a re-done interior; that's gonna be your biggest expense unless you're really talented in the upholstrey trades. As for the engine - chrome valve covers, side cover, maybe 2 carbs and duals - don't worry about it being fast 'cause that's not what customs were about Dual spotlights were almost mandatory...........louvered hoods were optional
OK, here's an old style idea that I haven't seen much lately. Find some International Travellall tailight lenses and mount your bezels upside down. Add extra teeth to your grill. Definetely bull nose your hood. IF you stripe it, keep the striping low key. Don't put stripes the take up half of the area of the hood or deck lid. Like was mentioned, don't use custom wheels. That will make a very nice mid fifties style semi custom. Stay away from modern colors too. No teal, or silver 2 stage pearl.
Teal??? Not a modern color??? Or is that a joke? And what exactly is a "modern color"...??? Back in my day Pearl was REAL pearl, not imitation...and lead-based... R-
I think Phil was talking about the metallic teals that are so common on cars these days. Not like an aqua seafoam green kind of color.
http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/ Go here and check it out. You've got one of those "icon cars" to customize. What the guys above are saying is try to excercise a little restraint as you go. The 54 is perfect for a chop and section. Do a google search for the "Moonglow" 54 HT. IMO one of the best ever done. Jesse James did a couple of em that are pretty close if not right on. ANYTHING you do to that car will probably be kool...except billet wheels of course.
yeah, the engine is staying the stock 235. i have an offy dual intake and fenton headers. not to worried about going fast in this one. afterall, customs are for getting the chicks, hot rods are for getting away from them right? thanks for the info!
yeah, that's what i'm aiming for. i don't know anything about moonglow though. who built it, when was it built, etc.? do you know if those are packard tail lights? google didn't produce much info about it. thanks!
Well, I'm surprised that you would ask, Roger. Maybe it's because you were in the midwest? But in the fifties that I was in, So Cal, most customs, mild or full, were painted, ***ian Red, Glade Green or black. Caddy colors, mostly. The ideal was to mimic the luxury cars on Ford or Chevy rides. Maybe there were teal colors back then, but they weren't the sort of colors from Hondas or Tauruses (sp?), like seen at most 'chainer events. I think that he was asking about the early-mid fifties, not the late fifties-early sixties in your tales. By then the norm leaned to baby moons if you weren't bux up to chromies or Americans or Cragers if you were. PS, your Stude is painted in a modern color combo. Doncha think? CP
LOL Chili...we didn't have paint...it was all primer...spotted on top of what ever was the stock color...seldom were our cars painted...unless they were bought that way...I seem to recall a lot of whites, a lot of blaks...some blues...maybe Maroon...but we never tried to imitate "luxury" car colors... My '57 was the stock Highland Green...with primer spots...never got any other color as long as I owned the car...used to dream about it, but it never happened. Actually my Stude is using '56 Packard Turquoise for the scallops on top of Lime Green that was around in the 60's...but the scallop design is a "modern" version if that's what you are saying... It was hubcaps up until the early sixties, then chromes/moons...mid -sixties got us 5-spoke mags...maybe Americans...in muddy, dirt road Iowa, chromes were the best...they cleaned easiest. Thanx for explaining the "modern" paints to me...I didn't realize that was anything after 1965... R-
Ha ha ha, Roger. You nailed it about the primer spots. You'd have thought we wanted to make our cars look like cows. I guess my idea about using Caddy colors and taillights from Luxo barges, Caddy, Packards and like that, came from hanging around Ayala's shop. But that was back when I had a bicycle instead of a car. I was a car crazy little kid. I went to high school from '60-'64. So, I remember the things in your stories about like you do. Back then, if we were disagreeing, we have to settle it in the parking lot, huh? I'm too old and creaky for that stuff nowadays.
I say you put curb feelers and a giant virgin mary sticker in the back window, maybe some dingle balls and gold spinner wheels. But I like to keep mine a little cholo. I would start off by ripping the interior out and replacing it with snake skin and zebra patterns. duche bag! box yer frame and hit the road, stop being a *****!
Yep, we'd have a real knock down, drag 'em out fist fight...and I doubt, if I made a fist these days, it would be swung with much force...ah hell, let's just have a coke and agree to disagree on a few things... R-
hey, is this the guy that wouldn't stop hitting on me the other night. damn, my girlfriend was pissed until you hopped in your honda del sol and took off blaring cher. for the last time, no! i do NOT believe in life after love. ps, can i borrow your lawn mower tomorrow? my ****'s gettin tall.
SHOOTER, do a search here on the HAMB for a post i did awhile back called "remembering moonglow"..i've got a photobucket site linked on there with pictures from a moonglow album/s****book they made when they were making it and it's chock full of build up pictures and info about duane (her builder) and how young larry watson striped it! creepy
I tried to keep my 53 chevy as period correct as i could (late 50s), doing mod's that would have been done back then and keeping the parts i used dated on or before 1959. Stuff like tunnelled tail light's, frenched headlights, nosed and peaked hood etc.. Right now the only deviation from 'correct' are the radial wide whites..which are hard to see because th car is lowered. The newest item on it is the 59 impala steering wheel. I got alot of info from my bro in law (Dat Dirty Rat on here) who is MUCH more into the custom's than i am which helped me out a lot. I even made sure that when i rewired the car, i used the stock 6 cyl generator and starter and had them converted to 12 volts to keep the look under the hood right.. placing the regulator in the same spot etc..and my car is still running the inline as well with a split manifold. Even though i don't park the car with the hood open, if asked to open it i wanted to make sure it followed the style of the rest of the car. This year at the syracuse nat's one of the best compliment's i think i have ever received with this car was from one of the builders at Lowrey's resorations.. He made a point to tell me he felt it was one of the only period correct customs at the show.. Granted, no one man can be the all knowing, but to hear a pro builder who has had his hands in many high end traditional restorations say that, it was pretty damn cool..and made the effort well worth it. Check through some old little books to see how they were done in the mid fifty's and you'll start to get some good idea's as to what you want to do.. Like Moonglow...absolutely perfect car, so subtle and clean..just like they should be in my oppinion. Also, there's different style's depending on where you are in the country as well. My car is more of a west coast style with thing's very simple keeping all the doo dads off the car.. no spot's, lake pipes, skirts or anything like that.. I wanted the visual to concentrate on the car itself and not have too much else going on to take the attention away from the mod's that were done to it.. I'm NO critic on anything, and my feeling's may differ from other's as well so if ya wanna ignore me thats cool Good luck and post pics. Tony
Moonglow is a beautiful car. So was Larry Watson's car. I believe he drove this in high school? Maybe someone here knows better than me. This was obviously before he got into the really complicated paint schemes - which I love! - but the simple paint job is absolutely stunning on this Chevy.
Here's an example of traditional and low buck. This was my grandmother's car that my dad customized in high school before he had his own car. It was green and white. My dad nosed and decked it, added extra grille teeth. Replaced the white backup light with a red taillight lense, and eventually painted black. He put an impala wheel in it that his mom made him take back out, and he put a 2 barrel on it until mom complained about the milage, so he had to swap it back to the one barrel with a chrome pot.
Do any of you realize that the babe on the fender of this Chevy is at least 70 years old today...maybe a bit older...??? R-
hey, thanks for the info. that is an amazing car that i had no idea about. i really enjoyed it. thanks again.
The Jalopy Journal
