So who on here is building a period Kustom?

And what period?

I've never been in to them enough to retain all the what you do. I've always held and hold on to the hot rod info out there, they're closer to my heart and the track. So now I'm looking and learning. Maybe some quick history? We all know chop, channel, section, french etc... But how/what crosses over year to year? What don't?

Paint styles? Panels? Flames? Scallops? Primer?

Wheels or centers? Side note. I do dig chromed reverse.

Induction?

Exhaust?

Other?

What are you doing? Or is this a lot of questions best left to long late night reads and searches. Which I have no time for.

 

I am building a mid 50's custom. It will be red with ghost scallops and white tuck and roll. The powerplant is a 235 with split Fentons. I don't totally stick to the period correct stuff. Mine will have a 5 speed and mid 60's Caddy caps.

 

Depends on what period your looking for. My '63 Grand Prix is on its way to being a sixties mild custom. Nosed and decked, lowered, lakes, tunneled antenna, etc..

 

I've been workin on a 49 Merc, for the wife. Not period correct, but mid 50s style. Mild chop(straight B pillar, not the slanted full custom style) Lower in the rear, skirts and louvered hood. Wide whites and 56 Olds caps, with 51 Merc skirts. Rust primer. But it does run a 460 Ford motor and C-6 trans. Oh Ya, do everything myself as thats the way I've always done, since the mid 50s. Couldn't afford to pay anyone to cut up an old car.........OLDBEET

 

I'm just about done with my 52 Chevy Rag Top. I call it a "50's Style" Custom. It is not totally traditional because of a lot of "creature features" that most 50's customs did not have. It is a chopped folding top conv., frenched headlites,hood corners rounded, hood peaked, frenched taillights, skirts etc. Power is a 30 over 292 I six through a 200R4 and a 8 inch ford with 350 gears. WWW on steel rims with 55 Dodge royal lancer short bar flipper wheel covers. Making it pretty next weekend and goes for top and guts on April 1st. The creature features are for the comfort of this fat old man. PS,PB,PW,6way Power bench seat, cruise,air,tilt. Rewarding myself for haveing lived without that shit for many years. Don't even feel guilty.

B B

 

I'm going for a early 50's kustom on my '49 Kaiser. Late fifties small block dressed up tradtionally. The car is just getting a mild shave, lowering, skirts and a working spotlight and a visor. The interior is going to be pretty original looking as well, the speakers and stereo hidden from view, pinstriped seats with all thise little 40's and 50's goodies in side. Going for something you might have seen in the original issues of Hop Up.

 

We're Choping and building this bitch to look like the old 50's style baris sleds...Dont want to give out to much info... but it should turn out pretty damn good...

 

An interesting question! Mild or full and what period.
I'm not sure what to call mine. I'm going for a Westergard style although my car, 49 Olds is (in my opinion) a little too new for that period. I want long, low and smooth. No metallic paint, no stripes or anything.
Most of the stainless has been removed, nosed and decked.
Skirts, wide whites and Caddy Sombrero's
It's got an SBC (temporarily) but I'm piecing together a 324 Olds with 4 carbs, mallory dual point, Moon valve covers and other assorted goodies.
Here's a pic, what period would you guys call it.

 

Not many custom purists around I afraid...
Did I read words the word VISOR in the same sentence as custom?

Im all traditional. My fiftyfour Ford, to be finished in the end eternity: 53 Clipper taillights, 55 Pontiac rear bumper, 53 Cad wheel covers, 52-53 Ford Accsessory steering wheel, 53 Chev grille teeth, 3" chop windshield, 4" chop rear window, 2 3/4 sectioned, no air system, ny hydraulics, no radial tires... Style early Barris (52-55) with a Valley Custom flair. I have all the parts, most of the work remains.

 

If by "period" you mean uncooperative and leaking red fluid....
I have one.

 

I'm building a '53 belair. 5" chop, shoebox ford backlite, canted B pillars, rounded door top's, lowered, '53 merc headlight rings frenched, nosed, decked, shortened 210 trim on doors and quarters, '54 tail light's with Lee lenses etc....

Personally i consider it a little more wild than mild, basically because of the chop. My door window openings are only 7" at the highest point.I can touch the top and bottom of the opening with my thumb and little finger on one hand.

I'm doing the body work now..
Paint, well i'll let you know. It's between two choices , both will work with the style of car..

I'm going for the late 50's era with it. Nothing is newer than '59 (impala steering wheel)....

235 mill, with 3 on the tree, twice pipes and soon to have 3 singles on a Offy intake.

This pic was from this past summer at Dat Dirty Rat's house.I borrowed a dealer plate and drove it there like this.. After i did these headlights, i changed 'em to the merc..
It's all ripped apart now..

Still learning though..i'm a hot rodder, and this is the first kustom i've attempted..

Rat....

 

Cleatus, you can't be talking about your fine, kick ass sled!
I would love to have that thing leaking in my driveway.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Not many custom purists around I afraid...
Did I read words the word VISOR in the same sentence as custom?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, you did, and there isn't a damn thing wrong with it. Just because your "customizing" a car doesn't mean you're always ripping shit off it.

 

Thanks Rocket 88, your sled is looking muy bueno - I like very much!

and I also really dig the chop on Rat Rod's - most definetely looks like early Barris stuff. nice job.

 

I have a '50 Chevy in the works. Early '60s peroid. Part of what makes the period "correctness" is not only what was being done at that time but parts availabilty. It would have been tough to put a '60s part on a '50s car. Also, (this is just me) I try to stay away from early '50s parts for a '60s period car. Now days it seems the drive trian doesn't enter in to the equation too much. I think it's because these are drivers, not just show cars (like you may have seen in the '50s) so we want reliabilty and safty (disc brakes for exanple).
That's my 2 cents. Do I get change back?

 

Here is my 53 Ford pretty much mid to late 50's custom. 55 New Yorker grille, 55/56 Olds taillights, Flathead stock with duals, Packard and Merc side trim, white r&p int., it has a couple later mods but not much.

 

Hope to get finished and painted one day.

 

Also have a 47 Chevy coupe project here

 

[ QUOTE ]
Here's a pic, what period would you guys call it.





[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't matter. That car already looks better than half of the customs on the road.

Its going to be an absolute stunner.

JH

 

To me a visior is a "civilian" accessory item, it is designed to give protection from the sun and not to do any good to the lines of a car. Custom building are about giving the car both cleaner and improved lines and a more luxeriors apporach. Yes, sometimes from removing things that interfear with the flow of the car´s design, sometimes by replacing with parts from newer or more expensive cars and sometimes by redesigning parts of the body. Im not very good with always finding the right words in English, but Pat Ganahl´s great book "The American Custom Car" gives the same image of customs as I have (I´ve been into customs for over 25 years I might add). I remember that Bill Burnham once wrote something about his feelings of sun visors in Street Rodder.He wrote that he cried when his father brought a visor for the car, it was a humiliating old man´s accessory.
It might have been the cool thing in the midwest, as well as black and white mudflaps with stars and all kind J.C Withney stuff. Looking in my pile of early Hop Up´s (not complete but quite many) I found one car with a visor, it was from Iowa.

I can see that your Kaiser have different apporoach than the things I connect with traditional Californian customs as it have both fog lights, visor and a single spotlight.
I like that you care for an odd car as 4-d Kaiser, and Im a big fan of Dutch Darrin. And I do also like that its a nice shiney car (Im not into primered cars...). But even though its nosed its not my view of a custom. And still: For me a visor will for ever be a no-no, the same level of accessory as a bolt on fiberglas spoiler on a 70´s car. It might sound harsh, but Im honest.

 

Visors go with 'Curb Feelers" and them "No Static" straps that drag the ground. Just ask my dad.......OLDBEET

 

If customs are about cleaning up the lines and such, what category do nerf bars and bumper guards go it? I see alot of them on customs in old magazines. I'm not trying to stir the shit, I just think it's kinda hard to draw the line on what accessories are appropriate or not.

 

Being from California, I suppose it's weird that I've always been into the east coast look when it came to cars. Visors and continental kits have always been things I've liked, although as we all know they don't look right on all cars.

I can see better where you're coming from now that you explained it a bit more, and I totally respect your view and all, and being honest is all that matters. I just like things a little differently, seeing customizing usually as adding more then less. For me... when I go to car shows... everyone has a rat rod. Everyone is in primer, trim is missing or ripped off... and I like cars much the opposite. I find it's more work it seems to try and track down these old parts and accessories then it is ripping everything off and filling holes. I dunno... if I wanted my car to look like a new car I'd get a new car. I suppose I'm the most mexican of the folks on here.

 

Kojack, don't take it the wrong way, your Kaiser is cool, and rare. Kaiser had a plant in Portland, when I was a kid, used to see hundreds of them lined up outside. Fond memories when I see one..........OLDBEET

 

Kojack, I love your car but since you are in Cal.. I would expect to see at it a Lowrider show in the Bomb class. (do not mean disrespect as I love lowriders).. The Cal lowriders are usually stock with skirts, visors and (with some adding all the options possible)...

you should be proud of your ride, I know I would be...

 

I guess I am building a "period styled' custom . from the outside it could look as if it was built no later than say '54 ish . In my opinion thats when most of the customs started getting garish and overly done . I like more simple lines , elegant maybe . . . subtle , shit like that .
The interior is different in that it has parts from 1962 ( seats & console ) otherwise it is going to be a fully home built interior ( back seats floor tunnel etc ) . The motor which should never be seen on a custom , for the most part ) is also from the 60's , a 66 mustang 283 . It has period valve covers & a one snorkle air cleaner . It looks the part I think .
The only modern consessions I am making are the stereo / c.d. changer because I love music , and air shocks in the back , not to get the car lower , but to lift it up when i want to put more than myself and my wife in it . Otherwise I think it pretty much captures the feel of the era I am trying to maintain .
I love the shit the Bariss brothers were doing in the early 50's & late 40's , to me those cars were the epitome of how to make a mediocre car look graceful and evil all at the same time . Although I have one curb feeler on the passenger side ( bias ply white walls cost more now than they did in the 50's I'm sure , so i dont want to waste then on a curb . . . ) I have to agree about visors & bug deflectors & vent window breezies & fuzzy dice & tripple cap lake pipies , like RPW said " J.C. Whitney accesories " . . . those things are tacky on a custom .
Kojack your car looks more like a lowrider / bomb / cruiser than a custom . It is still nice regardless of what you / anyone else would call it .

 

I've always been into rods and performance more than customs, but to customize means to build or alter to owner taste or specifications. The whole idea behind custom cars was to make the car unique in a sea of sameness. Sometimes this meant taking things off, and other times it meant putting things on, and other times both.

It really isn't any different than building a rod the way you want it. You should be trying to satisfy yourself, not the masses. I wouldn't expect everyone to like everything about every car that's built to the owner's tastes. Just build what you want, enjoy what you like, and before commenting on other's tastes, consider what your reaction would be to comments about your ride. It may not meet your goal, but it meets the owner's, because he built it.

BTW, Kojack, I like your car.

 

I am building a semi period custom (notice the absence of the k) all traditionally styled. The only modern update the car will have is air bag suspension including a four-link rear. 52 Plymouth cranbrook molded and designed myself grill shell with stock floating grill, original running gear (unless I find a Desoto flathead 6) shaved, chopped, nosed/peaked hood, 50 ford dash, 51 Chevy rear wheel wells w/skirts, firestone biasplys, 57 Lincoln premier hubcaps, 50 ford taillights with the bodyline, flipped front bumper. I will update with a 12-volt generator and put a cd player and some music in it. Interior will be tuck and roll done by my grandfather who is my inspiration. He used to work with barris before he left Sacramento. If I had pics I'd post em sorry.

 

Kojack: Nice that we understands each other! First I did end my input with: "But on a lowrider, or on a midwest restyled car (and I like lowriders as well!) would a sunvisor and the other mentioned accessories be perfect". But I was afraid that you would get angry if I made that comment.
Now I know that you like that style. Great.

But I dont think that the fact that Im am from Sweden has got anything to with my view of customs (and I have the major parts of my realtives in the USA). We have a wide range of styles in customs here as well, from Californian style to midwest, eastern and some Swedish styles!
Its may be more about the place the Californian Custom have in heart...

 

Wheels has sent this pic. Westergard style? French to me, but a bad mofo.