oh there was some ugly ones. Some already posted. Too bad the old 50s mags weren't in color, just the cover. Paint descriptions of car features were sometimes odd and probably made or broke a few customs.
I agree the spaced-out cars are the best. Any car with a bubble top is okay with me...or a separate bubble top so you don't have to listen to your kids...like The Homer.
Customs..you either get it, or you don't. They aren't intended to satisfy everyones taste, just the creator..and/or his client. Boring they're not. Take for example, say a Goodguys event..in one section nothing but Chevelles, Camaros, Tri Five Chevs, and the like, looking very similar to each other. Another section with Customs, and Traditional HotRods. I'm the guy walking right past the first section so I can get to what is unique/different, and therefor of interest..kind of like this site..hmm.
That silver 'Facel-Faced' '39 or '40 was actually a '36 5-window. Joe Wilhelm did it in his San Jose shop. (Wilhelm also did Cliff Inman's chopped Chrysler, in the same time era...I saw both of them under construction) Can't recall who Wilhelm's 'partner' was in the '36 Ford project...it was a joint venture, not a customer pay job.
....someone I know once put a picture of the Super Bell Coupe on a similar thread on a forum over here....he was soon 'corrected'....
Yep... And if we are including modern ones, this one. Some of the comments on the older ones are cheap shots, though. They were built in a time and a place that does not exist anymore ( '50s America ) And no matter what, cars like the Mark Mist, X-Sonic, and El Matador do not belong on a ugly car list...
who is the guy that was constantly chewing/smoking cigars, a well kown name that escapes me now, but he "customized" a little nissan altima or similar by putting a wind up key on it (ala vw) and called it done. seems like it was rod and custom who ran the story, maybe hotrod. they had nothing but praise for the dam thing.it was kind of that deal where the emporer wore no clothes, but everybody pretended not to notice. somebody here has to remember the article.
You mean Bill Hines? Little guy with long hair brushed straight back, about 4' high and 100 years old? Looks like his back is broke? Don't remember him messing with an Altima. I know Roth was one of the magazine icons until he got into motorcycles, trikes, and cars with tiny motors. Then you would have thought he just stepped off a flying saucer. They liked way out cars but not that way out.
Rod & Custom could get wide at times. They used to feature some weird stuff. One I will never forget had a big picture of Dan (Hoss Cartwright) Blocker, all 280 lbs of him, dressed in his cowboy rig out and ten gallon hat, riding a minibike. On the cover of a hot rod magazine. Never did figure out if that was a gag or what and they never explained what the hell they were doing. You either dug it or you didn't. Usually I dug it but I know not everyone did, that's why they went out of business. Since they got revived in 1988 they have been a lot more "conventional" but still show a little kick once in a while.
Thats funny as I was reading this by page I was thinking Golden Sahara ! I respect the hard work that went in to it but damn its fugly
Ugly, just about every custom out there. Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder to be sure, but it is obvious that some "customizers" would never make it as auto designers.
I find I have to agree with Rusty this time They did some dumb ****. I left reading the mag after they put a four page layout on a el camino that Harry B Bradley did one half white and the other black. total sale out !
Oh God, jeez, WHY do I keep coming back to this thread. Kinda like watching two hairy dwarfs hump, you really want to look away, and you know you should...
Harry Bradley was hard to figure. He did some beautiful designs, his La Jolla 51 Chev that he did while in his teens, was one of the all time greats with some really creative ideas. Then he would do some weird **** like the El Camino, or some hump backed Japanese 4 door sedan with a giant tail fin. I KNOW he is smarter and more creative than me. But are his designs beyond my pea brain to understand, or is he bat **** crazy?
Damn! This is a flaming thread, 9 pages in 2 days. Lots of opinions on both sides of the asile. But true beauty in any design, whether it's the Acropolis ora Barris custom, has to be timeless; "withstands the test of time". Just because some of these cars were done by a builder with reputation and historical because they were done "back in the day" doesn't make them good.... or better looking than a Lexus sport coupe. Some of these atrocities were nothing but "Jet Age" fashion trends with fins and scoops to excess.... in spite of the admirable workmanship.
To me they look like they should be cruising the ocean floor scooping up plankton and small crustaceans. Not to be insulting, some may like that look, beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that.
Thanks, Rik. I like that version also but when I was a kid and saw that car on a turn table with the lights just right the paint looked translucant and the green just glowed like neon. Great work I think but thats just me and I am an old phuck that just don't know any better.
Ganahl covered this in the 90's R&C.. car should not be here. As you say man, it blows everything else away. Deserves it's own thread. The thing cost the price of ten Caddy's or sumpin'.. And makes the '59 Cad look lame.
Well the DiDia has come up twice. I saw the car in person at Meadowbrook. It certainly has many things out of place, or simply too much of them. The fins for sure. Like a major effort to trump the 59 Caddy. The bubble top is freakin huge. Again, too much of a good thing. The good? Look on top of the front fenders, the doors, the quarters. There's a "shelf" in the design supported by little chrome stanchions, and it wraps around the car. The front bumper by itself is awesome. perfect "jet age" design of the era. A bit too far out considering the m***ive vacancy from the face to the grille. Ugly? Almost, but more like "out there". Clearly built to shock and awe whomever looked at it in person. I can see taking inspiration from this car and restraining it some. Not copy it, just let it inspire with each individual feature and use your own creativity to see what you'd come up with. It was exciting and kool as hell to see the original builder/designer riding in this period creation. It didn't remove the excess, but it demanded some respect and admiration. Would I roll it? Probably not. I'd actually be worried about some ***** driving into it or causing a wreck just by it's presence! As a whole, it's not for me. As for ugly kustoms, it's a pretty damn wild one, but I wouldn't label it as completely ugly
I saw the Buick pictured above and took many photos of it when it was at a nice show in Bloomington, IL back in 2008. It's original owner/builder was there with it, as Bloomington was it's hometown. It was probably one of my favorite customs as far as wild ones go. It was featured in the magazines a few times up thru the mid 60's. It was also at the big Auburn, IN Labord Day auction a couple years ago as well. The Parisienne has been replicated, and very nicely I might add, and was also at the same show in IL in '08. It was a beautiful sight, as it was just a little cleaner and refined than the original. I may have to post pics later.
The Jalopy Journal
