TRADITIONAL colors for TRADITIONAL kustoms???

[ all along i've been thinking some shade of blue for some reason (prolly cause it's originaly blue)
Therhttp://www.salinasboys.com/project_54_chevy.htmles Coles 54 in a nice blue. Heres the link

 

ELEGANT! thats another good word. prolly better even than "classy". but you get the idea.

 

kustombuilder,
Here's a picture of a late '40's-early '50's street custom I build. It was jet black with white tuck & roll, the rolls were the traditional 1" wide type. Your ride would look good with traditional maroon and white interior or black and white. Painted all maroon go with a maroon and white interior. Painted black & maroon go with either the black and white or the maroon and white. This style would make your ride very traditional.
1. Paint color - The most traditional colors were various shades of dark maroon, midnight blue and black. Your ride would look good all maroon or the black and maroon you mentioned. Candies and pearls didn't come into popularity tell the middle '50's and would be wrong for a very traditional late '40's early '50's street custom.
2. Hub caps - the most traditional caps for the time would be the Hollywood single flipper bar type or the Buick center caps with the flipper bar and beauity rim.
** Don't pin stripe your early custom** The Von Ducth style of stripping didn't come into play tell the mid '50's.
3. Don't forget the WWW, Appletons (real ones) you already have the cool skirts.

Good luck with finishing your early custom.

"Drive a cool short" - '50's term for a cool ride...........

Cruiser 49

 

Yep. Back to your origianl question the deep green color that Sam Barris used on his 49 Merc would be a nice traditional custom color. I think no matter what you choose it needs to be dark and rich.

 

Ok not sure if your still on the question but I think either that dark metallic forest green would be cool or Cadillac made a color called Cadillac plum. From a distance it looked black, got closer it looked brown, got right on it and it was a DARK metallic purple or maroon. Very sweet color. Black is nice too but then again you want it to stand out. Don't get me wrong, I love black and sure it stands out but.... I don't know.

 

Subtle colors were the key to early customs, because they emulated the conservative look of luxury cars of the late forties. Packards and Caddies of the late forties were using metallics but they were toned down compared to modern colors.

The luxury makes of the thirties used colors that were were much bolder by comparison. Part of the allure of the taildragger era was the very anonymous look the cars projected.

Much of the impact of late forties and early fifties color came from the type of paint used - nitrocellulose lacquer. It could be buffed to a "mile-deep" shine that just looks different from the color effects of paint today.

 

i'm realy trying to AVOID using Spotlights. real or not. my 50 Chevy had them and they were alright but they have just been SO overdone that i'm real reluctant to use them and i'm not sure how much i realy like them anymore.

the mile deep paint is a given. just not sure on the color. it WON'T be maroon though. i like it and all but i'm just not a maroon kinda guy.

as for the caps i have a set of Olds caps i was planning to use. i had concidered adding a small bullet over the factory "nipple" in the middle of the cap but i'm not so sure anymore about the bullet with the pre 55 theme.

 

I agree on the whole spot light deal as well... Save that money to use on something else.

 

Chrome headliner strips would look good, or say a white headliner with blue (or whatever body color you choose) piping.

 

Please, you REALLY need them to get there.... But you need REAL ones and you need the RIGHT ones. And get them in the exact proper position! Don't fall out and not use them. Look at this pic... Who's not using them? It was THE thing for California Kustoms of this era. There were of course cars that didn't use them, but... pleeeeze?

 

I agree with J.B. if you go for the traditional custom car look from the late 40's early 50's you got to have a set of Appletons.. S-112's or S-552's. Those where as much standard as where the organic colors mentioned in this great post.

Here is the color version of that parking lot photo. As used in TRJ #33 and now available in 8x10 photo's from my new website.

 

As Rik and JB have said, go for the Appletons. Dummy spots have become really cliche and obnoxiouse, but real Appleton 112's or 552's (and not some Unity or appleton 451 or other spotlight) are far from the norm these days. I probably see 4 or 5 cars a year total at car shows with the real deal, and thousands with dummies. But then again, Im addicted to appleton spotlights, maybe because they are so sexy!

 

If You Want A Early Custom Look .look At Mostly Dark Colors That Were Found On Big Cars Like Caddy,s Blacks, Dark ,reds Greens ,blues, Thats Also Why The Had Spot Lights [appletons]the Seem To Try To Make Small Cars Look Bigger

 

Thank you!
I never understood why a guy spent soooo much time with body mods, shaving chrome off and making their ride look sleeker/smoother, only to BOTCH IT with a pair of UGLY ASS spotlights...traditional or not...I can't stand 'em.

 

Thank you!!! Those big chrome protustions absolutley destroy the lines of what are often gorgeous cars. In my mind, the beauty of a great custom of the 40's and early 50's is the PURITY OF THE LINE!!! The car should have a pure line when seen from any angle. A pair of chrome warts ruins the line.

AHHHH!! Spotlights!!! I hate them and will only put a spotlight on a truck and it'll damn well be a real one too!!

OK, Mike - calm down and step AWAY from the espresso.

 

Is that ONLY espresso you're on?

 

MY GOD!!! i guess. what was the big facination with spot lights??? was it realy dark in the 50s???

 

SOOOOO what is the difference between the different spotlights??? got any pics???

 

Used to use a color they called "Monster Purple" a good bit. I've seen it on some late '30s and early '40s Fords and it looked pretty good, it was a kind of a deep color somewhere between midnight blue and lavender. There used to be a '41 ford in the neighborhood when I was a kid that was built in '54 the guy always told me it was my Birthday Jalopy that was that color. Sweet as can be.
Somewhere in my stuff I still got the formula to mix it, I might paint one that color someday.

 

Here are pages from Riksters site.
http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/great_custom_idears/appleton_-_lorainne/traditional_custom/

You can see a lot of other spots, that would no be period correct on a custom here:
http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/great_custom_idears/appleton_-_lorainne/ (people will put anything on cars today, but back in the 50's, you wanted teardrop appletons, NOT police car spotlights!)

Either Appleton 112 or 552 are the ones you want. Expect to pay significantly more for them than your average "flat" unity or appleton 451/550 style spotlight (but there were tons of brands out there). Despite the 112 being the "gotta have" spotlight today, the truth is, it was a preware manufactured model, being made untill about 1942. You do see them on some original EARLY 50's built cars (such as the Calori 36, and the Lopez 41 fords), but the actual spotlight that was sold in the early 50's to all of the custom guys (usualy through Kustoms of America, which was started by Barris) was the 552, which was the sealed beam revision of the 112 (which was bulb and reflector). The 112 came in both rounded, and pointed end buckets (the difference is pretty small when viewed from a distance), and the 552 came in the blunt ended version, and is the exact same shape as the older 112 bucket. The handles of the 552 were different (one way to prove that the majority of the early 50's cars DID have 552's) and the windshield post mount is slightly shorter than the one supplied with a 112.

When I get home tonight, I'll take some pics of the 2 different light housing shapes next to each other. I dont know which I really refer. I have put a pair of blunet ends on the car and it looks nice, but right now I have a pointed pair on, and they also look great. Being that most cars from the early 50's period had 552's, the blunter end is probably more period correct.

 

No, there's 43 years worth of anger, bitterness, nostalgia, hamburgers, pensive observation, introspection, rust in the eye, bugs in the teeth, hot rod magazines, and of course experience in there too. Espresso and beer are great catalysts though.

 

Back to the color.
If you're thinking a dark non-metallic blue I have always thought 82 Chev PU had a really neat color. It has a very traditional look to it. Would look great on a mild custom in my opinion..

 

kustombulder,

If you go without real Appleton's and the later Olds hubcaps, think about changing your theme to a mid fifties theme. By doing this the things you like will work much better for your ride. Without Appleton's (very sexy) a dark rich and deep color and a ass dragging rear end it won't be a early traditional custom. Good luck on custom.

"Drive a cool short" '50's term for a cool ride

Stay cool

Cruiser 49

 

Flat mauve, My 57Ford is done in it and it looks killer! well it is chopped 4 1/2 and lowered 4 at the rear with finder skirts. good luck in finding a color,
I changed my mind every 2 weeks. but its done now.......

 

Um, contrary to what some trends may portray, flat colors are NOT traditional early 50's (or any 50's era for that matter).

 

Here is a pic of both versions of the Appleton 112. A series 552 will have the exact same shape as the blunt end 112 on the left, but will have a sealed beam lamp.

 

how many of those thing you got Chad???? if somebody gave me a SMOKIN deal on a pair that would prolly make the decision to run them or not a little easier .

i think i like the pointier ones a little better. not sure though.

 

I have one pair of pointed, and one pair of blunt, and then one extra pointed, but its missing the inner reflector and glass lense. I dont want to sell any, as one pair goes on my car, which is in the interior shop, and I wanna keep the other pair for my next project, whatever/whenever it is.

I think I prefer the pointier as well.

The trick is to find ones with really good chrome, as it costs less to find a really nice original, then have a core replated, and plus, many have dings that need to be worked out. The biggest issue with replating is that the lettering always gets filled in some from the copper plating, and the once crisp stamping becomes very crude looking. I think they were either stamped after they were chromed, or there was only a very light layer of copper used in the original plating process. A near mint, pointed 112 with excellant chrome, probably NOS (but no box) went for $400 on ebay a few weeks ago. A driver quality can go for $150-300. For some reason people think that the 552's arnt the "corrent" model to have, which is TOTALY the opposite to the actual history, and you can find a pair of 552's for $250-400 in driver quality. The Hirohata Merc, Sam Barris Merc, Herb Ogden 41 buick etc all had 552's when those cars were original built.

The other thing is, Appleton sold unmarked versions of the 112. The handle says appleton, and the spotlight body is exactly the same in every aspect as a 112 model, but there is no stamping on the body. These go for a fair ammount less than a marked one, but look just as good. There is also the series 90, which is sometimes unmarked, but the glass retainer ring on the light body attaches with one set screw, and not a nut and bolt clamp.

Keep an eye out on ebay, a set of 552's will come up. Interestingly, a NOS pair of 552's went for $4300, but that was some freak situation. Another pair that was NOS with a Kustoms of America tag went for $1000, but that tag and the one box it had adds a ton of value. a VERY nice driver (more than useable chrome) set went for $500 a few months back, and I missed a very nice pair that went for $255 about 5 months ago, so they are out there.

If you do wind up with 112's, or unmarked with the bulb/reflector, and older handle style, a friend of mine is currently making the molds to start recasting them, as the old plastic handles are almost always cracked and/or warped. He's going to cast them in the stock tan color, as well as custom colors to mactch interiors, including pearl white.

 

HOW MUCH??? ... i SERIOULSY doubt i'll be running those on my car.

 

I see that the post is turning over from traditional colors to traditional
accessories... This actually should require a brand new thread...

Since the correct spotlights is so obvious for the style, I truly hope you will
use them.

I have Lorraine (by Appleton) series 37 on my Merc. Since Lorraine also is
manufactured by Appleton, do you have the story on these, Chad? These
have the more pointed (earlier?) style, which I prefer for a pre-'51 style
kustom.

Here's Gene caught in action, trying to steal them...