When did spotlights show up on customs and why?

looking through some of my custom books the other day i thought of a question..when and why did spotlights show up on customs. granted they look great and a cool add on but was it functional or just aesthetic? any custom gurus have the answers?....

_T

 

because east coast customs needed another trinket to hang on their rides...

(ok I know i will get blasted for that one)...

 

Search your HAMB and you shall find:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33679&highlight=spotlights

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63092&highlight=spotlights

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26837&highlight=spotlights

I don't know the true origins of using spotlights, I've heard about 8 different stories. I do know that most of them look like *** on any car that isn't a squad...

 

Yeah, it seems kind of gimmicky to me to put them on a hot rod. But they are kind of fun to play with though. About 15 years ago, I bought a barely running old police interceptor for $200, and when I drove it home at night, I pulled up out in front of my house and started shining the Appleton light in through the windows of my house to announce my arrival. The police radios were yanked out out of it, but it still had a CB with a P.A. system. I turned it on and said "you, in the house, come out with your hands up... you are surrounded" in my best Tommy Chong voice. I got a good laugh out of it, but I don't think my neighbors dug it too much

 

Yea Barris was real east coast

 

Thanks for asking the question, I for one thing they are the dumbest thing you could put on a Custom, the wreck the flow of things.

 

not everything Barris built looked good, and some that did could have been cleaned up some (in my opinion).

 

I like em on some cars but who cares

 

I agree 100%, I brought Barris into it because you seemed to be claiming it just an east coast thing when it wasn't

 

phat,,, I was more or less making a joke about it being an east coast thing because so many on here think that east coast customs only built cars with lots of 'add-ons' (vs. the west coast customs that tried to remove stuff).

 

Maybe, but they are "Traditional", so you have to use them.................

 

Why they are there I could not tell you, but it makes an era Kustom.

 

As far as the why.....

Auxiliary lighting is a handy accessory today for anyone in a dark rural area. One might ***ume that 60 years ago the world was a much less electrified & illuminated place, thus making the spotlight handier than it is today.

 

it was really dark back then.

 

Ugh-

I dig 'em personally.
Look, two of the finest examples of kustom built in my mind were the Hirohata Merc and the Matranga Merc.
I don't care if it is traditional or not, the hiccup caused by those spotlights add to the look.

Also-I have read that the spotlight thing is tied to (are you ready yo this one)
Chris Craft speed boats.
Really...

Okay, start throwing the tomatos...................


NOW!

But I did read it..

 

GAWDAM! I need to use spellchck more often!

 

Yeah,I agree the Hirohata Merc and the Larry Ernst chevy are really ugly.

BB

 

Sarcasim is real hard to bring across on the internet

BB

 

interesting question indeed... i SERIOUSLY doubt that Barris had anything to do with starting that trend. i'm fairly certain they were being used before his time or at least when he was still a very young buck.
strange how just about EVERY custom in the late 40s and early 50s had them though. it was unusual to see a custom of that era without them. just start looking through any old publication or pics from that time. damn near all of them had them.

as for the speed boat thing: i did'nt remember till you said it but i had heard that explanation before. i realy would like to know the whole story though.

 

The 112 series Appleton spotlight that became popular on the very early customs (and later the 552 model in the early-mid 50's), was the top of the line, and was the accessory spotlight sold for Cadillacs, and other high end cars. Lower end "average guy" cars used the flatter Unity S5/S6 and Appleton 451, etc models, which were sold as their dealer accessories

Early customs were built with the idea of taking a cheaper car, and making it look sleeker, longer, and ***ier, to be more like a high end luxury cars. Sptlights were employed for the same reason that Cadillac sombrero's, Buick/cadillac skirts, and chromed garnish mouldings were used, they were borrowed items from the luxury cars the customs were taking styling cues from.

 

The east coast "bolt on custom" era came a bit after the original california custom era that was the golden era for real appletons. Appleton spotlights went out of production all together in about 1955. They couldnt compete with Unity, whos product was cheaper, but not close in quality or style.

 

I'm no custom guru, but I think back in the day, they were looked on as being more of an aesthetic thing...otherwise you would have never seen the rise in popularity of "dummy" spots. Why would peole buy something fake to add on to their car back in the day? Oh, wait. I forgot about the Hemi valvecovers thing. Nevermind.

 

i like dummy spots there more "love machine" cheech flavor

 

I remember during WW2 and there after you were nobody unless you had a 41 Chev club coupe with twin Appleton spot lites and 41 Buick fender skirts,with white walls and a split manifold and a necker knob also. They used to put white adhesive tape diaganol on the front doors to denote which member in your family was off to war. Also on little narrow country roads the spotlites came in handy. Used to drive down lovers lane and shine them in the cars. My brother put some red cellophane off tire boots on the spot lite and pulled cars over on highway 99, man did he ever get in trouble for that. Love them good old days.
Gary

 

Dummy spots showed up in the mid 50's. Appleton stopped making spotlights around that time (and Unity's were never really cool in the 50's), and wrap around windshields made mounting real spots very tricky.

It depends on the car. On a 58 chevy, dummy spots are traditionaly correct, love them or hate em. On a 41-48 ford, or a 49 merc, shoebox, 49-54 chevy etc, dummy spots look awful.

 

I didn't say that Barris was the originator. Only used his name as he is certainly a west coast name that even the newest newbe should know as such and he certainly used them

 

You guys want some great stories? Gary can give you plenty he was there at that time in the middle of all that fun and is a real pleasure to talk to.

 

Screw tradition... so are curb feelers but ugly is ugly! But spots (paticularly Appletons) look good on the right application