your opinion-who's the Greastest Kustom Car contributor?

[LiL' NiCk]

Of course Sam & George Barris are quintiessential. Larry Watson has made some great rides. I really love the artistic insight of Roth. I believe Dean Jefferies had killer flame/stripin-but would like to learn more about him & others.

The point of the post is #1) So I can have insight & inspiration & Knowlgde of different customizers

But #2) Is so that everyone here can study & discover the work of master Kustomizers, that the would otherwise not be recognized or even forgotten.

"let's see how many we can think of?"

[hatch]

Boid Coddingham... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MercMan1951]

What about the Alexander Bros.? (They were local - Detroit.)My dad used to go down to their shop and watch them roll the new cars out...funny, he's mechanically inept, but I guess I got the bug and the skills from his interests as a kid... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Unkl Ian]

When ever someone mentions George,I think of Dick Dean.

[Kustm52]

Valley Customs.....Neil Emory and Clayton Jensen .... if you've ever seen the "Custom Cars Annual 1954", the 56 page buildup of the "Polynesian" is awesome...these guys were artists.

I think I've got the names right...suffering from CRS tonight.

Brian

[LiL' NiCk]

Hatch ya suggested Boydd, Well I respect his work, I may not be a fan, but he does have cool ideas. (this may go OT- but when did "traditional" guys be replaced by Coddington types. BUT, is it neccessarily true that the Coddington types have nothing to other our culture? IF SO, where is/was the line drawn??????

[bluegrassboogie]

WESTERGARD http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[DrJ]

Don't forget the "raw materials" of customs handed to us by these and other greats of car design; Edsel Ford, Bob Gregorie, Harley Earl, Raymond Loewy, Alex Tremulis, Bill Mitchel, Virgil Exner, Elwood Engel, and many more.
Without them making the cars, Gregorie's '49 Mercs Mitchel's Fleetwood, Exner's Chryslers. Engel's T-birds.... We wouldn't have the base cars and cool "custom parts" that we borrow to redefine what they built in the first place.
Barris could never have put Cadillac grills in '46 Fords if Earl and Mitchel hadn't designed that Cadillac grill in the first place.

[LiL' NiCk]

Primer, Paint, fab, ect.ect. This is the exterior (which Is may interest, how bout interior) Like ahh, Ansen speed equipment. This not ford, or chevy, or O.E.M. So are engine people considered "Kustom car contributors??"

[LiL' NiCk]

DrJ you have a great point. As an artist I relate- Credit must be given to the designers who first created the products, but would they be considerted customizers for doing so???Harley Earl designed the y-job. I would say that this is some his custom work, because it was never produced and it lead to many other productiond concepts. (side note- I had a friend who rode in the y-job @ the eyes on design show in detriot-LUCKY!)

[DrJ]

[ QUOTE ]
DrJ you have a great point. As an artist I relate- Credit must be given to the designers who first created the products, but would they be considerted customizers for doing so???Harley Earl designed the y-job. I would say that this is some his custom work, because it was never produced and it lead to many other productiond concepts. (side note- I had a friend who rode in the y-job @ the eyes on design show in detriot-LUCKY!)

[/ QUOTE ]

You asked for "the Greastest Kustom Car contributor(s)"
I went with the emphasis on CONTRIBUTOR.
Without the designer who designed the Lancer hubcap or '59 Caddy tail light or the '56 Packard tail light, where would customizing have gone for it's parts?
As I typed that I thought of Frankenstein and his creation made up of "borrowed" parts from various sources..no wonder some of them look like "monsters"!
Actually, Harley Earl put together cars much the same way a customizer picks out and installs different lights and bumpers and hubcaps. He employed a crew of "designers" who drew parts of cars. one guy might just draw tail lights,different tail lights by the dozens 40 hours a week. Another guy drew grills, lotsa grills. then Harley looked through all the possible "parts" he had to work with and picked out which ones he wanted for the Pontiac and which ones would work best on the Olds, etc. Now that was high simplified and thee were "divisions" designing different lines but he would 'borrow" parts ideas from one divisionand put them on another divisions car.
That's the same process as customizing even if it doesn't qualify because it's at the primary source.
Take Earl's LeSabre, The center grill that opened exposing the lights became the smaller "bullets" on the bumper guard/grills of the '53-'56 Olds and the tail fin went on the '57 Caddy while the swoosh scoop on the 1/4 panel went on the '57 Buick.
Did you know that car is rolling on 13" wheels with huge tires?
(just the opposite of today!)
The small wheels visually make the car look bigger than it is.
It's about the same size as a Corvette.

And the ideas went back again from the customizers back to "Detroit". Customizers were opening wheel wells and sectioning and chopping and more important, pancaking roof lines and adding scoops. Detroit picked up on these profiles and built the lower profile cars like the '58-on Fords and the '59-on Chev's with their almost invisibly thin, flat roofs and low body lines. They took "customizing" and incorporated it into the new generation of cars right from the factory.
That's why and what caused customizing, drastically changing body lines, to wane and only "mild details were done on the '60's cars with, here's where Watson & paint style comes in, wild paint jobs on the relatively flat "canvasses" of cars bodies. They were "custom" right off the showroom floor.
I don't think customizing can be separated from new car design.
One is a reaction to the other and then the rolls switch and the other party who was the leader is then the one being the follower.
Today "we" do Traditinal" customizing in an anacronistic way because wat we do isn't to do "something new" like it was in the 40s-60s but to do the same old in a slightly different way. When "something new" gets thrown in, like using parts off the brand new cars of today's parts shelves they dont work like new parts(that were on;y a few years newer then the car being customized) of yesterday did. You would have to write a new vocabulary of what customizing is to do that which does exist, (The ricers and Lowriders) it's just that "we" aren't "doing" that part of the hobby.

[Dirk]

Gil and Al Ayala. Probably not the greatest but certainly underrated and one(2) of the greats. They did alot of the heavy work on some cars that the Barris brothers got the credit for.

Don't get me wrong, the Barris brothers had it, just not all of it.

[Kilroy]

Must be this time of year again...

Bertolucci, Westergard, Valley Customs, Ayalas, and Sam...

[hemi]

Who ever invented welding.

[johnny2slick]

1. Sam Barris and George Barris
2. John D'agostino and Acme Autobody
3. Neil Emory and Clayton Jensen
4. Gil Ayala
5. Harry Westergard
6. Richard Zocchi
7. The 'A' Brothers
8. Gene Winfield
9. Joe Bailon
10.Darryl Starbird
11.Bill Cushenberry
12.Bill Reasoner
13.Ramsey Mosher and Terry Cook
14.Bill Gaylord
15.Virgil Extner
16.Cadzilla
17.Carson top shop

.....I'm sure theres more, but those came to mind....and not neccessarily in that particular order.

[johnny2slick]

Geez, I can't believe I left out Larry Watson and Dick Dean.
sorry bout that. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[hemi]

and Bill Hines.
And most of the Autorama-type car designers working for the big three and then some.

[Germ]

""COCAINE, SHITTY WELDERS, CHEAP BEER, CIGARETTES, SLUTS, and old fashioned AMERICAN HELLFIRE"

that is the FORMULA that will create the best KUSTOMS

[Fat Hack]

I hereby submit a vote for Eddie Paul! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

(Think Stalone's Merc in "Cobra")

He's done lots of TV/Movie cars, in addition to customer's customs!

[candyman]

Don't forget Cole Foster... as well as germ dean... the lords of hellfire.... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[4t64rd]

We've listed everyone I've ever heard of and I bunch I haven't.

People with enough money for "open checkbook" cars, people without enough money and still had them built, only slower and people with no money who did it themselves. Oh, and insurance companies willing to sell "totaled" cars back to the owner. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif A lot of "traditional" customs were built from new cars back then.

[jdubbya]

I may get ridiculed for this, but Carl Casper had some cool stuff when he first started. His first car, "The Exotic Empress" was named after my grandmothers business in Flint, The Empress Beauty Salon.

[50Fraud]

Jimmy Summers (Westergard era guy) and the Cerny Brothers, George and Carl (Barris/Ayala competitors) deserve mention. Coachcraft did very interesting stuff, although they were more like coachbuilders than customizers. Among modern guys, Sam and Chip Foose, and Donn Lowe.

Barris (particularly Sam) and Valley Custom are the two shops that built most of the cars that qualify as milestones in customizing.

[Kilroy]

Yeah I forgot Bill Hines...

If for no other reason than his "Clone" of the Matranga is way better than the original. Beautifull...

[derelict]

Wilhelm out of San Jose.

[hemi]

What about the guys like Peterson who started the magazines to fan the flames, or even the Bell catalogue...giving parts and ideas to the masses. I thnik without the media, it would have been a much smaller movement.

[Nads]

#1 Frank DeRosa, followed closely by Boiled Codfishingham.

[LiL' NiCk]

The Cheaters Car Club of milwaukee, Modern masters in the way grasp the welder http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

-----

Are artists important? Thom Taylor, steve Stanford, Dave Bell, Foose, Our very own-Dan Collins, Brook Stevens-he designed the Weinermobile and other cool cars

[Detonator]

When you said Kustom car CONTRIBUTOR I thought you meant to the HAMB. That would no doubt be Sailor.

[prime mover]

the HAMB member docfranknstein is high on my list.

[jeff spence]

Rod Powell and Butch have done some really nice work

[jonnycola]

wow, back from the dead.

[50Fraud]

(Noting that six years have passed since this thread originally ran): among HAMBers, I think Rik Hoving is clearly the Keeper of the Flame.

[buzz bomb]

Must be this time of year again...

Bertolucci, Westergard, Valley Customs, Ayalas, and Sam...
Well said SAM, he was barris kustoms.

Buzz

[TUMBLEWEED GARAGE]

.
.
.
.
<<<<<<<<<<<< The guy that drives that

Jay Johnston

Larry watson

Carl Green

Sam Barris

Ayala bros.

Alex Gambino

The list goes on.. Couldn't choose just one if i had to.

[Slag Kustom]

WTF? A+A Auto Body, North Bergen N.J. under the stewartship od Tony Romano.....cmon!

[adjustablejohnsons]

Gene Winfield, partially due to his body of work, and partially due to his longevity in the business.

[BBobb]

My pops of coarse.he has always been my biggest inspiration

[Carguy1965]

Gene Winfield, of course. At 82, he still puts in 12 hour days. He is a pioneer of hot rodding and salt flats racing. He is still racing today at El Mirage and Bonneville. His artistic customizing ideas and innovative blended painting technique changed the face of custom cars forever. He is one of the nicest and friendliest individuals in the business and is glad to pass on his painting and metal working experience to others, all over the world.

[hotrod1940]

If I were to have a custom built, and could choose a builder, it would have been Bill Cushenbery. Having said that,the guy who designed the El Matador on a napkin for Bill would be in that dream. I think Don Varner was his name , but I can't remember. I always get him confused with someone else with a similar name.
For pure craftmanship, Bill Hines and Valley Custom.

[Rich Venza]

Dickie Korkes...Korkes Kustoms North Jersey

[Slim Pickens]

Hey you guys are the EXPERTS. Rikster keeps the flame going for all to learn from.

But for me its the GUYS from jersey on the HAMB.

CHOPMERC, chopolds, choppermatt, fatty mcguire, Fifty5C-Gas, Kustom7777, merc-o-madness, shfifty five, teddyp, thesupersized,

oh yeah one other guy, see photo...

[palosfv3]

If it were not for the likes of Dean Batchelor, Ralph Poole and the rest of those that told the story of the work of Barris , Valley Customs and all the others. How many of us would have known about them ?

They definately need to be recognized at the " Top of the List "

[Low Down Lincoln]

I think this forum is incomplete without a few guys from recent times like Oz Welch, Cole Foster and Brad Masterson.

[Carl E. Hagan Jr.]

My votes for Plowboy on here......Very up to date & Fresh too.......don't know the guy personally.......but the works incredible and I was very Very impressed with the Blue chevy truck I got to see up close.
Carl Hagan

[ugotpk]

Has to be Mattel Hot wheels!!

[Rust Junkie]

Jeff, bro, I'm right there with you. Rod Powell does some amazing work.
Biased opinion? mmmmaybe.

Better add Cole Foster the that list.

Rod Powell and Butch have done some really nice work

[chopper99]

Harry Westergard

[Groucho]

In no particular order

Alex Gambino
Plowboy (Aaron Grote is it?)
Javier Mejia/Carlos Wright
Roger/Marie O' Dell

[Shifty Shifterton]

If there ever was a doubt, in the 6 years since this thread started Gene Winfield has dominated due to how he not only continues to build, but spreads the kustom gospel thru his teachings.

A lot of legends have inspired. But teaching is on a higher level of value.

[Scratchbuilt]

ME, sure we have our influences but,
You forgot to mention yourselves, the guys holding the flame building cool stuff in ya own backyard on meager expence and loads of enthusiasm.

[stanlow69]

To get the Kustom movement rolling again would be George Lucas of American Graffiti that had the 58 Chevy and the Chopped Merc in the film. Then Jerry Titus who started the Merc Duce Reunion along with the Kustom Kemps of America. And last but not least--Rich and Penny of the West Coast Kustoms.

[felix37]

How about little John Buttera

[Besty34]

Anybody who has skinned a knuckle ,burnt a arm , sneezed bondo dust choked on paint fumes and grinned a grin only a man can who has built his own car .

[hdman6465]

All of the above have been instrumental in developing the looks that we love, but our own RIKSTER has done more to keep the movement alive than anyone currently alive and traveling in our circles.