The Buster Litton '49 Ford

[bufordtjustice]

One of the most beautiful customs of all time IMO

[kiwiandy]

This might have been covered somewhere, but I cant find it.... where is the Buster Litton Coupe now? Has it survived?

Thanks

Andy

[hudsoncustom]

The Anderson / Buster Litton Ford has always, to me, defined a tastefully done, and skillfully executed car.

To think that it was done in pieces, by different guys, who took what the former customizers had done, and tastefully built on that platform, is really cool.

I absolutely love this car, and it inspired (together with the Welch Merc) the front end treatment on my Hudson...

The only point of contention in my mind was the interior. The exterior is SO clean, SO smooth, and flows SO well, that the interior being so wild seems a bit out of place....although on the other hand, it certainly is appropriate and a great example of a period custom interior. I guess when the outside is so clean and simple, you can get a little crazy on the inside.

[STEPHEN FIELDS]

Originally Posted by kiwiandy

This might have been covered somewhere, but I cant find it.... where is the Buster Litton Coupe now? Has it survived?

Thanks

Andy

I was wondering that too, is the car still around?

[JeffSled]

Great thread , I really dig this car and I always have.These pictures of it at the boatraces are just great,love seeing it parked next to all the other cars.

Looks like Gil Ayala started something pretty big when he started using California Metal Shaping for roofs.

killer thread,nice to see it on the Hamb..

[kiwiandy]

also of interest is the side glass. After removal of the B pillar did it ever have glass installed? Were the coupe doors cut or were they replaced with convertable doors? If this was the case the door glass wouldnt be difficult but wind down rear glass would make some work. Are there any pics showing it with glass?
Cheers.
Andy

[daddio211]

I think the rear glass would be easy to roll up and connect to the door glass given the build period. I'm thinking tri-five Chevy (and all other GM's) hardtop for mechanisms. Up and forward on an arc.

[KustomCars]

One of my favorite 49 fords.. Great writing Ryan!

[rob-redm]

Weez , love your car also ! ... Seeing the Crestliner wheel in Litton's car made me hunt for one for the 49 I had....still have the steering wheel . a buddy has that ride now.

[lkydevil310]

Originally Posted by weez

Cool to be included in such rare company!

Hey, I've always been stumped by the Litton car's roof- it's right on the money, but how'd they do it? The side rails of the roof don't match up to a Ford roof curve, did they use Chevy pieces on the sides? (Yes, I've cut up photos of a '50 and tried to figure out the Litton chop, I'm a pretty trainspotty about this stuff!)

No one's done a roof like that till Andreas' car-

I think maybe Andreas' car has fabbed-up roof sides, that's what I was told by someone (Wolf maybe?) when I was drooling over it in Sweden-

has everyone forgot about Bill Hines Shoebox........

[Spoggie]

I could possibly go for some Matranga-type side glass channel details & a double- dip front bumper treatment ( e.g 54- 55 Chev/ Ford etc.) on this concept.

Longtime admirer of the featured autos, and yes, well scribed Ryan.

[50Fraud]

Maybe ten years ago on the HAMB I started a thread that was a poll about people's all-time favorite customs. Sadly, that thread is no longer in the archive. I can't recall now whether I asked people to nominate cars or I chose them and had it multiple choice.

To my great surprise, the #1 car was Litton's and #2 was the Matranga Merc. Surprise, I say, because I agree with those results, but I expected more flamboyant cars like Hirohata's to come out on top.

I'm glad to see that this beautiful car is still highly regarded by a lot of folks on here.

[EXK]

Originally Posted by weez

Cool to be included in such rare company!

Hey, I've always been stumped by the Litton car's roof- it's right on the money, but how'd they do it? The side rails of the roof don't match up to a Ford roof curve, did they use Chevy pieces on the sides? (Yes, I've cut up photos of a '50 and tried to figure out the Litton chop, I'm a pretty trainspotty about this stuff!)

No one's done a roof like that till Andreas' car-

I think maybe Andreas' car has fabbed-up roof sides, that's what I was told by someone (Wolf maybe?) when I was drooling over it in Sweden-

We have been fabbing the rear roof area on our cuts for a few years, here's 2. The gold/green one was done in the early 90's and the black one about 4 or 5 years ago

[Barn-core]

I've always loved this custom, but was unaware of that wild dash. Any more pics of that floating around?

[weez]

Originally Posted by EXK

We have been fabbing the rear roof area on our cuts for a few years, here's 2. The gold/green one was done in the early 90's and the black one about 4 or 5 years ago

Not sure what to call it, but what I meant was the side window opening top edge curved pieces, with all the overlapping formed structure (like the pillars, but above) not the sheet metal. On a sedan there's a much more relaxed curve to work with, coupes have a tight curve that is hard to change without a prohibitive amount of cuts through a bunch of structure.

[weez]

Originally Posted by lkydevil310

has everyone forgot about Bill Hines Shoebox........

That is a nice roof, was this car ever finished?

[Stefan T]

about Andreas shoebox have i pics take from the inside of his roof







/Stefan

[Swedeshoebox]

Great story Ryan...
and im glad to be in the company!

About my car,from the beginning the plan was not to build a copy of the Panoramic Ford, ofcourse i loved the Panoramic and the flow it has but it was the roof that got me and i did my best to copy the roof, I started to chop my shoebox and it looked ok to me but i could see that i needed some critical eyes to watch and tell me what to change and i asked the most talented pepole i know Ulf (WOLF) Cristianson and Janne Kutja! and they where kind to tell me what they like to change on the roof and they even introduce me to Rik Hoving who helped me with some photoshop......we (Rik, Janne, Wolf and me) didn´t discuss inches it was the flow we searced for!
and i think it turned out quite good.....the windshield is leaned back not mutch but enough, the rearwindow was not an easy thing to get in position!!
on shoboxes the rearwindow often sits to high (my opinion) and to get it where i wanted took alot of work and time.

the roof on my car is not a copy from Busters car, the hight is about the same but there is some things we decided to change,

The front and rear on Busters car is hard pices to find so when i had the chop done i started to search for the parts i needed to build a near clone of busters old car, i found the parts i needed and the build could go on.
Again (me Wolf,Janne and Rik) discussed the pices on the puzzle and it was alot of measuring on the car and on pictures to get a clue about where to cut and where to not cut

in 2009 it was ready for the road and untill this spring i have not done anything to the car because of a housebuild and a kid but i have plans

The best critic i got is from Buster Litton, he wrote me that he thought it was his old car untill he read about it

Last weekend
Hosted on Fotki

[Swedeshoebox]

Originally Posted by weez

Cool! Thanks- How do you suppose Sam did the original?

That question has keept me awake some nights
Weez i love your car, are you coming back to Sweden?

Originally Posted by kiwiandy

also of interest is the side glass. After removal of the B pillar did it ever have glass installed? Were the coupe doors cut or were they replaced with convertable doors? If this was the case the door glass wouldnt be difficult but wind down rear glass would make some work. Are there any pics showing it with glass?
Cheers.
Andy

Buster had some slide in quarter-glass but there was some change in the trim around the quarterglass between 53-54
and the doors seems to have been coupe if you look at the went-window you will se

Originally Posted by Barn-core

I've always loved this custom, but was unaware of that wild dash. Any more pics of that floating around?

i got a pic of the dash from Buster but i promise not to show it so sorry!
I like the 53 version better without the wild dash and with the white crestlinerwheel

Originally Posted by hudsoncustom

The Anderson / Buster Litton Ford has always, to me, defined a tastefully done, and skillfully executed car.

To think that it was done in pieces, by different guys, who took what the former customizers had done, and tastefully built on that platform, is really cool.

I absolutely love this car, and it inspired (together with the Welch Merc) the front end treatment on my Hudson...

The only point of contention in my mind was the interior. The exterior is SO clean, SO smooth, and flows SO well, that the interior being so wild seems a bit out of place....although on the other hand, it certainly is appropriate and a great example of a period custom interior. I guess when the outside is so clean and simple, you can get a little crazy on the inside.

i think the bodywork was done 51-early53 and the interior late 53?
thats why the bodywork is soo smooth and the interior is so wild?? just my thought

[carlos]

Originally Posted by lkydevil310

has everyone forgot about Bill Hines Shoebox........

Really dont want to take anything away from this post,but I am a Major shoebox lover.Love the roof,how can a person in good mind Take a shoe and hang a studebaker front on it.Iknow customs some times go over the top trying to take a good thing and make it better not worse.49-50 ford tail lights look so good as they are dont f--k with them you cant improve them much mabe french em,I do like 56 olds headlite rings on em.I m sorry not my favorite like the hines ford much better