Kevin's Coupe... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=277524 One of my favorite Projects on the HAMB, right now.
Krafts car was pretty killer. I dig it, but I tend to lean on the fence of that fine line. Just depends on the whole car, put together, added up if you will. Such as the green tiny thing with the bamboo roof rack. In my head it is over the line, but you could change very few things and have it be on the line, such as the roof rack and the front tires/suspension being six feet in front of the car.
There are exceptions..... Today I drove by a custom shop and as I glanced over, saw a "double bubble" top car sitting there, looked close to being ready for paint....couldn't tell exactly what kind of car it "was"....but saw some canted fins and two bubbles, side by side...
Find a nice, gennie deuce and say you're gonna rip the fenders off, channel and chop it....and everyone get's their panties in a wad....for ruining a good car. Same could be said of putting quad lights or cutting up the fins on a '57 Belair..... Just look in the old magazines and compare the old customs to what is being built today and featured in "trad" mags.....there are exceptions, sure....but for the most part, traditional "wild" customs are few and far between. BTW Alex......your roadster rules....
Some of those old custums were a bit gawdy(sp) for my taste. It's reminiscent of some east coast stuff that resulted from the long winters. Guys would just keep adding shit on top of shit sometimes to the point of oh too much
Yeah, thats true. But werent they always, though? I'd never seen any pics of this 3W before, and besides this one I can only think of a couple more. The Don Williams Coupe, the Yakel Coupe, and a couple of others... Edit. Thanks, man..
I wonder what the Ratio's are between the cars that get started, and acctually get finished. And if those Ratio's are any different now than what they were in the '50s...
F'ugly--- That's about the best I can say about this one. I think somebody else could have taken this concept a lot further and, maybe, made something of it. I think they were trying to recall the "flowing" designs like the French Delahayes but totally missed the mark. Has all the earmarks of design-by-committee. It's too short, too narrow, the bubbles too big... I think Ryan's take on these is about the same as mine. I may only slightly disagree on the Aztec only because I did a drawing of it and enjoyed all the overt but thoughtful work that went into the craftsmanship. Overdone? Maybe but, other than the roof, it kinda works for me.
Yeah....I'd bet the ratios are close to the same.....hahaha... There is another red 3W.....channelled, steelies with caps, blackwalls....there's a pic or two in the R&C book, as well as one in the *I think* Dry Lakes and Drag Racing book, I'll have to dig it out the owner's name. A few crude details on it, like the cuts made out of the hood sides for the pitman, but still, a really neat car.
I'm with you on almost all of them. I do like the headlights and the grille on the 50 Chevy in the 2nd picture. The 3 window is pretty cool and that "T" is just awsome!
i think you guys might be missing my point. i used "The Beatnik" as an example of a car that was formed around / out of one that was rusted and rotten. regardless if you like it or not... "Chopit" took something near worthless (a rusted out 55 ford) and created something (arguably, it seems) worthwhile. this car, (which i suspect will bring up similar nausea in you detractors) was built from a 53 lincoln capri hardtop, that (if memory serves) was run up under a semi and wrecked. out of this worthless wrecked car was born Barris' golden sahara. specifically in response to a comment about why cars aren't cut up today, my take is that they probably weren't "cut up" as often back then either. i believe that a lot of the creative customs didn't start out as stock examples of their automotive foundation. i think they were (a lot of the time) born out of damaged rolling stock, or even evolved into "radical" customs over a number of renditions. i'm not calling anybody out, just trying to expound upon and therefore clarify my original point.
I see your point, but if you look at the pics and read many of the captions in the old 50's magazine's, ALOT of cars were only a year or two old, and many NEW cars were taken straight to the customizer, whether that was Barris, Alexander Bros., Ayalas, etc..... I bet there are more NEW cars cut up today for customs/tuners/trucks, than NEW cars back in the 50's... The thing is today, that a 50's car is now 50 years old, and guy's "seem" more hesitant to cut one up....
also very true, and for that matter (especially when you mention the A bros) some even commissioned by detroit.
I'm a little out of my league as far as Customs go, so I'll stick to the Low Coupes. Some more pics...
Yea, that is really cool. So that was a competition car? I'm assuming from the lack of a radiator. I've got to believe more cars made it to the road back then than nowadays. I think we are now overly obsessed on the level of craftsmanship. I see so many builders with their cars stuck in garages because they are just overbuilding each part, worried that it just isn't perfect enough. I believe we have loss some of that creative and rule breaking drive that existed back then. When that is gone, then the natural thing to do is evaluate a car by looking for "mistakes". The less mistakes the better.(minor crack here, wire showing there, etc.) Almost like a restorer's mentality.
When I took art classes, I had an instructor say something that can be seen in the pics of not only these cars, but on some cars done today. "For an artist, one of the most important things to do, is learn when to realise a piece is done." Overkill and doing things just because you can, has killed the looks and appeal of many a car. As hard as it is to think, sometimes, they really are done. Just my take on the subject.
I agree with JeffreyJames. I think that the race to "outdo" each other in the show/custom scene at this time spoiled the whole clean, simple, flowing improvements to factory lines that customs started out to be. Customs have always been a statement, but to me they went from a kool one to a gaudy one.
Figuring the lead times on the publishing schedule, the '57 Bird and '56 Merc were practically brand new cars. Larry Watson's panel paint job was on a brand new square bird. Ford and model maker AMT had the Ford Caravan of Custom Cars built by Barris, Valley, etc. I'd like to see more brand new cars given a custom make over in the same tradition (I got that word in there) that Watson, Barris, Valley, Dean etc did in the fifties and sixties. It begs the definition of being traditional vs. traditional. The operative word here is "being".
At least the roof rack is in character. Looks like something out of a dealer accessory catalog from the 50s. That trunk really wasn't very big to begin with. If you think the reduced trunk space is the only explanation for a roof rack, you MUST be a confirmed bachelor
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