1957 Customs of the Year

Motor Life Magazine, July 1957 contains a feature on what they considered the top 30 customs of the year. Some of these where classics we know like the Barris Kopper Kart, Sam Barris ’52 Ford convertible family car, the Rod & Custom Dream Truck and Bob Metz 1950 Buick ‘XM105’. Others were more obscure in styling, if not downright hideous… Money can’t buy you taste, folks. However I’ve snapped images of six cars in the 1957 Customs of the Year running that I’m not familiar with, and are pretty darn good looking (or at least interesting) from what I can see. The first one is a little doodlebug made out of salvage parts #6, followed by a very clean Thunderbird #7 with a nicely matched head and taillight style. Next up is a sectioned shoebox Ford Business coupe #19 and another T-Bird #24 but with a completely different style. The last two below are a custom Studebaker #29 that looks very 60s and slightly Italian, and finally another shoebox Ford #8 that has been chopped and hard-topped.

Please feel free to jump in and identify these cars if you recognize them.