Projects The Doublemint twins building some vertical grill customs

What man would'ent want a pair of 36 c's in his hands. No , not the soft cuddly ones but a pair of 36 ford coupes to chop and customize. These cars will become some early forties customs and are a tribute to Harry Westerguard, The man who started the custom movement.
If you have any pictures, of some vertical grill customs, please feel free to post them.

 

Without any wraparound on the grille, most looked like too much sheet metal in this area. Mur ray hid it well by keeping the headlights high. This one added large vents to break it up but high headlights would have helped.
Another couple examples

 

Here you go....
http://www.customcarchronicle.com/custom-history/custom-grilles-vertical/
Torchie

 

With a Pines Winterfront, you can change back and forth in seconds.

 

There were several grill picks for the 36 ford, my favorite is the 42 packard grill

 

In my opinion the 36 Ford grille is perfect as Ford designed it, probably the most beautiful of the 35-38 grilles.
I think that all of these different custom grille approaches do one thing, ruin the classic lines and good looks of the original 36 grille.

 

I agree. The '36 grille looks good. I understand that some customizers feel the need to change everything to get attention. But while most of the vertical grilles on 36's look different, they don't necessarily look better than what they replaced.

 

I agree, I have always said that there are customizers and then there are car designers. Customizers are not car designers and that is painfully obvious in a lot of cases.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the La Salle grille, or possibly even a later Nash upright looks good in a case like this but I personally thinkl they look a bit too narrow on the front of a Ford because it has to be pinched in with sheet metal. from the factory, the LaSalle hood and sides don't do that and it flows much better, IMHO.


If you have a short front end the grille, again, my opinion, needs to be a bit wider than the narrow LaS piece.


I know thesse aren't Ford coupes, but the idea is there.

 

Here is the one ....

 

Ok, Here is the first one we did, The car belongs to Brent Nightingale, we will get into the build later.

 

^^^^ Another fine example of how to ruin a 36. ^^^^
I stand by my statement that most customizers would flunk out big time in automotive design school.
The grille and the headlights along with the smaller lights thrown in there make it look ugly compared to the grace and beauty of the stock 36 grille and headlights.

A stock 36 grille and stock headlights lowered down a little give a 36 a timeless elegance that none of these customs can ever match.

 

Nice work Miguel!!

 

Those Packard grilles could be made to work visually if they were raised to the point that their horizontal shoulder was at the lower edge of the hood. The "nearly-horizontal" shoulder would need to be made truly horizontal, and the front end of the hood would need to be reshaped to match the grille. The illustrations above show an awkward "notch" left above the grille's shoulder.

 

Thanks Tex

 

A wonderful artical done by Rik Hoving , wish we could post some of the pictures

 

I tend to disagree, The vertical grills give the cars a more agresive look, there are plenty of threads with street rods or modern custom 36's . These were the first customs and thanks to their builders and their urge to make their cars different, we now enjoy the hobby of custom cars.Love them or hate them, the cars make you stop and look at them, which was their whole intention. There are many ways to execute the vertical grill , I myself don't like the headlights too sunken in, you tend to lose the beutiful lines of the 36 fenders. I feel we are on the right track, for me , the purpose of a thread is to motivate a conversation and opinion.

 

The vertical grill mods were doneon other cars too, please feel free to post them.

 

Since when does a custom have to look "Aggressive"? Put me in the "leave it alone group"!

 

Different strokes and all that. I guess I'm just not a custom car fan.
I will not stop and look as you suggest rather passing by without more than a casual glance at most customs as I think the vast majority of them are poorly conceived and butt ugly in some cases.
Now give me any mildly modified 36 with stock body and a nice stance and I'm all over that.

 

Ahhh Blue One, I think you might accidentally discover that this is the "traditional customs" section of the hamb. The idea behind and history of updating the standard grill on many 30s cars is completely explained in Rik Hoving's fantastic story link.
Personally I love the later LaSalle and Packard grills.

 

I also like the '39-'40 Lasalle grilles. I just don't think lowering the headlights adds anything but it is always done. I did not mean to encourage negativity, just to promote some talk.

 

I don't need to accidentally discover anything, I know which section this is and I only looked in because it pops up on the main board.
(And on top of that I love 36 Fords and find it really sad when people feel the need to change Fords best design)
I'm not a fan and I don't need any explanation that I won't agree with anyway.
"Updating" is a matter of opinion that I don't agree with.
Custom cars have never been my thing and that's not likely to change.
Just expressing an opinion that may not be popular with lovers of customs but that's ok with me.
As I said earlier each to their own.

 

I'm intrigued. Miguel's shop always turns out nice work. I'm watching this one

 

I'm somewhat with Blue One on this, and I am a custom guy more than a HOT ROD guy, but in my world 36 Fords should be HOT RODS not tail draggers.... California rake, bigs and littles, vintage mags or steelies.

 

More pictures

 

The Chop ! There are four kinds of chops that can be done on a car . The first one is a lakes chop, these were done on race cars that ran at the lakes , the chops are heavy and the main goal was to minimize air ristriction . The second is the street rod chop, these are whats found on most the threads on the Hamb. They are usually mild chops and are chopped the same amount in the front and rear of the roof. These are usually found on street rods and modern customs. The third one is the tradional custom chop, the rear of the roof is usually chopped an inch more than the front, this is done to keep the roof lines flowing . The problem with the street rod chop is that they useally have a flat boxy look and don't work well on customs. The forth one is the fuck up chop! guys will chop them more in front and give the roof a wedge shape or make them flat in back and they look like a skate board ramp. I guess Blue One would put us all in the last category. I my self find resto rods boring and I don't like street rods, but thats my taste and I respect everyone else's.
Thirty five years ago, me and my friends started building Traditional Hot Rods, and trust me, we wer'ent popular then. Some of us started building Tradional period correct customs. I find them more chalenging and also deserve their effort to keep the history of our great hobby alive. They are a tribute to all the guys that started customizing cars in the forties and fifties and hopefully will someday become popular too.