I've loved the discussions so far on fender skirts and vehicle stance this past week. Yes, there are a few universal truths to customizing, but it a... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Once you get past 1948, the early '60s bullet birds are about the only door handles that definitely don't need shaving. I'm a very long way from getting my shoebox on the road, but if/when I do the only identifier on the car will be the Edsel script on the dash. That should confuse a few people
Ha you know I agree with that My buddies 62. We made 2 exceptions, the door handles were left...because the bullet bird handles are incorporated into the trim which is a beautiful design. We also chose to leave the hood and trunk emblems, which we decided to do because 99.9% people think of a baby bird when they think of thunderbirds, we wanted people to know this was a t-bird and help them remember the other body styles (plus they matched the colour scheme)
Taking the car that is pictured, IMHO, the following need addressed: The grille area is too far forward, and looks like an over bite. Grille should not be farther forward than the hood edge. Plus the insert is too busy. Side trim looks like a booger emanating from a scoop nose. Trim OR scoops is a fair rule for side trim. Lakes pipes AND rocker trim makes the car look like it's on a chrome pallet, destroying the lower lines. The skirts look good, save that the leading edge should echo some line already on the car. Straight up or leaning forward would work better. Yup, an opinionated bastard is what I are, today. Cosmo
If the gold cars skirts could be molded into the body lines smoothly I think that would be ideal. I agree the grills too busy for that car and the lakes pipes I think would be way cooler hidden with ports for the exhaust tips coming out the rocker behind the doors. The tbird although I would have never chosen that color, I wouldn't change a thing if it were mine. Meaning my fiance would steal it most of the time.
There's not much uglier than a 50's car that has been completely shaved of moldings and chrome. I've heard it described as "trying to make nothing from something". Seems to happen a lot anyway, usually by the one-upper guys. "If shaving the emblems looks good, I'll shave EVERYTHING! Extreme!" On my girlfriend's '51 Chev, we tried to only shave things that didn't follow the body lines. The window surround trim stayed, the hood center strip got filled where the old hood ornament was, hood and trunk emblems got shaved, side trim got swapped for Buick pieces. The little tail light "tusks" got saved since they followed the fender shape so nicely. That was the criteria. She did keep the door handles and added an Olds hood ornament though. I think the overall effect is going to be real nice, gotta have a few points of interest.
never been a fan of frenched or tunneled radio antennas. customs should be smooth, not have giant tunneled holes in the car for an antenna. I put tunneled antennas right up there with music notes and "lost in the 50's" painted somewhere in the car, and don't forget the fuzzy dice.
I am in agreement with you guys for sure! Also, louvers should be mandatory on early ford hoods! What do you guys think of the overuse of louvers? Usually, in my opinion, louvers where there is no purpose or placed where they can become problamatic, results in clutter.
While it wasn't an issue 'back in the day', it is now.... the cost of restoring those dull, pitted die-cast pot metal bits that were so common.
Well, check '60-61 Ford Galaxies....Cleeean! We've got a -61 Ranchwagon, 2d and i will not remove those doorhandles. They are an extension of the rear moldings and look real good
This brings up a good point. When my '52 Ford was first built about 15 years ago, the builders painted over a lot of the trim that was originally chromed, they also completely eliminated the bumpers and put a different grille in. They weren't customizing in the name of good design, they were doing it to avoid having to rechrome anything. And the results looked like dog shit. It's a bonus if you're shaving something that was in poor shape anyway, but the decision should come down to what will be the most attractive design, not based on the condition of the trim in question. Lots of painted bumpers out there that prove my point.
Couldn't agree more... But it's still a very real issue. For a DIYer guy on a budget, the cost of redoing a lot of trim can approach the total cost of the rest of the car, so sometimes some hard decisions have to be made. But on any HAMB friendly car, the monochrome look very rarely looks good... Bring back rolled pans! LOL!
I find that it's very hard to put up a picture of a car built in the late '50's/early '60's and have any kind of decent discussion. "Grille looks like an over bite." "Side trim looks like a booger emanating from a scoop nose." "Trim OR scoops." "The car is ugly." "Never been a fan of frenched or tunneled radio antenna." "It need this, or that." "There's not much uglier than a 50's car that has been completely shaved of moldings and chrome." Ad infinitum... FWIW, Jive-bomber prolly didn't put that pic there for you guys to tear apart a car that was built at least fifty years ago, but to start a discussion about kustomizing in general. Why is it everyone is an 'expert' on kustoms (Yeah, I know, everyone's entitled to their own 'opinion'...!!!) but when it comes to '32 Fords, everyone agrees that to be a 'real' hot rodder you must have a '32 that looks like everybody else's '32 Ford..??? At the very least, kustomizers didn't "follow the crowd." Yeah, there were hits and misses in the 'kustom game', but at least they showed their individuality instead of their lemming-like attitudes. Times change, cars change, styles change, even attitudes change but to cut down a car that was built years ago sure seems ridiculous and a waste of time to me since the car is prolly no longer around...!!! R-
I think that if the part is well designed enough that it compliments the design of the car, then heck yes, let it stay. Shaving everything off is so common that a lot of times no one even remembers what the stock hood ornament (or whatever piece) even looked like, or the fact that it was actually a really cool design. Some of those parts are pure art all by themselves, and getting rid of them just makes the car MORE common looking, rather than unique and individual (which is what customs started out as - an attempt to be unique). I like to look at it as if I were the guy at the design studio who originally drew up the first sketches for the car. In those early sketches the designer was just putting down what he felt were the essentials to that particular design. Some details may well have been part of the first concepts. whereas all the extra little emblems, handles and baubles and what not that don't really add to the design are more like stuff he had to add later to make the bosses happy. But of course, some of those items can also be very nicely designed, so in that case, I think they may belong as part of the overall design. There no overall right choice...it depends on the individual design wether it works or not.
Since I'm in the middle of my first custom car project this is a touchy subject, what to shave what to takeoff and what to add . As much as you want to build a car everyone will love its impossible ! I believe that you have to build it like you want and not what everyone else wants you to build ! With exception with the occasional idea or opinion from a trusted friend ! It's your Damn Car and your building it !
My comment was not a reference to the car in the first post, which is not completely shaved of moldings and chrome. Just want to point that out.
One of the most important parts of building a custom is knowing when and where the factory had it right in the first place. Another is restraint. Too many guys change stuff just to change stuff. This usually turns out a result that is less than ideal. I always think long and hard about every little thing I'm do, how it would work with the rest of the overall idea of what the car is gonna be. I usually have the whole car finished in my head before anything actually starts moving round. I think about how whatever mods will work when the car is painted the color I have in mind, and if it will also work if the next owner paints it a completely different color, and sometimes that shit really matters.
On '61 BelAirs and late '50s Swept Wing Dodges --- leave the dual rear antennas on. If there is only one, add an identical one in the same place on the opposite fender. This does not work on all cars. Seems to work best on bubble top 2 doors. Just my 2 cents!
Hemi J. Hope the custom build is going well for ya. Love the J and look forward to what you come up with in a custom. I would agree with the "build what you like" mantra except there are some themes and techniques that just plain don't work. Never have and never will. Design exercises are one thing, good tasteful builds are something else. Monocolor, Music notes and vinyl graphics don't belong on anything even if somebody likes them. As far as input from others.....friend don't let friend drive fugly cars
Hey ynottayblock, are those chrome headlights? I've been trying to find some, where did you get those?
I wholeheartedly agree. As a designer myself, I appreciate what the factory design studios did, and I respect the talent of the professional designers who initially created the car. It really bugs me when people will change things just because they can add to the list of modifications done to the vehicle, rather than improve on what was there to begin with. Those are chrome half covers...one of the very few accessories we added to the car. My buddy and I have put those on all of our cars, not sure why we did it in the first place...more of a tradition now. You can find them on ebay...search chrome headlight covers
Keep it simple.I've seen a couple of Kustoms that were coming along nicely when their creators took a hard left and ended up with nothing more than over-dooded rolling eyesore.BTW,I like that 'Bird
But there was a time when what we now consider horrible was the cat's ass. Customizing is fashion... most of what we HAMBers are passionate about is fashion. Styling. And with that comes opinions, personal taste, subjectivity, fads, perspective, finances, age, regional differences etc etc etc. Everyone repeats "it's your car, do what you want", but almost all of us want to get approval at some level for what we do, whether it's dreaming of a Ridler Award or just getting some guy we've never met saying "looking good" on our build thread. The guys that are really out there, doing whatever the heck they want and to hell with everyone's opinions, usually get a lot of grief from the card-carrying (little book carrying) traditionalists and the even more zealous neo-traditionalists. As others have said, life would be damn boring if we all had the same opinions about what looks good.
Before: After: Someone once said, "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away." Just be certain to never take too much away.
That red car is a great example of what I was talking about. The "after" isn't really that much different, but the changes make all the difference in the world. Very well done.
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