History New Builders....Please revive Canted Quad Headlights.....

Probably one of the most difficult custom tricks to pull off correctly. In my opinion, Lincoln couldn't even get it quite right. I have alot of respect for the custom builder who has the foresight and talent to make it look good though.

 

Agreed.

On the cars that they looked good on they really looked good and on the one's that they didn't look good on they really didn't look good. It was one extreme or another.

If I happened to have the right car I would consider them for sure. I like the look on the right car.

OK you owe me a key board.
LMFAO

 

Agree, if you are going after that era then canted quads deserve a serious looksee.

 

The very best of the very best built cars with canted quad headlights - Barris, Winfield, Alexander Bros, Starbird, etc.

Like them or not - they are very much a part of the custom car culture.

Sad to see so many people poo-pooing the idea of building cars with quads. Yes, it takes vision and talent to pull it off, but it can be done.

 

Gotas,you make a valid point,there were some outstanding customs as well as customizers that had the talent and vision to pull of this looks,,your post proves that in spades but it also to a long car with fins to make it work in my way of thinking.

Take the 60 Buick Invicta,it lends itself well to modifications and actually looked like a custom from the factory. HRP

 

I think they should be used more often. Given the right parts and location they are an instant nod to an over the top era long ago. Heck -- they look cool if done right on hot rods.

 

Ok, they do look ok on some later customs, I agree that maybe a 55-56 Merc might look good with them.

 

O.K., I know I'm weird, but even as a stock design, these headlights remind me of a housewife ( or shark, cow, whatever ), wearing harlequin eyeglasses in a Gary Larson cartoon. It was part of an over-the-top era in car design.

 

LMFAO

 

keep the pics coming, some of these cars look really good with them in my opinion. I always liked them, and plan on building something with them one day. Im not saying every car looks good with them, but on the other hand there are lot worse and more hideous cars out there even without them!

 

Building a Custom Car should be determined by what "you" want to incorporate in your car. I personally don't care what others think about what I drive. It takes a lot more courage to build something unique than it does the bazillions of cookie cutter Rods AND Customs that have been built since the resurgence of Custom building in the late '80's....I am thankful for all the cars saved from the crusher or lost to neglect. That only means that someone else has an existing base for their own ideas that will surely evolve over the next 25 years. In the meantime, I'm still a Watson/Oz fan and at least for me, those two builders have provided me with enough passion to last the rest of my life. I still like what I like, and everyone in this business/hobby/dreamscape will find what they're drawn to. I've been dreaming for well over 55 years and as my tastes change, I welcome fresh ideas, and some not so fresh. This stuff is supposed to be fun. If you're small minded, that's fine. There's no room in your thinking for alternative ideas. That's just sad. I'd love to have a new Chrysler 300 SRT8 as a daily driver....Why?, because that's what I prefer. It would'nt have canted quads, but that doesn't mean I've jumped ship..... I happen to love them all, and have lived long enough to know that I want to be open about all expressions of car building means....I'm old enough to filter my own likes and dislikes, as I'm sure you all are. As I've said before, there's room for all of us........Centurion9

 

Canted quad headlights are a perfect example of why some people are not car designers ,and also why some should never have been hired as car designers

 

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Canted_Quad_Headlights

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Mark_I_Mist

 

I'm not certain, but I've read for years that Detroit took their cues from customizers in the late '50's and integrated them into Production cars.....not sure if that's true or not......

 

Cars were designed usually 2-3 years ahead of when they hit the showrooms. 1959-1960 GM is an exception, a crash redesign done after Chrysler's 1957 cars appeared. Most of the customs shown here use existing factory lights off other cars. By '62 canted quads were out on new cars, Chrysler the last one and mostly because they'd spent the money taking the fins off the back.

Some of the factory show cars and dream cars had elements that would later turn up on production cars, but that's not the same as even a Barris or other well known builder's custom.

Also, quad lights didn't become 50 state legal until late 1957 or so, which is why only some '57 Mopars got them but in '58 everyone had them.

 

Centurion9, you're a true custom hero!

 

I have always loved Kustom Kars. I have studied them from a variety of points of view, trying to determine the why of them, probably more than the how. Take fade-away fenders, that were a bitch to create and were absorbed by the designers of later cars in the studios that created for Detroit first the one-off specialty designs, that were robbed of particulars for production car designs, and the monsters that were composites of new and old ideas as approved by the head of the department that ended up in show rooms. What a spark of genius it was to even contemplate that first move to extend the one thing into another, and what a gold rush it became. Dual headlights on customs and canted headlights were out there before anyone knew it and became in an instant a smash and suddenly trite in the same moment. But, like all things that are good, hair-cuts, clothing, perfumes, shoes, the newness of a design wears off and is absorbed as others take it up and make copies until it becomes boring. Obviously, there are trends that we love so much they become traditional, and are old standards in the builders book of tricks, pulled out when it fits the car. Canted headlights used without need are like many gimmicks used against the grain that not only look out of place, when the form does not support them, but attract undue attention to an otherwise decent piece of work. The Original poster should know that even though some things are unique, it is their rarity that makes them so. If everyone goes on a canted headlight trip, we may even see them on motorcycles that will only look correct parked on their side-stands. By implication, it is something that limits rather than expands the palette in the majority of cases which creates oohs and aahs. One Mona Lisa is enough. (The painting.) Uniqueness trumps overuse, and too many of the same thing are like ants at a picnic, unwelcome and despised.

 

Yes, that's true. Most current manufacturer's actually still have design studios/offices located in Southern California, and have had them located here for decades. Even the foreign guys. They know this is ground zero for where the next trend, color, or cue will come from, and they attend many of our car shows around here for ideas. Heck, one huge manufacturer still holds a weekly show here locally in their own parking lot on Saturdays!

 

Niiiice example Squirrel. Beautiful car for sure. Richard Zocchi could do canted lights on an Allis-Chalmers tractor and it would look good. Only problem here is the '62 300 had canted lights when it was born, not added by the builder.

Can't say I'm a canted/quad light fan in general but it does work on a select few.

 

"The Original poster should know that even though some things are unique, it is their rarity that makes them so. If everyone goes on a canted headlight trip, we may even see them on motorcycles that will only look correct parked on their side-stands. By implication, it is something that limits rather than expands the palette in the majority of cases which creates oohs and aahs. One Mona Lisa is enough. (The painting.) Uniqueness trumps overuse, and too many of the same thing are like ants at a picnic, unwelcome and despised."

I asure that the OP does understand your point. In fact, I have my own list of current trends that I've already seen enough of. Ideas and applications come and go, and perhaps canted quads have had they're day. My intention was only to run an old idea past some of the younger builders who weren't around during that period. As others have already said better than I, it takes some care and consideration in applying any Custom trick successfully. Maybe those older builders could be of some benefit by stressing design over gimics and we'd actually encourage creative thinking over mimicing ........Centurion9

 

"(The painting.) Uniqueness trumps overuse, and too many of the same thing are like ants at a picnic, unwelcome and despised." fortynut

Well said.......

 

a little excess now and then is a good thing

 

Wuz gonna put 'em on a deuce shell on an A roadster. Found 6 different sets....... all looked like crap & nose heavy. Guess they need to be on a kustom, not a rod to work right.

 

Says you.

 

The best I could say is they looked OK on some cars, but never thought they looked great, regardless of the car.

 

Never could understand this look.... Never fond of it either. ....


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You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same.

 

Speaking on looking the same and laughing
Go to any Harley oriented biker event. They all attempt to be rugged individuals in their bandanas and studded leather and chaps and all that ink.
They end up all looking pretty much the same like a bunch of lost pirates and I laugh at them.

 

I'm not buying it, one of the reasons they have design studios-offices there is to have access to students from the top design schools.
I'm willing to bet that they see as many examples of what not to do at their car shows and in Southern California too.
Ground zero does not always mean great things