Its love it or hate it, and I know it is a re-hash, but for me there is no better '58 car: ...the factory supercharged Packard Hawk
My favorite custom ever was a 58 Bel Aire with a 54 Chevy grill. It eliminated the boring 58 grill completely changed the look of the whole car. I'm not much of a fan of panel paint jobs or customs generally. The best ones just clean up nice original designs, but often they trade off some usefulness for that. I love the 53 Studebaker, but that Packard just looks like a bad custom to me. OTOH I agree it might be the best looking car in 58, which was a low point for styling IMO. hans
Not a huge fan of the t bird, but I can appreciate the Pontiac in the photo. That thing screams psychedelic, which is not my style, but I can appreciate it. Meanwhile the t bird is seemingly just plain Jane with too much accents. Without the paneling it would be a lot cooler imo.
Impartial Seal of Approval, of course. The first version of Jim Doss' Watson painted '58 Chevy is one of my all-time favorite mild customs.
I agree, the 54 grille in a 58 Chevy is a nice touch. On my last 58 I wanted something other than the stock grill. Did a lot of checking and found tube grille were popular but not to my liking. I had a nice 54 Chevy Grille that I thought would look nice. Finally one day I got the balls to make the necessary cuts for fitting the grille in my 58. Great decision. The car got a lot of compliments and many of them were about the grille.
I recall working on a '58 Packard Hawk in 1963. It had 4 headlights, was white with rust spots here and there. I remember the car being very (extremely?) ugly, especially the front end. The late fifties cars and pickups were unnecessarily garish and ostentatious.
I almost bought a 58 T-Bird back in '02.Everything was set and the guy asked who was going to restore it.I told him I was doing most of the work except for paint and bodywork.He asked me if I was going to paint it the original color and I said no,either suede or a Larry Watson tribute car.He had extra brightwork, NOS ,and I told him I would sell that to help fund the rest of the work.He backed out and told a buddy that he was I hoping that I would restore it.How much is a completely restored Box Bird worth?A couple thousand more than a driver.
I am just the opposite. It's weird that the year of my birth I should find to be such a personal automotive low point. I have never been attracted to any '58 car except a few of the Cadillacs and the Mopars. I finally saw a 58 Chevy I liked at the 2013 RJ event at Pimlico.
Well, it was such a "big" year. All of the cars got bigger and better IMO. I was just a kid but I remember the first black & white Belair I saw drive by the house like it was yesterday. I also remember feeling sad in 1977 when GM downsized their cars. Really never have felt the same about the annual new car roll out since. I used to crawl up on a barrel to peek in the storage shed at the local Chevrolet dealer to check out the new arrivials hidden in there. Don't even know what year any of them are now. Oh well, makes staying in love with the old rides a lot easier.
'58 Pontiac, '58 Cadillac Eldorado, '58 Impala, the list goes on. Great year for GM design. (Ford, not so much)
They were dandys. I remember this old cat named Mr. Pelzel where I grew up arriving with his brand new '58 Oldsmobile. A fresh coat of snow in town and a bright sunny morning. Almost needed a welding helmet to look directly at it. Couldn't be much chrome left on the planet I thought.
Following 1957 was going to be tough to do because most all of the cars rolling out from the dealership were beautiful. I love a lot of the 1958 models and they make purrfect kustoms. They are just overlooked because of the previous year success. Prime example is Johnny Hammond's 58 Impala...
Mr. Pelzel's '58 Olds was Orchid too. Simply a beautiful big car. Our Impala is 12 years old now so we a very half-heartedly shopping for a car. Even looking at the "so-called" luxury imports. Listening to the salespeople try to excite me while I am thinking of cars from the great old days is kind of humourous.
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