Art & Inspiration Remember cars with names or writing on the trunk lid?

My old Model A pickup had a coat of primer and at the time I thought it looked pretty good,one day we were sitting around shooting the breeze and a guy in a chopped Merc pulls in with "Praise the Lowered" and we started joking about doing something like that on our hot rods.

A few weeks went by and a sign painter stopped in my business and needed some One Shot and I told him if he would letter my tailgate I would give him the paint,he knocked it out in about 15 minutes.

I have been looking for a picture but I haven't been able to find it yet.

He painted, " She ain't too pretty but she's over eighteen"

I thought it was funny but the boss lady was not amused. HRP

 

Back in the mid-sixties my uncle pulled a 31 Chevy coupe out of a field. He fixed it up and painted it and put an Olds Rocket V8 in it. It was pinstriped and on the back it said "Miss-Carriage"

 

'53 chevy driven by a young guy attending the local community college, on the deck lid was lettered "La Bomba". Made me smile every time i saw it.
Tom.








smile

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My ride in high school was a OT, 69 nova, 327 with 671 blower. It was pretty fast when it was running right, LOL. I painted Y TRY on the trunk lid. Other street racers would see that and in drove them crazy for a race.

 

there was a wicked 55 chev 2 dr h/t in my neighborhood in the early 1960s running a 421 Pontiac 4 spd painted metallic green with( poison ivy)written across the trunk

 

In about '61 or '62 one of the local hotrod tough guys drove a pretty neat looking Corvair. He had it professionally lettered with "Lil Bastard" on the quarter panels. - the police told him to take it off! And he did, those days are gone forever.
Tom

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My 52 Ford pea green convertible. Vulture Vomit!

 

I had a late model 4X4 in Mexico that was called La Tortuga. It had the lettering and a turtle on is back.

I worked with a Vietnam Vet that had an original TA and had "Doom Cock Waddi" (hooked on phonics). Won't say what that means, PM if you really want to know or just can't figure it out.

I owned a scoot that had The Great Black Demon lettered in red on the tank. I fell asleep on a run and that was what it said the morning after (at least no one set my britches on fire). I got to assume that in my twisted condition I must have told a tall one about a demon of some sort.

Most of my scooters since about the late '70s had Night Creature lettered some place on them. I never paid anyone to do it, it always just seemed to happen. I am thinking that I am going to letter Night Creature Too in Red n White on my shovel when I repaint.

My A bone has stuff lettered (stenciled) allover it. it belonged to an employment agency called Southern Employment.





I think that we are going to letter Southern Employment Special in the belt line when it is eventually on the road.

Gawd I know tons of storied about cars truck and bikes with stuff lettered on them.

 

When I first built the{ LO UFO } it was {Rust & Things} The photo is my wife and rear deck lid of the coupe.

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I drug a 53 Ford convertable out of a junk yard that had "Detroit Vibrator" painted on it. Guess he though he could get girls to ride in the POS with the sign! Guess he wasn't bright enough to know it should of been "Dearborn Vibrator" instead.

 

Remember a guy who had a white 55 Ford with Little Kitten on the lower front fender. When he had the painter later add Mean Pussy the law had him remove it. He later became a LEO. Crazy friend had 'I would rather fight than switch' with the guy with a black eye painted on his trunk lid after the cig ad. I knew a old redneck that had a late 50's Desota with 'Coming on Strong' painted from the front wheel opening to the rear in large lettering . On one rear tail fin was a road runner with name and the other had the Coyote with name. He always had some weird crap.

 

LOL the average piece of tail only knows Detroit.

 

Don't forget the rear end housing in the 70's ,when you could see it.
"Stronger Than Dirt " , etc.

 

That was very popular in the 60's in Milwaukee Wisconsin area. I never named any of my street cars (other than terms of endearment *%#@!%#*%*+!*#"*# working on them). Here's some I recall, Night Train, Locomotion, Orange Crate, Panther Pit, Strawberry Delight, Passion Pit, Sho Nuff, Lemon Ice, Banddeto, RedFox, many more that are not popping in old brain this AM. All of my racers had the name ShitBox on them (a term of endearment) saw it on Bogar/Opperman Sprint car in 70's, liked it, used it.

 

the south of the border and some of the african American bunch do it still around here . some pretty interesting names . the best is Grande El Toro , its a O/t s-10 with a big Big block under the hood ( 572 ) my O/t firebird was tetnus shot because of all the rust and the 150 shot of nitrous .

 

I've had a few that said "IN TOW", does that count?

 

When I was in the 6th grade [1960] I had to walk the 6 blocks to the high school to catch the school bus. There was a 1/2 hour difference in school schedules so I was able to lounge around and watch the cars cruise the school. Man, we had a bunch of cars with names.
There were two guys that both had 37-38 Buick 4 doors...one was maroon with "Elliot Ness" lettered on the front fender behind the front wheel and the other was dark blue with "Untouchable" lettered in the same place. That one had a caricature of a very short gangster with his hat pulled down over his eyes and a tommy gun in his arms with a wisp of smoke coming from the barrel. Then we had a tan 37 chevy coupe with a small block and in western lettering it said "Maverick" on the front fender, down low. One of my classmates was picked up by her brother after school in his super low 47 Plymouth four door with bright blue paint, flippers and wide whites. On the decklid was written "Blue Angel"..The split manifold purred like a kitten.
Then we had the rebel with a dark blue 51 merc two door. It sat low with loud pipes and one day he had a name lettered on the front fender. down low behind the wheel...in bright white. It said [in olde English lettering]" The naked crotch" This was about 1965. He drove it around our small northern Oregon town for exactly one night before the cops had him pulled over and from then on, there was a nice gray primer spot where the name had been.
Light brown 47 merc coupe with "lil brown jug" lettered on the deck lid. I can think of 3 more cars with names [47 Pontiac and my cousin's 50 chevy fleetline and his 52 Pontiac 4 door] but cannot remember the names...been too long.

 

In about 1960 we had just moved to Dallas and my dad took me to Yello Belly Drag Strip, a local run what u brung dragstrip.. One of the fastest cars out there that day was a 1958 Chevy Impala, lowered in the back with cruiser skirts. The name painted on the skirts was "Crazy Mixed Up World".

 

Back in high school my '56 Chevy Station wagon had " The Hog of Steel" on the tailgate

 

I had an axled fiddy six Chevy Bel Air painted in brown lacquer primer. on the deck lid it said "Still in its Prime"

there was a gutted 56 post car around with plastic windows, and a glass front end, it said "Instant ticket"

probably the fastest street car at the time in Fremont in the early 80's was a Black 55 Chevy with "Frantic Rat" painted on it. big block of course and it ran somewhere in the 11's. it was a nice car.

 

Very hard to see in this photo, but when Steve Stanford lived in Utah, I had him letter "Grease" on the lower left side of the trunk on my 40 Merc.

Mick

 

I just bought a 56 Buick Super, I've been referring to it as "Das Boat". Maybe I should have that lettered on the trunk.

 

Little off the subject but still about car names and kinda funny. Back when I started dating my wife 20 some odd years ago we went to a car show, she was a newby when it came to the custom car thing. We came across a Merc custom that had a name painted on the 1/4 panels, she turned and asked "why do guys name their cars? Then she informed me it seemed "juvenile". Fast forward a few years and we bought her an old car, a 70's station wagon as her new daily. Took her a bit to get use to the attention it brought, she never drove anything before people would notice but she started enjoying it. One day a few months later she came in from work and said I needed to check the oil in "Wilma" When I asked what is Wilma she said Wilma Wagon. She had named her car, how juvenile I thought! Funny what happens when a car becomes more then something to get you from point a to b.
Oh, poor Wima got totaled (RIP Wilma) so now she drives "Trudy".

 

In 62' I was in eighth grade..A Senior had a 58' chev convertable, black on black on black lowered with Beach Comber lettered on door tops. Never asked what it meant.I had been around with my older brother enough to have seen some lettered cars but I don't think there were any other lettered cars at school [maybe Fred K will chime in] until me in 66'....I had a 65' Comet with Handy Man lettered on front fenders; it fit because I made traction Masters for it, made a floor shift, and did some exhaust work, shimmed the snot out of the valve springs..At 2700# it could hold its own to bout 60 mph, 6 cyl and all..I can't remember anyone else really wrenching on cars, I'm sure there was but I wasn't in the "In" crowd.. there was a 57 Ford with a 427, 54 Vette with 327 but but bought as such..Funny note: The Beach Comber guy [John G.] tack welded the doors closed on the shop teacher's [Mr H.] 56' Pontiac station wagon in 62'..

 

The only lettered car I ever saw, I saw coming straight at me as I was stopped at a traffic light, a 69 hemi Charger. When I came to, out the windshield of the busted up ford I was driving was the crumpled fenders of the Charger with the words COBRA KILLER painted across the hood. Teenager just got his license that morning and had taken his brothers car with out his permission. Way to much car for the first time out. I'm out of work for 2 years with 2 broken legs so I really remember those painted words. Ralphie

 

"A.M.F." on the rear tail panel of my buddy's dirt oval car, early '70s. (you can figure it out )