@Ryan I assume that's a typo in your info-graphic that shows the Predicta ranked 7 in 2018. I voted for it, for many reasons. Better shot of Frank's Chevy:
Love 60's style kustoms. Thank you for posting the thread on the HAMB. Kool to look back and see yow kool & wild some of the kustoms were back then. I wish we had more free spirited customizer's that are not afraid to think out of the box. I think Kustoms are the most criticized vehicles in our hobby. So many different ideas, styles and techniques to get to the same point. Hopefully this will motivate more kustoms to be built. Its only metal, cut it up!!
When I was in high school, it was cool to be totally "Krossed out" like Kriss Kross. Now we look back and laugh. Similarly things on the cutting edge of style in an era are shortlived, where other styles are timeless. And, I voted for Doss' 58 by the way.
Mixing radical and taste is tough, as you essentially mentioned. That "Frank's 58 is pretty awful. I get it, know the whys and hows of it, but the finished product doesn't mix. It's like adding Thousand Island dressing to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I voted for the predicta... It has Darryls signature body line that starts at the front wheel and ends at the fins up at an angle. If you look, Most new cars currently have a similar body line down the side. "predicta" was more than just a name.....
I'm not surprised that the Predicta won... although the choices downstream makes me wonder slightly at the honesty of the original vote. The Predicta on the cover would sell more magazines than a very mild custom '60 Starliner as 'Custom of the Year'. My personal choices finished mid-pack in the original balloting (15, 17 and 19, in that order), and didn't make the top ten this time either. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as always. The Frank Caraway '58 Chev has been held up as the extreme example of a car built for 'show points' more than once, and to me represents the last-gasp of what I'll call the 'George Barris' look. Corky Corker's 'Parisianne' Ford is another example. After he split with Sam, his cars increasingly became parodies of Detroit offerings. His Detroit analog would be Harley Earl, who used flash and gimmicks on many GM products. Virgil Exner had influence also. Many of these cars were still following the excesses of the mid-50s production cars. While Barris was the worst offender, others did the same; Bill Hines and Joe Wilhelm come to mind. Valley Custom was probably the most 'conservative' of the early shops, they seemed to avoid the 'excess' trap while they existed. 1960 was a watershed year IMO. The emergence of Starbird, Cushenberry, Winfield, and the Alexander Brothers (and to a certain extent, Roth) in and around this time brought a now renewed emphasis on 'purity' of design. Rather than add-on 'features', styling became more 'integrated'. With the exception of bubbletops (embraced by both Starbird and Roth), most of their output featured cleaner styling or at least had a unified theme, or put another way, a better 'vision' of the finished vehicle. To me, this was very similar what happened 'back in the day' when the head stylists had more control (think Edsel Ford/Bob Gregoire and Raymond Loewy) and the designs weren't done by 'committee'. Sometimes they were 'ahead of the curve' and the styling wasn't accepted at the time. Look no further than the '49-51 Ford products for an example; sleek designs that became custom staples but re-grew vestigial 'rear fenders' in '52 that didn't disappear for years. Anyway, that's my .02 worth....
Predicta is a really great custom, but that front end has me all... Almost a little TOO custom if you get me.
Frank's car reminds me of a simple saying I have written down, and it often applies to styling a car: "Just because you Can, doesn't mean you Should..." Also, 'Money can't buy you taste' comes to mind. ;-)
I voted numer 4: Norman Wesp's 59 Chevy, and was actually a little surprised that so mild custom made it to fifth in 1960. In 2018 it was 8th.
I said it before and I'll say it again, I just don't get bubble top customs other than the "odd" factor. I'd stand in line to look at one, but I'd leave it to the rest of you to buy them.
I think the fact that there were so many choices is why your view count to vote count rationis what it is. I had to look threw them a couple times to figure out the one I liked best, if it’s going to take 5-10 minutes to look at the optionsnof a poll your gonna have way fewer voters following threw.
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