Help me and others understand the things that were in style for cars of the 60's. As far as rims, paint, accessories, well anything. Pictures help.
Cobwebbing, blow dots, metal flake, candy paint, gasser look, cheater slicks, floor shifts, head rests, reverbs, 8 track players, 59 Cad tail lights, radiused rear wheel wells, hood scoops.
As quoted from Uncle Bob..... The '60s were a dynamic period of hot rod evolution, so you might have to define which part of the '60s you're shooting for. Early in the decade it would be black steel wheels with wide whites until about '62 then you might switch to the new fangled thin line white walls. Full hubcaps such as Dodge, or Olds, perhaps '57/8 Plymouth among others. '63 would bring in full chrome steel wheels, often without caps or maybe with bullets, but then the definitional wheel of the decade burst on the common scene...……...the American 5 spoke. This spawned some, questionable to my eye, alternatives in the Radir style or even worse, the Keystone Kustomag. Later in the decade the Cragar SS appealed to some along with the slow drift to resto rods, but that last one doesn't fit much with your car. Very late in the decade the dish mag style caught on as common. Sent from my Pixel XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I consider this to be representative of a Hotrod Circa 1962...it could be said to be still sporting 50's perhaps even 40's Hotrod mods and has evolved to 62...its really the engine and trans and manifold and perhaps the stance that peg the time frame...I may actually be able to give a range but I chose a particular year... I was 2 yrs old at the time so I am making an educated guess here but am confident that I have it in agreeable timeframe. It's actually inspired as some things perhaps the headlights may arguably have been smaller. One thing that really helps is Dated Pics of actual Hotrods perhaps even regionally and of course magazines and video and word of mouth.
If you google "Hamb 60s style" you'll get a smorgasbord of threads to pick through. This thread is a good one for hot rods: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ome-on-post-pictures-of-what-you-like.132391/ CustomCarChronicle.com and Kustomrama.com have great info regarding customs of the 50s and 60s. Kustomrama allows you to search by year. Check out the photo albums too, for dated car show pics that really show what was being built at the time. I'd also suggest googling shows like the Oakland Roadster Show and looking at the cars on display at those events during the period you're interested in.
Current Ride 1966/ [GALLERY=media, 502155][ For the cars you list IMO, chrome reverse wheels or wheels painted black/red with baby moons, narrow whitewalls or black, redlines for skylark with factory style steel sport chrome wheels, everyone in 60's had glass packs, stance was all over the place, front down/up, shackles in back. Again IMO your cars are classy type cars, go for what we call today Restomod style, a lot of 60's fads are not for your style cars AND I like Fuzzy Dice. My opinions and $2/3 buys coffee at my breakfast joints. Have at it ! Post up some Pic's
Squirrel, that book and the companion 50's book would be a great ones to start with. I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I thought of. Have perused them Many times!
Early 60s their rears were drag en, by the late 60s they were flying hi. I started putting fender flares on mid 60s Vetts around 1968 for the fat tires on Cragers. There were no tubed street cars that I knew of in Minnesota.
A progression through the decade, but with important milestones. 1964. We now had mag wheels, The Beatles, muscle-cars, etc. In the later '60s, psychedelic art obviously had an influence. Things got pretty crazy. "Hot rods" were being built from almost anything...outhouses, bathtubs... There were always those who were on the leading edge. But just as the early '50s seemed somewhat like a continuation of the late '40s, the early '60s were very much like the late '50s.
That would be wheels and paint and everything. LOL The reason you saw a lot of primer cars and painted wheels in the '50s had to do with the economy. We had 2 recessions in the '50s the last ending in the later part of the decade. In the early '60s candy paint and chrome was a big deal. The economy had loosened up and hot rodders had money to finish their cars. Chrome reverse, magnesium wheels and even aluminum wheels later on were cool. Decent paint (even an Earl Schieb job was better then a partially finished car) became more common and candy paint was da bomb. Glitzed out motors and full interiors. Flash was the name of the game for anyone who wanted to cruise Sunset Blvd. This is the way that Dave saw it.
It's a relatively easy to acquire magazines like Hot Rod, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, etc. from the specific time period you want to emulate. The features and ads will show you exactly what you should incorporate into your project to make it authentic. Sent from my SM-A600A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
When it comes to customs the 60's was a rapid change of styling. You also have to take location into account. So-Cal was always the forefront in trends and other areas usually lagged behind to varying degrees. As the 60s progressed customs started with the swapping of various parts of other cars onto a car and that then morphed into the wild freestyle cars with lots of handmade bodywork. Then by the end of the 60's customs were pretty much dead. Taboo in 1960 By 1966 the car was already left to rot. When we restored the car we chose to put it back to configuration that could have happed in 1963/1964 in the Portland area if the car was still getting modified at that point. Then my grandparents 55 Chevy is done in a 60's style but just outside of typical HAMB friendly of 67-69 as its restored back to how the car was when they first bought the car in the late 60's early 70's. Mainly its sitting on 8" corvette rally's, white letters, but has a early small block, 4 speed, 12 bolt rear, lots of chrome on the chassis
Most 60’s car did not have painted bumpers or trim. Another high majority had wide front and rear tires. Few were setting evenly parallel to the ground and never would you see them at what is considered today lower than normal stance. The rear end set very high to clear the big meats in the back. On occasion you’d see all four corners setting higher than normal. Some examples shown here aren’t correct for the majority of 60’s cars. At the time I really liked these changes in style and thought them cool. Now? Not so much.
In the early half of the sixties I had a 33 Five window with a 327. Was full fendered and stock body but tire mount was gone from the back. Painted Mercedes Silver with black interior from Tijuana. Axle wasn't dropped but ran 15" Ford wheels in front with small radials. Large cheater slicks on the back on reversed rims. Wheels were painted to match the car. Tires were blackwalls. I sometimes ran full aluminum wheel covers called "racing discs" at the time until I reversed the rear rims. The other car was a 40 tudor that looked exactly the same as the one shown here except it never got out of the light gray primer. I ran the same wheels, beauty rings and caps that I do now except wheels were red. Interior was original and very worn with blankets for seat covers. Ran a 59A with a 4 barrel and duals. I was married and these were our daily drivers. My current 40 looks as close as I could get to what I hoped to end up with back then. It just took about 55 more years to make it happen.