Features The Definitive "MILD CUSTOM" Photo Thread....

I want to know how you came up with the idea. I'm jealous of you imagination. Very, very well done.

 

Exceptional car. Really terrific work...congrats!
But like half the other cars in this thread...NOT “MILD”.
Look up the definition gents...

Per Hot Rod Magazine Custom Car Yearbook #1 (published 1963) there are four categories of Customs: Mild, Moderate, Semi, and Full.

“Mild classification, generally speaking, are cars which have been modified by bolt-on items. These can have substitutions, additions, and eliminations of accessories and certain componenents. Almost always, the items that are involved can be purchased from automotive accessory stores throughout the country. Falling into this group would be such things as spotlights, hubcaps, chrome trim exchanges, exterior painting, wire of deeply recessed wheels, radio aerials, chrome or plastic grille changes, outside exhausts, chrome taped strips, etc.”

Sooo...no chopped roofs, no frenched lights, or major chassis mods. Get the picture??

Moderate, Semi, and Full Customs...please for the love of God...move along. LOL

I look forward to seeing some ‘real’ MILD customs in this thread!

 

In 1959, Elmer Stice, our neighbor across the street, bought a new '59 Galaxie 2 door post! I was just 7 years old, but enamored with the car! At that early age my older brother, Harold, had already started tutoring me about the rod 'n custom phenomena that had swept America! Criteria that I remember for a car to be cool was that it needed to be a two door, have a stick transmission, and be a v/8! Elmer's ford met that criteria, being a tudor with a base 292 and standard transmission! Elmer kept the car immaculate, and as his discretionary income permitted, he would customize his new ford. J.C. Whitney was his main, mail-order parts vendor. A tube grill and custom taillight lenses were the first that I noticed. Lake pipes, first flippers and then chrome wheels, were parts of the later orders, plus a bunch of do-dads! Elmer was a hard working bread truck driver with a family to support who needed a home! Those life factors mandated that he be practical. He was not going to destroy perfect factory paint by doing unpractical modifications like removing the door handles and emblems! Cars like these were replete in our community. J.C. Whitney, Honest Charlie and the rest all had a thriving business. The unchallenged perspective was that Elmer and the others like him, that drove their cars on a daily basis, had customized their cars. An accessorized custom was commonplace in the late 50s, early 60s and that era is firmly in the realms of what is established by this site as being represented as traditional. Thank you very much for pointing this out, 32Stoker! Myself, I am puzzled and disappointed when I see a custom car that is being represented as a mild custom, and I do not recognize the original make and/or model of that car! And part of my older brothers tutoring was instructions on being able to recognize every car that went down the pike!

 

There are more than half a dozen chopped cars on the first few pages of this thread (even amid all the red X's).
I'd say we're getting somewhere.

 

I think the red x’s are just broken links. They’re in all the older threads and likely occur when H.A.M.B. admin updates the site platform software or the link file source expires.

 

(Photo: Travis Coomer)

 

(Photo: Richard Haasebrock)

 

So many beautiful cars on this thread


Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.

 

Nice Winfield-tweaked 1937 Ford cabriolet.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1937-ford-cabriolet-2/




Raked stock windshield, dipped door tops, narrowed running boards. Merc flathead, juice brakes.

 

Shaved drip rail, rounded door corner. Smoooth!

 

Great cars! Wrong thread Mo.

 

Chopped? I wasn't sure.
(And I own a Fleetline. )

 

Read my post #4092 from July 3rd.
It’s really this simple guys...

Fabrication to body and/or modifications to chassis = NOT a MILD Custom car.

Bolt-on modifications of store bought accessories and/or removal of factory parts = a MILD Custom car.

If that sounds too boring or stringent, then you might want to start your own MODERATE, SEMI, or FULL Custom threads elsewhere on H.A.M.B.

Yayyy!

 

There a about 1000 different interpretations of what a mild custom is just because hot rod published something in 1963 doesn't make it the gospel. Pat Ganahl in The American Custom Car has this definition: A car that has been customized moderately (nosed, decked, FRENCHED, lowered, etc.)

 

Isn't it a shame you don't have the power to delete posts?

 

A Serious MILD CUSTOM Photo Thread....Preferably cars styled from the decade of 1955-1965. I know there is a lot of overlap, and this isn't about perfection or Show cars nearly as much as the cars that were "common" to that decade. Slight mods, Lowering, Nosing, Decking, Paint, Louvers, Hubcaps, etc.
These are the cars that captured most of our attention from back in that era.....many of our heroes came from that time frame, but your photo need not be about the Stars of the era, but the guy who built that car down the block. No Chops, No Channeling, No Sectioning, just MILD, useable everyday Custom cars that captured the early Spirit that was actually within reach of the common man. Let's see if this Thread can develop and maintain a life of it's own. Can a MILD Car actually capture the imagination and hold it? I'm convinced it can because most of us set our budgets, skills and dreams on those cars....very few of us were fortunate enough to ever think a Full On radical Custom was in the cards for us......Anyone who cares to contribute is certainly welcome to post here.....I'll begin with a car that defies the description but only because of the Elegant Execution of the build and extreme attention to detail. They're not all of this caliber, but that doesn't matter in this thread. Mild Customs are no less a labor of love than the best of the breed....It's not about being the best...it's about the "art" of the car..........Centurion9

Above is Centurion9's opening post on this thread, where he states the criteria of the direction that he wants the post to go. I will continue to follow with his instruction. I agree with you, 32 Stoker, that a lot of the cars that have been posted here are too extreme to be considered a mild custom! I made a post above that bolstered your opinion that an "accessorized custom" is a mild custom. But I will contend your statement that,
"Bolt-on modifications of store bought accessories and/or removal of factory parts ONLY = a MILD Custom car that is welcome in this thread."
I will suggest that YOU, 32 Stoker, start your own thread for mild customs, using your above stated criteria, and not try to impose your extreme belief on a long established thread!

 

This would be a fantastic thread if all of us who were kids in the mid '50s to mid '60s
had carried cameras around with us and had pics of Mr. Regular's everyday mild street
custom. Then we could see how things truly were and not have guys half our age tell
us what was going on. I remember very well the cars that impressed me when I was
10, 11 and 12 years old in our small Chicago suburb, but I have no photos. If I had any
drawing talent my memory wouldn't trick me.

 

I have to go along with quick85. I was 6 years old in 1957 and already into cars in a big way. The every day cars I remember of the late 50's and early 60's were working guys with limited money to spend on their cars. There were no chopped tops, shaved handles, big buck paint jobs etc.. The cars had different hubcaps, skirts, maybe nosed and decked and other easy and cheap updates. Look thru the little books readers ride sections. That is what a mild custom comes to mind for me. As they say, opinions are like assholes, every body has one, but I some time get a little pissed when a 20 year old starts telling me how it was "back in the day"
OK, that is this assholes opinion, on with the show

 

Are these cars considered mild or what?

 

I would consider them mild customs, but the coupe appears to have a mild chop? As for the question, What, I would say they are great examples of different custom eras!
From 32Strokers's perspective, the fleetline would not be, because it has had some fab work: frenched headlights!
There will be some Yahoos that say all customs must have whitewalls, ignorant of the fact that the use of blackwalls came from an early era, when white walls weren't readily available!
Your Ford and Chevrolet are two of my favorite, period perfect customs!

 

Nope, that would be a MODERATE Custom...

 

Wish I could but the title “The Definitive MILD CUSTOM Photo Thread” is already taken. LOL

 

I guess that’s what Photo threads are for...? LOL

 

Your definition of Mild Custom is not a consensus opinion, I do believe! How about Accessorized Mild Customs. You can put in the thread description that there will be a tolerance for trim removal! I would support that thread, and contribute from time to time. You and I share the believe that the definition of a mild custom has been accepted as being something that more often than not, falls into the moderate and sometimes radical custom category. Personally, I have been entertaining the thought of establishing a HAMB thread, or a FB group site title, Restraint in Rods 'n Customs. I can assure you though, that it would not be popular, and have senior citizen following or membership base! Chop and Bag, are the two main essentials for the "New" Traditional culture!

 

This isn’t about ‘my’ perspective. I am merely a torchbearer...

 

You say no chassis mods but in that article you posted the '60 Ford has a "spindle kit" and dearched rear springs....
The Plymouth definitely has chassis mods.

PLEASE don't turn this into a pissing match that will get the thread closed.

 

How come NOBODY seems to have read the FIRST post?

Dude asked for cars that fit into THIS mold.

If it's chopped, it doesn't belong in this thread. If it's channeled, post it elsewhere. If it's sectioned, again, post it somewhere else. It's NOT difficult.

There's a whole thread for Customs/Kustoms - all the chopped, channeled, sectioned, etc. can go in there.

Simple.

 

I stand corrected. Can we agree on no ‘major’ chassis mods? I’ll edit my definition.

Why would the thread get closed for some friendly debate? I view it one way, you view it another, and the world turns round. All is well.

Just so you know, I happen to love all Customs. But I genuinely believe the OP used the term MILD because he had the specific show car classification in mind.

I’ll tell you what, so you don’t think I’m being completely unreasonable, if the OP chimes in and makes a ruling otherwise, I’ll shut up and live with it.

OP...the floor is yours.