Features Billy Gibbons' 1950 Ford "Kopperhed"

Me too

 

I love @Pete Eastwood. From the horse's mouth, right here on this forum.

Amazing.

THANKS PETE

 

The classics never go outta style... I love that one too @Jive-Bomber - Billy brought it out to the second Lonestar Round Up way back in 2003 - the first year on Festival Beach - and it looked amazing out there. As I recall he had it set up with an impressive stereo system that he could plug in his guitar to play thru - like a rolling amp. It was all super clean and tasteful with that Tijuana tuck & roll interior

A couple of shots from LSRU #2

 

Sort of a 50's Tbird roofline.

 

I was lucky enough to stumble on this when it was on display at the Petersen. It really blew me away and has to be seen in person, pictures do not do it justice. For me one of a handful of modern customs that make you rethink how a certain body style can be done...Cole Foster's 54' Chevy, Mike Young's 60' Impala, Roger O'Dells 38' Zephyr are all the epitome of their respective body styles, IMHO..

 

Doesn't matter what you post, someone will hate it. There's a hater for everything. Love that picture of Billy dragin' his arm out the window.

 

This is a beautiful car! It makes me think of what coach builder might have come up with when these were new. Or maybe a at the time designers sketch that a top executive saw and said "build me one of those".

It's really kind of understated and elegant.

 

Jim Pedersen of Ellensburg, Wa did, actually the same color and just as nice.

 

I like the lines the car has. Why? I took a glance at the picture and didn't immediately see anything that stood out as anything that potentially wouldn't have been factory. So yeah, they did a good job of getting back into the designer's head and pushing the lines over to where they may well have been closer to having been on some concept sketches, before the tape measures came out and the roof line was made a) high enough for a tall businessman to wear his hat while driving and b) still represent the shape of the company's cars that year.

Given the overall "roundrects" shape of the car they kept it well in fitting. I only frowned a little at the rear of the door glass, until I mentally extended the lines across the vehicle and saw where they end up passing. There I see the rationale, and it works. The rear of the roof line being virtually in line with the back of the rear wheel does put it at limit of what looks "right" but the back of the car needs that little extra visual weight to retain the factory look. Flatten that out and yes, trad sled is what you get. I think this will still look pretty damn good in another 25 years, to be honest.

Phil

 

But it has a mustang II independent front suspension..... wah wah wah.....

 

Been looking for a good 49-50 custom business coupe for a while. Think they are a great style

 

One of my favorites.

 

Considering that it was born in the heights of "Billetmania", it looks just as fresh now as it did then. While those overdone cars of that era are snickered at, Pete's work has held up beautifully.

 

Yep..still got my copy of Rod&Custom Feb.1996.
Complete with the ,"Unmolested", pull out poster of
"KOPPERHED" unpulled .
When it first came out thoughts were...nice car , nice work,
Just another shop build ,money rolled by owner, hey if you can ..why not.
You do notice that the pull out poster was still in the magazine, unmolested and unsoiled, so apparently I didn't think it was exciting enough to pull anything out over.

Sent from my SM-T387V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I've always liked it. When we first started "negotiations" on our '50, it was the first pictures I pulled up.

 

To really appreciate it you have to see it in person. Didn't Steve Stanford do the concept drawing? Some radical kustom work was done to the Coupe. The compliment to the designer, it still look like it could be stock. One of my all time favorite Kustoms.

 

I know this is an older thread, but this thought was what really stuck with me when it hit the scene. It was just so "fresh" in a time when all billet was good billet. I didn't really understand then that it was more classic than fresh.

This is the car that changed my perspective on, well... cars. After this I really started digging into the past... and found what I had been looking for all along.

 

I was never sure if Kopperhed was based on the Stanford rendering or not, but Steve's artwork was great. Could somebody put it up in this thread, please?
I've admired this car (and the Stanford rendering) since they first appeared. I think this and the Foose Tudor are the best shoebox customs done in the last 25 years.
Well, I like my own shoebox a lot too, but it's a lot less radical than either of the other two cars:

 

Tony,

I thought for sure I had a copy of Steve’s Kopperhed rendering ... but the only Sanford “Shoebox artwork” I could find was this:

​

I’ll keep searching ...

 

Here's mine. For some reason I couldn't add it to my previous post:

 

Beautiful. I love Steve's stuff. His 3W wasn't called Kopperhed in the magazine; it was published long before Gibbons' car debuted.

 

Tony,

Correct ... the inspiration for “Kopperhed” came from a Steve Stanford rendering that appeared on page 28 of the June 1992 issue of ROD & Custom magazine ... as part of the “SKETCHPAD: Hot rod ideas for ‘50s cars” feature article.

Unfortunately, my copy of that issue is missing those pages ... and I haven’t been able to locate them in “my archives” ... but I’ll continue to search.

 

In true customs fashion, it has great appeal to some and not so much for others (individual taste thing), artistic work.
I liked it then and still do..passed the test of time.
Obvious quality thru-out this car.

 

By comparison, what happened to the twin spinner on the cover of the Feb 96 Rod & Custom ? I'm assuming its the Boyd built car. Any photos or later whereabouts?

 

my Avatar likes it

 

Perhaps @Pete Eastwood can "fill-in the blanks" regarding this photograph:

​

 

This isn't the same but a 5w made into a 3 window 46 Ford coupe. Done by Dutch Comstock many years ago. The guy was on Hamb but haven't heard from him in years, he had more pictures on here. This is the only one I have and it is not good.

Pat

 

Did a little diggin around and found the pic that I had saved...

 

That's true inspiration for our new project!

 

Great! Thank you for posting it.