Art & Inspiration do's and don'ts for a 50's high school car

I have a 53 Coronet ... not the most popular 50's car ...

being a original survivor car ... I'm not ready to pull the Trigger Yet on doing a
Restore or Customizing it .
So my question to the Esteemed members here...

What would a High School Kid do to it in say 1959 as a first car ?

 

Probably hubcaps / whitewalls.

 

Glasspacks are a must or no mufflers at all. Maybe the the no mufflers was an Iowa farm kid thing......

 

Spring or fall of 59? Will make a big difference.......

 

spring

 

Most of the US was smitten by the rake by '59, so torch the front springs, 8.20s out back, a set of Starfires or '55 Lancers, dual pipes with 22'' steelpacks and you'd be good. Hopefully, you'd be lucky enough to have an OD trans instead of Fluid Drive.

 

Well, I'd go with what Moriarity suggested. A friend of mine has a 53 that I occasionally tinker on for her. Someone swapped a 273 and auto in it. Cool cars, lots of potential.

 

Drop the front, a little, add some Lancer wheel covers and split the manifold with glass pacs. Remove the bumper guards and fog lights. Dechrome the hood and deck and shave the emblems, black primer spots until you can repaint. White tuck and roll in the package tray. Clean and simple.

 

^^ Just like the baby blue one, above, but with wheel covers.

 

Buy everything that is shiny from JC Whitney that you can and throw it on the car! Mudflaps with reflectors, portholes, dual antennas, ect.

 

Guess I am not "self respecting" then. Where I come from, not many, if any, high schoolers would have had as new a car as that. Heck, most of the teachers did not.

Ben

 

Rear seat speaker with a fader switch....reverb if you could afford it. Maybe reverb was early '60's?

 

Do: Get your favorite gal and get in the back seat!
Don't: Forget protection!

 

Oh my God, no! It's a nice little 2 door, don't gook it all up, what ever you do.

 

A kid with a six year old car back then was pretty rare in my neighborhood. If it was mine I would probably just bull nose that hood ornament off and call it a day.

Otherwise the car in your picture is just about right.

 

Don't forget to throw a blanket in the trunk.......

 

Hello,

In So Cal, during 1959, there were all kinds of mild customs roaming the high school parking lots. Then if one were to go to our version of hot rod central, in Bixby Knolls, there would be the cream of the crop. There were stock looking cars like yours, except they lowered the front, put on chrome reversed wheels if they could afford them, and kept the white walls.

Your car has good roots. If it comes with the stock Hemi and has plenty of miles, you might want to thoroughly check out the motor. If it looks and sound like your car is represented, just drive it like it is for now. Most of the teenagers drove older sedans until they found something they liked. But, there were plenty of guys/girls that just drove what they had, as it gave them the feeling of being free. It was just something that all of us just felt behind the wheel of any car, let alone a cool one like yours. The cars were mostly 2 door sedans. The 4 doors had the connotation of borrowing your parent’s family car for the cruising scene.

There were plenty of 4 doors cruising our neighborhood as the girls drove together in their parents’ cars. We always welcomed a car load of girls whenever they showed up in the hangout drive-in parking lots. They just did not get the back row hot rod section that was, more or less, reserved for the “later-in-the evening,” drag racers.

Jnaki

From a hot rod/drag racer’s point of view, I would reverse the whitewalls to the inside. That was what most of the kids that had whitewalls did, prior to just wearing out the whitewalls and then, buying new blackwalls…(couldn’t afford a new set anyway…) Now, your chromed reversed rims would stand out more because of the contrast with the black and your ½ black sedan.

The new rims made any car look like a cool cruiser or hot rod. The small hubcaps and painted rims did not come in until later on in our teenage years. That look gave the hot rods a businessman’s coupe style that some liked, but most really wanted the chromed reversed wheels.

Remember, it was 1959 and most had after school jobs, but it wasn’t a bunch of accessories like side cut out pipes, flipper hubcaps, it was something that most could afford. My brother had his first 1951 Oldsmobile 2 door sedan that he bought painted pale yellow. He drove it stock looking with whitewalls and he added screw in Moon Discs for half the cost of chromed reversed wheels or a set of flipper hubcaps. It was the only cruiser/hot rod in the whole area with Moon Discs. The film the I took was in late 1957, just before he sold it to a friend. The friend drove it like it was in the film for many years into the 60s.

51 Olds mild modifications for teenage cruising.

One final thing, if there was money, then white tuck and roll everywhere in the interior including the ceiling and package tray, made the whole car stand out wherever it was parked or driven. But, our friends that saved money only had enough to drive to Mexico to get the nice looking, but less expensive tuck and roll for the cars.

 

White tuck-n-roll back window shelf usually bought from Honest Charlie, Almquist, or JC Whitney..speakers if you were willing to cut a hole in it.. If you can find one a Reverb or vibra-sonic connected to the radio was always cool.

 

Since I am a paint and body guy I would shave and deck it and paint it all Black. The white makes this car look tall. But sounds like your not a paint guy, I would leave the body as is because it looks decent in the picture and even though my high school cars had primer spots where I shaved off trim, now I think it would be a shame to spot up that paint for the sake of making it look like an in progress custom. But I would rake it with big and little white walls { smaller front/ bigger rear and you won't have to mess with springs} Lancer caps with the dark centers. And paint the wheels black! Those dam red wheels are a fad that have been done beyond the death! Add some twice pipes with some chrome tips and cruise! Larry

 

I agree with everything "Moriarity" said in his first post. Because I had a steady girl, I had my name painted on the flat area just below the drivers window, and my girl's name the same place on the passengers side. Also, if the car had a name, it would be painted on the front fender just behind the wheelwell, preferably with an approriate cartoon or logo.

 

Would have had to have been converted to 12 volt for the reverb! Like the others, I would have to agree with Moriarity!

 

The hub caps need to be stolen.

 

1959, Drury High School in North Adams, MA (about as far from Boston as you can get). The student's cars were mostly newer than the teacher's cars. My dad was a teacher, there was very little extra money, he had the only car and I walked everywhere.

 

Like Moriarity said... drop spindles, shave some chrome, fill moulding holes and primer the repair areas. Here is my dads '50 Olds in the late 50s. If no body work, just lower it with fiesta or lancer caps.

 

Except a visor! Hotrods didnt have visors. That was for old men...or lowriders

 

Cut the front coil springs.
Dodge Lancer hubcaps.
Split manifold, dual exhaust with glass packs and chrome exhaust tips.
Install a floor shifter.
Install rear speakers.
JC Whitney seat covers.....if needed.
And possibly, nose and deck.....with primer spots!

 

Dual exhaust and or Dumps. A nice small Chrome air cleaner. And the obligatory green pine tree air freshener and rear speaker.

 

Lancer wheel covers, dual glass pack exhaust, nosed & decked, mild lowwering and make the engine bay nice. Then DRIVE & ENJOY al of the GR8 comments you get.