Old timers like me when do you first remember seeing striping on hot rods and customs

Im 62 got my first look at watching a pinstriper do hot rods and customs when i was 11 in 1958, it was in texas watching an old man about 50 called louie the line man, back then i remember it being called getting lines on your hot rod. A couple of guys told me old customs and hot rods did not have striping back then, i sure remember different.
Foot

 

Roth in 1958,----Lynwood, Ca.

 

More like Von Dutch in about '54.

 

I don't remember a whole lot before about '58 or 9. But it would have been in that time frame that a friend of the Ol' Man named Kenneth came by his shop on a Friday night. Him and the Ol' Man drank a bottle of red wine and the Ol' man closed up the shop. Kenneth was still pulling lines on stuff when we arrived early the next morning. Nothing was sacred, I guess he was supposed to stripe a roadster and a coupe that were in the shop.

The tool boxes, the bench, the crapper door, a motor cycle etc.

Anyway cars were getting striped way before that.

 

Yes, Von Dutch in '54. (Dutch did the radiator on Art Chrisman's '29 Tudor for the HRM spread in '54) In 1955, I was at the San Jose Autorama, watching local line artist Buddy Kincaid (aka "Fuzzy the Striper") line a root-beer '29 Roadster Pickup. Up walks an older man in an overcoat, says loudly "That line's crooked," and repeats it! Flat top-wearing Fuzzy gets real annoyed, and the old guy points and says, "See that line?" Fuzzy turns around, holds the camel-hair sword up, and says: "Think you can do better?"
The old guy snatches the brush, leans waaay over the rope, and pulls a perfectly straight line all the way down the beltline, from cowl to quarter! Then he pulls some business cards out of his pocket, and throws them on the running board. The cards read: TOMMY THE GREEK. Oakland. I still have one he threw down.

 

They were striping Conestoga wagons, Roman chariots, etc...
Probably the first hot rod striped was the second hot rod built.

 

To the best of my knowledge the first occurrence of striping within the pages of Hot Rod Magazine was the November 1950 issue. It appears on a car from Indiana!

 

Thats a great story

 

My friend Carl Hovey Striped my 36 coupe in 57, it was in primer, but the striping was
first class

 

Cars have been striped since day one but my theory (and I am one of those who says your car doesn't need a bunch of gaudy striping) is that the stripes should compliment the car and not dominate the car. Personally I don't want to see a pinstripe on a car when I am 20 ft a way and may be notice that there are some there when I am ten feet away and actually see them when I am five feet away.

On a hot rod or race car yep the striping is part of the whole deal but on a custom it should be a detail element that highlights a part or line on the car.

 

I don't know what year, but the Dean Jeffrie's striping on Ann DeValle's Barris built '42 marks a real turning point in customizing. (And the beat goes on ...)

 

Cars have been striped since day one but my theory (and I am one of those who says your car doesn't need a bunch of gaudy striping) is that the stripes should compliment the car and not dominate the car. Personally I don't want to see a pinstripe on a car when I am 20 ft a way and may be notice that there are some there when I am ten feet away and actually see them when I am five feet away.

On a hot rod or race car yep the striping is part of the whole deal but on a custom it should be a detail element that highlights a part or line on the car.


WELL SAID!

 

I'm not sure exactly when I first saw striping, but do know the first car I striped was a brand new '56 Chev.

 

Thanks for your PM Barefoot.

I was one of those guys saying old customs did not have striping.

You have to see this in the right context. Yes old customs in 1956 did have striping on them, and they might even have had it in 1954.
But to me the styling of your car screams 1949-1951... like it could have rolled out of the the Ayala or Barris shop in those years. The lines on the chop and simplicity in overall design of the car are typical for the late 40's early 50's customs, as how they used to built them. And in those days the paintjob of extreme deep organic paints was the way to go.
There was no way those cleaned up trunks, hoods and fenders would be cluttered up again with pinstriping.
It was in 1954-56 that car show trophy winning thrills "demanded" for season updates. And what easier way to "update" you car was to add pinstriping.

Many custom cars that where built in the late 40's early 50's where uglified with way over the top Jeffries/Dutch striping. Dont get me wrong. I do like some nice and suptile striping. But as the samples below show... many cars looked way better without them.


Sample one as intended originally by Barris.




Now with fresh for a new car show season striping




Sample two






Sample three






All these samples of added striping are not an improvement of the original styling... at least not in my eyes.


And here is another sample of one "what where they thinking" striped custom. This was in the mid 1950's and I don't know if the car was ever finished without the striping... but really! did they really feel the striping was an improvement over the freshly painted cleaned up body!

Guess I'm just a big fan of a solid color painted custom, or perhaps a nice two tone with a contrasting color pinstripe between the colors. But in my eyes a cleaned up custom really does not need any pinstriping... just like they built them in the 40's and early 50's.

 

My baby carrage was pin striped !!

AND it had bigs and littles

 

great car samples . i will take all of them into consideration for future projects. . yo , atwater mike. u should post a pic of the greeks card. ever had offers to buy or sell the card?

 

Rikster, thanks for the great feedback and opinons, and cool pictures. Im sure your right about some of the cars back then, but for me its hard to break old habits, got my first car at 14 a 1940 plymouth coupe lowered it and then took it to louie the line man in texas with ever dime i had in my pocket which was $21.00 he did the hood and trunk for that, ive never looked back all my customs ive had, have been striped, if you check my album on here you will see that i always try to have something a little different. Im 62 now and guess i just still like the old skool way. The olds now has striping on the front of the hood, small amount on top of fenders above the head lights, deck lid and small amount on top of tail lights. Im sure some guys will love it and some will hate it, so i will have to except good comments with the bad,and i dont mind hearing either one, but the end result is i did it my way, the way i remember it, the old skool way. The end result is you the owner has to be pleased with what you do to your car. So keep the comments good or bad coming, that way i get to meet lots more kool rod and custom people.
Thanks foot

 

The first striping I ever saw was only on the dashboard. The car also had these goofy footprints that tracked from the ashtray to the glovebox. East LA, 1955-58.

 

I thought this was a post about girls undressing to music...................................

 

How about scanning that card and posting it?

 

You might want to edit your post.

I don't want to see ANY pics of him "Stripping"...

 

This was probably "Von Dutch" his real name was Kenneth Howard...sounds like him as he did this several times,,,stipe and drink wine....all night long

 

it would be kool to see that card

 

thats is one kool story

 

I've always said the first HOT ROD was when one of those Romans added a second horse. and your right he probably had it striped.

I grew up in the 40's-50's in Southern California and I did see all the fads of the times. one of my favorites was a friend of my aunt, had his new
56 Olds striped by Von Dutch in a style that I'd never seen before. I know now it was Dutch doing his version of Tommy the Greek.

 

Grainy pic but done in 1955 by a buddy's dad that was a sign painter. Only car of many I've owned that was striped.

Jim

 

why does this thread only get one star?? this is true traditional hot rodding history at its finest, and now it will be up here when people search it. I for one learned someting. I thought striping as we know it started a little earlier, but now it looks like it was about the mid 50's.
Thanks all the guys that have posted and thanks rikster for the pics.

 

I agree with Ollin, this should get more stars and the History of striping from what my Uncle's have told me was definetly Pre War from what they saw growing up. I'm sure though it really took off more after the War seeing Planes especially, and a lot of our bombs with stripes and messages on them. I think that might have influanced a lot of Post War projects.

Michael

 

I first picked up a brush in 1955 after seeing pictures of pinstriping in various car magazines;mostly Hot Rod and Rod&Custom.Given that the lead time for stories in magazines back then was sometimes 1-2 years(for feature cars anyway)a date of 1953 doesn't seem unrealistic.

I agree that a lot of the cars pictured really didn't benefit from the addition of stripes,but that was a trend and a lot of people followed trends back then.

I would usually stripe just about anything a customer wanted but as I have grown,"chronologically-challenged" I have modified that somewhat.Several cars in my area that I have been asked to stripe I have actually talked the owners out of doing it as I felt it wouldn't add anything(in fact it may have detracted from)the car.Can you say,"putting lipstick on a pig"?

Decorative striping has been around a LOT longer than the automobile and will likely outlive it as well.

 

I'm guessing that I first noticed pinstriping around 58-59 at 15-16 years old. Probably was Von Dutch that was the first name I remembered back then.

Years later I met Jack Burr (R.I.P.) and got to know him. He was a great guy and fellow drag racer. I loved to sit and watch him do his thing. He did art work and striping on some of my racecars in the 67-78 period.

Here's his card from back in those days.