I've attached an article from the East Coast publication Custom Rodder, dated Feb. 1958 titled "How You Can be a Better Customizer". It offers some sage advice for the home-built custom that is worth thinking about as you work on your own car. There ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
good points. They should be required reading before starting a custom. I'll highlight a few that stuck out to me: 1. The best work is done slowly, carefully and thoughtfully. Make a solid plan, take your time executing the idea, and do it right the first time, finishing what you’ve started before you move on to another part. 2. Finish the core customizing correctly and well, before you get radical- Quality over quantity. Just frenching and de-chroming done really well is worth more than a bunch of ticky-tacky wild mods. Keep in mind the old tobacco saying: Don’t bite off more than you can chew! 3. Work with the natural lines of your car- Don’t fight them. If you bought a shoebox Ford, think about what you liked in the factory design in the first place and start from there. Before you tack on a set of spikes or fins, think about embracing the bodywork that your starting with. 4. Study new and old customs you find appealing, and make up your mind about what mods you want to do on your own car. Take photos at shows, buy good books, scour the HAMB for picture posts with the same model you have. Learn from the masters and steal the good stuff! I especially like the "work with the natural lines of the car". I find many customs, will have customizations that look worse than what the factory started with. I think people need to respect the work of the talent that was in the factory design studios before they go cutting off all their hard work. Improve what you started with, don't butcher it.
Amen! I've spent hours staring at photos of cars I like AND cars I don't like, figuring out what the differences were. It used to be hard to find those images, but thanks to the HAMB and the internet in general nowadays it's a matter of minutes, not days or weeks. My car is not the ultimate kustom but for a first attempt it's not bad and it does look better than stock. (Of course the current project will be a total knockout! I'm a quick learner.)
These suggestions are so simple, yet I'm always seeing interesting (in a bad way) ways people seem to screw them up. I think a minimalistic or "less is more" approach is a good place to start. That's my internet opinion, anyway.
True today as it was then. I've got a bunch of those Custom Rodder "little pages" magazines, and the featured cars often DO NOT fit the advice given on those same pages. There are some hilariously awful cars featured! Brian
Not much different than looking at pics of ourselves when we were 17.LOL Certain customs, like all great art will always stand the test of time. Other's that were once considered cool will not. The things that were done because they were the "New, Hot", trend of the day usually fall in the in the latter catagory. Torchie.
I've got three key words to building the perfect period custom RESEARCH, RESEARCH and RESEARCH the era, fad's and styles before you start.
exactly, more knowledge will never hurt your build. 90% of my time spent on the internet is research and looking at things that work and dont work, saving ideas in a folder, book marking pages, and reading on how things were executed
Besides the 'work with the lines of the car' advice (too often ignored), the biggest problem I see is failure to maintain a consistent 'theme'. Custom treatments that by themselves could look good, but clash when put on one car. If the front uses one 'theme', don't change to another for the rear. The really great cars (few and far between IMO) have this 'wholeness' of theme, with every styling element working together.
Jive-Bomber.,. Some things never change. The basics, set-down in that article, are just as valid for interpretation today as they were 50-60 years ago. My own collection of ALL the "little books" goes back to the first one I bought in 1953: the October, '53 Issue of "Honk !" with Don Ferrara's modest, tasteful, cool, Shoebox on the cover. If it weren't for Don, I might not be writing these words today...he led me into the "World of Rods & Customs" all those years ago. (And, about 7 years ago, I finally was able to find him and to thank him personally for that.) Many of the younger builders are trying hard to "make their own mark" by actually learning from and/or studying the work of the Pioneers...to "get it right" and keep the flame on the torch of Rods & Customs burning brightly. And, as we all know (and in the words of the late-Ritchie Havens) "Younger men get older everyday"...so, as long as those newer builders follow what's in their own hearts, as far as their dreams, visions, crafts, and, talents go, AND, keep the lessons & ideas that they've acquired from those that came before, our Hobby/Sport/Industry will live on with their finished "works of rolling sculpture" far into the Future. Thanks, so much, for Posting this ! Jonnie www.legends.thewwbc.net
Great post, thanks for bringing it to light. These are all the skills of patients that I continually beat myself to keep on the right track even if it seems like the car will rust away before it can be completed.
The Jalopy Journal
