Features Feeling Continental?

Let's not forget Charlie Durso's radical custom built in 1957.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97125

 

Here is the picture of what my dad was talking about that we are doing on my car,

 

Oh...I like that!

 

Thanks, I needed that, after a frustrating day working on it!

 

Lol ah come on dad "it's the joy of building"

 

I guess I am turned off by the whole motorhome and jeep look of some of them. The ones on the 30's cars were designed to be part of the car, not an add-on bauble.

 

Yes I agree, that's the way mine was originally "stuck on" and you pushed the center cap button to release it, then it flipped back so you could access the trunk

 

X2 It flows with the car not a add on .

 

If you're looking for history, I think you may be the mistaken one. You might pick up a book and read. This is a forum. This is a source of discourse about history and aesthetic. Not a place of preservation or admiration. Yes, that exists because it is part of the discourse, but that isn't what a forum dedicated to anything is about.

Re-writing history sometimes does more justice than placating wrong information. Through magazines and select anecdotes we miss on cultural trends that weren't part of the coastal scenes. People are constantly re-writing history to make it less biased and more correct. Custom cars are no different.

You're absolutely correct that you need to approach it with respect and care.

 

While others are doing the opposite for their own purposes.

Anyhow Taste is What It Is.

I happen to like the continental kits on some cars, but I don't like the trap-door trunk lid on cars where the wheel doesn't move.

I thought about making one that drops electrically, so you can access the traditional trunk; and if you drop it far enough it lays the spare over presents it to you for changing.

 

^truth. That is the problem with history, it is to be interpreted and recited. Some people will try to push their own agenda through either their interpretation or through the way they reframe it. Though, with the case of things I may say, it might be ignorance that feeds their malalignment rather than malice.

Also, I think the hate for continental kits stem from the "just like the 50s" mentality of the past few decades

 

History schmistory. Ya wanna go to class then get the books out and getcha some edumacation. All of the stuff we preserve, relate to, or gain inspiration from has a lot less to do with history than it does timeless style, individual taste and merit. Whether or not one likes or dislikes any of it is EXACTLY what this discussion forum is about. Nothing can make someone like a feature, a color, a model year, and in fact even some of the styles executed by the most esteemed of builders. I'm not all chubbed up about most of Bailon's cars. Very few of them move me and it has zero to do with respect or history. I've said it before that this place is only missing a milk crate and a cup of coffee sometimes. There's not many things better than hangin with your buds in the shop and talkin over a car, a builder, a wild color, elapsed times, and anything and everything related. How boring, how much would it suck if everyone there HAD TO like the same shit? Even more correct, the friendly rivalries that exist around all of this are as important and necessary as the lowly little spark plug, in that it wouldn't even work without it.






posted in Morse Code on the bumper of a continental kit...

 

I wonder if "Crazy Legs's" car used to live in Tulsa.

Someone nearby like Okie Pete might have some access to what became of "Griff's" similar Fordillac. I think it had the extended quarter panels, too. It was reputed to have the Cad engine and "Continental kit" to facilitate importation of alcohol into the then dry state.

 

Could really give a crap one way or the other about continental kits, just opened the thread because I happened to pass a white 1957 Lincoln Continental down in western Carolina today. Beautiful car, and first I've ever seen.
Awesome reply Ryan. I've had that same thought about these forums, all of them, not just the HAMB, since I started reading them trying to get information. The bar reference is right on.

 

Revisionism is part of the process. There is a history of history. I find it quite interesting.

A few days ago on the Early Automotive Engineers thread I said that I'd like to see a thorough and accurate early automotive history written from a critical political-economic viewpoint (i.e. in terms of a process by which established power interests constantly seek to enclose emerging technology while a parallel process seeks to vernacularize it.)

A history of the Continental spare may be authoritative in terms of fact if not in terms of our subsequent attitudes to it. But there is also a history of the way people have seen the Continental spare at different times and in different places and cultures. The former interests me for the creative inspiration it might provide (I've come to find historical accuracy much more fertile than any popular cliché), and the latter sheds light on what people are trying to get out of being into what they are into. It's all worthwhile doing if it takes your fancy.

 

Terry, not 100% the history on my car other than the customizing was supposively done in Texas in late 50's and then jump 40 years it was seen crusing in Des Moines Iowa, a friend of mine bought it and its sat ever since with a Lincoln engine that was in it, I bought it from him and trying to bring it back to life. I'd love to find more info about it but I never get anywhere

 

"Continentals";....I really like them when they DON'T look like a wart on the ass of a beautiful woman!!!!!.....

 

Interesting in that they present a challenge for the customizer (and the manufacture) to incorporate in a pleasing, non-obtrusive manner. I want one on my Nash. First I need a Nash.

 

Totally agree. You're on the HAMB by choice, because you share the obsession. You don't crap where you eat, you don't crap in your bed. We're all brothers and sisters in our shared interest. What's there to argue about?

 

I just love the paint on that Metropolitan.

 

Scout carries a spare tire.Looks like it belongs there.

Not a continental.

 

The REASON I don't like them, and I've seen plenty, is because they're usually:

1. Freakin' HUGE
2. A cheap looking FAKE
3. Don't enhance the look of the vehicle

I love history and have studied it quite a bit. I don't like a lot of it, but it is, what it is. It can't be changed. Honestly, a lot of wishing for the "good old days" depends on who you are or were. Because for a lot of us, the "good old days" were bull shit. Period. Also, getting quoted, sorta makes it personal. I'm here to discuss, not tip toe around.

Now, I'm going for a drive. sigh

 

I like em. That 59 Ford looks so right. The 57's did too.
58 are weird but you can change the hood,,,,,,,,,,thats not going too far, is it?

 

The wildest Continental I ever saw was in a Popular Mechanics magazine about 1953 or 54.

Some inventor decided to simplify parking. By making a Continental spare that could be lowered to the ground and lift the whole back of the car, then wheel the back of the car sideways.

If you wanted to parallel park all you had to do was nose the car into the parking spot, press a button and the back of the car would wheel in. If you were boxed in, it would wheel you back out again.

One of those would be awesome.

 

Like melted butter

 

Now that is nice.

 

..the light green Kaiser above is by the Drag-n Shop (I think), TOTALLY BADASS! I love it!

 

The Kaiser is a Drag N Shop build. Not sure why, but the rear has been completely redone and no longer sports the molded continental.