Technical Counting the Modifications on a Custom

I'll fully agree with this.... and maybe go a little further. Knocking off the emblems and trim, lowering it, Appletons, and a set of wheels/tires/skirts doesn't IMO make a custom.

 

Them guys were just making a living. Building what the paying public wanted. At least I would hope that they had better taste then that and were not just lemmings.


A lot of the older builders were just wizzards, if you could take any one mod on the Scoopy car by itself, for instance, it would be amazing, it is when the synergy of it hits you that is looses its tastefulness.

 

Shouldn't you be looking at ISCA rules 1965 and prior?

 

Mild for me are the cars without body mods, maybe just dechroming, new hub caps... lots of cars like that, very nice cars.

I've focused mine on being a full custom... based on this list my car has all that stuff except for sectioning. Mine is channeled too.

Shaved-emblems,door handles,side trim,drip rails
Nosed-removed hood ornament,trim,emblems
Decked-removed emblems,handle,lock
Slammed-lowered
Frenched-sunk in headlights,moulded trim ring,antenna,tailights,side markers
Chopped-chopped roof
Channeled-body dropped over frame
Rounded corners-hood,doors,trunk
Sectioning(not as common as the rest)-removing a section from the middle of the body,horizontally

 

On the OP's question. Only the nosed, decked and shaved, changed tail lights and lowering would be considered custom mods.

Some of the other things might add a point to that collective area such as the repainted dash and custom knobs.

All of the Pep boys or Autozone add on's won't count as custom features. Only the HOG guys count adding chrome trinkets as "customizing" and you sure don't want to get caught telling them that their gold plated clutch covers or screaming Eagle emblems aren't customizing.

And it is "modifications" not add ons.

 

This is spot on, If it doesn't improve the looks then why do it?

 

Not possitive,But our clubs were with NHRA and the clubs did a lot of both the shows and the drag races.
It was some USA big thing at the time,cuz I had to use them goofy rules at a few shows over about 2 years,being I did a lot of car shows back then,having built two cars for my self and worked on many others.

 

I agree...the talent was second to none. But,you have to agree,many of the Customs back then were ugly. I never cared for the "over the top" Customs. I always liked the original,themed Customs though...
Pink Panther Car
Popcorn Wagon
Beer Wagon
Milk Truck
Bathtub Car
Barbershop Car
Boothill Express
Green Hornet
Batmobile
Munster Coach
Dragula
ALL Roth's Cars
Lil Coffin
and many more that escape me right now.

 

I'm not so sure that "show rods" like Bob mentions fit in here, but I can see how some selection boards would mix em up with the rest. My imagination tends to remove the over the top examples from the tasteful chopped/sectioned/channeled versions that started as a whole car. Something modified vs conceived. Some of the show rods were awesome, and true enough, some of the customs were simply awful. What's really funny is how some pitch a monster tent in their pants when an ugly or poorly built car from our favorite times surfaces. Some hack using angle iron everywhere and shabby rat shit welds, then a crowd screams, "Oh yeah!! Just like it was!!!" when in fact, it wasn't. Just one of the hacks from back then which was same thing as it is now.

 

Those are all showcars or show rods - definitely not customs.

This is the problem with car shows when it comes to customs. Most promoters/judges have absolutely no idea what a custom really is. They see virtually any unique vehicle as a custom.
That is why true custom enthusiasts have for years now, sat and watched as hidiously ugly atrocities-of-a-car continue to repeatedly win all the big 'custom d elegance' or 'world's most beautiful custom' type of awards, while the true and beautiful REAL customs sitting right next to them, are consistently overlooked for those awards.