Hi...I have always had both hot rods and customs..In my latter years (I'm mid 70's) I have built only customs...always stuck to the 40-50s style nothing way out mostly chop tops and smoothing..do all my own fabbing..the custom I'm doing now 41 Cad convert .. chopped screen posts and Carson top....every one loves a custom but there not capable of building them.. Harry Westergard custom's from the late 30-40's are what I draw my work from .... Jnaki has it right...... creativity never dies
Customs will never completely go away. Sure, there has been a shift, as many of the younger generation just don't understand the point of a full custom that could take years to complete. That doesn't mean the culture of custom is dying, but quite the contrary. There are thousands of cars out there in various stages of completion. Some may never get done by their current owners, but they most likely will eventually be found and continued. People do love customs, and some of the younger folks I've met simply want the opportunity to try things that they've never done. If for no other reason than to see if they can.
It's not for lack of interest for some. I like some customs, and some don't have any appeal to me. I guess the customs I like the best are the ones that haven't been overdone, simple and elegant. Too many things put on it to make you look at that other thing. The lack of supply of correct type cars to modify in many of our regions has an influence on how folks learn to modify. In the part of the Midwest I grew up in, I joke that you could put 36" tires on a Chevy 4wd pickup without a lift kit, and not touch a fender. Money. At 50, I have a hotrod A built from a rough body, no budget to build it with. It's mine. Been dreamin' about the cars of the magazines I bought when I was young.
Hey BB, In 1963, my dad bought his new Buick Riviera. He wanted a stylish car that had all of the creature comforts for his long commute to Los Angeles from Long Beach every day. But, my brother and I always thought he bought that new Riviera to be complementary to our 1958 Chevy Impala. He saw what we were doing to make the 58 Impala a little "custom," with what we were able to do in the time available. (wheels, lights, chrome accessories, dash knobs, etc) His idea was what you were talking about in the factory design and options. That Riviera had all of the so called, "custom" touches already built-in from the GM Factory. (even some wire wheels were the options to be ordered.) He drove that car daily until 1968, when he decided that he needed to get a big car. Boy, did he ever... A 1968 version of the Buick Riviera. Now, that was not just a big car, but a huge car that took up several parallel, parking spaces anywhere it went. We drove that big 68 Riviera down to Laguna Beach to get some wedding rings and could not find a parking spot anywhere close by. So, we had to drive into the neighborhood homes and park in a couple of open curbs. Jnaki Another friend also had a 63 Buick Riviera in his family. He did not want to do anything except put on some 5 spoke American Mag Wheels and caps. A trade was made (mags for a wooden surfboard) and wow, that made a huge difference...even with the factory styling and design. It made the design so much better.
Customs now days are doing just fine, they are popular all over the world, I would be more worried a bout the hot rod.
The cultural landscape is fast changing. The custom and hotrod purists are almost restorers these days because the formula is so defined. There are very few who have the skills and financial freedom to fully indulge in it unless they fully embrace the whole culture. Government regulations, fuel prices, parts availability all dampen the prospects of the freedom to do whatever you want in your backyard shed . . . That's if you have a backyard shed. I've been immersed in it since I was a kid. Unless our kids learn to embrace the passion then it will slowly fade into memory. But I've restored a few Cadillacs, built a great custom and now I'm building a great hotrod and I'm hoping and praying that my 17 year old son learns to love and enjoy this great hobby. Presently his idea of a "full custom" is a watercooled PC with a trillion gigabytes of ram. Therein lies the problem. Nevertheless, you have to remain optimistic.
I was thinking a little more on it. When I was a kid, wheels represented freedom. So skateboards and bikes were what we cut our teeth (and ground our elbows and knees) on. Every free minute was spent cleaning bearings or adjusting brakes or cables and changing the tubes. In 1977 age 12, I couldn't get a bmx frame so I hacksaw cut and shut a Chopper into one using an arc welder and then rattle canned it. I didn't realise it but I was sowing the seeds for my future passions. Half the time you were building and the other half you were riding. Fast forward 40years and now I gain immense satisfaction just tinkering away. Taking something broken, throwaway, neglected or obsolete and fixing it up. Now my kids have complex complexes because their iPhone 6S or Samsung S6 are "so outdated". . . . And who needs to even leave their room when all the entertainment in the world is live streaming . . . . Now I'm depressed. . . .
If you go back to the article Austinrod posted. It talks about how customs lost interest in the mid 60`s. They were the current and hottest trend at the time between 55 and 63. Every magazine featured customs. Motor Trend and even Road and Track. Then came the big motors, and people want more horsepower. It all boils down to the company`s paying for advertising which pays the bills for the magazines. Less custom coverage which means less interest. Remember a few years ago everybody wanted a motorcycle because of the fad of the chopper and Jesse James and the Tuttles. If you have a custom magazine only, it is freakin hard to sell advertising cause people who build customs don`t buy a large number of new parts. So the late 60`s and the 70`s, very little was in the magazines as far as customs. Except for the Merc issue in 77 Street Rodder. Then an organization called KKOA started in about 1980 and the popularity of customs began to rise. And people started to build again. Then the coverage in magazines increased. Before KKOA, there were not any major shows where customs could participate. I remember reading about a magazine photographer seeing a chopped Merc with a crowd around it outside the main gate at the Street Rod Nationals in the mid to late 70`s. The 80`s were a boom time for customs. The mid 90`s, customs started following the Street Rod trend with billet and chrome wheels. And painted bumpers and parts borrowed from newer cars. The HAMB came along and pulled people back into the traditional style of how customs should look. The magazines picked up on this and started following this trend. A few have succeeded and a few have not. Customs are alive and well. I have never understood how someone can be a diehard fan and then leave the hobby for 20 years and get back into it. I`ve been into customs my whole life and have never followed any fads that come and go.
You could see the writing on the wall with the covers of Car craft feb. 64 top ten customs They had top 10 every year in February To a year later February 1965 Dragsters ugh enough said Sent from KUSTOM
I've taken two brand new cars from the showroom into the shop and done some mild customizing on both of them using paint and trim. While it was something Barris, Watson, etc did in the sixties and conidered traditional then, it is not accepted on the HAMB. I saw one of the cars ('04 Navigator) the other day and the current owner certainly takes pride in the work I did as it is in excellent shape.
The Rivy was only one, the 60's t-birds were pretty damn cool as were the new shark stingray bodies just to name a couple. I see the custom builders as having a profound effect on what the showrooms offered. Not just the "race it on Sunday sell it on Monday" muscle car genre but the custom car as well. Detroit paid attention and got it right, for a time. That creativity has been lost to re-creations of an earlier era (Camaro, Mustang, Challenger, etc) just like Hollywood who cant seem to come up with an original movie script, they just keep remaking the good oldies. Maybe Detroit never was that creative, maybe they borrowed their genius from the street which would explain why as the customs genre fades so does Detroit and their ability to give us coolness on wheels. Just a thought from a cold medicine influenced mind.
All good points Bandit Billy. The big 3 finally realized what Harley Davidson figured out 30 years ago. Nostalgia sells. It is also easier to just rehash old stuff then to design something totally new. Bullet birds. The early Riviera's and in fact almost all of the early 60's cars showed custom influences with lower roof lines and simpler grills and and smoother bumpers. And less use of exterior chrome. Torchie
Love customs,even if done well on new cars,though most of my builds back over 60+ years have not been customs for my self,just a lot of hot rods an race cars. I was lucky enough to help out on a number of customs. My own first custom back in 1960,did make it into Car Craft jan 63,was a full custom Henry J with Olds Rocket V8. By the end of 1962,my custom had been in a lot of shows,the show in the Mag. was same show I got first place in the years before. The new car body's don't seem to be as good to do much too,too many look alike. So pretty hard to take a cool thing from one brand,than add to another so any one can even tell it was done .
As I read this whole post, I can't help but laugh.... Took my 52 ford off the road in may to redo it with adding some custom work... Frenching the head lights and taillights.. maybe a grill opening...not totally sure what exactly I'm going to do yet... But at the end of the day, if people out there think it's fugly, that's perfectly fine with me...... because I'm building it for me...isn't that what a custom is really suppose to be about, making your version of cool... wanting something different than your buddy's ride...if you're doing it for points, shows or just cuz ya can...then your doing it for all the wrong reasons...as far as custom cars dying...they are all around you if you look, you just don't agree with them....the young guys with true tuners are doing crazy stuff that by all definitions is custom work...like it or not....look around....it's everywhere Sent from my Z987 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Most folks are not very good artists or designers, hence most customs were not very nice looking. Barris did many cars that were just ugly, as did most other customizers! UGLY!!! 50's cars were mostly bulbous tall appliance looking things, with notable exceptions (Studes, Corvettes, T Birds and others).Their looks COULD be improved . Look at the 58 Chevy, it CAME already customized! People adopted the more is better idea, it isn't better.Nobody improved the Corvette, nobody ever designed a grille that looked better than Henry's 32 did. Fins, louvers, ridiculous upholstery (Upholstered wheel wells???)ALL chrome everything, 200 drawer pulls. It just got silly, became a fad like go karts. By the 60's most cars were already pretty nice looking, customizing went to full gimmickry, became a satire of themselves. Then it died.The cars were ugly, uninteresting and silly. It was way more FUN to go fast.Muscle cars came around after the custom was already dead! People "hopped up" ordinary cars, you didn't need a muscle car! Styles and interests change, THANK GOD! It's a good thing!
The usual rant on Kustom cars that I read too often here. There were fantastic and beautiful customs and there were not so good ones. Why are always the ugly ones talked about by some people? Was every Hot Rod well done and beautiful? The 32 Ford looked perfect as it came from the factory, so why hotrod, channel, chop, lower it? Why are we at the HAMB at all? Questions upon questions.......
"The usual rant on Kustom cars that I read too often here. " Because you disagree it becomes a rant.Gee, I thought the subject was The Decline of Custom Cars.Silly me. Maybe you see it often is because it's true!!! Ya Think???? I like customs. Even some very ugly ones. But I stick to my words, most people aren't good artists or designers. Jeeez, calm down man! Really, no need to flip out!
customs killed them self in the late 60s yans,vws an lowriders carried the love into the mid 70s then there was American Graffity this movie lit a fire in the car world. again we had .kustoms an hotrods.
The way the beaurocrats are introducing new laws here in UK and Europe and as far as I can see USA which makes it harder to modify cars mechanically, will probably have the effect of people turning to customs as a way of fulfilling their car passion.
I believe another reason for the decline in custom cars is because many of the old times who would chop, shorten, and section cars are gone now. Here on the west coast of Florida I had a friend who was in his 80's who built many custom cars and they all were chopped, sectioned, and in some cases he shorten and he did all the work himself. When we would be sitting at a car show together it seemed like someone would always be asking him how to go about chopping the roof of some car and he would explain the entire process of how to do it the correct way. He died in 2016 and with him went many of the trade secrets of building custom cars. How many guys do you know still using lead for their body work? Not many is my answer and that's just part of the reason the custom car market has changed God Rest in Peace Carl because you were a Master Craftsman in every sense of the word. Jimbo
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the expense of building a good custom car. In essence, you are restoring a full bodied car from the '40s-60s and then modifying it with all kinds of pricey parts, custom bodywork, paint, and chrome. The parts we need for these 50+ year old cars are getting harder to find every day. Even basic stuff like suspension and brake parts can be a real chore to locate, not to mention dealing with electrical systems and myriad one-year-specific details. There are only a handful of people that know what they're doing inside a 60 year old engine and transmission, and their services are priced accordingly. I could have built three Model As with the time and money I've spent on my '57 Chrysler, and that's no exaggeration. But I don't want a Model A....
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