Jerry Titus started the Merc/Duece Reunion in 79 and soon after started the Kustom Kemps of America with its first show in 81 which rekindled the custom car movement. The magazine coverage of these shows helped greatly. With Classic and Custom, Street Rodder and Custom Rodder and of course Hot Rod.
Not much said about mini trucks, but I think they were the custom revival. From reading the HAMB, it’s where most of the readership comes from. The mini truckers brought air bags and the layed out look. Custom paint and frenched lights. Totally custom. And,I’m glad they did. Often they have a high level of detail and finish. But, the rusty rat rod fad contributes mightily to the death of both hotrods and customs. IMO, it screws up even the HAMB.
The price to build a custom car or a hot rod for that matter is at a cost that is out of most young guys wallets. How many of you here built a hot rod while in high school? Take just building a good performance motor, when I was in high school (1980) I could go to school, work part time and still afford a quick motor. Now working full time with a family and mortgage it's a big budget item now. Engine kits are a perfect example, in 1984 I could buy a kit complete with trw forged pistons, moly rings, clevite bearings, h.v. oil pump, etc for a 455 pontiac (sbc's were cheaper) for 315.00 out the door, now days that won't even buy pistons. Point is this rise in cost is across the board with the newest extreme being paint. A quart of centari with hardner was about 30 bucks, 30 bucks won't even buy an average pint of base paint. If you want to really see paint scare you price a red or maron base paint. Now we are seeing the price of metal rise and this last weekend I priced 2" black pipe for my air compressor, $1.35 an INCH. 18 gauge sheets of steel are about 2 1/2 times higher than they were 16 months ago atleast around here. But it's like anything, once the price rises for what ever reason, once that reason is fixed the price never seems to come back down. Another example there is anti-freeze. Anyway point is, think back to high school, what were you able to build at that time and could you, in today's prices, be able to accomplish the same thing in those same circumstances? I bet the answer is no.
You also had to realize: there were no shows for customs. NSRA was for up to 1948. When Goodguys started, it was up to 1954 then up to 1959. But that was in the late 80`s. Locally there were few big shows that let 50`s cars in, but it was mainly pre 49 cars. Then the ISCA shows, but most people said you had to have changes every year. The shows in Hershey started because a guy couldn`t take his 54 Corvette to any AACA shows. It was too new. The guy rented a place for a few years then decided it would be cheaper to buy (build) a facility and host more shows.
I’ve said this before. There were a bunch of customs built in the eighties and nineties. Those owners are getting on in years, and cars will be back on the market. Just a fact of life. Car customization is not dead. Have you any idea the hundreds of thousands of dollars kids are spending on lifted trucks every day of the week? Our brand of custom will be around and live again in some form.
The custom evolved over time from tasteful dreams snd ideas the owners had to make their car there own. to full on show car customs that got all sorts of stupidity done to them simply to garner points, points over style or functionality at this point. then you had Ed “Big daddy” Roth and his “creations . I consider his stuff “Art with wheels” not so much a custom car . I love them and think they are killer . then you have the low rider scene , wether you like them or not , the good ones are done to an extreme level of quality and detail that just blows your mind if you focus on the work done snd quality of the work done . In the 70’s you had the Fad T’s with there dining room chandelier lights and copious amounts of brass and Tikky takky. The 80’s brought the “ Street rod and “ Resto rod” scenes . It’s the 80’s so monetary excess was the status quo. Amd you got bigger better more expensive builds simply for the sake of it. then the late 90’s brought the Rat rod scene. In the beginning I think rat rods where a big “fuck you” to the high end big budget builds and a way to get back to the “ roots” of hot rodding. If you look at early rat rods they where rough around the edges hot rods and customs. Then just like radical show customs and big budget rod builds . They got stupid with pots and pans spider webs and any kind of junk to make the car look like junk, it became a completion as to who could build the biggest stupid hunk of shit that kinda sorta moved. ( I think this scene has seen the high water mark and is now dying) in the last 10 years or a bit more there is a huge resurgence in “ Traditional rods and customs “ this is an era I have always loved . I think it’s going a bit extreme in recent years with trying to source any snd every old part and now paying super inflated prices for stuff that really does not matter. euro and tuner cars are popular now with younger folks, but that’s because they are cheap to buy snd cheap to mod. When I was in high school Honda’s and vw’s where popular ( so where camaro sand mustangs but insurance and fuel where pricey for most of us making minimum wage) Amd as we got older snd started working full time the hatch backs got replaced with V8 ‘S and fun. Anyways what’s my point ? Cars are a evolution of time, tastes and popularity . Nothing is dead , it’s just waiting for it’s next iteration.
You can easily get credit to buy new vehicles (some as long as 84months), which is what most young people do and the dealerships are happy to sell whatever customizations you want with your new car/truck as part of the deal. That's where they make their money. Pretty hard to walk into the bank and ask for a car loan for a project car and get one. There is also the fact that new car modifications are instant gratifications you have them done before you even pick up your ride.
The Jalopy Journal
