History Early Custom and Harry Westergard history, as told by Teen Angel

I've always been a fan of Teen Angel's artwork. His style was unique. His technique was impressive. Most of all, I dug his subject matter. In addition to the occasional vato with the creased up khakis or the rucca with big hair, Teen Angel always had a way with drawing the sleekest, most classy customs you had ever seen in print or on the boulevard. As a kid flipping through my uncle's old Lowrider magazines from the late 70's, I became enamored with those "Teen Angel style cars", as I called them. They were different than most of the rides that were showcased in the magazine itself. Many of the cars in Teen Angel's artwork didn't have a bunch of trim and accessories like all the old bombs I was used to seeing in my neighborhood. And they didn't have that forward rake on blackwall tire combo that was prevalent in the hotrod magazines. They were different. I didn't know alot about where they came from or if they existed outside of Teen Angel's drawings. But I knew I liked them.

Fast forward 20 years. I've been around lots of styles of cars. Built a couple, owned a couple, sold a couple, and even wrecked a couple. I'm no expert, but I like to think that I know a bit about custom car history. It wasn't till many years after my first exposure to customs and lowriders that I actually learned the who, when, where, and why of those early customs of the 40's, 50's, and 60's. I learned that those "Teen Angel style cars" were actually Westergaurd style cars. And that along with Harry Westergard, there were other pioneers like Sam Barris and Gil Ayala just to name a couple. In my 30 years I've fallen in love with Customs over and over again. It started with the stories my grandpa told about his cars in the 50's. And it grew with the countless magazine articles and books that I planted my nose in. Now we have the internet with places like the Jalopy Journal and the HAMB that have proven themselves to be great wealths of knowledge for hotrods and customs. My favorite resources are still old periodicals. To this day, my biggest sources of inspiration come from the little books of the 50's and 60's and my tried and true collection of vintage Lowrider magazines from the 70's and 80's.

This article is from the March 1980 issue of Lowrider Magazine. Teen Angel wrote this article to express his love for and pay homage to the period of custom history that he drew so much inspiration from. I'm blown away by his understanding and knowledge of Custom history. Factually and historically, this article reads very much like an excerpt from Hot Rod & Custom Chronicle written by Thom Taylor 20 years later. The difference being that Teen Angel writes with a distictly Chicano vernacular. Make no mistake though, this man understands custom car history. The coolest thing about this article is that it was written during a time when traditional customs were largely passe. And it was printed in a little Chicano-based publication from Northern California that gained it's popularity strictly from the barrios of Califas. Well, regardless of who it was, I'm glad somebody chose to publish it and continue to educate their readership about the roots of custom car history. I might not have been turned on to this style otherwise. Thank you Teen Angel. And of course, thank you Harry Westergard and all the other custom pioneers.

 

Very cool!
Thanks.

 

Westergard 36.
NOTHING finer!

 

Great post! I have always been a fan of Teen Angel and his art! I wonder if he is still around, and where he might be found? Just like Eyrk, I grew up admiring his articles & art in Lowrider Magazine.

 

Great read. Thanks Eryk!

 

Nice Eryk, that's the article that I was reading which made me write the Teen Angel thread on the other board. Thanks for scanning for others to enjoy

 

thats kick ass..

 

Thanks Eryk. I'll take mine with the La Salle grill. Dig Teen Angels art!

 

Great... thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks from me too.

 

That is really cool, got any more Teen Angel articles?

 

I'm glad you guys dig it. I don't have any other articles written by him. But here's one of his many pieces of artwork depicting early custom style from a Chicano perspective.

 

Eryk , great article and a great homage to Teen Angel. He was no doubt, a man ahead of his time. I too admired his style, art and subject matter. Do remember one of his contributors, Squirt?

He has a myspace site and is still around. I gotta update my collection. I collected many of his mags back in '79-'80.

Joel

 

Eryk, Gee, i wonder where that article came from??...lolol..I'm a HUGE fan and collected some of his work. I just had that last pic framed. Its one of my favorite pieces & my buddy was suppose to tattoo the 1st image on my stomach 2 yrs ago but never finished the chest piece so its on the back burner for now. Were hooking up Sat to go over somethings...Its a surprise & hopefully you love it!! xo DDR

Peter-- How you been man?? I miss you dawg...Do you still have that pic of us?? I want you to do something special for me with it so i'll call you this weekend with the details..With Love.

 

awesome! I will scan some of mine too...

 

thanks Eryk for sharing, its been years since I read that.
I gotta dig up my old collection of LRM and do some more reminiscing..

 

Nice thanx for sharing !

Rat

 

Those are great pieces of art. Thanks for posting. The atmosphere in the backgrounds are just as cool as the car in the foreground.

I think it was about 10 years ago I saw some magazines on the store rack with "Teen Angel" as their title. They looked like they were about drawings and art. I wonder if those magazines were related to the artist we are talking about here. Yea, I blew it and didn't buy them. I think they were short lived because I haven't seen them again on a store rack.

 

Awesome thread. Teen Angel did an article about the early days of Hot Rods, writing that "Hop Up'd Roadsters had skinny wheels all the way around back then".

My favorite picture he did shows one or two WWII servicemen walking in front of a used car lot and you can see Bomber planes flying over. Anyone have that picture?

 

great post eryk! his art work was and is a big influence in my style!

 

what up x-man! hey if you want to contact teen angel hit up saul on layitlow. he could shoot you in the right direction.

 

Ask and you shall receive buddy...
Its from LRM vol. 2 no. 4, the "zoot-suit special" issue. 1978? those early issues dont even have the date!!
Its a full 2 page spread, so maybe someone can put it together in photoshop..

 

more from the same issue.





OT but so f@cken cool..

 

some ads drawn by Teen Angel from vol 11, No. 5

 

YES!

I really dig Teen Angel's art!

Customcory on the board posted a letter he got from Teen Angel
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2642110#post2642110

-Juan

 

outstanding read,

 

great post. its good to see how all cultures and backgrounds have so much influence in custom cars and "the look"

 

I have all forgotten about Teen angel, thanks for reminding me. I guess I was one of very few to subscribe to Low Ride mag in early eighties living in Sweden. I thought that chicano culture was way out cool! He had this series he called "Cruising into the past" (as we could just got a portion of), which I followed with big eyes. A true inspiration to me and a hero in my opinion. I'll have to go through my old magazines.
Sure he was an inspiration and a total surpise to find a guy so talented and so into customs in Low rider as he was. This was before the pages of LRM was covered with afro-american hip hop guys with too large clothes and girls in too small clothes. LRW then often saluted their history, wich was a good thing. It was so natural for chicanos, things we now find regular in all those Bettie Page-hot rod n' custom mags in our on the block mag store

 

Thanks Juan, I couldn't find those pictures in my files, I forgot I posted them on the art show. If I could paint, I would copy his style! Somebody post the one of the coral colored 51-52 Sport Coupe with the rabbit ears out the quarter window, sitting on the side of the street.