History New Builders....Please revive Canted Quad Headlights.....

I base my comment that this board is about 75% biased against customs based on just about every thread on customs that gets posted has someone complaining about the car's styling, particularly the more wild late 50s and early 60s show cars.

For instance, I love this one and I'm sure most people here will hate it - Carl Casper's Empress:

http://www.hotrod.com/hotroddeluxe/1311_1951_chevy_styleline_deluxe/

 

I am primarily a custom guy and I have no issue with guys liking or disliking anything. What irritates me and what seems to be happening way more often on this board is that the guys that are making negative comments, for the most part, participate in no other aspect of the customs side of this board. They see a thread make a two or three word negative comment and that is the extent of it. I have been looking at guys post history for a while now when they do that and I would say 8 out of 10 of them have no other posts pertaining to the custom side of the board so they are clearly just trolling to be negative.

Personally I am not a big fan of later customs. I understand their place in history and what drove the changes but for the most part they don't work for me but I respect guys that do like them. If you ad content and information to all aspects of customs on the HAMB I respect your views but when you are just dropping in on threads to shit on them you should just keep your comments to yourself.

 

The Ala Kart IS for a fact the only car that had a snowballs chance at winning 3 AMBRs. It is also the only car in the history of AMBR to win two consecutive titles without any major modifications (the rule implemented after the kart's 1959 ambr trophy (it would have won '60 too, despite the Emperor being built as competition).

Not that it matters, but canted quads rule. Even weird cars like the A bros' Pelican. Cars like the Pelican and the Oriental are the reason that I really really love custom cars. They're individual and kinda funky, but are absolute time capsules. To say canted quads are ugly is anyone's business, but to argue against their value within the zeitgeist of custom cars is a fool.

 

There's an "ignore" feature to block the folks, who piss on the customs or hotrods that they don't like. Kind of like your own personal censor. That way, when the "purist" sees someone, whose opinion he doesn't agree with, he can just create his own personal "happyland".

Or, a person can accept that, for whatever reason, not everyone is going to like what he likes. Also, if someone is REALLY monitoring who likes and dislikes whatever, maybe they need to step away from the keyboard and have a long look at their life. How the hell would you even do that? Write down name's and corresponding threads, then catalog that list with topics, using some crazy cross reference? And after ALL THAT, what if YOUR opinion is all screwed up to begin with? Then what? LMFAO. Seriously?

A few months back, I posted in a thread about a guy, who took his classic Jaguar to a one man paint shop and was getting screwed. I posted that maybe he shouldn't have done it. I got 6 or 7 PM's from guys who felt I was pissing on THEM. My opinion was based on MY experience. I laughed at that shit. How the hell could YOU be slighted, if your work is good and someone ELSE had an opinion based on THEIR experience at another shop?

If a person likes canted lights or 6 fenders screwed to a milk truck, that is that persons opinion. End of story. How do you SERIOUSLY get upset about it?

 

Hmmm. Cross-referenced?? has a certain appeal to an OCD type. maybe set it up on a spreadsheet, so its easy to up-date??

And its canted headlights AND six fenders screwed to a milktruck...

 

And the folks who use it, will be the one's jumping the traditional ship, when the "next big thing" makes the corner. And it's headed for the corner now.

 

I hope its period-correct, circa late seventies disco vettes ala "Corvette Summer"!

 

I actually liked that Vette for about 3 days. I bullied a kid who didn't like it. Jeez.

 

I liked the "Aloha Bobby & Rose" Camaro. Coulda used canted quads though...
"Hey! This is Shit for Brains car!"

 

"all generalizations are false...including this one" Mark Twain

 

Old lady1: I have all my favorite pictures and paste them on the wall.
Old lady2: That's crazy.
Old lady 1: I unlike you.
Old lady 2: That's not how this works! That not how any of this works.

LMFAO Freaking CLASSIC.

 

Hell of a philosophical discussion going on here. I never realized how offensive customs were to so many sensitive people. The Dream Cars that Detroit built were pretty scary, too. Good thing I haven't finished my Merc yet. Might still have time to put it back to almost, sort of stock. Maybe I can sit at the table if I leave it stock, with a little lace, and maybe some radical Bellflowers. Oh yeah, Astros, too.

 

Cant forget the Astros!! Hell, it wouldn't be a "traditional" custom without Astros!!
This thread has taken a somewhat unexpected turn...

 

Wonder if maybe some of these guys had a near miss in a crosswalk with a '59 Buick while they were still in mommies womb or something...

 

Why is it when I find people who are offended by MY opinion, I want to say something else to offend them, just for fun?

 

Saxman, I cant speak for anyone else, but I sure aint offended by your opinion, anymore than my wifes opinion of my cars offends me...amused maybe, bemused occasionally, but certainly not offended...

 

I love '38 Fords and prefer '32 5 windows to 3 windows, so we agree on something!!!!

Beauty is subjective. I did not mean to offend with my post about the Ala Kart, and I apologize to those I offended. Everyone is entitled to their likes and dislikes.

 

I know you're not, man. That wasn't pointed at you. This thread is funnier than hell though.

 

Sooooo, are any new builders going to bring them back? Or did a bunch of builds get redirected? I really hope not.

 

I have said over & over I dislike the headlight treatment like this and then someone has to post a car that I think looks pretty good. HRP

 

Its funny about the Ala-Kart. So many guys get to the grill shell, and thats as far as they get. There are SO MANY things I LOVE about that car, and that influence me, and theres SO MUCH to look at on that car, so many really neat details. But 98% of guys would look and say "I dont see any Ala-Kart in this, it doesn't have canted headlights and a funky nose."
A lot of guys claim to be into "traditional" hot rods, yet are DEEPLY offended by ANYTHING that smacks of fifties kitsch, yet so much of what hot rods were about in the fifties was all about fifties kitsch.

 

Those buttons in the grill don't work for me or is that another thread? Color scheme is sweet.

 

WHAT!!! You dont like door pull grills???!! Thats IT, FRED! YOU are going in the SPREADSHEET!!!

 

And THAT'S where the "experts" blow it every freaking time. They know about the cars, but they know little about what was going on during that era, that had nothing to do with automobiles. The men and women, who built these famous cars were ARTIST. And as artist, they expressed their feelings, whether intentional or not, on what was going on around them. That's also why, it's virtually impossible, to build a 100% traditional car in 2014. You can't be in 2014 and FULLY understand what was going on in 1950. The EMOTIONS. Even the guys, who are still alive from that era, have a VERY difficult or impossible task, trying to remember and duplicate it. When you pick up the toys you had as a youth, do you have the SAME emotions or just happy memories? One is NOT the other.

But I still appreciate and am in awe of, the folks who give it a shot and come so freaking close, it hurts. I RESPECT their journey into the impossible to duplicate past. I may not understand it or like it, but I'll ALWAYS respect it and the REAL traditionalist respect my opinion using the same criteria..

 

I hope not too, Fred. Everyone should build whatever they're passionate about and not worry about what anyone else likes.
And just for the record, just because I much care for canted quads doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the creativity and workmanship that go into a finally crafted custom. Some are absolutely breathtaking, the workmanship is superb, and the design is stunning.

I agree there are many details of Ala Kart that are amazing but like any piece of art, I have to view it as a whole. When I see that snout and the quad headlights it looks kind of ridiculous. Just my opinion, man. I get the kitsch thing. I guess I could to try to look at it from that point of view and have a greater appreciation. I am certainly not deeply offended, or even slightly offended by 50's kitsch, but I don't think that's what hot rods were about in the 50's. I think that's what show cars, with all the excesses, came to be about.

I guess I'm from the "less is more" school. When I was in high school, Count Basie and his band came and performed at my school. As a young musician, I was amazed when he took a piano solo and could say so much with just a few notes, placed in just the right spots with the right spaces. THAT is an artist. I've seen customs like that too...and I dig 'em. Understated, beautiful and timeless.

 

I think you're on to something, Fred. I will ponder that.

 

There are a 1,000 great sax players, but none can play Coltrane, EXACTLY like Coltrane. It's the emotions. They'll never duplicate it.

 

You're right, they can't, nor should they.

 

Well, at least I have Coltrane as my avatar, that must count as something.

 

Say what you want. I like canted-quad headlights. Always have and always will.