Why Not...I say if it Fits...Giver...It's even Period Correct no doubt right back to the beginning of Go Fast... On Hallowed Hotrod Ground https://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrxp-1111-pioneer-hot-rodder-tommy-sparks-story/ Credit to Photographer, Owner
Never paint the name of a girl you are only dating on your passenger door, no matter how horny you are. At least her name was Tina and not Elizabeth but it still took a lot of mineral spirits to remove.
My Buick powered 47 Chev coupe was painted a beautiful metallic brown, and I had two logos, about 5 inches in diameter, on the doors just under the no draft windows. The logo was, Lil Brown, and underneath was a small earthen ware whiskey jug. I swear that it saved me getting a speeding ticket one day. I was pulling away from the cop when I saw the cherry, but I knew that there was only one road, and he had probably already radioed ahead. Did I mention that I was going very, very, fast? Anyway, after taking the time to check out the plate, the cop came up to the drivers door, and when he saw the logo, a smile came to his face, and he said, "The Lil Brown Jug is really putting out today, eh"? He asked me if I had ever had a speeding ticket. He checked it out, let me go with a lecture. So, yep, if you have some cute expression or logo, my experience says do it. Bob
Seems like a lot of continental kits have some thing on them, mostly 55 Crown Vic’s. Not for me anytime.
My high school car was a '34 sedan and I put the tassel on the mirror. First time I cranked the windshield open it tied the tassel into knots !
Yes, some words were just humor. I remember a very hairy Mopar coupe with lettering on the lower trunk lid: WHERE'S MILNER"
Race cars and customs usually get a pass in my book if they are cool or atleast funny. Outside of that, they can be a little cheesy sometimes, and in the wrong hands, tri-fives seem especially susceptible to some of the worst ones I usually see, and seem to always be accompanied with embroidered pillows in the backseat and maybe one of those creepy child dolls that get propped up next to a wheel. There's a local Econoline that the owner apparently bought finished/ doesn't know his ass from his elbow in terms of the car but proudly had "I'd rather do it myself" lettered on the door along with some filigree. Admittedly, I am a bit of a sucker for little hand painted logos and cartoons though
Writing on vehicles seem to be done by those with no concern for others. I get behind this jerk all the time that has written "Farm Use Only" on the back of his truck. Always holding up traffic.
Can we say cheesy? That’s an appropriate description of most of the wording, names and sign painting etc., that you see on cars and trucks. It’s only appropriate for real commercial vehicles.
Wow, I'm surprised by the negativity here. I don't have any words on my cars, but I recall seeing this a lot, and it seems like a cool thing to me. It was mostly on customs, but not strictly. Very common on the doors of pickups, and sedan deliveries; and IMO that usually looks great. Most hot boats always have a clever name lettered on them, and I remember back to the days of vans and it was very common to name your van and have it lettered on the side. I don't know, I think you guys are being old fogey's. What's next, you gonna start yelling at kids to get off your lawns?
When I was coming of age, I was helping a couple of locals at the near by dirt track on a regular basis. A.M.F. was almost a pre-requisite on most trunk lids. My favorite was on a '63 Fairlane HT with an absolutely screamin' 427. "Jack's Donkey Farm......we haul ass!" It was the truth...
IMO appropriate lettering/naming is better than than the over top murals that were painted on vans in the 70's. Dumb names are a different story. In the early '70's I was in the Army, stationed north of Reno in NoCal. A local had an 0/t late '60's Chevelle with Heavy Chevy painted on the rear fenders. Took a lot of ribbing from us G.I.'s.
The car is indeed still around, I just watched it race this weekend. Cool car with some great history. Sent from my thinks it's smarter than me smart phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Just like cars, I don’t like ‘em all but I like what I like. To me the commercial door signs belong on commercial looking vehicles, not sedans and such. All race cars need it and some customs. Why isn’t this thread “featured” yet?
I agree with this............To me it is more about the content of the graphics and the style of the canvas...........then they both have to complement each other for it to work.
These are different times so I'm not surprised at the negative comments. Like most things, lettering a street car really wasn't that common but when I saw one lettered in the '60s I generally thought it was pretty kool. There was "The Hustler" (a badass '66 Nova), "Stagecoach" (a '64 Malibu with a straight axle), and "Instant Karma" (a '68 Charger), all street cars. These days there is no real thought put into the names. Example: how many times have you seen "Orange Crate" or "Blew By You" on bracket racers? Back then many guys had only their one car, work or play, and it set the car off. Now, a car that's lettered would really seem out of place, and some guys (some here) are simply just too cool for something like that. By the way, for some reason I don't think names on rods works. My all-time, number one favorite race car with a name that means business:
I had a Model A that was green not everyone likes green so Kermit the frog helped me to ex-plane green
<Yup! I like it! The ones I don't like are the big fat decals in the back window of their pickem-up telling what brand of pickem-up they have!!! DAH!
I haven't built a period car yet and some of the local "historians" cant seem to grasp the concept so I thought about not period.. if done right it might be passible?
Don't know where you all are from and time frame, 50's/60's, graduated HS 1966, back in the day, remember this the HAMB. Most all of the superstocks. gassers, drag cars, kid's street cars, kustoms were named, It was big here in Wisconsin. I Never had a name on any of my street cars, but My personal favorite is "Shitbox" that was on every race car I owned for 21 years. We had a bartender near where I worked, had lunch many times years ago, she had "Juicy" on her shirts, on tailgate of her pickup and a personal plate to match, and No, I can't verify that. Then there's that myth, pretty girl with a Vette on trunk, " If you can beat me, You can eat me " we actually had a girl (and a pretty girl) in our HS that occasionally drove her Dad's hopped up 59 Vette, her Dad was a car guy, kool guy, we raced, but my 57 was no match for her, I remember it well. I jumped out on her, But she came by me at around 200' or so like I was tied to a post It did not take away my fastest car at our HS title , as it was not her car, she always gave me the berries, her nickname for me was "Loser" Ironically I joined the Milwaukee car group around 2000 or so with the terrible club name the "Losers" big group 200+, nice bunch of guys, had many fun times with them. Funny the shit that pops in my head here, had not thought about that streetrace for 50+ years. I Can't tell you what I did last Monday. LOL
Guess the original poster of this thread has never studied the past-the '50's and 60's at all...nearly every car where I grew up in Iowa, had a name painted on it ...I know, I lettered them on in 1959 and 1960...the one I remember very well was a baby blue '56 Ford kustom ...I lettered "Wannamaker" on both rear quarters and told him the cops would make him take it off. He didn't care...about a month later I heard that sure enough, the name got removed...that one was just too risque for the times...!!! R-
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