Custom car

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A custom Ford Taunus. The car has had a roof chop, been shaved of all trim, with vents cut into the rear quarter panels and an all steel body kit moulded into the body.
A custom Ford Taunus. The car has had a roof chop, been shaved of all trim, with vents cut into the rear quarter panels and an all steel body kit moulded into the body.
Plain paint on early hot rods
Plain paint on early hot rods
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Modern custom of mid-fifities Buick
Modern custom of mid-fifities Buick
3D red_cyan glasses recommended for your viewing pleasure
Modern steel "Retro style" $100,000+ custom body
Modern steel "Retro style" $100,000+ custom body
3D red_cyan glasses recommended for your viewing pleasure

A custom car is a phrase that became prominent in American pop culture in the 1950s, and has enjoyed special interest popularity since that time. It relates to a passenger vehicle that has been modified to improve its performance by altering or replacing the engine and transmission and to make it look "unique", unlike any car that might have been factory finished,always a personal "styling" statement by the re-styler/re-builder.

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A development of hot rodding, the change in name corresponded to the change in the design of the cars being modified. The first hot rods were pre-WWII cars, with running boards and simple fenders over the wheels. These were modified by removing the running boards and either removing the fenders entirely or replacing them with very light "cycle fenders". The object was to put the most powerful engine in the lightest possible frame and body combination. The suspension was usually altered to make the car lower; the front was often made much lower than the rear. Much later some hot rods and custom cars swapped the old solid rear axle for an independent rear axle, often from Jaguar. Only rarely was the grille of one make of car replaced by another; one exception was the 1937 Buick grille, often used on a Ford. The original hot rods were plainly painted like the Model A Fords from which they had been built up, and only slowly begun to take on colors, and eventually fancy orange-yellow flamed hoods or "candy-like" deep arcylic finishes in the various colors.

With the change in automobile design to encase the wheels in fenders and to extend the hood to the full width of the car, the former practices were no longer possible. In addition, there was tremendous automotive advertising and subsequent public interest in the new models in the 1950s. Hence custom cars came into existence, swapping headlight rings, grilles, bumpers, chrome side strips, and tail lights. The bodies of the cars were changed by cutting through the sheet metal, removing bits to make the car lower, welding it back together, and adding a lot of lead to make the resulting form smooth (leading to the term "lead sled"). By this means, "chopping" made the roof lower; "sectioning" made the body thinner from top to bottom. "Channeling" was cutting notches in the floorpan where the body touches the frame to lower the whole body. Fins were often added from other cars, or made up from sheet steel. In the custom car culture, someone who merely changed the appearance without improving the performance substantially was looked down on.

Paint was an important concern. Once bodywork was done, the cars were painted unusual colors. Transparent but wildly-colored candy-apple paint, applied atop a metallic undercoat, and metalflake paint, with aluminum glitter within candy-apple paint, appeared in the 1960s. These took many coats to produce a brilliant effect -- which in hot climates had a tendency to flake off. Customizers also continued the habit of adding decorative paint after the main coat was finished, of flames extending rearward from the front wheels, and of scallops and hand-painted pinstripes of a different color than the rest of the car. The latter, most often a single coat, would be expected to be of a simpler paint.

Once customizing post-war cars caught on, some of the practices were extended to pre-war cars, which would have been called fendered rods, with more body work done on them. An alternate rule for disambiguation developed: hot rods had the engine behind the front suspension, while customs had the engine over the front suspension. The clearest example of this is Fords prior to 1949 had Henry Ford's old transverse front suspension, while the '49s had a more modern suspension with the engine moved forward. However, An American Museum has what could be the first true Custom,built in 1932, amongst its exhibits.

With the coming of the muscle car, and further to the high-performance luxury car, customization declined. One place where it persisted was the US Southwest, where lowriders were built similar in concept to the earlier customs, but of post-1950s cars.

Recently, as the supply of usable antique steel bodies has given out, a new trend to fabricate new steel and fiberglass bodies, closely based on the styling of the pre-war cars. Bodies of this type can cost over $100,000 before the "running gear" is added. A consequence is these new "scratch built" vehicles cannot be licensed for street use, as they do not meet the myriad of regulations applying to new cars, and are not exempt as they were if rebuilt from original components fabricated before new rules came into effect.[citation needed]

Starting in the 1950s, it became popular among customizers to display their vehicles at drive-in restaurants. Among the largest and longest lasting was Johnie's Broiler in Downey, California. The custom continues today, especially in Southern California.

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