Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Present Day Custom Cars. Are they possible?

These designs are iconic. I've got this early automotive
themed rock boxed CD set.

I was reading Pat Ganahl's blog about modern customs. He used a 1962 Pontiac as an example. Modern? That car is 60 years old. Modern geriatric customs?

This is a nicely cleaned up design.

I like it, but it's sixty years old!

I think that he might have meant customizing an older car Today, in somewhat current fashion.

I sent an e-mail to Pat sharing my ideas about modern customs.

I didn't hear back from him!

I suppose that the first thing to do is to establish definitions.

Any car can be customized by the owner, making changes that suit his preferences.

"Personalized" can be one way of putting it.

These changes can be performance based.

Or, they can be function based. Commercial vehicles, off road trucks, and SUVs fall into this category.

Usually the changes made are a matter of visuals.

Not only to cars, but to trucks also. I'd say that there are more customized trucks around Today, than cars.

I'll assume that Pat means what I mean, when I say Custom. A car modified and altered to "improve" it's styling.

The emphasis is on the visual appearance of the car.  It's all about the looks. Lowering, adding custom wheels, changing the grille, adding or subtracting trim.

This discussion won't be about lift kits, big wheels and stacks on trucks, no "Bro-dozers!"

Likewise, modified pony and performance cars, domestic and import vehicles are out.

The original idea back in the 1930's and 40' was to make the car appear racier or more streamlined.

There are still  lineages of custom cars that have continued to exist.

First of course, are the original builders and their descendants, building traditional customs out of vintage cars. They usually are trying to preserve the traditional appearance and culture. They feel that cars from the mid Thirties to the late 1960's are the traditional building fodder. Cars prior to the late 1930's are generally built as Hot Rods.  However there is some overlap.

Classic vintage Lowriders.

The second surviving group are the Low Riders. They started back in the 1940's also. Their pioneering efforts are actually an offshoot or continuation of the original customs. Again, they have generally embraced the Post War to late 1970's models. Low Riders are built by all types of people, though this group is heavily identified with the Mexican American community. 

A very tasteful early 1970s Chevy.
Usually most are sedans.

One offshoot of customs dates from the 1980's, The "High Rider" or "Donk." These are usually 1970's and 80's full sized American cars that run really big wheels, from 22'' to 30''. The cars usually have to be raised up on their suspension quite a bit, to clear the wheels. I used to hear these referred to as "scrapers" I guess because the tires scraped on the fender openings.

"Slabtastic" Cadillac Fleetwood.

A more subdued S.L.A.B.
Easily visible are the "pokes."

Last year I learned about another regional offshoot of the Low Rider family. The S.L.A.B. "Slow, Loud, and Bangin'.'" This is a regional style based out of Houston Texas. The most noticeable aspect are the special wire wheels with a very protruding center cap. These wheels have different names, referred to as: Swangers, Swangas, Elbows or Pokes. These are closely associated with the Hip Hip community.

Some Low Riders and Donks will be cars as late as the early 1990's. These are the remnants of the big full size American car. Models such as the Cadillac Brougham, Lincoln Town Car, Ford Crown Victoria, as well as some large Oldsmobiles and Buicks. These were the last of the body on frame sedans that were so common in the 1960s into the 1970s.

The question is what modern car, within the last ten or fifteen years would be suitable to make a custom out of?

I figure that giving it at least ten years plus of age would mean that it is cheap enough to make it accessible.

2010, We'd thought that we would have flying cars by then, and that was ten years ago!

I'll give you my list of cars.

Cadillac DTS, Lincoln town Car, Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, and the out of production Dodge Magnum wagon.

2000 Cadillac.
Is it worthy?

All more than ten years old.

I can't think of any more. No SUVs, though of course an Escalade makes an impressive cruiser.

What would you do to these things?

First of course would be lowering them.

Then custom wheels and tires.

There isn't much chrome trim to remove, if any. Maybe do something to the grill or taillights?

New paint would probably be one of the biggest changes, to a lot of people, a colorful, intricate custom paint job is how they define a custom car.

Interiors could get some attention, newer cars could use some color and variety of materials anyway.  Hopefully not with TV screens all over the inside. I've seen some Donks and Lowriders sporting some very colorful upholstery.

Did you notice something? Every one of these cars I've mentioned is a four door sedan! An old man's car. These were considered to be the cheapest and least desirable models of the past. But there is nothing else available.

What makes a custom a custom?

This is referred to as a "stance car."

Drew Peacock won't cut you any slack!

Looking back, most traditional customs were lowered.

They had excess trim removed.

Custom paint jobs were applied.

Custom hubcaps and whitewall tires are chosen.

Body modifications could be divided into two levels.

Mild customs were usually lowered, decked, with "frenched"; recessed headlamps, custom grilles or tail lights replaced the stock components.

Full customs combined these modifications and added one of the major custom body alterations;
a chopped top, channeling of the body on the frame, or the most extreme: sectioning. That is when a strip is removed from the middle of the body, and the two pieces are welded back together. Talk about a challenging modification!

Could you apply these modifications to a new Chrysler 300? I suppose that you could, but I don't think that you would.

New customs can be built out of unmodified vintage cars and all the traditional alterations can be included. But these would only be replicas of traditional customs. Not "modern" customs.

I've thought that I might lower a '97 or 2000 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, convert it back to steel wheels with wheel covers and wide white tires. The grille could be modified or changed. I suppose that the nameplates could be removed. I really can't think of anything else that could ( or should) be done. Of course there is always the "gilding of the lily" school of thought which is often applied to Cadillacs.

The "Superfly" car is a classic.
I don't think that I could drive one.

These are  mostly "Brougham-tastic" additions such as RR grilles, carriage, landau, and other tops, Continental spares, etc.  Generally not my cup of tea. What to do?

I was at the West Coast Kustoms Nationals in Santa Maria around ten years ago and George Barris displayed a customized Toyota Prius. It was even worse than you're imaging!

As Chris Bunch, editor of Big Bike magazine used to write, "You can't type an outraged scream!"