A custom car is a passenger vehicle An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the that has been modified in either of the following two ways. First, a custom car may be altered to improve its performance Engine tuning is the adjustment, modification or design of internal combustion engines to yield optimal performance, to increase an engine's power output, economy, or durability. It has a long history, almost as long as the development of the car in general, originating with the development of early racing cars, and later, with the post-war hot-, often by altering or replacing the engine Engines come in many types, a common type is a heat engine such as an internal combustion engine which typically burns a fuel with air and uses the hot gases for generating power. External combustion engines such as steam engines use heat to generate motion via a separate working fluid and transmission A transmission or gearbox provides speed and torque conversions from a rotating power source to another device using gear ratios. In British English the term transmission refers to the whole drive train, including gearbox, clutch, prop shaft , differential and final drive shafts. The most common use is in motor vehicles, where the transmission. Second, a custom car may be a personal "styling" statement by the re-styler/re-builder, making the car look "unique" and unlike any car that might have been factory finished. Customs are distinct from hot rods Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of "hot roadster," meaning a roadster that was modified for speed. Roadsters were the cars of choice because they were light. The term became; exactly where the difference lies has been the subject of debate among customizers and rodders for decades.
Contents |
History
A development of hot rodding Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of "hot roadster," meaning a roadster that was modified for speed. Roadsters were the cars of choice because they were light. The term became, the change in name corresponded to the change in the design No generally-accepted definition of “design” exists, and the term has different connotations in different fields . Informally, “a design” (noun) refers to a plan for the construction of an object (as in architectural blueprints, circuit diagrams and sewing patterns) and “to design” (verb) refers to making this plan. However, one can of the cars being modified. The first hot rods were pre-World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · cars, with running boards A running board is a car or truck accessory part, a narrow step fitted under the side doors of the vehicle. It aids entry, especially into high vehicles. Typical of vintage cars which had much higher ground clearances than today's cars, it is also used as a fashion statement on vehicles that would not require it. Sometimes they can also be 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 Jaguar Cars Ltd., better known simply as Jaguar, is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Coventry, England. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd. and is operated as part of the Jaguar Land Rover business. Only rarely was the grille of one make of car replaced by another; one exception was the 1937 Buick Buick is a brand of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel by General Motors Company (GM). It is GM's North American-based entry-level luxury brand grille, often used on a Ford The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars in Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford'. (In the '50s and '60s, the grille swap of choice was the '53 De Soto The DeSoto was a brand of automobile based in the United States, manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from 1928 to 1961. The DeSoto logo featured a stylized image of Hernando de Soto. The De Soto marque was officially dropped 30 November 1960, with a bit over two million built since 1928.) 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 acrylic 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 headlamp A headlamp is a lamp, usually attached to the front of a vehicle such as a car, with the purpose of illuminating the road ahead during periods of low visibility, such as darkness or precipitation. Headlamp performance has steadily improved throughout the automobile age, spurred by the great disparity between daytime and nighttime traffic rings, grilles, bumpers, chrome Chrome plating, often referred to simply as chrome, is a technique of electroplating a thin layer of chromium onto a metal object. The chromed layer can be decorative, provide corrosion resistance, ease cleaning procedures, or increase surface hardness side strips, and tail lights, as well as "frenching" and "tunnelling" head- and taillights. 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 Lead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air. Lead has a shiny chrome-silver luster when it is melted into a to make the resulting form smooth (hence the term "lead sled Originally, the lead sled referred to extensively repaired/modified cars due to the use of lead as body filler and was, for the most part, an insult"; lead has been replaced by Bondo Bondo is a two-part putty manufactured by 3M. While the term "Bondo" is a registered trademark for this company's product, it is commonly used in the U.S. as a genericized trademark to refer to all auto-repair putties or so-called plastic body fillers. Bondo is a polyester resin product that when mixed with a hardener , or catalyst,). By this means, "chopping Chopped and channeled is a description of a form of car customization in the "kustom kulture" of hot-rodding. Both procedures are often combined, but can be performed in isolation as well" made the roof lower;[1] "sectioning Chopped and channeled is a description of a form of car customization in the "kustom kulture" of hot-rodding. Both procedures are often combined, but can be performed in isolation as well"[2] made the body thinner from top to bottom. "Channeling Chopped and channeled is a description of a form of car customization in the "kustom kulture" of hot-rodding. Both procedures are often combined, but can be performed in isolation as well"[3] 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 also substantially improving the performance was looked down upon.
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, scallops, and hand-painted pinstripes of a contrasting color. The base color, most often a single coat, would be expected to be of a simpler paint. Flame jobs later spread to the hood, encompassing the entire front end, and have progressed from traditional reds and yellows to blues and greens and body-color "ghost" flames.
Painting has become such a part of the custom car scene that now in many custom car competitions, awards for custom paint are as highly sought after as awards for the cars themselves.
Engine swaps have always been commonplace. Once, the flathead The Flathead was the first independently designed and built V8 engine produced by the Ford Motor Company for mass production and ranks as one of the company's most important developments. Before the 1932 introduction of this engine , almost all production cars aimed at the average consumer used straight-4 and straight-6 engines. "Multi-, or "flatty", was the preference, supplanted by the early hemi The FirePower was Chrysler's first V8 engine; prior Chrysler 8-cyliners, dating to 1931, were in-line eights. Introduced in the Fall of 1950 for the 1951 model year, the FirePower had hemispherical combustion chambers, leading some to refer to this engine as the early Hemi or Generation 1 hemi. It was replaced by the Chrysler RB engine in 1959, in the '50s and '60s. By the 1970s, the small-block Chevy was the most common option, and since the '80s, the 350 cu in (5.7 l) Chevy has been almost ubiquitous.[4]
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 The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars in Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford' prior to 1949 had Henry Ford Henry Ford an American industrialist, philanthropist, pacifist and antisemite, was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and widely considered a father of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one's old transverse front suspension, while 1949 models 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 As such, they are distinct from two-seat sports cars and expensive 2+2 GTs intended for high-speed touring and road racing, although in many examples the road holding was substantially upgraded over the model from which it was derived. These upgrades were often a key selling point, and a common misconception is that cornering prowess was dismissed, and further to the high-performance luxury car, customization declined. One place where it persisted was the U.S. Southwest, where lowriders A Lowrider is a style of car originated by Chicanos that has had its suspension system modified so that it rides as low as possible. Lowriders often have user-controlled height adjustable suspension. Lowriders are very often classic cars from the 1950s which rode low to begin with, although large numbers of 1940s and 1960s cars are also modified, were built similar in concept to the earlier customs, but of post-1950s cars.
Recently, as the supply of usable antique steel bodies has dried up, companies such Westcott's,[5] Harwood, Gibbon Fiberglass[6] and Speedway Motors[6] have begun to fabricate new fiberglass Fiberglass, , is material made from extremely fine fibers of glass. It is used as a reinforcing agent for many polymer products; the resulting composite material, properly known as fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) or glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), is called "fiberglass" in popular usage. Glassmakers throughout history have experimented copies,[7] while Classic Manufacturing and Supply, for one example, has been making a variety of new steel bodies since the 1970s.[8] California's "junker" (or "crusher") law, which pays a nominal sum to take "gross polluters" off the road, has been criticized by enthusiasts (and by SEMA) for accelerating this trend.[9]
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 Johnie's Broiler was a restaurant located in Downey, California from 1958 until 2001. From 2002-2006 It was a used car dealership. It was largely demolished in January, 2007. Johnie's Broiler has been featured in several movies and TV shows due to its "authentic" 1950's look. As of 2008, the building is being reconstructed in Downey, California Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, 21 km southeast of downtown Los Angeles. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 107,323. The practice continues today, especially in Southern California.
Customizers
Examples of notable customizers include Bill Cushenberry, the Alexander Brothers, the "legendary" Gil Ayala,[10] Darryl Starbird Darryl Starbird is an American custom car and hot rod designer and builder, known for his innovative and futuristic space-age car designs, often featuring bubble tops. Some of his best-known cars include the Predicta, the Electra, the Cosma Ray, the Big T, and the Lil Coffin,[11] Joe Bailon Joe Bailon was born on March 18, 1923 in Newcastle, California, United States, the youngest of ten children. He is a car customizer and best known as the creator of the paint color "Candy Apple Red." His 1941 Chevy, Miss Elegance, established him as a top-rank customizer. He is a charter member of National Rod & Custom Car Hall of,[12] Roy Brizio, Harry Westergaard,[13] Dave Stuckey,[14] Dean Jeffries Dean Jeffries is an American custom vehicle designer, fabricator, stuntman and stunt coordinator for motion pictures and television programs based in Los Angeles, California, "Posie",[15] Ron Clark and Bob Kaiser (of Clarkaiser Customs),[16] Joe Bailon Joe Bailon was born on March 18, 1923 in Newcastle, California, United States, the youngest of ten children. He is a car customizer and best known as the creator of the paint color "Candy Apple Red." His 1941 Chevy, Miss Elegance, established him as a top-rank customizer. He is a charter member of National Rod & Custom Car Hall of (inventor of candy apple paint),[17] "Magoo",[18] Chip Foose Chip Foose is a hot rod shop owner, automotive designer and fabricator, and former star of the reality TV series Overhaulin' on TLC,[19] and Pete Chapouris. Others, such as Von Dutch Kenneth Graeme Howard , also known as Dutch, Von Dutch or J.L. Bachs (Joe Lunch Box), was a motorcycle mechanic, eccentric, artist, pinstriper, metal fabricator, knifemaker, and gunsmith. His father, Wally Howard, was a well-respected Los Angeles sign painter; and, by the age of ten, the young Kenny Howard was able to paint and letter at a, are best known as custom painters. Several customizers have become famous beyond the automobile community, including George Barris George and his brother Sam were born in Chicago in the 1920s. Due to the deaths of their parents, they moved to Roseville, California as children to live with relatives. Both were good students, interested in drama, music, and design. George was fascinated with model aircraft, and pursed the hobby seriously in his teenage years, winning and Boyd Coddington Boyd Leon Coddington was the owner of the Boyd Coddington Hot Rod Shop and star of American Hot Rod on TLC, thanks to their proximity to Hollywood Hollywood is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California - situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonym of American cinema, and is often interchangeably used to refer to the greater Los; Barris designed TV's Batmobile The Batmobile is the automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting activities, while Chapouris built the flamed '34 five-window coupé in the eponymous telefilm A television film (also known as a TV film, television movie, TV movie, telefilm, telemovie, made-for-television film, movie of the week , feature-length drama, single drama, and original movie) is a feature film that is produced for and originally distributed by a television network "The California Kid". Another Barris creation, Ala Kart (a '29 Ford Model A The Ford Model A was the second huge success for the Ford Motor Company, after its predecessor, the Model T. First produced on October 20, 1927, but not sold until December 2, it replaced the venerable Model T, which had been produced for 18 years. This new Model A (a previous model had used the Model A name back in 1903–1904) was designated as roadster pickup), made numerous appearances in film (usually in the background of diner scenes and such), after taking two AMBR (America's Most Beautiful Roadster) wins in a row.
Notable customs
The most coveted award for customizers is the AMBR trophy, presented annually at the Oakland Roadster Show since 1948. This competition has produced famous, and radical, customs, notably Silhouette and Ed Roth "Big Daddy" Ed Roth was an artist and cartoonist who created the hot-rod icon Rat Fink and other extreme characters. As a custom car builder, Roth was a key figure in Southern California's Kustom Kulture and hot-rod movement of the 1960s. He grew up in Bell, California, attending Bell High School, where his classes included auto shop and's Mysterion, some of which were turned into Hot Wheels Hot Wheels is a brand of die cast toy car, introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1996, when Mattel acquired rights to the Matchbox brand from Tyco cars, among them The Red Baron.
Others became notable for their appearances in film (such as Ala Kart {1958},[20] The California Kid The California Kid is a 1974 TV Movie starring Martin Sheen, Vic Morrow, Nick Nolte, Michelle Phillips, Gary Morgan, and Janit Baldwin five-window {1973},[21] or the yellow deuce from "American Graffiti American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age comedy-drama film co-written and directed by George Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins, Kathleen Quinlan and Harrison Ford. Set in Modesto, California, American Graffiti is a study of the cruising") or television (such as The Monkeemobile The Monkeemobile is a modified Pontiac GTO that was designed and built by designer Dean Jeffries for The Monkees, a pop-rock band and television program. The car features a tilted forward split two-piece windshield, a touring car T-bucket-type convertible top, modified rear quarter panels and front fenders, exaggerated tail lamps, set of four, the "Munsters" The Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the Addamses were well-to-do, the Munsters were a more blue- hearse, or, more recently, Boyd's full-custom Tool Time Home Improvement is an American television sitcom starring Tim Allen, which aired from 1991 to 1999. The show was created by Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra and David MacFadzean. In the 1990s, it was one of the most watched sitcoms, winning many awards. The series launched Tim Allen's acting career and also was the start of the television career of '34, or Pete and Jake's '33 three-window, Eliminator, built for the ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American blues rock band, formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. Comprising Billy Gibbons (lead vocals and guitar), Dusty Hill (vocals, bass, and keyboards), and Frank Beard (drums and percussion), ZZ Top was ranked number 44 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.". The trio's original lineup has been intact for over 40 video[22]). Specialist vehicles, such as the T/A, KITT, from Knight Rider, are not usually considered customs, but movie or TV cars, because they retain a mostly stock exterior.
Still others gained attention for exemplifying a trend. One of these is the '51 Merc built by the Barris brothers for Bob Hirohata in 1953, known forever after as the Hirohata Merc. Even without an appearance in film ("Runnin' Wild"), it is iconic of '50s customs, and of how to do a Merc right.[23]
The same year, Neil Emory and Clayton Jensen built Polynesian for Jack Stewart, starting with a '50 Olds sedan. Polynesian made the cover of Hot Rod in August, and saw 54 pages of construction details in Motor Trend Custom Car Annual in 1954.[24]
|
Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:47:02 GMT+00:00
to be auctioned for Speedway Charity wbtv for four days the crew of Tommy Pike Custom Cars has been working around the clock to get a customized Cobra put together from scratch. ...
Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:04:08 PDT
FORZA Motorsport 3 Custom Car Designs (Gameplay) These amazing designs, created by players, are available in the in-game storefront on launch day ... youtube.com.
