Stripes

Stripes, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I've always been a fan of the pinstriper's art, and this example, on an Oldsmobile, is so far one of my faves. The skull motif just makes it.

Low

Low, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Didn't we do this last week? Anyway, here's another beautiful chopped custom, this one a '49 or so Mercury Eight. The first postwar Mercs to both have all-new styling as well as being significantly different from current Fords, the '49 Eight was immediately popular with the custom car crowd, both for it's style and it's V-8 engines. Some of the most famous customs were Mercury Eights, including Sam Barris' original '49, as well as the legendary car of Bob Hirohata. The Eight just looked good however you reworked it, from mild to wild.

This one features a lot of the classic touches-a chopped top, a new grille and bumpers, flipper hubcaps, rounded hood corners, and the removal of the original badges and logos. I also love the color-it's very subtle, like a lot of the earliest customs were, and is suitably elegant.

Chop

Chop, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Chopped, channeled, nosed, decked, Bellflowers, two tone, chrome, teef.

Divco Deuce

Ford, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I liked this car the second I saw it-I liked the stance, the color, the six Strombergs atop the motor, the chop, but mostly I liked the wheels, a super rare set of "milk truck" steelies.

Milk truck wheels were just that-wheels from old Divco milk delivery trucks. In the very early days, a few hot rodders discovered that these trucks had really tall wheels, which gave a usefully tall final drive ratio for speed events. But, they were pretty heavy, and kind of plain, and never really caught on for street-driven rods.

Genuine Divco wheels were also hard to find (although I bet a lot of them were just thrown away back in the day), and even more so now. But, other manufacturers used a similar pattern-I think these are actually Plymouth "high clearance" wheels-but any milk truck style wheel is a neat style choice.

The Big E

Big E, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We've talked about the Edsel before, so I won't go into the history of the marque again, except to say that I've always had a soft spot for these underdogs.

This Edsel hood ornament would usually be in the center of the hood, but this car was pretty heavily customized and featured one on each fender. How heavily customized? The front clip was all Edsel, and from the windscreen back it was all Ford Ranchero.

The owner called it a "Fordsel".

Teef

Teef, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

When they say cars have "faces", this is what they're talking about. And this one's smilin'!

Sometimes you feel a little low....

...and sometimes you feel reeeeeal low! Car customizing has been around for just about as long as cars-before that, really, since coachbuilders built coaches before cars. And I'm reasonably sure that the first owner of the deDion Bouton asked for custom paint and upholstery.

Anyway, car customizing in America became very popular in the immediate pre-war and postwar years, as young men sought ways to make inexpensive, often used, cars look newer, and more modern, and just plain unique. This could run the gamut from special paint all the way to reshaping panels, adding trim from other cars, radical lowering, and completely new upholstery. In some cases, it's hard to tell what the original car was.

This '39-ish Mercury coupe features quite a few tricks of the early custom car trade. It's been chopped (the roof lowered for a sleeker profile), the badges and trim removed (to partially hide the origin of the car), new wheels, and it's been lowered. It's a classic example.

¡Fuego!

A classic, subtle kustom Mercury. Well, as subtle as a car with flames painted on it can be.