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Reportedly, “Truly Rare” won over 60 trophies and received eight Best of Show awards in period. We didn’t call cars like this “custom rods” in the early 1960s, but that’s a good description here, melding a high-performance engine with a radically restyled car. There’s a header tank for cooling, so the grille has been omitted, save for one decorative element. Under the (nonexistent) hood is a wild, hot-rodded, six-carb period Chrysler Hemi, with everything removable chromed for maximum visual impact. Thankfully, it’s since been swapped back to a conventional steering wheel. Inside, a blinding white interior - another popular custom practice - was enhanced with a large console, and the steering wheel was dropped in favor of a center-mounted lever. It went downhill rapidly from there in its second iteration, with truly garish canted and covered headlights, deeply tunneled later-model Plymouth taillights, a yawning grille, and scalloped side treatments that didn’t complement the rest of the car. The roofline, which tapers elegantly into a fastback rear, is rather nice. This car received a serious chop and an asymmetric roof scoop. But his sense of taste, balance and proportion? Not so much. So here we have Gene Howard’s effort on a hapless ’50 Buick Sedanette. Oh, and they were often given silly names like “She’s So Fine,” “Moonglow,” or in this case, “Truly Rare.” If a mild chop was good, a radical chop was perceived as being better, even if it didn’t make a car’s resulting shape more pleasing. Many custom kemp creators didn’t seem to know the difference.
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Ribbed DeSoto and Plymouth bumpers looked attractive on some cars, and really out of place on others. It always seemed strange to me that the lead sledders would carefully shave hoods and decklids, only to replace chrome ornamentation with scads of pinstripes. Some restyling treatments, like dual Appleton spotlights and extensive pinstriping, became popular custom clichés. This gave rise to some customizers lathering all sorts of bodywork and trim changes on cars that really didn’t benefit from that much surgery. Major shows, and especially the ISCA circuit, compounded this problem by awarding cumulative show points for every modification, no matter how minor. Trendy taillights that were passable on some new cars were horrific when grafted onto earlier cars. Slab-sided Mercury customs, for example, benefited from sweeping Buick side spears, newer DeSoto and Chrysler grilles, and frenched headlights that were hand-crafted using later Ford and Mercury headlight rims.Īs domestic car styling became more imaginative, canted quad headlamps from Lincolns and others were grafted onto cars that were never intended to have such a modern treatment - with predictably ugly results. The fundamental premise behind customizing was to start with a low-priced older-model car and, using skilled metal crafting and attractive components from more expensive cars, alter its appearance for the better. There were a few simple customizing rules, but not everyone followed them, especially in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Those features helped ensure that custom car methodology spread nationwide. Dan Post’s Blue Book of Custom Cars and the Fawcett and Trend 75-cent books on custom cars spread the word, followed by countless features in Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft and Motor Trend, and later Rodding and Re-styling and Popular Customs. Leading post-war custom car practitioners such as George and Sam Barris, Gene Winfield, Larry Watson, Gil and Al Ayala, and Detroit’s Alexander Brothers elevated the art to lofty heights. It reached a peak in the late 1950s as it spread rapidly across the U.S, then waned by the mid-1960s, when Detroit offerings became more powerful and very stylish, precluding the need for customs. The custom car phenomenon originated in the late 1930s on the West Coast. This car, Lot 183, sold for $11,000, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams’ Amelia Island auction in Amelia Island, FL, on March 10, 2016. Goodguys, National Street Rod Association (NSRA) Median to date, $23,760 high sale, $54,450 (1949–58 Buick Special coupe and sedan) 119,837 Special Sedanettes (but there’s just one like this)