50's Era Customs ?

[Jon Haigwood]

Anybody build any ? I found this one today at a car show. You don't see these very often. This was built in 2000 using only 50's Era styling. (I tried to load a pic of the back but kept getting a error that pic was to large even after I reduced to half the size of the others?)

Edited June 28, 2015 by Jon Haigwood

[Snake45]

Love your new avatar, Jon! Rock on!

Back on topic, I'm just not a fan of '50s-type customs. I got into cars in the mid-'60s so that's the era and styling I identify with.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Several members do '50s style cars.

SBK (Steve Boutte) does some of the finest anywhere:

[Joe Handley]

Outside of the color and back window, I like that.

[Custom Hearse]

Steve Boutte is the best I've ever seen. His builds are amazing!

[Jon Haigwood]

Up thru the center in the lighter color there was some "lace" painting. I remember doing that in the 60's .I asked the builder about it and he told me that it started in the 50's. Love going to the small fairground car shows. The newest car there was a 59. Most the kind of cars that were built on a working mans budget. Picked up a lot of ideas. Like these cooling louvers added onto the front brake backing plates. There were a few cars that had them. I need to figure out how to make some for my builds

Edited June 28, 2015 by Jon Haigwood

[Snake45]

... "lace" painting. I remember doing that in the 60's .I asked the builder about it and he told me that it started in the 50's.

I was recently rereading an old R&C magazine from, I believe, 1966, that had a how-to article on lace painting. They spoke of it as if it were a new technique.

If anyone can post authentic pics of a car with lace paint before, let's say 1964, I'd sure like to see them.

[Can-Con]

Larry Watson painted Doug Carney's '63 Grand Prix when it was relatively new. It's generally considered the first "lace paintjob".

[Snake45]

Okay, so that's 1963. Still quite a ways out from the '50s.

[Jon Haigwood]

Doing a little research what I found out was that Von Dutch came up with the idea of "Lace" painting. He mentioned it to Larry Watson whom painted what I believe is the first "Lace" paint on a car in 1967.(the car posted above by Can-Con). Von Dutch had only painted a chair by accident with overspray. I look at some of cars Von Dutch's painted, none had "Lace". I did find a few older cars with "Lace" but all seemed to be newer builds.

More information on Larry can be found on Kustomrama. (I still haven't figured out how to paste a link)

Edited June 28, 2015 by Jon Haigwood

[Snake45]

I found the R&C article I mentioned above. It's not 1966, it's March 1968, by Leroi Tex Smith. He calls lace painting a "wild new custom paint fad" and credits its invention to Joe Anderson. FWIW.

So 1967 as the origin of lace jobs seems feasible.

[thatz4u]

The 50's, wide whitewalls, dual spotlights, spinner wheelcovers, dechromed bodies, frenched lights, grille swaps, fender skirts, fuzzy dice, flamed paint jobs, fins, sectionied bodies, and chopped tops, "Happy Days" for car people.. :-)