60 YEARS OF MODELS & REAL CARS

[E St. Kruiser50]

Hey all

Thought this would be fun to share.

A lot of you out there have lived a similar life .

In the era and location of the "BEACH BOYS", literally, is where I grew up.

San Bernardino to L.A., everyone in the 50's and 60's were building street rods and customs.

I mean they were everywhere, on every street, in every town, they were prolific.

In high school, on the way home on the bus, I'd get off near my home, and walk over to Dodson's Auto Body and Customs, and watch them build some pretty outrageous customs. Bending the copper tubing to go around a '53 Buick headlight bucket, heating and spreading the lead with a wooden paddle, and shaping the lead with their "Cheese Gradder" style open files. They also built the Carson tops with all the cloth covering. Can't believe how cool it is to look back on something that at the time, you never realized what you were experiencing.

It's really cool to look back over that long of a period of time at one particular part of the American culture, and realize how iconic and only American, was this almost fanatical phenomenon - THE CAR.

We were all caught up in it, and were just doing what everyone did and loved it. Almost an addiction to speed, stye and creative expression.

Looking back, the interest was everywhere. Land speed record cars, race cars, customs, street rods, high boys, low boys, and dragsters.

Every fad imaginable happened back then, and during this last 60 years, including SUEDE PAINT JOBS of every color. An amazingly huge part of our culture was devoted to the American cars, and especially speed.

Scottie Mufflers in San Berdoo was famous as a speed shop and for the cars they built and raced. I used to go there and buy speed parts for my Hemi powered '50 Merc. There were speed shops and manufacturer's everywhere, especially in L.A.

And drag strips were everywhere. On the week ends it was Orange County, Irwindale, Lyons drag strip, and others.

The first modified car I remember, that changed my whole life, was a 1949 Cadillac sedanette (Fastback), that was sitting on the ground. White with purple flames that ran the full length of the car, on the roof and trunk and everywhere, with huge whitewalls, almost no blackwall showing at all. It was "GORGEOUS".On the week ends we'd cruise E Street in Berdoo, or go to Palm springs or the Sunset Boulevard in L.A.

On spring break we' go to Dana Point and pitch a tent and spend the week there crusin', chasin women , and checkin' out all the cars - WOW!!

Newport beach, Laguna Beach on highway one. Bumper to bumper street rods, customs, race cars, including - STREET DRAGSTERS - THAT'S RIGHT.

REAL LIVE DRAGSTERS SET UP FOR THE STREET - EXCEPT THE EXHAUST.

They'd tow these things to the beach, un-trailer um, and drive um into traffic right down town with open zoomie exhaust.

I remember them blocking off the traffic right in town and "Staging Up", side by side, and wheel standing and racing - it was insane and everyone cheered and loved it, and there were literally thousands of us down there for spring break watching.

MODEL CARS;

THEY WERE JUST COMING INTO THEIR OWN.

Plastic model car kits were at the time, something really brand new and exciting for us kids. Crude wooden kits was all we had before that.

As times changed the details grew. Spray paints at first were unheard of, so you brushed all your paints on. Engine wiring and cloth for interiors came from your mother's sewing box and left over sewing scraps. Body filler was plastic wood dough, dipped in acetone, so it would stick to the plastic.

It took a lot of imagination and inginuity to make your models look real and stand out for contests.

No after-market back then.

Got to meet George Barris and Larry Watson, and a few other's back in the 50's. Every kid you knew was building model cars, and there were hobby shops everywhere. Man it was fun !!

The magazine's back then were really cool and a huge source for idea's, as modifying cars like they were was relatively a new idea.

The 50's was really the birth of car building, and model cars, as we know them today, and only looking back over all that time and all those experiences, can a person fully appreciate how much fun it has been to experience 60 years of model car building from it's beginning, and to be able to have enjoyed real cars, all this time.

WHAT A RIDE

Edited April 15, 2009 by Treehugger Dave

[Custom Hearse]

I missed the 50's, and half of the 60's, but I remember the cool cars in Orange County, and going to OCIR when I was a kid.

I really loved watching the races, and seeing the best of the best racing down the quarter mile. The custom van shows held at the beach was another memory that I have that inspired the builds I do.

Never got to meet any famous custom car builders, but i got to see their work every so often.

I miss surfing, but still listen to the beach boy's and The Ventures.

Ahhhh.... those were great days! Thanks for the trip down memory lane Dave!

[Foxer]

You got 3 years on me and were in the heart of what we east coasters only read about in car mags or simulated at our workbenches. There are cars from that era that haunt me still ... one of the few customs at high school was a 50 Merc with all the standard stuff .. chopped, 53 Buick trim, cruiser skirts, 57 Packard tail lights, Blue with gold in the trim. That's where this 49 Merc on my table keeps heading.

I used articles in Car Craft and such to see how the body men sculpted steel and used their techniques on my models. I bent wire to the shape of some partsbox dual headlights to mold them into a 40 Ford fender. There were articles on every custom trick you could imagine.

Like you say, Dave, the aftermarket was Mom's sewing tin. I remember hot sewing needles as "drills" for plug threads and I'd stick the sewing thread end in glue for a stiff "spark plug". At least there was a proliferation of Hobby Shops back then. With all the options in kits, read 3 in 1, the supply of custom parts was pretty good. Somehow I always managed to be buying another kit when I had no source of income. Well, bleach bottles had a 2 cent refund!!