whats the best

[moparmadness]

hey guys im going out to buy some more models but not sure what i want. what are some models that are easy ones that are good for beginer customizing.

[ra7c7er]

When I first started since I didn't have much in the way of a parts bin and didn't know much about customizing so I looked for kits with lots of extra parts. Two engines, multiple sets of wheels and/or tires, two interiors, etc. This allows you many different build options and will let you build something custom without having look outside the box. Since all of the parts are already meant for kit they will work easily. For me doing this was a great way to start customizing without cutting things up or tearing stuff apart. Plus when you are done with the kit you will have a nice little pile of parts you can use for customizing a later build.

[ra7c7er]

Ok, first let's define what "customizing" is. It's not swapping engines or putting on different rims, or anything like that. It's performing modifications to alter the appearance of the body, such as chopping, sectioning. channeling, etc. In that regard, unless it's an older kit, (such as the AMT 49 Mercury or 49 Ford), with customizing parts, no kit is going to be easy to customize. If you're looking for optional parts like rims, tires, engines & the like, (all of which are considered modifying & not customizing, there are lots of kits out there with such options, even now.

If you can give me an idea of the type of cars that interest you, I can steer you to some kits for what you want to build, be it an actual custom, or a car with parts swapping.

Not to hijack his thread but customizing is anything that will make the car unique. Be it new wheels or chopping a pinstripe or a body kit it's all modifying and customizing. You can't modify a car without customizing it and you can't customize a car without modifying it. He did not specify what type of customizing he was thinking about and I used my interpretation of what he asked to give him an answer. No matter the intent of his original post neither I or you are wrong in our definition of customizing. I work in an aftermarket/paint shop and I customize cars all day without altering the body of a car. Go to a car show and ask someone who spent $15,000 on a paint job and wheels if that is modifying or customizing.

Dictonary.com definition

customize: to modify or build according to individual or personal specifications or preference

I'm sorry my definition of customizing and your definition of customizing are different but really it's all the same thing.

Edited December 2, 2010 by ra7c7er

[ra7c7er]

I understand where you're coming from, but I'm afraid that George & Sam Barris, Ed Roth, the Alexander brothers, Joe Bailon, & countless other customizers would disagree with you on this, & that's the criteria I go by.

If the body isn't altered in some way, (& that can be as simple as swapping bumpers or headlight surrounds), by most standards it's not customized. A wheel swap certainly isn't customizing.

How is swapping headlight surrounds any different from swapping wheels? Just because it takes more work to do one over the other it doesn't make a difference. Other customizers? Your taking your definition and applying people to them. What about guys like shelby and Penske and companies like AMG and TRD and many other customizers that don't do anything to the body of a car? The minute you do one thing to a car you are customizing it. I agree that changing wheels isn't much of a customization but it still is by definition. No matter how many names in the "customizing" world say it isn't.

"A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been modified in either of the following two ways. First, a custom car may be altered to improve its performance, often by altering or replacing the engine and 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."

Edited December 2, 2010 by ra7c7er

[ra7c7er]

I never said just changing the wheels would make a car custom. Of course no one in there right mind would say a car with just different wheels was custom. What I was saying is that changing wheels or anything else is customizing the car. You are modifying the car to suit your personal interests. That is the definition of customizing. What a custom car is totally different. The OP didn't say he wanted to build a "custom" car he said he wanted to customize a car.

"A rim swap does change the looks, but by that criteria, a stock, 4 door 1966 Nova with mags could be considered a "custom", which it most certainly isn't"

I didn't say the car would be custom. Which it is by definition but I digress. I said it is customizing the car.

By your criteria of customizing a custom car would include all those ricers that bolt giant wings to the back of their cars. It is fundamentally changing the body and look of a car. Also by your definition Nascar stock cars would be custom cars. They alter the body of there cars from factory. Can you show me this rule book you use for what a custom car is? What about a drag car that uses a fiberglass one piece front end?

A customized car is any car that has been fundamentally changed from factory setting to the owners personal tastes. That is the definition of custom car. It doesn't matter how it is changed it is custom.

Here's a website about custom cars My linkhttp://www.yourcustomcar.com/custom-car-history.html

From site:

"What is a Custom Car?

The actual phrase “custom car” did not even start until the 1950s! There may have been custom cars before this time, but it was not until the 50's that people really started to use that particular phrase.

Definition: A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been tailored to increase the car’s performance, which is done by altering or replacing the engine and transmission. By doing this alone it begins to make the car look unique – not like any other car of that make and model that has come out of the factory. Custom car builders can modify a vehicle with their own style and personal touch, or for someone else’s style."

and this from another custom site:

"A custom car is a phrase that became prominent in American pop culture in the 1950s, and has enjoyed special interest popularity since that time. It relates to a passenger vehicle that has been modified to improve its performance by altering or replacing the engine and transmission and to make it look "unique", unlike any car that might have been factory finished, always a personal "styling" statement by the re-styler/re-builder.

another site Definition

I have given you three different websites definitions of custom car. Granted two of them are basically the same. Show me where it says custom cars are only cars with altered bodies.

Edited December 2, 2010 by ra7c7er

[Greg Cullinan]

It's a generation thing I think. Marks is the mid 1900's definition and racer has the 2000's definition.

[ra7c7er]

It's a generation thing I think. Marks is the mid 1900's definition and racer has the 2000's definition.

I think the same thing. I don't really want to argue it but I have never seen anyone so _{closed minded} about customizing cars.

Every site I find a definition from it says the term "custom car" started out as referring to changing the engine and transmission of a car. Changing the looks came soon after. It started there and evolved into so many aspects of car crafting. Everything is customizing a car. Nowhere not one place did I find anything that said a custom car can ONLY be a car with an altered body. You could go outside right now and draw smiley faces on your car seats with a marker and it would be customized. Not the show car definition but customized none the less.

Edited December 2, 2010 by ra7c7er

[ra7c7er]

Definition: A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been tailored to increase the car’s performance, which is done by altering or replacing the engine and transmission. By doing this alone it begins to make the car look unique – not like any other car of that make and model that has come out of the factory."

"Funny cars, which are dragsters competing in National Hot Rod Association competitions, can be considered custom cars"

So all those ricers with the big wings are custom cars?

I will agree to disagree.

[moparmadness]

wow guys thank for all your help> (sarcasm) when i say custom. it mean a car that a person has altered in any way from its original contition weather a chop a paintjob making body mods. i am a begining modeler so i mean cars that are easyer to chop or lower or trucks that you can put nice paint job on. any help would be apreciated

[ra7c7er]

"Real world Situation:

Dude#1: " Hey Dude #2, Check out my Custom car! "

Dude#2: " Sweet! Where is it?"

Dude#1: " Right there, Man. Isn't it cool?"

Dude#2: " All I see is a 1992 Pontiac Sunbird "

Dude#1: " But look at my New Pinstripe i got for the auto parts store. And those Awesome New stick on fender portholes. My Ride is so Custom, it's Sick!"

Dude#2: " Dude#1, you are an idiot. your car isn't a custom car because you decorated it with tacky garbage..."

Dude#1: " Yeah it is! It's Unique & I customized it to my liking. You'll never see another custom car like this one"

Dude#2: " Yeah. There's a good reason for that too....""

You don't know how many times I have heard almost that exact same chat at the shop I work at. But at the same time i was not arguing that a pinstripe (in the listed example) makes a car custom. I said it was "Customizing". When idiots like like that come into the shop and say look at my new stickers and wing and body kit it makes me go so much faster or it looks cool. I just laugh and say really it looks cool but it weights 750 pounds so your gas mileage went to ######, that rear wing on a front wheel drive car doesn't do much, and that noisy can on the back only gets you tickets.

Seriously I was not argueing the merits of a custom car. I was saying customizing means any custom application of parts be it body modification or not.

[Danno]

I didn't realize there was such a heated debate in here - but it sounds like a Generational Semantics Incompatibility issue to me. & now I'm going to steer off to the distant left tangent and punch the gas....

I noticed with the crop-up of end-user car enthusiest web sites, like Car Domain & Motortopia, there has been a proliferation of 'mislabeled' automotive related things. The biggest one I have seen is when people list their 'Performance Modifications' - and the list is 90% Speakers / amps / Head-units. Many people also list their Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements ( you ever wonder where the term RICE came from? know you know...) as performance Mods, which we all know that Aluminum Park benches bolted to the decklid and Warm air intakes pretty much do nothing for performance, except maybe provide Wallet Drag... So what exactly is wrong here? Well, for one - as good sounding as a well engineered sound system is - it does nothing for the performance of the car. Possibly even hindering performance, depending on the size of the system. Same with all that tacky, "automotive department" dress up stuff.

What I'm getting at is this, (& i think that Mark touched on it, but didn't quite hit it) - typically, bolting on items isn't normally considered "customizing" a car. Yes, by definition, the owner has customized it by making it unique (or in the case of those huge spoilers - just like everyone else), but simply sticking on a set of non-functional fender vents, or swapping the stock hood for a cowl induction one doesn't make the car "custom" in most people's eyes. to make a car "custom", some major, cohesive, image altering modifications should be done to the vehicle. That body kit for your Supra? just bolting it on isn't making your car custom. Blending it into the rest of the contours of the car - that would.

Real world Situation:

Dude#1: " Hey Dude #2, Check out my Custom car! "

Dude#2: " Sweet! Where is it?"

Dude#1: " Right there, Man. Isn't it cool?"

Dude#2: " All I see is a 1992 Pontiac Sunbird "

Dude#1: " But look at my New Pinstripe i got for the auto parts store. And those Awesome New stick on fender portholes. My Ride is so Custom, it's Sick!"

Dude#2: " Dude#1, you are an idiot. your car isn't a custom car because you decorated it with tacky garbage..."

Dude#1: " Yeah it is! It's Unique & I customized it to my liking. You'll never see another custom car like this one"

Dude#2: " Yeah. There's a good reason for that too...."

Amen!

Generally speaking, actual body modifications are required to constitute a custom. While you might change a vehicle by adding or subtracting components, permanent modifications of a non-bolt-on nature are required; wheels and tires or exhaust tips or pinstripes or stick-on portholes, etc., don't qualify. Performance modifications ~~~ real or imagined ~~~ also do not qualify. It may be unique in appearance, but it's not a custom.

I'm with Mark and Mike; it takes significant modifications to be a custom. Bolting-on or gluing-on J.C. Whitney-ish or other aftermarket parts is merely "accessorizing" ... not customizing.

To say that any change of a factory stock vehicle qualifies it to be considered a "custom" or "customized vehicle" would also require that any wrecked vehicle be considered "customized" because the driver changed it (while parking it against another vehicle, a bridge abutment, or some other object, inanimate or not).

Also, while one certainly has the right to create any personal definition one desires and to operate under that definition, it is not incumbent upon everyone else to agree and/or embrace one's personal definition. So, if you want to call it customizing to fill the fuel tank with gas the car did not come with, so be it. Your tomahtoe is not everyone else's tomato!

Interestingly, this is not at all unlike the infamous "I scratchbuilt it because I changed it ut off the roof and I glued a piece of flat plastic to it" myth.

[Jordan White]

I know we;ve had a thread here already about this, but I'll throw in my two cents again.

I'm part of the generation born in the late 80's, and thus have a different idea than say the guys born in the 50's. I find that doing anything to your car to make it look either different than stock, or in some cases different than another person could be considered customizing. You also have to remember that the days of frenching lights and channeling bodies is falling behind. It's tougher to do certain mods to newer vehicles unless you have a ton of time vested in the work. I can see still calling a chopped, channeled, slammed '49 Merc being called a "kustom", but I think that the mods specific to those sorts of vehicles aren't just considered customizing.

A new paint job could be considered customizing, since you're giving it your own personal flavor. Heck, as much as I hate the mods that ricers do, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to what guys did back in the day? Frenching lights to create air pockets that reduce aerodynamics, leading seams to add mass to the body, chopping roofs and channeling floors to make less interior space, adding gaudy wheel covers, sometimes large amounts of chrome trim and grille pieces, the list goes on. Granted there are people who think their poorly modded car is fast, but all in the same it could just be for looks.

What I want to say is stop living in your little world where your definition is the true one, and that the old car guys are what defines how a car should be done. People are today creating fantastic works of art that have little to no body mods, and they are certainly custom compared to how it came stock.

Oh, and of course I mean reasonable modifications. Damage being customization? Perhaps if you did it with a hammer to make a statement or to say help with clearance. Different gas? So you'd somehow try and use the same gas or oil brand as the factory used?

Edited December 2, 2010 by Jordan White

[whale392]

To the point of the original posters thoughts;

I would suggest some of the Revell Honda/Acura 'Tuner' kits as they do offer quite a few build variations right from the box. Also, by mixing the 5 Honda/Acura tuner kits up, you open a lot more possibilities for these kits. Same goes for that lines Subaru WRX STi kit. The supplied kit wheel choices would open up your stash of wheels nicely.

Also, as shown above, some of the re-issued AMT/SMP kits from the 60s have some cool extra parts that could be used to complete various different styles of build. The AMT kit of the Ford (56 I believe) that was re-issued in the late 80s-early 90s (Blue truck on box cover) has a lot of different parts in the kit.

I agree with some here, buy kits that offer some extras and just start building up your spares box. Next thing you know, you will be able to build some really different looking variations from any kit.

[James Flowers]

I just love this place. Someone ask a question and gets a bunch of I am right your wrong arguments in his thread. Way to go guys.

Edited December 3, 2010 by James Flowers

[bad0210]

its best not to argue with these old farts. its their way or no way.(sarcasm)

[James Flowers]

its best not to argue with these old farts. its their way or no way.(sarcasm)

You got that right!!They know it all Not.

[Harry P.]

Once you guys get the definition of "custom" worked out, maybe then you can define what a "muscle car" is...

And after that... you can tell me what is art and what isn't...

[bad0210]

Once you guys get the definition of "custom" worked out, maybe then you can define what a "muscle car" is...

And after that... you can tell me what is art and what isn't...

[Aaronw]

Brian I don't know what style you are looking for but the Revell '29 Ford truck, AMT 1925 Model T and Lindberg 1934 Ford truck all offer multiple options with speed equipment, custom parts, and custom body parts allowing you to make your own creation from stock to mild customs to full custom, rat rod etc. They also provide a ton of parts good for beginning a parts box.

[bad0210]

you must be living a horrible life to be that anal about every comment made. maybe you should open up a dictionary and define a word so you can know the truth. enough said so lets get on with some other topics since this one is pretty much ended a long time ago.

Edited December 3, 2010 by bad0210

[James Flowers]

Mark have you looked in a dictionary for the meaning of the word custom? I guess you think they should change all dictionarys to reflect your definition.Good luck with that project. I guess you will never stop stirring the pot around here will you?

[cazxr2]

Wow another argument lol. Can I just say "custom"'surely means. Anything non original?? Here's a pic of a few of my builds and I class them all as "custom" because they are what I wanted and not what the instructions said? I think as the op is a newby they were just after something that they could "change" into something non original weather that be bumpers, roof chop, wheels or something completely different. But a agree the revell tuners have several choices of bumpers hoods, lights and wheels. And there is a lot of 3in1 kits.

Here's a few pics of my what I call "custom" and yeah there not 50s or 60s.

I Beleave this is "custom" as the decals were made "custom" for this build only.

And this is more "obvious" "custom" as u chopped the back of the roof off

And I would say this is also "custom" purely for the fact u wouldn't get it that colour from the factory.

So u see there is several meanings to the word "custom" so let's just agree to disagree.

I think that should be a community build. "custom" car lol

[Jon Cole]

>>~thump chest!~<< I KNOW WHAT CUSTOM IS!

>>~thump chest!~<< IT BE WHAT I SAY IT IS!!

>>~thump chest!~<< I KNOW WHAT CUSTOM IS!!!

(repeat ad nauseum)

[Danno]

Hokay. The children have convinced this old fart that conventional, traditional, accepted, definitions no longer have any place in our 'do whatever you wanna do, call it whatever you wanna call it' society.

I'm converted. "Custom" means whatever. Any other term means whatever you want it to mean and the rest of the world will just have to figure out how it fits into their existences; if they can't, it's their problem not yours. One and one is two, unless you want it to be something else.

So, in the spirit of embracing my new-found counter-culture wisdom, I present for your enjoyment one of my customized custom models.

Hey! Who are YOU to say it's not a Kustom or a custom or customized? I say. I mean, it is not the way it came; it has wheelybars and custom graphics. Custom.

PS: Explanation/primer for the young and inexperienced ~ the above post is purely tongue-in-cheek and not intended to rile you up any further. Take it as humor, parody, good-natured sarcasm and move on. We needs to get back to havin' fun ... or phun, whatever!

Edited December 3, 2010 by Danno

[Jordan White]