Focus on Customs: A Look at Enduring Custom Car Techniques, Modifications, and Parts
Does anybody still build traditional customs?
That question was raised at Goodguys a few years ago as we were discussing updates and changes to the BASF Top 12 awards, the elite “Of The Year” honors we bestow in different categories each event season. We debated the topic and ultimately answered in the affirmative – yes, enthusiasts and shops are still building traditional-style custom cars and trucks, though they account for a smaller piece of the hot rodding pie than they have in the past. We’ve seen some excellent examples of customs at Goodguys events the past few seasons, and some fresh new ones at the 75th Grand National Roadster Show.
Whether it’s a traditional custom, a modern custom rod, or simply a modified vintage cruiser that falls somewhere in-between, there are many new builds that still employ the techniques, styles, and components first popularized on customs in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. Just take a look at the 2024 Fuel Curve Custom of the Year and Vintage Air Custom Rod of the Year winners to see these techniques still in use! With the new show car season kicking off, we thought it would be fitting to review some of the time-honored custom practices and parts still found on modified vehicles being built today, as well as some of the aftermarket components still offered to enhance or accessorize custom cars.
Diehard custom car purists like to point out that modifying a car does not necessarily make it a “custom” in the traditional sense – or at least not a capital-c Custom. There’s always room for debate, but for the purpose of this article we’re going to use guidelines similar to those we have for Goodguy’s Fuel Curve Custom of the Year award – vehicles built from 1936 through 1965 and modified in a traditional custom style. Essentially, cars that have a visual style that harkens back to the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, even if they employ some more contemporary mechanical components or techniques to achieve that appearance.
With that in mind, let’s dive into an overview of custom car theories, concepts, and techniques related to custom cars.
Subtraction or Addition
There are two primary guiding theories when customizing cars. One is subtractive –simplifying and streamlining the design by removing trim and emblems, shaving door handles, and eliminating visual “clutter.” Sometimes more substantial modifications, like chopping the top or sectioning the body, are done to achieve a more simplified overall appearance, which is a good reminder that the subtractive approach does not necessarily mean easy. The subtractive method is really what guided the early custom era in the 1940s and early-’50s.
The other customizing approach is additive, where you personalize a car by adding elements. This might mean installing accessories like dual antennas on the quarter panels, or lakes pipes, or maybe spotlights, a Continental kit, or bubble-style fender skirts. It might also involve body modifications like adding scoops, fins, or other embellishments. Custom paint treatments like flames, scallops, and pinstriping can also be considered additive elements.
Of course, many customs blend a little of both. You might subtract by shaving emblems and door handles, and then add with extra grille teeth, spotlights, or lakes pipes. Knowing where to add and where to subtract is part of the creative challenge of building a custom.
Regardless of which overall approach you pursue with a custom project, the design choices are virtually infinite. In the classic custom era, customizers swapped parts like grilles, bumpers, and even body panels in the quest to create innovative and eye-catching designs. Other times they built parts like grilles from scratch. Today, the use of computer-aided design and custom-machined parts opens up a whole new world of possibilities, and those pieces can still look vintage if designed properly.
Quick Shave
Shaving emblems and deleting trim is one of the fundamentals of customizing, and it’s not exclusive to traditional-style cars. In the early days, many customizers were trying to make their inexpensive Fords and Chevys look more like upscale Mercurys and Cadillacs, so shaving emblems served multiple purposes – cleaning up the lines, and also making casual onlookers wonder what make a car was.
Today, shaving trim is mostly about giving a car a smoother look. Many custom fans will argue that shaving excess emblems and trim brings a mild custom’s appearance more in line with what the designers originally penned. After all, those emblems were largely marketing tools for the manufacturer.
When shaving door handles, trunk locks, and other pieces, one of the considerations has always been how to keep things functional. In the early days, electric buttons were often hidden to actuate solenoids (often old Ford starter solenoids) to open door latches. Today, there are a variety of aftermarket actuator kits available with key fob operation.
French Connection
You’ve likely heard the term “frenched” in reference to custom car body modifications, particularly headlights and taillights. The term is reportedly derived from the textile and fashion field, where French cuffs are used on formal shirts. Frenched headlights became a common custom treatment in the 1950s, when many cars had sealed beam headlights surrounded by a stainless or die cast trim ring. Customizers would weld the ring to the fender, or shape metal to replace it, installing the headlights from behind and giving them a more integrated and seamless appearance.
There are many variations on this frenching theme. On headlights alone, sometimes the light is simply frenched, and sometimes it’s both frenched and recessed back into the fender, with or without an internal trim ring like those often adopted from ’52-’54 Fords. Sometimes the frenching process is combined with a different headlight assembly, like the teardrop-shaped headlight doors from ’53-’54 Buicks. Taillights frequently get similar treatments in a variety of different styles. Less common these days are frenched antennas, where the antenna and its base are recessed into a fender or quarter panel.
Chop, Channel, Section
Back in the classic custom car heyday, three key modifications separated radical customs from mild ones: chopping, channeling, and sectioning. With custom metal work being more specialized and expensive today than ever, these modifications are seen less frequently but still make a big impact.
Top chops are familiar to most in the hot rod and custom world. The process involves removing the top by cutting through its vertical supports, removing a portion of those supports, and then repositioning and welding the top back on at a lower height. This is more complicated on cars from the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s due to the angled windshield and rear pillars, and often involves fabricating new portions of the roof to achieve the desired shape and flow. It’s more than just metal work – it takes a good eye for design to execute a tasteful top chop.
Sectioning is similar to chopping, except it pertains to the body of the car. In simple terms, a horizontal cut is made through the body, a portion of metal is removed, and the top and bottom sections of the body are then welded together to created a slimmer and lower profile. This obviously requires an extensive amount of metal work, finesse, and design sense to get right. Several recent Custom Rod of the Year winners even featured a wedge section, where more metal was removed from one end of the body than another to create a more angular, streamlined shape. Similarly, hoods and fenders are sometimes wedge sectioned (or pie sectioned) to achieve a desired slope or angle.
Channeling – or body dropping, as the mini truck and sport truck crowd like to call it – is the process of cutting out a car or truck’s floor and raising it, thus raising the frame relative to the body and achieving a lower stance without altering the suspension. An added benefit of this is making the frame less visible under the vehicle.
Praise the Lowered
A lowered stance has always been a hallmark of custom cars and trucks. Lowering has the effect of making cars look longer and more prestigious; even otherwise stock vehicles seem to look more custom when lowered. There are debates about static versus adjustable height, and whether there is such a thing as “too low,” but some degree of lowering is almost always part of the formula.
Lowering methods have come a long way since the early days of custom cars, though time-honored methods like lowering blocks, modified springs, and channeling (as previously mentioned) still have their place. Today, however, there are a wealth of aftermarket products to deliver an improved stance while retaining good ride quality and safety. From simple solutions like custom springs and dropped spindles, to a wide range of air spring options, IFS kits, rear suspension offerings, and event complete custom frames, there have never been more ways to get your car or truck low.
Fine Finishes
Another common thread for custom cars is a finish that reflects their class and style. This can be something as clean and simple as gloss black, or something as bold and vibrant as the many varieties of candy, metallic, pearl, and metalflake finishes available from custom paint manufacturers.
Paint color and style choices frequently follow subtractive and additive approaches similar to custom modifications. Some owners and builders choose solid or subdued colors to enhance a more understated or subtle custom. Others might select a vivid hue to make a statement, regardless of whether the metal underneath is subtly modified or radically altered.
While all paint jobs are integral elements of a custom car’s design and finished look, some custom paint treatments have stronger impacts on the vehicle’s overall appearance. Scallops, flames, fades, panel paint, and effects like lace and striping are custom elements in and of themselves and provide a distinctive look that can vividly tie a customs appearance to a specific time period or build style.
Accessorize
Back in the heyday of the classic custom car, there were scores of accessories available to help you personalize your vehicle, often without any welding or special fabrication skills. Aftermarket wheel covers, lakes pipes, spotlights, taillight lenses, grilles, fender skirts, trim pieces, chrome bullets, and more could help you build a “bolt-on custom” without lifting a torch, grinder, or paint gun.
Today, many such bolt-on items are still available from the aftermarket industry and can be used to enhance or complete a custom car build. Others can still be found by scoring swap meets and online marketplace listings. Like any modification, knowing how many or which accessories to add (or whether to add any at all) is one of the design skills in crafting a tasteful custom.
Thankfully, some of the most crucial elements of a traditional custom car’s character – the tires and wheels – are still readily available. Coker Tire and others sell wide whitewalls in both bias ply and radial construction, allowing for a proper period-style appearance. Reproduction steel and chrome wheels are also available, along with period-style spider center caps, and even full wheel covers in a variety of traditional styles. There are even new billet wheels that emulate classic hubcaps of the past, and the option of having one-off wheels machined to copy just about any style of classic wheel or wheel cover you can imagine.
