Bright colors, chopped tops, and billet wheels. I miss 90's customs!

Tk8398 said:

ShawnG said:

Hard to beat Cadzzilla

I saw that one and the Alumacoupe in person earlier this year, they still look like they could have been built today other than the wheels being clearly not the current style.  Cadzilla is surprisingly small too.

I think Scott Sullivan's Cheez-Whiz '55 Chevy has held up remarkably well, other than the wheels. And the best part about Cheez Whiz was it was not just a pretty face. It had a healthy Lingenfelter-built big block and Sullivan drove the wheels off that thing. Road-trips, drag racing, burnouts. It was no trailer queen.

I would like to thank you all for playing the song of my people. This whole thread is making me far happier than it has any rational reason to. And whoever is thinking the wheels are outdated? You're wrong. Billet wheels always have been and always will be awesome.

In reply to ShawnG :

There's not many Hupp Skylarks out there.  The orange one belonged to my boss Smitty, who ran a shop called Contemporary Automotive in Beltsville MD.  I met Smitty because my Dad recognized the Hupp shape at a car show and we hung around the car until we met him.  My Dad had a 41 Skylark when he joined the USMC in 1942. Smitty put Dad in touch with the Hupp Owners Club, and the Dad found out his car ended up going West and wound up in the Harrah's collection sometime in the 1960s. Dad wrote to Harrah's and found out that they sold the car when Marriott bought them out around 1984 iirc. Harrah's forwarded Dad's contact info to the new owner, and Dad got a letter about a month later from a Stan Wisnes near San Fran.  I wonder if that's the Hupp Skylark you've worked on? Pic below is my Dad with his car in 1942. In the pix Stan sent circa 1988 it was light green/grey with black fenders.

In reply to slowbird :

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

The Skylark I had in the shop has been owned by the same guy since the early 1970s. 

He owned an auto wrecker and this car came in one day and he decided to save it. He spent the rest of his life tracking down or making the pieces he needed. He got to the point that he couldn't do it himself anymore and his son reached out to us to sort out the column shift linkage and make the car drivable for his dad. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work on it.

Fun bit of history, Graham and Huppmobile teamed up to buy the body dies for the 810/812 Cord when Cord shut down. The two companies restyled the front end and shared the design to save them both money on developing an entirely new car. Both turned out to be a flop. It's a shame too because the body was ahead of it's time. It's a very solid unibody design.

The results gave us the Hupp Skylark and the Graham Hollywood. 

There's one of each in the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in Auburn Indiana.

The hotrodded Hupp posted up has Cord front fenders and hidden headlights.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

NSRA Nats East, 1990:

 

ok, so only 1 chopped top and only 1 loud color, but they both have billet wheels and the Ford definitely has period graphics

That's the rear of the Skylark on the right in the top picture.

The handle in the middle of the trunk lid and tail lights in the fenders makes it a 1940 or later. The earlier cars had a latch on each side and tail lights in the trunk lid.

ShawnG said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

NSRA Nats East, 1990:

ok, so only 1 chopped top and only 1 loud color, but they both have billet wheels and the Ford definitely has period graphics

Was the guy in the white T-shirt checking out the Deuce sedan, or the woman with big hair?  

edit:  a couple other things in that picture.  When was the last time  you saw a telephone booth, and after many, many years in the business Walker Radiator recently closed their doors (although I believe their product line was bought out by another hot rod company who will continue to sell their high quality radiators.)

stuart in mn said:

ShawnG said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

NSRA Nats East, 1990:

ok, so only 1 chopped top and only 1 loud color, but they both have billet wheels and the Ford definitely has period graphics

Was the guy in the white T-shirt checking out the Deuce sedan, or the woman with big hair?  

That was pretty much the default girls' hair style in my high school, except sometimes even bigger.   So much hairspray.

Another one, since I just sorted through some of the Chevy pictures

Don't forget to put the tweed upholstery on that list.  
 

I wish I would have taken more pictures back in the day.  

Some of us still like the big hair 80s / 90s girls.

Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science... Yes please...

eastsideTim said:

Found this one for an extreme case of painting over chrome.

Can't imagine someone doing that to a C1 nowadays.

The Pro Touring crowd still has an anti-chrome contingent

ShawnG said:

Hard to beat Cadzzilla

Fun fact, that's my suspension job in the back.  In about 2008, Billy brought it to Charlie and wanted the suspension redone because whoever had done it royally messed up

In reply to STM317 :

Normally I hate huge wheels on old cars, but somehow they work on all those C1s. 

I grew up looking at billet and chrome and neon paint jobs. It's just not my cup of tea. 
 

but I can see why people are nostalgic or want something they aren't used to seeing. 
 

this is why all gen z women dress like my mom when she was in the late 70's.  
 

what's next 12 shocks on the front end of a lifted truck( you know with all the fluid let out of 8 of them)

get off my lawn. 

In reply to Nick Comstock :

Me too, and they would have been monochrome like my fenders and trim. That color film proce$$ing was spendy.

ShawnG said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

The Skylark I had in the shop has been owned by the same guy since the early 1970s. 

He owned an auto wrecker and this car came in one day and he decided to save it. He spent the rest of his life tracking down or making the pieces he needed. He got to the point that he couldn't do it himself anymore and his son reached out to us to sort out the column shift linkage and make the car drivable for his dad. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work on it.

Fun bit of history, Graham and Huppmobile teamed up to buy the body dies for the 810/812 Cord when Cord shut down. The two companies restyled the front end and shared the design to save them both money on developing an entirely new car. Both turned out to be a flop. It's a shame too because the body was ahead of it's time. It's a very solid unibody design.

The results gave us the Hupp Skylark and the Graham Hollywood. 

There's one of each in the Auburn Cord Duesenberg museum in Auburn Indiana.

The hotrodded Hupp posted up has Cord front fenders and hidden headlights.

Yes.  Snapped these pics while visiting the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum:

And this one was parked outside.  It had current plates on it, so maybe a customer's car?

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

That's very cool.

Did you get to meet Mr. Gibbons as well?

Cadzilla is still my favorite custom.  I loved Pro Street as a kid, a guy near me built a few awesome cars at the time.  

Last one I'll post from Americruise.  I need to scan photos from other events over the holidays.

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

Cadzilla is still my favorite custom.  I loved Pro Street as a kid, a guy near me built a few awesome cars at the time.  

I bought the Recycler album specifically for the cover artwork of Cadzilla.