Picture Thread:Golden Era Customs

[Palf70Step]

few more

[Palf70Step]

Last batch.

Not a lot of full customs like those that started this thread, but the milder ones that people tend to drive more.

[PAWS 72]

Palf70 I lovem all the same.

[richards72chevy]

[special-K]

Club Coupes are my favorite:

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[richards72chevy]

[special-K]

Hey Richard, that's for keeping this thread alive. It would be nothing w/o all your contributions. I just got back from a great show, gotta load pictures. It was an early rod show with some customs.

[richards72chevy]

I love the old customs.Great thread.

[special-K]

Chrome slots! I have wondered for years why no one remakes these. Yeah, I know, chrome rusts. That's why back in the day I thought people were being too cheap when they bought these and not aluminum slots. And aluminum ones look tougher. But, these could be a great cheap alternative with crazy wheel prices these days, people want era correct wheels, and rust was only an issue for year 'round daily drivers...same as Cragar S/S, Keystone Klassics, and Rocket (whatever they were called) and those are reproduced. Dodge put them on trucks in the late '70s and those had good chrome. I never saw those rusted.

Talk about 'golden' era:

[crossfire84]

A lot of cool stuff and a few head scratchers.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by crossfire84

A lot of cool stuff and a few head scratchers.

You just defined custom. Not built for the masses...love it/hate it...dare to be different

[special-K]

This guy is local and this car is a knock out. Just clean and simple. Nothin' simple about chopping that torpedo Back! These pictures I've show in these last threads are from a show last weekend. I'll look for others I took

[Super_Dave]

A close friend of mine, was well known in the Custom Car world. He was part of in it's early days and it's hay days. He kept at it right through the 80's and 90's and on. He die 18 months ago at the age of 88.

His name was Robert "Bob" Selix.

He was a master, an artist and yes, a genius, and I don't use the term genius lightly. I have never in my 61 years, met another individual who could look over any mechanical object and immediately understand how it worked, how he could use it and modify it to make it better. It was awe inspiring to watch him work and listen to him. I would spend a lot of my days off hanging around his shop and soaking in everything he was doing... and he never was one to make you feel like you were in the way or a distraction. His Wife "Mimi", from Austria with an accent to match, was my second mother and a grandmother to my son.

He built his own house from foundation to roof, did upholstery, body and paint, fabricated everything he ever needed, including his own custom frame straightening and alignment machine (for framed and sub-frame vehicles!) when only big body shops could afford the commercial versions. He fabricated stainless trim and could blend multiple cars into one single award winning custom, doing things to it that manufacturers would adopt years later as options.

I had the great pleasure of owning at least five of his creations over the years. I remember coming to him and telling him that I had to give my ex-wife and her boyfriend the custom Plymouth Duster he sold me, so he asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted another Duster, but with a Sun Roof. A few days later and a trip to the "auction" and Bob had two Duster's in his shop. One was, as only Bob could say, "Smashed in the nose" and the other was "smashed in the..." and one had a factory Sun Roof!

Two days later, a single car was sitting on the frame machine. It was stripped of every nut and bolt, as was Bob's style. Bob brought me up to speed on what and how he cut and welded two cars into one. "What color do you want", Bob asked. I said, "surprise me! And he did... a rich, bright yellow with Emerald Green Racing Strips and Black Cob Webbing! Factory Rallye Wheels, Sun Roof, every nut and bolt replaced and engine compartment that rivaled a show car... complete perfection! Less that two weeks had passed and Bob handed me the keys and I handed him $1,500... He was a friend like no other friend.

Bob's Shop always looked like an explosion had happened at the Pick-N-Pull and everything came to rest inside his shop. Yet he knew where every single part was, from multiple cars, and could walk right to it.

Bob had a small ante room off the back of his shop. In it resided one of his multi-award winning cars from the late 1950's... a combination of 8-10 different cars. He told me the story and all the different cars he used. It was painted deep yellow and had a 383 Police Interceptor engine, which had replaced the '51 Hemi. he called it his Sports Car. As the story goes, he built it for Sammy Davis Jr. and it was originally Purple. At some point, Sammy Davis Jr. decided he no longer wanted the car, so Bob kept it right up to his death. It now resides with his son.

Bob took the car to Austria when his wife and her twin sister went home for a visit. He related how he "had it wide open" on the Autobahn!

Below is a photo of Bob and a Magazine Cover with the car in it's original color. He went on to win the Portland Roadster Show in 1958 and 1959 with this car. For years he would enter cars and always seemed to win or place Second or Third.

[Super_Dave]

Bod added 4 wheel disc brakes to his Sports Car, long before they were an option. He fabricated the suspension, all the hinges and stainless,... way too much to list. Suffice to say, every part of the car was custom.

[Super_Dave]

Bob never had a spray booth, and as these photos attest, the shop was a dust and dirt magnet... yet every paint job came out flawless and won car show after car show.

Bob's body gaps, which he was always proud of as a sign of craftsmanship, rival those coming off factory floors today. They most certainly put the cars of that era to shame!

[Super_Dave]

Bob will be missed for the man he was, his God given talent, and his Genius. I will always be proud to say he was my dear friend.

[Super_Dave]

Another of Bob's Award Winning Customs was his DUSTRUK. Bob wanted something a bit smaller than his Custom Dodge Club Cab (that started out as a standard cab...). So, he built the DUSTRUK, complete with a fold down tailgate and custom, integrated, articulated, stainless, bed liner that folded up with the tailgate when closed and extended when open.

For more power, Bob custom built a Turbo Charger from parts that would not be used on cars for many more years. Bob figured, "why wait when you can make it yourself." I will always remember the day he pulled up in front of my house, ran across the grass with a big grin on his face... wanting me to see his newest creation.

I use to have countless photos of his cars, some I owned and many I just got to see, but alas many moves later and years removed from digital archives... I no longer have them... it's a sad day indeed.

This photo shows a canopy he adapted (strictly for utilitarian purposes)... I liked the truck without it much more so than with it, but in Oregon, some parts need to be hauled in a protected environment.

[special-K]

Thanks so very much for sharing this. You were blessed with having such a role model. Knowing him raised your bars for what you feel you can accomplish. I was fortunate to have a few men, mostly friends of my dad, who I now know, if I didn't before, heavily influenced me. Not to mention Dad. He grew up with no dad, was a school teacher, father of 7, and took on anything he had to do, from making us wonderful riding toys, to rebuilding a '62 Land Rover transmission, to building a dormar addition that meant tearing the roof wide open, made a guitar, played guitar & banjo, and on. I now see how he chose his friends. He had a non-mainstream value system that I guess I also have. A take a step back perspective...yeah, me too. His one friend, a fellow teacher, Dicky Woodard was as much an influence. I could write a book on all he created. Those guys would take anything on.

Yeah, you look at some of these customs and you may wonder "what were they thinking?". Well, you have to put yourself in the time it was done. It was all about creativity and , although customs became a trend and many were influenced by others, the base element to it all was do what no one else has done yet. Also, for cryin' out loud, this was happening 50-60+ years ago! You can't look at it as what you like today. These guys made Detroit follow their lead. How the heck do you think GM every came up with the '55 Nomad or El Camino? Those are factory-built fill-tilt customs.

Here is a hot rod/custom built in 1952 (found & restored). The guy built this himself using engine, transmission (Fluidrive), and rear from a wrecked '52 Olds. I wish I had more detailed pictures. The work on just the top is incredible. All bows are chromed, too. The Olds column shift is molded to the dash. It goes on and on. Nothing "wild" about this car. It looks like some sort of factory-built Model A sports car with that top and channeled body with full fenders.