hollywood hot rods

They do a lot of great stuff. And I had a great time checking out their current projects during my shop tour one year ago.

phillips kustoms

There are few cars in such a desperate need for a haircut like a stock 1940 Merc Coupe. Just have a look at the "before" shot at the bottom of this post, if you don't know what I mean. The improvement is none less than dramatic, as this great example shows. It was tastefully chopped by Kyle Phillips of La Mesa, the guy who built the 1949 Chevy coupe you see on top of this blog.

kustom ideas: dual headlights

When dual headlights became part of the regular car design, custom builders quickly adopted this styling element. On most of the cars, they made for a dramatic change of appearance. Whether it was for good or worse... you gotta decide for yourself. Just take a look at the custom dual headlight feature run by Motor Life magazine in their April 1958 issue. While there are some ideas that proved successful over the years, others obviously did not so much.


Maybe not the best example to start with.


Gotta love this detail shot of Barris' Kopper Kart.


Quite a radical change to this '56 Chevy front.


One of the more popular custom touches.


'54 Ford truck.


Not the most elegant solution.


These might be the headlights of the famous Rod & Custom Dream Truck.

riv it up!

I love those 63-65 Rivieras. They're genuine factory customs and don't need much more than a lowering job, some good looking wheels and a nifty paintjob. Here are two previously unreleased shots I took of a beautiful Riviera one year ago at the GNRS.

hot wheels

They say that wheels make or break a car. Seen last summer at the Hot Rod & Art Show in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

keep on truckin

They say that a cool truck makes for a good start into the new week. Seen at GNRS one year ago.

come on closer

While waiting for spring, I was digging through some older files. Here are a couple of black and white close-ups I came up with... took them three years ago at the Hangar Rockin' in Switzerland. Still love the high contrast I was playing with at the time.