CLASSIC CADDY

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Rik Hoving

1941 CADILLAC CONVERTIBLE

In 2012 I came across 3 photos of a very nicely styled 1941 Cadillac convertible Custom. These very interesting in 1946 taken photos show a car that is a wonderful stylish early Custom example

I originally wrote this article back in 2013 when we had just started the Custom Car Chronicle. At first I did not know anything about these three photo’s, or actually negatives. The only thing I was able to find out was that the license plate was from 1946, so the photos were taken either in late 1945 or somewhere in 1946. But at the time I had no idea about where the photos were taken, who owned the car or who build the car. After the article was put on-line Wayne Hadfield came to the rescue with the identification of the location.

In July, 2013 Wayne Wayne Hadfield identified the location where two, or possibly all three photos were taken. Using Google street view he identified the location as 2592 Telegraph Road, Berkeley, CA. Some of the buildings in the photos are gone now, but others are still there. An image of the location can be seen at the end of the article.

The unknown photographer must have not been very skilled at taking photos. He knew that the car he saw was something special, but the way he cropped the car, the fact that the horizon is not level and the subject is slightly out of focus indicate these were not taken by a professional photographer back in the mid 1940’s.
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On December 12, 2013 Kurt mcCormick told us that the car was still around today.

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“Regarding this black-roof ’41 cad convertible, you may like to know that this car still exists. It is still owned by the guy in california who bought it in the early fifties. I don’t have his permission to identify him, but the car is actually undergoing a slow restoration as we speak.”

Best regards, kustom kurt

Later Kurt mentioned that due to family issues the restoration did not have a priority. The good thing was that as far as Kurt could tell the car had never been changed compared to the photos in this article.

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On July 03, 2016 Kurt McKormick let us know that the ’41 Cadillac is now partly restored and FOR SALE.
On July 18, 2017 the car was sold to a new owner in Australia who will finish the restoration of this early Custom Cadillac.

The 1941 Cadillac Convertible

This 1941 Cadillac is a good sample of some Coachbuilding influences. The Coachbuilding styles and techniques were copied by the young guys who started to modify their cheaper model cars in the late 1930’s and 40’s and this phenomenon would eventually be known as Customizing. The style of modifications done to this Cadillac reminds me of the Coachbuilt cars by the Coachcraft shop. Or the designs and work done by famous coachbuilders Bohman & Schwartz. The car features a chopped windshield and a very nicely shaped padded top. The current (Summer 2016) owner of the Cadillac (87 years) bought the Cadillac from the original owner in 1953. The car was customized in 1942 in the Berkeley-Oakland California area. He could not establish exactly whom the custom work was done by. Also the two sons of the original owner (also both in their 80’s!) do not recall the name of the shop who performed the original restyling back in 1942.

Even the chrome outboard trunk hinges were replaced by inboard units to further clean up the rear of the car. The door handles were shaved as well as the hood side trim and the front fender trim. The rubber rock shield on the rear fender made place for a more in style polished stainless accessory unit. At the front the parking lights and hood letter were removed and the body smoothed. New parking/fog lights were added to the front bumper. All typical Custom touches. The car was lowered, but just a little bit, and is using the stock 1941 Cadillac hubcaps, which is again typical Coachbuilding style. These three photos taken just after WWII show wonderful mix of styles on this classic looking 1941 Cadillac Convertible.

This padded top is unlike most we know coming from Carson, Hall, Chavez or a few others, not covered with white canvas. But rather with a dark almost leatherette kind of material. Something similar to what was used by the Coachbuilders to cover metal tops on sedans or coupes for a more exclusive look. But clearly the top on this Cadillac is a lift off unit. It could also be possible that a dark canvas was used which was covered with a special coating to make it look like leather. An other technique sometimes used on coachbuilt cars. We now know that the top, as well as the interior was handled by Hall of Oakland. The rear fenders were modeled to the body, a typical Custom touch, and at first glance it looks like there are no taillights. The stock units were removed along with the fender trim. Below the bumper a set of hidden taillights are just visible.

The back of this 1941 Cadillac is extremely clean. A lot of efforts were taken to get the desired look. The taillights were removed and custom taillight units mounted below the bumper just outside of the bumper guards. The rear fenders were molded to the main body. The trunk lid was shaved of the trim, handles and hinges and received a set in license plate. This all leads to an ultra smooth wonderfully shaped rear. The photo shows the mid 1940’s gas station and streets of an unknown California place.
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Some new old photos

In early July 2016 we received some additional 1940’s photos of this early Custom Car. David Zivot had been talking to the current owner about the Cadillac. He send us some quick snapshots taken with the phone of a collage on his garage wall. They are not the best quality, but it is really great to see some more photos of this amazing nice and very early Classic Custom. Especially nice is the one color photo that shows us the taillights below the rear bumper.

David also mentioned something about the missing Hall top. When the current owner of the Caddy bought the car in 1953, he did not like the style of the black pyroxylin (leatherette) covering on the padded top, so he had Hall Tops re-do it in the typical white stay-fast covering. Then, years later the house he was storing the top in caught fire, badly damaging the top and framework. Some time after that he also re-worked the sunken license plate area because of the cops getting after him about the plate not being visible enough.

Color photo is most interesting since it really show the below the rear bumper mounted taillights really well. In all the other photos the taillights are very hard to see.
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These photos of the car most likely pre-date the three negatives that I found a few years ago. White wall tires were very hard to come by during WWII, so most likely the car was first fitted with black wall tires as we can see in these photos.
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Location identified
Wayne Hadfield identified the location two, or possibly all these photos were taken. Using Google Street View he was able to identified the location as 2592 Telegraph Road, Berkeley, CA. Thanks Wayne. The houses in the photo appeared to him as typical NorCal houses, and that where he started his search. Pretty amazing he was able to find it.

Google Street View image.
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The car as it looks now July 2016

In 2016 the Cadillac is mostly restored. The body is completely restored and the car is running and driving. However it still needs a top, complete upholstery and glass. The Cadillac still looks mostly the same as is does in the three old photos shown in this article. In July 2017 the car was sold to a new owner in Australia who plans to finish the restoration of the car as an early Custom Car.

July 20, 2017. The Cadillac has been prepped for shipping and is picked up to be delivered to the shipper who will place it in a container and ship it to Australia.
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January 2018, the Cadillac has arrived in Australia and the restoration process to get it back to how it looked back in the early 1940’s has started.
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New hidden hinges from unknown origin were added in the 1940’s.
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(This article is made possible by)

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Dry lake Greetings

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Rik Hoving

DRY LAKE GREETINGS

Some time ago I came across this really neat snapshot on ebay. Two cars with a plane parked on the Salt Flats in 1949.

When I was browsing ebay for some old photos, like I do from time to time, I came across this really nice looking snapshot. Two cars and a plane sitting on a dry lake. I noticed that the two cars were mildly customized, or perhaps a better term in this case would be dressed up. It was a nice photo… giving a very nice feel of the late 1940’s. I saved the ad and went on browsing. Then I came across a photo of this girl standing next to a 1941 Chevy with single bar flipper hubcaps. I immediately recognized it from the snapshot with the 1946-48 Mercury and the plane. So I looked at the seller and what else he had to offer.

This is the one photo I bought from the collection. I just love everything about this one, it is such a nice photo. A couple of mild custom and plane parked on the salt and the owners getting ready to watch the the cars at full speed.
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There were 21 photos that looked to be taken at the same time, by the same people, coming from the same collection. I saved the ebay photos and did not really think about it for a couple of days. Until I was looking for something on my computer and came across the photo with the two cars and the plane again. I just could not stop looking at it. I had seen some photos in the Wally Welch Photo Album where Wally was flying an small airplane similar to the one in this photo. Wally Welch was very much into Custom Cars, but also in Hot Rods, and I knew he could fly, so With this photo I could imagine how people like Wally Welch, with a passion for cars and the ability to fly a plane would go out, rent a plane and fly it out to Bonneville to watch the cars race the salt lake. This photo, and the others offered on ebay have nothing to do with Wally Welch, at least not as far as I know, but it just inspired me enough to make an offer on the one photo. I was the only one who bid on it, and ten days later I received it in my mailbox. Its a really nice snapshot.

Cropped section of the photo shows the dressed up 1946-48 Mercury coupe with Californian plates and the 1941 Chevy that has been dropped in the back a bit with single bar flipper hubcaps. Nothing really special, just every day drivers from some car loving guys.
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I then started to look a little better at the other photo I had downloaded to my computer, the once I did not bid on. I have no idea if they sold, or not. All I have from them are the digital photos that were used for the ebay ads. There was no information about the photos when they were listed on ebay… but to me it looks like perhaps two guys and a girl friend made a trip out to Bonneville to see the Hot Rod’s race at the lakes. I cannot make out from which state the 1941 Chevy come. There is no state indication on the license plate. One other photo in the series shows a 1949 License plate, so most likely this trip was made in 1949. And possibly the guys and girl had been dreaming about this trip for some time, hence all the snapshots that were taken during the trip.

CCC-Member Jimmy Barter corrected me on this writing. He let me know that there where a lot more than 21 photos in this collection. And that the trip was not made to Bonneville alone. He was able to buy 60 photos from this collection and he was able to recognize a few other locations as well. The airplane photo and the Woman next to the ’40 Chev plus the coupe speed runs and the 2 roadsters (sepia coloured) are from El Mirage. The photo of the trophy presentation is from Saugus drag strip. Thank you Jimmy for the extra info.

Another photo shows the girl friend with the 1941 Chevy. If somebody recognizes the license plate, please let me know. Typical snapshot with the horizon on an angle, vertical photos when a horizontal would have been a better choice… but still I love the idea of the photo taken to show the friends at home the Chevy and the girl made it out to Bonneville.
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Slight speedboat stance with single bar flipper hubcaps… and a tough looking girl…
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The one photo I was able to buy started this story. To me it gives a very good image of how it was back in the 1940’s. The rest of the photos from the ebay auctions made up the rest of the story in my head. It made me wonder how it must have been to make a special trip like that back then. These snapshots might have been part of a personal collection for many decades. Inside a photo-album, the one from the 1949 Bonneville trip. An album that perhaps was taken out from time to time, to re-live that wonderful trip again. Perhaps the album was found in an estate sale in recent years and each photo sold off individually… greeting new stories with the new owners.

The road to the lakes… a whole lot of “nothing”.
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Another proof to show back home that they made it to the Salt Flats.
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Possibly the owner of the 1941 Chevy and his girlfriend close the the Salt Flats.
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The two guys brushing their teeth…
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Distant speeding Hot Rod on the salt.
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’36 Ford at full speed… a little closer to the track.
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Full speed Hot Rod…
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They also hung out in the pits, looking at the cars, taking some snapshots and watching the award ceremony.
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A few more snapshots from the pits era with the Pierson Bros cars in one of the photos.
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41 Ford Mid 40s Custom

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Rik Hoving

41 FORD MID 40s CUSTOM

In the early and mid 1940’s a lot of of simple, yet elegant Customs were created all over the US. Restyled cars for improved looks, not to to win points at cars shows.

[dropcap]In[/dropcap] the late 1930’s and early to mid 1940’s the Custom Cars as we know them today were developed. Young kids who did not have a huge amount of money to spend, but still would love to drive a special car started to modify their regulars Fords, Chevy’s and other brand cars. There were no magazines back then to tell you what you needed to do to chop a top, lower the suspension, nor were there car shows to look what others had done to their beautiful cars. It was the time the styles were developed by trial and error, but most of all by just looking at the car and figuring out what you did not like about it, and fix it to make it look better.

Even during WWII a lot of customizing went on, parts were getting hard to find, hence a lot of the cars build in these early 1940’s have black wall tires, or only white wall tires on the front. Simply because the white walls were not available, and if they were there, they would cost a small fortune. The Custom Cars back then were street driven cars. Most of the times the owners’ only form of transportation. Therefor the cars were besides beautiful restyled, also practical. The roads were not like they are today, so the cars were lowered, but not as much as they would be later, or like they are today.

The snapshot is actually rather small as can be seen here mounted with the period black photo borders.
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This article shows a very nicely done 1941 Ford convertible photographed in 1945. The main body is mostly stock, but the windshield was chopped and a padded top was added. By the looks of it most likely by the Carson Top Shop. The Carson Top Shop usually created their padded tops in a jig, not on the car it self, and this jig created a slightly less streamlined look like we know for instance from Gaylord. The straight B-Pillar is another sign that this might be one built on the 1941 Ford Convertible jig by Carson. Most likely even the windshield was chopped by or handled by the Top shop. Usually the upholstery shop took care of the chopping of the windshield as well. The car is mildly lowered, has black wall tires and a set of chrome single bar flipper hubcaps with beauty rings. The license plate was recessed, rather deeply into the smoothed trunk. Another very typical modification for those days. The finishing touch was a set of 1937 DeSoto bumpers, they even used the more rounded rear bumper on the back of this 1941 Ford. Most of the times two more flatter front units are used. The spotlight was pointing forward, another typical detail for those days. Later the front where, where the glass is, would always be turned down to the hood, but not in the early/mid 1940’s.

The photo shows the car parked in the street, just like any other ordinary car in the street, not parked in a climate controlled garage or covered with custom made car covers. The photo comes from my own personal collection.

Enlarged we can see that the car looks to have painted headlight rings, and that it might even have an slight forward rake, which is unusual for a custom of those days. But with the lack of fender skirts it gives the car a more sports feel.
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This photo shows the set in license plate in the trunk. It appears that the plate was mounted on a slight forward angle, possibly to be able to have some lights set up inside the trunk for night time plate vision. These cars were driven as a normal car. The round DeSoto rear bumper is evident in this photo.
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The photo below shows how some of the more popular padded tops, like the one for the 1941 Ford, were created on a jig at the Carson Top Shop. Using a jig speeded up production time considerable. All bows and other material needed for the padded top, were made from pre-made templates, that could be used over and over again. The disadvantage was that the top was a more generic top, and not always flowed as nice as when the top was created on the car itself.

And Carson Top Shop employee could do his job standing inside the top. Something that could not have been done if the top was on the car.
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Craig Wise Customs Photo Collection

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Rik Hoving

CRAIG WISE CUSTOMS PHOTO COLLECTION

Craig wise, a former sign painter loves Hot Rods and Customs and collects, amongst many other things, old photos. Mostly Hot Rod material, but he has a few Custom beauties in his Collection as well.

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ost of the Custom car photos in Craig’s collection are dating back to the mid and late 1940’s. These photos originate from Craig’s wife Shirley family. The cars in these photos, the 1941 Ford, 1940 Mercury, 36 Ford convertible, and a 1939 Ford convertible all belonged to an uncle of Craig’s wife. Uncle Tom Dohoyian. The story goes that Tom hung out at the Barris shop a lot in the later part of the 1940’s. And that one of the cars the 1940 Mercury in the hand colorized photo – according to Shirley’s father – was actually built by the Barris Kustom Shop for Tom. But so far we have been unable to confirm this, or find any more info on this or any other other cars in these 1940’s photos. Sadly, uncle Tommy Dohoyian was killed driving a big rig truck in 1950, at the age of 27.

Tom Dohoyian Customs

This really nice hand-colorized photo shows what was possibly a Barris Custom owned by Tom Dohoyian. Chopped windshield, padded top, mild lowering and single bar flipper hubcaps date this custom to 1946-48.
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Tom also had this 1936 Ford Convertible with chopped windshield, spotlights and 1941 Ford bumpers. Amazing to see the near empty street. Judging the cars in the background this photo was taken around WWII.
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Enlarged section of the photo above gives us a better look at this nice early Custom.
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Uncle Tom posing with his ’39 Ford convertible with chopped windshield and padded top. Tom’s Ford used ’40 headlights, 1937 DeSoto Bumpers and teardrop skirts with 1941 Buick spears.
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Another photo of Tom’s ’39 Ford shows the car with the padded top, and the hood open reveals a dual carbed engine. The ribbed DeSoto bumpers, single bar ribbed flipper hubcaps are the perfect combination for any ’39-40 Ford.
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1941 Ford with and 1940 Mercury rear bumper, set-in license plate and padded top. The license plate reads 1943.
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Two 1950’s photos

Absolutely wonderful photo of the Barris/Cerny built Panoramic Ford for Buster Litton. The photo was taken at the Santa Ana Drags in 1954.
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This photo is special as well. It shows a young Craig Wise posing next to Doug Rice, Washington based 1939 Ford Coupe at the 1954 Bonneville races.
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I took this photo of Craig Wise the owner of this collection. He can be seen here with a blow up of the 1954 photo where he posed with the same car as a young kid. This photo was taken at the 2011 GNRS Customs Then & Now exhibit and craigs photo was displayed with the restored Doug Rice ’39 Ford Coupe thru-out the weekend.
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I have come in contact with Craig Wise for the first time when researching the Jack Stewart Ford. Craig is good friends with Jack, and more available on the internet than Jack himself. Over the years we have become good friends. Craig has a wonderful 1940 Ford Pick-up truck which he is building right now. Take a look at his built thread on the CCC-Forum.

Do you know about a Photo Collection that needs to be saved and shared.
Please let us know Email Rik Hoving

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Custom Car photo albums through the years

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Rik Hoving

CUSTOM CAR PHOTO ALBUMS – PART 1

As a kid I loved to browse through old family photo albums. Hand-tooled, leather bound, black pages, with soft velvet paper protection sheets, covering classy black and white photos. All neatly organized by date, and event in the album, with the use of four black photo corners.

I even liked the albums that were used in the 1960’s and 1970’s. With stick-on pages, and clear cellophane covers. The way the glue had yellowed over the years, the special feel of the the heavy pages, and even the smell is etched in my brain forever. In later years, I saw similar photo albums that have been created by custom car, and hot rod enthusiasts. And I was lucky enough to be able to browse many of those wonderful photo albums, on my visits to the US.

A couple of years ago, I was writing some articles for a Dutch magazine, and thought it would be nice to show readers in the Netherlands how these old American custom car photo albums looked like, and how they evolved over the years. Each time period of these photo albums has its own character. Even though I really love the historical ones from the 1940’s, and 1950’s, the modern ones – including the albums from the 80’s and 90’s -, have something special about them as well.

So I set out, and recreated 6 photo albums from the 1940’s to the 1990’s. I re-created custom car photos and added them to existing photo albums. These images were photographed or scanned, and the rest was created on the computer. The articles were used in the Dutch magazine, and were later translated for the Swedish Gasoline magazine.

The articles showed the wonderful photos, and the photo albums in which they were carefully kept in the period 1940 to the 1990’s. It is something many of us miss in the digital world we live in nowadays; with the exception of some lucky photographers, who still work with actual rolls of film. Sure, we can take hundreds of photos at no extra costs. The best ones, we can even print out on photo paper. And with the aid of our iPhones, we can change our new snapshots in “make belief oldies”. But the special look and feel from the old fade and fading color sensitive photo paper is gone.

In this first of three CCC articles on these photo album’s we will show you the 1940’s and 1950’s albums. For these albums we used photos from the Barry Mazza, Wally Welch, Jay Johnston, Ed Jenson and the Custom Car Photo Archive collections.

The 1940’s

Photos from custom cars from the forties are rather rare. Taking photos back then, was not as common as it would be in the following decades. Also a lot of photos where lost forever in moves, due to lack of interest, or simply thrown in the trashcan, when their owners passed away. The photos had those wonderful, rough edged, white borders. After several years they were often yellowed, and got torn edges, and rounded corners from handling them. The photo albums of the forties where wonderfully made, often with leather, or wood covers, with a exclusive feel to them. The pages inside where mostly made from black paper, the photos were neatly attached with nice little black photo corners. The custom cars on the photos, where beautiful, stylish, and pure. The customizers where pioneers, they had to invent everything themselves. They only had very few custom car after market parts, but they’d got lots of talent, and time to work with them.

The 1950’s

The 1950’s brought us many more photos than the previous decade. Taking photos was much more common back then, and because of that, many more custom car photos from this decade survived. The albums where also produced in larger number, they became less exclusive. In the early fifties, the look and feel of the photos remained very much the same, but later on, photos with straight borders on heavy photo paper, and color photos became very popular. Kodak was perhaps the largest supplier for color photos, and the Kodachrome feel of these photos became immensly popular. Even today designers and photographers are still trying to copy the typical Kodachrome feel, when they want a fifties touch.

The custom cars in the early fifties were simple, stylish and well designed. This is considered the Golden Age of the Custom Car. Later in the fifties the custom car designs were much more extreme, as car shows became more and more popular and important. For every show the cars became increasingly extreme, that way they gained points for the owners, and the builders.

Part two is about the photo albums in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Part three is about the photo albums in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

A Mystery Hubcap

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Rik Hoving

EARLY 1940s THREE BAR SPINNER HUBCAP

When I received the photo of this mild customized 1941 Ford convertible, I noticed the odd looking hubcap. For some time I thought the single bar flipper had been hit by something, the flipper partly broke and half of the flipper was turned upwards.

Some month after this photo was added to the Custom Car Photo Archive, we found a very small photo of a three bar spinner hubcap on the internet. It came from a long gone eBay advert and there was no way of tracing its origin. I recognized the hubcap with its propellor shaped spinner, right away from the photo in our collection. I thought for some time that it was a damaged single bar flipper that left a mark where it used to be and was twisted to the other side. But it looks like it was a real early aftermarket product that was used on the 1941 Ford.

The photo of the well dressed girl in front of the 1941 Ford was taken during WWII. The Californian license plate has the distinctive “V” on the right top corner. This V (V for Victory) was used from 1941 till 1944. So we know the hubcaps was available very early in the 1940’s, possibly even in the 1930’s. This is the only car we have ever seen using a set of these hubcaps, and the inset photo is the only one we have ever seen from the actual hubcap. I do not think this hubcap is a very attractive accessory item, but it would be very interesting to know more of its history.

Does anybody know anything about this type of hubcap. Who made it? Eastern Customs perhaps? If you have any info on this item, please leave a comment. We would love to solve another Custom Car mystery.

Update July 17, 2013

A few people have responded, most thought it was an home made hubcap. But two people mentioned they had seen the same hubcap. One was hanging on the wall in a friends house. And the other (Trevor Stevens) mentioned his friend had recently bought a similar hubcap. His friend mentioned it could be an Hollywood Disk accessory hubcaps. In any event he did send us these photos.

Custom Car Photo Archive site

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Rik Hoving

OVER ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PHOTO’S: THE EVER GROWING CUSTOM CAR PHOTO ARCHIVE

The Custom Car Photo Archive has gained serious attention in the past years. There are stories about custom car enthousiast who started browsing on Friday afternoon and simply couldn’t stop till the next morning.

Yes, its a pretty addictive archive. There are over 100.000 photo’s and we’ve got visitors from all over the world. Some share fantastic stories and fantastic photos with us. Thus helping the Archive to grown bigger and bigger.

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WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT THE ARCHIVE

Pat Ganahl: Rik is inarguably the wold’s most avid collector and archivist of anything having to do with the history and current status of classic custom cars. You’ve seen his amazing digitally colorized early photos in these pages, and if you have any interest in historic custom cars, you’ve undoubtedly visited his vast online photo archive.
(TRJ #59)

Jeff Allison: Rik, love the site. I look at it often for inspiration but have never posted a message. I currently own the Astra coupe you have shots of, if you want any more pics or info about it let me know. Thanks again for posting so many sweet photos of stuff that is hard to find.

Dennis Metz – Shelbyville, IN: I am honored that you have posted new photos of my dad’s 1950 Buick. I was visiting the site today to tell my co-worker about other pictures I have seen in an album titled RC Dream Truck and Golden Sahara in the Barris archieves. My father had several customs that are not posted that were in many different Rod and Custom Magazines in the 1950’s. I was happy today to see BOB METZ added as a photo album and much to my surprise I have never seen the photos you have posted of his 1950 Buick. Thanks again.

Pat Ganahl: This naturally led me to Rik Hoving’s website of all things custom, where he had some photos of this car posted, including a couple of the dash/interior I hadn’t seen.
(TRJ #51)

Barry Mazza: I’am in a state of shock over your collection of photos in the Custom Car Photo Archive. I’am floored over it and thinks its way over the top. Thanks for the pleasure of seeing these great photos of the cars we love and love to see…………….

Pete Chapouris: Jimmie Vaughan came by today and turned me on to your site. He was right, it’s hard to look at anything else. Great stuff, especially the Ayala cars. I spent many Saturdays there with my dad when I was a pup.

Josh Mills: I am a big fan of your site and reference it often. Thanks for the time you have taken to put all of the info in one place. It is a great collection.

bangshift.com, Posted by Chad Reynolds: If you’re into custom cars, you may never leave your seat after we show you this. If you’re not into ‘em, you will be. A guy named Rik Hoving in the Netherlands has compiled The Custom Car Photo Archive that includes incredible images and history of all sorts of customs from the ’40s through today. You’ll see historic photos, scans of ancient magazine pages, and notes on many cars you’ve heard of and hundreds you haven’t.

Kurt McKormick: Hi, Rik– My friend wolf told me about your site, and I want you to know what a pleasure it is to look through it. It has obviously taken a lot of time and effort to put it together, and you have done a fine job. I want to thank you for the page on the ‘41 cad. As many pictures as I have of the car, I would rather look at them on your site because they are presented so well. This web site is the definitive custom archive. Thanks for creating it.

Jan Emory Wilson: What an amazing site! I am Neil Emory’s daughter (Valley Custom) and my brother Gary just sent me your website. Thanks so much for all your hard work.

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