RE: IML: To custom or not to custom?

["Rob McCall" <Rob_Mopar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm jumping into this late, but here goes.

I'm a fan of tastefully done customs.  There are certain customs that are
timeless, and others that are popular at the time they are built, but
quickly become dated as the current trend goes out of fashion.  Sometimes
the car can make a comeback from a nostalgic point of view, but the fad
won't.

Some examples:

Timeless - the Hirohita Merc. 
 
Dated - The Corvette Summer Corvette (does have some nostalgia, but it was
the best example I could think of).  

Nostalgic - The Green Hornet's Black Beauty (had to throw some Imperial
content in the examples, no?).

The timeless ones are the most difficult ones to pull off, but are my
favorite.  If you don't have any specific ideas in mind for your car, I'd
suggest picking up a couple issues of The Rodder's Journal, and possibly the
book 50 Years of Rod and Custom.  

You have a Hemi in your garage?  Which one?  With 6 Strombergs it has to be
an early Hemi.  I'd really lean toward putting it in your motorless car.
Moon Racing Equipment(www.mooneyes.com) offers throttle body fuel injection
replicas of the Stromberg.

To use that motor in the '60, you would definitely need to go for a period
look.  No billet aluminum 6-spoke 20" wheels and 30 flat panel TVs.  

To do the car right, it will take some research, and a cohesive plan.
Looking at the original designers sketches can help identify custom touches
that got sacrificed to make a production automobile.  Keeping a feel of the
original car is the best in my opinion, especially if you have a stock one
to park it next to.  That will really highlight the differences between the
cars.  

Technically there are no wrong and rights in the customizing world, except
for when it's really wrong, or really right.  Get it?  It's easier to do a
really wrong car than a timeless one.

Rob McCall
'67 LeBaron, comatose mild custom project.  Waiting for my uncle to measure
his garage to see if it fits.





-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm