CUSTOM

[Crossbreed]

If you don't know what it means, don't use the word.
CUSTOM is not something you get out of a box. CUSTOM is not paying someone to paint your car some ungodly color. If you have it and someone else can go to the store and have it too... it's not CUSTOM.
CUSTOM is not paying for the biggest rims you can fit on your car and bolting them on.
CUSTOM is doing something that no ones seen yet. Chip Foose does CUSTOM. People that copy him do not. If you've seen it somewhere else and you copy it (no matter how difficult it was), it's not CUSTOM.
CUSTOM... is not always pretty.
I've seen a few cars here and there that ARE. I've seen several that claim to be but are NOT.
Custom wheels should mean... there are only 4 of them... PERIOD.
Blood, sweat, creativity, YES.
Copying someone else.. NOPE.
Paying someone to lift up your car and make it look different, NO. You signed a check. That's all YOU did. If I can pay that guy to do the same thing to mine... not CUSTOM.
I'm ranting. Sorry.
Harley offers "custom paint schemes" in their catalogs. Go into a showroom and see 3 bikes with the same "custom paint schemes"... NOT CUSTOM.
Honda civics with stickers and mufflers that are way too big... NOT CUSTOM.
That's my rant. Had to get it off my chest. Too many people misuse this word. It should be retired.

 

[Qdub24]

I don't think that's gonna happen. I also disagree w/you on quite a few of your examples, but I digress.

*Explain how that isn't "custom" please?

 

[78_oldcruiser]

i in someway agree but i also disagree. custom itself means not factory. so ok if you have a 600hp engine that would be high performance right? ok so if someone else has a 600hp eninge built with same parts would they still be high performance or would they just be a stock 600hp engine since both are producing the same with the same parts?

custom is whatever you do with the parts you make, find, or whatever as long as it is not factory stock.
it does take more than just set of rims and paint to make a custom car but it is customizing. its all about making it yours. everyone isnt an artist so to get to the paint and stuff like that their only way might be through someone else. its not a bad thing to write a check for customizing but at lest do everything you can yourself and leave the left overs to the artists.

i do not like big 20" rims and stuff like that, personally i think they are ugly and some paint on cars are the same but that is just my view but if others like it hell they are the ones that have to ride in it and either get the wows or laughed at or whatever not me. but thats my views on it.

just to get this off my chest though, i do feel where you are coming from, it really pisses me off when someone lists a bobber for sale and you look at it and its a stock bike with the rear fender removed and a new seat thats not a friggin bobber lol so i know where you are coming from but everyone has their views so feel free to rant i feel ya lol

 

[custom442]

chip foose doesn't do 'custom'. Every paint job is the exact same solid striped theme, cept for maybe one or two

I'd say that orange regal is more custom than just about anything I've seen. With or without big rims


Speaking of, I saw a very clean chop topped cutlass supreme around my town, I usually don't see g bodies much around here

 

[Crossbreed]

I'm just sayin'... I see a lot of people just buying a bunch of bolt-on crap from Autozone and throwing it on a civic and calling it custom. Guys stickin' non-functional hood scoops that attatch with 2 sided tape on a new truck on the showroom floor and calling it custom. These stupid (don't know if they have em where you live) Regency chevy trucks. Dealerships have 3 of these on their lots, but Custom is on the windshield of each one. All it is is a base model stick shift truck with a cowl hood, ss stripes, a roll pan and aftermaket wheels... but it's custom. All 3. Mass produced marketed crap from a dealership is not custom.
I'm not getting into another argument with Qdub. A lot of those vehicles he's into are. If they're fabricating their own pieces and not just buying some "bolt-on" kit with a credit card. If they're doing one-off interiors. My point is, if I can go through some online catalogs with a credit card and recreate the exact thing you have with little or no effort, stop calling it "one-of-a-kind".
Harley catalog (again), for $2,500 extra, you can have these custom graphics on your bike... well, so can anyone else with $2,500 too. See my point?
Get Mike Lavelle to do some "tru-fire" on your ride. Pay out the *ss. It's kinda custom. Except that kids around here are buying airbrushes and learning to do it too. I just saw a Chrysler Sebring with Tru-fire... in Ohio... stock everything, but a Tru-Fire paint job. Yipee.
I used to be in the sport truck scene. People used to do these killer (made their own pieces) 3-links and 4-link suspensions. Badass. Cept now, you can buy them as a bolt in kit (with Custom skulls or tribals for $100 extra). Yuck. The entire sport truck scene is now... how much can you spend on aftermarket bolt-on parts.
At least with these 20 year-old G-Bodies, parts are getting scarce and we're going to be pretty much forced to fabricate our own pieces sooner or later.
So, in the end, my rant wasn't brought on by anything I've seen on this forum... just pretty much any time I step outside my door. Anytime I look on E-bay, etc. So if you're reading this, don't be offended, cause chances are YOU are doing it right.
But remember, imitation may still be the highest form of flattery... but it's still kind of annoying.

 

[Qdub24]

chip foose doesn't do 'custom'. Every paint job is the exact same solid striped theme, cept for maybe one or two

I'd say that orange regal is more custom than just about anything I've seen. With or without big rims


Speaking of, I saw a very clean chop topped cutlass supreme around my town, I usually don't see g bodies much around here

You mean this "gold" one:

OR
this kandy red & orange one:
BEFORE

AFTER

 

[Crossbreed]

I don't think that's gonna happen. I also disagree w/you on quite a few of your examples, but I digress.

*Explain how that isn't "custom" please?

Yeah. Roof was chopped. He put in some work, so I'd say it's custom. But if two more guys go out and buy all the bolt-on parts he did, cuts the roof and paints a similar color.... would theirs be deserving of that word too?
Every GN that came off the assembly line was the exact same color. If I throw a set of aftermarket wheels on it, is it suddenly custom?
Gah, I'm actually tired of typing the C-word, now. Word's lost all meaning.

 

[Crossbreed]

chip foose doesn't do 'custom'. Every paint job is the exact same solid striped theme, cept for maybe one or two

Foose hand fabricated every piece on Christopher Titus's ride. He hand fabricated every piece when he redesigned the Ford Thunderbird (Rides DVD). He took a 4-door 57 Chevy and made it a 2-door. It's kind of annoying that he is pretty much a household name and hocking MacQuires crap on every car channel on tv. But the man made a name for himself, and it wasn't by doing Overhaulin' with a quick trip to Autozone.
Do a google image search using the words "Foose" and "custom" and I think you'll see you're wrong.

 

[oldtinsmith]

IMO, a custom car is one thats built/made .........made to order..........etc. If a person designs their own car, it was made to order by themselves or for themselves, it's a custom car. If a person has an idea and someone else designs it, per their approval, and a third party builds the car "made to order" it's that persons custom car. A custom car is made up of ALOT of pieces, made by someone else, so "content is mute"!

Doug

 

[78_oldcruiser]

lol ok i get what you are saying. you are talking about like seperating the true bikers from the weekend warriors type thing. i agree. i hate seeing someone pay $500 for a car that half runs, add $25 sticker graphics on it, put a muffler on the back that sounds like a bee that could take godzilla, call it custom and add a price tag of $5k on it we have a lot of them here lol