Thread: How Do You Plan Your Rod or Kustom?

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At about 36 years of working for others, I've been in this "kustomizing biz" for a long time! I have worked for almost every type of personality....and on almost every type of personalized vehicle. I have come to see the crowd broken into several building philosophies. Here are some general groupings:

The largest group of builders are those that are only willing to do what is generally accepted by the majority. They build a generally common bodystyle for that type of build, run the most popular engine, paint it one of the currently popular colors, use the few styles of wheels that are preferred, with one of the "approved" interior colors or designs, and finish it off with the most recently popular graphics or details they have seen on these projects. In the most extreme approach, I have some customers who come to me and say, "I don't care what you do, as long as everyone else likes it". This kind of shocks me, since I always thought you customized to make a statement about your own unique interpretation of a custom! I thought that was how this all started?

The next smaller group would be those who try to figure out how to do this without sacrificing any of their investment. They will only do what they think has a good resale value, and stress over whether they are making the right financial decisions, instead of choosing what they personally like. They will choose parts, paint, wheels, and craftsmen that are less expensive, or of lesser quality, but will give the best chance of recouping their dollars, by being acceptable to potential buyers.

Still smaller (but growing) is the group of do-it-yourselfers. Most do it either, because it is a social statement against the evil "gold chainer", or more likely because they just can't afford to hire help....yet! The sad part is their condemnation of guys who have a nice machine. Those older guys have kept this hobby alive for them to inherit, and share that passion that they have for rods & customs.

Almost the smallest, but not quite, are those who intentionally want to stand away from the crowd, because that is how they see themselves. They tend to like more extreme styling and big horsepower, unique touches, somewhat unusual, but well thought out ideas, technically sound engineering, or sophisticated accents.

The smallest group by far is the true "rebel". He was the guy in the '50s, who did it his way. He invented most of the trends that have come and gone. He would have a vision of a new idea, and then use it! He was the guy at Bonneville in the mid eighties with trufire flames......the guy who would build that old truck with the roof cut off and an odd engine, 30 years ago, when it was not being done by anyone else in the world!.....the guy who today will be the first in his town to chop a Citroen...or figure out how to make his own wheels.....paint his car a metallic white....cover the seat with gator hyde....or have tattoos painted all over it! I don't get too many of this type. When I do it's a special occasion. I'll always remember the streetrod couple who I told that their paint design would not be broadly popular, because it is normally a "lowrider" style, and NEVER used on a rod! They said they didn't care what others thought, because THEY liked it. They asked me what I would do. I told them I loved it! (They surprisingly won best paint at a large show, first time out!..I surely would have bet against that!)

So my question is.......How do you decide what you are going to do? Do you think that will ever change? If you decided to "experiment", what would you do to be different?

Would you do something shocking.....