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Introduction
Description
Since the birth of the automobile, car owners have been gung ho for personalising their vehicles, whether that has involved a racoon tail tied to a windshield, adding a windshield to a car that has none, or grafting a race car from aftermarket parts and a little ingenuity.
Somewhere along the way, two distinct breeds of customised cars developed. There were the hopped-up, high-speed 'gow jobs', better known today as the formidable American icon, the hot rod; and there were slow-cruising, opulent 'customs'.
No one knows for sure when customs first cruised the streets, but by the early 1940s they were out in full splendour. Chopped tops, lowered chassis and shaved running boards - all for a streamlined effect - were the name of the game. Customisers would take lower-end Fords, Mercurys or Chevys, and modify them to be more luxurious than pricier cars like Buicks and Cadillacs. The popularity of custom cars has ebbed and flowed from its peak in the post-World War II years to the resurgance int he 1970s.
That resurgence continues today, with nostalgia-orientated customisers all over the country lowering and lengthening cars from 1936-1964. Hardback168 pages.
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