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Basic Customizing Starting Points and Tips [by: Halloweenking]
Hotrodders Bulletin Board: Knowledge Base: Body-Exterior: Articles

Basic Customizing Starting Points and Tips
When customizing a car, a theme is usually a no-fail way to make your vehicle flow. Without a theme, a car is random. The custom random tricks are tacky and basically out of place. When you pick up a new project and are looking for an idea, take in consideration these things:

• The name and make of the vehicle (I.E Pontiac firebird or Ford Thunderbird)
  
  
• The body type (I.E Speedster, Coupe, Sedan). 4-doors are a great example. 4-door Buicks -- a good theme would be "nautical", due to the 4 doors (Quadra port), the front fender "port holes", and many of the classic Buicks' trademark. A battleship or anything along those lines.
  
  
• Look at the existing body parts (ie: grilles, fender skirts, shape of windows, anything). See if any of these parts can be used in another place on the car to continue a theme. Such as the shape or bars used in the grille for fender skirts, or just to develop a theme.
  
  
• The time period of the car, see what happened during that time. What was the architecture like, anything.
  
  
• New vehicles of the same make and or model of your particular project.
  
  
• Any new or older vehicle.

Originality can be achieved rather easily when considering these few things. Try and keep the paint scheme simple and flow with the shape of the body. A simple pinstripe or hand formed trim piece can accentuate the shape of the body, thus improving the flow of the car. The stripe or trim piece will give the eye something to follow; this will enhance the flow and give the sense of smoothness and effortless motion. Any break in the sightline and the look of the vehicle will suffer.

Now in the customizing world, flow, theme, originality and craftsmanship are intense. Pay attention to the little things and make sure you can tie everything together at some point. Everyone is resorting to one-off handmade custom pieces for their vehicles. It's not as hard as you think. Keep everything in mind when customizing your car. Anything is possible. Adaptation is necessary. Use anything that can be tied in with the look of the car. Just as an example -- if you had a turquoise vehicle, instead of using the old billet trick that everyone does, be creative, use some hand shaped turquoise stones. Use your imagination; anything is a possible custom part. Also, when customizing outrageous is fun and tricked out sleds are cool, but the rods and customs that get the most attention are the original smooth flowing subdued customs. It may have just as many tricked out parts as the outrageous rod or custom, but it can't easily be picked apart.

Machine shops can be your best friends. They can make any one-off part you may need from foot pedals to dash knobs, wheel adapters, mirror pedestals, hidden handles, and about anything else you can think of. They can also replicate an existing part that is either hard to find or just because you want a different material or custom but original look. Also, machine shops are good places to get materials. Many machine shops have bins of metal that were either leftovers, machining mistakes or just plain junk. Many shops will let customers pick through these bins before the recycler comes. By all means pick through! Pieces that may not provide any use to them could be just enough material to make something for your rod with a little elbow grease and imagination.

Never throw any pieces away that you have removed from your vehicle. They may not be usable for that particular area, but later on you may be able to use pieces of it or the whole thing with modification. For example, an old hood or chopped-off roof has a whole lot of usable sheet metal that can be used for patch panels or even new custom pieces. Old trim can be modified to become new trim or an interior piece. Glass, any piece of glass, but mostly flat side or rear windows can be saved and used for the same thing with a bit of cutting and shaping.

Anything that moves on its own power is a huge hit at shows, from power trunks to power tilt noses, anything that doesn't require manual operation. Custom air induction is also a big hit with functioning butterflies. Remember in any of these modifications to make them both functional as well as cosmetic. Many custom car owners have locked themselves out of their own cars by not installing a fail safe.

Never be afraid to build with your own style instead of the imitation of others. You build the car for yourself first, for the onlookers last. Be original, be outrageously simple, be yourself. Pattern your car after your likes and dislikes, make it fit your personality. Remember one thing though -- it's your car, it's your work, and it's your taste, so others' opinions don't matter, but other people cars are the same, so keep your negative criticisms to yourself.