When building a custom, a certain sense of style is required. When building an early custom, even more so, given the less-is-more credo that almost always works best when dealing with ’30s and ’40s body styles.
Indianapolis resident Kevin Anderson clearly gets it, if his “Goldtop” Buick Riviera and ’50 Merc are anything to judge by. This 1936 Ford custom, its earlier body style having two things in common with his other customs, namely a roof chop and that sense of style.
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“I’m a frustrated car designer,” Kevin told us, “and a custom guy.” Owning what he refers to as his idea of “the three definitive customs”, the ’36 is, in his words, “a modern interpretation of an old-style custom.
They were never this low back then, and they didn’t have A/C (the system in the coupe is mounted under the package tray, so nothing is visible under the dash, the cool air emanating from ’55-56 Cadillac rear fender scoops mounted in the C-pillars).” Neither did they have IFS, disc brakes, or a triangulated four-link, but such modern underpinnings mean the ’36 can be driven, and in comfort. Period correctness has its place, but so do modern amenities.
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Inspiration can come from many places, but we can’t think of many better than the two Kevin cited; the So Cal Plating ‘35 Ford Phaeton and Robert Williams’ “A Devil with a Hammer, Hell with a Torch” artwork, the poster of which is displayed prominently in Kevin’s garage. The Westergard-style ‘36 at the bottom left of that poster is a look many ‘36 custom builders aim for, and while Kevin retained the stock grille, you can clearly see the influence in his car.
Originally from San Diego, California, the coupe was bought “with a phenomenal amount of work already done, including the top chop and custom chassis” but still in need of some finishing, and of course its new owner’s personal touches once it arrived in Indianapolis. Many consider a ‘36 to have almost perfect lines from the factory, but that’s not to say those lines can’t be improved with a little tweaking.
Take the decklid for example; the rear of the car is all swoopy lines and graceful curves, yet the factory decklid is a square shape at odds with the lines surrounding it. Gary and Dylan Brown at Brown’s Metal Mods in Indy reshaped the decklid and its surround, giving it a curved lower edge matching that of the rear panel.
Even subtler is the replacement of the stock headlights with smaller Guide lights mounted lower down on the stock stanchions, and the reworked rain gutters. The use of a ‘42 Mercury front and ’40 Ford rear bumper, the latter with a ’49 Chevy license guard, further cleans up the lines.
With a pair of gloss-finished customs already in his garage, Kevin could easily have completed the trio by painting the ’36 in a similar manner, but opted for a flat clear over metallic blue pearl, a finish his wife refers to as “looking like a blue velvet dress”, as he felt it gives the appearance that the coupe “could be legitimate, as if it had been found in a barn”.
The flat clear mutes the metallic, allowing the pearl to come out, despite the lack of shine. There’s a common misconception that suede-painted cars are unfinished, which definitely isn’t the case here, a fact borne out by the car receiving the Best Custom Award in the basement at the Detroit Autorama, Coolest Custom at the Relix Riot show in Michigan, and making it into the top five for Goodguys Kustom of the Year, amongst other awards. Our only question is what will Kevin do next now that he has his “three definitive customs”?
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