Among the hardest core of American automotive enthusiasts there always exists a desire to press styling and performance a step beyond the showroom floor -- to truly craft an automobile of one's own. This photographic and cultural history examines the evolution of American custom cars from the 1930s to present, covering touchstone trends, influential builders (Barris, Roth, Coddington et al), custom shows, enthusiast magazines and regional styles. An expensive collection of rare period photography and exclusive modern shots help illustrate how Detroit informed the styling of customs (and vice versa), the explosion of the custom car scene after World War II and the factors that led to the custom's near-death in the 1960s and its resurgence in the '80s. But most of all, this chronicle is a showcase of the great cars and people who influenced the movement through the years.

Handcrafted, radical, and subversive, these custom cars are designed and made by a small number of specialists

"This book explores how lowrider car culture allows Mexican Americans to alter the urban landscape and make a place for themselves in an often segregated society"--

In the late 1950s, as designers from the Big Three became more daring, their do-it-yourself counterparts in the custom-car world found that the new designs from Detroit worked exceptionally well with custom treatments like shaving, lowering, “lakes pipes,” and the ever-wilder custom painting of the day—aesthetics that would come to dominate this peak custom car era. Professional freelance photographer James Potter captured the epicenter of this landmark scene in what was then suburban Los Angeles. In this photographic history of that time and place, Thom Taylor presents the best of Potter’s collection depicting the cars of “Kustomland.” Two- and four-page features on two-dozen renowned customs from mild to radical feature not only Potter’s exemplary work, but brief capsule histories of the cars and their owners and captions detailing the cars’ features. Taylor also includes features on legendary custom painter Larry Watson and the Renegades car club, as well as a biography of Potter and a historic overview of Kustomland and the areas it encompassed. See Motorbooks author Thom Taylor interviewed by Jay Leno on JayLenosGarage.com: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/kustomland/882803/

Description, brief history, and specifications with front, back, side, and top views of 218 popular models from 39 manufacturers. Model years represented range from 1914 to 1999.

"Peter S. Linney takes you on a visual journey through his 30-plue years of photographing hot rods in "Picture Perfect: The Best of America's Hot Rods." This book features 20 of the most spectacular hot rods Peter has photographed in his career, including Fords from the 1930s, Cadillacs from the 1940s, Boyd Coddington's 1957 CheZoom and many other fine automobiles."--Publsiher description