Where did your styling/customizing influence come from?
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 32,987
Likes: 58
From: Houston, TX
GrnDragon, I wouldn't consider your car "rice" at all. I'd consider it an over the top show car effort, and you have several nice ideas working on that car. Lime green isn't for everyone, but then again some people thought my hugger orange cars were ugly too. Lime green came on Detroit musclecars long before any ricer thought of them.
That's actually what I'm going for is a "Supercar/showcar" I still have a lot to do to finish it. I am actually finishing up another 93 TA, that's in my signature, that I put all of my extra performance parts on to sell and recoup some money but I am painting it Tangelo Pearl Orange and black so I guess I'm in for more ridicule!?!??!
TECH Regular
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 400
Likes: 0
From: Albuquerque
Originally Posted by GrnDragon
That's actually what I'm going for is a "Supercar/showcar" I still have a lot to do to finish it. I am actually finishing up another 93 TA, that's in my signature, that I put all of my extra performance parts on to sell and recoup some money but I am painting it Tangelo Pearl Orange and black so I guess I'm in for more ridicule!?!??!
I personally think you have done a great job with your car. Some people can be extremely close minded, but it's those people that step outside of the box (and do it right) that stand a chance of achieving something great.
There are tried and true methods to make things look good, and Nineball and other people here have made those good observations.
To me, people criticize cars that aren't done like everyone else's. It's a similar mentality to why people by run of the mill cars in the same old colors (silver varients, black, blue etc). The fabrication and thought on yours is great.
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 10
Likes: 1
Originally Posted by Nine Ball
Those of you that customize your car's appearance, where did you gain your influence from? It's very obvious that some people have a keen eye for styling, and some people just like to tack on anything that fits on their particular car, without a sense of balance or reason. Corvette owners are notorious for this, many of them stick anything and everything on their cars just because it says "CORVETTE" on the part and it fits on the car. Yuck.
I've been drawing cars since age 5. I was reading Hotrod Magazine and Popular Hotrodding as a kindergarten student. I guess I have always been a car nut, and always studied the photos I saw in magazines. At around age 8, I began building car models and customizing those too. When I was 12, I started working on cars with the neighbors and my Dad. I've always been artistic by nature, whether it was drawing stuff, building things, etc...
Here are some general guidelines I tend to follow on customizing cars.
1. Less is more. Just because something fits on your car, it doesn't mean it will look good on your car. ~cough~ Altezza lights ~cough~
2. Pick a theme and/or color combo and stick with it. Don't play mix-and-match with stuff and have too many colors. I try to stick with two colors max.
3. stance is critical. If it looks like a 4x4, or sits uneven, people will notice.
4. stay away from obvious "trends" that will go out of style in a year or so. Stick with more classic customizing cues that have stood the test of time. Example, trendy "real fire" vs classic flames.
5. wheel design should compliment the car. The same wheels might look killer on one car, but look like crap on another car. Spoke shape, count, thickness, etc.. need to compliment the car. Heavy looking cars on thin-spoke wheels look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a sportscar look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a hotrod look cool. Wheel color should compliment the car, and fit the theme of the car. Trendy looking wheels are also going to look outdated in a year. Remember when directional mags were cool? Remember when 3-spoke wheels were the rage? A simple and clean 5-spoke is timeless.
6. keep any custom paint work subtle. As if it *could* have been a factory option. When someone asks if your custom painted car came like that from the factory, that means you probably pulled off a clean look.
7. minimize the use of decals. Too many and the car looks cheap and obviously owned by someone young.
8. pick up on styling cues that involve a little heritage with the car you own. Don't paint Camaro stripes on a Firebird. Don't put Ram Air decals on a Camaro. Retro emblems are always cool.
I'll add more as I think of them.
I've been drawing cars since age 5. I was reading Hotrod Magazine and Popular Hotrodding as a kindergarten student. I guess I have always been a car nut, and always studied the photos I saw in magazines. At around age 8, I began building car models and customizing those too. When I was 12, I started working on cars with the neighbors and my Dad. I've always been artistic by nature, whether it was drawing stuff, building things, etc...
Here are some general guidelines I tend to follow on customizing cars.
1. Less is more. Just because something fits on your car, it doesn't mean it will look good on your car. ~cough~ Altezza lights ~cough~
2. Pick a theme and/or color combo and stick with it. Don't play mix-and-match with stuff and have too many colors. I try to stick with two colors max.
3. stance is critical. If it looks like a 4x4, or sits uneven, people will notice.
4. stay away from obvious "trends" that will go out of style in a year or so. Stick with more classic customizing cues that have stood the test of time. Example, trendy "real fire" vs classic flames.
5. wheel design should compliment the car. The same wheels might look killer on one car, but look like crap on another car. Spoke shape, count, thickness, etc.. need to compliment the car. Heavy looking cars on thin-spoke wheels look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a sportscar look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a hotrod look cool. Wheel color should compliment the car, and fit the theme of the car. Trendy looking wheels are also going to look outdated in a year. Remember when directional mags were cool? Remember when 3-spoke wheels were the rage? A simple and clean 5-spoke is timeless.
6. keep any custom paint work subtle. As if it *could* have been a factory option. When someone asks if your custom painted car came like that from the factory, that means you probably pulled off a clean look.
7. minimize the use of decals. Too many and the car looks cheap and obviously owned by someone young.
8. pick up on styling cues that involve a little heritage with the car you own. Don't paint Camaro stripes on a Firebird. Don't put Ram Air decals on a Camaro. Retro emblems are always cool.
I'll add more as I think of them.
Great thread and questions NineBall....some that should cause us all to re-think the way and reasons we go about customizing our vehicles. And I would include some 4th gen owners in with the Vette owners as far as drooling over every new trinket that comes out for their particular car as if it is going to magically transform itheir ride into eye candy.
I've been into the auto customizing since about 7 or 8 when I could smell the lacquer fumes from dad spraying some chopper or dune buggy in the basement (some would say that's where my insanity begun, sniffing too many fumes
). Many years of car shows and painting myself have led to my ideas. I've attached a couple pics below of my current rides. As you can see from the first one with the Torino wagon and Matt Berger's demo Camaro side by side, it is the simular front end styling mainly that attracts me to the Camaro SS with the fishmouth front grill area and hood scoop insert that gives it an appealing look like the Torino front end that I have just fallen in love with ever since it became the family wagon of ours in 73.
Keeping it simple is what it is all about for me. I am responsible for coming up with the heritage Berger stripe for Matt when he wanted to put together an appearance package together for a Berger offering of the Camaro back in 99? Wow time flies! We took a que from a prototype car that Matt of GMMG had at the time.
The 5 spoke look has always been a timeless design for me as well, but you are so right that some wheels look different on a certain car. The 2 piece was always great for the wagon for some reason...probably due to the size of the car. I have always loved the paint on the wagon as everyone else, but being 20 years old and in lacquer, it needed to be redone. I am hesitant to use the word "updated" because I simply love the older flame schemes like this yet and plan on doing another color in the same fashion.......the "flickering" flames have already wearied my eyes, you are so right about that. You remember Pete Jackson gear drives and SuperTrapps? lol
I agree wholeheartedly on the keeping appearance mods such as strips, ect to the make and model of a certain vehicle. You need to ask yourself what you would think or say if you saw it on someone elses car.......what do you think when you see a SuperBird wing on a Duster for example? Just wrong
Planned mods for my cars? The SS looks fine to me except for tinting windows and completely elliminating the antenna.....I've always hated antennas on cars, such a distraction to me. I do plan on putting a color that I kinda semi-promised I wouldn't use on mine, lol I painted Andy's "electron blue" Camaro and simply fell in love with that color on the Camaro being a blue freak anyway. I'm thinking of this color or simular with the same style flame job as on the wagon in trick colors, more ghosting than anything and integrating the Beger stripe with it. The only thing I haven't decided yet is whether to bring the flames also on the side of the car or just the hood. Time will tell and a couple experimental panels.
Seriously Tony... you and I could be brothers. I even grew up the same.. drawing cars with a knack for art at a young age.. worked on cars with dad and grandpa at my grandpas shop. Shoot.. I still have my drawings from when I was a kid... I flip through them at least a couple times a year.
I have always been impressed with your cars and how you seem to effortlessly make them look better with less. I try to achieve the same with my 35th Anny car.
There is really only one rule I follow when doing things to my car... subtleties. I really get a kick out of when people do a double take on my car and say.. "Wait.. that looks stock.. but it not and it looks better.. nice." That is one of the reasons I painted my calipers 2 tone.. body color red for the bracket, gloss black for the caliper itself and a red CAMARO decal laid on the caliper... then throw in some cross drilled rotors and bam, it all ties in. Its one of the reasons I opted to widen my LE wheels in the back to 11"... 315s.. stock good lookin' LE wheels = priceless subtlety. Its one of the reasons I added a T/A dash bezel... clean look that hardly any Camaros have. Im in the process of getting ahold of my body shop guy to get a quote on molding my CME into the bumper... again, subtle and clean. When I installed the Procharger I had the piping powdercoated black.. and while I was in there I did the !wire mod. When I installed my Autometers I was so bothered by the yellow stock autometer bulb color I ordered white LED wedge bulbs the next day.. now I have black face gauges to match the dash and white illumination to match the dash illumination.
I could go on and on.... needless to say it is very clear to me on who has good tastes and who doesnt. Ive also noticed a correlation in good photographers and having a knack for good taste.
I have always been impressed with your cars and how you seem to effortlessly make them look better with less. I try to achieve the same with my 35th Anny car.
There is really only one rule I follow when doing things to my car... subtleties. I really get a kick out of when people do a double take on my car and say.. "Wait.. that looks stock.. but it not and it looks better.. nice." That is one of the reasons I painted my calipers 2 tone.. body color red for the bracket, gloss black for the caliper itself and a red CAMARO decal laid on the caliper... then throw in some cross drilled rotors and bam, it all ties in. Its one of the reasons I opted to widen my LE wheels in the back to 11"... 315s.. stock good lookin' LE wheels = priceless subtlety. Its one of the reasons I added a T/A dash bezel... clean look that hardly any Camaros have. Im in the process of getting ahold of my body shop guy to get a quote on molding my CME into the bumper... again, subtle and clean. When I installed the Procharger I had the piping powdercoated black.. and while I was in there I did the !wire mod. When I installed my Autometers I was so bothered by the yellow stock autometer bulb color I ordered white LED wedge bulbs the next day.. now I have black face gauges to match the dash and white illumination to match the dash illumination.
I could go on and on.... needless to say it is very clear to me on who has good tastes and who doesnt. Ive also noticed a correlation in good photographers and having a knack for good taste.
Originally Posted by Nine Ball
Those of you that customize your car's appearance, where did you gain your influence from? It's very obvious that some people have a keen eye for styling, and some people just like to tack on anything that fits on their particular car, without a sense of balance or reason. Corvette owners are notorious for this, many of them stick anything and everything on their cars just because it says "CORVETTE" on the part and it fits on the car. Yuck.
I've been drawing cars since age 5. I was reading Hotrod Magazine and Popular Hotrodding as a kindergarten student. I guess I have always been a car nut, and always studied the photos I saw in magazines. At around age 8, I began building car models and customizing those too. When I was 12, I started working on cars with the neighbors and my Dad. I've always been artistic by nature, whether it was drawing stuff, building things, etc...
Here are some general guidelines I tend to follow on customizing cars.
1. Less is more. Just because something fits on your car, it doesn't mean it will look good on your car. ~cough~ Altezza lights ~cough~
2. Pick a theme and/or color combo and stick with it. Don't play mix-and-match with stuff and have too many colors. I try to stick with two colors max.
3. stance is critical. If it looks like a 4x4, or sits uneven, people will notice.
4. stay away from obvious "trends" that will go out of style in a year or so. Stick with more classic customizing cues that have stood the test of time. Example, trendy "real fire" vs classic flames.
5. wheel design should compliment the car. The same wheels might look killer on one car, but look like crap on another car. Spoke shape, count, thickness, etc.. need to compliment the car. Heavy looking cars on thin-spoke wheels look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a sportscar look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a hotrod look cool. Wheel color should compliment the car, and fit the theme of the car. Trendy looking wheels are also going to look outdated in a year. Remember when directional mags were cool? Remember when 3-spoke wheels were the rage? A simple and clean 5-spoke is timeless.
6. keep any custom paint work subtle. As if it *could* have been a factory option. When someone asks if your custom painted car came like that from the factory, that means you probably pulled off a clean look.
7. minimize the use of decals. Too many and the car looks cheap and obviously owned by someone young.
8. pick up on styling cues that involve a little heritage with the car you own. Don't paint Camaro stripes on a Firebird. Don't put Ram Air decals on a Camaro. Retro emblems are always cool.
I'll add more as I think of them.
I've been drawing cars since age 5. I was reading Hotrod Magazine and Popular Hotrodding as a kindergarten student. I guess I have always been a car nut, and always studied the photos I saw in magazines. At around age 8, I began building car models and customizing those too. When I was 12, I started working on cars with the neighbors and my Dad. I've always been artistic by nature, whether it was drawing stuff, building things, etc...
Here are some general guidelines I tend to follow on customizing cars.
1. Less is more. Just because something fits on your car, it doesn't mean it will look good on your car. ~cough~ Altezza lights ~cough~
2. Pick a theme and/or color combo and stick with it. Don't play mix-and-match with stuff and have too many colors. I try to stick with two colors max.
3. stance is critical. If it looks like a 4x4, or sits uneven, people will notice.
4. stay away from obvious "trends" that will go out of style in a year or so. Stick with more classic customizing cues that have stood the test of time. Example, trendy "real fire" vs classic flames.
5. wheel design should compliment the car. The same wheels might look killer on one car, but look like crap on another car. Spoke shape, count, thickness, etc.. need to compliment the car. Heavy looking cars on thin-spoke wheels look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a sportscar look strange. Fat spoke wheels on a hotrod look cool. Wheel color should compliment the car, and fit the theme of the car. Trendy looking wheels are also going to look outdated in a year. Remember when directional mags were cool? Remember when 3-spoke wheels were the rage? A simple and clean 5-spoke is timeless.
6. keep any custom paint work subtle. As if it *could* have been a factory option. When someone asks if your custom painted car came like that from the factory, that means you probably pulled off a clean look.
7. minimize the use of decals. Too many and the car looks cheap and obviously owned by someone young.
8. pick up on styling cues that involve a little heritage with the car you own. Don't paint Camaro stripes on a Firebird. Don't put Ram Air decals on a Camaro. Retro emblems are always cool.
I'll add more as I think of them.
