Kustoms are modified cars from the 1950s and early 1960s done in the customizing styles of that time period. The usage of a 'k'for 'kustom' rather than a C, is said to have originated from car builder George Barris This style generally consists of starting with a 2-door sedan, lowering the suspension, chopping down the roofline, sectioning and/or channeling the body, and removing most of the body trim, door handles, etc. Paint jobs often were black primer, though just about every other color was used, and this paint job was usually topped off with flames, scallops, or Von Dutch style pinstriping.

These cars can also be referred to as Custom cars, Leadsleds or Sleds. The term Kustom is generally used as a signifier that the cars was done in the 50/early 60s style as opposed to later more modern styles.

THE IMPROVEMENT IN CAR CUSTOMIZING

Car customizing has come a long way from the 1950’s and 60’s when the art form was referred to as kustomizing. For now the style has progressed far beyond things like lowering the suspension and chopping down the roofline. Today we could take any cheap car and completely transform it into eye candy. Although like everything in life it comes with a cost but trust me having the ultimate ride on your block is worth every cent.

The general style of customizing cars today is firstly the paint job which can practically be any colour imaginable with the range of paints available. The next stage is to add “bling” to your ride, which usually means chroming certain parts of your car like the grill and tail piece.

After all this you still cant be a “ big baler” unless you riding on “dubs” which refers to the mags or rims of your car which has to be bigger than 17” (seventeen inch) for them to actually be noticed. When it comes to “dubs” the bigger the better. It would also help a lot if your mags were chromed or even better were spinners, which are a special set of rims that actually keep spinning once your car has come to a stop.

Next on the list is the “ICE” which stands for “in car entertainment” and if you haven’t guessed it as yet refers to the audio and video components that can be installed in your car. With the technology we have available today people are able to and have installed equipment like 40” (40 inch) plasma television screens. However most people tend towards installing 5” (five inch) or 8”(eight inch) DVD screens coupled with a DVD player it handles the video part of your “ICE” the audio part is usually a pair of 180W 6x9s , a pair of midrange speakers and at least one subwoofer of any size, usually 12” (twelve inch)

These few small modifications to your ride would definitely make sure that you and your car get noticed!

Vehicle modification