Von Dutch: The Art, the Myth, the Legend

Custom Cars & Lead Sleds tells the tale of the custom car craze in America from the 1950s to the 1990s. This is the history of custom cars from the first Barris Brothers creations to the revival of the Kustom Kemps in the 1980s, complete with rare historical photos. Write and photographer Timothy Remus shares his fascination for custom cars in the text and his photographs lovingly display the cars as art.

In this book we attempt to answer the questions about whatever happened to these great cars. We're not talking about vintage tin sitting in the desert or woods, or old cars parked in farm fields. Nearly all of these vintage rods and customs were found in urban or suburban garages, possibly right in your neighborhood. Where they were parked years ago, maybe to save, perhaps torn apart for a rebuild, or in many cases they are projects that were started years ago and just never finished. The condition of such finds ranges from musty piles of parts, to dusty and cobwebbed originals, to pristine, still-show-quality beauties. We also show cars that have been located by others, either as-is or now in beautiful restored condition. Either way, we tell the process of finding such vehicles, giving many tips on how you can find them, too. This isn't a book about seeking these cars for profit. What's more important, and fun, is the search itself. If, when you find such a long-lost rod or custom, it turns out that it is available and you can afford to acquire it and put it back on the road and enjoy it, so much the better. But just finding them; finally answering that "Whatever happened to...?" question is the main goal. In most cases we show vintage photos of the car in its heyday, along with where and how it looks today. But what makes this venture doubly fun, and what separates this book from others, is that we are not just looking for old cars or even collector cars hidden away. Finding a vintage Corvette, or Porsche, or even a genuine Model A or Model T stashed in a garage or barn is cool. But hot rods and custom cars are very different, literally. Each one is unique. So each of these cars has its own unique story, it's own personal history, which makes Lost Hot Rods a special collection of stories as well as then and now images.