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After the purchase of a vehicle, be it a pickup, car, mini-van, whatever... once you drive that ride home the first question that should come to your mind when you are a custom auto enthusiast is: "So, do I use a catalog to customize my ride or do I take a trip down to the local salvage yard and find parts to modify myself?" Catalogs tend to be more convenient because all you have
to do is look up the parts that you desire, pick up the phone (or jump on-line), lay down the green, and wait for that brown UPS van to roll up to your house with your goodies.
Now, you have to ask yourself, does buying out of a catalog make me a true-blue customizer? I have seen tons of arguments on this subject which can go either way, half of the crowd says yes and the other half says no. The issue is that there are a ton of ways "custom" can be defined. I refer you to an article our editor, J.R., wrote last year titled "Custom Auto Enthusiasts." He defined things one way and even classified types of enthusiasts, but in the end I think we all set our own standards and defintions of what is a " true customzier."
In my opinion, a true customizer would be a individual who doesn't even pickup a catalog! Instead they would pick up a piece of sheet metal and begin to bend and ply it into a one-off custom part. Maybe they would make their own body kit out of metal, instead of settling for mass produced plastic products or maybe they will construct an all steel custom dash board... the possibilities are endless.
Many of he hard-core custom auto enthusiasts are now using one-off items to grab the attention of magazine editors and show judges. Just take a look when you walk around at a custom auto show and see if custom auto owners made their parts themselves or if they decided to "outsource" it to a catalog order company. Considering the competition in the custom auto world now days, one-off designed parts is a strateegy worth exploring to increase your chances on winning that trophy or that magazine feature shoot!
Until next time... keep on Kruisin'!
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