From the flood of pictures Discovery Channel receives of cars on the Fast N’ Loud website, it’s clear that one of America’s favorite past times is customizing, modifying and just plain tinkering with their cars. We even love watching people tinker with cars on TV, and then of course there is the almost religious fervor we reserve for our favorite NASCAR drivers.

{CAN YOU GUESS WHAT FOUR DIFFERENT CARS ARE IN THE TITLE IMAGE? >>>SEE THE END OF THE POST FOR ANSWERS!}

It got me thinking, just when did the custom car culture take hold of our hearts?

To get some answers we turned to Greg Overton, Museum Curator at the Gateway Colorado Auto Museum in Gateway, Colorado. With some 50 cars spanning from a 1906 Cadillac Model H Coupe to Jimmie Johnson’s “gently used” 2006-2010 #48 NASCAR, if anyone would have some insight as to just when we became a nation of grease monkeys it would be Overton.

In the 20s and 30s if you wanted a custom car you’d likely be a Hollywood star or industrialist who would have a custom coach builder make your car to your liking. But, for the rest of the country personal customization of cars simply grew out of need. Back then affordable cars and trucks were the ones that came off an assembly line. If you had a car and you needed to carry hay on the farm you’d hack at the back of your Model A and add a suitable bed. 

Moonshining is the other classic example that many have heard of because of its contribution to the birth of NASCAR. Those running illegal booze in the back woods of the south needed more and more speed to outgun the lawmen that were always in pursuit. This gave birth to racers and mechanics that took “stock” cars and tuned them into something completely different.

Aside from the various pockets of the country that had a need, when did cars and customization really take off as part of our general culture?

Overton points to the end of World War II when the GI’s came home to some older cars that likely needed attention. Plus, in the booming post War economy, buying a car was within reach for many more than ever before as Detroit switched from making bombers to cars. As more people had cars, knew about cars and wanted to push the limits of going fast - more customization began to grow.

Guys that were into racing on the dry lake beds in California and the Southwest were tweaking their cars with fuel tanks from retired war planes and coming up with other interesting innovations for speed and performance - after all, handling and braking are pretty important too! These were the guys that ended up opening custom shops and modifying other people’s cars as the years went on.

When Detroit started to take notice that their cars weren’t ending up the way they came out of the factory – and that other people were making money specializing in making those changes - that’s when a cultural shift took place. Detroit started making cars like the ones they saw turning up on the street. Smaller bodies with much bigger engines, and priced generally within the average person’s reach.  

It was the dawn of the muscle car and as Overton put it, “Hot rodding had changed the Detroit mentality.”  They invited former racers and famous designers such as the late Carroll Shelby to put their “stamp” on certain production lines. They even got in on the aftermarket parts game with the dawn of MOPAR and other parts related businesses that invited everyone to soup up their car. Cars were our very own piece of the American Dream where we could do anything we wanted, and many a memory was built around the family car or hot rod.

Since then, as technology and the needs of drivers have changed so have the cars. In addition to performance we want wired and cost effective. Detroit and automakers around the world create everything from electric vehicles to large SUVs and now even driverless vehicles have made it on the scene. The American market seems ever ready to gobble up what comes next. 

The only thing that hasn’t changed is the love we have for taking these cars and making them our own. Custom shops exist in almost every town, and even if they don’t have their own TV show, these honed mechanics specialize in restoring cars to their former glory or taking that factory model and giving it extra juice.  Auction houses are netting record prices for classic restored cars that hit the block – the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster, CSX3301 – which just went for $735,000 alone is an example in the burgeoning interest in owning a custom or restored classic car.

When talking with Overton about cars and the Gateway Colorado Auto Museum’s collection I asked him which car was the favorite with visitors. Given there is a one-of-a-kind 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 dream car designed by Harley Earl on display you might think that’s the big draw, but according to Overton it’s their 1958 Chevy Corvette. He laughed, “It doesn’t matter where we put it, that’s what visitors always want to see. We joke around here that we could probably just show that car alone and people would be happy.”

We talked a little bit about that and we kept coming back to that era where custom cars changed Detroit and made fast and fun a little bit more affordable, and car parts within the reach of everyone. Corvettes were among the first wave of muscle cars to roll out of the factories. Almost everyone has a family member or friend, a favorite scene from a movie or a treasured memory that features a muscle car like the Corvette, born out of the post-war hot rodding, custom car culture.

Customizing our cars shows no signs of stopping – as long as there is our ingenuity to make things better and faster,  as perhaps more importantly as long as we have the wish to keep (and create) some treasured pieces of history alive we’ll always be a nation of custom car fanatics.

Love Cars? Watch Fast N' Loud on the Discovery Channel (Mondays at 9|8c)

See more pictures of the cars mentioned above at The Gateway Auto Museum.

Name those cars!

Section 1 - 1970 Plymoth Superbird
Section 2 - 1957 Ford Thunderbird Convertible
Section 3 - 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 Fastback
Section 4 - 1961 Chrysler 300G Convertible Coupe