There's just something completely senseless about a radically customized pickup that especially appeals to me. I mean, trucks-especially in the 1950s-were meant to be for work, not for cruizin' in style. But they were stylin' cruisers nonetheless, though few and far between. Barris' Kopper Kart and Wild Kat and Spence Murray's R&C Dream Truck are some of the more famous '50s customized trucks that come to mind. Barris, Gaylord, and the Ayala brothers all had special shop trucks as well as customers wanting their own trucks customized. When you look at the amount of fabrication that it took to customize the Kopper Kart or Dream Truck, the primary area of attack was always the bed, and the resulting modifications resembled contemporary cars of the time.
I've wondered what would be an easy way to accomplish the same thing today, but without the major panel grafting and forming that it took in the day. My idea is to take the rear section of some unloved '50s four-door sedan and modify it so it can be attached to the bed to give that '50s radical custom look to otherwise plebeian work trucks. There are a lot of '50s four-door sedans and such that have been saved from the scapper up to this point that will probably never be put back on the road. But this might be a way to put them to good use-even if we're only talking their ass end.
I know it's a little wacky, but besides helping to give a radical custom look to your project, it's fun to see what back halves work with the truck cab. Some of our examples would be fairly pricey as coupes or convertibles, but using lowly sedans would cut down on the cost factor due to their unloved status.
Sometimes determination and imagination beats out lots of money, and that is exactly what we are looking to do with this sketchpad. Happy hauling!