Book Reviews

I have just reviewed the excellent Old School Customs book that Motor Book recently sent me. It was a very good book showing how the scene developed over the years.

Old Shcool Customz is a big book that follows the history of car customisation from pioneers through to the modern day trail-blazers that we see in the magazines today. The book is boken down into three sections which are The Poineers, The Lifers and the Pacesetters.

If you are a 'pictures person' when it comes to books then this book may not be for you. Don't get me wrong there are hundreds of fantastic pictures in it but it is mainly biography of customising. It outlines how the scene evolved from the early days through to today in 3 very readable sections.

The Pioneer section covers some of the customisers that shaped the scene from its conception in the early days. The book covers Gene Winefield, Bill Hines and Darryl Starbird giving an insight into their roots and history.

The Lifer section covers what you could call the second generation of customisers. These men drew on the work performed by the pioneers and live and breath custom cars and hot rods. For them car customisation is a way of life and have chosen customising as a career and will do pretty much anything to keep it that way.

In the third section Alan refers to the Pacesetters, these are todays trail-blazers taking the custom tricks from the past and giving them some modern influences to keep them contemporary.