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FIVE STREET ROD CUSTOM TRICKS FROM 1959

Jerry Admin

I’m always interested in automotive trends from the past because we can’t know where we are going if we don’t know where we’ve been.

That’s why the ‘Custom Cars 1959 Annual’ was so interesting because it was a great source of information about how the car culture looked 67 years ago.   

Some of those trends are still here in 2026 because they are timeless, but here are five I found that told me what car guys were doing back in ’59.

Jerry Sutherland

You have to bear in mind this was a different era, so some of these concepts reflect how a late 50s car guy’s mind worked—not how a 2026 car guy’s mind worked.

The 1958 Impala two-door hardtop was a good example because it was a one-off model designed for a completely different Chevy buyer. They were great looking cars for a one-hit wonder, but the biggest feature was the roof vent.

The Impala roof vent became a go-to strategy for a horde of custom car builders, so you saw it on everything. As the old saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 

There was another big trend in 1959. Car guys were extending trunk lids and fenders to give their cars a distinctive profile.

There were many examples of these extensions in the ‘Custom Cars 1959 Annual’ but one of the best was done to a 1956 T-bird. This car was extended front and back plus fins were added. This sounds like an idea that went off the rails, but it worked in ‘59.

Scoops were also big items on the 1959 custom checklists because this was the Space Age in its infancy. You’d see them added to the hood because that was a traditional spot for function and form.

That looked cool, so car guys decided to hang scoops all over the place to make the leap into ultra-cool world. Many of them were placed around the headlights or on the front fenders because scoops (in 1959) were mandatory on custom builds–whether they were functional or non-functional.

The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company came up with a product called Polyester Film Tape—but car guys called it chrome tape.

They saw this new invention as the perfect product in an era full of customs and chrome, so it was a big hit in 1959. They used it like pinstriping in most cases, but the chrome look was what they really wanted. It was the perfect solution to a custom that needed more flash—but on a budget.

Tubular bar custom grilles seem like they’ve been around forever, but 1959 was the year you really saw this customizing trend emerge as a trend. It gave a custom car or truck a less busy look, but it was also an obvious custom touch.

This made any car insta-cool. You could fit a tubular bar grille in any vehicle you could name and get that “I’m a dangerous hoodlum” look for a few bucks—and buy it straight out of your local J.C. Whitney catalog.

Some of these custom innovations are still used today, but most of them were simply a reflection of what was cool back in ’59.

We’ll never see that era again.    

Jerry Sutherland

By: Jerry Sutherland

Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post,  Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.

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