San Francisco Street Sighting - 1953 Ford Customline Tudor Sedan

We've looked at a number of mid-1950s Fords already on California Streets, but none were ever quite as quintessentially "Fifties" as this one. This very pink '53 Customline spotted near San Francisco's Chinatown is a great example of one of my favorite model years of the decade.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1954 Ford Customline Tudor Sedan

Low-budget custom cars are inherently interesting, especially a fully customized cruiser. A proper "kustom" is expensive and labor-intensive, usually left to professional builders with shops full of specialized tools and equipment. It takes lots of planning and design work before the fabrication even begins. It can be done at home in the garage, and even on the cheap if the builder has the know-how and the will to do the work himself.

Castro Valley Street Sighting - 1956 Ford Customline Tudor Sedan

San Jose Street Sighting - 1949 Ford Tudor

I'm a big fan of the "shoebox" 1949-1950 Fords. They were not the first all-new cars following World War II; that distinction goes to the 1947 Studebaker line. However the 1949 Ford was almost completely new with the exception of its old six and flathead V8 engines. It made the previous model look antiquated overnight.
My love of the '49 Ford began years ago. I found a picture of one in a magazine that was a mild custom in light blue with frenched headlights, and I drew it as part of a project I was then working on. Then Hot Wheels came out with a '49 Ford in pearl white and I bought it. I pestered my parents for a Testors-branded (actually produced by Motormax) 1/24 scale die-cast model kit of a green '49 Club Coupe for Christmas.

I assembled it in an hour and have loved it ever since.