Everyone Hates an Edsel

Within my car club there has been a few Edsels. I personally like them, prompting me to purchase one off my car club brother. I have no idea how many times I have heard people make comments like, "who the F*** would build an Edsel," or the more famous, "Wasn't that the worst car ever built?" People hate Edsels.

I like Edsels, more correctly I like custom cars and I have a soft spot in my heart for late 50s cars done up in the likes of Larry Watson, Darryl Starbird, Dean Jefferies and Gene Winfield. Some people refer to these cars as Bellflower cars, for the reason of being predominantly from the Bellflower California area AKA Kustomland circa 1962 to around 1966. Although to get quite technical in different areas there were different styles and even year to year there were subtle differences. Most people refer to these cars as early lowriders.

My plan upon purchasing the Edsel was to finish what I had started with my car club brothers. What we had done was body work the roof, prime it and paint it silver. A few weeks later we sprayed silver boat flake using a 2mm tip on a primer gun and cleared it. We sanded it down and cleared it again to remove the rough finish and a few weeks later we cracked out the lace and red candy. First we panelled off the roof and ran a pinstripe down the side with a little triangle on the C-pillar. We layed rose printed lace over the roof and in the triangle on the C-pillar and sprayed 3 coats of candy pulled the lace and did anothe 2 coats and then pulled the pinstriping tape we used for the triangle and the panels. We sprayed another 2 coats, cleared it and cut polished it.

Kind of a crappy picture but gives an idea on the roof.

Mechanically the car was brilliant. Everything had been meticulously taken care of by Johnny, the previous owner. When I purchased the car from him I promised that I would finish the car to the standard he wanted to finish it with. The plan was to complete the car before the 2013 World Of Wheels in Calgary. What I started doing right away was researching the early lowrider style. I studied and made drawings and clipped out magazine articles and printed a forest of ideas. Once I decided on what I wanted to do, when it came time to p[aint the car I taped them to a table near the car for inspiration. I wanted to do a panel job like Larry watson with Gene Winfield pearl fades and FLAMES everywhere. What we first started with was a bright white with diamond pearl in it. We painted one fender with fades, copper with a red pearl faded on the edges.

Now it came time to try some flames, so we decided to try iy on the one painted fender. We only tried one fender because if we didnt like the way it looked we could wet sand it and spray it white again (BORING)

                  We masked off some 60's style flames, we really liked where this was heading.

we continued masking untill the entire outside of the flames were masked and then layed paper around the edges.

Out came the airbrush (yes they had airbrushes back in the old days) and an orange pearl was dusted around the edges of the masking and when it was pulled the excitement ensued. when we stood back and looked at the car, the way it was panelled off would have made the car look strangely disproportionate. My friend Lee looked at it and suggested that the car should be panelled off following the side trim. Out came the bucket of water and the wet sanding paper and the panel was re-masked down the side.

                                  This picture is just before the red pearl was added to the edges.

We would stand back everytime we did something and see if the flow was correct. This is a picture from later on in the project, but it goes to show how the project started to take off. Everyone adding input yet keeping on track with the vision we had.

This picture shows how we panelled off the hood, there was alot of negative space in the panels after it was fade panelled.

The solution was to dust a dark grey metalflake to add some contrast the the white and reds on the car.

The flames were added to the back to take up some of the "open space" there. The same lace treatment was added to the center of the trunk. Eventually 1/4 inch red lines were also added which you will see in later pictures.

Attention to detail is a big deal to me. My friend Chad wanted to help out with the car so he fade painted the steering wheel while we were tending to the interior of the car. I couldnt be happier with the results of his experiment.

Note the faux polar bear hide added to the dash, it was also added to the rear package tray as well.

A slightly grainy picture after the car was cleared

                                                       Fitting up the Bellflower tips



A picture of the car at the World of wheels Calgary Alberta 2013

                                           Note the 1/4 inch red lines added to the trunk lid.



Note how subtle the lace work on the hood is.



I am really proud of how this car came together. The World Of Wheels show is really a great show. I spoke to lots of very nice people and we made quite the accomplishments. We came in third place in our class and were also awarded with the mayors pick.

Im 31, My friends are all around my age. Most people are really surprised that a group of kids are into cars my grandpa would have built. This style of car is a part of history, its not that I am trying to live in the past, this is something you dont see at the local A&W on cruise night, nor is this car period perfect by any means, the giant 400HP 361 was long gone before Johnny purchsed this car, it came with a mustang 302 (a little anemic at times for this giant hulk) However for me this style of car has the right mix of class and badass.

I suppose some people do, afterall, like the crappiest car Ford ever made.