[MARTINSR]

I just did a search for Cole Foster on Google looking for a photo of his Amazing 53 Chevy truck. I never found the photo (I guess I will have to search out the photos I have in boxes in the attic) but I did find that I had forgotten what an amazing guy this dude is.

EVERY SINGLE THING he touches is art, plain and simple ART. Below is an exerpt I got from a site discussing proportions and how you go about chopping a top. Click here for the site

As I read what Cole had to say I remember how my brother (also a hell of a builder) will pull the car or motorcycle or what ever, OUT of the shop. He will push the chassis and body out there in the light so he can really stand back and look at it with EVERY single modification or new part. He will change things over and over until it is just perfect. His 22 Buick Roadster has a very good look and proportions, it wasn't an accident. For example, he changed the front tires and springs three times before he settled on the look it now has. We are talking buying three sets of springs and tires (ok, the tire shop let him return the unused tires). The truely outstanding cars are built this way, the builder never "settles".

If you want a lesson from one of the best Google "Cole Foster" and you will find pages and pages with his name mentioned. I use to visit the shop when I was a rep and I have to say the guy was very cool and approachable. This guy is truely a talented individual, listen up we can all learn something from him no matter what style you are building.

Brian


Exerpt from SoCal speed shop site:

As you'll recall, last month we left you readers dangling perilously, awaiting the resolution of J.B. Donaldson's cut-up coupe. This time around, not only will we tell you how Bill Stewart massaged everything back in place. but we'll give you the lowdown on how prominent metal masters look at a top—aesthetics wise—in terms of a potential chop.

For a recap, Stewart stressed planning's importance and its relevance to an easier task and finer result, and it shows in the reconstruction. But there's one thing we didn't touch on when performing any major surgery on any car that we feel is quite important—bracing. While Stewart braced the car very little, that doesn't mean every car will come apart and go back together correctly with the same amount of bracing. Depending on the construction of the car, each example might need from a little a to a whole bunch of shoring up before whacking commences.

Stewart also brought up another obstacle that often gets the would-be metal crafter into a bind during reconstruction. "The biggest problem...is that the regular guy, goes straight to the grinder before the metal is straight. That takes away too much. metal. So much that the metal can't be worked property," he said. "So not going for the grinder and getting everything straight before taking metal off—that's the best way."

Like Stewart said before, "this isn't eye surgery," but it isn't exactly first-project fodder. We hope you find this series both edifying and entertaining, and makes you think about chopping in a different light.

... BUT HOW SHOULD IT LOOK?
Until now, we've heard all this about planning to chop a car from a mechanical standpoint, but what about aestherics? Aesthetics command just as much attention as mechanics; they're both factors that dictate a car and an individual's style. We asked a few prominent metal crafters what they see when envisioning an extensive modification.

PROPORTION,, PROPORTION, PROPORTION . . . IT'S SO IMPORTANT
Depending on where you live, you may not have heard of Central California's Cole Foster. But you will. Foster runs Salinas Boyz, a sleepy little shop in sleepy little Salinas, about two hours south of San Francisco.

Over the past few years, we've featured a car or two of his. Most recently we ran his '53 Chevy pickup in the Jan. '98 issue—a truck so distinctive, we broke our own '48 cutoff edict. Foster's understated, unique build style always causes us to sit up and take notice. It also gave the judges pause at this year's Oakland Roadster Show, where he scored the Sweepstakes in the truck category and Chip Foose Design Excellence Award with Sal Tarantino's '56 Ford pickup. He's got a sage outlook on building cars, and this is what he said.

"I never start with how difficult something will be in mind; I don't do things looking for the easiest way possible," Foster said. "I start with Xeroxes and paste and cut to find how I like it. If I like, lean it [the top] front or lean it back, it depends on the shape of the cat. I go small and sneak up on It. I go shy.

"I like it to took natural—not a big shock. I always start out 'I'm gonna do something radical,' but by the time I end up, it's not at all. My little voice talks to me. It says 'don't do it," he said. Adding, "When my, neighbors come over and see the car and ask "you chopped it? I can't tell,' I know I've done it right. I like it to took like the way the designers wanted it to look like when they were drawing the cars, the way they looked in the ads—before they had to go through all the red tape and changes to get the car made."

Even during the build process, Foster said "it's important to get a car—when it's in the tack-stage—out on the street. That's the most important. You gotta get it away from you—see it from 10 or 15 feet away. Up close, a car can look so *****in', but away, it looks bad."

And even when it looks like all the odds are against you and it looks like the top's not doing what you want it to, just remember, "I like to tell people it's hard for me to know where it's gonna happen. The top tells you what it needs, It'll talk to ya. By letting it do its thing it'll come out Beachin'."

[gofast51]

I think I remember a tv show that did a excerpt of him.I think it was on rides. If this is the same guy I'm thinking of he was what I consider pretty young and did some really fantastic work. Anyways thanks for the post Brian its always good when someone will tell you about builders and such that we may never have heard of otherwise.Broadens our prospectives.I think that proportions are underrated as how many times an otherwise fantastic piece of work becomes ordinary when a proportion of the build is a little off from the rest.I'm new to the board and read your stuff on the brand X site as well.I appreciate the passing on of the knowledge and hope to learn lots

[Bee4Me]

Thanks Brian.
This is the main reason I respect this site so much. It's about "Doing it right" vs. What's the latest trend.
So much now day's is about money spent instead of tasteful design.
Just look at the BIG wheel's slapped on vehicles that are SO out of proportion it's pathetic.
Graphics that are SO busy,you get lost just trying to decide WHAT your looking at.
Paint schemes that are just beyond belief.
Cool is Cool. PERIOD.
Circus show's don't cut it.

[MARTINSR]

Yep, but the first thing you will hear is "I don't want to do what everyone else does"! Well, of course you don't, you don't have to. All Cole is saying is to make it "pleasing" to the eye and in proportion.

There have been very few "way out there" cars that came out of no where. Most every one of those real wild cars were simply on the top end of the evolution.

Jamie Muslemans Roadster back in 79 was a stand out, however it was only the ultimate "Billet smoothie" AT THE TIME. It started with John Buterras 29 with the "first" (who really knows) billet mirror. Boyds work on Musselmans car was just pushed to the limit at that time. Now, they have pushed it way beyond tired with the laid back windshield fiberglass "37 Fords". How it can be called a 37 Ford is beyond me being not one single part will innerchange but that is a whole different thread.

About every ten years the "current" style meets it's limit, that is when people start doing things just to be "different". Those first "smoothie" cars were after a decade of "resto rods" of the late sixties and seventies.

A few years ago, it was "Rat Rods" because the average rodder had grown tired of the high dollar "smoothies" and mega hours spent "phantom" cars that filled the shows. Now, the sad part is that trend is going too far into the seventies lace and spiderweb paint with outragious, out of proportion mods. Just like it did in the mid sixties!!!

No, good taste never goes out of style. Rich Zochies 50 (I think it was a 50) Two tone Merc full custom was a huge hit when he came out of the wood work back in 76. The car was timeless, pure and simple. Your basic "rat rod" is timeless. Your basic Cole Foster car is TIMELESS.

Why, because he doesn't do things "stupid" just to be "different". I swear, that pulling the car out to get a better look at it is one of the keys. And don't be afraid to say you made a mistake. I really believe there are tons of cars out there where the guy got it out in the sun light and thought to himself "Hell, that looks like crap" but then thought "I guess it isn't that bad, I hate to do it over". Soooo, it stays that way and he "lives with it".

Cole Foster wouldn't "live with it".

Brian

[-tmx-]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

Rich Zochies 50 (I think it was a 50) Two tone Merc full custom was a huge hit when he came out of the wood work back in 76. The car was timeless, pure and simple. Your basic "rat rod" is timeless. Your basic Cole Foster car is TIMELESS.

Found a pic, had to share it. Absolutely gorgeous.
http://www.barrett-jackson.com/aucti....asp?id=165430

-Bob

[MARTINSR]

Yep Bob, no gull wing doors, goofy head lamps or tilt front end, just class, plain and simple. I remember that car in 1975 or so at the Lodi Grape and wine festival in two tone primer! It stopped people in their tracks.

There is another guy, Richard Zocchi, Google that name. He has built a new car every year just about and they are ALL art. He "Has" them built understand, but he is the "orchestrator" They are ALL art!


Brian