Kustom

[fatboylust]

Don't read/speak French but Studebaker is spelled the same either way.

http://kustomkingdom.blogspot.com/2013/10/john-hychko-56-studebaker-polynesian.html

[Chris Pile]

HOLY COW! That's a LOT of work to cover up the Stude sheetmetal. Quite a mix, too - Ford, MoPar and GM, anything else?

http://kustomkingdom.blogspot.com/20...olynesian.html

[T.J lavallee]

Someone had an awful lot of time on their hands, lots of parts and talent. I wonder if the builder screwed the Caddy fins on?

[Nox]

-59 Dodge front x 2 & -59 Cad rear + "stuff"...

[hobiejack11]

IMHO - That is just about the ugliest car I have ever seen!

[paintim613]

Nice doors and not much else for me.

[3rdGenStude]

I'd hate to have to drive that up a steep driveway approach.

Paul

[TWChamp]

Sure not my taste in a car, but it was someone's pride and joy in 1960. Sure is hard to imagine how it turned into a rusting pile of junk 40 years later, as shown in the last picture.
In the late 60's a guy about 5 miles north of me turned a 1956 Chevy sedan into a 1956 Chevy El Camino. The guy did a very nice job and the car looked great, but just a few years later I saw it being driven like an ordinary beater car and it was getting quite rusty.

[PsychoBob]

Somebody needs to drag that out of the boneyard and put it back to its former glory. Sure, it was gaudy as hell, but you have to consider that was the style in custom cars back then. Take the same car and attach George Barris' name to it (as he liked to do on cars he never even worked on), and suddenly it would be a lost classic. At any rate, being a lifelong fan of customs and hot rods, it's sad to me to see it rusting away after all that work.

[t walgamuth]

What a vision! Its not to my taste but it would be pretty cool if someone saved it.

[cultural infidel]

Stumbled on this thread while searching the google for Kustom Studes. Somewhat sad to see the last known state of this car. The Polynesian was, in my opinion, a rad kustom car. Started life as a totaled 56 Golden Hawk. John Hychko built one hell of a car. As for the fins, all that I could find was that they were grafted on during the build, it does not say whether bolted or not. Half tempted to order the magazine it was featured in just to get more details

[StudeRich]

Raymond Loewy would have loved this, with all the "Do Dads" hanging on it! Lol!

They don't get much more Gaudy than this.

[studegary]

Having been involved in customizing cars, my own and others, in the 1950s, I can understand this car.
I seem to remember the name "Polynesian" applied to a popular custom Mercury (1949-1951 model).

[RadioRoy]

Sure not my taste in a car, but it was someone's pride and joy in 1960. Sure is hard to imagine how it turned into a rusting pile of junk 40 years later, as shown in the last picture.
In the late 60's a guy about 5 miles north of me turned a 1956 Chevy sedan into a 1956 Chevy El Camino. The guy did a very nice job and the car looked great, but just a few years later I saw it being driven like an ordinary beater car and it was getting quite rusty.

Back in the 50's, my brother (ten years older than me) had a customized 51 Chevrolet lead sled. It was beautiful with a modified hood and grill, beautiful green metallic paint, and white tuck and roll interior, but he sold it for some reason. In the late 60's, it was parked in the Camden area in Minneapolis, with a black primer paint job and rust holes everywhere. I saw it from the bus on the way to the University. I never told him about it so as not to break his heart.

[S2Deluxe]

Started life as a totaled 56 Golden Hawk.

Looking at the door and vent window, in the one picture, it looks like it started life as a totaled '56 C body, Flight Hawk or Power Hawk, not a K body, Sky Hawk or Golden Hawk.

Mark