Opal Kustomz

08/17/2026

08/07/2026

JOYS ready to shine..

07/10/2026

06/20/2026

So your a painter?
"Yes"
Are you any good?
"Yes"
Why?
"Because I'm an artist first
Painter 2nd"

06/20/2026

One more bare metal panel to get in Epoxy. We picked up the dropped ball on it this 59.. restoration gone bad.
Why?
Because we fu@kin can.
Who does this to a customer.

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

Back on to this .. epoxy is on most of the bare metal panels..
"That was fun" working on box fenders next. .All this should have been done before it left the last shop. Well that's a longer story

05/25/2026

Almost nobody in the history of this hobby learned the craft in a classroom.

George Barris and Sam Barris picked it up from each other and from the body shops they hung around as kids in Sacramento. Bill Cushenbery watched his father and uncles do bodywork in Wichita before he opened his own shop at 19. Half the legendary builders we have written about on Kustomrama started by sweeping floors, holding lights, and watching.

The craft moved through families, friendships, and shop floors. It moved through magazines. Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft, Rodding & Re-styling. A kid in Idaho could read about a Watson candy job, study the photos, and try it himself in his parents' garage on a Saturday. A teenager in Norway could special-order a stack of issues and learn the techniques without ever meeting an American customizer.

Now the knowledge moves through YouTube, Instagram, and forums. The techniques are documented in a way they never were before. A kid with no shop access can watch ten hours of footage of somebody chopping a Mercury before he ever picks up a sawzall.

Something is gained. Something is lost. The how-to is easier to find than ever. The mentorship is harder. The hands-on hours under a real builder, the muscle memory you cannot get from a screen, the kind of judgment that only comes from making mistakes next to somebody who has already made them.

How did you learn what you know about cars? Was it a person, a magazine, a book, a video? Or some combination that no kid today is going to get the same way again?

05/22/2026

Opalkustomz to the rescue.

The last (last few jobs). Minus the Minstrel of course. We have had work from other shops I has to fix.
Fixing other people's work sucks for sure.. but this latest drop so by far the worst I have seen in my 40plus years doing this work.

59 Chevy stepside
Who does this..

Customer had to put this in storage after the shop told her come get your truck, when She started questioning where all money is going when her trunk wasn't progressing and when her truck be ready.
Both questions fair considering the amount she had been charged to date and the length of time "said (Shop) "has had her Truck..Here's where it gets bad...

She was then told to come and get it. with most panels still in bare metal and the truck in peices., nothing labeled nothing bagged
parts nuts and bolts etc.just thrown in a box .The painted parts inners of the cab and engine compartment etc.painted in a colour She didn't want..
So here we are almost a two years ,with no other shop here willing to help her....yeah we stepped up. Who does this? Oh I know and you know who you our.

This ride will for sure get what it deserves from us. .
And the shop that took advantage of a Female customer. This is not the end of this it's the beginning.

05/20/2026

Can vote 2x today for free

I Have Been An Artist My Whole Life .I Think I Was In Grade 8 When My Art Teacher In School Told Me You Know You Can Be An Artist As A Job.