Rod & Custom Magazine asked me to be part of their “Styling for Speedstars” project. The project was to contact a few artists and ask them to create concepts for the popular Speedstar bodies by Rat’s Glass. Below are the two I did that were featured in the February 2004 issue.
This project was especially interesting because when doing concepts for conventional cars, you look at things like smoothing the body lines, lowering the roof, and of course, lowering the body, with the Speedstar all of this customizing has already been done.
This is the Barris-style ’60s custom spin I did to the Speedstar convertible. The open body shows off a chrome engine, plus chrome pipes come out and flow down the sides of the body. Triple deuces stick out of the hood with the body color painted inside. The front end is set off with four headlights, perforated sheetmetal in the grille and the cool element of a hood ornament.
The signature components are the clear Plexiglas top and matching fenders. White roll and pleat Naugahyde seats brighten the interior along with custom white headrests. On the dash simple white face gauges with steering handled by a three-spoke chrome steering wheel wrapped in white to match the seats.
To touch off the wheels I added five-spoke chrome wheels with custom wheel caps, white wall tires on the back round off the whole look.
This old-time parts truck concept was done using the Speedstar coupe. I chose to add a ’30s-era truck bed with custom wood bed rails. The bed would feature wood inlays to match the rails. Rectangular taillights are added below the tailgate. The wheels consist of painted steelies with chrome rings and caps plus wide whites.
Black roll and pleat Naugahyde on a bench seat make up the interior.
Another added touch that is not shown here would be to have a retro logo for maybe a garage or parts store painted on the doors with the words “Fast Delivery” lettered on the bed rails.
Above is the Speedstar Vicky concept that was done for the article but was never featured because of page space.
For the Vicky I added custom low profile fenders with integrated LED taillights and turn signals. Other features include a custom rear cover with dual pipes, plus a spoiler just under the back window.
On the seats, purple crushed velvet diamond-tuff inserts with purple crushed velvet trim.