The Trend Books Photo Collection

An interior shot of Gerald Twamley's 1954 Chevrolet. The car was upholstered in blue and white Naugahyde. It was dressed up with chromed trim around the windows and white piping on the carpets. Photo courtesy of Gerald Twamley, provided by Justin Kudolla - Trend Books.

A photo of the silver metallic and scalloped version of Gerald Twamley's 1954 Chevrolet 210 2-door sedan, from Gerald's own photo album. Gerald was actually painting the car blue, but after adding to much aluminum powder into the paint it turned out in a weird silver blue instead. Larry Watson, of Watson's House of Style, later applied some light silver blue metallic scallops to this version of the car. One side of the scallop was pinstriped in white, the other one was pinstriped in black. This version of the car was featured in Car Craft February 1959, and the photo seen here was also used in the souvenir program for the 1958 Renegades Rod & Custom Motorama. Photo courtesy of Gerald Twamley, provided by Justin Kudolla - Trend Books.

Another photo of Gerald's Chevrolet taken in 1958. Photo courtesy of Gerald Twamley, provided by Justin Kudolla - Trend Books.

A front end shot of the first version of Johnny Zaro's 1941 Ford Convertible as it appeared in 1948. The photo comes from Johnny's own photo album. Justin interviewed Zaro for a story in Trend Books 208 Custom Cars 2012 Annual. Johnny's convertible was originally restyled by Barris Kustoms for John Vara in 1948. Johnny traded his chopped 1940 Mercury coupe for the convertible before it was done. Johnny's convertible was one of the most radical early Barris Kustoms, and most of the work on the car was performed by George Barris. Photo courtesy of Johnny Zaro, provided by Justin Kudolla - Trend Books.

In 2008 Justin Kudolla brought the popular Trend Book back to life. Born in 1975, Justin is a custom car enthusiast from Casper, Wyoming. After researching trademarks & finding the old Trend Books trademark from the 1950s and 1960s available, he registered it under his name and began working on a new edition, the first Custom Cars Annual published since 1962. Entitled the Custom Cars 2009 Annual, this book is patterned after the original versions with 128 pages, black and white text, and 100% of the content is dedicated to custom cars. Justin has traveled all over the US, interviewing old custom car enthusiasts about their past, collecting material for his books. Justin has shared some of his material that never made it into print with Kustomrama. These photos will be published on this page.