Required Reading Part I

There prevails this idea in the fine art world that automobiles aren't proper subjects. It's due in part to perception: from an artist's perspective, a gearhead has grease under his fingernails; from a gearhead's perspective, an artist has his nose in the air.

This figurative line in the sand has taken a beating lately. Each subsequent generation of artists and gearheads has come to understand the things that unite them rather than the details that divide their worlds. Though he's more on the art side, Dwayne Vance rides that fine line. The subtitle of his book (Masters of Chicken Scratch) indicates he's not alone.

Each entry includes a bio of the artist, although some parts of the stories are somewhat interchangeable. Brian Stupski: "I was born into a car-crazy family." Randy Ricklefs: "I've had many influences in my life growing up in SoCal's car culture." Eric Brockmeyer: "I recall building models and drawing cars were my favorite pastimes as a youngster. . ." Michael Miernick: "My passion for cars began when I was just a little guy, at the age of 4. . ." Jimmy Smith: "I was doomed . . . born into a family of gearhead hot rodders." You get the point.

The rest of their stories expose the influences that forged their paths. Many, like Vance, went the formal route with lettered degrees (B.S. in transportation design) from esteemed universities (Art Center College of Design in his case). Others, like Jimmy Smith, took the hardscrabble route of self instruction as so many of our hot rod and custom car builders. Once their passions merge on paper, though, each artist finds common ground with the others. Whether prospective toy designs or concept illustrations, their work stands on its own merit.

Naturally a group that merges blue-collar subjects with blue-blood training is a little irrelevant and these pieces' descriptions prove it. How 'bout working up an idea on a video game, refining it in photo manipulating applications, printing it on canvas, and tuning it up with acrylic paint? Evocative sketches of '30s race cars sit cheek to jowl with slicked-down renderings. Randomly flip the page from some computer-generated line art and you're likely to wind up on elaborately hand-shaded and colored paintings.

So do publications like The Hot Rod Art Book indicate the gap between the art world and car world has closed? Well that might be a tad ambitious. However, we bet if you looked a little closer, you'd see a little grease under these artists' fingernails.

Motorbooks, on the other hand, sort of reinvented the genre. Whereas the old annuals are great snapshots of cars from a specific era, which is basically all they were: snapshots. The idea books on the other hand, are incredibly detailed examinations of their subjects. In a sense they're a lot like the Sunset or Time-Life book series where editors compiled ideas for bathrooms, dens, kitchens, or living rooms that appeared throughout the prior year in monthly magazines. Two titles kick off this program: Automotive Custom Interiors by Sue Elliott and Hot Rods by Dain Gingerelli. Motorbooks calls the interior book the first in the series, so we'll start there.

Considering the interior is the driver's interface with the car, it's pretty much assumed that interiors receive some of the more creative ideas. Only the extent of these ideas is far more than even we expected. Sue Elliott covered her bases: she included everything from the rudimentary to the radical. In fact, she literally covered her bases by including a few designs that employed cross-stitching usually associated with catcher's mitts.

Some of these interior ideas are familiar. Among them, Troy Trepanier's and Chip Foose's Ridler winners and a few of Posies' "statements," just to name a few. Though the majority may not have big names associated with them, the level of creativity is just as staggering.

Most refreshing, however, is her intent to cross-pollinize various enthusiasts. For example, considering the attention lavished upon them for auto salons and sound competition, late-model cars bear a particularly high caliber of ideas and appear throughout the book.

Elliott breaks down her entry in 10 chapters, eight of which she dedicated to specific components: Seats and upholstery, dashboards and gauges, door panels, consoles, hardware, floor coverings and headliners, trunks and cargo areas, and audio and high-tech accessories.

Though the majority of the photos that appear in this book are snapshots, they're lit and composed sufficiently to illustrate builders' ideas and trimmers' craftsmanship. By all means this is required reading for anyone contemplating an interior for a car, whether an original design or a refresher for an existing one.

We tend to associate today's overwhelming body of aftermarket parts withindividuality and creativeness, but no era was as truly individual or creative as the one that preceded the aftermarket. Without catalogs to rely upon and quite often without other examples to copy, these pioneers frequently invented new things entirely every time they did something.

While not all of the examples in Dain Gingerelli's Idea Book: Hot Rods is a survivor, every one of them was built along those lines. Even though these cars fall under the traditional blanket, each example bears a veritable treasure trove of great ideas that are just as relevant now as any time.

As Sue Elliott did, Gingerelli broke his book into chapters, albeit 22 of them. Given a car's more complicated nature, he dedicated more detailed chapters to these subjects. For example, he treated carburetor networks independently from engines and gave superchargers and fuel injection systems their own due space. Gearheads can understand why.

For sure this book's intention is to offer ideas. However, it's as entertaining as it is informative. In a sense it's a collection of magazine features without all the adverts and storyline. So far it's proven to be one of the more popular choices among friends; nobody who sees it can resist picking it up. And just about the time you think you've seen everything in it, another slick detail offers itself.

In fact, given some time we'd imagine this book will lose its spine from all the finger traffic. And at the rate I find things in it to do to my car, I doubt I'll ever be able to put it back together again.