Custom survivor: The radical 1957 Ford ‘Seaburst’ is for sale

In the early 1960s, nearly everyone with a driver’s license was trying to make their aging sedans look like something from one of the magazines of the day with the pennies they saved working after school. If you weren’t buying speed parts to make your car faster, you were sourcing custom work from local body shops to make your cruiser stand out. There was no shortage of local body shops churning out bespoke builds for neighborhood kids and adults alike. But there's one major problem with custom cars: changing trends. As the 1960s slipped away, maintaining your now extensively modified, decade-old car could become a hassle. Especially if you’d rather be rowing through the gears of a Pontiac GTO. 

That was great for the looming muscle car trend, but it was the death knell for countless custom cars. Thankfully, some owners had the foresight to preserve these pieces of rolling artwork for future generations to appreciate. Enter this radically modified 1957 Ford called Seaburst. Kind of like the Golden Sahara, Seaburst started its trip down the custom boulevard as a wrecked '57 Ford. Like Barris did with the Golden Sahara, Oregon's Von Hunter saved this car from an untimely end in a scrapyard.

During the car's transformation into Seaburst, it received extensive modifications, like a ’58 Ford top replacing the original ’57 Ford piece. That top was then chopped 3 inches. Following the trends of the day, Hunter also designed custom taillights, installed 1958 Ford headlights, built front and rear roll pans, shaved the door handles, deleted trim and performed more body modifications than you'll probably ever notice. The reworked sheetmetal was covered in candy turquoise paint before it made its public debut. 

While Hunter built the car in 1962, it wasn’t until 1963 that the accolades started rolling in: Seaburst won its class in Portland area shows and was featured in Car Craft magazine’s 10 best customs of 1964 issue. While Hunter built the car, it was owned by Ron Sweeney. Sweeney eventually shuffled the car to John Rudisill, who kept updating the car by changing wheels, tires and paint to keep the car contemporary. 

According to the seller, that only lasted until about 1965. After that, this car fell out of sight until the early 1990s. By then, the 1950s cars were back in vogue and Seaburst was refurbished and updated for drivability’s sake. Basically, that just means a Ford Windsor engine sits in place of the car's original Y-Block mill, and a C-4 transmission handles shifting duty. The rest of the car stays true to its ‘60s show styling.

While it was originally built in Oregon, Seaburst is now for sale in Texas. It’s not exactly priced to move at its current listing price of $39K, but that's not an unresonable amount of money to ask considering the amount of work that's gone into the car. Though, if you consider that the owner originally listed the car for $45K, there might be some room to negotiate your way into this cool custom. If you can manage to swing a deal in the coming weeks, you can take your new prized possession to one of the best traditional custom car shows in the country: the Custom Car Revival.

Click here to see more Seaburst pictures and the original listing.  

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