Is This a New Trend?

No Words. . . . I will let the photos do the talking.  Yes I took the photos.

In reply to dean1484 :

When hoarders run out of room at home?

 New challenge theme. 

I've seen one the next town over, covered in Barbie doll parts but similar treatment otherwise.

I think all those toys may have a higher combined value than the cars they are attached to. 

I like Sable wagons.

Art cars.  big thing here in Houston, they have a parade every year.  There are actually some pretty interesting builds out there. 

"Art cars" but made by people with no artistic talent.

Yep, I've seen a few around Portland as well.

Nothing new. They're a small niche known as "art cars," encompassing a wide variety of different interpretations. I went to a small art car festival in Mount Dora, with about 25 cars. They ranged from incredibly modified, six wheeled, fiberglass panelled creations, to regular cars that had weird stuff glued onto the bodies, like in these photos. 

One had pennies glued to every external inch of body panel; I can't imagine what that weighed. Another was covered in cigarette butts. I don't want to imagine how it smelled. 

I have a theory that there are two categories of these. The first is for people that intend to come up with something weird, creative, different, etc. The other is for the builder that thinks somehow that the bizarre result is the most rational thing to produce. 

There was a modified a 61 Chevy Impala that I used to see around Orlando in the late 70's. He had the name of the car lettered on the sides: The Mother Gin Sling. It started out with brooms (without the handles), attached to the sides of the roof, angled out at 45 degrees and facing rearward, like fins on a 60 chevy. They were replaced with actual fiberglass fins. The sides of the car had mason jar lids attached with the jars screwed on, with a light bulb in each, about 15 inches apart down the entire side of the car. I don't recall much else. 

I passed the owner briefly when paying for gas one day. He was wearing a white t-shirt with about 8 lines of text (obviously applied with a marker), which concluded, "Beware the wrath of the mother gin sling." I didn't want to be on the receiving end of that brand of crazy, so I walked past and got out of there. 

A few years later, the Orlando Sentinel published an article about the car and it's owner. He had been in a bad wreck and nearly died.  He then decided that his best defense was to make his car highly visible. The fins on the roof were to raise the visual profile, the mason jars were his own version of marker lights. I suspect that a head injury might have been a factor. 

 I've searched the archives, haven't found the article. I would love to post a photo, but all I have found is the inspiration for the name, a character from the 1941 movie,The Shanghi Gesture. The character Mother Gin Sling is in the top photo on the right. 

Not the car, just the weirdness:

There used to be a NA Miata done up like that by my Grandma's old house near the Ohio State campus. That must have been 20 years ago if I recall. 

Havent seen a Sable wagon in the longest time

Several years ago I almost bought a ‘90 Plymouth Voyager that was done up as an “art car”. The owner let her kids paint flowers and peace signs all over it with house paint.  It was a short wheelbase van with the 5 speed manual trans. It needed a new mill as the original non turbo 2.5 overheated and warped the head. I didn’t have time (or the room) for another project at the time. I have since regretted not buying it. 

The only ones I have seen around here have been owned...well, provided by dad, by a young girl with no underwear and a meth habit.

TheRyGuy said:

There used to be a NA Miata done up like that by my Grandma's old house near the Ohio State campus. That must have been 20 years ago if I recall. 

I met a girl while i was at osu that said her friend had a miata art car when i mentioned i had a miata. Maybe it was the same one. That was about 9 years ago.

1.  This thread needs mor pix 

2. I am so glad one of those has never showed up for a sticker. 

Strizzo said:

Art cars.  big thing here in Houston, they have a parade every year.  There are actually some pretty interesting builds out there. 

Same deal in Minneapolis, they've been doing it for decades.  The art car parade is pretty interesting.

Yeah, they’ve been around for at least 25 years. I remember I used to see a guy driving an early ‘80s Dajiban with camera bodies screwed on all over it, on I-95 in northern Maryland. 

To answer your original question, no, this is not a new trend, it’s been going on for decades. 

I see quite a few like that around here in the SF Bay Area. Seems like a fun thing to do. 

You are all wrong.  Certain cars have an issue that when they get older, the ground for the battery rusts and the alternator output gets routed to the body and turns the entire outer skin into a "crap magnet".  The poor owners are powerless as all manner of crap is attracted to and then stuck to their vehicles.  Sad actually. 

Waste of an otherwise good car in my opinion 

In reply to SVreX :

Only if adult toys are used. 

There's a guy in Milwaukee known as Brother Ron that has the Jesus Rapture Cult theme locked down.

This thread is perfectly timed as I saw this "answer"on Tuesday.