Kustom Cats/Nauga's [message #15118] |
Fri, 21 January 2011 18:33 |
JoeT
Messages: 13 Registered: December 2010 Location: Wynantskill, NY
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Junior Member |
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Hi Guys, maybe one of you might know their history. I had thought they were a Kustom creation, but today I was surfing the web and got on to the Naugahyde Manufactures site and they still
sell Nauga's, although they don't have any made out of the Zodiac sparkly material. So my question is, did kustom start this or was this something the Naugahyde Co. did and Kustom just used.
Thanks
Joe Treiber
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Re: Kustom Cats/Nauga's [message #15125 is a reply to message #15118] |
Sat, 22 January 2011 13:50 |
chicagobill
Messages: 2005 Registered: April 2003
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Senior Member |
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If you search the board here, I know that we discussed the Kustom Kats here before.
The short version of the story is that Naugahyde began making the "Naugas" as part of an advertising campaign. Bud Ross, founder of Kustom got a few and brought them back to the factory and everyone went wild for them, especially the kids.
I believe that it was Bud's wife at the time started to make a Kustom version with the left over materials from the amp covering department, and so the Kustom Kats were born.
The original Naugas were as you noted, made from non-metallic materials. They also had the style of naugahyde screen printed on the leg so that furniture dealers could show potential customers what that style of material looked and felt like. They also had larger non-moving eyes.
The Kustom Kats were made from the same amp covering materials, so there are all sorts of zodiac colors as well as black. The eyes were the kind where the black centers moved around.
Kustom used these as dealer promotions and to show samples of the materials, just like the original Naugas were designed to do.
The new ones that are available from Naugahyde do not look the same as the old ones. I think that they have lost some of the cuteness that the originals had.
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Re: Kustom Cats/Nauga's [message #15162 is a reply to message #15125] |
Fri, 28 January 2011 18:17 |
BC
Messages: 583 Registered: March 2000 Location: Kentucky
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Senior Member |
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At the 2009 convention in Chanute KS a 4' Kustom Kat in red sparkle was displayed. Check out the pictures on the Kustom Collector site! BC
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