Viking Custom

The Viking Custom logo used on their first newsletter.

The cover of the first "Viking Custom Klubb-Avis" newsletter. Scan courtesy of Jan-Odd Jakobsen.

Per Arne Knudsen's 1934 Ford Cabriolet. Per Arne was a founding member of Viking Custom.

Leif "Basse" Hveem's 1933 Ford 5-window coupe. Viking Custom member Jan Erik "Smørbukk" Kvernes bought the car from Basse's widow in the mid 1960s, and it was one of the project cars being worked on in the Viking Custom club garage at Alnabru.

Viking Custom was a hot rod ans custom club out of Oslo, Norway. The club was founded by Per Arne Knudsen and Roar Arnegaard in 1964. At the time, Roar worked for Narvesen delivering magazines, and he had read all about hot rods and customs in American magazines such as Hot Rod Magazine, Rod & Custom and Car Craft. Before Per Arne and Roar met, Roar had bought a 1933 Ford Roadster with 4 or 5 other friends. The roadster came from the United States, where it according to rumors had been a Sheriff car. Per Arne owned several cars, but his main hot rod project was a 1934 Ford cabriolet that he had traded for a stock 1923 Ford Model-T.

In order to find out if there were other hot rod insterested teenagers in Norway interested in forming a club, Per Arne and Roar ran a classified in the Swedish magazine Start & Speed. Gunnar Berg-Kristoffersen answered the ad and attended the first club meeting. He was told to take the tram to the church of Gamlebyen in Oslo. The meeting was held at Per Arne's home at Alnafet street, close to the church. Present at the first meeting was Per Arne and Roar and some other kids such as Jan Erik Kværnes. Gunnar remebers that Jan Erik had a GMC truck parked further down the street. Being a serious club, Viking Custom had their own logo and newsletter called "Viking Cusom Klubb-Avis".

Roar worked on his roadster in a garage at work in Gøteborggata. One day he found a garage advertised for rent in a local newspaper. The garage was located at Alnabru in Oslo, at a property were the city of Oslo parked their retired city-buses. Roar asked Per Arne if he wanted to rent the garage with him, he agreed and they both moved into the garage. While Per Arne was very active in the scene, running around with other kids that dreamed about owning a hot rod or a custom, Roar was more of a lonewolf. While Roar liked to work on his car alone, Per Arne was often surrounded by his hot rod friends. In 1967 Per Arne and Roar went seperate ways, and Viking Custom went into the history books. Per Arne went on to found a more organized club called Nor-Way Custom, while Roar became more of a stock Model A enthusiast.

Members

Gunnar Berg-Kristoffersen
Jan Erik "Smørbukk" Kvernes
Per Arne Knudsen
Roar Arnegaard

Club Cars

Leif "Basse" Hveem's 1933 Ford 5-Window Coupe
Roar Arnegaard's 1933 Ford Cabriolet
Per Arne Knudsen's 1934 Ford Cabriolet