Keepsake
Kustoms
Classic American cars as the gearheads in the Hallmark garage always wanted to build them — chopped tops, suicide doors, scallop graphics, slotted mag wheels, and flame jobs. Five years, five kustom builds, die-cast metal throughout, doors that open, wheels that turn. Don Palmiter and Robert Hurlburt at the workbench. The Hallmark Garage produced something special from 2015 to 2019.
Classic Cars, Custom Builds — The Hallmark Garage Gets Creative
The Keepsake Kustoms series launched in 2015 with a premise that distinguishes it immediately from the Classic American Cars series that Don Palmiter built from 1991: these are not stock cars, faithfully reproduced as they rolled off the factory floor. These are kustom builds — classic American chassis subjected to the kind of modifications that hot rod culture has celebrated since the 1950s. Chopped tops. Suicide doors. Scallop graphics and flame jobs. Slotted mag wheels instead of factory originals. The "K" in Kustoms is not a spelling error — it is a reference to the hand-lettered, deliberately incorrect spelling that characterizes custom car culture, tracing back to legendary customizers like Barris Kustom Industries and the car show circuit of postwar California.
The 1932 Ford that opened the series in 2015 sets the template perfectly: a yellow hot rod with flames and scallop graphics, a chopped roofline, suicide doors that open, slotted mag wheels that turn, die-cast metal throughout, 1.80 × 1.60 × 3.40 inches. The 1949 Mercury that followed in 2016 is the customizer's other canonical choice — the Merc whose flowing lines made it the most popular donor car for 1950s custom builders. The 1958 Chevrolet Impala in 2017, the 1940 Ford in 2018, and the 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air in 2019 (#5F) completed the series — five cars across five years, each one a different take on what the Hallmark garage would build if they had the shop, the time, and the imagination.
"Each ornament in the Keepsake Kustoms series will feature a classic American car customized by the gearheads in the Hallmark garage. This classic interpretation of the 1932 Ford features a chopped top, 'suicide' doors, slotted mag wheels, and colorful 'scallop' graphics."
— Hallmark packaging, 2015 Keepsake Kustoms #1 · 1932 Ford · Artists: Don Palmiter & Robert Hurlburt · Die-cast metal · QX9229Don Palmiter & Robert Hurlburt — Two Car Guys, One Garage
Don Palmiter is "The Car Guy" — the sculptor who got behind the wheel of his brother's 1948 Steel Craft Pontiac pedal car at age 2 and never entirely recovered. He created the Classic American Cars series in 1991, the Kiddie Car Classics line in 1992, and has been Hallmark's primary automotive sculptor for five decades. The Keepsake Kustoms series is the version of Classic American Cars where Palmiter gets to build the car he'd actually want to drive — not the stock original but the kustom interpretation, the chopped and channeled and flame-painted version that shows what the car could have been.
Robert Hurlburt came to Hallmark with an industrial background — his brother helped bring him into the company, and what he carried from that background is a technical precision that shows in the die-cast metal construction of the Keepsake Kustoms series. His co-credit alongside Palmiter across all five numbered entries reflects a genuine collaboration: Palmiter's automotive passion and Hurlburt's technical eye together produced ornaments with the heft, the door-opening mechanics, and the wheel-turning precision that make the series feel like actual model cars rather than ornaments that happen to look like cars.
The 2015 KOC Event Repaint
The 2015 1932 Ford (#1) was also produced in a different color as a KOC Event exclusive repaint — the same die-cast metal ornament in a new paint scheme, available only at Keepsake Ornament Club events that year. The repaint shares the same SKU (QX9229) as the standard issue but is a distinct color variant. For Keepsake Kustoms collectors, the event repaint is the rarest of the six entries — the Hallmark Garage's alternate take on the car that started the series.
1932 Ford — 2015 (#1)
The founding Keepsake Kustom — a yellow 1932 Ford hot rod with flames and scallop graphics, chopped top, suicide doors that open, slotted mag wheels that turn, die-cast metal throughout at 1.80 × 1.60 × 3.40 inches. Don Palmiter and Robert Hurlburt's combined creation — "the car enthusiasts in the Hallmark Garage" at their most literal. The 1932 Ford has been the hot rod builder's starting point since the 1950s: its light steel body and simple chassis made it the most popular platform for postwar customizers, and the Hallmark interpretation leans fully into that tradition. Chopped top. Suicide doors. Scallops. Flames. Wheels that turn. It's all there.
Shop 1932 Ford — First in Keepsake Kustoms →Tips for the Collection
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01Open the doors on each ornament before displaying it. Multiple Keepsake Kustoms entries feature doors that open — a detail that rewards hands-on engagement before the car goes on the branch. The 1932 Ford's suicide doors, the 1949 Mercury's custom doors — open them, examine the interior detail, then close them and hang the car. The die-cast metal construction gives each ornament the heft of an actual model car.
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02Display the series beside the Classic American Cars collection for the direct comparison. Don Palmiter's Classic American Cars series (stock originals, 1991–present) and his Keepsake Kustoms series (custom builds, 2015–2019) represent two different philosophies about the same cars. The 1932 Ford appears in both — or could appear in both — at different levels of modification. Side by side, they make the argument that the same car has multiple lives: the original, and the vision.
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03The 1949 Mercury (#2) is the series' most historically resonant choice. The 1949-1951 Mercury is the customizer's car — its flowing pontoon-style body made it the most popular donor for 1950s custom builders, and the Hallmark Kustom version honors that history directly. For anyone who knows custom car culture, the Mercury is the entry that demonstrates the series' depth of knowledge.
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04All 5 numbered Keepsake Kustoms entries, 2015 through 2019, plus the KOC Event repaint of the 1932 Ford, are at Already Christmas. The complete series — five kustom builds, one repaint, die-cast metal throughout — is in the collection. The Hallmark Garage is closed, but the cars are still here.
Every Keepsake Kustoms Ornament — 2015 to 2019
Doors open · Wheels turn · Die-cast metal · Built by the Hallmark Garage. Click any car to shop.
A chopped, flamed, scalloped 1932 Ford hot rod in die-cast metal in 2015 — "customized by the gearheads in the Hallmark garage." The 1949 Mercury, the 1958 Impala, the 1940 Ford, the 1955 Bel Air to close in 2019. Don Palmiter and Robert Hurlburt, five cars, five years, doors that open and wheels that turn. The Hallmark Garage built something worth keeping.
All five here, plus the KOC repaint. The garage is closed but the cars are still running.
✦ Part of our Collection: Hallmark American Series, Explored ✦