Both of these cars might be termed "Beaters".  It is a style of Hot Rod or Custom that has become popular as a look. The Beater look brings to mind the early days of hot rodding when most of the kids who built hot rods had little money to build with and the world of after market parts was fairly small by today's standards. They did the best they could with what they had. Most of these cars were works in progress and they looked like it. 

The cars were usually drivers verses the ground up garage built won't see the sun till it's done variety. Fortunately, just about every house in the neighborhood had a pre-war junk car or two setting along side the house that could be had for 15 or 20 bucks.  All you needed was a little ingenuity and perhaps the help of a few friends. 

Eventually the Idea for most of them was (most likely) to finish them. This is the basic difference between yesterdays Beater and todays. Today the Idea is to build the rod to look unfinished on purpose. Although they tend to be built in the same way as the originals, from homemade or salvaged parts. 

The Mammoth Orange building in the background is on route 99 in California. The building features a second free standing roof above the roof of the building. The only other place I can recall seeing one of these was in the desert, in Places so hot that a second free standing roof was a way to try to remain cooler.  

When I was about fourteen I remember a desert ranch we saw driving across country that had one roof over the house, the barn, the garage and even the corral.  We also visited a gas station with a second roof that stood above the entire station. (oil on canvas 1998)