Month: October 2017

After traveling most of the country I was happy to be in New England for the first time. The states are smaller and the projected drives are much shorter each day. My New Hampshire car owner Jay had the day off of work so he hopped in the passenger seat and we directed the car down to the NH coast. Hopping on Highway 1 we took the coastal road north, stopping at a few scenic spots, and a great seafood spot for some clam chowder & clam strips. Pretty great food and a very relaxed day.

As we went up the coast we checked out some Revolutionary War era forts, saw some great views and worked our way up in to Maine. We met up with the Maine car owner Terry Czsonek and his flamed Chevy. Terry lead us back down to a cool spot on the coast, then another. A couple of great spots for shooting photos and we even saw a couple of seals chasing fish up into a small bay, unfortunately none of us had our phones or cameras ready for that moment.

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #33 : Maine”

The trip over to Chester, NH to see my buddy Jay Sweet was a pretty one, and pretty short mileage wise. Where I drover 500-600 miles at a time out west, I was only doing about 120 miles in this stint. The fall in New England is a beautiful thing, and I got to see some of the color that’s been so widely talked about.

Jay Sweet moved back to New England a few years ago, but before that he was in KS and actually only about 25 miles from my place. I first met him at one of his HAMBBQ runs that he held at his Abilene, KS farm. They were a fun run & then a hang out/bbq that usually went into the wee hours of the next morning. I have great memories of watching movies on the side of the barn, laughing and just having the best all around time imaginable.

Before his time in KS, Sweet grew up on the east coast so he’s back home now. Thank you to the Sweet family for letting me crash on the couch for a couple of nights and for the tour of some parts of New England! We shot photos on a Friday morning then headed to the coast and then up into Maine for the the shoot there. It was great to have a copilot for a day.

The car is one that Jay’s dad had back in the old days when he was a young hot rodder, it’s been on the road for a long time and my earliest memories of Jay all include him driving this car. It’s a great example of a 50’s kid’s hot rod and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #32 : New Hampshire”

After leaving Binghamton, NY I headed east towards Albany and around into Vermont. I met up with Bart Caliaro and had a bite to eat before following him over to check out the car and his garage. Bart had a spare room set up for me to crash for the night which was great because I needed to edit and upload a bunch of photos!

The next morning we got some breakfast at a local spot and I got to have some real Vermont maple syrup on my pancakes, that was pretty good stuff! We hopped in his sedan and started shooting photos as we drove over to NY to stop in at the Rolling Bones’ shop. Lots of great spots along the way for shoots and lots of beautiful scenery with the fall colors in the Vermont mountains.

After checking out the shop and grabbing some lunch with the Bones crew we headed back over to VT, shooting a few more photos before I drove on to New Hampshire.

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #31 : Vermont”

After leaving Bill’s place, I headed to central PA for a hotel room that was half way to my NY stop. I was heading to Binghamton, NY and it was a lot of fun to explore parts of the country that I’d never seen before. It was about 6 hours total drive, so I knocked out about 4 hours that evening then had a shorter drive up some cool 2 lane roads into NY the next morning.

My NY car was in Binghamton, NY and is owned by Joe Lockwood. It’s one of two cars that he has built for running on the beach at The Race Of Gentlemen in Wildwood, NJ. It was a kind of dreary morning but rain was on the way so we hurriedly went out to the barn where the cars are stored and got the car out.

More info on the car in the book and more photos below

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #30 : New York”

After leaving Grafton, Ohio I headed east through a thick fog towards Pittsburgh, PA. I stopped in at Flop Custom shop and checked out what he was working on, then had an amazing burger at a local place up the street from his shop. Flop got me into contact with Bill Steele who owns the PA car for the trip and I headed out to Steele Auto Body to meet up with him.

Bill’s Model A was the 2009 Good Guys Hot Rod Of The Year, I remember seeing the car the next year at the Kansas City World of Wheels show. I walked around the car multiple times looking it over. The 1930 5 Window is powered by a 331 Chrysler Hemi with 4 carbs on a custom intake. The roof has been chopped 4″, has a removable roof insert, and a molded visor.

More info on the car in the book, more photos below!

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #29 : Pennsylvania”

Another state that I ended up having to change plans on was Ohio, and it couldn’t have worked out any better! After leaving Marshall, MI I headed for the Grafton, Ohio area to meet up with Jon Wright of Custom Chrome Plating. The forecast was for rain for the next day so I hauled butt to get there that Sunday afternoon to get the shoot done.

Jon’s 36 was already cleaned up and ready to go for the Jalopyrama show the next weekend and I for sure didn’t want to get it out in the rain! I first saw the car at the 2016 GNRS, then later at the 2016 Detroit Autorama AND THEN at the 2016 Lonestar Round Up! This car was making the rounds! It was later that year at the 2016 Hot Rod Garage Open House that I got to meet Jon and found out that the owner of the car was even cooler than the car was.

We were able to find a spot near Jon’s house to do the photos and got done just before the rain started, it didn’t quit for nearly 24 hours so it was a good time to shoot in a nearby location. On Monday I went with Jon to Custom Chrome Plating and got to get a tour of the facility and see exactly how they do their amazing chrome work. I hope to have a step by step of the chroming process as they do it, this hopefully will be up on the site soon.

After riding along with Jon as he ran some shop errands, then we had lunch with some of his racing buddies. That was a treat, getting to hear these great friends rip on each other while enjoying a great meal. A truly fun group of guys to spend a lunch with.

I stayed a 2nd night and then headed out on Tuesday morning for Pennsylvania, more on that tomorrow!

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #28 : Ohio”

Adapt. Improvise. Overcome. That’s the motto of this 48 Cars 48 States trip. When my friend Jeff informed me that he wouldn’t be back in Michigan for our shoot I had to put the word out that I needed a replacement vehicle. It didn’t take long for Andy Corralez to line up this incredible hot rod pickup built and owned by Bill Thorndyke AND the location. Andy really came through and I appreciate his efforts to make sure that I had a car for Michigan.

I left the Iron Invasion in Woodstock, IL and followed my hosts RC Scott & Erin back to the south suburbs of Chicago. We went to the Maple Tree Inn in Blue Island,IL for dinner. Amazing cajun food, atmosphere and company! The next morning I took off for Michigan to head to The Ivy Barn, where this shoot was done.

The truck is a fresh build and as you can see it’s pretty spectacular. I’ll have a full write up on it in the book!

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #27 : Michigan”

After leaving Antigo, WI and Bob K, I headed south and drove down to have dinner with my buddy Luke Zoch of Phaethon Speed Shop North then continued to see some other Vagabonds in Kenosha, WI. Jerry has a great hobby shop there with an attached apartment that was a great spot to stay for the night. I got to hang out with a few guys while they worked on their cars and then got a dime tour of the town and a beer at a bar owned by one of the guys. If you find yourself in Kenosha, WI make sure you check out Hill’s Hot Rod Hideout.

The next day I made the short drive down to IL for the shoot, the story continues below…

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #26 : Illinois”

After leaving the Minneapolis, MN area I drove east to Antigo, WI to visit everyone’s buddy Bob K! Bob was in good spirits and it was great to see him and talk to him. His car that we shot for the 48 Cars 48 States project is his 47 Chevy. I think I first saw the car at the Detroit Autorama in the basement, then later that year at the Custom Car Revival.

Bob is such a great guy it was an honor to stop by and hang out with him and shoot some photos of his car. I hope to make it back to Antigo again soon!

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #25 : Wisconsin”

While Corvettes are not my normal fare, they were customized back when they were new because they weren’t the sacred cow that they’ve become. This one belongs to custom car aficionado Mark Moriarty of the Minneapolis, MN area.

Mark has a bunch of cool cars, heck he has two in his LIVING ROOM, plus a few more in the garage. Some historic traditional customs, a car very similar to the Chevelle he had in his younger days, a couple of the Zinger cars, a very fast looking boat and a rocket powered go kart. You read that right…

So the car that he chose from his collection to shoot for this project was his Corvette. It has some minor modifications to clean it up and hop it up a bit. It’s very clean, shaving the door handles really changes the flow of the door panels. The car is fun to ride in and has a great look to it. I was honored to get to hang out with Mark and see his collection.

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #24 : Minnesota”

My friend and a great artist Todd Jones introduced me to Jeremy Schirm who owns this 40 Mercury. I think that was at the Detroit Autorama a couple of years ago. I first saw the car at the 2016 Vintage Torque Fest, then again at the 2017 Custom Car Revival. Jeremy was one of the first ones to answer the call when I asked for folks in each state to be a part of this project.

The car had been put away for the season when I got ahold of Jeremy to tell him that I was about a week away from showing up to shoot some photos. Not a huge deal, just about 160 miles more driving to get to the spot where the car was. Like me a couple of times on this trip he had a newly developed engine tick in his fairly new engine so we shot the car right next to the garage that it was stored in. One of my ticks turned into the saga you saw on this site a few days ago, the other has just been an exhaust leak that a new gasket fixed.

Since Jeremy is a paint and body man by trade the paint on this car is intricate and well done, not a ton of body mods were done but then again, they aren’t really all that needed on the 40 Mercury, it was a great looking car from the beginning.

More on the car in the book!

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #23 : Iowa”

My Nebraska car belongs to John MacKichan and was built specifically to attend the Hot Rod Hill Climb. I got to ride in this car and it’s pretty impressive for a B Motor, especially when loaded with 4 people and going up a mountain!

This 1930 Ford Model A Roadster was originally built as a hot rod in 1954 in Ashland, NE. In 1958 the original builder sold the car to Frank Schaffer who drove the roadster every day year round until 1973. That’s 15 Nebraska summers and winter… my hat is off to Mr. Schaffer! After 73 the car was put into storage, sometimes inside a barn, for a few years outside under a cover until MacKichan purchased the car and put it back into a barn for a few years. In November of 2013 when MacKichan hauled it out with a tractor and started to work on it to get ready for the 2014 Hot Rod Hill Climb. That work lasted from Dec. to July and the car made it to the Hill Climb.

MacKichan has a long history in performance vehicles including projects for Indy, Pikes Peak, and especially Bonneville. He designed, engineered, and fabricated much of the MacKichan/Schulz Bonneville Streamliner. The streamliner was retired after 22 years of racing with a final record run in 2010 at 323.3 MPH in the D/FS Class. The fastest overall record for the streamliner was 328.9 MPH in the C/BGS Class in 2000 along with the fastest exit speed of 346 MPH.

Some facts about the roadster, more in the book!

Built with a Model B 4-banger and cross-flow

Cragar head. John built a Halibrand quick-change rear end and added a T-5 transmission.

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #22 : Nebraska”

The tail end of the 1st half of the trip was a stop in KCMO at the club hangout of the Los Punk Rods club. The trip started with a stop at their Greaserama show on Sept. 2nd and it was a great bookend to the western part of the country to come back to KC and shoot photos of Dave Sprinkle’s Econoline.

Technically Dave now lives in Kansas but the truck stays at the club shop which is in Missouri… by about 40 feet, it’s literally right next to the state line, but that counts! It was built in Missouri and it was shot in Missouri!

I’ll have more info on the truck in the book when it comes out, enjoy the photos!

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #21 : Missouri”

After leaving Owens Salvage in Wellington, TX I headed east to OK. A brief stop for dinner with some friends in OKC and then it was time to get over to the Tulsa area for my OK stop the next day. My friends at Hot Rod Garage, Inc. in Sand Springs, OK recently completed this beauty for Tim Wilson, a long time friend of HRG co-owner Jason Smith.

Jason also has a sweet 63 Falcon that’s set up for AutoCross and for running road courses like the nearby Hallet raceway. His plan for the weekend was to take the 32 down to Fort Worth to the Goodguys show and also to take the Falcon for some autocross time. Since the rear tires on the Falcon were almost bald and he had some new ones to mount up… why not finish off the old ones in style?

Continue reading “48 Cars in 48 States #20 : Oklahoma”