On the way home I stopped by Fast A.L.’s Upholstery in Dewey, OK and hung out for a bit. Krobe brought his “ol Blue” over.” alt=”On the way home I stopped by Fast A.L.’s Upholstery in Dewey, OK and hung out for a bit. Krobe brought his “ol Blue” over.
Aaron’s Ford is just about back on the road again.
Aaron’s ride waiting her turn, lots of new mods have been done to the car, just needs a little time to button them all up and smooth some stuff out.
A 37 Ford in Fast A.L.’s Upholstery for a full kustom interior.
Already collecting bugs, only 2 hours into the trip.
Clear weather as I rolled east for Springfield, MO.
Saturday morning I got to the show early so I could have plenty of time to see all of the cars roll in. This sedan was cleaaaaan.
Doug was kind enough to make some room for the Royboy shirts, posters and hats in his booth. Thanks Doug!
Right next door was the RJay’s Speed Shop booth.
I took a break from the show to head into the VFW where the show was held. This ham & cheese omelet came with hash browns & biscuits & gravy for $5. I was full.
So then it was back out to the show.
Bret’s 40 Ford.
More to come of it later
Anyone know what engine this is off of the top of their heads? I can’t put a name to that “face”
Here are some from the Vendors area
That’s it for this first post, more tomorrow or click on any of these photos to see the entire gallery.
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Don’t forget the Royboy Merch!!!! I have keychains, coozies, stickers & hats for sale. Every piece you buy gets me further down the road to bring more show coverage and podcasts to you.
All Royboy photos on this site are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
On Memorial Day 2012 my father, my nephew Gannon and I went to Kanopolis Lake about 40 miles west of Salina, KS with the truck and trailer to pick up my 1951 Ford Custom 2 Door Sedan. I’m hoping to do as much of this car as possible myself, and I’m no mechanic. This will be a challenge but I hope to show a bunch of you that you can tackle these jobs involved in bringing an old car back to life if you break them down into small jobs.
From the outside the car looks to be all there. While it wont start and the previous owner said that he drove it from Salina to the lake home, he said it was missing on a couple of cylinders by the time that he got to the lake.
After a quick hose down I see that the weather stripping is not doing it’s job, so I pull back the carpet where the water had dripped to see what was underneath and I find a flattened out Folgers Coffee can as a floor patch. No biggie the floors can be replaced.
The paint looks decent for the most part, probably a 70’s era re-spray, the trunk was in the sun for 8 years so it’s rather oxidized and faded. After a year, I finally got a space cleaned out in my garage at home and I drug the car home so that I could start to tinker with her and see if I could bring the ol flathead back to life. The factory front grille was removed to go on my buddy Jack’s 51 Ford Kustom that he’s just finished with the help of Chaotic Customs, Fast A.L.’s Upholstery and others, and it will be replaced with a 54 Pontiac grille that I have.
Wanting to do things myself as much as possible but knowing when to call in an expert, I had a friend rebuild the factory carb, if I had done that myself it would be months before I did it. So now with a new carb and a freshly charged battery I try to start the old girl. No go. Not getting a drop of fuel out of the fuel pump even though the bowl on the pump is full. A trip to O’Reillys and a new fuel pump is on the way. So next up is to swap the fuel pump and try her again.
Once the car is running and I can take it for the occasional drive up and down the block it’s time to save up for a wiring harness. The 60 year old cloth covered wiring is in bad need of replacement. In the mean time I have a set of Ford Aerostar springs for the front which will bring the front end down about 3 inches and give the car a better ride quality, for the rear my buddy Jack has given me a set of blocks to get the altitude right.
Power washing the gunk off the bottom of the car
Another upgrade that I hope to do soon is installing a 77 Ford Maverick rear end, from everything that I’ve read it’s a near perfect fit and a much higher quality rear end with a better suited gear than the factory setup. The 3 speed with OD should mate well with the new rear gears. Before I can install that I need to get a lesson in how to rebuild brakes so I can finish the Maverick rear end before it goes under the car.
Although I’ve been to the AutoFest twice before (2011 and 2012) this was the first time I’d taken my car. Some of my friends were competing in the BBQ contest so we all rolled into town on Friday. I did not take part in the poker run but I saw quite a few cars that did. All of the photos are in the gallery here if you want to see them all.
The cars started showing up early! This was about 7am.
Open to all makes and models this show draws in a nice variety of cars.
My Galaxie
Visually a car show is much better when the hoods and trunks are all shut but since this show does have a couple of teams of judges that come through I understand how some people would rather leave their cars open for the judges.
Flame Jobs From 2006-2009
These are some the flames I’ve captured at car shows, this first post is 2006-2009, starting with the very first show of the Royboy Galleries all the way to the end of 2009.
Pinstripe flames
Body colored flames faded into off-color tips
full yellow flames
Another variation on the pinstriped flames
The color of these kinda set them in the 90’s to me, what do you think?
Crazy airbrush flames
Red House painted surf board
Long long flames (always gave me the idea that the vehicle was in motion)
There is a great story behind these flames, but Don tells it best so if you see him at a show, ask him.
Fadeaway yellow to red with body color flames on top.
Basic flames on a shoebox, I like the style where the tips cros each other.
White fade into yellow flamed Cadillac
Flames as an accent
Multi-color seaweed flames
Airbrushed “real-fire” style flames
I’ve dug this flamejob since I first saw it.
Another white fadeaway flame job
After an accident on the streets this one time “rat” was redone to this finished state.
Got wood?
All over flames
Embossed flames on the bottom side of the bed cover match the painted flames on the body
More RedHouse Custom Paint work
Fade-in flames
Classic white into yellow into orange with 2nd layer of body color flames
“Real-Fire” style airbrushed flames coming out of the engine compartment
Long narrow licks on this surfboard
Iconic, long narrow flames with white-yellow-orange fade.
The Yellow to Orange fade flames with the white outlines look great on this Ford pickup
More of the airbrush “real-fire” style
Looks racey doesn’t it?
Historic flames.
Short seaweed style
Body color flames with highlights and outline
Long narrow flames with a seaweed style repetition.
Hot Rod Dan’s flamed Ford
Jetter Flames
Outline Flames
Comment below and tell me your favorite style.
That’s it for part 1, next time we’ll do 2010-2011!
See you at a show,
Royboy
Don’t forget the Royboy Merch!!!! I have keychains, coozies, stickers & hats for sale. Every piece you buy gets me further down the road to bring more show coverage and podcasts to you. See you at a show, Royboy
PS: All Royboy photos on this site are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps! Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
A while back someone asked me if I had a way to search for a specific kind of car on my website. I don’t. It would take a tremendous effort to go back now and label each of the 36,000 images as to what the cars are. So I decided to try to find a work around. The solution for now is having Vehicle Specific Galleries. The goal here is to gather up images of similar cars so you can quickly and easily see many different ways that each body style can be done. The hope is that you might find inspiration in these photos and go build something of your own to enjoy.
Right now I just have 3 up: Ford Shoeboxes (1949-1951 Fords)
The last 2 are not 100% up to date, I try to go and add a few each night until I’m done but they have a good start.
I hope to have more in the near future but it does take a significant amount of time to collect these images together so bear with me. If there are any specific models that you would like to see collected as a gallery let me know by using the email form at the top of this blog or by commenting below.
One of the most iconic kustom platforms has been the 49-51 Mercury since long before I was born. The car just lends itself to a chopped top, a low stance and some skirts. While these are not required for a kool Merc they are seen on more Mercs today than not.
This shirt is available in white, black or any number of other colors, for men, women, children, even babies. Features a kool 47 Ford kustom on the back and a small royboy logo on the front. Order yours today!
So last Friday I wrote up a little blog post about the upcoming Marysville, KS AutoFest on June 1. Yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine who is one of the people responsible for putting the show on and he had a ton of info for me about the show. Since it was new to me and I’d been to the show a couple of times I figured I better pass the info along to you.
2013 marks the 23rd year of the AutoFest, last year the show had 297 entrants and they’ve seen a 20 car growth each of the last few years so this year they are expecting to break that 300 car mark. The show is held on the brick street of the business district of Marysville and is held in conjunction with a KCBS sanctioned BBQ contest, that some friends and I will be competing in. AutoFest is open to all makes and models, including bikes, trucks and even tractors, just bring something cool to share with everyone else.
The promoters idea is a K.I.S.S. principle in running a show, they keep it as simple as possible. There are no official classes and your ride is not in any real competition with anyone elses. Each car is judged on it’s own merit and they award bronze, silver & gold awards, almost every car leaves with some sort of an award. They have a ton of specialty awards so that they can spread them around.
There are tons of vendors, including parts, food and even bouncy castles for the kids. Speaking of the kids, the show offers pool passes for the kids if they want to head over to the Marysville pool. The downtown area of Marysville offers lots of shopping opportunities if the ladies want to get away from the cars for a bit.
The show is set up to be as laid back and relaxing as it can be. Just my type of show where it’s as much about the social aspect of kool cars as it is the cars themselves.
There are a lot of new people following Royboy Productions lately. Thank you for that, seriously from the bottom of my heart thank you for allowing my adventures and photos to be a small part of your car world. For those of you that are new or may have just forgotten, here are some of the kooler things that Royboy has going on.
I had much higher hopes for the output of my video series named Royboy Features (I honestly need a better name for that one). I need to be putting these out about once a month, however I’ve found that a difficult addition to my already busy schedule. Anyways, here are the first two features.
Jack’s 1929 Roadster Survivor Hot Rod from the 50’s
And Jeff Myers’ awesome 63 Galaxie 500 Kustom (sorry about the audio). This ride is for sale and I’m sure you can get it a steal compared to what it would cost to build.
As always I’m selling a couple of posters to help fund my travels and all of the expensive equipment it takes to do the car show coverage.
Poster #1 is of Jack’s Roadster
Poster #2 is of a line of kustoms and hot rods at the Stray Kat 500.
Feast your eyes. If you want one as a print or a download, just click on it and you will be taken to the gallery they are housed in and you can order it!
Wow, talk about ruining all of the lines of the car by having everything open… I should have looked to see if the damn gas door was open too.
That’s it for what I saw at the Motor Mania show.
See you at a show, keep our friends in Oklahoma in your thoughts, prayers, mojo, good vibes, postive energy, whatever it is that you believe in. Those folks need any good stuff they can get.
For the 2nd time I made the long drive (okay it was only 30 miles) over to Abilene, KS for their MotorMania show. Most of the cars had their hoods and a few trunks open, which means I don’t really want to shoot photos of them. Here are a few shots of what I saw.
Two years ago a bunch of my hooligan hot rod and kustom family got together for a great run through the Flint Hills of south eastern Kansas. I recently went through some of the photos and updated them with a new edit this week. Here’s the blog about that day.
And here are the photos:
Original
New Edit
It was more fun than I can accurately convey, I highly recommend that you get together with your friends and go out and enjoy your ride!
It was by complete random chance that I ran into the AutoFest show in Marysville, KS a couple of years ago. I had made a 4 hour trip each way to check out a shop I’d heard about outside of Omaha, NE and on the way home while I sat waiting for a pilot car for some road construction I was told of a car show just down the road.
I figured what the hell, and went to have a look. Here are the photos from that first visit.
So last year I went back. This time I ran into some old friends. Here are the photos from that visit.
And this year I will return. As part of the same event there is a BBQ competition and I happened to mention that to my BBQ buddies. Well, they decided that we were going to compete at this one, so we’re loading up the smoker, a camper and we’ll make a weekend out of it. Should be a heck of a trip.
The show goes down over the first weekend in June in Marysville, KS. Here’s the only link I could find for info on the show. Come join us!
I love when I see an awesome car at a show and pass it on the way home, driving and not on a trailer. I understand that not all cars would be good drivers but would make kool show vehicles, for most, you should drive them if at all possible!!!
I know I share a lot of photos of The Toad, but its a fantastic car. Aaaaand Doug drives the Toad all the time.
I’ve seen the Weavers all over the region in this ride, never once saw it on a trailer.
Mickey’s Merc loves the open road.
The stuff legends are made of. Hammann’s 58 has been unchanged since ’76 and has been driven everywhere.
I think Jeb said he’s at about 230,000 miles on Nadine.
Alex Gambino drives the craaaap out of this car, just like all of the Beatniks that I’ve met.
Johnny Torres is a member of the Beatniks as wekk,
Driven from CA to Austin for the LSRU
Nick is no stranger to the backside of the windshield in this ride.
Ryno has put a ton of miles on the Unibody.
Driven from Amarillo, TX to Bartlesville, OK in the rain no less
Kevin’s 64 rolls wherever he wants to go.
The point of this is to say, look some of these are DAMN nice rides that most would think lead a pampered life, but their owners built them to drive. Get out there and drive your cars, get on the open road, enjoy the 2 lane blacktops the way that they were meant to be enjoyed. Inspire someone else to build something kool and come join ya!
From the first shows that I attended with my cameras I’ve always been attracted to pinstripes. From the long lines pulled down a scallop paint job to the fantastic scroll work done to accent so many cars across the hot rod and kustom world.
Here are some of my favorites from this year’s shows so far. If you are a pinstriper and I’m featuring some of your work below, let me know so I can give you credit and steer people to you for some lines on their ride.
These stripes over the patina’d paint make a statement.
This 60 Chevy had some great paint and some way kool lines.
Okay so this is metal cut to look like stripes, still super bitchin’. This was one of the awards at the 2013 Lonestar Roundup.
More of the same type for sale in the Acme Speed Shop booth at the LSRU
I’ve always loved the tasteful elegance of the lines on the Toad.
Here are some of the usual hooligans taking advantage of the heat in the back of TwoTall’s shop at the Stray Kat 500.
A Legend in his own mind. Ron Myers. Actually he’s an honest to God legend. The man has striped just about everything that you could imagine and I’m sure a few things that I shouldn’t.
A bunch of the pinstripers decided to decorate TwoTall’s shop door. I will steal this door.
Find a pinstriper at a show, buy some of their art, pay them to create art on your ride, support kustom kulture artists if you enjoy it’s existence!
Guest Blog! My buddy Dan Podobinski is a photographer based out of Indiana, he attends a lot of the same type of shows that I do. Since I can’t be everywhere at once, Dan was nice enough to share some of his images from the 2013 Vintage Torque Fest with all of you through the blog here. Okay class now all together say “Thank You Dan!” You may have seen some of his work recently in Car Kulture Deluxe Magazine, or on the HAMB. You need to go follow his page on Facebook here and buy some prints of his great photographs! And now on with the show! ______________________________________________________________________________
The modern “car show” has, in many ways, become stale. The large, corporate run shows lack any real feel. Power parking, lawn chairs and crybaby dolls have become the norm.
The independent, regional hot rod shows that have sprung up in the last decade or so turn that trend on its ear and Vintage Torque Fest is at the front of the pack. Show creator and master promoter John Wells has managed to take what started as a vehicle to raise money for the charity organization that he and his wife Kim created (www.HelpingHannahsHeart.org) and turn it into a full blown festival of all things hot rod related.
There is more action packed into this two day event than one could ever expect to find at a large, corporate event. Aside from hundreds of traditional hot rods and customs we find a near constant stream of live music from rockabilly, surf and garage bands. There is, of course, the obligatory pinup contest, though this one is much classier than many I have seen. Speed freaks can get their groove on watching vintage jalopies race around the dirt oval and hot rodders even have the opportunity to take their pride and joy out for a few hot laps. Unfortunately, heavy rains kept track action at bay this year save for a few folks who stuck around the day after the show to get some seat time. This didn’t stop some guys however, as impromptu mini bike races sprung up on a far end of the fairgrounds, followed in short order by the big boys racing vintage flat track motorcycles around the makeshift circuit. As I said, nonstop action!
The excitement reaches a fever pitch with the charity art auction. Culture artists from around the world contribute themed pieces each year to be sold off to the highest bidder. The work is stunning and is worthy of display in any gallery. Besides the art in the auction, there are the numerous artists and vendors selling all types of hot rod and lifestyle merchandise.
If this sounds like it is right up your alley then I encourage you to first check out www.HelpingHannahsHeart.org and see what this organization is all about. Then, look up www.VintageTorqueFest.com and see what you are missing and, finally, make plans to be in Dubuque, Iowa this time next year and catch the nonstop action that is Vintage Torque Fest.
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