Gas is expensive these days. Okay so you all know that. The goal of this post is not just to whore out some of my Royboy Gear, but to let you know why you should buy something. Not only do you get something kool, but the profits go directly to cover travel expenses to bring more car show coverage to you!
So last year I created the small 7″ sq. book Instagram Hot Rods Vol. 1, the plan was to release a Kustoms edition shortly after that. It didn’t happen. But now is the time!
The new 7″ sq. Instagram Kustoms Vol. 1 is full of 40 pages of kustoms from the Royboy archives that have been posted on Instagram. The book is available as a soft cover, hard cover, hard cover with a dust jacket or as an ebook. Your choice!
From time to time I find myself with some extra…time… kinda wrote myself into a loop there. Anyways with that extra time I usually fire up the editing software to make some adjustments to a photo or two. Sometimes the goal is to make an image more of an art project, sometimes the goal is just to clean it up.
Big Joe’s Ford Truck
This Merc looked great but there were a few distractions. Here’s the edited version
And here is the Original
This shot of The Toad from the Starliner show in Wichita, KS just felt like it needed a vintage vibe to it.
For only $15 shipped you can get the Limited Edition Poster, less than 20 remain!
Well, it’s been a whole week since I’ve been to Texas so it’s about time to head back. This time it’s a trip down to Texas Motor Speedway for the Goodguys 3rd Spring Lone Star Nationals. The show goes down March 15-17 so get yourself out there and check it out. Here are some photos from my last trip down to this show two years ago for the first one.
My buddy Jeff’s ride, shooting it soon for a feature.
Check out the entire gallery as a slide show below or click on any of the photos above to see the entire set.
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 Detroit Autorama 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! ______________________________________________________________________________
’13 Detroit Autorama…
The Best of the Basement…
By Dan Podobinski
Detroit Autorama, the very words are enough to excite many a hot rodder, filling them with anticipation of what wondrous creations wait within the walls of Cobo Hall. This is especially true when it comes to the Autorama Extreme, an area dedicated to traditionally styled hot rods and customs as well as the amazing art that is inspired by them. It only seems appropriate that this part of the show is located in the lower level of Cobo Hall, away from the glitz and glamour of the indoor show circuit. This is where the real, honest hot rods are. Not that these cars are not nicely finished or held in high regard by their owners. They are, but these cars are driven, often hard and without mercy. With all of this in mind I present to you my very own “Best of the Basement” from the ’13 Detroit Autorama…
1. Larry Tucker’s 1934 Ford Pickup. In typical Jason Graham style it is an exercise in extremes. It’s delicate wire wheels and subtle brown paint stand in stark contrast to its 6-carbed, blown 454 Chevy.
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2. Brian Wisniewski’s 1950 Chevy coupe came from New Jersey to join the fray. It’s fully dressed 6-cylinder , chrome reverse wheels and killer paint gave it the “look.”
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3. Gene Winfield’s old 1935 Ford shop truck, now beautifully restored and residing with Gary Hatfield in Canton, Texas is an obvious choice.
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4. Jim Richmond’s glorious tribute to the historic Pierson Bros. coupe is another obvious choice for inclusion on my list.
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5. Chad Folkema’s fantastic A coupe on ’32 rails has been a favorite of mine since I saw it in its unfinished state at the Relix Riot show a couple years back. The flathead Lincoln V-12 and outstanding fit & finish make it a stunner.
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6. Dave Gray is the lucky owner of the newly finished “Chemical City Coupe” 1932 Ford five window. With Buick Nailhead power and details galore, the Jokerr Fabrication built menace is pure evil on wheels.
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7. Everybody in the hobby knows the name George Poteet and his Bonneville inspired 3-window Ford is a thing of beauty…stance courtesy of the boys at the Rolling Bones shop.
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8. Jeff Watkin’s 1956 Buick Special is another looker. The satin black is offset by the wild, 60’s style red flake with all kinds of neat tricks buried in it.
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9. Steve Gilmore’s 1963 Ford Unibody pickup is the kind of clean, simple daily driver we all dream of owning.
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10. Mark & Ryan Rogerson’s 1955 Chevy is as pure a 60’s style street bruiser as you will find. A very stout, high winding small block backed by a Muncie 4-speed and a Pontiac rearend sporting 4:88 gears ensure that the stoplight to stoplight action will be a thrill!
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11. Kerry Sitar’s 331 Hemi powered A on ’32 rails is just mean, and that’s enough.
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12. My last pick, though not in the basement, would have fit right in. This wild, 60’s show rod styled 1934 Ford 5-window coupe belongs to Beau Boeckmann of North Hills, California. Take a moment to bask in what was the excess of 1960’s show rods!
Last time I was down to Atlas Daddy-o was working on this amazing roadster.
Daddy-o’s Sedan has recently gotten a heart transplant with a bit more umph. Just shady pics for now, more to come after the next couple of visits to the shop.
Love the old signs that Atlas has all over the place. The “Quonset Hut of Speed” as Ryan from the H.A.M.B. called the shop.
That’s it for this visit, hope you enjoyed the 3 shop tours, I intend to do more with these 3 shops specifically but also a couple of others that I know.
The second stop on my trip to the Texas Thaw (part 1, part 2, part 3) was at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS the shop of Jeff Myers. Jeff’s been a buddy of mine for a couple of years, and always has something kool in the works.
For the last couple of years Jeff has been working on a 41 Ford. The car originally came in for a chop and paint job, but under some inspection Jeff found that the frame was shot, and a bunch of work was needed on the car so it became a complete frame up job. Earlier visits (here and here) to Jeff’s shows photos of the car under various states of build.
Here’s what I saw this trip. Jeff has the car primed and was prepping to paint the jambs and some other areas before pinstriper Clint Rowe came by to pull some lines on some areas that are more easily accessible now. The car will soon be off to Fat Lucky’s to get an interior done before coming back to Premier for final paint and assembly.
Jason’s Merc is in house for some new kustom work, new bumpers and some other mods if I remember right.
The 60 Fairlane that McPhail did was in the back, waiting to have the damage of a bus sideswipe repaired. The new owner in NJ had the unfortunate incident and sent the car back to Jeff to get it fixed.
The majority of the metal work is roughed in now.
That’s it for this stop at Premier Body & Paint. If you need kustom work done, go to Jeff, he’s the one that did the paint on my Galaxie this winter.
Often when I’m traveling I take some slight detours to stop at some shops that I know. On the way to the Texas Thaw I made a few of these stops. First at Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS.
Chaotic is busy at work with this beautiful 40 Ford pickup for Mike Young. The truck’s body is being massaged in every way imaginable for what will in the end be a subtle custom look to the untrained eye. The cab has been chopped, lengthened, sectioned, channelled, but when finished you’ll have to have a stock one sitting next to it to see the full extent of the differences.
Another project currently underway at Chaotic is a 1950 Oldsmobile Delivery. Well it started life as a Chevy Delivery, then it was chopped, an olds front clip was grafted on and the customizing began. The custom hood’s underside is being finished now.
Spy pic of Jack’s 51 Ford, more on this to come when the car is done.
This 1982 Chevy Malibu wagon may not be a car you normally see customized but it’s turning out pretty kool.
The 34 Ford awaits another polish job before heading off to the Detroit Autorama (they are loaded in the building now for the show there this weekend.)
Thanks for looking, and remember you can click on any of these photos to see the entire gallery, there are more photos in the gallery than what has been posted here.
I’ll share a bunch of the photos with ya, I don’t want to waste too many words as I’m writing an article about the event so enjoy these photos without the interruption of my writings…
I’m off traveling this weekend, today I’m driving back from the Texas Thaw. I should be stopping at Atlas Speed & Custom for a shop visit. I’m writing this on Thursday night and the plan is to stop by Chaotic Customs and Premier Body & Paint tomorrow on the way to Texas, as well as pick up some freshly embroidered hats for sale.
So since I’m off gallivanting around on the road I thought I’d share some more build threads with you from the H.A.M.B. Click the titles to see the threads!
If you’re building a hot rod or street rod you need parts. You can go to the junk yard or swap meet, get dirty, maybe find something maybe not, maybe have to fix it if you do find it, or you can order new stuff. If you are in a time crunch ordering parts can be a life saver. Have a look at my friends over at RJay’s Speed Shop.
For the month of March, RJays is having a 10% sale on all front end components from RJays Parts, Pete & Jakes, Superbell, Heidts & more!
First I need to say thanks to all of the folks that pre-ordered! You make stuff like this possible! As a reward, when Poster #2 comes out, you will be given first option to purchase, at the #1 pre-order price of $10 shipped. After that the regular pre-order will happen for 2 weeks and finally it will go on regular sale like this one does today! Now, on with the announcement!
Now in stock is the Limited Edition Royboy Poster #1. Only 50 copies of this poster will ever be made, they will be hand numbered, and half are already gone in just 2 weeks!
This poster image will be as seen below without the giant RB of course. Jack’s 29 Roadster that I’ve talked so much about in the past (even made a video about it). The poster will be 11×17 sized and suitable for framing if you’d like but it’d look great on your garage wall just as it is. This 29 Roadster on 32 rails was built in the mid 50’s and it’s never been changed. It is pure traditional hot rodding.
This is the poster image, the poster WILL NOT HAVE THE RB logo across it.
Here’s the first 25 orders getting ready for me to ship them!
The posters are in stock now and shipping, order today before they are all gone!
A few years ago I met this crazy artist type named Dragdaddy. Turns out he’s become a good friend, go figure. One of the hardest working artists I know, he works a draining day job and every day turns out fantastic art in his spare time!
Here are a couple of pieces that he’s working on right now.
Ben has a unique style that pays homage to the masters of the past with familiar themes but is done in his own way.
For the last few years Ben and some select artist friends have been creating some larger than life art on the walls of Travis Miller’s shop in Dewey, OK where we hold the Stray Kat 500.
So go visit Ben Dragdaddys on the ol Facebook, buy some of his art (his coloring books are AWESOME) and then thank me later.
McGregor Boys (Steve’s) Twin Engine Triumph Drag Bike (more on this bike later this week I hope)
And his new BSA Drag Bike
Joe’s daily rider
Hooters was nice enough to sponsor the bikini contest
A couple of cell phone photos of my friend Denny’s bagger chopper.
And that’s it! Yeah I could have taken more shots of the bikini girls but I didn’t. I was having too much time hanging out with friends and BS’ing. Sorry!
The biggest reason to have an indoor show is to stay away from the weather. But when Ma Nature decides to drop about a foot of white stuff on the ground the day before the show load in, even having a roof for the show can’t really help all that much. That’s what happened to the 2013 The Chill in Park City, KS. Still had a nice turnout of motorcycles and cars, but about 1/3 down from normal due to the weather.
Muscle cars always gotta have everything all open and stuff, I’d rather see them shut, the designers spent a lot of time making the body look good, all of that is ruined when it’s open. Looks like the car is broken down on the side of the road.
Butch normally brings out his beautiful 56 Chevy Gasser, but this weekend was diplaying his hot rod.
Most of the drag cars showed up because they were already in the trailers, a little easier to unload in the comfy warm building 🙂
Jeb McGregor brought out Nadine, his faithful steed for over 300,000 miles.
Again, beautiful kustom, and it would look so much better closed up.
I’m embarrassed. Next weekend is the 6th Annual Texas Thaw, and it will be the first one that I attend. Sorry to Big Ken, I should have been there years ago.
This is a Run Whatcha Brung pre ’73 drags held at the North Star Dragway in Denton, TX.
Here’s the Fine Nine winner, the Atomitron by John Saltsman, driven out from CA for the show. I love to see kustoms driven especially when competing for such a prestigious award.
Also driven out from CA was Keith Dean’s 40 Mercury
Another of Shawn Mundy’s Fine Nine qualified 35 Ford Pickup.
So a couple of years ago I hear of a new indoor show in the Wichita area. Coming just a month after the Starbird show, I wondered how it would work. Then I hear that it’s also a major bike show. How is this going to work?
Pretty damn well.
So it works, I’ll be. When I walked in the door of the Kansas Pavillions in Park City, KS I was greeted with some motorcycle vendors, I’m not typically much of a bike guy but I can appreciate a well built bike just like a well built car. As I walked around the first room of The Chill I saw every manner of bike on the planet. It was impressive. In building 2 that first year were some vendors, some cars and a stage area. Building 3 was chock full of cars, it was a pretty good turnout.
2011 Chill
So a year later I’m headed back to the show. I know now that it works, and I hear some changes are in store. Sure enough, the car area was expanded, the bike area was rearranged to allow the stage for some live music. The same high quality selection of bikes, hot rods, kustoms, trucks, drag cars, tuners, street machines, etc.
2012 Chill
So in a nut shell, I’m heading back. It’s been a good quality show, of course lots of my friends will be there, many who did not participate in the Starbird-Devlin show of a few weeks back. If you can make it next weekend I highly recommend coming to see The Chill (click here for more info on the show). The show will feature a Hooters Swimsuit competition, and a live performance by Warrant (the hair band fan in me just smiled). Should be a good time for everyone!
———————————————————————————————————————— One of the koolest build threads on the HAMB has been my friend Roger Jetter’s Caddy build (click here to see the thread)! I’ve been lucky enough to see the car a few times, here are some of the finished car.
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Another buddy Nick has been building a sick roadster (click here to see the thread), he got it all together last year and proceeded to enjoy the hell out of it driving all over the place. Now he’s blown it back apart so that he could finish it out. Just like everything he does, it’s turning out amazing.
Look, it’s possible, anyone can get a great ride eventually, it takes a little (or a lot) of money, time, effort and you’ll cuss alot while doing it. Go out and get yourself on the road, that’s where you find the good stuff of life. Speaking of that I’m going to get back to work on my Galaxie and try to get it back on the road.
Saturday I head out for the Starbird Exotic Car Show in Tulsa.
