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.
Okay for part 3 we’ve moved into the middle section of the building. Housing some drag cars, a kool boat, a bunch of bikes…whoa wait, I’ll just show you it’s a ton easier.
This boat looks like a good time.
Looks sporty 🙂
My nephews need a pair of these.
Mmmmmmmmmeat
I can’t decide if I like it or not.
I know I like this one.
And this one.
I thought the whole point of having someone ride with you was to get her to wrap her arms around you???
Big chrome bill
Ben Dragdaddy working on some art, it’s what he does, you should buy lots of it.
Quite possibly the koolest wagon ever
One purdy pickup
Ridler Winner….mmmmmm
Built at Bright Built Hot Rods
A bad ass 34 built by my friends at Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS
That’s it for the show from my eyes. There were obviously more cars than I shot, but either there were too many people around them, the shot didn’t come out or I just wasn’t feeling it. All in all, I’ll come back next year 🙂
So yesterday I started off the coverage of the 2013 Kansas City World Of Wheels show, here goes part 2!
I really dig this wagon, if I remember right it’s stance is down a few inches from the last I saw it.
A well done muscle car catches my eye from time to time. Well out of my price range, but it would probably be made to be fun around a road course.
I don’t see enough convertible Mercury’s
Speaking of kool convertibles!
Good looking 34
True Blue 40 Ford
Mmmmm Shelby GT 350… I still have a soft spot for vintage Mustangs.
Clean 40 Chevrolet
One of these is definitely on my wishlist
I remember seeing this setup roll into the Greaserama Pre-Party last year, it garnered a lot of attention.
I REALLY want to take a few laps!
Great setup!
Well, duh.
That’s it for part 2, on to part 3 tomorrow. Click on any of these photos to see the entire gallery! If any of these look like something you’d like to have hanging on your wall, click the photo here, and then use the “buy” button on the page it takes you to.
I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been going to the World of Wheels show in Kansas City’s Bartle Hall. The years have kind of blended together for me. Lots of great friends and lots of fantastic machinery at this show year after year!
The weather was good this year, meaning that there was nothing to keep the spectator crowd away. The showed up for sure, it was packed the entire 6 or so hours that I was in the building. I showed up with t-shirts, hoodies and a bunch of calendars in hand, the first order of business was to deliver all of these goodies so I didn’t have to carry them around. The final stop of that was with my friends of the Los Punk Rods (check out their blog here, lots of great reading here). They are the crew responsible for the Greaserama each Labor Day weekend (see the 2012 Greaserama coverage here.)
Punk Rod Eric’s new ride is coming together nicely. Lots of German influences on the car to reflect Eric’s German roots. Look for a feature here when it is all done!
Punk Rod Dave has built this very kool bike, if I understood correctly it is his first build. The shakedown run was a 3 hour haul ass drive to Salina in 100+ heat, that’s confidence!
For the last few years I’ve been taking advantage of some friends that live in the area by sleeping in their spare room and using that local home base to attend the Starbird Exotic Car Show at the QuikTrip Center on the Fairgrounds in Tulsa, OK.
Last year was a fun show, as soon as I walked in the door I’m greeted with the first finished view I’d had of the late Elden Titus’ Vibrasonic.
Another great ride that’s been on display at the show the last couple of years is Tom’s coupe.
Of course some of the rides from Starbird’s collection and Hall of Fame Museum were on display.
Darryl’s grandson Dakota is building kustoms under the Star Kustoms name and did this Chevy pickup
Ridler Winner in attendance!
What mighty big eyes you have…
One of my favorite kustom shoeboxes, a recreation of Junior Conway’s amazing Ford.
This Gasser got a lot of attention
Gee I wonder why I don’t get all giddy about shooting a row of newer Mustangs…
Wild kustom Pantera
Originally built by Dave Stuckey, restored by Darryl Starbird, the Lil Coffin
This coming weekend Feb.9-10th at Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City is the World of Wheels show! Click here for info on the show, ticketing, etc.
I’ve been attending this show for years, there are usually a great number of cars, and a bunch that I actually like. The Drag display is always kool.
Last year these great kustoms were on display.
There were some great feature cars as well.
The South end of the building is usually populated by my friends the Los Punk Rods and a bunch of their friends. Great rides, great folks.
Hope to see you there! If you’re there and you see a goatee’d big man with a red rb hat, you better say hi! Especially if you want some photos of your ride this spring!
Since I can’t make it to every show, I thought I’d post some links here to some of the GNRS coverage that’s out there. I know you’ll find something that you dig!
A while back I did a post about the Shoebox Fords, 49-51 models. Click here to see it.
Howstuffworks.com has a great series of articles, this one on the origins of the 1949 Ford design was particularly intriguing to me as a new shoebox owner. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1949-ford.htm
So far I’ve taken you along with us through some of Thursday’s load-in, and let you see what I saw through Friday night, Saturday and now we’re working on Sunday.
The 2013 Starbird-Devlin show is in the books!
Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend. Thanks again to my kustom family for allowing my Galaxie to park with so many historic and beautiful rides.
Johnny Hammann’s tried and true 58 Chevy Impala. It’s been basically unchanged since Jan. 1976.
Mickey’s Merc (he washed it!) Once a 4 door, now a 2 door with a ton more kustom touches.
Distant cousins?
You don’t see these every day, and you don’t see many cars this clean and straight ever.
One of my favorite Mercs ever.
Mike’s 60 Olds fresh from a remodel… gorgeous!
Nice collection!
40 Chevy built by Big Creek Restoration with a band on stage behind it Friday evening.
The Big T
Corey Conyers is restoring a beautiful slingshot. I say it would almost be a shame to paint this body.
Larry James of Flyin Eye Kreations has been working hard to finish up his old Nova in new form
Rob Parker has been working on this Chevy Bobber Pickup Roadster for a few years, it’s pretty interesting to see all of the details that have gone into it.
That’s it for this time, click any of those photos to go to the entire gallery.
Just a quick sneak peek of some of the photos coming Sunday evening!
Rob Parker’s way wild Chevrolet roadster pickup, rear mounted turbo feeds the 261 inline six engine.
Love this simple hot rod that has everything a fella needs except a Betty by his side. Bill Hines chop on this 1947 Ford, the chop done at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular.
So at 9:30am on January 17, 2013 I did something I’d never done before. I drove my Galaxie into it’s first ever indoor car show. The Starbird-Devlin Car Show at Century II in Wichita, KS, “The Wichita Tradition.” This is the 56th annual show, previously known as the Starbird Rod & Custom Show, it’s been a tradition in Wichita for a long long time.
I was lucky enough to be a part of the Kustom City display this year. Thanks to the new paint work done on my Galaxie by Jeff Myers, my car has been transformed to 60’s Boulevard cruiser. Doug Reed put together the Kustom City display of street kustoms from the area and my Galaxie was lucky enough to make the group.
So we rolled in, positioned ourselves and started cleaning the cars. It wasn’t long before it was time to head back to the day job, but I managed to grab a couple of quick snapshots while I was there.
I’ll head back to the show tomorrow after work and I’ll have more shots for you throughout the weekend. I hope to do a post of cell phone photos on Sunday and start the coverage of the show on Monday.
September 2009
I was barely out of a 3 year long battle to get out of debt, in fact I was a week out of it. Still I didn’t have much money as the last of my dollars and cents went to pay off the last debt I’d had, but I knew there was a show that looked to be kool happening in Wichita. The Stray Kat Kustoms Starliner show is always the weekend after Labor Day. So that morning I had to decide if I could make it until the end of the month if I spent gas money driving to this show. I had been to the Stray Kat Kustoms Rocket show in Fort Scott, KS early in the year and I loved the cars that I’d seen, and I’d always wanted to go to the Stray Kat 500 but hadn’t made it yet.
Of course I went. Of course. I almost always go when there’s a chance to see some kool rides. Determined to go on the cheap I stopped along the way at a BBQ contest that some friends were competing in, free food! SCORE! So after a free beer or two and an insane amount of amazing BBQ, I headed to the Starliner show. What I found was a great collection of kool kustoms and hotrods parked amongst a bunch of retired aircraft.
So I took a lot of photos! Obviously a kool environment for a show. At this time I knew barely anyone in the crowd and unsure of the way this social circle worked, I slipped in, shot photos and split. I had no idea how many great people that I was missing out on being friends with. Total shyness won out.
April 2010
Early in 2010 I decided to head out to Viva Las Vegas. This is the only show that I’ve really attended outside of the midwest-ish area. So on April 1, 2010 I find myself sitting in Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport waiting for a flight that was running late.
I grabbed the latest issue of Ol Skool Rodz out of my travel bag and started catching up on some reading, pretty heady reading! When I put the magazine down to grab a drink a kind lady across from me asked if I was into hot rods.
“Yes maam!”
“Are you going to Vegas for the car show?” How did she know about this car show, the target demo for VLV for sure wasn’t this lady. I nodded, full of curiousity.
“Us too!” It was then that I realized that the rest of her party were paying full attention. Were they sizing me up wondering who I was just as I was them? I think so.
Her husband and his white bearded friend talked to me a bit about cars and where I was from and “oh I was stationed in Salina back in the old days.” I found it like most conversations with old car guys, pretty damned interesting.
Before we knew it, the plane was pulling up to the gate and it was time for us to go. I was pretty happy to have met some kool old car folk (folks into old cars, not old and into cars), but the big picture was I was heading out to Vegas for a couple of shows!
Viva Las Vegas was an eye opening experience. I had never been to a show that was as much about a lifestyle as it was about the cars. It could be argued that it was less about the cars that year, I didn’t care, there was a parking lot full of kool iron and some beautiful women walking around. I did see my new friends there but only briefly and from a distance. I figured Wichita isn’t that big of a place, I’m bound to see them at a show sooner or later. Little did I know that I had already been shooting photos of their cars at shows for 4 years… remember that shy part earlier?
Another stranger then, friend now, Big Rich’s Caddy!
No dude I don’t know you, you were just a casualty of an opportunistic photographer.
Gambino’s F-You 54!
You get the idea, plenty of kool rides, and as you can tell a whole lot of people!
Okay, one more I couldn’t help myself.
On the Monday after the show, I find myself waiting at the Vegas airport waiting again for a late plane. As luck would have it, a few rows away I saw my new Wichita friends. I picked up my bags and went over after we made eye contact and they waved.
We talked about the show, it wasn’t what any of us were expecting. We talked about a lot of things, and honestly I don’t remember it all, but as the conversation went on I realized that these 2 men and their wives were not just your run of the mill car folk, they had been there, done that, and had been doing it for a very very long time.
Finally I got up the nerve to mention wanting to become a professional custom car and hot rod photographer, and that I was going to all of these shows to practice shooting in the worst environments I could so that I could learn as much as possible… yadda yadda. Oh, and here’s a book IÂ made…
The next 45 minutes the two men went through the book with their wives looking over their outside shoulders, turning the book around every page or so to point at a car and tell me who it belonged to, or a story about the car or a story about one like it. Never has any institution of higher learning taught so much as these folks were teaching me as we waited for a delayed plane. The loved the book, we all knew the work wasn’t stellar but they loved that I was taking the time to document them and their friends’ passion, and they heartily encouraged me to keep it up. We exchanged phone numbers when the announcement was made that the plane had arrived. I was going to take them up on the offer to come visit and listen to more stories.
May 2010
The first weekend of each May is the Stray Kat 500 in Dewey, OK. This was to be my first trip, my new friends were going to be there and I had been wanting to go for a couple of years. I knew of a few key folks due to the H.A.M.B. so this already had the makings of a bit of a different show for me instead of just shooting pics and splitting, I had people to talk to.
Somewhere in here I had the idea to produce some small books that were kind of like the little paged magazines of yesteryear. Each one was 60 pages and featured 1 show. I had created a few of them, designed them, filled them with images, printed them, bound them, the whole shebang. The entrepreneur in me decided that I was going to make money selling these books, the hardback that my friends and I had shared in the airport, and a few other items. I didn’t factor in that if I was sitting in a booth selling items then I couldn’t be out there shooting photos to make more of them! Thanks to my Dad and my Uncle Tom for booth sitting for me that day so I could take photos.
As it would turn out my new friends had a lot of friends at the 500 that day. They came over and bought just about everything my meager booth had to sell. The came to talk to me, they sent their friends, they introduced me to tons of people and made sure people knew that I was to be supported, I was the only one paying attention to the passion of building kool kustoms and hotrods enough to not only take photos and put them online for the world to see but to make books and such from them. Monetarily this was a good weekend, the only good weekend I ever had with that meager booth. But relationally, it was a gold mine.
Hub & Gloria Harness and Steve & Carol Albers, thank you. Thank you for encouraging me when I wasn’t very good (I say that I’ve not improved much to this day), and for instantly welcoming me into your kustom family. When I still thought that this was about trying to make money with my passion for kool cars I was getting very discouraged. I was ready to quit. It was your welcoming smiles, your friendship, your generosity of time that made me realize that the treasure in this adventure would never live in my wallet but always in my heart. The friends that I’ve met since meeting the four of you have been amongst the greatest people I’ve ever been lucky enough to be around.
Hub & Gloria’s beautiful Buick Cinnamon
Steve & Carol’s 40 Ford with 250,000 miles on “this drivetrain” and a custom hand built trailer behind it so that Carol would travel with Steve out to Santa Maria, California instead of flying.
The point of this whole story is simple. Kustom folks are some of the best people on earth. Find some, make friends and if you’re lucky… the true riches of your life will multiply.
So as I sit here typing we’re a couple of hours away from the 3rd Annual Mid Decembrrrr Run. Folks from hundreds of miles away are now on their way to Salina, KS to meet up and go on a long drive in our classic cars. It’s been a really good time so far, hopefully this year is too!
This will be it as far as 2012 goes for me and my cameras. It’s been a fantastic year, went new places, met new people and had a great time throughout it all. For 2012 there are 33 galleries with 7,987 photos so far, whew, my shutter finger is tired! To see them all go here:Â http://royboyproductions.smugmug.com/Cars/2012
Some of my favorites are
Fuel Altered “Black Mariah” doing a smoky burnout at the 2012 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular, see more from that weekend here.
About a year ago I joined Instagram, it’s been a fun way to give new life to some old photos and spread the word about what it is that I do here. http://instagram.com/royboyprods is where you can find those photos if you are not already on Instagram.
Have a great weekend, I’m off with a bunch of my rod/kustom friends for a road trip. Merry Christmas and I’ll see you at a show,
In early November I made the trip down to my buddy Ryno’s shop Ryno Built in SWMO. The plan was to shoot some video of Ryno’s 1961 Ford Unibody pickup for an upcoming feature video. While I was there I found too much cool stuff to not snap a few images.
Ryno Built Shop
Ryno’s Caddy was parked outside the shop, it’s just a kool vehicle all around.
He’s had it for years and has driven it all over the place, check your back issues of Car Kulture Deluxe for a feature on it with all of the pertinent details.
Also at Ryno’s shop were a few projects. This Pro-Touring Mustang build started out with a 1965 Shelby GT350 Mustang which had been dinged up pretty well in the Joplin tornado in 2011. Most of the damaged body has been replaced, and a ton of work has been done to prep the car for it’s massive tires and VASTLY improved suspension. Ryno’s worked with TCI to get the suspension customized for the size of rollers that he wanted to run. You can see the finished work is impeccable, and that there are lots of areas roughed in waiting for finalizing. You can find more info on the Mustang build here on pro-touring.com
The first stop for my Saturday Sept. 22nd was at the Last Run in Arkansas City, KS. I’ve heard about this show for over a decade, it was time to finally check it out. Enjoy the slideshow and click any photo to go to the full gallery.
Had a great time at the 2012 Stray Kat Kustoms Starliner show at the Kansas Aviation Museum You should have been there too!
There are over 600 images in the gallery including some instagram versions and more artistic edits of some of the photos. There are another 70 or so that will be turned in to a magazine for possible show coverage feature. Speaking of that checkout Car Kulture Deluxe issue #54 for the feature on the Vibrasonic and the show coverage of the 2012 Stray Kat 500, both shot by Royboy and the 500 article was written by me as well! For some great audio about the Vibrasonic, go to Johnny King’s site here.
Since it looks pretty wet out there today and there’s a 90% chance of rain for Wichita I thought I’d post up the coverage of last year’s Blacktop Nationals in case I don’t get anything today.
And from 2010 as well, you might as well have plenty to look at today…
Next weekend is the double header of the Goodguys at the Kansas Speedway and the Greaserama at the Boulevard Drive In, both great shows that make for a super long weekend but worth it!
Part 3 of my busy weekend was a Sunday drive down to Lake Afton, west of Wichita, KS. People have told me about this show for years and I’ve never been able to make it until now. A free show for both the spectators and the show vehicles, I had my resevations, but I was proven wrong. A great turnout of every imaginable kind of vehicle and tons of great people.
Although the show officially starts at 11, there were around 100 cars there at 10 when I showed up.
The scene at 10am
The Thunderbird club showed up in full force!
Kevin’s 64 Galaxie for the 2nd day in a row, always good to see you my friend!
The Mini club showed up too!
I want!
A friend has one of these Lotus Elise’s and they are a blast!
The Corvair Club showed up too
1951 Ford Victoria
Johnny’s dope kustom
64 Ford Galaxie 500
Stance
Something tells me it’s as fast as it is pretty
Who doesn’t love a VW?
The truck crowd was in attendance
A lowered early Bronco
John & Butch lining up
This just looks like fun…until you have to shammy the roof
This looks plain fun.
Steve’s bad ass 52 Chevrolet
A Wichita legend, Fundamentals member Doug’s Toad
Johnny’s simple and elegant 58 Chevy kustom
Cameo Cakes’ Divco has a mini me now
Pure speed
Even with 4 doors, Hudsons are kool
Well that’s it for my wild weekend of Kansas Car Show Fun! Hope you had a good time out there, click on any of these photos to see the full photo galleries and I’ll see you at a show.
A few weeks ago I realized that last weekend there was a choice, either stay in KS and go to a show that I’d gone to before (and loved) or venture a few hundred miles from home for the Good Guys show in Loveland, CO. Since I’d been planning on being in Colorado this weekend to film a small BBQ team in competition with the giants of the BBQ world, I decided to stay in Kansas.
So how would I make the weekend special? It didn’t take long to figure it out, 3 shows, 1 weekend… all in Kansas! Saturday started off at a lazy 7:30am as I headed east out of the small town of Gypsum, KS headed for the slightly larger city of Garnett, about 154 miles away.
The show in Garnett is held around the old time town square, these types of shows always have built in cool factor. Click any of these photos to go to the whole photo gallery, I will not be posting every photo here so that’s the best way to see them all.
Nice Ghia!
The show was an interesting mix of muscle cars, trucks, kustoms, hot rods, street rods, motorcycles and even a rat rod along with some stockers and radical customs.
My good friend Neal made the trip in his Canopy Express, seen here on the right.
This well put together Chevy has got to attract bugs like crazy with that shade of yellow!
I’m not sure what the story is on this car, I’m guessing it was shortened from a full or mid sized wagon, anyone have the skinny on it?
Everyone needs one of these VW Trucks
I’ve seen this mild kustom around a couple of the Stray Kat shows but I can’t remember if I’ve met the owner yet. When you meet the owners of the car away from the car sometimes it’s hard to remember who’s face belongs with which car.
Street Rod style post war Ford
Having just picked up a 51 Ford I am naturally drawn to every 49-51 that I see, always looking for ideas.
A very nicely done 80’s era Chevrolet Truck.
A way Kustom truck, lots to see on this wild pickup.
Travel in style
Some of the fairly stock crowd in attendance
Roger Ward’s beautiful ride, Roger won the Inspiration award this year at the Stray Kat 500. Jeff Myers built a killer trophy that was color matched to Roger’s car.
A Pro-Street 57 Chevy
Many cars had taken refuge from the sun under the square’s many trees.
A nicely built Willys
Gasser Style
Gotta love a Starliner
One of the historic buildings that lines the square, probably seen many a summer day with the townsfolk gathered getting to know each other and celebrate holidays and the like.
I love this 46 Ford, and it’s for sale. Click on any of these photos to go to the full gallery and I have the for sale placard pictured with a ton more info for you.
There were 3 nearly identical drag cars in attendance. I never did catch up with an owner to get the story on these.
1 of 50 explains why I’d never come across one before.
One of my favorite vehicles ever produced, I’d love to drive one some day.
Then back out into the sunshine!
Another Street Rod’d beauty
My 2nd wild Cadillac turned truck in 2 weeks… hope this isn’t a resurgent trend!
Another beautiful historic building overlooking the square and the weekend’s activities.
That’s about it for the coverage of the Lake Garnett Cruisers Car Show in Garnett, KS. Hope you enjoyed it! From here I went down to Mulvane, KS for the Showdown In The Valley put on by the Mulvane Marauders. Look for that tomorrow in part 2!
If you see any photos that you’d like to have a copy of, just click on it and you’ll be taken to the gallery where you can buy digital downloads, prints, calendars, posters, etc. Every purchase helps me get to the next show!
 
 
 
 
 
