2018 Starbird Rod & Custom Show

I wasn't sure if I was even going to attend the Starbird Rod & Custom Show in Tulsa, OK on February 17-18, 2018 but after seeing how many of my rod & kustom family were going to be there I decided to take a break from the 48 Cars 48 States book and slide on down to Tulsa for the weekend. The 54th annual show was a pretty good one over all. Sure there were tons of cars there that just aren't my thing, hence only taking 161 photos of over 1000 vehicles, but the ones that are my thing were pretty incredible.

I had more shots but quite a few came out a little blurry as I was trying to shoot the show a little differently than I normally do.

What you see above was one of my favorite cars of the show. My buddy Rocky Burris' Blue Hawaiian 1950 Chevy. Were there cars there built to a higher level with more flash and pizazz? Yup. Were there cars there that make me want to hop in and go for a drive more than this one? Not many.

Friday evening after work I hopped in my daily driver and headed the nearly 300 miles down to my childhood buddy's home just south east of Tulsa. We talked and BS'd until the wee hours of Saturday morning. A few hours I rolled out of the spare room and found my buddy out in his wood shop. We worked really hard on a project for a couple of hours before it was time to head to the show. Of course the project was just watching Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, so we didn't have much to do but laugh but it was a good way to start the day.

As we got to the show I ran into another friend in the parking lot I ran into my buddy David who had a couple of extra passes, saving Jared and I the entry fee getting in. The first car we see walking in is the Berlin Bug, a Beetle with a Nailhead behind the seats, this thing is KOOL. There were lots of very high caliber cars at the show this year, but as with any show it's the high caliber people that make or break any event.More to come tomorrow...

Once I made it to the Rockin Billy Bash downstairs I saw some of my buddies from OKC, the Okie Sleds crew, a couple of their rides are pictured above. Now, for me, about half of the Rockin Billy Bash was cool, I'm not into the art project cars, I don't care for the burnout contest inside where there could have been more cool hot rods and customs, maybe I'm not the target audience.

I was happy to see some of my Beatnik buddies, the aforementioned Okie Sleds, some Stray Kat Kustoms cars, a great collection of VWs, lots of artists, pinups and some very cool vintage racing rides, some drag and some dirt track cars. I walked past a bunch of other stuff, no offense, just not my thing to see art cars.I hope you enjoyed the cars I showed you, if I were completely honest I'd rather have left the camera at home and hung out with friends more, I kept having to end conversations to get back to shooting photos and felt rushed the whole time that I was there.Next event for my schedule is the Texas Thaw in Denton, TX the first weekend of March, hope to see some of you there!