Some good GNRS coverage!

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!

From Customikes.com facebook page

Bangshift.com’s coverage

I’m a huge fan of long exposure night shots, MyRideIsMe.com had these great images.

MyRideIsMe.com also had a complete run through of the AMBR contenders.

The H.A.M.B. always has a bunch of people posting photos.

Link 1

Link 2

My good friend Dan Greenburg always has great photos of the events that he attends.

The Rodder’s Journal posted this yesterday.

So, that should keep us all busy for awhile 🙂

See you at a show!

Travis

2012 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular DVD by Vintage Torque

2012 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular DVD by Vintage Torque

For the last 3 years John Wells of Vintage Torque DVD‘s has filmed the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular in Salina, KS and created a DVD of the weekend. For the whole run I’ve provided John with photos to use as a slideshow at the end of the DVD.

Here’s the trailer for the 2012 edition:


You can order your copy of the DVD here.

See you at a show,
Royboy

 

Chaotic Customs January 2013 Shop Visit!

Chaotic Customs January 2013 Shop Visit!

From time to time I’ll try to stop in at shops in the area and peek around to see what’s going on. This weekend I happened to be near my friends Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS. I was not planning on stopping and found myself without my camera, so I apologize for the down and dirty cell phone pics!

Chaotic has recently moved to their new location at 246 Industrial Drive in Mulvane, KS south of Wichita. The new 15,000 sq. ft. facility is always packed with projects.

Mike Young has this under construction 1940 Ford pickup at Chaotic. Lots of kustom touches and modifications, some of which are so subtle that they will go unnoticed by those not familiar with the body as Ford produced it.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Lots going on in the bed area, I’ll stop back in a couple of weeks and get some better shots of the bed and all of the mods being done to it.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Customer cars are all over at the shop, this one was new to me.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Drew Carlson (son of owners Chris and Karma) is building a wild 60’s indoor show style Chevy truck.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Drew and Chris scored this factory 348 tri-power out of wrecked 58 Chevrolet that was wrecked decades ago and the engine was removed and well taken care of ever since. If my memory serves there’s about 5000 miles on this engine.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Drew’s wild ride’s front end. Buick grille and bumpers, kustom grille opening, kustom light openings, and much more going on here.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

This started out as a 53 Chevrolet, now being converted into a vehicle that never was, an Olds panel. Very kool, again lots of hidden kustom flavor that most will never notice.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

In addition to being able to do full kustom body, hot rod building, paint, mechanical, exhaust, etc. etc. etc. (they do everything.) Chaotic also has a speed shop in the new shop.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Of course you can get your own Chaotic Customs apparel.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

And for the ladies there are some really kool pinstriped purses for sale.
January 2013 Chaotic Customs Shop Visit, sorry for the quality, cell phone pics!

Honestly there is much more going on at Chaotic that I didn’t have time to document on this trip but I’ll be back by in a few weeks and I’ll give you an update!

If you want to find out more about Chaotic Customs go to their website, the Chaotic Customs page on Facebook. Mark your calendars now for April 27th 10am to 3pm for the Chaotic Customs Open House/ Car Show.

Give them a call from anything from basic mechanical work to a full on kustom, hot rod, street rod, muscle car, anything with wheels!

See you at a show,

Travis

Music To Drive To: The Jade Idol "No Control"

The Jade Idol “No Control” 2012

From time to time on here I’ll pick a record and review it, or like this one crow about it because I think you should go buy it, for the first “review” I’ve chosen The Jade Idol’s “No Control.” 

I was first made aware of The Jade Idol through facebook. Videos began appearing every once in awhile, I had to check them out. What I found was raw, pure, unadulterated rock and roll. The more I heard the more I liked, so yes this review is a bit skewed, I am a fan.

The Jade Idol’s CD “No Control” was released March 19, 2012, just weeks before the Lonestar Roundup in Austin, TX. This plays in because the band is based out of Austin, guitars and vocals handled by Bob Bleed, with Mark Ford on drums. Bleed is one of the talented crew at Austin Speed Shop while Ford has a background in the recording studio. When I asked Bleed to give me a sentence that describes the record from his point of view he said, “I’m really proud of this album, recorded it in my bedroom!” proving that if the music works, it doesn’t matter where it was recorded.

I was able to download the songs from itunes just days before a trip to The Jade Idol’s home town of Austin for the Lonestar Roundup. 9 hours each way to jam out provided more than one listen of “No Control” It’s not a stretch to say that with each time through the tracks the record moved farther and farther up my list of favorites.

Song by Song:
Click on the song title to listen to a sample on Amazon
Blow My Mind
I Will
Stuck On You
You’re the One
Oh Oh Oh Oh
Always Will
Why
You’re Mine
What You Gonna Do
That’s What I Say

Videos
Stuck On You Video

I Will Video

You’re Mine Video

    

Final Thoughts
In an age of over processed, sanitized, perfected studio creations passed off as music, The Jade Idol is refreshing. Much as the White Stripes brought lo-fi, simple, loud rock and roll back to the masses, The Jade Idol does so without sounding like a rip-off. The blues gave birth to rock and roll, The Jade Idol pays homage to both without sounding dated. When you strip away the layers of today’s popular music you find nothing supporting the base, just studio trickery and digital bandaids, but when you listen to The Jade Idol, you’re listening to the foundation, there is nothing to strip away. Long live rock and roll.

Links:
The Jade Idol “No Control” on Amazon

The Jade Idol on Facebook

Last chance for the 2013 Calendar For Charity!

The 2013 Calendar for Charity has been a big success!

This is the first year that the calendars were professionally printed, a big investment up front but luckily the paper was donated this year so that printing was only major expense in getting the calendars off the ground. As last year these calendars are printed in the ginormous 11×17 size and each and every month features 2 kool car photos! Order at royboyproductions.com!

This year 6 copies were available (click on the thumbnails to see the entire calendar):
The Trucks, Hot Rods, and Kustom editions all were sold to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

The 3 Show specific editions went to individual causes.
The Stray Kat Kustoms Edition benefitted the Red Cross, as Mr. Stray Kat Kustoms himself (Mickey) said, they were here to help when we had a tornado, and they’re still there help folks like Joplin last year. For info on the Stray Kat Kustoms shows go to straykatkustoms.com  Order at royboyproductions.com!

The Greaserama Edition went to benefit the Punk Rod Todd Memorial Fund. The world suffered a loss last year when Todd passed, his vision and drive helped focus the Greaserama into the kool kulture event that it is today and he was one of the good guys. Thanks again for being a great guy Todd, we all miss ya, even those of us that barely knew ya. For info on the Greaserama go to greaserama.com Order at royboyproductions.com!

The Hannahs Heart Edition went to benefit the Helping Hannah’s Heart Foundation. Please take a minute and go check out this great cause. Hannah’s daddy John is a good friend and I’m glad to be able to do a very small part of helping out. Support Vintage Torque DVD’s, Torque Fest and Iron Invasion! Order at royboyproductions.com!

 

Total money raised this year for all 6 calendars has been over $1,100.00 so far! With less than a week left there are still 27 copies left. The Hannah’s Heart and the Stray Kat Kustoms editions are sold out but there are handfull left of the Greaserama, Kustoms, and Trucks Editions. As of the time of this writing there are only 2 copies of the Hot Rod Edition left!

To order go to royboyproductions.com These will pulled from sales on February 1, so if you want one, order today!!!

See you at a show,

Travis

More Shoebox Ford info

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

There’s much more to the story and its all assembled nicely in this thread on the HAMB.

Also on the HAMB are a whole bunch of great build threads on shoebox Fords

Here’s the build thread on my buddy Jack’s kustom 51. 

This one has been a really great thread, lots of info in it.

My buddy Arturo has kept a pretty kool thread on his shoebox, chopped by Jeff Myers & Ian Berky
I got to see the car at Jeff’s shop back in 2010.
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DSC_3565

That’s it for now, see you at a show,

Travis

Starbird-Devlin 2013 Coverage Part 4 (final post)

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.

And awaayyyyy we go!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

An odd dash to see in a Camaro, but I like it.

and that is all folks!

Plenty more shows on the way, hope you go along for the ride with me or show up at a show with something kool.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

See you at a show,

Travis

Starbird-Devlin 2013 Coverage Part 3

Part 3!

 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Mickey’s Merc

Johnny Hammann’s beautiful 58 Chevrolet again… I love it, so I will keep posting photos of it.

Clint Rowe pulling some lines to outline my new paint by Jeff Myers.
Clint Rowe striping the new Jeff Myers paint job on my Galaxie 500

Clint Rowe striping the new Jeff Myers paint job on my Galaxie 500

Corey Conyers is the man responsible for the insanely kool aluminum body on this slingshot dragster.

Kustom City

Check out issue #57 of Car Kulture Deluxe for a feature article on The Toad.

Rocky Burris’ Too Kool pickup

Vibrasonic!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

See you at a show,

Travis

Starbird-Devlin 2013 Coverage Part 2

Part 2!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Another shot of the gorgeous 40 Chevrolet built by Big Creek Restorations in Ellis, Kansas.

Ridler winner

I don’t know that I’ve seen this truck before but I dig it.

John  Sinfellow’s 55 Barn Find Gasser.

Not my normal style wheel/tire combo but looks good on this El Camino

Big Fat Lip

That’s it for Part 2, part 3 tomorrow morning!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

See you at a show

Travis

2013 Starbird-Devlin Coverage Part 1

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.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Johnny Hammann’s tried and true 58 Chevy Impala. It’s been basically unchanged since Jan. 1976.
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.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

See you at a show!

Travis

2013 Starbird-Devlin Sneak Peek Photos

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.

The Big T

Ori





New Wood Transfers

Awhile back I saw a how-to that intrigued me. Transferring photos onto wood… it’s an interesting process. Anyways for Christmas this year I decided to make a few of these for friends and family members. It’s a long, tedious process but the end results are worth it.

I’m not sure if I’ll produce a dozen or so of an image and offer those for sale or do them on an as ordered basis. The whole process takes about 4 hours to complete, and it works best for black & white photos.

Here are a couple test pieces that I have.

If you’re interested in having one send me a message from my site here.

See you at a show,

Travis

Starbird-Devlin Load-in Photos

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.

My Galaxie in Kustom City

Kool 53? Ford Kustom

The Toad, look for a feature on The Toad in issue #57 of Car Kulture Deluxe. You can see the entire shoot from that article on my site here.

Micheal’s fresh reworking of his beautiful Olds

Gene Weaver’s 54 Chevy

Vibrasonic

Big Creek Restoration built 40 Chevy

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.

See you at a show,

Travis

Some Recent Instagram Pics

Pick up the new Car Kulture Deluxe for a feature on The Toad that I shot/wrote. Doug's Olds is one kool kustom, for more shots of it from this shoot go to http://royboyproductions.smugmug.com/Cars/Shoots/Doug-Reeds-Toad/

Pick up the new Car Kulture Deluxe for a feature on The Toad that I shot/wrote. Doug’s Olds is one kool kustom, for more shots of it from this shoot go to http://royboyproductions.smugmug.com/Cars/Shoots/Doug-Reeds-Toad/

Turning the hides at the HAMB Drags

Turning the hides at the HAMB Drags” alt=”Turning the hides at the HAMB Drags

I've been posting photos of the new paint that Jeff Myers of Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS did on my Galaxie. Here's some of his collection in front of the shop.
I’ve been posting photos of the new paint that Jeff Myers of Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS did on my Galaxie. Here’s some of his collection in front of the shop.” alt=”I’ve been posting photos of the new paint that Jeff Myers of Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS did on my Galaxie. Here’s some of his collection in front of the shop.

Toast's 40 Ford at the Stray Kat 500. 1st weekend each May in Dewey, OK
Toast’s 40 Ford at the Stray Kat 500. 1st weekend each May in Dewey, OK

A kool mild kustom cruising the parking lot of the host hotel for the Stray Kat 500. 1st weekend each May

This 54 Pontiac is always good to see at shows across the region.

Flathead Friday! This time it's Doc Parson's beautiful 27 Ford with its immaculate flattie. This is one of the cleanest lil Hot rods anywhere.

54 Caddy taillight

I'm looking forward to my 3rd Lonestar Roundup, first time with a car not just the camera! Here's one from last year.

58 Chevy, laid out, wires, Lonestar Roundup

Follow @royboyprods for more! Also @royboyprods on twitter!

See you at a show,

Travis

A Chance Encounter

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 I  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.

My first car show booth.

 
Don’s Beautiful Buick

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.

Stray Kat Starliner at the Kansas Aviation Museum
Stray Kat Starliner at the Kansas Aviation Museum
Hub & Gloria’s beautiful Buick Cinnamon

Stray Kat Starliner at the Kansas Aviation Museum
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.

See you at a show,

Travis

Friends of Royboy: American Hot Rod Foundation

From time to time this blog will be used to share some info on a site, custom/hotrod shop, or organization that are friends of mine.

This first we’ll feature the American Hot Rod Foundation. I first learned of the AHRF through their page on facebook, a friendship that I’m glad I’ve found. Their feed on facebook is full of fantastic historic shots of historic hot rods and kustoms.

Head over to their site ahrf.com for more than your fair share of historic photos, stories and videos. Just a click on their Legends page on their site will have your mind reeling with all of the info that scrolls down onto your screen.

The Video page has trailer from there fantastic DVD “Deuce” I’ve seen it and I loved it.

Also in their store is the DVD “Slingshot! The History Of Drag Racing Volume 1” Again I’ve seen it and it’s really really good!

This is just a scratch in the surface of this informative and fun website. I’m all about traditional hotrods and kustoms and the AHRF is dedicated to preserving the history of the American Hot Rod.

Give them a visit, spread the word and buy a shirt or DVD!

See you at a show,

Travis

2013 Starbird-Devlin Car Show for Charity: A Look Back Pt. 2

In Part 1 I went through some back history of the show from my cameras up to 2010.

So now on to 2011

Something I wrote at the time:
“In the dead of winter each January it’s a pleasure every year to get together with my hotrod and kustom family and spend some time inside WITH a bunch of cool cars. The Darryl Starbird Rod & Custom show in Wichita, KS typically pulls about 400 cars max for a 3 day indoor show. As the name implies rods and customs show in abundance, but so do stock restorations, survivors, 4×4’s, lowriders, rat rods, and various types of racers.

A couple of very cool front engine dragsters were on display this year, as were some very nice traditional built hot rods. Traditional built rods are not rats, and this show had both build styles represented nicely. The car count and the vendor count both seemed down this year, but that was a blessing instead of a hinderance. Less cars means more room to get around the cars, and it seemed that the cars that didn’t show were the ones that I normally don’t shoot anyhow, so the show’s overall quality went up as a result.

The Marauders and Fundamentals had great club displays with the Marauders taking home the prize for best display for their “model” car display complete with giant exacto knives and Testor paint bottles to complete the look. The Fundamentals went with a beach theme and rumor has it some Marauders may have been involved with an incident involving Baby Ruth candy bars being dropped in the Fundamentals “sand” (kitty litter). I’m not going to say where the story came from or how hard the person who told it to me was laughing when he told how they did it.”

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My friend Mike’s super clean Camaro

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Just your basic 5 window hot rod coupe

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Jack’s 30 Ford 5 Window Coupe as part of the Mulvane Marauder’s display

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Chris and Karma Carlson’s 60 Pontiac Stella (owners of Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS)

2011 Darryl Starbird Wichita, KS
Mike Young’s way wild 29 Roadster

2011 Darryl Starbird Wichita, KS
A Historic hot rod brought down from McPherson College, the Paul Harris 32

2011 Darryl Starbird Wichita, KS
Rocky Burris’ Wild Winged Ford pickup “TooKool”

2011 Darryl Starbird Wichita, KS
Tom Hanna’s gorgeous FED

2011 Darryl Starbird Wichita, KS

2011 Darryl Starbird Wichita, KS
A couple of Starbird’s BubbleTops

2012

Jack Marinelli's 29 Model A Roadster
Jack’s 29 AV8 Roadster, a survivor from the 50’s
Video Feature on this car.
Episode 1:Jack Marinelli tells the story behind his historic hot rod. A 29 Model A on 32 frame with a 46 drivetrain, this hot rod was build in the mid 50's and sits today almost exactly the way it did then. This car is no enclosed trailer princess that sits in a museum, it is driven, and driven like it's stolen. Music by Pushrod www.pushrodengage.com This episode sponsored by www.straykatkustoms.com

Gene Weaver's 1954 Chevrolet Belair
Gene Weaver’s 54 Chevy, 95% owner built, and beautifully done.

Larry & Denise James' 1967 Cadillac Coupe Deville
Larry James’ 67 Caddy

Rob & Eillen Robinson1949 Plymouth
Rob Robinson’s 49 Plymouth, customized by Chaotic Customs

Ed Pogue1947 Ford Custom Coupe
A beautiful Kustom 47 Ford

Roger Jetter1955 Cadillac
Roger Jetter’s amazing 54 Cadillac

Camaro
Big Lip Camaro, always impresses

Doc Parsons1923 Ford Windster
Doc Parson’s 27 T, one of the koolest hot rods out there.

Roger Morrison1932 FordBerardini Brothers #404
Roger Morrison’s 32, The Berardini Brothers #404 (great story and video at that link)

The show is Jan. 18-20 at Century II in Wichita, KS  go to starbirddevlin.com for more info.

See you at a show,

Travis

2013 Starbird-Devlin Car Show for Charity: A Look Back Pt. 1

For the first time ever, my Galaxie will be entered into an indoor car show. Now to be clear, this car was never meant to be a show car, only a kool kustom that I occasionally show off at shows. This first indoor show will be the Starbird-Devlin show in Wichita, KS at Century II on Jan. 18-20th.

I’ve been attending the show here on and off since the early 80’s. Back then I remember very little about the show or the cars that I saw there. Mostly the memories are just of good times with my dad and sometimes Grandpa at the Starbird show. It was a big deal. Not even an all too present case of the chicken pox could keep me away, when my folks asked if I was well enough to go, I lied my ass off. I was going to the Starbird show.

Over the years that I’ve been attending with a camera in hand we’ve been privy to some pretty fantastic vehicles on display at the show.

2007

2009

2010
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Lil Coffin

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The Toad (see Issue #57 of Car Kulture Deluxe for a full feature on The Toad)

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The Trixie Tee

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Starbird’s Predicta BubbleTop

Part 2 will post tomorrow and will include 2011 and 2012 favorites.

Use the controls on the right to follow this blog and get updates whenever a new post is up.

Comment below on what your favorite ride featured here is.

See you at a show,

Travis

Best of 2012 Photobook?

Last year I produced a Best of 2011 PhotoBook of all of my favorite images of 2011. Starting with about 14,000 images they were narrowed down to about 1,000 and then about 800 made their way into the final book. There were 21 feature chapters in all, each with a few hundred words describing the chapter and lots of photos of each event featured.

Best of 2011 : Hardcover by Royboy Productions | All of Royboy’s Blurb Books

It is available as a hardcover, softcover and ebook if you’re interested in checking it out.

So the plan all along on this end was to do another for this year, however this time would be different, 100 or so photos on as many pages, each one with a sentence or two about it. More of a coffee table book.

So what say ye? Would that book be something you’d be interested in? Unfortunately these are a bit pricey compared to your normal Barnes & Noble type book, but they are made on demand specifically for you as you order.  For a HardCover with a Dust Jacket, they’ll run about $51 plus shipping, $41 for softcover and $9.99 for ebook version. Leave a comment here to let me know what you think.

See you at a show,

Travis

New Kustom Paint, Old Kustom Flavor

I’ve had my 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 since 2004. When she first entered my life she looked like a 70’s cruiser. Stock body, dark tinted windows (80’s probably), Cragar S/S wheels and some fairly large raised white letter tires.

Continue reading “New Kustom Paint, Old Kustom Flavor”

Royboy Production’s Future and a Thank You.

Hey folks,

It is my goal to continue to share the great people and cars of the Midwest with all of you around the world for years to come, so far for the last few years this has been a very expensive hobby. Thank you to those that buy hats, shirts, photos etc because you help to pay the bills for websites, cameras, gas, hotels, food, etc. to keep the machine rolling.

I do hope to someday make this a full time occupation since it is a passion that occupies so much of my mind so much of the time. I do not want to charge people to see the photos, but I am looking at ways to add sponsorship to the site to help pay the bills. The goal is to have royboyproductions.com a self sustaining entity by the end of 2013.

The future of the site as I see it today means more articles on show coverage, more feature videos, a series of videos on the construction of a kustom from barn find to boulevard beautiful. Stay tuned, buy some photos, a shirt, a hat or just tell your friends where to find a source for kool. royboyproductions.com

See you at a show,
Travis

Here’s a shot of my good friend Jeff Myers’ shop Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS. Jeff has just completed a kustom paint job on my 63 Ford Galaxie (you can see his Galaxie in the photo).

What’s coming up for January & February 2013

The schedule for 2013 is already filling up! This post will be a breakdown of some of the shows of the first few months, have a look at the info I provide, check out the photos from years past and pick a couple out to attend!

January

Jan. 18-20th
Wichita, KS Starbird-Devlin Charity Car Show “The Wichita Tradition”
See the 2012 photos here
Jack Marinelli's 29 Model A Roadster 


See the 2011 photos here
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For more info on the show go here: starbirddevlin.com

February

Feb. 8-10 
Kansas City, MO 53rd Annual O’Reilly Auto Parts World of Wheels
See the 2012 photos here:
1934 Plymouth Coupster

See the 2011 photos here:
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For more info on the show go here: Autorama.com

Feb. 15-17 
Tulsa, OK 49th Annual Starbird Exotic Car Show
See the 2012 photos here:
The Vibrasonic Roadster

See the 2011 photos here:

For more information on the show go here: darrylstarbird.com

Feb. 23-24
Park City, KS The Park City Chill
See the 2012 photos here:
 

See the 2011 photos here:

For more information on the show go here: bartelproductions.com/chill.html

That’s it for my schedule through the end of February. I’ll update you on March-April next month!

See you at a show,

Travis