Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
The basement of the 2015 Detroit Autorama. Ahhhh the basement. While the upstairs had many incredible machines, the downstairs was really more of my thing. The traditional rods and customs were spread amongst the upstairs and the “Extreme” basement display, but more concentrated in the basement.
Continue reading “2015 Detroit Autorama Part 5: Coverage Brought To You By The Stray Kat 500”
This week Royboy travels to the Detroit Autorama. While there he interviews Todd Jones, Chad Lampert, Ed Tillrock, John Wells and Jeff Norwell while at the show, then records an unedited brain dump of the weekend while driving home.
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I have heard that this year the 2015 Detroit Autorama featured more traditionally styled hot rods and kustoms than years past. So I picked a good year to go! Personally that’s the style I like the best, because it will never again go out of style. Trends come and go in car building but when it comes back like the traditional style has, it’s here to stay. The next few years will probably see the traditional thing become less popular but it will never go away, and that’s fine by me. The photo above was one of the cooler displays of the upstairs when it comes to traditional styled hot rods.
Continue reading “2015 Detroit Autorama Part 4: Coverage Brought To You By The Stray Kat 500”
The main floor of the 2015 Detroit Autorama was bigger than any indoor show that I remember attending ever. The building was overflowing with kool. From slammed C10’s like the one above to Jeff Norwell’s perfect example of a 32 seen below, there was a little of something for everyone at the Autorama.
Continue reading “2015 Detroit Autorama Part 3: Coverage Brought To You By The Stray Kat 500”
2015 Detroit Autorama
I flew into Detroit Friday afternoon, quickly hooked up with a friend that gave me a ride to my hotel and about as quickly as humanly possible I made my way down to Cobo Center and met up with my buddy Chuck Leighton who was gracious enough to give me a weekend exhibitor’s pass to get me in to the show. Just another generous guy that I’ve been blessed to meet along my travels.
We started at what I’m going to call the West end of the building, the opposite end from the escalators that lead to the basement. The first floor of the building not only had the Great 8, but every other kind of car that you’d expect to see at an Autorama. In fact the first few rows of the show reminded me of the other Autorama events I’ve seen over the years. It wasn’t long before the Great 8 cars started to appear in my field of vision, plus incredible machinery by the likes of Jason Graham, Steve Cook (a Great 8 car) and so many more. This show was stepping up quickly as I walked the floor.
Continue reading “2015 Detroit Autorama Part 2: Coverage Brought To You By The Stray Kat 500”
2015 Detroit Autorama
For years I’ve wanted to go to the Detroit Autorama. It’s the biggest indoor show in the industry in terms of stature. The Ridler is given out here (although 2 years in a row I couldn’t disagree more with who it went to), and it’s the home of the big 3!
Detroit’s recent downturn has been talked about, yes the downtown area was a bit less populated than I expected for a city of this size but I can say this unequivocally, I loved my time in Detroit! The show was fantastic, I had more friends in the house than almost any other show I go to and the cars, well… just check out the rest of the photos to see.
Continue reading “2015 Detroit Autorama Part 1: Coverage Brought To You By The Stray Kat 500”
Awhile back I got an email from Christopher Stratman offering to help out with some coverage from the 2015 Milwaukee World of Wheels. Of course I’m always happy to show off another show in the midwest so I told him to shoot me some shots of the show and I’d gladly post them! I’m in Detroit for the Autorama this weekend, stay tuned tomorrow for photos from the Mama Tried bike show and then on Monday the Autorama coverage starts! All photos on this post by Christopher Stratman.
This week Royboy tells the tale of the Park City Chill, rants against photo theives and has a talk with pinup photographer Liz Huckleby of pinupbyliz.com
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Today’s the last day of posts for the 2015 Park City Chill coverage. I want to say a personal thanks to Soft Strip for sponsoring this coverage!
Today is more from the 3rd building of the show, still plenty of cool stuff to see, I hope you enjoy it!
More from the 3rd building of the Park City Chill. Tons of great cars on display in this building.
As you could see in the first post yesterday, the first building you come into is mostly bikes. I realize as I write this that we skipped a section, which must have been where my friends the McGregors had their bikes. Sorry guys! The 2nd building starts the 4 wheel display area. There seemed to be a lot of open space in the 2nd building but like I mentioned yesterday the weather could have been a determining factor to that.
The 3rd building had the majority of the 4 wheel vehicles. This is where you can see the rich drag racing heritage of the Wichita area on display. Enjoy!
I’ve been attending the Park City Chill in Park City (duh), KS for a few years now. For some reason the show keeps getting dealt a bad hand weather wise. The plan for the weekend was to hit the Chill on Friday night as snow was forecasted for the rest of the weekend. Weather permitting I would then head to Omaha for the World of Wheels on Saturday, the weather did not end up permitting.
Friday evening as we headed down to the show we hit light snow but it had been coming down all afternoon. The show attendance was pretty low for the time I was there on Friday night and I’m sure that had to do with the weather. The Chill isn’t just a hot rod and kustom car show, in fact it isn’t that type of show at all. The Chill is a bike and car show, and truck and whatever else you want bring with an engine in it show. So there was a lot to see and take in, let’s get on with the coverage!
I got to watch the man himself in action. While the Backyard Garage crew was sectioning a shoebox a few feet away, a few other guys including Darryl Starbird himself and grandson Dakota Wentz were chopping a 56 Lincoln. While I was talking with Dakota, Darryl came over and joined in on the fun with the chop.
This week on Chrome Pipes And Pinstripes Royboy takes his audio recorder on the road with him to Premier Body & Paint and Fast AL’s Upholstery then sits down with Mickey Bryan of Stray Kat Kustoms to talk about the Starbird Rod & Custom Show from Tulsa, OK.
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The crowd was great, the Fine Nine cars were great, I think the Next Generation Starbird Rod & Custom Show is headed in the right direction.
Here’s the winner of the 2015 Fine Nine Go For The Gold Award! An incredible kustom El Camino-Cadillac combo built by Keith Dean! More photos of it below in the blog post. Overall I think the show has taken a step in the right direction. I’m not the majority by far but I’d like to see even more kustoms and hot rods and less muscle cars, nothing against those kinds of cars but when the show has “rod & custom” in the name it’s not really a show I’d take a muscle car to. You wouldn’t take a Camaro to a the National Corvette Show would you? Eh, enough of my ranting. Make sure to give Jeff at Premier Body & Paint a call if you need some work done!
The show felt a little crowded this year, it may have been the bigger than normal crowd or it may have been with the grandstand set up on the east end of the upper floor the cars seemed a bit squished. Whatever the reason quarters seemed tight. There were a lot of the same cars that we see each year. Of course there was the Mustang club area where it seemed that each and every one had it’s hood up. Not really a photogenic look.
2015 marked the 51st Annual Starbird show in Tulsa, OK. This year’s show was the first of the “New Generation” show with Darryl stepping back as the head honcho and handing the reigns on to the next generation in his family. While I didn’t like going back to having racing and other motorsports downstairs, I understand that the bubble top display of 2014 was a one time thing. The attendance on Saturday when I was there was the biggest that I’ve seen at the show in years, I hope that’s a good sign for years to come.
Both in the episode and when it came time to post it, this week’s podcast has been full of technical difficulties. Sorry for the repost for the Royboy Productions subscribers!!!
This week Royboy tells the tale of the 2015 KC World of Wheels and talks with upholsterer Phil Cato.
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The display above had some of the koolest builds of the 2015 KC World Of Wheels. I’ve added a few pics below. REALLY cool projects, I kinda want one now!
The KC World of Wheels has, like I’ve mentioned, all kinds of cars. Certain parts of the show are definitely more my style than others. I’m including all of the other parts because I want to show off the entire show, something I don’t normally do. Lucky for me there were some awesome rides like the Henry J above!
Starting with the last post (Part 2 here) I was in the middle of the Los Punk Rods display area at the show. I’ve been friends with a bunch of the LPR folks for a few years now, this was my favorite display of theirs at this show that I can remember. Bikes, shoeboxes, vans, kustoms and hot rods, it was right up my alley.
2015 KC World of Wheels
I’ve been attending this show for a few years, and I’ve seen some changes in it. Not for the best in my opinion but we all know what opinions are like. I loved the south hall when it was ran by my friends from Los Punk Rods club. I hear that Jack Walker will not be doing the Cavalcade of Customs after this year, I sure hope they get someone like him that is a true kustom fan to run it. The show this year had a lot of street rod style builds and restomod type stuff which I appreciate but I’m just not as jazzed about like I am traditional styled hot rods and kustoms. Enjoy the pics.
First off thanks to RJay’s for sponsoring this week’s coverage of the 2015 KC World of Wheels show! Because of Cory at RJay’s I’m able to offset some of the big travel costs of the Detroit trip in a couple of weeks, I appreciate it!
The Kansas City World of Wheels show has something for everyone. The Cavalcade of Customs is my favorite area but I may be a bit biased. The Los Punk Rods area was also pretty cool with the guys showing off the variety of rides that the members have. Lowrider magazine even had a huge section this year. I’m not a huge lowrider fan but the craftsmanship that it take to build some of these cars is truly impressive. We start the coverage this week with the Cavalcade of Customs display put together by Jack Walker.