A few months ago I was contacted by the promoter of the Hot Rod Holiday in Springfield, MO. He enticed me to come down and hang out for the weekend in Springfield for the show. I don’t like vending at shows most of the time because I don’t get to hang out and shoot the event because I’m sitting in my booth the whole time, but indoor shows offer me the ability to shoot the cars when nobody’s in the building and then spend the weekend in the booth. Since I have calendars to sell so that I can raise money for a great cause, this sounds like a great idea!
This week Royboy tells the tale of the Hobo Happening and the Rocky Mountain Auto Show before sitting down with Josh Welton of Brown Dog Welding to talk welding, art and more on Chrome Pipes And Pinstripes Episode 35!
I was surprised at how many of the cars were different from last year’s Rocky Mountain Auto Show. Yeah there were a lot that I’d seen before, but they did bring in a bunch of rides that were new to me and that’s always a good thing!
The Rocky Mountain Auto Show itself is one of the better indoor shows that I attend. Lots of great traditional rods and a few kustoms, plus a contingent of Salt Flats cars, some modern super car stuff and a bunch of great restored classics.
Thanksgiving weekend each year is the Creme De La Chrome, Rocky Mountain Auto Show at the Denver Convention Center. This was my 2nd trip up to the event. This time I decided against the leave at 7am drive 12 hours roundtrip and shoot a show in between in a single day routine. Instead I went up Friday to Fort Collins, CO to hang out with some friends from there. I went to Newstalgia Custom Paint for a shop visit and then we had some great food.
Welcome, again, to all our friends joining us at Travis’ GREAT Site !We’re going to have some real fun with this classic story from Bo Huff right now…check-out the Info below:
Besides the Mid Decembrrrr Run this is the last event for the year in this area. It’s always good to get together with my friends and rod/kustom family one last time at the Hobo Happening.
Last year the Hobo Happenings was cold, like 35 degrees and damp and windy cold. This year was damp but as the fog burned off the temps were rising up to the lower 60’s. Cars continued to roll in throughout the day up until I had to leave at 2pm.
Saturday started out a bit foggy. Actually at one point in the drive visibility was down to about an 1/8th mile. That did not stop folks from coming out to the Hobo Happening in Douglass, KS.
Back in 2010 I got the bright idea that I wanted to organize a fun run. The problem was I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes and schedule my event the same weekend as theirs, so when could I put it on? How about the middle of December??? After a phone call with Mickey from Stray Kat Kustoms I even had a cool name for the event and the Mid Decembrrrr Run was born!
This week Royboy heads out to western KS to Big Creek Restoration to talk with owner Mike Keller about hot rods, street rods, restorations and chasing your dreams. From a single toolbox in the back room of an old dealership to owning the entire building and national acclaim, Keller has had a heck of a ride so far, and tells the whole story on this week’s Chrome Pipes And Pinstripes.
On the show this week is Mike Keller from Big Creek Restoration in Ellis, KS
I’ve been to BCR 3 times now, the first time on the 2012 Mid Decembrrrr Run, then again this September for a shop visit and then this week. Mike has told me some great stories of going from a 1 man shop with 1 toolbox of tools up to winning national awards. It was very inspiring and I figured it was time to let you hear the stories too.
Here’s the 40 Chevy that we talk about in the show.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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PS: All Royboy photos on this site are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps! Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
It’s been awhile since I’ve done an Artist Feature on the site! It’s time to bring them back with my buddy Milo! Not only is Milo an amazing artist, but he also is cohost of two of the podcasts on Set To Stun Productions Network, Hack With Ambition on Wednesdays and Adult Supervision Required on Fridays.
After the stop at Big Creek Restoration, I headed east to Russell, KS for a stop at Auto Artistry. Owner Mike Schoech was there and showed me some of the projects in the shop. This ultra rare 2 door Falcon wagon is going to become his wife’s ride with a long list of customizations to come.
Back in September I stopped in to Big Creek Restoration in Ellis, KS to see what Mike Keller and company were up to. I figured they’d have something killer in the works and I was right. An incredible 34 was under construction, at the time a rolling chassis with a beautifully detailed Hemi between the rails. Now the body is back on and it’s looking really good!
The 2014 Pistons And Paint hit an official 517 cars but it sure felt like a lot more than that. The cars were packed in tight! Each trip to my home away from home (Texas) I meet more and more friends. Thanks to all of you for making it a great weekend!
This week Royboy goes solo! Not intentionally but hey when all else fails you’ll still get your show! Hear about the Pistons & Paint trip, the 2015 Calendars and more!
The Pistons And Paint layout was a bit different this year, and they had a few more food vendors, good since in 2013 the food vendors on site ran out of food early in the afternoon. The stage was in the front of the show with some vendors next to it, others, around the corner. There was a building for indoor vendors but nobody was set up inside.
Saturday morning for Pistons And Paint we met our group in the parking lot of the grocery store that neighbors the North Texas Fairgrounds so that we could roll in together and park together. That gave us a great view of some of the kool rides rolling in to the show.
To start my Pistons and Paint trip I took Friday afternoon off and headed south, it was a fairly uneventful trip. I decided that I wanted to get there as fast as possible so I’d just stay on the boring interstate, a route that is usually about a half hour quicker. Thanks to a traffic jam in Oklahoma City, it was a wash except for my elevated road rage. 🙂
For the 2nd year in a row I headed down to Texas for Pistons And Paint and had a great time! The show had a great turnout this year with weather that was chilly and windy at first but turned into a beautiful day.
In 2012 I received a call from my friend and mentor Doug Reed asking if I’d like to be a part of a display at the 2013 Starbird-Devlin show in Wichita. He was assembling some cars to be a part of a Kustom City display showing off kustoms to the folks that attend the show. For decades Wichita had a rich heritage of kustoms and in recent years the kustoms weren’t exactly featured at the show.
The Haines’ brought their roadster to the Stray Kat Feed, as in THE Roadster of Roadster Pilot, yeah that’s Roadster Pilot #1 and it gets driven everywhere in every weather.
