Soooo, I got a lot of photos of my lady friends on stage and a few more with them next to some cars. Who can blame me, really? They were nice enough to walk around with me after their performance and pose by some cars and I am not stupid, pretty girl + kool car = WIN!
The show started at 1pm after some morning weather, that may have scared some folks off, but the die hards still came and were rewarded with perfect fall weather. From the time I rolled in at 1pm until leaving at 8pm it was perfection. The stage for the bands, pinup contest and awards was setup under the Kellogg flyover, and surrounded by cars as I rolled in. Later cars filled the adjacent parking lot, there was room in those two areas for 30 or so more cars as things were set up, and room up the street for a ton more as the show grows.
This ride is a regular at cruise night up in Salina, there will be more info on it coming, stay tuned 🙂
Something about this ride I really dig, maybe it’s the attention getting paint, maybe it’s the pie cut slicks, maybe it’s a lot of stuff.
So much style in the Pontiacs
Simple recipe, and it works.
Ooops I thought I had another shot of this truck without people walking almost in front of it. That’s the risk I take when shooting from so far away at a car show.
Like I said yesterday, I see Jason and his truck everywhere and I cant stop taking photos of it.
Nice looking roadster.
Another simple recipe with great results.
I think I should shoot a feature on it, and get the skinny on all of the details for you, what do you think?
So much cleaner without the handles and the factory turn signals.
I’ve shot dozens of photos of Joe’s Caddy over the years. I shouldn’t love it so much but I do, and I don’t care who knows.
Matt’s roadster is just too kool.
Hey that’s not a traditional hot rod or kustom! Yeah… I know. It’s my site I make the rules.
Cassie’s 57
Oh sweet Nadine. For most of you, your ride wishes it had this many miles and was still kickin.
Chad Ward was busy painting off the tailgate of his ride.
My buddy Elvis’ Caddy, yes he knows his tire is going flat.
A couple of my favorite Dirty Martinis entertaining the crowd with song and dance.
That’s it for this post, more throughout the week or you can click here and see the entire gallery.
The Rumble (formerly Rumble in Delano) has been going on each year in Wichita for a few years now. This is the second year for the show’s new late September date and the first time for the show’s new location just south of the Go Away Garage in downtown Wichita. Those two changes can be tough for a show to survive, but from my experience Saturday I think the show came through fine.
I really dig the under Kellogg/US-54 location, it just has an interesting and kool look about it. Here’s my Galaxie when I rolled in. As always, to purchase any of these photos as a print, click on it and you’ll be taken to the gallery where you can pick size and paper style. Metallic is my favorite paper right now but they all have their own place to be used and the site will even tell you what each does best.
There were quite a few early arrivers like myself.
Doug’s Toad and McPhail’s 41 Buick at the registration booth.
A few of the pinstripers hung out at the Go Away Garage and had a panel jam.
The platform out side of the Go Away Garage made for a great place to watch the incoming rides.
Jason and his truck have been at a lot of the same shows as I have been lately, and I’m not complaining.
Jack and his 51 leading in a few friends from the Mulvane Marauders. The 51 and Joe’s 41 Ford Pickup behind it took home 4 combined awards. The awards were hand made and painted and some of the koolest I’ve seen all year so far. Congrats to Fast AL’s Upholstery on the Best Interior award on the 51.
The month of September has been a busy one. With an event every weekend and most of those weekends with multiple option of events to attend, it’s definitely been a good time. October is shaping up much the same way. I thought I’d give you a list of the events that I’m going to attend and some that I can’t, hopefully I will have friends turning in coverage from the ones that I cannot make so that you and I can enjoy the photos. Without further ado, here is the schedule.
One of my many talented friends doing upholstery for a living. Johnny is having an open house at his shop in Hutchinson, KS on Friday night before the big Saturday show in downtown Hutch.
Salina, KS – NOT A CAR SHOW – This one is not a car show, has nothing to do with cars, but is a mainstay on my schedule. I have worked as a stage hand and later as an assistant engineer for the BluesMasters at the Crossroads at Blue Heaven Studios since 2000. If you are a fan of blues music this is the place to be Friday and Saturday nights.
Oct. 26th
Sand Springs, OK – Hot Rod Garage is a well known high end hot rod and custom shop in the Tulsa area. The 26th is their open house and I’ve heard that there will be 12 front engine dragsters on display among a bunch of customer cars and more. Definitely looking forward to heading down to this event for the first time.
November
November will continue the busy schedule with an event every weekend, I may even do one on Thanksgiving weekend if I can make enough money to cover the gas to Denver and back after going to Oklahoma once and Texas twice!
This is an experiment. I’m looking for feedback on the idea. I just threw this together but if you like it, I could do them more often for some of the shows. Leave your feedback below.
Last week I introduced you all to my friend Jonnie King and his website. This week we’ve got audio for you from an interview that Jonnie did with Chuck Miller on his beautiful 32 Roadster, an 18 year project. Click here to go to the page to hear the whole interview.
Go spend some time on Jonnie’s site, you could easily spend a few hours just hanging out and listening to his interviews.
The beautiful blue Kansas sky and the big trees of Forest Park combined to make lots and lots of harsh shadows. If I had more time at the show I would have used an off camera flash to fill in a bit, but I had 3 hours to cover a park with about 2000 cars in it… So yeah I didn’t do that 🙂
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Sooooo Nice
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I stopped in to see the guys from Affordable Street Rods, this beautiful roadster is theirs and is just plain awesome.
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I love the stance of this shoebox. If any of you know the owner I’d like to find out how this stance was achieved. I have 3″ drop springs for the front of mine and 3″ drop springs for the rear, but I’m sure I need to get down farther than that.
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I see the Spiwak’s about everywhere I go and it’s never a bad thing.
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A touch too much.
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I’m not normally a Camaro guy but this one was very nice.
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I’ve always liked this 40
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Fresh back from the Hot Rod Hill Climb
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Nice scallops
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That’s a heck of a stretch job!
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My favorite ride of the show. This is a true survivor hot rod that was a dirt track racer before it was turned into this show rod in the 60’s
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It’s neighbor wasn’t too shabby either!
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Look at all of those identical hoods open. You can bet your behind I walked right by that whole area. Who needs to stop and look at 6 identical cars except for their paint colors?
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Bryce, lookie here my friend.
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You cannot go wrong with a Rivi
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A very nice Anglia
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Gentry’s GMC Cabover is evolving every time I see it. I’m not sure it could lay out last time I saw it.
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That’s it folks, that’s what I saw in my whirlwind 2013 Ol Marais River Run trip. I only had time for 1 pass around the park, so if I missed your ride, I apologize.
One of my favorite’s from the Greaserama was also in Ottawa.
Beautiful truck, the suicide hood being open is less visually offensive than if it was a regular style.
My dad’s 59 Thunderbird and our extended “family’s” cars behind it.
Frank’s beautiful 56 Chevy took home an award for best Home Built I believe. Congrats Frank! I know you’ve put a lot of time and effort into your ride!
Rick’s 57 has every option that you might want for a kool road trip cruiser and will look good while doing it.
Roger Ward’s car has looked this good for a long long time and gets driven.
Finally a good weekend weather wise for this show, and it was obvious that the rain of the previous couple of years was the culprit keeping the show from exploding. By all accounts of those that I talked to this was the biggest one yet. I was able to stop in for a few hours and make 1 pass around the park before heading off to Fast A.L.’s Upholstery Open House that I featured yesterday.
My friend’s beautiful 39.
Neal’s Canopy Express GMC
Former dirt track racer, turned 60’s show rod. Good to see it driving!
Ugh why do you leave the hood and trunk open? IT RUINS THE LINES OF THE CARS. Shut them down unless you have something truly unique under the hood.
Saturday Sept. 21, 2013 was Fast A.L.’s Upholstery Open House. 1 year before Aaron Lawrence (A.L.) had left his previous position with a high end hot rod shop to run his own upholstery venture full time. This open house is a big milestone for Lawrence, as a year’s worth of kool cars have rolled through his doors and the projects keep booking him out in the future. Do good work at a reasonable price and people will tell their friends, it’s one of the best free advertising principles out there and it works.
Congrats on 1 year Aaron, and all my best for another great year!
From the coverage I’ve seen, I really messed up not going to the Hot Rod Hill Climb. Looks like a really kool event! The rains and devastating flooding on the eastern side of the Rockies could not keep the folks from getting up to Georgetown, CO for the event on Sept. 14th. This was the 60th Anniversary of the 1953 Hot Rod Hill Climb and from the looks of it, it was awesome!
It’s hard for me to come up with something to say about this car and it’s owner, Doug Reed. Doug has become a great friend and mentor of mine over the last few years. He’s been covering the hot rod/kustom scene in this area for over 3 decades, doing his part to get publicity for the talented builders and dedicated car owners of the region, just as I am attempting to do now. No words that I come up with express how much I dig this car and the man that owns it.
I’m slowly working through some of the photos to do a bit more editing and I thought I’d share those with you here in this extra post. From time to time I’ll be adding in these 3pm posts in addition to the 9am regular posts, so stay tuned! Subscribe using the box on the right side of the page here so you don’t miss any of the coverage.
While not an artist per se, Jonnie King is the focus of today’s post. If you’ve never been to his site, “Legends Of The Rod & Custom Hall of Fame” then you’re missing out! Jonnie interviews many of the koolest kustom folks and posts the interviews on the site. A few years ago we crossed paths and I’m not sure how we even met but I’m glad that we did! If you don’t know who Jonnie is, here is his site.
One of the newest updates on the site is an interview with Gene Winfield talking about his 2013 777 Award winning clone of his famous Pacifica Econoline Ford Pickup. The original build was done in 1962, and the clone is visually just about the same as the original, but underneath the truck is much more modern. Click here to open that page, the audio will begin automatically.
I’m hoping to talk Jonnie into doing a blog post here for you whenever he has new audio articles up, at the very least, I will do a post like this one and give you links to the good stuff!
See you at a show,
Royboy
What is your favorite Gene Winfield build? Comment below!
Sunday morning I was talking with a friend of mine on facebook and he mentioned that he was about to head out to a show just 40 miles down the road from me. I didn’t feel like sitting home all day so I hopped in the car and headed south to Hesston, KS (about 30 miles north of Wichita). What I found was a nice small town show covering some of the downtown area of Hesston featuring cars of all types from all over the region.
You don’t see a Pantera all that often.
I have another shot or two of this, I’ll save for later though 🙂
It’s no secret that I get to a lot of events across the midwest. I certainly have my favorites, this is a partial list of the shows I like, with a link to the show’s official website if possible and some of my show coverage where I can. My philosophy is different than many, I don’t think that a huge car count is always a good thing. My favorite experiences at shows have all been when the car counts were less than 250. I don’t have anything against the bigger shows, I’ve had great times at them as well but the very best experiences were these select smaller ones.
Texas Thaw – 1st Weekend of March – Denton, TX
Texas Thaw – Vintage Drag Racing and car show, all the proceeds go to a great cause. What better way to kick off March but to head to North Texas for some drag racing?
Lonestar Roundup – 1st weekend of April – Austin, TX
Lonestar Roundup – This is one of the bigger shows on the list. 2013 saw a reported 1700 vehicles, I’d say 75% were traditional hot rods and kustoms of many different flavors. Add to that a great garage crawl on Friday morning, and Austin’s fantastic food and music. It’s hard to go wrong with the Lonestar Roundup in your travel plans. Here’s the gallery and here is Part 1 of the coverage on the blog.
Stray Kat 500 – 1st full weekend of May – Dewey, OK
Stray Kat 500 – Full Disclosure, this is the flagship Stray Kat Kustoms event and I am very blessed to be a member of the Stray Kat Kustoms Family.
H.A.M.B. Drags – 3rd weekend of August – MO-KAN Dragway
H.A.M.B Drags – I’ve been attending the H.A.M.B. Drags for a few years, and I’ve never had a bad time. I’ve nearly had heat stroke but never a bad time.
Starliner – Much like the Stray Kat 500 this one is easily amongst my very favorite shows. The people, the brotherhood, the planes, the Garage Krawl, there is just no end to what’s to love about this show.
Iron Invasion – 2nd weekend of Oct. – Woodstock, IL
Iron Invasion – 2012 was the first year of the 2nd show that Vintage Torque puts on. It was a long drive, it was cold and about 750 cars showed up, it was a blast.
PUT THESE SHOWS ON YOUR SCHEDULE! If you’re into traditional hot rods and kustoms these are shows that you need to be attending in the Midwest. There are some more that I hope to be attending in the next couple of years and we’ll add to this list.
These shows are ones that I have attended multiple times and I’ve enjoyed myself every time. There are another 10 or so that could be on this list but this is MY absolute favorite list, these are the ones that I have had the best times at. Your mileage may vary.
Just under a month away from the Iron Invasion! Oct. 12th in Woodstock, IL will be the 2nd Iron Invasion show, the first was a really good time, the 2nd should be even better!
Okay so we’re a couple of days short of a month, oh well. Still plenty of time to get ready. The plan for the weekend of October 12th was supposed to be my 2nd trip up to Woodstock, IL for the 2nd Annual Iron Invasion. My plans have changed though. I still think that Iron Invasion is an amazing show and I’d love to be there, but I had an offer that I didn’t want to pass up.
That show is the Old Geezers Car Show in Lamar, MO. I’ve been told that the show will be about 100 cars parked around an old town square. Most of them will be kool old school kustom style, right up my alley. So I’m headed to Lamar, MO to hang with the Kustom family.
The family that hangs out at the cars show together…is kool.
Mickey’s Merc
15 shot HDR Panoramic of the show
One of the stars of the show. Micheal’s newly finished 34 5 Window Ford, done in an East Coast style. The 59 Olds steering wheel is the only part on the car newer than 53.
I love it!
Lonely Knights
Larry Wolfe recently brought this late 60’s Dave Stuckey creation back home to Wichita. Plans are to return it to it’s 1967 state. Back in the day Stuckey used this wild sectioned 1965 Pontiac Catalina to tow his Top Fuel Drag car. I reallly wish I could have been around to see that rolling down the road.
Clean.
The good tunes all day were provided by my buddy Everett.
Some of my favorite cars all in the same shot.
I love it Neal! Thanks for bringing it out!
Dad’s 59 Thunderbird and Ron’s Chevy Truck
Voodoo Jim’s Corn Cobb Coupe
Doc Parsons’ T is purrrrfect.
Yeah yeah yeah it’s for your wife, we know we know.
The Lonely Knights’ Big Rich awarding Mickey with their award.
Mickey and one of Wichita’s Godfathers of kool, Johnny Hammann
For Part 4 we’re still at the show, and we start with Aaron of Fast A.L.’s Upholstery’s Ford and Mickey’s (StrayKatKustoms’) 60 Chevrolet flattop with 60 Merc Grille and Pontiac taillights.
Joe brought this beauty out for us all to drool over.
I caught Jack unloading some chairs out of the trunk of his new 51 Ford. Body, Paint and a bunch more stuff by Chaotic Customs.
One of my favorite new rides of 2013 is Butch’s 40 Sedan.
It still rocks a straight 6 but Steve’s 58 Ford moves on down the road and looks good doing it.
All the way from Omaha, NE to Wichita to hang with us. Thanks for coming down!
The Merc grille looks good with the 51 Ford turn signal housings.
If you don’t know Gears and Gals Magazine, you need to go to their site and order an issue. You should then buy a subscription.
Good to see you again my friend, 2 weeks in a row even!
Mickey’s Merc always looks good at the Starliner.
Joe’s Caddy is a ton of fun, maybe 2 tons looking at her…
Don’s Buick is probably one of the finest anywhere.
Some of my favorite Kansas City area folks.
Jeff and Verna brought this killer Plymouth hot rod up from Texas. I am planning on shooting this car this fall. If no magazines bite on the article, I’ll post it here for all of you to see.
One of the koolest places ever to hold a car show, even though this year it was quite hot.
Another shot of Steve’s chopped 40 Ford. Again, 300,000 miles on it and he’s owned it since 1969.
Friends and family.
I’ve seen this truck in Austin and a bunch of other places, I dig it every time.
Normally not my style but the nose art on the truck matches in with the location.
The McGregors, an American Car Family.
Hub and Gloria’s “Cinnamon” is my favorite kustom ever. It’s been together since the late 80’s. It’s been in magazines before but would you like to see a full feature on it here?
McGregor cars.
U.S. Mule even came out to play.
Jeff Myers of Premier Body & Paint brought out the 59 El Camino, Johnny Torres brought out his 41 Plymouth, and you can’t see it here, but Jim Allen brought out his “Corn Cobb Coupe”
Roy brought out this beautiful shoebox. The flathead is one of the cleanest ever.
The 2nd stop on the Garage Krawl for our group was my friend Roger’s house. Due to it being a private property I will not mention his last name or where it is. Roger has a fantastic collection of Fords mostly 40’s of various types and a couple of Falcons and more, but his automobilia collection is equally as impressive.
Great old signs
Extra parts
Some grilles in the background behind this great plane
Dashes, grilles, and beauty rings
So the power company puts in an ugly power station behind your house and keeps building it bigger… well you’d better find a cool way to hide it from your view. This works
Everyone’s backyard should be so kool.
More yard art, some of it I might have a need for, I may have to come back and make an offer…
The chain was just laying there, but I couldn’t help shooting a pic of the cool wheel and tire.
pretty kool mag.
One wall of the garage featured license plates staring in 1913 I believe, and sequentially going up from there.
Another wall featured only 1940 Kansas plates, from 99 of the 105 Kansas counties, that’s an impressive collection.
Some great car club plaques.
Great taillight lens display
What to do with your extra plates? Why not make an American Flag? 🙂
Then it was off to Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS for a shop visit and some lunch. Giant hot dogs, soda, chips and some homemade cookies really hit the spot. Here’s Mike Young’s 40 Ford pickup which is being built for SEMA this year.
Some of the projects under construction at Chaotic.
Then it was off to my buddy Jack’s place for a visit. Here’s a lineup of Jack’s rides. He has a 30 year head start on me but I hope to catch up one day.
Then it was off to Big Joe’s for an air conditioned shop visit (it was a hot one that day!) Here’s a “gas station” that Joe built to hold his compressor and welders and such when not in use.
Some of the art inside the main shop building.
Then I hopped in my buddy’s Galaxie for a ride to Rocky’s shop, we had a good line of 10 or so rides on the way there.
Rocky has a pretty kool collection of Wichita area club plaques too.
and the best chandelier around.
Then it was back to the hotel for some fajitas courtesy of the Lonely Knights. Thanks for the good eats folks!
The 100 or so people in the parking lot stayed out and socialized until around midnight. So many good friends that are all really more like family than friends. This is a big reason why this show is one of my favorites of the year.
As I did last year, I got to the Host Hotel on Thursday evening about 7pm so that I could wake up ready to go on the Garage Krawl on Friday morning. After dinner with some friends I shot some night shots in the parking lot.
One of my favorite Mercs around.
Mickey’s Merc
Love that hood ornament
More of our friends from the Lonely Knights in Colorado