I’ve known for awhile that the transmission cross-member that was in my 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 was hanging too low. It was dragging too much and on big bumps on the highway it would slam the pavement, no bueno. So when I was talking to my buddy Ryno at Ryno Built about it he said to come down to his shop in the Joplin area and he’d get a new one fabbed up.
When we got the car up on the lift it was obvious that things were more dire than I thought. The existing cross-member had completely broken into two pieces. One more big bump could have lost it completely, that could lead to any manner of catastrophic consequences. I’ve seen driveshafts come out and nearly slam into the car I was in behind the drive shaft’s prior vehicle. A couple of inches difference and that drive shaft would have come through the windshield. I cannot imagine if my car broke and caused something like that to happen. Best case scenario the failure would leave me stranded on the side of the road, worst case scenario could be deadly. Just another note to encourage you to make sure your ride is mechanically sound not just for your safety but for the safety of those around you.
Here’s what we found when we got the car up on the lift. one side of the transmission cross-member had completely broken. 10 ga. welded to ½” plate and 0 penetration on the welds. That’s not rust on the floor pan that’s trans fluid. Another issue I have to fix.Lucky for me I didn’t take one more trip with the car the way it was. 1 side of the existing transmission cross-member was completely separated.Ryno plasma cutting the existing transmission cross-member off of the frame. The AOD is much longer than the Cruis-o-matic so using the factory frame mounts would have made the mount larger and harder to build.Ryno getting rid of the remnants of the old cross-member.
Then it was time to grind off the remainder of the old mount.
Not quite done getting rid of the old one, almost done.Ryno cutting some tubing that we thought we needed before a later re-design when I changed my mind.Welding in the new cross-member.At each end of the cross-member Ryno added 3/16″ plate gussets under the cross-member. Here he’s adding some holes at my request to make it look cooler.Before a coat of paint you can see the driver’s side of the mount. The parking brake cable is attached to a tab that we added. We used a rectangle tubing to provide as much clearance under the cross-member as possible. There is room for a 2 ½” Dia. exhaust pipe to fit and still not hang below the frame.The passenger side is pretty much the same without the parking brake cable mount. Here you can see the factory mount waaaay up forward on the frame.The fluid everywhere is killing me, I have to figure out the leak and clean up the mess. Here’s the new cross-member and the new mount that we installed. The existing exhaust needs replaced soon so buy some photos so I can afford it!
If you need custom fabrication done for your ride, get ahold of Ryno Built and he can get your car on the road again!
This week was mostly about the Starbird-Devlin show in Wichita, KS and included the biggest traffic day that this site has ever had. Pretty good week all in all.
As I type this, it’s 10:45 on Thursday night, less than 12 hours until this post goes live. About 8 hours until I have to be at my day job… and I as started this post I honestly had no idea what I should write. Today, Thursday Jan. 23, 2014 is the largest traffic day that this blog has ever had. After a slow winter where I struggled to find you good fresh content, finally I got to get out to my first show of 2014 and I can see that you appreciate the fresh content. Over 700 views today with a previous record of 560 for the blog, what did I do to deserve that? Thanks folks, when I see that you dig what I’m doing enough to check it out that much, it’s all worth it.
The Future
Here we are at the end of January, before I know it I’ll be up to my eyeballs in car shows and I won’t remember how boring this winter was. February has 3 events that I’m planning on attending, should be putting about 1100 miles on the car. I am hoping to spend an afternoon with a family I know in Wichita that is full of gearheads with a killer collection of rides. The following weekend the plan is to head down and check out the Model A Club Swap Meet. I typically don’t buy much but there’s always that one thing that you see someone else got that you need and had the cash for. So I go… and I never seem to find it in time.
After that it’s a big windshield time weekend. First heading to Bartle Hall in KC to cover the World of Wheels Autorama for you. Later that afternoon I make the trip from KC to Tulsa to an old buddy’s spare room. Sunday early I’ll head to the Quiktrip Center and the Darryl Starbird Car Show. This is the 50th edition of the show and it promises to be a good one. Finally we have a weekend where I don’t have anything planned…yet. Either it will get filled with a couple of shop visits or shooting some features, either way the weekend will be used to create some fresh content for you folks to enjoy.
For the month of March I should be at about 1400 miles, it adds up quickly! Magazine articles can help offset the travel costs but those don’t pay until month and months later, if at all. Another way to offset that is for get paid by you folks to shoot your rides when I’m on the road. If you have a car that you’d like me to shoot, let me know here and we’ll figure out a time and place, I’m very affordable. 🙂
The first weekend of March I’ll be off for another double header weekend. First up will be the Texas Thaw drags and car show held at the Northstar Dragway in Denton, TX. That evening I’ll make my way up to Wichita to catch a hotel for the night. Sunday morning will be off to the Chill in Park City before returning home to edit photos and get them up on the site. Then there’s an open weekend that I hope to head to KC and catch up with some friends and shoot their shop and hopefully feature a couple of their cars.
After that it’s off to Texas again for the Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. A 12 hour drive for a 5 or 6 hour stay at the show. Hopefully I find something that I can shoot a feature on for the site while I’m there. The two following weeks are open as of now but I will be looking for cars to shoot those weekends. That’s a basic rundown of what’s going on between now and when I leave for the Lonestar Roundup at the begin of April.
Why?
Why the hell do I do this? After putting in more than 50 hours a week at a day job why do I spend all of my extra money traveling all over the midwest to shoot car show coverage, edit it, pay to host it online and then just give it all away to you for free? I’m nuts. Well that’s what most think. I’m hoping that I can create enough kool content to keep you coming back every day, and maybe kool enough that you’ll share it with your friends and they’ll come check it out too. If we get enough viewers here then maybe the future sponsors can cover all of that gas money, all of the hotel money, all of the show entry fees, all of the website costs. That would be a dream come true. Well, that would be partly a dream come true.
The real dream, the one that haunts me at my day job, the one that keeps me from concentrating on much of anything else is doing this full time. Selling my house and everything that won’t fit in an RV which is big enough to pull my Galaxie in a trailer. Spending each week traveling from one show to the next, stopping at pro and private shops along the way, shooting shop visits, tech articles, and features as much as possible to keep you folks full up on the best content possible. Maybe I am nuts. Or maybe that’s how this thing goes to the next level.
It’s going to be a busy couple of months but when you folks pull me aside to tell me thanks for all of the effort, it’s worth it. When I see a Royboy hat or beanie or shirt from across a show, and I have no idea who it is that’s wearing it. It’s worth it. When someone attends a show for the first time or gets their car done so they can get to a certain show that I’ve featured and they tell me that it’s my coverage that made them do it. It’s worth it.
For those that saw me at the Starbird-Devlin show that I’ve been covering all week long and wanted to know where to get one of my Model A Hot Rod Stencil Shirts I put up a new page here for you to order them. There are a few sizes in stock now from my last order, for those that are not in stock put your order in now to get one. I can’t afford to have a bunch printed and just sit in my trunk for 8 months so if you want one, you’d better get one ordered.
Stay tuned next week for some news on the Royboy New Blood Award that I’ll be giving away at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular this summer.
For those that don’t know you can catch all kinda good links from my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and a bunch of kool stuff on Tumblr and Instagram.
John recently got this bad ride back in his collection. I could tell how proud he was to have it back. I hope to do a feature on his collection soon.Here are John’s 2 entries in the show. I can’t decide which I’d rather drive, but my heart says take the yellow one. I know it has a big block 🙂Alongside John’s cars is Butch’s 56. This car has been all over the last few years and Butch has sure done his best to find all of her weak links.Mike’s Front Engine DragsterI need to catch up with the owner of this car. It’s damn cool!One of a few highly finished Camaros at the show.There have been a few new to me orange hot rods around lately. I wouldn’t have thought it was a great idea but it works! Another great looking ride that needs a feature on this site!Just pure beauty.A couple more photos of Floyd’s killer Edsel Wagon.Stray Kat Proud. Ron Myers pinstriping on Floyd’s Wagon’s surfboard.More Ron Myers pinstriping in the door jambs and some of Aaron’s work from Fast AL’s Upholstery.Hot Rod Garage’s build of this 57 Chevy took home the Magnificent 7 Award at the end of the weekend.Not much I can say about this gorgeous drop top. It’s pretty damn nice.Another shot of Troy Pate’s killer new rod.One of Norm Grabowski’s unique shift knobs in Troy’s display.Eugene Vik brought his kustom shoebox down from Minnesota to show off for us.Another shot of Eugene’s shoebox.Tammy Titus’ beautiful VetteTammy Titus’ beautiful VettePrimary Club members rides. The McGregors have a lot of kool in their garages.Jeb McGregor’s coupe 38DD. This rod is all about attitude, Jeb said he might be re-doing it soon as more of a 50’s style hot rod. so I’m paying attention to see what he’s up to.Matt Smith’s kool pickup will be in front of my lens again soon… 🙂Joe McGregor’s Caddy has been one that’s caught my eye for a few year years now. Most times when this car is on the road on the way to a show, it’s usually full of people. Fill it up with folks and fuel and go enjoy a car show weekend.This pickup started life as a sedan.One of the smoothest shoeboxes around.Chaotic Customs has a big crew and the girls decided that they needed their own kool ride to take to the shows. So this Thunderbird was built, kustom paint, flame throwers, and some kustom body mods make this Chaotic ride stand out.Some great panels in the Chaotic Customs display.
I was wearing one of my Model A Hot Rod Stencil T-Shirts this weekend and had a ton of people ask me where they could get one. Here you go! I have a few in stock now and I’m taking pre-orders for the next batch. The long and the short of it is that I can’t spend my cash buying these shirts to have them sit in stock, that cash has to go into the traveling account to get me on the road to a few more shows. If you want one, get one ordered! Every shirt you pre-order will allow me to get down the road farther on the way to the next show! Click here to go to the order page.
Goren’s 48 Merc. He took home a couple of awards on Sunday.Micheal’s Coupe was also an award winner.Micheal’s ride as with anything that he owns is all about the details. He was one of the founding members of the legendary Fundamentals club.Corey Conyers made it a point to bring me over to see this beauty that he’s been working on. I hope to be able to shoot it soon.Another shot of Corey’s latest creation.
There will be some duplicate cars here as I made multiple laps around the show with different lenses at different times.
Mike’s Front Engine Dragster, I’m looking forward to getting some shots of it running this year.Mike’s Camaro is an interesting mix of old and new.Sweet El Camino!A pair of highboys.Variations on the highboy theme.One of the Magnificent 7 Finalists5 window 34Interesting tail light treatment with the 54 Chevy tail lights canted at an angle.Don’s Big Beautiful Buick. I hope to be be able to shoot it for a feature soon.
My friend and mentor Doug Reed’s 49 Oldsmobile The Toad.Hub and Gloria Harness’ beautiful 1960 Olds Invicta named “Cinnamon” One of my favorite kustoms.Hub and Gloria Harness’ beautiful 1960 Olds Invicta named “Cinnamon” One of my favorite kustoms.Hub and Gloria Harness’ beautiful 1960 Olds Invicta named “Cinnamon” One of my favorite kustoms.Rocky Burris’ Wild Winged Kustom TruckJack’s 51 Ford KustomThe Cook’s kool mild kustom Chevy.Johnny Hammann’s 58 Chevy has been pretty much unchanged since January 1976.Larry James’ awesome Caddy. I have shot this for a feature, hopefully soon we can get together and get the story written so I can share it with all of you.
There are only 6 Trucks Edition 2014 Calendar for Charity left! Get one now before they’re gone!
Sunday morning I woke up and went back into the show just as the gates had opened to try to get you some photos of the show without as many spectators in the background.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
There are only 6 Trucks Edition 2014 Calendar for Charity left! Get one now before they’re gone!
2014 is the 3rd year of the new ownership/management of this show and it seems to be getting better and better. The contenders for the Magnificent 7 were amongst the best the show has ever had. Late in the evening I finally started shooting some photos, some of which you saw yesterday, here are some more…
I love Joe’s Caddy.It’s not the traditional style that I enjoy but there’s a certain something that it has that just makes me smile.Matt’s pickup was swamped with people all weekend.Clean.Gotta love a Rivi.
———————————————————————————————————————————————–
There are only 6 Trucks Edition 2014 Calendar for Charity left! Get one now before they’re gone!
Saturday of the 2014 Starbird-Devlin show was packed. Packed with cars, packed with spectators, packed with friends. Most of my day was spent hanging out with friends and family. I kept waiting for the crowds to die down so the photos would look better, plainly said, it never happened.
Enjoy the photos 🙂
The kids area was so over packed with awesome. I just hope that all of this encourages some of these youngsters to be car folk. 🙂
As this is posted I’m finishing up my 3 hour stint a the day job on Saturday morning. From here I catch a ride with my Dad and my 3 & 5 year old nephews down to Wichita’s Century II where the Starbird-Devlin show is in full swing. The boys and I will check the show out today then they will come home and then my cameras will come out and I’ll get you some photos of the show. Look for those photos to start showing up here tomorrow Sunday the 19th. Here’s what I posted this week so far:
I’m excited to finally get the 2014 car show season underway! Next weekend I’ll be heading to Ryno Built’s shop to check in on a Merc project that he’s building for a buddy of mine. While we’re there we’ll also build a new transmission crossmember for my Galaxie so that the car can be dropped a couple more inches. So look for a tech article on that, plus the shop visit post from Ryno’s place. From there I’m hoping to hit 2 shops on the way home, 1 private where they’re doing a big time chop and another a pro upholstery shop. Stay tuned for those visits as well. The goal for 2014 is to start doing a lot more car features, more videos, and more of the same coverage that has been viewed over 11.5 million times so far. Buckle up, it’s bound to be a heck of a ride!
For the 2nd year in a row I’ve been asked by my friend and mentor Doug Reed to include my car in the Kustom City display in the Starbird-Devlin Car Show held in Wichita’s Century II Convention Center. To me, it’s an honor. I get to display my car along side some of my favorite kustoms and hang out with some of my favorite people. Today was the move-in for our group, so early this morning I fired up my Galaxie and made the 80 mile drive down to Century II. An early morning drive with some great tunes in my favorite car is an amazing thing for my attitude.
As soon as I pulled in I was greeted by one of my friends from the Kustom City display, I was waved into the building and directed to my parking spot with a bunch of rides that far outclass mine. As last year, some of the cars in the display are immortalized on Dennis McPhail’s Kustom City poster, it’s a real big deal to me to even be in the same display as all of these cars.
After getting the cars into position I spent about an hour hand wiping down the car. In my haste to get to the show and see my kustom family I forgot to stop and hit the car wash. Thankfully I had a fresh bottle of Meguiar’s Quik Detailer in the trunk, I cleaned every damn surface of the exterior with the stuff. 🙂 Then it was off to walk around the show a bit and see who else was already set up or in the process.
Out for a morning drive in my Galaxie 500 with my bug collection.
Here are some of the photos I took while walking around.
Floyd\’s 58 Edsel Wagon kustom. The car features a bunch of great pinstriping and a full kustom interior by Fast AL’s Upholstery amongst more kool touches.
Floyd’s Edsel Wagon. We talked today about me shooting a feature on it for a magazine, I can’t wait!
I keep running into this beautiful Mercury from Nebraska, and I’m not mad about that.Troy Pate’s newly finished hot rod. It was his uncle’s street beast back in the old days and was finished just before the show. I REALLY want a ride 🙂
Michael Behrendt’s 34 Ford Coupe. The car was given to him years ago on the condition that he someday build the car. Nothing on the car is newer than 53 except the 59 Olds steering wheel. The east coast channeling lends to the car’s Norm Grabowski’s Kookie Car-esque profile. I’ve been given a ride in the car and it was a blast!Goren brought this beautiful 48 Merc up from Texas.Chaotic Customs has their normal huge display full of just about everything you need for you hot rod or kustom. The new sign is kool too.Devlin Hot Rods shop is just up the street from Century II and they had some very nice rides in their display. There’s a giant glass wall behind that curtain so look for more photos of these rides later, I’ll shoot them when the sun goes down tomorrow.These are the cars parked in front of me in the Kustom City display. Johnny Hammann’s 58 Chevy (as it was built in 76), Terry Cook’s Chevy, and Jack’s 51 Ford.Looking back down Kustom City. We have 10 cars this year in the display, I’ve been asked to help round up cars for next year and I’m an ambitious fella. Let’s shoot for 20 cars for 2015. If you have a kustom and want to hang out with some awesome people, send me a message here.Hub and Gloria Harness’ beautiful “Cinnamon” One of my favorite kustoms on the planet. They have been so amazingly supportive over the last few years and I’m lucky and honored to know them.
The middle of March usually is a slow time for car shows in Kansas, so I had South to Fort Worth Texas to the Texas motor Speedway for the Good Guys Spring Lonestar Nationals.
You can see the photos from my 2013 trip if you click here..
The 2nd show on the weekend of Feb 14-16 is the Darryl Starbird show in Tulsa Oklahoma’s Quiktrip Center. For more info on the show go to Starbird’s site here.
Be sure to keep an eye on the center isle of the building for the Fine Nine award participants and see if you can guess who’s taking home the Go For The Gold award and it’s huge cash prize.
This year there are 2 major indoor car shows on the same weekend of Feb. 14-15. The first one that I will hit is the KC World of Wheels held at Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City.
Here are some photos from last year’s show:
I hope to see a bunch of my KC area rod/kustom family out at the KC Autorama!
Finally Episode 3 is ready! Changing up the format a bit for this one, I stripped away the intro and just left the feature. Way back in 2012 I shot this video at RynoBuilt’s shop in SW Missouri. Since then the truck was finished, we shot it for a magazine and it was featured as the February 2014 cover on Classic Trucks Magazine (order a copy here).
Thanks Ryno for letting me shoot the truck for the magazine and for this video! Everyone go follow Ryno on Facebook to keep up to date on what he’s working on.
Often when you find a great looking ride on the streets or at a car show, you find that the owner is typically a bit older and has had decades worth of rides to practice on before getting to this great one. It’s rare to find a young owner with a great car, and to find one that’s 22 and built it himself almost never happens. So when I first saw Austin Grabowski roll into the Starliner car show at Wichita’s Kansas Aviation Museum, I admit it, I assumed it was a car that had been passed down to him. That first impression was dead wrong.
Awhile back I started running these Artist Feature pieces. I’ve been blessed to find and befriend some amazing artists over the last few years and this seemed the best way to introduce all of you out there to these amazing artists. A couple of years ago John Wells of Vintage Torque asked me to work with Keven Carter of Car-N-Art so that he could create the cover of Vintage Torque’s KKOA Leadsled Spectacular DVD. Since then I’ve been enjoying watching Keven’s work get bigger and bigger. Last year’s Kid Rock Rebel Soul tour featured a bunch of Keven’s art on shirts and as the backdrop for the stage. Very kool stuff! Without any further ado, here’s an Artist Feature on Keven Carter.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
Do you remember an “ah-ha” moment that made you know that art was going to be an integral part of your life?
When I was about 11 or 12 years old I remember being over at a friends house and his father, who was sort of a dry fellow and not around very often, spoke up to us about his job as an engineer. His words to me at the time seemed prolific in my life, though probably advice many of us hear from time to time: “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I know this helped me realize that I didn’t just want to finish school and grab a job without some sort of passion about it just to make a buck. Though I have a lot of interests in topics all over the board, I think what I currently do probably wrangles most of those things into one category.
As far as any singular moment, I’d say that probably tops my list. Certainly I was given a lot of encouragement from my family and teachers who helped fuel me in pursuing a career in things (art related) I enjoy when I was younger. I wasn’t always clear on the exact direction, nor will I probably ever be, but that is life; You try things and see how they pan out for you. The only question is how hard you try and how long you do them before before desire loses it’s luster and you give up.
If you could pick 1 piece of your work that would represent the entire body of your work, which one would you choose?
Man, that’s a pretty hard question for me! From time to time I have people approach me and bring up a specific piece I worked on that has brought them joy or encouragement or sparked something inside them or at least stayed with them. Those will always be my favorite pieces because they made an impact on someone other than me or a client and I think that’s why I like doing art, because it can have a lasting effect on people. I like to look back at things I’ve done in the past and see where I was or the way I was doing work and see how I’ve grown. Some of those pieces stop me in my tracks and I’ll look at them with admiration and have a little sense of pride building up inside. I think I may keep those impressions to myself though as not to effect others judgments.
Who or what most inspires your work?
History plays a big part of my inspiration. I’m pretty passionate about a lot of automotive history being a native of Detroit. It’s fun to look back at how products have grown over the years and see the changes and cues along the way. I feel the early years perhaps are the most inspiring with exterior design being the most influential: Back in the years where speed and aerodynamics were suggested in shape as opposed to be factual. This idea plays in a realm of fantasy that spawned many cool looking designs and some of the best products in appearance.
Is there an artistic style or process that you haven’t tried yet that you want to try?
Two things that come to mind: 1) I’d like to take a stab at metal casting some physical pieces because I’ve never tried it. 2) I’d like to be able to play with some more modern toys out there like CNC machines, 3D printers, lasers, water jetting, etc. I think I could lend some of my current skill sets to modern toys to try to make some new fun things.
If time wasn’t a factor I’d probably do more painting. I used to enjoy it a lot but I just don’t feel I have the time anymore. I came across a blog the other week that had a bunch of cubist style modern day works that was pretty interesting to look at and I thought to myself I’d like to attempt to try it for fun. But for the most part I’ve been exposed to many forms of art over the college years which I’m glad I have the opportunity to explore some new ideas.
What’s 1 piece of advice you’d give an artist that’s just starting out today?
I don’t think I could give just one piece of advice and have it give any gravity to someone starting off today, so I’ll give a few from my personal experience as a commercial artist:
Work Hard. I know this sounds like some blanket advice that anyone will tell you, but it certainly is true. Work ethics are so important as it’s seems to be slipping away all around us. Hard work and persistence can pay off if you give it your all and the right amount of time.
With each piece you do, you’ll grow. As I mentioned earlier I like to look back at things I’ve done. Sometimes I’m filled with pride, other times I cringe a bit; this is part of the growth process that will make you stronger everyday forward.
Be Humble. With the voice of social media today anyone can be anything they want to portray. I certainly don’t want to cut on social media because as an artist of a new era is concerned, it can be your new best friend to take advantage of global billboard. I myself are from a slightly different time and perspective, so I’m not huge in the social media world (to a fault) For years I worked under a company name rather than my own. This had a few draw backs for me in growth. I still have people thinking that I’m some design firm, an artist collective, etc. I’ll poke around the internet from time to time and see how others will boast, brag, talk shit, but overall this won’t help you as much as being humble and thanking people for compliments and thanks along the way. Clients like to work with humble folks, not drama queens.
Keep working. If you approach a single goal, then it’s time to set some new ones. I feel a good artist is never satisfied and this is what drives you to do more. Don’t count on one single piece to be your statement in life. Everyone will engage with your work differently, so be prolific and keep making those engagements!
Set Deadlines. This is important as a lot of artists don’t know when something is ‘done’. Sometimes pieces get overworked or someone just runs out of time. Know your limits and limitations as well. Deadlines in the commercial world are of the upmost importance. I feel some of the best feedback I get from clients who work with me is I can stay on track and deliver when something is needed.
A couple of years ago I came up with the idea to do car features in video form. For some of you that have been following for awhile, you’ve seen these before. For the new folks take a few minutes and hopefully enjoy!
The concept is simple, get the car owner on camera telling the story of the ride. Unfortunately it is a time consuming process and time is what I don’t have much of. So…. there are 2 to date. I am planning on releasing a 3rd one next week (a year after I meant to release it). And hopefully more will follow. Feature videos are the perfect way to capture your memories of your favorite ride to remember for the rest of your life and pass on to future generations.
Between Christmas and New Year’s I was on a road trip and had a little time to stop by and see my friends at Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS. They’ve done some work on one of my cars and a couple for my dad and I wanted to drop off some Christmas candy from my family to the Chaotic crew.
Here are some cell phone photos from that visit.
The 2014 SEMA build is Karma’s Mustang. The top has been chopped and numerous other changes are underway.The 2014 SEMA build is Karma’s Mustang. The top has been chopped and numerous other changes are underway.Jack’s 39 Ford is in the shop for some new floors and rust repair. The chassis sports a ton of parts that Jack got from RJay’s Speed Shop.This hot rod is getting the full treatment with a whole bunch of custom treatments, stay tuned for more on it.Chaotic’s Chris Carlson showing the newly chopped removable hard top on this kustom MercuryAnother project is this ’59 Chevy.The crew at Chaotic is really doing a kool job on this Stingray Vette. Adding a bit of muscle to the front fenders, sucking the bumpers into the body a bit for a more streamlined look, re-shaping the wheel wells again to show a bit of a bulge on the body. Almost like the way the designers may have envisioned the car before the bean counters took over. I can’t wait to see this one all finished up.
Thanks to my friends at Chaotic for opening up the doors to my dad and I and taking the time to show us all of the projects in the shop. I’m sure the big tray of candy had nothing to do with that :). I have upcoming shop visits planned for 3 new shops in the next few months, stay up to date by subscribing in the top right hand corner of the page.
**** Note: From time to time I want to feature pieces by some of my friends here. Last month I featured Gears And Gals Magazine (here), Steve Giangreco from Gears And Gals has been gracious to loan us this article for all of you out there. Enjoy!****
Matt Espy’s Ford
by Steve Giangreco
I met Matt Espy one day while I was at Tallant’s hot rod shop. Dan Tallant thought I would want to see his car and he asked Matt to drive it into work. Wow! I was so happy he did!
When I got to the shop, parked outside was this aggressive looking Model A Ford sitting low and mean. I walked around the car just taking it in. Every detail of this car is right. There wasn’t anything I could pick out that I would have done different.
The Model A was made available for sale to the public in December of 1927. It was the model that replaced the Model T. In the cars three year run, the Ford Motor Company produced over 3 million units. This made the Model A popular with hot rodders early on. They were lightweight, inexpensive, and plentiful. Over the decades not much has changed. The Ford Model A is still a favorite among hot rodders. While a Ford Model A hot rod is nothing new, they are not all created equal! Many things set them apart, build quality and aesthetics being the two most important. Some look good but can’t run, some run like hell but look like it too! Not Matt’s car. Matt’s car is right on in both categories.
Matt told me that he bought the car at a swap meet in 2004. “I looked at it in the yard until 2008 until my boss Dan and I decided to start building it”, Matt said. They started by taking the car to Dan’s house and laying the body on the floor. They began to mock up the new frame they were going to build for it. He wanted it to sit as low as possible so airbags were a must. The motor and transmission were laid on the ground and they built the frame into the body. They only channeled it about an inch. Matt is 6’3” and needed all the headroom he could get.
They used a 5″ dropped axle and some wishbones which they split from one of Dan’s old 48 Fords. A rear end out of a 55 Chevy was mounted with air ride technologies triangulated 4 link set up with bags. They made all the floors for the car and tranny tunnel. After that, the top was chopped 6 inches. It rolls on red steel wheels with wide white wall tires and cheater slicks in the rear. There are disc brakes up front for stopping power. The interior sports custom pin-striping , Moon gauges, and a Lokar shifter.
For the grille he wanted something that was a little different. He found one from a ’35 Ford on eBay that he liked. As soon as he got it, he cut about 8 inches off of the bottom and fabricated a new one out of round bar. He also made the hood and ornament from scratch.
He frenched in 1959 Cadillac taillights in the rear and painted the car a Mercedes flat gray with silver scallops. Eric Campbell added the finishing touches by doing all the pin-striping.
All of this together makes for one bad ride. This is one Model A that does NOT get lost in the crowd.
**** If you want to see this blog in your email inbox every morning when it goes live, go up to the top right hand corner of the page and enter your email address in the subscribe box. 1 lucky subscriber each month will get selected to win a prize. December was a copy of the Atomic Hot Rods DVD “This Is Long Beach” Subscribe to enter to win!****
For a couple of years now I’ve covered a fairly new show called The Chill held in Park City, KS in the fairgrounds buildings next to the Kansas Coliseum just north of Wichita, KS on I-135. I’ve enjoyed the show each time I’ve been to it, it’s always good to have another event to attend. The show has 1 giant room dedicated to bikes and bike related vendors, and 2 that are filled with cars and car related vendors. The show this year goes down Feb. 28 – Mar. 2, 2014. For more info go here.
If you want to see this blog in your email inbox every time it goes live with a new post, go to the top right hand corner of the page and enter your email address. 1 lucky subscriber will win a prize at the end of each month!
The Texas Thaw is an awesome drag race/car show event held March 1st at the North Star Dragway along I-35 just north of Denton, TX. In 2013 I made my first trip down to the Thaw, what I found was a great selection of vintage drag machines and hot rods that were out taking some passes on the track.
2013 was the best year yet for Royboy Productions and a pretty good one for me personally. I want to say thank you to everyone involved in making it so great. I’m not going to list everyone here as I’m sure that I’d miss a bunch of people.
Yesterday I made the bulk of the donations for the 2014 Calendar For Charity Project. In all over $1200 was donated yesterday to the Red Cross and the Wounded Warrior Project with some more to be sent as soon as we sell the final 13 calendars. Thanks to all of you that bought one for making that possible!
I never imagined how different life would look a few years later when I first started hitting shows hard in 2009, heading out as often as I could to shoot photos for free (they weren’t all that great back then and maybe not all that much better now). Somehow along the way a few people took note and I’ve told the story here of how a chance encounter with a couple of Wichita Fundamentals members gave my life a huge swerve.
I often refer to the friends that I have made over the last few years as my rod/kustom family. That’s as close as I can come to describing how I feel about these folks. It’s more than friends, it’s a kinship, a brotherhood, it’s well, it’s family.
This website is dedicated to me sharing these talented builders, colorful car owners, amazing artists, and everyone else I run into with the entire world. The goal is always to give some credit where credit is due with these folks who don’t get enough attention and to encourage you folks to get yourself to a car show. Even if you don’t have a ride yet, go to one of these shows and start meeting people. This car hobby thing is far reaching and I can say without a doubt that the best people that I’ve ever met have been behind the wheel of a kool kustom or hot rod.
Thank you folks for following along on my adventures here in 2013 and I’m looking forward to serving you in 2014. If you have any comments or suggestions use the contact form here and I’ll see what I can do. My goal is to promote the Midwestern traditional hot rod and kustom car scene, not so much to promote the mega dollar street rod scene or the how dangerous can we make it rat scene, so suggestions along those lines are a waste of time.
As I mentioned yesterday, 2013 was a busy year with more than 50 new galleries being added to the Royboy Galleries. That’s of course almost 1 a week, which it kinda nutty when I started the year thinking I would scale back and only do 25 or so events… so much for that plan. I’ve procrastinated like crazy on a few things lately one of them being planning for 2014, something I should have had done a month ago. I’m not exactly sure where 2014 will take me yet, I do know that I want to continue to provide free car show coverage on this site for all of you. The goal here is still to promote the Midwest’s hot rod/kustom car kulture and promote the incredible craftsmen, car owners and shows that we have here in the Midwest.
Midway through August of this year I switched up my site combining my blog with the main website and redesigning the entire thing. Since then I’ve seen a huge jump in readership and that’s awesome, that’s what I did the switch for. Part of that switch was adding my first sponsor. Sponsors will allow me to cover more of the expenses of running this site instead of funding it all out of my pocket. Right now the magazine pieces that I do cover about 15% of the costs of gas and hotels, not counting the computer hardware, cameras, etc. My goal for the site is to become self sustaining in 2014. To do that I need you to help by sharing the stories that you enjoy. If you read something here that you like, share it with your gear head friends, the more readers that we have the more income we can generate to put gas in my tank and cover hotel rooms on the road trips. Hopefully throughout 2014 I can bring on more amazing sponsors like RJay’s Speed Shop. Cory at RJay’s is a good friend and the only official sponsor that I’d approached to be a part of the site, I used him as a guinea pig and hopefully some of you have gone to his site and become customers. RJay’s has great prices, fast shipping and amazing service, go buy stuff from him!
Thank you for following along on my adventures and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to be entered in the monthly giveaway. 1 lucky subscriber today will win a copy of “This is Long Beach ” by Atomic Hot Rods.
in the trunk, I cleaned every damn surface of the exterior with the stuff. 🙂 Then it was off to walk around the show a bit and see who else was already set up or in the process.
” by