Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
The 2012 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular photos are up!
Click the slide show to go to the full gallery of 990 photos, new videos will be added throughout the week!
Here’s a few of my favorite images from the weekend.
Enjoy the photos and if you like them consider buying a print or download, gas, cameras, hotels are all expensive! See you at a show, Travis
Part 3
The 2009 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular
I remember this one was featured in a magazine just after the show.
Punk Rod Eric’s Hell Wagon
In 2007
and in 2009 
Speaking of my Los Punk Rods friends
More from 2007
Back to 2009
Johnny’s 58 again
I believe this one is for sale now, for $12,500… it’s a steal in my books. PM me for info I shot a photo of the info card and have the phone number on it.
Jimmy’s 58 Wagon… those back wheels are HUGE (dude I’m sorry I can’t let that joke go.)
Johnny’s Plymouth before final paint
Here’s NoSurf’s ride with Rob Lee behind
Hub & Gloria Harness’ Cinnamon
Doug’s Toad (another I was lucky enough to shoot for a magazine recently)
Mongo51’s well…51 Chevy
A damn kool 59 Pontiac, with a 60 Merc Grill and a host of other kustom touches
Shea’s shoebox, damn fine car.
Anyone recognize this famous Caddy?
Love Love Love this 57 Ford
What wasn’t done to this Merc?
McPhail’s truck before all of the recent work that he & Myers have done.
That’s it for the 2009 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular from my collection, click on any of them to see the full gallery of almost 600 photos.
See you at a show,
Travis
Part 2!
Here we go again, 2008 at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular we start out again with cars that belong to people who were strangers then but are now good friends.
A couple more of the Harness family rides!
Rocky’s truck back before he reworked it.
Hub and Gloria Harness brought the 59 El Camino this time around, another beautiful kustom, especially considering it was built in the early 80’s.
Gary Weaver’s beautiful 54
The first time I saw Gary’s wagon… I love this car and it’s Jeff Myers paintwork
Jeff’s “Woodie” can you tell the man is good with woodworking?
Austin Speed Shop showed up
Hmmmm who does this belong to?
My first view of Vibrasonic, I was lucky enough to shoot this for an upcoming magazine feature recently, life is good.
Voodoo Jimmy!
It wasn’t Kevin’s then but it is now, love this Galaxie
That’s it for 2009, 2010 on the way!
See you at a show,
Travis
In many ways I am blessed, great people as both friends and family, a good paying job, a house, a dog, a couple of kool cars… the list goes on and on, I’m a lucky guy. Having one of the best kustom and hot rod shows in the world right in my backyard is just another lucky stroke in life. The Kustom Kemps of America Leadsled Spectacular has been held in Salina, KS now for a few years and just keeps growing and growing.
My first photos of the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular were in 2007. At that time the show was held in Salina, KS’ Thomas Park. The show fit nicely in the small, mostly shaded park, looking back now I see a lot of cars that are owned by strangers then that are friends now.
“Dad’s” 53
Ted’s “bathtub”
This is when you know you’re someplace kool, when you see a bubbletop just rolling around a show.
Come on, a twin flathead engined dragster? If memory serves correctly he barely got her shut down before the fence at the end of the track.
Roger Ward’s car looks as good today as it did then.
I don’t remember seeing this one lately, hope it’s still around
The Tiki Taxi back before I met her owner Steve… life was so much more innocent then…
Probably the worst photo I’ve ever taken of one of my favorite kustoms, Hub & Gloria Harness’ Cinnamon
Jack’s historic 29 Roadster
Johnny’s perfect ’58 Chevy
Jr. Blackwell’s sedan has seen some changes over the years but it’s always been kool
The MacGregor Boys always bring killer rides, this caddy has always been one of my favorites.
Not exactly traditional with this mill but this car was super clean.
Well lookie what I found, wow I didn’t know I had this shot of Krobe’s Coupe.
Jeff Myers of Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS brought his 63 Galaxie
I’m still madly in love with this car.
That’s some of my favorite shots from 2007’s KKOA Leadsled Spectacular, most of these I post because the owners have become very dear friends of mine over the years since. I’m a lucky man.
Part 2 will cover a few years worth of the show.
See you at a show,
Travis
Those of you that know me know that I’ve recently purchased a 51 Ford, affectionately known as a shoebox. I’ve loved this body style for quite awhile and I’m excited to get started working on mine later this year (after finishing some upgrades to the 63 Galaxie).
So as I was looking through my site I realized that I have a ton of shoebox photos! I started gathering them up and so far from the first gallery up through the 2012 Lonestar Roundup gallery there are over 414 photos of shoeboxes of various forms and levels of kustomizing. You can see the whole gallery here if you’d like to look around.
I am no expert but here is some info that I’ve been able to pick up along the way. (for more detailed info you can go to the Wiki page here)
So what years of the Ford are considered shoeboxes?
1949-1951 due to their “slab side” design, gone are the bulging fenders and they are replaced with a relatively straight body shell.
Here’s an example of the side of the body. 
Compared to the 46-48 style before it.
How do you tell the years apart?
Here is an example of a 49, note the single “bullet” grille, triangular turn signals at the end of the grille bar and the FORD letters on the hood.
The 50 carries on the single bullet design but moves to a rectangular turn signals in the trim pieces that wrap around the front bumper and badge at the front of the hood.
By 1951 they moved to the easily identifiable double bullet grille design and round turn signals.
Roofs
While many chop their shoeboxes, I am torn on what I will do. Speaking of roofs though, here’s an example of the Victoria model roof.
VS. the standard sedan roof
Here’s an example of the factory coupe roofline
They also came in the Country Squire “woody” version
Drivetrains
From the factory these cars came with flathead 6’s or 8’s. My 51 came with a 239 cu. in flathead V8 “8BA” motor and a 3speed with Overdrive transmission. I have heard that there were automatics available in 51 with the Ford-o-matic transmission. Atomic Hot Rods just released a cool documentary on the Flathead last year called A Sweet Sickness: The Flathead Movie
Go to the site to order a copy for yourself, click here to see the trailer.
Suspension
These cars all have coil springs in the front and leaf spring setups in the back. The most common way to get them down a ways is to use Moog CC850 Variable Rate Coil Spring
in the front and simple Lowering Blocks in the back. For a ton of info on that see this thread on the H.A.M.B.
Some kool kustoms that have inspired me
Clean, low and with a tricked out flathead under the hood. I’m told this belongs to Roy Fields and I need to meet him to say thanks for the inspiration.
Another very clean example this time with I believe a 53 Chevy grille, I don’t know the owners name but this appears to have been at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular in Salina, KS at the old location.
My buddy Jack’s 50.
Another buddy’s sectioned shoebox
With kustom work by Premier Body & Paint’s Jeff Myers in Arkansas City, KS Michael Shea’s shoebox is way kool.
Another way kustom version, chopped top, Olds grille, lots of kool touches all around.
Yaril drove his 50 all the way from Miami, FL to Salina, KS for the 2011 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular.
Here’s a clone of Junior Conway’s 50. For more info on the original go to this link at kustomrama.
That’s it for now, I may revisit this later and talk some more about these cars.
Oh I almost forgot a silly cell phone pic of mine.
See you at a show,
Travis
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9/14/13 Update: I had my buddy Chris over at Shoebox Central look through here for any errors, thanks for taking the time Chris! If anyone needs parts for their Shoebox Ford or even some Merc stuff of the era, head over to Shoebox Central.
A group of my Stray Kat brothers and myself are planning a major road trip for next spring. From my home near Salina, KS (home of the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular) to Wichita, KS then Vegas for the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, then to Austin for the Lonestar Roundup and back home. I’ll keep you posted on what the plan is, and of course I’ll blog from the road on that trip. 3250 miles in a bunch of kustoms in various states of build across the midwest and southwest and back. It should be an adventure!
Here’s what I saw on my last trip to Viva in 2010
And here’s this year’s coverage of the Lonestar Roundup.
Looks like a good time to me! See you at a show, Travis
Part 3 of my busy weekend was a Sunday drive down to Lake Afton, west of Wichita, KS. People have told me about this show for years and I’ve never been able to make it until now. A free show for both the spectators and the show vehicles, I had my resevations, but I was proven wrong. A great turnout of every imaginable kind of vehicle and tons of great people.
Although the show officially starts at 11, there were around 100 cars there at 10 when I showed up.
The scene at 10am
The Thunderbird club showed up in full force!
Kevin’s 64 Galaxie for the 2nd day in a row, always good to see you my friend!
The Mini club showed up too!
I want!
A friend has one of these Lotus Elise’s and they are a blast!
The Corvair Club showed up too
1951 Ford Victoria
Johnny’s dope kustom
64 Ford Galaxie 500
Stance
Something tells me it’s as fast as it is pretty
Who doesn’t love a VW?
The truck crowd was in attendance
A lowered early Bronco
John & Butch lining up
This just looks like fun…until you have to shammy the roof
This looks plain fun.
Steve’s bad ass 52 Chevrolet
A Wichita legend, Fundamentals member Doug’s Toad
Johnny’s simple and elegant 58 Chevy kustom
Cameo Cakes’ Divco has a mini me now
Pure speed
Even with 4 doors, Hudsons are kool
Well that’s it for my wild weekend of Kansas Car Show Fun! Hope you had a good time out there, click on any of these photos to see the full photo galleries and I’ll see you at a show.
Travis
From Garnett (see part 1) I headed out to Mulvane, KS home of the Mulvane Marauders.
This part was another fun drive, exploring country side, just randomly heading south and west until I got close to the show.
That was a fun drive! I got to see some of the grain storage facilities that I’d done the mechanical and fabrication drawings for, drove a new section of one of my favorite roads, an old section of highway just outside of most people’s point of view while they cruise on US-400, had a burger at the historic Beaumont Hotel and explored a fun new-to-me road between Latham and Douglass, KS.
Once I arrived in Mulvane it’s the same story as every other time, the many friends I’ve made in the Marauders make me feel at home. This show is held on the old main street area of Mulvane and features some of the over 160 members of the club’s rides as well as many area cars. The Marauders gave away a freshly rebuilt engine this year along with a huge table full of door prizes and some killer trophies made by various members of the Marauders.
One of the most beautiful kustoms around, Don’s 54 Buick
Jody’s way kool Y-block powered kustom Ford truck
Steve’s Tiki Taxi
Merideth’s Trixie Tee, built to match her Trophy Girl purse, this is a killer little hotrod!
Jack’s 40 Ford
One kool kustom influenced hot rod
I really dig this killer Merc kustom, check out the headlights…
Some high dollar rides showed up
Chris and Karma Carlson of Chaotic Customs drive this 60 Pontiac named Stella nearly every day, and judging by the color of the back tire, Chris didn’t get the kids to clean Stella after driving down the dirt road they live on. That’s dedication, live on a dirt road and drive a ride like this!
Jason of Red House Custom Paint was in attendance.
Mike’s 29 Roadster
One of my favorite cars of the show, Kent drives the heck out of her too!
Another 51 Ford! This time with the 6 cylinder drive train.
Interesting dash
Bill Hines and crew chopped this at the KKOA in 2009 I believe. Love the chop and the color!
Kevin’s 64 Galaxie
Chris giving out the awards.
Congrats Kent!
That’s it for the 2nd part, a drive up to Gypsum would end my day driving around central-eastern KS. Hope you enjoyed the coverage, stay tuned to the blog with RSS feeds or email updates so you know when I’ve updated the blog.
See you at a show!
Travis
A few weeks ago I realized that last weekend there was a choice, either stay in KS and go to a show that I’d gone to before (and loved) or venture a few hundred miles from home for the Good Guys show in Loveland, CO. Since I’d been planning on being in Colorado this weekend to film a small BBQ team in competition with the giants of the BBQ world, I decided to stay in Kansas.
So how would I make the weekend special? It didn’t take long to figure it out, 3 shows, 1 weekend… all in Kansas! Saturday started off at a lazy 7:30am as I headed east out of the small town of Gypsum, KS headed for the slightly larger city of Garnett, about 154 miles away.
The show in Garnett is held around the old time town square, these types of shows always have built in cool factor. Click any of these photos to go to the whole photo gallery, I will not be posting every photo here so that’s the best way to see them all.
Nice Ghia!
The show was an interesting mix of muscle cars, trucks, kustoms, hot rods, street rods, motorcycles and even a rat rod along with some stockers and radical customs.
My good friend Neal made the trip in his Canopy Express, seen here on the right.
This well put together Chevy has got to attract bugs like crazy with that shade of yellow!
I’m not sure what the story is on this car, I’m guessing it was shortened from a full or mid sized wagon, anyone have the skinny on it?
Everyone needs one of these VW Trucks
I’ve seen this mild kustom around a couple of the Stray Kat shows but I can’t remember if I’ve met the owner yet. When you meet the owners of the car away from the car sometimes it’s hard to remember who’s face belongs with which car.
Street Rod style post war Ford
Having just picked up a 51 Ford I am naturally drawn to every 49-51 that I see, always looking for ideas.
A very nicely done 80’s era Chevrolet Truck.
A way Kustom truck, lots to see on this wild pickup.
Travel in style
Some of the fairly stock crowd in attendance
Roger Ward’s beautiful ride, Roger won the Inspiration award this year at the Stray Kat 500. Jeff Myers built a killer trophy that was color matched to Roger’s car.
A Pro-Street 57 Chevy
Many cars had taken refuge from the sun under the square’s many trees.
A nicely built Willys
Gasser Style
Gotta love a Starliner
One of the historic buildings that lines the square, probably seen many a summer day with the townsfolk gathered getting to know each other and celebrate holidays and the like.
I love this 46 Ford, and it’s for sale. Click on any of these photos to go to the full gallery and I have the for sale placard pictured with a ton more info for you.
There were 3 nearly identical drag cars in attendance. I never did catch up with an owner to get the story on these.
1 of 50 explains why I’d never come across one before.
One of my favorite vehicles ever produced, I’d love to drive one some day.
Then back out into the sunshine!
Another Street Rod’d beauty
My 2nd wild Cadillac turned truck in 2 weeks… hope this isn’t a resurgent trend!
Another beautiful historic building overlooking the square and the weekend’s activities.
That’s about it for the coverage of the Lake Garnett Cruisers Car Show in Garnett, KS. Hope you enjoyed it! From here I went down to Mulvane, KS for the Showdown In The Valley put on by the Mulvane Marauders. Look for that tomorrow in part 2!
If you see any photos that you’d like to have a copy of, just click on it and you’ll be taken to the gallery where you can buy digital downloads, prints, calendars, posters, etc. Every purchase helps me get to the next show!
See you at a show,
Travis
Last weekend on a whim I decided to head up to Lincoln, NE to the Hot Rod Supernationals car show.
Here’s a slideshow of the coverage of that event. Lots of muscle cars, street rods and a few traditional hot rods & kustoms. Click the slideshow to go to the gallery and see the entire collection.
The previous weekend was the 30th Annual Atwood Early Rod Run in Atwood, KS. Here’s the slideshow for that coverage. Click the slideshow to go to the gallery and see the entire collection.
This weekend I’ll be off to Marysville, KS for the AutoFest. Here’s last year’s coverage of AutoFest, Click the slideshow to go to the gallery and see the entire collection.
May 4-6, 2012 will be the 11th annual Stray Kat 500 in Dewey, OK. I don’t have much time to talk about this killer show right now so I’ll let the photos do the talking. For more info on the show go to straykatkustoms.com or go to the Facebook event page for the show here.
Without further ado, here’s the 2011 Stray Kat 500 photos, click on the slideshow to go to the photos if you’d prefer to view them in a gallery format.
Come check out one of the koolest most laid back shows anywhere, and hang with about 500 of the greatest folks on the planet. See you in Dewey! Travis
Part 11!
Continuing with Saturday, somewhere in here it rained on us ever so slightly, but according to others it poured on the other side of the fairgrounds, right place right time I guess! Continue reading “Royboy Productions covers the 2012 Lonestar Roundup! Part 11-13”
Click on any of these to go to the full gallery but as of Monday morning when this is posted I’m only done uploading the photos through Thursday evening so the rest will be coming as soon as I can get them done. Continue reading “Royboy Productions covers the 2012 Lonestar Roundup! Parts 1-10”
Wild week here for Royboy Productions! Saturday I took the new video crane over to shoot some of Jeff Bennett’s Rat built by Calvins Customs in Salina, KS, then I went down to McPherson, KS to film some of the frame construction of my buddy Mongo’s new hot rod pickup.
Right as I was heading for the door, it happened. A flaming ball of metal hit my right eye. No I was not wearing goggles, yes I should have been. After a considerable amount of stinging and quite a few tries at flushing the lil bugger out, I finally got it once I got myself home and I went off to bed.
Three hours later I find myself standing in front of my bathroom sink, not able to open my eyes. Oh crap, I kinda need those. Turns out in addition to the slag hit, I had inadvertently exposed my eyes to far too much UV…yeah I had welders burn. At the time I didn’t know it, I just knew that it was the middle of the night and I could’t see, so off to the ER I went, just to be safe. I had taken precautions to protect my eyes during most of the frame build, but I know me… I got careless when my monkey brain went oh oh oh oh I see what would be a cool shot and I moved myself out of my pre-thought position which was protecting my eyes from most of the UV. Monkey brain cost me a bunch of money that evening, not to mention the pain.
So not much was done in my world for most of the week, the day job took precedence, and I did little more than get the video footage transferred to the computer. There were some Instagram shots here and there like I always do you can follow royboyprods there to follow my shots. A mid week sale on any item in my portfolio and now a sale on the softcover version of my Best Of 2011 photo book.
I know the books are expensive, that’s a byproduct of them being 160 pages and printed by a print on demand publisher. Without investing a few thousand on my part there is just no way to get the price down. I will start producing some smaller cheaper books for folks that want them, keep on the lookout for that.
Right now it’s time to head out the door to Arkansas City, KS to Premier Body & Paint the shot of Jeff Myers to sit down with Jeff and talk about his beautiful Caddy and Galaxie. Both cars are way kool kustoms that are driven, should be a good day! Next weekend it’s off to Wichita to talk with some members of the legendary car club, the Fundamentals about Wichita’s hot rod and kustom history, also should be a very good day.
If you live within a decent drive of Salina, KS and you want a video produced of your kool kustom or hot rod, drop me a note here. I am looking to shoot a few for content on my site and will be glad to give you a discounted price because of it!
Have a great weekend, stay safe, and I’ll see you at a show,
Travis
This is the first of what I hope to be a weekly post on here with a quick rundown of what is happening in the world of Royboy Productions.
Last weekend was the 2012 edition of the Park City Chill bike and car show in Park City, KS. I shared some of the photos from that show in a blog post here and you can see all of the photos in the full gallery here.
I’ve been promoting the new Best of 2011 photo book this week. It is available in 3 different versions. Hard cover and soft cover versions are available through my new Blurb store and the downloadable PDF version is available through the Royboy Productions home page.
Sample shot from the Park City Chill Gallery 
No plans for a car show this weekend but I will be shooting a feature for this blog of my buddy’s very cool rat styled hot rod, there will be video and photos coming soon, keep on the lookout!
As always to see any of the 26,000 images from car shows across the midwest go to the Royboy Productions photo gallery, follow my adventures on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to this blog.
See you at a show,
Travis
This was my 2nd trip to the Park City Chill Bike and Car Show in Park City, KS just outside of Wichita. This is a nice indoor show with plenty to look at.
Continue reading “Royboy Productions Coverage: 2012 Park City Chill- Park City, KS”
A few weeks ago Straykatkustoms (Mick) texted me that he was going to go to the National Rod & Custom Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and the announcement of the Fine Nine qualifiers for the Tulsa Starbird show. It took me about 5 minutes to decide that sounded like an interesting way to spend a Friday night and get my ticket ordered. I won’t be missing another one, what a great experience! Tons of great folks were in attendance and we heard some great stories about the inductees, it was very worth it! Continue reading “2012 Starbird Exotic Car Show, Tulsa, OK”
Finally I’m getting a few minutes here where I can try to catch up!
I don’t have a ton of time so I’ll just get to the photos for this post.
Royboy’s Coverage of the 2012 Starbird-Devlin Car Show in Wichita, KS
I was lucky enough to be able to spend most of the weekend with friends and hotrod/kustom family at the Century II hall in Wichita for the 2012 Starbird-Devlin Car Show. Continue reading “2012 Starbird-Devlin Car Show Wichita, KS”
The Best of 2011 photo book is now available!
Wow! That’s the basis of my review of my weekend in Austin. Fantastic cars, killer music and most importantly some of the koolest people anywhere made this one of my best weekends all year.
Continue reading “Royboy goes to the Hot Rod Revolution part 1-3”
Just have a few minutes here but I hopefully will be doing this weekly. Today we’re looking back at one of the shows from earlier this year.
Continue reading “Looking Back: 2011 Darryl Starbird Rod & Custom Show Wichita, KS”
