Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
If you’re a subscriber of this blog, you’ve noticed that I haven’t been to as many events lately. This year I’m going to less events, trying to find the happy medium between spending all of my spare money going to shows and having fresh new car show photos for all of you to enjoy!
I’ve made the mistake of missing the first occurrence of a few events and regretted those mistakes later. So when I heard about the Hot Rod Showdown in Wimberley, TX on Feb. 23, 2019 I decided that I wasn’t going to miss it. The Hot Rod Showdown is a pre-48 traditional rod and custom show held at the 7A Ranch which features a great old west town, on site lodging and a great vibe.
This year for the 2019 Starbird Rod & Custom show in Tulsa, OK I went down on Friday, leaving a snowy KS behind for a chilly OK. I spent from 10am until 7:30 pm at the show on Saturday seeing friends from across the country and their fine rides.
Continue reading “2019 Starbird Rod & Custom Show Photo Coverage”
For my 4th trip out to California for the Grand National Roadster Show I decided instead of flying, I was going to drive out! My folks and my Aunt & Uncle decided that sounded like an adventure to them and decided they’d come along.
So we planned out a route that took us out I-40 along Route 66 so that we could check out some of the sites along the way. We left on Friday morning the 15th and did some stops for work, my dad and I work for the same company so that made that convenient. By the end of the day we ended up in Oklahoma City for the night.
Saturday morning we hopped on I-40 and headed west. Our first stop was in Clinton, OK for the Route 66 Museum there on the west side of town.
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Continue reading “2019 Grand National Roadster Show Trip Coverage”
This weekend I pointed the Galaxie south again, this time to head down to Douglass, KS just southeast of Wichita for the annual end of the season show, the Hobo Happenings. This show is typically chilly and most folks don’t stay all day but it’s a great excuse to get the cars out one last time. Although this year. you should keep your car ready to go on my Mid Decembrrrr Run on Dec. 15th! Click here for info.
Once again this year I pointed my Galaxie south for the 2nd Saturday of November for Pistons & Paint in Denton, TX. The Chupacabras CC puts on one heck of a show. More of the story below.
Another event that I’ve not been able to attend until this year was the Okie Sleds Greet With Meat. Saturday Oct. 20th I was able to finally fix that by rolling down to OKC to see my Okie Sleds buddies.
Order the 48 Cars 48 States book here:
It’s only $86.50 shipped anywhere in the USA
For the first time since the Rumble in Wichita has become the Rumble Run, I was able to attend this year. I’d been to all of the previous versions of the Rumble, and I’m a huge fan of the Primarys Car Club in Wichita, so it bummed me out to miss the Rumble when it became the Rumble Run, but this year I was not going to miss it!
I got up early Saturday morning and got the Galaxie prepped for the trip, a dead battery slowed me down a bit, but after I got it running it was good the rest of the day. The drive down to American Legion Post 256 on the west side of Wichita went quickly, it was a bit chilly and the forecast had been for rain but when I got there it was clearing up. The day went great with a 60mile run out to a couple small Kansas towns and back to the American Legion. The folks that didn’t want to go on the run stayed behind and had a car show for the few hours that the rest of us were on the poker run.
Order the 48 Cars 48 States book here:
It’s only $86.50 shipped anywhere in the USA
The 2019 Royboy Productions Calendar is HERE! This year I’m keeping things simple with one single edition with the best of the best hot rod, kustom, truck and drag photos from the previous 13 months. Â Scroll down to see samples of the entire calendar and there’s an ordering button at the bottom of this post. The calendars will be printed this month and are scheduled to ship out in the first week of November.
When my father said that he wanted to go see the new Affordable Street Rods  and attend the Open House we planned out for him to drive the 1959 Thunderbird while I did a rare thing for me, I just rode along. It was kinda great.
We arrived around 9:00am and watched the cars continue to roll in until we had to leave at 1pm. There were cars from across the region and some from much further away, like Delaware!
Affordable had a great lunch lined up with hot dogs, chili, Fritos and more plus a DJ on hand and later in the day live music. Plus there were tons of great door prizes, I was bummed that we had to leave but duty calls.
Scroll down for a few more photos and a link to seeing the entire gallery!
Order the 48 Cars 48 States book here:
It’s only $86.50 shipped anywhere in the USA
Sorry for the delay getting this out! Below you’ll find the video coverage I shot at the 2018 Hot Rod Hill Climb, enjoy!
The 6th Annual Hot Rod Hill Climb is now in the books, and in my humble estimation it was the best one yet. In 2013 Mike Nicholas, of Nick’s Hot Rod Garage and company brought back the Hot Rod Hill Climb for a 60th anniversary since the first event in 1953 in Georgetown, Colorado. The event was so popular that they made the 60th anniversary of the 1954 event happen the next year. In 2015 the event returned to Georgetown, CO for a third time before moving over to Central City, CO the following year.
If you don’t see the video above in your email, click here.
See you at a show,
Royboy
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! 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!
If you LOVE what I do, go have a look at my Patreon page where you can make sure that I can keep doing this by supporting my site with a small monthly donation.
Thanks!
When I heard that one of my favorite events, the Starliner show in Wichita, was to be replaced this year by Lead Ain’t Dead, I was both excited and a little sad. The Stray Kat 500 and the Starliner were a great pair of shows, two of my favorites, both about the kustom family first, and the cars second. The Starliner had one of the best host hotel parking lot hang outs of any event that I attend, losing that was definitely something I didn’t want to do.
The Starliner couldn’t be held this year because the McConnell Air Force Base Air show was to be held the same day as the Starliner, and the Kansas Aviation Museum couldn’t have the show on their grounds at the same time. Â So it was time for a change, and the change would be a kustom show held in Dewey, OK where the Stray Kat 500 is held.
The idea was simple, a show to celebrate kustoms… that’s really it. Two areas of Dewey were sectioned off for the show, one area for kustoms and one area for non-kustoms to park. So if you drove your cool old ride that’s not a kustom you didn’t have to park next to some Toyota Prius in spectator parking, brilliant!
I showed up Thursday evening around 10pm and met up with a couple of my brothers from the Lonely Knights club for a late dinner. Friday morning Mickey lead a group of folks over to visit with Darryl Starbird at his museum about an hour from the host hotel. A few of us decided to hang in Dewey for the day, luckily the rain that was in the area stayed away for the most part, some slight mist and a short shower were all that we had to deal with, while 50 miles to the north streets were flooded and closed.
Friday evening we fired up the Lonely Knights fajita trailer and fed everyone that was within the sound of our voices, and one young fella, the son of our buddy Dustin, downed 11! To put that into perspective, he’s easily ¼ of my size and I made it to 11 as well, well played sir! Friday night we gathered up at the host hotel to hang out and have a BS session that went until late into the night.
Saturday morning was a bit rainy so the normal rush to get to the show was replaced by more of a lazy roll out. We gathered up at the Stray Kat Kustoms hangout spot where the cars had already started piling in. The day was awesome, full of old friends hanging out, doing what all groups of old friends do. By the end of the day a group of about 30 of us all went to dinner and then back to the host hotel for more hanging out and telling stories.
Thank you Mick for knowing when to pull the plug on one event and replacing it with another which worked out so wonderfully. To all of my kustom family that showed up, thank you! You make these shows what they are.
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – An 18,200 mile 48 States road trip in a 1963 Ford. Along the way I covered 6 events and shot a feature article on 48 different cars and then compiled them all into a book! The first 200 copies of the book sold out in 3 weeks time, you  can order a copy of the 2nd edition of the book here! Shipping NOW!
This year at the Greaserama outside of Kansas City I decided to shoot more video and barely any photos. Here’s the video from the event on Saturday, I didn’t get the drone up until late in the day so about half the cars had left but I had a good time hanging out with a bunch of friends.
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If the video does not appear above in your email, click here to see it.
See you at a show,
Royboy
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! 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!
If you LOVE what I do, go have a look at my Patreon page where you can make sure that I can keep doing this by supporting my site with a small monthly donation.
Thanks!
For the 2018 H.A.M.B. Drags I tried my hand at shooting some more video than still images. Here’s the video thrown together. This is kind of an experiment for me so if you like it let me know. I had a couple of clips doubled up so this is a new edit.
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – An 18,200 mile 48 States road trip in a 1963 Ford. Along the way I covered 6 events and shot a feature article on 48 different cars and then compiled them all into a book! The first 200 copies of the book sold out in 3 weeks time, you  can order a copy of the 2nd edition of the book here!
See you at a show,
Royboy
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! 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!
If you LOVE what I do, go have a look at my Patreon page where you can make sure that I can keep doing this by supporting my site with a small monthly donation.
Thanks!
The KKOA Leadsled Spectacular was here before I knew it. Wednesday I took my camper in to the park and set up in my vendor area with visions of spending the weekend with friends, seeing cars, and selling a ton of books in my head.
More of the story in the post….But first, an ad for my book đŸ™‚
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – An 18,200 mile 48 States road trip in a 1963 Ford. Along the way I covered 6 events and shot a feature article on 48 different cars and then compiled them al into a book! The first 200 copies of the book sold out in 3 weeks time, you  can pre-order a copy of the 2nd edition of the book here! It will be shipping near the end of July
After having to skip the 2017 Meltdown Drags due to some troubles with getting the Galaxie ready for the 48States trip, I was stoked to get to head back to Byron, IL for the 2018 Melt Drags! I called up my buddy Corey Conyers from Crown Custom in Wichita to go along with me. A car that he recently built was set to debut at the event so it seemed perfect for him to come along to see the event for himself.
More of the story in the post….But first, an ad for my book đŸ™‚
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – An 18,200 mile 48 States road trip in a 1963 Ford. Along the way I covered 6 events and shot a feature article on 48 different cars and then compiled them al into a book! The first 200 copies of the book sold out in 3 weeks time, you  can pre-order a copy of the 2nd edition of the book here! It will be shipping near the end of July
It’s time to start the voting for the 2018 New Blood Award People’s Choice! Below you’ll see the entries for the award and at the bottom of the page you’ll be able to vote for your choice. Please only vote one time, I’ll only count each vote once. Voting closes on July 25th. The award will be given out at the New Blood Award party at the Paramount Bar in Salina, KS on Saturday July 28th. The info on the party can be found here.
Scroll to the bottom of this page to vote for your favorite!
This year for the 2018 Goodguys Heartland Nationals I decided to do things a little differently. I put together a little video of the event  and some photos. Let me know what you think about this change to how I do things. With 100’s of people shooting photos at events and posting them all over social media I see less and less need for the car show/hobby promotion that I started this website for. I’m looking for ways to keep what I do fun for me and also provide you with coverage of events.
This post of the 2018 Custom Car Revival coverage will be a little different. In the middle of this post you should see a slideshow of the entire event. If you click on that slide show you can see the entire gallery of the event. This way there are less emails clogging your inbox and you get to see all of the photos of an event all at once!
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – A 48 state road trip with a stop in each state to photograph a traditionally styled hot rod, kustom or drag vehicle. I completed the trip in November 2017 and have been working on a 224 page coffee table book of the entire 9 week adventure since. The book is shipping in June and only 35 copies remain. You can order the book here!
Again this year I traveled over to Indianapolis, IN for the 2018 Custom Car Revival. My buddy Kevin puts the event on and it’s one that I never want to miss not just because some great cars show up but also because of the people. This is THE place to be to hang out with the keepers of the custom car faith.
After returning from Texas for work late on Monday evening I was able to pick up about 100 of the 48 Cars 48 States books on Tuesday and ship a handful on Wednesday before leaving for Indy. After 10 hours at the day job I put down about 6 hours to get me out to Hannibal, MO where I met up with Mick Bryan of Stray Kat Kustoms shows and Travis “TwoTallOkie” Miller.
Thursday we got rolling early headed on to Indianapolis and were able to roll in around 2pm finding the host hotel parking lot already filling up with great rides and old custom friends.
Here’s the 5th and final day of coverage of the 2018 Hot Rod Dirt Drags, I hope that you enjoyed the photos and got a sense of what the event is all about. Thanks for coming to the site to see all of the fun.
I’d tried for years to get my dad to join me, here’s a shot of him and my friend John Binger racing their banger powered Model A’s down the track! So much fun!