LOTS of photos in this one folks!
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The family that hangs out at the cars show together…is kool.

Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
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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.

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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.

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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.

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Proof that HDR doesn’t have to be wild, this is the style I prefer for most shots, just making the photo look more like what your eye sees (with a little extra something).

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I’ve seen this car for years and it floors me every time.

Good to see you my friend, and I still say using air to be able to clean your entire whitewall at once is cheating…
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That’s a lot of years on the Power Tour! Kickass!



I’ve been seeing this truck for years, I really should do a feature on it on the site.







Good to see you and the family Don, see ya in Wichita this weekend!




Jeremy Barrett’s pickup.

When you can’t find a v12, two v6’s will do the trick!

Interesting hard top chop. I never made it over to investigate further, but I wish I would have.





Can’t wait to see this one done!

The flush mount skirts, the lake pipes, the spots, it’s all working for me.

See I told you if I got down low you couldn’t tell that the other half of the car wasn’t shammied… oops.






I keep seeing this car this summer but I haven’t had a chance to BS with the owner yet.



Jebby’s “Nadine” and the tail end of my Galaxie. Nadine looks damn good for 200k+ miles.

Neal was nice enough to give me a lift in when I walked out to the entrance to give my dad a wristband. I can’t wait to see the next evolution of this kool truck.




Random Crowd Shot

I’ve been seeing this truck for years at the Greaserama. Looks like a ball of fun.

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To see the entire gallery click here.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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For part 2 we’re still on Saturday. The show was big big big this year, I don’t feel that there would have been any way to get all of the cars and especially all of the spectator cars into the area of the old venue. It was pretty impressive to head up on the north hill of the fairgrounds to see all that the 2013 Greaserama was.
Functional kustom Like this photo?



Channeled Tall T, I like!


Clean

My ride, thanks to Jeff Myers at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS for the kustom 60’s style paint and Clint Rowe for the pinstriping.


Looking good man!

An iconic recipe for kool


inally got to see my friends from Oliver Built Garage for the first time this year, I need to make more trips up to Iowa.



Dick’s ride again, with the hood shut as all kustoms should be 😉

I love these two rides.





It’s always good to see my good friends Dan and Sharyl Stears, see ya again next weekend in Wichita!





One of my good friends Todd C. Jones, amazing guy and artist. Look for a feature on him coming soon!

I was hiding from the rain under a canopy, my camera doesn’t like getting wet.





More coming tomorrow!
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See you at a show,
Royboy
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Man, what a great weekend! The Greaserama moved this year from it’s long time venue to a new one that was outside of KC, many denounced the move but the crowd that showed up on Saturday proved that change can be good. I’m writing an article for a magazine on the show so I’ll save most of my words of the event for that, here the photos will do the talking.

My good friend Mike’s 53 Chevy Truck


ick’s Chevy just looks right.













Interesting hard top chop





Chris’ 60 Ford, looking good!



Some of the Los Punk Rods Rides

Damn I love a long roof


Looking good bro!





Love the new intake Eric!

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More for the next 3 days, or you can be impatient and click here to see the entire 212 photo gallery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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Still one of my favorite shows that I’ve ever attended. The cars, the venue, the bands, everything just came together to make it a fantastic weekend. The Hot Rod Revolution in 2010 was the first year for the show in Austin, TX, it’s only about a 9 hour drive so it sounded like a great excuse to drive down and check it out. Leaving home at 6:15 pm I checked in to my hotel room at around 3:30am and went to sleep, 6 hours later I was headed to the show. The City of Austin Seaholm Power Plant made for a perfect backdrop of about 100 hot rods. 1948 and older only, traditional hot rod styling only, this show couldn’t help but be awesome. Here’s a slide show of that gallery, click here to go to the gallery directly.
Since then the show has moved to a new location in Austin at Camp Maybre. I attended the 2011 show there and shot photos that can be seen here. The show’s date has moved around and has conflicted with other shows that I needed to attend since and I’ve not been able to go again. Hopefully one of these years I can get back to it because it’s a great show of my favorite type of hot rods.
See you at a show,
Royboy
So one day not too long ago I get invited on Facebook to an Open House at a shop I didn’t know in Wichita, KS. The open house was the same day as another event that I was attending a few blocks away so it’s a no brainer that I’m going to stop in if at all possible. Clutch Rod And Custom at 406 S. Market in Wichita, KS was the shop. I’m glad I stopped in. As I’m told, the shop is an old Mercury dealership, I’d love to see the spacious facility filled with bathtub Mercs! The front display room had a couple of cars in it and every available surface was covered in art by different kulture artists. The cars on display in the shop were top notch, I didn’t get much chance to talk to the folks at the shop as they were busy running the Open House, but I did get to spend some time with my good buddy Ben Dragdaddy (facebook) and his lovely wife and my fellow photographer and buddy Grant Cox. I expect you to go to their pages on FB and follow their feeds, you won’t be disappointed.
Here are some photos from the evening.
Thanks to Clutch Rod And Custom for the food, the music and some good times of hot rod/kustom fellowship with some old friends.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Century II housed some more rides

Hooligans Hot Rods finished up the Zombie Merc last year, I can’t imagine the amount of tape that went into those flames.




The theatre room of Century II was full of some fantastic vintage racers of all types. From midgets to a fresh from Bonneville racer, everything you could think of was in the building.










This car was at Bonneville earlier in the month, on the 2nd day while running 249mph something went wrong, the car ended up rolling 17 times before it came to a stop. The driver is banged up but okay.















That’s it for my coverage of the 2013 Blacktop Nationals, next up is the Greaserama this weekend (Labor Day Weekend) and Starliner next weekend.
See you at a show,
Royboy
For part 2 of the coverage we’ll finish up with what was outside at the Blacktop Nationals this year.
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That’s it for what I saw and liked on the streets around the Blacktop Nationals, tomorrow’s post will be what I saw inside.
See you at a show,
Royboy
The 4th Annual Blacktop Nationals went down this weekend Aug. 23-25 in Wichita, KS. Based in the area of Century II in downtown Wichita the show stretches out across the Arkansas River to the west and to the south of Century II as well. The show welcomes all kinds of vehicles and has them out in the streets and inside of Century II as well. A road course is set up to the south of Century II for some ride alongs in new Ford Mustangs. Ford is one of the major sponsors of the show, and they go all out bringing their “circus” to town with new rides of all flavors.
You don’t see these very often.
The show judges the cars on the engine compartments, that’s why they all are open, yes I know it ruins photos and no there’s nothing that can be done about it.
A clean 58 Chevrolet
Mike’s newest build, a clean east coast style 34 Ford with all pre-53 parts except the 59 steering wheel, “it’s just too kool to not have on it.”
The cleanest shoebox in the area. So well done, so clean.
That’s it for the first installment. If you want to see the entire gallery go here. Tomorrow morning at the normal 9am time we’ll have a new update!
See you at a show,
Royboy
From time to time while I’m doing my normal car show coverage I’ll take an extra second and do some multiple exposure shots. When I get time I merge these HDR shots for a bit of a different look from normal. Mostly I try to keep them fairly realistic looking but occasionally I will get a bit wild. Here are some from the H.A.M.B. Drags. Remember if any of these shots are something that would look good on your living room or garage wall, click the photo to go to the shopping cart and order any size you’d like.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Finally we hit the track!
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Of course my friends from Wichita the McGregors are there, any time you see these sombreros there’s a good time somewhere close by.
Hot Rod Hill Climb and Grandpa’s Hot Rod Booth
Nick’s roadster is just getting better and better
Some of my Mulvane Marauder friends were in attendance
Of course the Lil Honker, always a favorite.
My buddy John’s barn find gasser
The man, the myth, the traveling legend Bob K!
Butch M’s 56 Chevy Gasser got some new touches
Some of the best curves in the automotive world.
Bill Moore’s “High School Dropout” Merc
This is one of the slickest flatties I’ve ever seen.
Don’s 53 is always looking good.
Another view of Rick’s new shoebox.
Krobe’s fastback fleetline Chevy
There are a couple of shoebox utes in the area, this one has a ton of work in it.
Kerry’s rail, I hear tell that about the time I headed for the hotel he pulled a 165 mph run, congrats man!
John and Butch warming up the hides.
That’s it for this HAMB Drags post, 1 more tomorrow and then maybe some special edits on Friday.
Thanks for following along on all of my adventures, remember if there are any photos you’d like to own a copy of for your wall, click on the photo here, and the site will take you to the appropriate page to buy prints. Every print you buy helps put gas in the tank to get me and my cameras to another show to bring you more show coverage.
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See you at a show,
Royboy
Here are some more shots from the HAMB Drags Friday Night’s pre-party shenanigans
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Mike and Daddy-O from Pushrod (and Atlas Speed & Custom)
This looks like a good time…
Dick’s Chevy is simple and clean and a driving machine.
Stray Kat Kustoms (Mickey) has just about finished his 60 Chevy with 60 Merc Grill as his daily driver.
Early Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast I roamed the parking lot a bit before heading out.
Here’s my buddy Rick’s new shoebox.
A whole lotta kool in the host hotel parking lot.
On the way to MO-KAN Dragway we stopped by Ryno Built for a coffee and donuts open house.
A few cars were taking advantage of the shop, like Jason swapping his slicks on.
Others gathered to help a friend 1/2 a country from home.
Then Jason tacked his grill support bracket back in place.
150 miles each way and consistent 10 second passes all day. Mike had a good debut weekend for the Henry J.
The next stop is the track for the main event!
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See you at a show,
Royboy
Another HAMB Drags weekend has come and gone.
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As usual for this event I decided to leave my ride at home and catch a ride with my folks down to Joplin. With all of the travel that I do, it’s good to spend a couple of those weekends a year with them on the road. As I loaded my bags into the back of the truck the rain was pouring down in our little town. We headed south as quick as we could to try to outrun the storm. The route between Gypsum, KS and Joplin, MO has a few turns so every time we out ran the storm we made a turn and drove right back into it for the first 2 hours or so of the trip. 15 or 20 miles in a massive hail storm and torrential downpours were lowlights of Thursday evening’s drive.
Friday morning we assembled some of our friends and headed for Springfield, MO for the swap meet. The Ozarks Antique Auto Club Swap Meet is massive. There is no other way to describe it really. The car corral is usually loaded with good buys and some that are a bit over priced. There are top notch vendors from across the country and a truly staggering amount of individual sellers covering the fairgrounds. I didn’t find anything that I couldn’t live without, actually I had my heart set on an Offenhauser 4bbl intake for my flathead and some matching heads, but some new Royboy computer upgrades had that cash spoken for. Ahhhh, maybe next year.
Then it was back to the host hotel area for the Friday Night pre-party! Tons of folks drove their rides from all over the country to attend the drags and the pre-party. Music was provided by my friends Pushrod and they rocked the party like non-other.
To see all of the photos in the gallery go here.
Then it was off to bed to get up for Saturday’s shenanigans, more about those tomorrow.
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See you at a show,
Royboy
Jeff Myers’ Stude Pickup and Voodoo Jim’s Corncob Coupe
Some of Shane Z’s pinstriped wares for sale
The lovely Brenna behind the wheel of my buddy Mike’s FED
After being inducted to the KKOA Hall of Fame, Keith Dean is back at work Sunday morning in the rain working on the chop.” alt=”After being inducted to the KKOA Hall of Fame, Keith Dean is back at work Sunday morning in the rain working on the chop.
My buddy Dick’s Graffiti Coupe
I need to get the full story on this car, as I remember it, it’s been under construction for years, originally was chopped in CA in the 50’s or 60’s? I’ll find out and report back.
Edsel Ranchero, complete with Edsel dash
Pinstriping Legend Ron Myers pulling lines
Larry Wolfe’s 1965 Pontiac Catalina, orginally customized by Dave Stuckey in the 60’s and recently returned to Wichita. I hear it will go under a rebuild to put it back in the form that it last left Stuckey’s shop in.
300,000 miles and still going strong.
Harness boys sure know how to build a looker.
BarnFindT’s 40 and NoSurf’s Coupe
Some of the pinups in the contest
My good friend “Gimlet” our new Miss Leadsled!
See you at a show,
Royboy