Week In Review: 1-13-14

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:

Monday

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 Royboy Feature Video Episode 3: RynoBuilt’s 1961 Ford Unibody

Tuesday

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 1 Month Warning: KC World Of Wheels

Wednesday

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 1 Month Warning: Darryl Starbird’s Tulsa Show

Thursday

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 2 Month Warning: Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals

Friday

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 Event Coverage: 2014 Starbird-Devlin Move In Day

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!

See you at a show,

Royboy

 

Weekly Review: 1-6-14

Monday

Guest Post: Matt Espy’s Ford by Steve Giangreco

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Tuesday

Shop Visit: Chaotic Customs

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Wednesday

Royboy Feature Videos

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Thursday

Artist Feature: Keven Carter

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Friday

Car Feature: Austin’s 32 Roadster

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See you at a show,

Royboy

 

Week In Review: 12-30-13

Monday:

A Heartfelt Thank You

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.

See you at a show,
Royboy

Top 5 Posts of 2013 on royboyproductions.com

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!

 

The Top 5 posts of 2013 are:

5. 2013 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular Set Up Day 431 VIEWS / POSTED JULY 25, 2013

4. Event Coverage: 2013 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular Part 4 455 VIEWS / POSTED JULY 29, 2013

3. Event Coverage: 2013 Rodder’s Journal Revival 441 VIEWS / POSTED OCTOBER 4, 2013

 

Photo by Nick Hoesing

2. Event Coverage: 2013 Greaserama Part 2 652 VIEWS / POSTED SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

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1. Event Coverage: 2013 Greaserama Part 1 1146 VIEWS / POSTED SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

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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.

See you at a show,

Royboy

Top 10 Photo Galleries of 2013

2013 was a fun year. In total over 50 new photo galleries were added to the 2013 folder, I haven’t added up the miles yet, or the expenses on hotels and such, but the fun meter was pegged all year long. Here are the most popular photo galleries from 2013 in slideshow form, click on the slide show to see the entire gallery. The total photo views for Royboy Galleries for 2013 was 4,462,950 not counting tomorrow of course. Since moving my photos to their current home on Smugmug just after the 2010 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular the total photo views for the site are now at 11,581,517. That just blows my mind. The majority of those views comes from people looking at my car show coverage threads on the H.A.M.B. but this year a big chunk was also from right here on my own site. The largest single day of the year was 7/29 (just after the KKOA) with 183,318 however most days average under 10,000 photo views.

The top 10 Royboy Productions galleries with the most views for 2013 are:

 10. 2013 Starbird-Devlin: 82,221 views

This was the first time that I showed my Galaxie at the Starbird-Devlin show and with it’s fresh Jeff Myers paint job (the plan is for an update to that paint job just before the show this year).

9. Starbird Rod & Custom Show: 84,648 Views

The other legendary show with the Starbird name. 2014 will be the 50th annual edition of this show.

8. 2013 Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals 108,535 views

The 2nd time that I’ve made the trip down to this show at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. I have a lot of friends in North Texas so I suspect that I will return for this event in the future, not sure about 2014 yet though.

7. 2013 Pistons and Paint: 125,221 Views

Another North Texas show, this one was a first time visit for me and another that I want to have on my schedule for 2014.

 6. 2013 H.A.M.B. Drags: 131,394 Views

I missed the first few H.A.M.B. Drags events but it’s one I go to every year now. It’s great to see so many of my H.A.M.B. friends, get to see them run their cars and it’s turned into a family event for us with friends and family gathering from 4 states to hang out in Joplin.

5. Stray Kat 500: 178,022 views

A cold and rainy forecast kept many away from the Stray Kat 500, but still the car count was HUGE for the weather, with my personal estimates in the 400 range.

4. Starliner: 160,410 views

The other Stray Kat Kustoms show is the Starliner, and unlike many of the shows this year it wasn’t rainy, it was almost unbearably hot on that tarmac. Not the hottest show we’ve had in the last few years for sure but it was pretty brutal. Still one of the koolest shows on the planet.

3. Greaserama: 214,180 views

Greaserama had a new home this year, some said that they would not attend because of it. They weren’t missed, this was easily the largest Greaserama to date and has room for growth in the new venue.

2. 2013 Lonestar Roundup: 409,702 views

ANOTHER Texas show, this one a bit farther south. Austin’s Lonestar Roundup keeps getting bigger and bigger, which can cause problems in a city already experiencing growing pains with horrendous traffic and construction zones. The show was huge this year and I had a blast taking my ride to it for the first time. I’ll be back in 2014.

And the most popular photo gallery of Royboy Productions for 2013 was:

2013 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular: 828,302 views

If it wasn’t for this show, I might not be doing this today. When the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular came to Salina it breathed a great new life into the show and it’s grown year after year. The last 3 years were incredibly hot with temps over 105 degrees, but this year was different. The rain that in some way was present for most of the year was again a factor but on Sunday this year it was 65 degrees instead of the 109 of the previous year. The show reached a new high of 1,867 entries. I hope in future years we can increase the number of kustoms and hot rods!

Thanks for a great year!

See you at a show,

Royboy

2014 Might Get Loud

In my mind there is no greater escape for me than to hop in a great car with a great stereo, roll the windows down and go blasting down some two lane highway. For as long as I’ve been driving, music and cars have gone together for me. As the years went on I found that it was possible to create a pretty fantastic listening environment in my favorite place to listen to music.

Please excuse the copious amounts of tweed, these were taken in the 90’s 🙂

About a decade ago some friends and I were going to make a run at competing for a world championship again in sound quality ranks of IASCA and USACi auto sound competitions. Life got in the way. I still have most of the equipment from that buildup as the car was never finished and I’m making plans now on putting a system in the Galaxie. Not to compete again, we were once among the very best in the world, that competitive nature is long gone from me. Now I just want to get in, put on a great song and just get lost on the road to nowhere.

Stay locked into the blog over the coming months, I hope to have a whole bunch of tech articles for you, both auto sound and just old car related. From installing new high output headlights in the Galaxie to better see at night and new taillights so you can better see me, to new weather stripping, sound deadening, proper wiring selection for a stereo system, building speaker mounts, system design, wiring harness installation (maybe), etc. I hope to provide more show coverage from outside photographers as well from shows that I cannot attend. If you have any other suggestions for the type of content you’d like to see, let me know here. As long as it goes to the common goal of talking about kool hot rods and hot kustoms built in the midwest, I’m open to hear your suggestions.

My goals for 2014 for Royboy Productions is to make this site into a daily digital magazine, turning up the volume with shop features, car features, the car show coverage that I do so much, tech articles and more. I’m throwing around the idea of creating a hard back book of car features whenever I have enough of them built up to fill a book and make it a good value for YOU. I will continue to create the occasional new books like the 2013 Squared book I just put out. Hopefully I’ll continue with the Artist Feature series as long as they keep filling out the questionnaires and agreeing to be on the site.

Stay tuned folks 2014 is about to get loud in more ways than one. Next Monday and Tuesday as we wind down 2013 I will feature some of the most popular posts and photos that I shared with you this year.

See you at a show,

Royboy

Week In Review 12-16-13

Motor Memories

As we grow older a once tight knit group of friends typically spreads out across the country. Only two events seem to bring even portions of the group back together, weddings and funerals. Unfortunately for my group of friends last night was the latter. As is typical with this group it didn’t take long for us to get to telling stories to the group of people that were starring in the stories, each of us laughing and adding in our own bits, finishing each others sentences, near tears in laughter when our hearts don’t quite feel like laughing. Those memories involved all manner of stories but some were car based, which got me to thinking about my earliest motor memories.

The earliest motor memory I have is sitting on my dad’s lap driving our 68 Mustang. At that point in his career with the company that now employs both of us, he was working on a crew that was on the road all week. The crews go out Monday morning and return Friday evening, so weekends were special. While other kids may have taken time with their dads for granted, I remember being acutely aware of the weekends being the Dad time. I must have been about 5 years old as I don’t remember my sister being a part of life at that point in time, since she came along when I was 6, this is my best guess. Grandma and Grandpa lived 1.5 blocks away if I cut through the neighbor’s (my uncle and aunt’s) yard but was 5-6 blocks driving around on the dirt streets. 30 years later our town still only has the one paved street and I still don’t live on it.

I remember we were leaving my Grandparent’s house, not sure if we were driving home or just cruising around town which we sometimes did in the Sea Foam Green 1968 Mustang. I don’t remember what drive train it had, I just remember that it was Sea Foam Green with a black vinyl top. I remember sitting on the passenger seat, this was before the overly protective laws of today, in the days when it was perfectly acceptable for kids to ride in the rear deck of the car, so it wasn’t a big deal to not be in a kid seat or even in the back seat. We were going a whopping 10-15 miles an hour so it wasn’t like we were in much danger anyways. I remember him asking if I wanted to drive, which I desperately did want to. He put me on his lap and showed me where to put my hands on the steering wheel, 10 and 2. I’m sure I had no idea what 10 and 2 was in reference to but I put my hands in the proper steering position with his hovering just above my hands in case a course correction was needed.

I remember the exhilaration of driving that first time. I wasn’t running the pedals, his hands were ready to correct any major mistakes, but in my mind I was Richard Petty. We were barely into the double digits speed wise but in my memory we were rounding turn 3 of Daytona. I still cherish time with my dad, I still long to be Richard Petty, I will forever remember the feeling of steering that Sea Foam Green 68 Mustang around our small town.

That earliest memory comes second only to one other motor memory, also with my dad and my grandpa. Sometime in the early 80’s when I was probably about 8 years old we were in Topeka, KS visiting family. Dad somehow heard of a Honda 185 3-wheeler that was for sale and for whatever reason it was soon loaded in the back of our Chevy Luv pickup and we were headed home to Gypsum. The Luv didn’t have much of a bed and the balloon tired ATV took up all of it, I remember straining to look out the rear window to make sure that it was there all the way home.

Once we got home to Gypsum we went directly to my Grandparent’s house so that Dad could show off the new toy. I think they may have been watching my baby sister as the rest of us were on that trip but for whatever reason we were there when we unloaded the ATV. A couple of times Dad showed me how to start and kill the engine. He showed me the throttle, the brakes, how to put it in gear. It was time to drive this machine!

So there I was, short arms barely able to get my hands stretched far enough to reach both grips at the same time. Dad was sitting behind me and we were parked in Grandpa’s driveway with Grandpa watching on. I pushed on the throttle and the engine revved. Dad told me to put it in gear, I did, I pushed the throttle again, the engine revved, we didn’t move. Again I tried putting it in gear, again I pushed the throttle, harder this time, still no movement. Dad was getting frustrated, I was getting frustrated, I pushed down on the shift lever one more time. This time my short little legs must have had enough umph to actually put the trans into gear because when I nailed that throttle this time the ATV stood up on it’s rear wheels and I road an Evel Knievel type wheelie across the street. I was a badass! Scared beyond belief I let my finger off the throttle and the front tire returned to terra firma and I slammed on the brakes just in time to keep from plowing into the neighbor’s bushes across the street from Grandpa’s driveway. I should have noticed that Dad was not on the bike any more.

Slowly my head turned and my eyes focused 30 feet behind me where I had slammed the throttle down in frustration. There was Dad sitting on the asphalt, where I had unceremoniously dumped him. Next to him on one knee was Grandpa, laughing so hard that he couldn’t breathe. There were a few more adventures that I had on that ATV but that’s the one above all others that sticks out in my mind. My Dad wanted to be mad but he was laughing as I dropped him on his ass, Grandpa had tears in his eyes, his cigar on the ground, his breathing coming back to normal. I was sure that Dad was going to take the ATV back to Topeka and that would be my only time ever driving it.

Such good memories, what are your favorite motor memories?

See you at a show,

Royboy

Week in Review: Week of 12-9-2013

Monday:

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Royboy Photo On The New Classic Trucks Magazine!

Tuesday:

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Royboy Review: Gears And Gals Magazine

Wednesday:

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1 Month Warning: Retro Rewind in Dubuque, IA

Thursday:

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New Royboy Book: 2013 Squared

 

Friday:

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Jonnie King Interviews Geno and Alan from Koolhouse Publishing

See you at a show,

Royboy

 

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Royboy Photo On The New Classic Trucks Magazine!

Well folks I had a whole different post planned for today but my furnace went out last night (tonight I as write this). So instead of having time to write the post I wanted, I have been trying to MacGyver it back to working through the night, no such luck as of now (12:15 am). Soooooooooo, I thought that I’d share this with you.

On newsstands now is the new issue of Classic Trucks Magazine the February 2014 issue, featuring a cover that I shot of Ryno Built’s Unibody. This is my 22nd time being published in a magazine and the 2nd time that one of my photos has been on the cover of a magazine! I’m feeling pretty blessed! Congratulations (for the 20th time from me) to Ryno Built on earning the cover! Get a subscription to Classic Trucks here!

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Sorry for the mess on my kitchen table, it was on my list tonight too…

See you at a show,

Royboy

 

Update: 7:30 am- the blower motor in the furnace is shot, I’ve gotten it to manually start a couple of times but she is kaput! Hoping to get another motor installed this afternoon and I’ll have time to get a proper post for you tomorrow! Thanks for your patience folks! -rb

Week in Review: Week of 12-2-2013

Here’s a list of links to all of the posts for this week. First up was the coverage from the Creme de la Chrome Rocky Mountain Auto Show in Denver, CO, then a shop visit at Jeff Myers’ Premier Body & Paint. Make sure to Subscribe at the top right hand corner of this page to get these stories sent to your email inbox every time they go live! In the upcoming weeks I’ll be featuring some reviews of some indie magazines that are out there, some feature articles on some great cars and announcements about upcoming shows. Sprinkle in some end of the year type posts and some new books, shirts and more that are being added to the Royboy store and I’ve got a lot of content coming your way to keep you going through these cold winter months. Right now we’re only about a month out from the first show of the 2014 schedule, I hope to make it there in my Galaxie but she may be getting some work done, so we’ll see. I hope to see a bunch of you next Saturday at the Mid Decembrrrr Run!

Monday

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Event Coverage: Rocky Mountain Auto Show Pt. 1

Tuesday

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Event Coverage: Rocky Mountain Auto Show Pt. 2

Wednesday

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Event Coverage: Rocky Mountain Auto Show Pt. 3

Thursday

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Event Coverage: Rocky Mountain Auto Show Pt. 4

Friday

Premier Paint & Body 4-23-11

Shop Visit: Premier Body and Paint

See you at a show,

Royboy

Calendar Update:

Hot Rods, Kustoms, Stray Kat Kustoms, Greaserama Editions all sold out!

There are only 20 copies of the Trucks Edition left! Order now to get it by Christmas!

Trucks 2014

Week in Review: Week of 11-25-13

First off Happy Thanksgiving from Royboy and my trusty sidekick Naladog to you and yours!

This week was a bit of an odd one with the holiday and having to scramble to provide content due to the Hot Rod Revolution cancellation.

Monday:

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Hobo Happening Part 1

Tuesday:

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Hobo Happening  Part 2

Wednesday:

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Kustom Kulture Art For Christmas

Thursday:

Thanksgiving

Friday:

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Jonnie King Interviews Gene Winfield on Sectioning a Car

Today is the last day of the month and I’ve decided that on the last day of each month I will pick one subscriber to the blog and give them a prize. This month’s prize was a black embroidered rb logo hat. I’m working with some friends to get some t shirts from various websites and businesses to make the prizes different each month. To be eligible you just need to be a subscriber to the site, you can become a subscriber by going to the top right hand corner of the site and entering your email address there. If you are receiving this blog in your email now you’re already a subscriber, congratulations!

See you at a show,

Royboy

Don’t forget to get your Greaserama and Trucks Editions Calendars ordered now! They are all that are left and they are going to be gone soon!

Kustom Kulture Art For Christmas!

Instead of lining up, fighting and trampling each other for the best deals on some junk product that your loved one won’t even still be using a year from now I’m hoping to encourage you to support these hot rod/kustom car artists by buying some kool art for your loved one. Every piece of kulture art that has ever been given to me is hanging up in my house and I look at it every day. That’s the kind of gift you want to give this Christmas. Support these artists! ALL OF THESE IMAGES BELONG TO THE ARTISTS. I’ve posted them without permission but hopefully everyone is kool with it because I’m promoting them! Sorry I didn’t have time to ask everyone’s permission. Just click the links to see their social media sites or where I knew them, their stores. Support kustom kulture and the artists that inspire us all!

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Doug DoRr

Facebook | Instagram

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1468537_674509665914735_1537879932_nBen Dragdaddy

Facebook

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3099_1038134122621_3113626_nTodd C. Jones

Facebook

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Ed Tillrock

Facebook | Instagram

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Lizzie Fenwick

Facebook | Instagram

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Fat Daddy

Facebook | Instagram

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Timebomb Kustoms

Facebook | Store | Instagram

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Max Grundy

Facebook | Instagram

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Bernie Ramirez

Facebook

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Weesner

Facebook | Instagram | Website

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Jeff Allison

Facebook | Instagram

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Tom Fritz

Facebook

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Chad Lambert

Facebook

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Josh Welton (Brown Dog)

Facebook

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BOMONSTER

Facebook | Instagram

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Scott Fisk

Facebook

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Johnny Jalopy

Facebook | Instagram

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El Roy Pinstriping

Facebook

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Merit Speed and Machine- Kenny Murphy

Facebook

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Squindo

Facebook | Website

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Micky Hora

Facebook

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Hot Rod Jen

Facebook

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Keven Carter Car-N-Art

Facebook | Store

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Django Studios

Facebook

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Jeff Norwell

Facebook

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Red House Custom Paint

Facebook

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McPhail

Facebook

 

Also support these indie magazines

Hill Country Car Culture magazine

Gears N Gals

Kustoms Illustrated

LowView

Speed & Chrome

If I forgot anyone, post their info in the comments below on the site. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten a bunch of people and it will make me feel awful when I realize it. To anyone I forgot to mention, I’m an ass and I apologize.

Tiny at Friction In The Static podcast is doing a similar thing and promoting some artists on the podcast. Go subscribe to FITS and support those artists too!

See you at a show,

Royboy

Like this post? Subscribe at the top right hand corner of the site here and you’ll get updates every time they go live!!!

Week in Review: Week of 11-18-13

Well folks, as I said last week, through the slower colder months I am cutting back to new content on the site on Monday-Friday. But I have had a couple of people say why not do a a review on Saturday of what was posted on the site this week, that’s what this is. As most of you know by now, the Hot Rod Revolution that was supposed to be on this weekend has been cancelled and I never made out of the state of Kansas on Thursday. Friday I took the rare opportunity to just stay home and do nothing, sure I had a ton of stuff to do but it was the first real chance to decompress in a very long time and it was awesome! Today I will attempt to go to the Hobo Happening in Douglass, KS, we’ll see what the weather holds. Hopefully on Monday I’ll have some coverage for you from that event. As always, if you want to get this blog in your email each time it goes live just enter your email address in the box at the top right hand corner of royboyproductions.com and I’ll get you hooked up with the direct feed. At the end of each month I will pick one subscriber to win a prize of some sort, usually one of the Royboy products, sometimes a big discount on a large format print, maybe we’ll get some sponsors to step up and pitch in as well. If you have a company that could benefit from being seen by a couple of hundred car nuts a day, send me a message here and we can talk about how to get your ad on the site.

Week in Review

Monday:

2 Month Warning: Starbird-Devlin Rod And Customs Charities Car Show

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Tuesday:

Shop Visit: Nostalgia Sid’s Dropped Axles

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Wednesday:

Shop Visit: Shoebox Central

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Thursday:

Artist Feature: Ed Tillrock

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Friday:

Chaotic Customs Shop Visit 11-21-13

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Hopefully while you’re reading this I’ll be on the way to Douglass, KS for a cold but still on Hobo Happening!

See you at a show,

Royboy

 

1 Month Warning: Mid Decembrrrr Run!

This is the 4th time I’ve put together the Mid Decembrrrr Run and the 4th variation on the theme. The first run was about 130 miles with stops to tour the McPherson College Auto Restoration program, the very impressive Kansas Motorcycle Museum and a stop at my friend Calvin’s Customs shop in Salina, KS before heading to the Stiefel Theatre to watch that year’s KKOA Leadsled Spectacular DVD from Vintage Torque. Year 2 we did about 150 miles and took the group on a great drive through some scenic country that most had never seen before, and we stopped at the Kansas Auto Racing Museum in Chapman, KS before hitting Calvin’s shop. Year 3 was a long long drive, we left from Calvin’s and headed west on old highway 40 all of the way out to Big Creek Restoration in Ellis, KS where we were treated to some BBQ and a shop tour before turning around and rolling back to Salina. All of these included stops at the Paramount Bar in Salina for drinks and usually some food that we put together to feed the weary travelers.


View Larger Map

So the 4th year I’m taking you on a new adventure and adding the movie experience back in. We’ll leave my small home town of Gypsum, KS shortly after 10am, heading east on K4 Highway and then ducking off onto some paved roads that connect some of the smaller towns of the area. The road part of the trip is shorter than past years at about 65 miles but the stop in the middle is a good one! President Dwight D. Eisenhower grew up in Abilene, KS and that’s where his Presidential Library is. We will stop for lunch in Abilene and head to the museum, for about a 2.5 hour stop. This will provide some great indoor time to not only see some great historical pieces but to hang out with folks also on the Run. Please note that the admission to the museum is $10 a head for anyone 6 years old and older, we may get a slight discount as a group but plan for $10 just in case. From there we will head out of Abilene and catch old 40 again and head for Salina. A quick stop to see what Calvin’s Customs is up to then on to the Paramount for some food, drinks and a special screening of the new Atomic Hot Rods Film “This is Long Beach.” We may show the new KKOA DVD while we’re eating as well, I’ve not decided and asked for permission on that part yet. The movie does cost me money to screen, so some donations to that cause would be awesome. In the past couple of years I’ve made arrangements for some food to be served, I’m not sure what I’m doing to that end this year. We may have some snacks at the Paramount and just all go to a brand new Pizzeria after the screening. As we closer to the day we’ll get that figured out. PLEASE NOTE: If you are waiting until that day to get your 2014 Calendar for Charity, DON’T! They are going fast and only 39 remain of the 250 that were produced!

So come along with us and enjoy the ride, drive your cool classic hot rod, kustom, cruiser or whatever if you’d like, drive your daily driver if you must, just join the rod/kustom family on yet another adventure that we call the Mid Decembrrrr Run.

Links:

Here’s where the info on the run is on facebook. Ask questions there if you have any.

Here’s a link to the Eisenhower Museum

Here’s a link to Calvin’s Customs

Here’s the Paramount Bar

Here is the Vintage Torque DVD’s link for the KKOA DVD

Here is Atomic Hot Rods site, where you can purchase “This is Long Beach” or any of the Atomic Hot Rods Films. I will have some copies of “This Is Long Beach” on hand for you to purchase at the event if you’d like them.

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Remaining Calendars: 25 Trucks, 13 Greaserama and 1 Stray Kat Kustoms, the Hot Rods and Kustoms Editions are SOLD OUT!!!!

Stray Kat Kustoms 2014 Trucks 2014 Greaserama 2014

 

See you on the run!

Royboy

Keep your head warm on the cold winter days! Pre-order a new RB Beanie for just $10 plus shipping. After the pre-order the price returns to $12 plus shipping so get one now!

beanie2

 

New shirts, books and more are on the way, just in time for Christmas! Subscribe to this blog in the top right hand corner of royboyproductions.com to keep up to date on what’s available and when it’s available.

2014 Calendar For Charity Progress Report!

2014 Calendar For Charity Progress Report!

In 3 weeks (and 2 days) we’ve sold 76 Calendars, awesome!
The printing bill has been paid, more supplies have been paid for and delivered, total outlay is about $1033.41. So far we have taken in about $785 in calendar sales + shipping.
I have used that money plus $248 of my own to cover the printing costs and I will cover the shipping costs out of my own pocket until enough calendars are sold to pay that back. With 8 weeks left in the year we have to average 22 calendars a week and so far we’ve averaged 23 a week. This is where sales usually drop off a bit. Please share the links to the calendars to friends that have bought them in the past or you think would enjoy them, that extra sharing does really help get the word out.

Now the story gets interesting. As I sat down Wednesday evening Oct. 30th to start to assemble the freshly printed calendars I found that they had been printed incorrectly. In order to bind the calendars at the top the pages have to be printed so that the front and the back of the pages have the same orientation of top to bottom. These did not! 250 copies of wasted paper! As of the writing of this post (4am Central time) I have not heard back from the print shop but I left messages at 7pm on 2 voice mail accounts and 1 email. ***Update at 8:30am: The print shop is reprinting them all to be correct and hopefully I’ll be punching and binding 250 copies this weekend. *** Rest assured they will get printed and they will go out as promised.

The Hot Rods, Kustoms and Stray Kat Kustoms Editions are tied for best sellers so far with 22 sold each but I expect the Stray Kat Edition to take a commanding lead this weekend. If you want one you’d better reserve your copy now by ordering today. There will be NO reprints, it’s not cost-effective unless we’re doing a large batch.

2014 Calendar For Charity: Kustoms Edition $10

 

2014 Calendar For Charity: Hot Rods Edition $10

2014 Calendar For Charity: Greaserama Edition $10

2014 Calendar For Charity: Stray Kat Kustoms Edition $10

2014 Calendar For Charity: Trucks Edition $10

 

Thanks folks for pushing this blog to 18,995 views since Aug. 15, 2013!!! October was the biggest month to date as well! Thanks so much for following my adventures look for feature articles, artist features and more to come!

 

See you at a show.

Royboy

Use the Subscribe box at the top right corner of the page to receive the latest posts via email each day.

Thanks to RJay’s Speed Shop, the first official sponsor of royboyproductions.com The owner of RJay’s is a friend & will treat you right!

RJays-Logo-WhiteonBlack

Calendar Printing Day!

Well folks, the day is finally here, tomorrow the 2014 Calendar for Charity go to the printer! 56 of the 250 have sold so far since going on sale October 9th. We have not raised enough to cover printing costs yet so I will dip into my savings to cover the printing and shipping costs. I’ll really be pushing the calendars hard to get the rest sold and get the costs covered, I’d appreciate any help any of you could give me!

Each edition of the Calendar is only $10 and there is a $5 shipping fee that covers the packaging, shipping, etc. So get more than one and save!

Click on any of these Calendar front pages and go to the web page that they are sold on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone that has purchased calendars so far! I truly appreciate all of you supporting this project year after year.

See you at a show,

Royboy

Use the Subscribe box at the top right corner of the page to receive the latest posts via email each day

Don’t forget to get your 2014 Calendar for Charity order in ASAP! They’re already going fast, once they’re gone they’re gone!

Photo Editing

Photo editing is a major part of my process. Over the years I’ve learned things that I like and don’t like composition wise and I’ve learned to take better photos but the editing is always an important part of my workflow. I shoot in RAW for the greatest flexibility in editing, both now and in the future. The file sizes are huge and on my old computer were pretty taxing, the newer Mac Mini I built is much faster. I thought I’d give you a basic example of what comes out of the camera vs. the basic edits that I do and then a bit wilder edit. For a few years I’ve used Apple’s Aperture software as both a photo library and to do basic editing, but for more advanced edits I’ll routinely fly photos out into Photoshop, Perfect Effects, or Snapseed to get the look I am going after.

Basic Camera Shot

This shot is an outtake from a shoot of Doug Reed’s 49 Olds “Toad” that I was lucky enough to shoot for Car Kulture Deluxe magazine.

Doug Reed's Toad  0043 - Version 3

Basic Editing

Some basic editing done here. I have certain presets that I use for different lens usage. They richen the colors , sometimes deepen the contrast, add a basic vignette (sometimes), and on this image I edited out some things that annoyed me, a lonely rock here or there, the end of some railroad rails that stuck into the bottom of the image, just small things to clean up.

Doug Reed's Toad  0043

 

Deeper Editing

Usually this is an artistic process that is different for each photo.

 

Some other examples

If you have any photos that you’d like to have edited, send me a message here to ask me how.

See you at a show,

Royboy

Use the Subscribe box at the top right corner of the page to receive the latest posts via email each day

Don’t forget to get your 2014 Calendar for Charity order in ASAP! They’re already going fast, once they’re gone they’re gone!

Adding a layer of kool to the Mid Decembrrrr Run!

Back on the 11th of October I told you all about the 2013 Mid Decembrrrr Run. Well I’ve added something to it! At the end of the run while we’re all sitting at the Paramount bar enjoying some food and drinks we’ll be screening the new Atomic Hot Rods film “This Is Long Beach.”

Over the last few years I’ve collected all of the Atomic Hot Rod films, and I really like them all. The “Road to Bonneville“, “Devil At Your Feet“, “A Sweet Sickness“, “White Knuckle” are all permanently in my movie setup at home and they are watched regularly, I’m sure “This Is Long Beach” will be the same. Here are some clips from the film, you can order yours here. If you’re interested I can order 10 or so and have them for sale at the end of the run.

 

 

See you at a show,

Royboy

Use the Subscribe box at the top right corner of the page to receive the latest posts via email each day

Don’t forget to get your 2014 Calendar for Charity order in ASAP! They’re already going fast, once they’re gone they’re gone!

2014 Calendar for Charity Presale!

The 2014 Calendar For Charity is available for pre-order now! There are 5 editions available, 50 copies of each, that’s all that will ever be made.

Pre-order ends Oct. 31. The calendars will be printed the first week of November and will be shipped the 2nd week.

Over $1000 was raised for charity last year, help top that number this year! Hot Rods, Trucks, & Kustoms editions will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. Stray Kat Kustoms edition will benefit the Red Cross. The Greaserama Edition beneficiary has not been decided as of this posting.
Click the thumbnail photo to go to the store page to order yours!

 

Note: There may be some design changes along the way but this is basically what the calendars will look like.

Tell your friends, get one for the car guy or gal in your life, make sure you don’t delay because when they are gone, they are gone.

See you at a show,

Royboy

Automotive Art Gallery

From time to time in my car show coverage, I like to spend a little extra editing time on a shot. Most of these end up in this gallery. Here are a few of my favorites, these would look great printed on metallic paper in 12×18 or larger on your wall. Especially the HDR shots, they really pop on the metallic paper. Just click on the photo, pick your size and paper style and boom you are good to go!

Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
 Fire Truck in Black & White
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
 Ladies in waiting
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!
Get a print of this photo, just click on it and you\’ll be taken to the purchase page!

 

Like this photo? Click on it to purchase a print. Available from 4×6 to poster sizes.
Like this photo? Click on it to purchase a print. Available from 4×6 to poster sizes.
Like this photo? Click on it to purchase a print. Available from 4×6 to poster sizes.
Like this photo? Click on it to purchase a print. Available from 4×6 to poster sizes.

 

See you at a show,
Royboy

New Royboy Store Now Open!

Well, it took some learning, cussing and figuring but I think I finally got it. What you should have now on royboyproductions.com is a fully functional store for buying whatever it is that you want from Royboy Productions. Embroidered Hats, silk screened shirts, posters, and more all available from this one place. If you have any questions please let me know and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!

Go To The Store Now!

  • Sale!

    2024 Royboy Productions Calendar!

    $5.00
    Add to cart
  • Sale!

    29 Model A Hot Rod Keychain

    $5.00
    Add to cart
  • RB Stars & Stripes Sticker

    $3.00
    Add to cart
  • Sale!

    Hot Rods, Kustoms, America Shirt

    $20.00$22.00
    Select options
  • Kustom… Because Stock Sucks Sticker

    $3.00
    Add to cart
  • Sale!

    Kustom Because Stock Sucks Shoebox Design

    $25.00$27.00
    Select options
  • rb Magnet

    $6.00
    Add to cart
  • Sale!

    Sold Out! 2023 Royboy Productions Calendar

    $12.00
    Read more
  • 48 Cars 48 States Camper Sticker

    $3.00
    Add to cart
  • Sale!

    rb Sticker

    $3.00$5.00
    Select options
  • 1955 Ford Layla Sticker

    $3.00
    Add to cart
  • AV8 Roadster Sticker

    $3.00
    Add to cart

See you at a show,

Royboy

Brand New royboyproductions.com

By now you should be aware of the new royboyproductions.com

 

I’m not going to waste a bunch of your time explaining it. Basically the blog has become the main ingredient of the site. There are links in the menu across the top of the page to let you go straight to Event Coverage, Car Features, Show Schedule, Galleries, all of your favorite components of Royboy Productions. There are a couple of “Coming Soon” pages, and yes I hate them too, but they are coming and I just wanted them there for place holders until I can finish the pages out.

 [pydsmugmugslider albumid=”20215782″ albumkey=”vZDMQb” albumtype=”slider” imagesize=”OriginalURL” imagelink=”BuyURL” ]

If you have any questions or comments on the new site layout, please use the form below.

 

See you at a show,

Royboy

 

 

The Future for Royboy Productions

1951 Cadillac Series 61 1_2_tonemapped

The Future for Royboy Productions

 In the coming weeks things get very busy for Royboy Productions. The website is long overdue for an overhaul, that will be happening soon. The 2014 calendars will be announced in the first week of October, which seems like a long ways away but will be here before you know it.

1949 Oldsmobile Kustom

Website Redesign

Since January of this year the daily Monday through Friday blog posts have really been a focus of mine. I strive to bring you something of value daily. I want to take that to another level, not only by going to a 7 day a week schedule but also by making the blog the basic foundation of the site. When you go to royboyproductions.com you will be greeted with the blog, where I plan on having the same show coverage that you’ve become used to but also add in shop visits, car features, car club features and special interest stories.

Advertising

Yes the new site will have advertising. While the car show coverage and other photos on the Royboy Galleries are all for sale, let’s be honest, they don’t come close to paying the bills. The same holds true for all of the magazine coverage. I want to continue to offer you all of this coverage for free which means that I’ll be looking to add advertising to the main site, but care will be taken to make it blend in and flow with the content instead of distract you from the purpose of the site. If you own a business that would like to be in front of the Royboy audience’s eyes, use the contact form here to get ahold of me. Since the blog has gone to the daily format it’s gone from around 2,500 views to over 40,000 and the photos on the gallery page have jumped to over 9.6 million views recently.

Shows

Starting next weekend August 17th with the H.A.M.B. Drags I will be pretty busy doing a show or event every weekend almost until Thanksgiving. You will be able to get the full rundown of all of the shows that I plan on attending by going to the schedule section of royboyproductions.com There will be some shows on the schedule that I want you to know about because I support them but I just can’t make it, those will be denoted with a simple “not attending” after their name in the listing. Just because I can’t make it there doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t, if it’s on the list, it’s an event you should attend.

Shadow_0018

Email Newsletter

Since social media like Facebook likes to hold content back from users in an effort to get businesses to pay to promote their content I’ve been toying with the idea of taking the most popular blog posts and photos each week and compiling them into a newsletter that would be delivered to your email. This will not be fresh content but rather a “best of” delivered right to your inbox. If I go through with the newsletter project it will include something like a background image for your desktop or cellphone as a free bonus.

 Richard Kroeber's Coupe

Photo Shoots

Photo shoots and magazine articles are where Royboy Productions makes it’s money. The magazine articles pay decently for the effort it takes to do them but there are often many months between the work and the pay since they do not pay until the magazine goes to publishing with your article in it. The shoots are something I’ve really not pushed enough, but especially starting in 2014 (and some this fall) I want you to know that it’s really more economical than you think to get some fantastic quality photos of your ride created. I will try to work in shoots while I’m at shows that you’re also at, where we leave the show or just go to a less populated site for some amazing images, thereby saving you money by not having to cover travel expenses for me. Sitting around and talking with Wichita kustom legend Dave Stuckey has really driven the point home to me that decades from now the photos that you have of the cars you used to own will be the biggest reminders of memories that otherwise may stay hidden in the back of your mind. Yes that sounds corny, but Dave has very few photos of all of the cars that he’s built due to a house fire and other circumstances. He’s really opened my eyes up to how important it is to document all of this. Let me help document your ride so you can pass the stories down to future generations. If you’re interested in a custom photo shoot use the contact form here to get ahold of me and we can talk about your project.

See you at a show,

Royboy