Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
I mention my buddy Ryno a lot. There’s a few reasons:
1.) I like to talk about my talented friends who are doing good work
2.) he always seems to have some cool rides coming through the shop
3.) his spare room seems to be my base of operations for that region so I get to see what he’s working on quite a bit.
Awhile back he got a new project from a friend of ours from TX. Rudy had a 56 Chevy that had been in the family for decades and he wanted it rebuilt. It had been used out in the oil fields and had been stored for years. I’ll tell more of the story when the car is done, for now that’s enough back story.
A couple of years ago while I was at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS I spotted a 57 Ford out in the grass next to the shop. Jeff told me that it had belonged to his dad and had a 39o in it. I kind of forgot about the car sitting there until I stopped by one day to check on the progress of the 41 Ford that Jeff has been building for his customer Roy. As it turns out Roy also saw the 57 and a deal had been struck to start a second build. The best kind of customer that a shop can have his basic instructions to Jeff have been to “build it the way you would build it for yourself.” The cars are both coming together and I though I’d share a few pics of the 57 over the last few visits. Look for an update on the 41 in the future as well.
Continue reading “Premier Body And Paint Builds A Kustom 1957 Ford”
When it was painfully obvious that the weather was not going to cooperate with my NSRA Southwestern Nationals plans last Saturday I was about 100 miles north of OKC. Being that far south I grabbed my phone and made some calls. Chris Whittington of Shoebox Central just so happened to be headed to his shop. Every time I’d been there before had been pretty busy so I figured it was a perfect time to hang out at the Shoebox mecca.
Back in September I stopped in to Big Creek Restoration in Ellis, KS to see what Mike Keller and company were up to. I figured they’d have something killer in the works and I was right. An incredible 34 was under construction, at the time a rolling chassis with a beautifully detailed Hemi between the rails. Now the body is back on and it’s looking really good!
I always say the best thing about getting neck deep in the rod/kustom family is the people that you meet. Lots of talented folks are out here in the Midwest building killer rides, one of them is Johnny Torres at his shop Johnny Torres Upholstery in Hutchison, KS. Johnny’s shop is located on the south end of Main Street in Hutchinson, in the former offices of the Ark Valley CO-OP. Go follow his facebook page here and keep up to date on what he’s up to.
Its no secret that I take my cars to Jeff Myers at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS. Jeff is once again nominated for the KKOA Hall of Fame this year, and since I had some spare time last weekend I figured it was time to pay a visit to Premier. Jeff has a number of kustoms in the shop that are under construction, but his collision work has been so overwhelming that it’s time to bring on some help so that he has more time to work on the kustoms.
The new blood in the shop isn’t exactly new, Voodoo Jim (Jim Allen) will be around the shop to handle mechanical duties, wiring, etc.
With the new help, expect to see the 57 and 41 rolling out of the shop over the next year or so, plus Jimmy’s Buick, and some new paint on my Galaxie amongst others!
Get the 2014.5 KKOA Calendar now!
See you at a show,
Royboy
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I’m sure most of you have heard of spray on chrome. It’s been around for awhile now. Not many people are doing it right so you see guys routinely pop up, show off a few pieces and then disappear. That’s not the case at Alternative Chrome Creations at 8900 S. Broadway in Haysville, KS. They have been slowly perfecting the art of chroming anything that you can paint for a couple of years now. You won’t see any big advertising from them, or booths at shows across the country…yet. Owner Larry Perkins says “we wanted to be sure we could deliver a quality product before we started marketing all over the place. Even without it we are busy all of the time.” Their shop was full of parts in various stages of the process including some finished pieces that were really amazing.
On the way to the Queen City Riot last week I stopped by Ryno Built in SW Missouri. Ryno has become a great friend of mine and I take my car to his shop for work when I need something done that is over my head. Here’s what I saw…
There are a lot of talented builders out there, there are a ton of great shops I get to visit. Hot Rod Garage of Sand Springs, OK stands out as one of the best of that group. Last Friday on my way to Tulsa I stopped and hung out at the HRG for about an hour looking at some of the projects they have going on.
This is one of the most meticulous shops I’ve ever seen. Every car is built right and every car is an example of how to do whatever it is that you’re doing. I was floored at the craftsmanship when I got to see it up close. Father and Son owners the Smith’s were out in the shop getting dirty when I showed up. Their office chairs empty, their hands dirty, building cars. That says a lot to me.
Jim and his son Jason Smith started HRG 17 years ago and have grown to be one of the best around.
See you at a show,
Royboy
May Subscriber Giveaway!
If you want to this blog in your email inbox each time the blog goes live, go on up to the top right hand corner of the website and enter your email address. The last day of each month I randomly pick 1 subscriber to win a prize package.
May Prize Package includes:
A shirt from Gear Drive Speed & Custom
A copy of the latest Gears And Gals Magazine
And special grab bag item from Royboy Productions, could be an embroidered hat, a t shirt, a poster, anything on the site is up for grabs!
$1000 Up For Grabs! Click here for more info!
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For the last few years I’ve been telling my buddy Eric of the Los Punk Rods from KC that I was going to come by and check out their club shop. I always got to busy or forgot to get ahold of him, quite frankly I was just rude about it and I apologize. The Los Punk Rods folks have been awesome to me over the years, 1st of all putting on the Greaserama which I always enjoy, but more than that just being all around kool folks to hang out with. So with the Pete & Jake’s trip planned for last weekend I finally sent Eric a message that if the offer was still there, I’d like to finally come by and see the shop.
Every manner of project from a vintage front engine dragster to mini bikes to vans, kustoms, hot rods, choppers, the list was long of what was in the shop in various stages of build or disassembly. Some were future builds just hanging out waiting, some were nearly finished, some just works in progress, and while they are in progress they will have the everlovin bejesus driven out of them, that’s how these folks do it.
I will not wait years for my next visit.
See you at a show,
Royboy
May Subscriber Giveaway!
If you want to this blog in your email inbox each time the blog goes live, go on up to the top right hand corner of the website and enter your email address. The last day of each month I randomly pick 1 subscriber to win a prize package.
May Prize Package includes:
A shirt from Gear Drive Speed & Custom
A copy of the latest Gears And Gals Magazine
And special grab bag item from Royboy Productions, could be an embroidered hat, a t shirt, a poster, anything on the site is up for grabs!
$1000 Up For Grabs! Click here for more info!
Thank you to the first 2 sponsors of my site, quite frankly the only 2 that I’ve asked to sponsor the site so far. If you’d like to help sponsor Royboy Productions and provide the koolest car show coverage to folks worldwide, click here to ask me about it.
For a few months I’ve been wanting to get out to Russell, KS to visit Auto Artistry. I first found out about this shop from Doug Reed who’s Toad (49 Oldsmobile Kustom) had been reworked at Auto Artistry. Finally last Saturday I got the chance to make the trip out to Russell.
From the Auto Artistry website: “Our business was started in 1989.We did custom and restoration work and were primarily a collision repair shop known as Auto Body Specialists. In 2003 we decided to go primarily street rod and custom, so the name was changed to reflect that.We do all chassis, custom fabricating, bodywork, and paint all in house.”
Auto Artistry has a range of projects in progress and on display finished.
Visit Auto Artistry on their website here
Or on Facebook here
See you at a show,
Royboy
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If you want to this blog in your email inbox each time the blog goes live, go on up to the top right hand corner of the website and enter your email address. The last day of each month I randomly pick 1 subscriber to win a prize package. This month’s prize is a kustom art piece from Chaotic Customs (shown below), a Royboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Stray Kat Kustoms!
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$1000 Up For Grabs! Click the link for more info!
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Thank you to the first 2 sponsors of my site, quite frankly the only 2 that I’ve asked to sponsor the site so far. If you’d like to help sponsor Royboy Productions and provide the koolest car show coverage to folks worldwide, click here to ask me about it.
Apparently, I can’t read a map very well. You see, Dewey, OK is not really on the way from Joplin, MO to Salina, KS by any logical means, yet I seem to keep finding myself there on that particular journey. Dewey is Stray Kat Kustoms central, and I enjoy spending some time with my Stray Kat brethren there. One of them is Aaron Lawrence, the AL in Fast AL’s Upholstery. Aaron has been really skyrocketing lately as an upholsterer, and it’s been fun to watch a buddy really find his stride and just kick butt. Every time that I get myself down to Dewey I find one or two new rides in Aaron’s shop getting full on kustom interiors. He just finished the beautiful 58 Edsel Wagon that I showed you last week as part of the 2014 Starbird-Devlin show coverage and he already has 2 more under construction.
So I pulled out the iPhone and shot some quick images as we sat around and talked. Aaron is in the middle of an expansion on his shop so that he can move some of the operation to a separate room. The new space will add and office and an indoor space to hang out as well moving some of the dirtier work out of the same space that the cars are in. This should save some cleaning time on the cars and less moving cars in and out as they are being worked on. I’m looking forward to seeing the future for Fast AL’s, every car I see just keeps getting better and better.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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So yesterday I posted about the new transmission cross-member that my buddy Ryno at Ryno Built did for me. While I was there I snapped some photos of some of the other rides that are at Ryno Built. His truck was the 62 Unibody Ford that I was lucky enough to shoot for the cover of the Feb. 2014 issue of Classic Trucks Magazine. Since selling the truck to it’s new east coast home he’s been busy working on a Mercury project for a client from Texas, and driving a cool Chevy wagon that he bought from that same client.
Thanks for following along folks, tomorrow’s post will feature a shop visit from my drive home where I stopped at Fast AL’s Upholstery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Between Christmas and New Year’s I was on a road trip and had a little time to stop by and see my friends at Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS. They’ve done some work on one of my cars and a couple for my dad and I wanted to drop off some Christmas candy from my family to the Chaotic crew.
Here are some cell phone photos from that visit.
Thanks to my friends at Chaotic for opening up the doors to my dad and I and taking the time to show us all of the projects in the shop. I’m sure the big tray of candy had nothing to do with that :). I have upcoming shop visits planned for 3 new shops in the next few months, stay up to date by subscribing in the top right hand corner of the page.
See you at a show,
Royboy
A couple of weeks ago when my weekend plans were changed due to a show being cancelled due to an impending ice storm I looked for alternate places to cover on the site. One of my favorites is my good buddy Jeff Myers’ Premier Body and Paint in Arkansas City, KS, so I decided to head down to AC and see what Jeff was up to. A couple of months ago Jeff bought out a former partner in the business and has been making some changes since then. Things are starting to look different around the shop and I see a new gleam in Jeff’s eye that’s telling me he’s got a renewed energy. I’m looking forward to seeing what Premier turns out in 2014. For those that don’t know Jeff took my car from stock to wild paint last winter, read more about that here, and it may be going back for a couple more kustom touches this winter if the timing works out:).
See you at a show,
Royboy
On my way to the Hot Rod Revolution (which was being cancelled as I shot these photos) I stopped by my friends’ Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS to see what they were up to. The shop was full of projects and folks working on them. Drew Carlson was nice enough to take a few minutes off of working on a project to show me around the shop and explain what they’d been up to recently since finishing the SEMA build on Mike’s 40 Ford Pickup. The photos below should all be captioned and explain what you’re seeing. I will try to stop in a couple of more times over the next few months for more updates on these projects.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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The second stop on my trip down to Pistons and Paint (see show coverage here and 1st shop visit here) was at Oklahoma City’s Shoebox Central. Owner Chris has owned shoeboxes as far back as high school, so he knows them inside and out. He has a ton of parts cars out back and shelves and shelves of various parts inside, pulled from parts cars, some N.O.S., some reproductions, all kinds of parts for just about anything else you could need.
See you at a show,
Royboy
On the way to Pistons and Paint (see coverage here), I stopped in at my buddy Nostalgia Sid’s shop in Guthrie, OK. Nostalgia Sid’s is your source for drop axles for whole bunch of vehicles. If you go to their site here you can get a rundown of what all they do. I happened to show up just in time to watch them heat up and drop an axle.
So if you need a drop axle, you need to head over and check out Nostalgia Sid’s site, tell Sid that Royboy sent ya. Spend a little time on their site with the tech articles and lots of photos here. Enjoy!
See you at a show,
Royboy
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Shop Visit: Ryno Built and the Sharer 50 Merc “Sweet Memories”
After the Stray Kat Feed my dad and I loaded up in the F250 and headed 2 hours east to Ryno Built to take a peek at a frame that he’s been working on for my buddy Jeff from Texas. The plan is to get the frame finished up, painted and then move on to body work including a chop. The frame came in with a Street Rod Engineering Mustang II subframe already installed but Ryno finished it out and smoothed out some of the welds, etc.
Here’s some photos of the Chassis with the new Coker wide whites and chrome wheels, notice the exhaust and fuel line/brake line tunnels made in the x-frame so that the frame lays flat.
Follow along with the entire build thread here.
See you at a show.
Royboy
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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!
On the way home from Lamar, MO last weekend I took a detour to go visit my buddy Aaron at Fast AL’s Upholstery in Dewey, OK. Aaron recently had his Open House which marked his 1st year anniversary going full time from his shop. Aaron has had a constant stream of kool rides through the shop in that time and he has them lined up for the foreseeable future due to his reasonable prices and excellent work.
Here are some photos of an incredible 32 that Fast AL’s has in shop right now.
Aaron explaining the seat to Mickey
Sneak peek of the car. I hope to shoot more of it soon so not too much for now.
The start of the trunk panels
Next to the 32 is a 30 A on 32 rails that Aaron is working on for himself.
Headliner is in, lots of other work going on here too.
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!
I’ve known Johnny Torres for a few years now, so when he invited me down to the Open House at his Johnny Torres Upholstery at 915 S. Main in Hutchinson, KS of course I was going to make the trip. I’ve watched his car go from primered and just on the road to finished kustom, it’s been a fun ride. He has been doing kustom upholstery work for a while now both here and occasionally out in CA when he goes out to visit his Beatnik brethren. I’ve captioned the photos so they should tell the story.
While hanging out I ran into one of Johnny’s friends Roy Field who along with his brother Justin and dad have a shop space across the street about a block up from Johnny’s place. Roy has a beautiful 49 Ford that you see above, and has a Bonneville car and they’re working on a dragster and his dad was KKOA member #6. Roy invited me over to see the shop and bit of his dad’s automobilia collection.
Here’s where I apologize, I tried a new lens hand held in this low light and the results were less than stellar. I shot maybe 30 more photos and none of them came out, I will not be using that lens in this situation again.
Today I’m off to shoot 2 small town Kansas shows, tomorrow the coverage from those shows will start, early next week expect to see the first drafts of the 2014 Calendar for Charity!
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See you at a show,
Royboy
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Saturday Sept. 21, 2013 was Fast A.L.’s Upholstery Open House. 1 year before Aaron Lawrence (A.L.) had left his previous position with a high end hot rod shop to run his own upholstery venture full time. This open house is a big milestone for Lawrence, as a year’s worth of kool cars have rolled through his doors and the projects keep booking him out in the future. Do good work at a reasonable price and people will tell their friends, it’s one of the best free advertising principles out there and it works.
Congrats on 1 year Aaron, and all my best for another great year!
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
A couple of weeks ago I was in Wichita on a Saturday afternoon and I decided to finally head over to kustom/hot rod/general car guy legend Dave Stuckey’s. Some may know Stuckey’s name, he was the man originally responsible for the amazingly kool kustom “Lil Coffin” (read more about that here). Dave has been working for awhile on a couple of really cool projects, one of them being a somewhat drag version of Lil Coffin, not that it set out that way but there are some similarities in the overall design of the body. His attention to detail on this project is phenomenal. Lots of kustom touches on items that will never be seen by most people let alone noticed, some subtle, some not so subtle. I won’t show you too much of the car, it needs to be a surprise. Here are some shots of it.
Another project in the works is this coupe, he has a beautiful flathead built for it and is just waiting to finish the big project to get back on it.
Here’s a shot of my favorite version of the Lil Coffin on an old Starliner poster. (More info on the upcoming Starliner show)
I’m hoping to be able to stop in more often and sit with Stuckey and a video camera so that he can tell you some of his stories in his voice. It’s part of project that I hope to spend more time on in the future, more on that later.
See you at a show,
Royboy
