I flew into Detroit Friday afternoon, quickly hooked up with a friend that gave me a ride to my hotel and about as quickly as humanly possible I made my way down to Cobo Center and met up with my buddy Chuck Leighton who was gracious enough to give me a weekend exhibitor’s pass to get me in to the show. Just another generous guy that I’ve been blessed to meet along my travels.
We started at what I’m going to call the West end of the building, the opposite end from the escalators that lead to the basement. The first floor of the building not only had the Great 8, but every other kind of car that you’d expect to see at an Autorama. In fact the first few rows of the show reminded me of the other Autorama events I’ve seen over the years. It wasn’t long before the Great 8 cars started to appear in my field of vision, plus incredible machinery by the likes of Jason Graham, Steve Cook (a Great 8 car) and so many more. This show was stepping up quickly as I walked the floor.
This post brought to you by the Stray Kat 500 in Dewey, OK. May 1-3, 2015 For more info go to straykatkustoms.com
Downtown Detroit is a beautiful place of buildings reaching for the sky amidst others crumbling from neglect. There is a fire burning within the proud locals that is not only admirable, but enviable. I truly hope that Detroit’s recovery continues.
2015 Detroit Autorama
For years I’ve wanted to go to the Detroit Autorama. It’s the biggest indoor show in the industry in terms of stature. The Ridler is given out here (although 2 years in a row I couldn’t disagree more with who it went to), and it’s the home of the big 3!
Detroit’s recent downturn has been talked about, yes the downtown area was a bit less populated than I expected for a city of this size but I can say this unequivocally, I loved my time in Detroit! The show was fantastic, I had more friends in the house than almost any other show I go to and the cars, well… just check out the rest of the photos to see.
This post brought to you by the Stray Kat 500 in Dewey, OK. May 1-3, 2015 For more info go to straykatkustoms.com
After a bit of a break due to some technical issues on his website, it’s back up and Jonnie King is back on Royboy Productions! Glad to have you back Jonnie!!!
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Hi everybody ! Hope you’ve been enjoying all of Travis’ cool pix that he’s been posting lately…his work is amazing !
Now, here’s some “instant 2014 Autorama info” for you:
EVERY YEAR AT THE DETROIT AUTORAMA, CHUCK MILLER puts together the CAVALCADE OF CUSTOMS Display, as well as a Special Feature Section which contains TEN models of a certain type or style. And, every year he sits down with me to give me the scoop on the coming year’s exhibit’s.
ACCORDINGLY, in a special late-nite session at Darryl Starbird’s 50th Anniversary Tulsa Rod & Custom Show, Chuck gave me the inside info on the 2014 Autorama at Cobo: FINTASTIC FINS…those cool 50’s & 60’s cars that could almost fly with those fendered-fins…like my personal Dodge D-500 shown here !!
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 pinstriped piece from Pinstriping By Lizzie, a Royboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Hot Rod Hill Climb!
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.
Monday on “Friction In The Static” Podcast episode #201 I was interviewed by Tiny. I had a blast, you should go to Set To Stun Productions or search for “Friction In The Static” on itunes, stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks again Tiny!
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 pinstriped piece from Pinstriping By Lizzie, a Royboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Hot Rod Hill Climb!
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.
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 pinstriped piece from Pinstriping By Lizzie, aRoyboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Hot Rod Hill Climb!
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.
Continuing coverage from the 2014 KC World of Wheels. No offense to anyone’s cars but the show this year just wasn’t up to the level that the last few years. Not having the Los Punk Rods club do the pre-1961 section is a huge problem. That part of the show was for the most part lackluster. I’m sorry folks there just needed to be more kool rides. What is shown here is the best of what I saw except for a couple images that didn’t come out.
I’m normally not much of a muscle car guy but I’m liking the craftsmanship on this one.
Pete & Jake’s display always has good stuff.
Your truck is coming along man, keep up the good work.
Today on “Friction In The Static” Podcast episode #201 I am interviewed by Tiny. I had a blast, you should go to Set To Stun Productions or search for “Friction In The Static” on itunes, stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks again Tiny!
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 pinstriped piece from Pinstriping By Lizzie, aRoyboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Hot Rod Hill Climb!
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.
As I type this it’s 4AM on Sunday. I woke up just now and realized I’d passed out last night as the photos were uploading to the site but I’d not yet wrote this post. Luckily for you, my subconscious woke me up :).
I’ve been attending this particular indoor show in KC for a few years now. Some years I feel it’s pretty awesome, sometimes I wonder if it was worth the drive, this year leans more towards the latter. I’m sure that can mostly be attributed to the fact that there are just too many major indoor shows on the same weekend only a few hours apart. However as a good sign, this was the most spectators I’ve ever seen at this show, they were everywhere, and I’m sure you’ll notice that in the photos. Since I was in a hurry to get the show covered and get on down the highway to OK where I currently am, I didn’t have time to wait for the best photo opps for each car. Some just have bystanders in the shots, that’s the unfortunate byproduct of bad timing and a great spectator turnout.
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 pinstriped piece from Pinstriping By Lizzie, aRoyboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Hot Rod Hill Climb!
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.
This weekend will be a bit of a bear. There are two major indoor shows going on this weekend in my area, actually there’s 3 but only 2 that I regularly cover. I’m hitting both of them again this year even though they fall on the same weekend. I really wish I was able to hit all 3!
Today (Friday) I will work the normal day job 7a-5p (Winter hours have us out at 5 instead of 6), then I’ll be off to the Paramount Bar to see a band and possibly shoot photos of that performance. The Paramount is the end base for the Mid Decembrrrrr Run each year and this year on Saturday night of the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular weekend it’s also the home of a party thrown by Royboy Productions and Stray Kat Kustoms. At that party is where I’ll be giving away $1000 cash, want to know what that’s about? Click here to find out.
So then around 1am Saturday I’ll head back home, catch a couple of hours of sleep and head back to the day job for our required 3 hours every other Saturday morning. At 10:01am I will run home, pick up my dog and my dad’s dog and take them into the kennel before heading to Kansas City for the first of the two shows. 3 hours on the road puts me downtown in KC for the Autorama World of Wheels at Bartle Hall. 3 or so hours should have me through the whole building, but lately I’ve been spending a ton of time talking with so many of you that I should set aside an extra hour or so. In any case, by around 5pm I should be headed out of the building.
Kansas City is a city full of great places to eat and hang out, I’ll be blasting past all of them headed south at full steam, Oklahoma bound. 256 miles and 4 hours later I’ll get to my buddy’s place and the most comfortable spare bedroom mattress on the planet. Jared and Marie are so awesome to always put me up when I’m in the Tulsa area, they give me that awesome spare room where I sleep better than anywhere else, they feed me and we always have a great time hanging out. Then it will be time to edit the photos from the day and start uploading them to the site and prepare a blog post for Sunday.
The next morning I’ll be up early to head to the 50th Annual Starbird show in Tulsa. The Quiktrip Center is about 30 minutes away, so that’s an easy part of the journey. The show is a bit bigger this year due to there not being any silly Monster Truck show. That entire area is now filled with killer hot rods and kustoms. I’m assuming 3-4 hours for this show as well, and then it’s out the door and heading home. Another 4 hours and about 250 miles will get me home. Edit and upload those photos to the site and prepare a blog post for Monday.
So in a great big nutshell, that’s the plan for the weekend. The plan is to give you constant car show posts all next week and weekend until I’ve run through both shows. Sorry that I can’t give it all to you at once, but to be 100% honest I need content for that following week. So there you have it folks, that’s what it takes to give you all of the car show coverage that I can shoehorn into a weekend. If you want to support the cause, buy a shirt, buy a hat, buy a photo print of any of these 40,000+ images. I really appreciate it.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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February 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. This month’s prize is a pinstriped piece from Pinstriping By Lizzie, a Royboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Hot Rod Hill Climb!
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.
This year there are 2 major indoor car shows on the same weekend of Feb. 14-15. The first one that I will hit is the KC World of Wheels held at Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City.
Here are some photos from last year’s show:
I hope to see a bunch of my KC area rod/kustom family out at the KC Autorama!
Guest Blog! My buddy Dan Podobinski is a photographer based out of Indiana, he attends a lot of the same type of shows that I do. Since I can’t be everywhere at once, Dan was nice enough to share some of his images from the 2013 Detroit Autorama with all of you through the blog here. Okay class now all together say “Thank You Dan!” You may have seen some of his work recently in Car Kulture Deluxe Magazine, or on the HAMB. You need to go follow his page on Facebook here and buy some prints of his great photographs! And now on with the show! ______________________________________________________________________________
’13 Detroit Autorama…
The Best of the Basement…
By Dan Podobinski
Detroit Autorama, the very words are enough to excite many a hot rodder, filling them with anticipation of what wondrous creations wait within the walls of Cobo Hall. This is especially true when it comes to the Autorama Extreme, an area dedicated to traditionally styled hot rods and customs as well as the amazing art that is inspired by them. It only seems appropriate that this part of the show is located in the lower level of Cobo Hall, away from the glitz and glamour of the indoor show circuit. This is where the real, honest hot rods are. Not that these cars are not nicely finished or held in high regard by their owners. They are, but these cars are driven, often hard and without mercy. With all of this in mind I present to you my very own “Best of the Basement” from the ’13 Detroit Autorama…
1. Larry Tucker’s 1934 Ford Pickup. In typical Jason Graham style it is an exercise in extremes. It’s delicate wire wheels and subtle brown paint stand in stark contrast to its 6-carbed, blown 454 Chevy.
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2. Brian Wisniewski’s 1950 Chevy coupe came from New Jersey to join the fray. It’s fully dressed 6-cylinder , chrome reverse wheels and killer paint gave it the “look.”
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3. Gene Winfield’s old 1935 Ford shop truck, now beautifully restored and residing with Gary Hatfield in Canton, Texas is an obvious choice.
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4. Jim Richmond’s glorious tribute to the historic Pierson Bros. coupe is another obvious choice for inclusion on my list.
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5. Chad Folkema’s fantastic A coupe on ’32 rails has been a favorite of mine since I saw it in its unfinished state at the Relix Riot show a couple years back. The flathead Lincoln V-12 and outstanding fit & finish make it a stunner.
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6. Dave Gray is the lucky owner of the newly finished “Chemical City Coupe” 1932 Ford five window. With Buick Nailhead power and details galore, the Jokerr Fabrication built menace is pure evil on wheels.
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7. Everybody in the hobby knows the name George Poteet and his Bonneville inspired 3-window Ford is a thing of beauty…stance courtesy of the boys at the Rolling Bones shop.
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8. Jeff Watkin’s 1956 Buick Special is another looker. The satin black is offset by the wild, 60’s style red flake with all kinds of neat tricks buried in it.
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9. Steve Gilmore’s 1963 Ford Unibody pickup is the kind of clean, simple daily driver we all dream of owning.
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10. Mark & Ryan Rogerson’s 1955 Chevy is as pure a 60’s style street bruiser as you will find. A very stout, high winding small block backed by a Muncie 4-speed and a Pontiac rearend sporting 4:88 gears ensure that the stoplight to stoplight action will be a thrill!
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11. Kerry Sitar’s 331 Hemi powered A on ’32 rails is just mean, and that’s enough.
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12. My last pick, though not in the basement, would have fit right in. This wild, 60’s show rod styled 1934 Ford 5-window coupe belongs to Beau Boeckmann of North Hills, California. Take a moment to bask in what was the excess of 1960’s show rods!
![Detroit-postcard[1]](https://i0.wp.com/royboyproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Detroit-postcard1-300x188.jpg?resize=300%2C188)
