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.
Johnny Torres Upholstery is located in the former offices of the Ark Valley CO-OP in the last block on the south end of Main St. in Hutchinson, KS
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.
It’s a bit rough, it’s abit rowdy, but it’s not a rat. Someday I will have to do a post to show people what is what, too many confused folks out there.
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.
The 2014 Queen City Riot is in the books. A dreary forecast which actually did come true for a couple of quick spells may have kept some folks away. The turn out was smaller than expected but I like this show and I will return. The plan was to take the Galaxie this year, but it wasn’t ready when I needed it. So the daily driver it was :). A stop at Hot Rod Garage in Sand Springs, OK will be featured on Thursday on the blog and a new car Feature will be on Friday, now on with the pics from the show!
Ben Dragdaddy’s BoothGears & Gals Magazine and RJay’s Speed Shop Booth
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 if I didn’t post enough on the Lonestar Roundup last week… But Cory’s pics are just too cool to not share them with you! Cory took a fixed 35mm lens with a super low aperture which gave him the opportunity to get some fantastic photos from the weekend. While I was there to cover the show for you, Cory was there to just take some great photos, and he has done just that! Find Cory on Facebook here or on Instagram here.
Without any further ado, here are Cory’s awesome pics from the event. They are a reminder to me that I need to keep pushing my boundaries and pull my fixed lens back out of the bag every once in awhile! I’m experimenting with a new style of showing off photos here, CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE IT FULL SIZE!If you are seeing this in your email go here to see the full post!
Thank you Cory for sharing your images with all of us! Folks Cory is a very talented guy in not only photography, but sign painting, pinstriping, and just about everything I see him put his mind to and a truly good guy to hang out with. Follow him on social media linked at the top of the article and make sure you tell him how much you appreciate him sharing his work here.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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April 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 DVD copy of “This Is Long Beach” from Atomic Hot Rods,
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.
2013 was the first time that I headed down to Denton, TX’s Northstar Dragway for the Texas Thaw. The combination vintage drag races and car show was 6 years old in 2013 and had one of it’s biggest turnouts to date. The 2014 Texas Thaw goes down on March 1, again at the NorthStar Dragway right along I-35 outside of Denton, TX. For all of the info on the show go to the official website here or here on facebook.
It’s time for a new book! I’ve gone through and picked out my 120 favorite Instagram photos from the Royboy Productions Instagram feed and I’ve put them in this new book called “2013 Squared” The book is available as a hardback, softback or as a pdf version for your tablet or smartphone. Here’s a 15 page preview!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
A special “HI” to everyone here checkin’ out Travis’ cool Website ! Take your time, enjoy the Site, and also, take a few minutes to listen to this special one-on-one Interview I did with my old friend JOHN D’AGOSTINO…you will enjoy this for sure:
JOHN D’AGOSTINO TRAVELS THE WORLD spreading the word of kustoms…with a “K” ! But, I wanted to know how that all began for John, and in this late-night Interview at the 33rd Annual KKOA Lead Sled Spectacular in Salina, he didn’t disappoint me!
PLUS, 2013 was a banner year for John as BOTH his debut cars “Sophia”, his ’40 Cad, and, ’51 Lincoln “Ruby”, took Major Awards in, what must be, John’s BIGGEST year for wins ever !
LISTEN TO THIS “World Traveler For Kustoms”, JOHN D’AGOSTINO, and find out how it all this traveling started, AND, his reaction to how these spectacular kustoms did on the show circuit in 2013 !! SIMPLY CLICK-ON-HERE , LISTEN & LEARN !! JK
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’ve been attending this show off and on for a lot of years. It’s typically hot, starting at 4 in the afternoon, and as soon as the heat breaks the crowds come out in force making it hard to capture any decent images. The participants are a varied group of all styles of cars and bikes.
Now to be honest, I can’t make it as I’ll be in Austin for the Lonestar Roundup, but if you can get to Salina you should be there! I’ve been able to attend twice in 2010 and 2012, check the slideshows below to see some of the show through my eyes.
2010
2012
If you can make it, go! Enjoy the show, take some photos to share with folks that couldn’t and if you have a good time make sure people know you did, that’s how we grow these shows, that’s how we grow this hobby/lifestyle.
So a couple of years ago I hear of a new indoor show in the Wichita area. Coming just a month after the Starbird show, I wondered how it would work. Then I hear that it’s also a major bike show. How is this going to work?
Pretty damn well.
So it works, I’ll be. When I walked in the door of the Kansas Pavillions in Park City, KS I was greeted with some motorcycle vendors, I’m not typically much of a bike guy but I can appreciate a well built bike just like a well built car. As I walked around the first room of The Chill I saw every manner of bike on the planet. It was impressive. In building 2 that first year were some vendors, some cars and a stage area. Building 3 was chock full of cars, it was a pretty good turnout.
2011 Chill
So a year later I’m headed back to the show. I know now that it works, and I hear some changes are in store. Sure enough, the car area was expanded, the bike area was rearranged to allow the stage for some live music. The same high quality selection of bikes, hot rods, kustoms, trucks, drag cars, tuners, street machines, etc.
2012 Chill
So in a nut shell, I’m heading back. It’s been a good quality show, of course lots of my friends will be there, many who did not participate in the Starbird-Devlin show of a few weeks back. If you can make it next weekend I highly recommend coming to see The Chill (click here for more info on the show). The show will feature a Hooters Swimsuit competition, and a live performance by Warrant (the hair band fan in me just smiled). Should be a good time for everyone!
For the last few years each Labor Day weekend have been a double header in Kansas City. The Goodguys Midwest Nationals take over the Kansas Speedway and the Los Punk Rods Greaserama invades the Boulevard Drive In for a weekend of good times, cool cars & great people.
Here’s the coverage from 2011’s Greaserama,
And here’s the coverage of the 2011 Goodguys Midwestern Nationals,
Look for new galleries on Monday from the 2012 shows!
A few months ago it became apparent that a new feature needed to be added to Royboy Productions. Photos do a good job of conveying the car show experience but something else was needed. Starting at the end of 2011 video was captured of a few really cool cars, interviews shot with the owner or builder explaining the cars in their own words, in their own voice. This is episode number 1. I hope you enjoy it!
Part 5! With the fun of the Friday Garage Krawl in our memories, it was on to the main event of the Starliner show at the Kansas Aviation Museum. Before I go any further I want to say thanks to yblock292 for not only putting together the Garage Krawl but for hosting me for the weekend. I had an absolute blast hanging out and talking hotrods and kustoms with ya!
On to the show!
I was lucky enough to hang out with some of the Mulvane Marauders.
Jack’s 40 is just too cool!
Aaron of Fast AL’s Upholstery taking a shot of his car
Gotcha again Twotallokie!
Zombie Speed Shop, it’s always good to see the truck…oh okay and you too.
I think I need one of these!
The boys from Iron Buffalo Hot Rods brought out their toys… but no bull this time…
I love this ride and I need to do a feature on it for my site, I’d better get on that soon!
Part 6
Hey Jimmy…about your wheels….
sorry, I just can’t help myself…
My buddy Michael brought his awesome 40 Ford Truck out, I got to see it under construction, it’s awesome to see it finished.
Finkd (Jeff Myers) brought out his Stude pickup, I never get tired of seeing this ride.
Hub Harness brought out his beautiful Buick, this is my favorite kustom. Sorry to anyone that might get their feelings hurt but I just love this ride.
Okay, back to the day job! Thanks for checking out the pics folks, remember if any of them look cool to you, you can buy downloads as cheaply as $2 and prints start for just a couple of bucks more. Every purchase helps put gas in the car to get to the next show, or buy more camera equipment to provide you all better coverage so please consider it!