The 2016 Retro Rewind in Dubuque, IA is physically a small event in a fairly small venue, but it’s HUGE on heart. That’s what the Retro Rewind, Vintage Torque Fest and Iron Invasion events are all about in a word, heart. John Wells and company put these events on to raise money for the 501(c)(3) Helping Hannah’s Heart Foundation. PLEASE go check out this foundation, it’s so very important that us in the hot rod and kustom world help out foundations like this that help out good hard working folks going through some of the toughest times in their lives.
The 8th and final post of the 2014 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular coverage! Thanks to everyone that’s come to the site to see the coverage! Make sure to go to the top right hand corner of the site and subscribe to the blog!
That’s the look of a man having a good time at the drags. It’s one of my favorite parts of the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular each year to see Gene Winfield get to flag the races.
The drags as always brings a big crowd. Kudos to all involved to resolving the traffic issues from 2013. We were able to roll directly into the event and back out when it was time this year unlike previous years where you were watching your temp gauge and praying the whole way in and out because it was a complete traffic jam.
Continuing coverage of the 2014 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular from Salina, KS. Continuing my comments from yesterday, I would love this show to return to it’s roots, even though that would mean that my 63 Galaxie wouldn’t be allowed in. Comment below what you think of the show, and what background do you come from? Kustom guys seem to be thinking along the lines that I am, where as just car guys in general like the shows that have all types of cars.
The Drags have brought big crowds to the event but the diehard kustom folks don’t attend, and don’t support them. This is where I’m torn, I enjoy going except for when it’s as hot as it was this week, but I really could do without them. They are entertaining, and they bring a big crowd to the event. The drag photos start later in this post and continue tomorrow.
The 2014 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular was in town all weekend just in time for the first major heatwave of the summer here in Salina, KS. The 34th annual event was held in Salina for the 9th time, lots of cars showed up but not a lot of leadsleds or kustoms. Since the show’s registration requirements have opened up the show has grown but it’s lost a bit of clout in the kustom community. Some notable kustom car builders and owners have privately told me that they disagree with the bigger is better show rules and they long for the days when the show had strict rules for entry. I’d like to see the show like that again too. Not that the show is bad like it is now, just different.
Most of Thursday was spent gathering up stuff for our booths, KKOA Leadsled Spectacular Set Up Day. After a quick run to a nearby town to pick up an electric fuel pump to get a buddy back on the road we packed our booths for the day and headed out to Bright Built Hot Rods for their Open House. Here are some photos from that event. Click Here to see all of the photos
Every year on the Wednesday before the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular, KKOA member and 2014 KKOA Hall Of Fame Nominee Rocky Burris throws a little get together at his home shop. This year had the added bonus of honoring the Leadsled Spectacular’s Grand Marshall and Kustom Legend Dave Stuckey. KKOA President Jerry Titus came down from the busy pre-show last minute work in Salina to tell us all some stories of working with Stuckey at Starbird’s Star Kustoms Shop back in the old days. Read the captions on each pic to get more of the story. Thank you Rocky for always inviting us all to the pre-party!
After the shoot we went to grab some dinner with friends. About the time we were finishing up my girl friend’s son got sick, we packed up and headed home so sorry no night shots this year.
The Automobilia Show has been going down for about 20 years now. Nearly everyone in the area has some story about the show. One of my favorites involves a full beer can still in a cooler full of water that was being poured into the radiator of a running engine. I’ll get that story on the podcast some day for you all. Personally I’ve shown up at the show twice at about the same time as a huge thunderstorm and had to cut my time at the event short. So, I much prefer the heat and crowd to the rain. Here’s more from the show.
This year it wat was dry and a little hot which meant that as the sun went down the crowd went up exponentially. I rushed through the show so that I could head out and do a photo shoot a mile or so away.
It never fails, this weekend’s show is always either almost painfully hot or raining. This year it was hot. The crowd seemed down a bit but that could easily be contributed to not only the heat, but a Wichita Wingnuts baseball game and a Motley Crue concert in all going down in the downtown area at the same time.
Since I hadn’t been to RJay’s Speed Shop before I made sure to check the facilities out while we were there. They build a bunch of their own parts that then get sold to other retailers and they carry just about everything that it takes to build your hot rod.
The show was titled Burnouts For Brice, the facebook event page had this to say: “We will be having a benefit car show for Brice Eidson who is a great young boy fighting leukemia. All proceeds will go to help cover hospital cost. So come out and have a great time.”
In total near 100 cars showed up and raised nearly $2000. RJay’s made a small burnout pad of concrete and a few of the show goers pulled up to see what kind of clouds they could produce.
RJay’s Speed Shop has been a sponsor of royboyproductions.com for a few months, but I’ve been friends with RJay’s main man Cory for a couple of years. When he invited me to a show at his new location I thought it would be a great opportunity to check out his shop and give you some show coverage from a new event.
The day started at 7am with me running out to my Dad’s to borrow his truck and one of his trailers. He purchased an early 50’s Chevy Truck cab from a buddy of mine that lived along my route to the Adrian, MO home of RJay’s Speed Shop. After the Indy trip last week I was a bit short on funds, but since it had been 8 months or so since Dad bought the cab it was about time that we pick it up and drag it home. So with his gas card in my pocket and his F250 loaded with my camera equipment, girlfriend and her son, we were off!
After the stop at Neal’s shop to pick up the truck cab we made our way over to Adrian and found RJay’s. There were almost 100 cars on hand and the show raised almost $2k for the charity. Click here to learn more about the event and the cause.
PS: All photos on this page are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps! Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
Buy one of these shirts or mugs and help Chrome Pipes & Pinstripes advertise online and pay for hosting fees.
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.
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March 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 prize package from Chaotic Customs (shown below), a Royboy Knit Winter Hat & a shirt from Stray Kat Kustoms!
Here’s the prize package from Chaotic Customs including a custom painted bowling pin, a Chaotic Customs T-Shirt and a Harvey’s Seatbelt Wallet in your choice of trucker wallet on a chain or regular. (Motor Not Included)
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.
As I type this, it’s 10:45 on Thursday night, less than 12 hours until this post goes live. About 8 hours until I have to be at my day job… and I as started this post I honestly had no idea what I should write. Today, Thursday Jan. 23, 2014 is the largest traffic day that this blog has ever had. After a slow winter where I struggled to find you good fresh content, finally I got to get out to my first show of 2014 and I can see that you appreciate the fresh content. Over 700 views today with a previous record of 560 for the blog, what did I do to deserve that? Thanks folks, when I see that you dig what I’m doing enough to check it out that much, it’s all worth it.
The Future
Here we are at the end of January, before I know it I’ll be up to my eyeballs in car shows and I won’t remember how boring this winter was. February has 3 events that I’m planning on attending, should be putting about 1100 miles on the car. I am hoping to spend an afternoon with a family I know in Wichita that is full of gearheads with a killer collection of rides. The following weekend the plan is to head down and check out the Model A Club Swap Meet. I typically don’t buy much but there’s always that one thing that you see someone else got that you need and had the cash for. So I go… and I never seem to find it in time.
After that it’s a big windshield time weekend. First heading to Bartle Hall in KC to cover the World of Wheels Autorama for you. Later that afternoon I make the trip from KC to Tulsa to an old buddy’s spare room. Sunday early I’ll head to the Quiktrip Center and the Darryl Starbird Car Show. This is the 50th edition of the show and it promises to be a good one. Finally we have a weekend where I don’t have anything planned…yet. Either it will get filled with a couple of shop visits or shooting some features, either way the weekend will be used to create some fresh content for you folks to enjoy.
For the month of March I should be at about 1400 miles, it adds up quickly! Magazine articles can help offset the travel costs but those don’t pay until month and months later, if at all. Another way to offset that is for get paid by you folks to shoot your rides when I’m on the road. If you have a car that you’d like me to shoot, let me know here and we’ll figure out a time and place, I’m very affordable. 🙂
The first weekend of March I’ll be off for another double header weekend. First up will be the Texas Thaw drags and car show held at the Northstar Dragway in Denton, TX. That evening I’ll make my way up to Wichita to catch a hotel for the night. Sunday morning will be off to the Chill in Park City before returning home to edit photos and get them up on the site. Then there’s an open weekend that I hope to head to KC and catch up with some friends and shoot their shop and hopefully feature a couple of their cars.
After that it’s off to Texas again for the Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. A 12 hour drive for a 5 or 6 hour stay at the show. Hopefully I find something that I can shoot a feature on for the site while I’m there. The two following weeks are open as of now but I will be looking for cars to shoot those weekends. That’s a basic rundown of what’s going on between now and when I leave for the Lonestar Roundup at the begin of April.
Why?
Why the hell do I do this? After putting in more than 50 hours a week at a day job why do I spend all of my extra money traveling all over the midwest to shoot car show coverage, edit it, pay to host it online and then just give it all away to you for free? I’m nuts. Well that’s what most think. I’m hoping that I can create enough kool content to keep you coming back every day, and maybe kool enough that you’ll share it with your friends and they’ll come check it out too. If we get enough viewers here then maybe the future sponsors can cover all of that gas money, all of the hotel money, all of the show entry fees, all of the website costs. That would be a dream come true. Well, that would be partly a dream come true.
The real dream, the one that haunts me at my day job, the one that keeps me from concentrating on much of anything else is doing this full time. Selling my house and everything that won’t fit in an RV which is big enough to pull my Galaxie in a trailer. Spending each week traveling from one show to the next, stopping at pro and private shops along the way, shooting shop visits, tech articles, and features as much as possible to keep you folks full up on the best content possible. Maybe I am nuts. Or maybe that’s how this thing goes to the next level.
It’s going to be a busy couple of months but when you folks pull me aside to tell me thanks for all of the effort, it’s worth it. When I see a Royboy hat or beanie or shirt from across a show, and I have no idea who it is that’s wearing it. It’s worth it. When someone attends a show for the first time or gets their car done so they can get to a certain show that I’ve featured and they tell me that it’s my coverage that made them do it. It’s worth it.
For those that saw me at the Starbird-Devlin show that I’ve been covering all week long and wanted to know where to get one of my Model A Hot Rod Stencil Shirts I put up a new page here for you to order them. There are a few sizes in stock now from my last order, for those that are not in stock put your order in now to get one. I can’t afford to have a bunch printed and just sit in my trunk for 8 months so if you want one, you’d better get one ordered.
Stay tuned next week for some news on the Royboy New Blood Award that I’ll be giving away at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular this summer.
For those that don’t know you can catch all kinda good links from my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and a bunch of kool stuff on Tumblr and Instagram.
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:
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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!
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!
It was by complete random chance that I ran into the AutoFest show in Marysville, KS a couple of years ago. I had made a 4 hour trip each way to check out a shop I’d heard about outside of Omaha, NE and on the way home while I sat waiting for a pilot car for some road construction I was told of a car show just down the road.
I figured what the hell, and went to have a look. Here are the photos from that first visit.
So last year I went back. This time I ran into some old friends. Here are the photos from that visit.
And this year I will return. As part of the same event there is a BBQ competition and I happened to mention that to my BBQ buddies. Well, they decided that we were going to compete at this one, so we’re loading up the smoker, a camper and we’ll make a weekend out of it. Should be a heck of a trip.
The show goes down over the first weekend in June in Marysville, KS. Here’s the only link I could find for info on the show. Come join us!
