I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been going to the World of Wheels show in Kansas City’s Bartle Hall. The years have kind of blended together for me. Lots of great friends and lots of fantastic machinery at this show year after year!
The weather was good this year, meaning that there was nothing to keep the spectator crowd away. The showed up for sure, it was packed the entire 6 or so hours that I was in the building. I showed up with t-shirts, hoodies and a bunch of calendars in hand, the first order of business was to deliver all of these goodies so I didn’t have to carry them around. The final stop of that was with my friends of the Los Punk Rods (check out their blog here, lots of great reading here). They are the crew responsible for the Greaserama each Labor Day weekend (see the 2012 Greaserama coverage here.)
Punk Rod Eric’s new ride is coming together nicely. Lots of German influences on the car to reflect Eric’s German roots. Look for a feature here when it is all done!
Punk Rod Dave has built this very kool bike, if I understood correctly it is his first build. The shakedown run was a 3 hour haul ass drive to Salina in 100+ heat, that’s confidence!
For the last few years I’ve been taking advantage of some friends that live in the area by sleeping in their spare room and using that local home base to attend the Starbird Exotic Car Show at the QuikTrip Center on the Fairgrounds in Tulsa, OK.
Last year was a fun show, as soon as I walked in the door I’m greeted with the first finished view I’d had of the late Elden Titus’ Vibrasonic.
Another great ride that’s been on display at the show the last couple of years is Tom’s coupe.
Of course some of the rides from Starbird’s collection and Hall of Fame Museum were on display.
Darryl’s grandson Dakota is building kustoms under the Star Kustoms name and did this Chevy pickup
Ridler Winner in attendance!
What mighty big eyes you have…
One of my favorite kustom shoeboxes, a recreation of Junior Conway’s amazing Ford.
This Gasser got a lot of attention
Gee I wonder why I don’t get all giddy about shooting a row of newer Mustangs…
Wild kustom Pantera
Originally built by Dave Stuckey, restored by Darryl Starbird, the Lil Coffin
The new shirts are available in Women’s T, Men’s T or Men’s long sleeve T designs. This logo is on the back,
 And this one on the front,
Some better photos will be coming soon! (with actual models!)
The Men’s short sleeve 2XL are already sold out, but there are still Men’s long sleeve 2XL
If you’d like a short sleeve 2XL you can get one from the next batch printed by putting in a request here!
Thanks for supporting royboyproductions.com all of these shirt sales help put gas in my tank to take me to another show to bring you more kool kustom and hot rod photos.
Essentially I started this kustom and hot rod photographic adventure in 2006. That’s the first photos that I have from my old Sony Digital camera with the small CD discs. I remember that first day in Lawrence, KS filling the camera up with about 180 photos and resorting to my phone’s camera to cover the rest of the show. Those photos were less than inspiring… from both cameras. The show was the 2006 Kruzin’ In The Heartland held in Lawrence, KS.
I’d seen the ad for the show in Ol Skool Rodz I believe, my uncle Paul (povertyflats to many of you) and my father and I headed up early on Saturday morning to see the show. It was supposed to be hot that day and we were leaving by about noon, but there were only a couple hundred cars max so it wasn’t hard to get all the way through the show in that time.
I had never really seen a hot rod like this, I was used to street rods, this was something new to me, many of these rides looked attainable. Most of the street rods were kind of about how big the billet wheels were, or how much it cost to have this or that machined, these weren’t about that game at all.
The first time I really stopped to look at a FED. I was amazed that the driver was resting his important parts on a part of the car that seemed somewhat fragile kind of like sitting on a grenade and then pulling the pin. Â
I’ve seen this one around a few times, as I remember it was pretty fast in Salina a couple of years later, then it got kept out of Hunnert a year or two after that for wheels that were too new or something along those lines (those wheels are not on it in this photo).
Don’t shoot into the sun!
I did that a lot that day
Dad in his somewhat goofy hat on the right.
I shot a lot more engines and interiors that day than I do now, maybe I should take the time to do more of those shots, some of you might appreciate that.
Hey I know that car! Krobe’s other ride! See an article about his 30 Model A Coupe tomorrow here on this blog, use the subscribe feature on the right to make sure you don’t miss it.
This ride would drastically change over the next few years. Built by Bright Built Hot Rods in Salina, KS. After an unfortunate accident with a Subaru, it would become much different.
Hmmmm this one looks familiar too… right Eric?
My first photo of The Tiki Taxi, now Steve has become a good friend.
I wonder now how different my life would have been for those next few years if I’d actually met a few of my hoodlum friends that day instead of seeing their cars and meeting them 6 years later.
Any way that it happened, I’m glad to be able to look back and see my friends were there all along, we just hadn’t crossed paths yet. Get out to a show this year, take a kid and get them involved, meet the people, scope the cars, enjoy it all.
At first I wasn’t sure if Ryno had some secrets he wasn’t telling but no this is just the lace used to get all of the kool lacework in the paint job of the truck…
With the frame nearing completion, the Stude body has been placed so the floor supports can be build and some other items fabbed.
Looks to be the beginnings of a healthy ride.
Floor supports in place.
A 4 door Stude is not your normal idea of a hot rod, but this is not your normal hot rod shop.
Next time I’ll get a bunch more photos of the wagon that is being built for Mrs. Ryno. For now for info on the 60 Chevrolet Kingswood Wagon that Ryno is building for his wife, click here.
I stopped by Aaron Lawrence’s Fast AL’s Upholstery in Dewey, OK for a visit on Sunday. Aaron is a fellow Stray Kat Kustoms brother & he’s doing some amazing upholstery work.
Aaron is working brother Jack’s 1951 Ford Tudor Sedan Kustom right now. Most of the work on the build was done by Jack himself, but Chris Carlson and crew at Chaotic Customs have done a boatload of work on this very kool kustom.
Fast AL’s next project is waiting it’s turn.
Lots of kool on the walls of Fast AL’s Upholstery
If you need kustom upholstery, Fast AL’s number is in the first photo, give Aaron a call and tell him Royboy sent ya!
This coming weekend Feb.9-10th at Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City is the World of Wheels show! Click here for info on the show, ticketing, etc.
I’ve been attending this show for years, there are usually a great number of cars, and a bunch that I actually like. The Drag display is always kool.
Last year these great kustoms were on display.
There were some great feature cars as well.
The South end of the building is usually populated by my friends the Los Punk Rods and a bunch of their friends. Great rides, great folks.
Hope to see you there! If you’re there and you see a goatee’d big man with a red rb hat, you better say hi! Especially if you want some photos of your ride this spring!
February 23 The Park City Chill – held at the Kansas Pavillion, Park City, KS Photos from 2012
If you’ll be at one of these events and want some photos of your car, let me know here. The indoor shows do not provide the best opportunity for photos but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get any good ones.
2012 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular DVD by Vintage Torque
For the last 3 years John Wells of Vintage Torque DVD‘s has filmed the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular in Salina, KS and created a DVD of the weekend. For the whole run I’ve provided John with photos to use as a slideshow at the end of the DVD.
The 2013 Calendar for Charity has been a big success!
This is the first year that the calendars were professionally printed, a big investment up front but luckily the paper was donated this year so that printing was only major expense in getting the calendars off the ground. As last year these calendars are printed in the ginormous 11×17 size and each and every month features 2 kool car photos! Order at royboyproductions.com!
This year 6 copies were available (click on the thumbnails to see the entire calendar): The Trucks, Hot Rods, and Kustom editions all were sold to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.
The 3 Show specific editions went to individual causes. The Stray Kat Kustoms Edition benefitted the Red Cross, as Mr. Stray Kat Kustoms himself (Mickey) said, they were here to help when we had a tornado, and they’re still there help folks like Joplin last year. For info on the Stray Kat Kustoms shows go to straykatkustoms.com Order at royboyproductions.com!
The Greaserama Edition went to benefit the Punk Rod Todd Memorial Fund. The world suffered a loss last year when Todd passed, his vision and drive helped focus the Greaserama into the kool kulture event that it is today and he was one of the good guys. Thanks again for being a great guy Todd, we all miss ya, even those of us that barely knew ya. For info on the Greaserama go to greaserama.com Order at royboyproductions.com!
The Hannahs Heart Edition went to benefit the Helping Hannah’s Heart Foundation. Please take a minute and go check out this great cause. Hannah’s daddy John is a good friend and I’m glad to be able to do a very small part of helping out. Support Vintage Torque DVD’s, Torque Fest and Iron Invasion! Order at royboyproductions.com!
Total money raised this year for all 6 calendars has been over $1,100.00 so far! With less than a week left there are still 27 copies left. The Hannah’s Heart and the Stray Kat Kustoms editions are sold out but there are handfull left of the Greaserama, Kustoms, and Trucks Editions. As of the time of this writing there are only 2 copies of the Hot Rod Edition left!
To order go to royboyproductions.com These will pulled from sales on February 1, so if you want one, order today!!!
A while back I did a post about the Shoebox Fords, 49-51 models. Click here to see it.
Howstuffworks.com has a great series of articles, this one on the origins of the 1949 Ford design was particularly intriguing to me as a new shoebox owner. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1949-ford.htm
The 2013 Starbird-Devlin show is in the books!
Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend. Thanks again to my kustom family for allowing my Galaxie to park with so many historic and beautiful rides.
Johnny Hammann’s tried and true 58 Chevy Impala. It’s been basically unchanged since Jan. 1976.
Mickey’s Merc (he washed it!) Once a 4 door, now a 2 door with a ton more kustom touches.
Distant cousins?
You don’t see these every day, and you don’t see many cars this clean and straight ever.
One of my favorite Mercs ever.
Mike’s 60 Olds fresh from a remodel… gorgeous!
Nice collection!
40 Chevy built by Big Creek Restoration with a band on stage behind it Friday evening.
The Big T
Corey Conyers is restoring a beautiful slingshot. I say it would almost be a shame to paint this body.
Larry James of Flyin Eye Kreations has been working hard to finish up his old Nova in new form
Rob Parker has been working on this Chevy Bobber Pickup Roadster for a few years, it’s pretty interesting to see all of the details that have gone into it.
That’s it for this time, click any of those photos to go to the entire gallery.
Just a quick sneak peek of some of the photos coming Sunday evening!
Rob Parker’s way wild Chevrolet roadster pickup, rear mounted turbo feeds the 261 inline six engine.
Love this simple hot rod that has everything a fella needs except a Betty by his side. Bill Hines chop on this 1947 Ford, the chop done at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular.
So at 9:30am on January 17, 2013 I did something I’d never done before. I drove my Galaxie into it’s first ever indoor car show. The Starbird-Devlin Car Show at Century II in Wichita, KS, “The Wichita Tradition.” This is the 56th annual show, previously known as the Starbird Rod & Custom Show, it’s been a tradition in Wichita for a long long time.
I was lucky enough to be a part of the Kustom City display this year. Thanks to the new paint work done on my Galaxie by Jeff Myers, my car has been transformed to 60’s Boulevard cruiser. Doug Reed put together the Kustom City display of street kustoms from the area and my Galaxie was lucky enough to make the group.
So we rolled in, positioned ourselves and started cleaning the cars. It wasn’t long before it was time to head back to the day job, but I managed to grab a couple of quick snapshots while I was there.
I’ll head back to the show tomorrow after work and I’ll have more shots for you throughout the weekend. I hope to do a post of cell phone photos on Sunday and start the coverage of the show on Monday.
September 2009
I was barely out of a 3 year long battle to get out of debt, in fact I was a week out of it. Still I didn’t have much money as the last of my dollars and cents went to pay off the last debt I’d had, but I knew there was a show that looked to be kool happening in Wichita. The Stray Kat Kustoms Starliner show is always the weekend after Labor Day. So that morning I had to decide if I could make it until the end of the month if I spent gas money driving to this show. I had been to the Stray Kat Kustoms Rocket show in Fort Scott, KS early in the year and I loved the cars that I’d seen, and I’d always wanted to go to the Stray Kat 500 but hadn’t made it yet.
Of course I went. Of course. I almost always go when there’s a chance to see some kool rides. Determined to go on the cheap I stopped along the way at a BBQ contest that some friends were competing in, free food! SCORE! So after a free beer or two and an insane amount of amazing BBQ, I headed to the Starliner show. What I found was a great collection of kool kustoms and hotrods parked amongst a bunch of retired aircraft.
So I took a lot of photos! Obviously a kool environment for a show. At this time I knew barely anyone in the crowd and unsure of the way this social circle worked, I slipped in, shot photos and split. I had no idea how many great people that I was missing out on being friends with. Total shyness won out.
April 2010
Early in 2010 I decided to head out to Viva Las Vegas. This is the only show that I’ve really attended outside of the midwest-ish area. So on April 1, 2010 I find myself sitting in Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport waiting for a flight that was running late.
I grabbed the latest issue of Ol Skool Rodz out of my travel bag and started catching up on some reading, pretty heady reading! When I put the magazine down to grab a drink a kind lady across from me asked if I was into hot rods.
“Yes maam!”
“Are you going to Vegas for the car show?” How did she know about this car show, the target demo for VLV for sure wasn’t this lady. I nodded, full of curiousity.
“Us too!” It was then that I realized that the rest of her party were paying full attention. Were they sizing me up wondering who I was just as I was them? I think so.
Her husband and his white bearded friend talked to me a bit about cars and where I was from and “oh I was stationed in Salina back in the old days.” I found it like most conversations with old car guys, pretty damned interesting.
Before we knew it, the plane was pulling up to the gate and it was time for us to go. I was pretty happy to have met some kool old car folk (folks into old cars, not old and into cars), but the big picture was I was heading out to Vegas for a couple of shows!
Viva Las Vegas was an eye opening experience. I had never been to a show that was as much about a lifestyle as it was about the cars. It could be argued that it was less about the cars that year, I didn’t care, there was a parking lot full of kool iron and some beautiful women walking around. I did see my new friends there but only briefly and from a distance. I figured Wichita isn’t that big of a place, I’m bound to see them at a show sooner or later. Little did I know that I had already been shooting photos of their cars at shows for 4 years… remember that shy part earlier?
Another stranger then, friend now, Big Rich’s Caddy!
No dude I don’t know you, you were just a casualty of an opportunistic photographer.
Gambino’s F-You 54!
You get the idea, plenty of kool rides, and as you can tell a whole lot of people!
Okay, one more I couldn’t help myself.
On the Monday after the show, I find myself waiting at the Vegas airport waiting again for a late plane. As luck would have it, a few rows away I saw my new Wichita friends. I picked up my bags and went over after we made eye contact and they waved.
We talked about the show, it wasn’t what any of us were expecting. We talked about a lot of things, and honestly I don’t remember it all, but as the conversation went on I realized that these 2 men and their wives were not just your run of the mill car folk, they had been there, done that, and had been doing it for a very very long time.
Finally I got up the nerve to mention wanting to become a professional custom car and hot rod photographer, and that I was going to all of these shows to practice shooting in the worst environments I could so that I could learn as much as possible… yadda yadda. Oh, and here’s a book IÂ made…
The next 45 minutes the two men went through the book with their wives looking over their outside shoulders, turning the book around every page or so to point at a car and tell me who it belonged to, or a story about the car or a story about one like it. Never has any institution of higher learning taught so much as these folks were teaching me as we waited for a delayed plane. The loved the book, we all knew the work wasn’t stellar but they loved that I was taking the time to document them and their friends’ passion, and they heartily encouraged me to keep it up. We exchanged phone numbers when the announcement was made that the plane had arrived. I was going to take them up on the offer to come visit and listen to more stories.
May 2010
The first weekend of each May is the Stray Kat 500 in Dewey, OK. This was to be my first trip, my new friends were going to be there and I had been wanting to go for a couple of years. I knew of a few key folks due to the H.A.M.B. so this already had the makings of a bit of a different show for me instead of just shooting pics and splitting, I had people to talk to.
Somewhere in here I had the idea to produce some small books that were kind of like the little paged magazines of yesteryear. Each one was 60 pages and featured 1 show. I had created a few of them, designed them, filled them with images, printed them, bound them, the whole shebang. The entrepreneur in me decided that I was going to make money selling these books, the hardback that my friends and I had shared in the airport, and a few other items. I didn’t factor in that if I was sitting in a booth selling items then I couldn’t be out there shooting photos to make more of them! Thanks to my Dad and my Uncle Tom for booth sitting for me that day so I could take photos.
As it would turn out my new friends had a lot of friends at the 500 that day. They came over and bought just about everything my meager booth had to sell. The came to talk to me, they sent their friends, they introduced me to tons of people and made sure people knew that I was to be supported, I was the only one paying attention to the passion of building kool kustoms and hotrods enough to not only take photos and put them online for the world to see but to make books and such from them. Monetarily this was a good weekend, the only good weekend I ever had with that meager booth. But relationally, it was a gold mine.
Hub & Gloria Harness and Steve & Carol Albers, thank you. Thank you for encouraging me when I wasn’t very good (I say that I’ve not improved much to this day), and for instantly welcoming me into your kustom family. When I still thought that this was about trying to make money with my passion for kool cars I was getting very discouraged. I was ready to quit. It was your welcoming smiles, your friendship, your generosity of time that made me realize that the treasure in this adventure would never live in my wallet but always in my heart. The friends that I’ve met since meeting the four of you have been amongst the greatest people I’ve ever been lucky enough to be around.
Hub & Gloria’s beautiful Buick Cinnamon
Steve & Carol’s 40 Ford with 250,000 miles on “this drivetrain” and a custom hand built trailer behind it so that Carol would travel with Steve out to Santa Maria, California instead of flying.
The point of this whole story is simple. Kustom folks are some of the best people on earth. Find some, make friends and if you’re lucky… the true riches of your life will multiply.
For the first time ever, my Galaxie will be entered into an indoor car show. Now to be clear, this car was never meant to be a show car, only a kool kustom that I occasionally show off at shows. This first indoor show will be the Starbird-Devlin show in Wichita, KS at Century II on Jan. 18-20th.
I’ve been attending the show here on and off since the early 80’s. Back then I remember very little about the show or the cars that I saw there. Mostly the memories are just of good times with my dad and sometimes Grandpa at the Starbird show. It was a big deal. Not even an all too present case of the chicken pox could keep me away, when my folks asked if I was well enough to go, I lied my ass off. I was going to the Starbird show.
Over the years that I’ve been attending with a camera in hand we’ve been privy to some pretty fantastic vehicles on display at the show.
2007
2009
2010
Lil Coffin
The Toad (see Issue #57 of Car Kulture Deluxe for a full feature on The Toad)
The Trixie Tee
Starbird’s Predicta BubbleTop
Part 2 will post tomorrow and will include 2011 and 2012 favorites.
Use the controls on the right to follow this blog and get updates whenever a new post is up.
Comment below on what your favorite ride featured here is.
Last year I produced a Best of 2011 PhotoBook of all of my favorite images of 2011. Starting with about 14,000 images they were narrowed down to about 1,000 and then about 800 made their way into the final book. There were 21 feature chapters in all, each with a few hundred words describing the chapter and lots of photos of each event featured.
It is available as a hardcover, softcover and ebook if you’re interested in checking it out.
So the plan all along on this end was to do another for this year, however this time would be different, 100 or so photos on as many pages, each one with a sentence or two about it. More of a coffee table book.
So what say ye? Would that book be something you’d be interested in? Unfortunately these are a bit pricey compared to your normal Barnes & Noble type book, but they are made on demand specifically for you as you order. For a HardCover with a Dust Jacket, they’ll run about $51 plus shipping, $41 for softcover and $9.99 for ebook version. Leave a comment here to let me know what you think.
I’ve had my 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 since 2004. When she first entered my life she looked like a 70’s cruiser. Stock body, dark tinted windows (80’s probably), Cragar S/S wheels and some fairly large raised white letter tires.
It is my goal to continue to share the great people and cars of the Midwest with all of you around the world for years to come, so far for the last few years this has been a very expensive hobby. Thank you to those that buy hats, shirts, photos etc because you help to pay the bills for websites, cameras, gas, hotels, food, etc. to keep the machine rolling.
I do hope to someday make this a full time occupation since it is a passion that occupies so much of my mind so much of the time. I do not want to charge people to see the photos, but I am looking at ways to add sponsorship to the site to help pay the bills. The goal is to have royboyproductions.com a self sustaining entity by the end of 2013.
The future of the site as I see it today means more articles on show coverage, more feature videos, a series of videos on the construction of a kustom from barn find to boulevard beautiful. Stay tuned, buy some photos, a shirt, a hat or just tell your friends where to find a source for kool. royboyproductions.com
See you at a show, Travis
Here’s a shot of my good friend Jeff Myers’ shop Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS. Jeff has just completed a kustom paint job on my 63 Ford Galaxie (you can see his Galaxie in the photo).
The schedule for 2013 is already filling up! This post will be a breakdown of some of the shows of the first few months, have a look at the info I provide, check out the photos from years past and pick a couple out to attend!
January
Jan. 18-20th Wichita, KS Starbird-Devlin Charity Car Show “The Wichita Tradition” See the 2012 photos here Â
So as I sit here typing we’re a couple of hours away from the 3rd Annual Mid Decembrrrr Run. Folks from hundreds of miles away are now on their way to Salina, KS to meet up and go on a long drive in our classic cars. It’s been a really good time so far, hopefully this year is too!
This will be it as far as 2012 goes for me and my cameras. It’s been a fantastic year, went new places, met new people and had a great time throughout it all. For 2012 there are 33 galleries with 7,987 photos so far, whew, my shutter finger is tired! To see them all go here:Â http://royboyproductions.smugmug.com/Cars/2012
Some of my favorites are
Fuel Altered “Black Mariah” doing a smoky burnout at the 2012 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular, see more from that weekend here.
About a year ago I joined Instagram, it’s been a fun way to give new life to some old photos and spread the word about what it is that I do here. http://instagram.com/royboyprods is where you can find those photos if you are not already on Instagram.
Have a great weekend, I’m off with a bunch of my rod/kustom friends for a road trip. Merry Christmas and I’ll see you at a show,
In early November I made the trip down to my buddy Ryno’s shop Ryno Built in SWMO. The plan was to shoot some video of Ryno’s 1961 Ford Unibody pickup for an upcoming feature video. While I was there I found too much cool stuff to not snap a few images.
Ryno Built Shop
Ryno’s Caddy was parked outside the shop, it’s just a kool vehicle all around.
He’s had it for years and has driven it all over the place, check your back issues of Car Kulture Deluxe for a feature on it with all of the pertinent details.
Also at Ryno’s shop were a few projects. This Pro-Touring Mustang build started out with a 1965 Shelby GT350 Mustang which had been dinged up pretty well in the Joplin tornado in 2011. Most of the damaged body has been replaced, and a ton of work has been done to prep the car for it’s massive tires and VASTLY improved suspension. Ryno’s worked with TCI to get the suspension customized for the size of rollers that he wanted to run. You can see the finished work is impeccable, and that there are lots of areas roughed in waiting for finalizing. You can find more info on the Mustang build here on pro-touring.com
 
 
 
 
 
 
 