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.
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.
The weekend started off with a trip to Park City, KS to attend the Wichita Model A Club’s annual swap meet. As usual, lots of people, lots of vendors and I left with nothing. It was a trip to just see some friends and socialize for me. By mid-afternoon I’d headed for Joplin to meet up with Ryno of Ryno Built and shoot his amazing 61 Ford Unibody pickup.
Ryno has a few projects going on, this intake and triple 94 carb setup are for his wife’s 9 passenger wagon, which lays frame of course. 🙂 More pics of it next time.
Not long after arriving we grabbed some great BBQ at Woody’s Smokehouse BBQ and headed out in search of shoot locations. The flake in the new paint job looked spectacular.
We found some great spots and shot for a couple of hours experimenting with different shooting angles, techniques, locations. So far from the back of the camera we captured some great images.
Sunday morning we got up early and went back out to capture some more images. We explored a bit of Route 66 looking for good locations and ended up heading back to downtown Joplin where there were a few places to hit.
Then we headed out for a late breakfast. Headed south from downtown we went through the damage path of the horrible tornado that hit Joplin in May of 2011.
The roads southeast of Joplin were great and beautiful even in the winter, I imagine in the fall they are even more beautiful.
We ended up at the Under Cliff, great food, great location, and great roads leading to it. The breakfast was really really good.
Obligatory Povertyflats food shot 🙂
Then it was off to Dewey, OK to visit Fast A.L.’s Upholstery. Aaron has been working on Jack’s 51 Ford and it’s turning out amazing. Look for more info on the shop visit later this week and a full feature (or series of them) in some magazines coming soon!
The end of the trip was a stop at my Dad’s to pick up my dog. Dad had found some great little book magazines and gave them to me. A really kool ending of a great weekend!
From time to time I’ll try to stop in at shops in the area and peek around to see what’s going on. This weekend I happened to be near my friends Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS. I was not planning on stopping and found myself without my camera, so I apologize for the down and dirty cell phone pics!
Chaotic has recently moved to their new location at 246 Industrial Drive in Mulvane, KS south of Wichita. The new 15,000 sq. ft. facility is always packed with projects.
Mike Young has this under construction 1940 Ford pickup at Chaotic. Lots of kustom touches and modifications, some of which are so subtle that they will go unnoticed by those not familiar with the body as Ford produced it.
Lots going on in the bed area, I’ll stop back in a couple of weeks and get some better shots of the bed and all of the mods being done to it.
Customer cars are all over at the shop, this one was new to me.
Drew Carlson (son of owners Chris and Karma) is building a wild 60’s indoor show style Chevy truck.
Drew and Chris scored this factory 348 tri-power out of wrecked 58 Chevrolet that was wrecked decades ago and the engine was removed and well taken care of ever since. If my memory serves there’s about 5000 miles on this engine.
Drew’s wild ride’s front end. Buick grille and bumpers, kustom grille opening, kustom light openings, and much more going on here.
This started out as a 53 Chevrolet, now being converted into a vehicle that never was, an Olds panel. Very kool, again lots of hidden kustom flavor that most will never notice.
In addition to being able to do full kustom body, hot rod building, paint, mechanical, exhaust, etc. etc. etc. (they do everything.) Chaotic also has a speed shop in the new shop.
Of course you can get your own Chaotic Customs apparel.
And for the ladies there are some really kool pinstriped purses for sale.
Honestly there is much more going on at Chaotic that I didn’t have time to document on this trip but I’ll be back by in a few weeks and I’ll give you an update!
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
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 I 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.
My first car show booth.
Don’s Beautiful Buick
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.
In Part 1 I went through some back history of the show from my cameras up to 2010.
So now on to 2011
Something I wrote at the time: “In the dead of winter each January it’s a pleasure every year to get together with my hotrod and kustom family and spend some time inside WITH a bunch of cool cars. The Darryl Starbird Rod & Custom show in Wichita, KS typically pulls about 400 cars max for a 3 day indoor show. As the name implies rods and customs show in abundance, but so do stock restorations, survivors, 4×4’s, lowriders, rat rods, and various types of racers.
A couple of very cool front engine dragsters were on display this year, as were some very nice traditional built hot rods. Traditional built rods are not rats, and this show had both build styles represented nicely. The car count and the vendor count both seemed down this year, but that was a blessing instead of a hinderance. Less cars means more room to get around the cars, and it seemed that the cars that didn’t show were the ones that I normally don’t shoot anyhow, so the show’s overall quality went up as a result.
The Marauders and Fundamentals had great club displays with the Marauders taking home the prize for best display for their “model” car display complete with giant exacto knives and Testor paint bottles to complete the look. The Fundamentals went with a beach theme and rumor has it some Marauders may have been involved with an incident involving Baby Ruth candy bars being dropped in the Fundamentals “sand” (kitty litter). I’m not going to say where the story came from or how hard the person who told it to me was laughing when he told how they did it.”
My friend Mike’s super clean Camaro
Just your basic 5 window hot rod coupe
Jack’s 30 Ford 5 Window Coupe as part of the Mulvane Marauder’s display
Chris and Karma Carlson’s 60 Pontiac Stella (owners of Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS)
Mike Young’s way wild 29 Roadster
A Historic hot rod brought down from McPherson College, the Paul Harris 32
Rocky Burris’ Wild Winged Ford pickup “TooKool”
Tom Hanna’s gorgeous FED
A couple of Starbird’s BubbleTops
2012
Jack’s 29 AV8 Roadster, a survivor from the 50’s Video Feature on this car.
Gene Weaver’s 54 Chevy, 95% owner built, and beautifully done.
Larry James’ 67 Caddy
Rob Robinson’s 49 Plymouth, customized by Chaotic Customs
A beautiful Kustom 47 Ford
Roger Jetter’s amazing 54 Cadillac
Big Lip Camaro, always impresses
Doc Parson’s 27 T, one of the koolest hot rods out there.
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.
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
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: 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,
Like the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular held in Salina, KS the Hotrodding Hullabaloo features Friday Run What Ya Brung Drags. Being that the show has a smaller attendance the drags were a bit let crowded.
They do wear some weird head gear in Texas racing…
Now on to the show Saturday held at a downtown area park.
Stray Kat Kustoms in the line o Mercs
Buck’s bad bad Chev
I love The Whale
I think that this show could grow back to a really great celebration of Kustoms in the years to come. I really like the town, the people, the venue, I think we should all strive to get to this one next year and just over run the park with kool kustoms.
The show was a lot of fun, a small show but a great collection of kool kustoms and hot rods. The town was fantastic and I hope to be back for years to come.
Night shots back at the hotel
That’s it, there are more pics but that’s it for the posts here, to see the entire gallery click any of the photos in this blog post.
I’ve been blessed to meet some great folks in my travels around the midwest attending car shows from Austin to Chicago. So about a year back I decided that I wanted to feature some of the great people and their vehicles in a way that photographs alone couldn’t do. So in August the first video was released of Yblock292’s 29 Roadster. A bit behind schedule here is the 2nd video, this time of Finkd (Jeff Myers) beautiful mild custom 63 Ford Galaxie.
Jeff has become a great friend and was nice enough to take me and the camera for a ride to explain all about the car. I hope you enjoy it!
Jeff’s Arkansas City, KS based shop Premier Body & Paint is a H.A.M.B. Alliance Vendor so if you need some work done, make sure to join and let him know you’re a member! Music in this one was provided by my buddies The Rumblejetts, make sure to support them as well.
The first stop for my Saturday Sept. 22nd was at the Last Run in Arkansas City, KS. I’ve heard about this show for over a decade, it was time to finally check it out. Enjoy the slideshow and click any photo to go to the full gallery.
Since it looks pretty wet out there today and there’s a 90% chance of rain for Wichita I thought I’d post up the coverage of last year’s Blacktop Nationals in case I don’t get anything today.
And from 2010 as well, you might as well have plenty to look at today…
Next weekend is the double header of the Goodguys at the Kansas Speedway and the Greaserama at the Boulevard Drive In, both great shows that make for a super long weekend but worth it!
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!
Those of you that know me know that I’ve recently purchased a 51 Ford, affectionately known as a shoebox. I’ve loved this body style for quite awhile and I’m excited to get started working on mine later this year (after finishing some upgrades to the 63 Galaxie).
So what years of the Ford are considered shoeboxes?
1949-1951 due to their “slab side” design, gone are the bulging fenders and they are replaced with a relatively straight body shell.
Here’s an example of the side of the body.
Compared to the 46-48 style before it.
How do you tell the years apart?
Here is an example of a 49, note the single “bullet” grille, triangular turn signals at the end of the grille bar and the FORD letters on the hood.
The 50 carries on the single bullet design but moves to a rectangular turn signals in the trim pieces that wrap around the front bumper and badge at the front of the hood.
By 1951 they moved to the easily identifiable double bullet grille design and round turn signals.
Roofs
While many chop their shoeboxes, I am torn on what I will do. Speaking of roofs though, here’s an example of the Victoria model roof.
VS. the standard sedan roof
Here’s an example of the factory coupe roofline
They also came in the Country Squire “woody” version
Drivetrains
From the factory these cars came with flathead 6’s or 8’s. My 51 came with a 239 cu. in flathead V8 “8BA” motor and a 3speed with Overdrive transmission. I have heard that there were automatics available in 51 with the Ford-o-matic transmission. Atomic Hot Rods just released a cool documentary on the Flathead last year called A Sweet Sickness: The Flathead Movie Go to the site to order a copy for yourself, click here to see the trailer.
Clean, low and with a tricked out flathead under the hood. I’m told this belongs to Roy Fields and I need to meet him to say thanks for the inspiration.
Another very clean example this time with I believe a 53 Chevy grille, I don’t know the owners name but this appears to have been at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular in Salina, KS at the old location.
My buddy Jack’s 50.
Another buddy’s sectioned shoebox
With kustom work by Premier Body & Paint’s Jeff Myers in Arkansas City, KS Michael Shea’s shoebox is way kool.
Another way kustom version, chopped top, Olds grille, lots of kool touches all around.
Yaril drove his 50 all the way from Miami, FL to Salina, KS for the 2011 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular.
9/14/13 Update: I had my buddy Chris over at Shoebox Central look through here for any errors, thanks for taking the time Chris! If anyone needs parts for their Shoebox Ford or even some Merc stuff of the era, head over to Shoebox Central.
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!
Go to the site to order a copy for yourself, 
in the front and simple 
