Final installment of photos from the Hot Rod Garage Open House. You can find their facebook page here. I made a few passes through the event as there were a bunch of folks coming and going so there are some photos here that are repeats of vehicles from slightly different perspectives. Click on any photo to go to the entire photo gallery. When you see one you’d like to have as a print, just click the photo, then in the gallery click “add to cart.”
The cacklefest was a nice addition to an Open House, I was inside using the facilities when one of the cars fired up a wall away from me, it was impressive how much of the stuff in the room was rattling from that car sitting 8ft away. The shop has a bunch of high end projects on hand, it was really impressive to see them both the finished rides and the under construction ones.
An 88 year old racer drives this Vette, and judging from the look on his face when he was loading it on the trailer and decided to burp it for the crowd, he enjoys it.
Event Coverage: 2013 Hot Rod Garage Open House Part 3
The day went by quickly, as soon as I arrived I ran into Aaron from Fast AL’s Upholstery and as the morning went on more and more friends showed up. It’s always good to hang with your friends and ogle beautiful rides.
Often when I’m traveling I take some slight detours to stop at some shops that I know. On the way to the Texas Thaw I made a few of these stops. First at Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS.
Chaotic is busy at work with this beautiful 40 Ford pickup for Mike Young. The truck’s body is being massaged in every way imaginable for what will in the end be a subtle custom look to the untrained eye. The cab has been chopped, lengthened, sectioned, channelled, but when finished you’ll have to have a stock one sitting next to it to see the full extent of the differences.
Another project currently underway at Chaotic is a 1950 Oldsmobile Delivery. Well it started life as a Chevy Delivery, then it was chopped, an olds front clip was grafted on and the customizing began. The custom hood’s underside is being finished now.
Spy pic of Jack’s 51 Ford, more on this to come when the car is done.
This 1982 Chevy Malibu wagon may not be a car you normally see customized but it’s turning out pretty kool.
The 34 Ford awaits another polish job before heading off to the Detroit Autorama (they are loaded in the building now for the show there this weekend.)
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!
