Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
This is an experiment. I’m looking for feedback on the idea. I just threw this together but if you like it, I could do them more often for some of the shows. Leave your feedback below.
Thanks to the Psycho Devilles for the the music “Addicted
” and “Wicked Times
” off of their Night Prowler CD
go here for the downloadable mp3
For more info on the show go to www.straykatkustoms.com
See you at a show,
Royboy
Last week I introduced you all to my friend Jonnie King and his website. This week we’ve got audio for you from an interview that Jonnie did with Chuck Miller on his beautiful 32 Roadster, an 18 year project. Click here to go to the page to hear the whole interview.
Go spend some time on Jonnie’s site, you could easily spend a few hours just hanging out and listening to his interviews.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The beautiful blue Kansas sky and the big trees of Forest Park combined to make lots and lots of harsh shadows. If I had more time at the show I would have used an off camera flash to fill in a bit, but I had 3 hours to cover a park with about 2000 cars in it… So yeah I didn’t do that 🙂
That’s it folks, that’s what I saw in my whirlwind 2013 Ol Marais River Run trip. I only had time for 1 pass around the park, so if I missed your ride, I apologize.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
See you at a show,
Royboy
One of my favorite’s from the Greaserama was also in Ottawa.
Beautiful truck, the suicide hood being open is less visually offensive than if it was a regular style.
My dad’s 59 Thunderbird and our extended “family’s” cars behind it.
Frank’s beautiful 56 Chevy took home an award for best Home Built I believe. Congrats Frank! I know you’ve put a lot of time and effort into your ride!
Rick’s 57 has every option that you might want for a kool road trip cruiser and will look good while doing it.
Roger Ward’s car has looked this good for a long long time and gets driven.
Feed us, feeeeeeed ussss, feeeeeeeeeeeeeed ussssssssssss!
Pretty good stance on this shoebox
You don’t see these done up nice too often, if you’re going to take the whole tribe across country, this is the car for you.
too bad about the hood.
3rd or 4th show this summer I’ve run across this group.
Not normally my style but something about it I liked.
Keith Bright’s beautiful roadster.
Some of my Nebraska/Kansas line friends
I’ve shot Bill’s “Sledsel” for a magazine feature.
A nice adaptation of an American Graffiti style build.
See you at a show,
Royboy
A whole bunch of kool rides this post.
I’m not really sure what all is going on here but it sure looks like a lot of work.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Finally a good weekend weather wise for this show, and it was obvious that the rain of the previous couple of years was the culprit keeping the show from exploding. By all accounts of those that I talked to this was the biggest one yet. I was able to stop in for a few hours and make 1 pass around the park before heading off to Fast A.L.’s Upholstery Open House that I featured yesterday.
My friend’s beautiful 39.
Neal’s Canopy Express GMC
Former dirt track racer, turned 60’s show rod. Good to see it driving!
Ugh why do you leave the hood and trunk open? IT RUINS THE LINES OF THE CARS. Shut them down unless you have something truly unique under the hood.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Saturday Sept. 21, 2013 was Fast A.L.’s Upholstery Open House. 1 year before Aaron Lawrence (A.L.) had left his previous position with a high end hot rod shop to run his own upholstery venture full time. This open house is a big milestone for Lawrence, as a year’s worth of kool cars have rolled through his doors and the projects keep booking him out in the future. Do good work at a reasonable price and people will tell their friends, it’s one of the best free advertising principles out there and it works.
Congrats on 1 year Aaron, and all my best for another great year!
See you at a show,
Royboy
From the coverage I’ve seen, I really messed up not going to the Hot Rod Hill Climb. Looks like a really kool event! The rains and devastating flooding on the eastern side of the Rockies could not keep the folks from getting up to Georgetown, CO for the event on Sept. 14th. This was the 60th Anniversary of the 1953 Hot Rod Hill Climb and from the looks of it, it was awesome!
The following photos are from Hot Rod Hill Climb’s Instagram page, or the Hot Rod Hill Climb Facebook posted here with permission from the owner.
Here are some links to some amazing coverage.
Here’s a kool youtube video from Michael West
A ton of people have posted photos on the Hot Rod Hill Climb thread on the H.A.M.B. it’s definitely worth some time!
If at all possible I will not miss it again.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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See you down the road my friends!
Dave, she’s looking good! Can’t wait to see it all done, thanks for bringing her down for us to see the progress.
Safe travels to my friends the Jetters!
Better late than never ya hippie!
Voodoo Jim hinted that he might want to sell this hotrod. I want it.
Jeff Myers is a good friend and a hell of a kustom man. Have him make your car kool like he did mine, get ahold of him at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS.
One of my talented upholsterer friends, Johnny Torres. Contact him at his shop here.
The Lonely Knights have to be the koolest kats on the road when they roll together.
Even more McGregors!
Aaron of Fast A.L.’s Upholstery.
After dinner a big group of us rolled to the Go Away Garage to check out the gallery.
That’s pretty much it folks! We had a fantastic time and I wish you could have been there too! Make plans to be there next year!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
Click here for the entire gallery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
LOTS of photos in this one folks!
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The family that hangs out at the cars show together…is kool.
Mickey’s Merc
15 shot HDR Panoramic of the show
One of the stars of the show. Micheal’s newly finished 34 5 Window Ford, done in an East Coast style. The 59 Olds steering wheel is the only part on the car newer than 53.
I love it!
Lonely Knights
Larry Wolfe recently brought this late 60’s Dave Stuckey creation back home to Wichita. Plans are to return it to it’s 1967 state. Back in the day Stuckey used this wild sectioned 1965 Pontiac Catalina to tow his Top Fuel Drag car. I reallly wish I could have been around to see that rolling down the road.
Clean.
The good tunes all day were provided by my buddy Everett.
Some of my favorite cars all in the same shot.
I love it Neal! Thanks for bringing it out!
Dad’s 59 Thunderbird and Ron’s Chevy Truck
Voodoo Jim’s Corn Cobb Coupe
Doc Parsons’ T is purrrrfect.
Yeah yeah yeah it’s for your wife, we know we know.
The Lonely Knights’ Big Rich awarding Mickey with their award.
Mickey and one of Wichita’s Godfathers of kool, Johnny Hammann
Roger Jetter and his award 🙂
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Click here for the entire gallery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
For Part 4 we’re still at the show, and we start with Aaron of Fast A.L.’s Upholstery’s Ford and Mickey’s (StrayKatKustoms’) 60 Chevrolet flattop with 60 Merc Grille and Pontiac taillights.
Joe brought this beauty out for us all to drool over.
I caught Jack unloading some chairs out of the trunk of his new 51 Ford. Body, Paint and a bunch more stuff by Chaotic Customs.
One of my favorite new rides of 2013 is Butch’s 40 Sedan.
It still rocks a straight 6 but Steve’s 58 Ford moves on down the road and looks good doing it.
All the way from Omaha, NE to Wichita to hang with us. Thanks for coming down!
The Merc grille looks good with the 51 Ford turn signal housings.
If you don’t know Gears and Gals Magazine, you need to go to their site and order an issue. You should then buy a subscription.
Good to see you again my friend, 2 weeks in a row even!
Mickey’s Merc always looks good at the Starliner.
Joe’s Caddy is a ton of fun, maybe 2 tons looking at her…
Don’s Buick is probably one of the finest anywhere.
Some of my favorite Kansas City area folks.
Jeff and Verna brought this killer Plymouth hot rod up from Texas. I am planning on shooting this car this fall. If no magazines bite on the article, I’ll post it here for all of you to see.
One of the koolest places ever to hold a car show, even though this year it was quite hot.
Another shot of Steve’s chopped 40 Ford. Again, 300,000 miles on it and he’s owned it since 1969.
Friends and family.
I’ve seen this truck in Austin and a bunch of other places, I dig it every time.
Normally not my style but the nose art on the truck matches in with the location.
The McGregors, an American Car Family.
Hub and Gloria’s “Cinnamon” is my favorite kustom ever. It’s been together since the late 80’s. It’s been in magazines before but would you like to see a full feature on it here?
McGregor cars.
U.S. Mule even came out to play.
Jeff Myers of Premier Body & Paint brought out the 59 El Camino, Johnny Torres brought out his 41 Plymouth, and you can’t see it here, but Jim Allen brought out his “Corn Cobb Coupe”
Roy brought out this beautiful shoebox. The flathead is one of the cleanest ever.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
Click here for the entire gallery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
So here we are on Saturday morning at the Kansas Aviation Museum.
I backed the Galaxie up under the wing of the KC135 as far as I could to keep in the shade.
300,000 miles and still looking good.
Butch M’s 56 Chevy
Doc Parson’s T. It’s perfect in every way.
Here’s the unedited version of Danny’s El Dorado in the morning. Check back later in the week for the full edit.
The Lonely Knights show up in force! and they park under the bomber wing for morning shade and a kool look.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
Click here for the entire gallery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
The 2nd stop on the Garage Krawl for our group was my friend Roger’s house. Due to it being a private property I will not mention his last name or where it is. Roger has a fantastic collection of Fords mostly 40’s of various types and a couple of Falcons and more, but his automobilia collection is equally as impressive.
Great old signs
Extra parts
Some grilles in the background behind this great plane
Dashes, grilles, and beauty rings
So the power company puts in an ugly power station behind your house and keeps building it bigger… well you’d better find a cool way to hide it from your view. This works
Everyone’s backyard should be so kool.
More yard art, some of it I might have a need for, I may have to come back and make an offer…
The chain was just laying there, but I couldn’t help shooting a pic of the cool wheel and tire.
pretty kool mag.
One wall of the garage featured license plates staring in 1913 I believe, and sequentially going up from there.
Another wall featured only 1940 Kansas plates, from 99 of the 105 Kansas counties, that’s an impressive collection.
Some great car club plaques.
Great taillight lens display
What to do with your extra plates? Why not make an American Flag? 🙂
Then it was off to Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS for a shop visit and some lunch. Giant hot dogs, soda, chips and some homemade cookies really hit the spot. Here’s Mike Young’s 40 Ford pickup which is being built for SEMA this year.
Some of the projects under construction at Chaotic.
Then it was off to my buddy Jack’s place for a visit. Here’s a lineup of Jack’s rides. He has a 30 year head start on me but I hope to catch up one day.
Then it was off to Big Joe’s for an air conditioned shop visit (it was a hot one that day!) Here’s a “gas station” that Joe built to hold his compressor and welders and such when not in use.
Some of the art inside the main shop building.
Then I hopped in my buddy’s Galaxie for a ride to Rocky’s shop, we had a good line of 10 or so rides on the way there.
Rocky has a pretty kool collection of Wichita area club plaques too.
and the best chandelier around.
Then it was back to the hotel for some fajitas courtesy of the Lonely Knights. Thanks for the good eats folks!
The 100 or so people in the parking lot stayed out and socialized until around midnight. So many good friends that are all really more like family than friends. This is a big reason why this show is one of my favorites of the year.
Tomorrow starts the show coverage. Click here for the entire gallery.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
See you at a show,
Royboy
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As I did last year, I got to the Host Hotel on Thursday evening about 7pm so that I could wake up ready to go on the Garage Krawl on Friday morning. After dinner with some friends I shot some night shots in the parking lot.
One of my favorite Mercs around.
Mickey’s Merc
Love that hood ornament
More of our friends from the Lonely Knights in Colorado
So clean, so simple
Aaron of Fast A.L.’s Upholstery’s Ford.
All the way from California to Kansas just for the Starliner!
My ride
The next morning it was up bright and early to get ready for the Garage Krawl
Hub & Gloria’s beautiful roadster
The first stop on the tour was United Engine. Lots of kool stuff to see.
Damn good looking flathead
Tomorrow we continue the Garage Krawl for the 2013 Stray Kat Kustoms Starliner
Click here for the entire gallery.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 | Part 6 | Art 1
See you at a show,
Royboy
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Proof that HDR doesn’t have to be wild, this is the style I prefer for most shots, just making the photo look more like what your eye sees (with a little extra something).
Then there are times when I pump up the volume a bit.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Art
See you at a show,
Royboy
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A couple of my friends from The Dirty Martinis showed up Sunday and added some purdy to the event.
The girls were popular subjects
Yes I shot a bunch of this car but hey when do you see 4 doors that look this cool?
Ben Dragdaddys is inside says his lil friend.
Chad rolling out of the show.
FarmTruck giving a high speed ride through the fairgrounds.
The first 20 miles of the drive home I got the pleasure of being caboose in a 3 car train with some friends.
Kevin’s Galaxie looks sooooo good. Damn mine needs to be lower!
A bug collection on the windshield and chasing the sun back home after the event.
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To see the entire gallery click here.
That’s it for the regular coverage of the show, tomorrow I’ll feature some that I’ve spent a little more time on. Since I was shooting this show for magazine show coverage I didn’t spend much time working on artsy photos, it was more about getting the needed photos for the article.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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I love, love, love this ride.
And this one.
Cos on patrol, making sure that everyone is having the required amount of good times.
Chad’s Buick looking bad bad badass.
Sooner or later we’ll cross paths and not just your truck and I.
While I was getting my hair cut, I warned Cos he may need one, this was the response.
I dig that truck.
Denny’s Sedan looks good in any light.
Sonny’s truck is sick.
Nice work Ben Dragdaddy! Looks just like PR Eric.
Another of Chad’s Kustom 1947 Buick.
FarmTruck made the trip up to the Greaserama from OKC again.
This bad lil ride is for sale.
Moody’s Garage booth at the Greaserama
Shane Z’s booth
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Art
To see the entire gallery click here.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Art
I’ve seen this car for years and it floors me every time.
Good to see you my friend, and I still say using air to be able to clean your entire whitewall at once is cheating…
Good looking Chevy
The owner said it’s not finished but it looked damn good to me!
Punk Rod Eric surveying all that was 2013 Greaserama.
Lots of good looking shoeboxes at the show this year.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Art
To see the entire gallery click here.
See you at a show,
Royboy
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Art
That’s a lot of years on the Power Tour! Kickass!
I’ve been seeing this truck for years, I really should do a feature on it on the site.
Good to see you and the family Don, see ya in Wichita this weekend!
Jeremy Barrett’s pickup.
When you can’t find a v12, two v6’s will do the trick!
Interesting hard top chop. I never made it over to investigate further, but I wish I would have.
Can’t wait to see this one done!
The flush mount skirts, the lake pipes, the spots, it’s all working for me.
See I told you if I got down low you couldn’t tell that the other half of the car wasn’t shammied… oops.
I keep seeing this car this summer but I haven’t had a chance to BS with the owner yet.
Jebby’s “Nadine” and the tail end of my Galaxie. Nadine looks damn good for 200k+ miles.
Neal was nice enough to give me a lift in when I walked out to the entrance to give my dad a wristband. I can’t wait to see the next evolution of this kool truck.
Random Crowd Shot
I’ve been seeing this truck for years at the Greaserama. Looks like a ball of fun.
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To see the entire gallery click here.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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For part 2 we’re still on Saturday. The show was big big big this year, I don’t feel that there would have been any way to get all of the cars and especially all of the spectator cars into the area of the old venue. It was pretty impressive to head up on the north hill of the fairgrounds to see all that the 2013 Greaserama was.
Functional kustom Like this photo?
Channeled Tall T, I like!
Clean
My ride, thanks to Jeff Myers at Premier Body & Paint in Arkansas City, KS for the kustom 60’s style paint and Clint Rowe for the pinstriping.
Looking good man!
An iconic recipe for kool
inally got to see my friends from Oliver Built Garage for the first time this year, I need to make more trips up to Iowa.
Dick’s ride again, with the hood shut as all kustoms should be 😉
I love these two rides.
It’s always good to see my good friends Dan and Sharyl Stears, see ya again next weekend in Wichita!
One of my good friends Todd C. Jones, amazing guy and artist. Look for a feature on him coming soon!
I was hiding from the rain under a canopy, my camera doesn’t like getting wet.
More coming tomorrow!
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See you at a show,
Royboy
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Man, what a great weekend! The Greaserama moved this year from it’s long time venue to a new one that was outside of KC, many denounced the move but the crowd that showed up on Saturday proved that change can be good. I’m writing an article for a magazine on the show so I’ll save most of my words of the event for that, here the photos will do the talking.
My good friend Mike’s 53 Chevy Truck
ick’s Chevy just looks right.
Interesting hard top chop
Chris’ 60 Ford, looking good!
Some of the Los Punk Rods Rides
Damn I love a long roof
Looking good bro!
Love the new intake Eric!
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More for the next 3 days, or you can be impatient and click here to see the entire 212 photo gallery.
See you at a show,
Royboy
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From time to time in my car show coverage, I like to spend a little extra editing time on a shot. Most of these end up in this gallery. Here are a few of my favorites, these would look great printed on metallic paper in 12×18 or larger on your wall. Especially the HDR shots, they really pop on the metallic paper. Just click on the photo, pick your size and paper style and boom you are good to go!
See you at a show,
Royboy
Still one of my favorite shows that I’ve ever attended. The cars, the venue, the bands, everything just came together to make it a fantastic weekend. The Hot Rod Revolution in 2010 was the first year for the show in Austin, TX, it’s only about a 9 hour drive so it sounded like a great excuse to drive down and check it out. Leaving home at 6:15 pm I checked in to my hotel room at around 3:30am and went to sleep, 6 hours later I was headed to the show. The City of Austin Seaholm Power Plant made for a perfect backdrop of about 100 hot rods. 1948 and older only, traditional hot rod styling only, this show couldn’t help but be awesome. Here’s a slide show of that gallery, click here to go to the gallery directly.
Since then the show has moved to a new location in Austin at Camp Maybre. I attended the 2011 show there and shot photos that can be seen here. The show’s date has moved around and has conflicted with other shows that I needed to attend since and I’ve not been able to go again. Hopefully one of these years I can get back to it because it’s a great show of my favorite type of hot rods.
See you at a show,
Royboy
A couple of weeks ago I was in Wichita on a Saturday afternoon and I decided to finally head over to kustom/hot rod/general car guy legend Dave Stuckey’s. Some may know Stuckey’s name, he was the man originally responsible for the amazingly kool kustom “Lil Coffin” (read more about that here). Dave has been working for awhile on a couple of really cool projects, one of them being a somewhat drag version of Lil Coffin, not that it set out that way but there are some similarities in the overall design of the body. His attention to detail on this project is phenomenal. Lots of kustom touches on items that will never be seen by most people let alone noticed, some subtle, some not so subtle. I won’t show you too much of the car, it needs to be a surprise. Here are some shots of it.
Another project in the works is this coupe, he has a beautiful flathead built for it and is just waiting to finish the big project to get back on it.
Here’s a shot of my favorite version of the Lil Coffin on an old Starliner poster. (More info on the upcoming Starliner show)
I’m hoping to be able to stop in more often and sit with Stuckey and a video camera so that he can tell you some of his stories in his voice. It’s part of project that I hope to spend more time on in the future, more on that later.
See you at a show,
Royboy
From time to time while I’m doing my normal car show coverage I’ll take an extra second and do some multiple exposure shots. When I get time I merge these HDR shots for a bit of a different look from normal. Mostly I try to keep them fairly realistic looking but occasionally I will get a bit wild. Here are some from the H.A.M.B. Drags. Remember if any of these shots are something that would look good on your living room or garage wall, click the photo to go to the shopping cart and order any size you’d like.
See you at a show,
Royboy