A few years ago I met this crazy artist type named Dragdaddy. Turns out he’s become a good friend, go figure. One of the hardest working artists I know, he works a draining day job and every day turns out fantastic art in his spare time!
Here are a couple of pieces that he’s working on right now.
Ben has a unique style that pays homage to the masters of the past with familiar themes but is done in his own way.
For the last few years Ben and some select artist friends have been creating some larger than life art on the walls of Travis Miller’s shop in Dewey, OK where we hold the Stray Kat 500.
So go visit Ben Dragdaddys on the ol Facebook, buy some of his art (his coloring books are AWESOME) and then thank me later.
McGregor Boys (Steve’s) Twin Engine Triumph Drag Bike (more on this bike later this week I hope)
And his new BSA Drag Bike
Joe’s daily rider
Hooters was nice enough to sponsor the bikini contest
A couple of cell phone photos of my friend Denny’s bagger chopper.
And that’s it! Yeah I could have taken more shots of the bikini girls but I didn’t. I was having too much time hanging out with friends and BS’ing. Sorry!
The biggest reason to have an indoor show is to stay away from the weather. But when Ma Nature decides to drop about a foot of white stuff on the ground the day before the show load in, even having a roof for the show can’t really help all that much. That’s what happened to the 2013 The Chill in Park City, KS. Still had a nice turnout of motorcycles and cars, but about 1/3 down from normal due to the weather.
Muscle cars always gotta have everything all open and stuff, I’d rather see them shut, the designers spent a lot of time making the body look good, all of that is ruined when it’s open. Looks like the car is broken down on the side of the road.
Butch normally brings out his beautiful 56 Chevy Gasser, but this weekend was diplaying his hot rod.
Most of the drag cars showed up because they were already in the trailers, a little easier to unload in the comfy warm building 🙂
Jeb McGregor brought out Nadine, his faithful steed for over 300,000 miles.
Again, beautiful kustom, and it would look so much better closed up.
Here’s the Fine Nine winner, the Atomitron by John Saltsman, driven out from CA for the show. I love to see kustoms driven especially when competing for such a prestigious award.
Also driven out from CA was Keith Dean’s 40 Mercury
Another of Shawn Mundy’s Fine Nine qualified 35 Ford Pickup.
So a couple of years ago I hear of a new indoor show in the Wichita area. Coming just a month after the Starbird show, I wondered how it would work. Then I hear that it’s also a major bike show. How is this going to work?
Pretty damn well.
So it works, I’ll be. When I walked in the door of the Kansas Pavillions in Park City, KS I was greeted with some motorcycle vendors, I’m not typically much of a bike guy but I can appreciate a well built bike just like a well built car. As I walked around the first room of The Chill I saw every manner of bike on the planet. It was impressive. In building 2 that first year were some vendors, some cars and a stage area. Building 3 was chock full of cars, it was a pretty good turnout.
2011 Chill
So a year later I’m headed back to the show. I know now that it works, and I hear some changes are in store. Sure enough, the car area was expanded, the bike area was rearranged to allow the stage for some live music. The same high quality selection of bikes, hot rods, kustoms, trucks, drag cars, tuners, street machines, etc.
2012 Chill
So in a nut shell, I’m heading back. It’s been a good quality show, of course lots of my friends will be there, many who did not participate in the Starbird-Devlin show of a few weeks back. If you can make it next weekend I highly recommend coming to see The Chill (click here for more info on the show). The show will feature a Hooters Swimsuit competition, and a live performance by Warrant (the hair band fan in me just smiled). Should be a good time for everyone!
———————————————————————————————————————— One of the koolest build threads on the HAMB has been my friend Roger Jetter’s Caddy build (click here to see the thread)! I’ve been lucky enough to see the car a few times, here are some of the finished car.
————————————————————————————————————————
Another buddy Nick has been building a sick roadster (click here to see the thread), he got it all together last year and proceeded to enjoy the hell out of it driving all over the place. Now he’s blown it back apart so that he could finish it out. Just like everything he does, it’s turning out amazing.
Look, it’s possible, anyone can get a great ride eventually, it takes a little (or a lot) of money, time, effort and you’ll cuss alot while doing it. Go out and get yourself on the road, that’s where you find the good stuff of life. Speaking of that I’m going to get back to work on my Galaxie and try to get it back on the road.
Saturday I head out for the Starbird Exotic Car Show in Tulsa.
Okay for part 3 we’ve moved into the middle section of the building. Housing some drag cars, a kool boat, a bunch of bikes…whoa wait, I’ll just show you it’s a ton easier.
This boat looks like a good time.
Looks sporty 🙂
My nephews need a pair of these.
Mmmmmmmmmeat
I can’t decide if I like it or not.
I know I like this one.
And this one.
I thought the whole point of having someone ride with you was to get her to wrap her arms around you???
Big chrome bill
Ben Dragdaddy working on some art, it’s what he does, you should buy lots of it.
Quite possibly the koolest wagon ever
One purdy pickup
Ridler Winner….mmmmmm
Built at Bright Built Hot Rods
A bad ass 34 built by my friends at Chaotic Customs in Mulvane, KS
More drag goodness
A mix between minitruckin and old school hot rods
Beautiful 39 Ford Deluxe Street Rod
GORGEOUS 34 Ford Woody
Chad Kolman’s 777 Award winner
A really hot 51 Ford
Last time I saw this rod it had artillery wheels, completely different look in drag mode.
Way out there… I’m not a fan of the headlights but the rest of it I’m down with.
64 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt. No I will not make my 64 Fairlane a T-Bolt.
That’s it for the show from my eyes. There were obviously more cars than I shot, but either there were too many people around them, the shot didn’t come out or I just wasn’t feeling it. All in all, I’ll come back next year 🙂
So yesterday I started off the coverage of the 2013 Kansas City World Of Wheels show, here goes part 2!
I really dig this wagon, if I remember right it’s stance is down a few inches from the last I saw it.
A well done muscle car catches my eye from time to time. Well out of my price range, but it would probably be made to be fun around a road course.
I don’t see enough convertible Mercury’s
Speaking of kool convertibles!
Good looking 34
True Blue 40 Ford
Mmmmm Shelby GT 350… I still have a soft spot for vintage Mustangs.
Clean 40 Chevrolet
One of these is definitely on my wishlist
I remember seeing this setup roll into the Greaserama Pre-Party last year, it garnered a lot of attention.
I REALLY want to take a few laps!
Great setup!
Well, duh.
That’s it for part 2, on to part 3 tomorrow. Click on any of these photos to see the entire gallery! If any of these look like something you’d like to have hanging on your wall, click the photo here, and then use the “buy” button on the page it takes you to.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
