Barn Find, Bare Bones 1934 Ford Hot Rod

1934 Ford Hot Rod at El Mirage

Author and Photographer: Mike Harrington

We first spotted this ’34 ford at the Antique Nationals. There she was sitting in the staging lanes waiting to race with the rest of the antique American iron. A picture was snapped at the Antique Nationals. One thing led to another, and there we were a few weeks later in the blistering heat on a dry lake bed doing a photo shoot.

Ron Hammack owner of this ’34 5-window has an interesting story to tell. This machine is a genuine Northern California barn find and had been sitting since the early 1970’s until he recently acquired it. As to the history of the vehicle prior to Ron’s ownership, and where it was raced; it’s still shrouded in mystery.

Suffice it to say that when it arrived on the trailer it still had the grill shell, body, hood and frame. Rats had long eaten away sections of the wood floor and left a dung heap the size of Rhode Island inside the cab. Brenda, Ron’s wife, insisted that it be taken to a car wash first and have the Hantavirus blasted out of it before it came home. Once it was in the family two car garage it took only three weeks of re-construction before she was ready to roll again.

According to Ron, the original frame was butchered like a Jimmy Dean hog at harvest time, so it had to go. He purchased a frame from Rudy Rodriguez in San Diego and had it rolling in no time flat. Ron threw in a 302 small block Chevy that came from a ’68 Camaro along with the TH-400 transmission. For good measure, a cam with more lumps than a Waffle House bowl of oatmeal was thrown into the small block to give it some growl. And right about now we know what you’re thinking. Not another small block Chevy! Fret not, like any true hot rod the work is never done, and Ron’s ‘34 is no exception. The small block just doesn’t have enough power for Ron’s liking, so a 500 cubic inch Cadillac is the next engine up grade that is in the works.

Along with the engine a new sturdy frame from the Kiwi Konnection in Bakersfield, California is likely to be next. Ron tells us that he will most likely tear the car apart three more times before he gets it where he wants it. Having just recently retired he’s got the time to do what he wants, and don’t worry he plans to leave all the patina on the car much to his wife’s chagrin.

Now about the racing part of this story. Like we mentioned earlier we first saw the ’34 at the race track. During one of its trial runs the TH-400 blew out first and second gear, so it had to be raced in slower bracket class on account of having just D or the 3^rd gear. One thing is for certain, we look forward to seeing the ’34’s progress and catching glimpses of it at race tracks around California.

Here’s a few more shots of Ron’s 34 Ford Coupe featuring Model Dolly Marlowe at El Mirage.

Rusty, Old and Artistic: Don’t Miss Michael

Hot Rod & Custom Car Photography & Writing

Through some good luck and a willingness to talk to everyone I meet… “Hey Do you use the internet!?” is a favorite thing my buddies tease me about… I bumped into Michael Harrington up at Bonneville Salt Flats in 2010. He was photographing a sick gasser Corvette (yes, on the salt!) and I asked who he shot for. Well, he’s worked for a few Primedia/Source Interlink titles you’ve heard of, most recently, Super Chevy.

Flash forward to present and Michael and I are back in touch and we’ve worked out a deal to publish his incredible photography and musings here at MyRideisMe.com. It’s incredible to publish professional pictures like this! Michael’s got a gift and I know I’ll learn from staring at his work.

I snaked this info from his photography home page Automotive-Photography.net to let you know more about him:

I don’t know how it happened, but it did. I guess most of us enthusiasts can blame it on our fathers. In my case, I can definitely pass the blame. My father was never a huge Hot Rodder by any stretch of the imagination, but as a child I do remember him working on other people’s cars and his own Grand Torino. From an early age I learned to appreciate the aesthetics and sounds of the American automobile. Then in the late 1980′s my grandfather gave me his 1973 Camaro. That act of generosity pretty much sealed my fate. A 17-year-old kid behind the wheel of a muscle car is altogether an exciting and stupid thing. That love — the love of feeling the torque throw you back into your seat; the curves, the chrome — it has always stuck with me.

In college I would daily drive my lowered ’59 Buick Lesabre to school, attracting the strangest stares of curiosity (even from fellow “art” students). To them I was known as “that car guy”. How I became an automotive photographer was really quite by accident and not by my own design. If I was smart, I would have learned something practical like business or finance. But sometimes we don’t choose what we become, it chooses us. Besides, I think I would rather be strangled by a piano wire if I had to chain myself to a desk every day. Taking a beginning photography class for “fun” steered me into a whole new direction and ultimately became my career choice. After doing some freelancing for various automotive magazines during college, I was recruited and offered a job at Super Chevy magazine. I quit college and took the job, working for nearly five years writing and shooting stories all across the country. Working for a magazine and traversing the country was quite an exciting experience. Working for a giant corporation that owns nearly all the popular titles on the shelf, however, was not quite as exciting.

These days I have gone back to freelance photography, shooting and writing for various publications and companies. Of course, everything I do is still related to the automobile — that love will never die.

So as you can see, he’s a car guy that’s been into it forever.

Michael’s got an impressive resume of pictures and has an easy reading way of describing them too. Car Tech agreed and published a book of Michael’s work called Rusty Pickups: American Workhorses Put to Pasture. You can grab it over at Amazon.

So enjoy the stories and pictures and let Michael know you’re dig’n it by leaving a comment here and there. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it and we’ll both know if we’re on the right track with the stories we’re publishing.

 

Thanks!
pikesan

When Shallow Runs Deep – Hot Rod Photos

Hot Rod & Custom Car Photography

Photos & Text by: Mark Stacks of Tin Woody Photo – Click on any image to see it full size

Like the last two galleries we’ve put up lately, the California Hot Rod Reunion and the LOWTECH Hot Rods, Mark’s got a style all his own. He was kind enough to share some of his favorites with us as part of the “Best of” series I’m doing on folks like me who want to improve their photography overall, and have a passion for hot rods!

Custom street rod at the October 2011 Golden Super Cruise

In Mark’s words:

I’m a hobbyist photographer that really loves cars and their culture.  My goal in taking photos of car is to tell a little a bit of a story of the car, show some of its character, and maybe include a little mood or emotion. It may be a pipe dream, but if could have a viewer thinking they smell the gasoline or the rust…well, that would awesome!

I go everywhere looking for cars to photograph, shows, rural farms, industrial areas, back alleys, if there is a chance of finding automobilia, I’m there.  It really makes life a never ending treasure hunt.  American cars from the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s will always be my favorites, but when it comes to taking photos, anything that has character and personality is a worthy subject.

Whitewalls and chrome wire wheels on custom Cadillac at 2009 Carnage on Larimer

My beat up Canon 20D DSLR is the workhorse that I use for almost all my photos.  It’s a trusty friend that is always with me.  I have a tiny arsenal of lenses that I’ll use, a 10-20mm, 24mm and 50mm are my most often used.  The 50mm with its shallow depth of field is probably the favorite of the bunch.

Enjoy this cross section of photos and watch for the “shallow depth of field” Mark was talking about. That’s most evident when there’s only one part of the shot in focus and the rest tapers off to completely fuzzy… like this one:

Pair of Mercs basking in the early morning sun at 2011 Viva Las Vegas

Custom hot rod and gang at 2009 Viva Las Vegas

Viewers sizing up a rod as the sun goes down at 2009 Viva Las Vegas

5 More great shots on the next page!

Filed Under: Car Photography, Featured
Tagged: car photography, custom cars, hot rods

Traditional Hot Rod Photos You Might Call LOWTECH

Hot Rod & Custom Car Photography

Casny Coupe
The entirely home-built model A coupe of Chris Casny on the way to the HAMB BBQ.

Photos by Marc Woeltinger – LOWTECH Garage Photography

Recently I’ve had a few people ask me, where do you get the stories and photos for MyRideisMe.com? The answer really is, all over the place! That’s been most true lately as fantastic photos pour in from new friends on the web. I missed the Hot Rod Reunion Drags at Famoso Raceway, but thanks to Tim Scott’s photography, we all get to see it. Same goes for these shots by Marc Woeltinger. From Switzerland with an eye for vintage steel, Marc’s been holding a camera since he was 10 years old, but says he, “started getting really into it in 2008.

Winfield Mercury
This old leadsled is sitting in the Mojave desert in Gene Winfield’s back yard.

Now working in the advertising industry, his knowledge of color and style is paying off. In his words:

American car culture is my passion. I love to shoot traditional hot rods and customs and try to capture the stories behind them – stories of ingenuity, sense of aesthetics and individuality. I’m continuously trying to improve my skills while taking pictures at car shows, shooting friend’s rides and travelling around Europe and the USA. In recent years, some of my work was published in international hot rod and classic car magazines.

Hope you like Marc’s favorite shots. If you do, let him know with a comment below or a “Like” at the link up-top. Here’s Marc’s Facebook page so you don’t miss a thing!

1939 Lincoln Zephyr
Built and owned by Rich Soto from La Puente, outtakes of a photo shoot for the French Powerglide magazine.

1964 Impala
The icon of American lowrider culture: the 1964 Impala. Seen at the annual Cruisin’ Nationals, held by West Coast Kustoms in Santa Maria.

8 More custom car pictures on next page…

Filed Under: Car Photography, Featured
Tagged: car photography, custom cars, hot rods

3 Custom Car Photos – Verp or Cool?

Custom Car Photography – HDR

Special Ed’s 1956 Buick Special shot at the Mesa Cruise – 10/24/2010 (click on shot to zoom!)

What’s HDR? In case you forgot, my friend Alan wrote a great story about “High Dynamic Range” or HDR. What it is, how he does it and a few resulting shots.  Alan’s Car Photography HDR. Since Alan introduced me to HDR, I’ve always wanted to try it. I have a Nikon D90 that makes bracketing photographs easy so it was finally time to try it.

How’d I do?

For me, HDR either makes a WOW effect where I can’t imagine seeing something so beautiful, (just so you know, I have a soft-spot for sunsets) or the photo looks too digital, faked and generally induce a three-quarter verp.  There’s certain amount of funky-artsy-cool in the shot in both cases, but obviously, I’m shooting for the WOW.  Right now, I think I’m still over digitized, pretty noisy (in film it was “grainy”) and showing I’ve never done this before.  Gonna work on it…

In my defense, I used the first free HDR software set I could find. It’s called “Luminance HDR” Download it here. I’d say the software was fairly easy to use and I was able to combine it with “The Gimp” (the free photo editing software I use cause I don’t own and haven’t taken the time to learn Photoshop) with the help of a tutorial. Here’s that tutorial. There are several options and selections to try (none with explanations about what they are!) and I was running through those trying to figure it out… then Luminance kept crashing. Crap. If I stick with this, I’ll buy one of the more well know HDR softwares out there.

(I love how you can see the lower control arms sitting on the ground!)

Here are a couple other shots I took. These are both of my buddy Erock’s newly painted 1964 Chevy Pickup. Both of these are made with Luminance, but you can see the effects can vary quite a bit. If you dig it… let me know!

MyRideisMe.com is always looking for photographers! If you’d like to share your work, please get in touch. Send email to Admin@myrideisme.com

I’d love to hear your comments!

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