2010 Goodguys Scottsdale Pictures – Golden Morning Sky

Best Pictures from 2010 Goodguys Southwest Nationals

My new desktop picture!

As I get older, the list of reasons for getting up EARLY in the morning oddly keeps getting longer… it used to be simply fishing. Next as Pops started to take me racing, I added, “going to a drag race” and then as I got more interested in cars, I added, “going to a swap meet.”

Now I’ve added, “taking pictures with morning sunshine.”

See the dude laying on the ground for this shot? That’s me!

I see alot of people cruising car shows taking pictures… some with gear much nicer than me, and quite a few using their cell phones. What are you doing with those pics? I wanted to cover cool shows like Goodguys Scottsdale with the best pictures I could, so I started watching guys like Paul “Swanee” Swanson take pics and trying to shoot like him.  (here’s a few of Swanee’s 2010 Goodguys Pictures from this year) Then, I sought out some other pros and got some tips on Shooting Good Car Pictures. I’m learning! Or maybe it’s just the morning sky!  Who cares!! I’m really happy with these pics.

This custom 1951 Chevy Coupe pictures above is owned by Al de la Torre from Scottsdale, AZ. This is the first time this car’s been to a show and these are the first published pictures. I’ve just barely giving you a glimpse of how great looking this car is. Thanks for closing the hood and trunk for me Al!

Just before shooting Al’s 51 Chevy, I shot my buddy Erick Anderson’s newly painted 1964 Chevy C10. The truck’s really not that low, it was tall grass. HAHA!! Erick’s truck like Rob’s burb and Dino’s head-turning C10 Crew Cab all lay frame thanks to custom installed airbag systems.  All I hear from these guys is, “Are you gonna bag your Falcon wagon?”

Back to my morning shots…

Doesn’t it look like the headlights are on?

My wife even liked this picture!

Notice the grass?  Not sure if Goodguys had anything to do with it, but about 1/4 of the grass at West World has been covered by asphalt and filled with vendors. One of my favorite things about Goodguys Scottsdale is the grass!! It’s high 70′s (cool this year!) and perfect for a sit down or a walk barefoot among the cars. I think the cars for sale at Barret Jackson dictate the new paving?

While not a sunrise, the low sun did help set off this color.

Finally, I had to snap some closeup shots of the diamond port hole windows in this slick custom van. I hope van’s are making a come back. With the panel painted custom van in the back ground, did I pull this picture from the MyRideisMe.com 70′s photo archive?

Any comments? How was the show for you? Bigger, smaller than last year? What was your favorite ride and did we get a picture?  There’s three sets of pictures from the 2010 Goodguys Show in Scottsdale. This one, Swanee’s pics and from newcomer Bill Garrett from Garretterokustomphotoandart.com shared some Goodguys Scottsdale Pictures.

Hope you like it!

Good Times Pile Up at Northwest Nats

Car Show Pictures: 2010 Goodguys Puyallup Northwest Nationals

Our friend Jason Rushforth (Rushforth Wheels) had attended the 23rd Goodguys Northwest Nationals in Puyallup, Washington with his ’64 Buick (featuring a brand-new LS2 engine swap!), and he sent along some photos that he and Adam Ramseth had taken over the weekend. As Jason tells us:

In addition to getting the Rushforth Wheels company car to the show at the last second, 2500 other folks made it to the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington which is the biggest and best show in the Northwest. Weather was perfect all weekend and the big open fairgrounds were packed with all manner of hot rods up to 1972.

Here’s a few shots from the weekend of cars that stood out but with 2500 cars… there was certainly something for everyone!

Brett Anderson scored a coveted Art Morrison Enterprises “Builder’s Choice” Award with his home-built, Rushforth-designed and wheeled 72 Camaro:

2-door wagons are so cool, and this slick ’57 Ford is no exception!

With virtually every segment of the hobby represented, this little pickup has some serious attitude and the wide whites on wires really set it off!

How cool is this little Crosley with a tropical taxi theme… complete with wicker side panels and bamboo grille and roof rack?!

In addition to building the wildest wagon to ever get a Great 8 pick at Detroit, JF Launier always brings something cool to Puyallup and this year’s 60 Cadillac did not disappoint.

… and dig the iconic Harley Earl styling and miles of straight black Detroit steel!

Steve Washburn had his ’39 and his newly finished ’32 Ford on display side-by-side.

Hot rods come in all shapes and sizes but this beautifully executed Chevy COE takes it to another level, and the owner has a Street Rodder Top 100 Award to prove it. If you see this truck at a show, stop what you’re doing and set aside an extra 30 minutes, because to see it is to believe this amazing home-built hauler!

While they’ve been available for a while now, why don’t we see more Willys roadsters like this clean and aggressive example?

Greg Parsley’s 67 Chevelle makes use of carefully applied flat finishes to get some attitude…

No need for patina when your gasser looks this good?!

So there you have it… another well executed and packed Goodguys Car Show. Were you there? Where’s your pictures?  The owner of the Chevy II gasser above, “Addiction” gets a free t-shirt if he leaves a comment below.

One Goodguy’s Roller Coaster Ride to Puyallup

Buick Skylark’s LS2 Engine Swap:

Most car guys make like-minded friends, and Jason Rushforth is proud to know car guys all over the world. Take a half-dozen of his friends who live close by him in the Pacific Northwest, throw in some emotional roller coaster moments, one ’64 Buick,  a high-tech engine swap and a few late nights. From there, subtract proper nourishment and numerous hours from the daily schedule, and you get the story of some of the best friends any guy could hope for… And collectively the reason his car made it to their big, local Goodguys show.

The following tale comprises all of the above, and makes for the memories we all share in late-night benchracing sessions, and throws a decidedly modern twist on the engine swap gone- bad-but-brought-back-from-peril-by-good-pals tale. It’s one of those MyRideisMe-style blips in hot rod history, where the car brings the big picture together, and all seems right in your high octane world. In Jason’s words:

Every car guy has a story about a late night thrash getting a car ready for a show whether it’s debuting a million dollar piece of rolling art at the Detroit Autorama to contend for the Ridler Award, unveiling a car at SEMA or just getting your ride to this week’s cruise night. This is our story and I think it’s a good one.

About 6 weeks ago, I drove the Rushforth Wheels company car, our ’64 Buick Skylark, into Chris Holstrom Concepts,which belongs to my long-time good friend, Chris Holstrom. This would be the last time the Buick ran with the 300 c.i. V8 it left Detroit with. The car only has 98,000 original miles and ran like a top but the little 2 barrel 300 and Powerglide weren’t getting it done, if you know what I mean, so we commenced to swapping them for an LS2 and a Keisler 6 speed. The little Buick mill came out ninety minutes later and went to it’s new home in a T-Bucket the next day thanks to Craigslist. All along, the plan was to finish the car in time for the Goodguys 23rd Annual Pacific Northwest Nationals in Puyallup, WA… right down the hill from Chris’ shop. We knew it would be kind of close, but we were up to the task.

Things were going very smoothly and we were knocking out the punch list, one item after another, and the car was looking good… And then, the day before the show (while hooking up the last bit of the miles of wiring harness to the drive by wire Corvette gas pedal) I found that the connector from the ECM did not match the pedal. The computer was from a C5 Corvette and the pedal was from a C6! I thought for a second and called my friend John Annon who has owned Corvettes for the entire 20 years I’ve known him, so I figured he might know someone with one at a local Corvette shop or extra parts or a wreck or some kind of Corvette source and told him what I was up against. What does this guy do? He climbs his 6’7″ frame under the dash of his Lingenfelter Twin Turbo C5 and yanks his gas pedal out and runs it across town for me!

On the same day, one of the things on the punch list is an alignment because we swapped to L&H Kustoms tall billet spindles, Hotchkis upper control arms to match the new spindles’ geometry and Baer T4 calipers (as if we didn’t have enough to do before the show) so I called Luke Mau from L&H Kustoms to get the alignment specs for his billet spindles, which correct the factory geometry flaws and allow for increased camber gain… without dangerous and annoying bumpsteer. Luke sees that it’s Thursday and knows the show starts Friday, and starts picking my brain to see what else is left to do and knows there’s no way we’re going to get it all done… so he jumps in the car with a few extra parts, tools, an alignment kit and some shims and drives two and a half hours from Oregon to align it! Unbelievable.

We couldn’t align it at Mike Sader’s American Muffler shop at quitting time when it came off the lift (after receiving a complete MagnaFlow system under it), so Mike threw us the keys to his dually, and we loaded it back in the trailer that Chris dropped it off in. We hauled it over to Jared Hancock’s shop,  J-Rod and Custom, where we rolled it out and Luke began double-checking the suspension install that Art Stohrmann and I had performed (Mostly Art), while Jared’s crew and I started to try to figure out why the car wouldn’t stay running.

It would fire for a few seconds and then die every time. Fuel pump? Check. Ignition? Check. MAF clean and hooked up? Check. O2 sensors threaded in and wires attached? Check. What the hell? One of Jared’s main guys is Howard Wolf who works for a Ford dealership by day so he doesn’t flinch at the snake pit of wires and tubes associated with a new EFI computer-controlled motor the way analog old-school car guys like me do. Howard also carries a scan tool in his truck, so he hooks that up to the data port and there’s still no red flags.

Once Luke finishes up the alignment and the punch list he came up with all on his own, we tried in vain to start it again and again, and I finally said to Hell with it and just pushed her out in the midnight darkness and set about to washing the car and have a zen moment alone with the car. When I finally left at 3AM defeated, I just told Jared I’d be back for her on Monday and figure it out then.

The next day, I had accepted the fact that I’d be attending the car show on foot, so I wouldn’t grind my teeth all weekend and went to the show with as positive of an attitude as you can have while suffering from malnutrition and sleep deprivation while retelling the same damn sad story all day when someone asks; “Hey Rushforth, where’s your Buick?”

Around 3:00 in the afternoon, I’m enjoying the show with my daughter, Carly eating ice cream and visiting with friends in the Summer sun on the opening day of the show when my phone rings. It’s Jared exclaiming that he and his right hand man, Justin had loaded the car in his trailer and taken it to his computer tuner; Horsepower Ranch who plugged it into their laptop and found that an anti-theft code for the column lock had been left in the new aftermarket computer! The tuner eliminated the code so the computer stopped thinking we were stealing the car and it fired right up and idled away like it had wanted to do all along. Unbelievable! We had just about all but eliminated every variable and assumed it was something in the computer but I had personally given up the notion it would be resolved on Friday since we didn’t have the ability to hook up a laptop and I was too exhausted to mess with it again so my friends did it!

I dropped my daughter off at home and Chris and I head over to Jared’s to button up the last couple things like bolting the seat back down over the computer, bolt the newly acquired C5 pedal to the firewall and a few of those last minute things that come up on every project and take it for the maiden voyage which is completely surreal. The car sounds killer with the lumpy Comp Cams bump-stick aggressively burbling through the MagnaFlow system as you hear the idle smoothing out while the computer and the motor figure each other out.

On the drive, I lift off the throttle and hear the unmistakable sound of driveshaft smacking trans tunnel as the rearend tips upward and angles change ever so slightly. We pull back into Jared’s and jack it up, slide under and see that the little balance weight attached to the driveline is in perfect alignment with the underfloor brace that runs through the tunnel so Chris takes a cut off wheel to it and removes every part of the brace that touches and Jared expertly welds it back in 3/8″ further up into the tunnel without setting fire to the carpet all while laying on his back, effectively chopping and channeling the brace to gain the required clearance at Midnight. Unbelievable.

Chris and I drove the car home at 1AM and finally get some sound sleep. I woke the next morning with a whole new attitude and outlook on the weekend and drive straight to the fairgrounds without even dusting the car off. That can be done when I get parked at the show! Once there, I lovingly give it a quick clean up while friends and strangers and people who followed the build on online forums all come up one after another to see how we did.

Coming off that emotional roller coaster, I wouldn’t have cared if there were 100 cars and it rained all weekend but that was not the case. Like most Goodguys events around the country, it was absolutely packed with great cars, over 2500 to be exact, lots of vendors and tons of spectators flooding the gates all weekend long with perfect 85 degree sun and 9:30 PM sunsets all three days. We get a bad rap here for our rain but the Summers are hard to beat!

In addition to great cars and great weather, Art and Craig Morrison from Art Morrison Enterprises here in Tacoma, WA are responsible for the Builder’s Choice Awards which are killer billet trophies given to only the 10 very best cars in the entire show and I’m proud to report, my good friend Brett Anderson, whose car I designed and put wheels on got one of the coveted awards despite the fact he built his car himself in his two car garage!

Do you have a similar story about a late-night thrash, some good friends and having it all come together in the eleventh hour? Perhaps you’ve got some tips and tricks you learned along the way and would like to share… Feel free to post in the comments below or shoot us an email: admin@myrideisme.com

Goodguys Giveaway Boss Snake…Hsssssssssssss

Had to share some pictures of this year’s Goodguys giveaway car.

I’m working on a story about last years winner. The guy was in Equador when a buddy pulled the winning key. Funniest thing is that same friend qualified to win THIS car in November at our home show in Scottsdale.

So check out the “Boss Snake”.  We caught a glimpse of the Snake in Scottsdale for the first annual Spring Nationals where the RPM Hot Rods guys and another magazine were shooting. We snaked (haha) the picture in that sweet AZ sunset light. My man Swanee’s every bit as good as Ken’s shots below. Here’s some more info:

Goodguys 2010 Grand Prize Giveaway BOSS SNAKE

Bay Area photographer Ken Phuong (www.spotninestudio.com) stopped by the Goodguys world Headquarters last week to photograph the all mighty BOSS SNAKE 2010 Grand Prize Giveaway Car. The photos will appear in a future issue of the Goodtimes Gazette but we wanted to give our loyal web readers a sneak peak at just how awesome this car really is!

Built completely in house by RPM Hot Rods (rpm-hotrods.com) and designed by Kaucher Kustoms , The BOSS SNAKE features a 770 horsepower Jon Kaase built 520 cubic inch Boss Hemi,  Ride Tech suspension featuring Chris Alston components, PPG Goodguys Yellow Paint, Custom one off Intro Wheels, Baer 6 piston brakes with 14 inch rotors, Classic Instruments Gauges, Custom Interior by RPM, Custom exhaust by RPM and Stainless Works, Custom Flowmaster stainless exhaust, a Tremec Magnum 6 speed transmission, Centerforce clutch and hundreds of intricately fabricated parts and pieces by RPM.

How do you win this car? Click here for complete giveaway contest rules!

2010 Goodguys Spring Nationals Autocross

Car shows are fun, but I think I speak for alot of car owners when I say: “Get out of the lawn chairs!” Don’t get me wrong, time with friends catching up on new projects and great hot rod buys are essential to car shows, but what else is there to do? That’s where Autocross comes in…

At the 1st annual Goodguys Spring Nationals in Scottsdale, AZ, Goodguys added an event they call the “Street Challenge Autocross”.  Goodguys does a great job of setting up a small, twisty race course that’s perfect for taking cars normally at home on the the straight line quarter mile and forcing them to go left and right. Up for grabs is a set of BFG tires for winners in a few different classes including Vendor, Hot Rod and Street Rod. (Somebody help me with the classes… they’re not listed on Goodguys website)

So who was racing?

The winner of the hot rod autocross was my friend Doug Jerger in his 1934 Ford Roadster.

Doug is the owner and chief painter at Squeeg’s Kustoms in Mesa, AZ. Doug’s built a couple America’s Most Beautiful Roadster contending hot rods including Todd Steven’s Hemi Powered 1932 hot rod and Doug’s own ride that I’ve seen him drive the heck out of: Another 32 Ford Roadster that was a beautiful, blown and driven hot rod. Here’s another shot of the class winning roadster.

Goodguys draws all kinds of rides pre 1972, so hot rods weren’t the only show goers enjoying the autocross. Probably my favorite participant was this straight axled gasser from one of our local race tracks, Speedworld.

Two thumbs up to this gasser! With Southwest Nostalgia Drags painted on the door and drilled axle for all to see, my man was alot more interested in laying down a couple smokey burnouts than setting low time. Way to go!

Also on the stranger side of things is this pickup:

Note the left rear wheel off the ground as these  ladies enjoyed taking everything the track had to offer, including a few cones. Obviously build for autocross, the old Dodge set a record for fan approval.

Why not a long bed Chevy pickup on the course? Goodguys designs the track targeting a max speed of 35 mph, so next year, I hope there’s at least double the participants.

So with the primered and patina’d trucks, this pristine 540 big block powered Camaro hit the track:

Mark’s Camaro may not have one on the Autocross, but who cares! Rather than sit and watch, he showed his hot rod was built to be driven!  Mark’s a member here at MyRideisMe.com. Check out more picture of his Camaro here.

Look for more autocross pictures from Swanee here soon!  I’ll post the link…

So why didn’t more people take advantage of the autocross?

Any chance of having the autocross at the November Goodguys Show?

More pictures from the Autocross:

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