Pullin Lines #2: LA Roadster Show Pinstriping

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When you find cool hot rods like at Pomona, California’s LA Roadster Show, there’s bound to be great example’s of hot rodding’s art form: Pinstriping.  My man Swanee went nuts at the Roadster show and at the preceding So-cal Open House car show.

Here’s just one example of the slick pinstriping and great photos that we hope we can all learn from:

• What’s out there in pinstriping?
• What colors might work on my car? (let the striper pick, you’ll be glad you did)
• How much is enough pinstriping and what’s too much? (tastes vary!)

So hurry over to the pinstriping picture gallery and also, check out Pullin Lines #1: From Viva Las Vegas pinstriping gallery.

MyRideisMe.com is looking for pinstriping artist to feature in a story and in our gallery.  Links to your website provided.  Let’s see what you’ve got! And if this is your work, please tell us…

Cacklefest’n Nitro Burning 1930 Ford Coupe

When Canada natives Ken and his partner Frank Bevacqua from Top Ten Hot Rods and Customs build a hot rod, they follow their motto: “Bad Done Good”. That exactly describes their ground pounding, nitro burning, fuel injected, hemi powered, twin McCulloch blown, tube frame 1930 Ford Coupe. Do I have your attention?

Built as Top Ten’s calling card of badness, Frank told me he loves the funny cars and front engine diggers you usually see at the popular cacklefest events, but where are the coupes? At drag races and for the first time at the 2009 LA Roadster Show, cacklefests are awesome. If you’ve never seen and more importantly heard a “cacklefest” then you’re missing out. Imagine 5-20 nitromethane or “fuel” burning beasts from the not-forgotten yester-year of drag racing’s lined up, and lit up, usually at night or just dusk to see the signature yellow flames shooting from the exhaust pipes. You know you’re in the right place when the push cars used are 1960’s vintage too. But that’s another story!

This car’s built for show, but damn it would be fast! Featuring a 1957 392 Hemi with Enderle fuel injection force fed by matching, twin (yea 2 of them!) 1957 McCulloch superchargers modified to run without clutches to feed about 20lbs of boost, EACH… to the 7:1 Hemi. Frank says about 1000hp on gas and maybe 2 large on fuel. All that runs through a Chrysler 4 speed.

The talk of the SoCal Speed Shop’s Friday-before-LA Roadster open house, this car was heard by many. My friends and I all mistook the McCulloch blowers for turbos because of the ear piercing whine they made when Ken romped on the throttle for a grinning and growing crowd of onlookers. Anyone who heard it knew it was not ordinary “rat rod” as it barely idled, popped and whined begging for the nitro that would’ve sent us all gasping for air. Perfect!

Construction on this fuel coupe, while rough-looking at a glance is all professionally done and appears race ready. The Hemi is supported by a custom full tube frame and cage built from cold rolled 20 gauge. A 9 inch trac-loc with 4:11 gears is found out back with a vintage army surplus oxygen tank that looks right at home. Walking from front to back, looking closely you’ll see the full length belly pan and get stopped in your tracks by the wild 22″ wheels up front.

Those 22’s are from a horse drawn International Harvester sickle mower. Highly modified to fit the Ford spindles and motorcycle tires, the Top Ten guys say they might make more. They must have answered, “What are those wheels from” about 10 times a minute! The back wheels are 19-inchers, also from a tractor (of course?!) widened with Ford Centers.

Other cool details? Dig the1947 Canadian Cockshutt grill (yea, another tractor) and the 1936 Oldsmobile accessory steering wheel mounted on the swing away steering column. It’s a tight fit in there and it looks all business.

A great as this car looks with natural rusty patina offset by the polished fuel injection tubes and unmistakable Hemi valve covers, this will be a finished, painted car with chrome and polish enough to be a sure hit at any cacklefest.

I’d link to Top Ten’s website, but I can’t find it! I’ll be emailing Frank and Ken to tell’m about this story and beg them for regular updates. We’re close friends now see… I introduced pinup photographer Mitzi from Mitziandco.com who was there shooting with the lovely pinup model Mimi La Minkz (http://www.myspace.com/Mimilaminkz) and we grabbed a few shots. If I ask Mitzi nicely, maybe I’ll features all of those shots in our pinup picture gallery.

You dig’n this too? Let me know by leaving a comment and be sure to encourage the Top Ten guys to keep feeding us regular updates. Thanks for reading!

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Throttle Kings – Hospitality and Hot Rods

What do Hot Rods, cool Kustoms, the LA Roadster show and Octopus have in common? The Throttle Kings of Southern California. In 2007 when MyRideisMe.com was barely idling, I hit the LA Roadster show hard with cards and t-shirts to spread the word. That was when I first met Victor Busatamante. Victor listened about my dream of “Myspace for car guys” and offered a beer to celebrate that I was done jabbering. By that time, I had the pitch down, but even I was tired of hearing it. One beer led to another, then Victor and his buddies were making carne asada and fed me well. You don’t meet guys that generous every day. I was grateful for the hospitality so I loaded up the boys with MyRideisMe.com t-shirts.

Fast forward 1 year to 2008. As Saturday at the Roadster Show was winding down, I set out to find Victor and his guys again. Not so hard, just look for the guys having the most fun! A little ways out, I found them. This year was no different then last. Everyone was having a great time, sipping beers and eating what? Oysters and fried octopus? I tried one of those little suckers too. Chewy.

I got the idea to grab a picture of each Throttle King member with their car. For these guys, their rides do tell a story about their personalities. My Ride is Me. With every member nicer then the next, they each told me how they help each other out with their rides and if they’re not working, they traveling together to one of the MANY shows and cruises in the greater Los Angeles area.

It didn’t take long to notice I needed almost every letter in the alphabet to get their names! Bustamante and Kopis Georgakopoulos (Greek if you’re wondering), give you the idea. That’s Kopis’s 51 Pontiac Chieftain.

Besides the cocktails and friendship, I also shot some pictures of Don Simm’s wife Doreen. That was my first chance to try pinup photography.

Doreen is a natural, now if I was a talented photographer… you can read that blog… Click HERE.

I hope to see everyone next year, or maybe at the Primer Nationals in Ventura.

Until then, here’s the Throttle Kings and their cars.

Thanks for everything!

See you next year.

• Victor Bustamante’s 30 Ford Coupe (Visit his garage)
• Kopis Georgakopoulos’ 51 Pontiac Chieftain (Visit his garage)
• Don Simms’ 29 Ford Roadster (Visit his garage)
• Jim Ramirez’s 36 Ford Pickup
• Paul Medina’s 47 Ford Business Coupe
• Pete Rodriguez’s 50 Ford 2 door sedan

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The other side of the LA Roadster Show

The LA Roadster Show is one of the MUST shows of the year, at least for me. The Pomona Fairplex gets another sweet show too, the Grand National Roadster Show. (let’s not forget 2 NHRA events!) It’s no wonder, about a ka-jillion hot rodders and custom car builders are in the greater LA area.

The LA Roadster Show is put on by, you guessed it, the LA Roadster Car Club. Founded in 1957, this is the 44th annual show.

I posted some pics of the LA Roadster Show, but only of the show itself. Here’s those pics (Click HERE). Sorry, they’re not my best effort. Camera broke, I’m not so talented behind it anways, ’nuff said! I also got some from the So-Cal show (Click HERE).

So before next year’s show, I better show you what I found outside the show; in the swap and in the show lot, I call it. That’s where I found this hot little sedan. This is my favorite picture from the show. (if the owner wants it, you can have it free, just email me.)

One thing that’s true at all the LA Roadster shows is the legends walking around. This year, I had camera ready to shoot two Gods of the Hot Rod and Custom world. 2008 Builder of the Year Gene Winfield and “The King of Kustomizers” George Barris. Both of these guys have cool books out about they’ve done in their lives, but like most car people you meet, they were super nice and willing to chat for a while, no matter how busy they were. I’m trying to work a deal with Jared Barris, George’s grandson, to blog about the build of his first hot rod here at MyRideisMe.com. I don’t suppose anyone’s interested in that?

In the main show, only roadster (duh!) and finished, shiny-painted cars are allowed. Outside the show is a cooler-than-a-Toys-R-us swap of hot rod and go-fast goodies. Bring cash. This show is known to have the hard to find and you got it! Expensive parts. Most people agreed though, the swap was busy, but not much buying going on. Hard to say, but we did see alot of people walking around with empty Radio Flyer wagons and empty hands. I got a new steering wheel for my car and a COOL print for the office. Hey, It was father’s day! The print was from James Owens at Car Noir. This is the print.

Here’s the stuff I found. This old school funny car was too cool. I want one. I sensed this one has a nice history too. Anyone know about it? If you’ve never found this site, I dig it. Trouble is, you’ll be there for a while! 70’s Funny Cars

Then I made a few friends from down in Tucson. Rick Sipes owns this NASTY Austin gasser in the works. He had a bunch of tall injectors for sale too. Injection or blown, you know that story. Then there’s Payola, a super modified built in 1959. I lost the owner’s card! I want to do a feature story on this car.

After cruising the swap meet (for the 3rd time!) I had to hit the car corral, if you want to call it that. I guess almost every car’s for sale, but most of these weren’t. Same as last year, I wowed at more cars outside the show then in. Don’t get me wrong, the LA Roadster’s show is the cream of the crop, but I guess I like a wider variety and rods that might be a little rough around the edges. How about you?

How to be a pinup model – 2 secrets revealed!

2010 Pin-up Girl Wall Calendars

Pinup models go with Hot Rods like whipped cream on pumpkin pie. That’s why you’ll find hot rods, muscle cars and even some hot bikes shot with the much finer sex in the pinup photo gallery at MyRideisMe.com. It just seemed like the right thing to do! Then, with the popularity of the killer photos of one of my favorite models, Zoe Scarlett done by Photographer: Dirk Behlau and, the most popular blog at MyRideisMe.com about the Hot Rods and Pinups II book shot by David Perry, I start thinking… why don’t I shoot some pinup pictures?

Piece of cake, I’ll let you in on the secrets: 1) Get a hot girl and 2) pose her next to a rad hot rod.

Done. Except for a couple of things… imagine this: Excuse me hot rod owner, I think your wife’s hot. She looks like a pinup model. Can I take some pictures of her? At that point, either you’re feeling the left side of your face caving in or you’ve met Don Simms and you’ll be fine. Don and his buddies from the Throttle Kings are some of the coolest kats you’ll meet at the LA Roadster Show, but that’s a different story (that WILL be told later).

For secret #2, Don supplied the hot rod too. The guys nearly got it all! When you making a garage at MyRideisMe.com Don?

Enough of that, dig the pics. Not bad for the crappy camera I had to use. (It’s always best when your digital SLR takes a crap at one of the best shows going.)

Thank you Doreen for being my first.

To see all of the pinup pics, go to the pinup photo gallery.

These pics work great as a desktop image, so click on them and save it. Make sure you tell a friend where you found it!

And let’s tell Doreen what a great job she did!

Check out all the Pinups here MyRideisMe.com Pinups Models & Hot Rods