rat

found this rat rod around back of the industrial park at the super cruise. its pretty beat to shit, and seemingly haphazardly put together. but if you look closer, the small details are really fun to discover. seems to have a thing for skulls too. wonder what freud would say to that?

the mottled paint is the color of rust, but it really isn't rusted at all, and it adds a wonderful layer of texture to the thing. and hells yes, real bullet holes instead of the stupid stickers!

work in progress, or will they stop here? 

  

  

up and coming

not much to say today, and it's late.

one from dia de los muertos show here in whittier. usually pass these kind of cars by, but the little blue bottle caught my eye. gives it that extra "get up" and go i guess.

spudnut racing

quick pic. already running late on somewhere i'm supposed to be. 

found this rat rod way out at the end of the street, on the other side of the railroad tracks, at the rialto run whatcha brung show. i think the owner next to him said they'd arrived late, so parked out there in the shade. they did also get out and drive the circuit once in a while. the other owner also said i'd made this guy's day because i bothered to take a picture of it. such small things can make people happy. don't think i gave him a card, so i suppose he'll never see it, but its here, hiding on the internet in plain sight. you never know.

ttfn

flamed and a little grumpy

the lovely couple that own this hot rod have been waiting a month to see a new picture of their baby. they thought they'd been going crazy and missed it, but no. i just don't post everything, especially if i'm not satisfied with it. i suppose i have an old email from them somewhere, so i could have let them know. or i guess i could have written something here. but then i wonder if they're just looking for the picture and not reading it, they wouldn't know then either.

i had been having an internal arguement over a couple of shots of it from a show out in riverside, but there was something in each that was just not doing it for me.

then this weekend, a couple of local shows i'd heard about and planned to attend, just simply didn't happen. so having awakened at an ungodly hour for a saturday, took my better half along for the ride out to rialto, promising him that i don't drive out there anymore if it isn't worth it. i'd scoped out a few while my son went to ucr, so i knew this would be ok.

and i kinda guessed they'd be there too. i saw them drive in as we walked over the train tracks to the main strip. we didn't actually get there until after 8am, so the sun was already past the sunrise we were looking for, but not so high as to be irritating.

i took a few shots early, then wound back around and took these two before i left. i think either one looks better than the shot with gary's favorite outhouses.

my better half went to the car show with me, so afterwards, we went out to chino planes of fame for him. he had fun...hardly anyone there, and a nice breeze for a change.

thanks for telling about another show the next day, but i just couldn't do another whole day in riverside.

oh ya, and there's the little grumpy on the back of the other car. didn't notice him last year, when i was just all about the skulls.

oh, and buy a print here

checkered past

i still have a couple more cars i promised before i get back to my favs. 

this one was just different than the typical hot rod. mainly the checkered paint job on the radiator and inside the engine compartment. otherwise, pretty standard hep cat.

wonder what that guy in the doorway is thinking...or the zombie to his right. neither is looking at me, nor the car. must be something driving by out of the shot.

mr pig

found this over at hooters a couple of months ago. probably wouldn't have taken the shot, except i noticed the little decoration on the engine, or rather the air filter cover. other than that, this is a pretty generic bucket.

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got busted by the doctor, who knew i'd been walking too much by the look of the cyborg boot. almost was free to go, when he happened to push on the wrong place on my foot. yep, another shot of courage into the foot. this time, a needle that looked a mile long, and deeper into my foot. hurt like a bitch.

promised to keep off the foot as much as possible. kinda putting a damper on going to car shows. but this weekend is the show at chicano park and also the annual show in orange plaza, neither of which i've been to before. i think i can do one or the other, but not both. better half is going to insist on going and pulling my bag around. maybe i can talk him into helping me up, if i want to take a low shot.

rod riguez

let's hear it for the time change...pfft. i'm going to miss that extra hour of sleep.

busy week ahead, probably won't be posting until sunday, if i'm lucky. so i'll leave you with this guilded beast. a total look at me, look at me car, so i looked at it, looked at it.

i really just liked the pinstripe picture on the back, but am including the front and back views, for those who always ask. it was a really different take on a hot rod. the running boards probably aren't that useful.

the owner offered to let me shoot the inside, but nah, that's for someone else to have fun with. i'm busy judging the book by the cover.

indecisive

i've gone to a few shows this past week. just about done doing the backup on my computer and have made some room, so i figured i'll start shooting again.

made it out to the broiler last wednesday. was relatively warm out, so hoped more cars would show up. actually, there were a lot of regular cars taking up space. good for business, bad for car shows. 

anyway, this car i'm pretty sure belongs to one of the guys that works in the broiler. i see it a lot, but usually parked over on the other side. i saw him back this puppy into one of my favorite spots to shoot, and the space next to it stayed empty for quite a while. figured i'd take a couple before someone would want to park and move me out of the way.

i walked up to it and saw this first picture, and knew i had to get that reflection in the window. the pictures are a little rough, and there's a bit of lens flarey stuff, but i still think they're interesting.

trouble was, i couldn't get the rest of the neon in the picture. so i couldn't decide which picture to post. so, i'm posting the other view, because i like it just as much. and why not, the owner is a nice guy.

gold member

ok, i'll throw this one up, if only to make fun of it, and because its the only picture i had ready to post.

ya, its a custom hot rod by hinkle's hot rods. but shit, too much blingy goldness. i was looking for the crystal chandelier on the inside. i guess its just too much for my taste.

i did like the pinstriping on the center of the wheel. missing the usual nerf balls in the pipes, but there still seems to be some type of foam filler there anyway. 

i believe i've reached the point that i have to backup and remove old stuff from my hard drive...only ninety-two gb of space left. ya, sounds like a lot, but i could fill it easily by going to a few shows and posting up a dozen or two pictures.

i'll probably do that this weekend. maybe finally get around to upgrading my applications too. or, maybe i'll do the usual, and find any excuse to go out to a show...

that's hot

this bucket was from early in the year out in norco. back when i used to have to drive out to riverside pretty regularly. lots of pictures, and i've been reviewing files to try and free up space on my drive, and found this one. figured it was time for something besides a chevy. i think that's the owner in the picture. didn't say anything, just sat there while i did my shots. seemed pretty happy with himself.

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didn't go to any shows at all today. my better half treated me to the brian setzer orchestra show last night at the hollywood bowl. how long have i lived in california, and i've never been there? didn't realize so many people could be jammed onto a hillside.

was a great show, with the ninety-six piece symphony orchestra behind brian. the light show and fireworks were pretty cool. some of the acoustics were sketchy, and the music seemed to be playing down in a hole. one of the few concerts i've attended that didn't take three days for my ears to stop ringing, but still, glad to have been there.

i guess one of the big features of the bowl is that you can bring your picnic basket and booze and lounge about the area and in your seats before and during the show. all that is well and good, but not being drinkers, we had to smell all of our fellow show goers' open glasses of vino throughout the show. so nauseating. never could understand how people could drink that piss. it's nasty. i've tasted it, and i suppose i just never had those friends that i had to pretend to enjoy the taste of alcohol in front of growing up. actually, mostly didn't have friends, but did get to observe others making asses of themselves.

anyway, my better half put us up in a hotel nearby, so we didn't have to get stuck in the log jam of drunk winos after the show. thanks, d, you know how i hate sitting in traffic.

well, we enjoyed the show, the hotel, the air conditioning, and stuff. we had decided not to do the show in pasadena and hadn't brought the cameras on purpose, but had left others as an option. we slept in, then stopped over at the hilton by universal studios and ate the buffet for brunch. got too hot outside to bother with norwalk, and then got too sleepy to go to lakewood in the evening. and somehow, i'm ok with it. pretty awesome weekend, considering.