MAGAZINE

HOP UP 2000

HOP UP 2000 LOOKS LIKE THIS

The Order Form (click here).

"HOP UP 2001 - The Golden Anniversary" will ship November 1. More pages, more color, and more un-covered cars, people and happenings from the real world of traditional rods and customs. Put your greasey thumb on the pulse of Hop Up Guys all over the great USof A and the rest of the world.

We'll include a pre-order form in our September issue on-line (shipping included free on pre-orders and $1.95 after publication). SPECIFY VOLUME II.!!!!!!!

NOT AVAILABLE 'TIL NEXT MONTH

ANTI-BLESSING 2000

While some fiddled away at the T Meet (Long Beach Model T Ford Club Swapmeet) and some others were at the Blessing of the Cars, and some others were at the drags in Pomona......all hell broke loose. Well, "broke loose" may be a little strong. Let’s just say that one of the best sites we've seen in years for a rod/custom swindle, and one of the most memorable collections of cars and people was the second Anti Blessing put on (at some pain, he’ll tell ya) by Alex (Axle) Shiftermon.

We don’t count cars too well, but it had to be 300, and except a couple of Chevelle’s and a Tempest or so, were just-right, inspired beaters, rods, customs from the real Hirohata Merc to a life-imitating-art, blown, stacked motor in a 30" high whacked sedan body (not running) metal sculpture of a Roth T-Shirt.

AXLE'S GREASEMOBILE AND OTHER SHIFTER RIDES

It’s success scares us a little, in that it’s going to be big news next time, and it will be on the list of a lot of parking lot car show guys and......we don’t know...they might just get their asses beat up at a deal like this. Naaaww...but they just won’t fit in. There’s a vibration that is reminiscent of the early street rod years where neat, small deals in cool places grew fast and young families came, with tots, and set up picnics and EZ Ups (did they have them yet?) and communed with other like-aged, like-situationed cats and kittens. They evolved into greybeards wearing rod-event multi-colored T shirts, cut-offs, beer guts and Charlie-Tweedle cowboy hats.

Some would set up camps, like a full-on Tiki hut one group had.....there was this big ol’ Caddy convertible towing a 16 foot travel trailer with astro turf lawn, palm trees, a bar, the whole magilla, an inviting set up among the big trees in the park.

50'S KITCH AND COORS LIGHT FOR BREAKFAST

The uniform of the Anti group is no news; great-looking women in period attire, hair-fixin’ to make you crazy, guys in the expected jeans, some chains, some engineer boots, lots of tats, grease (there it is, Boys) and the only one moving faster than a cool swagger was Axle. Walking around busily searching for someone who might have promised to do something for him, jogging back to his self-imposed official greeter position, literally jumping up and down when a Two-Lane lookin’ ‘55 Chev with a straight axle came screaming in making little bursts of thermal energy that made the rear kick sideways every 20 feet or so. A flockin’ spectacle.

Music was tasteful as always (Mustang Sally is no Greaser Chick, thank God), both live and recorded, and you could get away from it if you wanted to...it wasn’t piped right up your ass like it is at SOME gigs so that the sales pitch for concessions and sponsors can reach you, no matter where you try to hide!

WHACKED '31 COUPE IS OUR FAVE FOR THE DAY; CHEV, 3-PEDALS 3-2'S WITH VELOCITY STACKS, POSTURE. HOT ROD. FRICKIN' HOT ROD. THESE BODIES ARE GOING TO GET EXPENSIVE.

LOCAL MERC SHOULD HAVE BEEN PARKED BY HIROHATA

Choppers were there, lookin’ good, Deacons of San Diego with Grandpa Stubby (meting out discipline to a gang of hoods that have no use for it!!), Autoholics, you name ‘em, ‘Them’ from Santa Monica. All the notable clubs were present.

It’s About the Iron, though isn’t it? Mercs, Chevys, every treatment of chopped tops model A’s (don’t these guys know about DEUCES?!!), T’s, WHOA, DADDY! What looked like a father/son team drove in with Arizona plates on their very similar chopped, primered ‘30-’31 A highboy coupes. Not everybody’s ol’ man does things the way the kid does - or vice versa. Chicken, egg? Marc and Zack (Wastrels/Them) are another case in point, and although they kinda run together, Marc says he’s leaving his orange roadster the way it is, waiting for ‘the Magoo Look’ to cycle back into fashion!

Our old '49 shoebox was there (the one we loaned to the Kiwi’s in ‘75?) now owned by a chick named Amy who is going to give it the treatment; we filled her in on a 20 year piece of it’s past that she didn’t know about ......the future is in her obviously capable hands. It’s the center photo on this month’s cover.

Thus, Anti Blessing 2000 is done and although we left before the REAL party at Los Vacitos Bar and Grille, we know it was a winner. Our unsolicited advice to Alex? Quit promoting it and it will have a life of it’s own, it will always be as cool as this one, and if you pitch it for more attendance, the dynamic of that inevitably successful effort will make it a rod run, it will not be the (nearly) exclusive event we've enjoyed the last two years and ..............aw, fo’get about it! Do it however you want. Hop Up will be there......you can even play Mustang Sally...right after we pull out!

CUSTOM HAPPENING

JERRY RUSHING BROUGHT THIS HARDTOP. AND IT IS FULLY PRESSED, NO?

Sultans of Long Beach had their picnic deal on Sunday July 9. Man. About 300 cars and very few rods (it’s a custom club, ya know?) and there were even almost 70 club cars there. Sheesh!

Custom culture thrives: there was tasty iron there from mild to wild, and we don’t remember seeing anything MAULED (See Diehards). Typical grassy park setting, and not too many spectators. The lookers were just all the other car owners checking things out.

Some music, some eats, and typically Sultan........casual rather than manic like some rod things get these days.

WE’RE NOT BIG DICE FANS, BUT THESE ARE GENUINE PRE-’56 ANGORA THAT USED TO SWING IN JERRY’S LATE OLDER BROTHER’S ‘41 CHEV. BRO WAS LOST IN A CAR ACCIDENT IN ‘56, AND . THE DICE RIDE HERE IN HIS HONOR. ............R.I.P.

They do give out prizes and picks and stuff and the trophies (Rich Boyd Jr. was the artist) were inspired. One of ‘em was the award for the Baddest Bomb and it was one of those bowlin’ ball-lookin’ bombs with a big-ass fuse stickin’ out of it!

Best Under Construction was awarded a tool box! And there were several other more standard ones, not the least of which was a bitchin’ print of all the Sultan’s cars lined up and cruising at Harvey’s broiler, that went to The Sultan’s Pick. Whoa!

When it wound up, all the belly-scrapin’ baddies drove out and the roadway was lined with the Sultan membership, thanking people, applauding cars, and just being gracious. Class act. Especially for a bunch of sinister old (and young) car crooks chillin’ it like they have for (don’t really know how many) years since Dave Ellis muscled a few of his pals and said, "We’re gonna revive our deal, Neal!"

Thanks for going to the trouble.

BILL SNYDER CRUISES THIS SANO FASTBACK. WE DIG BULLNOSE STRIPS; NEED A CHEVY!