Hopupland
HOPUPLAND
Ya can’t quite see it ...........up on that hill in Hopupland..you know…. there’s a big white tent. Balloon. No guy in a robe..no, that’d be about him not about it. No Guy. Only thing in there is truth..well..until you cats walked in. Then there’s soul. Truth and soul.
Hot Rods, Customs and truth and soul? How’s it feel?
Welcome, Brutha.
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THIS MONTHS’ COVER
So, George Canavan got the money-shot of his truck in front of ‘Will’ and noted that the Big Guy seems to be pointing at Smith’s Market. Hmmmmm. Is that cuz that’s where ya go for the ice and brew and sunscreen before you head out to the racing????
More of his shots from Bonneville are in Drip Pan.
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And with that (or, that said, which seems to be this decades’ cliche) we’re over Bonneville for this year….except for a few pictures that are still dribbling in from Stringers all over the country (see more in Drip Pan). Oh, and the one below:
MARC D’ESTOUT CAUGHT THE ONES HIDING FROM A BRIEF RAIN SHOWER.
WORD HAS IT THE PARTY SOON RESUMED…UNTIL ABOUT 9:30 p.m.!!!
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R.I.P. KK
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Ya know, some web pages really are read by just 19 guys.
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“I got a beautiful girlfriend,
sometimes..we stay in…”
Lyle Lovett
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RPU ON CENTRAL COAST OF CALIFORNIA
That round truck prob’ly looks familiar and yes, this is Hop Up Kinfolk. Neal Jennings is way in to the chassis on this car..and the motor…and…and…well..we’ve asked if we can follow each step from here on out. Like we told him, we guess we didn’t expect any less but holy Moly; there’s always some insightful geometry or parts-grafting and then there’s the finish grinding (kind of a metal finished whole car, chassis, motor and every dang thing.)
This is a good one.
DONCHA WANNA JUST TOUCH THAT CHASSIS?
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JESSE MALDONADO WROTE:
I was wondering if you can give my pictures some air (internet) time to see if anyone would recognize my newly acquired flathead. I recently bought and picked it up from Lodi California, and the story goes something like this: the gentlemen that sold it to me has owned it for the last 25 years, he sez it originally came from Southern California and it was out of a 29 Ford that belonged to the hot rod builder Magoo, that’s neither here or there it doesn’t matter to me. It has all the goodies, matching 97 Carbs, Nicson ball bearing linkages, machined water pump pulleys, Edelbrock heads and rare slingshot intake, Kong ignition, lightened flywheel, Track Isky Jr. 400 cam and adjustable lifters…uncertain of the internals, due to I haven’t removed the heads.
While doing some research on the Slingshot manifold in the Edelbrock “Made in America” book I found a picture of the engine on page 63… Da’ Vero? Take a look! So now I am trying to see if possible anyone can help with some info on it, if it is fact a semi/famous engine, if so, it may replace the 296 ci behind it to power the roadster.
Ciao!
Roadsterjess
South Pasadena
http://www.shoeboxjess@yahoo.com
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THERE’S MORE OF ALL THIS IN THE DRIP PAN SECTION, TOO
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SCOOT IS FOR SALE, ABOUT LOW 20’S - WRITE HERE FOR DETAILS
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Traditional style in hot rod/custom art is the employment of lasting aesthetics. It’s not very trad to jump on to what was a fleeting, gaudy treatment ......a failed Fashion Experiment that lasted about an hour and a half sometime back in the day….simply because it existed.
What didn’t work then...doesn’t work now.........blips on the fashion oscilloscope are not traditional….cuz they were blips. Temporary. Transitory. Not around long enough to become trad because…they were not good. It’s noble to try; yes, try new artistic approaches, but miming bad, failed treatments forty years later…?
Holy Moly, Boys.
Be traditional or change your mantra to Chauvinistically-Retro Rods and Customs. Like somebody on the HAMB said, “Fugly is still fugly..even if it’s old..” or something like that.
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GNRS HALL O’ FAMER RUDY PEREZ SAID,
“Yoooooo…Morty
Like it says, “it don’t work”...
My Canon scanner only does 35mm negs and slides…
I tried centering some 2-1/4” squares with miserable
results…Damn program is set to start on the leading
edge of the 35, and end on the back edge, then spacing
for the next neg…
Anyhoooooo, here’s what I wanted to show you…Inside
of 3 different envelopes, were 12 negs of Al McKeuown’s
‘51 Merc by Bailon…I remembered it well, because I had a
job, a car, and had just bought my 1st Hasselblad…It was
also the 1st weekend Al had brought his car home to show
his folks…AND to top it all off, someone at the Bay Bridge
Toll Plaza backed into the grille…I shot the Merc anyway…
I took these in 1958, and Al called the car “La Espada”,
the sword…Had a Cad with 4 deuces and a hydro…Inside
in the center console were a TV, private telephone, a silver
champaign bucket with 4 stemmed glasses, and lots of buttons…
Al was my neighbor, so I got to ride around with him…In
‘61 or ‘62 right after the show season here in the Bay Area
he got drafted…I never saw him or the Merc again…
“I wonder where his Bailon built beauty is today…
Your favorite F.A.H.R.T. (prounced fart)
Fraternally Aged Historical Retired Traveler…
Me”
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The he says,
“Yooo…Bro
“Swell?”...here’s Al’s Merc in 1961 at the San Jose Car Show…
It ain’t color, but it is a bitch’n shot, taken by Jim Handy…
I sent him my butchered color pics, and he fired back with
this one…
Hope you like it…
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We copped this off the HAMB:
“My wife and I went last year and we happened to overhear a very funny conversation. Two guys were looking at a model a coupe hot rod that was obviously an in progress build. The quality of the car was very good, it wasn’t a rat rod. The car had most of it’s origional wood intact. One guy was telling his buddy “Look at this thing, what a piece of shit, he made it out of wood! I can’t believe they let him drive this on the road!” Pretty typical of the Belmont Shore crowd.
The HAMBER is on target: that’s the level of auto-intellect found at that show.
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HOFFMAN/RODRIGUEZ SURE HAVE A GOOD TIME WITH THIS JUNK
Rudy Rodriguez does all the cool stuff, executes the art on these cars (there’s a heavy Merc brewin’ in there) and Paul is the ‘patron’. It’s he who commissions the art, who brings the candidates in for sacrifice on the alter of customization. They seem to collaborate, so Hoff must contribute eye and will in addition to the scratch…but he’ll say, ‘naw’. Well, don’t believe him. It’s a team effort but esteem for Rudy’s craft is so high….that Paul sits back and savors the stuff like stolen Picasso’s hanging in a secret gallery in a secure underground hideaway. The coupe is just for fun and all they did here was give it a tidy lowering job and that looks like enough.
They said it looks like some kinda Hop Up Staff Car…..not bad. It’ll be wearing Hop Up decals this week.
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MORE IN DRIP PAN AND SWAG IN SPEEDSHOP
