Hopupland

HOPUPLAND

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THIS MONTH’S COVER

Read on in Drip Pan about Cuzin Brucie’s trip to The Jalopy Showdown in Pennsylvania. This is real re-enactment, Boys. The rigs on this one are pure, period pieces that are treated like..hotrods.

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HOP UP SPECIAL NO.3 WILL SHIP IN A FEW DAYS. BE FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chock-full of cool stuff, this one even amazes US!!!! $7 + $2 s&h= $9 to:

Hop Up
PO 790
Riverside, Ca. 92503

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EMPTY SLIPCASE for those who already have the books: $35 + $3 s&h = $38

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YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LA ROADSTERS SHOW…FRIDAY, AND LOOK FOR THE BIG RED BALLOON ON SATURDAY, AND SUNDAY.
YOU MIGHT FIND IT SATISFYING TO POP IN ABOUT NOON ON SAT IN PARTICULAR.
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ANONYMOUS LETTER FROM A READER

Now…see here….if we do a little detective work we can figger out who sent this love note recently.

(We know, really. It’s Big Johnson’s hand, Hollywood Joe’s cowl and Mild Mitch’s shop.)

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LA ROADSTERS FATHERS DAY LOLAPALOOZA

LOOK FOR THIS SYMBOL OF COOL

Well, it’ll be a dandy out in the swap area: look for the Big Balloon floating above the best iron in LA. Yes, we do mean that with no modesty, no reservation and due respect for ‘other’ iron. If yours is our kind, Bro…bring ‘er on down. KnowhatImean?
You will be among the Rollin’ Bones cars including the Poteet ‘34, Hegman’s Merc and you know how that goes, right? Might be some Hop Dawgs in it for guys who make the grade on Saturday. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…you’re welcome.

Tribute to Dave Enmark is 3:00 PM on Saturday in prefered parking area. We know you’ll be there if you ever met Dave. ‘Be nice to have you even if you just knew of him…....

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SANTA MARIA. PROBABLY NOT ‘PASO MARIA’

It was like a first-time event in a new place that happened in a new, unfamiliar fairground. Emphasis is on customs so that set it apart….happily I saw probably only three deuce roadsters….mostly good..favorite was Hollenbeck’s, I think, shown in the collage below.
The Continentals (Tejas) are loyal to WCK, come out en force each year.

KEITH TUCKER POLYNESIAN TRIBUTE ‘VERT WAS HOP UP PICK

Santa Maria will stand on it’s own if West Coast Kustoms and it’s staff of volunteers (believers who give it all they got)) along with some of the biggest names in the world of custom cars make the trek and get selective about entries, find some angle to make the fairgrounds a unique venue (we think a cruisin’ lane lends itself to a bunch of entertainment value) and redouble the emphasis on options for some of the women and those who need distraction. Yeah, a lot of women are happy to hang all day with their guys but some want the chance to slip out for other diversions for a few minutes. There were shuttles available that, we guess, most did not know about.

The captured gate is great for WCK and we’re happy for them.The left Coast has always had this custom showcase and it would be pitiful..awful…if it wound down because of the venue. We’ll be supporting it.

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T ‘n A

Fronty speedster, all genuine all pressed and all right. This is where it began for our forebears a long time ago.

HEADIN’ TO SPRINGFIELD

Straight outa Cabool, Mo., this familiar gow job from Rustman’s Down da Road Motors will be at the big Springfield meet. Put cher fingers in yer ears; he won’t suffer mufflers gladly.

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“The bell done toned (sic),
My Baby done caught that train and gone;
The bell done toned ,
My Baby done caught that train and gone.
It’s all my fault
I musta done somebody wrong.
Oh, Yeah”
Elmore James
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ABOVE: “Oh, yeah”, sung by Elmore James is , I think, THE beginning , the quintessential of us lesser humans saying: “Oh, yeah”, with SOUL.

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ELMO

We only make about one El Mirage trip each year; there seems to be other stuff - other car stuff that gets in the way so we have to defer, pick and choose. Its a pity but it’s the way it is; makes those few trips we make, brief…but memorable. This trip was made specifically to assist Bert Griffin in his blown flathead ‘29 on ‘32 rails, and it is the prettiest, baddest bitch out there. Typical Bert, ran 148.something not even trying, just sorting the car out and having fun. No record-chase, not even a T Shirt in his class. He has his own class..

We have to check in on about half a dozen Vintage Four Flathead cars and crews (we are partial to that, even to the point of feelin’ Fatherly about ‘em….) Jard/Jolliffe, took the STR record up to 109. Shug ran, Richard Reed ran.
There are overhead bangers running too, so you might note that the founders are being honored and…even if you don’t read it in a banger magazine…Hop Up has had a LOT to do with it…at very least the flathead part of it. Hop Up Honor - Stay Honor, right? Right!

Back to Bert’s deal…he picked up some fans on Saturday (before I got there on Sunday) and they were from out of town….“just drawn “ to this gorgeous car and the hep guy who was running it..hung with him..one guy’s daughter is a pro photog from Nashville…Bert’s tellin me this on Sunday morning and he says these mugs are from upstate New York and we say, “Shit! That’s Ron Hofaker, his daughter Carrie (the photograher) and Dave. We know those cats!”

Sure as hell, they drove up!  They had flown in for the three days and the way it looked to us…they got an eyeful (and camera-full) in their first -ever trip to El Mirage Dry Lake.

We hung and talked hot rod lore after Bert was done runnin’ for the day. Gawd, this is good stuff.

Now. The Immortals/Bean Bandits may be the Big Banger news here: they put their 100 MPHClub/SCTA Record Holding engine in an older Bandits ‘Liner…and set the record in the V4F liner class. Damn, are they GREEDY or what???? That’s OK: they’re our greedy bitches. Have we said yet that we feel parental about this V4F class?????????????????????

BTW: we have plenty of 100 MPH Club T Shirts in stock and there are already several with TV, Hotrodvon, and RR embroidered on ‘em. And we have the juice, the hopdawgs and the fanfare planned for Speedweek (although they probably will have already ‘won’ the garments after June Elmo.)

It’s gonna be Chonie Paradise.

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ARE WE FICKLE? NEVER SATISFIED?

Yeah. So what?

If people are watching you..us....there might be criticism that we are fickle.

It’s not that outrageous for them think so, since..they see us always changing the look, the illusion. “Never satisfied” they think. Just morphing and changing for change-sake, not happy with obvious success?

Then there’s the selling and buying. There is usually a pragmatic purpose in that: sometimes we have to sell in order to go on and do the next one. It’s one way to get the next ‘fix’.

The fix we seek and how we provide it..is an expression of what we crave; how we would change things, make them perfect to our own critical eye. Any way you look at it…..you gotta move on to do it. A real car guy is a little bit of an artist, shaping the ‘clay’ either with his own hands or with the artistic direction and money that gets it done through the hands of others.

So don’t fret that restlessness and its’ curbside critics: you’re normal, you’re inspired, creative and motivated. You are Hop Up Man.

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THERE ARE SOME REAL RIGHT HOP UP-STYLE MINI-RUNS IN DRIP PAN>
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MARSHALL ROATH

Marshall has shared some pearls from his shady past before, and these folow suit!

Look at the Carson top, the painted car, the high school senior who had the ability and taste to go through his ‘vert this way. Yikes!

Here is the Merc. The skinny guy is the same one that was sitting on the front wheel of the modified now a FOF. The picture with me in it shows the folding top that I had Carson do because I liked his detailing. Nice padded rolls around the door frame and a small rear window opening. The paint was a Cadillac maroon, I picked that color because of the very small metal particles giving great highlights but no sparkle.

The engine came out of a friends ’49 ford coupe. This friend was the service manager at Hillcrest Cadillac and wanted to put an Olds engine in the Ford. He could order a complete engine from GM because he was an employee. He went drag racing at Santa Ana and I got the 8BA..

The interior shot shows the padded dash covering the FoMoCo crumbling plastic. Also the obligatory chrome door sills and windshield trim. How about the steering wheel also a replacement for sun burnt plastic.

I included the aerial shot because it shows the shaved deck but the real reason is we can’t figure out where this picture was taken. Anyone know? This series of photos were taken in 1951 my last year at Fairfax High it was my last American car, except the Ford trials cars until the ’39 pick-up. At Art Center we were into foreign stuff.

Marshall

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DRIP PAN AND MORT’S SHORTS ARE NEW THIS MONTH, AS USUAL