Hopupland
HOPUPLAND
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THIS MONTH’S COVER
True hot rods..those that exhibit the soul, the veritasof our hot rod ethic…are likely to have interesting dashboards. This plethora of appointments rides in Doug Clem’s deuce phaeton (see Drip Pan), which resides in the Whygoby Garage, somewhere on one side or the other of the Sierra.
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HOP UP SPECIAL NO.1
For a meesley $7 ($5 + $2 s&h) you will get the first edition of the new series of little books, intended to soothe the hot rod pangings….scratch the itch….calm the beast..of Hop Up Guys like yourselves. Yes, we only printed 19 of them, so send the dough..but don’t start accusin’ your letter-carrier (no, scratch that) don’t start accusin’ your MAILMAN -whether it’s a man or a woman - until next month… cuz that’s when you’ll get it.
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HOP UP VOLUME VI
And there’s a couple of these left; Volume VI of the Sans-Bullshit real deal on today’s trad rods and customs, perpetrated by cool guys the likes of you.
It don’t get any better than that.
Click on Speedshop over there (>) for Paypal orders or just send $17 to:
HopUp
PO 790
Riverside, Ca. 92502
No overseas or Canada at this cheap-ass price, please.
Try American Auto Mags - UK
Kustom Ink - Aus
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THIS MONTH HOLDS SPEEDWEEK
And if all went well in July….the Hop Up Travelin’ Road Show and Soul-Restoration Revival will be in Wendover for Tech Inslpection on Friday.
Bert Griffin has single-handedly prepared Ol’ Number 1243 for us, got it ‘hired gun’ ready and we ‘spect we’ll be Runnin’for the Underwear on arrival. Bert’s new black car (Blown Gas Flathead V8) will be ready, turned out dandy like all his stuff.
There’s also the issue of the Alviso Roadster Shindig in Austin on the way there - a necessary evil at the Hands of Jerry and Eddie and the rest of ‘em. Can’t wait for that.
So come on down, look for the Big HopUp Balloon, drop in and tap yer toe with us;
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Hotrodarama follows Bonneville. Hop Up is a Booster/Sponsor of this one and our Stringer Steve (Jimmie Olson) Lemons will cover it for us.
Lookie here:
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ROTTEN CUSTOM
Customs are an elusive art; the mild customs we grew up with are still being nicely done, the wilder ones are done more tastefully (we think) today that back in the day, witness the tasty stuff that D’Agostino, Dore, Zocchi, Livingston, et. al. do.
The key here is, Amigos, that what we’re doing is screwing up original old cars. The mild ones are kinda screwed up and the wild ones are really screwed up! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Doncha love it? It still feels good when it wrankles some narrow minded old fucks that we are having our way with somehing that they thought was perfect in it’s original compromised form and function. Why, even the most base hot rod cat could improve on the suspension of a mid-early fifties car by lowering it some and adding some good shocks and (sometimes) radials; perfomance is as easy as duals and a dual pot intake..and the looks? Hell. Lowering is all they needed, what with the high stance of the stockers..sheesh..were they all expecting to run only on farm roads?
We’re doing society a favor by beautifying things. Granted, sometimes we (actually not Hop Up Guys) go too far, and add a touch here and there that is custom-chauvinistic (hey, there’s one of them French words that’s part of the English language) and that excess is tolerable only because we all have different visions of what is cool. But, like Mosier says, “WE are the arbiters of what is right, right?”
He’s right, but sometimes they forget to ask!
Hop Up will continue to cover customs and as we maintain the vanguard of that exercise, we’ll appreciate your help on leads for crafty work, good looking projects and the rest. Hop Up was a rod and custom magazine in the beginning and as you know, we still are today.
Keep tuning in here and in the print books (Special No.2 is already scheduled for shipping right after Hop Up Annual Volume VII) for the skinny.
And don’t be surprised if the next Hop Up Build Up Series is on a custom.
JAVIER MEJIA AND HIS LADY TOOK HOME THE ‘PASO VERITAS’ AWARD FROM (AHEM!) HOP UP
That very Hop Up Custom Build Up will aspire to this kind of class.
Say Halleleuyah, Brother! Amen
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So, we’re hangin’ around one day with one of the guys we look up to and he says some quip that cracks us up an’ we say, “...so…we got that to look forward to? You’re how we gonna be when we grow up?!!!”
“You already are,” says he.
‘Don’t think he meant…grown up, tho.
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TEASE
We got a buddy in the Heartland (you know, where John Deere Green is popular) who is going to do the dream deal. The below-featured aircrafrt carrier is going to get the (minimal) Hop Up Treatment and we’re going to track it. It’s only the beginning of our going to the restorers and - because of the grey in our temples - and their misguided trust - screwing them out of the hard work(paint and hydes) they got in their Big Detroit Iron ...and ballin’ it all up with tasteful slamming and cuttin’ and Carson tops and the like. In this case, Keven at Cyclone (Psyclone?) is making heads for the V-8 flatties that came in them, so it all figures. Hop Up is going to do something similar with another cherry pie original starting about right now, too. Stay tuned, you ax-wielding, insightful, minority of arbiters of art and taste. We’ll be hear. (I know).
WATCH THIS RIG ‘MORPH’
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BE SURE TO LOOK IN ON DRIP PAN, MORT’S SHORTS AND T ‘n A
