MAGAZINE

TEJAS

Yeah, we wuz there. Kinda incognito, but we wuz there.

And just in case you hadn't heard about the Lonestar Roundup: go. All the clichés are true. You don't mess with Texas. If you ain't Texan you ain't shit. All o' that.

We knew some people there and met more and.......we goin' back, Son.

The vibe there is similar to ours, here, when it comes to Greasers and music and cars but ........when you are centered at the Continental Club (thanks, Steve)......... you know the music will be stone to the bone.......however.......... it's about the iron. Traditional, turned-out hot rods are there and customs and....kustoms......scrappers, too; seems they all know one another in a familial way; all in it together. Custom hi-style is present including some celebrity cars; contributes to a Paso kind of feel.

They asked Hop Up to pick a car. Feeling no pressure, we dallied and snuck off to a special BBQ 'off campus' and when we come back, we went about doin' our homework...checked the number on our favorite car, turned it in to Steve. He grimaced. "Shit", we're thinking', "we shoulda picked one with scallops or something; maybe that one was too Californicated!"

RONNY MARSHALL GOT MOST EVERYBODY'S PICK WITH THIS

No, he says, it done been picked by Lee Pratt and Jimmy Vaughn already. One o' them had to pick another, too.

So we went back to this turned-out '31 roadster we were all nervous about......looked like those sinister bad-ass 60's hot rods we talked about last month. Full on sprint car look: fat dirt diggers on the back, nerfies, un-polished mag Hali's, howlin' quickie, louvers all about, leather straps, attitude. Maybe a little refined for some of the jamokes there but...hot rod, baby. We here don't discriminate about what decade a rod came from if it has.......... say it all together, "HOP UP STYLE".

SERIOUS A ROADSTER IS FROM DALLAS

So, that done, more music on the grounds, more tire kickin', smalltalkin', grooving' on the river side location (Austin's a bit of a River City, too)........fade.

Hotel. Continental Club. Pasta (date with Sweet Thang). Continental Club. Steve is about the coolest: club owner, custom cat, blah-blah. Don't wanna sound too groupy, but....cavrone!

Lotsa BS with an ol' Pal. Oh yeah. There was whiskey in on that one.

New Pals. Had the serendipitous pleasure of meeting guys who knew the complete lineage of a car we are building now, including Champeen Drag Racing and two or three subsequent lives as street iron. That'll get cha! They'll be including some of that dope in the next issue of "SHOP RAG", the new little book we are all enjoyin' so much.

Morning after. Tex Mex outdoor buffet. Lock n' load. Fire the borrowed flathead roadster, and look for the sunscreen that we thought we'd never need again when we drove here. Oh. Didn't we tell ya?

On the way there: Houston to Austin:

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. E Ticket. Stripe-earnin' hard core roadster ride.

When we left Houston, approaching the interstate for the first leg of the ride: cold. Kinda windy. Kinda overcast. Looked one way.......blue sky. Looked the other.......black sky. We headed for the blue....."Whew", we say to Sweet Thang, "'glad they're headin' for that sun...".

Spoke too soon.

Under the freeway, left......left again......and on-ramp back toward..............black.

Rain, cross-winds that changed sides with every turn, wet roads and bias-ply tires on every car of a 6 car snail trial. Smokers with 40' boxes passing us creating the vacuum that pulls yer tires nearly off the rims as it tries to suck the little Ford underneath the trailer like some carnivorous underwater ocean plant/animal with a 'tude. We were thinking', "If we make this happen, we'll have a helluva story to tell!" We did and we are.

WE SAW MILES AND MILES OF TEXAS.........

Anywho, back at the hotel, we're hooked up and the sun is out to stay. Cool breezes, hosts what know the coolest roads in Texas, and we head out on the reward ride. Pay- back for the stripes ride of a coupla days ago.......we were on the JETEXAS BLUEBONNET TOUR, sure as hell one of the best rides we done ever had in a hot rod............and a borrowed one, to boot.

Our host shall go un-named......but....goodgodamighty. This seems to be a recurring trend, eh?

NEW COLUMN

From now on, each month, we will list our hands-on tasks; mundane as changing oil, complex as ........(not very complex); anything that causes us to wash our hands .....and clean our fingernails. You Mugs DO clean your fingernails, don't cha?!!!

Seems Ol' Pal Commander Stroupe must just look at the pictures here, cuz last month he says (remember Panther piss in the arm pit?) "I didn't know you were 'hands-on'"

Now, when you are gawking at the world of hot rodding from the Commander's lofty position, you must think everyone you know just makes directives to lesser rodding-beings, buys what he fancies and counts the pages of high profile ink......like Jim does.

But noooooooooooooooo.

Some of us get involved, 'hands-on', to what ever degree we can, within the limitations of time, etc. Jim is compromised because he began - many years ago - stuffin' money in the drawers of his new Snap-On roll away, and he can no longer find the tools that we used to get him for Christmas (along with lots of 'how-to' books).

Gee. Picture that: brand new Snap-On tools...new old stock....from the thirties.

Now. We really ain't gonna list our accomplishments each month. That'd be too much like braggin' and......there is plenty of that out there, they say.

But we will continue to tell you when a project bites us in the ass. When it makes us bleed. When we have to call for help. And when pulling it off flushes beaucoup satisfaction.

Or not.

Internalizing stuff is more Hop Up-like, no?

HOTRODARAMA

Steer here. Tacoma, Washington, right at the end of Speedweek.

If you avoid bigass Rod Stops™ then this may be a fit for you. In the mode of Paso, FTB, Lonestar Roundup, Rattlecan Nationals, and the Pileup. You know: the idea that it's fun to do it with kin but not with a bunch of folks that need 'splainin'. That takes the fun out of it.

Next month we'll show you the map, Bonneville to Tacoma, and demonstrate how easy it will be to include 'rama in your tour. We reckon one day's hard charge gets you there, so just add a day to your trip. For those not going to B'ville, then you better plan on this one.

YEAH. WE'RE SO COOL

The average graybeard hot rod/custom fool is over bad-mouthing other groups that don't do it...our way. You just get long enough in the tooth that you don't care; you have the peace that old age and (relative) prosperity give ya and.....like we said back in 2000 (and saw the echo elsewhere in print recently)...it's an ecumenical movement by this time: a car guy is a car guy; we're more alike than we are different.

One of those clans that used to be the older guys, and whose 'no customizing' policies used to give us the ass...was the V8 Clubbers. Now, we think all of us should belong to this club simply so we can get the magazine and read BJ's ads (he is Full Fucking Retail, ain't he?), and the rest of the classifieds and Ford tales and all, but lately we've watched one of our kin join up with a stocker and............run his ass off. Yeah. We're so cool cuz we charge the battery on our piece and go cross town once in a while, or even do a turn around once in a while, and brag our ass off about it, while these duffers hook 'em up every month and........go on a tour.

They make it their business to go somewhere. Drive their iron. Use 'em. Just like they were intended. And they aren't going to a V8 Stop where all the vendors will be there and you park and strut and hold court around what it was you bought this week, and wonder about getting a 'pick' and troll for mag coverage, and all that.

These guys seem to be doing it for....themselves and their smaller circle of kin.

Hop Up Guys? Maybe not.

But neither do they give a shit.

Hey. That makes them Hop Up Guys....don't it?

ANTIQUE NATIONALS AND JOE MAC DEPRECIATION DAY

Antique Nationals drag races are June 1 and the picnic for which you need advance meal tickets - is May 31.

Also May 31 at the Holiday Inn host hotel at 4:30 - is Joe Mac Depreciation Day - a cocktail hour celebration of one of the boys. There will be more later on Joe's colorful car life but suffice to say if you are a So Cal traditionalist....you have been influenced by him ...even if it's just that he picked your pocket at a swap meet.

Come a day early to the races and enjoy the picnic, Depreciation Day, and one of the best parking lot tire-kickin' fests of the year.

P.S. We mean the kind of parking lot deal where there are no Posers........

Joe Mac Rebuilds Ford Stuff Hell, NO! Nobody wants to work on your V8-era trans. OR the banjo rear-end. I sure wish Joe Mac Clelland was around.................... He is, of course. The trans-master turns them around in about a day and you can find him at: (909) 371-3111, in Corona, Cal.