MAGAZINE

A BEATER IS NEATER

You're not wound so freakin' tight that you care too much what people think of you; especially people you don't even know. You might even be satisfied with - no, you might really dig- havin' a beater. We're not the first to pitch this concept, but it's worth jivin' about a little bit.

Although we choose not to spend too much cyberspace praising rod-celebrities (God knows they get plenty of that in real magazines, and more so if they're advertisers!) but some of them are notorious because they're so stinkin' cooool. Jake is the real deal, he's the icon we look to for inspiration: touring solo in the most functional rods of our time. A symbol of the absence-of-ego that makes Hop Up guys different. He probably doesn't care if he's a Hop Up guy or not. He's doin' his' Thang.' And he's been doin' it in show winners, road cars, race cars, and...........beaters. At least they look like beaters

His red tub got lots of ink a while back and Oh! Surprise! Letters to the editor came in from some cats who didn't "get it". Those guys will never find -or like- Hop Up.

To them, it was terrible to enjoy or pay homage to such an un-finished car. Well, they'll run out of ink writing to us!. We're gonna have 'em. Regular features on beaters of all descriptions. In fact, we were tellin' our buddies at a "turnaround" a few weeks ago, that Hop Up is going to have a Rattle Can Nats sometime soon. Can ya dig it? Primered, paint peeled originals, total rub-throughs, and no pressed-out, finished rides. This'll take place on short notice, in Mid-California, ('cuz that's where we are) with just a phone-chain of invitations. If you want to be on that list, send over your phone number.

The inspiration for this tirade on tackiness is another semi-celebrity who, we think, may have put more running hot rods on the road over the years than most anybody else in our tiny world. He's had cover cars, show cars, street rods, trucks, hi-tech, low tech, you name it. Richard Graves is a car guy. He, unlike some, makes a good living at building, selling, buying, fixing and generally digging cars - and he hasn't lost the BUZZ that cars give ya. Some people in the BIZ lose the BUZZ. Now take a look below.

Richards' '37 Phaeton

He bought it out of the proverbial barn; It had a chopped top, flattie, column shift, juice brakes, roughed-up sheet metal, and, well, it looked kinda like the end of the road. But Richard has imagination. Some people call it vision. It sat for a while. Reposing in a pitiful, but elegant way. Dead. Then Dr. Gravesenstein made it ALIVE. IT'S ALIVE!!!!

In went a boneyard 350, A new set of 15" wheels and caps. Quick and dirty mechanical and wiring tune-up. Radiator flush. Top recovered. Seats recovered (Kinda). New 4" axle.

Now we've got the best back-lash car in town. It' shakin' 'em up, dudes. People are telling me all about it, "It ain't even painted. I wonder what he's gonna do with it? When's he gonna finish it?" I'll answer that one. NEVER. It's as done as it needs to be. He saved it

It's for using and enjoying and the whole gag is only a little bit tongue-in-cheek Who'da got it running, anyhow? Some guy would have taken it and done all he could do to make it look like a glass copy of what it really was in the first place!This isn't the last of Richards' cars you'll see here. He just keeps 'em coming.

It Looks Comfortable, Eh?