Hot Rod Comparison Bodies

Made several comparison bodies for a brief section in Rats & Gassers that shows the difference between a chopped body and non-chopped body, both for Sedans and 5 window style Hot Rods. These bodies will rotate on a motorized rotisserie showing all angles to the camera. 

Mark Anderson's Hot Rod

These (unedited) pics were from yesterdays shoot and interview for Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride with Mark Anderson and his amazing period correct Hot Rod. Mark is a wealth of information on both Hot Rod History and building them the Old School way. I had interviewed Mark years ago for Go-Kustom TV with his '33 Plymouth Pick-Up. 

Go-Kustom TV S5-E1 DVD Video Single

Decided to release Go-Kustom TV in individual DVDs for now. One Episode per disc. Calling these "Video Singles." When I get 4-5 Episodes completed, I will release them as a collection like we did in the past with the show.  By keeping the price low, I think we can justify doing it this way. $3.99 plus shipping on our website.
www.go-kustom.com

Rats & Gassers Shirts

Designed these last night. We need new shirt designs for car show season and I really like Chuck Backman's '55 Chevy and Trevor Robinson's '29 Ford Pick-Up as potential t-shirt art. The process to turn video stills into shirt designs is an involved process using extensive filters and multiple layers in Photoshop. Worth the effort IMHO.

Billetproof Northwest 2013

Had a great time at the 2013 Billetproof Car Show in Chehalis, WA. We set up a vendor booth for Go-Kustom Rekords & Films and I did some filming for Go-Kustom TV and Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride. Primarily I wanted to interview Alan Galbraith, who is the main force behind this series of shows and vintage drag race events. The weather was excellent with temperatures in the 80's and solid sunshine. This was truly amazing, given we had massive amounts of rain right up until Friday morning.

Proto-Rat Rods

Don't let the Hot Rod History Revisionists™ fool you. Most current "Rat Rods" have more in common with the old "Hot Rods" than any "Street Rod" or many of the high buck "Traditional Hot Rods" ever do or will. The photo research I have been doing  through various archives on the internet (for my film Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride) really bare this out. 

1958 Hot Rod or 2013 Rat Rod?

Go-Kustom TV Editing

Been slowly chugging away at Go-Kustom TV Episodes the last week. With my new work schedule I have been having a hard time getting serious blocks of time to work on it. Still I am moving forward. 

Go-Kustom TV Editing (More)

Been slowly (and I mean slowly) editing the first new episode of Go-Kustom TV in years. This has been taking more time than anticipated. With my new work schedule and my own lack of maximizing my editing time, I really feel it's time to kick it in high gear. I jumped over to Season Five - Episode Two (Billetproof Northwest 2012) to break up the flow a bit. Episode One has some difficulties in audio because I forgot my interview mic the day of the show. The other thing is some of this footage will end up in Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride, but editing this footage is keeping me from working directly on this documentary. I wish I could hire a few trained editors to help push this snowball down the hill, but for now it's just me.

More Rats & Gassers Posters & Merch

Added quite a few more posters today on our Cafe Press pages. 

"Rat Rods"

I am surprise at how many Hot Rod Guys are insulted or get all bent out of shape by the term "Rat Rod." It reminds me of "Punk Rock" back in the early '80's. This one dink on a message board told me that the Rat Rod Guys were inferior and their rides were crap and how dare they call their cars "Rats" and that was stupid because you don't call Hot Rods "Hots." When "Punk" became a term for the music I was making in 1981, I embraced it. It killed the "Sleeper Rock" of the time and re-birthed not only Ska, Rockabilly, New Wave etc. but eventually Metal and Hip Hop. Rat Rods have spark a new interest in Hot Rods from a younger generation and helped kill Street Rods (aka Sleeper Rock) and rebirth Traditional Hot Rodding (guys who didn't like the Rats but wanted the credibility of a DIY ride as opposed to a 1-800-BUYMYROD approach).

More Skulls from Traditional Hot Rods

MoreThis was the other car I was thinking of when I was saying Skulls on Hot Rods are very traditional (see my previous post entitled Hot Rods, Skulls & Arse Holes), not just a Rat Rod fad. This is Ed Iskenderian's (yeah the camshaft company owner) '23 T-Roadster. Note the Flying Skull ornament on the grill! This Skull was cast at Manual Arts High in the late 1930's! This car was on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine in 1948 (tho without the skull ornament). Skulls are VERY Traditional Hot Rod. Nuff said. 

Rats & Gassers Title Animations

Working on Rats & Gassers title and word animation tests. Started basic layouts with my older computer. I still like doing basic graphics in Photoshop 5 on my G4, then importing into Final Cut Pro 7. Telling a story in a documentary is much much more than just compiling interviews and footage and then editing. You have to tell the story in an engaging manner or your documentary will fail. Titles and graphics can really get the point across.

Rats & Gassers Filming

Headed out early in the morning to Pasco, Washington to film Greg Richardson's Camel Tow-ing Rat Truck. Took almost four hours to make the trip and when we got there, surprise- three bad ass Hot Rods sitting at his shop (two were Greg's and one was his cousin Chuck Oak's), along with pretty Pin-Up Model, Kat Millicent! First I did a photo session with Kat and the cars, then some video of the same. After that we cut Kat loose with a big, "Thank you girlie, you rocked!" Then focused on additional photos and videos of the three rides. After that, I interviewed Greg about his builds, then we headed out onto some long stretches of highway to film with GoPros and HD cams. After that, we said goodbye, and jumped back in the van for the trek home. Didn't get home until 9 PM, but it was very much worth it!