NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures Words by N/Koljian with photos by N/Koljian, John Lemoine & Alan G It starts out in Ocala, FL in March and moves its way across the map hitting cities like Michigan and Washington ‘til it arrives in Antioch, CA for the grand finale. This year’s Billetproof kept up to past standards by being the blowout show to end a great Northern California car season. Being that it’s the last big show of the year, Alan Galbraith and the boys from the Dragoons Car Cult set out to make this a show to remember. With a car count of 850 plus and a spectator total exceeding 3000, well, you do the math. We showed up early, and I mean early, to catch the roll in. The sun was just peaking over the hills of Antioch and there was already a stable of rods 2 to 3 city blocks deep and MyRideisMe.com captured all that went down at the 16th Billetproof in 2012. (Skipping the story? See all of the photos from 2012 Billetproof right here: MyRideisMe.com's 2012 Billetproof Antioch Pictures - Or...

Hot Rods and Custom Cars Search for Cover Well you know how Washington weather is, and this June we'd like to forget. Almost every weekend event it's rained. I Had my doubts about going to Billetproof in Washington, but what the hell , I'm going! A lot of die hard car people drove down friday night, I waited till Saturday morning and headed down. Hour and half later threw a terrible down pour I was there. Once inside I was surprised to see they had moved most of the cars inside. All showed up wipers or not! Check this out the Kid just Graduated from High School and did all the bodywork and paint on this just in time for the show. Way to go Austo! A lot of nice rides made it to the show dispute the RAIN. I told you it was raining right? Umbrella in hand to cover the camera looking for that cool rod. I thought this coupe was cool sitting all alone under cover. Here is another shot No more room inside for these guys , but they didn't seem to care. I left the show early but I...

NorCal Hot Rods and Custom Car Show Pictures- N/K The sun was far from coming up when I was standing on the corner of 10th St in Antioch waiting on Villainz car club member Scott Coppack to pick me up. The night before I told Scott I would love to help the guys set up around the House of Style booth which feature phenom pinstripers-slash-painters Kyle Martin and John Christensen. Come to find out Scott had already pulled in to the show and was setting up. If it wasn't for Villainz John Lemoine with his sweet burnt orange 49 and his keen eye for black sticker-mobbed camera cases I probably would have been out in front till they let the public in. Well... probably not, but you get the picture.   (All of Nick's pictures from Billetproof here in the MyRideisMe.com Hot Rods and Customs gallery)     Upon entering the show, we grab our swag bag, pay the reggie fee and head to our designated area, which I might say was quite perfect! Under shade trees, right across from pinstriping mad men Rich Luna and Mr.Wims booth and...

History of Billetproof - The Original Fifteen years ago Kirk Jones and Jay Ward had a idea. The idea was to create a car show with unique, hand-crafted trophies and to express the growing old school hot rod movement. They held their first new car show at the Albany Bowl in Albany, CA. In attendance was 26 traditional cars and about 100 friends. The music was provided by The Stillman in the bowling alley's tiny, packed lounge. The year was 1997 and the show was simply named Billetproof. In 1998 on a rainy day at the Albany Bowl attendance jumped to 63 rods and the venue was busting at the seams. Billetproof was ready for a bigger venue. The next year in 1999 Billetproof thought they had found a new and bigger home. The MLK Jr. Waterfront Park in Oakland, CA. Right on the water, with grassy areas to relax in and fully equipped with built in BBQ's to cook on, the park seemed twice as big as they needed... Wrong! On this beautiful sunny day in Oakland, 129 choice hot rods and customs filled the parking lots to...

The 2nd Annual Billetproof Washington Washout was even more impressive than last year. MyRideisMe.com member Michael Nantz gives us the scoop and pictures of his favorite rides: "There were spectators hovering around every car. The weather was some of the best you could hope for at any car show and there were some big vendors this year; the guys from SoCal Speed Shop in Sacramento made the trek up to Washington and were busy in their booth all day. For the first day of this 2 day car show there were 650+ cars of all styles. There was the "standard" rat rods (which is a term I can't stand but will say it anyway) to the traditional rods to some very rare and old customs. At the show on day 1 the first car I came across was the 1930 Model A from Top Ten Hot Rods which was my favorite car of the show with its 1957 392 Hemi with Enderle fuel injection force fed by matching, twin 1957 McCulloch superchargers modified to run without clutches to feed about 20lbs of boost, EACH… to the 7:1 Hemi. All that runs through a Chrysler 4...

2007 Billetproof Rocked! Here's the pictures we have. We still have about 350 to add including a bunch of bikes. If you like what you see, please join! MyRideisMe is like a great party at 8:30 PM... the band's setting up people are on the way... have a beer and enjoy until the music starts! Click HERE to see all the car pictures. Click HERE to see all the bike...

Hot Rod Semi - More than a Rat Rod Imagine yourself at a traditional hot rod show like Billetproof, enjoying Antioch California’s cool morning breeze when you smell diesel fumes. Billetproof isn’t the kind of show where you can trailer your baby in, so something’s not right. Then you hear the whine of a giant turbo just as this beast rounds the corner: Behold the 1950 Peterbilt owned by Michael Leeds. The name for this Hot Rod Semi is up in the air, but “Sneaky Pete” is the front runner. Michael comfortably cruised about 100 miles from Santa Cruz, CA thanks to the inline 6 Cummins turbo-diesel hooked to a 12 speed automatic transmission spinning highway friendly 2.92 gears. Michael guesses 12 to 20 mpg but driving range is no problem since he’s hauling 105 gallons in the polished aluminum fuel tank out back. This baby’s read to travel, even weighing in at about 7000 lbs. Michael’s no stranger to giant scale projects. Ever heard of Blastolene? Michael designed Blastolene which was later purchased by legendary car collector Jay Leno. Blastolene’s got an M47 Patton Tank engine that’s 1800...

See all of the My Ride is Me pictures from the show HERE MyRideisMe. com will attend the 2007 Billetproof show in Antioch, CA next weekend, September 15th. I can't wait for the show. This is the first time MyRideisMe.com will be properly represented at a show. Here's what we're handing out. I hope you enjoy it! I sure do! It's been my pleasure meeting Dirk Behlau, the photographer and Zoe Scarlett, the beautiful pinup model. They both have cool websites and myspace pages, check them out! Dirk's Myspace: Zoe Scarlett's Myspace: Check out all the Pinups here MyRideisMe.com Pinups Models & Hot...