New Prestige Pearl gauges from Auto Meter     The good news? Now I know what gauges I want for my 1963 Falcon Wagon project! I knew I'd update what was in my old long roof, but hadn't decided what would work best until I saw these. I'll see them first hand at 2013 SEMA Show and report back if they're as pretty in person as they are here in pictures!  Here's more info in the official press release below... read on!   From Auto Meter:   Introducing Prestige Pearl Instruments from Auto Meter!   October 1, 2013, Sycamore, IL - Auto Meter's newest addition to the highly successful Prestige series join the nostalgia-inspired Black Diamond and Antique Ivory designs offering a pure white dial colorway for greater design possibilities when planning your build's interior. Auto Meter Prestige Pearl instruments are proudly built in the USA, featuring hybrid dials highlighted by embossed spun aluminum accents, traditional arrow-styled pointers and are finished with period correct domed lenses and chrome bezels. The beauty of these instruments is more than skin deep, at their heart are the same performance meter movements found in race cars across...

Chip Barbee's Hot Rod and Custom Car Pics from Bonneville Words and Pics by Chip "Teach" Barbee See the full hot rod gallery here.   Chip's another friend from Bonneville Speed Week. I've seen him, shared the starting line, "media only" spot and had a great time getting to know him. This is his first time being published at MyRideisMe.com, so please make him feel welcome!   "It's in the record books. The 65th annual (SCTA) Southern California Timing Association's Speed Week is History !!! Some records fell. The crowd was lively and the Hot Rods and Custom roamed the salt and local casino curse night with ease. Come along and take a look at my favorites from the salt and the Nugget car show." - Teach   1) So what do you do with that rusty 4-door Edsel your uncle Fred leaves you in his will ??? Break out ye old trusty Plasma Cutter, remove all the ugly and end up with this sweeet Edsel Roadster the we ran into everywhere during Speed week.   2) Who says imports can't be cool. NOT US this little custom is...

Mark Jacobs' Salt-shots from Bonneville my man... Mark's come through with a great set of pictures from 2013 Bonneville Speed Week. With his wife Teresa, they flew down from Washington to attend their 2nd Speed Week. Instead of an over-priced hotel room, they stop by a sporting goods store, or Target or the like and get all the camping gear - and cooler full-a-cold-ones - to hang at the local KOA campgrounds with friends. Between or busy photo sessions (consisting of mostly shooting every cool thing we see!) we hung out and caught up on what's been happening since last year's Speed Week...   So enjoy Mark's photos and tell'm hey over at his Photography Fan Page.   Rob Ida's Tucker recreation. It was awesome to meet Rob and see the Gyronaut X-1 recreation Rob worked on as well. I've seen some amazing picture of the Tucker floating around Instagram.  Rob's a Tucker fan because his grandfather owned a Tucker dealership!   Tell me Mark shouldn't make posters of these fine hot rods!!   Do you prefer the color, or black and white?   Click here for all of...

Get $2500 from Gumout for your Hot Rod Project   Are you working on a hot rod project? Maybe your project is stalled? Is it taking too long (that's me!) or you haven't even started yet? Don't worry! Make it fun, and take advantage of Gumout's offer to help out with $2500!   To inspire or maybe just give ya the friendly kick in the pants you need to get started, I wanted to tell a couple stories about successful hot rod projects and one slick Chevy truck getting dropped and bagged in one day.   First look above... you see Victor, closest to his home built Model A hot rod coupe, standing with Jim and Chris. I know Vic's a hard worker and talented building just about anything he sets out to make for himself or his Throttle Kings Car Club buddies. I met Vic when his hot rod was just getting started:     Vic enjoyed this hot rod coupe as much as anyone could with multiple trips to Viva Las Vegas Car Show and LA Roadster Show visits. Maybe that's the trick to long term project...

1930 Ford Hot Rod with Traditional Style (Click to see Trent's great pictures full size)   Time – that one thing you can never truly get back and the one thing you can never seem to have enough of. There are those times though when a little patience, a bit of preparedness and a calculated bit of timing pay off dividends when a long awaited opportunity raises its head.   For Kopis Georgalos, that time came at the 2008 LA Roadster show. Despite a good rep as a fabricator and custom builder, with a mild 1951 Pontiac custom to showcase his work, Kopis long had plans in the works for a project yet to occupy a space in his garage – a traditional rod. Notice I said his garage, not so and so’s customs or such and such’s garage. Nope – this build wasn't simply just for Kopis to have the traditional rod he had always wanted, but a chance to push himself, test his skills and learn some new tricks along the way.   Kopis knew an open car, maybe a roadster would be right for him. Coupes...

Artist's Eye on a Model A Hot Rod   Which do you prefer? The real thing or Haropcat's drawing? Check out the "real thing" in the feature story I did on Voodoo Larry's Voodoo Psychosis! from the Detroit Autorama.     The engine shown was featured as a "Top 11 Hot Rod Engines of Detroit" and it was very cool to meet Larry down in the basement of the Detroit Autorama.   Check out more of Harpocat's cool drawings in his garage at MyRideisMe.com. Then, get your...

Meet Uncle Jed: A Robert Killian creation aimed to run 200-plus mph Story by Ben Mozart Photographs by our friends at Moore Good Ink Now here's something you don't see every day! You've seen mash-ups of a pro-touring Mercury Comet, but this one's the ultimate combination of hot rod style and pro-style motivation. Robert Killian, you out did yourself! Robert Killian hails from Canton, Georgia. He’s been building hot rods for most his adult life, and he has always indulged himself in the unorthodox.   But when contemplating Uncle Jed he told his chassis builder, “Let’s have one last adventure into the unknown. I’m reaching a point in my life (58) when I don’t anticipate foolin’ with 200mph cars much longer.” So this was how he approached his latest creation: a 1,900hp big-inch Pro Stock-powered road-legal Rat Rod. “Mind you,” said Killian, “I’m hesitant about calling Uncle Jed a Rat Rod because some Rat Rodders take offense. They’re adamant that it’s not low-buck enough, but obviously there’s not enough gleaming paint on it to call it a hotrod.” So its genre is uncertain.   What is certain, however, is...

2013 Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Car Show Another pinup model and Pabst packed Viva Las Vegas car show is in the books. In some unscheduled laziness and a fit of working too much on MyRideisMe.com... I didn't go. Luckily, my good friend and photographer Mark Jacobs covered for me. So here's just a couple of his favorite rides from the 2013 Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender. Want to see all the pictures? Here's Mark's 2013 Viva Las Vegas Car Show Gallery I think this slick custom is a Pontiac based on the door trim? It's hard to tell sometimes. All I know? I agree with Mark, this is tough! It's great to see someone else's take on Viva. What cars caught their eye and then how'd they shoot them? Watching other photographers, I try to up my game too. Mark's the second photographer to shoot this trick custom: Someone help with info on this beauty! One last picture, then you can scoot over to the Mark's picture gallery:  2013 Viva Las Vegas Car Show Favorites Mark's a wagon guy too! This Squire wagon surf machine is right up my...

Detroit Autorama Favorites - Chris Voyles Picks MyRideisMe.com's show sponsor: Auto Meter Gauges Who's Chris Voyles? He's the dude with the GIANT camera hustling around the Detroit Autorama so you can enjoy what we saw from your computers and phones. I recruited Chris to help me with photos and get his favorites from his first year at the Detroit Autorama. Here's what he thought... He's shy so let him know if he screwed this up. We might be able to shame him into a reply? Also see Chris' picks for Ridler Contenders that weren't. Words and pictures by Chris Voyles: (High quality pictures!! Click to see full size) Walking around the 2013 Detroit Autorama, I made note of the cars I considered my favorites. Just some very nice rides that made me take notice and click a few extra shots. 1968 Dodge Charger R/T: I grew up around cars as a kid and by far this is the car I want most of all! See, my Dad had 1968 Charger R/T very close to this one here, minus the Hemi motor. His was also red with a black top but...

There's an Upstairs? Basement at the 2013 Detroit Autorama See all the pictures from the Basement - Hot Rods and Custom Cars For years now Autorama has been separated into two levels - the main floor and the basement. The main floor is the area that most people used to think of when thinking of the Detroit Autorama. The basement is where the ‘other’ cars go... In the past this ranged from tuners to rat rods. I used to hate going into the basement, and getting past the thumping bass and laser lights of the tuner crowd just to see a couple of cool lead sleds. For the last four years or so, the ‘rat rod’ movement in the Detroit area has grown substantially, and with the embracing arms of show organizers (Rudi and Dennis), the basement has turned into a main event. Photo courtesy of J. V. Drenzek & Associates The high gloss facade, high buck cars with their mirrored displays and bright lights upstairs becomes a distant memory as you ride the escalator down. Greeting you at the bottom is neon lights, pinup girls and rockabilly music...

2013 Detroit Autorama - Voyles' Picks For Ridler Award Words and Pics by Chris Voyles MyRideisMe.com's show sponsor: Auto Meter Gauges   The 2013 Detroit Autorama was a great one indeed with eight cars nominated for the prestigious Ridler Award. These cars where exceptionally nice, but I think it’s safe to say we all said to ourselves, “Hey! Why wasn’t that car nominated?”   We’ll Pikesan and I thought the same thing... while he's still deciding which rides he would have picked, I'm done! Here's a few of the custom cars I thought were the best of the best, and could have, or should have been nominated.   1961 Impala: This was a very nice done 1961 Chevy Impala owned by Gil & Janet Losi. The body channeled, shaved, nosed, decked and roll pans worked... it flowed very nicely. The chassis on the car was done by Morrison Custom and finished off with Ridetech air suspension. The Impala had a 2,000 hp 540 cubic inch twin turbo motor  by Mike Moran between the fender! Completely stunning car!   1934 Ford: Bill Hughart is the owner of this awesome 1934 Ford hot rod....

2013 Ridler Award Winner: 1940 Ford MyRideisMe.com's show sponsor: Auto Meter Gauges The Results are in! The 2013 was a tough competition! After talking to just about everyone I knew... I think the consensus pick is the winner. This 1940 Ford is outstanding top to bottom, and as owner Ron Cizek told me, "It's too bad the car's not displayed upside down!" You can check the detail pictures in the gallery below. I overheard it's the same/similar setup as the unbelievable 2007 Ridler Award winner, a 1936 Ford called, "First Love". Just my opinion, the paint, by Charlie Hutton, and the gold accents just set it off. There literally was no other car like it, and to win the Ridler Award, there shouldn't be. I'm happy to have shot it Sunday morning without the HUGE crowds in the Cobo Center, especially with the hood down. It's even more impressive! Hats off to all the other Ridler Contenders. As always, there'll be some discussion, dissention and plain-old calls of bullshit! But... from my point of view, this classic hot rod '40 Ford was the winner. I'll do my best to contact the owner...