Image Of The Month: "Dale Brown's 'A' Service" --Interior Shot

This is the first "Image of the Month" and Denver Wells' 

"Dale Brown's 'A' Service" Rat Rod calls for it.

Check out that door panel! The "Idaho Rat Rod" plate is perfect for this view with the killer shift knob in the foreground. Nice ride and a great tribute rod.

The Oldsmobile & Chandler Car Shows

The All Oldsmobile Show...

I arrived early and the sky was a stark gray; the clouds appeared aching to purge themselves into thin air.

Below is one of two '58s at the show. I rarely see even one at a show, but then again this was all about Oldsmobiles. The other '58 drove all the way out from California.

Thats a lot of gorgeous chrome.

There was plenty of muscle at the show too.

Above is my buddy Dan's '57 with his tech board. The photo I took on a shoot of his car last October. To see more of this beautiful Olds' see my archived blog from November 2010.

Finishing the Olds' show with a '57 & '58. There are more photos of this show in the gallery.

The 8th Annual Chandler Classic Car & Hot Rod Show

A much larger show (not limited to one builder) the Chandler show had a little bit of everything.

This beautifully restored caramel '54 Chevy Wagon was a standout. There are always plenty of Tri-Fives at the show and a few Nomads of those years, but this is the first '54 wagon I have ever seen. 

Also, as shows go, there are always plenty of Chevy Corvairs...

Not as many bikes this year, but here are some details of an interesting one...

This rod always draws a crowd and IS worthy of another photo every time I see it. 

Here are a couple cool rods ratty style.

Is this a bad-ass shift knob or what?.....

I have a photo of this car's nemesis in the previous "Essex Hearse" blog. See the back window of that one. This "777" belongs to the "Stinkn' Jesus Freaks" car club. Here's the wild hood-O'...

That wraps coverage up. As with the Oldsmobile show, there are plenty more of the Chandler show in the gallery. 

Friday's Image: Honk if your...

   

President's Day...Hail to the Chief and Random Rods

Chief Pontiac

Hail to the rods....

Friday's Image...Chromette #3

The 1928 Essex Hearse and more dead rides putting the FUN in funeral.

I saw this hearse rod at a Good Guys show in Costa Mesa, CA back in May of 2010. My first viewing was early on in the day shown in the above photo as it drove past....I nearly chased it down.
A couple photos below you can see I got pretty close...or it nearly ran me over...either way, I got the shot.

Well here it is on the current issue of RebelRodz magazine, April 2011 #23

There's some good background on the owner/builder and a tech sheet. And then there's the model, Malice and some up close photos of her many tattoos. I'd say the hearse is under exposed and she is over exposed, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Here's some photos a taken later in the day when I came across the car parked on display.

I'll admit I did not notice the RIP in the grill on the above shot. Good ol' fill flash.

Since these photos, the owner, Willy Martinez of Orange County, has added a new interior and some nice web pinstriping. You can see some on the mag cover photo on the grill around the "Essex Super Six" emblem (below). Within the issue Malice is also photographed giving a smooch to the horned one......the grill/radiator cap that is.

That's a racing Hemi there amigos.

That's it on this very cool hearse. In the same issue of Rebel Rodz there's some great Mooneyes X-Mas and Bo Huff Benefit event photos as well as some really cool rod art and plenty of ladies.

I had seen this hearse along the highway heading up to a car show in Globe, AZ just a month prior.

It seemed to me it had potential and given those scallops maybe once burned some rubber in the crematorium parking lot. 

"Complete and solid"

This is not likely to grace the cover of a magazine...unless some how Willy Martinez gets/got his hands on it.

Keeping with the hearse theme, here's a hearse that was at last year's Chandler Car Show.

 A 70's Cadillac hearse with it's hood up, maybe it had a dead battery and was awaiting a jump?  

Yes, those are real and functional beer taps! Now that's the spirit! This casket is basically a dead-kegger.

Here's the website:  www.kaosfuneralcars.com

Unfortunately it was Unhappy hour (as most hearse bars go) and they weren't serving. 

Then in October--just prior to Halloween weekend I came across their haunted cook out.

The "Cremator" had not been fired up yet but I had to leave.  I'm sure it was a job well done, if not outright charred.

The (Dead) End