Photoshoot Road Trip: The McCullough Roadster

Photoshoot Road Trip: The McCullough Roadster

The Photoshoot Road Trip: Part 2

After shooting the FnA Roadster from Part 1, I stayed the night on a truly picturesque lake at Ray Roberts State Park. The next morning I hitched up the Curtis Wright, hopped on I-35 and got the hell out of Texas bearing straight towards the Sooner State. A few hours later, I found myself at another state park (Keystone) just outside of Sand Springs, OK.

I had two objectives in Oklahoma. The first was to tour and shoot Hot Rod Garage. I’ve known the owner (Jason Smith) for years, have always admired his work and couldn’t wait to walk around his world. It didn’t disappoint and I’ll soon put together a feature for you guys.

The second was to shoot a car that Jason built and that is owned by a pal of mine – Brandon McCullough. A few years back, I picked Brandon’s ’32 roadster for The Jalopy Journal award at the Round Up and knew then that I’d someday shoot it. It took me a little longer than I had hoped to get to it, but the wait was worth it…

***

After touring Hot Rod Garage, we were all sitting around shooting the shit when Jason asked Brandon and me if we are ready to head for the country club. “Country club?” I thought. “What the?”

So Brandon fires the roadster and we all follow in a pickup full of cameras. Within minutes we are pulling into the Sand Springs Country Club parking lot and Brandon is driving his roadster up over a curb and onto a golf cart path. The cammed 327 is revving, collared shirts are diving for safety, golf clubs are flying about in every which direction, and essentially, pure pandemonium breaks out. It was as if I stepped out of a hot rod shop and into a scene from Caddy Shack.

Next thing I know, I am sitting in a golf cart with Jason and his daughter as we tear ass down a cart path trying to keep up with Brandon and his roadster. By the time we catch him, he is pulling up onto the 17th tee box and staging the car for a photoshoot while the Tulsa, OK skyline sneaks up from behind. Just then, a foursome approaches…

Now imagine you are a golfer. You golf. You got the shirt, you got the little spiked shoes, you got the bag, you got all the clubs… Hell, you probably even watch that shit on TV. Point is, you are serious about this golf thing. So serious, that you are working on your golf craft on a Friday evening. And just as you are about to finish your session, you walk up to the 17th tee box to see a bunch of guys that obviously aren’t golfers, look as if they are up to no good at all, and with them is a seriously sinister looking “t-bucket” thing that makes really loud noises. How would you handle that exactly?

In Austin, the hoodlums would be ran off with some kind of scooter riding security force before any questions were asked or answered. In Sand Springs, OK? The golf guys smirked skeptically and asked if any of us needed a beer. It was like a peace offering of sorts that cut right through the “don’t start none, won’t be none” vibe and into the “we are all pals here” thing.

Regardless, once all of the brouhaha had died down from our entrance I was struck by how quiet it was. I guess golfers need silence so as to focus on hitting that little ball and what not. And because of this, the entire course is over a hush of sorts that’s only broken by the sound of a club hitting a ball every now and then. “Ping.” And then a minute or so later, “Ping. Ping.”

So it’s quiet, right? It’s also room temperature without a single cloud in the sky. And the 17th box sits up high and provides a perfect view of Tulsa off to the east. The moon is slowly coming up, the sun is racing down, and the light is studio perfect. Oh… and in front of me is what I consider to be the perfect ’32 roadster at it’s perfect state of build.

***

When I first approached Brandon about shooting his car, he wasn’t into the idea at all. “I dunno man. It’s not painted yet and we just got the hood on and… I’d much rather wait until it’s done.”

I persisted and talked him into the shoot simply because, to me, his car sits in the perfect state of build. Mechanically, it’s as immaculate as a car can be. The 327 is fresh, the dual fours don’t show any signs of the leaks that are sure to come, the 5-speed is shifting super crisply, and the Rodsville Quickchange is whining like only fresh gears can. Even the little nubs sit proudly on the new tires.

And the chassis? It’s finished to a really high degree. I’m talking show car kind of detail fellas… But not to the point of being pretentious. Everything is where it needs to be and everything looks how it should look. The interior (Aaron Lawrence of Fast Al’s Upholstery) follows suit – simple materials, expert craftsmanship.

I mean, essentially, the car is finished. It’s just not painted yet. As mentioned, the chassis is final finished and sits in “BOZ red” paint. It’s ready to go. But the body still sits in primer and is flanked by a freshly installed hood and deck lid in bare metal. The last step of the build (to be completed once Brandon and Jason are confident there are no bugs to be worked out) is to simply lift the body off the chassis, paint it, and put it all back together again.

If you know anything about Jason Smith or if you have ever seen anything that has rolled out the doors of Hot Rod Garage, you know without doubt that once finished, Brandon’s roadster will be one of the most finely finished street roadsters in the country. That just is what it is… and with a little luck, I’ll get to shoot it again in that state.

But, the way you see the car here is the way I will always see this car in my mind. It’s hard to put into words exactly why that is, but maybe I can explain it with a far reaching parallel example of sorts. Imagine being a kid in 1942 and by some stroke of luck, you see a P-38 prototype fly overhead. There were no tail numbers on it nor a fancy mural on the nose or big stars on the fuselage. It takes your breathe away because it’s special and new, because you got to see it… study it… experience it… in the raw and before most other people in the world even knew about it.

That is how I feel about this car as it sits right now. It’s the start of something really special… something more than a sum of its parts… and I got to see it/shoot it before most people realize it.

This all might seem a bit theatrical given the simple nature of this car. I mean, it’s a ’32 roadster with a SBC, but so was Hollenbeck’s and look where that car got him. Point is, make an effort to see this one in person. As proud as I am of these photos, they don’t do the car justice.

Special thanks to Brandon, Jason, and their better halves for not only taking the time to set this shoot up, but for allowing me to invade their Friday night. And thanks to the Sand Springs Country Club too… Oklahoma is OK.

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