Hot Rod Revolution 2012 by "That One Deaf Guy"

This was such an epic weekend. I can't believe how much fun I had over the weekend and how many more fellas I met who are also on here.

Oh, yeah.. And the cars. Who could forget the cars? There were so many photogenic cars there that I took multiple pictures of some of them. There were quite a few that I kept returning to throughout the day to study a little more and mentally take notes for my personal build. Y'all will have to forgive me for taking multiple pictures of a few cars although part of me is sure none of you guys will have a problem with that.

Every single person I met there were accommodating enough to communicate with me through their phones or Jared (JJK) would pull out his ancient BlackBerry and let me know what they were saying. There was even a few people that I got to sign with throughout the weekend. I think in the future, I'll just buy everyone vouchers to learn ASL or something. Haha. I thought the LSRU would be hard to top but just Friday alone blew the competition out of the water.

Let's just go ahead and start from the beginning.. Once I got into Austin, I stopped at my friend's work, Jared (JJK), and he clocked out then I followed him over to Mercury Charlie's shop. That joint is chockfull of cool crap! I could have spent all day just checking out all the stuff he had stuck onto the walls, not to mention all the parts he had literally "hanging" out.











The man himself, Mercury Charlie, and I. (Charlie's the shorter fella)

 

I also took the time to check out the Nadine. The first picture came out bad because of the sun being on the wrong side of the building. Figures. Oh, that's Jared in the black shirt on the left. He let me crash on his couch at the apartment and hang out with him. He took me to a few local food joints that were REAL good. Thanks, Jared!

 

Keep your eyes peeled for the ASS Open Shop segment coming up in a few minutes..

 

After Charlie's shop, Jared and I headed to his apartment to drop off my car and luggage then we went and grabbed a bite at this deli. Their sandwiches were to die for. Neat little local joint. After that, we made the drive down to Lamar Blvd to see the boys at ASS. Parking was a PITA but we found a spot and Jared managed to wedge his 4x4 Toyota in between two cars. ASS did a great job hosting the open shop.






And of course, all us car guys were drooling over the parts they had sitting out and about.






Hey, wait a minute.. Why does this intake set-up look familiar?

 

Their tools are the source of my envy.. They've got way too much cool stuff to work with.






Jay's frame was looking good too! Great basis for a hot rod project.




And of course, that Z. I don't know why but in all the pictures I took of it, they were blurry. Perhaps ASS has somehow invented a way to keep cars from being photographed?



And once again, I got to spend some time looking over Bob's roadster..

 

Bob and the ASS crew were also finishing up a deuce 5W coupe that was every bit as bad as it looked. It had a real stout SBC with a big cam. When I asked Bob about it, he had no clue what size it was but was adamant that it made well over 450 horsepower. It had a period Fenton three-two intake on it too and a 4-speed behind with a Quick-Change using early Ford axles. I never really paid any attention to the rear tires until I studied that car. Now I want to build a car around the half-slicks. Car guy problems..

When I asked him how he didn't break any axle keys leaving the parking lot, he responded with "I wasn't trying!" Hahaha.










They took it out for a run and that thing runs STRONG. Got a little sideways in the lot much to the crowd's enjoyment.




Bob also surprised me when he remembered me from the LSRU and came up and greeted me. It was a very nice gesture of him to do as well as when I came up to him to ask some questions about his cars. He took the time to answer any of my questions. Bob's a ruler. I can't wait to pick his brain some more next time I see him.

 

I couldn't stop drooling over that 5 window all weekend. Sorry about the rust guys.

 

Friday night was a real special night as Jared and I got to go eat with Joel McHal-- I mean, Elrod and his wife, Linda, the ASS crew, Jeffrey James and Skeeter from Sugar City, that one guy who makes hot rod porno.. Piero, and a few others at Lucy's. Their food was the bomb and the company was great! That was really a special night to be had. I think the only way to top that would be if Jared and I had rolled with them in an old hot rod or something.

Well, now that I think about it, real hot rods have three pedals. Jared's Toyota has a 5-speed.. Does that count? No?

Gonna take a break and then when I feel like I'm ready, I'll post up the shots from the show on Saturday. Totally worth the wait.

 

awsome thread, can't wait for the rest.

 

Great coverage Matt. It was nice meeting you this weekend. My wife was a little worried she was slurring her signs after 1 too many Coors tall boys!

 

Oh yeah.. You ever gonna build something with an OHV?

It gets better.

Your wife did GREAT communicating with me. It was fun. She's all like "Oh, you didn't believe me, uh? That it was a 582? Yeah. That's right. I'm right." making me eat my words and stuff. Haha. It was great getting to sign with someone there. It was awesome meeting you as well! Your truck is drop-dead sexy. You better let that nice lady teach you a thing or two about using your hands to tell me something!

Hope to see you two around more often. From what Sarah was telling me, she's trying to get you to make that a whole lotta easier, location-wise.

 

The SHOW!

 

Great stuff, looking forward to more.

 

Pushrod getting ready to rock the stage..

 

Jason (Elrod) after just pulling in and Eric (Anderson) talking with each other.

 

One of my favorite A coupes to see is Mark Ford's (Mr. Ford) Hemi-powered coupe. That car is one of the first ones to really get me hooked on traditional hot rods although Mark is seen in this picture pulling out his California Car Duster and possibly a crybaby doll?








And another shot of Jason's coupe.. Because I dig it just as much.

 

Kool - Thanks

 

This car was chockful of detail that I overlooked until Jason told me to come check it out a second time. I noticed the stripes on the backing plates and the dashboard insert, but I didn't notice the body line alternations the owner had made to the 5W body. It was crazy. And to think, this is the kinda stuff I've been doing to my A and I never noticed them until someone took a closer look and had me look again.

 

One of my favorite A's built recently is this killer looking A roadster on deuce rails.







Bobby Bleed's old truck..

 

It was great meeting you, Matt. Awesome coverage!!!

 

I was very excited to finally get to check out Kevin's A roadster (OotlewahSpeedShop) which is powered by a stroker Nailhead displacing 405ci, a '37 LaSalle trans, and a Columbia rear.. My heart skipped a beat every time I looked over its way.






And Mat Thrasher on here made the trek down south with his Ford truck with its (like Sarah said..) 582 BBC. That thing is down-right nasty. Seeing Mat, I can see the effects of polishing those wheels. Dude seriously has some guns! I need to get with that program.

 

Wicked photos dude! Maybe I can make it next year.

 

awesome pictures and ASS is cool also, hope to get out to one of the shows in Texas

 

One of the cars that I anticipated seeing the most this year was Brian Bass' A roadster which he had just gotten road-worthy a couple months ago. Most of you have already seen his thread about it. I was bummed to see it had the more mild 283 instead of the stroker but it was still a treat seeing one of Brian's products. In a world that's nearly impossible to do so, Brian has established a style that we all call his own and with flying colors. This A is no exception!

 

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing them