I once heard that Rikster doesn't own a car of any kind... or even a driver's license. I don't know that there is any truth to any of that, but I like the idea of a crazed custom fanatic sequestered in The Netherlands using only the internet to quenc... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
That book is a great read! He ties the cars AND the people together through the years with great storytelling! Rik used a couple of my dads photos in it, I just dropped it off at my folks house and dad is reading it now. So whats the next book Rik!?!?!?!??!
Great car and great book, my coupe was also behind them at GNRS. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Don't believe everything you see on the interweb ... Poor Rik in that cold lonely country .. Sitting in front of a computerscreen at the opposite hours of normal humans ... Lucky.... He is, and talented. And pretty guder engrish too I FOLLOWED THE BUILD STAGES UP TO THE BOOK BEING RELEASED... AND THE TRIP HERE TO THE STATES LAST MONTH ... HE IS A DRIVEN YOUNG(?)MAN..
I met Rickster at the GNRS, and bought the book. I love the book. I was kind of awe struck by him, because I am a custom guy and love his posts and updates on Facebook. The only thing I could muster to tell him was that I look forward to his posts....I guess Rickster is my man crush at this point
just ordered mine, thought it would have been sold out! and as to speak for myself, there's a chance to meet Rik somewhere on the european ground! if it is true that he don't own a vintage car, there should be tons of HAMBers who'd like to take him for a ride, my passenger seat is his each time. Cheers, Carsten
14 comments? So sad. This book is one of the best custom and hot rod history compilations EVER! You guys are idiots if you do not buy it!
I bought the book from him at GNRS. Cool Guy (even if he doesn't drive?). Thanks for reminding me; got back from the show and have not seen the book since. It must be buried in the van still. Add to weekend to do list "find book".
It's a fantastic book and Rik is real great guy and also one of my best friends. We travelled together to GNRS this year and I had a wonderful time. By now he does however have a drivers license and he did have a daily driver until some weeks ago when a major mishap happened on the highway... No one was injured but the car was totaled and is gone. So please, buy a book, Rik needs the money to buy a new driver. And if you already have the book: Buy one more to give to a friend!
I´m feel privileged that I received my signed copy before Christmas... I have read it twice by now and enjoyed every word of it. If you don`t have it yet order it today, no disappointments.. I wrote a short note to Rik telling him that only problem with the book is that it set such a high standards for the Kustom Books that it will be difficult to beat. I can`t wait next one to be published by Rik. Masterpiece right here!!!
This is a great book! Rather than trotting out the same old tired photos that have been reproduced over and over through the years, Rik has included tons of photos and related items that will be new to even the most diehard custom car fans. Plus, rather than manufacturing it in a Chinese sweatshop like almost every other car book publisher does, Rik had these made in the Netherlands, which I think is very commendable, and important to acknowledge. Custom car fans often get shortchanged on custom car coverage in books, magazines, etc. Buy a copy of this book and support Rik in order to insure more books from him in the years to come. The price for one of these is cheap compared to the time and effort that goes to producing something of this caliber. Great job, and congratulations!
This post is from when he was working on the finishing touches headed to print: Rik Hoving's FIRST Custom Car book : 10/30/2012 If you go to his profile and look at the threads he started, you will see some awesome photos of old customs. He took a trip to the US a few years back and met up with some folks with quite the old photo collection and scanned a bunch of them. It is always an education reading a Rikster thread. Congrats on getting the book out, Rikster. -W p.s. I could almost swear I read somewhere on here where he was talking about his project custom...
Rik, Palle and company were the highlights of the GNRS for me. Their enthusiasm and joy for this stuff is just crazy. Nobody enjoyed themselves more, or had as much genuine fun as this group. I never saw them once without a smile on their faces. You could feel the positive energy when simply approaching the Stewart car or Rik's booth. Just amazing ...
Thank you for this post Ryan. The first paragraph of Ryan's post was based on information that came with the first The Rodder's Journal project I was involved in many years ago. At the time I lived in downtown Amsterdam, and I indeed did not have a car, nor a drivers license. In the Netherlands both are quite expensive, especially if you live in a big city. So there was no need for both. But later we moved to the country side, and I did get both and we moved to a nice old farm house with a two car garage with the plan to have a Custom Car project to work on. Well the world economy forced me to change plans and the real Custom Car plans are still there, but not in the nearby future. And I'm perfectly happy with that, because now I have much more time to concentrate on my passion for Custom Car history and to share the things I discover with my fellow Custom Car enthusiasts. One of my long lasting dreams had always been doing a book about Custom Cars. And with my background as a graphic artist I had worked on some non car related book projects in the past, so I knew I could do it. It was only a matter of finding the right subject, time and finances. With the Jack Stewart Ford project and my friendship with Palle Johansen the new owner of the Jack Stewart Ford everything fell in place. However it was still a tough job doing all the work myself from writing the story, doing the lay-out work, photo editing and restoration, to prepping the material for the best possible print results. I want to thank Scotty Gosson for helping me on the text part of the book. Scotty signed on to do the text editing, and make sure my Dutch/English could be understand by everybody else. But doing this without loosing my original style of writing. As Ryan mentioned in his post a book dedicated about just the car would probably have been to boring, or at least not interested enough. But fortunately for me the people who have been involved with the Jack Stewart Ford thru out the years were all extremely interesting people. And perhaps even more important were all still alive, and very much willing to share their stories and material with us. Palle and me went on a trip to the US to visit the previous caretaker of the car and tried to gather as much of information, photos, stories, feeling, emotions etc from these great people. At first only to help Palle do the best possible restoration on the car. But during our trip in the US we already discussed the possibilities of doing much more with the information we had gathered so far. Over the next year and a half I worked on the creating of my dream project. My ultimate Custom Car book. It was a real challenge to get all the individual stories about the car to match and to double check them. Stories tend to live their own lives over the years, and especially when told by different people. It was also a challenge to write the story on the Jack Stewart Ford in such a way that it would still be very interesting to a lot of people. But from the really fantastic positive responses I have received so far I think I have succeed in doing so. Some of the best complements I got was when several people told me they never really liked the Jack Stewart Ford so much, but felt they had to buy the book anyway, since it was done by me. And now after reading the book they feel completely different about the Jack Stewart 1941 Ford, much more respect, and they now totally "get" the car. As mentioned the book is about a lot more than just the Jack Stewart 1941 Ford. I tried to include as much original never before published material in the book as I could. Unique material about the Golden Sahara from its owner and designer and previous caretaker of the Jack Steward Ford Jim Street. Who also owns the original Kookie T which is also shown with some unique never before material in the book. As for what is cooing next I don't know. I hope to be able to do a next book, I really want to, and I do have several plans for one already. But things have to fall in place if you are creating and publishing a project like this all by your self, or at least without the back up of a larger publishing company. So, time will tell. Thanks for all the great responses here on the hamb, on facebook and in the many personal emails. It really makes me feel very good that so many people are enjoying my first Custom Car book. And for those who have ordered a book over the weekend. These are all packed and will be shipped today (Monday March 04) Thank you. Rik Hoving
The price for a regular or autographed (by me) copy of the book is the same. The price for a book including shipping differs from were you are located in the world, so its easiest to look for more info about this on the publishers website. www.kustomkarbooks.com
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