This is my idea of hitting the beach.
Story/Photos: T-Bone
It wasn’t too early. I met up with the boys from the Mercifuls Car Club for a run up to the Ventura Nationals. I decided to keep the Fairlane at home and roll up with Jared in his chopped ’51 Oldsmobile. The car was recently featured in Car Kulture Deluxe and started out as a half-finished rusted heap of sheet metal. Jared had since turned it into a head-turning custom that most people mistake as a Merc.
We rolled into the fairgrounds parking lot along with hundreds of other kustoms, classics and some low-riders. The gate personnel were very friendly as they peeked in everyone’s trunk to find any liquid contraband. We set up camp and wiped down the cars getting ready to enjoy the day. I forget how big this show is. And as the cars kept rolling in, my memory came back in vivid detail. There had to be close to 1000 cars and a hundred or more bikes lining the fairgrounds in every corner.
Then the girls came in. So we quickly opened Jack’s trunk to get some shots of the ladies. Jack Petitt’s ’57 Pontiac gets plenty of attention and what started as a joke now has gone to cult status. I’m not kidding when the girls stood in the heat waiting their turn to pose. Watch for a pictorial and story soon, exclusively at Blacktop Magazine.
William and Davis came by from Primer Podcast and I tell you, if you haven’t checked out their show you gotta give a listen of their review of this event. Click here for the link. During the 45 minute episode they go off topic to complain about each other’s home renovation project and the steps needed to make their own Strange Brew.
I met up with my friends Joel and Mary Klass from Vintage Klass, BoMonster, Mitzi Valenzuela and Emily Sanderson rolled out in her pink Rambler “Piggy Bank”. Towards the end of the show a strange kat came over seeing the Blacktop Magazine banner. He asked about the publication and went completely bezerk! Radioactive Bob continued on about his custom bicycle that he spent way too many hours painting had his bike near the stage and wanted to know if I had seen it. I did. So we decided to make an impromptu photoshoot of the bike utilizing Mitzi’s Steady Clothing booth. The bike isn’t quite as crazy as Radioactive, but layered with blends of kandy’s over a metalflake frame. We will most likely have a feature on it soon.
The show was important to me because I got a chance to meet Penny Pichette from West Coast Kustoms who is the first distributor of Blacktop, The Magazine. She had a great display indoors with several of our magazines on the top of the rack!
The ride home was almost as hot as the show itself, rolling through the near triple-digit heat of the San Fernando Valley waiting to crest the Sepulveda pass down the 405 to the west-side along the coast. A big thanks to my Mercifuls crew and friends for another great day at the beach.