custom tire wall colors.

Straight Ruler!

1947

Fantasy of Flight vintage plane graphics

John Bonham

There's bands and then there is Led Zeppelin. Four guys, each with unique, monster talent. It's clear that each member incorporated their own outside interests into the music. Jimmy page was known for dark, occult, interests. Robert plant, clealy interested in nature and fantasy. John Paul Jones, a musical genius, more directly injected his interest in funk, jazz, gospel and classical into the bands music. And then there's John Bonham. Bonham had a reputation for being an extremely hard hitter. He used the largest, heaviest sticks on the market and played with complete power. You can almost guess, by watching him play, what his life was like outside of Zeppelin. The band, being from England, was never appreciated in their home country like they were in the U.S.. They spent months touring and living here and it seems that big American power had a serious effect on Bonham. In the movie The Song Remains the Same, footage of him driving a T-bucket, riding his chopper, and in the end, taking a ride in his top fuel dragster, give us a glimpse of his private life. Taken from us early, I can only imagine what his garage would have looked like today.

another 48 update.

There is a great common experience enjoyed by car and bike guys. It's the late, shop night, hale mary. You know you have plenty of time to get the car on the road before the big show, cruise, race ect. Then out of no where... Shit, that's this week end? Some late nights of no sleep and unhealthy consumption ensue and if all goes well........

So the Billetproof Drags are the most fun you can have at a car show period! The plan was to get the car on the road, break it in, make any adjustments / repairs and come rolling in the gate with confidence. Well sometimes things don't go as according to planned, but who cares. It made it. Jimmy spent a lot of time and money to get this thing on the road and if he had decided breaking it in on the dragstrip was a bad idea, nobody would of criticized him. But he made the car guy move and did just that, and we're all proud of him for it. The car left Tampa with just 15 miles on the motor. It came back broke in.

Jimmy's 48 tudor drag racing from Coco Menendez on Vimeo.

DePalma blog theft.

46 update

New Project

Jimmy's 48 tudor update.

He drug it out for as long as he could, but eventually the old flatty gave up the ghost. The old ford made it to Daytona and back, Orlando and back, and around town; but it was Gainsville that would be it's undoing. Have you every built a Flathead? Well neither has Jim but what better time than the present. In the end he's ended up with Merc crank, reground cam, ported and polished block, Edmunds intake, Mallory ignition, high volume oil pump ect...ect...

Vacation

Me and the little lady just took a vacation and for some reason it just flowed. The drive up, the time there, the drive back, it was all effortless. We put together this video that doesn't do it justice, but you'll get the idea.

Not enough air-brush out there.

Smokey and the Bandit at Tampa Theater

Today was a great day. Turner Classic Movies, as part of there Road To Hollywood film festival, decided to show Smokey and the Bandit at Tampa Theater. Burt Reynolds himself attended and did an onstage interview with TCM's Ben Mankiewicz. We showed up about three and a half hours early and a line around a hundred people were already there at the door. As we waited, more and more people showed up to a crowd of about a thousand. Waiting there I became more and more disappointed at the gathering masses.
In 1977 Smokey and the Bandit changed the world. Before Smokey and the Bandit, heroes were all brooding troubled complicated men. Usually rebels with a hidden back story ala Steve Mcqueen or Robert Mitchem. Car movies were either cop, action, or racing films, and movies featuring southern lifestyles were either hicksploitation or political commentary. Then came the Bandit.
This movie, in a big budget way, gave us a new kind of hero and a new kind of car movie. With no apologies, they gave us a hero with no agenda except to have a blast. A care free guy who just loved showing off. Not only a rebel without a cause but a rebel with no interest in causes in general. It also gave us the car as an instrument of fun, not an instrument of contest or chase. A car with a big motor and a big fiery bird emblazoned on the hood. Together the two would strut effortlessly across the screen introducing the world to modern southern lifestyles.  In 1977, after seeing this movie, we all wanted to be the Bandit or a trucker. For years to come CB radios, truckin and Trans Ams would be the rage, but like everything else, once turned into mainstream crazes, the excitement would slowly peter out, and end up watered down and dying on network television in t.v. shows written for kids.
So now over thirty years later, standing outside Tampa theater, I'm surrounded by a huge crowd filled with autograph hounds, members of generation ironic and folks who love to laugh at how kitchy the seventies were. People who love telling mullet jokes, and are dying to turn this movie into Rocky Horror Picture Show. Embarrassing. I'm still amped but the lack of respect is getting to me.
So they do a photo shoot with Burt in front of the theater next to a really nice Trans Am and the doors open shortly after. Showing up early was key and our seats are perfect. The crowd is still dying for their own attention but I've already prepared myself for them ruining my experience. Burt comes out and the interview is interesting and charming. It's clear that Burt Reynolds is being interviewed.The crowd is quickly taken in by mister Reynolds and I'm right with them. My frustration is easing.
I'm surprised to find out the 40 something lady beside me has never seen the movie and it's apparent she's not alone.As the movie starts I'm ready for this audience to ruin it, but it never happens. The lady next to me is laughing her ass off. The audience seems sucked into the movie like it's 1977 all over again. Amazing. As the movie plays out, it becomes clear to me that I missed the point. The real point of Smokey and the Bandit was to get people to laugh their heads off and feel like they just took a 110 mile per hour ride in a Trans Am. Lucky for me,and everybody else, the film still does the job. It got the stick out of my ass, wich is rare. If you haven't seen it in a while take a refresher course. It holds up.