Vintage Torque Garage

When I was considering the shows to try out in 2009 Minneapolis/St. Paul was not high on the list of “must do” shows.
I had done this show once before about 2 years ago. It was average – not great by any means.
I also have to consider my other full time gig – Vintage Torque Magazines and DVDs. It is hard to
keep doing shows that are not money makers when I now know I am missing all the layout and editing hours.
So when Tuck emailed me and asked that I be in his section of the show (the traditional hot rod section) I figured I should give St Paul
another chance.

He hooked me up with an amazing location – you HAD to walk by my booth to get upstairs to see the other cars!
THANKS TUCK!!! As a result – the show went well and I have been able to pay my mortgage again this month.

The highlights of the show for me were getting to see some of the Cheaters again as well as meeting new people in person that I had only ever “talked” to on the internet.

Nick Sinclair, (who is here on the Hub Garage – Sinclair Hot Rods’ Garage) who is going to be doing some art for us, told me about this way cool art gallery in Minneapolis.

It is called Art Minion. If you live in MN you gotta go check this place out. They have some great hot rod art as well as rock and roll art posters from the past and present.
This was a really cool place to hang out and if you are needing some Kozik stuff – they may be able to track it down for ya! So thanks to Nick for the Thursday night intro to Art Minion.

Friday was the first day of the show and it was pretty good turnout for a Friday night. I asked Bob Larivee Jr and he stated the attendance was up this year- so that is a great sign!

When you came to the show one of the first things you saw was the Old Skool Customs booth. They had an old Plymouth (1937?- I cant remember now) that was amazing….. It was all in bare metal so you
can see the fine craftsmanship that was going into this car – REALLY nice stuff – keep up the great work guys!

After walking around the first floor the middle floor had the coolest cars in my opinion. One cat drove his ‘31 Pontiac all the way from Inman, KS. That is right – he DROVE it from Kansas at
the urging of Tuck (this guy has a fan club you know:) Kerry Goertzen says it is no big deal to drive 1200 miles round trip to show up at a World of Wheels show….....but I beg to differ.
It IS a big deal….a REALLY big deal. I barely trust my truck to go all across the country and I gotta say that when I get my ‘35 up and running I seriously doubt I will travel much
farther than Chicago or Des Moines (about a 3 hour drive either way) with it. This guy is a true hot rodder and feels that if you can not drive your car -then it is not worth having. As Stan Lee says: ‘Nuff Said!
What is an even crazier twist to this story is that on his way home (yes he was driving all the way home non stop with some blankets to keep him warm), he hit a deer! It seems there were about half a dozen
hanging around the interstate when all Kerry had time for was mashing the brakes. He killed only one. The others managed to get off the road. So when he got out to assess the damage to the ‘31 he could
see that the tools he had packed along for the ride were enough to fix the damage. That is right – he was already half way done by the time the cops showed up. Amazing story and I hope that I can one day be as cool and crazy as Kerry.

SO overall it was a great show to attend and it was cool to hang out with some new friends….I am seriously considering heading back up there for the GSTA show in March!

Thanks again to Tuck and everyone else that helped me this weekend.

NOW we are off to Indy for the 1962 Motorama that is held in conjunction with the World of Wheels show. We will be in the main hall selling the usual Rat Fink shirts and hot rod DVDs and posters. Seeya there.

(I have added some photos of the show at my garage so go check em out – also have just added the new trailer for Vintage Torque DVD #4 in the video section)

www.artminion.com
oldskoolkustoms.com
http://hollywoodtuck.com/