The coolest new way of displaying pinup girls:

as drawn art, tatttooed, and just fricking cool! Found in Car Kulture Deluxe Dec 2007 issue, and also here (you're gonna dig these!) http://www.tysonmcadoo.com/stuff-girls.html click on the first one, and then use the "Forth" tab to look through all the cool variations!

Robert Williams, lowbrow artist extraordinaire

His website and gallery of art, including the Hot Rod Race, Appetite for Destruction, Girl with the Faberge Ass, and about a dozen others.. in flash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Williams_(artist) known to most as the artist who did the liner art poster for Guns and Roses Appetite for destruction, and known to some for the masterpiece "Hot Rod Race".

Robert worked as Ed Roth's art director, and in 1994 got a magazine going, maybe you've heard of Juxtapoz magazine? I doubt it, but who knows? http://beinart.org/artists/robert-williams/

B 702 - Beautiful design by the Blastolene Bros, inpired by the 1930's French designs

The grill looks unusually beautiful because it's plates of blue glass!

For 4 huge wallpapers of the other unusual designs by the Blastolene Bros, like Sneaky Pete, the Indy Special, Big Bertha, and Raod Kill... look in the 3 rd row of http://www.miramarevents.com/dreammachines/media-downloads.html

For a reporters description

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nPLokBT88U&feature=related

Also http://rockindownthehighway.blogspot.com/2007/11/sema-part-four-blastolene-bros-rockin.html for alot more info and a great gallery of indepth photos of several aspects of the vehicles the Blastolene Bros have made.

Way cool license plate art of Aaron Foster

To see the other very cool works this artist has made (I heavily recommend it! Great stuff!)
check out his website http://www.aaronfoster.com/base.html

Thanks John!

Why did Ed Roth draw a Superbee, with a Dart grill?

Image via http://nostalgiaonwheels.blogspot.com/ or http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/car_shows/car_shows_2006/the_brucker_collect/

Remember the VW bus ball? NY Times has 2 others pictured, and an article

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/automobiles/01BALLS.html?ex=1178337600&en=5908bbc7d4426481&ei=5070

By PHIL PATTON
Published: April 1, 2007

My extensive write up is here http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/02/vw-bus-ball-lars-erik-fisk-sculptor.html#links

I'm blown away by this level of craftsmanship, and versatility

ONE-OF-A-KIND PEDAL CARS RAISING FUNDS FOR CHARITY

As part of the Ford anniversary marking the 75th Anniversary of the 32 Ford, ten icons (Bobby Alloway, Roy Brizio, Boyd Coddington, Pete Chapouris, Jesse Greening, Steve Moal, Rolling Bones, Thom Taylor and Troy Trepanier) made pedal car versions of their personal style of a 32.

http://www.streetrodderweb.com/editorial/0608sr_2006_august_for_starters_editorial/index.html
and look through the June 2007 issue of Streetrodder magazine, pages 196-208. So amazing.

http://www.fordpedalcars.com/HRHGateway.html

Some of the cool touches these guys and companies put on the pedal cars, take you right past the notion that you are looking at a kids plaything. Louvered hood, cyclops air induction, big and littles, working gauges, working lights, a triplet of carb tubes through the hood, scallops, stance, mini Moon Eyes discs, upholstery, custom rims, custom hub caps... nothing is off the shelf.

Everything that was made to suit the design taste and aesthetic of the individual car customizer is a one off, right off the work bench (or maybe 4 at a time for the rolling stock) but just amazing for the context that these guys do not work on this miniature scale.

Some cool pics from various sources

Michael Ulman's art

Most are from the Jalopy Journal http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ , some are from other places too.

Cool photos

Making car and chopper art pieces, really cool: Michael Ulman

http://www.michaelulman.com/index.htm

More on the John Deere tractor ball, UPS ball

http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/02/vw-bus-ball-and-other-rolling-art.html found the John Deere tractor ball, and the UPS ball.

John Deere ball from Flikr (great photo website) the user on Flikr has quite a few photos of the spheres that Lars-Erik made here http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=390977926&size=o

VW Bus Ball, Lars-Erik Fisk sculptor

These are the coolest car art sculptures / mods I've ever seen. Made by a young Vermont artist (who has the unfortunate luck to live in Burlington Vermont) this was made a couple of years ago, and earned the artist a $20,000 prize from a local art museum.

Update : http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/lars-erik-fisk-artist-with-vision-of.html

I just learned of this artist today, and after an hour on the internet could only get the basic idea that no one has the guts to show the great stuff this guy has done.

Some websites did mention the UPS truck ball, and the John Deere Tractor ball the Lars-Erik has made, but so far all mentions of this VW Bus Ball are just copying the photos from http://oblique.csail.mit.edu/Album/Shellenbarger/Shellenbarger_Summer_2001/Volkswagen2.jpg.html but without giving credit to the photographer, nice guy named Thouis, who told me I can use his photos, and only requested that I "Mark them as creative commons licensed, and please attribute Lars-Erik Fisk as the sculptor"

How cool is that?!

I first found this ball at a cool website I look at almost daily 'cause they find neat stuff like this all the time! They linked to http://blog.coker.com/index.php/2007/01/30/ which is also a cool website if you love cars and car rally's (nice wall paper and story about the '58 Austin that the High School girls restored Corky! )

His facts were a bit off, but well intentioned I've no doubt. As long as someone gets the word and the pics out I thank them all the same. Terriffic blogs, car guys, rockers, websites, and photographers, all made it possible for this cool artist's sculpture / mod to get some well deserved acclaim and attention.

Read the link at Corky's blog, it links to several other pages that highlight the fantastic rodding life of Billy Gibbons, one of the guitarists of ZZ Top, a favorite band of mine since the "Eliminator" album got my attention in the early 80's. Billy has a big hardcover book that you can buy at Walden Books, that really diplays the hot rods and cars Billy has had made. I'm just sad that the awesome pair of motorbikes don't seem to be in any of the links. Damn, they were part of a Hot Rod, or Car Craft, maybe even Popular Hot Rodding article that I clipped for the Cadzilla, Eliminator, and Kopperhead picturs. Loved every album since, and saw them in concert in San Diego on the XXX tour around 2001.

Kopperhead was made at the So-Cal Speed shop it seems, that's where the photos link to, the Cadzilla pic is linked to the Petersen Automotive Museum online slideshow of a great exhibition they had of guitars and hot rods. But, by far the best gallery of the cool rods that Billy has is at http://www.channel4.com/4car/gl/gallery/gallery/802/11 . Just go right there and get your fill of no expense spared, built by the best, hand crafted american iron.

If anyone knows where we can see anyother of Lars-Erik's sculptures, email me please so I can link others to them right here. The John Deere ball is reported to unfold and show working gears and stuff! So cool, and I love the dichotomy of the UPS ball being such a contrast to the boxy UPS trucks and boxes.

jbohjkl@yahoo.com

And thanks to cool websites like http://www.iwantavolkswagenbus.com/blog/2008/07/the-amazing-volkswagen-bus-ball-by-lars-erik-fisk/ for the compliments and for sending readers my way

Here was an auction loss, the Von Dutch square rainbow

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/von-dutch-great-artist.html#links is where I went into detail, and will explain what it is, but get this... it was auctioned off for 34 thou last may by RM auctions, and now that person took a loss of 6 thou becuase they got greedy and wanted it just for the profit potential, they only got 28,750 on Jan 19, 2007 Barrett Jackson auction. The irony is that Von Dutch painted this (by one account) as an example of how rich people are foolish, and now this bird has come home to roost for the seller who takes a loss of 6 thou.

Von Dutch, great artist

Conceptually genius. "The Square Rainbow"
Notice the round object suggests Von Dutch's signature eyeball, the dollar sign - his disgust of money.
Sold at a price of $34,500 at Auction May 2006 by RM Auctions, as part of the Brucker collection.
24 x 30"

From the plaid emerges a ghosted image of an eyeball along with a small conical shape, which occupies the lower left hand corner of the painting. Painted in the left side of the eye is an unmistakable dollar sign, the presence of which is by all accounts best described by Dutch himself in a conversation with Temma Kramer, the painting meant, “Money is a square person’s idea of what is at the end of the rainbow.”

It is widely thought that Von Dutch placed a piece of cardboard or wood on the wall and whenever he was using the last of the paint in his spray gun he would “tape off” parts of the painting and spray the piece with another color.

http://www.rmauctions.com/AuctionResults.cfm?SaleCode=BC06&SortBy=LN&View=Normal&Category=Memorabilia#

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/9500/page3 will show you a lot of other things he made, and other paintings he did. Others followed, but he broke trail and wrote the book.

Von Dutch, expert mechanic

These first 5 images are from http://www.arielmotorcycles.com/vond.htm

above and below from http://showandgo.blogspot.com/2009/10/von-dutch-engine-designs.html

the next three I've had since before I kept track of the sources of images

Nice hot rod art, Chris Froggett

http://www.atomichighboy.com/

for more see https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiArCP960beUxXpKZpC8Dg7Nak4yxjhROyLxtu2q7n79Nx2RGbv7-Mk4XWPHy2c_G5mefkx4JuOVbKWal_gsB-xdEhTYJBEVRv_wPcWul4feXPR9-HXURHjqdkx9f4Ik1TUm71Je7F7C1jr/s1600/DSCN4220.JPG