This great looking 1955 Chevy truck is owned by Dan Duffy of Marietta, Georgia. This truck is on its second time around as a full-on custom truck, built once by Big Oak Garage and then updated for two different owners. The first time around for this truck in the Big Oak Garage was for its first owner, who had brought it in for a small fender to tire fitting issue. While the truck was in the shop for the small job, the owner decided to let the shop do a full-on build to turn the Chevy truck into a hot rod. The newly built truck went back to the owner and kicked butt at shows on many levels and was even featured in a magazine article. The first owner kept the crew at Big Oak Garage busy on the truck with motor swaps and other changes over the years. One of the times the truck was in the shop, Dan Duffy happened to see it and fell in love with it. The truck was eventually put up for sale, and Dan knew that this was a sign that the truck was meant to be his, so he bought it.

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This super clean Chevy truck is owned by Johnny Golden of Pickens, South Carolina, and it loves living in the country. This truck was purchased new by Johnny’s father in 1972 for use on the family farm, but that doesn’t mean it was treated like just another farm truck. This truck found itself in the promised land with its new owner. It got washed and waxed on a regular basis; no cow manure stayed on this truck for long. This old farm truck had it really good, shoot, it was even garage kept, not like its country cousins that sat out in the yard everyday. Heck, this truck had an owner that loved it so much that he put mag wheels and dual exhaust on it. A very sad day arrived in 1989 when Johnny’s father passed away, and the truck mourned the passing of its dear old friend. The truck found a new home with Johnny who drove it for 6 or 7 years, taking care of it just like his father had. The day did arrive when Johnny made the decision to freshen up the truck a little with the help of Jim Keith who was ready to help a friend out. Before Johnny knew it, the truck was in a gazillion pieces that would take close to 3 years of work to put back together better than new.

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This awesome example of Mopar muscle is owned by Rich and Cindy Purdie of Melbourne, Florida, but it didn’t always look so show worthy. Their 1968 Dodge Charger started out as a very sad, old, and tired looking piece of muscle car history. The worn-out car came out of Springfield, Missouri in December of 2013 with Rich’s game plan being to build something really different. His first step in the right direction was to get with artist extraordinaire Eric Brockmeyer to come up with one of his fantastic renderings. Rich and Eric worked closely together and came up with the car design that would ultimately be what you see here. The interior design Eric came up with was spot on with some minor changes to the original dash design. In March of 2014 with the rendering complete, the decision was made to ship the Charger to the Muscle Rod Shop in San Antonio where they specialize in building custom wide-bodies.

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When Angelo Vespi of St. Augustine, Florida started out building this 1967 Chevrolet C10, he had really good intentions of building just a really great driver. But we have already seen what rolls out of his shop after he gets done with a build. Case in point look – at the Camaro he debuted at the 2014 SEMA Show that won the Battle of the Builders. While at the SEMA Show he was gathering ideas of the direction that he wanted his next build to go, and the more ideas he gathered, the more radical the build was going to become, and here you see the results.

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My article title is not quite what the Beach Boys came out with in 1962 about a 409 powered car, but just about all of the rest of the lyrics apply to this awesome car. Arna Smithson of Woodbury, Tennessee owns this bad ass 1962 Impala SS; a very fitting tribute to that classic oldie song. This is not the first ‘62 Impala SS Arna has owned; he actually owned one back in the day when he and his wife, Teena, were dating. Teena actually learned to drive in his first Impala SS that was 409 powered and 4-speed equipped. Many years went by as the now husband and wife owned numerous vehicles that competed on many levels including ISCA. When Arna sold his last show vehicle, Teena suggested that it might be time to look at getting another ‘62 SS Impala like the one from way back when. A short time later just such a car was found by them and purchased with the intention of it being just a cruiser. Looking at the car in these photos you can tell just how well that plan went… not at all.

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Look up “Black Sheep through Google and you will see a whole bunch of different ways to take it, but my favorite is from the Urban Dictionary, which says “A Black Sheep is someone who doesn’t follow mainstream ways or someone who doesn’t care what is in or out”. You can really apply that statement to this super-sharp looking 1961 Corvette owned and built by Jack Sheppard of Grovetown, Georgia. While everyone else is trying to restore an early Corvette to numbers matching perfection, this little gem was built in the extreme opposite.

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According to Wikipedia, the 1957 Buick Roadmaster underwent a change as a mid-year production (March 1957) and became a Roadmaster designated as a Model 75. It was distinguished by standard power seats and windows, carpeted lower doors, a one-piece rear window, and Deluxe hubcaps. There is also a Series 75 script found on the rear quarter body panel of the Roadmaster Coupes and the rear door panels on the Roadmaster 4-door sedans, thus replacing the standard 3 chevrons found in the same location on the standard full model year Roadmaster model lines. If you take notice on this car there are two stainless bars that cross the trunk, rear window and roof that are a rare option on a Roadmaster 75 two door and were meant to evoke the three-window treatment on the smaller Century and Special. These bars actually cross over the one-piece glass.

Why does all of this matter? It helps give you an idea of the challenge ahead of building a full-on custom Buick 75 and how difficult it would be to find, not just one, but two of them to become one awesome machine that would become a Custom Rod of the Year Finalist.

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It is truly hard to believe that this awesome 1963 Ford Falcon was rescued from a chicken coop where it had lived in raw steel for 15 years! That’s right, Roger Gaynor of Owosso, Michigan took possession of this car in March of 2016 in a very rough form. So rough, in fact, that his friend Bruce Rathburn nicknamed it “The Potato” because of all the surface rust the car had. Yes, you read that sentence correctly, Roger’s Falcon project was completed in a little less than a year! This little Ford has come a very long way in a very short time, and it is just great seeing how it has been transformed into the four wheel work of art it is now.

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Sometimes lightning does strike twice! It did for Mark Rinehart, AKA Mr. Junk, who has had, not one, but two vehicles in Scottie D’s Dirty Dozen at the Pigeon Forge Rod Run. The first-time lightning struck was when Mark had his kick-ass 1951 Chevy Deluxe Coupe invited to be part of Scottie D’s Dirty Dozen during the 2016 Spring Pigeon Forge Rod Run. The second time just took place at the 2017 Spring Pigeon Forge Rod Run when Mr. Junk debuted this 1930 Ford Model A Sedan rat rod.

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There are many ways to determine a level of quality, whether it is winning an event or by completing a task at higher level than anyone else. This is usually called a “gold place” finish. Setting this mark of accomplishment can be called a “gold standard” for those that hope to follow what you did. David Kountz, long time hot rodder and race car driver of Mobile, Alabama, has set a gold standard in the Pro-Touring community with his 1970 Camaro.

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