Event Coverage Sacramento Autorama-A few observations

First off, big props to Axel for his part of the 2009 Sacramento Autorama. Without the Merc Room, this wouldn’t have been a show worth attending. Having all those Merc’s in one place was truly a once in a life time experience, especially for a guy my age. LoL
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Seemed as though there were far fewer cars this year, compared to years past. This was most evident in the Pavilion, where space was taken up with boats and kids bounce houses. I also noticed during the awards that only a first place trophy was given out in several categories, meaning only one vehicle in that category.
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I don&#8217;t understand why the pinstripers panel jam was clear on the other side of Cal Expo. They should have been closer to the suede room, where they belong. The good news is that they raised over $21,000 for the children&#8217;s home.
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Scott (Blue Collar Customs) you got robbed. Although the Mountain Pearl is a nice truck, it was a restoration rather than a complete build like yours. Just my opinion.
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I got there early on Saturday figuring it would be a madhouse of people coming in for the drive-in. Again I was disappointed that there were less than 20 cars for the suede area. Nobodies fault as the weather was a little uncertain, but disappointed anyway.
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Even with these observations/disappointments I had a great time just being there. I got to meet and talk to a lot of people and see cars I might not have ever seen.

 

i agree about the pin strippers. it was a little distracting having the "sound off" next door to all the paint. i am unsure if i even saw everything there was at the show. i know there were a few rooms i stuck my head in and just walked back out. the merc room was awesome. we spent most of the day in that room and in the suede room. it was awesome getting there before it was open and seein gene winfield walking through all the cars. the weather was a little scary but my car hasnt melted in the 60yrs its been here...one more day of rain wont hurt it. over all a pretty good day out.

 

Tight times man. Many dont have disposable income like in the past. It's happenning everywhere.

 

Full agreement on the Panel Jam - I would have liked to have spent more time there & checked back in once in a while, but after just a short time we said "Got to get away from that fucking stereo expo"... - BOHM, BOHHM, BOHHMM - FUCK! I honestly think it should be legal to shoot anyone making that annoying-ass sound.
I don't know how the pinheads managed to do such nice work having to listen to that crap all day long.
And I agree attendance was probably down due to money being tight, but overall, due to the mass of customs this year, I thought it was the best ever.
And Scott did get ripped off...

 

Have a couple of friends that went and they both bitched about the BOHM, BOHMM noise in one of the areas and said never again. What was that all about?

 

I got there on Sat around 16:00 the Bom Bom shit only made the fact I had a fender bender on the way there at the N st exit worse. But after talking with Bad Bob and the other Hambers the day went better. The Merc room was worth the 5 hour drive on its own. to see a real Westergard car is surreal. and that was the cars I have only seen in Mags all these years. I felt John D hit a homer with the olds,

 

Some kids these days, think customizing is all about 22 chrome wheels and a loud stereo system.

 

Me and slddnmatt walked over to the "other side" to find the pinstripers building. Talk about stupid! The stripers should be IN the Suede Palace! It wasn't even worth the walk! The other buildings were a joke. We ran into Nolan in one of the buildings,nice meeting you...That show is too spread out. The Merc gathering should have been at the GNRS in the building the Duece show was in. There's LOTS more Mercs here in SoCal than in NorCal! The drive-in would have been packed...even with the rain! Was it worth the drive? I still have to say yes. BUT,only because of the Mercs. The Suede Palace is always great,but the one at the GNRS is better. Axle always does a great job and he and Radcliffe and Chip did a fantastic job organizing the whole thing.
The weather fucked up the whole thing,in my opinion...I won't be going back! There's too many great shows down south to go to. NO disrespect to you NorCal guys at all! I will say that the NorCal guys are alot more friendly than most of the SoCal guys I meet. Poorboys,Fernando,Tommy V,Gambino,Chip,and many of the other guys I met were great!

 

It was great talking to you too...I hate that LOUD stero shit also!

 

last time I was at the Cal Expo was for the Car Craft Street Machine Nationals in 1981. kind of a wierd place for a show with the buildings all spread out like that... good thing it wasn't pouring rain.

I figured the San Francisco show will suck this year so I went to Sacramento to see what it was all about.

 

I wholeheartedly AGREE with Cleatus. It was a BITCH pinstriping listening to that bOOming shit! (Now that stuff shouldda been left to one of the OUTDOOR display areas...like on the other side of the county!) my son was sayin we shouldda dropped a stinkbomb in their building!!! haha

BadBob was right on the money about the pinstripers being in the suede building. It's the street bomb drivers who get what the whole pinstriping thing is all about. They stripe everything in sight, from their cars, to their girlfriends!!!

and this venue was so spread out that I know I missed a shitload of things that were there to see.
otherwise, it was a hell of a show, and worth the 10 hour drive to get there.

 

I got there about 10:00am and it was dead. went through the suede building and talked to Gambino people nice visit. HAMB Banner was full of signatures..Didn't understand the Flathead with KONG heads only partly assembled?? Traditional but a trailer Queen, it wasn't driven.. The Merc. room was awesome, it make the whole show worth while going..Right, about the BOOM..BOOM..BOOM.. I also couldn't stay long in pinstriping room..It should have been in the Suede Room..Over all I give it a 5 out of 10..
Duane..

 

Another piece of good news this weekend:

Congradulations to KIRK for taking first in his class!!!

 

hell i was looking for Daisy Duke and the General Lee all day and never found them... found James Hetfield from Metallica.. when i wasn't looking, I was like.. Bob who is that? he looks familiar, is he a H.A.M.B. guy!! we'll have to do another one for the 75TH anniversary!!!

 

Bruce, It was good talking to you.. Cleatus, great job on the car...The stripers should have been closer to the suede room..The problem is, they don't have the room they need in the suede room... We still had a good time and got to hang out. Thanks to Mark Brooks for the photo below from Autorama...Jason.

 

"Shoot the sub-woofer!it kills their will to fight!"

 

i wonder how many HAMBers i walked past and bumped into all day. i saw bad bob and recognized him but didnt say whats up,...he looked busy and i had a giant corn dog to eat.
i think the daisy duke thing was like the first kiss on a first date.....you can build it up in your mind but when it happens sometimes its a little disappointing. she will forever be the daisy in the jeep in my mind.

 

I saw lots of HAMB'ers walking past my booth and checking out my cars. We had a HAMB booth section... Me, Marcy and Gambino were all in a row...The local clubs were all cool too.. The Hooligans, Poor Boys, Drag Lynx, Shifters were all great guys with none of the elitist club attitude... Jason.

 

I went for the Mercs and was not disappointed. The rest of it...well, let's just say it was a typical indoor car show.

 

wow... tough crowd

complaining about the weather at an indoor show...

 

the stereo part has been there for years... nothing new. Dont like it? Dont go over there.

the pinstripers should have been in the suede area or in the Merc room... agreed.

Personally I had a good time at the show, saw a bunch of friends, bought a new hat from MyBabyJo, saw a bunch of good cars traditional and otherwise... whats not to like? (other than the things mentioned in my post above)

 

Bad Bob / Slddnmat- Was good to meet you fellas! Sorry about that mishap with your bottom-out-scrappy-oil-pan-go-drippy-drippy. Small price to pay for being closer to the earth. It's all in good fun tho.

As for my two bits about the show.. I enjoyed it. Me and the lady had a great time. Until we crossed the bridge to the big-booty-bass-room. Didn't go in there. Just walked by and I now have a slight case of tinnitus. Sweet. Don't get me wrong, I like a little thump, but come-on! Lil outta place. My "observation" was why were such talented artists shoe-horned back in the corner and next to that noise!? Being an artist myself, I don't mind people talking to me but that bass would have sent me over the top and I would have dropped-it-like-its-hot and rolled outta that situation. Those artists definitely should have been near the suede room. Hey!.. Either way, my hats off to you creative folks! Nice job!
Second bit... Kelli (the lady) at the later part of the day says, "what about that tent that you said was going to be here?" I told her we walked through it. She, as well as myself expected to see a little more of the huh...suede/ traditional stuff. I'll get my fix with future shows later in the year no biggie. Just expected to see more rides in that tent...section?...area? ..you know.

Later- Nolan

 

Guys kept telling me this HAMBer was there and that one. How come you guys didn't say hi? I put my HAMB banner out by the Merc Drive-in on a table,and the only guy who signed it was Jim McNeil,Hirohata owner.

 

i personally thought this year was great,but for the weather ....who'd a thunk we would possibly have rain in feb.jeez what a inconvience,just kidding but ,really we could use snow pack and months of rain.if we dont get it here up north,people down south dont get to water their lawns and the valley farmers have to fight to produce crops .sorry i got O.T.

 

it was definatley nice meet some hambers. i asked bob when the meet and greet was and it was already over and i was standing right there and didnt meet anyone!!

 

I enjoyed myself. The Merc room and the Suede Pavilion were great. One of the coolest things i thought was the music Axle and his crew played all day in the Suede Pavilion. I could have just sat there all day and just listened.

 

Damn cool pictures Jason. Did Mark take more and is there a link to his pictures?

 

I was pretty bummed about the weather, too. We had 2 weeks of great weather leading up to it! So we couldn't drive the Lincoln, but the guys at the gate were nice and we traded our pre-registration for awesome parking and admission. I walked past a lot of cars I usually wouldn't in anticipation of the merc room. We didn't even go to the other side where the panel-jam was. From past experience, there's not much over there anyway. Overall though, I thought it was pretty good. We finally got to see May Cause Dangerous. The Oz car was awesome. The two customized Continentals were pretty sweet. The D'agostino car may have been my favorite. I felt like I didn't spend enough time in the merc room, but the wife was ready to go. What struck me is the Sam Barris merc. The first one really hasn't been (or can't be) improved upon in all these years. Truly a religious experience!

 

Me & Shamus signed it!

 

Sorry Bad Bob...Had I seen the banner I would have signed it!
(I did get to sign the one that Alex Gambino has.)

I made up for the boomin' bass by getting my ears cleaned out when the FED guys fired up their engines!

That belongs to Notch.He's the one that brings the Tiki Bar to VLV and is a HAMBer also.
The truck was featured in TRJ,has yours been in there?