All The Rods

Monday, September 8, 2014

Check out The Bus movie for free on Hulu!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/683455

Saturday, August 16, 2014

For the love...again!

Kombi Love at Tarpon Springs Hippie Fest

Just got in a couple of hours ago from a very hot afternoon spent in my Happy Place (aka in the midst of VWs everywhere!) I got more than I bargained for and took about 200 photos between my two cameras. I think it was time well spent between meeting some excellent people and seeing some great vehicles.

There were many more VW Buses at this event than I reckoned on which is cool by me. I love 'em! There were also many VW Beetles and Bugs, quite a lot of the 'newer' ones and my favorites...the older ones.

The most unusual VW there was this guy...the "Push Me, Pull You" bus. Check this thing out!

The guy that owns him welded two front ends of two separate VW buses together to make a whole bus! But it's like a mini bus! Coolest thing ever!

The proud owners of the Push Me, Pull You bus! They could not have been nicer people either!

The people who owned the car above were letting everyone write on this car with some sort of chalk. I had to kick up my marketing strategy with this...

Anything to throw some attention towards the photo end of things! If it draws me some business, why not?

A very well-attended event! Many great cars and cool people.

A good mix of the old and the new! Tons of Buses, campers, Kombis, Bugs and Beetles with a few GTIs and other things thrown in for good measure!

The gorgeous bus above has been a past photographic subject of mine! It was good to see him again like an old friend.

The only Karmann Ghia I saw today, surprisingly enough. I thought more would turn up.

A nice array of cars from the Local Volks VW Club. They always turn up with some real beauties!

A great time was had but as this is Florida, it didn't take any time at all for the extreme heat and humidity to take me down for the count. That plus a dead camera battery brought the All The Rods/All The Creatives proceedings to a dead halt.

If you want to view more photos, you can get them here...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-The-Creatives/311971668952364?sk=photos_stream

Oh, for the love.....

Of VW! Yes, the VW Cupid's Arrow has really struck me, but good! I love these cars and everyone seems to know it at this point in time. You know that you are in the throes of addiction when your Facebook friends find the best VW stuff to post on your wall.

There is just something about the mere sight of a VW Bug, Beetle or old time Bus,Van,Camper, Kombi whatever you want to call it that does something to me on the inside. I just smile whenever I see one. Even if it's the most decrepit, beat-up, piece of crap car around, I still love 'em! In fact, these days, the more beat-up and rusty-looking the better. BTW, the VW folks don't call it rust, it's called 'Patina' and there are entire VW clubs that have members where their cars look that way. I think that the patina adds a lot of character as seen in the below photo...

Personally, I don't think I would love this car if it had all the chrome really shiny or the paint super sparkling. The day I took this photo, I must have taken at the very least about fifty shots of this one car, mostly due to the fact that it has so much damn character.

But that's not to take away from the gorgeous restored cars and buses of old like this old boy...

The above Bus is a beauty and I've since met the man that owns him and he's done even more with this priceless vehicle.

For me, VW was part of my growing up. I remember taking long car drives with my parents and my brother and I counting the VW Bugs we saw out of the window. At one time, in a forty minute trip from our house to my grandparents' house, we counted 100 Bugs. That was the early 1970's and they were everywhere! For a long time, before the Asian built cars grabbed up a piece of the American car-buying public, VW was it. They were one of the most enduring foreign car makes for many years.

Even in this day in age of all sorts of countries stepping up to the plate with their vehicles as well as many new and standard American makes and models, the vintage VW is starting to come back. I am seeing a lot more of these old boys on the highways and byways, these days. There are VW car clubs in every country and multiple ones in each state. And the thing I take from all of this is that these people love their VWs and they are some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you would ever want to meet!

I know that not everyone loves VWs and that's fine. But I always have to smile when I run into yet another person who has their own 'VW story'.

As a matter of fact, my afternoon later today will be spent taking photos of...what else...VWs! Happy motoring, everyone!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Time to plug a new find!

Volksamerica online magazine is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. It is well-produced and just a great new online publication which comes out quarterly. I was hipped to this via one of many VW Facebook pages that I belong to. I looked through both issues and didn't find this lacking in the least.

Among the many gorgeous photos taken by Joy Powers of Truly Vintage Photography are stories of VW owners, normal folk, who might gather in someone's garage to work on an older model to the people that gather in city parks, fairgrounds and on beaches to the VW background stories on how their love of this great car brought them together. There used to be a magazine similar to this called 'Cruiser Quarterly' which focused on the PT Cruiser with similar topics and car-related stories.

This magazine was started by Jeremy Noble who is a dyed-in-the-wool VW enthusiast and his love for this car radiates through every page of this fine publication. He has chosen some great articles and stories to feature. I admire people such as Jeremy who follow their passions because when they do, great things begin to happen. I'm on a similar path actually (but that's a whole other blog!)

The thing that I've noticed since my addiction to VWs became full blown is that a lot of people have VW stories. I recently was a vendor at two different types of shows, one a primarily VW show and one not and in both instances, the stories people told me kept me interested as well as amused. Volksamerica features this same sort of story-telling that I love and that a lot of people who love these cars will relate to on some level.

If you feel inclined to check out this great magazine, you can visit it here-

http://volksamerica.com/view.php

Two issues are now out and you can view those as they are free.

There is also a Facebook page as well and you can find that here-

https://www.facebook.com/Volksamerica

Saturday, May 24, 2014

VW of New Port Richey show 5-24-14

Memorial Day weekend would not be completed without an array of car shows. Today's show was at VW of New Port Richey (FL) and it was a mixed bag of both vintage Veedubs and others such as this gorgeous Corvette. However, this being Florida, the heat and humidity made for a short day but I managed to get a lot of great shots.

Ford Roadster Replica

Great American Muscle from our friends at Ford

Nice white Stanger

I'm a sucker for the vintage VeeDub

This old boy was in the showroom, neatly tucked into a back corner

Great Herbie

Nice Karmann Ghia

The Ghia and the Bug beside it arrived together, turning heads, including mine

What a stunning car!

There were a few of these old boys on hand as well.

Gotta love the old rods!

And the newer rods!

Despite the heat, there was plenty of eye candy for every taste!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Tierra Verde Car Show 4-19-14

I know it's been a while since my last post! Sorry about that. I have a lot of things going on these days but yesterday however, I was not too busy to enjoy the beauties on display down in Tierra Verde, FL. My camera was charged up and ready to roll and so without further adieu, I give you these hotties~~

2014 new Corvette Stingray

Chevy did it right with this one! What a beauty!

Some great-looking 'Maros there yesterday, including this bad boy!

Pic a bit blurry but still a nice Viper!

There were plenty of Stangs, Challengers and others there but the overall largest amount of any brand of car had to be Chevy. There were so many Camaros and Corvettes there of all ages! There were plenty of the old vintage ones there such as a 1946 Triumph as seen below...

What a great old Ford!