Hi folks, Triple OG here (AKA: Tom Gomez).  Some of you may know me from Lowrider Magazine, Sport Truck, Street Trucks, Truckin, Ol’ Skool Rods, and Car Kulture Deluxe and a few other mags that I may have forgotten about. Having paid my dues, I have been to countless car shows and the grueling Lowrider tours all over the country. This has allowed me to experience and shoot every type of custom car and truck on the planet. We’re happy to see that you’re reading this brand new lowrider monthly feature in Rod Authority. We’re also equally stoked to be covering the lowrider scene.

This story is a one of many custom car shows to be featured in the months to come. The cool thing that will set this column apart from other hot rod and custom digital magazines is, we won’t just feature the same cars at the same events that other online titles will do. We’re gonna talk about cars, music, bands, food, pinup girls, tattoo parlors, barbershops, and anything else that falls under the wonderful kustom kulture that we all love and live everyday. You want low brow in your favorite digital magazine? Then this is the place to get it.

Custom cars and trucks brings folks together at these events, but the lifestyle is what keeps us going year after year – and keeps the nostalgia of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, and early ’70s alive. We mention early ’70s because most shows have a cut-off year of pre-’73. It seems that after 1973, Detroit forgot what “cool” was all about. Don’t get us started on the ’80s cars, as it is a very depressing time for all of us gearheads.

Looking Back At The Costa Mesa Show

You can’t beat the warm, sunny weather of Southern California. Pretty much all year long the days are warm, with cool ocean breezes at night. There is something else that Southern California has — car shows. We’re not talking about a few cars that someone polished that morning and decided to show, we’re talking full-blown custom cars and trucks — most heavily influenced by the kustom kulture that started in the valley in the early 1940s.

Wild paint, custom interiors, bad ass engines, and fantastic food are featured at most of these local shows. One show we attended recently in Costa Mesa, California was at the Costa Mesa’s “The Lab,” which is a sort of anti-mall with plenty of cool shops designed with the artist in mind.

This particular weekend was a custom car weekend hosted by DePalma Clothing, and had customs from all over Orange County and beyond on display. As mentioned before, the quality of the cars were top shelf, not just-bought off the showroom floor vehicles. We also need to mention that even though these cars and trucks are show quality, there wasn’t a trailer queen to be seen here, folks, these customs are meant to be driven daily.

These cars are built as drivers. There was not a trailer queen on the lot.

We have complete respect for the time, money, and effort put into custom shop-built rods that you see at the SEMA show, but you’ve got to have the same respect for these home-built cars and trucks that have the same hard work invested in them. These guys don’t just build the cars for show, they also drive them daily and live the lifestyle.

Ford Falcon Doesn’t Usually Mean Cool

One prime example is this ’60s Ford Falcon. Yes, a Ford Falcon! Unfortunately, when you say Ford Falcon, a cool car doesn’t immediately come to mind. But this little Ford had all the elements of a true 1960s custom. The cool green paint, with a silver metal-fake roof and pinstriping, caught our eye and made us want to give this little car a closer look. The subtle details, like custom dash knobs and pedals, were a nice touch along with the very clean white pleated interior. Yeah, this little Ford was rocking.

Another wild custom with green paint was this ’51 full custom truck that was chopped and lowered. Custom headlights and a dash from a ’59 Impala gave this Chevrolet the epitome of what the word custom is all about. These are the kind of shows we enjoy going to because of the quality and variations of vehicles.

Not typically thought of as a sexy hot rod, this Ford Falcon stood out, and was admired at the event.

Music has been a long-time partner with cars and custom car shows, and this show had both. Johnny Cash has always been a favorite with the rat rod and custom crowd and attendees got a taste of that with Cash’d Out, a tribute band who were right on with classic Cash tunes. If you closed your eyes for a minute you could imagine the Man in Black himself onstage singing all his hits. It was awesome, and made want to go out a buy all of his records, which wouldn’t be that difficult to do either … Crème Tangerine, a very unique record store, is nestled in a corner at “The Lab.” It’s unique because the exterior of the record store is a ’50s style Airstream trailer that has been implanted into the wall of the building. Yes, we said implanted into the wall. The design is unique and we thought it was very cool with all of the vintage records and collections displayed outside for people to browse through.

Old School Flames Never Go Out Of Style

Most of these local shows are one-day events, and boy, can they pack a lot of cars and vendors into just one day! One of the vendors who attends custom car shows all around Southern California is Hawleywood’s Barbershop. Donnie Hawley, famed barber and entrepreneur, was on hand with a full-service barbershop. Yes folks, you could get a haircut and a razor shave by one of Hawleywood’s talented barbers right on the spot using their own line of hair products, aptly named “Layrite.” We’ve tried the products and they work, so check them out at one of many locations in Orange County.

For a one-day parking lot show, it was off the hook with all the elements of a huge sponsored show, and definitely one you want to plan on attending. We’ll let you know on the next DePalma show date and others shows as well.

We are all super-stoked that custom car building is in full swing in shops and garages all over the country. These shops are busy building and reworking cool projects getting ready for the 2016 custom show season. Please contact us about cool shows or events that fall under the “vintage” umbrella, and we’ll do our best to be there and eat, drink, and smell the fumes of rich running carburetors and BBQ grills cooking carne aside!

After a full day in the sun talking and shaking hands with both car owners and vendors it was time to put away the camera equipment and find a taco stand to munch on 99 cent tacos. For a one day parking lot show, this show was off the hook with all the amenities of a huge sponsored show, and definitely one you want to plan on attending. So keep checking our website for more custom shows like the DePalma show and keep low and slow homies.