Five Years of Passion (vol.1)

It's been five years since my brother & I began Deadend Magazine!



Yup, seems like just yesterday I was uploading the first issue while my brother was working on my Lincoln to make the trek down to Paso Robles. We were so excited about launching deadendmagazine.com and to finally take a car to cruise down Spring St. We've come a long way in five years, unlike my Lincoln, we're way ahead of where I ever thought we'd be but way behind where we could be.

Here are some high-lights:
- Reached over 1 million hits a month (a few times)
- Been published internationally (France, Germany, United States)
- Made some amazing friends
- Shot some of our favorite cars
- Shot at some of our favorite events
- Mentioned in Rodder's Journal
- Mentioned on Jalopy Journal (a few times)

and some not-so-high-lights:
- Took a year to update (twice)
- Don't have an online store set up yet
- Haven't printed an issue of Deadend.... yet

I wouldn't trade the adventures I've had via Deadend Magazine for anything. My brother and I have put in a lot of effort and time and are very thankful that we have an amazing family that has been there for us. They've seen the good and the bad. It's not easy on them have us do what we do. They are very understanding, they are the best!

We're also thankful that we have some good friends (a lot of which we've made through Deadend) that understand when we don't make it to parties, birthdays or any kind of event because we're out shooting cars. They rule for putting up with us, you know who you are.

Here is how we first started...
Before we switched over to our current layout, we had a flash intro and an ugly looking site.. haha

This is the first write up of our first official event as Deadend, Paso!

Then..

We switched up the look just a little... How many of you remember the carchives?

And here's a little Deadend Trivia many of you didn't know about..
Our first choice was actually "Shifter Magazine" We had the logo, layout, fliers and everything ready to go when I went to buy the domain (days before going to Paso) and someone already owned it. We freaked out a little. We didn't know what to call the magazine.



We went to my friend Robert's house to try and come up with ideas.. nothing. I went to Cole Foster's place to look at old magazines to look for inspiration... nothing! Then on the way home I stopped at Kinko's to use their computer and internet and be away from everybody to see if I could clear my mind. It worked! I don't remember how or why I came up with "Deadend," but I did. I called my brother, "Deadend Magazine, what do you think?" He wasn't thrilled and was busy working on my Lincoln but said, "Let's go with it, if we don't like it we'll just change the name later." So I bought deadendmagazine.com...

and here we are today...
In the second volume I'll post more pics and cool stuff from our adventures!

-Juan

Do you doodle?

I doodle a bunch on scratch paper at work... When I'm on the phone with clients, when I'm supposed to be working, when I my ADD kicks in... I doodle at home too maybe I'll post some of those later

Here are a few of my latest doodles.. why? I don't know...








I'm making a character of myself haha


This is my to-do list for the week... doesn't include my daily already scheduled stuff..









I wish I had more patience to actually sketch something nice out.. but I'm weird...

anyways, that's it for now... keep on keepin on

-Juan

Lone Star 3.3 - FTB

Well should be my last entry (for now) about my Texas trip...

All of these pics were taken while FTB (Mr. Flat Top Bob) gave us a tour through the Wellington, Childress, Amarillo area.... Couldn't ask for a better tour guide!

If you don't know who FTB is... You better asks somebody.. owenssalvage.com

Monday..
We woke up and drove around the mean streets of Wellington.


I was scared... No really, if there wasn't any newer cars, you'd think you had gone back in time


Our first stop was Don Hickey's places, here FTB & Don outside Don's warehouse


Here's FTB opening up a garage door to another one of Don's places, you can see a glimpse of his beautiful Chevy custom


Here's FTB in an old school paint booth... crazy cool..


Nice clock tower.. notice anything weird?


Then we drove to Childress to visit & have lunch with Doug.. love his car


Then stopped at FTB's cousin's house... to look at his car and make an offer.. he wouldn't take $30,000.. I wouldn't either.

Then we headed to Dlebert's place, Coby gave him a few of the Church books.. and in FTB's own words... "I promise you there won't be anyone that you give the books to that will appreciate it more than Delbert." How cool is that


Delbert showed us his boxcar full of cool stuff.. Like these real Brass Knuckles...


And this authentic Klu Klux Clan outfit... I tried it on, didn't fit...


Delbert's awesome place..


Just a couple of his hot rods..

Then we were off to Larry's place... Larry has an obsession with Coke, every time I've seen him he has a Coke in his hands.. and a trail behind him..

Like so..

His other obsession is mid fifties Fords.. He has an amazing collection, amazing!

here's Coby getting a detail shot, his bread & butter

We then headed back to Casa De Flat Top, Here is the Duke (FTB) and his Merc...

I was going down the stairs when I noticed how small they are... tight fit for me.


Linda was being shy


And off to the Salvage yard we went

Coby looking on as FTB does some measuring


Wheels for days, weeks & years

This one is for Sarah

Chucks!


Took a few pics of some nice emblems... You gotta love old car logos

Another

This one I really like, art deco-ish letters

Coby looking for his next target.


Last photo of the night was FTB's beautiful Merc in his barn... Bob is living the dream.

Tuesday..

I woke up to pack all my stuff & head back to California.

But first we stopped at Mark's shop in Amarillo... you're going to have to wait to see parts of his collection on deadendmagazine.com


Here's FTB & Mark


Pipes...


Coby, "That might be the coolest sign I've ever seen!"

Old stuff rules...

And that's that... My Lone Star adventure... I truly enjoyed it!

FTB makes the best tour guide.