SOUTH Australia’s Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Fiesta is part of the Deuces Wild Rockabilly Weekender held on the first weekend of November each year. The Fiesta is run on the Saturday as a fundraiser for Foundation Shine to help those with mental illness, and this year featured a bunch of rad rides, dozens of rockabilly bands including the Pat Capocci Combo, The Flattrakkers and The Detonators, a few wares, great food and plenty of human go-juice.

Dia De Los Muertos Fiesta is the revheads’ go-to gig during the Deuces Wild Weekender. A few punters pay the entry fee yet never make it inside to check out the bands. That said, you can hear them pretty well from the parking lot.

Michael and Tracy Ahrens’s understated ’50 Cusso runs a factory flathead, a donk that Michael is extremely familiar with. The couple can often be spotted cruising in a roadster, so the ’50 provides them a ride with a roof!

Adelaide has a huge American cruise scene coordinated by Grant and Stephanie Zippel. Most get around in bog-stock LHD rides due to Adelaide’s backward rego legalities, but it’s led to a break away from the standard tri-five Chev, Mustang and Camaro route, with punters importing lesser-known makes and models to stand out from the crowd. Case in point: this big ’n’ beautiful ’59 Edsel.

Mark Arnold’s’56 Dodge sled, DOOM, won Best Custom on the night. Mods include a two-door conversion, roof chop and ’bagging, resulting in one bad-arse ride.

Andrew Sutcliffe’s ’48 Ponty proves not everything needs to be heavily modified. Pontiac created a perfect curve from roof to boot, then teamed it with double greens, leaving you with nothing to do other than stand back and enjoy.

‘Dog Sled’ Shauun fired up his Chevy for the first time in five years on the morning of the event. Up front he’s frenched the headlights, while tail-lights are now small bumper-mounted jobbies, with the factory provision filled.

Geoff’s 331ci Hemi-powered ’32 five-window is a home-built item without compromise. Geoff pre-planned the lot, avoiding the middle-man to deal with most US suppliers direct. The end result is a strong, clean build and the exact vision he had from the get-go.

Aaron Bray has a thing for two-doors. Last year he built this era-correct FB ‘Nomad’ to perfect proportions, while at home he has a scalloped and dumped ’50 Chevy pick-up, as well as a chopped two-door humpy in the build.

Bruce Donaldson’s XM Falcon (SM, May ’14) is an eye-catching belly-scraper. His cruising buddy at Dia De Los Muertos was his son Tex, who’s already well on the way to becoming a car and truck nut.