First published in the October 2012 issue of Street Machine

They say the journey is better than the destination, so when your destination is the Kavalcade of Kustoms at MotorEx 2012 you just know getting there is going to be one hell of a road trip.

The excuse — not that you should ever need one — was to get Derek Russell’s custom spinner up to Sydney. He’d been invited by Kavalcade organiser Mario Colalillo to be a part of the historic event and there was no way he was missing out on this show within a show.

The word went out and thanks to the wonders of social networking, we ended up with about a dozen cool old cars cruising up the Hume on the Thursday before MotorEx.

No hurry, just a leisurely cruise picking up people along the way. First stop was Wallan, Vic, where we met Melbourne-based Eldorado Sean Hammond in his bare-metal ’31 coupe, Steve Gilbert with his ’62 Pontiac, and Shannon Crozier and his ’65 Caddy.

Mat Egan and his buddy Danny Gigs were also along for the ride, while Damien Lewis had his bare metal ’50 Ford all wrapped up and on the back of a trailer. Photographer Simon and I were travelling in style too — in Davo’s 289-powered XM coupe, which he drove down from Sydney the day before.

Next stop was Glenrowan, to hook up with the rest of the Eldorados who were making their way across from South Muckleford. Victorian fog and 2˚C at 10am weren’t agreeing with my West Aussie arse at all and technical difficulties delayed the Eldorados. Still, they showed up eventually and in the meantime, we hung out and talked BS.

The expanded posse now included Kyle de Kuijer in his killer XL Falcon Country Squire wagon and Nick Ebery’s ’59 Chevy, which was dragged out of Eddie Ford’s museum and treated to a set of airbags and an oil change.

The star of the show, Derek’s spinner, was on a trailer. With no rear floor and very little interior, it wouldn’t have been much fun to drive.

First order of business was to figure out our next stop. Some of the cars run pretty small fuel tanks and Mat Egan had already run out gas in sight of the Glenrowan servo. The excellent reputation of Holbrook’s bakery gave the town the nod and we were off, picking up ace snapper Chris Cooper along the way in Albury.

On the road to Gundagai we met all-around good guy and Canberra local Jamie Croker, with his ’55 Buick. The red and white cruiser goes pretty hard thanks to a Corvette 454 and clocks up plenty of road miles, so he cruised with us for a few more before heading home.

The end of the trip was in sight already. Funny how the miles just get eaten up when you’re doing it with a bunch of mates in cool old cars.

But the show was just as cool. Ten years ago you wouldn’t have been able to muster enough traditionally styled machines for a Kavalcade of Kustoms. So if you stumbled upon these chopped, slammed and smoothed creations at MotorEx and liked what you saw, you can pretty much thank one man — Mario Colalillo. He’s on a mission to raise the profile of customs in Australia, and judging by the quality of the cars, I’m sure he was successful. There were 38 customs on show, 6 of them Mercs and all of them great examples of the genre.

There were a lot of US cars on display but Mario and wife Catriona flew the Aussie flag with their gorgeous FB panel van.

It was great to see Aussie custom pioneer Dale Fisher at the show, displaying his Packard-inspired Studebaker convertible and happily chatting to people all weekend. It’s hard to believe, but Dale reckons he’d had a hand in more than 800 cars by the time he stopped counting. And then he started on motorbikes — some 300 of them!

Though they’re US models, cars like Craig Fountain’s ’50 Buick, Michael Morris’s ’49 Chevy and Mark Apap’s ’47 Ford are all Aussie-designed and built, and prove that we can do it just as well as the Yanks.

And if legendary US customiser John D’Agostino flying in for the show wasn’t enough to make it a landmark occasion for Aussie customising, one of John’s own creations, Imperial Royale, was also present. It’s a ’57 Chrysler Imperial that was brought to Oz by Rene Rivkin. It’s a stunning car and made a sensational pairing with Justin Hills’s latest creation, a chopped ’60 Dodge Phoenix.

Also flying the Mopar flag was TJ from Camden County Customs. His ’54 Desoto started life as a dowdy four-door sedan but can now hold its own against any chopped Mercury around.

Indeed, part of the car’s secret is the melding of some Mercury DNA. To get the flow of the chop just right, TJ used the window and rear section from a ’49 Mercury roof, then added nine inches to the rear of the fenders and fitted ’56 Packard tail-lights — a classic customising touch.

With a bit of luck, the punters who checked out the Kavalcade might have thought ‘I could do this to that old Holden/Ford/Valiant in the shed.’ It sure would be great to see a bit more Aussie content at next year’s show, but if you’re building a killer Mercury or single spinner, we’d love to see them too.

The highlight, however, was the post-event cruise. While most entrants were tucking their cars away for the next few months, a few dozen hot rods and customs headed for the Harbour Bridge, right through the heart of the city, via Victoria Road and Anzac Bridge. What a sight and what a way to finish off a killer weekend!

Cruising in rain, peering through chopped windscreens, dodging gawkers trying to figure out where all these weird cars were coming from was a fantastic experience. And then the Harbour Bridge was the picture postcard background for a few more memorable photos. Let’s hope it happens all again next year.

KING OF KUSTOMS

This was John D’Agostino’s second trip to Australia. He was at MotorEx in 2011, when there were maybe four customs, and he and Mario Colalillo hatched a plan for more.

“Mario said: ‘What about some kind of custom show?’ I said: ‘What if we call it the Kavalcade of Kustoms?’ Hopefully we can keep this thing going for years,” John says.

“I think after this, customs are going to grow. The cars here are world class. I look at all these Holdens and Falcons and some of the customs — fabulous work.”

With around 100 cars under his belt, John knows a thing or two about building customs, so it’s high praise.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Mat Egan’s Buick Nailhead-powered spinner needed frequent fuel stops on the way up from Melbourne.

2. Danny Gigs cruised up in his recently acquired ’54 Chevy pickup. The satin copper paint had a real glow to it and the car looked awesome cruising up the highway — no airbags — as well as sounding great with its twin-carbed six.

3. Kyle de Kuijer’s Country Squire wagon ferried about half of the Eldorados up to Sydney, and looked mighty cool doing it.

4. Not often you see two bare metal spinners on car trailers cruising. Mad thrashes to get the cars done meant there was no time for test drives.

5. Sean Hammond leads Kyle de Kuijer and Mat Egan.

6. TJ from Camden County Customs has finally spent some time on his own car and it’ll be amazing. The ’54 Desoto wears its original grille, while ’56 Packard tail-lights have been worked into the fenders and a ’49 Merc roof section gets the chop flowing perfectly.

7. Des Russell with US kustom king John D’Agostino, who had nothing but praise for the Ahron Jeffree roof chop on the ’50 Ford.

8. We featured Elvis Abrahanowicz’s Chevy in the SM Kustom Annual in bare metal but Ben from Lucky’s Speed Shop covered it in white primer for the show. It looks a bit street racer at the moment but will definitely be built in full custom style — with some horsepower.

9. Aussie custom legend Dale Fisher was an honoured guest at the Kustom Kavalcade with his Packard-inspired Studebaker drop top.

10. John D’Agostino rides in one of his most famous customs across Anzac Bridge in the pouring rain! He said he’s never taken any of the cars he’s built out in the wet.

11. Mario’s new Merc, ready to head off on the cruise. A set of ’53 Buick headlights and Cadillac Dagmars give it a pretty wild look.

12. Des finally gets a spin in the spinner. Well worth it, though the car got browner as the night wore on and the rain ate into the unprotected paint.

13. Tony Aquilina’s 1951 Mercury won the D’Agostino Koolest Kustom award.