(Season 14 EP 20)
Johnny Jalopy
Johnny loves being that guy who is a little different. We all had that kid in the neighborhood who would wire up a tin can to bang against the spokes when everyone else was using baseball cards that made a fluttering noise.
It’s that kinda kid we all thought was the coolest kat around. That kid is Johnny.
Later, he adopted a running jalopy and started ripping off the fenders and wrapping straps around it to hold all his crap on it. Somewhere in the time tunnel – he remembered his love of drawing that was supported by his dad and a junior high teacher named Mr. Beedinger.
Today, he is almost growed- up and is still creating unique combinations of things with spokes, wheels, engines, fiberglass and metal. His canvas is a spiral notebook and a ball point pen. He is relentless in sketching out ideas. He could be in the break room of work or in the front seat of his hot rod when an idea strikes and he has to put in a sketch.
Several years ago, he started posting some of his ideas on the internet. Images of a VW van-truck being used on what should be a T-bucket body. The contraption had the front of a T-rod but the back end was this slanted and crooked VW body with yellow tinted windows. The images were a little cartoony but they caught the eye of a famous fabricator in Cali. That’s when Ian Roussell reached out to Johnny asking permission to build a life-size, actual running, model of the drawing. Ian was internationally known for his unique fabrication skills. Ian was a big fan of Ed Roth, Gene Winfield, George Barris and many other historic builders. He was inspired by Johnny’s artwork, much like Ed Roth used the artwork of Ed Newton to build his unique show cars.
Ian did build that hot rod from Johnny’s art and it was a huge hit. Everything was documented on Ian’s TV show called Full Custom Garage. Johnny was in all of the episodes that followed the build. That friendship continued into other projects where Ian would have Johnny pencil out ideas in the garage. Seeing Ian staring at the drawing and then start pounding metal, bending bars and scribing paint lines was amazing. Ian says that he loves being challenged by Johnny’s unique ideas.
Now you can see Johnny sketch out his ideas live on Facebook every Monday night. It’s a 1 hour show where he will pick a theme and begin drawing something. This is as real as it gets. It’s like watching those guys, in the 60’s, doing cars and weirdos on T-shirts at the World of Wheels. Imagine if you had the chance to watch Ed Roth, with his big top hat, drawing out one of his crazy weirdos. Don’t miss Johnny Jalopy drawing out his own crazy weirdos.
Don’t worry… his show is not about watching paint dry. It’s not an art lesson. We should add that it’s a lot of fun and full of humor because Johnny is joined by Ity-B who reads off comments from viewers around the world. Their banter is like an old vaudeville act.
Here is how you can check out more of Johnny Jalopy:
http://johnnyjalopy.com/
You can access his Facebook where you can watch him every Monday night 9:30 EST.
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Wisconsin Hot Rod Radio has been on the air since 2007.
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