AST...

Absaroka State Takeover 2013

Basic Info

Date: July 20th 2013

Location: The Big Horn Y 7088 Coffeen Ave. Sheridan, Wy

(3 Miles south of Sheridan in the direction of Big Horn.)

Vehicles: Pre-1965 Traditional Hot Rods, Customs, and Motorbikes

Registration: Day of or Pre-registration Accepted

$25 Registration fee gets show entry, A.S.T. T Shirt, Sticker and Door Prize entry!

July 20th

Event parking starts at 11 a.m.

Please see the registration desk to enter a vehicle upon arrival

Event Parking/Entry ends at 1 p.m.

MISS ABSAROKA TROPHY GIRL CONTEST AT 3 P.M.

Food & Drinks available on site

Award Ceremony and Selection of Miss Absaroka at 5 P.M.

For additional info call 

Stutz: 307-752-4676

Email:absarokastatetakeover@hotmail.com

ABSAROKA STATE TAKEOVER 2013 DATE CHANGE

Hate to be the bearer of bad news...

The ABSAROKA STATE TAKEOVER 2013 has changed its date this year...

JULY 20th 2013!

One Day, Still Awesome.

Traditional Smitional!

                I've had a lot of questions about why the MoonShiners Car Club, and the Absaroka State Takeover focus on Pre-1965 "Traditional" styled vehicles. Let me elaborate. If you look what was going on in 1965 in the car scene, be it from the customizers of the day or the Automotive industry, everything was changing. 1965 was pretty much the end of an era in what was being done. Our personal feeling towards this style does not mean that we don't enjoy other styles or later makes, but merely that we (the MoonShiners C.C.) hold the 1930's to early 1960's styles in high regard as the roots of the car customizing world. That era was clean, classy, highly motivated by a need for personal expression and individually, long before the introduction of the factory muscle cars and after market parts. All in all, if there ever was a time in automotive history, as far as customizing goes, that era was the pinnacle of old world work ethic, skills, and creativity, that resulted in a series of timeless styles. I like to think that the MoonShiners are an homage to the great builders who came before, whom had no idea at the time how important they were. With that, the Absaroka State Takeover is our attempt at a little piece of Time Traveling, giving the modern world a taste of that beloved era.

Photo Rik Hoving

 This will become...

This.

Absaroka State Takeover 2012

Hot Rods and the Wild West.

Where ever you come from, you can remember that one car that stuck with you, as a child, or later in life. Every community has a car or car guy that was sorta famous for just being himself. I hope that in some fashion my years of being the young gun greaser in my high school days did that very things for someone (in a positive light of course). Its kind of an unsaid honor to just be recognized for it. Out in the Wild West of Wyoming... that is more of a rarity. One of the main objectives of our club has always been to reintroduce the masses to the wonders of the "traditional" Hot Rod world. With that in mind, my club is rapidly creating cars and bikes that I hope will have the "stick with ya" factor. Nate's T, Rusty's Triumph, and hopefully my new addition to the Moonshiners Family...

The "Captain"...

Mill will be a '54 331 Cadillac with a '62 Cadillac rearend.


Stay tooned for updates...

Nate and the Update

Founding member and infamous legend of the Moonshiners C.C. Nate is up to no good, building a shop truck for his new project. I figured I would sneak peak a couple more photos of his Model T, that will set the town a flame.

WOOF! Nate's new pup agrees... that will rule.

Hear the Thundering Hooves....

Its been awful quiet around these parts since the last Absaroka State Takeover of 2011. Like the quiet before a storm.

If you missed it, Check out pictures here




2012 is now here, my friends. Some say its the year that will mark the end of all time.

Revelations 6:2 "And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer."



I have my bow, and my crown, and Four Hundred Horses,



The MoonShiners Car Club is here to conquer 2012.

Now prepare yourselves, The Absaroka State Takeover is coming....





August 17th and 18th, 2012


Big Horn, Wyoming


Miss Absaroka Trophy Girl Pageant & Pre-1965 Hot Rods and Custom Car Gathering




For More Info email moonshinerscc@hotmail.com
Or Call Stutz @ 307-752-4676

Tune in your A.M. F.M. computers to....

It's been a very busy summer. All the club members have been working our tails off on that and this, and this and that.

I wanted to give a fore warning... the future is now.

The MoonShiners will be invading your ears...

Thats right. We are going to attempt a podcast that will cover topics like, traditional styled customs and hot rods, motorcycles, cheeseburgers, french canadians, and what ever else the coversation leads too...

Stay tuned to the blog to see if we can pull it off.

and just for a disclaimer... Caution on the content. Who knows what garbage will come out of a bunch of creep gearheads.

Absaroka is taking over.............

Prepare yourself... 

Call your best gal...

Shine your chrome....

Clean your whitewalls...

Rub down your Primer paint job...

Absaroka State Takeover is coming....

August 26-27, 2011

Official News Coming

Consider yourself warned!

Moss, mold, and mice garbage... 1954 Cadillac gets a new lease on Life.

In 1971 a light blue 1954 Cadillac was purchased and driven to a remote hay field in Sheridan County, Wyoming. It was supposed to be torn down, and the motor used in a farm equipment. That never happened. 

It sat outside for the next 39 years until (with chance and generosity of the land owner) It was saved... by me.

The first year out of the field, the car saw no improvement. I didn't have the time, space, or money to start work on it, and even then I wasn't sure I was going to keep the car. 

I have some awesome friends and club members, and with help, the title issued where solved and now the big blue Cadillac is inside a building for the first time in 40 years. 

The Cadillac is pretty rough, by most standards. There are rust issues, completed destroyed seats and interior from 40 years of rodent occupancy, and even nice patches of moss. The interesting thing is that the car is nearly complete. Minus hubcaps, skirts and the radio, the rest of the car is there... including the original keys that were laying on the seat. 

When I inspected the engine bay, I removed the factory air cleaner and was stunned to see very clean carburetor. Lets hope as I dig deeper that the rest of the internals of the mill look just as good. The previous owners did a great job of plugging all the vitals before they let it sit, obviously because the engine was the most important component for them to save. 

Heres how it looked the day after we pulled it from the field more then a year ago.

 
And not much change but...

This carb looks pretty damn clean for 40 years of sitting.

The inside is a different story....

Mice are little, harmless and even cute when in cartoon form, but in the real world, when it comes to automobiles and time the damage they cause is astonishing.

Heres the interior fresh from the field

After a light cleaning before it was in my shop the interior was a touch more bearable. 

I dont really have words for how uncomfortable it was to remove the seats... lets just say it was ....well, uncomfrotable.

 Feeling fairly proud of accomplishing the "removal of the doomed seats" I decided, why get that headliner out while I'm at it. 

Guess where the rest of the backseat padding was...

The picture doesn't really this mess justice. It about 6 inches deep and prolly ten pounds of grass seeds, mice shit, and mice carcasses. 

That was about all I could handle at that point so I called it a night. 

I dont think that I have any desire to use the factory seats, they are just to gross and I think I want to take the interior in a different direction when i build it back up. Maybe a nice seat of 60's cadillac buckets.

Never the less, the rest of the interior is still savagable and Im happy with that fact. There is a long road ahead on this project, so I will keep updates coming as they happen, but heres a few more pictures of the car and it's "friends" that will be keeping it company.

 Adios,

Stutz

Stutz' story and the Origin of the Moonshiners C.C.

I haven't been updating the blog much since I got back from GNRS. That's the way it goes sometimes. Work gets busy, and everything else most slow or stop. 

The purpose of this blog is simple and easy. I wanted to give a back story to how our car club thing began from my perspective...

The MoonShiners C.C. is a traditional car club. We aren't going to be to picky about it, because after all we are cars guys, and everyone is different (just like snowflakes), but we believe in tradition,  in heritage,  in proven cool.


As the fearless leader of the Club, it seems appropriate to explain my past. I have always been into cars, and specifically big body 50's customs. You can thank Ghostbusters for warping my young mind with that big beautiful 59 Cadillac in the movie. Like a lot of car guys, I grew up around them. Pretty standard recipe to raise a Gearhead, with a soft spot for land yachts. 


It wasn't until I was around 12 or so that my natural instinct of looking up to big brother introduced me to the culture of hot rods and customs. The reeeeal deep historic old school rockabilly hot rod "Kulture". My obsession has only deepened.
In high school I drew pictures of Rat Fink and flying eyeball headed drivers in chopped and lowered hot rod Ford's. Designed flamed paint jobs for cars I thought I would never owned, and basically didn't pay to much attention to anything but cars. At the same time with the guidance of backing of my Dad, my gearhead big brother, and the talent and teaching of "Shooter" (pinstriper extraordinaire) , I got to really see what driving a traditional styled hot rod was all about. Meet "Anabelle"... 1954 Buick Special Mild Custom
Started by my Brother John and my Dad,
Finished (a that point) by Shooter and a 16 year old version of me.

Now, driving around in this car at 17 had its benefits, and short comings. One of the best parts about it was the people you meet. Its hard not to look at a car like this these days. Especially with every modern car looking like a river rock. Thus, I always had people asking things, telling me stories, introducing me to their own view of what I myself was learning. The old ways. I loved the stories and wanted to know more history of hot rods at every opportunity. 


In my hunger for hot rod car themed stories, I became ever more interested in the illegal whiskey world known as "moonshining". Not that I wanted to make it at the time, I just wanted to find stories, about running from the Revenue Agents in hopped up jalopies. There is something really cool and pure American about it. Little did I know at the time what Sheridan County, as well as the rest of Wyoming had a whole hell of a lot of stories... just gotta ask the right people. The name MoonShiners was stuck in my head from that point on.


Meanwhile, the idea of a club spun around in my teenage mind. A couple friends and I, namely Nate and Toad, would talk about it and even considered it official. We were the Moonshiners beta 1.0. We drove around town and cruised the main drag in our old school hot rods, truly enjoying something that was no longer normal practice. We in a sense where following in the footsteps of the old timers. We were a high school car club and we had fun. Youth has a way of tricking you. I had alot to learn before shit was "official".

Years go by and I continued to learn. Not always the easy way, but learn I did. A few years my car sat, broken, and untouched as life lead me down different paths. My passion for traditional custom cars only got deeper. I always tried to follow a couple important things along the way. 


        1. If your going to do it, do it right.

        2. Open your ears, and shut your mouth. (especially around old guys you can  learn from. which is hard when you're young and think you know everything)

Which leads me to this point. I returned to Sheridan (via Denver), finished some goals, and got back to my Anabelle. I found a shop to call my own and learned by doing, until a fresh hot rod power train brought my beloved car back to life...

In the back ground of this several different things were happening. 
                 One, I was discovering the car club history of Sheridan. Which is deep, mind you, all the way back to the early fifties. The Conquistadors, followed by several others thru the years until it seemed they no longer existed but in local lore. 
                Two, I was meeting people, and reconnecting with old friends, that shared not just a passion for cars, but a respect for vintage hot rodding. Guys who in different ways had the same mind set towards keeping the spirit of tradition alive in the modern day. 
               Three, I had a goal to share my passion with people. I wanted to put together a car show, were people could see why for the last ten+ years a few punk kids have been spending all their free time playing with old junk cars. I wanted to have a car show be fun again, minus the high dollar, built by someone else, soulless kit car garbage. I wanted people to see more of the made in the garage type cars, like they did in the past. I wanted to resurrect the car culture of the 50's and see people enjoy it like I do.

The combination of the three wasn't all to my credit. Tommy, My Brother John, Nate, Rusty, Shooter, and I had long talks about it. They all in different ways lead me to deciding it was time to take it serious. If we came together and formed the MoonShiners Car Club, we could achieve common goals, spread the knowledge that we learned for the old timers to the next generation, build and drive awesome vehicles, keep local history alive, and have a good damn time doing it.


At 25 years old, I have a lot to learn about how to run a club with such big ideas. 


however, we have successfully accomplished the Car Show that I hoped for titled the Absaroka State Takeover, and plan to keep it going for years to come. 


If all goes right we will only get better.

Introductions: Barney's Hacienda

Friday, I was hanging out with a old friend and one of the original club member from back when we "started" the MoonShiners Car Club. Nate a.k.a. Barney, has been getting his garage/shop at his house in order to get some of his projects up and rolling again. Here's a little picture tour.

Nate's 67 Chev is one that he drove the shit out of it high school, but his direction and ideas for the truck (like most vehicles over time) have changed. So he tore it down and set in motion its resurrection. The '53 Belair on the side is another old friend's car that Nate is care taker/builder of while "Toad" was off at tree school.

One of three Original Club Plaques I made when I was in college.

If you don't know barney... well let's just say hes a character.

Hope you enjoyed this... I know I did, Nate is sort of like a white Dave Chappell, so shit never stops being funny. That's my favorite part of our club, the good people that keep us all laughing. 

I will have more introduction and picture tours... that's it for now.

- STUTZ

Steeeekers

VicePres Tom "the fighting dolphin" Manning, made our California bound crew a shit load of stickers to give away. Tommy and I decided it would be cool to give back to some of the vendors and people at the Grand National Roadster Show. They feature the Moonshiners Logo, with this exact blog's address, a sort sticky business card.

 IF you really want one... email me.

-Stutz