Kustoms arriving in August

The summer calendar is going to get a little more crowded.
With the Vintage Motor Bike Club wrapping up its National Meet at the Jay County Fairgrounds, another event is being shoe-horned into early August between the Jay County Fair and the annual Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Show.
The fairgrounds will be the site of Kustom of America’s Hoosier Rod and Custom Nationals on Aug. 6, 7, and 8, an event organizers hope will draw draw thousands of custom vehicles and hot rods.
“It will be similar to the (show) at Fairmount and the one at Gas City,” says Jim Auker of rural Portland. The Gas City event draws in the neighborhood of 3,000 vehicles. A street rod show in Evansville draws 11,000 vehicles.
“Plus, it’s a national event,” Auker adds.
If all goes well, it will be an annual fixture on the August calendar.
So how will the August event differ from an event like the Arch Bridge Kroozers’ courthouse car show?
Mostly it’s a matter of scale.
Most cruise-ins attract exhibitors from a radius of 50 miles or less.
The Kustoms of America event is expected to draw from several states, and because it lasts for three days instead of a single afternoon, many more spectators and exhibitors are expected.
“Spectators?” says Auker. “Who knows how many we’ll get?”
Plans call for spectators to enter through the traditional fair gate off East Votaw Street. Those showing vehicles will enter through the north gate off North Morton Street. As a result, Auker believes, traffic will move more smoothly than at some other events.
The schedule calls for set-up Wednesday, Aug. 4, and Thursday, Aug. 5, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The show itself will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, with awards presented at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Door prizes, a DJ, entertainment, a swap meet, drive-through judging, and special awards are being planned.
On Friday at 6 p.m., there will be a cruise out to Bearcreek Farms.
The charge for exhibitors is $25. Those who pre-register also will receive a T-shirt. Camping will be $20.
Spectator admission will be $3 per person with those 16 and under free if accompanied by their parents.
Auker and Bob Cummins, Coldwater, Ohio, acquired Kustoms of America in May from Joan Hibbs and hope to organize a number of shows around the country this year.
“If they all work out, there will be a dozen,” says Cummins.
Kustoms of America traces its roots back to legendary car customizer George Barris of California, who founded it under that name in 1949.
“George taught about 90 percent of these guys,” says Auker, who used to visit Barris’s shop in California when he was a young man.
“George is the first one that started painting candy apple (red).”
Barris, known for such creations as the Munsters’ car on the TV show of the same name, later saw the organization turned over to Jim Hibbs of Tennessee in 1997.
Auker and Cummins acquired the company after an earlier buyer defaulted on an agreement with Hibbs’s widow.
They are currently involved in litigation in North Carolina with that earlier buyer.[[In-content Ad]]