At any SEMA Show "Custom & Classic" tie together like cookies and milk and this year is was more evident than ever. Compared to last year's lack of classic trucks; 2009 has redeemed its self with plenty of nice, clean and a few crazy trucks. For those who didn't get to attend this year's show customclassictrucks.com brings you everything you missed.

Columbus is conveniently situated halfway between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean, and less than 300 miles from more than a dozen states. It is the capital of Ohio and for three days every July, the capital of the hot rod universe. The phenomenon occurs when the Goodguys PPG Nationals rolls into the Ohio Expo Center.inline_mediumwraptextrightWe're starting this story at the end, as Doug Wickline's blown 351-powered '55 Ford F-100 cruises its way through the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus as part of the Sunday parade of award winners.26731150/eventcoverage/0911cct_2009_goodguys_ppg_nationals0911cct_01_z+2009_goodguys_ppg_nationals+1955_ford_f100_cruiser.jpgTrue

The summertime is the right time for hopping in the cab of your truck and hitting the road, but unfortunately there's a million different events all going on at the same time. A case in point was the weekend of June 21, the first week of summer when the MSRA folks were throwing their 36th annual Back to the '50's event. On the same date out in California, not more than 10 miles away from our Placentia offices, the 27th annual F-100 Western Nationals were taking place, and just a little farther north, the L.A. Roadsters were holding their 45th annual show. It was a shame to miss 'em but Tim Bernsau and I had been talking about hitting Back to the '50's for some time, so we decided this year was going to be the year we went. What a great time we had, it was like climbing into a time machine and going back 50 years in time.

Wandering off Interstate 580 into the city of Pleasanton, California, for someone who has never been to the place, it can appear like the Twilight Zone's "A Stop at Willoughby" episode and the shopping scene from The Stepford Wives has been spun into an antiseptically correct theme park for Yuppies. Drive a little deeper beyond the stark blandness of corporate business parks towards the Alameda County Fairgrounds and the town's over-sanitized veneer gives way to the rumble of American horsepower, and bright candy colors. At least that's how it was when we rolled into town for the Goodguys' 16th annual get-together held May 30-31, 2009. It was definitely a case of you can't judge a book by looking at the cover. Sure, there were a lot of tasty hot rods and customs that drove from afar to attend, but we also met a bunch of local folks who drug out some pretty amazing vintage tin as well. The trick to enjoying either one of the events held by the Goodguys in their hometown is to see past the futuristic baloney and get ready to enjoy some old-fashioned custom car show fun: For more information log on to www.good-guys.com.

Originally named Lordsburg when it was founded in 1887; exactly 30 years later the tiny little Southern California town became known as La Verne in 1917. Nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, La Verne is situated approximately 35 miles east of Los Angeles and supports a population of over 33,000. At the turn of the 20th century, Southern California was destined to become the birthplace of all things cool in the world of automobiles, and the folks who grew up in La Verne got a chance to witness it all. The city of La Verne's Cool Cruise paid homage to the roots of Custom Culture with almost 1,000 vehicles on display in Old Town La Verne starting at D Street from Bonita over to 2nd Street, it was just like stepping into a time machine. Held on April, 11 it was more than just an incredible gathering of cool custom cars, trucks, and motorcycles, the event featured door prizes, raffles, live entertainment with pretty girls dancing around, and the all-important food-lots of good food.

At the very tip of Northern California's central valley and about 10 miles south of Lake Shasta lies the city of Redding, California. With beginnings, dating back to the 1840s, the surrounding area is packed with early Americana and a populace friendly to 20th century automobilia. Proof positive is that Redding has had a dragstrip since 1948, converted from the old Redding Airport and the strip has been NHRA sanctioned since 1955. In association with Kool April Nights, Kool April Drags celebrates the drag racing portion of the weeklong event so participants can bring home the bacon, or get shut down trying. Held on the grounds of the Redding Convention Center, Kool April Nights celebrated its 20th anniversary in '09 and the dates for 2010 are April 14-19, when the event celebrates its 21st year.

Southern California has been a vacation destination for the rest of the world since its earliest days when missionaries first offered wines vinted from locally grown grapes to thirsty travelers in search of a refreshing beverage to wash away the adobe clay of the El Camino Real. In the 21st century, California's missions are still a tourist attraction, and for the folks who consider themselves hardcore gearheads, or even persons mildly interested in the history of the automobile there's an attraction that shouldn't be missed. It's called the Petersen Automotive Museum, and get ready to clear some space in your brain because the place will leave you with a thousand great memories you'll never forget.

Sponsored by Fremont Chevrolet, The All American Truck Show for 2009 was held on May 2nd at Kennedy Park in Union City, California. Although the event is hosted by the Northern California Chevy GMC Truck Club, every American brand of truck from slammed mini-trucks to semi rigs pulling doubles is welcome. According to their website: "We are a friendship organization founded to promote the restoration, preservation and customization of classic Chevy and GMC Pickups, Suburbans, Sedan Deliveries, Canopy Express and El Caminos."

Exposed to a constant mixture of snow, rain, and salt during the course of the Rust Belt's harsh winters, the sight of vintage trucks riding out retirement years grazing in a field is a rarity to say the least. When photographer Laura Zwieschowski offered these photos taken right before the onset of last winter we jumped at the chance to share them with Custom Classic Trucks readers.

The 59th Annual Sacramento Autorama took place between February 6th and 8th for 2009. No one likes buying photographs of the same show truck twice so, with the exception of the Mountain Pearl (shown in last June's GNRS coverage) as a lead shot, we think we did a fair job of presenting you folks some of the local customized classic trucks (as in NorCal) that rolled into Sacramento along with the circuit players that helped to make Pomona's GNRS, held in late January, such a great show. We only have 31/2-pages to do it, so I'll pipe down and we'll get on with the show.

Although right now might not be the best time economically for the city of Detroit and its struggling automakers, Detroit will always be known as the Motor City. No matter how bad things get, Detroit is the place where the newest technologies, cutting edge design, and forward thinking thrive. For almost a century now, the whole country, and even the world, have looked to Detroit for a glimpse at what the future would hold.

Showgoers might say from its earliest days of being held on-site at their Santa Fe Springs, California, location the Mooneyes Xmas party has served as a sort of demographic barometer throughout the years. For December 23, 2008 all it took to confirm this was still the case, one only had to take a long walk around the perimeter of the Toyota Speedway of Irwindale and witness everything from rails and Gassers to crusty old beaters tearing it up on Irwindale's 1/8-mile dragstrip to the park's outer edges. The drag racing activities were added to the event when it moved to Irwindale and from the steady increase of new competitors each year it looks like drag racing will continue to be a mainstay of what make the Mooneyes Xmas Show & Drags a really neat and unique event. For the people who were more into the scene of pompadours, tattoos, and cuffed Levis the place was packed wall-to-wall with all kinds of custom culture iconery for sale in the vendors row. Beyond the vendors area out further in the lots, the local car clubs and lone wolf packs were filling the air with good smelling barbeque smoke and put on a real good show 'n' shine to boot. For information about next year's Mooneyes Xmas Show & Drags check out www.mooneyesusa.com.

For the past few years we have pointed our compass due east to check out the Darryl Starbird National Rod and Custom Car Show in Wichita, Kansas. As it turns out, the city so entrenched in custom cars also has a knack for churning up some of the raddest trucks we come across.

The granddaddy of them all turned 60 this year, and no we're not talking about the patriarch of a large clan. The old timers still call it Oakland, but to the folks that are still a little wet behind the ears it's known as the Grand National Roadster Show. The GNRS originally opened up as the Oakland Roadster Show way back in 1950 at the Oakland Exposition Center, and was started by Al and Mary Slonaker.

Beyond what is known as East or West Coast style, there's another major difference between the two regions and that's the amount of time one has to enjoy their custom classic in the sun. For the West Coast guys there really isn't a time of year to pull their truck down and get it ready for the next season, they run 'em until they drop. On the East Coast, with its freezing cold snowy winters it's an entirely different story. There's a time to build and a time to show and shine.

Instead of the usual trek to Americruise for 2008, the crew at Rod & Custom along with the guys from Street Rodder took to the highway to celebrate the 60th Speed Trials at the Bonneville salt flats in Utah. Bonneville is like no place on earth and "salt fever" is a bug that takes only one exposure to be hooked for life. Once a person makes a pass at Bonneville and then backs it up everything else in life is just waiting. A good example of the dedication to returning to Bonneville each year for Speed Week can be seen in the rusted sheetmetal on the trucks and cars that run there. The staff of CCT was on the road to Reno at that time, so we asked Tim Bernsau, Kev Elliot, and R&C editor Kevin Lee to bring back some extra footage of push, tow, and race trucks doing their thing on the salt for CCT readers.

It's been said some of the best things in life are free, and when it comes to a custom car and hot rod show like Gene Winfield and Larry Watson's first annual gathering, we're here to tell you its true! The flyers for Larry and Gene's October 19, 2008 show started circulating in early June, and the buzz was well on its way to a major clamor by the time we rolled into to Mojave, California to take it all in. In the spirit of carpooling and just hanging out together to raise a little hell I rode up with Bob Ryder, Truckin's tech editor, and Michael Stanford, Street Rodder's art-director. I knew it was going to an incredible day as soon as Bob rolled up in a pitch black '08 Ford pickup that Truckin' had just finished running the wheels off for its truck of the year awards. On the flyer the hours for the gathering were listed from 11 a.m. to till 7 p.m. but somehow the three of us decided to roll out of Orange County at five in the morning, and as luck would have it, it turned out to be a good idea.

There's no doubt about it when it comes to customizing a classic truck one of the most enjoyable experiences can be tracking down a suitable starting point. If you have the ability to recognize a diamond in the rough it will help make the search that much easier. In past issues our Farm Truck Fever series has run the gamut from showing abandoned farm trucks in fields to revealing private stashes amassed by collectors with a concern to preserve the supply of project trucks available. As any loyal CCT reader can attest to every day introduces new challenges to make the process more difficult. We'll skip past discussing what scrap metal prices, clunker laws, and natural disasters have done to make the situation worse and get right to the meat of depicting Gene Winfield's private stash of buildable trucks. Oh, the best part of all is if anyone would like to buy one of these diamonds in the rough all they have to do is call Gene at (661) 824-4728.

The thought of meeting up in Reno for Hot August Nights sounded like a good idea, so I called up the car rental agency and reserved a bone-white Dodge four-door sedan that looked like it was fresh off a television cop show. It wasn't as much fun as driving one of my old trucks, but it wasn't bad. The best part was the Dodge had a back seat, so I never had to empty the trash for the entire trip. It was about 4 a.m. when I exited CA-14 and rolled onto US-395. Around lunchtime I pulled into Bishop, California, and bought 2 lbs of smoked salmon, along with a big loaf of chile cheese bread from Schat's Bakker for the road. Just north of Bishop, heading towards Reno, 395 starts climbing at a pretty steep grade for many miles. The dinky four-banger engine in my rented Dodge spent most of the mountain ascent red-lined in second gear screaming at the top of its tiny little lungs.

When it comes to car shows, there are all sorts of reasons they are put on. However, there aren't many that are put on strictly to help folks Live Strong and fight the battle against cancer. Crusin' For A Cure, held in Costa Mesa, California, is one of those shows dedicated to helping fund research for prostate cancer.

Check out these web exclusive photos of the 11th Annual Southwest Nationals; which were submitted by a CCT reader and forum enthusiast. We know him as Tony Convine, but you know his as Thespecialist. Thanks for your efforts Tony.

The National Street Rod Association wrapped up its 39th Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, and Custom Classic Trucks was there to enjoy the festivities. With over 10,000 1948 and earlier vehicles in attendance it's interesting to note the 2008 NSRA Nats was the largest show CCT covered for the entire year. One of the first thoughts that came to mind as we walked around the massive show grounds was the unusually high number of panel trucks and sedan deliveries present in comparison to pickup trucks. This fact made it clear the street rodder's truck of choice is a sedan delivery or panel truck over a pickup. What makes this even more intriguing is the production numbers of panel trucks and deliveries produced throughout the years in comparison to pickups is just a mere fraction.

We hate to play on a timeless clich, but sometimes there's just no better way to put something. For instance, from the time you're old enough your mother has always pounded the, "Don't judge a book by its cover," aphorism into your skull. When it comes to life, those few words may be the best advice ever given. To that end, if one were to take the title of the L.A. Roadster Show at face value, and opt not to attend because they're not the roadster type, well then they just missed out on one happening truck show.