West Coast Kustoms Cruisin’ Nationals 2018

Words and photos by Bryan Rusk

2018 marks the 35th year for the West Coast Kustoms Crusin’ Nationals and the 10th year in the Santa Maria location. It’s hard to believe it’s already been a decade, but I guess since I’m on my third car since the show moved from Paso (and I don’t work very quickly), that makes sense.

It’s always interesting to see how the tides flow for this show. While always rich with customs, some years we see more wild paint. Sometimes there’s a big hot rod vibe mixed in. This year it seemed that early customs were the rage. There were a handful of ’39 and ’40 Mercs, a couple late ’30’s Chevys, several ’36 Fords, a handful of ’40’s Chevys, Cadillacs, Buicks and Mopars, and on and on. Of course, the 50’s and 60’s were heavily represented as well. I’m not sure the total number of cars this year, but my bet has it close to a thousand.

Historic cars are always present and usually our favorites. This year the original Jade Idol made it’s debut with a fresh Gene Winfield paint job. We even caught Gene rolling it on the cruise Friday night!

The fairgrounds were packed to the gills on Saturday with cars filling all the way to the back fence. As usual, the crowds made it a challenge to take pics and the beer lines long, but that’s how we like it.

Sunday’s agenda included the swap meet and awards ceremony. There were a lot of friends and familiar faces in the winner’s circle receiving their kudos from Penny and her staff along with the club picks.

Cheers for another great year. We’re looking forward to seeing what everyone brings out in 2019.