Bowman Real Hot Rods

When Mitch Meyers was but a pup back in 1986, he experienced one of the greatest days of his life: He received his first ride, a ’71 Dodge stepside pickup. Now, the truck wasn’t anything like the one shown here, but it wasn’t a bad canvas for a cool high school cruiser, and the $700 purchase price was just right.

Instant gratification. It’s an addicting thing whereby somewhat suddenly, you find compete satisfaction. It’s the opposite of long, laborious projects that linger on for years, doling out their pain and pleasure in measured portions along the way. Sure, it can be fulfilling, but few things are more fun than putting things in fast-forward and doing what should take a long time in a short time. TV shows are based on just such rewards in this ever-accelerating time we live in, and in a reversal, we now find life imitating art as hot rodders do their own versions of Overhaulin’; we like to call it Over-Thrashin’. Generally, there are no cameras whirling, no lights and no scripts. It’s just a bunch of hot rodders, a good garage and maybe stacks of empty pizza and parts boxes in the corner.