Suede and Chrome Feature: Fred Blakeslee's Custom Hotwheels

Since I featured Rob Riley's custom models last week, thought I'd dig up some photos from another friends creations and feature them in a post today. Fred Blakeslee is a friend and member of our car club The Righteous Rodders. He has been "into" hotwheels" as a collector since the first series rolled out of Mattel in the late '60s as a kid.

More recently, he has been customizing hotwheels and selling them on eBay (you can keep up with his creations by checking out the eBay link at the bottom of this site).

Last summer, the Righteous Rodders commissioned Fred to build a limited set (50 total) of two-tone customs bearing the Righteous Rodders logo. Each participant in the 2009 Wilbur Wright Birthplace Festival Car Show received one of Fred's customs in their goody bag at registration.

Well, needless to say, the cars were a HUGE hit. In fact, participates actually were going around trading cars and trying to buy any extras we had.

Thought I'd include some other pictures of some of Fred's kool kustoms.

I think this one was a result of a decision Fred and I had about the limited number of "ratrods" in off-the-shelf Hotwheels.

Fred did a few of these trucks. He actually fabricated the rollback bed and took the cab from a Chevy pickup Hotwheel. The result was a few very kool car haulers.

Fred is already gearing up some ideas for a 2nd series of Righteous Rodders Motor Club cars that will be given out at this year's Wilbur Wright Event. If you are "into" custom hotwheels, you can check out Fred's designs on eBay or join the Hub Garage site and look him up at his virtual garage.