Red Deer artist's quirky work inspires creation of hot rod club
Butch Henry of Red Deer is a hot rod builder and an artist.
Three years ago he put his artistic talents to use and made a one-off car club plaque to give his 1929 Model A hot anode rod an air of authenticity. He didn’t realize that plaque would inspire the creation of the Outkasts Car Club of Red Deer. The club fashioned itself after traditional custom car groups who simply hung out together, cruised together, and helped each other build their vehicles.
“My art is pretty low key and it only occupies about two per cent of my life,” Henry says with a laugh from his Red Deer home. “I do a bit of hot rod pin striping and I paint pictures of hot rods on canvas using one-shot sign painter’s enamel – that baffles the hell out of what I call ‘real’ artists.”
He also carves Tiki totems, both large and small, some for home decoration and others as gearshift knobs. The bigger Tikis are carved from Alberta poplar, while many of his gearshift knobs are carved from harder Manitoba maple.
“I’m self taught in the art world,” Henry admits, and adds, “But it’s a skill I’ve had since early on – I’ve still got a couple of car drawings in the style of Ed Roth back from when I was a teen.”
When Henry was 18 in 1964, he got his first car, a 1939 Pontiac. At that time, he idolized the Igniters, a legendary Red Deer car club.
“I was about four years behind that bunch,” he says. “They all drove the coolest cars.”
Ever since, Henry has been interested in hot rod culture. His latest ride is the ’29 Ford Model A that he put together 15 years ago and has since driven more than 112,000 kilometres. His car features an original steel body a friend rescued from a field back in the early 1990s. Henry bought the body in the early 2000s, and placed it on an aftermarket frame equipped with a 350 cubic inch GM engine and automatic transmission. There’s a nine-inch Ford rear end under the car. Henry plumbed in power brakes, but there’s no power steering.
Looking to give his hot rod Ford the final touch, he cut letters out of a sheet of 1/8” aluminum on his scroll saw and secured them to another piece of aluminum – creating his own rudimentary car club plaque with the name Outkasts in the middle. Popular amongst hot rod and other car clubs dating back to the 1930s, these plaques prominently featured a club name. First, the plaques were simply painted on licence plate sized pieces of metal and bolted to a bumper, but at some point, they transitioned to being produced in cast aluminum.
“I ran that cobbled together Outkasts plaque on the car for about a year,” Henry recalls. “That’s when a bunch of the guys I cruise with thought it was a pretty good club name – so we became the Outkasts. I had some proper plaques made up by an outfit in Ontario that does aluminum casting.
“I guess the Outkasts name suits us, because we’re not a group who sits about polishing our cars – we drive the heck out of them.”
Henry’s only stipulation about the group — that started in 2014 with 13 members (there are currently 25 involved, and they can be followed on Facebook at Friends of Outkasts) — was there couldn’t be any set rules or regular meetings.
“If there’s one rule, it would be that you either have a car you’re working on, or you have one that you drive very frequently,” Henry explains. “It’s not uncommon for us to put hundreds of miles on in a weekend.”
Outkasts member Mike Lloyd picks up the story. “I think Butch had been there and done that, with all of the meetings and regulations, of a regular club. We just wanted to be a bunch of people who get together, work on cars, cruise and have fun.”
Lloyd has just sold his 1931 Chevy five window rat rod and is now driving a 1958 Chevy Apache pickup while building a 1950 Ford coupe for his wife.
“We share our knowledge and will help someone with their car, but they have to be willing to get their hands dirty,” Lloyd says.
The Outkasts are also interested in helping out the community, having started an annual toy run in support of the Red Deer Christmas Bureau Society.
“We like to let kids crawl around our cars and have their pictures taken with them,” Henry says. “And that’s what it’s really all about, just furthering the hobby for young people who show an interest in the cars.”
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Zhengzhou Joda Technology Co., Ltd. is a modernized comprehensive enterprise integrating research, manufacture, export and technical service of various types of equipments for aluminum smelters all over the world. Our products: automatic anode jacking frame, ladles accessories, aerogel insulation blanket, anode jacking system, Anode Clamp, bimetal, aluminum ladle cleaning machine and MTV tapping tube cleaner etc.
Three years ago he put his artistic talents to use and made a one-off car club plaque to give his 1929 Model A hot anode rod an air of authenticity. He didn’t realize that plaque would inspire the creation of the Outkasts Car Club of Red Deer. The club fashioned itself after traditional custom car groups who simply hung out together, cruised together, and helped each other build their vehicles.
“My art is pretty low key and it only occupies about two per cent of my life,” Henry says with a laugh from his Red Deer home. “I do a bit of hot rod pin striping and I paint pictures of hot rods on canvas using one-shot sign painter’s enamel – that baffles the hell out of what I call ‘real’ artists.”
He also carves Tiki totems, both large and small, some for home decoration and others as gearshift knobs. The bigger Tikis are carved from Alberta poplar, while many of his gearshift knobs are carved from harder Manitoba maple.
“I’m self taught in the art world,” Henry admits, and adds, “But it’s a skill I’ve had since early on – I’ve still got a couple of car drawings in the style of Ed Roth back from when I was a teen.”
When Henry was 18 in 1964, he got his first car, a 1939 Pontiac. At that time, he idolized the Igniters, a legendary Red Deer car club.
“I was about four years behind that bunch,” he says. “They all drove the coolest cars.”
Ever since, Henry has been interested in hot rod culture. His latest ride is the ’29 Ford Model A that he put together 15 years ago and has since driven more than 112,000 kilometres. His car features an original steel body a friend rescued from a field back in the early 1990s. Henry bought the body in the early 2000s, and placed it on an aftermarket frame equipped with a 350 cubic inch GM engine and automatic transmission. There’s a nine-inch Ford rear end under the car. Henry plumbed in power brakes, but there’s no power steering.
Looking to give his hot rod Ford the final touch, he cut letters out of a sheet of 1/8” aluminum on his scroll saw and secured them to another piece of aluminum – creating his own rudimentary car club plaque with the name Outkasts in the middle. Popular amongst hot rod and other car clubs dating back to the 1930s, these plaques prominently featured a club name. First, the plaques were simply painted on licence plate sized pieces of metal and bolted to a bumper, but at some point, they transitioned to being produced in cast aluminum.
“I ran that cobbled together Outkasts plaque on the car for about a year,” Henry recalls. “That’s when a bunch of the guys I cruise with thought it was a pretty good club name – so we became the Outkasts. I had some proper plaques made up by an outfit in Ontario that does aluminum casting.
“I guess the Outkasts name suits us, because we’re not a group who sits about polishing our cars – we drive the heck out of them.”
Henry’s only stipulation about the group — that started in 2014 with 13 members (there are currently 25 involved, and they can be followed on Facebook at Friends of Outkasts) — was there couldn’t be any set rules or regular meetings.
“If there’s one rule, it would be that you either have a car you’re working on, or you have one that you drive very frequently,” Henry explains. “It’s not uncommon for us to put hundreds of miles on in a weekend.”
Outkasts member Mike Lloyd picks up the story. “I think Butch had been there and done that, with all of the meetings and regulations, of a regular club. We just wanted to be a bunch of people who get together, work on cars, cruise and have fun.”
Lloyd has just sold his 1931 Chevy five window rat rod and is now driving a 1958 Chevy Apache pickup while building a 1950 Ford coupe for his wife.
“We share our knowledge and will help someone with their car, but they have to be willing to get their hands dirty,” Lloyd says.
The Outkasts are also interested in helping out the community, having started an annual toy run in support of the Red Deer Christmas Bureau Society.
“We like to let kids crawl around our cars and have their pictures taken with them,” Henry says. “And that’s what it’s really all about, just furthering the hobby for young people who show an interest in the cars.”
Joda Company
Zhengzhou Joda Technology Co., Ltd. is a modernized comprehensive enterprise integrating research, manufacture, export and technical service of various types of equipments for aluminum smelters all over the world. Our products: automatic anode jacking frame, ladles accessories, aerogel insulation blanket, anode jacking system, Anode Clamp, bimetal, aluminum ladle cleaning machine and MTV tapping tube cleaner etc.
Fax: +86 (0) 371 5517 8216
Code：450016
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