Creativity and ingenuity on display at car show

Most of us have Henry Ford to thank, one way or another, for our ability to own an automobile. But Randy Grubb doesn't have much use for Ford's thinking, primarily because mass production has led to a century of each generation's cars looking pretty much like everyone else's.

In Grubb's mind, what made the auto accessible to the masses was a death-blow to the car-making artistry.

Grubb, who has lived in Josephine County since 1989, has resurrected a long-forgotten art of coach building, fashioning vehicles unlike any others on or off the road. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

His fifth creation, the Blastolene DecoLiner, is on display at the 35th Annual Southern Oregon Rod & Custom Show at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, which continues from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.

Grubb's latest masterpiece pays homage to a futuristic hero of the past — Flash Gordon — whose deep-space escapades fascinated Americans in the 1930s.

"It's Flash Gordon's low-orbit vehicle," Grubb said.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. "What would Flash do if he was building this vehicle?"

From its 1955 White cab over the engine, polished aluminum exterior, portal windows and built-in appliances to an extended steering column that allows it to be driven from the flybridge above the bus, the 26-foot-long DecoLiner is an eye-popper.

It gets nine miles per gallon at freeway speeds, but Grubb prefers measuring the smiles it attracts per gallon.

"Kids want to know if it's a submarine," Grubb said.

Invariably, adults passing by want to know what year it was originally built, and they have a hard time believing it was completed in recent months.

Put wings on it and it could be a Pan Am Clipper from the 1930s, and it definitely has a touch of Jules Verne, too.

The flying bridge element gives it a boatload of room for passengers while tooling along backroads. Grubb attributes his inspiration for the flying bridge steering component to a houseboat excursion on Shasta Lake.

"We had a houseboat with dual driving stations," Grubb explained as he unlatched the steering wheel and pulled down the extended column. "Why couldn't we do this with a motorhome?"

Bud Rothwell, a former Ashland resident who now lives in Salem, has participated in hundreds of shows over the past 40 years. He puts the DecoLiner in the Top 10 of anything he's seen in such shows.

Its creativity shimmers, its craftsmanship dazzles,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, and it's practical too — easily rolling along the freeway at 70 to 80 mph.

"You can get into it right now and drive it to Los Angeles," said Rothwell, who was showing a '42 Willys. "I'd say 80 percent of the cars here couldn't be driven to Portland because they are so pretty and fancy."

Fanciful might be the best way to describe Grubb's vehicles — full-size sculptures you get to drive.

Rather than cutting up old cars,An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air. Grubb starts with a clean sheet of paper.

At the dawn of the 20th century, coach builders flourished, designing a vehicle to go on top of a chassis bought from an automaker. When Henry Ford began stamping out car-frame parts, the cost of automobiles plummeted. Standardization became the industry standard and coach building died a rapid death.

Although there is a similar-looking vehicle in the 2010 animated film "Despicable Me,Listing of Taiwan & China Mold Maker manufacturer & suppliers." there is no confusion when it comes to reality.

Built on a front-wheel drive, 1978 GMC motorhome's chassis was used along, the DecoLiner is just 14 inches off the ground, allowing for both a party room on the main deck and plenty of clearance for overpasses.

Grubb, with collaborator Michael Leeds, spent 5,000 hours over the course of 20 months, fashioning $100,000 worth of parts.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

A passer-by wondered Saturday whether $250,000 might be enough to acquire the DecoLiner, but history suggests the DecoLiner would bring more than that. One of Grubb's autos, known as "Piss'd Off Pete," brought nearly half a million dollars at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Las Vegas in 2010.

Grubb once earned his living making high-end glass paperweights, the way French artisans did 200 years ago, until raw materials became hard to find in the aftermath of 9/11. His hobby had been hot rods, something he had dabbled in since 1968. He learned the art of coach making from a Bay Area craftsman, Ron Covell, known as "Professor Hammer."

While most of his fellow students were figuring out how to patch panels in old Chevys, Grubb had grander plans, following two rules.

"If I'm going to hammer out something fun, it isn't going to have a small-block Chevy engine," he said. "And, it shouldn't look like another vehicle. It can be influenced by others, but not a carbon copy or be confused with another."

Grubb prefers to build on spec, retaining absolute control over the minutest detail. His best-known creation is the Blastolene Special, an over-sized, 1930s, Indy-style car, purchased by television's Jay Leno.

"I'm not told what to do and what not to do," he said. "I'm spoiled in that way."

Ultimately, Grubb thinks the DecoLiner will be acquired by a customer who will use it for advertising.