Alan Mayes

Alan Mayes was raised in Daleville in central Indiana, automotive country, surrounded by General Motors component factories with Ford and Chrysler plants not far away. He is a lifelong gearhead and started building model cars in 1958 (an AMT Edsel, which he still owns). He graduated from Harding University and also attended Ball State and Purdue University classes. He spent over 30 years working in the automotive and plastics industries before entering the publishing field full-time.

He was the Managing Editor of Car Kulture DeLuxe and Ol' Skool Rodz magazines, bimonthly hot rod and custom car magazines published by Koolhouse Publishing Company. He was Vice President of Koolhouse. Koolhouse was sold in 2019 and the new owners closed the titles in 2023.

Alan is the author of Old School Customs: Top Traditional Custom Car Builders; Custom Cars: Coupes, Sedans, Pickups (Idea Book); and Hot Rods (First Gear Series), all published by Motorbooks, as well as Old School Hot Rods and Old School Choppers, both by Krause Publications. Additionally, he contributed to The Harley Davidson Reader by Michael Dregni, How to Build a Cheap Chopper by Timothy Remus, and The Art of the Bobber by Spencer Drate.

He has been writing for automotive and motorcycle magazines and books, as well as newspapers, since 1984. In addition to Car Kulture DeLuxe and Ol' Skool Rodz, his published articles have appeared in Kustom Kulture Magazine (France), Old Cars Weekly, Old Cars Price Guide, Rider Magazine, IronWorks, Cycle Source, Thunder Press, The Horse Backstreet Choppers, The Boulder (CO) Daily Camera, and The Anderson (IN) Herald-Bulletin. He currently writes a weekly history feature for the Tullahoma (TN) News.

Alan Mayes resides with his wife in Tennessee.