Oil and Whiskey with Roadster Shop Jan 26, 2026

Building the Next Generation | Mr. John Begin & Landen Manley

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139:47

Term

SEMA

SEMA is a big event where companies show off new car parts and accessories. It's important for people who work with cars to learn about the latest trends and products.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is a famous car that many people love. The 1965 version is known for its cool looks and powerful engine, and it's a popular choice for those who enjoy classic cars.

Term

EV training

EV training is learning about electric vehicles, which are cars that run on electricity instead of gasoline. It includes understanding how their batteries work and how to fix them.

Term

batteries

Batteries in electric vehicles are what store the electricity needed to make the car run. Learning about them helps understand how far the car can go and how long it takes to charge.

Concept

small engines

Small engines are engines that power things like lawn mowers or motorcycles. They are smaller and lighter than car engines, making them suitable for various small machines.

Concept

donations

Donations are when people give things they no longer need, like old cars, to help others. In this case, the cars are used to teach students how to fix and understand vehicles.

Term

drain all the fluids

Draining all the fluids means taking out all the liquids from a car, like oil and coolant. This is usually done before fixing or recycling the car to prevent spills and ensure safety.

Part

brakes

Brakes are what help your car stop when you press the pedal. They can wear out and need to be checked or replaced to keep your car safe.

Term

oil change

An oil change is when you replace the old oil in your car's engine with new oil. This helps keep the engine running smoothly and prevents damage.

Part

wheel spacers

Wheel spacers are pieces that you add to your car's wheels to make them stick out more. This can help with the look of the car and how it handles on the road.

Car

Chevrolet Camaro

The Iroc Camaro is a special version of the Chevrolet Camaro that was popular for its sporty design and performance. It was made famous in the late 80s and early 90s.

Term

LS swap

An LS swap is when you take out the old engine of a car and put in a new engine from a GM vehicle called the LS. People do this to make their cars faster and more powerful.

Company

Fast Specialties

Fast Specialties is a shop where cars are modified and tuned. They focus on a specific type of engine swap that involves using a popular engine from General Motors.

Concept

drag car

A drag car is a type of car made for racing in a straight line as fast as possible. They are built to go really fast over a short distance, usually a quarter-mile.

Part

fire jackets

Fire jackets are special clothes that protect drivers from fire if their car catches on fire during a race. They are made to keep the driver safe from getting burned.

Part

harnesses

Harnesses are special straps that keep drivers safely in their seats while racing. They help protect the driver from moving around too much if the car goes fast or has an accident.

Part

helmets

Helmets are special hats that protect a driver's head during racing. They help keep the driver safe if there is an accident.

Term

LS

LS is a type of V8 engine made by General Motors. It's popular for putting into different cars because it's powerful and can be modified easily.

Term

turbo

A turbo is a part that helps an engine get more air, which makes it stronger and faster. It helps the car go quicker by giving it more power.

Car

Honda Civic

The Honda Civic is a small car that many people like because it's dependable and doesn't use much gas. Some people even like to make it faster and cooler for racing.

Term

T-Tops

T-Tops are special roof panels that can be taken off to let in fresh air and sunlight while driving. They're popular in sports cars because they give a fun, open feeling.

Term

plasma table

A plasma table is a machine that cuts metal using super-hot gas, making it easier to create shapes and parts for projects.

Term

tool kit

A tool kit is a set of tools you can use to fix or work on things, like cars. It's important for anyone who wants to learn about cars or do repairs themselves.

Company

Snap-on

Snap-on is a brand that makes really good tools for fixing cars. Many professionals trust their tools because they are strong and last a long time.

Car

Honda Accord

The Honda Accord is a larger car that many families choose because it's comfortable and has a lot of space inside. It's also known for lasting a long time without many problems.

Car

289

The 289 is a type of engine made by Ford. It's a V8 engine, which means it has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape, and it was popular in cars from the 1960s for its good performance.

Term

road shop chassis

A road shop chassis is a special frame for cars that helps them handle better on the road. It's often used when people modify or restore older cars to make them perform like new.

Term

dyno

A dyno is a machine that measures how much power a car's engine produces. It's used to help improve the car's performance by testing it in a safe place instead of on the road.

Car

Ford Galaxy

The Ford Galaxy is a big car made by Ford that was popular in the early 1960s. It's known for being roomy and stylish, making it a favorite for many car lovers.

Car

Ford F 100

The Ford F-100 is an old pickup truck that many people love because of its classic look and strong build. Older models, like the one from 1961, are especially popular among collectors.

Car

Toyota Tacoma

The Toyota Tacoma is a tough little truck that people like to use for work or outdoor activities. It's known for being strong and able to go off-road easily.

Car

The Koenigsegg CCR is a super-fast sports car that is really special because it can go incredibly fast and is made with advanced technology. It's not just a car; it's more like a piece of art for car lovers.

Car

Cadillac Fleetwood

LIVE

I mean, he makes more money than I do.

You know, I learned on the ride out here.

And he's 20 years old.

He's still drinking apple juice.

I'm 35, and that's what drives me.

Yeah, I mean, really, what else is there coming out

of high school that's placing somebody

in a successful career with a good career path?

Yeah, I mean, I can't think of anything.

I wanted to show the kids that, like, hey,

anything's possible.

Like, I'm just this average dude.

My dad was a school bus driver.

My mom's a nurse.

I was raised around that culture of, like,

you gotta put in the word.

I wanted to be a teacher.

I knew that.

How to become an automotive teacher.

He's like, dude, there's three of us left in the state.

And they're getting rid of them all.

Yeah, right.

My training is SEMA.

That's what I tell him.

SEMA is my PD.

So I take the kids to SEMA.

We've gone five years, and that's

where he interviewed right in front of your booth

with Jared in a handshake later.

He's working up there for two weeks as an intern,

and then he'll talk about his journey, too.

But, man, it's incredible.

I could tell that Jared was making me struggle through it,

knowing that he probably ate 100 hours on that stupid thing.

I feel so bad for him until he finally stepped in

and directed me in the way I needed to go.

He let me go through the struggle, which I think

he does for me a lot in the shop.

I'm super lucky in the way that he teaches

and the way I learn.

Welcome back.

Another episode of Oil and Whiskey.

This week, we have Johnny Begin,

Yes, sir.

Tillamook High School, and former

student, now current employee,

Landon Manley, current employee

of J-Rod Custom.

Correct.

Full circle.

See the J-Rod hat?

Yeah.

J-Rod's been on before.

We have.

Yeah.

But I've heard nothing but good things at SEMA

through some of mutual friends.

Man, you guys keep talking about the younger generation

and the youth and getting involved.

You got to have Johnny on there.

Johnny, we talked a little bit briefly at SEMA,

and then you said, you know what?

I've got a guy, former student, that actually works

at J-Rod, and you need to bring him out as well.

So you guys flew all the way across the country

just to have three people in Canada

and five guys in Australia listen to you.

It's going to be awesome.

I think we lost half those Australian listeners.

We pick up new ones though.

It just stays steady at five.

So we insult them and they drop off.

Unless we can figure out the international shipping

on the merch, then we're going to keep losing

this Australian guy.

Are we struggling with that?

Yeah.

So it's a problem.

I don't move closer.

Guys, good to have you.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah.

Thanks for having us.

Absolutely.

It's going to be fun.

We're good to hear more about your program.

We talked to a little bit at SEMA about it,

and it was very intrigued.

And yeah, interested in getting this.

Before we do that, I think you did somebody sent a gift.

Right?

Yeah.

We got a gift from Jared to you guys.

So he wrapped himself up.

Yeah.

I'll give you a gift right after that.

It had to make a flight, so.

We had to check that.

We couldn't bring it as a carry-on.

Just keep this.

Yeah.

Looks like there's nothing in there.

Oh, wow.

That's a Weller 12.

How about that?

Oh, hang on.

There's something else in here.

That's probably something special for Landon.

It's a hell of a bottle.

Yes, it is.

Here, we'll read the note first.

Let you read that.

You want me to read this?

Yeah.

This is Josh, Jeremy, and Phil.

Thanks for having Landon and Johnny on the podcast.

Enjoy some Weller, the juices for the boy.

Oh, look at that.

Some apple juice.

That's good to grow.

Oh, Jeremy.

With the Tomater.

A sippy cup.

There you go.

Oh, that's awesome.

This guy's name all over it.

That's a good boss.

It is a good boss.

Well, thanks, guys.

I appreciate that.

I wonder if this is where you run over the bubble wrap.

Yep.

Make it nice.

Sounds like Chicago up in the Bond Studio.

Nice little addition to the audio.

So talk about...

Let's crack this open.

Yeah, let's crack it open and get into it.

Let's hear the story, man.

How did this begin?

Did you get that?

That's a good segue.

Last name.

Begin.

I got it.

I was saying that for the listeners.

Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting way that you're doing things there.

How did it start and why?

Yeah, it's a team effort.

I got to say that first.

I mean, it's...

I'm just one guy in this whole thing and I get the opportunity to come here with Landon

and talk to you guys.

But the authenticity of this is so real when you include the other people.

This wasn't even my idea.

I'm a health PE teacher.

Okay.

That's my trade.

I went to school at Western Oregon University and graduated from Tillamook High School.

So I got a lot of pride coming back to my hometown and basketball coach.

I still run our youth basketball program in Tillamook.

So I'm just super involved in a lot of different things, but Mechanics was going away in 2017

and the program was the teacher 30 years retired.

My teacher and mentor, Mr. Wright, and he was a pivotal piece of our community keeping

Mechanics going and so the journey was like, I'll step up and do this.

So it was going to go away just because there wasn't anybody to teach it.

It wasn't funding your facilities or anything like that.

You just didn't have anybody to teach it.

Yeah.

The people from the industry didn't want to come back and teach.

It was a huge pay cut and we did hire one person.

He lasted half a year and then just, I think, was burned out by the kids.

I mean, he's like, forget this.

I can go work out.

He was a machinist.

And make millions and millions of dollars in the hot rod industry.

Yes.

And so I'm over there teaching health in the main building.

We have an ag building across the street.

We have a huge FFA program in Tillamook.

We're dairy farmers.

And so it was my favorite class as a kid and I'm like, shoot, I'll go teach.

I can teach Mechanics.

Did you have a background in that at all?

Hobbyist?

Yeah.

I mean, I went through the program there and took welding, took automotive.

We have our class structures, basic mechanics, freshman, sophomore year,

and advanced mechanics, junior, senior year.

And it's a double stack period, so they get me for two periods during the day

and at piggybacks with lunch.

Cool.

So they're there for, you know, two and a half.

So you could do two periods all the way for four years of high school.

Heck yeah.

That's a lot.

That's cool.

I mean, generally, you know, you hear you get, it's like once a week

or Tuesdays and Thursdays and you hop on a bus and go, you know, off site

for an hour or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah, that'll actually amount to something.

It's hard to pick it up.

And what's the period?

45 minutes.

We're about an hour for each period.

Two hours a day for four years.

That's a lot.

That's good.

I landed and jumped in and he was, I joke with him that he, you know,

he didn't really touch a wrench till the sophomore year, you know,

and he came into mechanics and I don't know how many, how many classes did you take

your senior year with me?

All of them.

I think I had, you gave me a special TA period.

So I had an extra period in there.

I had mechanics and welding shop.

I think welding shop, I spent most of my time in the auto shop anyway.

So I probably was doing three, four hours a day over hanging out with you.

That would have to make your getting up and wanting to go to high school

experience a little different.

Absolutely.

To be able to go and do that.

Yeah.

You would have probably showed up for high school more.

Yeah.

You know, I had a hard time getting a gym class, right?

Because that was an easy one to skip.

I went to the regular classes.

I went to all, most of them.

Right.

But gym class was just one that you could kind of like not go, you know?

Yeah.

But an automotive kind of deal.

I mean, I'd have been all in like the few like graphic design and some of the very,

I mean, that was about the only thing really that we had that interested me

that you looked forward to going.

And I mean, still to this day, I remember doing it.

I really took something out of it.

But man, I would have loved to have that opportunity.

Yeah.

It's awesome.

I mean, I've been so supported since I've taken over.

You know, I would say that I'm a homebody type kid.

And so, and I don't, I don't really do anything halfway.

So when I took over mechanics, I was like, I need, I need support.

I don't have the background in the industry.

I don't, you know, I don't have the schooling in this.

I've never worked at a dealership.

I've never, you know, and so I'm like, but I love cars.

I love working on stuff.

I love tinkering with things and I personally have a 65 Mustang that I put a

roadster shop, chassis under and got from you guys.

And, and mostly that was in the last couple of years because I wanted to show the kids

that like, hey, anything's possible.

Like I'm, I'm just this average dude.

You know, my dad was a school bus driver.

My mom's a nurse.

And, you know, my dad, it finished his career as a pastor, you know,

there until muck.

And so, you know, I was, I was raised around that culture of like, you got to put in the

work and, and, you know, those, those types of people will, will eventually push their

way up.

You know, you may not get to the top, but you can, you can get pretty damn close if you

work hard.

And so when I took over mechanics, I was like, this is, this is my passion.

And now I get to do this for a job.

But my teacher, when I was there was like, don't go into this, you know, there isn't,

there isn't any, there isn't any, any teaching jobs out there for this.

I wanted to be a teacher.

I knew that.

And I was like, how to become an automotive teacher.

He's like, dude, there's, there's three of us left in the state.

And they're getting rid of them all.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

And he's like, when I retired this program, you know, if it wasn't for our FFA program

and Mr. and Mrs. Bush and my principal support, the program would have went under in 2017

and we would have just been another one of the auto programs in Oregon to go away.

And so with their support, bringing me on, I'm actually part of the FFA program now.

I'm ag mechanics.

Okay.

But that is a very broad scope of things.

And so we don't just work on tractors and stuff, you know, the kids get to work on their

own projects and kids get to bring their own cars in.

We have a really, really awesome shop.

We just got a dyno this last year we fundraise for.

And so the kids are learning every bit of it.

I mean, it is interesting going back to what you said about, you know, trying to hire a

teacher.

So hats off to you upfront for taking that on because you're doing it for out of passion.

And you're also intertwined into the industry like you should be, right, to getting, you

know, job placement stuff and knowing who to talk to and then being able to show these

kids what the broader side of the industry is.

But it is, you know, we talked so much about like what we perceive for the last 15 years

is the lack of interest getting into it and then combined with the lack of funding from

the school system side and all the things that go into it.

We never really talked about the teacher side of things when it is, it'd be difficult for

anybody, regardless of how passionate they are, to go and teach something or teach the

field that you're making a quarter of what you could make just doing the field.

You know, it's tough to like take on that responsibility.

You're like, oh, you're, your first year, you're going to make way more than me at 19

years old.

You know, as a teacher, that's, that's difficult for, you know, you know, I don't think that,

I don't know that if that's that way in like health school, does a surgeon teach surgery

that's making, you know, a quarter of the price of what a surgeon is?

I don't know.

Maybe that's a lot.

There's a passion side of things there that's above and beyond what your financial benefit

is.

And it's, you know, these kids are going to reap the benefit of that.

That's a, that's, that's big.

It's cool.

Coming into that, what does the curriculum look like?

Is that something that is presented to you that this is it?

This is, you just follow said curriculum or do you have like the freedom to sort of lay,

lay things out, alter it, make things more interesting?

Yeah.

I think being a part of an ag program, instead of being an automotive program, I look at

my, I went to, finally went to my first training this summer and I got to meet some other automotive

instructors in Oregon.

And we met at a community college and we did an EV training out there and learned batteries

and different electric vehicle stuff and first training I've ever had as a in the industry.

Okay.

And my training is SEMA.

That's what I tell them.

SEMA is my PD.

So I take the kids to SEMA.

We've gone five years and, and that's where the interview right in front of your booth

with Jared, you know, in a handshake later, he's, he's working up there for two weeks

as an intern and then, you know, he'll talk about his journey too.

But man, it's, it's incredible.

The curriculum is, is not a set curriculum.

We're not linked with a Ford asset program or Toyota or the kids get to work on their

own stuff.

How does that work?

Kids working on their own stuff.

I mean, how many kids in the, in the class at any given time do you have?

So basic mechanics, I have two classes of 30.

Okay.

And small engines.

We tear stuff apart, you know, just try to get their hands on them, learn tools.

We just did a tools quiz before I left.

We have, I live off donations.

So people in the community donate cars and we pull them in.

We got to drain all the fluids.

We recycle everything we can.

We pull every fuse out of that car that we can steal for our parts room.

Yeah.

Um, you know, we just, I'm like the master recycler is what I say of stealing stuff

off cars and, and, uh, the kids love doing that.

You know, they love tearing it apart.

They love learning the tools that it takes to do that.

And, um, and so we, we basically come together as a group and those kids, if they pass it

with a C or better, we do some ASC and we'll have a book that I use, but the textbooks

from 2002, you know, um, but it's just very basic stuff that I use out of there.

And it has some ASC questions and things like that where they can get that ASC

certification.

Um, but really it's, it's them getting the opportunity to pull their own rig in

and like, Hey, I got to do breaks on this, you know, and so in advanced mechanics,

we have three lifts in there, three, two posts and then three open bays, the dyno

room and a four post lift.

And so kids get the opportunity to bring their own rigs in.

And if they need to do an oil change, do breaks, whatever it is, they, they got the

shop to do that.

Cause most of my kids don't have a shop at home that they can work out of.

What happens when it's a longer term project or like, you know, hey, there's

things to be down for like two weeks.

I'm going to do like quarters and then, you know, some other mini tubs or something

like that.

Is that worked out?

Yeah, it's, uh, I have a handful of kids that have the ability to do that.

And so most of them are very basic, uh, you know, just like, Hey, I'm going to,

I'm going to pull this hair stuff.

Yeah.

I'm going to do an oil change and swap out my wheel spacers.

You know, that was the last week.

I had to do his wheel spacers.

So it was easy in and out a couple of periods.

He was good.

There's a paperwork they fill out if it's got to stay overnight.

So they got to fill it out, put it on their window, get approval from me.

And, um, you know, Landon had some projects that he came in there that were there

multiple days.

I got another student that's, it's, uh, one of my top kids.

He's, he's there all day.

You know, he's with me for four periods as a senior.

And, uh, he's got a I rock Camaro sitting on the lift that's been there for two weeks.

And, and he was actually there more over Christmas break than he was during the school day.

It felt like, so we were in their Christmas break.

I was helping my brother-in-law with a build that he's doing.

And, uh, and Dylan is in there working on his I rock doing an LS swap.

You know, and so he cool.

And the kids just migrate towards that.

So I have a group of kids that want to do that, but don't either don't have the funds or don't have the resources.

And so they're just over there like, what are you doing?

Can I help with the wiring?

Can I, you know, and so, and then Dylan's asked me, I need, you know, this type of injector or this type of intake.

And my wife thinks it's crazy because I, we were there working over Christmas break and Dylan's like, I ordered an intake and it was cracked.

So I got to send it back.

I don't have enough money to go get another one.

I was like, he's like, I found one on marketplace out in Portland.

I want to go get it tonight.

I was like, 300 bucks, man, go get it.

And I was like, you'll pay me back.

And so he, you know, she shipped that back, got it back.

And my wife's like, what other teacher hands a kid 300 bucks to go do it.

And I'm like, I'm not doing this to like, you know, puff myself up.

But it's just like, it's what has to be done, you know, so the kid can keep progressing and moving forward and learning.

And he's headed out to fast specialties this next week.

And the Tillamook racing team that we've started is, is paying for a hotel room for him.

But he's going to go out there for one, two days, one night and basically work at a tuning shop.

And they do a bunch.

They specialize in LS swaps.

And it's like a, we met him last year at the Portland Roadster show.

And just like with Landon and Jayrod is just that connection that Dylan's going to have an opportunity to leave Tillamook high school with a job.

Yeah.

You know, right into the industry.

And I mean, he makes more money than I do.

You know, I learned on the ride out here and he's 20 years old.

He's still drinking apple juice out here.

So I'm 35 and, and but that's, that's what drives me.

You know, it really is.

Yeah.

I mean, really what else is there coming out of high school that's placing somebody in a successful career with a good career path?

Yeah.

I mean, I can't think of anything.

I mean, that's just, it's a, especially when you're talking about four years, you know, potentially four years of, of, what's it, 10 hours a week of training and progressing through and hands on the drag.

You talked about the drag race program.

Talk about that more and how that came up because I think that's awesome.

Yes.

It's run like a sports team almost, you know, and that's, that's really cool.

The instant gratification on, you know, build this, it does this, this happens.

It either goes fast, goes a little faster or breaks.

And if it breaks, why did it break fixing that?

That's, it's very interesting piece of this program.

Yeah.

It's not even my idea.

I can't even take credit for it.

You know, as the kids really was in 2017, 2018 group of kids are like, we want to come in and do more.

You know, and I was the head coach at the time at the basketball program and I was like, guys, I can't, my wife's going to kill me.

You know, I am already never home.

Yeah.

We had, we had a young kid and wanted to have a bigger family and actually delayed us having a, you know, having another one because I was like, so busy.

And so I left basketball practice would come over and it was a local community member, Tyson and Roy that, that basically came to me once it owns an auto body shop.

The other one owns a mechanic shop, very successful in our community.

And we're about 6000 people in our town.

I mean, it's not huge.

There isn't very, very many industry places.

We have one dealership before dealership.

And so these two guys came to me and they're like, Hey, these kids want to start this program with some drag racing.

And what do you want to be involved?

And I'm like, I'm all in because I, if I can get them to buy into this, then they're going to be my leaders of my class.

Yeah.

It's the same in the sports.

If you can get your captains to buy in, like they'll run the class for you.

Yeah.

Landon ran the class for me as much as he took B for it.

You know, he was able to just be a leader and the others just walk to that.

So long story short is it, it started there in those first couple of years because a group of five or six kids were wanted to get after it and do a build.

And Tyson ended up finding a Camaro 95 Camaro came to us and said, Hey, if you pull the transmission out, I got a guy who wants that.

I'll give you the car.

And that started the journey of us building a full cage and supporting underneath of it and trying to do everything that we could to make it safe first.

And then I went to my superintendent at the time and said, Hey, we're building a race car.

What do you think about this?

And he's like, it's not going to ask any questions.

That's going to be a tough sell on today's day and age.

We're building a drag car for your high school kids that just learned how to drive.

He basically said, Well, let's focus on the building of it.

And we'll talk about the racing later.

And so we just focused on building it.

And that's probably the coolest part about the program is when I go out to other places and I, and I talked to other instructors, they're like, the kids get to drive the car.

And I was like, Well, the school kind of releases liability at the time of the track and the parents have to be there and the parents got to sign their lives away for their kids to get behind it.

And our goal is to make sure they have a safe car to get into.

And that we have the proper safety equipment, which is that's what we use a lot of our fundraising for is to get new harnesses and helmets and fire jackets and everything we can to make sure the kids are safe.

How fast is it?

10-2 at 133.

Ripper.

Junkyard LS.

Turbo from eBay.

Sweet.

Single turbo.

How many kids drive it?

We've had 11 different kids behind the wheel of it.

And we've made over 250 passes.

Who's the fastest?

Are you?

I'll take that.

I had no idea.

That wasn't even set up.

That's perfect.

That's a great, there's so much to because it's so unique, but relating everything to sports.

That's such a cool, I mean, from the competition internally side, like you said, the leaders and standing up, the instant gratification, the showing what teamwork stuff does tied into what our industry and what we love to do.

Such a unique thing because generally it's, you know, even if you just have a basic mechanic program, which is far in view between in and of itself.

But if you do that, sometimes it's like, you know, come in as a 16 year old, I want to be a hot rod builder and you're like, we're doing alternator replacements.

Like, okay, that's cool.

And after like a week, you're like, all right, which we've done alternator, we've done starter, like, how do we make it faster?

How do we make it cooler?

Like, what can we do?

Can we like cut the springs and we like change this?

I want to make it cooler.

So being able to do all of that and tie into that, you know, that competitive nature in the sports.

And it's, you know, hey, we're all a part of the, you know, MOOC racing team and stuff.

There's so many different facets that is setting these kids up for success in life and more importantly, success in this industry and that that passion drive because let's face it.

We'll have to, you know, talk about you can make a good living, whatever.

The passion side of this is going to drive you through those real bad times when it gets really, really tough and individual project or an individual time working for a shop.

You know, there's going to be those times in life where you're like, oh, this sucks.

This is what I wanted, but this sucks.

But the passion, as long as that's there, it carries you through.

You should tell them about the phone call you got before we got on the plane.

Which one?

Too soon.

Oh, my students?

Oh, geez.

I can't leave the shop or things just go crazy.

I took paternity leave last year and yeah, we had a kid catch his hair on fire.

It was crazy, isn't it?

The kids, I think I've earned their trust and their respect and they don't do that stuff when I'm there, but it's really hard when I'm gone because it becomes Jack around time.

They're still kids.

We still do it here.

We're still kids.

He was joking with me on our way over.

He's like, I didn't mess around enough in high school.

And I'm like, no, you did fine.

I'm coming from a teacher standpoint here.

And so I got a phone call from my co-teacher there.

He's a welding fabrication teacher.

We partner on a lot of stuff and so I actually got some gifts for you guys.

These are just badass.

These are made by our students there.

Cool.

You guys need some name plates out here.

That's sweet.

So Jeremy.

Thank you.

That's pretty sweet and that is awesome.

So I got to give credit to Mr. Bush and the Fab class.

They CNC cut it.

Yeah.

So we got a CNC there and we got a wood shop program that's really thriving right now and so they did the...

That's sweet.

...name plates.

Yeah.

So I figured the table needed something cool.

Little decoration.

And yeah, go ahead.

Keep going.

I was just saying that it basically, I got the phone call from Hayden that two kids screwed

up, two of my best kids that they got in a car and neither of them have their license

yet.

And yeah, just made a poor choice, driving out on the road, took it for a little spin

up the road while I guess the hood wasn't latched.

Right up into the windshield, broke the windshield out, couldn't see, barely got it back to school.

So it's on the drag car?

This is not the drag car.

This is luckily a donated Honda Civic.

But I just got the best email from that kid right before I got here.

I read it and it's like, I'm so sorry.

I screwed up and I got to own this.

I'll talk to you when you get back.

And I just read that and I was like, that's why I do this.

That was 100% why I do it.

I'm going to go give him a bunch of crap and he's going to have to reap the consequences

for it and then he's going to remember it.

He will.

He's going to learn how to pull a windshield on Monday.

Well, as bad as that is, it's great that, like you said, learning.

But however, generally, when something like that happens, that is one of those things

that you will never forget.

As he's growing up.

He will wiggle.

I don't know.

Everybody's done that.

Every car he ever drives before getting in it, whether it's a brand new car, 2026.

I'll walk up there and just give it a little shake.

Did you ever lose T-Tops in your fourth gen?

That's the thing that's happened.

Do they take off like kites?

100,000 feet in the air straight up.

Yeah, that happens.

But there's things like that, a hood pop up or whatever.

And you remember those things.

I've never personally had a hood come up.

Neither have I been terrified of it.

Because I've had people around me that I'm so cautious of it to make sure it never happens to me.

But I know a lot of people who have had it happen.

Yeah, and when it does, that's unfortunate that it had to happen like that.

But when it hurts, it's a good learning moment.

It's one of those things.

Man, that's a story in 20 years from now in whatever part of the industry he's in or whatever.

And he's going to be like, hey, do you like that hood?

Oh, I think it's fine.

Let me tell you something.

No, check it twice because this happened to me.

There's also two ways you could have approached that.

The way he did and sent you an email that apologized.

The other one could have been figuring out why it wasn't his fault and sending that.

You know, I don't know whether the cable must have hung.

Somebody was screwing with this thing.

Somebody I didn't shut the hood.

Yeah, but owning it, learning from it.

Yeah, it's rare.

Earned a lot of respect for me from there.

And he was actually apologizing because there's a senior.

These two kids are underclassmen.

So I'll have them for the next couple of years.

You know, and there was a senior kid just sitting in the back, never drove it.

He was the only one with his license.

You know, and he felt so bad for that kid.

Like, I don't, I don't even know why he was in the car.

You know, and so it, you know, he's going to think it's so hilarious because we're going to watch this in class.

I made the podcast of my goal.

Told you it would work.

Yeah, I'm still in trouble, but yeah.

That's awesome.

What an interest level.

So you talked about, you know, you'll listen to the podcast, you talk about drag race stuff.

Well, as they come into this program, are they having different facets of the industry that they're already interested in?

Does it happen along the way?

Is it, you know, I'm into four-wheel drives and this guy's into imports and this guy's into muscle cars.

Like what, what is, how does that work?

What does it look like?

I'll let, I'll let the student answer this one because I think he might have a little different take than me on how do you,

I think there's a lot of freedom where everyone gets the opportunity to kind of lead themselves where he builds it really well to where you can go in there.

If you got, you know, some, you've got a Jeep, you aren't, you're trying to take up in the mountains.

You've got everything there you need to make it what you want.

Same as the kid that's got the import.

You know, he's bringing his Honda Civic in.

He's going to be able to do whatever he wants with it.

You got a big diesel pickup.

So I think the program did a really good job of building those stepping stones to where there's something for everybody in there.

Where I'm seeing them post videos of kids dino in their dirt bikes and stuff.

Like, I think you guys did a good job of creating that space to where everyone can be involved,

no matter how much they want to do or how little they want to do.

Where even if they're there to shadow someone and watch someone else just learning from that or to take the steps to do it themselves.

And it's nice that it's a separate building.

So if you are working on something, you know, trying to mount a new oil filter on whatever on your LS swapped I rock,

you can walk over to the welding shop, find a plasma table and figure out a plasma out of bracket.

Like there's a good lot of opportunity there to do whatever works for you.

It's cool you're allowing everybody to work on their own stuff and kind of chase their passion.

I'm sure that keeps them a lot more engaged and interested.

And it probably helps the other guys around them when you see, you know, you're working on whatever your project is

and your level of excitement and passion wanting to get it done and kind of help have other guys jump on help you

and get inspired to do their own stuff instead of just oil changes and break jobs every day.

I'm sure that would be a little bit much.

I think they hate me after their sophomore year because they, I start out with the basics and they kind of weed them out.

You know, I tell the kids that too.

Like I, if you can't follow the safety protocols and do what you need to do, you're not going to get to advanced mechanics.

If you can't pass this class with a C, which is as easy as it gets, you know, I don't know if I can trust you out there in the shop.

And so, and it's, it's hands on as much as it can be in basic mechanics, freshman, sophomore year.

But it is a lot of that basic stuff.

You know, I teach them how to jump start a car.

We do a lots of key thing.

So many people that don't know how to do that rotate tires, you know, using an impact and using a torque wrench,

just very basic little shop things that we do on Thursday, Fridays, Monday to Tuesday, Wednesday.

We're in the classroom learning whatever it is that we're going to go do out in the shop.

And the kids really like that because they know they don't get the stuff done in the classroom at the beginning of the week.

They don't get to go have the fun in the shop.

And so they've earned that time.

And it's hard for me because I'm kind of standing in the classroom and in the shop.

I got a little room in between that I'm like, hey, get your stuff done and don't, don't strip that out, you know, and yelling at the kids in the shop.

And I got, you know, I told you there's 30 in each class, you know, and so it's 30 little freshmen running around with impact guns.

And, you know, it's tough.

It's wild.

How many of them have seen Wayne's World?

Yeah.

People still do that.

Good segue because you talked about, you know, coming in and weeding out.

I wanted to ask you specifically two things.

One, when what's the percentage of students that come in that first year that are taking this class as, well, it beats other electives.

And it's, hey, it's a thing or my friend's doing it or something like that.

What percentage are just doing it to get through school and have no interest in it for a living?

And then on the flip side, if they do it for the four years coming out their senior year, what's the interest?

What's that percentage?

They're like, no, I'm this is what I'm doing for a living.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a great question because it, it varies year to year.

You know, I had a kid who's over at the Hot Rod Institute right now, graduated last year, got the Micro Scholarship for $20, $25,000.

Oh, that's cool.

And he's just, just killing it.

You know, he's going to be an, he's going to own his own shop one day and be just like landed him.

But that's very rare.

I've had two of those students, I would say, in the last seven years that I just see that drive and that passion that they have.

And so those are the ones I really encourage to be my TAs, get into the shop as much as they can their senior year and really practice the TIV welding, practice, you know, using all that.

We have a pipe bender there to build exhaust.

We have a lot of metal tools that the kids can use.

And so just try to get their hands on as many of those things as they can.

They can, but most of my kids that come in are, are taking it because I think they really, they want to learn the basics.

They really do.

They want to learn how to jumpstart the car.

I've made my basic mechanics curriculum as I expect you to know nothing when you come in.

And so we start out with, you know, quarter, three, eight, half inch ratchets, you know, and it's over their test is out in my toolbox.

And so they got to, I got to pull it out.

What is this?

You know, is it a flex head?

Is it not?

And that in and of itself, whether they go into the industry or not is the key aspect of growing up and becoming, you know, a functioning member of society.

The amount of people that you deal with, I mean, grown ass men that we deal with on a daily basis outside of this industry.

And I mean, or I mean, if they've got a bag of sockets, like my dad's buddy who thought my dad was like the coolest because my dad was obviously very hands on.

Yeah.

We're over at his house twin something and he was asking him to like help fix something.

So you got like a socket set or something.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I got one here somewhere and he's like, opens up this toolbox and he's got like a bunch of Ziploc bags.

Just a sort of like metric standard, like half inch drive, three eighths drive.

You name it.

But knowing like, I've, you know, we've all came into contact with people.

There's been, you know, people around, you know, do something.

Meet for dinner, whatever, you know, a wife's friend, something like that.

I call it.

Had to hang the, you know, TV today or I had to put the, you know, TV mount today today.

And the little, little tool they send with that thing.

I mean, you can barely get that stuff on.

I'm like, oh, you grab it.

You don't use that damn thing.

Go grab a Torx bit and the impactors.

Just something like that.

What do you mean?

Like Ikea furniture assembly would be a great class.

Oh yeah.

Yep.

There's a, there's a great bit set that you should get from Snap-on Manor Mack guy that

will put all that, but it's even that little bit and nothing, nothing bad, but it was just

never a reason.

I mean, they're in a completely different industry and a skill set for a day of, you know, way

in life, but they didn't teach it in high school.

There's been no reason he's had to learn it along the way.

He should have, you know, but so even if they don't go into that industry, those are, those

are skill set jumping, jumping a car.

I can't tell you how many times in the past 20 years you're in, you run a car.

Run into somebody, Home Depot or a grocery store, parking lot or something like that,

you know.

Oh you, dad, I'll give you a jump, whatever.

You pull up and grab the jumper cables out.

All right, you hook it up.

Probably best you, you, you hook that up.

Dude, it's, it's as self-explanatory as they come.

That one's labeled.

This one's labeled.

Not so much anymore.

Nowadays you don't really find the battery.

You don't know where they're putting batteries on things, but then there's like a jump stud

and like there are a grounding stud.

Like it's not like it used to be where you pop the hood.

Like boom, there's the battery.

There's positive negative.

Let's face it.

Most of those cars need to jump.

We're still the old school battery.

It's under the hood.

It's not like we're jumping many of all those that you're going to find the battery underneath

spare tire.

On the tool identification, do you ever do probably how most of us in the industry have

learned by yelling and screaming at the kid and chucking the wrench across the room like

our dad's did?

I'd be a good one.

My wife made me make the bingo game.

They got their bingo cards and I hold them up and they're trying to get the bingo.

I was like, ah man, high school.

She's elementary based teacher.

I was like, I got to do something different.

Every year I've changed it to try to make it more practical to the shop.

Now we go out in the shop and we do the test right out of my toolbox.

I went away from, we can't charge fees.

It used to be kids bought a toolbox, a little toolkit, and that was theirs to keep.

I can't do that anymore.

I bought my own box.

Again, I didn't come from the industry.

I've been gathering tools the last seven years.

Why can't you charge fees?

That's an Oregon question, I guess.

Is that for all sports and extracurricular?

We don't charge any fees for sports anymore.

You still have to buy your own cleats.

Correct.

But as far as the equity issue, that's the big word that's used.

It keeps it fair across the board.

But the tools issue was tough.

Wasn't that way four or five years ago?

The amount of money and cheer and wrestling?

You had to pay.

Hell yeah, you got to pay.

You got to buy the warm-ups for pre-season.

You got to buy the special outfits for sectionals and regionals.

And then you got to buy, oh, they're doing a special senior night.

They all want new outfits for that.

On the cheer side, it's shit.

They had to have competition stuff.

They had to have the school.

And it's just like, oh, we're getting new uniforms.

Everybody pitching 600 bucks.

We just did that last week.

But yeah, but that was those uniforms.

Well, just wait.

It's coming.

It's non-stop.

Josh looks good in them little kids.

I'm good.

We're not doing any, there's no sports in there.

Your daughter's doing cheer up.

I would say my favorite.

I just had one again this weekend where you pay for a tournament.

And then the parents have to pay when you get there to go watch your kid play in the tournament.

You already paid four.

Yeah.

Ten bucks and became an adult.

Yeah, it was like 25 bucks for the weekend.

Yeah.

Per person.

But I mean, I understand the equity side of things.

But if you got to buy cleats and you got to buy your own bat and glove and do stuff like that to play any of the other sports, buying a basic interlevel tool set should be on par with other sports stuff.

But I agree.

It's been a tough one.

And I tell the kids, hey, I can't force you to get this, but I really would encourage you to go out and get a tool kit.

And a lot of them do.

About half the class goes out and gets a basic kit, either from our local auto part store on Amazon.

But you run off the donation.

So if anybody's listening right now that wants to donate some tool kits.

Yep.

Yeah.

That's what I was going to say.

There aren't any big tool manufacturers that want to help this thing grow and be a part of it to get kids in the industry to start.

And kind of, I think it'd be great for developing brand loyalty down the road that this was my first toolbox was a snap on or a craftsman or a harbor freight even just to get you started and get the right stuff.

Yeah.

I've applied for the harbor freight tools for school.

They have an awesome program where these high schools have won.

I've never won it.

But we have a snap on corporate rep that comes down once every trimester to talk to the kids.

And they get a huge discount from there.

And they can go on an order.

I got one kid who's maxed out.

He's ordered every snap on.

They probably shouldn't be allowed around schools.

They shouldn't be like that.

It's like a drugs and drug dealer coming to school.

No, he creepily parks behind the shop.

That's kids.

Don't go in the van.

Snap on Mac.

Matt Co included.

Yeah.

We're going to make it an oil and whiskey approach to shop mission.

We're going to get some tools.

Yeah.

That's a great area where I feel like we could be helpful.

And you know, we got a lot of contacts out there that we're going to do something.

The one I pitched to him is a $50 Crescent, you know, Costco style.

Open it up.

Everything's organized.

It's all labeled.

Sure.

And it's got organized spots for him so they can, you know, and I had a dad who's like,

hey, I'm not, I'm not buying one of those.

I got my own tools, you know, and so he gives his daughter a red tool box old school from

his shop and it's just everything thrown in there.

You know, and his poor daughter is like, I need a half inch, you know, ratchet for this.

And, you know, can't find it.

You know, and so I was like, there's a reason I like you to pick, you know, one of these

ones.

You got to put them in Ziploc baggies.

The school have like a set of shop tools that so I have my work off of or something.

You've had to supply over the years.

Yeah, I've basically supplies all the tools when I got there.

There was and they were all in those same kits and it just, it wasn't sufficient for the

kids.

They were all fighting chasing tools.

And I got tired of replacing and replacing and replacing.

So I have 10 kits that I loan out and my shop foreman checks those out and then make sure

that the tools are there when they come back.

Some kids have them for the week.

Some kids just have them for the day.

It kind of depends on what we're doing.

But and then I have my big toolkit, you know, it's a, it's a Harbor Freight toolbox that

I got for cheap and, and I've just slowly been adding my own tools to it and the kids use

it.

And it's incredible.

They get returned.

It's incredible.

This last trimester, one 10 millimeter is all I was missing.

Well, of course.

There was a 10 minute.

They just, I think it's up there.

It is right there on top of the TV.

But they, they take so much pride.

I think they, I've told them that these are mine and, you know, I really want you guys

to take pride in it.

And the kids honestly feel like that they, they respect the heck out of that.

My group is, they use it every day.

It gets used by 90 kids a day.

I got 90 kids coming through my program and we'll see how it is when I get back.

Cause I left the toolbox on loft and we'll see, but I had one kid come back, a senior

who graduated and he took my jumper pack to jumpstart his Jeep and came back.

Those get legs.

Yeah.

And he, uh, he came back a senior year and I was like, he's like, I found this in the

back of my Jeep.

I forgot I was here.

You know, it'd been a year.

You know, he brought it back to me because he knew that, you know, I'd probably paid

for that myself and I had two other ones that I already purchased with my next year.

I get, I get a budget of three grand a year to run this class.

And, uh, so I've had to get, I've had to, I've had to grind, you know, to just, to

make it cool.

The kids, the kids want to work on cool shit.

Yeah.

They want to use tools that are industry.

They want to use that snap on ratchet.

You know, they really do.

And I only have one of them, but they share it.

And if someone's doing a project, they, you know, they all, they all, they all jump on

board.

It's, it's really cool.

It's a game changer.

I will say though, like tools have gotten so good and there's so many options nowadays

when we were kids, there weren't like, you couldn't go like Milwaukee and Husky tools

and like these brave and like some of Harbor freight stuff here and here.

Yeah.

There was stuff that like it almost didn't work.

Yeah.

And then you had the professional.

And Craftsman was, you know, but, but still a Craftsman ratchet back then.

I mean, the teeth on it, it's like, it's 30 degrees.

Yeah.

And then sometimes it's all the way around.

But it's come a long way.

Like, you know, you go to Home Depot and you get some really nice stuff for pretty inexpensive

money.

I could build a whole toolkit.

Yeah.

With quality tools for reasonable money.

That's what we've done.

We've pieced it together.

The tools that I use the most, this was my former shop teacher said the ones you use

the most get, get good quality, you know, but my sockets are from Home Depot.

They're Husky sockets, but it's because it came in that awesome foam organizer that looked

like a snap on one and I know what's missing.

Yeah.

You know, and so I don't have the socket rails.

I got all foam organizers.

So at the end of the period, my kids can come over and are like, oh, we're missing the 11

sixteenths deep socket.

Like who's got it?

And they take such pride in that, you know, making sure that the stuff's put back and

the next class is ready to go.

So it's.

Yeah.

My toolbox here has always ended up being a community toolbox.

And I've taken pride in my tools over the years, but they don't treat them like your

students.

It is not that like, it looks like Poland after a third right.

Right.

Like it's just a wasteland.

Yeah.

It's just like this thing broke.

Like I just like he cleared it off the map.

It's just a good reference.

Yeah.

All right.

So Landon, your side coming in, I want to, let's go from the, from the beginning now

you're coming, you're coming into high school as a freshman.

Yeah.

You know about the program as you're coming into high school.

I knew about it.

It was something that I wasn't interested really one bit worked for my dad probably from,

you know, seriously 14 to, you know, until starting school.

And it was something that he pushed on me real hard.

I just wasn't interested.

I knew they had this drag program, a mechanics program that was cool.

You work for your dad doing what?

What'd your dad do?

He's a windshield.

He does windshields, automotive windshield replacers.

Perfect.

Yeah.

There's a, there's a civic I know about her.

So it's something that he pushed on me and yeah, like I said, wasn't, wasn't really

interested.

I think I talked to begin about it a few times when I started and I don't, I didn't even

take basic mechanics my freshman year.

I took it sophomore year and doing the oil changes, alternator replacements, learn how

to run jumper wires to lights and fair how they work and kind of stepped into the drag

club and got interested and at that time the Camaro they had was starting to get quicker

and quicker up to where it got down to 10 seconds.

And they brought in a Mustang that we had started on a 65 Mustang and it was kind of

a turd.

It really, the floors were just junk.

Everything was kind of garbage on it.

We got a sandblasted and we decided to back half it.

So we just cut the back, hold back half out of it and built frame rails.

And I'd say, I think that's where I got my itch because I was like, what are we doing?

I came here to like put tires on and you're telling me we got to fab up a whole entire

floor on the back of this Mustang.

Like none of us know what we're doing here.

What are we doing?

How did that idea get presented?

I think just that's a pretty big project undertake for a bunch of high school kids who have minimal

experience and absolutely ridiculous.

Is it just rusted out?

No ambition or all ambition.

No.

Yeah, it wasn't my toy.

It wasn't my choice.

Cut it out.

There was one of us coaches and of course he owns the auto shop in town and he's like,

this is Swiss cheese, man.

This isn't safe.

And the car was donated to us from a person at the waste race track.

OK.

So they they saw us race and thought it was super cool.

So you guys need something old school.

I got a 65 coupe sitting at home.

I got six of them come pick one.

So I didn't pick a good one, I guess, because we got the hole underneath.

Sam blasted and it was it was rough.

It was garbage.

It was real bad.

So we yeah, the coaches we actually voted not to cut it out.

And then the next week, I think I was gone and the other coach and the two kids there

got the saws all blades out and overruled.

I was gone.

And so and I think you should leave the recurring theme here.

Once it's cut out, you don't have any choice but to back off it because it's

that's been started and Tyson.

He's he's a great, you know, he's got he owns his own shop there in town.

He has a great vision.

He's actually the one that came to me and was like, we need to start something

for kids and and the two of my former students are his employees, you know,

and work there.

That's awesome.

And so he he uses that.

He kind of used it, I think, as the beginning as a recruiting tool for his

his industry and his shop.

And now he's been with me since 2017, 2018, both these guys.

And when I was coaching, they were running it.

You know, it wasn't me.

That's why I said that this is a team effort.

You know, I was off at a basketball tournament and they're there grinding away,

you know, Wednesday night or Tuesday night for four hours.

We meet once a week, you know, from six to nine, usually six to 10.

And what are those guys names?

Go ahead and give them their full.

Yeah, Tyson, Tyson and Jenny Price from SR Repair and Tillmuk and Roy

Ellabrook owns a E&E auto body.

And yeah, Roy has a son who's a senior this year in the program, Seth.

And so he's a senior this year.

And Roy's been in it since his kid was a fifth grader.

You know, his kid has come in since fifth grade.

And now he's a senior.

It makes me feel really old, but it's cool to look back at the pictures

and just see a little fifth grader in there.

And now he's he knows.

He's what he's doing. He's putting he's putting that senior right

into that body shop with six years of experience.

He is. Yeah. And and Seth, Seth's excited for that.

You know, he wants to work at his dad's shop and be a part of that process

and learn those things.

And I'm trying to push that into taking some some business classes or going down

to the, you know, I think iron rod or someone does a business class.

Ironworks. And I was like, you know, go down to that for a week long training

and just get some basics that you can bring back.

And so you have something to add to the table, you know?

And so I think if he's serious about that, I think we we can probably make

something happen around that.

We know a couple of people. Yeah, it's I mean, Roger, I'm going to do it for free.

I mean, obviously.

That's part of the business class.

Don't give it away.

First lesson.

We've got D rail just a second.

You talked about you decided to back half it.

This thing's gone.

It seems like an insurmountable task.

Yeah, I think that for me was the stepping stone to kind of got me to where

I'm at now working for Jared.

Because I just wasn't interested in cars and kind of got not forced into it.

But these guys opened that door for me to realize how much cooler is it

to take a car and figure out how to put framerals on it to fit this stupid

size tire in the tubs than it is to go wrench on something at a dealership.

I think they did a good job in instilling that in me.

And I think it was just from there.

It was I got the opportunity to wear.

It's I would say it's low risk.

There was plenty of opportunity for me to screw something up.

So I think like I did the back floor pans in that car and I probably made

six sets of them like where else?

You know, you get you hire somewhere.

You're not in the car.

You're not having to charge your customer.

You're not getting paid for it.

Exactly.

So I think that was the that's a great thing in the program for all the kids

is to just, you know, screw it up, figure it out, make 10 of what you're trying to do.

Right.

Like when I did rear end shackles for the leaves or something,

I probably made 20 sets of those just trying to figure out what works.

And I think that that's a pretty big thing that a lot of places don't get.

Right.

Because you can't go to a shop and make 20 sets of leaf spring shackles.

Yeah, the shop's not going to pay you out of their pocket and the customer

ain't paying.

So right.

Yeah.

So I think from there, that's where I really got the itch.

And I started working at the Ford dealership in Tillamook and didn't really

see anything possible like working for Jared shop.

And he actually found Jared was someone to pick up on marketplace and found it

and then recognize the name from being him in Vegas at SEMA and reached out for

me just as like, Hey, I got, got a student.

I think he'd be interested in doing something like this.

So he really laid that up for me and met Jared in Vegas.

And from there, Jared offered for me to come up for two weeks to try it out,

see if I was a fit in the shop.

He helped pay for my hotel kind of same things.

He's talking about Dylan going, paying for a hotel, doing a couple of days.

So I went and worked with Jared for two weeks and the guys there and it went great.

Here I am.

That's awesome.

I mean, you couldn't, what you said you'll meet met at SEMA.

Yeah.

Do you, you going out of SEMA and did a face to face and interview there?

Yep.

What right in front of your booth?

Really?

You bring over by us.

We need guys to Oregon, Illinois.

What, uh, when was your first SEMA?

Uh, it would have been the year that Jared took the Jeep.

So right around when you guys interviewed him three years ago.

Yeah.

I've been with Jared for a year and a half.

Was it?

Yeah.

It wasn't last year.

The year before, last year before.

Yeah.

What was it like going to SEMA as a high school kid for the first time?

That's like, for us, that's the Super Bowl.

Right.

Yeah.

And just for somebody who's relatively green and I'd be wandering through the

tires and wheel section.

I would say nothing else in looking for tires and wheels.

Yeah.

Tires.

Yeah.

Educate myself on tires.

Right.

That's your passion.

Epic, right?

That's, that's one of the things we're as a student to where, especially in a

small town like ours, we got a small cruise in once a year, maybe, and you see

something cool, you know, maybe, you know, a patina pick up with decent wheels.

But then you step into something like that and it's, whoa, holy cow.

I think I've printed probably 20 resumes to take with me to just pass them out

everywhere.

I only ended up giving one to Jared, which I found out recently.

He never even read it.

I'm pretty disappointed in that.

I worked pretty hard on that.

You're like, what, 19 years old?

What's on the resume?

You know, like I worked for my dad working at Ford.

It was, yeah, it was all junk.

But yeah, pretty, pretty wild going to something like that.

And then even from there, but before I started for Jared, we went

into their shop and that is just like, well, I think even after him, he's

like, this is a cool opportunity.

But if it doesn't work out, it's everything going to be okay.

Cause like, you know, we're used to not seeing anything to the level of

something coming out of Jared's shop.

And it's just like, if you start them out at the very top to get his

expectations up and it's probably isn't going to happen, but right.

It's just like you said, like comparing it to a sports team, you know,

him helping me out.

It's like a coach getting their student to go to a college D1 football team.

Yeah.

Like I could have never done it without him.

And I think the biggest thing that he did for me too was he got the contact

for Jared and kind of set me up and then was like, all right, I'm done.

Like here's his information.

It's on you now.

Which I think was a good way for him to force me to earn it in that sense.

How does it, I'm interested in.

So the interest level is there, right?

You know, this is cool.

You even mentioned that, you know, you're working at the Ford dealer, didn't

think anything like this was possible.

Then you go to SEMA, right?

Obviously the excitement is holy shit.

Look at all this.

You've got, it's got to something for everybody.

Yeah.

You know, you take five, six, I don't have any kids.

You take SEMA, right?

How many kids you take down there?

They might all have five different, completely different interest levels,

right?

Some of them are in the Toyota, Treadpass are looking at these awesome imports.

You know, those guys out looking at Baja trucks, you know, in off-road stuff,

you're looking at muscle cars, you're looking at everything.

It's amazing.

It's a lot to take in, right?

There's the excitement is there.

But then there's the reality.

Does in your mind, how are you connecting the dots from this is awesome?

This is what I want to do.

This is my skill set.

How does it, is it, is it more of a negative on like, well, there's no possible

way, or is it, is it like, I don't care.

I'll figure it out.

I'm always interested in, because it is like, you're not going to play in the NBA,

but you really want to play in the NBA.

Yeah.

I mean, you, it's like doing a workout program with, you know, the NBA or something

like that.

But you're like, though, this is absolutely what I want to do.

But connecting the dots of sometimes it could be a negative of like, well,

this is exactly what I've always wanted.

However, I realize now that like the bridge is too, too long.

I don't know.

Right.

I think a big thing for me was, like, I can remember the day that he even

mentioned it, like, hey, there's this guy that owns this shop, like,

showed me their Instagram.

He's like, he thinks he'd be willing to talk to you about something.

And I think right then and there, it was like, all right, you know,

Jared's hiring me.

I'm going like, before I even talked to him at him, it was like, you know, in my

mind, I was already there.

Perfect.

And I think that was a big thing was, even though, as intimidating as it was,

especially, you know, meeting them, they're standing by the Jeep.

And that the Jeep didn't say in that year.

So it's intimidating, but I think it's possible.

And I wish there was more students that saw that because if it wasn't for him,

I would probably still be working at that for dealership until being miserable.

Right.

I love going to work every day.

It's awesome.

A complete dream job.

Yeah.

And I wish that there was more students that kind of saw that and could,

because I think from there, that really lit a fire under me in class also,

where I think I really stepped up what I was doing in the shop, knowing like,

all right, I got to, I got to make work that's something worth looking at,

worth using and worth my time.

How do you, how do you impart that to the students?

How do you, how do you lay that out where there's the proper amount of ownership

of skill set, right?

And it's the, hey, you are here at a beginner's level.

However, you have progressed from the last two years astronomically

and you're doing a great job.

This is the height of the industry.

However, you can get there, you know, you got to earn your stripes.

It can be, it's, it's attainable.

You can, you can get an entry level position there.

You, you, you've come a long way.

There's, there's like a, there's a difference been saying, you know, to your,

you know, your kid, you're beautiful.

You can do anything you want.

So you set your mind to it.

You can do it.

No one that like, let's face it.

There's some things you can do and there's some things you can't do, right?

But being honest with them of like, hey, if you put your mind to it and you do it,

it, you can make it happen.

There's hard work that has to go into it.

This is what your skill set is.

You can't be like, I'm just telling you what, you're, there's miles apart.

What you're doing now and what you're like, that's, that's, how do you let?

Cause there's an appropriate amount of understanding where you are, but also

knowing that it is attainable to get a position in this industry doing all kinds

of different things, even making a living in this industry, not being a fabricator,

not being a body man, not, there's all kinds of different paths that you can do.

It just takes time.

Yeah, that's, I mean, to be honest, I was scared shitless for landing when Jared's

like, yeah, send them up for two weeks.

You know, I was like, yeah, this is like my dream job, you know, and I was worried

I was pushing on my kids too much of what my dream would be.

You know, I worry about that with the cars.

We tell them all the time, this is, this is your guys cars.

What do you want to do?

You know, like it, you guys want to build a mud truck.

Like that's not really my thing, but you know, I'm all for it.

Let's do it, you know, because if they don't, if they don't have the drive, it

won't get done and that's partly part of my issue this year.

I got six seniors on the racing team and I finally moved the cars out.

You know, one's sitting on the dyno.

The other was out in the trailer because they're just, they're working on their

own stuff, you know, which is cool.

You know, they, they got that drive, but the cars have kind of came to the back,

you know, right now, cause kids just are working on their own stuff, you know,

and so it's hard for me as a teacher to, to find that balance of, you know, like

he, he made the NBA, you know, in my opinion, this is like, you know, I got a

kid at the Hot Rod Institute who's in the NBA, you know, he's going to, he's going

to work his way up, but they have the work ethic to get there.

And I can see that from day one when they came in, you know, that like as soon as

Jared is like, you're coming up here in June, like he didn't leave a TIG welder

for, you know, he was like, Jared told me I got to learn to TIG weld.

So I got to figure this out.

And he, he welded the whole back half of that car up with TIG.

He did the whole inner fenders and roll pans and, and then he sent in pictures

and I was like, document everything, send it all to Jared, show him what you can

do, you know, cause when you go up there, he's going to, he's going to put you

through a bunch of different little tests and he's going to see what you can do.

And so, and that's just me.

We went up and toured Jared's shop, Jared let me come up after talking to him

at SEMA and I, I was like, we got to come see it.

You know, I want the kids to see what a top tier shop looks like.

And so my mindset has always been shoot for the moon, you know, and, and so I

want the kids to see, see up here and then they can figure out they're smart.

They, they figure out where they're at, you know, like I'm not at that level right

now, you know, I do not have the fundamentals or the skills to be there.

And, you know, I use Seth as an example, his dad's the body shop guy has been

helping me for, for seven years and Seth wants to go work at his dad's shop.

You know, that's what he wants to do.

And, and he hasn't pushed himself this year as much as I would like, but

Seth's the type of kid that he's going to go, he's got the best trainer and

mentor right there in front of him that's been working with him since he was

in fifth grade, you know, and so he's, he's going to take over that shop if

that's what he wants, but I want it to be his decision.

And me and Roy talk about that all the time, like we want Seth to want to do

that and not be because dad said, Hey, you got to come do this.

And so that's my job is to, to help facilitate that, I think.

And as a basketball coach, that's what I did too.

You know, and I loved getting, I felt like my job as a coach was to get kids

to the next level, if that's what they wanted, whatever level that was, you

know, it could be junior college or, you know, but if I make them, if I make

them work for it, they might be great husbands and dads one day and damn

well, I did my job a hundred percent.

I was going to say, like you, regardless if one every couple of years goes to

the NBA, right?

The skill set that they're getting taught the things that they're not doing

because they're doing this, right?

The, how much of better of a human being, a husband, father, friend.

The, they'll, they'll be the guy with, there's a, you know, a friend group,

you know, 10 years from now, the guy's like, Oh man, my car's broke down.

He's like, watch this again, you know, where they do it for a living or not.

All that's fine.

I think it's still beneficial.

However, I want to ask why, why do you think that want level isn't there that

there's not one or two every year that want it enough to go to the NBA?

As you spoke, uh, I mean, what, what are the other things that are drawing them?

Wanted versus like there's a physical demand there, right?

Like, genetically, when it comes to NBA, right?

Like, I may have wanted it, right?

But it's, uh, I wasn't in the cards for me, too.

Yeah, we're not talking about, we're not talking about physically NBA.

We're talking about like this industry is getting from a hot ride shop side.

You don't have the physical genes requirement to be there.

So how do you foster the want?

How do you have the people who have the want?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, he's probably going to kill me, but he was this guy right here.

I mean, he, he didn't come into it until he was a sophomore, you know,

and he, he's involved in a lot of other stuff going on there, you know,

at the high school.

He's, he's got to be one of our first male cheerleaders, you know,

going through there.

And so I give him a hard, I give him a hard time.

There's worse jobs.

I was not a cheerleader.

I was the Tilly, Mackay school mascot for a year.

Yes. So he, he comes in sophomore year and he's like, you know, he didn't know,

you know, he worked with his dad in a window shop and putting some windows in

and hated working for his dad.

And, and Jeff's a great guy.

He's going to be replacing the window on my Honda Accord next week, you know,

and, uh, but he just, he just had that.

Like, you could just see it, you know, you could just see it in his eyes

where he's just like, I want to learn how to do this.

And when you have someone that has no skill, no, no experience in it,

you can really teach them from the beginning, you know, and so that's

where I didn't want to taint, you know, him too much, just give him just enough

practice at it so that Jared could take it and run with it, you know,

and Jared texts me all the time like, Hey, dude, you did good with this one,

man, you got any more, you know, and, and I, I don't know if I have the,

the eye for seeing it or not, you know, but I just want kids to reach

whatever level they want to get to, you know, and, and, um,

and so that's, that's really my goal, but it's tough to find that balance

of pushing a kid into something versus letting them pick that path, you know,

because if they don't want it, they're not going to put in the time.

Do you think this class has opened a lot of people's eyes to potentially

this being their career path that had no interest like him in cars that all

of a sudden something clicks, you're exposed to it like, damn, I'm pretty good at

this. It's kind of exciting to see in progress and kind of makes you take

the ball and run with it.

I think so. Yeah. I think, well, my class was the automotive was the number

one most requested class at the high school last year.

And I got more females in my classes than I've ever had and girls coming in

that are like, you know, one of our units has learned how to use a pick tool

and unlock your car and use a wedge in your window, get your keys and they

got to, you know, lock the keys in the car and practice getting it out.

And we have a, we have a wall of shame in my office where you got to put your

tally if you got to use it. And so 14 times this year, the pick tool set has

been used out in the parking lot, but you talk to him was had to last night.

That was close. Yeah. So, but they, that's the type of stuff that I think the

kids, they like that stuff. They think it's fun. A period goes by so fast when

you're trying to break into a car, you know, and so they, they leave at the end

of the period and I have a 10 minute timer I put up that goes off and I have

kids literally moaning at the end of the period. Like, oh, really? You know, like

we got to go, you know, and so out of those girls, you see, get more girls in

the club. How many of them are wanting to do this full time versus like, this is

great skill set stuff of that. It's going to make me a better person and a better

woman to have these life skills. Yeah. Most of them are there. Yeah. Most of

them are just taking it because they, they want the basics and they think they

enjoy me as a teacher. I teach freshman, a freshman class that every freshman has

to take. So every kid gets me as a freshman about half the, half the school.

And so that's 350 kids that take me freshman year. And so they get to see

my personality, who I am. And then I'm obviously recruiting, you know, I'm like,

hey, this is, this is the shop. Like, come look at this. Right. Right. I take him

out there. My class is in the shop. You know, it's a, it's a classroom that's

maybe about half this, you know, double this is that's my classroom. That's how

small it is. It's tiny. And there's 30 kids in there and we're sandwiched in. And

so we get to know each other real well. And they, they thrive going out to the

shop because it's open. And so I try to do some activities out there in the shop

and team building stuff. And it's just really blown up from there. But a lot of

them are just taking it for that, that general reason of they just want to they

want to dip their tone at atmosphere. That's cool, man. I'm so impressed with

your like drive and just desire to see these kids succeed. Was there a teacher

when you were like growing up, was there a teacher? Was there some like memorable

moment or somebody that was impressionable with you that like sort of shaped

you to go this direction or to push this hard or want to impact these kids?

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's, it's like, I never thought I would teach auto shot

back at Tomek. I just didn't, I didn't think it was in even in the realm of

where I would be. But Mr. Wright, who was there for 30 years, he was a basketball

coach. He was, you know, I'm living his same path. I really am. And he was a

girl's basketball coach there for a long time. And I've never saw the guy get

angry ever. He wasn't a tool thrower. He wasn't, you know, he he let us work on

our own stuff. He would give you just enough information that you could kind

of work through something and then he would stop helping. Okay. And so it

forced you to have to figure it out. And and I watched a lot of kids in the shop

go into the technical field, go work at Ford. One of my good friends works up

it in Alaska for the fleet Ford fleet up there. And I was like, I do not want

to be a technician. I do not want to go to biotech. Like I that's who came in

and presented. I was like, that's not I want to be a teacher. But how do I get

to teach something that I'm super passionate about? And I love working on

my own stuff. And my dad instilled that in me. And and so Mr. Wright was just

that guy that's like, get into teaching and see how it works, see how it

figures out. And so I love basketball. So I went health PE and came back, got a

job at Tillmuk as a health PE teacher, and started really young. I graduated.

Got had some college credits already. So I was back teaching at 21, 22. And I

got 12 years in right now at 35. And, like, I got my wall up there with all

my D cards. A lot fatter as it's gone down. The kids look at that and they're

like, you know, you only got 30 years here, you done after 30 years, you know,

and I'm like, honestly, guys, like I'm living my dream job right now. Like I

could go work in the industry somewhere and yeah, and thrive and make way more

money than I do now. But you probably felt it in your stomach when he's

talking about like that. And that's that's what I get on a I see him walk

across the stage. I'm like, no amount of money can give me this feeling that

I'm getting right now when these kids find what they want to do. So got to

give a ton of credit to Mr. Right and that crew. And we actually started a

scholarship in his name last year. He's still alive. I tell people it's not

he's not dead. He's retired living on the east side of the state. And he's

actually still coaching basketball over in a small town over there in La Grande.

And he yeah, he we but we call it the Mr. Right scholarship. And last year,

our local Napa auto parts donated some Milwaukee tools. I got the big ass

jumbo checks. And I had families pick in and we had four seniors last year,

they all got 1000 bucks. Awesome. 1000 dollar check and got some cool tools

from Napa and the Mack truck donated a digital caliper because the kids use

mine all the time. So they got a really nice caliper and you should have seen

the kids like it was the talk of our scholarship night. You know, these kids

are winning these big scholarships and then then these four mechanic kids walk

up and for most of them was the only scholarship they got. Yeah. And they're

like, why did they get the jumbo checks? You know, and so while they're taking

pictures afterwards, two of them are at Peterson Cat doing diesel programs. One

of them is at the Hot Rod Institute. The other one works for ODOT, which is our

transportation. Yeah. So they're all for those kids just found their niche, you

know, and so it's it's and I passed one of them on the way over here. We're

driving over Highway six across and what they we had a big slide and one of my

kids that graduated last year sitting there running the flags, you know, and so

he's he's working for ODOT and so he waved and you know, so he knows we're

coming on the show. So that's really cool. It's just the placement and all the

things like Jeremy was talking about the confidence that you're instilling

these kids is absolutely amazing. You could in four years might be the one of

the we've had some good people on here that he's one of the best. He might win

the award. Best people. Best persons. People. It's not hard against us. We're

people in this room. Right. That's an easy one. Anybody comes on pretty much a

win every best person. So you haven't killed anybody. Okay, so you're better

than us. On Landon, I wanted to ask if you remembered the very first thing

that Jared put you on. He's like, All right, great. Get your job. I know you

do two weeks, but now when you're full time, what's the first thing you had

you do? Yeah, just reaching out to him. He told me I was doing mini tubs and a

four link on a 68 Nova, I want to say. And he in car. I remember working at

Ford went and met him at in Vegas at SEMA. And as soon as I went back, I didn't

even go home. I went and applied for a welding and machine shop. Because like,

I got to I got to learn how to weld. If that's what I'm going to be doing. And

I remember telling my boss at the time there that I was like, Yeah, he's

having me, you know, do these mini tubs. And he goes, Is he stupid? So I was

pretty nerve wracking, but I think it actually went pretty well. There's only

two weeks there. So I didn't get to finish up the whole entire project. But I

think Jared was pleased with maybe mostly my attitude towards it rather than

the work I did. Because they've completely shaped me like I'm so lucky to

have, you know, Jared Ross and Andrew, everyone there to it is like going to

school, where I have these prime examples of these guys that have been in the

industry for multiple years, doing the best work like just great things like

that Jeep, per se, like they just finished that. What an awesome vehicle to see

be done right before I start there, right? And then starting other projects and

just getting to watch them go through those step by step. I learned so much. So

I got really lucky there. And I'd say in the beginning it was intimidating. Like

there was a caddy I was doing body mounts on for Roadshop chassis. And I

started it. And I think I was like four days into it, just getting my ass

kicked. And that's what you know, Jared, I think I saw that I could tell that

Jared was making me struggle through it, knowing that he probably eight hundred

hours on that stupid thing, I feel so bad for him until he finally stepped in

and directed me in the way I needed to go. He let me go through the struggle,

which I think he does for me a lot in the shop. And I think I'm super lucky in

the way that he teaches in the way I learned. And I think we learned things

in the same way. So he's able to teach me a lot and keep me focused in the shop

to where he's not giving me something that's just going to wrap my brain around

it and, you know, go in the corner and cry because I'm Gen Z. Right. So keeps

you reaching a little bit, but within. Yeah. Yeah. And he has let me do a lot.

It's ridiculous the things that he allows me to do in the shop. But they've

all done a really good job of making it intimidating, but not too much. Right.

Attainable enough. Yeah. But have you had to balance the I want to build this

amazing hood scoop or like really cool dash or piece like that versus I've got

a week of stripping undercoating off of this car? Yeah. How do you keep the

the motivation to keep going forward with that? I'm super grateful for how

they've set it up for me. I think they Jared pushed me into body work and you're

going to think he hates me because he did that. But I think it's actually the

best thing for me because I started doing some metal work going into it because

I think that's what I was passionate about. But now him starting me into body

work has really shown me where to take my metal work. So at the time, it seems

sucky to where it's like maybe, you know, spread and Bondo doesn't seem seems like

the strip in the undercoating rather than fabricated badass hood scoop. But I

think it's really built the stepping stones for me to go to the next place

in the shop. So wise. Yeah. Yeah. Give you an appreciation for good metal work.

Yeah. What you should start with. Right. Yeah. Problems you're going to pass

on to the next guy, which I've really enjoyed bodywork. I think I've got he's

helped me get to the point to where it's one. It's the one thing in the shop

right now that he can give me a task and I can start to finish at least 98%

without having to bug him. Because that's the worst. He doesn't want me, you

know, going back and forth. If I'm trying to make this hood scoop and, you

know, I've never built a hood scoop before, he doesn't want to have to come

and hold my hand throughout the whole thing. You know, he's super busy. Got

other things to do. Well, dude, I mean, it's as struggling as needy as the

industry is for just about every position and fabricators include. Yeah. Way

more in need of good body, man. Yeah. Body and paint for sure. Body and paint

guys is few and far between because it ain't near as sexy as all that, you

know, because nobody posts that on Instagram is all the metal. You know,

nobody's showing step by step. This is day 17. I've made it up to, you know,

320. Still see it. Different grit. Yeah. Different color primer now. Yeah.

Which they've said. That's an art. Art. You know, we like you too much to

make you the body guy, you know, but I'm loving it. I'm enjoying it a lot.

Good skill to have. Yeah. Very good skill to have. Really. It's the unsung hero.

Well, for sure. I mean, it teaches you a tremendous amount about building a

car like on the metalwork side. Yeah. How a car has got to fit, how it's got

to go together. Right. Like it's one thing to make it pretty in metal. You've

really got to understand what it's like when you got to skate a block across

it and make it straight, make it paintable. Yeah. Yeah. In the shop,

we're slowing down on body work. So, you know, we've already talked about it.

Just kind of segue and then back into metalwork to where now I've got, you

know, I know that if this panel's got a small little ding, it's not worth

spending 20 minutes hammering out, chasing an oil can, you know, trying to

hammer out this little ding, turn it into an oil can. And, you know, now I'm

spending a whole entire day on something that it would took me 20 seconds

to muddle. Just to fill it. Yeah. Sure.

You mentioned earlier about the road to shop spec chassis under the Mustang.

Did you do that install at the shop, at the high school shop?

So I told you I don't have a lot of training in this and I got to put my

money where my mouth is. I feel like with my kids. And so I'm like, I had a

basketball hoop fall on my car I've had since high school and crushed the top

of it. And so

did you at least dunk and pull it down?

I did. It was a windstorm. Yeah, it was a windstorm.

So that's my that's my prized possession. I lost my dad when I was a

senior in high school there at Tillamook and he died right before for

graduation. And we worked on that car. I got it when I was 15. And just to swap

the six cylinder three speed to 289 four speed. I hadn't even drove it yet.

So my first my first burnout in it was at his at his funeral in front of the

high school. You know, we did it at the high school because it was so big. My

dad was such an influence in our community too. And and so long story

short is that I I was like, man, I really want to do a road shop chassis. I've

never done anything. I still have the six cylinder brakes under my car. No

suspension six cylinder everything. And I've owned it for 30 years and it's

traveled with me to college and everywhere. And so I had I had a second

kid on the way and my wife, thank you for your blessing, honey. She said you've

been saving for 30 years. Let's look at it that way for your chassis. Because

you haven't spent any money on a Mustang two and a four link or anything. And so

I'm like, this is this is what I want. I want a road shop chassis. So I called

Andrew and it's like, What can you do for me? And I said, The kids are going to be

helping me with this. And he's like, All right, I'll help you out. You know, and

so he he helped me out. And I had kids scraping undercoating and I had kids

cutting off, you know, the shock towers. And we're going through this whole

process together in class, you know, and I hate taking up a lift because I have

so many kids in there. So we did a lot of it during the summer. And I got that

chassis on July 4. And stuck it up underneath there. And I had like three

kids coming over, you know, during the summer days helping me put that thing

together. And then we got back to the school year and it was still on the lift.

The kids are like, Hey, can I help with this? Can I help? You know, and found out

the back of the car was bent a little bit because it didn't line up perfectly.

And and so I I actually ended up buying a fastback on eBay because I wanted to

convert it to a fastback. Okay. And so I've always wanted a fastback, but never

been able to afford one. And so I got one cheap. It was all rested out from the

quarters down. And so we did a conversion on it. And again, I have no idea what

I'm doing. Like, I mean, that's that's no joke. It is. And so Scott Scott's

you know, I found Scott on social media and I'm like, Scott, you're doing a

coyote. Like this is my dream. Like and I had a small block Windsor in it. And a

friend of mine is like, Hey, I'll buy that small block from you. And so I called

the injury like a couple weeks before I got the chassis and I was like, dude,

switch it to a coyote. I got I found a coyote at a wrecking yard and I found a

complete Mustang, a gen one. And so we dropped that motor out, sold the

transmission. Scott's like, do a tkx. It's smaller. So I started following

Scott's bill before we move any further forward. I've got to make note of this

because this is something that comes up a lot with like engineering and

production. Guys are always like, we need to have a final decision on motor

mounts. We can't we're not changing motor mounts. It has to be flushed out from

the beginning. This is the way car building goes. Always, you know, like

always, you figure out, you find a guy that's going to buy your Windsor, you

find a coyote and boom, and that's that's why we're willing to change motor

mounts. It's a pain in the ass, right? But but you've got to do it. That's

building cars. It's building. I would I would venture to say that more than

half change motors and transmissions, motors or transmissions or both from

order process to ship process. Yeah, you've made that bed. So I don't

like I don't I'm not encouraging. We don't like it. But it it happens. And

it's just I paid for the small block. It's much better than Irvin's TBD

transmission. Yeah, I'm still waiting for GM to come out with that TBD. So we're

progressing your motors. You got the motor. What happens next? Yeah, it just all

came together kind of right at the end, you know, and and so I had had this

chassis had this car cut the cut the cut the roof off at home had a guy come

sandblast it grafted together the new fastback to the the coupe and actually

had landing come up and help build some sleeves for the front A pillars so that

it's even stronger than factory. Where'd you blend it in at like the tops of the

quarters? We did we left an inch along the quarter. Okay. And I found a guy on

YouTube, you know, kids have the best tool to the to use which is so I I try to

preach that to him like, and I called this guy and he lives, I don't even know,

but he did a YouTube video of a fastback conversion. And I'm like, I called him

and he's like, dude, what do you need? I'm happy to help. And so that's my

involvement in the industry has been so receptive like that. Scott is like, Hey,

what do you need? You know, like, I'll post videos. And I'm, I'm going to walk

you through this whole build. And I'm like, well, I'm like two months behind

you. And then I caught him. And I was so proud of myself. I was like, Yeah, I'm

where you're at. I'm finally caught up to you. And he's got these other flying

planes around and shit. And so it was just such a cool process. And the kids

are looking at me and they're like, dude, my teacher's doing this. Like, Holy

shit, he just cut his car in half. And I drove it up the road as a convertible.

You know, with no top on it, just for fun. Just and I and I just I don't want

the kids to ever think that they can't do it. You know, and so I'm I have no

industry training here. I'm a lot like Scott, where I'm like, doing this out

of my home garage, you know, I was blessed enough to have, you know, a a

family situation where we're able to build a shop pretty quick at my house.

It's a small shop. It's not huge, but I got enough room and I got a four post

lift that I can work on my own stuff. And, you know, and so I I try to leave

my own projects at home. But the kids I wanted the kids to see what a high

level chassis look like, you know, most of them never seen a roadster shop

chassis. I'd never seen one. And so when I uncreated that thing, it was like, I'm

the type of guy I saved all the wood. You know, I save all the wood and burn it

in my pile at my house. And, you know, and so they their hammer nails out of

that creating because I'm like, we're saving this stuff. And extra credit.

Yeah. And so the kids, the kids, I think, just were like, Dude, if you can do it,

like we can't do you, we're on a similar path. And so it's awesome. How far

along is the car now? So I I've done everything except paint it myself. And

so I'm really proud of that. The local guy in town who painted it for me

originally back in 2013. Did it we did a it was blue with white stripes

originally we did a gray Ford gray leadfoot gray on it. And yeah, it's

it's painted. I just built my own AC lines never done that did that this

summer. Got the seats mounted got yeah, I mean, I've just been slowly saving

parts and things for this build and and finally got to drive it this summer,

put 600 miles on it, so he took the kids out in it. I got two boys that just

can we take the Mustang, you know, and and I told the guy who helped me paint

it. I he's he's in his 70s now and he's getting out of the industry and he let

me come up and say and, you know, and do stuff there and actually took my

students up and they got a chance to see his little shop. And he's one of the

only auto body guys left in our community that does it for like

restoration stuff. So I don't know if there's anybody left in Tillman

County that does it. So I feel blessed to be the last car, you know, one of

the last cars he's ever going to paint. And I learned so much from him. I

took days off my job. And I used I've used this whole build as an opportunity

to almost I'm spending money on my car, but it's almost schooling for me.

Yeah, you're training yourself. And so that way, yeah, so that way, when I

go back, I have at least just the base knowledge to be able to show the kids

how to set up a spray gun and how to clean your stuff. And, you know, and so

I got so much respect for body guys because I I got sick from all the

sanding things. And I couldn't wear the mask. And I was only there for a

couple days standing on my car and finally was like, you you finish it for

me. It's a tough job. Yep. Where they separate the boys from the men.

Should have gone to the bullpen. Hey, pay it back. Come on. Yep. So yeah,

these guys are all my students are just so great. He's sending me pictures

every day. You know, I feel like if this is what I'm working on at Jared's,

and my other student came back for Christmas break from the Hot Rod

Institute and gave me a big hug. You know, I was like, dude, thanks for

everything. Like I'm where I'm supposed to be. He's building his grandpa is one

of his old grandpa's trucks. And the Hot Rod Institute basically has you do a

full build, right, you know, from beginning to end. And so he's in metal

work and now it's off the paint and body. So he's he's right where he's

pretty insane. You got kids to come in on their summer break to work on cars

like that's yeah, that speaks volumes for what you've done as a teacher and

being able to cultivate that get them that excited to that's insane. I was

not going back to school for I got to kick him out of the summer. I had to

for various reasons. You guys had Thomas on here a little bit ago, Dickerson.

He was talking about his tech school and I was listening to your podcast on the

way out. And like he had a similar thing there with a teacher that really

impacted him in a positive way. And we just don't see it very much at the

high school level, right? You know, is where I'm I'm just trying to just like

just dip your toe in it and see if there's something that you like. And

even that kid that said, oh, I'm just like, leaving with pride, you know,

that he's he's gonna have a great career. You know, he wants to do that. He has

a drive and that's he's gonna he'll be great. He'll be he'll be set in 30 years

from now because that's what he wants to do. There's a big separation in

teachers, though, like I can't see my math teacher would have never turned me

into a professor at a college, right? I guess as a comparison, right? Like even

you what teacher is crazy enough to where you were let you were paying me 20

bucks an hour to come work on your car when you weren't even there. Like I

working in your home shop, welding on your, you know, your life that that

Mustang, and you'd come home and you're like, Oh, you've been here for two hours.

Take a break. Give me your helmet. Your dirt bike's already warming up outside.

He's got a dirt bike track as I always make me go for a rip. Like there's a big

separation between at least for myself, what you did for me. I didn't see other

teachers willing to put in the time and the effort. And I think that's probably

a big thing around all schools, while other mechanics teachers probably aren't

willing to pay their student to have hands-on experience with their own

personal things. Yeah, so it's a wild career. You know, there's, I think there's

a lot of teachers who are looking at like there's a certain, I don't know, I mean,

comfort with being a teacher as far as like a pension goes and a retirement,

things like that. And it's, it's more of a career for them,

more so than it is for what can I do for these students, you know, listening to the

way you talk about your career and what you're trying to do with these kids. It's,

it's obviously more about them. I mean, you get the satisfaction out of it that you're,

you're making something out of these kids and they're going somewhere and doing something,

but you don't, you don't always get that, you know. I'm, yeah, as a, not a great student,

you know, I had a lot of not great experiences with teachers, you know, and a couple great,

like really good ones, but you remember those good ones. And I don't think

these teachers, they don't always understand how influential they are, especially at that age.

I mean, it's, it's really important, you know. Yeah, maybe you just weren't geared up enough.

That's the thing. If the teacher were to get you geared up for whatever it is that you're

interested in. Learning. Yeah. Learning, for example. So that was one, like that's not a teacher

that's going to exactly like inspire me, right? No, no, it's going to keep you from

hurting yourself or others. That's not where the crayons go. No, but it is, you know, for so long,

I mean, I've used it for example, and we've laughed all the time, you know, you come across people

and the bad stigmas, you know, those that can't do teach, right? And this is said all the time,

you know, and even in preparation for coming on the year, I wanted, it was, I was thinking about

this morning, coming into the shop, like this conversation and learning more about, you know,

you and your skill set. And, you know, Jeremy's asked the questions about what's the curriculum.

It's like that. I think that we are, we were all a little bit hung up on, not hung up on,

but we were focused just from our skill set way of life, how long being in this, we were,

you know, focused on like the curriculum, the thing, what are you teaching and like,

what are they learning? What skills are they leaving your program with to set them up?

All that secondary, that's besides the point. All that stuff, it's, you know, you're giving them the

however, the key to what you're doing is in high school, showing them different paths,

all types of different paths in the automotive industry and having their, their mind and that

excitement work in a way, getting connected to the dots. So it's so multi layers, so multifaceted on,

you know, hey, I'm willing, I trust you enough in your skill set to invest in you and do this

on my thing. That's a, that's a couple of ticks in the confidence box, right? And then there's the,

hey, I'm going to go to SEMA. I'm going to show you some of these things. Then that's the

couple of ticks in the opening your eyes to what things are available in different directions and

the size of the industry, the comfort level of like, you know, showing you what's available

versus just, well, I could work in Napa or I could work at the Ford dealer and, you know,

replace alternators and be aligned, showing you like, man, there's all kinds of exciting,

wild things and they go to Vegas and SEMA and there's, you know, stuff like that,

showing that that's possible, talking to different shops and showing, you know,

the way of life and the level of income that you can earn through this stuff.

That's what the important thing is and those, having those connections with those students

is so damn important. That's, that's my biggest surprising thing that I've taken out of this

whole thing is like, damn, you know, we were so, at least I was, I'll take it, I was so

narrowly focused on like, they learned to properly weld and properly torque things and,

yeah. And if you, if you, if you light the fire in a 16 year old, 17 year old, 18 year old,

and the skill set enough to get the foot in the door to then learn from there,

that's what, that's what matters because the fire being lit is the problem that we've got.

There's not enough of that being happening. Yeah. I wish I could have these kids all day.

You know, I wish I could get them their math credit and their English for writing out an

invoice or, you're doing fractions. Yeah. Oh yeah, tape measure math. Yeah. Some of the most

important. It's the only stuff you've used. We're just not the two little tickies or three little

tickies. You could work some geometry in there on some angles and making there you go. We're close.

We're close to being, you know, I had a double stack period. So I had that two and a half hours

to get in the shop and you can actually get something done. You know, and so having,

having the opportunity to have them for a half a day, that would be my goal is that I teach

maybe my basic in the morning and then at lunch, I get them for the rest of the day,

because maybe some of them go to work. You know, maybe some of them come to me for part of the

day and we do something and then I can send them out to their job. And, but we're struggling to

find people to work at our local shops, you know, just like everybody around the world. And so

my thing is shoot for the moon, you know, show them, I love this type of industry. I've never

been to SEMA until I took students. That's the first time I ever went. And it opened my eyes to

like, holy cow, look at how huge this aftermarket world is. And I was like, I was so narrow minded

with what my idea of what the automotive industry was that like, I got to get kids here to see this.

Yeah. And so, you know, I wish I could take all my students, you know, it's kind of a,

to get into the racing team, they have to apply for it. They got to interview

with us three coaches every year. Even if they're in it, they're not in it the next year,

they got to reapply. And they got to be passing all their classes with a C or better,

to be able to participate. And we meet once a week. That whole C thing, that's a far cry from D

D to pass and C to get in. I always looked at it as it was like average, like that's a decent,

the D is not good. Yeah. C. D is fine. D makes you go to the next year not to take it over yet.

That's all I cared about. Let's just get through this. I was not a good student. Is that the

lot for the kids, the industry? What can the industry do for you guys and the kids to help

take your program and others like it around the country to the next level?

But where are you seeing the lack of support or yeah, the gap or is it tools, equipment,

mentorship, a path to careers? Yeah, I, for me, it's just, I've had to,

I've had to hustle so hard the last few years. I feel like I've ran my own shop,

you know, to a sense to, I got side deals going. We're flipping cars to make money like it.

And some of it's, you know, most of it's ran through the school, I would say,

you know, to keep us functioning, but it's, it's just three grand isn't enough to run anything.

Like I, that buys my detail supplies for the kids to do their auto detail. Yeah.

So you particularly in your, in your program funding far above is what we're going to have cuts

this year. You know, there's donations made. Do they go to the school, accept donations?

Is it all going to your program? Does it get spread out? We're a nonprofit through the school.

You know, we have a foundation program there. It's a 501c3. So that's huge. You know, I,

for youth basketball this year, I just had a local donor that's

committed to give a huge donation, you know, thousands of dollars to my youth basketball

program. Cause I'm like, I, we've gone to our community for this, for our race cars. And we've

raised about $20,000 every year from our community, getting $1,000 sponsorships at a time to put a

sticker on a car. And our local hardware store could care less about a sticker, you know,

but he does it because he's like, this shit's cool. Yeah. And I, and we're actually putting

together a boat motor for him right now. You know, he just dropped it off and he's like,

Hey, this needs put together. I was like, dude, you've been sponsoring for seven years.

You've given $7,000 to get a boat motor. We're going to put this together. And it was one of

my other coaches, Roy, that, that facilitated that. But how does somebody, if somebody's listening

right now, company, whatever individual, how do they donate money to your program specifically?

Yeah. Send a check to Tomek, Tomek school district and put it under auto class,

you know, automotive class and it'll come right to us. You know, it will. They could,

it also donate tools or parts or, you know, like, and people have been great. We've reached out to

multiple vendors at SEMA, but it's so hard to get the, you get the initial, Hey, I would love to

support this, but then an email goes and it gets lost. And then there's never, you know,

the follow up and things like that is like, I just don't have the capacity to do it. And

have somebody contact you specifically. Yeah, put that number out there. Yeah,

my cell number contact. What's it? What's it? What's the email? We'll do a post and put all

that stuff. We'll put it all in there. We get a lot of pulling the industry, a lot of

companies that want to be a part that want to help the next generation grow. Yep. We've got a lot of

high net worth individuals that this is their passion. This is their hobby. And, you know,

they're, they're all for supporting the next generation. They might never work on their specific

car, but it's kind of painted forward, I guess, for the industry and helping kids take that next

time. That's, that's, I can't speak to every shop teacher, but that's, I mean, if I had a roadster

shop chassis every year, you know, I'm like, what could I do with that with kids? You know,

it's like, I could use it as a teaching tool every day. You know, we got a dyno this last year,

we fundraised for it and the kids raised $20,000 for the dyno from Tillamette County.

That's crazy. And then I went after grants with our grant writer and she found me the other 40

that I needed. So $60,000 for a Mustang dyno. And we got the cheapest two wheel drive dyno we could,

but I'm worried that, you know, the kids might get told one day they can't race. And I was like,

as a teacher, I don't want to disappoint them for kids that are younger, that are like thriving to

get behind the wheel of a 10 second car. I'm like, we can do it on the dyno. We could strap that thing

down and we could do some polls. And so now they got to get so many polls on the dyno before they

get to go on the track. Cause I'm scared to death that kids going to go into a wall one day. And

this is all done. You know, it's all over. You know, the race, race team is dissolved at that

point. And so I'm trying to just continue to come up with ways with my team and my coaches on how

can we keep this going? How can we keep it functioning? I gave up the head coaching job at

the high school because I was like, man, this is, this is where I want to put my time. Yeah. And

my wife still needs to see me. And I need to be around. Do you guys run any sort of Instagram

page for the school or for the class? So I try to pass the social media off to the kids. Okay.

And I haven't had a good, I haven't had a person really jump on that yet, which is just amazing

because they're all on their damn phones. I'll see you. Yeah, I think they'd be pretty good at

it. We did get an Instagram page started about two years ago. And I don't, I think it has two

followers. We're pretty big on Facebook. We have a pretty good, I think almost 1000 followers on

Facebook now or some parents, right? And that's yeah, probably most of my parents and community

members, but you know, it's like, yeah, we got to do a better job of the social media side of it.

I mean, if I had any advice to be to really buckle down on that, maybe between YouTube

and Instagram, especially, I think you'd be shocked at the people that would come on board

industry, you know, big manufacturers and guys willing to donate some product.

Everybody's got a good heart in this industry, but the end of the day, they're also in business,

right? So they want to see that product placed. So, you know, if you've got that following,

and you've got that, you know, sort of public outlet, I think you'd be shocked at what would

come your way. Yeah. No, that's the next step for us. I mean, getting to come on this and see all

these other, you know, social media is that these people are running. I was like, yeah, it's time

to step up our game. You know, we've got to be somebody listening to kid student right now,

even if they don't want to get into the auto body program, they could get in the auto body

program to run the social media, social media influencer, the marketing side of things. There's

all kinds of stuff. And that is, I mean, that's a skill set in and of itself percent. I think

that create a nice little spiral for you of you can post stuff, companies have a spot where they

can show. And then they would also be reposting it, which would get you in front of a huge audience

that would just probably keep coming back. And yeah, I think this this podcast probably hits

you pretty hard in the feel goods and it does. You want to make something happen? I hope it comes

across as as as it as it feels in the studio right now. Because this that's an amazing individual.

And he was he was taught and learned those things by an amazing individual. And you guys are

fucking awesome. I mean, I had no idea what to expect coming in to it. But such good people.

And do it for the right reasons. And like, yeah, hit on all levels of do this, do this, do this.

We've come to standard questions time. That's where we ask the standard questions.

It's great name, super creative, self explanatory. Yeah, we change it up every so often.

First up, we're going to go to one of the newer ones. And we're going to start with the newer one

first. Both of you guys. So

money hits. You're successful.

You have absolutely no budget concerns. You can pay somebody to build you a car. Who is it? And

boss might fire me. I think my ultimate dream car is a

61 Galaxy. I think I'd have a 61 Galaxy built by Rad Rides. Okay. Well, have you seen the Lincoln

that you guys built? Yes, I have seen that. You just keep it at home. Let J rod build you a galaxy.

Because that Lincoln is nuts. Yeah. And by the time you can afford Rad Rides,

it's gonna be Adam Banks, right? So you're gonna have Adam Banks build you a galaxy.

You're right. I'll just have Jared build it and then I can boss everyone around and make sure it

does my way. 63 you said 61 61. Sorry. Good car. Be cool.

61 F 100 unibody.

Chip foos. Okay.

Yeah. Show car. Some fancy slick patina. Oh slammed. Okay. Whippled coyote.

Chip ain't building no patina truck. He's telling me it ain't gonna happen. Yeah,

he'd draw it. But then he's somebody else is building it. I can already see it. Like shiny wheels,

orange line, not a red line white. Oh, in the render. Yeah, I see that.

I love a unibody truck. Man, I love a unibody. Okay. Great answers. Love that.

I think I'm gonna have to change the question. Other than Troy. Other than Troy. Yeah, that's

the way I'm gonna have. I'm so sick. No, you said like unlimited budget. Who's gonna build it?

Troy's the past surpasses the budget. I capped it and unlimited. We can't get away from Troy. No,

this last week. This last week and we're out at a wedding in West Palm Beach. And all of a sudden,

there's this dude at the wedding attending the wedding. This was like the night before. We're

in a fucking rat rides collared shirt. So to rehearsal dinner. Yeah. And I'm like,

where'd you get that shirt, dude? And then he just goes into it that he grew up with Troy lives in

his wife was best friends with Troy's wife. They grew up. And then I got like the rundown

on every Troy, every car choice ever built. You know who he hadn't ever heard of?

Rutgers shop ever. But you know, he knew everything about old Troy. We got to hear about it for two

hours. He's from Mantino. They probably have internet yet down there. Yeah, I'm sick of hearing

about it. Yeah, I know. You said you said that I can't believe you wore a rad rides shirt to

as it came out of mouth. I realized how expensive that was a $1,200 button up,

of course he was going to wear it from land. The Troy CNC machine to the embroidery machine.

I was sorry. It was texting that night was we were texting Adam and Troy. And so Adam started

texting back and it was like 830. So he said, well, Troy will get to this in the morning because

he's been in bed for four hours. Yeah, what a random. We see him coming and you're like,

that's right. So the best part about it is no disrespect to this guy. But he was very passionate

about telling the story. And Josh knew instantly as soon as he started telling the story. And

Josh, I think prompted him with it. And then Josh decided to remove himself from the conversation

about the smoke at which point I got the entire timeline of Troy's career from basically birth

until current. So I think it was it was this is exactly how we'll go quick. This is how it went

down. We're sitting down, finishing up dinner, the four of us, us two and our wives, and a couple

of people had sat down and had some drinks and we're sitting in this little half restaurant,

half bar, and there's a glass hallway that comes in. So we see this guy come in and he's got a rad

ride shirt. He's nudging me. He's like, is the history of Troy as long as this lead up? No, it's

just so the dude says, Hey, he's like, Hey, he's got a rad ride. So he guy comes in. So I say, Hey,

is that a rad ride by Troy shirt? And he says, Actually, it is. As he's coming in, I'm getting up

and I go out. And so I don't even know where he prefaced the story where it ended. But I stayed,

I actually watched until the conversation was done. Then I came in. But it ran on. It ran on for a

while. Talk about Troy falling off the paint booth. No, we touched, we touched on it. Key.

All right, next up, favorite car movie.

I go first on this one. Yeah, favorite tic-tac dance with a car behind it.

Dude, you guys would get along in our shop so well.

I got to go with Nicholas Cage and God in 60 seconds. That's by and far the leader.

This came on heavy in the last few episodes as well. Yeah, we were talking before the podcast

that he had no idea what that movie was. It's true. Really? Start watching the first 20 minutes

of the first time last night. Did you push that? Nick Cage making a comeback. See that like Madden

movie or something? Yeah, he's not Madden, but he is Madden. Yeah, he's John Madden. Yeah,

put on a few LBs for that one. Yeah, they didn't cast Shane Gillis for that. No, no.

Yeah.

Gone in 60 seconds. Days and confused.

Solid pull. Solid pull. Love it. Yeah, that's good.

For you, that must feel like the like the 60s. Yeah, for the 1800s. Like covered wagon era.

For us, it was like that maybe just kind of happened. It was like six or seven years ago.

One generation ish away. Solid movie. Yeah, it's a good movie.

If you were not doing what you're doing right now for an actual living, what would it be?

I'd probably be a youth pastor. I wasn't teaching. Okay.

I think I would do like engine machining, big power, machine shop, kind of like we got a local

guy. Gosh, what's his name? I'm drawing a blank. Markey. No. Engine machinist Tyson's.

Oh, Dieter. Dieter. Yeah. Dieter, older guy, small shop, awesome little machine shop in a nook.

You would never be able to find it. You opened this tiny little garage guys. Gosh, he's pushing

late 80s. He's 85. And just the coolest little shop. I think that's something I would partake in.

That's awesome. Yeah. A lot of repeat business keeps coming back.

Just with the big horsepower stuff. Yeah. Do you think this will hold?

Absolutely. Oh, yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't. I know what to do next time.

Is he doing big horsepower stuff or is it more? I don't think so. I think it's a lot of rebuild.

But he does his own personal stuff, big horsepower. He's got a little dyno room,

like a Chevy 430 that makes 800 horsepower for no reason.

It's cool. I used to do back in his younger days. He used to talk about going down to the Salt Flats

and doing a lot of racing down there. Yeah, he's not in it much longer. He's one of the

best engine builders in all the West Coast. People come from all over the West Coast to this guy.

So we're lucky to have have him right there in our backyard for sure.

Next up, fan favorite that was started up last year.

Your most memorable law enforcement interaction story.

Go first. I want to know what yours is. You're too square for this to be good.

Did law enforcement get involved in this most recent Honda Civic

situation or did they evade the... I'm avoiding that conversation until I get home tomorrow.

He was at his dad's church and they had a lock-in and the cop showed up. He's like,

no way. We're just doing a lock-in. Everything's good. And they showed up asking for a donation.

I got a pretty good one. Yeah, I don't know if anybody knows this one.

None of my students do. That's for sure. They'll all know it. But my mom does.

She knows about it. I was cruising around in a Toyota Tacoma.

I was ripping through a school zone back in Tillamuck and I cop sitting here just naturally

driving and I pass her doing 50 in the school zone. Immediately just pull over and wait for her.

She pulls out and she comes around and comes up to the window and

I was like, I have a pistol in the glove box. It's an air pistol, but there's a pistol in there

and it looks real because I spray painted the tip of it black. A lot of information.

She's like, okay, well, can you step out of the vehicle? So I step out. She gets that out and

anyway, she has me. She's like, you're good. You can get back in. I'm going to go run your

license and registration and so I pull out my phone real quick and I call my home number.

I'm on speakerphone right here and I'm like, mom, tell the cop that grandma's in the hospital.

And dead, dead serious. And my mom's like, what? And I'm like, just tell her she's in the hospital.

So long story short here. I hung up. Cop comes back. I told her my grandma's in the hospital.

Speeding to get to the hospital and she knows my mom. So she makes a phone call home and

mom says, no, grandma's not in the hospital. I figured snitch. You just send him home and

we'll take care of it and write him a ticket, whatever you need to do. And so she comes back

and she's like, I know your mom real well and I'm not going to write you a ticket because I

didn't get you on radar or anything. I have no proof, but I think your parents are going to

take care of it. You need to head right home. I just got off the phone with your mom. Damn it.

So I went home with tail between my legs and I was 16. I just got my license and only had it for

three days. And yeah, parents took it away and everything. Yeah, I was super embarrassed by it

because I thought I could get away with that. I really did. I thought my brother would pick up

or somebody and they'd cover for me. Right. One little lie. No big deal. And I was already

committed once I made the phone call I felt. So yeah, that's my that's my best one that I got

that comes to mind right off the bat. Didn't work out well for me. Best piece of advice

in case anybody's wondering when you know you're caught, just go ahead and give it up. Just give

it up. Be honest. I hope my son's listening right now. That's piece of advice. I've tried to give

him. It's good. It's fun. I had a pretty good personality building moment that involved the

police. Good craftsmanship there. I've had a few of those. Yeah, same deal. 16 hadn't had my license

very long. I could have built my personality without the cuffs, but they thought I needed them.

It was late at night and our town is the smallest and most boring town ever. So

me and my friends are trying to find something entertaining to do. Ended up at the grade school.

It was probably 1 30 in the morning. I don't know why we were even out.

Board teenagers. Yeah, exactly. Worst. Well, there's we're sitting there and under this nice

awning, it's raining outside and there's this most beautiful manicured baseball field

out there. You're about to answer my question. Kids still do it. I chose to create the biggest

crop circles with my little pickup out there. Just half an hour wide open throttle, like built

trenches for those little kids. The sound that that makes in the wheel. The smell of the burning

on the exhaust. Do it tonight. Went home and it was probably I didn't sleep that night at all. I

knew as soon as I got home, like reality said in that I just did donuts at a grade school and I

was going to be in trouble. About a week went by. Thought I was scot free. Totally forgot about it.

Was home sick and detectives on it. They tracked you down. I get a I get a text from a friend.

They're like, Hey, we're in begin shop class. And they're the deans like with a police officer

looking for you. Now I'm like my mind's racing. And then I realized like, Oh, no, throttle stuck.

And the steering locked. I realized right away, ran out, told my mom just came clean,

told her what happened. And then the police ended up, I think it was the school or the police called

her and informed her. It was it was a struggle. They threatened me with a couple felonies as a

government property, technically. And yeah, they say a lot of things. Yeah, I got away with it,

because I wrote a letter to the school, cleaned it up myself, and they couldn't see my face on

the camera. So they couldn't really prove it to me. The old lawn jobs. It was pretty, it was pretty

cool. It's proud of that one. It's a it's a rite of passage, I think, for a lot of kids.

We've we've laughed about it amongst the three of us for years, reminiscing on old stories.

And then the funny part is, is now being a homeowner, an adult homeowner. Yeah. The

I don't know how you fix it. I'd move.

We had a yard. Now we don't have a yard. Think about I mean, seriously, what do we we've got?

We've got we live on the corner right there. And throughout the this last year, we've had a new

people moved in down the street. And they have, they took the summer to kind of learn the turn

the first apex and it cut like getting up on the shoulder there a little bit.

Oh, yeah, just like, just the shortest path through the corner, just cut it off. Right.

I think about it every time I come to your house. Yeah.

So it's a long way home. They rutted up that that corner pretty decent. Yep. So

the great community that we live in, Hawthorne Woods does a pretty good job. So right before

winter, greatest time to do it right before winter, they come in and they spike strip,

they know they dig all this out and they resotted everything, make it all nice, right?

Perfect time for that huge snowstorm that we had that dumped all that snow, snow plows come through

and peel all that up. So now it's now it's a worse pile in the corner. So that little bit of

that like aggravation when I come home, like, this got to be fixed, like we get there,

got to be something right there on that corner to be done. I can't imagine my frustration.

Yeah. But I it's a it's a weird place to be at our age to be homeowners that want to take care

of your property and also know how much fun it is to do that. Trust me. It is. I fight it with

everything I have almost every time I come by your house to not do you live. Josh lives on a corner

a lot. If it was a huge, beautiful lawn, you've got a little bit of a culvert to deal with.

If that culvert wasn't there, be honest. Well, because then I could carry speed and the culvert

is probably the deterrent. Exactly. If that culvert wasn't there, you would have already done it.

A hundred percent. Would you have taken credit for it? Yes.

Put a bing on the ring doorbell. It's already bad enough when you and Wyatt come through there,

little two amateur Hell's Angels on the dirt bikes all the way through.

Just own it, though. That's just that. That's the best thing they can do. Live and learn.

Yeah. That was a big that was a good lesson. I think my biggest savior was like my dad got in

trouble with cops doing the same thing right about my age, too. So you can only be so mad,

you know, look at your son. I think he was a little proud to be honest. It's hard to have

conversation now. Yeah. He said, what? I've been there.

You know, we just you have to have those conversations with parents.

I don't deal much with parents. I didn't sports. I did a ton. That's kind of what pushed me out a

little bit. But in the mechanics program, the biggest thing is just parents thinking their

kids can do a full build, you know, and just like, hey, I drop a car off and come back finished.

Yeah, you know, yeah. And so just getting them to understand that where their kids at and what

ability level we have as a class. And so I wish I had more space so kids could keep

projects there longer. But they got to kind of get them in and get them out. And that that works

out, too. Just for everybody's listening, we're not doing first car tonight. It doesn't he did

his first car. He hasn't bought one yet. His first car was a 2023 something. It was two years ago.

Right. So yes, it just doesn't work. So sometimes we do it. And tonight we're not doing it. Just

letting everybody know. You start asking, why didn't you do this? I was aware of it. I thought

about it. We decided not to do it. However, we'll mix it up a little bit off the off the cuff, right?

The whatever vehicle it is that you're driving now, you're headed to work. But this is a question

for both of you headed to work. It's one of those mornings, you're like, kind of jazzed up ready

to get to work, ready to get there and teach those kids. What's the go to pump me up song that you're

popping in? It's gonna be Cardi B something. Yes. I mean, I'm interested. That's a good question.

What are you trying to create? What vibe are you trying? You're trying to come in and kick some

ass or like just good mood, good mood vibes, good vibes, maybe kick, maybe kick a little ass politely,

you know, good mood kicking ass. Yeah, rocking stuff out. Yeah. Like, you know what, today's

going to be a good day. Let's get after it. You're not going to make us sing it, right? No,

highway depends on what it is. Paradise city. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's good that opening. It is.

It's really good. First of that's pretty solid. That would be rocking.

There's a few of us at the shop every morning. We go to the gym and I drive Jared every morning

and he has yet to let me forget that I was listening to Beyonce, whatever song she's like,

to the left. Oh, that's pretty bad. It's real bad. So I'd say, yeah, Beyonce.

Wow. At least you own it. Fire someone up. Yeah. Phil's got a habit of like daughters songs kicking

on in the car. It's been a while since that happened, but you were on like a pretty good run

of that. It was a big Taylor Swift. Yeah, like every time we're in the car. I will.

You're missing me and my son. Listen, I think you just use that excuse a lot. No, it wasn't the

song. No, yeah. Cam is listening to Jay-Z. Speaking of the Jay-Z, and you mentioned Beyonce.

The Jay-Z. The Jay-Z. I have a, there's one, this isn't like a, hey, I want to feel good.

There's a time. I get into a certain mood, right? And I go to the same song every single time because

there's a couple of hooks in there and lines that I like. And I listen to 99 problems. All right.

Way more than I should. In when? What are you trying to set the mood for? What do you

do? There's just a little bit of an aggression vibe. There's a little bit of an aggression vibe

that I need to like, yeah, it's, I do the gym a lot. I didn't know that about you. Yeah. I'd say

it's probably once a week, if you want to be honest with it. It's once a week. Yeah.

Yeah. If I don't listen to it once a week, it's a problem.

What's your pump me up song? Pump me up song for me.

It's not, I don't have a standard. No, no, no, there's not one standard. There'll be,

at different times, I'm like, man, I want to listen to something good and different things will

pop in. I go to, I go to give me three steps. Leonard Skinner, a lot. Good.

Spoken like a true Southern redneck. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to deny that. I did most of the

go-tos are definitely going to be in the dirty Southern rock. Fortunate son.

Yeah. That's when you're ready to get after it too. That's our president likes that one too.

He put that one in the last tweet about three days ago. Then,

yeah, a lot of skinner, a lot. There's different skinners that you go to for. I ain't the one.

That's a good one.

All right. You want to, all right. Well, 100%. Now I figured it out. Just hit

it. All the time. Okay. This is the go-to because I can sing it really, really good.

It sounds great. I'm not selling. I'm not telling you because you're going to make fun of me about

it. I think you should just sing it. Yeah. You can't build up like that. I'm not delivered.

If you like it, then you should. Brooks and Dunne, hardworking man. Okay.

I see you singing it. The wind has come down on that one.

Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy is also another one. That's a good sing-along.

It is a good sing-along if you know the words. Toby Keith's got some good sing-alongs.

You go pretty hard on Fancy. Don't Reba? No, Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy is big and rich.

Big and rich. You're right. I'm thinking it should have been a cowboy.

No, that's a good one too. It should have been a cowboy. It's a sing-along for sure.

That's a later night. That's coming home from work. The wind is down. What's your go-to pump?

It depends on what you're getting pumped up for. I think General Good Mood, Pump Me Up Song,

Hotel Yorba, White Stripes. It just sets the tone. Yeah. But like kick and ass,

probably Pantera yesterday don't mean shit. That's like if you just want to destroy something,

you can lift at least 50 pounds more listening to that song. Try it. Which song?

Yesterday Don't Mean Shit. Yesterday Don't Mean Shit. If you're going for like a PR,

I bet I'd bench-press 2,000 pounds listening to that. Because of Mike, he said the same thing.

Really? Yeah, he's full of shit, but I believe. Maybe he was listening to that song.

Yesterday Don't Mean Shit. All right, I'll go to it. It's a great song. Yeah.

You like Hotel Yorba. I like that Iggy Thump. Love Iggy Thump.

That's a good jam. So which Eminem song? For you. That's still a collapse, maybe.

I got a pretty wide range, depends on what I'm into at the time. Yeah.

311, it's an old school. Yeah, 311 coming like a nightmare. A little rage against the machine

from now on. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Or One Day as a Lion. It's a Zack De La Roca's Next Band.

Oh, OK. It was one album. They had like three or four really, really good songs.

Yeah, Rage gets it done, though. Yeah, I'll fuck you up.

I'm thinking about it now. Smashing Pumpkin. Oh, I get that. Symphony of Destruction.

I haven't listened to that in a long time. Hard to get Symphony of Destruction.

You know that one? Nope. Oh, my God. I never was into it. One of the Jeremy McGrath Super

Cross videos. Yeah. OK. It starts out with like a legit symphony and it's like...

It's good. I'll have to find it. I've never, I like that stuff when I hear it sometimes,

but it's never been my jam. Like any type of hit. You don't like any other songs from them, but yeah.

Yeah. I've gone down a rabbit hole the last few weeks on some stuff. It's weird.

What are you getting into? No, I'm not going to talk about it. It's just,

it's been things that are not in my... One that you brought up just last night was scrolling

through Facebook. Sam Donald or Sam Donaldson did a cover of Highway to the Danger Zone.

It's awesome. Really? Yeah. It's like a dark country Highway to the Danger Zone.

There is a new Spotify playlist that is The Songs of Landman.

OK. They do a lot. There's a lot of Coulter Wall and Charlie Crockett and stuff on there.

It's a phenomenal multi genre list. It's only the songs have been played on every episode,

but you'll go through there. There is probably three artists that I've never heard of before

that you're like that. She sounds awesome. He sounds awesome. Then you start going down there.

Some good stuff. But yeah, I've also gone down. I'm listening to way more...

90s rap. No. It's his wife. Worse. Newer. Like stuff. Like collabs.

Like what? Give me an example. Yeah. There's a guy named Big X the Plug.

Right. And he does. Thanks for listening to us.

He's got these collabs with these country artists and the words are just like

it's fun to listen to. He's got some bangers. It's he's... That's why. Because he's a lyricist.

Can you get this from Maddox, probably? No. I don't think they even know.

Maddox doesn't listen to anything but fucking 70s rock. Really? Yeah.

Yeah. That's why she's never gonna find a man. She listens to... She's an old soul. She listens to

Fleetwood Mac, Scannard, CCR, and then back to Fleetwood Mac. It's your daughter.

She's awesome. I love... She's gonna find the right type of person because she's cultured.

What if your daughter brought home somebody like you and introduced him?

That'd be tough. Be tough. I'd be torn. It'd be tough to find another one.

That's damn... You damn straight. No truer words have ever been said.

Absolutely amazing, guys. We had to ruin it there at the end. There was too much feel goods.

We had to make it known that we were bad people. I didn't want people to start

confusing me. Those guys are kind of going soft. We have better people on, right? It's like

monster ballads. Remember that? Every bad boy is so excited. Every rose has a storm. That's right.

It's a great song, too. Jordy loved me singing that one. She'll turn it up. Go ahead. Go ahead.

She'll wait because I get a little bit of arm movement in. I'll give you... You know what? I'll

do some videos next time I do some singing and I'll... Please do. I'll send them your way. Please do.

We're going to put your contact information up right there at the bottom of the thing where

people can see it. I think that regardless, oil and whiskey, road to shop, the three of us, we're

going to figure out a way specifically on some tools. Something. I don't know what that is.

A tool. I'm going to send a tool. A single Crescent wrench. You mentioned Crescent.

Speaking of Crescent, here's a Crescent wrench. Any project you guys are working on next? Is a

drag car still going or is it onto the next one? We got six seniors this year. They got a little

money saved up, but they were about ready to hit senioritis. I don't think we're going to start

any new project this year. Try to finish out the Mustang, get some few things dialed in on that

form, and then that's actually never made a pass down the track completely. The kids really want

to get that to the racetrack this spring. The rear floors are kind of messed up.

Besides the senior that's going to work for his dad, those other five seniors, they got

job placement stuff figured out. They know what they're going to go do. They know path.

They're close. I got one that we're sending out to a tuning shop in Portland next week and

going to spend the night out there. The other ones are a little bit more on the fence on what

they want to do, but we'll keep pushing them. Try to get them an opportunity. I think the next

project will come next year when next year is going to be a whole new group. They're knocking

at the door waiting to get in. My young kids are real excited to be a part of this. Next year,

I think I'll be full-time mechanics. I'll be offering a new class next year for freshmen,

so just pull them in right then and get them an opportunity. If there's anything we could

ever do for you, then reach out. We get a lot to offer from engineering help. If we want to

send a guy out here, we'd be happy to come out by you at some point. I've never been invited back

to my high school shockingly, but maybe there's an opportunity to go to another one. I will see.

Yeah, but on your end, I think you seem like you're a little apprehensive on reaching out to

a lot of these companies. I'm going to meet with Jay Rod and how big of a thing that is.

I think everybody in our industry really needs guys, and they want that kind of young energetic

crowd that wants to do something. I would say to you, reach out to as many of them as possible,

and I'm sure there'll be a lot of guys biting to help you along the way. Yeah. It's

Seema's really opened that door for us. If you guys send a rep up there to that

student program, they offer a student program networking breakfast. This year was really cool.

We finally had some shops up there. So some kids got to talk to some shops and look at their books

on some cars they built. Before it's been just some wheels and tires people. I'm hoping Seema will

get somebody in there as a guest speaker that these kids can relate to. That's getting the

opportunity to come here. There's folks from Seema that listen to this podcast and you're

giving us some good ideas. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of my kids listen to this. This is what they

like. You know, they have to remember that. We don't watch it. We don't watch it in class.

Usually you try being a better, better influence. I will. Yeah. After this podcast, New Year's

Resolution. Landon, keep kicking ass. You got you are headed for greatness. You're in a great

shop and a lot of super talented guys there. So stick with it. Johnny, you keep doing what

you're doing. I mean, absolutely. No bullshit. You're both amazing people and what you're doing

for these kids is absolutely amazing. Thanks to the students that made us the this was a team

effort, I'm sure. Very cool. We've got fab shop. We've got wood shop. It's a really, really cool

right on brand, right on theme matches the damn look at that. Perfect.

Thanks to Jared at G rod at J rod. Thanks to Jared at J rod for the Weller 12 barely touch

your apple juice and the apple. He's got another couple of years, a little cinnamon stick and

some bourbon in that. Yeah, exactly. Money. We're not going to do a review on the Weller 12

because we've done that several times. It's a staple. It's one of the go to how does good as

it gets. It's absolutely about as good. It's it's it's Weller 12. Get some. He could have done better.

No, great. Very, very few above that. That's pretty damn good. Just suck on that apple.

Back to scraping undercoding when you get back. We'll see you again next week.

About this episode

John Begin and Landen Manley discuss the transformative power of automotive education at Tillamook High School. John, an automotive teacher, shares his journey of reviving the school's mechanics program and inspiring students like Landen, who now works at J-Rod Custom. They highlight the importance of hands-on learning, mentorship, and the unique experiences at events like SEMA. The episode emphasizes the impact of passionate educators and the potential for students to thrive in the automotive industry, showcasing their projects and personal growth.

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Original notes

This week on Oil & Whiskey, we’re joined by Landen Manley and Mr. Begin for a conversation about automotive education and what happens when it actually works.Landen is a former student of the automotive program at Tillamook High School and is now working in the industry at JRod & Customs. Mr. Begin is the teacher who helped build the program and guide students toward real opportunities beyond the classroom.The episode dives into how hands-on education can lead to real careers, the importance of mentorship, and what it takes to prepare the next generation for work in the automotive world.

Donations Can Be Made Via Venmo @THSDRAGTEAM or Checks can be sent to:Tillamook High School foundation (501c3) Attn: Johnny Begin (Drag Racing Team) 2510 1st Street, Tillamook OR 97141

Follow https://www.facebook.com/people/THS-Drag-Racing-Team/100069010405778/

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