Driven Radio Show #319: Larry Elliott, Hot Rod Builder

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Let's rev up the conversation.

Time for Driven Radio Show.

Hey, all you gear heads and carpeans, welcome to Driven Radio Show, your weekly automotive

happy hour.

I am Brad Hatfield here with my co-host and engineer extraordinaire, Mr. Mark Groves.

That's me.

I'm coming to you from Driven Radio Studios, where we're seeing a little bit of an unusual,

I wouldn't call it a cold snap.

It's a cool snap, but it's not blistering hot like it has been for months leading up to

this.

Thank God.

Yeah, it's a, you know, it's a little thick, but I'll take it, man, when I can roll

down the windows and not, you know, wish I was dead.

Yeah, I'm on it.

Well, I had all the cars out of the garage, had the soft tail out of it, had nasty

out of the garage, getting stuff cleaned up and playing with my toys and all that good

stuff.

Dude, nice.

And you've got one toy.

I'm down one toy, sorta.

What do you mean?

So I had everybody and their mother make, here's a lesson to you folks.

If you ever try to sell anything on Facebook marketplace, don't add the tag or interesting

trades.

Yeah, because on that on that 2002 heritage classic on Elwood, because he's blue, I put

or interesting trades and I had guys offer to trade me out.

Well, one was a $9000 FLIR hunting scope.

What?

Yeah.

Oh my.

Yeah.

Okay.

So the hitch with that never been hunting, never going to go hunting.

I target shoot plenty, but I don't need a knife.

I didn't even know there was such thing as a $9000 damn scope.

But this guy wanted to trade straight up.

I said, sorry, sir, gonna have to pass.

Had a guy offered to trade me $3,500 and what the hell did he have?

Yeah.

I've got a lot of strange offers, but the offer that came through that made the

most sense to me is one that I've been trying to get done for a long time.

It was my son.

I remember I sold one Harley off from under him last year.

Oh, okay.

And my son in law, Kevin, and he saw this thing and again, Elwood, the Harley is

bright blue and I've got all my US Navy stuff on it.

Yeah.

And he saw it and he said, you know, it's perfect except for the Navy.

Well, hell, he was in the Air Force.

And I said, Kevin, they make Air Force stuff.

We can swap that out.

That's not that big a deal.

And he said, what kind of a deal would you cut me on this?

And I cut him the stupidest deal of all time.

You gave him the family discount.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And hell.

Way, way discount.

And then.

And then just to sweeten the deal and I knew I would have to do this to

convince my daughter to bite.

Yeah.

I said, I'll carry the note for you.

Dang.

And he said, well, what do you have in mind?

I said, I don't know.

What can you afford?

What makes sense?

Yeah.

And he said, let me talk to Marissa.

I said, OK, fine.

Talk to Marissa.

That makes sense.

Work it out.

You two figured out three days later, he calls me back and tells me what he

could afford to do.

Yeah.

I said, you know, I really kind of figured you'd pay about half that.

Dude, nice.

And he said, really?

And I said, listen, just pay whatever.

I don't care.

I'm not charging you interest.

Yeah.

But here is the one hitch.

You must complete a motorcycle safety foundation.

Good on you.

Or I will let you throw a leg over this thing at all.

Also, he doesn't have his endorsement yet?

No.

I said, I'll help you get gear.

I'll help you get leathers.

I'll help you with everything else.

I'll find you Air Force stuff to swap out for my Navy stuff.

Yep.

You're a bit of that, but you got to take an MSF course before you can do anything.

You know, that did me a whirl of good, man.

Yeah.

You know, had I taken that test without having taken it, I'd have failed.

But I took my test at Johnson County Community College or took my course and it was a godsend

for a, you know, chunky suburbanite like myself who had never ridden bikes on streets.

He knows one of the guys who helps teach it for Rawhide.

Oh, no.

Oh, nice.

And you know, Rawhide's got a big indoor building.

They teach it through the wintertime.

Yeah, they do.

So anyway, that's the, that was the one caveat.

And yep, I got one of the bikes sold, but I'm still still a little iffy.

I really want to make sure that he takes the course and does well.

And Kevin's a big kid.

Yeah.

Big old Jim rat.

Yeah.

You know, he could pick you and me up together.

Nice.

No kidding.

So I'm not overly afraid about putting him on, you know, a classic right out of the door,

right out of from the jump.

But I think he'll be okay.

He'll take the class.

He'll be smart.

And I don't think he'll go do stupid stuff.

Yeah.

That's that's one of the big things.

I, you know, I was a very careful bike rider.

And I just, you know, that 1500 was a bit much for Marco.

Yeah.

Well, that, that gave me Jesus.

I haven't built that bike up too much.

Oh, I see that our guest is walking around showing off his own shit though.

That's me.

We're going to be talking about that in a second.

That works out.

But anyway, I got, I got Elwood sold, but it's not like it really left.

It's still sitting in my warehouse and I'm guessing that's where it's going

to continue to sit.

It's still in the family.

Yeah.

Well, he doesn't want to make you off.

I'll make it off.

You can't refuse.

No, seriously.

You can't.

The funny thing is, is that is exactly how my, my accountant sounds.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

Don Luigi Calioni.

Uh huh.

Chimichanga.

Yeah.

Good deal.

Mike, if you're listening, we love you.

I love you, Mike.

Anyway, uh, it's, it's sold, but it didn't really leave.

It's still sitting in the same spot.

It's going to continue to sit in the same spot.

It's still sitting right next to the road King.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, I still got soft tail upstairs, but one of the vehicles is gone.

Nice.

Now.

Yeah.

Similarly.

Speaking of vehicles gone, uh, you know, I've been whining for a few months now, uh,

about Sybil and the mistake made when I bought that new house that the garage was

too short.

And, uh, and, you know, you were kind enough to let me borrow your warehouse

for like three months.

Hey, there's just, there's a spot.

And I finally got Sybil out and had it parked in my driveway.

Had it tarped like, like it was the first time I had sex, man.

That thing was so protected.

But, um, I did have a list on FB for a while.

I got my own fair share of, well, what was it?

The one guy that wanted to do a low balmy, but was going to throw in a go-kart.

Uh, but it was a fast go-kart.

And God bless him.

You know, you got to try.

But really, would you explain to him, you're, my kids are in their 20s.

This isn't going to help me.

And when you're really, really, really clear about, uh, about, you know, what you'd will

at a trade.

Uh, anyway, so, uh, this young man had gotten hold of me, fella by the name of Colton.

And we talked a little bit on FB and talked a little bit about money.

He's like, Oh, would you be willing to go down to blah, blah, blah?

And I said, well, no, but I'll go, I'll go here.

This is my line.

And, uh, we talked a little bit more.

And then I went to, I, I took the car to, you know, Westport auto show.

I took it to a cars and coffee at the Kansas City Auto Museum.

That car really photographs well.

It is photogenic.

It's, it's like that hot chick that you see in all the photos.

Then you go up to her and you're like, oh, wow, you're photogenic.

But, uh, but she does look good in the driveway.

I won't kid you.

Colton, uh, went out to Greece Arama while I was there.

It came by and, uh, because I'd invited him and I didn't expect him

to show up to be honest.

You know, it's, it's FB.

It's Facebook.

But Colton was good to his word, showed up and we walked around

and then I let him just look at stuff, started it up and all this yada, yada.

And he was pretty interested.

I'm like, you know what, I let's make a time.

You got to come. You got to test drive it.

I saw the picture you posted.

Yeah, girlfriend or wife.

Wife. Wow.

I think the cutest couple.

Yeah, they're adorable.

You can see them on our Facebook page on driven radio.

So she's on board or she was totally on board.

You don't have to know.

There's no, I had to talk to wife.

He, uh, he came over to the house and test drove it.

I, and that was the only time I've ever been, uh, as a writer

or sat for any amount of time in the back seat.

It was surprisingly comfortable and, uh, actually looked like new.

Sybil performed well and we got back.

I left them alone to talk and about 15 minutes later, we shook hands

and Sybil has a new home now.

Listen, not everybody has a wife as cool as mine, where I holler

from one room.

Hey, do you mind if I buy whatever?

And she goes, yep, sure, whatever.

Of course, Rhonda's also used to, hey, she left town to go

see your mom for a couple of days and came home and there's

another Harley in the garage.

So that crap, that crap happens too.

And she's, uh, listen, I will brag about her forever.

But the one thing that she does that is super cool,

I, you know, I married a guy's girl and especially for a

gearhead, man, I will just spring stuff on her all the

freaking time and she never gives me any grief about it.

The flip side is girl, Daly's a Porsche Cayenne.

She can't bitch a whole lot.

So that's the best kind of Stockholm syndrome ever.

As long as she's got the stuff she likes and she gets to

wear shiny sparkly stuff and all that, I get free reign to do

whatever dumb thing I can think up and I'm pretty good at

thinking of dumb stuff.

Well, it's kind of cool too that, well, now that Sybil's

gone and she went to a good place, no, seriously, the

guy's going to take care of her and she went to a good

place.

It sounds like somebody's eulogy.

She's in a better place.

Rest you well.

But Colton, one of the things that I really liked about the

young man when I sold it to him was that he liked how

original it was.

It is.

Yeah, it is.

And that was that was any and it had God's gift of

cars that had a set of Craggers on it.

Absolutely.

So there you go.

So all right.

Yeah, that was it.

And it's off and now I'm on the hunt.

You're on the hunt.

I have one word for you.

Cuda, Cuda, Cuda, Cuda, Cuda, you know, I am looking and

makes your own chant, man.

I've got my own Google Doc, actually Google Sheet.

It's a spreadsheet that I'm collecting of vehicles in

it's how old they are.

It's the first thing and then what's the model?

Is it how long is that son of a bitch clear the damn

garage 205 inches or less and it's golden.

It goes over 205.

Only you would have a problem with that because

everything you look at has a land yacht and it needs to

it should have come with oars and an anchor.

I believe in stumbling toward victory.

So so there I am.

And you and you enjoy.

You know, there are a lot of great cars in this

world that only have two doors on them.

You know, we found one and most of those are

under 205 inches.

Yeah, yeah, I've I've actually

you should see my F.B.

Saved List and one of them from your F.B.

Saved List belongs to our guest this week.

A guy who is clearly too cool for school.

Our special guest this week is Larry Elliott.

He's a car customizer, fabricator, bike rider,

maybe a little bit of a lunatic.

Larry lives in Pueblo, Colorado, and he's

sitting in his garage right now.

And while we've been talking about bike stuff,

he's showing us around the garage of cool stuff.

He's got and Larry, thank you, sir,

for being one of the fold.

You're welcome, buddy.

And you know, you being a Navy man,

I had a bar down in South Texas and you

you need I need to know your shirt size

so I can send you a shirt because my

bar name was called what?

I have no idea.

Spill wasted semen.

Oh, that works.

No stain, no game.

No, it wasn't semen like that.

Oh, yeah, you know, kid, really?

Uh-huh.

And I put these ghosts of semen up there.

If you pull it up on Facebook, you can

you can there's a picture.

I'm afraid to do that, sir.

I'm going to wind up with 900 things

on my search that I don't need.

What the hell?

Good.

The shirts are funny as hell.

So I'll send you a shirt.

I need one.

I am a man of larger courage.

We will discuss that later.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, let's get into it.

What do you guys want to know about cars?

I think I've done pretty much everything.

First off, let's talk a little bit

about you and your history.

You know, when you were a kid,

how did you get to become a car dude?

What led you into loving vehicles?

Well, um, shop, auto shop and school,

which I wish they would still teach in high school,

but they don't do that anymore.

My dad had me out building motors

and everything else when I was really young.

I grew up on a farm in the country.

So we built tractors and we raced them

and pulling the sleds and stuff like that.

So by pulling the sled, do you mean car hood?

Oh, no, sleds.

Not my ex-wife, but a sled that, you know, runs up.

I got one of those critters too.

I'll tell you all about it.

It's a tractor pull.

So we built tractors to do that.

You know, just always was into cars and motorcycles.

I raced professional motocross for years.

Oh, wow.

And road raced, circle tracks.

I mean, just anything with cars I did.

Or bikes.

So, you know, that's kind of my background.

Gear head from my dad.

Nice.

Now what was your first car?

What was the first one where you got to go out

and drive it on the street and take a date?

This is fucking funny.

Okay.

My grandmother had a Plymouth valiant with a slant six in it.

I'm going to leave the road.

You and Mark are going to be fine.

At least there's no way you should get pregnant.

So hard in the side.

And my dad played a trick on me.

He goes, once you get done with this car.

And I said, are you freaking kidding me?

So I painted a giant target on it and I drove it.

And I said, I'll teach my dad.

I drained the oil out of it on a slant six.

Okay.

And put a brick on the throttle to try to blow it up.

It only ran three more months.

But my little car was.

So it took forever.

Hell-fraised, froze over.

And then finally blew.

And I got a 70 Mach 1 Mustang.

And four speed car with the shaker and all the slats and bloopers and shit.

But that was my first car.

This slant six Plymouth valiant smash.

That's sexy.

You know, I had a buddy who in high school, he kind of did like what your parents did with you.

He had a 66 Mustang that was a three speed six cylinder.

And he figured out a way to roll that on a highway over and over and over again.

He had a buddy of mine.

What do you mean figured out?

I was always trying to avoid that.

Yeah.

We weren't the brightest kids.

And that was back when trying to do a Rockford file, you know, hit your emergency brake and do the spin in the highway was a cool thing.

So what do they do to, you know, make sure that he has a vehicle to be able to get to high school,

but got him a 68 Mustang with a 351 in it.

They didn't like the kid.

They didn't want him to live.

I'm real curious about it.

They were older and maybe they were just really freaking tired.

But, you know, he graduated from the one car with the six.

I've been to something with some real Cajones.

So cool.

When did you start modifying the vehicles really as a craft?

Aside from draining the oil and dropping a brick on the gas.

Yeah.

And put painting targets on them or, oh, I built a car.

The first modification car I ever did is Dodge Plymouth 440 Corvette.

So we took 40 Corvette 68.

Damn.

Okay.

So we cut the roof off of it.

We lined it like a swimming pool.

We put a big shark fin on the back.

We painted the front with the shark mouth from the British fighter plane, you know, airplane.

Oh, yeah.

And black and white checkered on the top and put party naked on the doors.

Jesus Christ.

We drove that car around.

I got arrested every single time I drove that car.

Not a drop of alcohol involved.

Oh, no.

Tons of alcohol.

But back then, I mean, it's not like today.

If a cop pulled you over, oh, you're drinking, walk home.

Or we're going to arrest you.

Or if you weren't that drunk, you'll follow you home and then talk to your parents.

Yeah.

Or he'll take your beer and drink it for you later.

Correct.

And then they take all the alcohol and stuff and then they put it in their truck and take

it home.

Yep.

But I mean, it was a different time, a different era.

What year was that?

Was that 81 maybe?

82?

80s, late 70s, early 80s.

Yeah.

I've tried to explain to my daughters how awful the world is for them and how they don't get

away with anything and how they, you know, try to explain to them, no, I never got

a DUI.

I had to sit on a curb and watch a cop pour most of my beer out and then drink the rest.

And they don't get that.

They cannot comprehend that.

And I tell them, you guys get in trouble for everything.

Yeah.

When you're living in a zero-tolerance world, that's pretty harsh.

Yeah.

The cops would ball you out and they'd pour your beer out and then that was it.

Yeah.

But I agree with the, you know, mad mother's getting stroke drivers.

I agree with that.

But I think they've taken it to an extreme that shouldn't be there.

I mean, when we were kids, we had fun.

We were out at Woodsies.

We'd go out in the prairie, have bonfires, keggers, go cruise, milling.

Everybody had liquor.

And we, you know, we were home at a decent hour and we were all safe.

Now, if you went overget it, then, of course, then you'd get in trouble.

And then most of the time, they would just take you home to your parents,

which was not good.

Yeah.

Your parents would whoop your ass.

Yeah.

How many times you hear the phrase, wait till your father gets home.

Oh, shit.

Do I have a choice?

And currently my dad's listening to the show.

But I mean, you know, growing up in that time was a great time to grow up.

And you could just learn stuff and just experiment with all kinds of things.

And it was great.

So I think, I think we need to get back to some of that.

Mayberry type era.

What, what happened to the Plymouth, the 440 coordinate?

440 Plymouth with the shark fan on it.

Three times in it.

Because we make it driving around.

You missed that in the early part.

Way to save the lead.

Oh man.

I can't wait till the last question in this interview.

This is going to be awesome.

The car was packed full of people.

I mean, this was just like a giant hot tub on wheels because it's summertime.

So the tranny went out because, you know, when you cut the tops off of them,

it was a full frame car, but they tend to bow.

So the tranny started going out and all we had was reverse.

So all I could drive around is in reverse.

So we could get out to the reservoir and we sank it.

Oh Jesus Christ.

Oh, that's some down home shit, Larry.

Yeah.

You know, when you seek them in a lake, they don't grow coral for the little fishies.

You got to do that in the ocean.

The environment and, you know, get a little home for bass and you know,

you know, if you fish right over here, you just got to avoid the steering wheel.

Yeah.

Would you mind catching my wallet?

I think it's under the back seat.

Well, so when you when you may turn started turning it into a career,

what was your first car related job?

Well, the first car I ever did was a.

What the hell was it?

I know what it was.

It was 68 Mustang.

We turned it into a California special, but the Cougar tail lights on it,

you know, California specials came with that, put all the scoops on it,

painted it blue with white stripes.

That was that was kind of the first car I ever did.

My uncle did a body shop up in Greenlea, Colorado.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It was for Glen paint body and van conversions.

So I went to college up there at UNC and that's where I got that car.

The second car was a 68 Cougar 390 GT 390 car, big block car.

Nice.

Then I had a 455 Trans Am.

Now, what was your job?

What were you doing to them?

What was your role in all of that?

Well, just restored them, painting them and not going as crazy as we did

on the Vega.

Yeah.

But just just kind of building them and restoring them, you know,

making them nice and pretty.

So you did it from stem to stern, from body to to tech,

wiring the whole nine yards.

Oh, yeah.

Everything.

Damn.

Nice.

Well, how many cars have you owned?

Do you think overall?

Plus years.

How many you got?

21.

Holy.

22.

Nice.

So you currently have 22.

We do.

If you had to take a stab at lifetime, what do you think north of?

I'm guessing, well, north of a hundred.

Oh, yeah.

I've got an 86, 326 GTSI Ferrari, the Magnum PI Ferrari,

328 GTSI, and 86, 328 GTSI Ferrari.

I've got that.

That's worth a hundred.

Yeah.

Plus, but I always wanted that car.

I mean, that's one car I always wanted because I think it's art

and it's a beautiful car.

It's really the last analog Ferrari.

It's the last one before they had lots of other things in their

seating in the way the car ran.

Right.

So now we're into trucks.

Okay.

Pickups.

So we built a 49 Chevy.

I mean, frame off.

The whole frame we did.

We built the whole frame.

Four-link suspension, 350, modified 350, of course,

and stretch it two inches wide on the fender wells,

put it made it a five-window.

It had the single little rear window in it,

and there's pitch you can buy and you can make a five-window.

Is that the one you sent me the pictures of earlier today

on the phone, the red and white?

Yeah.

That's amazing and the kits for the windows,

because I was like, good God, that glass looks great,

especially for the curved glass on the corners of the cab.

But that's a kit.

That's a kit.

You can buy it and put them in any Ford.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, that's 49 Chevy.

Yeah.

So just you got to help me out here a little bit.

What years did they have the big wrap around rear window?

The big wrap around rear window is about the same timeframe

like in the 50s.

I think they came out in the 50s.

I don't think they were in the 40s.

I think it was 51 or 52.

OK.

They started a big wrap around window,

kind of like the front glass in a Bronco.

Yeah.

Like your friend wants.

I got a full-sized Bronco.

No, no.

Not my friend.

It's me.

Yeah.

This is my friend.

This is the guy I was telling you about.

I sold the world's slickest 1990 Bronco a few years ago.

Really?

Oh, absolutely.

It was too pretty.

And I tracked it down a couple of years ago.

I tracked the guy who bought it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You had to go and show me that, didn't you?

I tracked him a guy who bought it.

And I offered him 10,000 more than he paid for it.

And he invited me to go piss up a rope.

So I couldn't get my Bronco back.

But oh, man, I really, really loved that truck.

And it was so pretty and so glossy black.

And it rode great, too.

I rode in it once.

And that was when we first met at the radio stations

when I was working there.

And that thing was a hell of a ride.

Well, and the train horns that were in it.

Weren't electric.

They ran off compressed air and there was a holding tank

underneath the truck.

And I would just save that for, you know,

people who were texting in traffic or people who drove Priuses.

Now, Larry, what are you going to do with that Bronco?

Or do to it, should I say?

We're going to build it and sell it.

Build it what way?

What's your plan?

Come on.

Give us a little hint.

Tease me, Larry.

Give us a taste.

Okay, we're going to go black.

Have you guys ever heard of the freewheeling Bronco stripes?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, this one was red with the freewheeling Bronco stripes.

We're going to make it black with them same stripes

and sell it.

Anyway, I could get you to paint it black with a giant gray

center stripe down the side and some red pen stripes.

I'll send you pictures.

We could do that.

Okay, so the freewheeling, for those of us that like me that

just had to look it up real fast, the freewheeling stripes

are the kind of Mesa colors, the orange and yellow.

The orange and red and, you know, the crazy yellow.

But this freewheeling Bronco came with other things like

the triple shocks, you know, the strut with the two

shocks on the side.

And it was really a four-wheel drive package.

Yeah.

It was a special edition XLT Ranger that came with that

and started in 78.

Yeah.

On the first year big body.

Yeah.

What's under the hood?

It's a 390.

Oh, Larry, you're killing me.

Oh, is this an automatic, is it a C6 or a four-speed?

It's an automatic.

No stick.

Well, yeah, but the time in between, somebody could have

any stinking thing to it they wanted.

Well, when we get into the Vega, you're going to hear

that freaking story.

No, no, no.

And I've got some real specific questions about the Vega

because I was looking at it going, oh, wait a sec.

Hold up.

What the?

Hold up.

In fact, why did you choose a Vega for a hot rod build?

I'm going to jump ahead one question because this is the one

that's really bugging me.

Let's set up everybody.

For everybody who's been listening to the podcast,

we've talked about this like on three or four different

podcasts, this Vega that we found on Facebook Marketplace.

Yeah, because I'm still trying to get you to buy the sucker.

And I was laughing my ass off and also loving it at the

same time.

I'm like this little mean blue pisser that has, it's

the dragon and the side pipes and criggers and a 350.

If you don't buy that and call it the dragon wagon,

you're missing out on a huge opportunity.

Vega Zilla.

Yeah.

Vega Zilla.

But the question I have and the thing that really just

stuck in my head is Vegas have a short kind of arched

roof on them.

They never came with tea tops.

Not never.

I'm staying Tuesday.

Okay.

So that's where you pulled the tops from because they had

to be kind of short.

I was trying to figure out what the hell you got the tea

tops out of now.

How difficult is it to cut a set of tea to fab up tea tops

in a car that wasn't intended to have them?

Here's the bigger problem.

You're missing that.

The first problem.

No, I know what the first problem is the roof is arched.

So now not only did we want to put the tea tops in it,

so now we had to weld in another panel where the sunroof

was.

Okay, we did.

Yeah, we just got a little muddled there.

There was a sunroof in it originally.

There was a sunroof in it.

So we had to take the sunroof out and weld in new

metal where the sunroof was to get these tea tops.

So while you're doing that, you also have to weld in

that center bar that winds up being a structural

support in any car that's got tea tops in it.

Correct.

Okay, so you've opened a can of worms.

No, we're retarded and we had fun doing it.

Listen, we're all stupid in that way.

That's why we're here.

That's what makes it so damn cool.

Welcome to Driven Radio.

When you're looking around, they're going,

well, how the, why the?

First question you guys ask, why a Vega?

Okay, so we're reading Hot Rod magazine and it said,

turn your Vega into a three, put a V8,

350 in your Vega in two days.

Right.

Exactly.

Back in 81 or, that felt 70, 70 something.

You're not the first guys to do that.

A lot of, hell, my cousin had a built

355 in a Vega wagon when he was on high school

and the thing was evil as it could be.

But it didn't have tea tops in it.

Well, here's the problem.

We couldn't put the tea tops in it.

Here's the motor.

We've got a Kroger fireball heads,

aluminum Kroger fireball heads on a 1969 Corvette 350 motor.

Moving the heads on it.

So Kroger fireball heads,

they were five grand back in the day.

So we had to pay five grand for these heads, right?

That's more than you gave for the Vega.

Yeah.

And it's a Vega.

So we put them, the heads on there.

The big problem with the Vega was everybody was sticking

automatics behind them and we said,

nah, we want a four speed.

So the two day build became two years.

Yeah.

Because we had to modify everything.

And it was producing so much horsepower.

It was starting to twist things.

So we couldn't put the tea tops in until we welded a subframe

on it to keep it from twisting.

Yeah.

Because it's a little horsepower, right?

Yeah, no crap.

These are the questions that are in my mind.

I've seen you driving down the road on three wheels.

It's because the Calflex has been done so hard

that the fourth one won't touch.

It just makes it look like it's peeing on you.

I've got another one for you.

You did a pinto for drag racing.

Oh, Jesus.

Okay.

So I drag raced it three times.

Pinto had a hypo 351 in it.

There's a Windsor and then hyped up the Windsor.

And it had so much horsepower and nitrous

and everything else back in the day

that the third pass, the entire front of the car

went like this off the starting line.

It twisted the car in half.

So then we took a 427 side oiler

and stuck it in a lunch bag.

There's a really funny story about the 427s.

428 cobertets, too.

When you go out to old farms

and they ran the ditches

with these 428 motors that ran off,

propane, right?

You could take their motors.

There were 428 super cobertjet motors.

The only thing you had to change was the heads

because it had the heads for the, you know,

the propane or whatever natural gas or whatever it was.

But we would buy the motors from them farmers

and then go out and find them heads

and stick them in trucks

and build pickups with the big motors in them.

Nice.

We were doing that back in the day.

Okay, so you've got a motor finally plugged into this Vega.

Oh, yeah.

And you figured out how to keep it from twisting in half.

Sort of.

Yeah, more or less.

Within reason.

The whole frigging thing.

You know, crow's feet at all the edges of the windows,

but what the hell?

And then you put in the teatops.

What was next as it continued to evolve?

Now, oh, and there is a little something special

about that Vega, the specific one you chose, right?

Wasn't it your sisters?

It was it was my dad bought it for my sister.

It was the one millionth Vega off the line

and it's got a little plaque in it.

So one millionth car.

So it was the millionth Vega produced in 1973.

Hey, Larry, you know,

an automotive historian for GM authority.

I'm guessing GM would be a little curious to see what happened

to that millionth Vega.

You might think.

Oh, dude, that would be a good spread, too.

That would be a nice article.

But if you notice the rear end of the car,

okay, it sticks out and we had to put fender flares on it,

right?

Yeah.

This before they were narrowing rear ends.

Okay.

So it's a 12 12 bolt posse in it and we couldn't narrow it.

So that and they weren't rubbing cars back then.

Okay.

We didn't understand that concept yet.

So that's why the the wheel stick out the back

and it's got the flares over the wheels.

All right.

It's a rear end.

Okay.

And we couldn't.

Yeah.

So you got a Vega, you got flair rear end.

You got a built 350 in it.

You got a four speed behind it.

You decided to be a real good idea to put T tops in it

because you're a lunatic.

And at some point you think, you know what?

This car deserves a full disco interior.

Yeah.

Tell us about what the hell is going on in there.

That freaking awesome.

And we've only seen little little side views from the window

and we're both like, what the what?

And I want to know why there's not a tiny disco ball

hanging off the rear of your mirror.

Well, we haven't put that in yet, but I'll tell you.

Okay.

If you remember back in that day and that era,

I mean, we're talking late 70s.

Okay.

Yes.

Everything was going to that crush the lure interior

and we'd take them down to Mexico

and they would do them down in Mexico.

Okay.

So that was the interior of a lot of different cars

back in the day.

Olds Cutlass, Buick Regals, Pontiac Grand Prix,

anything in the in the G body world.

Correct.

So who did that interior?

Was it done in Mexico?

Got in Mexico.

Oh my God.

I'll give them this from the few pictures I've seen.

Those guys did a really nice job on the roll bar.

Yeah, it's still good to this day.

It's perfect.

And I assume that I assume that roll bar is in there

in order to try and stiffen that car up

because it needs to be.

When we had to stiffen it because we had too much

horsepower on it, that is incorporated into the stiffening

into the subframe.

Okay.

So it's yeah.

Okay.

So that's the biggest problem with this car.

So we said, ah, we don't want an automatic.

We want a four-speed.

So we had to try to figure out a four-speed two years

of jacking with this thing.

And then we kept blowing the clutches out.

Okay.

So we had Merle Axel and had had not Merle Axel,

but well, Pueblo Brake and Clutch.

They were they were big gearheads back in the day.

So we took it down to Pueblo Brake and Clutch

and had them build a special clutch disc and pressure plate.

And the pressure plates now are what's on dragsters

and you can buy them out of the book.

So Larry, how much left leg do I have to have to drive this car?

A lot.

Little stiff.

It's a little stiff, but I mean, tell you what, it runs.

So this is going to make the clutch that's in my 65

Stingray not seem too bad, huh?

You're about the same.

I'd give it the equal.

Okay.

So as you as you, you know, work that clutch out

and got it to loosen up a little bit.

Allegedly, how fast have you gone in that?

130.

Nice.

Okay.

Look at the nuts on you.

With the teetops off.

Hair flying in the wind.

Be flying in the wind.

Yeah.

130, 140 probably somewhere in there.

With that have allegedly been on a strip or perhaps on a nice

straight stretch of a highway.

Allegedly.

Nice.

Well, and now this is a vintage build.

One of the comments that I made to Mark looking at the

pictures is a raised white letter tires on that.

That is not a recent vintage.

That print on there is pretty small.

That's not a recent vintage.

That is not a recent vintage.

That print on there is pretty small stuff.

That's early 80s maybe.

Yes.

They're the original tires currently has 23,000 miles on it.

Okay.

23,000 original miles.

Correct.

Well, original on that body, there's not another original

stinking thing on the whole car.

But the employers are original on them.

Yeah.

Holy cow.

Original on that body sort of.

And oh, by the way, the steering wheel came with it.

I'm also curious.

Now, this is the question.

And God, I just got to know who got it in their head.

Hey, I got an idea.

Let's put a 37 foot long dragon on a Vega.

You know what'd be cool on my Vega?

A dragon.

I want to know where in the bottle of Jim Beam you

were when you slept.

We stopped drinking Jim Beam because we were playing

Monopoly one year and every time we rolled the dice,

she had to take that many shots.

Oh, no.

And if we rolled a 12, it was horrible.

So we don't do that Jim Beam anymore.

But we had a friend.

His name was Spider.

He's world renowned.

Everybody's seen his stuff.

And he was mostly doing bands.

You know, the cool bands.

He's a giant Viking in the naked chicken, all that.

So my brother, before he passed, he passed.

And then I went to Spider and I said,

let's put a dragon on it.

I didn't even tell him a dragon.

I said, do whatever you want to do to the car.

And I just make it your last blast.

So it took him two years to do it.

All that artwork is phenomenal.

And if you saw the car in person, you would just go, wow.

He was very, very, very good.

But when my brother passed, then he did it.

And then he passed a year later.

Yeah.

Oh my.

And he was a very famous guy and he knew us from the body shops and stuff and we did some

some other stuff.

And anytime we needed pinstriping or anything like that done, we sent to him.

But his name was Spider.

You can look that up and you can see a lot of his work.

And he's the one that did it.

Okay.

And he was out of the pool, not Colorado.

So when he tells you what he's going to do?

He didn't even tell us.

Oh, so he just started.

Did you see it before it was done or while it was in progress?

Nope.

Didn't even want to care.

Didn't care.

And when you finally did see it, what's the first thing in your mind?

Let's open the hood.

What you put underneath?

Rod guy, you know, with the big shifter underneath the hood.

Oh, my God.

Oh, cool.

Did you wrap thing on it?

Wrap things on it.

Oh, my God.

This car has everything.

All right.

All righty.

That was kind of cool.

But I knew you'd get something special to it and the dragon is kind of special anyway.

Yeah.

This one, it won SEMA back in the day.

It's won so many awards.

The car traveled all over the country and it won a ton of awards all over.

So pretty cool car.

Pretty famous car, anymore, I guess.

No.

Are you still able to drive it on the street even with those tires being quite sold?

Just drove it last week.

Oh, God.

That is so cool.

He's done 130 miles in that car, miles an hour in that car.

This guy, first of all, he defies all the odds of nature in man and also breaks

most of those laws of nature in man.

But secondly, he doesn't care how old those stinking tires are, he's going to drive it.

They're so good.

This is, if you look in Pueblo, Colorado on Facebook, you'll be able to find this 1973

Chevrolet Vega.

Now, what's also kind of cool for me about this is that is right around the time that

my brother bought his Chevy Vega that he had through.

Oh, Roger had one too?

Yeah.

Best part of high school.

A damn sure bet it didn't look like that.

Oh, no, no, sir.

It was a Vega wagon and it was a four cylinder, but it had four speed in it.

And he took the back, put in a six inch foam mattress.

Of course he did.

And you remember those nasty old rugs, the ones that had kind of the braided

loops that your grandmother would put down and even your dog couldn't chew through

that thing.

Yeah.

He put that back there and it really was his shagging wagon.

There was a Pioneer stereo.

There were the Jensen 6x9s and a slight smell of weed.

Yeah, it was a happy place for him.

You know you're describing my El Camino, right?

God, I had a 69 SF 396, flew with white stripes.

No, no, no, no, no.

We're not talking about nice cars.

We're talking about a crap wagon that was worth about 500 bucks, had cracks in the

frame and the fact that I would load 17 high school kids into it.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, didn't help either.

That's what air shocks are for.

That's right.

Remember the El Camino?

Oh my God.

Oh yeah.

I had them on that El Camino.

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

We wanted to see how many people we could get in that truck.

Yeah.

We need to get more pictures up there.

There's just not enough pornography of this vehicle.

Car porn.

Now you've said, well, there's a thing under the hood and I'm like, I want to see it.

I want to look in the trunk.

If you have any video of it running, you need to put this up on your listing.

Right now it's listed at 23K, 1973 Chevy Vega, and you've got such a time.

But think about what it would take to replicate into these dollars.

Oh dude, yeah.

That's a freaking steal is what it is.

Bargain.

If you wanted to build it today.

The paint alone would be 20 grand.

Fireball heads.

I mean, they're aluminum fireball heads and then they'll be trying to convert it to a

four speed with a V8 and that's a 69 Corvette 350, but trying to convert it to the, you

know what?

We used to smoke axles, just snap them.

Yeah.

Finally, they came out with something where we could build an axle that we could put in

it and we finally got it.

But it took, it took a long time to work out all the, the kinks, but it runs.

I know, I believe me, I am casting a fruitful eye on Mark.

You just sold your car.

And I tell you what, this Vega is one shitload shorter than 205 inches.

So you could fit that in a garage with room to spare the motorcycle in front of it that

I'm going to end up buying also.

Hey, man, I tried to sell you a bike for a long time, even told you I'd finance it

for you.

You, you tried to sell me a beautiful bike and I'm not that great of a bike

writer.

So I want one that if I drop it, I never did drop either meat or that

Kawasaki, but, you know, just in case a beef, beef was that big Suzuki.

Yeah, the Suzuki 1500.

This thing, you know, between the paint, the, the interior, now, is it

interior?

I it's not tuck and roll.

Is it?

What is that called?

It's a, well, it's pleated.

People call it what part of the country you're in, but it's, uh, I call it

tuck and roll, but, but it just looks like you'd sink right

into it and just kind of go, oh, it really does look like a lovely

Barkalounder.

Now, is that a dash?

Is that a dash cover or is it actually worked into the dash?

Is it part of the dash?

It's a dash cover.

Okay.

Cause I, I was like, my God, even the dash, I, I hadn't looked

that closely earlier because I was so enamored of the roll bar that

I'm like, holy shit, the dash too.

It's huggy bears, Vega.

You're going to have to dress a little differently groves.

Yeah.

You are wrong.

And I don't think that would be a bad thing, quite honestly.

Uh, Tonya, for the era that it was built, um, it was just fun.

It was just something fun to build and, and we showed it and we

won so many awards with it, it was, it sucks to let it go, but

it's time.

You understand what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Enjoy it and have fun with it, uh, because we've done everything

we possibly could with it and we had another Vega.

It was a Cosworth Vega.

Ooh, the little black and gold ones.

The black and gold.

Yeah.

What motor was in that?

It was a, uh, a four cylinder overhead cam Cosworth motor.

Yeah.

Indy, Indy, they raced them in Indy, Indianapolis, you know, on the

500.

Yeah.

That, that was the motor in that Cosworth.

That was a fun car.

They are quick little cars and the, the best thing about the Vega

was they didn't weigh much of anything.

No, they're, they're light.

So you stick a 350, fireball heads and all in a Vega.

What do you think that car weighs all the 2,500 pounds maybe?

Probably 23.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's, it's nothing.

I, I could go weigh it, but yeah, it's nothing.

Do you mean that we could add some weight to it, which keeps

the front end on the ground, which is good.

Is that in your stable?

Is that one of the 22?

No, not at 130, 140.

It's, it's, uh, it's kind of scary.

Nice.

Do you still have it?

Yeah.

Nice.

All right.

So we've got the, we've got this amazing Vega, VegaZilla

for sale.

Uh, you've got, you're working on a Bronco.

You're working on a, uh, he just showed me the Bronco to hurt

me.

Yeah.

Just to, just to make you feel it a little bit.

Now what is that orange car that was in the background that we can see in some of

those FB pictures?

Tell me about that.

That was, that was a Chevy we built, um, we sold it, um, this year.

Um, but we built that Chevy as a 46 Chevy sedan.

Yeah.

We built that all from the ground up as well.

And then we're building an Angola, which is the blue one with the, you know, kind of primer

in the center of it.

That's an Angola and that's got a DZ302 Z28 motor in it.

Oh, cause that's reasonable.

Build one on.

I mean, it's light, uh, like the Vega.

You got enough meat on the back.

You probably got about nine inches in between the insides of the tires.

Yeah.

It's, uh, it's fun.

So, and they called that car a 30, an Angola was a two door and then the angle of 30 is

the four door.

It's, it's a Ford of UK and it was a little economy car, four passenger, pretty tight

and small for European roads.

And then, uh, guys got the idea, oh, if I can take this little Anglia and GM of, uh,

an American V8 in it, suddenly you got a hell of a drag car and they're really squirrely

and they're a little spooky to drive.

They used to drag race them.

That's, uh, they'd bring them over from England and over the UK or wherever, but they'd bring

them over and they'd step all the big motors in them and drag race them.

Yep.

Put wheelie bars on them and shit because they just didn't stay on the green.

Yeah.

Cause it'll change your horizon for you.

That's not going to go apart with the 350 in it.

Nice.

Pretty much.

So what else do you have?

What else are you working on right now aside from the Bronco that you're just using to tease

me?

Okay.

Um, we've got a 69 Boss 429 Mach 1, we're going to rebuild that one from the ground

up.

We're going to do a total frame off on that.

Um, and that, that car is Gulfstream Aqua.

The rarity of that car is off the charts just being a Boss 429, but the color

is the key.

Um, so we're building that, um, building the Bronco, of course, we're building, uh, any

60s pickups, uh, Chevy pickups, Ford pickups, um, into the 73 range.

So we're building a ton of big block pickups, um, a lot of them.

So people come, we see not your frames, dualies, um, we see not those and we drop them

and put the drop spindles on them and then seen on them.

Um, so we're building a lot of, a lot of trucks right now.

Now are you doing these, are you taking orders for them or are you just doing what you want

to and then selling them?

No, no, um, these are customers that come in and do this to it.

Okay.

No.

Cool.

That's stupid.

Now, and you're doing this, you used to have a shop in Pueblo, Colorado called Cave

Man and, uh, now you're doing all this just at home.

We're just, we're retired being in my brother retired.

So by the brother, um, so we're just said, well, let's just build cars again and became

about it's kind of like getting to be a job.

So but it's fun at least we get to build something, take our time.

I mean, it's not like, Oh, get it out in three weeks.

Like, okay.

If you want it done in three weeks, don't call me because it ain't going to get done

in three weeks.

If it's not done in two weeks, we're going to lose the shop.

Yeah.

Um, we just, we just like to build stuff and we bring the customer in too.

Um, everything we build, we want the customer here as well and learning about what we're

doing.

Um, you know, how to fix rust, bondo, primers, um, you know, engines, trannies, what to

do with the frames, um, how to see notch them.

We really want people to learn from what we've known for 40 years.

Um, so it's kind of a, kind of a class.

That is the problem that we're running into and we're hearing about this from a lot of

different people when we talked to John Fakara a couple of weeks ago is so many of the people

who are true craftsmen and have learned all of, uh, they have all these skill sets

and they've learned so much of the stuff over the years, but most of these craftsmen

are in their sixties and seventies and some of them even in their eighties.

I mean, Jen, uh, Gene Winfield worked until, you know, right up before he died and he,

what was Gene like, 96 when he passed a couple of years ago.

So I mean, and, and this, this skill, these skills, this knowledge is not being

passed down.

So when these people pass, it's lost.

It's gone.

It's cool that I, I got one for you.

I learned how to lead in quarters.

Yes.

69 DZ 302 Z 28 car.

It was red black stripes.

I had to lead the quarters in and he taught me how to lead the quarters in.

There's not a handful of people out there that know how to do that anymore.

You know, I was looking at that and I watched some YouTube videos on it just

to kind of get an idea of what it's actually really is because I had heard

of it before and seen some of the raw metal pictures, but I'm like, okay,

what is this really?

And it was like, that's kind of what I wanted to do or at least try to do

a civil because I can't weld for shit.

I can burn a hole in anything, but getting two pieces of metal together

is a tragic error on my part.

However, the duct tape, Gorilla glue around the trunk was the only place

I found actual, you know, rust through on this 64 dodge custom

made 80 that I had and I finally ended up.

I bought some Bondo and we had that all ready to go.

But then I didn't have a garage to do it in and get and so funny.

I rolled away from my house yesterday, right?

New owner, all good.

I got the the correct trunk weather stripping today.

Yep.

And I have to call it arrived.

I got it on my phone.

It's like, hey, your package arrived today.

I call it.

You know, if you letting stuff in is very dangerous because it's very toxic.

Yeah, it's a lead.

Yeah, and it's on fire.

So.

It's a it's a tough process, but I'm glad I learned it.

Yeah, I'll never use it again.

I'll tell you that.

I'll get my little arc welder out and zip it.

But it was cool to learn it.

And I learned it from an old guy that was in the body business.

See me spank body.

It didn't flow up.

Look, Colorado.

He's the one that taught me and and we were young.

I think I was 1617.

Wow.

We learned how to do.

You know, Mark, if you drive old Corvettes, you never have to let a damn thing.

That's just airplane glue.

So I heard allegedly Bondo dust, fiberglass fibers, all the other

fun stuff you get from work on Corvettes.

If you've worked on your kids, kiddie pool, you can get my fender done.

Yeah, love it.

Yeah, pretty much.

All right.

So we have a we have one more question and it's it's the favorite of a bread here.

Oh, it absolutely is.

It's the one I ask everybody.

And that's where we usually get our best stories.

Now, you've already copped to doing some pretty questionable things behind

the wheel, sir.

So this ought to be great.

What's the dumbest thing you've ever done in a car?

OK, we lived in the county, like I said, I had a 428 Supercopa jet

Mustang 1969 found out that, you know, they, you know, where

the emergency brake was is a pedal.

Yeah.

So we found out if you take that spring off that pedal, you could run

from the cops and hit that brake when you wanted to make a corner.

And the cop would just fly by the corner.

Because it showed the brake lights.

Yep.

Oh, the brake lights.

Here's the big problem with that.

If you live in a small community in the county, the cops know what car

you're driving.

Yeah, no, they would be at your house waiting with your dad.

Walk us through the first time that happened.

Yeah, we've done it a bunch of times because, you know, we didn't figure

that new cops would know.

But yeah, they knew a little later in the 80s.

State of Kansas quit showing up at your house, even if they knew the car.

They just sent a letter to your dad.

And and the best one ever.

You've met my old man.

He used to be about three inches taller.

It was not a small guy.

He was kind of spooky to be around.

And when your dad comes, hollers at you to come to his office

and he's got a piece of paper in his hand.

He says, why don't you tell me about how you drive?

Oh, shit, man, no answer is going to be good here.

I could be honest and that's going to get me stomped or I could lie.

And then he could tell me that I lied and that's going to get me

stomp twice. Dude, 1981, Oklahoma.

They you either paid your ticket right the hell then.

Or they took your license and they couldn't.

They couldn't catch us.

They think we lucky we.

No, but they knew where your old man was.

Yeah, they knew where we lived.

So by the time we got home, they were all sitting there.

And yeah, that was probably the dumbest thing I ever did

in a car. Well, we jumped a car.

OK, OK. There's another one.

Hold on. Yeah, let's just give me that.

You know how I never answer this question.

I'll tell you how many cars I've jumped after the show. Oh, Jesus.

We used to jump in a Connell line 100 van.

Yes. Oh, my God.

You ate the shit out of that thing.

An E 100 with the short back seats in it.

Yeah, that the van, you know, is a full-sized frigging van.

And we used to launch that sucker all the time.

And a scout, a 76 scout.

We used to we used to jump that some bitch all the time.

The dumbest thing I ever did was have the top off.

OK, so we.

We hit this jump really hard, right?

We had like six cases of beer in there.

Well, you did. Back.

So when we hit the jump, my brothers and the beer flew out

of the of the scout that I landed and they were all gone.

So they were just just out of curiosity.

Did they see the beer flying out and jump out after it?

Or save the beer just launched them out.

They were going to have a housing complex.

And, you know, how did things go down?

And then they go up really quick.

Yeah. Well, we hit it and hit that rear end and it went.

They just got out like lawn darts.

My mom used to have a say and she said, you know,

God watches over drunks and little children because somehow,

you know, and we were on survive these type of shenanigans.

I had a buddy who had a I think it was a 68 Ford pick up

and we'd we'd been cruising town.

It was winter and there wasn't there wasn't anything going on in downtown

Branson. They'd already rolled up the sidewalks.

But we were we were down there trying anyway.

And we got back behind Cheney Home and Gas

and right across from the Boy Scout headquarters

was these three massive piles of sand.

And my buddy is like, hey, man, I'm going to I think we can climb that

in this pickup truck and buddy in the middle was like, yeah.

And I'm like, yeah.

So he backs way the hell up.

We get a run and start at it. It was sand.

So you didn't go up.

You just went bam.

It stopped you like you were on the end of a chain.

You know, the dashboard didn't taste near as good as I thought it would.

But you're lucky you kept all your teeth.

Yeah. And he when he backed it out,

it the men's engine smelled a little funny.

So we all got home real fast.

I've got another one for you.

OK, you remember them people in the barricades

that they put up and block a road off at three boards on them.

We're on West 29th Street or 24th Street.

And at the end of the 24th Street, if you jump across the river,

you could make it to to get to 29th Street faster.

So we used to jump our pickups or four pickups through it.

Well, they put one of them people barricades up there.

I was with my my friend Tiger and I looked at him.

He goes, bucket, let's go for it.

We and that center board came right through that front leg.

She went when we went on to 29th.

So that was another stupid thing we've done.

I got a bunch of stories I could go through.

But Larry, here's what happens.

We ask this question.

Guys get thinking, they think, you know, I got a real good one.

And while they're telling that, they think of three more good ones.

And while they're telling those, they're like, well, I thought of seven more.

Yeah. And it has a tendency to snowball.

Well, I think you nailed it down straight on.

We've been speaking with Larry Ellily, a car

customizer, fabricator, motorcycle rider and general lunatic.

These good people and a magazine entrepreneur raked magazine.

Keep your eye peeled for it.

He's working on getting it released and getting it out.

Larry, thank you so much.

We can't thank you enough for being with us tonight.

You're bad and anybody wants that Vega.

Just give me a call.

You got my number. Oh, I want the sucker.

I got to run some numbers, man.

Now that I've heard the provenance on it, I'm kind of I got a little bit

of heat going for it. Yeah, no kidding. No kidding.

Larry, thank you so much for being with us.

You bad guys, you have a great evening and thank you.

OK, so. And ready.

I said I was going to tell you how many cars

I've possibly had all four wheels off the ground.

And I'm sitting here counting.

One, three, four.

That red Corvette was one of them.

Have a home. Well, not from not is not not one not.

Well, here's here's the thing.

143rd Street, if you drove it all the way down to Kenneth, OK,

now it's big and wide and four lane with a center turn lane

and all that stuff. Yeah.

That didn't used to be a case.

First of all, there were no houses down there.

Yeah, 143rd was a skinny, narrow, little two lane road.

Was it black top or dirt?

It was black top. I'll be there.

But no shoulders. Yeah.

Trees. And there was a bridge over a creek there.

And the road went down a little bit and then came up for the bridge

over the creek and then down on the other side.

If you hit that doing more than 35 miles an hour,

all four wheels came off the ground. Oh, wow. Period.

And I may or may not have run that road

way north of 50 several times in a lot of different vehicles.

And I've also owned and did on, you know, I've had four Jeeps

had a suburban that was the old Surveyor style with the steel wheels.

Oh, yeah. And just I used to haul ass down that road

and you just come and come down on the other side and that was it.

So it's more than 10.

God, it's a lot more than 10.

I think I've had one that I was behind the wheel.

I was in one that got air.

It was my buddy's early seventies challenger.

Yeah. And yeah, that thing that was that was a nice little 318 in it.

And we ripped ass around Branson, Missouri.

And then we were on some back roads and kind of like what Larry was saying,

you know, it was a different time back then, you know, whether you would look

at it and be nostalgic or look at it and go, my God, what an awful thing.

Either way, it was different.

And I I probably wasn't in my best senses behind the wheel.

We were on some back dirt road, me and a body of your brain is clouded

with testosterone. Yeah, there's there's two things you want to do.

And neither one of them were math. Yeah.

But I was flying down a dirt road and we came up onto.

It was a little just kind of almost wooden, just concrete,

little tiny bridge to get over a tiny little waterway.

Just a little bit more than a hump in the road.

I didn't even I had no clue that it was even there

because I wouldn't it was a road that my buddy said, hey,

let's go down this one. Yeah.

You know, we're we're sliding and doing this and that in a 1955 Plymouth.

And that was all original, not souped up in any single way, three in the tree.

And we go up on that thing.

And all of a sudden we're like, oh, shit, oh, we hit that back down.

And then I got another curtain troll and I was like, you know what?

I think I think I'm done tonight.

Well, also for folks who are familiar with Johnson County, specifically

Olathe, Dennis Avenue, where it used to run in front of the Delco plant

and Delco plants long gone now.

But right over there by the the little

flea market and the antique mall and all that stuff right over off Dennis,

there's a set of railroad tracks and they're not it's not as pronounced now,

but it used to be part of a curve and they had it banked for the train.

OK. Well, if you came up on that thing,

cooking the long, you know, 40, 50 miles an hour.

Yeah. And one side was higher than the other.

So. Oh, God.

You know, you didn't need much of a pitch going one direction.

It was just falling off and go in the other direction.

It's banked. So it is a ramp.

You are going to catch air.

The joke I told about my Camaro for a long time was it's been in the air

enough to have an in-flight meal. Funny.

Hey, absolutely.

It's not not a lie. It's funny.

But it's funny because it's true.

There there's a nugget of truth there.

But it's it is what is funny is how many people we talk about

who had kind of similar, you know,

upbringing, similar youth where small town,

you know, you grew up in Branson.

Olathe was a much smaller town then.

Oh, yeah.

It was closer to 30,000 people and that was, you know,

and there was still a lot of it that wasn't in town.

So, you know, he just dumb stuff.

I did a lot of dumb stuff.

I did a ton of it.

A lot of things, you know, again, my dad listens to this.

I don't want to admit it this crap to him.

I'm a week shy of my 56 birthday.

I still don't want to tell him some of the dumb crap we did.

It's a pretty impressive list.

It's and we have people on and say, hey, we did this.

I'm like, you know, we did something like that.

I said this. It was a little different, but we did this.

And the thing is with, you know, down 143rd,

the way that bridge was, I had a Jeep CJ five.

I had a Jeep CJ seven had Jeep pickup.

I had that suburban.

All that stuff's got, you know, all those four wheel drives.

Suspension's a little bit heavier

and the tires are a little bit bigger

and bouncing over a little bridge someplace

didn't seem like that big a deal.

It was funny and everybody in the truck laughed.

The one that was completely unintentional,

I did get all four wheels off the ground

and I was praying to God I would come out OK on the other side.

Driving down I-35 close to the Mission Road

Southwest Boulevard split.

OK, I'm in my CJ seven.

I'm going to work.

My grandpa had a bingo place down there

and I was working for him. Yeah.

There was an aluminum extension ladder

laying across the road. Oh, God.

And I'm doing about sixty five and there's traffic behind me

and traffic on either sides.

It's pretty well packed up midday on like a Tuesday

and can't go anywhere.

So you just you brace the steering wheel

and your teeth and you close your eyes a little bit

and pray for the best.

You know, we've all heard all the horror stories

about all jeeps will roll right over

and I'm thinking, no crap, man, I'm going to roll my Jeep

and it's not even my fault.

And the Jeep had big old 31 inch tires on

and just going to bounce like an earth ball

on the other side and it was fine.

But, you know, I've got a bunch of those.

And most of the ones you remember really well,

you remember because you were so scared.

Yeah. That it imprinted on you.

Yep. And it wasn't going to go anywhere.

Core memory. Yeah.

Well, it's one of those.

If you do dumb crap enough after a while,

you start to forget a lot of the dumb crap

until something prompts the memory.

It stops being dumb and becomes normal.

And that's the problem. Yeah.

Don't normalize dumb.

That's why I wanted I had to go to state sponsored driving school.

Well, you know, Larry Elliott did a great job.

We. Oh, you know, it was so fun finally contacting him

because I said I was going to try and I'd sense the stuff

and we'd kind of on Facebook.

I finally did get to talk to him.

He's he's pretty interesting guy

and he's got a really interesting background.

Yeah, he's done a lot.

And you look at his Facebook listing

and look for Larry Elliott.

And if you look for Larry Elliott's, there's not just one,

but this is the one that's the owner manager CEO

at Elliott Construction.

He's a business owner at Wasted Seaman.

The bar owner of Raked magazine

that he's working on getting together.

It says he has a bunch of stories, bunch of picks, bunch of stuff.

And then even, you know, I have not friended him yet on Facebook,

but you're he's got a bunch of stuff out there that's, you know, good to go.

You can take a take a gander and it's a it's a varied and fun guy.

So, Larry, thank you so very much for being with us.

We really appreciate it.

A fun conversation and it might be one of our own.

Go buy that. Go buy the Vega.

I don't need that.

Go buy the Vega.

I really want that.

You just sold your car.

You buy the stinking Vega.

You buy the Vega.

You can put it down in your in the warehouse.

Yeah, I know.

And then I'll help take your test drive.

I'm really not doing that

because that's another conversation with my dad.

I just don't want to have and it's going to start with

what the hell is this?

OK, fair.

And then I'll take him for a ride in it.

He'll find out it's faster than his blue Corvette.

Then he'll have to.

Yeah, OK, yeah, I see where this is going.

And then I'll have to tell him, oh, by the way, dad, it's a four speed.

His knees are worse than my knees.

So he's got a tough time driving stuff with a heavy clutch.

Yep.

He had a tough time with Vlad.

And I and I get it.

I get it. I get it.

I'm not trying to give him any grief at all.

I, you know, there's a part of me that really, really wants that.

I know what he's saying about the the work on that dragon is true.

Yeah.

And again, you ain't got a hair on your butt.

If you wouldn't drive that thing and park it dead center in front of renaissance fair here.

Hazard, bitches.

The Renfest.

Take it to the renaissance festival, that big ass dragon on there.

You know, you would rule all in that thing.

It wouldn't be smog, SMAUG.

It would be SMOG.

Yes. Yes.

That's my dragon, smog.

But the other thing is you would also rule all with that thing

at Concord of Lemons. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

There's nothing else like that.

Who the hell else has got a Vega with a built small block and side pipes and craters?

I mean, without the dragon and the crush velvet interior and all that other stuff,

nobody has that.

Yeah, approximately no one.

Yeah. Exactly.

You are going to be one of a kind.

Precisely. No one.

And don't think I wasn't sitting here going, OK, if I traded this guy for Rhonda's Mercedes,

how now is my wife going to be?

Yeah. And the reason I don't do that kind of thing is because I think I would

look odd with my nuts tacked in my forehead.

Thank you so much for spending time with Driven Radio.

We are absolutely ridiculous and we know it. Absolutely.

We love what we do and we wouldn't be able to do it without support of our listeners.

You can find us online at drivenradioshow.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Driven Radio Show

and on LinkedIn as Driven Radio Show podcast.

If you have a story you would like to tell or someone you would like us to

interview, like guys who have a giant Vega airbrush with a dragon on it.

Craggers, Craggers, small block for race leader, race leader tires.

Sorry, I got off track there.

If you have somebody you'd like us to interview, contact me at Brett at

drivenradioshow.com. I am Brett Hatfield for Mark L. Gross.

Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time here on Driven Radio.

Straight shooter, great communicator, honest mechanic, champion disco dancer.

One of these descriptions is a flat out lie.

The rest accurately described Darrell Ossipic, owner of Ossipic Automotive.

Now we've been teasing him for a long time.

Darrell has been a really good friend and a personal mechanic for me

for longer than I care to.

Geez, man, he's been working on my stuff forever.

I've taken my vintage Bronco in there.

I've taken my Corvettes in there.

I even have had the Schadenfreude Express in there.

You've got him to work on that.

He's worked on that 99 Mercedes S600 and nice and done a really good job on it.

Mark's even gone to Darrell for car repair.

Yeah, that's 64 Dodge that I wind about.

He was the one that got it running and moving after I bought it.

And it ended up not running and moving.

Well, it was a little different than the test drive.

Don't get me wrong.

It ran good for the test drive.

It was great then.

Plus he put the transmission in that I bought for that.

My 2000 Nissan XTERRA 4x4.

Ossipic Automotive does maintenance and repair on foreign and domestic petrol

powered autos.

He also works on some diesel stuff I've seen in there.

If he can do it, I'll tell you.

Yeah, if he can't, he'll tell you.

But I haven't found anything that he can't work on yet.

The guy works on cars.

He works on a giant offshore race boat.

He can do about anything and he'll tell you up front what he's going to do,

how we're going to approach the problem, what he thinks it might be.

And if he can't do it, he'll tell you who can.

Yeah, he's an internal combustion whisperer who thinks running sucks for exercise.

But he rules behind the wheel and he's he's also got some fantastic

taste in his own personal stuff.

Oh, yeah, you would never guess at looking at him.

I mean, it looks like a mild mannered mechanic.

Oh, he's got interesting stuff of his own.

Ossipic Automotive doesn't have a website, so you'll have to look up the reviews.

Four point nine stars out of five on Google, four point eight out of five on Yelp.

Called Daryl at nine one three eight three one thirty six thirteen.

What's that number nine one three eight three one thirty six thirteen.

And you got to remember his motto.

Ossipic Automotive, where they'll fix your car.

No matter how much it costs.

He's he's going to kill me.

I promised him I wouldn't tell anybody he says that.

Oh, and where is he?

So we know where to go to be killed.

Fifty nine twenty Merriam Drive in Merriam, Kansas.

Six six two or three.

We've known Rick Hunter and the gang at Hot Rod Express and Blue Springs

for years. We first saw their work at car shows.

And then we had to buff out the drool that we left on their work at the car shows.

And we've had Rick on both Road Muscle Radio and radio shows several times

to talk about cars and projects and the other cool stuff that was going on over

at Hot Rod Express.

So when disaster struck in the form of the sweetest little lady in Overland Park.

Oh, she's a doll.

God, you can't let your mom.

Who did I turn to to do the body repair on my sixty five Corvette Stingray?

Hot Rod Express.

These guys did a hell of a job.

They aren't the cheapest and there's a reason they're the best.

They made the body look better than it did before.

That is not an exaggeration.

And they even sourced the right emblem so that it was model accurate.

Hot Rod Express is crawled under the hood to fix weird and dangerous

alternator issue that tried to burn the car.

Oh, and they've recently installed new running gear.

Well, new suspension, both ends of it.

And it rides so much better and it drives better and it's not trying to rattle

my teeth out and I still have the fillings in my teeth.

Yeah, I was kind of happy with the ride we took in it.

That was nice.

Yeah, well, I'm telling you, it's not quite as harsh as it used to was.

Since 1995, Hot Rod Express has been doing Concord caliber

frame off restorations, award-winning restomods and everything in between.

In fact, after they painted the Stingray,

they had it down at Bartle Hall for World of Wheels.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

My car won first place for domestic sports car.

Oh, my God.

So so ironic.

So when we say award-winning restorations, that's not an exaggeration.

I got one of them.

So if you can dream it on four wheels, they can do it.

Visit Hot Rod Express dot com or call them at 816-224-9597.

Ask for Rick and tell him Driven Radio sent you.

Don't worry, he won't hold that against you.

They're super easy to talk to and they've never met a stranger.

Hot Rod Express on Forty Highway in Blue Springs, Missouri at Hot Rod Express.

They make friends fast.

Driven Radio Show #319: Larry Elliott, Hot Rod Builder

Porsche Cayenne

Plymouth Cuda

Plymouth Valiant

Ford Mustang

Chevrolet Corvette

Ford Cougar

Ford Bronco

Lucid Air

Ford Ranger

Chevrolet Vega

Chevrolet El Camino

Ford Anglia

Dodge Custom

Dodge Challenger

Chevrolet Camaro

Jeep Cj

Chevrolet Suburban

Honda S600

Nissan XTerra

Corvette Stingray

About this episode

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