Driven Radio Show Dec 5, 2025

Driven Radio Show #331: Rick Hunter of Hot Rod Express

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Company

Hagerty

Hagerty is a company that helps people insure their classic cars. They provide quotes and other services for car lovers.

Car

Dodge Custom

The Dodge Custom 880 is a large car made by Dodge in 1964. It was designed to be comfortable and stylish, often used by families.

Term

roadside services

Roadside services are help you can get when your car has problems while driving, like if you run out of gas or get a flat tire.

Car

Ford Thunderbird

The Ford Thunderbird is a classic car that many people admire for its beautiful design. It was made for a long time and is often collected by car enthusiasts.

Part

car cover

A car cover is a protective blanket that you put over your car to keep it safe from things like dust and rain. It helps keep the car looking nice when it's not being used.

Car

Chevrolet Impala

The 1961 Impala is a classic car made by Chevrolet. It's popular among car lovers for its cool design and performance, especially when modified or customized.

Term

owner's manual

An owner's manual is a guide that tells you how to use and take care of your car. It includes details about the car's features and maintenance tips.

Car

Chevrolet Corvettes

The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car that many people love. It's been around for a long time and is famous for being one of the best American-made cars.

Car

Plymouth Fury

The Plymouth Fury is a classic car that was made by the Plymouth brand. It was popular in the 1960s and is known for its unique design and power.

Term

clay barring

Clay barring is a way to clean a car's paint. It uses a special clay that removes dirt and other stuff stuck to the surface, making the paint feel smooth and look shiny.

Term

LS power

LS power means using a specific type of engine made by General Motors. These engines are known for being powerful and are often used in modified cars to make them faster.

Company

Banned Steels

Banned Steels is a company that makes parts for cars, especially parts that help with how the car handles and rides on the road.

Term

suspension system

The suspension system helps a car ride smoothly and stay stable while driving. It includes parts that absorb bumps and keep the tires on the ground.

Part

vinyl dye

Vinyl dye is a special paint that works well on vinyl materials, like car seats and dashboards. It lets you change the color easily without needing to do a lot of prep work.

Concept

restomod

A restomod is when someone takes an old car and fixes it up with modern parts to make it better to drive, but still looks like the original car. It's a mix of restoration and modification.

Car

Chevrolet Express

The Chevrolet Express is a big van that can carry a lot of people or cargo. It's useful for businesses or families who need extra space.

Car

Ford Model T

The Ford Model T is a historic car that was very popular in the early 1900s. It was one of the first cars made in large numbers, which helped many people afford their own vehicles.

Term

sheet metal

Sheet metal is a type of metal that is shaped into thin, flat pieces. In cars, it's used to make parts of the body, like doors and hoods.

Car

Land Defenders

The Land Rover Defender is a tough vehicle designed for driving off the beaten path. It's popular with people who like to go on adventures and need a car that can handle rough roads.

Car

Are you driving some classical gas?

Hagerty.com can get you a real-time insurance quote based on your zip code, right there, online.

Have a classic 1964 Dodge Custom 880 with a tank full of oxide?

Maybe.

I think you may have.

Yeah.

Does fuel move in it like grape nuts through your grandpa?

Yes, it does.

You're going to need roadside services, and you did.

And Hagerty's Driver's Club offers emergency roadside services.

Check it out.

Hagerty.com.

We're proud and honored to have Dave Kinney and Greg Engold as repeat offenders on the

show, and that's the honest God truth.

I love those guys, and they always know what they're talking about.

Thank you, Hagerty, for lending them to us.

Hagerty.com, the best of car culture, right at your fingertips.

Hey, all you gearheads and car fiends, welcome to Driven Radio Show, your weekly automotive

happy hour.

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

That's me.

And our guest for the week, Mr. Rick Hunter of Hot Rod Express.

Thanks for having me back.

Always glad to have you back.

So we were talking a little bit just a second ago.

What's new in the world of Thunderbird ownership?

Thunderbird ownership.

There is forward momentum.

Woohoo.

So I got an email today, and the seller finally got the money from Caramel.

Oh, come on.

Sticky Caramel.

Yeah.

Very thick, slow.

Yeah.

Caramel.

Yeah.

He finally got the money today, so I just have to set up a time.

And what was funny, I called on my phone, there's a tow company that I used four times

in that year and a few months that I had the Dodge, six-year Dodge, because you know,

you only had that for a little over a year.

It's weird, isn't it?

Yeah.

It felt like forever.

No, it seemed a lot longer.

A year and a quarter to a year and a half.

All right.

Right in that ballpark.

But I was like, there was this great company that really took care of me, and in my phone

was one name of a company, so I called it, and I was like, okay, this is totally weird,

but you know, walk with me here for a second, and kind of explain I had a car, you came

out and got it four times.

I don't know if it was you, but is there any way, you know, here's my name, and

he's like, well, the phone number that you got me, blah, blah, blah, isn't showing

up anything.

Did you get anything under like a 1964 Dodge, Custom 880, or this address?

He's like, no, no, no, I'm not finding it.

I'm like, well, darn, okay, thank you anyway.

And so I was kind of getting ready to call this one other company that's pretty well-known

around Olathe, where I used to live, and I get a call back, and this guy's like,

hey, are you such and such at this?

And I'm like, yeah.

He's like, okay, we got you, yeah.

Here it is.

So, four times they came out, and I'm like, okay, can you give me an estimate to go from,

you know, here, the car's located in kind of Eastern, Northeastern KC.

Yeah, Raytona Beach.

Close, about 18 miles north.

Okay.

All right.

And he gave me a price, and it's reasonable, and they were good people, and they took

care of the Dodge, you know, they were really careful and conscientious when they

were dragging it onto the back of their tow trucks.

So you're not going to risk the first drive being home?

No, not in this weather.

Oh, okay.

Not with the, you know, okay, for example, going to work this morning, I very carefully

pull out of the road that goes back into where my house is.

It's got a lot of ice on it, and so I'm kind of, I finally get onto the road that goes

to the other road, and there's some dips.

And so, you know, I look right, nobody's coming, so I'm pulling out to go left,

and the guy, of course, comes up over the dip, and this son of a bitch gets up on my

ass and then starts blinking his brights, and I'm like, hey, it's a two-lane road.

It's two lanes.

Where am I going to go?

And I'm like, please, please slide into me.

Please hit me.

Yeah.

I'm going to walk out of here like a 200-year-old man after he put the blender.

You are going to see the performance of a lifetime.

God, I know.

Yeah, I'm going to lay on the ground and scream for my mama and make money

off of you, USOB, but he finally got off my ass to go to a convenience store.

Of course.

Yeah.

I must have been in between him and his vape, so.

Or his coffee.

Yeah.

Or, yeah.

That would be legitimate.

Well, this thing, this place is a liquor store that happens to sell gas.

Oh, okay.

Run out of it.

Yeah.

Oh, wait a second.

I live in Kansas.

Oh, that's right.

We don't have that over here.

We sell everything.

Yes.

Everything.

Well, let's not forget, 12 months out of your fireworks.

Yeah.

Raytona Beach, baby.

Fireworks.

Living the dream.

But the car is, it's finally available, so all I got to do is get that set up, get

it taken to the house, you know, fit it into the garage.

When does all the paperwork show up and all that noise?

That will be my next step.

I've got to get ahold of Caramel because he got an email.

I didn't.

And so I'm going to say, hey, what's one of the next steps?

You told me about this.

They said that he wasn't supposed to sign the title.

And now apparently it's okay.

When he sends it in and I'm thinking, okay, they, you know, if you two weren't in the

same town, they would have gone ahead and mailed it unsigned and that creates an

entirely new problem.

So this is why I say I'm not a fan of theirs.

Yeah.

You know, bring a trailer was fine.

And Caramel, I'll do respect to the people that, you know, the nice guy that I think we

talked about last show that, you know, their helpers were all very nice and very respectful

and seemed to be very helpful, but they really are crap about next steps.

And the thing is the people that bring a trailer are really helpful and they'll go

out of their way and they're very polite and they've even offered, you know, money

to try to help try and help solve a problem.

Caramel, although really fantastic concept, sounds great in as an idea, but I don't think

they got all the bugs worked out yet.

And that makes it really frustrating when you're trying to get a deal done for your

dream car.

Yeah, it does.

And you don't want to wait on it anymore.

And I may be a little feisty about it.

So, but it's all good.

You know, I know, all right, I want it now.

Give me that's mine.

Well, and especially when the guy who bought it, I'm buying it from super nice guy.

He's he's all right, too.

It's he's been a little befuddled by all this, too.

And has, you know, openly with me, rude the fact that he went through Caramel.

Yeah, well, but, you know, we're both kind of like this could have been done.

Again, it sounds good in practice.

And when they laid the idea on you're like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense,

you know, that's that probably works out well.

And then you try to do it and it's just a cluster.

It just appeals again, all the way back to my get off my lawn roots,

which is cash is king, bitch.

That's all there is.

And the rest of it, so.

But I am really looking forward to it.

So hopefully by this weekend before we're at Meekham on Saturday,

this coming Saturday, we'll be recording live at Meekham auction

here in Kansas City.

Yes, I hopefully will have it home

and resting nicely in the garage.

Nice. And underneath he he did blankets.

He did play. I already have a tarp or a car cover for it.

When I sold the sixty four Dodge,

you had a car cover for that.

I had a car cover.

Well, I had to, you know, add it out in the driveway for a while.

Oh, but Colt Colton, the guy who bought it, was like,

do you you maybe throw that in?

Like, oh, shit, you're so nice.

Yeah, take the car cover.

Hey, the kid took care of the car.

Yeah, he did. That's great.

And by the way, you may or may not know somebody who used to own

super slick custom sixty one impala hot rod.

Oh, that guy who has a big giant car cover

laying around indoor car cover.

Well, you tell that fellow that next time I buy another car,

he could let me know that.

I'll take him right up on it because I. Sorry.

I only I've got the car cover ready

and I've even gotten a couple of three little chachki things.

I bought a an original motor trend

from May of 1958 when they named the Thunderbird, the car of the year.

I have an original owner's manual.

Original, not a reprint. Very cool.

And then I have an original not repop sales little full doubt thing.

Oh, that reminds me when we do me come every year.

There's the guy there who sells the sales brochures.

Yes, I'll be. He sells repops of owner's manuals.

That's right. I said I saw that because I bought an original advertisement

of 64 Dodge there. Yeah.

Well, I got one for each of my Corvettes from him. Nice.

So he there's a good chance he's got one for a fifty eight T Bird.

Make sure we hit him up while we're there.

Oh, you know, that's right.

I'll be looking also for the little car.

We were talking about that earlier when I arrived

to record this and I'm trying to find a one 18th scale fifty eight T Bird.

Well, and there's a die cast guy there, too. Yeah.

Yeah. He sells those.

I bought I wish I could bought a Plymouth from him a Plymouth Fury.

Did you really over there? Yes, I did. OK.

Well, you know what you're looking for.

I know I don't look at that.

He's going to go shopping and some of it's going to be available

to you this weekend while we are there.

Merry Christmas to me. Yeah, absolutely.

You need to check that out.

I had to move of all the bikes, all the Harleys to the warehouse

with the impending snow because I didn't leave my truck outside.

Yeah. And now I've got I told you about the.

The bike I should have bought, almost bought, tried to bought,

didn't got out bid and then the guy didn't complete the sale.

Told you about all this. Yeah. Yeah.

It was on bring a trailer and this has been about a month or so ago.

And then bring a trailer contacted me because I was the second highest bidder on it.

Yeah. It was a 1990 Harleys heritage.

You know, this wasn't some dude.

You met the DMV. It needed some dude.

You met the bathroom at high V.

Hey, nice bike.

It was some dude I met through bring a trailer.

I bid on this bike. I threw in a $3,000 bid.

It was the bike that I looked at.

And I, you know, it needed a little TLC,

but I think it can look really nice. Sure.

Son-in-law and I rode over to the guy's house.

Guy's name is Dave Cider.

And it turns out he's an attorney.

He's a good guy.

Oh, is he from the Cider family?

Dickens Cider? No, not that.

And you can't tell that.

It's spelled differently.

You're a big weenie.

So anyway, Dave.

Anyway, I went over and took a look at the bike

and the bike has some real potential,

but it just needs a real thorough detailing

and a little bit of TLC.

And the whole time I'm standing there,

I'm just I'm talking my way out of this deal

because I could have picked the bike up for around three grand.

So what's going to let it go?

And I'm looking at, I'm just talking to Dave

and I keep telling, you know, if we just replace this.

Yeah. The little the little speedometer

surround the dash on the on the gas tank

and we clean this up and we took some of the stuff off

because it's a little too personal.

It's a little too you.

You need to make it

more more viable for a broader audience.

Yeah. And we just clean the hell out of it

and we move the the back brake pedal

for just a little bit because it's a little high.

And it's just, you know, I rattled off a few things.

I said, we do this, polish the hell out of it.

You could sell it this spring for five or six grand

and he's looking at me like, I just made a new friend.

Yeah, you're my best buddy now.

You're my new best buddy.

And so rather than trying to weasel the bike away

from him for a discount price, I told him

I would help him get the thing cleaned up.

Oh, that's awesome.

And he needed a place for it to, you know,

I told him to bring it down to the warehouse

and leave it there and we'll work on it.

And now that bike sitting next to two of my bikes down.

Just I wanted to get my truck in and much like your house,

my big long vehicle got about,

well, you know, you remember the the 17 stick

Wrigley's plenty packs.

Yeah. If you turn them sideways,

I got about that much space between either bumper in my garage.

That's what I'm looking at, man.

She's a little tight.

So in order to get my pickup truck in,

two bikes had to go to the warehouse

and there was the road king and the road glide.

Yeah. Anyway, I think this spring,

I'm going to try to show my dad how to detail stuff.

You got a good look at that.

You're going to have him hold the light for you.

I was just about to say it was about to.

You're going to finally yell to hold the damn flashlight.

I'm going to see if we've got the patience enough

not to kill each other.

You know, the one time I ever worked on a vehicle with my dad,

he was he was very patient, very kind.

And my mom even told me a story about one time

it was at 55 Plymouth, my first car.

I think it was 17.

And I I have no idea what I was working on at the time.

But apparently it was a pain in the ass.

And she said that dad had walked out.

He was like, you know what?

I think I'll go see Martin needs some help.

She said he walked out a couple of minutes later.

He kept walking back in.

He's kind of going.

She's like, what?

What happened?

He's like, no, I don't know.

But he's telling that car some pretty words.

Apparently I was cussing a blue streak at the thing

trying to get something fixed.

And I didn't even I have no idea when he walked out

or when he walked back.

But he's like, my boy, that's right, dad.

I love you.

That's pretty normal.

I don't have to happen.

I don't think we'll kill each other.

But it's.

Trying to teach somebody else to be patient

while they're doing something.

Patient is in dad's long suit.

And he's a lot more patient now than he used to be.

Yeah, a lot, lot.

But he he he wants to get stuff done.

He wants progress.

He wants to get stuff done.

And you can't explain to somebody about clay barring a car.

Listen, this is the first step.

OK, great.

We're going to get this one done and then the next one.

What? No, we're going to work on this one

all the way around the car.

And then we're going to start the next step.

And then we'll be finished. No.

Yeah, just follow me.

Yeah, right along with me, Tiger.

And at some point he's going to lose interest

and walk off and go watch a football game.

And I'll be in the garage by myself with a bunch of rags.

Yeah, but you'll have that memory.

You'll have that moment.

So did when I pissed dad off enough to make him leave for that.

Seventeen minutes.

Absolute bliss.

That's fair. That's fair.

Seventeen minutes.

Yeah, 17 minutes.

You know how that goes.

You know what it takes.

You'll have to send me an email, man.

Yeah. Or send me a text saying,

hey, he made it 18.

Yeah, I'll cheer it on.

I'll set a timer on it.

Our special guest this week is Rick Hunter.

Rick is the owner and operator of Hot Rod Express,

Kansas City's premier custom car shop,

offering services for every facet of your hot rod or custom build.

Rick, welcome back to Driven Radio.

Thank you for having me, guys.

Oh, I always love to have you.

Always nice to come out here.

Yeah, well, the bar's closed.

It is very close.

It's very close, very tasty.

It's it's been a while since we've had you on

Howard things at the shop.

I know you never sit still and you got lots going on.

Things are going good.

We're we're all busy all the time, man.

It's just it's it's kind of hard to explain.

Sometimes all the stuff that happens in in a day.

Well, you can see a lot of pictures

at Hot Rod Express and Facebook.

Yeah, there's a lot of in progress pics

that are just well and Hot Rod Express.

They've got an Instagram page also

and I've got the information

for that buried someplace.

Yeah, we'll talk about it in a little bit.

Do you have any McPherson grads working for you?

Yes, we do.

We have a young man started there.

He's starting his life with us after school

and it's exciting watching.

You're going to watch him, you know, start his life

and and his girlfriend picking their path.

And oh, cool. Great people.

He's a smart kid, a safe kid.

They're all kids.

Oh, yeah.

All right, now he's he's really good guy.

Just just nice to be around, which, you know,

of everybody there is, which we've got a good team.

Everybody gets along fine.

Do you need some more?

Scooby up some more grants.

You know, possibly.

They just kind of take things as they go.

We had an intern this summer that worked out well for us

and he's back in school now. OK.

Finishing his degree.

And he's probably going to travel a few places

to get his feet wet and other other areas.

He's he likes seeing the world.

Oh, cool.

But now this man does a really good job for us.

He's he's younger, of course, and more,

you know, a computer savvy.

If you've watched any of our online

poster stuff, he's the one responsible for for for that.

And a lot of the picture posting

and the videos and stuff like that.

Everybody really likes.

He's the one documenting all the stuff you're doing.

He does some of that.

Most of the text, they they photo document

as they're going along individually

and then it's compounded into a database.

So we we have a lot of pictures every day

that have to happen.

I know you gave me a hell of an album

when you did my Corvette.

Yeah, some of them aren't very exciting looking,

but it's just it's just.

No, all the shiny stuff is always good.

It's always exciting.

So, you know, it's it's always dark in the beginning

and but but they look they look good.

But but we do make first and a good a good school.

But I don't I've never met anybody there.

There wasn't nice.

Yeah, you know, I mean, it it really is midwestern.

I think it's it's just a really good place to be.

I agree.

We're only a few months away from World of Wheels.

Actually, what? Yeah, about two.

Yeah, about two months out.

What do you take into the show this year?

What are you trying to get finished?

Well, there's a lot of stuff we're always trying to get finished.

A couple, a nice truck we're finishing on

just finished a really pretty cool demon and

several cars that are just down to the end on getting ready to deliver.

We've been working on several really cool Corvettes

and 81 that won't be there this year.

But it it'll be a really cool car.

We're done. It's got a lot of nice stuff on it.

I know it's an 81 Corvette and a lot of guys are boohoo,

but it's going to be really cool.

I like 81 Corvettes.

Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be real soon.

Yeah, even if you don't like them, you're going to like this one.

And I don't know if you've got a chance to see it in person yet or not.

No, I haven't.

But it's it's it's pretty neat.

It's widened the body out about eight inches.

It's going to have some big LS power in it.

And and it's just it's painted.

So that parts done chassis done.

Banned steels helped us with a lot of all the suspension components.

So it's got a pretty pretty nice suspension system under you.

Wouldn't be far away from doing some moderate road racing in the car

if you if you wanted to.

But I need to see that one.

Yeah, it's it's going to be it's going to be neat.

You know, so it's just we've had a lot of Corvettes lately.

It's well, let's talk about that pretty been pretty fun.

How much how many Corvettes do you have sitting around there?

You're starting to tempt me to come out.

Yeah, we've got three there right now.

We're we're doing a 63 for gentlemen in this 81 and in a 65

that we're doing a 65 roadster.

Oh, really?

I have another 65 roadster.

I know you want to I'm dying to get that thing in there.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we've got some we've got some ideas and plans for you on that one, too.

Well, I'm I'm excited about that.

I need to try to talk the owner into changing the interior color.

Dad, are you listening?

Dad, this is hey, can we change it to silver?

I think it would look silver.

It would look so you don't see too many silver or silver.

And I think it'd look really cool.

Plus it'd be easier in the summertime when it's hot.

Yeah, yeah, it's better.

Most of them are black.

You know, yeah.

And this one's black, too.

The thing is on the silver ones, the cascade, the dash

and the center cascade were black.

So if you pulled all the panels out in the seat covers

and you changed the carpet, everything silver,

but you don't have to repaint the dash.

No, that would be acceptable.

Totally. How would you recolor a dash like that?

You repaint it.

Literally, you paint it.

Well, you use like a vinyl dye sometimes.

Well, 63 and 64.

Sometimes we can wrap them in leather with some nice,

you know, French seaming and some upstitch and stuff like that.

But in 63 and 64, the cascade, if you look right over your shoulder

there was vinyl, but in 65, they started to paint in them.

And so you've got the two binocles like right there,

you see are padded.

That's that's upholstered.

But the center part and the the radio grill and all that stuff are.

It's painted.

So if you change it, you paint it.

What's funny is that's a lot like that fifty eight tuber.

The it's got the two different little cockpits.

Well, there's a lot more vinyl in there.

It's more like a rubber room.

It's a very fancy way to go to an asylum.

And I didn't really think about that much before.

But yeah, it does.

It's got the twin binocles in it.

And it's it's kind of like having twin cockpits for the driver and the front passenger.

Yeah, it's kind of cool.

So yeah, they are similar in that regard.

But we could take all the panels that are in that car now

and box them up, save them, you know, throw away original stuff.

The carpet really needs to be replaced, regardless.

But you could change everything inside that car to silver.

And if you ever wanted to put it back for originality's sake,

and that is a super original car, then you'd have all the parts right there.

And you know, that would look pretty cool with the black silver.

Yeah, that'd be pretty sweet.

I think it would be. Oh, yeah, that that'd be neat.

As far as the old stuff. Yeah, I don't know.

Once you make it look cool, it's hard to go back.

Yeah, true that.

Since we're strictly all you got a really big storage area, though.

So yeah, well, we do that pretty good toy box.

But for all of the people who cannot see us,

we're looking at a giant picture that of

my 65 Corvette that shot from the back, looking into the cockpit.

And yeah, it pretty easy to have that for a reference.

Yeah, that's a really neat looking dash in anything, you know,

I mean, it's there's so much you can do with that.

Well, in addition to sending that Corvette your way,

I want to send that Harley pick up your way to the F-150.

Yeah, but needs a little TLC.

Yeah, but I like what you were telling me about it earlier this evening.

It sounds like we could get away with a lot less than I was thinking.

I think so. Well, I'd love to send that your way.

You're great to haul ladders and stuff around.

That's what I was doing with it earlier tonight.

I went to Dad's house, got his truck, stole his ladder.

Yeah, I'm finally.

Did you need it or you just don't want him to have it?

Yes. And is he listening to this show?

Yes, he does.

Oh, yeah, he does.

And he knows how much it bugs me to see him up on a ladder.

I'm just terrified.

He broke his heel real bad several years back.

It's probably been six or seven years ago.

But you should have seen the other guy.

Yeah, it looked it looked a lot like a basement floor.

Oh, he fell from a first floor deck onto a basement floor

and he landed on his right heel and it shattered it out.

And that's when I found out, you know, you don't realize

how invasive or what a big deal that is to break your heel.

And from what his doctors told him

that it most of the people who have that

done wind up having some kind of reconstructive surgery

and about 40 percent of those folks wind up getting infections in their foot

and they lose the foot. That's a bad place.

Yeah, that's a bad deal.

So they sent dad home in a three sided cast

and they said that even though it was in a lot of pieces,

everything was fairly well aligned and he just he sat at home

with his leg up for about a month and a half in his in his heel.

Healed. It knitted itself back together.

And I think now, dad, you can correct me later if I'm wrong.

I think it was. He will.

I think it was eight weeks.

Maybe he was out golfing and walking the course. Really?

Yeah. He's he's super tough.

He's double tough. Eight weeks.

When we come back, Rick will fill us in on the car.

He never wants to work on his favorite resto mod alterations

and some tips for putting a bigger power plant into your beast.

Here on Driven Race.

Let's take a break for some commercials about cool car people stuff.

Driven Radio Show will be right back.

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They listen to what customers want.

It's kind of cool because you can go to Hot Rod Express.

Talk to any of them there.

You can go to their parts department.

They have a speed shop.

You can stop in and talk parts and they will help guide you

to the ones that you really, really need.

And the stuff they only work with top notch components.

They listen to what you want.

They don't just try to turn your car into something that they like.

They make a car, your truck, your SUV,

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And now back to more driven radio show.

And we're back with Rick Hunter from Hot Rod Express.

Rick, what car would you never want to work on?

Oh, my.

I mean, you would.

Let's not get it wrong.

This is this is kind of a personal preference thing,

because I know that Hot Rod Express would work on anything.

Or if they're, oh, oh, oh, oh, I'm about to get a dirty secret.

Hold on, hold on.

Or we could put a wrinkle on the question.

What car would you never want to work on?

Or what car have you worked on that you'd never want to work on again?

Oh, I can't even say it.

OK, that's fair.

I really can't even say it.

It's going to be a 65 Corvette.

If somebody came rolling in with a certain something, something,

which is one that you'd be like, no.

That would be the one that I'd say no.

Yeah, 65 Corvette.

I know what it is, but I really can't say it.

But no.

OK, besides that one.

Besides that one, just the one that.

What car is toughest to work on?

I mean, we're there to make a living.

So I guess it'd be the one that don't have any money behind it.

So that's why we all wake up in the morning.

Did you watch him sidestep that?

I did right out of the way.

Now, you would because you guys don't really like work on the teens

in 20s or Stanley Stevens.

You know, we did finish a 13 T.

No kidding.

Now, was it was it a rest a lot of doubt?

Or no, it was a 1913 T for a for a man.

He'd been working on it for a long time

to the point where he needed some help, which we finished it.

We'd done, you know, put all the sheet metal on it, done all the painting.

Wow, got it all up and going.

He's waiting for a deco hack body for it like a wooden body.

It would have been. Yeah.

So there's a guy up in Maine that's building a body when it gets done.

Then he'll bring that where I'll go pick the chassis up and we'll bring it back.

It's all done.

Defenders are not running boards, all that stuff, motor,

transmissions all gone through.

He done most of the mechanical.

The last couple, probably decades.

It took a long time.

No, no, we talked about it.

He does have another car.

I'd like to do that, too.

He's like, oh, no.

How come the wheels won't touch all at the same time?

That was such a I've never worked on a T.

I mean, I've thrown a lot of parts away from, you know, but I just like, you know,

it's just but it was really an interesting car and it's time.

It would have it would have been the the Polaris Ranger of its day, you know,

as far as just durability, toughness and its off-road capabilities and stuff

were or well, everything in 1913 was off-road.

Yeah, because they weren't either said giddy up or had a crank handle on your hand.

Now, did this still have the wood spoke surrounding wheels?

Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah.

So basically it was part of which body part for the tires are white,

like your shirt. Oh, wow.

Rubber tires that we wrapped in vinyl and stuff.

So when we rolled around it didn't the tires don't get dirty until he's

ready to drive it. So it was really, really interesting.

White gum rubber.

You know, Luke Channel is the one who is a master at those things,

especially what is the electrical part?

You've got these big boxes of goo.

Well, it's like a coil is coils. Coils, yeah.

And it's a magnet. Luke's midnight coil service.

It don't have a battery or a starter.

So you crank it to get it going and it takes over there.

So it's it's it's spark on plug.

It's kind of like the modern engines that have coil on plug.

So every every plug has coil.

Yeah, like they're doing now, but they were doing in the beginning.

Yeah. And they're in there, you know,

big wooden boxes full of tar and some wiring.

And it's, you know, I've looked at some of the stuff that Luke's put together

and I'm just like, God, that's I mean, it's totally old school.

But the fact that you're building this all by hand and making it work

is just amazing.

Now, even a really good mechanic, if you dropped them off at tea,

they would be like, what in the world is this?

You know, you've got to do what to make this work.

You know, so it was just such a learning curve for me

because I've never done that much stuff.

We've done a lot of street rides.

That's how started in this business was building street rides, you know,

20s and the 30s. But man, we didn't keep any of that stuff.

We took it out through the way.

All we wanted to sheet metal, you know, and then we'd make a frame,

put it together, put it in a big bucket, you know, big motor, nice seats,

you know, got to have radio air conditioning, stuff like that.

But we didn't try to keep them original because like,

you know, your your flat head dodge motors, they don't go very fast.

No, no, they're great for a parade or around the neighborhood or something like that.

But, you know, if you're kind of tough on the old dodge.

Yeah. Well, at least I didn't have to do my car parts shopping at Home Depot.

That would he bought it and sold it for a reason.

So yeah, it was more than anybody.

All I know is suffering and regret.

I just got a car with a big block in it.

So, you know, definitely want to go faster.

Nice. Mark's got a lot faster motor.

Your new car is going to go a lot faster.

That's kind of, you know, I'm kind of looking forward to it, even though it's, you know,

what, eleven, nine cubes smaller, the four barrels going to help.

It's a long less car to haul around though.

That's, you know, two barrels more of Feed and the Beast.

And and that carburetor that I had on the dodge was original.

So if that leaky son of a bitch.

Yeah, didn't say Campbell's on the outside.

I don't know how many how much gas made it into the jets versus out through the side.

But, you know, it ran enough.

And you may have changed out a fuel filter or two or five.

Yeah. Well, you know,

once you replace the gas tank doesn't seem to be as bad as that was shocking.

The difference of the way around.

Yeah, didn't have any orange crap in those filters anymore.

May have had that run into that problem on a 70 Corvette coupe

that I went through.

And I've shown you on the back of those Corvettes,

how big the opening is for the gas tank.

You could reach in and get to the bottom of that.

And it was just like orange talc.

It had been sitting forever.

And now you can siphon that out almost.

I've done that before we see it on the bottom and you kind of

you start siphoning the gas and then you get your hose down there

really close to it and you can suck all that stuff up.

And when you're siphoning the tank out, yep.

I've done a lot of Corvettes where there's a bunch of crud in the bottom

of the tank and suck it out through.

I may or may not be guilty of having taken an impala gas tank to a car wash.

Oh, yeah, works good.

And don't just soap those car wash.

Yeah, yeah, flip it upside down.

Just let her go.

Everything came out great.

It does.

It was a pain in the butt to take out and put back in by myself.

Well, but it'll get you by.

Yep. Yep. She worked.

She worked.

Hey, when you do a resto mod like we were talking about, which

which alteration or which part of the rest of my bill?

Do you most enjoy seeing happen?

And which one do you dread?

You know, the dread part, I don't I don't dread anything because I don't mind

taking an original car apart and putting modern stuff in it.

That doesn't hurt my feelings any as long as there's a museum with one in it.

That's that's all we need.

Yeah, fair.

But, you know, the the planning of it's a lot of fun.

You know, putting together a motor, what how big a motor, how much horsepower

does this guy want?

What kind of conveniences do you want?

You can make it look really nice and modern under the hood.

It just it just cleans things up.

The dependability is great.

But but there's more to just putting a motor in.

We call some people, hey, I want to do an LS swap, LS swap.

That's that's the big phrase.

You know, or put a coyote in a swap of world.

Absolutely. And there's a reason why it's a fantastic motor.

It's small and it'll fit anywhere and your your horsepower is almost

unlimited on stuff.

And so, you know, you put it in, but you got to think about more

because then you got you got your nice motor in there now.

Now you got a transmission that's got to work with it, got to handle it.

You want it to work.

And then you go back a little further.

You got to the drive trains got to be made for it.

And now you're making a car run, you know, 160, 70 miles an hour.

Now you got to be able to stop it sometimes.

So yeah, now you got to now you got to think about, you know,

bigger brake systems and better wheels and better tires

and and get rid of power assist or whatever type of steering

it had before and putting some some modern steering components under the car.

And, you know, by thinking all that stuff out, it should probably happen anyway,

even if, you know, guys are doing them at home and just do a motor swap

and and if they're responsible and not monster power,

they'll probably be fine with what they've got.

But there's so many things you can do now.

If you're not doing a complete new chassis, you there's so many.

There's so many engineered components out there now for just about any kind of car

that makes this process so much faster, you know, and and the the engineering

and and in all these these newer components is so well thought out

and you're not having to do like, you know, 30 years ago,

you had to think all this stuff out yourself.

You had to make stuff, make control arms, make suspension parts, you know.

And now they're it's just so much better.

But that's that's a big thing about if you're doing a modern power conversion

is is that, you know, the the paint and the body and interior.

That's that's kind of second.

But, you know, thinking about instruments, if you're doing L.S.

conversion, hey, everything's run off of cables and capillary tubes.

So now, you know, that might mean to think about now it's time to do some

instruments that's actually going to work with your, you know,

your new GM computer. Yeah, engine man or something.

So it just goes on and on.

I mean, the it just keeps going in.

And what you need is somebody who knows that, you know, who knows.

There's a lot to it.

And I enjoy talking to people about that because several people,

they'll see a show or get excited about it and want to do it.

And, you know, what am I up against?

And when you kind of go through it all right down, here's a list of stuff

you really need to think about. And they're like, wow, OK, I had no idea.

And now I have no idea which component is going to be compatible with this.

And now you've got manufacturers of

50 major components on the car that you're trying to marry together

and make work together.

So we've been doing it for a very long time.

I mean, we've been installing fuel injection motors in

when we were putting, you know, tune port engines in.

And Mustang 50 fuel injected motors, you know, and, you know,

when they came out and like what, 95s, 96, something like that.

So we've been putting in modern injected motors

since modern injected motors became available, you know.

So we've been doing it for a long time, you know, LS motors

when they first came out, coyote motors when they first came out, stuff like that.

Is a lot of this stuff plug and play now?

Like, yeah, QA1 can do complete suspensions.

QA1 makes some really nice stuff.

I mean, they for if you've got a really nice chassis

and you want some boat on components, they're one you really should consider,

you know, looking into what they have and what level of package

you really want or need, but it is a pre-engineered system

that you don't have to do a lot of chassis modifications.

So if you're doing it yourself, you don't have to have a huge shop

and a lot of real expensive equipment like you would have to have

if you're trying to build a chassis from scratch.

And not that you have to have a lot of equipment, but you have to have

a lot of knowledge and a lot of skill to do that.

Or you can have one made for you.

Go to Art Morrison or Nelvin or, you know, that sort of stuff.

Or Morrison Roaster Shop, you know, several places like that.

I mean, we're doing a 63 Corvette for a customer now

and it's got a Roaster Shop, spec seven chassis with a new LT,

you know, Chevrolet motor.

Is it a Cooper or a Ragtop?

It's a Coupe. No kidding.

Wow, I'm a little surprised by that because

original split windows go for so much.

Well, they do, but but they're so much cooler when you.

When you make them look really cooler, if you do.

Yeah, I would.

You could argue either way, you know, rest of mods

really, really cool when everything works.

They're valuable and you can drive them.

Yeah, they drive down the road and you've got good AC music

and everything else.

We finished one up for a customer this early this summer.

Spring, it was a 67 Camaro.

That's, you know, it's kind of rest of a model.

We got a, you know, 427 cubic inch LS3 makes really nice

aspirated power, modern drivetrain, big transmission, rear end,

modern components and him and his wife have just had a blast

this summer driving this car all over the place.

He'll drive three and four hours away to car shows

and hang out with people and come back.

And it's something that they've never done in their life.

And they really enjoy doing it.

But the thing about the modern power and the convenience

is the car is dependable.

You know, I mean, it's yeah, yeah, it doesn't leak anything.

It just runs the same every time they get in it.

And they really have a good time with it.

It presents well, they have a good time, meet people.

What do you say to weenies like me who like the way my 65 drives

and sounds and feels because it's got all that vintage stuff

and because it feels the way it did when I was made.

It's just kind of the same.

If it's mechanically, if everything's in good shape,

you should be able to drive.

Well, you made it that way.

I know, but you can go to Denver and if you want to,

if you want to ride in it that long, you know,

that's that's the thing is is is how long do they want to ride?

A lot of these cars are smaller.

This one I was just telling you about it's real comfy.

We got some really nice modern seats in it.

They got everything. It is a nice car to drive.

So that's the thing about when you change them up

from the original cars, the seats were kind of what they were.

They were straight up.

They yeah, they rode like they rode.

The steering wheel is generally right here

and it's as big around as the trash can.

You haul your stuff out to the curb in, you know, and,

and, you know, everything was kind of suspiciously very

mechanical and I don't know.

There's a reason why cars have evolved to where they're at

now is because people were tired of that on every day.

Absolutely. You know, it wore them out, you know,

driving a three speed column shift manual steering

car to working back every day.

It was fantastic when it was new technology.

But now, I mean, it's

well, you've got a choice of for something different.

You've got a lot of choices for something different.

I will say like your car, it's a great car.

So it's got it's got decent power, you know,

you know, a stick shift, you know, in it, which I like those better.

We talked about the glides earlier. Yeah, they're OK.

But, you know, it's just like riding with grandpa.

They just kind of slide around town, you know,

if you got. And so, you know, by changing up a gear case

can really make that car more fun to drive.

But there's so many things you can do.

I can prove in steering and ride and handling in it.

And it just makes such a difference in the car.

I think the one thing I would change on mine

is I would I'd like to have a five speed

and I'd like to have one more gear to give it a little more highway.

30 percent in the end of things just makes such a difference.

Oh, yeah. And we can do that.

Where it's what we're doing to the 65 we're doing right now.

We're putting a modern TKX transmission in.

It's got a 32 percent overdrive in fifth.

It's a Turing transmission, not a road race gear.

So we're not using drop here for for big power.

We're using fifth gear for.

Hey, we're going to cruise for a while.

Drop RPMs on a highway by about a thousand or so.

May put you put, you know, six hundred plus horsepower and one.

It's a lot of fun to drive. Oh, OK.

Yeah, probably.

It's smooth and you get to a stop light

and you can choose whether you want it

to be kind of rowdy sounding idling

or you can have it idling 400 RPM, you know.

And and then get her done when you're ready.

Yeah, I.

I love the side pipes on my car. Oh, yeah.

They're fine for a half hour.

Well, you didn't take at least one earplug with you.

And you'll be fine. No kidding.

I'll fear. Yeah.

That was the thing driving home from California.

If I would run down, if I was in a construction zone,

I would actually get the sound off the other pipe back in the car with me.

Oh, stereo cool. Check that out.

Oh, yeah. All right.

So I could talk about cars all day long, man.

It's it's it's so much fun.

What we will we get to do?

It's it's it's a challenge.

It really is. It's not it's not super easy to do the guys that work

for for Lori and I and the crew we have.

They are not a 1950s television show.

That's no neighborhood mechanic being a gesture hat wearing clown.

These these guys are really smart.

Yeah. And they have to be to to do this.

And this this is well, they'd have to be to see.

I've seen what comes out of your shop.

They'd have to be sure to be they really are produce that kind of stuff.

Even people that think they really know about a lot of this stuff.

When it comes right down to it, they're really surprised on just

how much they don't even good mechanics.

You know, what we do is so different than just fixing production cars

at dealership. Yeah, it's just it is just so much different.

Well, dude, I find, you know, working on these vehicles to be totally easy

as long as I can do it wrong.

I really excel at that. Yeah.

You know, when you said totally easy, I was like, you're so full.

And then you said, but I was wrong.

It's kind of like my welding, baby.

Oh, I could put a hole in anything.

I'll tell you what, you and I make it a world in welding, baby.

I know it's beautiful, right?

As long as you make sparks, you're well, you're getting stuff done.

You and I should learn to weld together, you know, that's actually not a bad idea.

I've been looking into like night classes on how to how to do automobile repair.

And the thing is the only problem having like, what is it?

MCCC, something or the community college, not that far from where I where I live now.

Maple, something, I should know what the name of it is.

But they have night courses for automotive repair, a body repair, this and that,

which is all cool, except most of it's about modern vehicles.

And I'm like, kind of, I want to know how to take apart a carburetor

and put it back together. That's why we have to go to McPherson.

I know that I got it.

I got to drop, you know, 4K, get it ready and then go there and spend a week

because you get to stay in the dorm. It's immersive.

Talk to Amanda.

She probably knows whether or not you can get in.

Yeah, by now, it's probably already too late.

But it might be.

It really is something I'm thinking about, because I was I was just close

to doing it last year. And I'm like, when I first got the dog, it was like,

you're listening. Find out if there's a spot.

Please. I need to be an apprentice.

Or he does listen. He does listen.

So, Luke, if there's a spot, please still mark.

Yeah, we'll talk.

Your personal opinion, your own personal preference,

fuel injection or carburation?

Well, you know, that that's the deal.

I'm I'm old enough to be pretty good at carburetors.

I've been, you know, rebuilding them for 40 years.

So they're they're not a big deal to me.

If it was something I was doing and I was building some type

off-road vehicle, I would probably put a carburetor because I can fix it

with anything. There's, you know, that's that's just me.

Other people are going to struggle with a carburetor.

Fuel injection is definitely superior.

I mean, you got you got air fuel corrections that are happening.

Plug it into a laptop.

Hundreds of times a second.

And once you get the system, you know, working properly,

if there's just nothing, there's not a substitute for it.

Your power is smooth all the way through acceleration.

There's no bugs. There's no lags.

There's nothing that you're always going to have with a carburetor

in some manner, unless you just work at it really, really hard.

And then still it's not going to be as accurate as fuel injection.

But the modern fuel injection systems take a lot of work to get there.

It's it's it's misleading when you you see the auto tuning,

auto learning, all this auto auto auto stuff that you have to set

the program up for it to know what to do.

So there there's still so much work.

And that's why so many customers that have put fuel injection on themselves

and maybe with with to help them with a few people and they're going

at it with everything they've got.

But they're they've been given wrong information right out of the gate.

So that that kind of they get frustrated.

They don't know what to do.

And then when you're trying to seek out a professional to help you do that,

it's real sketchy on sometimes finding somebody that actually is as good

as they want to be and or they're trying to learn as they're going along too.

So that that's always a challenge.

We've been doing it for a long time.

We've got a pretty good, you know, method and and sources on getting this stuff done.

And we're pretty good at in-house stuff now, too, on those.

But but there's a lot to know about it and the more of them we do,

the more of the quirks we're learning in the the aftermarket systems.

So fuel injection is definitely superior.

If you're if you're trying to build a car and you're trying to make

something really nice, try to put fuel injection on it.

Anybody in your family is going to be able to start it because 1985.

That was the last year for carburetors.

If you think about it, this part of the day goes, yeah, 86, 86.

Fuel injection came in, 87.

It was pretty much on everything.

86 was the last year for the Jeep CJ seven.

And I think those that four point two was still carved.

Yeah, it was.

That was that was the very last one.

You know, Corvettes or fuel injected in 82 and every year since then.

And, you know, most GM stuff had throttle body in the early days.

Mustangs 95 is pretty much the last year for most of the carburetors.

They started coming in at 85.

I'm sorry, 86.

They they had some though the good old throttle body injections

came out. Well, and then your 86 did too importantly.

I rocks. So yeah.

But that was an infancy type fuel injection.

It was really slow.

They didn't work pretty good with modern computers.

You could buy a new Holly system and adapt to it.

And yeah, have a pretty good fuel injection system.

So which version of each is the toughest to make work?

Or, you know, which which one do you mean not injection system?

Fuel injection or carb?

Which carb do you carburetors?

I don't they're all fine.

I don't care if it's a Holly or an elder rock.

They they're a little different in how they work,

but they produce the same end result.

They're mixing air and fuel together.

So, you know, that's that's just what you've got to do.

Old carters, old carters.

You can make those work fine.

OK, you know, but but cleaning a carburetor

and getting it where it's rebuildable is the big challenge.

If it's even worth rebuilding or it's even rebuildable,

it could be warped so bad, nothing's going to seal anymore.

Because it's been, you know, that we're that reason to barrel.

You had on your Mopar.

Yeah, yeah, it was a Carter and wasn't really.

Yeah, it was original. OK.

And yeah, that was that was special along with that.

Oh, God, what was the name of the brakes?

And the the brake booster was horrible.

Yeah, growling or something.

And I got it. I got it replay your got it rebuilt.

And a rematch of the brakes were terrible.

There were non-energizing drum brakes that.

Yeah. And Dodge, they they they used that for so long

after everybody was using self-energizing drum brakes.

It worked so good.

They hung on to that two-wheel cylinder system

for 20 years longer than they should have, you know,

and guys like you get them and then try to make them work with

modern stuff that's not the original stuff.

Yeah, not as good as the original stuff.

And oh, my gosh.

The original stuff that sucked is on those good.

Yeah. Weird.

It's just like I could go on and on and on about, you know,

some boop paws done in the automotive industry.

That's one of the things about the with this Thunderbird.

You know, I'm going to drive it for a little bit,

kind of get the feel of what it does.

I do know that there's one thing that will need to be done before, too.

There's a wheel bearing that needs. Oh, hell, yeah.

You know, the important things.

But that's one of the things I've thought about is

and I've started to look up the cost and pricing in as that.

Kits to change it over to discs.

Yeah, there's good and bad.

So just what would just what would be the bad of that?

The bad is Brembo's are really expensive.

It depends on if you're going to do all four, just the fronts.

If you could just probably just do fronts on your car

and you would be good with a lot of different things.

But there are some kits out there that aren't that fantastic.

They're made to be cheap and they are cheap.

So don't click on by now on the cheapest.

You're in that $250 four wheel kit.

Well, I don't know.

I might want to check the reviews that aren't, you know, so.

It's all five star reviews.

You can't read them.

This good is they're all mounted with zip ties.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we try to.

We don't do many single piston brake systems.

It's usually four piston minimum.

OK. And but you got to look at what you're trying to do, too.

So that that's that comes with, you know, helping our customers,

even if they're buying parts from us in the parts department,

trying to guide them through something that's that's a right decision

the first time and are not like, well, you know, I didn't have anybody to ask.

Everybody I ask had a different opinion and their opinions were based

on information that wasn't something they'd actually done.

You know, so we try to base our decisions

and helping people off stuff we've really done,

not just what we think would work.

It's stuff that we either did that didn't work or or work better or worse

or the problems we had trying to make it work.

So that is one of the things we those things are valuable to us

because we've done so much when we're choosing things.

It's like, yeah, this this didn't work so good the last time.

And these were the reasons why.

And then we try to evolve into something better always.

We forget to mention that, too, about Hot Rod Express in Blue Springs,

Missouri, is that you guys have a parts department.

Yeah, you know, you know, you could drive, go there, go talk to them.

He's got a speed shop or parts that you need one of the last speed shops in town.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's not just them putting it in for you.

Do you need some info?

You need some advice from pros.

They'll drag in somebody.

Even if they if the person at the desk is like, you know,

I'm not really sure about that.

Hang on, they will find the people that know it or they'll bring in Rick

and you'll get a whole fricking education.

You need to put it right there.

You need to put Dale Wilch's coffin in your speed shop.

I miss him. Yeah. I miss Dale and my partner in the past, Mike Winfrey.

He was awesome at setting people up with stuff.

He'd been doing it for so long that a lot of people really relied on his advice.

Well, the next question Mark's going to ask you is, are there craggers in your speed shop?

Oh, yeah. Oh, my God.

Yeah, buddy, you're going to get all set up.

I know where I'm going.

You've got all kinds of wheels.

Oh, yeah, we got thousands of lug nuts in stock.

So we got we got to talk because daddy needs his daddy needs his crackers.

Do you need a moment?

And I'll need some advice on 14s versus 15s because the original wheel size

are 14s, but the wheels that he has on them now are 15s,

but they got baby moons in them.

And you know, I mean no disrespect to Anthony,

but I don't really care for them.

Well, and it's your car. That's fine.

It's your preference.

But here's the first thing I'll tell you about 14s.

You can't find tires. No, really?

You cannot find tires.

Remember the 63 and Palo rag top?

Yeah, I wound up putting trailer tires on that because that's all I could find for it.

Yeah. Oh, 15s is what we if we're going to be of good rich

is what we use there. Yeah, they've got a good tire and a 15.

Do they have a raised white letter?

If you want to. Mark, yes.

I got a set of four sitting in the warehouse for you.

If they fit, they're yours.

You can get you some diamondbacks if you want whites, too.

Oh, yeah.

But you needed some Vogue white whites.

Yeah.

White whites on craggers.

That's going to look so odd.

One of the things that I saw at a car show

that I thought was just actually really cute.

I don't know where they got them.

This was one of the I think three car shows

I got to take the dodge to before he's fricking sold it.

Greaserama.

There was Greaserama.

There was one before it.

It was a Westport Westport car show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There were a bunch of really cool vehicles

there that had custom lettering on the tires.

So the tires might have the owner's name like in in raised letters

for the love of God.

And it took me a bit because I forget who I was talking to

that we walked around like, wait a minute, look at this.

Check this out and got down

and took a real close look and it looks like they were glued on.

Yeah, but you had to look really close

because it wasn't a crappy glue job.

So it's like get some hot glue and some stencils

for your mailbox or something.

I don't know if it's like my simple glue or what are they doing?

But it was the coolest thing and they were custom names.

Sometimes it was the name of the car, you know,

the whole nine yard two plus twos and this is that.

And I was like, this I kind of I don't know.

I kind of liked it.

Mark doesn't know this.

I've never seen it.

But Rick is going to you, you know this,

you've just forgotten about it in the fifties

and early sixties, wide white wall tires

were quite a bit more expensive than black walls.

Oh, yeah.

So there were white wall

appliques that you could glue on your tires

to make them look like white whites,

except you get up to about sixty five.

If you don't have that sucker on there, perfect.

You got a vertical frisbee.

Yeah, what they what they were.

And I've mounted a lot of these as they you got a white black wall tire

and then you bought a white wall.

And it was like you'd break the bead down on the outside of the tire.

And this white wall would go on and you're going to put a bead would lock

that that white wall on and then centrifugal course.

Of course, pulled it out.

You could put some cement on it if you wanted.

But it was I can't remember the name, what those were called.

But we used to sell them a long time ago.

Cars back in the eighties.

Now, if you glued that on, would you have to?

Because when you air the tire up, it it it air to tire up.

It was between the tire and the wheel.

It's not going to the bead hole.

But would you have to get that glue?

Like really, even all the way across because we never we never glued them.

Never did. No, never.

Oh, not even once. Oh, wow.

Just lose. They were just made to.

I was worried about balance.

It right. Yeah.

But you get up around 80 or 90.

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah.

God, but those were some white skirts you'd put on.

Yeah, tire, tire spats.

You brought back some.

I haven't thought of those in years, man.

Yeah, man, I told you.

So find something like that.

And I don't know.

It probably everything's like the very back of the J.C.

Whitney catalog.

You'll probably see the great thing.

The tires are coming on the T-bird.

You will probably see those online,

you know, within a few months of me owning it.

Are they in good shape?

Yeah, and they're white walls.

OK, well, like I said, they said, white, white walls.

If the the tires that are in the warehouse

are ones that came off the 65 when I got at home,

they were in good shape.

I just wanted to put those gold lines on.

Yeah, if those raised white letter fit your T-bird, they are yours.

I would love for those to find a new home.

All they're doing is taking up space.

Heard, you know, we touched on this a minute ago, Rick.

When you put a much larger engine in an older car, when you do a rest

on mod, what are your recommendations for alterations to that car

to deal with that new horsepower?

You know, a lot of the frames probably weren't made with this kind of stuff.

And no, but in mind, but a lot of them do pretty good.

And the reason why in most cases is there's just so much traction,

you're going to get out of tires on a factory chassis.

Yeah. You know, I mean, they get they'll get pretty good traction.

But if you got a lot of horsepower, you just go and blow the tires out

before you really start tweaking the car very bad.

You hear that hot rod?

All ears, baby.

But if you go, you know, putting, you know, many tub and things

and, you know, doing modern suspension where you're putting, you know,

11, 12 inch tires on the back that are Z rated, high traction tires.

Then you might think of connecting frame rails together,

maybe boxing your frame, making it a little stronger.

You know, if you've got an existing car, rusty cars kind of twist quite a bit.

So making sure your car is not all rusty and crusty kind of helps too.

Mine's unibody.

It was 58.

Are they really?

Yeah. Yeah.

One of the first ones.

That's interesting. I didn't know.

Yeah. Either right till I read it.

Yeah, they were so early.

Lincoln's, they were unibody cars.

They weren't a chassis car.

So what would you do for something like that?

Because wouldn't a unibody just twister right up?

Not really. I mean, the unibody is really pretty strong.

It's a ladder type construction, you know, where everything's unboxed

and it's done for strength.

And if it's a coupe and not a convertible,

it's even going to be stronger because you got a roof.

So I mean, you would just have to have, you know,

when you're talking about more horsepower, five or 600 is not that much.

You know, most most cars can handle that without any trouble.

You know, if you got thousand horsepower,

then you're in race car situations, you know,

where you really need to start thinking about a pro chassis.

I have a dumb question for you, and this is very personal.

If I could lay my hands on, say, a 70 Chevelle SS

that was a big block car, but was not an LS6.

How tough is it to build two LS6 back?

Well, the LS6 motor was completely different than the other one.

There's not even a part that will change between the two.

Yeah. And but even the LS6 motor,

I mean, it was 450 to 500 horse.

Yeah. And those cars handled it really well.

You know, the other ones, as far as taking a lower motor

and making it into a more powerful engine,

just better rotating assembly and some better heads.

Sure. You're there.

And you're probably way, your way past there,

you know, with some modern stuff.

Well, I'm not ever going to be able to swing true LS6 money.

That's a couple hundred grand easy right there.

And you'll be able to find one, that's for sure.

I think Rhonda would have, she would want to bring up some things with me,

like why the hell don't we have a hot tub yet, you idiot.

OK, but but the LS6, it was a fast motor for its day.

But but you read, you could probably answer this.

Yeah. What the world championship in Super Street stock was in 1970.

It was putting a Hemi and a 70 Chevelle. Yeah.

And what were they rolling out?

Like a 14 second quarter mile, something like that.

Stock, yeah.

And in today's show, Taurus is going to.

No, Camry kicked the shit out of me.

That's what I'm saying.

So, you know, and then you get people in this mindset, they say,

oh, God, I like this Chevelle.

It made so much power.

It was a monster.

It was it was just for first time for its time.

Exactly for its time.

But like today, I mean, you can build a nice three 83 stoker motor

that's going to put a weapon on that on that.

Absolutely.

And guys argue it's about that all day long.

And there's it's an argument that don't have a winter.

You know, and well, it all comes down to personal preference.

I've never had a Chevelle.

I have a thing for 70 Chevelles as is if you do, of course.

So we are finishing.

I worked on a 1970 Chevelle Supersport.

Blue and white convertible.

Wait, wait, wait.

You said factory 454 four speed.

Yeah. Oh, crap.

They're getting ready to deliver it next week.

So that guy really wants an old Corvette, doesn't he?

He's he's got some.

OK, I have a new delivery location for you.

You need to update.

But it is a 70 Chevelle Supersport convertible.

It's just like one of the coolest cars.

Yeah, it's just it's like that car and a 57 Chevy, I think.

Well, and they're timeless.

The blue and white is perfect because white interior or parchment interior.

White top.

You're killing me, small stripes.

But it was not the LS six car.

It was the the 350 horse for fit, not the 350 horse, but 360 LS five.

And then they had a three ninety six was like.

Yeah, it was a slug.

Unless you got the three seventy five and they were pretty nasty.

Yeah, they could be.

But now this one runs really good.

I've drove it.

It's had some power enhanced.

It's got like a cam, you know, some stuff in it to make it run a little better.

So it runs really good four speed car, not an overdrive car or anything,

but it's got pretty high gear in it.

So it does good on the highway.

But but still looks aesthetically correct.

I just really love them.

And I haven't been able to get the Corvette thing out of my system yet.

Now, they're so comfortable.

There's a lot bigger, you know, yeah, guys like us can fit in them.

Yeah, easier to get easier to get in and out of a big ass trunk.

You can throw some stuff in and go to the lake.

Yeah.

Matter of fact, one of my boys today had we put, you know, trunk light in it.

And of course it's like refrigerator.

Does the light really go out if you close the door?

So he's he's our young, our young man that does clean up.

He's very limber and in high school.

So he's like, you're sure I'm in the trunk.

So he hopped in the trunk.

We close the door.

He's, yeah, lights out trunk light tester today on that car.

Hey, where are the keys?

Somebody go find the keys.

It was magic.

The trunk shut and the light went out.

How many cars do you get through your shopping here?

Oh, a lot.

There's lots of different levels of cars we do.

Some are complete restoration.

Some are like drive train enhancements.

You know, where the guy.

That white Pantera you did the interior in.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

And I think it's going to be a meekam this weekend.

Is it?

Yeah.

I think I was going to take it down there and see what it will do.

They've talked to you men to bring in it.

So, but you know, you're a member of the driven radio show media team this weekend.

That's right.

Thank you very much for that.

Thank you very much.

That one's waiting for you.

Yeah.

I like the fact that it comes with everything.

Food, drinks.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That is awesome.

You got it right in the back seat of the truck.

OK, the dome light is out.

The trunk light is out now.

Is that my seat?

Let me out.

We always wind up taking the truck because it's got to cover over the bed

and we can throw all our crap back there and just haul ass.

Right.

But yeah, that Pantera turned out really nice inside.

I like that car.

Oh, it's cool.

It's it kind of a he done some research.

It's kind of a rare car.

The kit that was put on it back in the time it was put on in that car is a 70.

Yeah, but it's I think it's a G five steel flares.

But this kit that was put on that was done when the car was new, supposedly.

So it was back then supposed to been close to a $20,000 ad.

Wow, to the car, which would have been like three times what the car sold for new.

Yeah.

But I don't know how true that story is because I didn't check it very, very much.

But now I'm going to go dig through my Pantera books.

It is some Italian name.

A D as well.

Did you also?

Yeah.

But this this kit was made for him by somebody.

And I forgot there was a few telltale ways of telling that it was.

Well, this the styling house.

The the styling house that did the body on that was Gia.

Oh, really?

Yeah, a guy named Tom Jarda did the styling on it.

OK. Yeah.

I when I was at McPherson, one of the projects I worked on was a 71 Pantera.

And that's where I kind of got hooked on them.

And yeah, the interior was horrible.

And it was factory, but it was horrible.

And one of the guys in the program made the best joke about it.

And I've used it for so many other things.

He said, it looked like it had been done third shift on a Friday

after a couple bottles of wine.

That was a good one.

I mean, I mean, I've worked on them before and in the technology

back then on the cars and the I'm not

dogging to people that they was only building what the engineers

give them to put on the carpet.

Some of the stuff wasn't that fantastic.

It was what you got to consider it as a 1970 thing.

Yeah.

But I grew up working on 1970, you know, American cars

like Chevelle's and stuff like that.

And they're just different than European cars in so many ways.

I mean, just thinking theory, just stuff that's like, well,

this don't make sense.

But to them, if they were working out of Chevelle, they'd probably think,

well, those guys, this is like, here's the best example of that.

Any sense?

I can give you from personal experience.

I'm used to Corvette logic.

Been around them a long time, had a bunch of them,

even had a dealership at one time that I absolutely lost my tail at.

Sorry, dad.

And I'm used to that or, you know, Chevy Suburban and pickups.

And I've had a bunch of Ford trucks and everything has its own logic.

Yeah, it's just like we have a mashed potatoes tonight.

Yeah, it's just normal. Yeah.

Go take apart that that S 600, that big V 12 Mercedes.

It's the most maddening damn thing under the sun.

And there's a reason, you know, I got the name I had for it was the Schadenfreude Express.

And that's fantastic.

Schadenfreude is a German word that means to find joy in other people's misery.

But somebody else came up with a better name for their German car.

And I thought it's so aptly applied to mine that I stole it.

And it's Hitler's revenge.

Yeah, absolutely.

The car is so stinking maddening to work on.

But there are guys out there who just do Mercedes stuff.

I know. And I met one of those guys a few years ago.

I was struggling with the Mercedes and and he came out and he was like,

oh, you just dot the dot the dot.

He just went right to these things right to it.

No big deal. No big deal.

It'd be like turning me loose.

Yeah. Your Corvette or Chevelle.

There's not a question on the car.

You know, probably couldn't have an answer.

And this guy was like that on Mercedes and I'm just standing there going,

wow, you're awesome.

You know, I mean, he solved so many problems for me in 10 minutes that.

Oh, I love those guys.

There's one guy.

I don't factory techs on that stuff are just so so awesome when it comes to.

There's one guy.

He's a McPherson grad.

I don't want to make it sound like I know him because I don't.

I know him barely in passing enough to say hi.

A guy named Nate Lander, who came out of McPherson, probably 0304 around the time.

I was there and he wound up working for the Mercedes Classic Center out in

California and has recently been in a couple of videos working on Tyler Hoover's.

I think it's a 57 300 SL Goldway.

Wow. And Nate knows every stinking thing about the car.

He's just it's like you with a shell or Corvette.

I wish you could download that information from people, you know, that do this.

Well, leave Elon Musk alone long enough.

He'll figure out a way to just plug you in.

Yeah. I mean, it's like the information that man has and so many other people.

And you've been around and we've been talking about the older cars,

like the T's and the A's and stuff like that.

Most of the people that were passionate about those.

Unfortunately, they're 80 90 or passed already.

They are gone and that never got passed on to anybody that really wanted it,

you know, because the person teaches a lot of they do.

So that's that's kind of finding these people.

But, you know, these people that are coming out of McPherson,

they didn't live this and grow up with this or have junkyards with 50 of these

in that they could go do this. It was not a big deal.

Now it's became a very pinpointed skill.

It's it's it's you got to be really smart to do it because you've got to

improvise so many ways because you can't just call and say, hey,

I need a new wheel for my my tea.

You know, you got to go cut down a tree first and get some wood.

And then you got to go back and put a wheel together.

I mean, this starts in such a different way than it did to the guys

that are 90 that grew up with this and they they had just buildings

full of this stuff that people were giving them for free.

And and now, you know, they're training these young men and like the men

that work for me, they they have a skill that you just can't pick up a book

and figured out you can get some information on YouTube,

but you're not any good at doing what you just did.

Usually you kind of know the terms and the phrase and the words

to call something, but you really haven't struggled with solving

that parts problem over and over again, knowing the reason why it failed

and which part of the part fails.

And and so that stuff is just going to be learned by these young men

if they stay after it.

Well, and one of the things and I'm starting to run into this

on a couple of my cars, the parts aren't there.

No, you can't find the parts.

Nobody makes the parts.

The parts aren't there.

And that's one of the things with it's the difference between

Portia and Mercedes.

Portia still makes or I've been told Portia still makes all the parts

for all the nine elevens they've ever produced.

I think they can.

And it's there.

Good luck trying to find some of the parts that are on my 600.

And it's all secondary.

None of this deficit non-shelves in OS.

You just it's almost impossible to find the stuff.

And so, like you said, you get creative.

Well, some stuff, the more sophisticated and elaborate

that it is when it was new is just a lot more reasons why it's

going to be so hard to repair in the future.

Oh, yeah.

You know, the more the that's like field trucks and barn fine

pickup trucks.

There's they had a choke knob and a headlight switch.

That was it, you know, and she don't run.

And I can't see after dark.

So, you know, your repair skills don't have to be in the

really that high for something like that.

But but stuff now and, you know, we've we've seen talking

about that the skill level.

The last few years, the problem we've had is is, of course,

quality of parts and finding the parts and finding somebody

that's actually knows why that part has to be on a car

that's 50 years old because younger people don't even know

can work from here.

Well, back we rode around a car.

I took him for a ride and something in the 70s and we

come back and he goes, that is the oldest car I've ever been

in. Oh, my God.

It was like a 75 shibby or something.

We took her. Yeah. Oh, wow.

And as an oldest car, I've never been in a car this old.

That was so wild right around.

And and so and and but we are also fortunate that with

that being said that it people search us out.

We're in more of a demand now than I think we were.

Yeah, I was going to ask you if you could work.

Working and riding encyclopedia real quick.

Yeah, because yeah, because it's just became such a specialized

talent more than just being a mechanic.

Yeah, it's it's more than just being a mechanic that, you know,

they pull cars in and out all day long doing break jobs, oil changes.

That's how you learn to work good and fast and and and do these repairs.

But still, we are struggling with all the calls we get

and all the people that are needing help and all the people

that have tried to find help.

There's lots of work to do it really hard to find a good mechanic

on these cars like what you have to.

That's that's something that like say all the text.

And what do you think I keep coming back to you, Rick?

Well, because I don't know.

You like me?

Oh, my old crap.

Yeah, but, you know, that's that's just this part of the deal

of finding somebody that can keep this stuff working.

And most mechanics in the most mechanics out there,

the production mechanics working on the cars every day,

like what I drove out here tonight, what you drove our modern cars,

we got to keep running.

They don't work on carburetors and stuff.

My brother ran a Ford dealership a few years ago,

and he told me a story once.

It's real funny.

And this was probably 10 years ago.

He had they brought in a Ford truck, had it in the mechanics.

They, you know, a porter and put it in a in a text bay.

And this guy goes over and it would had a no start

sign or take it, you know, on the on the work.

Brother was dispatch or he dispatched the guy.

He comes back, lays the ticket down, leans in dispatch window.

And he goes, got a truck in my bay.

And the brother said, yep.

And he goes, what do you do with it?

We'll need to get it running.

He goes, well, it's got this funny looking thing

sitting on top of the engine with a black rubber hose around to it.

What do you want me to do with that?

And I mean, and my brother told me that.

That was one of the funniest stories I read.

The guy never worked on it.

He never worked on a carburetor's life

because he didn't start working on cars till carburetors were long gone.

So he was a younger tech and he's like,

I don't know the first thing about a carburetor.

Don't ever want to learn about one thing.

Thank God he was honest.

You know, because you get into those things,

I have to run up just by taking one single piece off of it.

When when I was trying to unclog the

no, not you. I know.

Yeah, I don't write that little that

whole thing that the gas goes in the car, took that right out.

Yeah, no problem.

There's a little spring in there.

Did you know that? I didn't know that.

That's what holds the filter tight.

Yeah, I know shit.

Who to fuck it?

Wondered why that son of a bitch wouldn't run

when I put it back on and, you know, untighten it back up.

You should have just called Rick an ass.

Yeah, that's what I should have done.

Thank you very much.

So when we have you here

and we've done this a couple of times,

usually the last question is what's the dumbest

thing you've ever done in a car?

And you've told us a couple of pretty good stories.

This time I want to know what's the dumbest thing

you've had to fix for a customer

or what's the weirdest thing a customer

has brought into your shop?

You can pick your weirdest, weirdest thing,

weirdest thing, weirdest thing.

And by weird, you can make that most unusual

just in case weird sounds a little too weird.

Who's your weirdest customer?

What's that? Why do you hate them?

Yeah, let's really just dig.

Let's out somebody.

I think of one guy that was it was really

he was just so stuck on this six cylinder motor

once upon a time on.

He spent a fortune on this thing.

And this I'm just saying weird.

It was why won't it make four hundred horse and tried

and tried and tried to get him.

It's like, no, you don't want to put that kind of money

in this thing.

It's just you're oh, yeah, I've read up on these

and it's going to do all this.

He has all these numbers of all this big horsepower

and he gets it in.

I run into him a few years later and we're talking.

It's oh, he's still got that car.

The six oh, no, I took that out and put a 440 in it.

And it's like finally, you know, you've seen the.

Sweet Jesus.

You know, I mean, so he tried to make this

sideways six cylinder run for so many years and spent.

It was a slant six.

Yeah. Oh, God.

He spent tens of thousands of dollars on this thing.

And it still was just what it was.

But that was one of the things I really tried

to talk a guy out of.

I mean, there's even the point where we didn't want to work on it

and he's like, he brings in money.

It's like, this is what I want to do.

And well, you do this for me to throw money at it

and through money at it.

So there's some some guys who want that.

I want that pure old thing.

My brother did that with that.

What was it?

H.E. was a Jag, early 90s Jag that had a 12 cylinder.

X.J.S.H.E.

Yeah. Yeah.

And beautiful car.

Oh, those are cool.

Yeah, he got it.

He got it for a song.

Yeah, no kidding.

Then he dug into that 12 cylinder.

One of the cylinders was burnt and there was some other stuff.

He dropped 10 to $12,000 into just the engine.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

And then the electronics caught up with him

and suddenly he had ghost lights and this and that.

Yes, Lucas, Prince of Darkness.

He sold it for $500 more than he bought it for.

And I'm like, God, Rod, I would have taken it for that much.

And he's like, I just pissed off.

And there it is.

There is a company, believe it or not, called Johns Broken Kitty.

And they specialize.

Jax.

They specialize in doing GM, small block or big block swaps.

Used to be John's cars, wasn't it?

Yeah, I used a lot of their kits because we used there was a lot

of the XJS's were a pretty cool Jag.

I thought they ride and drive great.

And we would buy.

He had pre-engineered motor mount kits,

wiring harnesses, stuff like that.

Everything just to swap out for GM.

That's when I told my brother and it would have been at that time.

That was in the mid 90s, mid late 90s.

And he could have he could have swapped that motor out for at that time,

probably about five grand.

Oh, yeah.

And had something that would would kicked ass.

Yeah, and he liked to drive fast things.

Well, no, my brother, he wanted it to be original

because it was a 12 cylinder and that's cool.

And it's like, well, three hundred and twenty six cubic inches.

Yeah, yeah.

But if you if you pull them out like a motor and clean the hell out of them.

Pistons.

Have the engine boiled out and everything cleaned up on it and degreased.

And then you you paint it and then you you set it

on a stand with forecasters and some rubber pads and you get a big piece

of safety glass and makes a hell of a table.

Yeah, that's good.

But not much else.

When you raise the hood on one of those, the wiring in it

just looks like two double handfuls of greasy spaghetti.

It's just start doing a conversion on one of those.

And then it's not too bad.

You know, you get all the crud out of the way really quick.

And then you just got you a nice small block or big block.

But you got one of those banker boxes full of full of cables and wires

and hoses. Yeah, you don't need that stuff.

And it's overrated.

Yeah, of course it is.

But anyway, you remember John's cars?

Oh, yeah, the the little cat they had for their insignia is wearing

a ball cap and coveralls.

And his tail has a bandaid wrapped around it.

The ball gets from that man.

And it was pretty smart guy on the Jaguars.

I mean, he he was a big help.

Yeah, he had great great conversion.

But he happened to do that right at the time when these people had all these

and a Jaguar is really a great riding driving car.

It is even in the 70s.

They were way ahead of the crowd on and the coops have monstrous trunks

on their great trip cars.

But man, head bolts, the six cylinder cars, the head bolts

were rotten half.

And then when they went, you know, you're done with the motor.

So that was done to the V12 either caught on fire or blew up.

And they were, like you say, expensive to fix.

So the other alternative is to find you a decent mechanic.

Go to the junkyard back then by a nice small block shivvy

and a wiring harness and motor mount kit and they got you running in a week.

Well, I still love those old SS.

And then the customers are always like, oh, my God, this has so much more power.

Yeah, you know, than it had before.

Why is it so much more power?

And, you know, it used to be a 12 cylinder.

Now it's only an eight.

Why is it so fast? Small block.

Yeah, so that's why it's all these are fun conversations.

But oh, yeah, that that was a long time ago.

But you know, you couldn't give one of those cars away hardly anymore.

Well, and good luck finding somebody who has the knowledge to work on one.

Oh, yeah.

There aren't many of those guys out there.

They were they were cool today, though.

They were they were.

I got to write it in a couple of times while it was still running before,

you know, the wiring went haywire.

Yeah, but that one he had.

That was a really neat looking car.

Oh, yeah, front ends.

Yeah, they were awesome.

And just two seater, you know, so you get in there and just

and he loved to put his foot into it.

It was on a LBJ freeway around Dallas and back that they just opened up

the the tollway and you could get on that thing and there's nobody on it.

He had an SC 400 430.

I think it was a 430.

Oh, yeah, Alexis, the convertible.

OK, and that thing, that eight cylinder in that little bitty thing.

I'd gone down last time I got to see him.

We we went for a little bit. They move well.

Oh, yeah, that thing was a boogie roller skate.

He's like he's sitting next to me.

He was he was not doing well.

And he's fighting cancer.

But he's like, go ahead, put your foot in it, Mark.

Really? I put my foot in it.

I was at 100 in the heartbeat.

And I'm like, holy shit, no, no, no.

And he's like, come on, keep pushing.

I'm like, dude, no, go, go, go, go.

This is not how I want to go out.

Plus, I can't afford the part or the speeding ticket.

But that thing was at 100 in a heartbeat, not a shake, not a shimmy.

That was a sweet little round.

I have a couple of things I'm going to let you drive that you might enjoy.

Down. I'm in.

We've been speaking with Rick Hunter of Hot Rod Express.

You can find Hot Rod Express at www.hotrod-express.com

on Facebook as Hot Rod Express one on Twitter at official HRE

and on Instagram at Hot Rod Express.

Rick. Yes. Thanks for coming out, man.

It's been fun. I appreciate it.

It's so good to see somebody in in studio, too.

We do a lot of these over Zoom, and it's nice just to have somebody in.

It's it's much more difficult for me to make them cocktails on Zoom.

That's right.

And we can sample some pretty creative stuff tonight, too.

I don't know about the one that smelled like being gay.

I don't know what it was.

There's a reason you can't get it in the United States.

That came from elsewhere.

I swear they're not supposed to have may have been a donkey involved.

Just saying, just to put that out there anyway.

It's thanks for thanks for having me here, man.

I really appreciate you guys thinking of us and and all the support you give us.

And it's just it's just nice being around.

Well, you like, you know, you know when

I do occasionally press you for, hey, you know,

I dropped a motorcycle seat on this. Can you fix it? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Oops. That's not that actually happened.

Oh, God. Oops.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, that one happened.

I got rid of that bike in the seats and we rearranged some stuff

and I won't be dropping anything on it.

It looks good now.

The winter your winter.

Yeah, dang it.

It's pretty good.

Well, I got a I had another Harley follow me home a couple of weeks ago.

And so I got a winter project.

But you're just getting rid of all of them. Yeah, you thought that, didn't you?

It came in one day and there's like five of them sitting there.

It's like, what happened? Oh, well, you know, I wasn't watching two of them.

And they, you know, you're up late at night looking online.

And the next thing you know, multiplying like bunnies, another motorcycle.

I got rid of all those.

And then I got a couple more and I got rid of those.

And then I got a couple more.

And yeah, that's it took me till I was 56 years old to figure out

I don't want to own every Harley under the sun.

But I want to fix all of them.

Oh, well, you will, like you will get to do that.

Yeah, I'm in.

And yeah, that's one thing I've never worked on is Harley Davidson.

You want to find something that'll make you swear.

Is that one?

Is that what you usually start with you cotton rock sucker.

Goes downhill from there.

Worked on a lot of jet bikes, but never worked on some of those, too.

The Harleys are more frustrating.

Really? They certainly are.

Yeah, there's a reason I got scars on every knuckle I have.

He's punching them.

That's not from falling off of them.

You son of a bitch.

I try not to do that anymore.

The last one involved an ambulance ride.

I don't want to do that.

Yeah, that was not good.

And the worst part of it wasn't my bike.

Oh, really?

Sorry, sorry.

Still sorry, dad.

Thank you so much for spending time with Driven Radio.

We love what we do and we wouldn't be able to do it

without the support of our listeners.

You can find us online at drivenradioshow.com.

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,

please contact me at Brett.

That's B-R-E-T-T at drivenradioshow.com.

I am Brett Hatfield for Mark L.

And Rick Hunter.

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

You know, Daryl Ossopic might just be the most interesting man on earth.

Might be.

If you look at his collection of vehicles,

you'll realize this is a Renaissance man from weird old beaters

to serious performance hot rods all in one place.

Owner of Ossopic Automotive,

Daryl is the car whisperer practicing voodoo

that brings vehicles back from the dead just for for us here on this show.

Daryl's work on Mercury Mountaineer.

Yeah, classic Corvettes.

Oh, yeah.

Nissan Xterra.

Mine.

Unusual Mercedes.

Yours.

And a 64 Dodge Custom 880.

Neither of ours anymore.

Not no, Moe.

But you know why it ran?

Daryl Ossopic.

That's right.

In other words, we come to him with our whining issues

and he comes back to us with shiny, fixed automobiles.

It is like magic.

Daryl has ASE certified mechanics and happily gives binding estimates.

You might not know he's happy,

but that might be because he sees us coming in and it erases all of his joy.

You'll watch that face drop.

Daryl will explain what he finds, what he plans on doing

and lets you make your decisions.

Nothing hidden, no mechanic bait and switch.

He's straight up and even guarantees all work for at least one month or 1,000 miles.

Yeah.

Ossopic Automotive.

That's OSI PIK Automotive 5920 Merriam Drive in Merriam, Kansas,

called Daryl at 913-831-3613.

What was that number?

913-831-3613.

Don't even have to read it.

It's been in my head for a while now.

That's tattooed on the back of my skull.

Ask for the big D and tell him Brett sent you.

After he sighs heavily, he'll get you taken care of.

913-831-3613 Ossopic Automotive.

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Driven Radio Show #331: Rick Hunter of Hot Rod Express

Land Defenders

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