From The Shack to Award Winning Alan Guevara Vara Upholstery Ep71

Welcome to DubLife Diaries, the podcast where passion meets the open road.

I'm Joe Person, your host and also a lifelong diver.

Buckle up because this ride is just beginning.

This podcast is sponsored by Volksmania magazine.

Good times, great cars, awesome Volksmaniacs.

Visit volksmania.com to learn more about this class leading VW magazine.

Welcome back to DubLife Diaries.

This one is going to be one for the books.

When I say books, I'm talking all kinds of books.

Now, if you've ever looked at a show winning Volkswagen and you thought the paint was the star,

you're in for the wrong reasons.

The real magic is inside.

And today's guest took an old beat up boat that he couldn't afford to fix.

And he turned it into one of the most respected upholstery companies in Florida.

He went from learning how to sew because he had no other choice to building award winning interiors that stop people dead in their tracks.

He's owned more than 20 classic Volkswagens.

He's transformed forgotten projects into six figure worthy masterpieces.

He's earned a reputation where every stitch has to be perfect because it's his name that's on it.

But what makes Alan just a little bit different isn't just the craftsmanship.

It's the obsession.

It's the willingness to tear apart something good just to make it great.

That belief, those details that nobody notices are actually the details that matter the most.

He's the founder of Vera upholstery.

He's the co-founder of Salty Dub.

Really the founder.

I'm the co-founder.

He's my business partner.

And he's somebody that I've had the privilege of working alongside building Salty Dub,

building these events that we build together.

And today we're pulling back the curtain on how this guy working out of his garage became one of the trusted names behind thousands.

And I can say that with pride, thousands of custom interiors.

Why he fell in love with Volkswagens.

How our partnership came together.

And the stories behind some of the wildest builds that you've probably admired without ever even knowing that this dude created them.

This isn't just a conversation about cars.

This is going to be about betting on yourself, master on a craft and proving that sometimes the biggest opportunities start with something that's completely broken.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for my dog, Alan Guevara.

My dude, I've been waiting to do this one.

So excited.

I've just been waiting for the right time, man, but it's the right time now.

All right, we're going to dive in.

But before we do, let me give a couple of shout outs to a couple of my awesome sponsors.

First up on the list, you guys know how I feel about Volksmania magazine.

Flyasvw magazine on the face of the planet.

Check these guys out.

Volksmania.com.

My discount code still works.

Double life 10 only in the U.S.

However, and what a blessing and privilege it is that I have to mention that because people in other countries are trying to use that discount code and it's not working.

How cool is that?

All right.

Second shout out salty dub, which is me and Alan, you guys hear me talk about it from the beach to the base.

Salty dub is tearing up the coastal west coast central Florida scene.

I'm excited to announce on this podcast that the shopping is live on the website again.

We got all kinds of swag up on the website.

Double life 10 same discount code actually gets you 10% off a merch off a swag off a stickers off of the sunglasses.

But here's what I'm super excited to announce.

Our vent window clips are back up and they're in stock and we're shipping them.

And they're badass.

Alan, do you want to say anything about these these vent window clips?

They started out to be something fun for us to build and they're like flying off the shelf.

So we ran out of stock, inventory once.

We just got them back in and once again, they're like flying off the shelf.

So I would go get them now if you're thinking about it.

If you got a bust, if you got a beetle, you got the vent window on the side and everything.

Yeah.

You get going to work.

That's it.

You get going.

You get going over 25, 30 miles an hour and that window always blows closed.

Not anymore.

They're pretty unique, man.

I would recommend people not get just one pair.

Get a couple.

Give them away.

Give them a gift.

They're super cool gifts.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And they got the salty dub logo on them.

They're super cool.

I'll post pictures of them installed for you guys that are on YouTube and you can see this video.

All right, my man, you ready to jump in?

Let's do it.

All right.

Let's do it.

So tell everybody who is Alan, who is the man behind the business, behind this owner

title and behind salty dub and just everything I just mentioned and encompassed.

Oh man.

I think Alan is just the kid that never grew up, man.

Alan's the kid that is trapped in an old man's body that is still a child inside that just

loves to build things.

And I've just gotten better over the years, but he's just a kid inside, man.

Just enjoying life.

Happy and proud to be the father of an excellent fiance to Maddie and just every day building

cool creations, man.

I'm one of the very lucky people that can say that they can enjoy what they've enjoyed

as a child into their adulthood and make a living out of it.

So cool.

And I can see the shop behind you.

I've had the privilege of walking in that shop, walking around that shop.

Everything is just so macked out and badass top of the line equipment.

You can see the bus that's back there doing a full interior on that bus.

You guys have seen in some other episodes that that I've had on, you know, I've shown

his thing.

I've shown that award winning interior.

I've showed some of the Beatles in the past.

You guys have seen before.

I'm going to flash that stuff again because I'm just so proud of you, man.

But you're welcome.

Tell us.

Tell us something that people think they know about you, but they actually get it completely

wrong.

Oh, man, they think I got to figure it out.

And I don't.

There's anything that I can share is that I'm very good at winging whatever situation

I'm in.

I've just gotten really good at it, but I think it's funny to think that people think

I got it all figured out.

And it's like the complete opposite.

And I'm I'll take it.

If you think I got all figured out, thank you because that's not the image that I'm trying

to put out.

I'm just I'm just going to winging it.

So that's probably something a lot of people don't know about me, a perfectionist, a very

talented artist.

I mean, it's probably easy to get that perception.

I can certainly understand that, but very cool of you and humble of you to say that

and think and feel like that.

Let's let's answer this question because a lot of people probably want to know this.

How many Volkswagen's have you actually owned over the years?

That's a good question, man.

And I don't know the answer.

I've got to be more than 20.

I mean, I think I've seen one close to 20.

Yeah.

So so here's the way I see it is the Volkswagen's that I've owned and the Volkswagen's that

I've bought to fix and have somebody else enjoy after I'm done with them are two different

counts.

The Volkswagen's that I've owned and enjoyed and loved and kept for a while probably less

than 10.

The Volkswagen's that I bought because it was an ugly duckling sitting in somebody's

garage.

And I said, I can do something cool with that car way over 30, if not even close to 40.

But there's there's obviously there's a difference between those.

So I don't I don't think I've ever loved more than maybe 10 of the Volkswagen's that

I've owned, but then easily 30, 40 Volkswagen's have gone through my garage and back out.

Yeah.

And I've seen I've again, I've had the privilege of seeing some of these.

The one I'm thinking of right now that just flashed across my mind is an interior that

I just shared recently.

But what was the one with like Burberry interior?

Burberry interior.

The one I had like a shag.

It was like, no, it was like the black beetle.

It was slammed and it had like the light brown plaid interior.

That was that was Arthur.

Arthur.

That was Arthur.

I named them all.

And people are like, why do you name them?

I do.

I can say you beat on people like, dude, you've owned like 20 Beatles.

So like I named them.

Yeah.

Actually, one of my guys named it Arthur because when we did one of the seats, it was like

it was like a very, I want to say British interior.

Like it was very classy, but it kind of gave you that British feel.

I don't know why, but my guy looks like it looks at the car and says to me, it looks like

an Arthur.

I'm like, dude, you nailed it.

That looks like like somebody like smoking a pipe with a hat on.

So it stuck.

And that was that was Arthur.

That was one of the coolest ones that we've done in the recent past.

A 60.

I want to say it was 63.

That thing was awesome.

The stance on it was just absolutely perfect.

Yeah, dude, I loved it.

That was one of the ones that I wish I had kept, but can't keep them all.

Can't keep them all.

So let's talk about the shop.

When you look around your shop today, what still reminds you or brings you back to the

beginning?

What reminds you of where you started?

Probably the mess.

We're so busy that it's hard to keep this shop clean.

But no, man, I think what when I look around the shop, one of the things that is a daily

reminder where I started is actually you might not be able to see it, but my original machine

in 2011 and 2012 is still with me.

And it's my machine that I stitch with.

And that's a good.

I made that.

It was a purpose move to remind me of my first day where I started where I've learned where

I mean, this machine has literally fallen off the back of my truck when I'm driving.

Like it's back in the day.

I was moving shops and I hear and I look back and it's like bouncing on the street.

I was like, Oh my God.

So got out, picked it up and I got lucky enough that nothing broke majorly.

So that's a good reminder of my first serious attempt at starting a shop is the fact that

I financed this machine 13 years ago and it's still with me.

Yeah.

But yeah, man, to me, it's like it's a very sentimental piece.

So I'm curious, you know, you've you've splashed success.

You've got a bunch of awesome, amazing, talented guys on the team.

What what still motivates you now after all these years in business?

Creativity, man, just pushing the envelope, thinking outside of the box.

I think I've been lucky enough to have a team that's things like me and we just push ourselves to create something more unique with every build.

So I think that creativity just keeps us motivated, keeps us going because we like to see a build that we did last year and look at it now say we could have done that this way.

Well, let's do it this way.

So every build motivates us to do something more badass, more unique.

So that's that keeps us going, man.

And it's a good feeling.

What was your childhood like?

Oh, boy.

My childhood was me locking myself up a lot, getting away from a lot of the family stuff.

And while I was doing that, I was taking stuff apart and I had mastered how to put them back together.

So I took a lot of radios apart.

I took a lot of VHS players apart and never learn again how to put them together.

But I was I was tinkering.

So I started early.

The second I would learn what a screwdriver was, I was taking things apart and I didn't learn how to put them back together until many, many, many years later.

So I got in trouble a lot.

But it was it was fun, man.

And it was it was that my creativity or my tinkering started at an early age and that's probably why it was my way to get away from whatever was happening in the background.

Right.

So a lot of that.

So I've got I've got one that I can say that that's like that and that's Elijah and you know him well.

Yeah.

He's my tinkerer.

He's the one that I can count on to, you know, slide up underneath the car and figure out whatever's going on or, you know, he's he's he was helping me mess with your thing.

Remember when we were working with a thing in the garage.

She was there with me, man.

Yeah, man.

I love it.

That was almost three in the morning that we worked on that.

No, 33 30.

I remember very well.

Yeah.

Because I was half asleep the next day, but it was fun.

It was fun.

Yeah.

It was good.

Good kid for sure.

Were you naturally artistic growing up or really just kind of the tinkering stuff still.

I was very artistic growing up.

One of my biggest things growing up was drawing.

I used to draw a lot of tribal nonsense.

But but when I was done, you couldn't believe that a kid drew that.

But I was as I was drawn and didn't make any sense.

But I was there was when it was finished, it was like, holy crap, like a kid drew that.

Like, I don't know where it came from either.

But yeah, I did draw it.

So my creativity, my artistic creativity or personality came from an early age from mostly drawing.

It wasn't until later that I applied it to other things.

I played guitar and I played a bunch of stuff.

So I had it from an early age.

Okay.

When how old were you?

I guess maybe when were you when you got pulled toward cars when cars became kind of, you know,

something you were interested in.

I didn't get into cars because I wanted to I got into cars because I had to.

And what I mean by that is I was at an early age.

I was sent overseas here.

And obviously money was it was not a thing like I just had to do whatever I could to save money.

And one of the things that I learned was working on my own car.

So I had to fix whatever broke.

I had to sometimes I break it even worse, but I had to try at least.

But that was that was how I got into into cars.

My first car was a Mercury Bobcat.

So I don't know if you know what that is.

It's like a like a glorified pinto.

And do I when I tell you I put a house speaker in the trunk of this car.

I put a house speaker and I like tied the speaker some of the dashboard and I sparked the dashboard.

And it was but that was that was because I wanted a cheap car that I could drive around and I couldn't afford anything better.

So yeah, that's why I got into cars just to try to not cars working on them.

Was to try to keep them running so that I didn't have to pay somebody else to do it.

Didn't really work too well back then.

Fast forward a little bit then to, you know, maybe even a hobby and or a passion.

Why Volkswagen's?

Why did Volkswagen's become your kind of platform of choice?

You want to know something funny?

I didn't get into Volkswagen until 2020.

My first Volkswagen that I owned was 2020.

And a lot of people think that I've been into Volkswagen's for years because how how heavy I dove in like it was.

But I didn't have my first.

You don't do it halfway brother.

You do nothing.

No.

Yeah.

But yeah, it was it was like Maddie and I and my fiance was we wanted something to think with and we bought our first car.

It was 66 Beetle.

We named it Frankie after we found out that it was a Frankenstein piece together beetle.

I didn't know what an oval was.

I know that it had an oval and to me that was normal.

And then later on I found out that that was crafted.

Somebody put an oval window in that car.

But when we got it, we just saw this car in eBay and I was like, maybe there's 4,000 the bits of 4,000.

She's like, oh my God, that's cheap.

So I bid up to 4500.

We bought it.

And when it showed up the house with me and her, we're looking at this car like, what do we do?

Like what do we even start that motor is nothing like I've ever seen before.

At this point, I'm a Chevy guy.

I've had Chevelles.

I've had you name it.

I was a big Chevy guy.

So of course I'm popping the deck.

I'm sitting and I'm looking at this going.

I don't even know the first thing about this mode.

Like I have no clue.

So it was a lot of learning, but that was after that I was hooked.

I was hooked and you can do so much with a Volkswagen.

Like take the body off and then you can literally your possibilities are endless of what you can build just on the pan.

And that's where I got hooked.

I got hooked because you can do anything on a Volkswagen pan.

Like their options are unlimited.

So yeah, that was that was it.

But yes, seven years, six years.

That's all been in the industry for the community.

Yeah.

And a big part of it.

You are how cool, how cool that you are that new to it.

You know, I took a long time off.

I had my first beetle in high school.

I know you you've probably heard many times, but I had to, you know,

I had to take a break on hobbies when I started having young kids and, you know,

started having to, you know, pay bills and just do other thing.

I couldn't really have hobbies for about 15 years about the break that I took.

But I was so happy to get back into the scene and we'll talk about this.

I'm sure in just a little while, but getting back into the scene.

You were you were one of the first first people that I connected with when I tried to,

you know, get in touch with the Skyway stuff and we connected them.

But we'll we'll touch on that in a minute.

I'm curious about the entrepreneurial side for you.

Was that always there for you?

Or did that kind of develop over time?

100%.

I was I was selling fake tattoos in middle school.

I was all jumping cool and then put tape over it and then sell it to kids and say,

all you got to do is take the tape off and put it on your skin and then peel the tape off

and it'll stay on your skin.

Kids are like, okay, you're pulling their hair out with the tape.

Yeah.

No, it was horrible.

But they were like, oh my gosh, you can kind of see it.

It's like, oh yeah, you can see it.

Yeah, that was that was there for a while, man.

And then from there you name it.

I've tried all sorts of different businesses.

I had a business in Virginia called Safe Ride, which was I sent out to drivers.

When you were drinking, for example, and you didn't want to drive home,

but you didn't want to leave your car behind.

I was sent to drivers out.

One of them would drive your car home.

The other one would follow your car and then they would drive back home.

So that was, but I was young, man.

I was young.

I was dumb.

I was burning all that money and it failed miserably.

But I still had mobile mechanics.

I went and fixed people's cars on their driveway and that stopped because people were like,

can you do a motor swap or a transmission?

I'm like, dude, I'm working on your driveway.

So that stopped.

But yeah, it's always been there.

It's always been there.

Let's go back to something that I picked up or detected from your past when I was kind

of searching you and looking you up.

Let's go back and tell the story about buying this chaparral, this boat.

Yeah.

I saved my pennies, man.

I saved as much as I could to buy a boat because I had just bought my first home.

I was, I want to say it was 25, 26, bought my first house and I am saving my pennies because

this is my pride and joy.

I was able to buy my house and took forever.

As a matter of fact, the only thing I saved the whole amount, I had to finance the rest.

It was like 5,800 bucks back then and I bought a chaparral.

It was called a 2,150 chaparral SX.

Ugly boat.

I loved it.

So we buy it and we take it out a few times.

I'm my girlfriend at the time and because I'm so blinded by the fact that I love this

boat, I completely ignore the fact that the upholstery is horrible.

I mean, it's horrible.

But again, this is it, my boat.

People are looking at it like, I don't want to sit on that.

Eventually, I'm like, you know what?

Let me just see, let me get a quote.

Let me see how much it would be to reupholstery.

So I go to the shop and the guy looks at me with a serious face.

He goes, I'm a little slow right now, so I'll give you a discount.

And I'm thinking like, what's that?

400 bucks?

100 bucks?

He goes, I'm thinking 5,800 bucks or 5,500 bucks.

So I said, dude, that's what I paid for the boat.

Which, lucky enough, I hate it when I hear that when I give quotes.

And he said, yeah, I don't know what to tell you.

It was sort of cost.

So I said, all right, dude, thank you.

I just don't have that kind of money.

So I went home and I'm like, dude, how hard could this be?

And that's where the whole story with the shop begins.

But I mean, we can get into that.

And I called it Stitch.

That was the name of that boat, Stitch.

Stitch.

So that's the why.

That's why you just wanted to learn upholstery.

You got that repair quote or estimate and you were like, no.

Like you said, how hard can this be?

A little bit of know that it can be very hard.

Right.

But like everything else, you don't do anything halfway.

So fast forward a little bit.

Now you decide you're going to start an upholstery shop.

Now you were an apprentice first for a little while, right?

Yeah, man.

So first I found somebody back then it was Craigslist.

And somebody said, cheap upholstery.

I said, this is the guy.

Cheap upholstery, that's what I'm looking for.

He gave me a cheap interior.

I mean, it was so bad.

So after that, I was like, you know, I am 100% sure I can do better than this.

So I went to the shop that was really close to my house.

And there was that old Korean gentleman named Charles.

And I said, hey, man, I DJ at nights and that's how I make my money.

So I have my days free.

I'm willing to work for you if you teach me for free.

Like, you don't have to pay me.

Just do whatever you teach me what you know.

And he was basically at the beginning like, I don't know if I like that idea.

Like, do you have any experience?

I was like, do you have any experience?

Yeah, I'm a fabricator.

I can fabricate.

I can work on cars.

I can build you whatever you want me to build.

I just don't know how to stitch or it's ice lit up and say, oh, well, you can do all that.

You just need to learn a stitch.

I said, yeah, sure, let's do it.

So I was with him for six months.

And I picked it up.

I mean, it was quick because I was really like,

I really wanted to learn this.

And I want to say within the first month,

I found a shop, not a shop,

but it was a lady that was renting a shop

and the gentleman stopped paying rent and disappeared.

And so she put up an ad up saying $1,500 or $2,000.

Somebody please come clear this, the shop.

And as I'm going through the pictures, again, Craigslist,

I'm looking at sewing machines and I'm looking at foam and I'm looking at materials.

And I'm like, that's everything I need to start my own shop.

So I went over there and had my little trailer,

which all beat up with being held together by Hope and Dreams.

So I take my trailer over there and I'm like, look, I'm not going to lie to you.

I want everything, but I have my credit card and it's got a $1,200 max.

Can I buy the whole thing and you run my card?

I promise you, if you try running for $1,250, he's going to decline.

That's my max.

The lady said, if you take that today, that's fine.

So I, dude, I couldn't get it out of there fast enough.

I loaded the whole shop into my trailer and off I went.

And within six months of being an apprentice of the shop,

I already set my garage up and I was stitching for this gentleman.

And again, for free and I was totally fine with that.

And right when I said, hey, thank you for everything.

Thank you for the opportunity.

I'm going to try to do my own thing now.

He's like, no, no, no, no.

I want to make you my head seem stir.

Would you stay?

I said, thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity, but that wasn't my end goal here.

My end goal was to learn the art and then do my own thing.

So he didn't talk to me.

He didn't talk to me for like two years because I became his competition.

But we were cool now, but yeah, that's how the whole thing started.

Wow, man.

Wow.

So what a hell of a ride.

Now, one thing I want to say is, and for everybody listening,

can you imagine a kid in our society these days doing that,

showing up and working for free?

And there'd be somebody come out.

I look back and I say, how did I do that?

Right, right.

You really want to get something done.

You just got to dive in.

That's it.

Now, these days, somebody tried to file a lawsuit or something.

Sure.

You're having them in a sweat shop.

Literally, yeah.

I mean, it was noisy kind of shop.

But yeah, yeah, that's what it is.

I don't think I could do it again if I could be honest with you.

Because it was not easy.

But damn, did it pay off.

Sure, sure.

Again, let's kind of fast forward just a little bit.

At what point you start your upholstery shop?

I don't know.

You start getting some jobs?

At what point did you actually realize, like, holy shit,

this could actually be a career for me.

When the clientele started changing.

So originally, when I was on Craigslist,

I was getting the guys for the older boats.

Basically what I was, they didn't want to pay upholstery shop prices.

So I was getting the guys that were like, what do you mean $100?

I'll give you $50.

So in my mind, I'm like, whatever, I'll take the experience.

I'll do it for $50.

And as the quality started getting better, clientele started to change.

And I'm thinking, I might be onto something here.

And I don't know if this garage is going to cut it.

Like, I'm working literally out of my garage.

Yeah.

I was going to bring that up because you're still in your garage at this point.

I'm still in my garage.

So I'm having at one point, my neighbor, I had to go knock on her door and be like,

look, before you call the county on me, let me know if this bothers you.

Because there was like three or four boats on my driveway.

So I'm living in Virginia at the time.

And I had about an acre of property, which when I tell people,

they're like, oh my God, you're making so much money.

No, Virginia property is not expensive.

So I had about an acre of property and I had boats in and out,

in and out park next to each other.

I mean, it was, it was to the point that it was like,

I can't believe the county didn't get called on me.

Like, I still don't know how the county didn't knock on my door.

So yeah, that's, that's what I knew.

Like I should probably do something legit.

So.

So you did.

I did.

Yeah.

So, so cool.

Early on.

What mistakes did you make that taught you the biggest lessons in business?

Over promising.

That's one of the big things that I see a lot of shops doing just because

they want the job.

They'll promise the world.

They'll promise delivery times or promise this and that when in reality

it's, you know, you can't.

So I learned that the hard way when a customer say,

can you make this happen for July 4th and here we are July 1st.

I'm like, hell yeah, I can make it happen.

And then July 10th, this call on me like, dude, I haven't seen my boat.

I'm like, well, you know, like you learned real quick, stop over promising.

Yeah.

So just one of the things.

Yeah.

How about projects?

What projects at first did you kind of embark on even, you know,

big or small that really almost started to make you question yourself?

When I was new, I didn't, my mentality has been, as I'm sure you've noticed

by now working with me, it's 100 miles an hour from the get go.

Like, let's go.

Let's do this.

And now I can back it up because I know myself enough to say,

I can go 100 miles an hour.

So let's go back then.

I didn't have that back then.

It was 100 miles an hour, whether I knew what could do it or not.

And so yeah, that's, that's, I had several jobs that I shouldn't have done

because they were like high end jobs and they totally backfired.

And, you know, the funny thing is we're still friends on Facebook 15 years

ago or later, but a lot of the jobs that I learned the hard way were

because I was not ready for it.

And I did not want to humble myself enough to say, sorry, I can't do it.

That's too much for me.

Right.

And I still took them on.

And I finished them, but it just took 23 months to finish

something so small because I just didn't have the experience back then.

Yeah.

So that's, and that's great.

Now you can look back on it and reflect.

And yeah, man, I think that's, that's awesome.

How long did you work in the garage before you actually realized, all right,

it's time to, it's time to do a shop.

I'm going to have to start my own, you know, do my own, you know, rick and mortar.

That all happened because I was, like I said, I was getting some of these jobs

that I didn't think I should be working out of the garage in terms of like

some of these jobs are like quality.

Some of these boats that were pulling up to my garage didn't look like a boat

that belonged to my, on my driveway.

So I'm doing jobs for this marina back then called Easy Cruise in Woodbridge,

Virginia.

And I see a little shack and it's a, literally they called it the shack

because all the boaters ended their day, put their boats away

and then went to this little, I mean, it was maybe 300 square feet.

It was maybe a 15 by 15 shack building.

And I go to the owner and I said, Hey man, any, any chance you'd be interested

in renting that he goes, the shack?

What, what for?

I'm like an upholstery shop.

He's like an upholstery shop.

He's like at the shack.

And I'm thinking to myself like, hell yeah, the shack.

Like that's such a cool spot.

So I talked to him and he's like, yeah, let me think about it.

And I'm driving home and I'm like, man, I really wish I could get this.

And he calls me not even 10 minutes after we talked.

He says, Hey man, I got a proposition for you.

I said, yeah, what's up, dude?

He goes, I'll do 500 bucks a month on slow season because Virginia has very slow seasons.

And then during business season, I'll do, excuse me, I'll do a thousand miles a month.

And I'm trying to sound like this is not a good deal.

I'm like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to think about this man because,

but in the back of my mind, I'm like jumping dude, like what?

So I said, yeah, let me, let me think about it, but I think that's doable.

And I thought I hung up the phone and I put my phone down.

I'm like, yes, yes.

And I looked down and I hadn't hung up the phone.

So to this day, I don't know if he heard me because I hung up right away.

I was like, oh, like if he didn't hear me, then, then he knows I was excited.

But that was one of my, my greatest memories from before I moved into that shop was,

was pulling that, that a little moment.

But yeah, that's how it all got started and how I moved into the shack.

And that became very upholstery for five years, the first five years of the shop were in the shack.

Wow, man.

Was it, was it difficult in the beginning, you know, aside from that story,

was it difficult to take the leap?

Cause you hear about this, right?

With entrepreneurship and a lot of things, right?

To take that leap to go from come to unknown.

Was it, yeah, describe that for me.

Well, you know what's funny, man?

Like I, and I don't hold it against, against them, but a lot of my family was not supportive at all because

they were just too worried about the what ifs.

So I remember talking to my mom and the mom saying, you're going to sign a contract?

Like, well, yeah, that's the lease.

She said, but for how long?

I'm like, I don't know, mom, five years, 10 years.

She goes, that means that you're stuck there for five years.

I'm like, mom, I'm not thinking about being stuck.

I'm thinking about growing from there.

So a lot of my family had that mentality.

Like, you're crazy.

You're crazy because you're signing a lease on a contract.

So, but once they saw where it was going, then, then yeah, they were all for 100%.

But I was still, I was still a baby.

I mean, I was in my late 20s.

So I think, I think they were just kind of worried for me and I get that.

But yeah, they care about you.

You know, so they, they, they want to see you succeed.

But they also, and I think that gets in the way of a lot of entrepreneurs, right?

Yeah.

Is sometimes, and I'm not going to say a lack of, but just to paint the picture,

sometimes that lack of support can stop people from pursuing their dreams.

So sure.

Yeah.

No, I didn't let that happen at all.

I said, in my mind was like, if I'm going to fail at something,

I'm going to fail at something because I tried and I didn't do it right versus not trying at all.

So one of my biggest things is like, you will, you will miss 100% of the shots that you don't take.

Yes.

So if, if I'm, if, if I'm going to miss 100% of shots, then I'm going to take some shots.

And even if it's 50% of shots I take, I'll make, that's worth, that's worth it to me.

Yeah.

So that's something Tally has carried me.

Yeah.

And I know that of you also, you know, you are definitely not afraid to fail.

You know, you know, you just, just put yourself out there and try worse,

the worst they're going to say is no, or worse they're going to say is yes.

You know, and I, I, I'm kind of the same way, you know, I'm certainly not afraid to fail.

I think that's, that's probably why we, we do pretty well together.

I think failure is such a strong word because to me, like I had to retrain myself that there's

such a thing as like failing.

So, so you attempt to do something, you either accomplish it or you learn.

Yeah.

So I'm either, I'm either going to win or whatever I'm trying to do, I'm going to learn about it.

Like I think, I feel failure sometimes is such a strong word to use because you really didn't fail.

If you keep on going, you're eventually going to succeed.

It's just kind of how it goes.

So you're just learning, sometimes you're learning how not to do things.

Right.

So, but, but yeah, no, for sure, man, it's, it's a quality.

I know you have it because you and I hustle for what, for, for salty and I feel like you don't,

you're better than me because you don't learn, you don't know how to stop grinding.

Like it scares me sometimes to be rejected and say, okay, fine, fine, don't do it.

That's fine.

I'm cool with it.

You're like, no, we're going to do this.

Like if this opportunity didn't present itself, it didn't work.

We're going to try over there.

And if that one doesn't work, we're going to try with it.

So you're, you're, I'm good at what I do, but I think you're the way that you are more persistent than me.

Dude, it's like amazing and amazing quality, bro.

And that's not something that everybody has.

Yeah.

I have to, I have to like, there's no quit here.

I think that's probably just the order birth order for me.

You know, I got two older brothers.

They were rough.

They were rough on me.

You know, I had all their friends around me, my whole childhood.

And there, there was no such thing as quit.

Right.

So I can see that working with you.

I can see that.

So it's amazing to see somebody that has that quality because it's not everybody has that quality.

Thank you.

Appreciate that, man.

So let's talk about quality because quality for you is, is just, it's not something that really even has to be talked about.

It's just if you, if I know if you're involved quality is, is understated.

But for you and your life and in your projects and in everything that you touch or that has the very name on it, why is quality so important to you?

Man, I wish I knew the answer to that.

I'm like obsessed with doing things right.

It's not necessarily a good thing.

Sometimes it's not a good thing.

Sometimes okay is okay.

I just don't accept that sometimes, most times.

I like to think that there is a, it could have been done better.

And I apply that to a lot of what I do.

Unfortunately, sometimes it kind of turns into like a more like a obsessive behavior of like, that can be done better.

That can be done better.

But for the most part, it's worked out great for me because of how it's, how it's worked and where it's done to me.

But yeah, that's, that's, that's the quality that I have.

I don't know how I got it, but it's, it's definitely every time I approach something and I'm not approaching it as a, let's see what I can do more of a, we're going to do this.

And it's going to be badass by the time we're done.

And it's worked.

So it's worked well.

It's worked well.

And we can even kind of speed up and fast forward to today.

You guys recently have won an award at your shop for one of the Tampa Bay's best upholstery shop.

Tell me what that, tell me what that means to you and your team.

Oh, it was so humbling.

It was, it was, it was amazing because we didn't even know we're in the run.

So when we found out that we were in the running, it was like towards the end of the voting and somebody sent me the link.

Like, did you know that you can vote for your shop?

I'm like, what do you mean?

Well, somebody like somebody, what's the word?

I'm not suggested, but nominated us for the best shop.

And I didn't know, so I feel like there was like a week left of voting and I shared the link.

I was like, if you want to share some support, well, we ended up winning and dude, I was like, we were competing with shops.

I've been in the industry for 30, 40 years locally.

And I mean, technically we're like the baby shop.

We've only been around since 2019.

So six years, seven years.

These guys have been around for a long time.

There's generations shops have been open for different generations.

So to us was like, holy heck dude, like we actually were up there and we don't like to think of ourselves as the best.

We just like to think of ourselves like the best that we can do.

And that's okay.

Like the best that we can do is it's acceptable.

That's the best I got.

So yeah, I know that when we got that award, dude, it was humbling.

We loved it.

And we just recently got another one.

Best of St. Pete.

So that's two in the last six months.

Yeah.

So I mean, my guys get excited.

I kind of get like, it's still hard to believe that we're getting those, but I'll take them.

I'll take them on the scale.

Well, well, well deserved.

Do you look at, do you look at that the last, you know, six years, seven years?

And do you have like at the top of your mind, do you think about a here's some projects that I'm most proud of?

Like, do any ring a bell?

If I say what projects are you most proud of?

A lot of them.

It's hard to pinpoint a specific one, but a lot of them.

I figured I just wanted to ask though, because you never know.

Well, in the, in the upholstery world, I feel like some of the boats that we're the most proud of are the ones that show up from another country.

That we don't even know how they heard about it.

So we've had boats shipped out from the Bahamas.

We've had boats in town, shipped out from St. Croix.

We've, I mean, it's like, how did you even how?

And they will pay, they will pay to get the, the boats, the interiors here and then pay to get everything shipped out.

One guy sent this whole boat.

He literally sent his whole boat here, got me on the phone and said, I'm in the Bahamas.

This is what I want.

I've seen your work.

Like roll with them.

They're like, yeah, yeah, flew here to hop on his boat and navigated back to the Bahamas after we did the interior form.

So that's, those are the ones that were like, it just gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling like they did the research and we were the ones that they chose.

So in terms of Volkswagen's, do you name it?

There was a Volkswagen bus that we turned into a Baja.

I don't know if you ever saw that build.

That would want, I think one like base, the most custom in Lakeland and we named it Luigi.

That was one for the books.

We did like a 10th on the top and we did slide outs for how it's black and green, right?

Black and green one.

Yeah.

I've seen that.

Yeah.

I look back on all the builds we've done and that's probably one of my most favorite.

Like, where do we even come up with that idea?

Like, before we stop talking about the, the upholstery side of things and we switch it

up and, and obviously it's a VW podcast and we'll go to VWs.

Yeah.

Tell me, what are maybe some details that might take the longest in on the upholstery

side that, that customers might not ever know or notice?

Fitment.

And what I mean by that is, is anybody can stitch a piece together and throw it on,

but we're so adamant about making sure that everything fits perfect.

And what I mean is straight lines, straight seams, things lining up, cushioned seats

lining up with each other, the design flow, everything has to fit just right.

And sometimes the customer doesn't even notice, but we notice.

So we've noticed before that on a picture, my guys will do an interior and then the

customer like picks it up, he's super happy and then he'll post something online saying,

oh, my new interior from their upholstery and it grinds my gears to see two cushions

that are like not lined up by a half inch.

And I've literally called the customers and said, I need you to know, I'm sending one

of my guys to pick up that cushion because I don't like the fact that those seams are

not lining up and we'll bring it right back after we fix it.

And they're like, Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So those are the things that to us is like, you might not notice, but to me, I know we

could have done better and it's going to get done right.

So those are the things that a lot of customers don't notice, but we notice.

And that's, that's what matters.

Okay.

All right.

We'll flip it up now.

We'll talk about VWs.

Now, I know there's been a lot.

We just touched on, on one that you, a bus that you turned into to a Baja.

You said also before that Walter was one that you wished you'd never sold any others stand

out out of the 30 plus that you had that you wish you never sold.

Our first one, Frankie.

Our first one was the one that we learned a lot from.

Like I said, I didn't.

So the funny part is that I started with a, with a beetle that wasn't close to factory

whatsoever.

And I didn't know that.

I just thought this is the beetle.

This is, this is what they are.

Well, little did I know a little race motor with dual carbs.

It was slammed.

I mean, slammed.

And it was a grafted over window.

I didn't know any of this up to me.

This is, this is a beetle.

Cool.

Well, then I learned all it's a grafted over.

What's an oval?

Well, that's one of the most badass cars you can get.

It's an oval in my opinion.

And, and, and that's not original in that car.

Somebody put that on there.

Oh, okay.

Now I know.

By the way, that is not that low.

That's not normal.

So I learned so much of this car and they had like different fenders and that's why we

called it Frankie.

So that's, that's my, that's the one that I miss the most.

I want to learn the most from.

And, but again, there's been so many that, that every single one of them teaches you

something, but that, that would be the one that is like the most that I miss the most.

Which looking back, which, which build challenged you the most?

Any standout?

Probably.

I mean, the bar was very challenging, but it was a fun challenge.

Not a, oh boy, why am I doing this kind of challenge?

I think the most recent bar or rack top that I built was from scratch.

And I didn't know that, that big motors could be, I didn't know and take that back.

I didn't know how big of a challenge it would be to get that big motor tuned and running

right.

And so we went with everything custom paint job, custom interior, custom trim to match

the running boards that we also wrapped to match the rack top material.

I mean, we went all out and in my mind, I'm like, I'm done.

All I gotta do is throw this motor in and boom, that wasn't the case at all.

So that was a challenging one to tune in because if I, if anybody knows me, they know that I

can put a motor in a car and I can do that outside, dress it up over nice, but I don't

do the internals myself.

That I've never learned.

So I had somebody else build this car and come to find out it was the wrong cam.

And it was a cam that was made for a turbo motor.

And this wasn't a turbo motor.

So it was not easy to tune.

It was not really too drivable.

I learned out of the hardware.

I think I broke down every other time I drove that car or not broke down, but I had issues

with carbs and tuning.

So that was a very challenging building in terms of like a mechanical aspect.

But I mean, it turned out great.

I mean, I love that car.

I mean, you've seen the car.

It's sick.

That was one of my favorites for absolute sure.

Your thing.

I love it.

I talk about it.

I flashed pictures of it on other podcast episodes.

What is that?

What does that bug jam win mean to you?

It was, it was, it was amazing.

I didn't think of it.

So I, I take that back when I, when we loaded that thing onto the trailer, I'm looking at

my guys.

I'm thinking, there's no way we're not winning the show.

There's just no way when we are loaded at bug jam and I'm looking at the other cars.

I'm like, okay, guys, this is a tough one.

I don't, I think, I think all the guys, I'm like, you know how I said that there's no way

we're not going to win this show?

Like dude, you should see the cars that are here.

So I just want to let you guys know that we might not take this win.

And that's okay.

But the cars that are here are all another level.

So when they finally say my name, I was like, holy hell, like we actually pulled it off.

Like I, and there was a thing literally right next to me that it was insane.

It was an, it was an EVD conversion.

I thought he was taking the whole show.

I literally thought he was taking the whole show.

The Tesla thing, that thing is dope.

It was insane.

I mean, the painting, the interior, the mode, I mean, it was, it was, I didn't think I took

that.

And the funny thing is I had registered two things because I had one that was more like

a raggedy, like, I want to say like a rat thing.

That was supposed to go with it.

So we had two classes.

We had modified and we had full custom.

The modified was going to be for the little ratty one.

The custom, the full custom was for the blue thing, the one that you've seen.

So when we got there, I talked to Randy, I said, Randy, I sold that thing yesterday.

So I have two things registered.

I was like, are you okay with me joining two classes?

Because if not, then I, I mean, I have a registration for a thing and I don't have

another thing.

I said, Alan, if you want to join the other class, I don't care.

Join the other class.

Yeah, we took two classes.

And dude, that was, that's the only VW, not VW, the only bug jam win that I've taken.

I think the past has been like second or third, but I've never won.

So yeah, that was insane.

That was insane.

I love it.

Yeah.

It was insane.

And that car is insane.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I think I have it for sale, highly priced because I secretly don't ever want to sell

it.

Good.

Keep that price up there.

I don't want to say, you're also going to be in Volkswagen-y at the end of the year

with a full feature on, on that.

And I'm, I'm excited for helping make that happen, man.

Thank you.

Dude, of course.

And I'm super excited because Paul had just reached back out to me.

Matt had reached out to him for the thing that he's, I'm sorry, for the GIA that he's

reached out to for me.

And Paul's also going to want to do the GIA.

So not only partners and we, we ride this thing till the wheels fall off, but we're

going to be in a magazine at the same time, which is super cool.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think I wanted to talk about trends because I see you as somebody that is trendy, you

know, and popular and stylish and all that.

So I'm, I'm eager to find out an artist approach to this, right?

What trends do you actually like seeing in the Volkswagen community?

Seeing creativity, man.

I like seeing people's creative side.

Okay.

I can, can respect the so-called purists.

I can respect the 100% original pristine car.

However, that's just not me.

I like to get my hands on it and do something unique.

So I, I respect and I admire people's builds that are just one off unique custom.

So I, that's my thing.

Every time, anytime I see somebody showing a unique car that they had their hands on

and they made something so super cool with it, that to me is what I gravitate to.

Like that, that is a trend that I hope that never goes away.

That everybody just says, you know what, I feel like putting a red dot in that fender

just because I feel like a red dot.

It's like, that's cool.

That's to me, that's, that's, that's my, my thing, man.

I love it.

So how about opposite end of that?

What, what trends do you wish would disappear?

I don't wish for any trend to disappear.

I think what I would love to see go away is people thinking of a value of their car,

mainly because of what they see online.

I hate, I hate seeing people think that their value of their car is determined by what's

currently on social media, what people are sharing.

I think a lot of big guys that do these builds and custom builds and they're not posting on

social media.

They're, I mean, a lot of them don't post anywhere really because it can be a great

tool and it can be also very breaking or just, I can see somebody showing their build

and them being beat down online.

And then to me, that just kind of kills it.

So that's, that's a trend that I would love to see disappear.

Like support everybody, support it.

If you don't like the build keeps scrolling, but that trend of knocking something down

because you don't like it to me needs to go away and you just need to go away.

So yeah, huge.

And I'm a big supporter of that too.

Support, you know, this podcast has, has given me an opportunity to interview guys.

Well, actually all over the world now, which is really cool.

Yeah, it's really cool that I can say that, but something that stands out a lot to me

is the VW community.

And I just love that I can see this togetherness, this almost this posse, you know, across the

world.

That's all kind of connected for, you know, the, the same, you know, common interests,

which is Volkswagen's and it doesn't matter if it's air cooled, if it's water cooled,

if it's, it's a community, it's a vibe.

Yeah, it's great, man.

I love it.

I love it so much.

The whole family is super cool, man.

You know, some of the stories that make me all warm and fuzzy inside of the guy I started

traveling, like, and he just interviewed him for the name of the cross bus.

Like, you can break down, yes, yes, yes, you can break down in the middle of nowhere

and post on a Volkswagen group.

I need help and people will come out to what works.

That's community right there.

I love it.

So, so that dude, yeah, I think this community, although just like every community that's good

and bad, but there's mostly good and the people in this community are like family and I wouldn't

trade it for the world.

I'm so lucky that I found it and I found you the people that we are in our

group.

So, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

Good time.

Good time to enter this into the conversation.

And do you actually, do you remember the first time that we met?

100%.

Yeah, I was, I was intimidated.

Not gonna lie.

Your, your mentality of like, it's amazing.

But to me, it intimidated me because I was like, whoa, this dude means business and I'm,

I'm over here like trying to have fun.

But the more that we got to talk and plan, I'm like, okay, we're going somewhere and

this dude is like ready to go and I'm ready to go make this happen.

And the first time that we talked, you had said, does anybody know what happened to the

Volkswagen's over the Skyway posted it on a group.

Yes.

And I said, yeah, yeah, I've been trying to make this happen, but I just don't have the

energy of like, I just don't, and I remember your exact words were put me in coach.

I said, okay, all right.

I actually remember that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so yeah, we connected from there and that's dude, I mean, I feel like that was like perfect

timing.

What's come from that is amazing.

Like, you are a master in your craft.

You're like, you are, you are a go getter.

You make stuff happen and you make it look easy too.

So I'm just glad that that we crossed paths, dude.

That what something you thank you, man, I really appreciate that.

Not even, you know, for you noticing, but also just for you being willing to take this

fucking crazy energy that I have and and turn it into something because like you said, I'd

say 95% of people turn the other way.

They're like, who the fuck is this guy?

Is he who does he think he is all this?

No, it wasn't in that way either.

No, I know, but that's what I get, man.

I'm just a guy.

I'm very passionate.

I've dumped my life into shit for people and I'm way good with that.

But something that you said it hit home for me.

And I forget exactly what it was right right now, but my wife actually says it all the

time.

I just don't let shit slip.

I just it's just in me.

It's ingrained in me.

If I put my mind to something, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to I'm just going to do it, man.

Yeah.

You know what's funny?

A lot of people say that that's how they are and not a lot of people say that that's

how they are actually are like that.

You are.

Yeah.

If I hear you say, for example, the podcast, when I when I heard you mention, I'm like,

yeah, dude, that's cool.

Here you are over 70 episodes.

I'm sitting there like, dude, this is what he said he was going to do.

And look at him now.

Like you just, you don't just share an opinion.

You share your goal.

And that is not just a goal.

It's like, this is what I'm doing.

Period.

Like I'm just telling you what I'm doing because I'm going to get it done.

And that's how you are doing it and more power to you.

I'm lucky to be a part of seeing you go through this.

And I feel the same way.

And I think that's probably why we click so well, you know, there's a mutual respect

there completely, you know, different, but also a lot the same, you know, I feel like,

you know, artistically, all that stuff, you know, the way that we arrive at the goal

is completely different.

But we both fucking get there.

We both get there.

So, you know, on the relationship side of it, you know, was there, I guess you may

have just answered this, but like, was there a point where you started to really kind

of realize, you know, maybe we work well together.

Dude, the second we had our first conversation, I remember I was sharing my concerns, and

your attitude was more of like, that's easy.

I got this.

It's like, dude, I don't know how we do this.

And I don't know how we, I remember saying stuff like, I don't know how we have to pull

permits.

I don't know who we need to call.

I don't know.

And you were like taking notes basically saying, uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

I got it.

Yeah, I'm on it.

Done.

And in my mind, I'm like, is he just saying that?

No.

Dude, two days, 23 days later, you're like, I called everybody.

I got the permits, or I talked to the city, and I'm sitting there like, oh, shit, you

got it done.

Like, that's, let's go.

Like, that's, that's something I don't have that you compliment me well.

It's like, you are, your, your, let's get it done attitude is different in mind because

I don't, I like artistic and all that stuff, but you, you knock on doors.

You make phone calls.

You, you talk to people like when you, when you want to get something done and I'm the

opposite.

I'm very quiet and here's my area.

I'm going to be working on an interior in a car.

Like, I don't want to knock on a door because I don't want to, to deal with

trying to present something.

They might not like it.

And so I think, dude, this, this has been like perfect.

That's what I lack.

You have, or you lack, I have.

And it's like, it's worked out amazingly.

Yeah.

Every head needs a neck.

Yeah.

Right?

Every head needs a neck.

And, you know, there's always the, the, the implementer and there's always the visionary

and I think you're a fantastic visionary and I'm very good at implementing, you know,

and I think that's just, we, we play that.

Yeah.

We play them all.

I love the fact that you let me come up with the most wild ideas and then you.

I need them.

Your ideas crazy.

I like it.

And I'm going to make it happen.

And then you add on top of the idea and make it even crazier and then make it happen.

Like, dude, it's, it's amazing.

Yeah.

So it wouldn't be where it is.

This connection had had to happen 100%.

You just got to keep giving me the craziest ideas, like, you know, ending up renting a

pier for the Skyway PM ride.

Because as soon as you.

I don't.

Not to take any credit from you, like you add to my ideas because I feel like you feed

off of my craziness sometimes or my crazy ideas.

And you say, well, what about we do this?

I'm like, yes.

So I can come up with the craziest thought that I can come up with.

And then you have stuff to add to it.

I'm like, dude, you can make that happen.

Let's go.

And then you make it happen.

Yeah.

Yes.

That's the best, man.

That's the best.

Okay.

I don't have to ask what strengths I bring that compliment yours because we, we really

just talked about that.

But how about on maybe the not so, so, so great side of things?

Are there, have there ever been any disagreements that we've had to look past that, that, that

you think might have made our partnership stronger?

You know, because, you know, we're, we're both grown.

You know, I've tried business partners in the past and it's never worked out because

when there's a disagreement, it tends to get ugly.

And one of the two can, can sometimes not share the, the issue or they tend to not share

where they're at mentally.

And then it turns into resentment and then the relationship kind of, we've never had

that.

I feel like if we both are presenting ideas and one of the, one of us doesn't like it,

we're, we voice it, we're quick with it.

There's no hard feelings onto the next one.

I don't think I've ever had a situation where I'm like, man, Joe might not be the guy I

grew up with because never, not once.

So it's funny because sometimes I'll say, dude, how about we do this?

And then you said, I don't know, man, maybe, or vice versa.

And it's not, it's never been an issue.

Like we've been able to, to be so honest with each other.

I've never had any, I don't know about on your end, but on my end, I've never had a

single time where I've been like, yeah, no, I don't think, I don't think this is going

to work out with them.

So not at all.

No, not on my end either.

And I think that's just because there's, there's allowable freedom, you know, there's

freedom for me to express myself.

There's freedom for me to, you know, not necessarily fail, but to learn.

And there's no opinion, bro.

That's how difficult that is to be able to accomplish that in a business partnership.

It's the lack of opinion, you know, you have your ways.

I have my ways.

We can fucking meet in the middle and get shit done.

There's going to be some things I do that aren't going to be your way.

And there's going to be a lot of things that you do that aren't my way.

It's okay.

Let's just go.

Let's get to the end and, and let's kind of bask in the, in the glory of the finish

line together.

Right.

How we get there is, is, is completely irrelevant.

For sure.

Yeah, man.

And damn, have we gotten there?

Some of our events are still just to think about them.

It still gives me goosebumps.

Oh, and we're, and we're just getting started, bro.

For sure.

So let's touch on salty dub for a minute because what a cool brand.

What a cool thought.

What a cool movement.

Cause it's not just a logo and a hat, right?

It's not just a sticker.

It's not just a vibe.

Dude, we're doing this.

We have got some historic events now that are blowing up online that have thousands

of followers that are really starting to create and take some traction.

And I talked to guys from all over the country.

I mean, look, Dave Bronin just came from California to hang out with us at the Skyway

event.

We're touching down.

And one of the reasons that, and I'll talk about this, one of the reasons that we put

together the Skyway PM ride and you had the idea to put it on the pier was we're copying

at Huntington Beach with, with, with their dubs on the pier.

Right.

We're like, how can we get this shit on the water?

How can we, you know, duplicate the same thing?

And you were like, let's see if we can rent the Skyway fishing pier.

I'm like, what?

Fucking wash it.

One of those, one of those thoughts that I just said out loud that you said, okay,

I'll make it happen.

Right.

So yeah.

That was insane.

Insane.

Insane for sure.

So with Salty Dub, your perspective, your side of it, what makes Salty Dub different

than other brands that are in the Volkswagen community?

That's a tough one, man.

I think that we're in it for the right reasons.

I think that people need to understand that this was never a money grab.

This was, this was, if anything, it's the complete opposite.

It's like not about to say, hold on, I'm losing money.

Right.

So, so I think that we're in it for the right reasons.

It's mostly for the community.

It's mostly for keeping the vibe and the culture going.

So I think that's, that's why we are doing as well because there's other brands that

you can clearly tell that there is just a money grab.

It's just, it's not, it's not for what we are trying to achieve here.

And I think that's why, why we're doing how we're doing and we've got

where we are and we just can start it.

But I think that's why it took off so fast on us.

People realize and notice that to us, this is just, hey, we love the community.

We love the family.

We love the culture.

Like let's do something.

And I think that's why it's taken off the way it did.

Fast.

And our first one was 400 and someone cars.

The first time that we did a Skyway, like that was insane.

Yeah.

Like 440.

Yeah.

Crazy.

We've yet to see that number again for Skyway, but hey, I'm hopeful.

I'm hopeful.

We just got to keep doing what we're doing.

Yeah.

From your perspective, where, where do you see Salty Dub say five years from now?

What's the vision you have, Mr. Visionary?

Yeah.

You know what?

I would love to see, I would love to see Salty Dub, not just nation-wide, let this

grow worldwide, but I don't want it to grow like as a business because that's really

not what this is.

I wanted it to grow as like a, the community has now like a staple per se.

Like the community has something that they can all relate to.

And this, the whole Salty Dub came from, from, I like rust.

I love rust, patina.

So Salty Dub and the beach, you know, put it together.

So, so I would love to see per, like chapters.

Like I don't, I don't even know how to describe my vision, but I would, I would love to see

like a Salty Dub, California, Salty Dub, Virginia, Salty Dub, Florida and like all these groups

that are together and under the name Salty, because that's just kind of what they can

relate to.

And I would love to see shows like nationwide, worldwide, and just bringing the community

celebrate that one special day or that one special weekend just that we can, we all have

something in common.

And I don't know, man, maybe you have just my, like I said, I'm the dreamer here.

So I, I would love to see that.

Like Salty Dub isn't just a brand.

It's a lifestyle.

It's the camaraderie.

It's the community.

So to me, be cool.

Hey man, like how about we schedule that we all drive 10 hours to blah, blah, blah,

and then Salty Cali and Salty, George, John, Salty, Florida, we all show up and all of a sudden

there's women from 400 to 4,000.

So wouldn't that be something, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, it sure would be.

And you just said it.

So now, you know, we're going to have to put our heads together, try to make some chapters

happen.

So from a promoter's perspective, and I can answer this question, but I've had the luxury

of being able to do this on some other podcast episodes.

What do people not see that like go on behind the scenes from a promoter's angle?

The long nights, man.

The long, I mean, I feel like you and I know it very, very well.

The long nights, the stress of a show, like the last minute curveballs that get thrown

out as the, it's not easy.

So I feel, I wouldn't say I feel bad, but I feel like the people that do this for a

living, I have so much respect for them now.

For the people that I obviously don't know, like Joe, like you and I don't, we have our

businesses.

This is just kind of for, again, for the community and we love doing, bringing people together.

But for the people that do promotion or shows for a living, I respect you.

I respect you so much because we have learned that this is far from easy.

And people think that it's just as simple as like paying a venue, renting a parking

lot, and then everybody drives to the parking lot.

Everybody comes.

No.

Right.

That's not even remotely closed.

I mean, it's the, it's the getting everything Oregon, which is one of the things that makes

salty salty.

I mean, people know that our events are organized and we have so much going on and we have vendors

and sponsorships and trophies and car shows and cruises and blah, blah, blah.

That all takes so much time.

And I've learned that it's not as easy as I originally thought this was going to be.

However, the day of you and I are on cloud nine every time, like, like we did this, we

put this together and the community showed.

So, so it's, it's worth it.

But yeah, I know what I would think that a lot of people don't see that the behind the

doors, behind closed doors, all the, all the work that's involved and all the moving parts

and all that stuff.

If you had to describe yourself, would you see yourself as an artist or more of a craftsman?

That's a tough one.

I'm a, I'm a craftsman that likes to think that he produces art.

You're a fantastic artist.

Yeah, thank you, brother.

But first a craftsman 100%.

And then I'd like to think that when I'm done, I showed my artist artistry through my

craftsmanship, but always a craftsmanship will be first.

Sure.

What do you think inspires your designs?

Knowing or testing myself and testing how creative and unique I can be before it becomes

guy, before it becomes like, oh boy too much.

So I like to test how much creativity I can put into a design before it's too much.

And I feel like every time I get just to that line where I'm like about to be too much doing

and stop.

So my creativity, what motivates me to do every interior, every new design

or whatever I'm doing is, okay, let's see how creative we can get pushed down below, show

people something I've never seen before without crossing that line of making it guy, making

it just too much.

So every, every build is, it's, the motivation is that just show, show a better, cooler design.

Okay.

Cool as hell.

Yeah.

Thank you.

What has entrepreneurship taught you most about yourself over the course of your career?

Still a young man, still growing, still blowing up, but what have you learned so far?

What's entrepreneurship taught you about yourself most?

Man, it'll humble you.

It'll remind you really fast that you don't have all the answers.

It'll remind you really fast that whether you like to emit or not, you're still winging

it, whether you're 10 years into it, 20 years into it.

I mean, you don't ever have the same issue or situation come up.

So it's, it's, to me, it's just being good at tackling whatever comes your way.

And it's taught me that, that even if you don't know the answer, just swing, just swing.

And if you don't swing, you're going to strike out.

So you might as well swing.

So that's what I've learned over all these years.

If I don't know how to do it, you best believe you're not going to know because I'm going

to make it look like I know what I'm doing.

And that's at the end of the day, I'll, I'll know that because of my mentality, I'll, I'll

do okay, but I'm not going to let you know that I'm winging this.

So yeah, entrepreneurship for as many years as I've been doing is still, it's still challenging

daily, every day.

It's just learning that you don't always have full control of what you're doing.

And that's okay.

Hell yeah.

So what advice then would you give somebody that is looking to start their own shop, their

own garage, their own upholstery business, their own VW repair shop?

What advice do you give somebody from your perspective?

Try man, swing, just swing.

There's going to be naysayers.

There's going to be people that tell you're going to be, it's going to be hard.

It is going to be hard.

I'm not going to sugar coat it.

It's going to be really hard.

But so what?

Life is hard.

Like try.

One of the things that I said earlier that you're going to miss a hundred percent of

the shots you don't take.

So take some shots and you're going to strike out if you don't swing.

So swing.

A lot of people are getting to start their own business.

Just, just don't let, don't let anything scare you.

Keep, keep, stay focused.

Keep going forward.

My dad is saying in Spanish, I don't even know how it would translate, but you don't

take steps back even to catch momentum.

Just keep going forward.

I think, I think that's called propagate.

Okay.

To move forward.

Yeah.

Propagate.

Awesome.

But yeah, I didn't even know that.

You taught me something new.

Careful.

He'll turn it into a fucking business.

Let me ask you this question.

And I'm pretty sure I know the answer to it, but because I don't think you see it as

that, right?

But how do you handle failure?

I learned.

There you go.

I figured you don't.

I don't like to think if I fail at something, I don't ever like to think of it as I failed

at something.

And I like to think of it as, I didn't win this one, but I learned.

So is it a failure to do something and not get the outcome that you wanted?

No.

You might've just learned how not to do something and then try again.

So I don't, I don't let it get to me.

I mean, failure sometimes can be hard for sure, but I don't, I try not to let it get

to you and just use it as a learning experience.

Success.

What does success mean to you today versus when you first started your, your business?

Oh boy.

One of the biggest lies that you tell yourself when you're starting a business is I'm going

to be rich.

I'm going to be a millionaire and I'm going to have so much money.

And my goal is going to be like half stupid amounts of money.

And I was back then 10 years ago.

Now, do I tell people, I'm just, if I can pump gas and feel comfortable enough and see

those numbers rolling like I'm okay, I'm happy.

It's so funny.

Allow myself to feel comfortable, to take breaks with my family, to, to spend time with

them, to go on vacation if I want to, like success, success changes in every step of

it.

At the beginning, like I said, to meet success meant something completely different.

Right.

Now it's like, dude, I don't care how much money I got in the account.

Like I just, I've been just comfortable enough taking my family somewhere, spending some time.

I'm doing whatever I want to do.

And then coming back to it, I know I'm going to kill it when I get back to what I'm doing.

So yeah, it's changed, definitely changes over over the years.

So let's talk about legacy for just a second.

What legacy do you hope that Vera Poulstery leaves behind?

And in the same breath, what legacy do you personally want to leave behind when you look

at the scope of life?

I like to think that Vera will leave a legacy that we, we were known for racing that bar

as high as we could in setting the standard.

I think that's, that's a good way to look at it.

I mean, like just, just when people think of Vera, they automatically, automatically should

think like, okay, well now your bar is there.

We got to meet that.

But on a personal level, I feel like it ain't about, it's not about what we've done design-wise,

build-wise, interior, whatever.

I feel like it's all about, I want to be like my legacy.

I would like to be remembered as the guy that made you feel good, man.

Like people don't remember what your car looked like when you were done.

People won't remember the interior you did on their boat.

People won't remember how unique the design was, but they'll remember how you made them feel.

Oh yeah, they will.

I feel like that's, I would love, I would love to leave that.

I don't remember what the guy did on my boat, man, but he really made me feel like I was part of,

like the, I was there hanging out with some, some good people and he made me feel good about

what I was doing, just about that feeling.

That's what I'm all about. If I made you feel good and the connection that we had was like legit

and that's, I'm happy with that being my legacy, man.

I don't think you could have said it any better, brother.

That was absolutely fantastic.

All right, so describe the Volkswagen community for me in just one word.

Family.

Yeah.

I hear that one a lot and that's okay.

That's okay.

It might have been diesel in your family.

Cause it is, cause it is.

100% is, 100%.

100%.

All right, I got some rapid fire questions.

All right, these are questions that demand a fast response.

If we got to slow down and tell a story, if something gets generated out of one of them,

I'm way good with that.

These are in no means to cut you off or not let a story happen,

but they are designed to be fast answers.

You ready for them?

Go for it.

All right, first one.

Favorite VW that you've ever owned?

Frankie, 66 Beetle.

All right.

Dream car that you haven't built yet.

Volkswagen, I think it's called an SP2 or PS2.

SP2, I believe.

It's a German sports car.

Yeah.

I'm sorry, not German.

It was a Brazilian model.

I want to say SP2.

I think it's like the SP20 or something.

It's, I know what you mean.

It's like the bubble pack and the gorgeous.

Oh, it's so sick looking.

Tell you what, man, if I'm able to get my hands on it, that's a wrap.

That is a wrap.

You don't see them come up on you.

I can't wait.

That means you're going to, I'm going to be seeing one of them one day.

Good stuff.

100%.

Yes.

I'm manifesting it now.

I'm going to own one someday when I come across one.

That was a Fridolin, I think it's the little truck.

Yeah, the Fridolin.

I think it was a mail truck overseas.

Oh, yeah.

Those are really sick, too.

The door slides open, you know.

Yes.

So, so they can, they can transfer that mail without running into the mailbox.

Yes.

So, so cool.

So cool.

Uniqueness, 100% right there.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Those are both sick.

All right.

How about this one?

Leather or vinyl?

Vinyl.

And I'm going to probably catch it for this one, but there's a lot of options in vinyl.

And I'm, I'm always dirty and greasy and I don't want to ruin my leather.

So I'll go with vinyl.

Okay.

All right.

Well said.

Split window or oval?

Oval.

100%.

Air.

I fell in love with my fake, my fake oval Frankie.

Yeah.

No, all good.

All good.

Air ride or static?

Air ride.

100%.

All right.

And I put this one in here just, just, just for you, the fabricator, the seamster, favorite

stitch pattern.

Oh boy, that's a tough one.

There's many, but there's one that's called a split hexagon.

And it's, it's basically a big hexagon to split in the center and hexagon pattern.

Yeah.

Dude, it's, I mean, our machines, you can't see, but we have like 200 different options.

One of the split hexagon will be forever being my, my weakness.

So, so sick and so cool.

Yeah.

Most underrated Vdub color.

Oh man.

I want to say rust.

I'm such a rust guy.

Patina.

Sorry.

I like Bahama blue a lot, but if you give me the option of a perfectly mint Bahama blue

or, or patina, I'm going to go with a patina.

Okay.

Yeah.

One tool that you can never work without.

Tape measure.

All right.

Yeah.

Hell.

One person who influenced your career the most.

Oh boy.

I got to give it to Charles, man.

Charles was the first guy that, that allowed me to take that apprenticeship.

He, he taught me everything, everything about upholstery and I just grew from there.

So I'm lucky that he doesn't hate me anymore.

The first couple of years he was mad, but after that we were able to connect again and I showed

my appreciation and my gratitude for everything he did.

Shout out to Charles.

Cool.

I hope he gets to see this or to listen to this.

Um, no, we've cut, we touched on this a little bit, but maybe just a shorter version.

One piece of advice for somebody that's out there chasing their dream of entrepreneurship

of business ownership of starting a company like salty dub of putting on a Volkswagen show

that's got 400 cars, you know, one piece of advice quick for them.

Somebody chasing their dreams.

Go for it.

Don't, don't listen to naysayers, man.

Just keep going.

It'll happen.

Just, just stay focused and keep chasing it.

Okay.

What's next for Allen?

What, what, what's next?

What's next and where can people find you?

Somebody wants to follow along your, your journey, your business, you on Instagram.

What's next?

Where can we find you?

Man, I'm just, I'm just getting started brother.

I am, I did boats for so long and I just now started tapping into automotive.

I've been doing my own cars for years and that's why people reached out and said, Hey man,

you need to start, start offering this.

And I was like, Oh man, I'll just do it as a hobby.

So we finally opened the automotive industry last year and it's like, I'm just getting started

man.

Like my, my goal is just bigger, better, better.

Like I just want to shop that you will drop your car off and pick up a show car.

Whether it's paint, audio, interior, you name it.

That's the goal now, which is funny because it was my, if you asked 16 year old Allen,

what do you want to do for a living?

I used to say customize cars.

Never did I think that this would be here.

So that's it.

That's the goal man.

And if you ever want to get, if you want to get your car done and you want to check out

any of our work, vera upholstery.com and you can find us everywhere.

YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Google, you name it.

We're everywhere.

But yeah, just reach out, reach out on the website.

There's a link called or link says socials and you'll see all the social pages and all

the work and stuff.

And I mean, I've looked to talk to everybody.

And you're, you're on Instagram personally too, right?

Aren't you?

Yeah.

FLV Dubbers.

I don't know why, but I just, we picked that name and we stuck with it.

But yeah, FLV Dubbers.

Lord of the Dubbers, baby.

Let's go.

Yeah.

You'll be able to see a lot of the builds there.

I mean, if you scroll through, you'll see like the craziness and all the, the, the unique

out of nowhere builds that we have done.

And you've seen, you'll see some of the cool ones, some of the not so cool ones.

Yeah.

I'm going to flash them.

Those of you that are joining and going to see the YouTube version of this, you're going

to see, you will have seen this whole episode.

I'm going to be showing all these cars he's talked about, all these ones that he's built.

We're going to be flashing pictures of them.

So good stuff.

And that's a wrap for this episode of dub life diaries.

Thanks for riding along with us and diving into these incredible stories of the people

in the dubs that drive their dreams.

If you love today's episode, don't forget to subscribe or hit that follow button.

So you never miss an adventure.

Do you have a story to tell or know somebody else who's living the dub life?

Awesome.

Reach out to us.

You can find us on all socials at dub life diaries or shoot me an email.

I'm not hard to find dub life diaries at gmail.com until next time.

Keep the engines humming and the wheels turning and always follow the road that inspires you.

This is Joe person.

I'm signing off.

I'll catch you on the next ride.

From The Shack to Award Winning Alan Guevara Vara Upholstery Ep71

About this episode

Mercury Bobcat

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Concept take the body off

Concept Volkswagen pan

Term reupholstery

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Term fitment

Term straight seams

Term seams are [2405.6s] not lining up

Term tune

Term internals

Term cam

Term carbs

Term EVD conversion

Brand Tesla thing

Term rust

Term patina

Car Volkswagen I

Car Ferrari SP2

Term bubble pack

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