From Toy Hauler to Car Hauler: A Journey with Randy Borcharding, then it is This Week In Auto History.

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central.

It's the In Wheel Time car talk show coming up.

Randy Bortcharding, with Paint House Conrad has this week in Auto History and we'll get you caught up on stories making car news this week.

Howdy, along with Mike out of this world Mars.

I'm Randy Conrad along, we always need more.

Jeff Seekin, I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us.

Let's go right out, right away.

Let's just get into it.

Randy Bortcharding, good morning to you.

Where are your glasses?

Where are your sunglasses?

Howdy fellas.

Actually there are those transitions that go dark and I just figured I wasn't going to wear them.

Because of that beautiful face of yours.

That's it, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly.

Bortcharding.

He wanted to show off his bloodshot eyes.

Yeah, right, right.

And not from booze, it's from paint.

Probably, probably Possibly.

Randy, it's good to see you, my friend, and I hope things are well out there.

We won't try to keep you out in the sun too long because we wanted to talk to you about this new hauler that's behind you, and I was asking the boys before we joined you this morning what is ATC?

Is that a company?

Aluminum trailer company yes, Aluminum trailer company.

Okay, I was close, you were, I got the company part.

Yep, you got that.

Yeah, yeah, one out of three ain't bad.

And I guess before we talk about that we need to make an apology to you.

Oh boy, Because apparently Mr Mars in his big fat thumbs called Randy Bortcharding at Penthouse.

Now we know that you probably you think you're the first.

We know that you have a past history, but we didn't know you back then.

All we know is Paint House, but Mars apparently knows you from way back when.

Well, we've been friends a while.

I'll just put it that way.

Good answer and now you're sleeping with the goat.

We saw the pictures before you came on Good old, excuse me, good old, uh, sticky pages, michael.

Oh, that's, it, yeah, yeah.

Well, um, I know that you've got some great news and, uh, we want to want to see the uh ATC hauler Now.

You used to have an ATC, or at least another hauler, and you got it and you lived in it for a while.

And we did and we loved it.

We actually would like to do it again someday.

Right now this is more of a car hauler, where that was a toy hauler, meaning it had less garage, a little more living space, where this is mainly garage with some light living space.

Uh, yeah, kind of like uh one of those uh haulers on the uh drag racing tour where just the very front, uh, you know, 15, 20 feet is for the office and the rest of it is the garage and tools that this is even lighter than that.

We'll call it.

I'll just put it that way it's it's meant for.

I'm going to switch the camera here.

Um, rolling down the highway Instead of getting a $200 hotel room and leaving an expensive car out in the parking lot, I can sleep in this thing and then keep going.

So it's.

It's not something you'd ever live in, however, um, you can.

You can be comfortable enough, and and get up and keep rolling.

Well, and this is also a fifth wheel, so you've got to tow it with something like a truck.

So what are you towing it with?

It's a.

It's a Goose neck.

I tow it with a F 350, dooley 20, 22, um.

One of the interesting things I'll show you real quick while we're out here is this this gen wide hitch.

I don't know if you'll see.

What is no?

What is that?

It's, it's riding on.

These are uh torsion axle pieces with the rubber inserts and that hits just kind of floats on the axle.

Really takes the harshness out of toe in these things Really, Really comfortable.

And then they come out with that.

I'm a great idea.

They've been up.

They've been up for a few years and they do them all the way from bumper pulls up to true fifth wheel.

So it's a neat.

Uh add on if you will, it's just a bolt on thing and I can tell you there's a difference in the ride, because I've towed a lot of these boxes.

Now your other one that you lived in.

You know you had the big generators and all kinds of things to make it livable.

So if this one's kind of a napper or whatever you would like to call them a really light, just a, just the overnighter, if you will.

Does it have?

Those kind of things, what you could.

In my case, I keep a small generator in the bed of the truck and it's enough to run the AC and the lights, and that's all you need when you're just pulling over to sleep or hang out for a night.

Okay, okay, all right.

But you use this primarily to deliver your work to the customers, correct?

Yes, so this would be for hauling cars to and from places, whether it's a show, post, reshop, another shop.

But we have a car up in Michigan, that a buddy's helping us with the electrical, so getting it to and from him, that kind of thing, and it's, it's a bit well, it's quite a bit more mobile than the big live in one we used to have, so you can grab it and go without having to unhitch your life.

Essentially.

How many feet is that thing?

This is 40.

40 foot, so we had that.

Yeah, I'm going to walk you around the side here Got two storage boxes up front.

Nothing revolutionary there.

This side entry door is really neat.

I'll lift it up for you.

Bear with me here while I reach out for it.

Oh cool, that's big too, so it includes almost like a wing a wing, if you will, or a slide out.

Yeah, you've noticed here the wheel.

Well, you lift it out.

This thing lifts all the way up.

You've got plenty of clearance and I'll show you here at the door.

Did you?

customize this trailer just for this.

Well, this is a unit they make, and this door is nothing unique to me.

They operate in most of their trailers, but that's cool.

There are some things in inside that are custom, but this lets you get in and out of these cars and sit low.

You can open the door all the way.

So you don't have to crawl through.

Yeah, so you don't have to crawl through the window and squeeze in there.

Yeah, yeah let me crawl all over that paint yeah.

I can't tell you how many times you know the door won't open because the car sits too low and and you either have to winch it in, which isn't always practical or possible.

This way you can just drive it in and get out.

It's very good, very good smart.

So what if the car is too low to go across the door.

Go across those wheels.

Then you would Hopefully you'd be smart enough to know and you'd winch it in, which I'll show you here in a moment where the winch is One little feature I'll show you before we go in this table.

You see, right here, yeah, is one of the unique features this trailer has that they just introduced and it's a modular system.

If you notice the rail running down the side there, that black rail, yeah, they've got a whole line of accessories that will install to these rails and this table.

We use it inside.

Outside you wouldn't drive with it on there, you just take it off and store it.

However, when we were up at Columbus this year, we always set up and have kind of like a parking lot party and we're able to put Maybe beverages for adults, maybe not, and and and.

Then you can just take it down and they work on the inside as well.

There's, there's running down.

Do you have it?

Do you have an awning out there?

There is an awning which my last trailer did not have and it's really nice to have.

Yeah, full length.

I think it's 20 feet long.

Nice when you got lights out there at nighttime.

Those lights are like headlights are amazing, so in here in here.

You got it.

You got a.

You got a blue GTO that I love the color 67 GTO.

We built, I don't know, eight or ten years ago.

It's a fun one.

We took it up to Columbus this year.

Another thing they've come up with is these modular cabinets that also work on the rail system and you can put them wherever you want, take them in, take them out.

They're not permanent to the trailer, so if you have a different load you can adjust all that.

Yeah, or if you're going, if you're hauling, if you're going camping, let's say you put your utv in here and you want to haul a lot of gear put in some cabinets.

So if you don't need them, take them out.

So did you pick this up off the lot or did you order it custom for?

your needs.

We had it, we had it built.

This is the first one Demonstrating this new rail system, which they will have a complete line of.

You know accessories, right?

You know fuel can holders and tire racks, and we need our holders whatever you're going to use the trailer for, they will make it modular to the system, including, for example, this couch.

It's attached to the lower rail right over there.

It lays out flat like a couch I mean like a bed.

It sits like a couch, or to fold up flat against the wall and get out of the way, or you can just take it out, which is nice.

So nothing is permanent at which I can appreciate.

And you got your typical upfront deck area and I put the spare up there and keep chairs and things up front.

So one of the things I added go ahead.

I'm sorry, no, no, go ahead.

I added a bathroom to this one which, if you drive as much as I do, you appreciate having your own restroom.

It's got the sink and the cabinet and water and a toilet and not a shower, but beyond that it's nice to have my own restroom.

Particularly appreciates that.

Yeah, because there aren't enough buckies in this world.

Indeed, but they are going everywhere.

I'll tell you, I've seen them up, all the way up to Kentucky, the Kentucky Bucky.

So I was going to ask you, andy.

So the couch that folds out like a bed, is that your sleeping area?

I've used it that way and I will also keep an air mattress up in the front here that I can just blow up and sleep on that.

Okay, yeah, that looked like it might be a little more comfortable if you had something up there as reason I was asking.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's got air conditioning, so when you pull over and you fire up the generator you can cool the thing off and actually be comfortable in it.

And the AC is enough to cool it in 100 degree heat.

It is, it is.

I keep it running out here in the driveway and you walk in this trailer and it's 65 degrees.

Nice.

Does the trailer insulated?

It is.

We ordered it that way.

We've got another spare tire well here.

So I keep two spares.

I've learned the hard way but one spare is never enough.

It's got the winch in the floor, bluetooth controlled.

You can put that door down and just have a nice flat floor and the winch is not in the way.

And then we put in a small refrigerator which, via an inverter, which is controlled I think that's funny which is controlled by the inverter panel here and when the truck is plugged in and you're driving, that refrigerator is cooling.

Okay.

And then we display our colors when we go to shows.

So we made this board that mounts to the door.

We can hang some of our custom colors on display.

It's got a heater.

What else it's?

Essentially it's a big white box, but it's a really, really nice big white box.

So you went to the color board there.

What kind of new colors are you working on this time?

Right now I'm working on a gold for Andy Leach up in oh god, I just went blank Nebraska and we're doing a 33 Pontiac that will do a custom gold for his project.

And that's the current experiment.

If you will, science experiment.

Very cool.

Yeah, you're talking about the color, yeah.

The color Well the color grabbed my eye right away.

Yeah, so the gold is not on the board.

It's in the mixing room under wraps right now.

I haven't figured it out yet.

I'm still tweaking it.

Yeah, and is that a fluorescent orange that you've got in there?

It's kind of my version of hugger orange, but I put some pearl in it, so it's got a little more pop to it.

It looks retro, like on a Camaro or a Pontiac whatever that color would have been on, but yet when you get close to it it's got a little something extra.

We can see that something extra is popping right out of that board.

Well, I hope you see it cleanly, because sometimes these devices don't show color very well.

What are you working on in the shop?

Oh, let's see.

The current one we're almost done with is a 72 Ranchero 351 Cleveland.

We put in a five speed.

What else did we do to it?

You know, vintage air, new wiring, harness, all that kind of stuff, that just kind of the standard fair in the hot rod world these days.

So that stuff works so well what you should do it, and it makes it more fun to drive.

A different Ranchero than what you brought to SEMA a couple of years ago.

Correct, that was a 71.

The one we're doing now is a 72.

And it's more of a survivor car.

The paint on its original, the stripes are still on it.

It was an original 351, ho 351,.

Yeah, it was a Ranchero GT originally, so it was the right.

It was the real deal.

Do you have any competitions coming up?

Let's see, there's a show in Nashville.

Bobby Alaway is putting it on.

I'm trying to remember the name right now.

It's the first inaugural show and I'm going blank, but it's going to be a really neat, neat deal.

And then SEMA, of course, comes up in early November.

Are you taking something?

Is that where the Ranchero is going to SEMA?

No, no, it's not really what I'd call a SEMA car.

We will just have fun and drive that one, but we are planning to take a 67 Firebird convertible.

We named it the topless dancer because so Penthouse works.

Perhaps the story behind it is when I first drove the car many years ago, the front end was so loose on it it danced all over the road, and it's a convertible.

So when I got back to his, house.

I got back to his house and said I've already named your car.

This thing is topless dancer, because it dances all over the road and it's topless and it will be color blue right there.

Well, actually it's the sister car of the BTO.

It's the same color as the BTO.

Oh, OK, ok.

Maybe you'll color the the naughty little sister.

I don't know, but they are owned by the same person and he's a Pontiac guy, among other things, and they'll be matching cars Cool, nice.

So I'm looking for it.

There's the 17th BASF.

No, that was May.

I'm looking for that car show that you're talking about, the 2023 triple crown of rotting car show.

Triple crown.

That's it.

Triple crown of rotting.

You got it yeah.

That sounds like an adult beverage.

Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be.

I saw the trophies for that show at Advanced Plating and they are impressive.

In addition to the winners all get, I think there's six custom Gibson guitars that are part of the very cool prizes you can win.

So it's they really put a lot of thought into it and it's gonna be a neat deal.

You know Bobby used to put on what was called Shades of the Past over in Pigeon Forge at Dollywood.

Yeah, yeah, I remember that Never made it.

It was another really fun show.

I don't know if their lease ran out or what happened, but they've now moved it to Nashville and I believe it's at the racetrack, so it would be a nice venue.

Oh wow.

Yeah, you don't have the air conditioner on in there, do you?

No, I don't.

It was kind of noisy.

Kind of noisy until I shut it off, but now you get to see me sweat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So are you gonna go for the Street Rod of the Year award?

That was in Columbus two weeks ago and we didn't bring a Street Rod.

So what it says here Triple Crown or Rodding, september 8th and 9th 2023 at the Nashville State.

Oh, they're Street Rod.

Yeah, they are doing one.

What we?

If we bring anything, it would fall more into the muscle car category.

So Hot Rod perhaps?

I'm not sure what they called their awards, but I think they've divided it into trucks, street Rods and Hot Rods, just to kind of define the categories Right.

Well good, luck to you, in whatever category you enter in.

Thanks, by the way, how's the head of the household and the paint house garage?

How's she doing?

The brains and the looks.

Jen, yes, she's awesome.

I invited her to be on this thing and she declined, probably because of the heat.

I don't blame her.

She's still doing her podcast.

It's on hold, but it's gonna be revamped here and become an active thing pretty soon.

Well good, so she's gonna want to interview you guys.

Well, that's fine, oh poor.

You know, maybe we're gonna do a simulcast.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we'll do a simulcast of that, okay, well.

Randy, it's always fun.

Yeah, it will.

It's always great to talk to you.

Please give Jen our love and you guys take care up there.

Thanks for the tour this morning.

We truly appreciate it and congratulations on that hauler man.

That's really fun.

I love that lift up side door.

What a great idea that is.

Yeah, it's again.

It's super useful and I always felt like they would be a leaking point for dirt and water, but this one has not had that issue at all.

Cool, very good.

Who knows the ATC for building a great trailer and thanks for having me.

Yeah, you got it.

And, by the way, good luck at the triple crown in Nashville in September.

Thanks, man, go find some American, I'll take care.

Yeah, go find some AC.

All right Time now for this week in auto history.

Conrad has that, yeah.

So in this week, in 1888, excuse me Philip W Pratt demonstrated the first electric automobile in Boston.

It was a tricycle powered by six electrical accumulator company cells that weighed about 900 pounds.

What an odd looking duck.

You got to remember.

This is the generation when the bicycles had the big wheel and the little wheel.

Yeah, and he just adapted that and put an electric motor on it.

You know, you got to remember.

You know there is an electric Corvette, the Barbie Corvette.

The 1957 pink Barbie Corvette was the first electric Corvette in production and they sold thousands of them and they're going to be making a new one called the E-Ray.

And then in 1904, this week, dr Herbert Hills of Flint, michigan, purchased the first Buick automobile ever to be sold.

Also in 1904, on this week, louis Rigoli, driving a 15 liter Gibran Braille on the Oaston Newport Road in Belgium, became the first man to break a hundred miles an hour in that thing.

Can you imagine going a hundred miles an hour?

in that thing.

It's like a bathtub, it's like a soapbox derby.

It was aerodynamic for its day, but you know he went over a hundred miles an hour in that thing.

God help him.

In 1911, general Motors organized GMC truck brand to handle the sales of GM's repeat and reliance products.

In 1934, harold Ames patented an application for retractable headlamps.

The design would later become one of the defining details of Ames most triumphant project, the Cord 810, which to me is one of the most beautiful vehicles ever produced.

Was that cord of that generation?

You got to think of how creative that car was, not only hideaway headlamps, it was front wheel drive and had a supercharged eight cylinder engine in it, very advanced for its day.

And then again it was designed by Gordon Bering to make a baby version of a Duesenberg car.

And that's when he come up with the 810.

And it was the last great offering of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg trio of manufacturing.

And this vehicle was also inducted into the Museum of Modern Art and it was chose as one of the eight automotive works of art.

In 1935, the first automatic parking meter in the United States, the Parkometer, was invented by Carlton McGee and was installed in Oklahoma City by the dual parking meter company.

Parkometer or Parko meter Parko meter.

In 1973 Bonnie and Clyde's bullet riddle 34 Ford V8 sedan was sold at auction for $175,000 to Peter Simon of Jean Nevada.

The V8 Ford model succeeded the new model a and was well received due to the speed and power.

Perhaps is why it was seen most popular among the criminal element.

But I guess no, now they drive a 66 Corvette.

No, sorry, wrong criminal element.

Henry.

Henry Ford first received a personal letter congratulating him on the car's performance from famed outlaw gunman John Dillinger, and I think that letters actually displayed at a Greenfield Village Museum.

And then in 1987, enzo Ferrari, in ceremony, in a ceremony commemorating the company's 40th year, unveiled the Ferrari F40 at the factory in Maranello.

It had a 2.9

liter twin turbo V8 engine under the hood and it was Italy's first production sports car to go over 200 miles an hour.

And actually there's one of those here in Houston, owned by the president of the Houston Ferrari Club.

Stunningly beautiful car but very stark interior in every place.

They could save weight.

They did so.

There's no carpets, there's no door panels, everything's carbon fiber and stuff.

So pretty cool car and that is this week in automotive history very good, I enjoyed that very much.

All right, want to do recalls while we've got time.

Bmw 740, 760 and i7 for 2023 interaction bar malfunction don't know what?

I don't have any.

I don't you run out of ice when you run out of bourbon you run out of something.

Drivers airbag may not deploy in lots of Lexuses and Corolla's.

Again, safer car dot gov type in your VIN number it's 23 and 24 models of NX, rx, corolla, corolla Cross, highlander, tacoma and on and on and on and on.

Valve stem may be damaged on the Toyota RAV4 for 2023.

If the tire goes flat, it's damaged.

Mazda CX3, mazda 3 rear view image may not display properly.

All these are recalls.

Seat belt may detach from the pretensioner anchor on the Tesla Model S and Model X 21 to 23.

Forward-facing camera is misaligned.

If you're looking at the side of the car from inside on the screen, then it's misaligned For 2023,.

There's Tesla Model S X and Y.

Like we said earlier in one of the earlier interviews, there's so many cameras on today's cars.

It's amazing.

Unintended acceleration on the Nissan Leaf 2018 to 2023.

There we go.

Unintended acceleration.

I had met an Audi engineer.

We were both working in a salvage yard together looking at a couple of different cars I was looking at one for a fire and he was looking at an Audi 5000 for he called it unintelligent acceleration.

There's that, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Loss of power steering assist in the Nissan Kixson Versa for 2021 and the camera image may not display in the Jaguar XE, not the I-PACE.

The F-bomb, the F-bomb.

They really should name one of their cars the F-bomb People will buy at just for that, don't you think?

Federal Reserve on Wednesday increased its benchmark rate target a quarter of a point to 5.25

to 5.5%

of the decision that could leave auto dealerships and customers coping with higher interest rates on auto loans.

It's the highest US central bank policy rate in 16 years.

Thank you, mr President.

The Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate decisions affect the price lenders pay to borrow money, cost that might be passed on to consumers in the form of higher interest rates Might be will be.

Well, I was gonna emphasize that.

Meanwhile, new vehicle interest rates rose from 4.5

in March of 22 to 7.2%

in June of this year and used vehicle APRs went from 8.1%

to 11%.

According to Edmunds, a new vehicle lease grew from charging the equivalent of 4.2%

interest to 5.8%

interest.

Way to go, all right.

Well, that's it for this hour of the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.

Hour number three starts right after these brief messages on the I Heart Radio Network.

Everyone at the Tail Pipes and Tacos cruise in at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max and Katie.

Thank you for participating in the best cruise in around and look forward to seeing you again.

You'll hear about the next cruise in date right here on In Wheel Time.

Next time you're in the West Houston Energy Corridor area, be sure and stop in at the original Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max at I-10 and Highway 6 or the Katie location on the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard when passing through Beaumont or College Station.

Stop in and have Loopy's award-winning beef fajitas and frozen margaritas.

There's always a celebration at Loopy Tortilla.

Loopy Tortilla founder Stan Hold and his wife Sheila are winning racers on the NHRA Drag Racing Circuit and have a collection of hot rods and classics that everyone appreciates.

Look for them at the next Tail Pipes and Tacos cruise in.

The date will be announced soon and will once again be held at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max on 99 in Kingsland Boulevard, just south of I-10 and Katie.

We'll give you all the details right here on the In Wheel Time car talk show and online Donations benefit God's garage.

We'll see you then.

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From Toy Hauler to Car Hauler: A Journey with Randy Borcharding, then it is This Week In Auto History.

About this episode

Ford F350

Chevrolet Camaro

Ford Ranchero

Pontiac Firebird

Chevrolet Corvette

Lotus Carlton

Ford V8

Bristol Bullet

Toyota Corolla

Toyota Tacoma

Toyota Highlander

Toyota Corolla Cross

Toyota RAV4

Mazda 3

Mazda Cx3

Tesla Model

Tesla Model S

Nissan Leaf

Audi 5000

Jaguar Ipace

Jaguar Xe

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