“57 Chevy” means a 1957 Chevrolet. It’s a famous old American car that a lot of people restore, and in this story it’s a project he built years ago and is working on again.
A “crew cab” is a pickup truck with four doors, so the back seat is easier to get into. It’s a common truck layout for people who want more usable seating.
Term
53-foot matching trailer
A “matching trailer” is a trailer that’s styled and painted to match the truck or car it hauls. A “53-foot” trailer is very long, usually used for big show setups.
A warranty is a promise that if something goes wrong after the work is done, the seller/shop will cover the fix. With custom cars, what’s covered can be less straightforward than on a factory car.
They’re talking about how the shop’s tools and equipment have gotten better over the years. Better tools can make the work more consistent and can improve how strong and clean the final build turns out.
The chassis is the car’s main skeleton/frame. It’s what holds the important parts together, so when a shop talks about boxing and welding it, they mean they’re strengthening that frame.
“Boxing” means adding metal so a frame section becomes more solid and rigid, like turning a flat/open area into a stronger enclosed shape. Welding is how the shop permanently attaches that added metal to the frame.
A Pontiac Firebird is a classic American muscle car. “75 Firebird” means a 1975 model, and the story is about customizing it so it looked and felt cool to drive.
Pro street is a way people build a drag-style car that still drives on the street. It’s usually about making the car look tough and hooking up better for acceleration.
A Dodge Charger is a muscle car—meaning it’s built for strong acceleration and a sporty feel. The “73 Charger” mentioned is a specific older model year that people often restore or customize. It’s also the kind of car that some owners drive regularly, not just show off.
Term
snap rope
A tow rope is a strong rope used to pull a car. The host is saying he didn’t have a trailer, so he brought a rope in case the car couldn’t be driven the whole way.
Term
didn't even have to snap, trope it
They thought they might have to pull the car with a rope, but they didn’t. The car actually ran enough to drive for a while before it died again.
“50 series” is a tire sizing detail that describes how tall the sidewall is compared to the tire’s width. It affects how the tire rides and how much clearance you have when you change wheels or bodywork.
A “body drop” means lowering the car’s body so it sits closer to the ground. People do it for a specific look, but it can affect how the car moves and clears parts underneath. Two body drops can feel very different depending on how they’re done.
“OBS” is slang for a specific older generation of full-size pickup trucks. People talk about it because the parts and fitment for lowering or body modifications can be different depending on which generation you have.
The Ford Expedition is a large SUV meant for carrying people and gear. It’s built more for practicality than for sports-car performance. The podcast mentions it as a quick point in the conversation.
Wheel tubs are the inner fender areas that make room for the tires. When you change to bigger or wider wheels, you often have to cut and reshape them so everything clears.
Term
dog leg in the rear
A “dogleg” is a bent/stepped shape in the rear body area. When you’re modifying the truck to fit different wheels or interior pieces, that step can make the fitment harder.
“Mini trucking” is a style of truck customization. People modify smaller trucks with big wheels and lots of body/fabrication work to get a low, aggressive look and proper tire clearance.
Topic
Hot Rods, wheels and tires
They’re saying the same kind of thinking applies as in hot rods: wheels and tires dictate a lot of the modifications. Once the fitment is done, you then have to make sure the interior still fits correctly.
Plastic panels are the interior trim pieces. After you cut and modify the truck, you often have to trim and re-fit these pieces too, and that can affect where you can actually sit.
When a truck is lowered a lot, the door can hit parts of the body. A “pocketed door sill” is a cut-and-recess in the sill so the door can open and close without rubbing.
A “frame rail” is part of the truck’s main skeleton. If you’re modifying the body to sit lower, that rail can get in the way of cutting or clearance work.
The Pontiac Fiero is a small sports car made by Pontiac. It’s known for being a popular car to modify because people can change the engine and build it into something different. The podcast mentions it as a car the speaker might want to own later.
“Block or flip” are two old-school ways people lower trucks. One uses a spacer (“block”), and the other changes the leaf spring setup (“flip”) so the truck sits lower.
The “center bore” is the hole in the wheel that helps it line up on the hub. If it’s the wrong size, the wheel won’t sit centered, so people modify it to fit properly.
“Lower profile” tires have a shorter sidewall height relative to the wheel diameter. That usually improves steering response and appearance, but it can also make the ride harsher and increase the chance of wheel damage on rough roads.
Term
six or 700 bucks
They’re giving a rough old-school budget number for how much the wheels and tires might cost. The point is that you could get the look without spending a ton of money.
A roll pan is a custom, smooth panel that covers the area where the bumper usually sits. It helps the truck look cleaner and more “finished” instead of having a bulky bumper.
Term
zip screw the tag
“Zip screw” here is describing a quick mounting method for a license plate using a fastener (like a screw/zip-style attachment) rather than a more permanent bracket. It’s a practical shop detail about how they temporarily mount the tag during work.
A Nissan Hardbody is a classic Nissan pickup truck (from the 80s/90s era) that people like because it’s easy to modify and feels like a real work truck. Here, the speaker says their daughter has two—one raised up and one lowered.
“Lift off” here means the roof/top can be removed. It’s describing a convertible-style setup using a removable canvas top.
Term
radical tops
“Radical tops” sounds like the name of a top system people used for custom convertibles. In this story, it’s connected to the removable canvas top on the truck.
A quarter panel is the metal panel on the back side of a car, near the rear wheel. It often gets damaged or rusts because it’s right where road spray and debris hit.
PPG is a brand of car paint and paint-related products. If you’re doing bodywork, it’s the kind of paint system you spray on to make the repaired area match the rest of the car.
Brand
Sherman Williams
This is a paint brand the shop used at the time. They’re talking about which car-paint products they were getting before moving to PPG.
NAPA is a company that supplies car parts and shop materials. In this story, it’s where they were getting the paint/coatings for repairs.
Company
A and B supplies down in Bloomington
This refers to a local automotive supply business in Bloomington that, according to the speaker, started carrying PPG. It’s relevant mainly as part of the shop’s paint-sourcing story, not as a technical automotive concept.
ISCA is a group that runs custom car competitions, especially for paint and detailed builds. The speaker is saying that if you’re competing in ISCA events, the standards are very specific and intense.
Term
Lexon
Lexon is the name the speaker uses for the material used in the truck’s sub-box. They’re saying it was finished in a way that looked extremely clear, so you could see through it.
A GMC Sonoma is a small pickup truck made by GMC. Here, it’s being talked about because it has an extremely detailed, multi-color paint job aimed at winning car-show awards.
The Ford Fusion is a regular, everyday type of car in the sedan category. In the podcast, it’s mentioned briefly in a phrase, not as a detailed build or performance topic. It’s basically a common kind of car compared with the classic performance vehicles also discussed.
A “flip forward hood” is a custom hood design that pivots forward instead of opening upward like a stock hood. It’s common in street-truck and custom builds because it can improve access and also create a distinctive, clean front-end look.
The firewall is the wall between the engine area and the inside of the truck. A “smooth firewall” means the builder reshaped it to look cleaner and more custom, not like the factory stamped shape.
The Buick Grand National is a performance version of a Buick. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as the speaker’s first street-focused car and connected to winning at events. That makes it a notable car in the story because it’s tied to racing success.
A “muscle car” is a type of American car known for big power and fast acceleration. The speaker is using the term to frame the 1957 Chevy as having that classic performance vibe.
The Datsun 280 Z is a classic old-school sports car. People like it because it’s popular with car builders and there are lots of parts and upgrade options.
SEMA is a major car show focused on custom cars and aftermarket parts. If a car is at SEMA, it’s usually a serious build that people in the car world pay attention to.
They swapped in a newer Cadillac turbo engine. Turbo engines can make more power and torque than many older engines, which is why people do swaps like this.
An engine swap means putting a different engine into a car. People do it to get more power or better performance than the original engine.
Term
motor and trans combo
They’re talking about the engine plus the gearbox working together. When the match is right, the car feels quicker and smoother because the gears and power delivery line up well.
A Mitsubishi Eclipse is a sporty car that a lot of people modify. Here it’s being built for a car show with a wider body and a supercharger, so it looks more aggressive and can make more power.
“Pro-charged” means the car has a supercharger setup. A supercharger pushes extra air into the engine, which can make the car much stronger—if it’s tuned and supported correctly.
A Pontiac Trans Am is a famous muscle car from the U.S. In this story, the one mentioned is customized with a supercharger, so it’s not just about looks—it’s meant to be quick too.
“Supercharged” means there’s a device that squeezes more air into the engine. More air usually means more power, but the car has to be set up/tuned so it can handle the extra boost safely.
Orange County Choppers is a famous custom motorcycle shop/brand that became really well-known in the TV era. The host is saying that when that whole “OCC-style” hype cooled off, the motorcycle market changed fast.
Term
full frame motorcycles
“Full frame” in custom motorcycle context usually means the build uses a complete, purpose-built frame (as opposed to a minimal or heavily altered structure), allowing the builder to control geometry and fitment. The host mentions it while describing how they built many custom bikes during the chopper boom.
A “300 back tire” refers to a very wide rear motorcycle tire, commonly associated with custom builds that aim for a planted stance and high traction. Tire width affects how the tire contacts the road and can change handling feel, especially on stretched or heavily modified bikes.
A “180 front tire” indicates a wide front tire size used in custom motorcycles. Wider front tires can alter steering response and stability, and they’re often paired with stretched front ends and custom wheel/tire fitment.
Goodguys is a classic car show series in the U.S. that brings together hot rods and custom cars. The shop mentions it as one of the places they used to meet customers.
“Hot rod industry” means the community of people who modify cars—often older ones—to make them look cool and drive better. The speaker is saying their audio/custom world is a bit different from that scene.
Sony is a major consumer electronics brand, and in car-audio contexts it’s known for head units, speakers, and audio components. The transcript’s point is that the custom shop’s relationships extend into mainstream electronics booths, not just traditional car-show circles.
“Mini truck days” means the time when people were really into customizing small pickup trucks. A big part of that scene was putting in loud, impressive car audio systems.
“Big stereos” means a serious car audio setup—more speakers and more power than stock. It’s usually built to sound loud and hit hard, especially with bass.
“Subaru Uncharted” sounds like a name used in a phrase about trying something new. It doesn’t clearly match a single, specific car model the way the other vehicles are named. In the podcast, it seems to be used to mean “new territory” rather than to describe a particular car’s details.
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a classic muscle car from Chevrolet. In the podcast, a 1967 Chevelle comes up in a discussion about body repair and keeping the paint looking stock. That’s important because restoring the body is a big part of owning an older car.
The blend line is where the new paint meets the old paint. If the blend line is visible, it looks like a patch. If it’s not visible, the paint looks like it was never repaired.
Overspray is when paint accidentally gets on parts you didn’t intend to paint. It usually happens if masking isn’t tight enough. It can make a repair look less clean.
A “run” in paint is when the paint drips or sags, leaving a streak. It usually means too much paint was sprayed at once. Fixing it often means sanding and repainting that area.
A “street machine” is a customized car that’s built to drive on the street and still look impressive. It’s the kind of car you’d take to shows and actually enjoy driving.
They mention going to Columbus, which suggests these cars are meant to be used and shown at events. It’s not just a garage project.
Concept
laying these things out
“Laying these things out” here refers to planning the visual layout and stance of a custom build—how the car’s proportions, fitment, and components are arranged. In custom culture, it’s about translating an idea into a cohesive look before the work is done.
“Bolt-on suspensions” are suspension parts that install with bolts and brackets, not a ton of custom welding. They’re meant to be easier to fit than fully custom suspension work.
“Air” here means air suspension. Instead of normal springs, the car uses air pressure to change how high or low it sits.
Term
laying rockers
“Laying rockers” means setting the car up so the lower body (the rocker area) sits very low. It’s about getting that super-low look without the car looking “wrong.”
“Heartland Nationals” is a weekend car event with cruising and shows. The host says it runs July 3rd to 5th and features a lot of hot rods and muscle cars.
“Summit Racing Nationals” is a big car event where a lot of hot rods and performance builds show up. The hosts mention it because they’ll have their cars there and awards categories will be happening.
Topic
street ride of the year
“Street ride of the year” is an award category at the event for a standout street car. The clip doesn’t explain the judging rules, but it’s clearly meant to recognize the best overall street build.
The Lucid Air is an electric car, meaning it runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s designed as a luxury sedan with modern technology. The podcast mentions it as part of a broader mix of vehicles being discussed or built.
Part
69 trans
“Trans” means transmission. Saying “69 trans” usually means they used a transmission from a 1969 car, chosen because it works well with the rest of the build.
Part
fast track
“Fast track” here appears to be a named performance/handling package or undercarriage component associated with the build. Because the transcript doesn’t define it, the key takeaway is that it’s described as something “underneath” the car—i.e., part of the chassis/suspension modernization.
Renderings are basically computer pictures of a car idea. They help you see what the finished custom could look like before any real work starts.
Term
AI
AI here means computer software that can create pictures or designs when you give it instructions. The speaker is saying it’s making it easier for people to visualize custom car ideas.
A 1968 Camaro is a classic muscle car that people love to customize. Here, they’re talking about a heavily modified one with all-wheel drive and a wide, lowered look—basically turning it into something much more extreme than stock.
All-wheel drive means the car can send power to all four wheels. That usually helps the car grip better, especially when accelerating or on slippery roads—though it’s also harder to build into a classic car.
“First gen Camaro” is Camaro-speak for the earliest generation of that model. It’s basically the late-1960s Camaro body style that people often build and modify.
A body panel is one of the car’s outer parts—like the doors, fenders, or quarter panels. The point here is that you can change parts of the car and still argue about what counts as a “generation.”
The front end fascia is the car’s front styling cover—basically the outer pieces around the bumper. Customizers often modify it because it controls a lot of the car’s visual “face.”
Quarter panels are the big body sections behind the doors, near the rear wheels. They’re often modified on wide-body cars to fit wider tires and change the shape of the rear end.
The Chevrolet Nova is an older American car that’s often used for performance builds. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as part of a set of cars someone worked on or owned. It’s a popular platform because it’s easy to modify for speed and style.
The Chevrolet C10 is an older pickup truck. People like it because it’s a great base for customizing—changing the look and sometimes the engine. The podcast mentions a C10 as a project that was done for someone.
Term
LS4 27
“LS4” is the name of a modern GM V8 engine family that people swap into older cars. It’s popular because it’s powerful, fits well, and there are many parts and tuning options for it.
“Distressed leather” means the leather is made to look older or more worn on purpose. It’s a style choice to give the interior a vintage, rugged vibe.
Term
root beer brown
“Root beer brown” is just a way of describing a specific shade of brown paint. It’s a warm, dark brown color that custom car builders use to get a vintage look.
Des Moines is the location of a Goodguys Rod & Custom event mentioned in the segment. The hosts are giving listeners dates and show locations to catch the debuts.
A “project car” is a car you buy because it needs fixing or improving. You’re planning to work on it yourself or with a shop to get it into the condition you want.
“930” is Porsche’s code for a specific older 911 Turbo. It’s a classic, turbocharged 911 era that many enthusiasts chase as a project or collector car.
The Porsche 911 is Porsche’s famous sports car model. People talk about it across many years, but it’s always the same basic idea: a rear-engine design with a distinctive driving feel.
“Chameleon” paint is paint that looks like it changes color. Depending on how you look at it or how the light hits it, it can appear as different colors.
Color shift paint is designed to look different from different angles. That’s how you get effects like purple turning into gold as you move around the car.
Here, “harlequin” means a special paint pattern that uses multiple color-shift panels. As you move, different sections can look like they’re swapping colors.
The Lamborghini Countach is a famous supercar with a very distinctive angular shape. Here, the speaker is talking about a Countach-style custom build and connecting it to the Cannonball Run legend.
Transverse mounted means the engine sits sideways in the car. They’re saying they put it in the back, but still sideways, which changes how the drivetrain is arranged.
ABS brakes help stop the wheels from locking up when you brake hard. That lets you steer while braking, and the speaker is saying they kept that tech in the custom car.
Traction control helps prevent the tires from spinning when you accelerate. The speaker is saying they carried that system over from the donor car into their custom build.
The Grand Prix is a Pontiac model the speaker used as a donor. They’re saying they took electronics and driving systems from it and reused them in the custom project.
A restomod is an old car that gets updated with newer technology. The goal is usually to keep the classic style, but make it drive and perform more like a modern car.
“Solid color” just means the whole car is painted one single color, not with stripes or graphics. It’s a common choice when you want the car’s shape to stand out.
The C4 ZR-1 is a special, higher-performance Corvette version from the C4 generation. The ZR-1 badge means it’s the “big deal” Corvette, not the standard one.
Term
C4
“C4” is just a way Corvette fans label a specific generation of the car. It helps people know which era of Corvette they’re talking about.
Lingenfelter is a company that specializes in making certain cars faster and more performance-focused. Here, it’s mentioned because the Corvette was modified by them.
The Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. The podcast mentions several versions of it, like different trims and generations, which means there are multiple kinds of Corvettes. It’s discussed because people often compare what each version is best at.
ProCharger is a brand of aftermarket superchargers used to add forced induction to an engine. In this segment, the host credits a ProCharger setup for making a C8 Corvette “faster” than his Z06, illustrating how supercharging can boost acceleration.
Term
715
The “715” is a big power number—most likely horsepower—showing how much stronger the modified Corvette is. The speaker is using it to explain why it feels so fast.
Term
revving motor
“Revving” just means the engine spins faster (higher RPM). Spinning higher can help make power, but the supercharger can still make the car quicker overall.
A “rim” is part of your wheel that the tire sits on. If you hit a pothole hard enough, you can bend it, which can make the car shake or lose tire pressure.
This is a 1962 Buick Skylark, a classic American car. The hosts are talking about a custom version they’re working on, and how the roof change makes it look really different.
They’re talking about using the roof from a 1965 Chevrolet Corvair as part of a custom build. The idea is to change the car’s shape and make it look like a different style of roof.
A bubble top is a roof that’s shaped like a rounded dome. It’s a custom look that makes the car’s top look different from a normal roof.
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So you're saying with Hilton Honors, I can use points for a free night stay anywhere?
Anywhere.
What about fancy places like the Canopy in Paris?
Yeah, Hilton Honors, baby.
Or relaxing sanctuaries like the Conrad in Tulum?
Hilton Honors, baby.
Ooh, what about the five-star Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives?
Are you gonna do this for all 9,000 properties?
When you want points that can take you anywhere, anytime, it matters where you stay.
Hilton, for this day.
I'm a workhorse.
Yeah, you were telling me all the stories about your body.
That's the shit.
Yeah, your body is telling you.
Your body is telling you that.
Look at these hands.
Where?
Oh, Jesus, dude.
That's another first for this podcast.
The time I was 15 to 18, I had bought, fixed up, and sold 17 cars.
I literally got a letter from Secretary of State saying that I had to get a dealership
license because I had so many sold cars in my name.
And I was, I'm 17 years old.
We opened up my shop in 88.
88.
That's about a high school.
Good year.
And we've been doing this so long now that we're getting cars, like we have a car in
the shop right now.
It's 57 Chevy that I built 30 some years ago.
You're restoring your own build.
It's a crew cab duly with a 53-foot matching trailer all painted to match.
I had that with a couple of mini trucks out at Carlisle All-Truck Nationals.
And we won, like, everything.
I mean, everything.
B.F. Goodrich actually came out and talked to me and said, hey, would you be interested
in bringing this thing out to SEMA?
And I'm like, what's SEMA?
You ever see that jackass where their bams walking down the hallway and they take the
giant hand and pull it back?
That happens like three times a day.
That's professionally building hot rods.
Welcome everybody back to another episode of Oil and Whiskey.
This episode is brought to you by HP Tuners.
Tune all the toys from the truck that hauls them to your race car to your daily driver,
car sports, watercraft, a little bit of everything.
This week we have none other than the John Wargo from the Custom Shop.
Yes, sir.
Right down a couple hours south, right?
Yeah.
Just right here in Illinois.
This is a fellow Illinoisan.
Fellow Illinoisan.
We're so close, but we talk pretty much specifically at car shows.
Exactly.
Well, that's because you guys are always so busy working.
The only time I get out is to come up here and pick up the chassis.
You let the inmates out into the yard.
You can have a little play a little bit and converse.
Before we get into this one, we have a very special gift that was dropped off by Lou from
Lou's garage.
He's got the patina bump side and now he just showed up in the OBS Ford that he took on
the power tour.
Sweet.
The long wheelbase big boy truck.
You saw that truck?
I knew he was here and I was questioning.
I saw the truck and I kept like who's was Parker in front of the overhead door.
Yeah.
Damn, that thing's bad.
I love those OBS Ford crew cabs in my son, both dig them.
That's a man's truck.
Yeah.
That's a lot of truck.
Yeah, it's a lot of truck for a little guy.
I'll get in front of that before you say it.
I didn't, I wasn't going to go there, but it is.
Well, I'm a little nervous about the brown bag after Phil Smunt brought out the Belort
last week.
Yeah, that one was awesome.
Good Japanese and centauri.
That is really good stuff.
Very good stuff.
This is one of those elusive bottles that you hear about a lot.
Yeah.
But seldom do you get the opportunity to indulge.
Yeah.
That's great.
This will be a fun one.
John, you've been doing this for quite some time.
How many years have you been doing, could the custom shop?
So I actually opened up my shop in 88.
88.
Right out of high school.
88.
88.
Man.
And it's funny because, you know, we've been doing this so long now that we're getting
cars like we have a car in the shop right now.
It's 57 Chevy that I built 30 some years ago.
You're restoring your own bills.
That the guy blew the motor up.
He took it to a local shop in Oklahoma and they were like, we don't even want to touch
this thing.
Right.
And so the owner calls me up and has no idea whether we're still in business or not.
And he's like, I got this car.
You guys built all this.
And he's like, I love the car.
It's so beautiful.
But I blew the motor up.
Can you fix it?
And I'm like, yeah, sure.
I mean, what do you say?
And so.
A lot of warranty.
A little lot of warranty.
But again, it's funny to see these cars just going around from different owners and popping
up later down the road and you get it back and you're like, oh, man, I remember doing
that.
I remember doing that.
And you know, you see in your mind the evolution of what you used to do compared to what you
do now.
And I'm not saying that it's not a nice car and it's not good work, but the evolution
of the tools and the equipment and the things that we use now, like that chassis, you know,
obviously beings that were here at the roaster shop, you know, it's an original chassis that
we just box and welded the whole thing and smoothed it because, you know, back then I
could do it myself.
The customer was willing to pay me to do it.
And you know, we made it a great chassis off of the original one because that's what you
did back in the day.
30 years ago.
Yeah.
You know, there wasn't a boop boop.
Hey, Jeremy, I need a chassis for you.
Yeah, you had no choice.
Yeah.
So your choice was to modify what you had.
What what's the good and the bad that you saw?
Because I'm, you know, we haven't been around since 88, but early 2000s and we've had some
of those older builds come through.
And just like you said, it's interesting to open them up and you see there's some things
that I think for me that surprised me that I'm like, oh, shit, we did that pretty good.
Like we should probably start doing that again.
Yeah.
And other things that you're like, we definitely got better.
Well, I guess for me, you know, like a lot of things that you learn over the years is
like prepping and painting the backside of your panels and stuff better now than you
did back then.
Because I mean, I was a young guy back then, you know, you know, so I mean, not that it
didn't look okay.
And it wasn't like it was rusty or anything.
But you know, you get to the backside of like we built a full metal center council that
went all the way down it.
And that's where all the wiring runs, you know, and I'm like, boy, I could have zip tied and
clean that up a little more.
And you know, but I mean, again, you know, it worked all these years.
So it must not have been too bad.
Right.
You know, but you know, you look back at, you know, just some of the hinges I fabricated
on the center council and, you know, some of those things.
But then I look at the paint job still looks fantastic.
You know, I did Ghost Flames on it and it's that Lamborghini orange color.
I can't remember the name of it.
But I mean, it's a gorgeous looking car still to this day.
Yeah, that's cool.
So, I mean, you know, the fact that the paint and the body held up 30 years later and it
still looks good.
I mean, you can't complain about that.
Some of those things are like old girlfriends coming back.
You know, it's like part of it.
So yeah, that's kind of cool.
And you're also like that.
Run forgot about how crazy she was.
This is fucking crazy.
Absolutely.
Going back to the beginning, you said that you started this right out of high school.
How how much in the high school did you know that this is what you were doing?
So when I was actually in high school, before I even got my driver's license,
I got my first car.
It was a 75 Firebird when I was I wasn't even 15 yet.
So I wanted to redo this car to make it so that when I was able to drive,
it was going to be cool because at that time, I see there's a lot of guys.
So down in Pontiac is by where we're at.
There was a bunch of pro street guys running around.
Yeah.
And so it was kind of like, oh, damn, look at that.
That's that.
Ask, you know, I want one of those.
And so I bought this 75.
And so I worked on it for a year, you know, fixing the motor.
That I mean, I painted it when I was 15.
And my dad's garage school.
I mean, learning how.
How Rod magazine.
How to.
Tech tips.
Yeah.
Red everyone.
Every frickin one.
Probably two or three times.
Where'd you get the paint when you painted that?
Napa Napa.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, and I'm in there, you know, as a dumb kid going,
you know, what do I need?
Right.
You know, and luckily there was nice enough guys there that would like,
well, you probably need this, this.
And I'm like, well, the magazine here says I need this on this, you know.
So I mean, you know, I guess naive, but yet, you know, trying to do something
that I had no idea really what I was doing.
I mean, they told me, oh, you got to sand it with this, but you don't.
How?
You know, I mean, you know, my dad had a little two car garage.
It wasn't anything fancy by any means.
What was your frame of reference specifically on the painting side
frame of reference of what you were looking for?
You know, as after you got done spraying it and, you know, did you buff it?
Like I'm always interested in that because if you don't probably at that
point, just it's got color.
It's a color and it's fully the same to have 47 flies and that's the thing.
I mean, you know, because you're painting in a garage, you know, I mean, box fan
in the window and you have made it all a shiny one color.
Yeah.
No, it was it was graphic.
Was it really?
Well, first time was what those look like.
What were the graphics and what it.
So it was I fabbed a hood scoop on it.
So I did the typical little, you know, run around the hood scoop color.
So it was maroon with black around the hood scoop with black stripe going up
the side and I had a spoiler on the back because you know how much I love spoilers.
You should have on all times.
I know.
Is there a picture of this thing that exists?
I'm sure there is.
Absolutely.
And then I redid it when I was 17 and I did it for colors with stripes up the side.
And, you know, and I.
So again, back to what you were asking.
So from the time I was 15 to 18, I had bought fixed up and sold 17 cars.
Oh, wow.
I literally got a letter from Secretary of State saying that I had to get a
dealership license because I had so many sold cars in my name.
And I was I'm 17 years old.
I'm like, I didn't know what the fuck's going on.
Yeah. You know, so I was like, well, you know, you know, I'm not doing that anymore.
So of course we do what everybody else does.
Jump in the tight.
I mean, that's just what you did back then, you know.
What did you what were you so drawn to in doing those fixed up those cars?
I mean, the money side or the what was the enjoyment
specifically about doing it?
Was it the custom side, the freedom side, the creation?
I think probably making something from nothing.
You know, like I did a 73 charger that I used to drive back and forth.
My girlfriend went to Jolly at Junior College while I was in high school.
And anyway, I used to drive by.
I saw this old charger sit next to this barn forever.
You know, were was she older than you?
Or did you take a little longer to get through?
She was older than me.
I just didn't know.
It's a fair question for this podcast because no judgment.
But anyway, you know, so like that car sat there and I saw it for months.
And I finally, when I went by there one day, the garage door was open.
And so I'm like, you know, turn around, pull in there with my firebird.
And I asked the guy, I said, hey, you want to sell that?
I said, I see it's been sitting there for a while.
And he's like, hell, yes.
He said, I'm pissed off at my son because he's gotten in trouble.
He said, you can have it right now for perfect timing, 250 bucks.
And so I'm like, I'll be back.
So I ran home, of course, didn't have a trailer in time, but I had a snap
rope. So I snatched rope that bitch home.
You know, I don't know, probably 25, 30 miles.
You know, and the crazy part about it was I brought some tools in a battery
with me because the guy said it didn't run.
So I I dicked around with it for probably half an hour while I was there.
I got it running and drove it home.
Didn't even have to snap, trope it.
But I got about halfway home and then it died again so that we had to
stand up to the last little ways.
But I was prepared either way.
But the funny part is, is like, you know, the guy that I bought it from, you know,
he was just like, I can't believe you got that thing running that fast.
You know, he's like, I had no idea it was wrong with it.
And it's been so long.
I don't even remember what it was now.
But, you know, when you're a car guy, you know, there's a handful of things
to check right off the get go. Yeah. You know.
But anyway, so just, you know, I bought that.
I fixed it up. I believe it or not.
I put flames on that thing.
I wide bodied the back and put a set of 50 series tires on it.
Nice. And it was blue with orange and yellow and red flames down the side.
And I'm 17 years old.
And that's just, you know, I guess just the the idea of
dragging something from nothing and making it into something cool.
And then I sell that.
And, you know, back then you didn't make much.
I mean, I might have made a couple grand, maybe.
But then I take that money and put it into the next one.
So it was just like everyone just went over that.
And a little better, you know, it was just always the the reinvention of it.
But I was I was really good in football in high school.
I had a college scholarship offer and I love that.
But I knew there was no career in that.
I mean, my passion was there.
But.
I went up and walked through the college and I was like.
And these suckers are big.
So you were realistic about it.
I was. And they didn't have any like automotive based stuff.
It was North Park is where it was at.
Yeah. And I mean, I would have loved to play, but I knew that it wasn't like a
away for me to level up myself.
And but my luckily my football coach was also the president of the bank was his father.
So they all worked with me.
And so after I graduated school, I bought a old Dodge dealership that was in my town.
So it was out of high school, right at high school.
Just went for just the bank said, OK, yeah, we'll get you the note.
So I worked a night shift job from 11 to 7, got off at 7, got home at 730, slept till 9,
went to work at the shop from 9 to 5.
I did that for eight years.
So you had the income from the job to show that you could pay the note on what you're buying.
OK. And basically, it was a deal where, you know, the building was there.
So it's not like I could throw it on my back and leave town with it.
So it was a fair offer.
And so I was like, I think it was like 85000 or something like that.
But that was scary, you know.
Well, scary, but also at that age, you probably don't really know the repercussions.
Like you would today. Sure.
Like, what did you have to lose, you know, at that point?
Well, and and take the fucking building from you.
You know, it's right at the end of the day.
I was like, well, if it don't work, don't work.
Yeah, I mean, I lost whatever I paid in and I I stayed working.
I was again, kind of another funny story.
So where I worked at was Donnelly's printing.
So the the first five or six years that I was there, I I I leveled up quite a bit.
So I got to be where I was actually printing the covers of magazines.
I actually printed two cars.
Are you serious that I built that's really cool.
The last two years.
So that's that'll be a first for this podcast.
Yeah. Anybody that's printed the magazine with what are the odds?
You know, I mean, so how do you have you got to be telling the work?
In the workers and in the thing? Oh, hell, yeah.
I saw that thing coming.
So it was a coming.
This is like a.
You know, and the funny part is, is, you know, I'm there working.
And while I'm in between stuff, I'm over doodling cars and shit, you know,
and looking at magazines because I mean, everybody knew that I was the custom shop guy.
But that was my night.
You know, yeah.
What was your family situation like at home right out of high school?
So right out of graduate high school, I moved out.
I bought a trailer and I lived in a little trailer park.
My brother, which is a couple years older than me, him and I lived together.
And so we actually bought the trailer and fixed it up and then flipped it and sold it.
And then I bought a house.
Parents thinking you're crazy at this point.
Oh, yeah, totally.
OK, well, where did I'm just putting myself in a situation?
And this is wrong because I think that's it's awesome.
Everything you did just to go out and get it.
Having a 19 year old son, right?
That's doing really well.
Hard worker doing what if.
You know, when he was doing the detail stuff, whatever,
he was looking at some buildings and doing something like that.
And I know how I would have probably reacted.
Not the right way.
If it had been like, I got this job, I'm doing this, I'm going to go buy this building.
We're going to make this thing work.
It's wrong. But my first instinct, I had that, dude, come on.
I don't know. That's a lot to go under debt.
Like maybe let's find a little place.
You start and build it up incrementally.
And it's.
Had. And I know if I was in that situation, there was times I did all kind of like,
oh, fuck it, we'll figure it out. I'll make it work.
You're willing to take the risk when you're betting on yourself.
Yes, it's difficult on the one.
And it's your, your son or daughter.
Is your mindset?
It's the protection part.
You're like, I don't.
It's not that I doubt that you can do it.
It's like.
I don't know. It's such a weird feeling.
It.
As you get older, things tend to change.
It's like I said, when you're at your age, jumping in there and buying the dodge dealership.
Like, dude, fuck it, let's go for it.
What's the worst that could happen?
Blaze would have been the same way, but I'm with you as well.
Like if, if Wyatt came to me at 18, 19, and he's laying out this plan,
I'd be like, dude, like, let's pump the brakes.
I know. Easy.
You got to wash a few cars in the driveway.
Like, let's go.
But that's not the right.
I'll give you a little space in the back corner that should like get started.
That's not the right way to be.
Yeah. When you should be like.
Go for it.
I think what I had going for me with my parents was they saw what I had done
from 15 to 18 already, just.
Yeah, you move some cars.
You know, I mean, to be able to see the evolution of what I had already done.
I mean, you know, I.
I don't say that I'm any kind of special, but any.
But I will say, and you know me well enough to know
there's nobody that will outwork what I do.
I mean, that's one thing that I have going for me is, you know,
I'm a workhorse.
Yeah, you were telling me all the stories about your body.
That's. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, your body's telling you.
Your body's telling you.
Look at these hands.
Oh, Jesus, that's another first for this podcast.
But that's what I'm saying.
You know, where'd the work ethic come from?
Because that's what I'm most.
That's when I think of you and I think of the custom shot.
That's usually the first thing that comes to mind.
I know you get after it like, I don't know that I've ever seen anybody work
the way you work.
And I know you work ethic and you've always got your high energy.
You're on the throttle and I always admire that.
Obviously, you're going to be somewhere in debut.
It doesn't matter if it's where two days from now in the car, any painted.
You're like, no, John said, it'll do it.
Where did it come from?
Did you discover that yourself?
Was it beat into you by by somebody?
You know, I think sometimes that's the way it comes from.
You know, I guess that's a hard question.
I've never I don't think I've ever had anybody really asked me that.
But I guess if I really had to put my foot on something, it would be probably
both my parents.
So my parents were divorced at a younger age.
So I dealt with.
You know, my dad and my mom both trying to help me grow up.
But we didn't have a lot of money.
So it was also a well, if you want it, you know, you got to go get it.
I mean, we can't afford to give it to you.
Right. You know, so, you know, if you want something, you know, it's on you.
And so I was always, you know, I guess.
If I see you do something, I go, well, hell, if he can do it, I you know.
And so, you know, even though I was younger, I think my mentality at a younger age was mature.
So it was a, you know, I'm going to read this magazine and figure out how these guys are doing this stuff.
Because if I want it, that's how I got to get it.
And I'm not and I'm not saying by any means my parents didn't provide, you know, obviously there was always food on the table.
And we were very fortunate for that.
But, you know, like my dad was never really a diehard car guy.
But, you know, when we got to the age of being into cars and needing something to drive, it was a, well, we can get something and fix it up in a garage, you know.
And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'd like to do that.
You know, and at that point, like I said, I was seeing all these pro street guys running around Pontiac.
And I'm like, well, shit, I want one of those.
You know, those are cool.
You know, of course, obviously the girls like the cool cars, you know.
Yeah.
At the week, our generation, we kind of missed that.
That ship sailed a little bit for us or at least where I'm from.
It just, yeah, in the movies, it was, I thought I was going to be quite the ladies man with the old Camaro.
Didn't happen though.
Not as a result of the car.
No, it took a lot of charm and charisma to get it done.
A nice way of putting it.
So you're working in the printing place, you said seven or eight years.
Eight years.
Eight years.
So as you're doing, you're still doing fix up and flip with the shop?
No, so we're basically only customer build stuff now.
And how are you, how do you get the first customer built?
Well, you know, going way back, you know, when I first started the shop, I would have the stuff that I had built kind of to show people what I could do.
So then I started doing a lot of custom paint work.
And obviously, man, I did a ton of mini trucks back in the day.
I mean, like 50 color paint jobs.
You had made your name that point.
You were the guy for graphics and wild and crazy.
For sure.
And that's the custom shop at that point.
Correct.
Does it get you?
We started to put the pieces.
Body dropping stuff.
Oh, word of mouth.
Oh yeah, all word of mouth.
Just going to little car shows here and there.
And I was, I mean, even then I was getting guys out of, you know, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, you know, maybe one state away.
And then we started building, you know, more elaborate minis and, you know, they've started winning a lot.
And then the magazine feature started tallying up.
Talked about the body drop stuff.
That doesn't get talked about a lot.
Oh, now the body dropping thing was big, right?
Oh, yeah.
It took off like it was like things were progressing.
And then when body dropping took off, it was like wildfire.
And that was just the thing, right?
And I remember specifically doing the first few body drops and then you start getting confident, right?
Especially when you're doing, you know, at that point, they weren't OBS, but OBS, sure.
These right?
You use some full size OBS is you start getting there.
I know from experience that all body drops are not created equal.
So then when you get in that point, you know, and the guys get the hard body, whatever.
I have body drop.
Yeah, no problem.
Yeah.
And we did the last one for about this.
So hard body.
A Nissan.
Okay.
Oh, you're killing me over there.
I'm not a miniature.
He's not a miniature guy.
Yeah.
Right.
We can talk.
We can tell some stories.
I'll be a fly.
I'll just listen.
So, you know, from a young age and doing that and learning and every, you know, the whole
industry is learning together, right?
It's not like there's a years of history, right?
There's no book for that.
I remember that first kind of, you know, experience of like quoting, well, it should be around about this,
you know, and you get in, especially on an extended cab and you get in that rear.
You're like, holy shit, this isn't like the OBS.
Like there's no plate though.
You got to cut.
Then you start learning, you know, what you would do on like sectioning or chopping
outside of a car.
You're like, well, essentially you're cutting your chat.
You're channeling the channel in the walk me through how you're doing it.
That at at that age, because I know what channel in a hot rod saws on a welder.
Like a couple, couple blocks.
You let the chassis sitting there on its wheels and tires and you just set the rockers
down on stacking up some wood.
No, you don't.
The rockers are going on the ground.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the chassis, you set the chassis as low as you can get the chassis with whatever airbag.
You cut it out, let it touch the ground.
Yep.
And then all you got to do is build back up.
Just nice start making that concrete surface and you're good to go.
It's touching the ground there.
It'll touch the ground.
Yeah.
And you, you generally even like for body mount bushings or something like that,
you'll shade to the other side.
And then if you got a, when you start getting into like magnesium blocks and doing
stuff like that, a lot of guys like the drag, then you, you're starting to compensate for that.
You know, it's very rudimentary, but at the same time, you're like, I've got the frame
sitting on the ground and airbagged and everything's done right.
And we've got an inch and a half to go before the rocker goes on.
So let's cut the rocker off and body drop it, sit on the ground and do beds are easy.
But, you know, start, you get into certain cab stuff.
And again, you're young and learn.
I should once.
Oh, really?
Expedition.
Oh, no.
Damn.
Wheel tubs.
And then you've got a dog leg in the rear.
Damn.
Yeah.
It's always there's a, there's the challenge.
Mini trucking guys that are listening, you know, there's people that have done them.
They're still doing them now.
Oh, yeah.
But you get through that challenge of the fab stuff.
You're like, man, fuck, this thing's gonna be sweet.
Sit back just like we do in Hot Rods, wheels and tires.
This thing's awesome.
Then you start putting interior back in it.
You're like, uh-oh.
Where do I sit?
Guess what?
Where do my legs go?
Well, even just plastic panels that you've cut.
Like you're like, oh, yeah, how do you make that work?
Damn.
So when you go to mini trucking shows, you see a bunch of bad ass, even painted
body drop trucks and then the interior is also like, oh, I'm going to get to that.
It's under construction.
90% under construction.
Usually.
Or leaving enough room in your pocketed door sill for the door panel and the door
to come in, you know, and you start and then you're like, oh, shit, there's a
frame rail there.
I can't pocket.
Can't go in.
All kinds of like unique, like again, no different than channeling a hot rod
and doing so that you same chance, same shit.
Really where that all came from.
You know, I mean, the, the, the mini truck guys, they didn't reinvent the wheel.
No, somebody said, you know what you could do.
They, they saw, you know, these old, you know, 50, 60s customs and they were like,
how did they get on that low?
Well, you cut the sheet metal, dude.
You know, I mean, so, you know, and you got this mini truck that's no different
and you wanted to sit that low.
You just start cutting.
Who did a geo tracker?
Wide-bodied geo track.
I fuck with the geo track.
Dude, is that an Amigo?
I'll tell you what, in the truck, they're at the Fiero.
That's that might be in my collection one day.
I guarantee you in the mini truck world, people know it's called track dog.
Sure.
Guarantee, guarantee.
And the funny part about it was we literally was just so Mike Smith is a great
fan of mine.
And his wife, Shelby, you probably seen on beautiful blonde.
It's on a lot of our photographs that have been through the custom shop.
Anyway, him and I were great friends back in the day.
So we body dropped his tracker.
And so we got it all body dropped and we got the wheels and we put the wheels on
and they wouldn't clear the fenders.
So he's like, what are we going to do now?
And so I'm like, go over there with the saws all cut the top of the fender
and I bend the fender out around the tire and I put a piece of sheet metal back
in the middle of it.
I said, there you go.
Now it's wide-bodied and body drop.
See, you guys, the trackers up here is a different.
We I came from the south.
Yeah.
And the Geo tracker and the Amigo was a very, that was a very specific person.
Oh, yeah.
That drove those.
Well, I had much like an alley leeches.
And on the wires on the right.
It's well, by Atlanta, if you were a chip, a tracker, you were hunting.
You're on the hunt for a rapper.
For me down the street, I had a babysitter that had when I was a little kid.
Yeah.
And she was hot.
And I remember right back in that Amigo, that was an experience.
A lot of thoughts going through young Jeremy's.
My chip at that point.
Nails, fingernails.
She was like, no, nothing.
OK, nothing.
Yeah, just just like a good, like a good hot 80s chick.
You know, but again, I had an Amigo that was crazy built again, back in the
meantime, crazy graphics.
So the funny part is, is those things there, torsion suspension.
So I slammed it on the ground, built it all up.
It was all done up, made a magazine that way.
Then like 45 years later, I lifted it up, put big 33s on it, made another
magazine with it. That's the crazy thing.
You know, we talked about we talk about many trucks.
It comes, it gets brought up, you know, and he doesn't wasn't his thing.
Yeah, I just wasn't involved in it.
Right.
You know, I appreciate it.
I get it.
A lot of people.
Sure.
And I can respect it.
I just never was around it.
So in that, I mean, back in the day, especially like zero to low budget, you
know, you get a Nissan hardbody and tools, you can lower it, right?
Though block or flip.
If you did it, you know, but turn the bars down the front.
If you get yourself a set of Z seven OBS Z71 wheels, right?
And hog out the center bore, right?
Same lug pattern.
Throw some BFG Euro TAs on it, right?
Some lower profile.
You've got a really bitchin looking sport truck for minimal money for
minimal money.
You might be total out of pocket, depending on how much you get the
wheels and tires for six or 700 bucks back in the day.
Right.
For a hammered.
Now.
Didn't ride all that great, but it looked fucking cool.
It's all the matters.
And the hardbodies are cool because it's like factory little wide body.
So that hardbodies kind of had the little, you know, they had, they just
looked a little something.
Yeah.
Put the four by four fenders on them for, yeah, because the four by four
fenders had more flair in the front.
Then the two will drive.
Pull the bumper off and you're going to get to a roll pan.
But right now it doesn't matter.
You can, you know, zip screw the tag to right there.
My daughter has two Nissan hardbodies right now.
Really?
Yep.
She's got a big lifted one on 33s and she's got a lowered one.
So the hardbodies always like the, you know, you talk about the
square body trucks, right?
And everybody's just like, it's a quintessential truck.
Yeah.
Side profile of a hardbody.
Like that's my thing too.
It's like, if you were to draw just a smaller version of a truck, that's
okay, there's nothing wild purport.
It's just a truck, you know, cool little slant nose square cab.
It's a square body of mini trucks, you know, um, there was just, that's a,
the barrier of entry was so low and it was a cool thing you could do with
your friends.
So you do that.
Then you start, you know, getting crazy stuff.
And then funny fact, I don't know if you know, but my first magazine
feature was a 87 Nissan hardbody that I tandem axled.
Oh yeah.
And I had a trailer that was behind it.
They had a hot tub in it.
What was the, uh, what was it?
What was the, the, the, um, lift off.
Yeah.
Hard.
Had a, had a canvas top that was, what was the name?
We had the little rat in the thing for the ads.
Oh, radical tops, radical, radical tops with RIT.
So it was a convertible.
So imagine, I remember the ads in mini truck and in sports right now.
So imagine I stretched the bed, I cut the roof off the cab and made a canvas
top that covered all that and had a half of camper shell on the back that had
four 15s in it.
Then the front part of that camper shell was then on the extra bed that I made
pulled behind that covered and made a canvas top for that that covered my hot tub.
Damn.
Then that was, gosh, I would debut that showtime truck and nationals in
Missouri and I won grand champion there.
And that was my first magazine feature in truck and magazine.
Now we're up to, I think it's just over a hundred covers and 400 features now.
Damn.
Wow.
That's some serious accolades there.
So back to the shop and customer stuff, you know, word of mouth, we get into it.
You know, like getting into body jobs.
Mini truck.
So it's just, you're the guy to go to for ton of motor, crazy,
custom stuff.
I did a lot of, uh, like simple muscle car repair stuff back then, because, you
know, again, you know, everybody's got their, you know, 60s and 70s car that
needs a quarter panel fixed or, you know, and I mean, a lot of the body
shops don't like fixing rust.
So if you can't buy it and you know, slap it on, they don't want to do it.
So, so it was a, I mean, you know, learned how to swap a quarter panel pretty fast.
What are you spraying back then when things are taken off?
You're doing that much better.
Back then I was PPG.
Yeah.
So, um, Napa, uh, at the time, well, and I was in high school, they were Sherman
Williams.
Um, and then, um, uh, A and B supplies down in Bloomington started doing PPG and,
uh, had a rep come by and was talking to us.
So we tried some of their stuff, found out that it was obviously better quality
stuff.
I could get a lot more, um, stuff that was working together versus one brand,
another brand, another brand.
Right.
Um, so that kind of leaned me over to the PPG stuff at that time.
You never sprayed H okay.
I figured I would have pegged you as a house of colors guy.
Well, when I got into the graphic stuff, then it was all house.
It had to be house of colors.
That was, uh, I probably have, and I'm not joking.
If I don't have 600 cans of house of color in my shop right now.
Wow.
I mean, but, you know, when you're doing graphics and stuff, you just can't
not use it.
Yeah.
They have colors that nobody else really has.
And the other thing that I like about their stuff is, you know, all being
base coat, you know, you can do a little, you know, chemistry, blah, blah, blah,
and make your own color.
If you want, if a guy's wanting, he's like, Hey, I want this color here on it.
You know, you better label that shit and keep it in the stock.
What was the place out in California?
It was the chaotic concept, chaotic.
Cal concepts, Cal concepts.
Yeah.
The all the Frasier and K daddy and them, man, some of those, I'll
have to find some of those ads and that paint was like, I remember me, you
know, young at that age and you're just looking at that.
You're like, Oh fuck, how do you?
So Craig Frazier was the airbrusher.
Yeah.
Um, and K daddy was the custom painter.
Okay.
Um, and they kind of worked together on like K daddy would do the, the main
work and the graphic work.
And then, uh, Craig Frazier would come in and do all the artwork, the drop shadows,
the pinstripes and all the detail work.
Uh, and like they did that truck, that Toyota called last look last look.
Um, and that's a body drop Toyota.
That's probably the most iconic, the most famous mini truck.
It's still around.
Oh yeah.
I've seen it in person several times.
Yeah.
Compete against it.
Very killer.
K daddy.
K daddy.
Yeah.
We should have, if I could go back to the beginning of my career, I wish I would
rolled out a nickname.
Nickname.
What would you go with?
Jay daddy.
Maybe J do, J dog.
You like J dog.
You bring J dog.
J daddy.
J do is what a lot of people call me that are close friends.
Yeah.
I think this is a good dog.
Like if Kev dog didn't hit that, like right from the get go, did he wouldn't be
Kev dog?
Did he just be Kevin?
That's right.
This is my request.
You could have beaten him to the punch.
There's plenty of Kevin's right now.
Hop.
Go ahead.
I do.
There's like eight Jeremy's in my phone.
You got Jeremy Moran.
I did.
I'm with you.
Let's Carlson.
It's not too like, you know,
Jeremy Snore, everybody listening or watching right now, just deposit, hop
down in the comments and go ahead and let me know what you think Jeremy's
Nick should be.
Yeah.
I'm pleased.
Asking.
I'm begging.
I walked.
Thank you.
I walked right in that one.
Didn't I think of his early birthday present?
Yeah, this could be good.
Probably not.
I see t-shirts coming already.
Oh yeah.
Dick head.
No, let's get.
No dude, that doesn't really.
Let's get creative.
Come on.
You get creative.
Maybe the most creative one will win something.
We got some, some new things coming out.
Okay.
I'll send somebody something a little special.
I'll take it on the chin.
Yeah.
Um, so things start progressing.
When's the first like full build where guys like it's, you know, you do your
things start to finish.
Um, I did a truck for Carl Anderson.
Uh, um, 94, I think it was, um, that ran the ISCA show circuit.
Uh, and he won best vehicle in the nation two years in a row with that
truck and it was flip forward hood, a graphics all underside.
Yeah.
The whole, I mean, the bottom of the bed was paneled in graphic.
If you run an ISCA, that it's a different.
It is a whole different world.
Uh, sub box in the bed was all Lexon.
I mean, I mean, you clear, you could see through everything.
Um, and, uh, that was probably the one that, I mean, one of them, I guess that
was full, you know, hitting the show circuit really hard.
Um, I had done some minis that had been one and winning.
I mean, all over the place.
Um, you know, I did a truck for Robbie Dotson, uh, that, uh, it's a GMC Sonoma
that has 53 colors on it that he couldn't go anywhere and not win best paint.
I mean, um, but he also was very detail oriented.
So, um, you know, it wasn't that it was just, you know, really cool paint.
I mean, when it came out, it was immaculate.
Um, but Jerry Rapp, another friend of mine, we did a Nissan for him getting
back to the hard bodies.
Um, and I can't remember what year his was, maybe a 96, uh, but it was called
fusion illusion.
And obviously the in the mini truck world, a lot of people know that truck.
Um, again, another flip forward hood, smooth firewall, smooth bottom of the hood
graphics running top to bottom upside down.
Um, so those are the ones that I think really made people like, damn, look at
what this guy's doing, you know?
Um, and so those are the ones that probably, um, looking back, uh, probably
kind of, you know, like that was my first street machine, nationals grand champion.
Wow.
Uh, and then Carl winning, you know, the ISCA, best vehicle in the nation, stuff
like that, that, you know, made people be like, Oh shit, what's this guy doing over
here?
Um, so then, you know, that evolution, you know, got me a lot more graphic
stuff, but it didn't get me a lot of the full builds still yet.
Um, but you know, then like that 57 Chevy, the one we got back right now, um, that
one was another one.
He saw the truck that we built and then wanted us to build something
like that with the 57.
So that was getting back to probably one of the, the first muscle car top to bottom.
I mean, like the whole bottom of that 57 is completely smooth than painted.
And I mean, it's, it's a really nice car.
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What, at what point do you make the decision to leave the printing place and
go like, Hey, I got this.
I got enough.
We can do this full time.
So, so the funny part of that was my goal was to have my house paid for my
first house paid for because I figured at least if I go to the shop and I can't,
you know, I can't make money, the shop will at least be able to be self
sufficient, but if it can't make the house payment, I ain't got nowhere to live.
So I paid my house off in seven years, a little over seven years.
So I bought the trailer, then sold that, bought the house, paid my house off.
And then I worked there for probably about another six months just to put a
little bit of money in the bank.
Then I got to do a big fight with my boss.
It's because you printed a 100000 more of your covers than you're
supposed to.
I went, that's a good idea.
But no, I just got it.
The boss that I had at the time was just a total jerk, you know, I mean, you know,
obviously, like you said, my work ethic is, I mean, I never missed a day.
I was always, you know, even, even working two jobs, I was always on the list
of who worked the most overtime.
I was always like one or two or three, you know, because you're paying a house
off in seven years.
Exactly.
So, but that's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
So it was a situation where, you know, it wasn't that I wasn't a hard worker,
but he was a boss that he was going to ride you no matter what you did.
You could be, you know, when 12 gold medals and he's still complaining that
you didn't do good enough, that kind of guy.
And so I got into a big argument with him and I'm like, you know what, this is
just my, this is my reason to say, I'm not, yeah.
And so I quit and I said, you know what, if I just, I can work two full time jobs
at the shop, you know, and not work here.
It's got to work.
And I wish I would have thought of that a long time ago.
Yes, to double the money.
Right.
I mean, pretty simple.
But, you know, at that, but my mindset is, is this is guaranteed money
because it's a set payday.
Yeah, you got to be just a steady paycheck.
It is, you know, where, you know, I mean, a lot of time when you're working
on these cars, you know, oh, the guy comes in, oh man, I can't afford to pay this week.
You know, I mean, you know, I've had so many of those that, oh, I can get to next
week back in those days.
Plenty of time when you're paying the car too.
Yeah, for sure.
Car's not paying you this.
Yeah.
And I mean, you know, you think you can do something in a hundred hours and
it takes you 150.
Yeah.
And then you're eating 50 hours, you know, and so it was a lot of learning curve
back then, you know, and I, and I never had any like business college or anything
like that.
I mean, my only real schooling is I went to high school and I took vocational
automotive my junior and senior year.
Uh, and that's it.
Everything else is self taught.
Well, they don't teach work ethic, you know, that's, uh, typically one of those
things either got it or you don't.
And that's probably the most valuable.
Skill there is, you know, it's a drive that highly intelligent, but if the
work ethic's not there.
Yeah, you can't, you know, you can't fake that.
Yeah.
I guess his best way I can put it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Josh can fake being highly intelligent all the time.
Like he, he blows my mind sometimes.
I'll sit there and look at him.
Really?
And I believe a lot of the shit.
Most of the time, most of the time he's, he's right, but there's a lot of
times he just fucks with me.
Yeah.
And he's, he gets by, you know, you've, you've done pretty well with that.
Right.
But the work ethic certainly carried, work ethics carried you further.
Oh yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
It's bullshit.
It only gets you.
Yeah.
Like, I mean, we've all got very similar mentalities of, uh, you know, I, if you
want something I know growing up, like I had to go out and get it, either earn
enough to buy it or make it myself.
You know, it wasn't, it wasn't going to be, no matter how much you asked, begged,
you know, put it on the list and just physically wasn't going to happen.
You know, what in the cards?
Somehow Santa Claus never brought me the stuff that I wanted.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm gonna have that G.
Adjo aircraft carrier one day.
On it.
That we brought that up the other day, joking around with Mark.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
He's asleep on it.
Asshole.
I, but I, there was, there was things, not that, not that, um, you know, things
should be a driving force and stuff.
But when you're a kid, you know, there's things that you, you know, want to play
with or you get your heart set on, whether it be a bike or, you know, a backpack
super sucker and things like that.
That's, that's just, and you see other people, you know, and I never, I never,
we know, we've talked about this, not to go into a rabbit hole, but I've never
looked at somebody else that got something, you know, with, with ill will.
I don't really like, well, why does he have that?
I didn't get that.
You know, oh, it was like a driving force of like, you see
something in the Sears catalog or whatever.
You're like, man, that would be so awesome.
You know, play with this, you go through this stuff, like, and then, you know,
Christmas happens and somebody else gets one and it further like, yeah, see, it is
awesome.
Like that's so much cooler in person than I thought.
So then you're like, well, I want to experience those things.
How do I get that?
You know, and how do I work, you know, at 15, you know, what can, who can I con
into paying me, you know, working extra hours and I'm legally supposed to at 15?
How, what can I do?
Yeah, construction at 14.
I was working construction at 14 and you figure out real quick then.
That's where a lot of work at that comes into because you don't know shit at 14.
Right.
And you're coming in with a lot of people that are hard workers and know their
shit, right?
And are not going to be taken.
You're already coming in like what, I bet you can't lift what I can lift, but
you can't hear this.
You don't know shit.
So you're the only way to gain any respect whatsoever and get a paycheck is to
work hard.
That's it.
Like, all right, that's fine.
You want it.
Oh, so all that woods at the bottom of the mud.
I get, I'll get that would out.
No problem.
Carrying a stack of shingles up a ladder on your shoulder.
And you just keep going.
And then you, you earn some of that respect and you get paid, right?
And you're getting paid, especially when you're at 14, you're getting, you know,
decent wages and other 14 year olds, you know, aren't, you know, and you're like,
Oh, this, oh, that's what this is the cheat code.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you just go get it, work harder and do that.
You know, I'll, I'll forego doing some stuff on Saturdays when everybody else
is hanging out to work.
Yeah.
I can work all day Saturday where I'm only working like three or four hours after
school, you know, I say all the time when people say they work 40 hours a week.
And I'm like, part time.
What the, what the hell do you do the rest of the time?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Part time.
That's a good way to put it.
Yeah.
Because, you know, I mean, I'm usually 40 hours a week on by Wednesday.
But it's, it's interesting too.
When you, when that again, not, you shouldn't covet things and you shouldn't,
you shouldn't have, you know, purchases drive, you know, your decisions and stuff
like that.
But from a young age, it does give you that work ethic.
Cars though it sort of forces you that, forces you that directly.
You like fun cars and cool things.
Cars are cheap.
Nope.
They're not.
Hot rods are not cheap.
And you figure out a way to do that.
And it's, it's, it's interesting to, it's interesting to people you meet that have
those, that mentality of like, man, that's cool.
I want something like that.
I'm going to go work hard to go get it versus like, Oh, that's not fair.
If I don't have it, why does he have it?
I'd rather him not have it because I don't have it.
That's a horrible attitude.
Right.
Horrible.
It's not going to make you work any harder.
Probably one of the things that bugs me the most is when people say, what must be
not.
Oh, we've touched on that one before.
And I don't mean to bring up a bad subject.
No, we talk about it all the time.
We specifically used that phrase.
That's the worst thing that somebody could say.
Because I tell people all the time, I said, you know, I was, I wasn't
handed no silver spoon.
Right.
You know, I mean, again, loving parents, very fortunate to have, you know,
maybe more so than other people.
Um, but at the same time, it was, there was no, you know, golden egg and there
was no silver spoon and it was a, you know, like I told you before, you know,
you, you, if you want it, go get it.
When you, we, we've talked about it a couple of times.
When somebody says it must be nice, the answer should really should be.
A thousand percent, whatever you're talking about right now.
It is really nice.
You have no idea how nice it is, but you also don't have no, you have no idea.
That's how, how hard it was to get to the nice sacrifice.
It is nice.
I'm glad you noticed because you're right.
It is really nice.
It wasn't nice on the way.
It wasn't nice on the way here.
That's, you know, rowing that boat, digging the ditch, however you want to put it.
You know, anybody that's successful, not anybody, but most people that are
successful have gone down that road.
And, you know, I guess that's, that's the thing that I think some of what drives
me, because, you know, for me, those people that say those things make me want
to go harder, right?
Yeah.
Because it makes me always want to build better.
It makes me want to, you know, come up with different ideas that maybe somebody
else didn't think of.
How many of those people that say those things or somebody that you respect,
admire or has some sort of redeeming quality or accomplished something?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Like you ever see, very few.
Never seen Michael Jordan given a speech, you know, with rings on all his fingers.
And, you know, somebody else wants something that needs to be fucking nice.
Yeah.
Because instantly, like the people that say it must be nice, they don't associate
any real cost with the thing.
They're just putting whatever price tag that they think it would cost to buy the
thing, correct?
Or whatever or achieved.
Even if it's not, you know, nothing you can't buy, they think that that cost was
this or you were you were given it.
You're somebody gave it to you, right?
Or somebody gave you the money to buy it or you cheated your way to get the skill
set to do the thing.
Nobody put associates the real cost.
What you need is like a tally of what the sacrifice.
Right.
Yes.
So I would be careful of how nice you think that thing is if you're showing.
Until you pay the tax.
Right.
There's been some bad decisions.
Oh, yeah.
There's been some family that got pushed to the side to push this part to get to
this thing that you say is nice.
Ask the other people that sacrificed along with me of how nice that thing is.
They're probably saying it's not that nice.
You know, it's well, most of those people would never put in the work and the
energy.
No, that you would.
But that's why they don't have the frame of reference.
Understand.
They don't have the frame of reference.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Um,
so you got to fight with the boss and you're like, all right, I've got the house
paid off.
So bare minimum worst case scenario.
I can eat.
Right.
I can buy enough food on the table.
I'm buying a food.
Yeah.
Do you have a family at that point?
So, um, my son was born in 99.
Okay.
Uh, Brandon, um, crazy thing.
He was born on 9 9 99 at nine o'clock in the morning.
You got to think he's nine is a lucky number.
That's crazy.
You gotta be something special about that.
Right.
But, uh, he's a great kid.
Um, uh, but anyway, so I was married and had my son at the time.
Um, it didn't work out, got divorced just a year or so after that.
Um, were you working too much?
Possibly.
I'm going to go out and live here.
Must be nice.
Yeah.
You spent more time at home, man.
You know, and even, even though my house and my shop are literally a block
apart, you know, uh, but, you know, I mean, it happens, you know, and, and, uh,
you know, uh, I got Brandon out of the deal.
So, you know, I wouldn't change it for the world.
He's a great kid.
Uh, love him to death.
Uh, he worked at the shop.
He actually had a car at SEMA.
Uh, he did a Datsun 280 Z.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He brought out for the young guns.
That's cool.
Um, we swapped a, um, uh, Cadillac ATS two liter turbo motor in that thing.
But that was fun.
It honestly do dropped in there like it was made for it.
Really?
Like I am not joking.
Like we had, we bought a wrecked ATS had his car sitting there, pulled the
motor out, set it on the off to the side, pulled the other mooter out, put it in
in one day.
Holy shit.
Mounted.
Yeah.
I heard if you just dig her in the months, a little bit, well known to 80.
Have a little on that.
Bold.
Everybody will go right through that.
Dude, I'm telling you, it was crazy.
Like I could not believe it.
It's, it went together that, and I honestly, I'm shocked that more people
don't use that combination because that little, that little motor and trans
combo and that thing are killer.
That's fun.
Um, but anyway, um, so obviously, uh, you know, Brandon comes along and, um, you
know, I end up getting divorced and, um, you know, still obviously rock and roll
at the shop.
My dad, um, was working at Caterpillar.
Uh, so he quit working at Caterpillar to come work at the shop with me.
Um, and so that gave me another guy there.
And then, uh, uh, the guy that worked at Napa, uh, that was, I was getting
the paint stuff from, um, used to work at a body shop.
So I talked him into quitting and coming to work at the shop.
So then it was just my dad, Rich and myself.
What's it, what's it like employing your father?
Uh, you know, like a retirement kind of thing that he's going to hang it up and
then come to work for you.
Was this like a little bit of both?
I mean, he wasn't quite ready to retire.
He wasn't quite old enough for that, but he knew that I couldn't do this all by
myself.
Uh, so it was an extra set of hands.
Um, and he again, you know, saw what I did in the garage.
So knew that, and he had helped me with some of that, you know, um, but, uh, it
was definitely one of those things where, um, you know, us getting together and
working together, um, we had a great relationship.
We really did.
I mean, you know, a lot of people say, Oh God, I can't imagine working with my
dad, you know, but, you know, I mean, again, when you're, when you're a
workhorse and you're just working, you know, he's over there doing this thing,
you don't have time for the drama.
And, and, you know, I'm like, you know, not that we didn't butt heads a few
times here and there, but I mean, in reality, I'm too busy to, to relate to
that problem.
Um, and, uh, you know, Rich coming on board helped helped a lot because that,
you know, again, another body guy to help do that kind of prep and stuff.
Um, so helped me out in that aspect.
Um, and then I went through a few girlfriends here there.
Um, and, um, then I met my wife, Kim, uh, kind of again, a funny story.
So her sister, um, actually hired me to build them a car to go to the
Nopey nationals.
Oh, Nopey.
We built them a, um, uh, Mitsubishi eclipse.
That's wide bodied, pro charged, uh, orange on top, purple on bottom.
Actually Jada toys actually made a toy off of their car.
After all said and done, they want the best to show it.
No, be anyway, through that build, uh, her sister was like, Hey, I got a sister.
I want to introduce you to, cause she asked me if I was single.
And I'm like, yeah.
So, you know, Kim and I met, um, kind of talked on the phone here and there.
We got the eclipse done and we, they were going to take it to Nope nationals.
So, uh, I asked him if she wanted to go down with me.
So I had a trans am, uh, that's yellow on top, black on the bottom with flames in
between, uh, again, super charged.
I mean, pretty cool car.
So she wrote with me all the way to Georgia.
Um, and we literally talked the entire way.
Did not play the radio.
Just literally talked the whole way.
And the funny thing we, we stopped at McDonald's for some lunch.
So we always joke around that that was our first date is going to McDonald's.
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Wait, I'm not done.
Stop cutting the.
Yes, set the set the bar, man.
But the lowest.
Always from there.
That's my that's that's my advice.
I get everybody.
It's always leave room to surprise.
Don't ever leave room.
Don't set a standard that's difficult to uphold.
But for me, you know, I at that point, I wasn't really looking for a serious
relationship.
And, you know, at that, I'm obviously people understand the struggle with the next
and a son.
And so, you know, I told her at the time, you know, look, I wasn't looking for
anything serious.
And and honestly, at that time, you know, I was so bitter about being divorced
that I'm like, look, I'm never getting married again.
You know, it's just not going to happen.
Well, you know, going back, you know, looking at things, you know, she kind of proved
to me that, you know, there are good people out there and, you know, that she
really taught me that, you know, you can have a good relationship with the right
person.
And we just hit it off like.
Like I couldn't believe.
You know, her dad was a mechanic.
So, you know, she grew up in that world.
Understandings meant to me.
Yeah.
And it literally was.
I mean, it was one of those things where, you know, you just, you never know
until that happens to you.
And then so, you know, her and I got together and she was doing accounting
and stuff at her sister's shop, where we, one that we built the car for.
So then she come down to my shop and then started doing, you know, the accounting
and stuff at my shop for me.
And then of course we had a daughter together, Brianna, which also is a, she's
a custom painter as well.
That's cool.
So, I mean, we were very fortunate to, you know, make that kind of weave together.
And when you're, when you get your dad and you've got the guy from Napa,
you meet your wife, you're all, do you have a vision or master plan for the shop
of where you want to take it or what type of cars you want to build?
Or are you just, you're taking projects, you're doing, you're making money,
you're getting, you know, a little bit better each time.
Do you have a direction you want to go?
I think it's basically customer based, you know.
Everything's kind of, you know, what customer comes in the door at that
given time.
Um, and then I'm sure like you guys, you kind of start seeing the illusion,
the evolution, I should say, of the muscle car world starting to really blossom.
And the mini truck world starting to die down, you know, and I did a lot of
Harleys and a lot of custom bikes.
And, and even like when Orange County choppers was hot, I mean, I built
gosh, tons of full frame motorcycles.
Yeah.
But when that stopped, oh yeah.
It was like somebody pulled the rug out underneath that.
Oh, I've never seen anything like it.
Yeah.
Um, but I mean, you know, real estate again, it goes, it goes back to, you know,
us being versatile, you know, so when that was hot, I mean, we were building choppers,
you know, we actually opened up a custom shop cycles division of the shop,
which is still me, but, but it was a way because again, you know, Orange County
choppers, everybody wants the, the, the motorcycle name in there.
Yeah.
Um, so we kind of opened up a little bit of division of that.
Um, and I actually had a, I had a Harley that was in, um, the, um, Sony booth,
uh, at SEMA that was supercharged, had a 300 back tire, a 180 front tire stretched.
Yeah.
I mean, it's basically like the baggers they build today, but this was in, I mean,
I don't know, you know, 90 explode days.
98.
Shit.
Probably.
Really?
That long ago?
Yeah.
Wow.
Um, I mean, I, so, I mean, it's been a while.
Uh, it may have been 2000.
I'm not sure exactly, but anyway, um, so, you know, when you, you look back at these
things and, you know, we kind of ride this roller coaster of what people want.
Right.
Um, and you know, I'm in a town of a thousand people, so there ain't no walk in
traffic, you know, um, so you're literally grabbing these customers at car shows and
things like that.
You know, and then again, we started going to the bigger, you know,
stream machine nationals, good guys, you know, SEMA stuff like that.
We started kind of getting into those plateaus, um, and you know, starting to
get people to say, Hey, I want something like that.
Um, and so, you know, then we started really started grabbing onto the SEMA
train of building SEMA cars.
Um, and so like, uh, I mean, we've done, I think it's 71 cars at SEMA so far.
Really?
Um, which is, I mean, SEMA has launched a lot of careers in a platform for a lot
of people to have a lot of success.
Well, it gives you, um, a huge platform to show people that you would never see
anywhere else.
Yep.
You know, you really wouldn't like, there's no show I could go to anywhere in
the Midwest that I would see some of these kinds of people that are into this
industry as deep as we are.
Yeah.
Um, the SEMA show is an interesting topic, especially for the custom shop,
because I feel like you sort of exist in a little bit of a different world there
than some of the hot rod industry does.
Like you're always, you're hooked up with the stereo guys.
You've always been in Sony's booth, right?
And it's a different world over there.
It's different clientele.
It is.
And obviously you do quite well with it.
Yeah.
How did that all come to be?
How did those relationships build and how did that type of car start evolving and
landing in those booths?
So, you know, I always did like back in the mini truck days, we always did big
stereos, so that was not uncommon for us to do audio systems.
And again, my own cars, I've always been a big basehead and big stereo guy.
So my cars have always had systems.
So when, um, I think my first vehicle, which I don't know, you may have seen,
it's a crew cab Dooley with a 53 foot matching trailer all painted to match.
And so I had that with a couple of mini trucks out at Pennsylvania at the Carl
LL truck nationals.
And we won like everything.
I mean, everything.
And so BF Goodrich actually came out and talked to me and said, Hey, would you be
interested in bringing this thing out to SEMA?
And I'm like, what's SEMA?
I mean, I didn't know.
I was a fan of Dilly.
It was.
Yeah.
Um, and, um, so I was like, well, yeah, sure.
Why not?
You know, um, and so they hooked me up with some tires and I'm like, Oh, you're
gonna give me free tires.
All right.
You know, using what you'll do for a free set of.
120 bucks a pop at the time.
Yeah.
You gotta realize that she sponsored.
He sponsored the truck has six tires of the trailer has.
Yeah, it's a little bigger sponsors.
But, but I mean, at the time it was, it was more of just a wow, you know, this is
the connection it's building block.
It's stepping stone and then after that, you know, it did.
It kind of became a, you know, people started saying, Hey, you know, would
you be interested in, you know, trying our stuff?
And not everything was free, but a lot of times it was a good discount.
Sure.
You know, so, you know, and again, back to being just a little guy on the block
trying to, you know, you know, make the race.
So to say, um, you know, all those little things, you know, meant a lot to me.
And so we started seeing that we could get more exposure.
And then, of course, being at SEMA got me into more magazines because obviously
all the photographers are there.
Yep.
So we used to go out after SEMA almost every year to the salt flats and get
magazine shoots instantly that Sunday.
I mean, it was, you know, right then.
And that was like, man, how crazy am I not to do that?
You know, go get to go to the show, show off what we do, stay an extra day,
get up early, go out and do Bonneville photo shoots, load up and head home.
Especially in the town of 1000, because you're relying solely on that for
the brand building.
Absolutely.
And you got to get, get to get the name out there.
And so, you know, that evolution went into then different companies asking me,
Hey, would you be interested in having a car in our booth?
And I'm like, yeah, you know, so then, you know, you would get that one.
And then somebody else would want one.
So then you'd get two.
And you're just, are you building customers cars?
They're all customers cars.
Yeah.
So you've got, you've got an opportunity.
Then we're mine.
Okay.
You know, and, and I have plenty of my own toys.
You know, and it must be nice.
What is must be nice.
When, when you get, you know, you're working on a customer's vehicle, right?
We all know how this goes.
Um, we're going to customers vehicle, you know, projects in different degrees of
different levels of completion.
Yep.
The opportunity.
Hey, you know, somebody wants a car for their booth.
So, you know, so and so wants a car for their booth.
Talk to that customer.
Hey, thinking about, you know, get this opportunity.
Would you be interested in that?
It's amazing how the, the budget, they find more.
Oh, well, if it's, it's going to seem that you shake those couch cushions a little bit.
Yeah.
And it's like, if it's going in, well, we ought to, you know, we should do while we're at it.
It's because us as builders, we, we want to use that as a stepping stone for us.
So the car has to be, you know, the next level, right?
You know, it's not just the customer that's, uh, everybody is finding a few more
bucks, it's the builders donate a few more bucks to let's do it.
Yeah.
You always donate some bucks for sure.
Yeah.
That's a, that's a, that's a different, I say difficult, wrong word.
Um, that's an interesting subject that we've talked about a lot.
And there's varying degrees of opinions on it.
Um, yeah, from all over the, and it's the only thing that I will public,
I love Roger and Troy, both to death.
It's the only thing that I'll publicly disagree with them on when they're going
through their class, because I just, I don't see a way around it.
You know, yeah.
The goal don't see a way around their goal to get is the ultimate goal.
Obviously.
Yeah.
Um, and, uh, you know, we've, we've always talked about, or I've said the measure
of success year over year is donating less and less every year.
Absolutely.
Right.
Cause that means you're getting better, right?
You can customer stepping it more efficient, right?
And you know, again, Roger and Troy, great, great business development class.
It's a class, not a, uh, conference.
Um, just so we get that out of the way.
Yeah.
Um, they're doing, they're doing really great work.
They're doing the Lord's work and the industry doing a lot for, and that's
where, you know, we talked to Roger and talk to Troy, great friends.
And we talk all the time.
And, uh, we all, you know, talk like, dude, I get it.
I get the rule.
I get the thing of what you're trying to get to.
But, you know, they're saying like, if you're doing anything, you're doing
it the wrong way.
I just, to your point, like it, I think we need to circle back on that one with
them to get some clarification on it.
Is that really the message?
You know?
Yeah.
I mean, obviously that's, that's what everybody should do.
You should get to a point to where you charge for every hour.
You know, that means you're doing it in the most efficient way.
You're, you know, it's much impossible.
It's a crazy thing is think about like, go have a hot water heater installed and
let's say you're, and you're going to move this hot water heater.
You want to put it in a different room.
That plumber, like, dude, what, what are the odds that he's going to be like,
you know what I'm going to do?
Did I am going to do copper plumping?
I'm going to solder all the shit, not using any crimp fittings.
And I'm going to make these things.
I want these parallel.
I want to get different radiuses because I want the outside radius when I
turn this water line to match the inside radius.
I'm going to run them down.
I'm going to clamp them every half inch.
But those like those little, you know, whatever those little stamp steel
clamps, those aren't good enough.
I'm going to machine some.
I'm going to do that for free just to show.
That I can do that.
Badass.
I am, you know, that will happen.
Never.
No, usually that.
Dude, can you put an extra hanger on that thing?
The thing's going to fall out of PVC and I'm going to hammer a fucking nail
and bend it over the pipe and hope it lasts a year.
Yeah.
Get in and out, get paid, make as much money as possible.
I can't think of another industry that does what we do to, you know, put
your best work out there in the public's eye and seize the opportunity to, you
know, essentially make it up on the back end, right?
To build your reputation, to put your all your skill set out there on display.
It's got to be the only industry.
Because I say, you know, like what you're talking, what, what is that worth to you?
You know, what is it worth to you to have people see that you're willing to go the
extra mile?
Yeah.
You know, that that's only, that only is in your head, what that's worth.
Yep.
Because nobody else understands what's that worth.
Yeah.
I, I especially, I guess I have a more of an, an issue or a bone to pick or an
argument with the on the way up.
Because yes, it's, I still disagree at the level that, you know, say whatever
that level is, right?
Everybody wants to get to that level and then you're like, all right, well, this
is now we've got a successful business and I've got a great team and we're
building the cars we want to build and we can be selective about the jobs we come
in, blah, blah.
Okay.
So that's the level.
Everybody, even at that level still wanting to do better next year than they
did this year, right?
So you're trying to build a crazier car.
Well, with that, that scale comes with, you're going to try something you've
never tried before.
You've got a customer that believes in you.
You're going to try to push uncharted territory.
Well, with that uncharted territory comes some, some R and D and some donation.
And you're like, oh, it turns out that didn't work, but that's on us.
Don't worry about that.
You know what I'm saying?
But on the way up, like you can't.
It's great to say, and it's a cool, like flex to be like, oh, I got it.
I've been in business, you know, eight months and I've got a 13 year waiting list
and I only take the jobs I end that I want to work on.
Like,
and I'm billing it a 99.95% rate of every minute is built.
We all know that ain't real, right?
And like you were talking about on the come up, right?
So to speak, and bring it back 90s hip hop.
Like when they get you're wanting to build the cool motorcycle and you're also
body dropping this and the guy comes in, hey, the local body shop won't do the
quarter panel repair on my 67 Chevelle, right?
And it's a stock paint, right?
I'll I'll do that.
You're taking what you can get.
Let me knock that out real quick and get back to this.
Then in the end of the day, we're all our own worst enemies, right?
Because we all want to do something a little bit cooler the next time, right?
But we all lose sight of what the dream was in high school or in college.
It's like, I just want to work on cars.
I just want to do this.
I want to do that.
So along that dream, you're doing what you wanted to do.
You were working full time in your own shop, working on cars every single day.
Now is that 67 Chevelle quarter panel as cool as laying out the crazy, you know,
laced graphics on the whatever thing?
No, but it's paying.
That's right.
Right.
And it's the like you said, and there's you're going to take that quarter
panel repair to a heightened level than what that customer even expected.
Right.
Because you want everybody to know that when you did, they're like, holy shit,
I can't even see the blend line.
I can't even see that.
That thing's this, you know, because you want everybody to know how good you are.
Because you can't you have that just instilled in your head that that's the only way to do it.
And yeah, you got it instilled in your head and you know that you can't be a part
of every conversation, right?
You can't be at you're not going to live with that guy with that Chevelle
and go to every place that he goes.
And when the guy looks at it, he's like, Hey, it knows, got a little like over
spray and run on the backside.
But just so you know, he's happy with it and he only paid like 1500 bucks to do it.
So I can do way better if you pay me more.
But I did exactly what I was paid for.
You can't be a part of those conversations.
You're not going to be able to tell all those guys.
So you're only as good as the last thing you did.
You can't you can't be.
And we talked about it at the car shows all the time.
You go up and you know, just don't look at that.
You know, the customer didn't want to spend money on that.
Well, dude, I wasn't going to pick out now.
You're you're showing me all the flaws.
Don't show me all the flaws.
That's stupid.
Right.
Let me just enjoy the car.
The car is fucking cool.
And if it was like door hinges that made it or break the fucking bill, you
should have like fucking put them on there because it broke the bill.
Right.
It made the bill do the thing that needed to be done.
We joke around all the time about, you know, the many trucks that I did back in
the day and the amount of time it took me to do those graphics.
Yeah.
And how little I charge.
I can only imagine.
Did you ever go back and actually calculate that labor?
Oh, my God, I based on the hours you had in one.
No, I I I probably get sick.
You think it was single digits?
Because I'm sure I'm sure.
Like, I don't know.
I'm projecting a little bit from personal experience.
There.
There's the time when it's late night and the bugs are flying around the lights,
whatever, and it's like the one o'clock and you're laying out violent and you're
not thinking about what that's costing.
No, you're having a fucking blast.
That's right.
That's the cool.
That's the fun part of doing all this stuff.
You're just getting it done.
Then when everything's done, you know, done in pain, you're like, oh, I got this
much materials.
I got this.
I probably had about this many hours.
It's funny how you never factor in that prep, that mask, how many rolls of what
you did because that's the enjoyable part.
Like you had a great time doing it.
And then the, you know, you mask this off and like, oh man, what I could do is I
could go ahead and lay this base coat color down.
Then I'll graph this off, whatever.
I'll soft roll this edge.
I'll fill it, flood a little bit there.
Oh man.
I also saw this in the magazine when they did this, whatever.
I can do this bubble wrap trick and I can do this stuff.
We'll be a great texture there.
You're not charging for all that.
Let me run down the hobby lobby real quick.
Let me get some of this kind of little craft stuff.
The mind, you know, when you're doing stuff, your mind has to be so sharp when
you're doing these multi layers, you know, you have to, you have to be
remembering where, where this is, where that is, what goes over your way
backwards, because, you know, a lot of those graphic paint jobs are so three
dimensional where one goes over the other and crosses under.
And, you know, it's not like you can, you have, even though I, I do a lot of
renderings, you know, there's no real.
100% rendering on these graphics, you know, so it's all living in your head.
Well, they're never giving you a step by step of which color you're going to do
the overlap.
Oh, this one's not going to cut blend over this one or the tape edge is going
to show on this light color.
So it's going to be a wall.
Purple or blue.
Damn, I don't remember, you know, I mean, you know, and back then, you like,
like today you can take a snapshot with your cell phone and go back and look
at it, you know, 30 years ago, you didn't have that luxury.
Yeah.
You know, so you're, you know, you're, it's all by memory.
And you're going to get it developed.
That's the only I was telling you about one night I was working at like 10 o'clock
a night, we had a big storm go through and the fricking electricity goes out.
And I'm in the paint booth laying graphics out of this thing.
I literally had candles and flashlights in the booth laying out graphics because
I don't know how much paint you guys do, but you only get so long of a window
to be able to get that.
You can push it a little longer than you can.
And I have, but you know, I mean, you're like, shit, I got to get this done tonight.
It's been open for three days.
Yeah.
Still like for a second there, I thought you were going to tell me like a
Jean-Claude Van Damme blood sport type story where, you know, remember when they
threw the dust, whatever that crap was in his eyes and blinded him?
Yeah.
And he, you know, all of a sudden he like came back to it.
He's in there like he freaks out for a minute and then it's like he starts
laying the best graphics ever laid out.
Yeah.
That'd be, that'd be some good TV.
Oh man.
That's a, so, you know, we.
Rightfully so.
Get off topic.
This is what's fun about it.
You're starting to see stuff with muscle cars.
And is your customer base and their, their wishes changing at the same
rate at what your ideas are?
Or how are you getting, you're like, motorcycle's trade not trailing off, right?
We did all these kinds of stuff.
Like I want to build a badass muscle car for street machine and go to Columbus.
Now, where's the customer?
Um, again, a lot of that was just stemmed from the customers coming along,
seeing what we've done in the past and saying, well, hey, do you think you could
do this?
Um, and again, some of them were my own cars that, you know, I was building,
you know, on the side of built, you know, cause that's what guys do, you know,
we're not busy enough doing customers cars.
You got to work on her own shit over here in the corner.
Um, so they would see that, you know, my car over here that I'm playing with and
see the ideas that I've been doing on that.
And then they're like, Oh, hey, I want that on my car.
You know, um, so it was definitely kind of a little bit of the customers, uh,
and a little bit of my, you know, kind of even you see, you know, some of the
mini truck stuff kind of even going over onto the muscle car stuff, you know,
where again, like we talked body drops and, you know, and laying these things out
now.
And I mean, you see some of these muscle cars that are this far out the ground
now, you know, um, we did that with mini trucks and even, you know, full size
trucks forever, you know?
So, um, it wasn't anything for me to go, Oh yeah, yeah, I can do that.
You know, so we're bagging, you know, a ton of muscle cars and, um, did a bunch
of ride tech stuff back in the day.
Um, cause that's what, you know, that's what was out there for those guys, you
know, until the, the chassis world kind of came along.
Um, and, uh, you know, it was a lot of bolt on suspensions or, or like I, I
did a 49 Chevy truck, uh, that probably I'd say 94, 95 that was body dropped
and on air.
I mean, uh, another one that won street machine nationals.
Um, I mean, it was, you know, laying rockers, you know, and this is like I said,
I'm guessing 96, you know, I'm, I'm just, I'm really intrigued, um, and impressed.
Honestly, this is, this is honest time.
Um, and again, not to, to show, to bring up Roger or disagree with some of their
thoughts and stuff.
Uh, Roger's pretty big guy.
I use a big dude and he's all the way on the West coast.
It's, it's gonna be like two or three weeks before I see him.
So he'll forget about it.
People don't forget.
I know.
That's basically a big head of his.
I'm gonna, he doesn't forget.
Um, I love you, Roger.
Uh, I understand a lot of what, you know, their, uh, Troy and him are,
are trying to teach some of these younger up and coming about being a better
businessman and better, you know, how to run your business, how to be profitable
and what the goals are to be successful.
Great.
Love it.
Awesome.
I'm impressed and just listening to this story, you know, however long we're
in, having known you for quite some time on, you know, a professional customer,
you know, level, seeing the stuff that you're built.
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Thirty, 33 years, right?
And 37?
37 years.
We hear this all the time, right?
We talked a little bit about the must be nice.
I think a key thing we talked about the hard work, right?
There is no math.
You can, there's lots of things you need to learn about business.
There's lots of things you need to learn about the fundamentals that will be a
fast track that you had to learn the hard way.
A lot of us had to learn the hard way that is good fundamentals to learn at the
beginning side of things.
There is no free ride, right?
There is always a trade off.
So if you're going to make the decision to do what you love, say that be working
on cars, say that be doing something else, say that there's going to be trade-offs,
right?
You can be successful.
You've been in this for 30 something years, 37 years.
37 years.
I know 37 years.
You've, you've raised a family.
You've stayed.
You haven't changed names 15 times or chased another dream or whatever.
You've been doing the same exact thing that you've been doing.
You've got toys.
Could you just talk about toys?
So you've been, you've been financially rewarded for it and do the thing.
Now the trade off is you've busted your ass, right?
You've had to work your ass off.
So the trade off, he started talking before this podcast opened.
It's, it's a little bit of a, it's a little bit of a, it's a little bit of a
knees is back.
Some of those toys might be having to be traded in for some surgical repairs.
But there is, what my thing is, is there is trade-offs.
There is no, you can't do what you love.
Yeah.
There's a person and work the hours that you want to work and be at home when you
want to be at home and make the money that you want to make and win the awards
that you want to win.
That's right.
You can't have it all.
Right.
It, like they said, the cheap easy fast, right?
It's, you, you only got picked two.
That's right.
So I want to make a really good living
Doing what I love. Okay
You're gonna have to bust your ass doing it, right?
And sometimes you're gonna have to donate sometimes you're gonna have to do this sometimes you want you want some toys
You want your own shit? That's fine. You can have it
You're gonna have to even bust your ass harder to do that if you say no, I want to build cars, right?
But I want to have a work-life balance and I want to be at home on the weekend and I don't want it
I want to charge for anything. That's fine. You're probably not gonna make as much money
You're probably not gonna have the toys and it might take you longer to get where you know I'm saying you can you can choose
Whatever you want to do so my but if my I was lucky from a standpoint of being able to be with my family and
You know my wife works at the shop with me
My son and my daughter both work at the shop, you know, I
Taught them both how to weld how to do body work, you know how to paint
I mean so for me my time spent
You know with them at the shop with them at the shop, right, you know, I mean I got
Tons of pictures and videos of them, you know this big, you know holding tool funny story
So I built a trailblazer for GM that went to SEMA
2000 I think it was maybe 2001
When my son turned 16 years old that was his
daily driver as a
High school kid school
But I have pictures of him, you know holding the a wrench in a socket, you know sitting next to me while I'm working on that car
And so, you know again, it goes back to you know, you you you make it work
Yeah, you know, that was my way just bring them to the shop, you know, I mean they can be there with me
You know while I'm working on something and make the most of what you have to that
That's just what you've got to do and I think so many people
You know going back to you know what we were talking about
You know, I love what I do. I tell people all the time
I very fortunate to get paid to play with cars, you know, I mean I was that little kid
You know dream job driving my driving my hot wheels, you know through the the dirt road in the grass that I made
You know, I mean I remember that, you know
You know and then growing up watching Duke's a hazard and smoking the bandit and now we're building transams like they're going out of style
Yeah, I mean we got a 69 trans and we're bringing I don't know if you've seen it or not that we're bringing to
Columbus nice to go for Street Machine of the Year. It's a great little segue. We're gonna talk about Columbus anyway
It's right around the corner. Yeah, I know I I love Columbus
It's my favorite show of the year
But I also hate it because it is it sneaks up on you
There are two shows that you can never quite plan for it is Columbus and SEMA and yeah
They sneak up on you every year and you know when they are you know when they are but there's always you know
Either you've planned a car for it or there's shorter or there's that last-minute Hail Mary of like, you know
We could I think we could get this thing done and it'd be cool to debut it at Columbus
This last words we got good guys is our standard question sponsor and
We do have first before Columbus. You've got Des Moines. Yep. Heartland Nationals coming up to you. That's a July 3rd through 5th
Great cruising great events. They get some all kinds of crazy stuff 4th of July
fireworks festival
5000 cars hot rods muscle cars then right after that the 28th Summit Racing Nationals at
Ohio Expo Expo Center. That's Columbus. That's July 10th through 12th
That's where you do street ride of the year and they do street machine of the year
Lots of really cool stuff
Cool shows coming up. That's where our guys will be out at
Des Moines and Columbus and we will be out there at Columbus
You got Dutch boys and us doing the builders choice picks
Your debut in a car there for street machine here to we're bringing a 54 Chevy
Bell air that obviously has Roadster shop chassis and
69 trans and that also has a fast track underneath of it. It's awesome. Well
We got a little good guys plug in there. We'll do some more in a minute, but I want to get back
I I honestly truly want you to understand
How much respect I have gained just in this last hour?
Like you're you're the journeyman. You're the grinder of this industry. You're the one that has
You've made a living raised a family won a shit ton of awards and done it for 30 plus years in
Just by hard work and talent. It's
There's no secret like
No, that's the secret and it wasn't like well you won this award and then that means all of a sudden
You're propelled into greatness and everybody look you just you can't forget. There's there's always there's the element of talent
Right. Yeah, you can't you can't overlook that
Hard work's great, and I mean you've busted your ass. There's no question about it
But there's a lot of people work pretty hard, you know and just didn't quite have it, you know, and that's so appreciate that
The talent is it's it's important. Yeah. I think vision
Talent vision. I mean the way you see graphics like that's it. That's something for me
That's like a handicap of mine. I cannot see graphics like there's short of like a an SS stripe
I can't look at a car and see like
Like I look at hey, I think it needs this yeah, and I just can't like a boat
You know I'm into boats and look at like the MTI stuff
And you look at the crazy ass graphics that those guys doing you're like how in the world
Did you think to occupy that real estate psychedelics psychedelics?
It must be your eye just I read an article and I'm always stuck with me that
They say that
people dream
Some dream in color some dream in black and white and the people that are the most you know, I guess
outgoing and and the most
visual dream in color and
Other people dream in black and white. Hmm. I don't know if that's true or not
But I read it and I've got some other topics of dreams that I'd like to run by you to see if you could tell me what that says about me
Man I like I'm sure I saw flesh color at some point
It's uh, yeah, I don't know man vivid dreams. I don't know they've never paid attention
You know it's something that you know to think about you know because obviously
My dreams are all fully colored, you know
And a lot of that is because I deal with color a lot
Yeah, you know I could see your dreams being like the Wizard of Oz turns to color. It's like holy shit. Look at that
I was like my little pony type stuff like just crazy
sparkles and lions
No fans, I'm just saying sure comes to mind
But that's a crazy talent that I admire because I don't I don't have it. I'll never have it like I look you know you
Jeremy from Lucky Strike. I mean
How you look at like a blank helmet and create the things on it like do you put flames on it?
Flames on that too well and but not only even you know it goes back to talent, but you know you can render something
That you can't build of course, you know that we've seen that and that's what I'm saying so
The other benefit that I have of being able to render
Is that I render what I know we can build
You know, do you think there's more renders of things that you can't build or things that you shouldn't build
That's been done out there in the world
I'll tell you today. There's more renders of things that you can't well that should be built like that
The AI stuff is crazy. I mean, I can't tell you how many accounts I follow on instagram that some stuff
You're just like dude. I mean a fucking fourth gen chimera. I never liked the fourth gen chimera. Yeah, but holy shit
Is that badass? Yeah, but yeah 24 hour race version of a fourth gen
I mean stuff that is getting
That's getting so wild. I mean, I don't want to so so the AI stuff to me
Is the way my brain has worked for years
Yeah, it is because you know
Now people that that haven't thought the way I think
Can talk to the AI and have the AI created sure, you know, my mind has always been that way
So it's kind of funny for me to see that stuff because I've been doing renderings and building cars and doing
Body drops wide bodies
Graphics muscle cars all this stuff and now I see all this AI stuff popping up from other people
More so just letting the AI do what it does. You know, where in my mind
I always have thought that way. It's kind of weird. different for me
In that perspective, that's that's a very cool talent to have like I mean, man, I wish I had that skill because like
I've
Typically been able to do it physically but seeing the whole thing
Can be before you do it. Yeah
I let things evolve as they happen, you know, that's like I'll look at something and just make it cool as it's
You gotta like work in the moment
Yeah, it's hard to sort of see the whole thing through to the finish line
Like I can't look at a car and know what interior's going in and how that dash should look
On day one, right? It's like you gotta live with it a little bit
Well, and very seldom we have the whole thing, you know
But but you do have to have a fairly big chunk of it
Especially, you know, again going back to getting into these bigger higher-end builds like yourselves
And I mean, I know you guys have render guys and stuff like that as well, you know
The customer can't see what you see, you know, right?
So the renderings have become a huge stepping stone, you know for me to be able to
Show my customer. Yeah, some people just have can't have that visual conversation. The mind's eye doesn't doesn't don't see
I don't I well and it's so hard to explain
Yeah, you know without a picture, you know, I can sit here and you know
Well going back to the graphics thing, you know when you try to explain to somebody what you're gonna put on these graphics
And how you're gonna do them what colors you're gonna be like
You talk about a mud puddle of junk, you know, they're gonna be like
So just do it, you know, yeah, so
But anyway getting back to what I was talking about is, you know those things that
That I can see in my mind getting them to the customer to be able to get them to
Check off and say, okay, let's do that
The rendering has helped
Expedentially
That's very helpful. What's your what's your biggest build to date that that was the most challenging?
That's a tough one probably my all-wheel drive
68 Camaro
800 horse all-wheel drive say that named sod
Yeah, when you rolled that out, I was like, that's a lot of moving parts there. Oh, yeah
um, and you know
That definitely was one of them that was just in my head, you know, I mean
You know so much stuff's been done to a first gen. I mean, we all know that
I mean, there's been every color combination and everything you can think of to a first gen Camaro
um
And so I you know, obviously want to do something that I'd never seen
And so, you know, it's a roadster. It's a two-seater. It's wide-bodied. It's body dropped
All-wheel drive 800 horse supercharged on air ride
I mean, it's as crazy as you get
Yeah, I was thinking about a Camaro stuff, you know, there's
Essentially fifth, you know, five gins of Camaros, okay, right?
Six gen that wasn't a big change, right? So you just call it five fifth gen if you count up
If you count up a body panel something on a car, right? Oh a Camaro if you will you got okay
You've got a one be front bumper right front end fascia
two would be fenders
three would be doors
four would be
quarters
five would be
Rear fascia and rear bumper. Yeah, you could do a Camaro
Of all five gins in one build didn't Ed Cape and try that
He just did it. like two gins. He did the nova and uh, Camaro
Got it. But just think about that for a minute. Think about which
Give it a shot. Do that might be your swan song
I'm just throwing it out there for some nice some guys that might need a little spurring in the creative thing
So my song is 68 in front and 2010 in the back. Yeah. Well, that's two gins way there. Yeah
Yeah, that car was wild, dude. I mean, I'll say it's you know, you've got you've got your style
Sure, everybody's got their style and it's like when I look at that and I you know, I was kidding by the way
And I think about like you look all right. Let's look at another local, Illinois. Look at rad rides, right?
You know, look at compared to a musician
A rad rides car is probably more like like that's Beethoven
What you're doing is like poison. Dude, I look at that car. It's like it's like whoa, dude
It's fucking loud and wild and I think rad rides would be more like simon and garfunkel
And
Like corduroy's and like
Very very well composed and yeah, so how do the garfunkel I think
Troy and Adam is there are Simon garfunkel
That's got it. That's there's gonna be a thumbnail going up with that
I mean, we'll talk about AI that will be so easy to read great hits
Yeah, while they famous, you know
Troy and Adam is Simon garfunkel. Poison's good. I think poison. What would you what would you compare it to?
Like if that's an interesting question, we never talked about that if you had to compare your car as your style
I have guns roses
Yeah, I mean
I I see that for sure and I think it's because
Again, you know, I hate to keep going back to the mini truck world
But you know, that's where I lived and what kind of put food on the table for so long
That was you know that outside the box thinking
What haven't you seen what's yeah, you know
What can you do that's radical than more radical than the next guy?
Yeah, I know you might like guns and roses, but poison's probably a better one. I agree with it. It's more glam
It's more it's more pushing the envelope trying to just different things and every single one that come out
I think we need to add that to standard questions. Hey, you're on to something
I like it. Don't forget that because I'll forget that shit like
The next 10 seconds. Oh, it's I remember it stands. That's a great one. What would you say that uh,
Troy light from bbt. What would his music if he was a band?
What would he be? Oh, let's see if he was a band
Man
Oh, I got jesse
He'd be like the avid brothers
Yeah
You're thinking like jesse personally though
More so than his yeah, bill's pushed the envelope a little bit more than
Yeah, maybe that could do it would be like the avid brothers and
I wish I could came up with something faster
Yeah
All right jesse's got a lot
I think you can mix a lot of stuff, you know like a little early robert plant where it's like a little
Centric and a little like
Is it like, you know, a little gay? I don't know but he's pretty cool
I mean jesse's done some wild stuff. That's not disrespectful. Maybe like you know, hill collins kind of
Genesis five, you know, I mean they've got some rock, but they're still very that could be more on troye from bbt
Because it's complex. Yeah, that's what I yes. That's a good poll. Yeah, it's very complex and it's very high quality music
That's yeah, uh a little time. It's a little bit of uh
We'll have to cut this part out so it looks like I was way faster with it. Yes, he's gonna kill
He's doing a few sets of wheels right now. He's gonna fucking no, but feel if you're talking about
He's a machine crash crazy thing. You're not gonna have those
Sorry, they're not gonna make it for ohio
Faith the song uh, uh, limp biscuit. No the original George Michael. Yeah, yeah, bbt little George Michael
Little Phil Collins. Okay, like Phil Collins a little wild side. Yeah
Uh, I do like this. Yeah, you stumbled upon a really good one. Um, yeah, we'll we'll keep leaning into this one. Yeah, um
So
Along the build process is many different builds as you've been a part of
What is the one thing in the build?
That still gives you just as much joy to do today as it did when you first started
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Well the design is always a huge I guess
Deep rooted part of me
Because you know that when it comes out
that
Evolved out of your head, you know, so that that on all the projects are probably for me the biggest
like
Starting point and and that's what everything grows off of
And then honestly that probably the thing that that I enjoy the most is
Revealing it to the customer. I mean that's a that's I always tell people that is a
A payment that you can't buy. I agree, you know, I mean, I honestly I can't tell you how many times I got goosebumps
And and customers to you know get emotional, you know, whatever because you know, they see it for the first time and it's like
I I almost speechless and can't believe that you
Created it from this piece of paper. Um, you know, so those are things
that
for me
That that that that's a form of payment that just it's heart-filling
Um, yeah, it's it's always great. It really is. I mean, you know, I I'm very fortunate, you know, I mean
Uh, it's really I mean my shop is not big. It's me and four guys and my wife and my daughter
Um, so I mean, we're we're not a huge shop
But we're very fortunate to have good customers and and we keep we keep cranking them out every year
Um and have been, you know, so blessed
Um
and
You know
Lucky to be able to do what we do
Um, I can't say enough how
Obviously going back to the family allowing me to do what I do
Um and having customers that allow me to do what I do because you know, you can only build as good as your customer allows you to build
I mean, you can build your own stuff
However, you want it, but you know when it comes to actually getting paid to do it
Yeah, you know, you have to have a customer that's on board that understands your vision your time frame
You know your financial
you know
Billing and whatever
So, I mean there's there's hard sides of that. Um, and
You know, again, you know going back to you know, me starting it from nothing
Learning that side of it was very difficult for the first 10 years
You know, you know goes back to talking about giving away hours
You know, you think this is going to take 100 and it takes 200 and you're like
I already told him it was going to be 100, you know, so I mean, you know, you give away a lot back in the day
um
But um, you know, you know going back to the the enjoyment side of it has got to be
You know just the enjoyment of the the handover of the keys to I think you know, I'm with you on that one
That's for me. That's it makes all the pain and suffering worthwhile because we
Thrive on that feedback you thrive on it. You you fight some battles, you know, these cars will absolutely kill you
I mean, they will chew you up and fucking spit you out
And it is there's a curve ball around every corner. Yeah
It's there's a like a you ever see that uh jackass where their
Bams walking down the hallway and they take the giant hand and pull it back
That's what that happens like three times a day. Yeah, that's that's building
That's professionally building hot rods, but but it's also like you're walking straight into it
Knowingly, you're you're in this business. You're like prepared for it, but you're not so that hand's about to hit me
I wonder how hard it's going to hit me this time. Holy shit. That was a new one on the flip side. That's what makes it worthwhile
It's absolutely. It's not it's not the money. It's the
The enjoyment you give that customer the reaction. Yeah that you get out of it. I've said it over and over again
At least for me. I'm sure that's yeah for everybody bit for me. That's
So it makes like this 54 Chevy that we just finished
um, so that car
um
The customer we built it for was actually his dad's car originally
The car came from his uncle from Georgia
So they named the car Georgia because they used the tow dolly and hauled it from Georgia back to Illinois
Like 45 years ago. That's crazy. They drove it around as was for a while
And then obviously had some mechanical problems. So they you know, you know stick it in the shed. I'll work on it later
And then 30 some years later
Obviously, they're all getting older
I had done a c10 for greg and he's like man. He said I got this 54 Chevy that I really want to do this for my dad
You know, he's I think in his 80s
And he said I really want to see this car get done before something happens to him, you know
And I'm like, yeah, that's fine. So we kind of set it all up. Obviously ordered up the roadster shop chassis
We put an LS4 27 in it. Um
It's not the most radical thing that we've ever built
But it's a very nice clean slick. It's root beer brown with a vanilla top with brown distressed leather interior
Sits right looks right. I mean, we'll have it at good guys. Um, and it really is. I mean, it's it's one of those things where
Um, you know, we built it for greg, but it really was for his dad
So we
I found a pedal car and I redid the pedal car and I gave it to his dad
Redid the whole interior it matches the interior of the car
Did the paint job on it and I did that all on my dime and charged him a thing
Um, just because I wanted his dad to have something to take home and put in his garage, right? That's cool
We come to uh standard questions time
Standard questions brought to you by good guys rod and custom
Des Moines right around the corner
Uh, July 3rd through 5th and then columbus right after that July 10th through 12th. You'll have uh
Two debuts out there. Just come by and check them out. Um
First up on standard questions
We'll kind of get we'll ease into this. Oh boy. We'll get our ankles wet first before we dive off into it
This is gonna hurt, isn't it? No, no, it's we change these up
It was we we have like a core-ish group
Of questions, but then we mix and match them depending on you know, how the conversation goes
It's like that. You already did the first car thing. So we'll kind of you know, go a different route
Easy low hanging fruit favorite car movie
smoking abandon
uh
Let me retract that. Okay. Yeah, go ahead and retract that cannonball run
Oh, I actually just you took it to the next level cannonball run is a better movie
The Porsche that was in the movie cannonball round. Do you really I personally did. That's pretty cool. So
You want me to explain? Yeah, please. Okay. So always wanted a Porsche
been a Porsche guy forever. Um
30 years ago always looking in the trailer trying to find one that was a project car, you know yada yada
so
I found one in Chicago Tribune, of course that was before marketplace and craigslist. Um, and the guy put
75 930 needs repair that was his ad and i'm like hey, that's right on my alley
You know, so I call the guy up and he kind of explains me a little bit about it and he's like
You know, dude, I live up here in Chicago. It's not running right now
He said I only have two spots that I can park cars. I need the other spot
He's like I really need to sell it and I can't even remember if it was like
Maybe 20,000 or something like that, which is a ton of money back then for me, you know
um
And I'm like, well, dude, I said I let me come at least look at it
And I had already looked at probably a dozen other ones
930s and 911s and um, I was just like everyone that I looked at everybody's
You know telling you this and it ain't that you know, you know, you've looked at a million cars, you know, of course
so anyway, so I get up there um
And uh, he gives me the address I pull up. It's like a freaking skyscraper
And I'm like surely this has got to be the wrong address, you know
So I call the guy
Um, and of course this is before cell phones and shit, you know, yeah, so I call the guy and he's like no no
You're the right place. So he comes down and he's like just driving to this underground
Thing so I'd drive in there with my little truck and trailer
And here it is with the cover on it and everything and I'm like, all right, so he comes over and we're looking at and he's like
telling me all about it and what's wrong with it and stuff and
He's like, oh, yeah, by the way, this was the car from the cannonball run movie and I was like
Are you kidding me?
And he's like no, he said I used to drive for Porsche racing
And they hired me to drive that car in the movie
So he said I love the car. So I bought it after the movie. He owned a big um
restaurant out in uh, Arizona
So he kept it out there for years
His name I still remember his name Michael Perry laden is his name
um, and um, so he
Sold his restaurant in Arizona and opened one up here in Chicago. I don't know if it's still around or not
But anyway, so that's how the car came from there to here. Um, and so
You know, we chat about it a little bit and we come to an agreement on the number
Um, and so I load the thing up take it home fix it all up and it's black and gold in the movie
But I didn't want it black and gold. So it's chameleon
You
You painted it. I still have all the original stuff, but it needed paint. I mean, it was it was rough
I mean, it wasn't perfect by any means. Um, but you know back then, you know
Nothing was sacred, you know, I mean I would paint anything, you know, just because I wanted it my way
Painted chrome illusion. So well, it's it's harlequin ppt version. Um, and so it's it's you know, full
You know color shift paint and then I did so if you're familiar with the harlequins, there's like six different colors. So one
Uh, one is a five color shift from one way to the other and the other side is backwards
So I did the Porsche striping on it. So this one is the purple to gold and the other one is the gold to purple
So depending on where you stand
The car's purple in the front gold in the front, you know
And vice versa. Anyway, uh, so I built that car up and then I also built a lamborghini kuntash
On a fiero chassis. Yes, but a bonneville supercharged 3.8 in it. That's that's basically an improved
Kuntash like a version of the it's it's amazing, man
And so that one of my business cards is my Porsche and my kuntash
Recreating the whole entire cannonball run and pretty cool
It was just it it kind of fell in my lap and but I still own that car to this day
That's a pretty good story. That is
It's a great story and then I sold my kuntash and built a
uh, another lamborghini called the super ligera in 2009 they came out with a
super ligera
lamborghini
Concept car. So I built that car before lamborghini did
So also out of fiero jason tube chassis all corvette suspension ls4 from a
A impala super sport. Uh, I actually moved the
The motor to the rear so it's transverse mounted. Yeah, but it's rear engine now
I kept the
abs brakes traction control heads up display everything from the
Grand Prix that it came out of I still own that car as well. Do you really I do you drive that much?
I don't I've got a c8 wide-bodied now. So I drive that
But uh, but anyway, so that one was out at seema one year and lamborghini did not like that very much
Let's just leave that there. I bet
So I kind of gotten a little little trouble on that one. I could see me daily in a kuntash kitted fiero
you know, I would
They're killer looking cars. I mean I I I had a
Poster of one forever. Yeah, who didn't you know and uh and again going back to the cannonball run thing
You know the kuntash was the oh, yeah the quintessential supercar
Unobtainium that's the car, you know, so I knew I couldn't afford one
So going back to being a builder. I'll build one
Crooked abduly the terry bradshaw was driving. It's pretty damn cool though
I'll have to go back and watch that again. It's been a while amazing mel tillis in it
Yeah, everybody's square body. Yeah, everybody
So so mine is from the cannonball run two is the one that mines right right the black and gold car
And it's funny because like if you watch the beginning where the the guy looks at his watch
That's my dash of my car and that's actually
Michael perry laden in the driver's seat. That's cool, you know
And so behind the seat normally in the Porsche, there's like a little two seat deal that isn't really a seat
Mine's actually got a flip down bar with full crystal glasses in it
Champagne bottle. Of course it was that in the movie. It was in the movie. Yeah. Yeah, and it's all there still. I didn't change any of that
Most memorable law enforcement interactions story
Don't really have any
None never had any the law trouble whatsoever. No a small town. Yeah, any works all the time. Yeah, I mean he's always at the shop. I mean
You know
Pulled over for silly shit. I mean I got pulled over doing
a little over 200
in a Hayabusa that's pretty good, but
Gotta slap on the wrist. Don't do that again. Yeah
But other than that that's about it
And good for you for stopping
Well, it was custom painted and I knew they'd be
Later
It takes a while to rain that one in. Yeah
Um, all right
We got, um
The big one just one of Jeremy's favorites as of late
Unlimited budget you can build anything
But you're gonna pay somebody to build this for you. What are you building and who's building it?
Oh, that's a tough one
We we only bring this is like 60 minutes up in here, right? We only bring the hard hit questions. It would probably be
You know going back to the lamborghini. It would probably be a modern-day kuntash
Just because
That's always been something that I thought would be neat to recreate with today's world
performance and technology and
I mean, I'm a corvette guy. I've got
I mean, I'm always been I've owned
Every year of corvette almost I mean not every year but every generation
And so I've always been a corvette guy and I've I've lived in that world
But I've always you know, the kuntash has always had a
Soft spot, you know, kind of like the pentera, you know that they're you know, kind of hot to redo right now
But I mean the problem is nobody would really probably cut up a real kuntash to do that
You got unlimited budget. You can do whatever you want. So who's building it?
Jeremy hell, yeah
I would eat that up. Oh, yeah, you want to rest a mod in a kuntash?
Be cool. I appreciate that dude. I would have a field day with that one
But but I mean, you know, obviously for me, you know living close to you guys and and obviously we buy a lot of chassis from you
Uh, I I see
All the stuff you guys do at all the shows as well. So for me, you know
um
Watching your development has helped me
develop as a business as well because
You know, I see trends, you know, I've always been you know, told back in the day
You know that I was a trendsetter in the mini truck world
You know from all the stuff that I did that wasn't the same as everybody else's and I see a lot of that and you guys
here
Uh in the muscle car world because I think you know the evolution of the chassis
You know is the foundation of the evolution of the muscle car, you know, and
That's heavy hitting. Well, it is. I mean without that. I mean
Everybody's drove an old smoking abandoned stock. Oh, yeah, be honest with you
They're not that great. Right. I mean, they're just not
um, I would take
any of the the last
10 muscle cars that we've built over
That old original one and we've got to believe it or not
We've got a 78 in the shop right now with 2900 original miles. Wow
All documented that we're fixing up for a guy. Um
But I mean again, you know, it's a cool car
I mean, but without the evolution of that chassis, you know to build these muscle cars on
You know, I mean you can bolt up some ride tech stuff and you can do this and that, you know, and they're better
But they're no full chassis roadster shop car. They're just not I mean, you know that gray 69 Camaro that we did
Uh, a couple of years ago. I don't know if you saw that one. Um, I mean that car there
It's a perfect example of you know
I did 185 in that car
and
Took a picture of the dash
And you haven't had any long interaction story small town
All down
There's that's awesome to hear that so I mean for me, you know that that you know
Is why I would go to something like that because you know
Again, you know, I mean, I've known you guys for a long time
I've been very fortunate to be close to you and so we can pick up our chassis here, which is nice
Kick-ass customer. You do realize on this coontouch
I would assume to do it justice. It's probably gonna have to be a solid color
Oh, that'd be all right. Really? Yeah from the graphics guy, you're fine with okay, you know, I don't I mean
I don't always live in that multicolor world
Um, there's definitely times where I think
Things need to be a certain way. Um, I mean, I love
Doing those things and I love the creativity and the the ability of for customers to say, hey
You know do what you do because that's what I'm known for
Uh, but that part of it
Also pays the bills. Yeah. Um, I mean, I do a ton of helmets. I still do a ton of motorcycles
Um, but a lot of that is in between the builds of the cars, you know
So, um, you know from a standpoint of you know, uh, that car is so iconic. It needs a
You know, it would be pearl orange. I mean hands down
That everybody knows me that knows me well knows orange my color. So
Yeah, that's a hell of a car, man. I mean, that's the holy grail car for anybody that's like in or around our age
You know, I agree. It's just if anybody is listening right now. I just want to know
This is not gonna happen. So you're not gonna piss anybody off, but
If anybody's listening right now and says, you know what?
Fuck it. Let's build the kuntosh and they called up
Are they going straight to the front of the line to get started on pretty much immediately?
Oh, I mean a kuntosh. I would
I would go back to working gear schedule personally
Work till you know six and then I would pick up and start working on personally build it from like, you know, seven to
one in the morning and then
Yeah, I've been married long enough, dude. I mean
Kids are almost out of houses
Kuntosh be a hell of a build
You know who needs to build that is I think bobby
He's a lamb. That's a that's a he's a lambo guy
He's just enough with these little 400 horse ls 3 4 l 60 cars. It's time to
Step it. You think he could handle that much power. He's got I know he's got him
But he's got a lot in storage like you think you can handle that much power
He's a little bit of an elusive guy. I don't know
I don't know what he's what he's yeah, what he's into what he drives, but he's got some cool shit
um
Let's see next up. We're going to
This is a good guy's presented question. They brought some good questions too and they came on us
Uh sponsor put some thought into it. I appreciate the effort. It's very cool questions. Yeah, so you're uh
You've got a you've got a coast coastal trip ahead of you, right? You're gonna do
The whole pch california
There's one cd that's stuck in the cd player
What cd are you hoping?
guns and roses which one
Use your illusion water to
Appetite for destruction for destruction. Yeah, good good. Um
Which what vehicle are you taking?
Oh, that's a tough one like personal car or customer car
I just a fucking car if you could just say i'll take that and do it
I've always been a camaro or a corvette guy. So I'd say it's probably it probably had to be like a
First gen 69 or something maybe be good. I think great
Yeah, on the corvette side I gotta ask you have you ever had a c4 zr1?
I have had a 88 c4 lingenfelter
That
Was a pretty bad ass car
For its day. Yeah, um, but i've never had a zr1 c4
I've just got this thing for him. That was another one of those cars. Yeah
You know when I was a kid that was like a super car. It was borderline. It was
Inobtainable super car like you know, I mean if you saw kuntas that was obviously like dude
That's over the top
But when you saw that little badge on the corvette there were a lot of c4s out there
But when you saw that zr1 and you noticed you know the car a little more meat under it
And there was just something about it that car was like a super car
I don't do it. I'm tired of hearing about it. Honestly. I can't just do it
Yeah, I came but you didn't do it. No, it was the right one. Yeah, just a little it was a little overpriced
I got close it still hasn't sold yet been talking with the guy, but it's just he's like 10 grand off
10 grand off what that car should be. I think he's five
It's that uh, the greenish. Okay, you'd know what the color is called
Sort of a rare color. I was always torn between the white. You know, it's just may I just dig
white anything 90s, but that uh, that turquoisey green is uh
That's pretty damn cool. Just do it. Don't talk about it any more unless you're just gonna buy one because it's attainable
Well that car there really
When they did the c4 the c4 was always the red headed step child of the corvette world, you know
But when they jumped to that zr1 in this in the c4, man, that was like a leap
Yeah, you know that what you know like all the other corvettes. They're kind of like the base model
You know the grand sport the z06 the zr1
But the c4 model man it jumped like tremendously to that zr1
combination and that really set the precedents for
The c5 zr1 to having to be
That much better to even up to the c8 now the zr1 c8 is freaking crazy. Oh, yeah, that's nice. I've got a
c8 z06
and then I've got a
c8
Wide-bodied pro charge z06 are I mean not z06 but stinger standard stingray. Um powers that make uh 715
But my pro charge one is actually faster than my z06 even though it doesn't have the higher revving motor
I mean i've done 202 in that car
And it it scoots
shit
They're great car josh as a z06 and that's that's it's crazy. I've driven a little bit and that's
It's just crazy to think they built that that that exists
Especially for the money. It's like a video game. It is. Yeah, it's truly like playing a video game. It's just it's not
I've told him I I would honestly be fine if it made 150 horsepower if it shifted and sounded like it does
Oh, yeah, it's fucking fine. Well, it's just I told people all the time
It might have that much horsepower, but you you only use the first 300 anyway most of the time
It's just because I mean you just want to run it up and down through the gears up and down
I thought about bringing my wide body c8 to come up here
But whether we get some people that weather rolling in the hot holes coming through there good lord
I was like
About halfway up here. I was like, yeah, okay. I'm glad I did. I probably bent a rim or popped a tire or something
Yeah, how did you come up here?
Unfortunately 55 through 355. Yeah brutal. Yeah anything
Anything within like, you know 50 mile radius of chicago is just fucked. Yeah
And well and and and then the people are idiots everybody cuts you off and everybody slams their brakes on right in front of you and
You know, so it's it's I mean I I wanted to bring it
But I'm I'm also probably glad I didn't bring it. Yeah, you'd be replacing a wheel. Exactly. That's exactly what my thought was
After all these years favorite, uh
car show or car event to go to
Um
Well, I'll be honest on this one. It used to be street machine nationals
it really did
um
but
Unfortunately, that show has really kind of gone downhill over the years
I've been very fortunate. We won grand champion there nine times
um
And obviously with different cars every time so it wasn't like it was the same car
But that one being down in decoyne
um was
not really in our backyard, but still four hours away, but
I started going there at a younger age
And that grew my passion some so because of that that was kind of a
you know
passion driven show
um
And again a lot of pro streets down there a lot of graphics
um
But since
That show has gone downhill and we started doing good guys and a lot of the other ones
We really enjoy the good guys stuff so much better now. I think they're just you know, there's so much more organized
Uh, the event layout is so much better
You know, it reminds me of honestly the early days of street machines
You know because it was very well thought out a lot of shade
Big venue plenty of place to park. I mean, you know back in the day street machines
I think they brought in 13000 cars down there. You know, so I mean it was kind of the way
Yeah, guys is now is Des Moines. Good guy is your favorite show now
Favorite good guy show uh actually columbus columbus is yeah
We've done we've uh been I mean in the running for street machine of the year six times
So, I mean we like going there for that competition, you know, well, uh, here's a prime example of why so we went to street machines
literally two weeks ago, um
And we got to the award ceremony
And they announced at the award ceremony that they cut 58 trophies and they have no grand champion this year
just
Cuts. Yeah, just they said they didn't have the funding budget cuts. Yeah, you know, and I'm like, you know, I'm sorry
I'm not a everybody gets an award kind of guy. I don't need a participation ribbon
Yeah, um, it cost a lot of money to go to these shows. Yeah, you know, and you're away from the shop
Uh away from the family, you know, you're you're putting gas in your vehicle pulling a trailer wear and tear all this stuff
And I'm not I mean, I'm not saying
that
I only go there for that
But it is a part of what you go for when you're to this level, you know, I mean and and then, you know, even worse
At fuel to the fire, you know after the fact, you know
We we were going getting ready to go to the awards and one of the judges comes over and tells me
Hey, I'm sorry to tell you but before you go to the awards
They're not giving away grand champion this year and your car would have won
And he said it really irritates me
And pisses me off
Super cool, you know, you would have been a 10 time grand champion winner
Had they had the trophy they can't just like make me a t-shirt or something. Yeah, exactly
Shit, but but you know, I mean it's and and don't get me wrong. I understand it's it's all about money and everything else
but at some point
How can you take something like that out of the show?
Yeah, you know or um, at least make the announcement before everybody comes and let them make the decisions
That might have been intentional. Well, of course
I'm saying if you want to be if you if you want to make that call at least be up
Right front about it. And but anyway going back to that, you know, um, obviously going to the good guy's stuff, you know
We know we don't have to worry about those kinds of things
Because there's enough plenty of trophies. Yeah, well, they have plenty of trophies and I'm not I'm not saying by any means
I'm a trophy chaser
But accolades
Yeah, it helps a difference, right, you know, um, you know when people come to my shop
I have a lot of the big, you know, I've I've one different like
Roaster shop awards for, you know, best muscle car and, you know, uh, different awards at different events
Um, you know, lots of best paint awards best interior
I mean, I have hundreds of trophies around the top of my
shop showcase and something um and and it's you know
And I don't do it for a pad on the back. I do it because it's accolades of the business. Yeah. Yeah
And so that
You know kind of salted me with them doing that
And it's a shame because that that show I mean, I think it's 40 some years that shows been kicked off a lot of careers
There's a lot of people that I mean that was back when you know, Troy Trapania
That was probably some of his first days Simon, you know down there in
You know, you know building the pro street muscle cars and stuff. I think that's kind of where he
Really started. Yeah, I think that's where he peaked, right?
Yeah, it's all downhill from there
Uh, but anyway
it's uh
as all this is
Really amazing time
Honestly, uh, you never know what you're gonna get, you know, even if you're if you're friendly with somebody you spoke
You never know what you're gonna get sitting down, you know for a longer format conversation like this and uh
But hats off to you man and lots of respect
For everything the way you carry yourself the way your mentality about things and uh, just all around good
Fucking dude. Yeah, man. Hell of a career. Keep up the good work
Keep kicking ass looking forward to seeing what you're coming up with next so come by and uh, and pester the guys at uh,
Des Moines next uh in a couple weeks and then uh,
Where can you come check you out? Yeah, you got the big I had it pulled up so I can read it correctly
Pull it up there. Yeah, let's pull it up real quick
Uh
Custom custom underscore shop underscore one you could also search john wargo and that'll come up
Yeah, the first custom shop that'll come up. Yeah
Yeah, we got a few things on there
There you can see a picture of that buick we're working on right now
That's a 62 buick and and dyson there. Yeah, so that's a 62 buick
uh skylark with a
65
corvair roof
So it looks like a mini bubble top. That is cool
Is core that those corvairs at a beautiful roof line. They were just like they're a little baby cars
You know, yeah, well and you don't realize how small that car is until I get inside of it
Yeah, and I feel like it's a go car. It's a normal size car for me. It's a nova. I mean, it's nova size
I feel like uh, this is must be what like shekelo anil feels like when he gets a new car
Probably
You know your butts on the sheet metal and you're only like this far from the roof, you know
John has been great. Yeah, hell of a good time, man. Thanks for selling out. Hey, thank you for having me appreciate it
Fucking time. We'll uh, we'll see you in uh, columbus here in a week or so and we'll hang out. Absolutely
We'll see you again next week
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About this episode
John Wargo of The Custom Shop shares how he got started flipping and building cars as a teenager, then explains how his shop evolved from fix-and-flip into customer builds. The conversation moves through chassis and bodywork fundamentals—boxing frames, improving backside prep, and managing wiring—plus the culture of stance mods like body drops. Wargo also details how SEMA changed his career: BFGoodrich invited him, sponsorships followed, and the shop built dozens of cars for the show. Along the way, they trade stories about paint, graphics, and show deadlines.
This week on Oil & Whiskey, we’re joined by John Wargo of The Custom Shop.
John has been at it since 1988, building everything from wild mini trucks and graphic-heavy show vehicles to muscle cars, SEMA builds, custom paint, and full-blown one-off projects.
This one gets into the early days, building cars right out of high school, work ethic, the evolution of the custom car world, SEMA stories, magazine features, old builds coming back around, and what it really takes to keep doing this at a high level for decades.
