Karl Schulman and Logan Como from Garrett's Rod Shop share their journey in the automotive industry, discussing the evolution of their shop, the challenges of building custom cars, and the importance of mentorship. They reflect on the significance of car culture, the thrill of SEMA builds, and the camaraderie among builders. The conversation also touches on the changing landscape of car shows and the value of sharing knowledge within the community. With a mix of humor and insight, this episode captures the passion and dedication that drives automotive enthusiasts.
This week on Oil & Whiskey, we sit down with Karl Schulman and Logan Como of Garret’s Rod Shop, one of the most respected names in modern hot rod and custom car building.Garret’s blends old-school craftsmanship with modern design, and Karl & Logan share how the shop approaches creativity, problem-solving, and building cars with real personality. From metalwork to workflow to the culture inside the shop, this episode goes deep into their process and what keeps them pushing the craft forward.We dig into:The story behind Garret’s Rod Shop and how the team worksCrafting modern hot rods while respecting traditional rootsHow they approach design, fabrication, and problem-solvingShop culture, mentorship, and keeping the next generation involvedHow hot rodding is still evolving and where it’s headed nextGrab official Oil & Whiskey gear at oilandwhiskey.com. Good time, bad advice, great shirts.
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Floorliner HP is a high‑quality mat that goes on the floor of your car to keep it clean and safe from messes.
Floorliner HP is WeatherTech's premium floor mat designed to protect a vehicle’s interior from dirt, spills, and wear.
"New car help maximize resale value when it's time to trade it in."
When you buy a car, the resale value is how much you can get back if you sell it later. A higher resale value means you lose less money over time.
Resale value refers to the amount of money a vehicle can fetch when sold or traded in after it has been owned for some time. It reflects the car’s remaining worth compared to its original purchase price.
"Older, pre‑owned car make it look better with a simple interior refresh upgrade."
An interior refresh upgrade is when you replace things inside the car, like seats or carpet, to make it look newer and nicer.
An interior refresh upgrade involves replacing or refurbishing components inside a car—such as seats, carpeting, and trim—to improve appearance and comfort.
Garrett's Rod Shop is a local shop that works on car parts, especially things like connecting rods.
Garrett's Rod Shop is a specialty automotive shop located in Bowlingbrook, Illinois, that likely specializes in performance parts such as connecting rods and related components.
"And so he ended up building a 39 Ford kind of a gasser style back then."
A 1939 Ford is a vintage car from the year 1939, made by Ford. It’s famous for its classic look and is often collected by car enthusiasts.
The 1939 Ford refers to the model year of a classic American automobile produced by Ford Motor Company, known for its iconic design and historical significance.
"...f building another hot rod. And so he had a 1948 Anglia always kind of loved the gasser of the drag race ..."
The Anglia is a tiny car from Ford that was made in Britain. It’s light and easy to handle, which made it popular back then.
The Ford Anglia, produced from 1939 to 1967, is a small British car known for its lightweight design and versatility. It was popular in the UK and later became a classic among collectors.
"But then we there was a guy in our local town that had a 57 Chevy that he was wanting to finish and he saw our build..."
A 1957 Chevy is a classic car from the 1950s that people love to fix up. It has a big engine and looks very retro.
The 1957 Chevrolet is a classic American muscle car known for its powerful V8 engine and iconic styling. It’s often restored by enthusiasts who appreciate its vintage performance and design.
"[606.0s] But we debuted the 57 Bel Air called Air Age in 2000.
[610.8s] And that was the first year good guys had street machine of the year."
The 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air is a classic car from the 1950s, known for its cool look and strong engine. It’s a popular choice among car collectors.
The Chevrolet Bel Air is a classic American car produced in the 1950s, famous for its sleek styling and powerful V8 engines. The 1957 model is especially sought after by collectors for its iconic design and performance.
"That had been like in the early 90s. I graduated high school in 92. So that's what much machining going on in the hot rod world."
Hot rods are classic cars that people change to make them faster or cooler. It’s a hobby where you can learn about car parts and how they work.
The hot rod world refers to a subculture of car enthusiasts who modify and customize older vehicles, especially American muscle cars, for performance and style.
"You've got to really hit the forums, hit the swap meets. And yeah, yeah. And, you know, Garrett's always he always likes getting kind of like being really artsy on stuff and creative with how we make parts. And, you know, it'd be time to go to the junkyard and find something out of a new car, like a cool door handle or something that was, unique shape..."
ATEC makes parts that help cars run faster, especially for engines with turbochargers. They sell things like coolers and valves that improve performance.
ATEC is a manufacturer of aftermarket performance parts, especially for turbocharged engines. Their products include intercoolers, blow-off valves, and other components that boost power.
"And, you know, it'd be time to go to the junkyard and find something out of a new car, like a cool door handle or something that was, unique shape that you couldn't buy or making it was difficult."
A junkyard is a lot where old or broken cars are kept. People go there to find parts that can be reused in new or modified vehicles.
A junkyard, also known as a salvage yard, is a place where discarded or damaged vehicles are stored. Enthusiasts often source parts from junkyards to rebuild or modify cars.
"...the way we've evolved. Where did the did the the barracuda or charger come first? It was the charger. All r..."
The Barracuda is a muscle car from Plymouth that was made in the 1960s and ’70s. It’s known for its big engine and sharp look.
The Plymouth Barracuda, produced from 1964 to 1978, is a classic American muscle car celebrated for its aggressive styling and powerful V8 options. It’s often compared to the Ford Mustang as a rival of the era.
"...we've done a couple of years prior to that was a Mustang convertible, sixty four and a half, you know, jus..."
The Mustang is a classic American sports car that first came out in the mid‑1960s. It’s famous for its fast engines and cool looks, which is why people love talking about it.
The Ford Mustang is an iconic American muscle car that debuted in 1964, known for its aggressive styling and powerful performance. It has become a cultural symbol of freedom and automotive enthusiasm, often discussed for its evolution across generations.
"... out, but probably coming up because we had it at Grand National. We had that and the bear coded together out the..."
The Grand National is a fast Buick sedan from the 1980s. It’s known for its strong engine and comfortable ride.
The Buick Grand National, produced from 1984 to 1991, is a high‑performance sedan that combined Buick’s luxury with powerful V6 engines. It remains a cult favorite among performance enthusiasts.
"When you get in them, it's crazy. We did that Catalina 65 Catalina, which is a monster. When you get in..."
The Catalina is a big car from Pontiac that was popular in the 1960s. It’s known for its spacious inside and strong engine.
The Pontiac Catalina, produced from 1965 to 1977, is a full‑size sedan known for its roomy interior and powerful V8 options. The 1965 model is often highlighted for its classic American styling.
"...ut I mean, put the two together. It's not like a Caprice versus something like that. 60 Cadillacs still f..."
The Caprice is a large car from Holden that was made in Australia. It’s comfortable and has a strong engine.
The Holden Caprice, produced from 1979 to 1997 in Australia, is a full‑size sedan that combined comfort with robust performance. It’s often compared to its American counterparts for its spaciousness.
"Where did Logan come into the picture? Well, Logan's pretty new, and I'm glad he came with me because I'm speaking the way you hear a lot of people talk about how were we going to find our help and where's, you"
The Logan is a cheap, reliable car from Dacia that’s easy to maintain. It’s popular in many countries because it doesn’t cost much to run.
The Dacia Logan, introduced in 2004, is a budget-friendly compact car known for its simplicity and practicality. It’s popular in emerging markets due to its low cost of ownership.
"... drivetrain out of a pretty clapped out little 63 Impala and the guy just wanted a blueprint engine with ..."
The Impala is a big, comfortable car from Chevrolet that was popular in the 1960s. It’s known for its roomy inside and smooth drive.
The Chevrolet Impala, a full‑size sedan produced from 1958 to 2005, has been praised for its spacious interior and smooth ride. The 1963 model is often highlighted for its classic American design.
"...then I did gauges, vintage air, front runner on a Chevelle and then it just started turning into more, hey,..."
The Chevelle is a mid‑size car from Chevrolet that was popular in the 1960s and ’70s. It’s known for its strong engines and classic look.
The Chevrolet Chevelle, produced from 1964 to 1977, is a mid‑size car celebrated for its performance variants and classic American styling. It remains popular among muscle car enthusiasts.
"We've replaced some brake calipers. Cool. I can do that."
Brake calipers are like the parts that push the brake pads against the wheel’s spinning disc to stop the car. They’re a key part of the braking system.
Brake calipers are the components that squeeze brake pads against the rotor to slow or stop a vehicle. They sit on each wheel and are driven by hydraulic pressure from the brake system.
"...was in, you know, like old cars. He's got a 1917 Model T. He taught us about flathead engine, some work o..."
The Model T is an old car from the early 1900s that made cars cheap and easy to buy. It’s a classic example of how cars changed the world.
The Ford Model T, produced from 1908 to 1927, revolutionized transportation by making cars affordable through assembly line production. Its flathead engine and simple design are often studied in automotive history.
"...ght? And it dawned on me that the 93 or whatever civic that was in clean pristine condition that was in..."
The Civic is a small car made by Honda that’s known for being cheap to run and very dependable. The 1993 version is a popular example of how good these cars can be.
The Honda Civic, introduced in 1972, is a compact car celebrated for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and strong resale value. Its 1993 model is often highlighted as a benchmark for early '90s Japanese engineering.
"vintage JDM, which is fucking amazing to even say that there's a thing as vintage JDM"
JDM means cars that were made for people in Japan. They’re often special and can be cool to own because they look different from cars sold elsewhere.
JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market, referring to cars and parts originally sold in Japan. JDM vehicles are prized by enthusiasts for unique styling, performance upgrades, and rarity outside Japan.
"... I don't just like, I'd like, I'd love to have an RX7. I think those are cool."
The RX‑7 is a small, fast car from Mazda that uses a special kind of engine called a rotary. It’s famous for being fun to drive.
The Mazda RX‑7, produced from 1978 to 2002, is a lightweight sports coupe known for its rotary engine and balanced handling. It’s revered among enthusiasts for its unique powerplant and classic styling.
"or it's got an antiquated EFI system on it. How are you gonna handle that?"
EFI is the computer that tells a car how much fuel to put in each cylinder. An old EFI system might not work well with newer engines or software, so it can be harder to fix.
EFI stands for Electronic Fuel Injection, a modern system that precisely meters fuel into an engine. An antiquated EFI system is older and may lack the efficiency, diagnostics, or compatibility of newer units.
"...d then we've got a restoration we did. It's a 65 GTO and that's going to be in the Armo's banquet. We..."
The GTO is a muscle car from Pontiac that was made in the 1960s. It’s famous for its big engine and bold look.
The Pontiac GTO, first introduced in 1964 as a muscle car, earned the nickname “the original supercar” for its powerful V8 and aggressive styling. Its 1965 version is a favorite among collectors.
"The only thing we did was put Wilwood's in American Auto Wires so he can stop and start basically"
American Auto Wires makes the wires that carry electricity inside a car, helping things like brakes and lights work properly.
American Auto Wires is a supplier of automotive electrical components, including wiring harnesses and connectors that ensure reliable power delivery to vehicle systems.
Frame rails are long metal bars that run along the sides of a car’s frame. They help keep the car strong and give places to attach parts like the suspension.
Frame rails are the longitudinal structural members that run along the sides of a vehicle’s chassis, providing rigidity and mounting points for suspension components. They are critical for maintaining the vehicle’s structural integrity.
"...le and then it tapers up to the rear clip of the Corvette with its rails. Trans in the rear."
The Corvette is a fast American sports car that has been made for many decades. It’s famous for its sharp look and strong engine.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a high‑performance American sports car that has been in production since 1953. Its sleek design and powerful V8 engines make it a staple of automotive lore, especially in discussions about mid‑century styling.
"Yeah. And so he's got this. I think it's a cutlass or a chivalral, kind of like from two lane black ..."
The Cutlass is a mid‑size car from Oldsmobile that was popular in the 1960s and ’70s. It’s known for its smooth drive and strong engines.
The Oldsmobile Cutlass, produced from 1960 to 1999, is a mid‑size car that became famous for its performance variants and comfortable ride. The 1970s models are especially prized by collectors.
".... We have pies. Well, so that you're just an old soul. That's the thing. Yeah, for sure."
The Soul is a small car from Kia that looks like a box. It’s easy to drive and has plenty of room inside.
The Kia Soul, introduced in 2002, is a compact crossover known for its boxy shape, spacious interior, and affordable price. Its quirky design has made it a favorite among urban drivers.
"[7845.0s] And the car was too fast.
[7846.5s] It's Mongoose.
[7847.5s] Yeah. So he called the Mongoose is the whole thing."
Mongoose is a company that makes motorcycles, especially small off‑road bikes people ride for fun or in races.
Mongoose is a motorcycle and off‑road vehicle manufacturer founded in 1947, known for producing lightweight bikes such as the popular Mongoose MX series.
"...at information. Cousin Mikey, ask him about like C10, S10 stuff. He's got all kinds of information."
The C‑10 is a pickup truck from Chevrolet that’s been around for decades. It’s strong and useful for many jobs.
The Chevrolet C‑10 is a mid‑size pickup truck produced from 1960 to 1998, known for its durability and versatility in both work and recreation. It’s a staple of American truck culture.
"It's not the passenger side headlight wiring. It's actually the fuel sender."
This is the cable that brings electricity to the front light on the side of the car where you sit. It connects the battery to the headlight so it can turn on.
The electrical wiring that supplies power to the headlight on the passenger side of a vehicle. It runs from the battery or alternator through the fuse box to the headlight assembly.
"It's actually the fuel sender. And the whole the day, like the craziest things that we've spent so much time."
This is a small device inside the fuel tank that tells the car how much gas is left. It helps the dashboard show you your fuel level and lets the engine know if it needs to adjust.
A sensor that measures the level of fuel in the tank and sends this information to the vehicle’s engine control unit (ECU) or dashboard gauge.
"because look at the Ring Brothers Aston Martin right now. That car hasn't even been, none of us have seen it, it hasn't been to a show."
Aston Martin makes fancy, fast cars that are very expensive and popular in movies and on TV.
Aston Martin is a British luxury automotive manufacturer known for high-performance sports cars and grand tourers.
Select text to request an explanation
The highlight of my train layout, and the homies will vouch for this.
The homies, the homies will not.
Is it a bank turn?
Can you do a bank turn?
No, it's traveling through the country.
Dude, simmer down, J-Dog.
I'm about to put a crazy bow on this.
All right, bring it.
A lot of kids think like, oh, I send an application, or like, dude, you just got to go there.
Interview me right now, or else, and if it's or else, come back.
Just go show how hungry you are and sell yourself.
Give that guy you're asking for a shot something to believe in.
Make it so undeniable that, OK, I can take a chance here and believe in yourself, and
then that'll outwardly kind of make you have the conversation you need to.
Because that's what happened with Charlie.
And I was showing him my Camaro and like, look, this is what I have done.
Charlie, this is what I figured out on my own.
This is what I want to keep doing.
This is what I'm willing to do for you.
Do I have a spot?
In our industry, like, you know, we're not like rocket scientists, we're not doctors,
but we're skilled people that do things for those clients.
And so they look at us like, yeah, wow, you guys are amazing.
You know, you can do things that just make my dreams come true.
This is a safe space, right?
Break it down.
I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to go.
I'm going to admit some things you're admitting some things.
So this is this is safe.
Yeah, it's a safe for the whole no judgment.
So hard 100 percent safe on anything as what I'm about to say getting used against me later.
Yes, I'll give it to you.
Scouts on it.
Yeah, I'll give it to you because I think you if you violate between you and me,
not the rest of the listeners, that's fine.
But if you violate, as I'm telling you, there's repercussions.
So welcome everybody back.
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This week, in person, Garrett's Rod Shop.
We've got Carl, we've got Logan.
Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Thanks for coming, guys.
Yeah. Stoked to be here.
It's great.
Guys, I'm glad you could make it up here and do this.
It's going to be a fun one.
Interested to hear the story.
So Garrett, Garrett Kitchen is where Garrett's Rod Shop come from.
And that's he's my daddy's stepdad.
He'd come to my life when I was 15 or 16.
That my mom, but Garrett was always into hot rods when he was 14, you know,
as an uncle took him to a drag race.
That was the start of it.
You know, he was hooked.
And so he ended up building a 39 Ford kind of a gasser style back then.
So we're talking mid 60s when he was 14.
He graduated like 1970 from high school in the Columbus area.
Yeah, always born and raised as I was the, you know, that that time was definitely,
you know, he was either going to be an athlete or a mechanic, you know,
and everybody was in the cars.
So he got into mechanics and all he probably would have been a good athlete.
But yeah, he got into the car scene and went right into auto tech and repaired
cars and still always would work on cars in his own home garage, build a 34 Ford
eventually with a big block, you know, and this is again, like in the 80s and stuff.
So always kept at it.
And then when he met my mom, she was real encouraging of him, you know,
pursuing dreams of building another hot rod.
And so he had a 1948 Anglia always kind of loved the gasser of the drag race seat.
That was his big thing.
But so, yeah, so they started building the car in the home garage.
And then I always loved cars.
And so it was a great match, you know, here this guy comes into my life that, you know,
going to help me kind of get into something that led to a lot, you know,
more into the future.
But his, you know, his passion was just building hot rods and but still was working
as a mechanic, diesel mechanic.
Garrett ended up inventing a fuel shut off valve for diesel trucks, because in the
diesel truck world, he saw a need.
Yeah, he's working on a line one night and a truck comes in and it's just spilling
diesel fuel everywhere.
And he's like, well, we got one of those going on right now.
Yeah, we got a hole in our tank on our rig that's steadily leaking fuel.
He's talked about back in.
Yeah, he's talked about when he worked in diesel shops that they would
weld up the tanks with and they'd fill it full of diesel fuel to well.
Yeah.
And he would do it and like, really, that's scary.
But, you know, he's still around to talk about that.
Yeah, the future caused the explosion, right?
Not the fuel.
Yeah, not in diesel, though.
He just would keep it.
It's got to be have some compression.
Yeah.
So just that's still the idea of doing all that.
Yeah, but it's ballsy.
Yeah.
So he came up with this idea for this fuel shut off valve that would help
trucks got in an accident.
It would shut off the fuel line to the supply line and to the tank and keep
things from happening.
And he pursued it a lot and had a pretty good company, pretty good run at it for
a while and had a patent.
And it just trucks kind of changed the way they were making things.
And he also was they were wanting to sit on the NTSB board and be a part of that.
He's like, I just want to build the product.
I don't want to go through all those bureaucratic things.
But looking back now, he feels like, yeah, you know, probably would have
played the game.
Yeah, I got a grease palms once in a while.
But my mouth dry.
I need a sip of it.
Get it after it.
Get it.
By the way, I would only take a sip, though, because it's a little spicy.
That's why we're here.
It's a little really good.
It's kind of hot.
Yeah, I got a little bite.
Yeah, it's tenure.
But it's a little lower.
Yeah, it is.
It's pretty good.
Is that a one 10 125?
Yeah.
Oh, that's where that would become good stuff.
It could be a it could be a 50 year 120 something.
That's great.
So anyways, yeah, so that's where, you know, he's still always kept that passion
of building hot rods and all that.
So when, like I said, he met my mom and she was real encouraging about it.
So he's pursued building this anglia that he did.
And I think we finished it in 98 and took it to the good guy shows.
And those are good guys in Indianapolis, which was a great show.
I don't know if some of you weren't around for that fun time.
That was the best day.
And we talk about that all the time.
What a great era that was.
Yeah, you could watch drag racing or see boys, propics and everything.
See some dude in anglia with a nitro motor going like sideways.
Yeah, the seeing the alters and stuff running.
It was wild.
It's a pure hell.
Pure hell.
Pure hell, Tommy Evo, the twin TV Tommy.
I know the what's the hand me under glass.
I remember seeing the real original one racing this before he rolled it with
Leno. Yeah, way, way before that.
So yeah, so we end up going to that show with that car.
And it was kind of a hit because the car we did was very street rotty, but
still real muscly at the time.
And it took eight years for us because we were building at home, you know,
home garage, still, you know, just working other jobs.
But then we there was a guy in our local town that had a 57 Chevy that he was
wanting to finish and he saw our build and he's like, I didn't know anybody
could build cars like that in the Columbus area.
He was real just intrigued with the design and how we were doing things.
So we he was basically became our first Garrett's Rod Shop customer in 99.
So that's when Garrett's formed the company, you know, and it was still in
our garage at the house.
We have so my mom's property or family has a hundred or 30 acre property
that was a farm at one time.
So there's no chicken coop on the on the farm.
And it was just kind of dilapidated.
So cleaned it up.
And I think it's like a 15 by 20 building.
And that was like the Taj Mahal for us.
Moving out of the garage now.
Yeah. And we realized it was getting bad to to stay in the neighborhood doing
stuff because like the neighbors, like one time we painted some DP.
What was it? The purple stuff like DP 40 or 80 was like purple and sprayed it
at night. Yeah.
And then the neighbors garage doors just coated in an hour's spray.
So we kind of were just like washing the driveway and the neighbors left
and like and then just hurry up, clean the driveway and the door.
And we were like, OK, we got to move out of the neighborhood.
It's just too noisy and grinding sounds all evening and stuff like that.
So that wasn't wasn't good.
So but yeah.
So moved down there and the first customer was a guy in Columbus.
And he has a bar called Scully's.
So a lot of people know him in town.
It's kind of famous.
But we debuted the 57 Bel Air called Air Age in 2000.
And that was the first year good guys had street machine of the year.
So that was kind of like we got to be a part of all that the first year.
It was totally different than the day.
It was like we were just parked in one area.
They're like it was Posey, Tropanier,
Cameron Evans, those were the guys like picking the cars.
And it was interesting because they just found cars they liked around the fairgrounds.
There was not even like a spot you needed to be in.
Right. There was no driving.
There was no autocross.
There was no, you know, drivability test or whatever.
You just now bring it over here at five and we're going to judge.
And so we got to be a part of that.
The first, you know, Kyle Tucker, obviously won the first one.
But so that was a good start.
Tucker was in 2000.
He was building cars.
He was a twister.
He just it was the black and yellow.
Yeah.
He had just was Gary launch.
I think Detroit speed at that time.
He talked, he talked about when that built in his home.
It was a personal.
I didn't remember the year.
Wild. That's how old we are getting.
I'm not that old because I was just graduating high school
shortly thereafter, 2001.
So for you, yeah, that applies.
Definitely applies.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
What I meant by that was it doesn't seem like that long ago.
However, that was 25 years ago.
Yeah, got it. It's weird.
OK, yeah, I would agree with that.
I mean, like the first good guys Columbus was until 90.
I think 98 or 97, too.
So that's it's it's this weird at all that time goes by.
That's when it all kind of and then, yeah, like I said, in 2000,
getting that street machine first one was great.
That kind of give you like a taste of like.
Yeah, that's that's when, you know, people locally are like,
oh, these guys are in Columbus and this is our hometown shop.
And so we started getting more and more people interested.
And he but, you know, so at that time, my dad's just him.
I was helping a little bit part time.
I was doing my own kind of career exploration at that point in life.
And I was working as a machinist like doing machining.
I he bought a mill and a lay like a tiny one
just because we were building parts in the house.
Like thinking how expensive is to have somebody else build something?
It's not right.
So I really took to the machining side of things.
I really don't know.
There's just some everybody kind of has like a niche that they like.
A little more calculated, right?
It like there's
maybe I was like seeing things spin around.
I'm more like metal shape.
And you know, everybody's got their net.
There's like certain things like tubing.
I feel like, you know, it's like you calculate it, right?
There's a way of there's math left brain, right brain kind of thing.
And some of my friends are like, that takes a lot of patience,
which I don't have normally.
But I could stand like at a manual lathe or mill for hours doing stuff.
It just seemed seem right.
So that kind of him, the hot rods brought that, you know, trade to me.
I was doing it to build hot rod parts.
But then I realized as I got older, like, I could do this for a job,
you know, career, you know, not just go to school
and figure out what the hell I was going to do.
But so machining has been real good for me in that aspect.
But but anyway, so Garrett was his own one man band shop.
And then guy went to school with and working with them for many years
and just there this to two.
And, you know, they would build a car, finish it.
And then again, in between do like four or five, you know, engine swaps
or fixed, you know, clutches and with his mechanical background,
he's able to take in a lot of that, you know, hot rod repair type of stuff.
I asked you to back up because you said you built that first car,
the Anglia and then one as a result of that, somebody says,
hey, man, I want you guys to build me a car. Yeah.
So what did that what was that process like?
Are you like, did you guys have any intention of like,
is this going to be a business?
Can we do this for a living?
Do we want to do this for a living or just happen?
Always Garrett's dream to have a hot rod shop, you know, the speed shop
for, you know, something like that.
And he and a buddy in his high school days
would drag race that was big.
And yeah, so they would like, we're going to build cars one day
and work on it.
So but not really planning on it that, you know, he gave that up
because he had a career as a mechanic and and the other things.
And then it just kind of fell into place.
So it's weird how it's kind of like a, you know, a good American story
where, you know, you start off home and then you do something
that somebody wants you to do and they ask you to do.
And then it turns into a business.
It's and yeah, going from the home garage to the chicken coop.
You know, now we got 20,000 square feet in employees and all that kind of jazz.
So it's it's an evolution.
But he's worked, Garrett's worked super hard to make that, you know,
to today, which that's jumping ahead, obviously.
But still use the chicken coop.
Yeah, chicken coop.
That's there's still still.
It's like kind of the dirtier shop.
It's the chicken coop.
The floor is not great.
Literally, like when you walk into it, like the walls are only this tall,
like four or five feet and you could see where the roof line went up.
So we obviously built it up taller for to do stuff in it.
But he built some really nice cars in there.
But, you know, like anything, you got to expand if you're going to survive.
You got to grow.
So but it is funny because if somebody new starts or is working
in that shop or like, you know, like build an airplane in the Wright Brothers hangar.
You know, way back in the day where it started.
But at what point were you like?
Did that take to take off and you going through school?
Comes the time that you've got to make a decision.
You mentioned machining and maybe I'll do that comes the time that it's as far as
yeah, as far as I'm concerned.
Yeah, I like doing the machining.
I took some classes like at a night class and I'm like, I could just do this for a living.
I mean, I could make parts and so I'd go into shops and it was tough back in.
That had been like in the early 90s.
I graduated high school in 92.
So that's what much machining going on in the hot rod world.
Not a lot. No, like Boyd was it.
So we were making our own billet parts.
Ball mill and valve covers. Yeah, exactly.
That's like little John Butera. Right.
But like the baddest dude it was.
Yeah, you know, and the C and C equipment was definitely not affordable for home user.
So like you learn a lot like using a rotary table and ball mill and
just kind of inventing ways to make stuff that looks street rotty at the time.
You know, that ball mill was everything.
Make any of that cool with the ball mill.
Run a pass, step over, run a pass, step over.
Could you do the heartbeat of America?
You know, you know, on a manual.
Pretty good. Try to do it.
So I remember, though, too, like it's a lot of sitting dial stops right there.
Yeah. Or I'd go out and like find a job like, hey, we got these big steel pieces
we can cut off from the bandsaw and, you know, run on our lathe and realizing
like we don't have that kind of equipment.
And just running a little smithy shop laze on big steel stuff.
So but I love the machining end of things.
And like I said, it was just it felt right getting into that career.
So I worked at different machine shops around town.
And then I ended up falling into the class that I took some machining
at night class, the guy who thought it was retiring.
And he's like, I ran into him somewhere.
He's like, you ought to teach this night class.
And here I'm in my mid twenties, like, maybe, you know,
and it's a bunch of adults coming in and learning the trade.
So I took to that.
And then eventually I ended up teaching for in Columbus at a career
center, a career tech school.
I taught 18 years of machining.
Yeah, it's for high school kids.
And so that's been a good career for me.
You know, that was a big thing.
But that's why I didn't work at the shop for many years.
Garrett was just running the whole time while you're doing that.
Yeah, he was just running in.
He had a few guys and then like in the 2011 or 12,
the guy was a guy in town that was doing our paint work for us.
And he was going through some rough times and was kind of going to lose
his shop and didn't want to take on that responsibility and more.
So Garrett's like, I'm going to build a building for you and buy a paint booth
and you you're going to run that shop.
You know, so that was a game changer, bringing in paint into our shop.
Because before, you know, we'd get it built, send it out, come back.
So they're in wait until it comes back.
Yeah, or it's like wrong or, you know, something happens.
You need more than one, you know, you just paint a car.
There's more than just paying the car.
Sure. Everything else to it.
So that was a game changer is bringing in the paint shop to us.
And so, yeah, I mean, that's it's just the evolution of it to look back
from when we would go to the good guy show and sit in the stands and go buy parts,
you know, on the on the vendor lot, you know, and now it's like, you know,
let's take it for granted to call ATEC and order stuff.
It's there tomorrow.
Just the evolution of I think all of our industry has just been credible.
It is. You're calling ATEC when you're in Columbus.
Yeah. It's well, I mean, they're they're about two hours away.
OK, but we'll get the next day.
You can get an engine the next day.
That's pretty cool.
I mean, a lot of that has changed just because of like the genre of car we all
build now when it was traditional hot rods.
And there's still guys building some badass traditional hot rods.
But that's that's like the thrills in the hunt,
because you've got to find some cool stuff.
You've got to find some parts that you can't just go pick up like 37
two back, so that ATEC, right?
You've got to really hit the forums, hit the swap meets.
And yeah, yeah.
And, you know, Garrett's always he always likes getting kind of like being
really artsy on stuff and creative with how we make parts.
And, you know, it'd be time to go to the junkyard and find something
out of a new car, like a cool door handle or something that was,
you know, unique shape that you couldn't buy or making it was difficult.
Unlike today, you know, 3D printed it's more accessible on on things like that.
But so, yeah, this seems so much change in in the hot rod world
in the way we've evolved.
Where did the did the the barracuda or charger come first?
It was the charger. All right.
Which I think is a farce period car than the barracuda.
Barracuda, a lot more tension for some reason.
But they're very similar.
Yeah. You know, color palette and back to back.
That's the the charger was what I remember first, where I was like,
yeah, who are who are these?
That was the thing that it's like, didn't know you didn't know you
have you before and then after that.
And then you followed it up back to back.
Oh, these guys are building some shit.
Yeah, we two very odd cars.
Yeah, we've always liked that kind of a little bit that off.
Well, the Anglia, you know, Bill knows.
And then there's a stew bakery did years ago that we did a really cool
forty seven Buick convertible black car was a great lot of people see it.
And they're like, oh, you guys built that, you know, and it's it's been around
on the scene. Yeah, I remember the car.
Yeah, it's black with the removable top and like four buckets and stuff.
But almost kind of Art Decoey, but a little more performance driven.
Sometimes we're like people like, well, what is it?
Is it a street or a street machine?
It was just kind of a little bit. Yeah, a gray area there.
Yeah. Where did the where did the charger build come from?
So the charger build actually.
So the people in town that own the blue jackets, the hockey team,
they're a big steel manufacturer and they had that car for years.
And the family, so one of the grandson of the founding member,
it was he was kind of inherited the car.
And then we had did a we've done a couple of years prior to that was a
Mustang convertible, sixty four and a half, you know, just a restoration project.
And he's like, I want something.
You know, he went to good guys and like, I want something bad ass.
That's got a lot of power.
For me, a thousand horse and all that stuff.
We're like, you know, this is one your high profile.
Like if something goes wrong, this guy's.
Yeah, they could put you under, but but yeah, that was a that was a big project.
It was one of our prior, second, biggest,
it was most expensive bill we did, but it's just nice having a customer
that it's like just build it. You know, we've got the funds
and which makes a difference on all of what we do.
Even to the point now, again, jumping forward, it's like, you've got to have a certain amount
of money to build these cars.
We're not even going to touch it if you don't know that it's going to cost at least $300
enough.
Yeah, it's not cheap.
And as soon as you start talking about putting pain on water, taking it to that level, and
it's certainly an investment of time and money.
But the charger was a big shot in the arm for us, because we hadn't had anything out
in a while that was real recognizable, and I appreciate you saying that.
But that kind of was like that put us back into the limelight of what we're capable of
doing.
How long of a build was that?
I think that was about a four-year build, so we were with the interior involved.
Did you pull that thing up?
Yeah.
At what point did you have a debut date in mind?
SEMA.
Yeah.
It's fucking things not working.
That's cool.
Everything is broken in here.
We're running through too many podcasts in one week in here.
I was up here flipping switches and buttons and chips.
Just playing around.
I don't understand why the mouse just does not work.
Literally.
Flip it on and off, is it good?
I just did that.
Take the batteries and keep changing them, flip them around, warm them up.
When did you know that SEMA was going to be the, it's four-year build?
When you start out, you're just like, we're worried about building it.
At some point, you start saying, we got to get this or something.
Let's take it somewhere, and that creates your deadline.
You don't come up with a deadline because you want to.
You come up with a show, and then that becomes the deadline.
Yeah.
You look at what's close.
I think, that was in 2018, so I'm trying to think back like what we did.
I know it's on our website too, but.
Did you step your game up when you made the decision you were going to bring it to SEMA?
Unfortunately, we didn't make it to SEMA that year.
Our tearshop kind of.
It debuted at Columbus, right?
Yeah.
That was the thing there.
Damn interior guys.
It was such a massive build that you try to get to some areas of logic of when we're
going to bring it out, but probably coming up because we had it at Grand National.
We had that and the bear coded together out there just for, there's a highlight.
That's the two together, so.
They look pretty good together.
Same customer?
No.
Two different customers, and actually the bear could have started off before the charger.
Really?
And it was a guy here in Chicago.
Geez, I forget his name.
He collected a lot of cars.
He had some old boy cars, and we were going to finish that for him and just as a street
machine to drive around through Chicago.
That was his dream, but he ended up selling it and well, we'd start builds and if customers
stopped on it, we're like, we're not going to let them just sell it out from under us.
We want to find a customer that can finish it out and do some justice, but the charger
to me is one of our best cars as far as just feel and drive, and even if it's big, it feels
fine.
It just feels like a good one.
Well, anytime you build one of these cars, it totally takes the large scale proportion
out of it.
When you get in them, it's crazy.
We did that Catalina 65 Catalina, which is a monster.
When you get in that car, it feels like a little sports car.
It's crazy the difference.
I don't know.
I mean, look at new cars.
Maybe it's just my perception, but modern day cars are pretty big.
They have more interior space.
We're back, I think, older days.
The cars were just more trunk and hood.
Cabs are smaller, but I mean, put the two together.
It's not like a Caprice versus something like that.
60 Cadillacs still feel big.
It's big.
It's big no matter what you do.
Yeah, it still feel big.
I mean, it would do some nimble things, but it still did feel like a monster.
Big car.
Well, Logan said here and now he said a word.
Where did Logan come into the picture?
Well, Logan's pretty new, and I'm glad he came with me because I'm speaking the way
you hear a lot of people talk about how were we going to find our help and where's, you
know, there's no one doing this stuff anymore.
And maybe we found the one person on the planet that wants to work as a youngster.
I don't know.
I could be wrong, but I don't know any other.
I'm also not looking.
No, I've worked for Garrett's for three years, and it was the happiest accident ever.
I was working, I don't know, Charlie's Custom Creations in Tennessee.
I was working with him for two years prior, and there at the end towards the end of my
second year, I started steelmaning some social media stuff for Charlie was like, we need
to get out there is really good content here.
I'll do it for you.
It's going to help.
And that turned into real consistent YouTube involvement.
And I was in the shop, but I had no prior to Charlie's, I was just a tech at a dealer.
That's what I decided I wanted to do out of high school.
Because I just didn't know, you know, what the heck else am I going to do with 60 years?
I kind of like wrenching.
I can maybe see myself problem solving full time.
Shop teacher likes me.
Says he's got a job lined up.
And then I found Charlie's because I had a little second gen Camaro that I beat on in
high school and I thought I was living my own hot rod fantasy and was having a blast
with that.
And I took it to one local car show and it was just so gross mechanically.
I could not be proud of any of the mechanical condition of that car just because it's clearly
a death trap.
Were you were you proud of it back then though?
I was so proud taking it to prom and doing a burnout and graduation and all that.
Then I realized this is not the car I think it is.
And I lacked the skill to make it what I want to.
So I found Charlie's on accident and just kind of said, Hey, I want to learn.
I want to learn so bad.
And he started just kind of figuring out what I am capable of.
And then that led into what I did for him, which was just more mechanical hot rod repair
stuff, vintage air installed gauges and.
What's that conversation like the for I don't want to glaze past that.
What's that conversation like when you find Charlie's and you're saying there's kids
out there listening.
Right.
Yeah.
So what do you a lot of kids think like, Oh, I send it.
I send an application or like, dude, you just got to go there.
Interview me right now or else.
And if it's or else, come back, right, like you have to what I tell because I do have
some friends that just have where do I do just make it happen, dude, just go show how
hungry you are and sell yourself and give that guy you're asking for a shot, something
to believe in, make it so undeniable that, okay, I can, I can take a chance here and
believe in yourself and then that'll outwardly kind of make you have the conversation you
need to.
That's what happened with Charlie.
And I was shown my Camaro and like, look, this is what I have done.
I got no family that is mechanically inclined or in that world.
So no dad or grandpa kind of guided me through what, what is right or wrong.
Charlie, this is what I figured out on my own.
This is what I want to keep doing.
This is what I'm willing to do for you.
Do I have a spot?
And then that turned into a yes worked out great for two years and learned so much, learned
way more about what I didn't know, which is really important because then you know where
you're aiming.
Right.
Where did that spot start?
Obviously he brought you in your fresh.
You wanted to be a hot rod builder.
So he just probably gave you like a brand new TIG welder, put you behind a power hammer.
Yeah, yeah.
Get a bunch of classes and then had you build like, he actually sent me a chop of top scholarship
to Wiotek and he paid my whole ride.
Yeah, right.
This is pretty, so pretty standard stuff.
Yeah.
But really what was it?
I mean, what was, what's day one you come in the door after you gauge and stall?
I'm guessing you finally talked him into hiring you.
What did you do?
I was ripping the engine transmission drivetrain out of a pretty clapped out little 63 Impala
and the guy just wanted a blueprint engine with a carb.
Charlie said, looks like you did that on your Camaro.
See if you can do it here.
Awesome.
And just turn you loose.
Yep.
And he found out real quick what he didn't like about what I was doing and then I learned
why he didn't like about what I was doing.
Cool.
You're right.
I should alter course here.
And that's how my lessons were learned at Charlie's was like, hey, what are you doing?
I was like, my best.
But if it needs to be better, let's work on it.
I understand.
So that Impala was a pretty quick turnaround.
Just a little mechanical engine transmission, sniper job, no gauges or anything and that
customer was stoked and then I'm doing a, I got really good at the snipers he found out,
which doesn't mean I love to do just that.
Right.
I could make a sniper run on a carbureted car just fine.
He started lining up those for me.
The second one was a second gen Camaro 8081, really hot 383 in it that just wasn't running
well.
And it got the whole sniper hyperspark holly kit there and it just woke it up so hard that
he started advertising like, yeah, something we could do.
This is repeatable.
This is clean.
And then I did gauges, vintage air, front runner on a Chevelle and then it just started
turning into more, hey, you're going to be putting these packages on these finished cars.
And that's, that's what the first year at Charlie's looked like for me.
And then right around the second year it was LS Fest 2020 or 2021 LS Fest 2021.
We wanted to take this CJ8 scrambler that was super cool.
I don't know who made the chassis, but it had a Wagner LS3 in it and no heat and air.
And he, for some reason, trusted me.
You're doing final assembly on this thing, wiring.
Just, it's painted, here's the parts, put it together, LS Fest is your target.
And as young as I was, that was so awesome and inspiring, like man, he believes in me
so hard.
So then I started showing up way harder.
I was eating hours left and right just because I loved it, the name of the game.
And I am, I am excited to make this happen.
And then that LS Fest is what opened up the whole media door.
I was like, Charlie, I'm bringing a camera and we're going to have fun with it.
And if you hate the video by the end of it, fine, but I think we're really going to have
fun and this is going to open some doors and it did.
We ended up, he had a 64 Nova that had been done for a while.
Nova Tron, little root beer, Nova, awesome, ground effects, one of his flagship builds
that had been done.
And we took it too.
And just because I had the cameras, was able to talk with, just take it on the burnout
pad, man.
Nobody has ever seen a car, this fit, finished paint, tear it up.
And he did.
It was a clutch kick in LS Fest.
And then that kicked off a whole year of just hardcore, we're making videos, we're getting
the shop out there.
More jobs started coming in and for the rest of that year, I was doing the lighter side
of final assembly, like basic bracket making, mostly just wiring, finished part installs,
gauges.
Just when the cars were ready to get put together, he'd kind of have me make them work.
That led me to World of Wheels 2022, 2022.
World of Wheels here, we're in Chicago, the Mecca of Hot Rodding.
There's a show there, there's World of Wheels, Mecca of Hot Rodding, maybe a stretch.
And at the time.
There's some big ass, there is some big ass cars there because it's right after Detroit.
Right, I know.
It's just an odd place.
Coming from a lot of World of Wheels, that's place, that venue.
It's just a depressing fucking venue.
Is it the lighting maybe?
It's the lack of lighting.
I had no idea, I didn't know any better.
I'm like, I'm going to a car show and it's indoors.
You thought it was awesome, you're just shitting all over his parade.
Yeah, it's the parade where I met Carl.
I thought we met at Autorama.
We met at Autorama, but at World of Wheels, I walked up to you with a camera and said,
I want to interview you about the P33.
Which I was odd, I was like, why does another shop want to know about us?
You're just posting other people's stuff out there.
But then we learned that we got along.
And I got your number.
Yes.
Professionally.
Professionally.
Here's my credit card, here's my car.
It was a quick clarification there.
About four months later, maybe?
Less?
I don't know.
I don't know the timeline.
I've been with Garris for three years.
You guys were doing the World of Wheels tour and we had a car out and we were, hey, let's
do indoor shows with it.
It's nice enough for it.
We never really did a series of them.
It kind of did get addicting doing the indoor ISEA.
And it's like, oh, it's fun.
You show up, you put your display up, show the car and tear it down.
And then you were traveling with the same people it seemed like through the show.
So yeah, that's how we kept seeing you and Charlie's and all that kind of stuff.
That's what was addicting is like, man, we're going to see these guys again that you know
we have a good time with.
It was fun.
So.
But yeah, then you call me that summer like, are you guys hiring?
Just like, if I bring my toolbox up to Columbus, what are the odds?
Just do it.
Try it.
Which?
What drove you that direction and what enticed you about what he was doing?
Chicken coop.
He didn't know about it.
He probably didn't know about it.
I had no idea about the chicken coop.
He never even showed up.
He'd never been to Columbus before.
Never.
I had no dreams of Granger for Ohio.
But it had no fault to Charlie.
He just found out what I was really good at.
And he was in no position in his business to sacrifice time to help me learn the things
that I wanted to learn and keep me progressing.
And I knew that Garrett was older, established.
And maybe I can talk myself into a pretty killer Mr. Miyagi situation here where I've
got an old man.
I've always gotten along with old men.
They're so cool.
Just let me hear your stories.
Talk for hours.
Older men.
Older men.
See why you were quick, huh?
Again.
That's probably what this is working so good with you and Josh.
Josh is like, you know, he's going to crawl over here and sit on a Uncle Josh's lap and
tell me about you.
You're not old in my book till you're past 68.
All right.
Hey, I ain't old then.
You're not old.
I knew in your face that today was going to be like one of those days.
Yeah.
I knew it.
I was prepared.
It's the same face every day.
Yeah.
It did turn into just that though.
I got there and Garrett kind of had no idea the extent of it.
And I sit down in front of him like, hey, I'm ready.
Like, you want to meet me?
Garrett's thinking, it's just another day.
Like, what are you?
Am I supposed to interview you?
What are you expecting?
He's like, we'll go out there and work on that Jaguar.
Okay.
We've replaced some brake calipers.
Cool.
I can do that.
Yeah.
And then he liked the way I did that.
So we just got chatting after work that day and he told me some baseline expectations.
Dude, they are met and then some.
I am so excited for this opportunity and therefore about my first year and a half at Garrett's
after work every day, I would just hang out in the office with him for about 45 minutes,
just one-on-one.
What's up?
Tell me this story.
Tell me that story.
What's your perspective on this?
And that turned into the kind of knowledge I was seeking.
So three years later, I am doing stuff at Garrett's that I never thought I would learn how to do,
have the skill to do.
Never thought in myself that I would be doing.
Because I just, I lack any formal training.
And that's super cool now.
But at the time, that was very intimidating.
I don't know how to take weld.
I want to be a fabricator because it's so cool.
Look at all the glory.
It's glorious.
It's not.
I slot some holes.
Then weld them up.
Right.
But now I am building exhausts and doing final assembly at Garrett's, making brackets on the
fly, thinking about things differently, just the way that it was the right move.
Because it gave me the room to grow.
It was this, and the shop seemed to be in a position to accept somebody who was hungry.
So it was just the perfect fit.
And you got to be willing to spend your time.
So how did that work?
Because I fully understand how long it takes to get proficient at TIG welding and building brackets and doing stuff like that.
It's easy to say that somebody is going to put you in a position or give you the tools to do it.
But it also doesn't just happen.
A guy can explain to you, hey man, here, put it at this X amount of amps.
You're going to want to pulse it like this, use this rod, set this this way.
But it doesn't just happen.
So on your end, what was the lift like?
What did you put in to get it, to learn that skill set, to master that skill set, to where you can go make that bracket?
Or you were confident enough to actually TIG weld something that's going on a customer's car?
Say 24 hours at least, split through some weekends of just coming into the shop.
Hey Garrett, can I use the TIG welder and subscribe and just play with it?
And then he'd come out there and check on me playing with it.
Try this, do a little bit of this.
You're almost there.
He'd put the hood on, watch the way I do it.
Oh yeah, no, that makes sense, okay.
And he did a lot of letting me figure it out.
But then guiding me when I ran into a fork in the road.
And that's why it worked so well.
He was not strict about do it this way.
Sure.
This is right and wrong.
And I think he kind of did a lot of learning that way too, just because it was such an easy transition of information.
It almost telepathic.
I know what you're saying, Garrett.
I can get it done for you.
There was no...
The most basic formal training I got was that little chart on the inside of the welder.
It is useful.
It is not scripture.
Can you start it?
It is useful.
It is not scripture.
Tune it from there.
And then it's also up to you.
Get the feel for it.
TIG welder is an instrument and you learn how you want to play it.
And anytime I was playing it rough, he'd hear those bad sounds and come on out and say,
alright, you need a little help here.
And that was the first six months there that was like full frontal.
I need to get better at going from template to part how quick I can do it and how finished I can make the final product look.
That was like the whole theme of my first six months.
There was a car that showed up 66 Nova that was kind of done but needed finished putting together LS7,
heights, front suspension, and it just needed mechanically finished.
Engine bay had nothing in it.
So I got a great opportunity of light fabrication.
I need to make a bracket to hold this.
I need to cut here and make room for this plumbing.
That was a perfect intro to light final assembly plumbing and fabrication.
Cool.
I think what Jeremy was trying to get at, you're trying to explain as well for the listener reading between the lines,
is that you're going to come in with basic skills or some things that you know,
and you're going to be able to get paid to do those basic skills with the expectation that you're going to continue to get better at those skills.
There's other skills that you have zero skills at.
There is no expectation on the employer's part and every expectation on the employee's part that you're going to have to donate your time and labor
to learn those next skills to get better at them until a point in time comes where you can get a median wage at this new found skill
and do it at the barest of minimum to then get better at that.
The missing link is that you have to understand that you're going to have to put your time in mostly not getting rewarded via an hourly wage
to learn that new skill.
Just like you would pay some school to teach you that, you're not going to get paid for that time to learn that.
And that's difficult, I think, for a lot of kids coming in.
The want is one thing.
We talk about the want.
You can't teach the want.
Like you either want it or you don't want it.
Now, there is times that you really, really, really want to learn something.
You're just also not willing to give up your time or give up your time for free to learn it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm intrigued by it.
I'm not trying to like beat a dead horse if we've talked about this in the past, but for you, I mean...
There's always new listeners.
From no TIG welding to I'm a proficient TIG welder, three weeks an hour a day of your time.
For sure.
Right?
Or less.
Like, no.
I certainly paid for that education and it felt pretty cheap, honestly, grand scheme of things.
All I had to do was...
Because it was so fun because at Charlie's I didn't have the opportunity to run the TIG welder.
Yep.
And...
You know, I like Charlie a lot too, by the way.
We didn't steal him.
We're not that type of shop.
It was definitely Logan.
I think it was the...
It was time.
Yeah, and he needed some older...
Like Charlie's has a lot of younger guys, and I even said that right after that.
You might need to be around a bunch of old gray hair people that have a little more patience,
but we also have...
We do not just the builds, we do a lot of classic car repair, and that's a big part of our business as well.
So being able to come in and say, yeah, it was 63 Impala you worked on for us the first time.
Yes, shoot.
And do a sniper swap on that.
And then...
So it was easier to let him get on a project that wasn't so high dollar that criered maybe the precision for a custom build.
So that...
I think that helps, you know, and you can take it as a shop manager.
You can take a chance on somebody who has the desire and the drive to be able to go after it.
I totally tried to focus on making sure that I am useful at the mechanical stuff.
Yeah.
You're right.
You brought a skill set.
You brought a skill set, and then you, you know, expanded.
You gave them something, they gave you something.
I'm also not trying to beat a dead horse and harp on things.
I think that...
Beat it?
Yeah, beat the...
He's...
Kick that on the face.
Beat to death a dead horse.
Lead it to water first.
Beat it to like that.
Drown that horse.
So you mentioned working on that 63 Impala first thing, right?
So I'm walking through scenarios that...
And a lot of people need to take blame for this that are listening.
Employee and employer.
There's lots of blame to go around.
Employer says work on the 63 Impala, some of the things that are in your wheelhouse.
You should be able to figure that out.
Employer has a 99 other things to worry about in other employees and other customers and stuff.
Employee finishes that job at the end of the day.
He's worked a hard nine hours, whatever it is,
finished the job that he got paid for.
Employee says great, awesome.
You did a good job, you gave the customer his money's worth.
It's a day, we're wrapping this day up.
Employee can either say,
well, hey, let's hang around me off the clock and you off the clock
and teach me some things so I can make more money because I'm going to come back to you in a year
and be like, hey, these skills that you taught me for free.
I want you to pay me more for this.
Employer can say, it really sucks like we worked a long, hard day.
I don't really want to do that.
There's also the employee the next day is going to be like,
hey, I don't really want to stay late to learn these things.
Can you put me on another job besides a sniper job, besides a 16-pound pallet?
Put me on something during the day that I can learn some new skills.
Employer is saying, well, the customer that's paying us is not going to pay twice
or three times the amount of hours to do that same job.
He's trusting me with his project and I can't, you know, with any good conscience put you on it.
So you need to learn that off the clock.
I'm working a hard day.
I don't really want to donate my time.
I'm already away.
There's always those things that both people are to blame for.
There's a time that the kids like, off the clock, fine, I'm ready to go.
And you're like, employer needs to take the time when they are wanting to do it within reason.
And there's also times where you're like, man, I don't really want to stay late.
Can you just put me on the next job that I can progressively learn to the next thing while I'm getting paid for it?
Well, luckily, so Garrett...
I'm not saying you ever did this.
Luckily, Garrett, he's alive.
I was thinking about the way I was talking to him.
Yeah, I was kind of, I don't know you guys that well.
And I was wondering when we were going to get there.
I'm like, man, at some point he's going to tell me like, and he passed.
And I'm like, I hope that's not where we're going.
Garrett was this and Garrett was.
He used to tell me all these stories.
Where the fuck is Garrett?
He's very much alive.
He likes being a recluse.
He likes, he's like, you're doing that shit.
I'm not going to go out there.
That's what the younger dudes are for.
Yeah, he just never, he rather just do the job.
And probably why I didn't want to join the NTSB and rub shoulders with knowing that was probably the best thing for his business.
Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah, it just doesn't sound like fun.
No, but you know, I think when I came back and was working with the shop more and I always worked with the shop, you know,
I had summers off, so I would do stuff, take cars to car show.
That was my summer.
But so that's worked.
So that's why I kind of more the I quote face of Garrett's.
But he would stay after like, my dad would stay there until like nine o'clock at night.
And so yeah, Logan would be, he's new in town as no, doesn't know anything about Columbus, Ohio.
It's always makes it easier when you got nothing else to do.
It really does.
100% does.
That's why it happened.
So he stayed late and those two would work and I'm like,
It's a story that's been repeated so many times.
Yeah, put that in the Midwest.
And there's also nothing you're going to do for six months out of the year.
So you just stay inside work.
The Midwest helps, I think in learning a skill set.
Yeah, we said that earlier.
Like that's probably like why California is always sunshiny.
So they're not fucking surfing.
You can go outside and do some sort of recreational stuff.
And so we get more stuff done too is because we only have like four months to use the cars.
So you're spending the rest of eight getting ready.
Yeah, it's almost like a cycle of life.
It's our season.
It's honestly kind of fear of failure was such a big driver because it's like I'm over here.
I packed up my life.
I'm going to make it.
I am in Columbus.
I have to follow through.
There is no choice that the future me is really counting on this and his future is dismal.
If I don't learn how to take well this weekend.
Yeah, I'm going to ask one more question.
It's kind of the last question.
Yes.
No, about like you learning this stuff and growing as a fabricator.
And it's like a it's a bit of a sore spot for me.
So as you're learning to take world, right, you're a new take welder and now you're tick welding on the clock.
Okay.
But maybe you're not like super proficient, but you're getting it done.
Do you have ear pods in?
Yeah, you do.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you're not listening to like the machine or like what like the things are doing you've your ear pods are in just.
Oh, and you might be different.
Oh, yeah.
I'm not trying to like walk you in a trap here.
I'm just I don't feel the need to listen to the machine unless it's like aluminum and then I just make I make sure it sounds right.
Get it dialed into a few test rips, but then like that beads not going to look the way it needs to unless I got something good in there.
So your zone and I'm jamming and I'm floating like it's it's a dance.
But that's when you're you can you can make a good bead at that point.
Yeah.
Pre being able to make a good bead is what I'm was what I'm talking about.
No ear pods.
No, you okay.
You're like walking up to it's like walking up to a girl.
Like I I need to I want to hear what she says.
Yeah, I want to figure this out.
I got I got to be present for this.
This is the current this is the current thing that, you know, I've been in this industry a long time.
I've had a lot of people through here.
And this is the current thing that's just driving me fucking nuts.
And I'm going to just put it out there because if you're if you're in the zone, right, you're fucking bad at your welding and you're just to zone out like put the ear pods in get after it when you've got it.
When you don't, I feel like I just want to smack the fucking ear pods out of your ear.
Like you should be so in tune and focusing on what it is that you're doing rather than listening to Joe Rogan or Metallica or whatever the hell is going on.
Because there's so many things that happen, you know, like that the sound of it helps the focus of it helps.
And then when you're good at it, by all means, dude, by all means, then it's better because now you're not going to talk to the fucking dude next to you.
You're probably going to work harder and you're going to really get in a groove because it does help flow state.
Yeah, yeah.
Same in machining world. Like when I was taking classes or I was teaching it, you know, and your earbuds or Walkman, you know, Walkman back in there.
Well, that was dangerous. You got a late spin and you got a chord.
So you weren't supposed to have it on there. But even machines, you can hear a machine run cutting tool, cutting the right direction.
This is the way the chip sound coming off.
Exactly.
You got to have that kind of thing. And that would always drive me nuts when I was teaching.
I'm like, if you've got earbuds and you aren't hearing me either, you know, and that that was.
But you're not hearing the tool, you know, a pletishing hammer, a power hammer, a bandsaw.
Maybe a power hammer you might want to have.
You want headphones in, but you need to hear how it's hitting the metal until you're really good at it.
And then you don't need to, you know, you've got the machine set up and you can feel it and you're grooving.
But it's a, yeah.
Show me where the ear pods hurt you.
Everywhere.
Can you can you point on the dog?
Yeah.
So you there's a problem with it with the ear pods.
Well, yes.
Yeah, there's a there's a problem when you're not ready for ear pods.
I encourage it when you're when you're in the zone and you're jammed by all means.
Right.
I like when I understand when you're at the entry, because I was there entry level, like you're a rock star, you're building horror.
I'm going to put in my headphones and get to work.
And then you're like, okay, I can't understand these instructions with the headphones.
Okay, I need to take these headphones out.
I'm not that guy.
Yeah, I'm not that guy right now.
You gotta know when to hold them type deal.
Yeah, I've never.
This is absolutely the tangent, but I've never been able to at any point in time doing anything on a car have earbuds in.
I want music going, but I want it going in the shop.
And I want it now.
I mean, now I understand why ear pods are because not everybody wants to listen to the same thing, but I don't really care because if I'm the one controlling the music,
I'm going to listen to what I want to listen to.
And I want, I want music at a decent volume where you can hear it, but you could still hear other things going on.
I start getting claustrophobic if I'm in my own music and not paying attention to what's going on.
I have to have same way on a ride a motorcycle.
I mean, people ride motorcycles with ear pods and I don't absolutely get it.
I need to have my senses around things, whether it's wiring, whether it's welding, whether fabricating, whether anything is, I just don't want them in there.
Is there a certain music that are you music to listen to get into the mood or you listen to certain music because of the situations?
So like if you're welding or you're doing something, is there certain types of music, a genre that you have to listen to?
100%.
100%.
I'm just going to listen to the same genre all the time with mixed in a little bit of Southern rock.
And then if, if I'm listening to music at the gym, then you go to something more like the hate metal there.
Other than that, it's really just all vintage country music.
You're cutting the floor out of something or you're trying to like knock something out, flip on some Pantera and just fucking destroy it.
You're going to war, man.
In my house, it's an actual term.
Like my son, ever since he was little, like nine, he's so used to me saying it that I'm like, dude, how'd you, how'd you do on this?
Oh, yeah, I panter at it.
And that's just common.
It's a common word in the Gerber household that we pay you panter it.
You kick its ass, panter it.
I feel like the car, like we're doing two cars for SEMA.
And right now I'm like, we got to play Southern rock.
That's the only way these cars get done.
Southern rock for some reason.
If you're running DJ for a shop, it's less about the task and it's more about the environment.
You're being a DJ, right?
So you've got two different things in the morning, different things in the afternoon, depending on the mood, pick it up.
Like there's all kinds of things.
There's times for fun.
I mean, I've done it.
It's a psychological thing, right?
But gone are those days.
I mean, it's been years since anybody could get along enough to listen to the same kind of music.
There's two guys in the shop though.
I say they're going to be like, they're talking about us.
But like, they're playing like some slow, I like country music, but some slow just, I'm like, we're not going to get shit done.
Oh, same playlist every day.
I hear the same song at the same time.
Maybe something with energy, you know?
Yeah, you do.
It's funny, like all where I used to anyway, like if I was grinding frame rails, like that's a zone out task.
I'd wear like earbuds and just with your headphones over them and get after it because there's no outside input that you need.
But welding the frame rails, you sure as shit need to hear it, at least I do.
So they're out.
But for me, it's about I'll put like, I like having headphones on like protective headphones and then the music cranking because you're in your zone.
But you can hear.
Everybody that's looking at you isn't probably going to talk to you or bother you because they understand that.
But you're listening to the music and you're like grooving tapped into the environment.
Yeah, exactly.
I do agree that start wearing those in the office.
Yeah, exterior music does triumph over the earbuds.
It's just sometimes sometimes other people playing the exterior music stuff.
There's different turns.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's why you got to take control.
Yeah, we've got Spotify and me and John both have it on our computers and it's linked to the shop stereo so we can DJ it.
Yeah.
And the stereo, it's tucked behind the stairs, the receivers.
It's like you kind of got to go way out of your way to get to the volume control and you can control the volume from the Spotify deal so we can DJ it.
But every once in a while, somebody goes out of their way to turn it.
I guess it's like if productivity is down and energy is down like Metallica, Pantera, you know, some sort of like heavy metal.
And if there's too many people talking, then you can just crank that volume up and you can't if the music's playing loud, you can't talk.
But then somebody goes out of their way to go turn the actual dial down, which is the whole situation.
There was some of that in our shop at one time.
There was a volume war going on.
Yeah.
And it was basically like just ripped the damn radio out and no one's going to listen now.
Yeah, music's an important part of building hot rap.
It is.
It's a vibe.
It's a vibe.
They go hand in hand.
I would be good with an anti-earbud, pod, personal listening device policy across the board.
Yeah.
Not accepted, not allowed.
Right.
Well, our couple of guys listen to this show.
It's not a team building.
It's not a team building thing.
We can always make exceptions.
Look, there's always exceptions.
Not a team building thing.
It separates.
Yeah.
It separates.
It's silos, if you will.
What's the song?
Heart leader.
You're going to go out and you're going to get after it.
What's the song for each?
Like sympathy for the devil.
Okay.
Stones.
Stones.
Yeah.
Good.
I would say like some letters.
It's crazy even though I'm Ohio born and raised.
I love a good Southern rock like Almond Brothers or something of that just to drive it along.
I don't know.
It just goes hand in hand with it.
Yeah.
It's hard not to like really get down with some good Southern rock.
Something that's scanner doors.
Molly Hatchet.
38 special.
Just keep running down the list.
Nude.
Warm.
Yeah.
Some Ted Nugent gets it done too.
Are we only allowed one?
Yeah.
Keep it coming dude.
We got a whole entire bottle.
Dude, I got on a Nude hook the other day.
There's some things.
Like I'm not a Ted Nugent across the board.
I don't know that I would just like start at the top of this collection and just like
make a day out of it.
But I'd cherry pick some Ted Nugent songs and get down with them.
He's a lyricist too if you've listened to some of the words.
But I mean Stranglehold is obviously easy.
But Stranglehold comes up in heavy rotation.
One it's like an eight minute long song.
And it's great at the gym.
And it builds perfect for a good set when you're ready to just get after it.
And I got hooked to it now and it's just.
Is it the days and confused portion of you?
That was in days and confused.
Yeah.
Great.
Great.
Just listen to the whole song.
And it's because it takes you through.
It's an eight minute long song and it's got.
Tells the story man.
Damn it.
A good song.
It's a great song.
And not often like doesn't come up a lot.
It's not like you hear it in passing.
You need to go like hunt for it.
There's something we do at the shop like when we get a car done and it's kind of been a tradition
is, you know, it gets back from the interior shop and hopefully the stereo works because
that's when they don't work after.
But now there's a screw through a wire or something like that.
But it's kind of fun just to we used to do this on every car is just pull it right out
like in our little courtyard area, get some chairs, get some drinks and just crank the
radio up and listen.
Everybody picks a song and you just stare there and look at the car all night and just
sitting there.
Yeah.
Just thinking about all the hard work.
The dedication, the years and like when the car came in and all of a sudden it's done,
you know, and we did that on all of our car.
I think that's like our it's like how we christened the car before it goes.
That is cool.
Have you used the virtual DJ on Spotify?
I was using it for a little while because that's so good.
Shifty sometimes.
It's I find a lot of you can't give it too much.
Yeah.
And you can't give it too little.
You got to give it the proper amount.
But what do you you don't get?
I don't give it input.
It just pulls from everything of no, you got to go down and find the create your own
play that I don't do.
You got to go in there and you give it prompts.
Okay.
So if you go down there, I've got it's crazy how good it can get now.
If you give it too much and you give it too similar of a genre, then it gets it just gets
caught in a loop to niche.
Yeah.
But I did one the other day.
It's perfect.
Is Leonard Skinner Hank Williams Jr.
Who was the other one that was class?
Sure.
Jennings.
No, he would never be in any anything I'd ever type and write unless it was derogatory.
The in too short with with how they like that.
It was crazy.
The things that they put like in between and something like that.
You're like, Oh, yeah, this will work.
It was just the right amount because it was like four.
It was three or four to one on like similar, a little bit old school country, like to Southern
Rock.
Oh, ZZ top Leonard Skinner Hank Williams Jr. and too short.
And man, it starts popping like, Okay, you absolutely filled in the appropriate amount
of blanks for this.
It was great.
But then you go through and it's like other selections like this, you can build it as
long as you want to.
But I think that was like a, I think it came out with like a three or four hour long playlist
on the first deal.
So you're like whaling, easy.
You just the thing is, it's amazing how in between there, it starts finding stuff and
it'll give you a little easy.
And then it'll give you a little whaling.
And then it'll be like, what's right dead in the middle?
Anything.
Literally.
It just must be something with music, art, you know, with what we do too.
You know, I was talking to somebody about, you know, sometimes you finish a car.
Is it the best?
Did you do your best?
I think we're all competitive that way too, because like, if not, we wouldn't go strive
for making the cars that we do.
But yeah, there's something with music and art and how we do stuff and it kind of inspires.
It's almost like a playlist of your day.
I mean, you could go deep down that rabbit hole.
Listen to a song.
You're tapping into somebody else's passion.
Yeah.
That's somebody else's labor of love for however long it took them to produce that.
And it's feeding your subconscious and whatever comes out on the other end, we don't need
to know, but it, there is a correlation and it appears to be beneficial for these cars.
Well, it's like, we were talking to Andrew downstairs earlier about stuff and like, you
get those people saying like, oh, the younger people aren't into old cars anymore and all.
And that's total crap.
I mean, this kid here loves old cars.
His grandfather was in, you know, like old cars.
He's got a 1917 Model T.
He taught us about flathead engine, some work on flathead engines that we have quite a few
collections of that stuff.
I forgot about that.
Yeah.
You showed Garrett like how to do the fuel systems.
The problem with that over generalized statement is the young kids don't like your old cars.
The problem is, is the old car statement, right?
What's an old car?
Exactly.
So old cars can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people based on their
age.
We've talked about this a couple of different times sitting in the red light the other morning,
right?
And it dawned on me that the 93 or whatever civic that was in clean pristine condition
that was in front of me was the same age now as when I was in high school as a 69 Camaro.
But as a 69 Camaro to me when I was in high school was an old ass car.
And I'm looking at this 93 civic in front of me as not that old of a car.
I do know how old it is, but it doesn't seem like an old ass car to me.
But to my son that's 17 years old, I've even had the discussion with him like, you know
what a 69 Camaro is.
Like you look at that, I can't tell you how I felt about a 69 Camaro, but do you feel
about that 93 Camaro the way I felt about that 69 Camaro?
Yeah.
You know, of course, I'm sorry, civic.
I hope not.
But it's the same exact age and you look at G-body stuff and you look at that.
Those are old ass cars to 18 and 19 year old kids.
But like Garrett worked in a dealership on 72 Camaros.
They're brand new.
Like, you know, so that generation, he's like, that's not an old car.
It's like I worked on it.
How old are you?
24.
So when you look at like an OBS Chevy pickup, I don't think that's old.
Really?
Okay.
Is it just because like everything kind of like jumped as far as like technology and
I don't like fit and finish and things like I think it's the way they look.
It's cool.
If it's cool, it's cool.
If it's so chrome chrome bumpers is old.
Chrome bumpers are cool.
I know.
I know what I'm saying.
But you start as you start looking at shape wise when it starts or what's the newest car
you've seen with a chrome bumper?
Yeah.
They just that's OBS out.
They had chrome bumpers, but you know what I mean?
Like when I was 16, I'm in a 69 Camaro was like basically the less than 30 years old.
That seemed like like today looking that's like a model T. It looked like a model.
It was like so primitive.
Such like.
Yeah.
So somebody's starting their motor.
So I'm revving the shit.
Think about a 1990.
Think about a 1990 Chevy truck.
That's like a new truck.
That's like a new truck to me.
It is 30.
It is 35 years old.
Short like you might have to throw an Alpine head unit to modernize it.
35 years old.
Yeah.
Shit.
You remember?
I remember seeing the first one on the highway.
Holy crap.
That's badass.
I agree that it's not that old.
But if you put in a year date as far as old when we were looking at old cars at a 69 Camaro
being 30 years old, it might as well been a brass era.
It was that whole.
Because my like my dad would have been looking at that gap would have been a fucking model
A. You know, when he was 16, he'd be looking at a model A like that's only 30 years old.
Like it just made it just got to the point where it moved itself and wasn't being pulled
by a horse.
Yeah.
It literally just became a car.
That's like the muscle car era was cool when we were growing up.
Is the civic era cool?
The import era cool for kids now?
Yeah.
It is a big time.
No, it's it.
There's a lot of listeners that you look at the values of them on bring a trailer and
look at some of that stuff.
There is just as big of a genre and an enthusiast community and shows and everything around
vintage JDM, which is fucking amazing to even say that there's a thing as vintage JDM
as there are in the good guys and Triple Crown and stuff like that.
There's no like real.
The problem with that stuff is there's no aftermarket for just like replacement stuff.
It'll make reproduction.
You have to find it.
There's some like some crash part stuff, but like trim stuff and all that.
That's one of the values.
No, there's there's definitely a cult of folks my age that are into that that are.
They treat.
They're they're reincarnated Mopar guys with civics or Hondas.
We're in jean shorts and shit like.
No, you want to talk about the one of one.
You want to talk about codes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Actual part number codes and trim level stuff, especially when the JDM that's why you get
off the Japanese domestic market only that this trim stuff.
You're going to have to be learning some of that shit here too, buddy.
You're playing in that genre.
I'm not playing it.
I'm having somebody else playing it.
Well, that's fine.
I don't want to.
But it's it is it's a it is just as robust and passionate about stuff.
And yeah, you're right.
It's Mopar is a great example.
There's guys are that way of like, well, you know, 91 and 92 in Japan.
This radio came in this and the buttons are flipped on this.
It's it's but it's it's wild.
It's crazy.
The values are skyrocketing.
I don't think that is a negative thing regardless if you're into it or not.
It's passion about cars.
There are how many people again take the same exact argument and go back and look at the
people that were saying like these guys are 69 Camaro's like so who cares.
This little secretary car and these pant pony cars.
Everybody's so excited about who ever said that.
Like seriously, who ever said that about there was 69 Camaro.
Age wise and era wise.
You know, there's like looking at things like that's only like 10 years old.
Why so everybody's so excited about, you know, a 10 year old Camaro or whatever.
That's the one thing nobody will ever say about a civic.
You'll never be like, dude, look at the lines on that motherfucker.
To you.
No, to you.
Anybody.
I can understand the performance part.
I'm not bagging on it.
Like I could see that like, dude, it's super modifiable.
You can make it fast.
It's nimble.
It's small.
Like there's not a fucking thing about that that looks cool.
You told me that like a design that an Integra is not a beautiful looking car.
It's fine looking.
It's not fine looking.
It's a good looking car.
They're pretty goofy.
It's a good looking car from an automotive design standpoint.
I don't think it wasn't the pinnacle of all.
Yeah.
Nobody's like, look at the Coke bottle shape, man.
Look at the way they carried that line over the fender.
It's so.
Oh, it's tough.
You're not going to compare it to a 69 Camaro.
No.
Well, how about Camaros of that era, too?
Like the, what, mid 90s?
Catfish.
Catfish Camaro is what you call them.
Yeah.
You can look back.
So there's things about it.
You can appreciate it.
Are those going to get hot?
They will.
But you can appreciate it like the Civic.
You'll never look at the body and be like, it's so gore.
But you're like, oh, it's the first LS car.
It's the LS car.
You can make power with them.
There was, there were cool things about them.
You do a front end conversion.
So there's nothing is going to make like the way those windows function in the doors closed.
Cool.
Right.
Or the hump in the passenger side floor.
But nothing's ever going to thump like that with a prefab 212 box in the back either.
You can't, you can't replicate that.
It was acoustically built just a thump.
And drift.
And drift.
In wet parking lots.
No, I'm not going to ever sit here and argue with you that they're even on the same flight
I do have a lot of respect for those cars.
I don't just like, I'd like, I'd love to have an RX7.
I think those are cool.
I don't know enough about it.
I was actually just looking at one, came up on a marketplace.
I'm like, this is a good deal.
It's low mileage.
Well, I didn't realize because then I started doing a little research.
There's like, what is there a R or a, there's a model that's worth more.
Yeah.
What is it?
R.
It's an RX7 something because those bring a lot of money.
I don't know.
That was a way too fancier.
There's a way too fancier of a car for me in that era.
But the, but the passion, the passion itself doesn't change.
Whether you think it's beautiful, whether it's held to design standards or whatever it is,
there's still a group of people that are just as passionate and will be carrying that on.
And I mean, even like me, I started out, I loved muscle cars and I loved a lot of stuff.
It was just, it was out of reach.
So many trucks and imports was what I did.
And then you transition and you're able to do other stuff and how many people that are
into modern imports today or even vintage imports are going to transition.
The gate, it's a great way to move into the next thing.
Like bourbon, you're drinking old crow and, you know, Jim beam.
Yeah.
And as you get, I don't know if anybody ever said that about Jim beam.
Yeah.
There's one guy I know that was taken to the Jim beam.
Brett.
Brett.
Oh, loved it.
Still doesn't sure.
You know, you get to a certain point in your life.
You realize I remember that when I started getting into bigger in my career and making more money
and another older gentleman was like, well, now you can stop going to like, oh, Charlie's
for dinner.
You know, well, you know, does that what's around here?
I was trying to find a good restaurant.
The Cheddar, Cheddar soup.
What's Friday's?
No, the, oh, Charlie's.
Cheddar soup, something that you start making big potatoes.
We start advancing your career.
You're like, oh, I don't have to go eat it.
Friday's or, you know, that's not.
What's Friday's?
I'm just going to keep on.
It's fine.
Yeah.
Just like cars.
You're going to, you're like, oh, I appreciate Porsches now because I can buy one.
You know, it's not a midlife crisis.
It's like, I finally got to be able to afford to buy a portion.
Not, you know, oh, it's going to make completely off topic for no reason.
Yeah, we can't do that in the spike.
You mentioned it for like the past 45 minutes.
No, this is how you, this is how everybody gets to know each other.
Yeah.
Breaking the ice.
You mentioned, oh, Charlie's.
Yeah.
Deep hole there.
You mentioned Friday's.
I'll mention Chili's.
No, listen, there's a reason.
I'll say Bennigan's.
Bennigan.
Olive Garden?
That's a different, Olive Garden lands over with Red Lobster.
We're talking about, but we're talking about before you made money.
Do, and there, this is going to resonate.
If you'll follow with me for a second.
You mentioned like, you get to a certain point, you're like, oh, I don't have to go to this place.
Ruby Tuesday's.
Was that, I'm, it's a good one.
That one goes in there.
Applebee's as well.
Right with it.
Did, I have to believe that they changed their quality standards right around the
same time that most everybody also said, I don't have to go to those places anymore.
I can go there because when you do go back for whatever reason, you look at, you're
like, there's no way that I thought this was good.
Even when this is all I could afford.
There's no possible way.
I remember a time.
I'm holding on to Chili's.
I remember a time.
They're still going to be money.
Not now.
They have to be.
No, that place sucks every up and down.
I was at an airport.
Chili's.
I was just at one too.
Airport Chili's two months ago.
For the airport.
He did what Chili's does.
$48 endless.
Yeah.
Not the best thing.
Really?
It was good.
Had drinks and chicken.
No, but I remember a time.
I remember a time when I was younger.
Chili's was a thing and I don't remember Chili's being bad.
I remember some of the same thing.
And I know that you transition and your taste changes and your stuff, but it has to, you
can't tell me that the same play to nachos that they throw out now is the same play to
nachos that we thought was good.
It's changed.
It's changed.
But I'll go to Chili.
I'm the guy that will take full advantage of the bottomless tostado chips.
I will fucking put a hurtin' on some chips and salsa.
Prove it.
Show me they're not.
No, I'm saying.
I'm saying.
That's what you're telling.
That's what you're telling them.
I found the bottom.
Excuse me.
But it's they've they've lost their touch with the chicken crispers.
There's no question about that.
Yeah.
They're still fucking.
That's a rookie order.
Chilies.
Chilies.
Everybody always talks about chilies.
Oh yeah.
Go there.
Go there.
Go there.
Go there.
Go there.
Go there.
Go there.
Go there.
There isn't not.
This is really a secret.
No.
It doesn't make any sense for the good
our customers, our customers that are more prominent,
they can forward nice things and do things.
I think I've learned from some of them.
Heck, I went out with Barry, your guy's customer.
We were at a show in Michigan and hanging out all day.
We were partying next to each other
and I helped him load his car in the trailer that evening.
He's like, I'll take you to dinner.
But he's like, it's got to be somewhere good.
So we're searching.
Was it that pain in the ass trailer with the roll on?
Yeah, he couldn't get underneath it.
I've gotten proficient with that thing.
It was tough.
I'm like, there's probably a lot of swearing involved.
I was like, Barry, I don't see how you could have done this.
I can barely do it.
But we ended up having to drive.
It was during the Michigan or the, oh, what's the thing up
in Detroit every year?
Autorama.
No, the runward cruise.
Yeah, we were there and something for that.
That's where I met him.
But yeah, we drove like 40 miles north of Michigan
to find some steakhouse.
Where'd you guys end up going?
There are ponderosa?
No, there's the brown derby or something like that.
No, it was some little local joint.
But he was like, yeah, if I'm buying dinner,
it's got to be somewhere good.
Which I was like, that's cool.
That's our customers.
So I would say that's a lot of shops.
Learn how to entertain your customers in the right way.
Live underneath.
Yeah, he'd let you get a soda with that drink, too.
Wait, that's an interesting topic.
Because when you talk like we were all,
we got into this all young and we all worked hard.
We lived in the shop.
None of us were real like cultured
and didn't have these experiences
at these great restaurants.
Mountain Dews and Doritos.
Exactly, we're sucking down Mountain Dews,
Red Bull, one of those pre-Red Bulls.
So it was Mountain Dews.
One leader wants to if you want to get after it.
But I remember going to, you go to SEMA for the first time,
like early 2000s.
And you're throwing on like, that was funny
because we went, I remember we went once
and my dad just like laid into me
about not having dress pants.
And back then, it wasn't the stylish thing to wear.
Jean, you did kind of like have to wear a dress pants.
So me and Phil get our dress pants,
get your fucking dress pants and we go out.
A customer invites us to turn the belt down,
flip it over and turn it.
I don't know.
But a customer invites us to remember a Greg Hitchcock.
Yeah, the wind.
And it was, this was, I mean,
we were like just fish out of water, right?
This is a guy who's, I'm a very wealthy guy, older,
very successful and they're taking care of him.
And it's like, I don't even know what the fuck has happened.
And I'm like, what size is this?
The fork, wait, wait, wait, wait.
The nap can go, you know.
He started out, he got ordered around,
was it Louis the 13th or Louis the 15th?
It wasn't beer.
Cognac.
And it's like $200 and it comes in a shot glass.
You're supposed to sip it.
My dad takes it and goes, all right, cheers.
Boom.
Greg just kind of looked like, yeah,
you're supposed to sip on those.
That's a $200 shot you just took there.
Yeah, that's good.
I'm getting out of here.
I'm up.
But you certainly learn a lot as a young man.
In our industry, like, you know,
we're not like rocket scientists.
We're not doctors, but we're skilled people
that do things for those clients.
And so they look at us like, wow, you guys are amazing.
You know, you can do things that just make my dreams come true.
So I think it's important that you have to cater
to those people.
It does, it does open doors that you probably
would have not had opened in the past.
And it is, it's weird that relationship, too,
because in one way, they do look at you like,
oh man, the talent, it's amazing.
I'm working this corporate job, I'm doing this.
I've got to deal with this.
What you're doing must be so amazing.
You know, you've got all this talent,
you've got these great guys.
You're building me, my passion with my money.
And there's also sometimes where it's just like,
and let me show you how to wear shoes indoors, right?
It's like, you're super talented,
but I'm gonna show you what the finer things in life are,
you know, but it's so many different experiences.
And just in general, that this industry has enabled
and enabled all of us to be able to enjoy.
Yeah, no, it's, well, I feel like we're in a boom time,
personally, in the hot rod world.
I mean, there's since the COVID, I mean, it's just,
we've been, it's nonstop.
Phone rings off the hook about, I want to get this done.
And just not just builds, there's so much out there,
like, hey, I just got a Chevelle
and it's got a rear main seal leak
and it's got the brakes don't work right.
And I don't know how to work on the cars.
That whole DIY thing, I think is gone.
And who works on that, you know, that's,
we've seen there's a big opportunity business-wise
to have that repair hot rod repair industry.
Yeah, you guys take on a lot of that work?
We do, and it's because Garrett,
that's his background was mechanical, you know.
How do you do with it?
Does it, do you find that those customers
have higher expectations, though,
than like your full turnkey, like a half million dollar car
versus the guy that's going to spend 1500 bucks
to fix the rear turn seal?
Sure, there's more of those people, obviously.
That 1500 bucks means a lot more to that guy.
It does, and it's also, sometimes,
a lot of those things are hard.
This thing don't feel any faster.
Thought you replaced the rear main.
A lot of those things are hard to, like, fix
and have that guy leave happy.
Well, think about like, if your ship won't work on a car
over 10 years, because the bolts are rusted
and they're hard to get off.
So what could be like a two hour job takes all day,
because it's, you're trying to just free up a busted bolt
or something like that.
So, I know a lot of shops won't even mess with that ship
because it's, you can't quote it,
and we actually charge a little more per hour for repair
because it's, you never know what you're gonna get into,
and you're going back and seeing other people's,
I mean, man, we've seen-
That's the scary part, you got like,
five other people that have had their hands in it.
The ones are, we did a 32 last year,
and it was all house wiring with, like, wire nuts.
Really?
And there's no fuses in the car at all.
I think that one's gonna work.
You ain't got no fusing, and not fuses to blow.
I mean, that's not, that is.
If you use thick enough wire, too,
it's not gonna melt.
I will say this, if you're willing.
It sounds efficient to me.
If you're willing to do the work, it's there,
and you could, we could have, I could hire,
if I had more space and five more people,
every bay would be full daily.
You're 100%, right?
It is there.
The other thing that we've always talked about is,
there needs to be like,
it's the qualification of the customer thing.
If you can have, if you can get that base of repeat,
or this customer that you've done business for,
always says, no, this customer's good.
The expectations is what's crazy
because regardless of the quality of work
that you do on the thing that you were paid to do, right?
Hey, come in, I want you to do alignment and break job.
You do alignment and break job, everything works fine.
Leave out, oh man, I've sunroofs never leaked before.
Sunroofs leaking.
And then you, it's hot potato, last person to touch it.
You gotta stand on your word.
You didn't test the sunroof for leaking when it came in.
There's obviously all kinds of checklists
you need to do on those cars before,
but there's some things you just don't get.
Really?
You've learned to like,
that's something I've been trying to put together
is more of this, the car comes in for complete overhaul,
over inspection kind of point to point.
And the best thing to do is be upfront with the customer,
like, hey, you might spend $10,000 just getting this thing
back on the road.
And we're not, if we find something safety wise that's wrong,
that's important to make sure that's addressed,
but yeah, there's a ton of work.
Think about like the 20 year old cool ass hot rod
was built 20 years ago, somebody else buys in an auction
and like, it just needs to get running again
or it's got an antiquated EFI system on it.
How are you gonna handle that?
So there's, I feel like we have an endless stream of work.
Oh, there's a lot of it there.
If you know how to handle it, there's a lot of it there.
I haven't had really any success with it and we,
I'll do it very seldom and reluctantly,
I'll do it as a favor to somebody
because there's some things that people just don't know.
Like, what do you do?
I got a customer, great customer,
bought a car at a fairly high-end classic car sales place
and it's got a Mustang clip, like a Camaro clip in it.
And there's like a U-joint misalignment,
but it's got like Borges and U-joints and stuff
and it's got an I-did-it column
and there's all these hot rod parts.
But where are you gonna take that?
Like, who?
Nope, not Jeffy or Midas or any of that.
Clue, yeah.
How to fix it.
Gareth Ratcham.
And we sorted out, I knew how to do it,
but I'm like, man, I just know there's gonna be,
like once you've straightened that out,
something else, there's gonna be something else
that doesn't function right, you know?
The biggest problem then is back to who's gonna work on it.
You know, I've got, you know, Gareth, he's 73 now
and he's at the shop very little,
but his mechanical, I wish I could bottle his skills.
And I'm like, that's gonna be our biggest loss
when he's done here because we have no, you know,
he could troubleshoot, maybe like this,
he can walk underneath the car and like shake something,
like that's loose, that's wrong, check that, you know?
And like, how the hell did you know that?
But that's just years of him doing it.
So I'm like, you need to like hang out with him constantly.
Don't worry about fabricating, there's plenty of time.
Plenty of those guys?
Yeah, plenty of those guys out there.
I don't know about that.
At the end of the day, I'm good at what Carl needs me to do.
He's biting at the base like, I wanna work.
I'm like, yeah, but we sent you to Holly training
and you're good at timing and we have a dyno.
So he like, we got him on that.
I'm good at whatever you're gonna ask me to do.
Logan does have a good saying.
He's like, put a, let me say,
put a wrench in my hand.
Put a wrench in my hand, give me a list.
Put me in the direction to go with it, so that's.
Yeah, yeah, that's the way to be.
100% the way to be.
But yeah, I think that's gonna be the biggest challenge
for the Hot Rod Builders Repairer in the future
is like being able to fix older cars.
You got that 25 to 40 year old customer too,
that I don't know if you've seen this,
like they're inheriting a car that their grandfather had.
They rode in the back of it on Sunday.
No idea how it drove.
Yeah, and then they just wanna get to run
and they're like, well, I don't wanna,
I just got this car, I don't wanna spend $100,000
and getting it to run right or fixed up right.
I just want it to run exactly.
We've done some cars recently that had mechanical brakes,
like literally like a 29 Chevy.
And the guy's like, I'm not, I don't wanna put hydraulics on,
I just want it to be, so we had to research
and find somebody to actually read lines them
and we did it and the guy was happy to pay the bill
because that's what he wanted.
So I don't know, that's a big challenge
for all of us at Ford.
Besides a repair work and so like that,
what big builds are going on right now?
What's the next thing, what's coming out?
Well, we got two SEMA builds.
For this year?
Yeah, so if you look down right now,
you'd be like, really, they're going to see me?
It's about everybody's SEMA builds right now.
54 days?
Yeah, yeah, 50 something days.
Don't remind me.
You still got to ship them?
You got to ship them?
Yeah, well, we've got a 53 Chevy pickup
that's been a long time build and that was,
I was like, we're gonna go to SEMA,
the customer, he's super happy about it
and it kind of puts an end point.
We talked about that, like you figure out a show
and that just amps up the customer
and so we've got that going.
It's pretty heavy and modified
and then we've got a restoration we did.
It's a 65 GTO and that's going to be in the Armo's banquet.
We're debuting it there and it's the guy's one owner.
He bought it new.
He paid $3,400 for it.
That's pretty sweet.
Now he's paid like eight.
Put another zero, a couple more zeros out there.
He ain't even put an AC on it.
Yeah, he wants the car he bought.
The only thing we did was put Wilwood's
in American Auto Wires so he can stop and start basically
but it kind of shows that we'll do,
I felt like we do one restoration a year.
Like it's weird, right?
We've got a Grand National 87.
It's cool.
He just wants it all back to original.
Paint, all that kind of stuff.
Do the same guys work on the restorations
as the custom stuff so they have two pretty different
skill sets and hard to.
No, it just depends on what's kind of up for grabs.
There is a couple guys that are primarily just fab guys
and they're going to stay in that one side of shop,
do all the metal work and then in the body shop
but we kind of see where people's strengths are.
It's a good question.
Cause like, again, Logan really wants to get in the fab area
and I know that he's building a car on his own
in his own shop, his home shop.
But like, and you've got a strength.
You let me do a whole lot of fab on the slammer too.
Which is just so I got a really good taste
for like final assembly.
This is what it feels like to be more involved.
Let me do more of that.
Damn it to hell that I'm so good at the other stuff.
Well, just blow up a motor or two here or there
and it'll pull you right out of the inside.
Dude, speaking from experience,
I've never washed a dish or a set of clothes.
All you gotta do is fucking it real bad the first time.
Oh no, water and soap everywhere.
How does this work?
You're an idiot.
You know how to use that.
I know I don't.
So past the Seema builds we have.
It's so bad.
My madness.
A C2, which you guys Roadster Shop Chassis under that.
That's a Wagner motor.
That's the whole package like Roadster Shop Chassis,
Wagner motor.
That's how you get in street machining here.
Cool kids club right there, right?
I don't know, Casey's not that cool.
Roadster Shop Chassis definitely.
He's got cool parts.
He's just impersonal.
He's just not that cool.
Their engines are amazing.
Like we were after just to be able to get the thing
under the hood.
We went with the smaller LS, smaller supercharger
and they still pumped out a thousand horse for like,
holy shit.
Really?
Whipple like a two-niners?
Yeah.
But on the, on the.
LS3.
LS3.
Casey, Casey ain't gettin' out of bed
for less than a thousand anymore, he said.
Yeah.
It was like, they sent us a video.
If there ain't four digits, don't call me.
They sent us a YouTube video.
They're like, yeah, you're in the thousand horsepower
glove and all that stuff.
Like that's crazy.
Cause the customer, he could handle the car,
but he was at, they were asked,
that's pretty cool about them.
They asked like, who's going to be owning this car?
Like we don't want just any,
anybody getting in the wheel of this.
I was always trying to figure out like,
Casey's one of my like best buddies,
but I was always trying to figure out
if he's just a huge pussy
or if he genuinely cares about the customer.
Cause he's always like, he'll make monster power.
And then he's like, oh yeah,
but I shipped it out with that bigger pulley on there.
Like why?
Why?
We've spent all this money to make big power.
Oh, you wanted that other pulley?
Yeah, fuck yeah, Casey, all the power, dude.
Yeah, so yeah, we've had,
we really have had about seven builds going on.
That's the most at one time.
You know, there's a lot of that filler work,
but we've got all that.
There's a 57 T-Bird.
Where's the truck going to be at, Seema?
Skog and Dickie performance.
So it's an unveiling for that.
Yeah.
Cornette?
Yeah, 66 Cornette with a Hellcat red eye.
G10?
Van?
Van, yeah.
We weren't gonna talk about it, but I guess we are, so.
But you're listing builds.
Yeah, we got that last year.
We were at Seema and we were in North Hall,
which we never did that before.
We were in the kicker's booth.
And I was kind of like, I wish we were central hall.
You know, you kind of get that central hall envy.
And then you're like, shit, we met this guy
and we got a build out of this being
in that right place at the right time.
Kicks always know how to party.
Yeah, yeah.
We had a van build.
I feel like that's something you pick up
at the Spearmint Rhino or Cheetos or something.
That's where you land.
What's the plan with the van?
This guy's got.
We've already said too much.
No, he had one when he was younger.
It's again, we're reliving people's past.
Thing needs a chassis, thing needs a chassis.
I know, well.
What year?
76.
Shorty?
It's a long, long van, which.
You haven't seen a long van.
Well, the weirdest thing about that van,
I will tell you this,
like there was a weird hole in the middle of the floor.
And then like somebody must have put up.
Something structural.
Structural.
From the floor to the roof.
Not saying it was a hole.
A lot of dents on the.
Maybe a column.
It's a van.
A rat's column.
It's a van.
Yeah, so.
Unless it was a 15 window church van.
No.
Then we all know what happened.
And every single van that ever was made.
Well, you know the best reputation for things
not happening in a church van either.
Well, you're right.
They're just not in the brass pole since.
We had a, the slider door was really bad.
Somebody used like spray foam to put a window in.
It was just trash.
So we found another door and a front door that was bad
on eBay and it had shag glued to it.
So it was that, that was part of the day.
Like who's going to risk taking the shag off?
It was like a draw straws.
I sure did.
Oh, you gotta be careful with that too.
That's that old AIDS.
No mask bare hands.
I was really trying to be in.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Dude, that's what like with all this crazy talk
about like male, female and so like,
I think a dude could actually get pregnant from that.
Like pulling that off.
I might have.
It was my birthday.
I just feel lucky.
There's some crazy shit can go down
from what's embedded in those old fan shag.
You have to get what Magic Johnson took
if you get some of that late 80s, early 90s shag on you.
Oh, you gotta go.
You get on a payment plan for sure.
That's whatever.
That's some super peptides.
So you got debuts, Seema, big time, big news.
Just busy.
I don't know who isn't busy right now.
I mean, if you're, you know,
we're not the best in the business.
I think we're good in the business.
We do good quality work.
Our customers love us.
Pump out great stuff.
You know, it's, you do what the customer wants.
It's creating dreams, making them happy.
And at the end of the day,
that's really what we're in business for is it's,
none of this is necessary.
Nobody needs a half a million dollar Camaro,
but like they love it.
And it's great that, you know, I even told Logan,
like, you know, look what we're doing today.
We just flew in on a Tuesday.
We're hanging out with a company that we do business with.
It's very respectable.
We're here and we're drinking in an afternoon.
I mean, it's pretty easy.
Could be worse.
Could be worse.
You could be doing Tim Strange's podcast.
I mean, it could be really worse.
He gave me shit at Nashville.
I told him to give it right back.
You can edit that out.
Are you going to let that one ride?
No, it's going to, it's going to ride.
You don't miss it up.
I said it could be worse.
You could be.
Okay.
Tim goes pretty hard on me, so I'm all right.
I'm all right with it.
If you're all right with it, I'm all right with it.
Tim knows, Tim knows that that wasn't out of mean spirited.
That was seizing an opportunity.
If a softball gets tossed your way, what do you do?
Yeah.
You don't say cut the cameras out of the park.
You slam dunk it.
Do you think Tim would have you alley up it?
That's one way.
Tim's been around.
I mean, there's a guy who's been in our.
Oh, he's 65 years old.
He's been around forever.
He tells stories like, remember back in the 70s
and I was doing pro street stuff.
I was 21 years old.
Tim, you'd be 90 now.
Still riding a bicycle around like he's 14 though.
Yeah, not anymore.
And I haven't seen him on a bicycle in a while.
This big boy to be on a bicycle.
Cary's still doing it.
No, she fucked herself up.
She got back on.
She just did another race the first time since the wreck.
Is he going to do your at the party at SEMA?
Is it going to be a DJ there?
We're still well, it depends.
I don't know if this gets left in or in.
You might push this out till after SEMA, this podcast.
And then yes.
And then yes, we'll have Tim's Kim's good dude.
Yeah, we love he doesn't drink at all.
You couldn't have him on this.
I don't think Cary likes us.
I think that's just the way she is.
I don't I don't think she quiet like she doesn't think she comes off
as like really liking any or at least the outfits of it.
She's got her inner circle.
And I mean, I know that she's got that that look on her face.
She's given me the there's been times like she's like paper
cut me from behind just to be mean.
Really?
Yeah, just like a little friend.
The Achilles.
Yeah, I don't think I just don't think she likes me or any of us.
Maybe she said she said she's told me she doesn't like you.
So we know that.
It says Heidi.
You're like, oh, that was I mean, Tim definitely
goes out of his.
I feel like I get it more than either of you two.
Tim, he goes out of his way to fuck with me.
He likes the short.
It's an easy target.
It is like the tight pants.
It's an easy target, which.
Yeah, that's a that's one of those things.
It's like you can pick on the short guy, right?
That it's it's culturally acceptable.
Like you could go up to any dude who's short and just say some sort of comment.
This is that that was the throttle is coming down here.
I had it.
I had it.
Now I'm going to back it off.
And I do that to somebody that's maybe like eats a little bit too much would be
this word.
I should have said culturally.
I should have said anything.
But that's right.
That's not culturally acceptable.
I saw the look of like.
Yeah.
And then I was like, well, there's a wave coming.
That's normally just throttled out two hands on the steering wheel.
Did I do all right with that, though?
Was that you did?
I should have never said anything because I they're more fun when I saw a train
wreck coming because I saw the preparation like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
Train coming in is all flat water and make fun of me for being short.
You see him.
But am I right with that?
That's 100 percent right.
I don't know why that has gotten.
Acceptable.
Yeah, accepted.
Because you had absolutely no choice in a matter.
But yeah, it's not like I could grow.
I could just like all of a sudden, like I do lose weight.
Yeah, three.
There's three fifty.
Like he could.
Right.
Come on.
I don't think you're trying hard enough, Jeremy.
Yeah, keep going.
She's tall.
Work on that posture.
Keep stoking the fire.
Yeah, we are.
Our day.
We try.
Do they make those insoles and stuff like this?
All sorts of things don't even get me started on the.
Yeah, moving.
You know, the worst is that that barracuda and good car.
Back to that.
Say by the barracuda.
It's time, which we're going to be.
This is a cool thing.
Last year, it seemed to the Camaro we got coming out.
It's in that.
I don't know if I.
Well, you're going to say this.
What's this?
Two weeks from now, three weeks from now.
I don't know.
Yes, it's not.
It's not today.
Yeah, right.
It's not live for people.
I was like, are you guys going to be live?
I'm like, no.
Yes, I mean, I know you guys think we're good.
You should see how bad it is while we're recording right now.
You probably aren't even listening to me speak of how bad it is right now.
What you're going to hear is like a well polished.
Yeah, I fucking wish.
Yeah, we don't do anything.
So this is kind of cool.
So the Camaro got in with that CSR racing, which is a video game.
So we have an amazing job with the barracudas in there, too.
So we'll have two cars.
It's bad as which two stories of that.
Once I was at what we used to use Exalta paint and Mickey Smith
was the rep for Exalta for years.
And he was great because he would like get you an event.
So we did an event at the NASCAR, someone NASCAR race.
And he had all of like me and big Oaks and Mike Rutter and those guys.
We all go with the airbrush guy.
Who's that Mickey Smith?
Couldn't he airbrush?
I think so.
Yeah, I don't maybe.
But you know, I'm talking about. Yeah, exactly.
You're talking about. Yeah.
So he would get us some some cool gigs with Exalta and they were like paid
for cool dinners and all that kind of stuff.
But we're at the Daytona Speedway and they were on the Exalta level
with all of our cars and we had the barracuda there and this kid came up.
He's like, I own this car.
I own this car.
I'm like, what the hell is this kid saying?
You know, he's just going.
He's like in the video game.
Like he you know, that's cool by the and he couldn't believe it.
Like that car is actually right there.
It's pretty bad.
Yeah. So that was pretty cool.
But like so with the Camaro and it's crazy, the barracuda, like you could
drag race them online and I'm like, we've got access to the barracuda.
So like we should actually drag race the barracuda and the Camaro never
shouldn't win real live, but never shouldn't win my story.
And I'm sticking to it.
Have you got kids?
I don't.
You don't know he's got me, but that's the neat thing about those.
Like having those cars in the like we've got the Grand National.
They did. Oh, I bet.
And the road rage.
Did that ever come out?
What they do in that?
They were.
It's been they did it.
I don't know if it's come out.
But it seems like my son's a big.
He's so into the car stuff to see him get the opportunity to play the car.
Like, dude, that's didn't come up with a much like tokens.
They gave him a bunch of points or money or whatever in that game.
But that's a cool thing.
It's a huge business.
It's it makes me feel like a little kid.
Yeah, yeah, it's wild.
I can't play those things.
No, but like I was just fooling around all night looking on YouTube.
I'm like, I'm just going to type in like Gareth Rodshaw or just
whatever and see what's out there.
And that whole thing with the CSR racing with the barracuda was on there.
And there's like videos like how to win the barracuda and like all this stuff.
And then people were like winning them and changing colors.
I didn't even know that was something you could do.
But I didn't know you were there's YouTube videos on watching video games.
I'm like, that's. Oh, my God, there are.
That is a major subject of me.
You talk about losing your shit over ear pods.
That's another one in the Gerber house.
Watch people play video games.
Well, this time I'm watching I'm walking I'd walk out in the morning
and my son's he's sitting on the couch and I'm like, what are you?
No, there's like, no, you're watching YouTube.
You're watching Pete.
Somebody play a video game like what the fuck is the matter with you?
Go play the video game.
You're going to watch somebody play a video.
That's trying to find out how to do it.
Trying to find out how to do something.
Oh, that is different.
It's odd when I was a teacher.
Really weird.
I'm already not a big fan of like him playing video games,
but spending time watching somebody else play video games is the worst.
Did you guys have video games?
I mean, like Nintendo and stuff, but neither of us were like big.
No. And then like, if you were playing like you were like to be the one to play,
like you didn't want to sit there and watch somebody else.
Yeah. Now it's like the video game consoles.
They're unattended and you're on your phone watching somebody else play
the game that's right there.
Right. Like, dude, if you're playing the one game we all played was on.
Remember when I was in six, seven and you had four that time.
You had four controllers.
That was if you were the only reason if you were the fifth state of college
for the one year, I was at college for so many hours.
If you were the freshman, the fifth guy, the fifth guy,
it had to watch four other dudes play.
You fucking got the pizza when the dude showed up.
That's what you did.
I want to be in the action.
That was, I mean, daylight.
Oh, shit. We got to go to class.
Yeah. No, we don't.
Yeah. Devil is seven was fun.
Yeah.
It was first like more than two multiplayer is really what was so crazy about it.
I kind of see those like those reels were
you see people putting models cars together and as an adult, I get it.
And I'm like, go put a real car together.
Like, what's the point?
Like, you know, you're a couple of other difference.
I know, but here is a young kid here.
He's are you putting models together?
Are you actually you're working on your own car?
I started. I started with model trains.
Yeah. But like, I know you'll he'll come in.
He'll come in later.
Well, if you want to talk, we want to go back to that whole show.
Me on the dollar. They should not say. Wow.
I was trying to start with model trains consensually.
Consensually.
But here's what I'm saying, like Logan.
Logan goes home.
That's what the camp counselor told you to say.
Listen, Logan goes home after eight, ten hour day and then works on his car
through the night and I'm like, dude, don't burn out because like you're going to
come on a mission from God. Yeah. So he's like, I mean, I don't know.
That's what are you building?
I got a little seventy seven Camaro.
It's the high school clap box Camaro.
But I took it super apart
to a degree that I did not know how to put it back together.
And then a hot rod as a career became an means means to an end.
I don't have the skills currently to get my car drivable again.
I got to go learn from these guys.
And then I learned the entire scale of the industry and just.
Wow, I can keep doing this.
Yeah.
So now it's I had it on a chassis table.
It's on its own weight for the first time in six years
on a C five front and rear suspension.
And you built all that.
Yeah. I I I kept the C five front and rear frame rails like the mandrel bends.
Because those look sweet.
I want to. Isn't it aluminum?
The frame rails are steel, but the cradles are aluminum.
So the frame rail in the front just like tapers out to the Camaro rockers.
And then I just made the middle and then it tapers up to the rear clip
of the Corvette with its rails.
Trans in the rear.
I didn't lengthen the torque too many so the engines under the dash.
What needs to be to get behind that steering rack anyway, right?
The the crank pulley is behind the center of my front hubs.
That's she's back there.
That's going to be a fun time.
No, a little twin turbo LS set up and I'm just on a mission from God.
Building the hell out of it.
And we'll forget about the trains.
And you redeemed yourself.
Yeah, absolutely.
And that's why he doesn't have to worry about fabricating.
It could be a job that could be argue.
I mean, the fact that trains exist to travel things in real life
all across the nation is great building model versions of them.
I don't know if cool is the word that I would use here on this podcast.
That's just that's just me.
Well, that's the sound like a hater.
You sound like a hater.
Capital H and I think collectively we all are it's one of those.
I think that would be one of those.
If you were, you know, hold on.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, because I'm about to derail this.
There's I'm about to re-rail the D-Rail on and somebody.
This is the first time we've walked ourselves into a fan.
Is that a problem?
No, I got a fucking cat.
OK, you and me are together.
We'll fight that battle together.
OK, OK, the cats are consensual, too.
I don't know if yours is.
So yeah, the cat is be a hater, be a hater.
Yeah, I mean, the trains, so here's the deal with the trains.
Right, like I feel like if if you were somebody was possibly
investigating you for something that maybe you shouldn't have been doing
for with a minor and that showed up that you were into you would just
they would instantly they'd be like, that's perfect enough.
He's got he fucking did it.
He did it.
It's over.
That's one that's one way to think in front of a jury, too.
They'd be like, he fucked with trains.
He played with model trains and they would be like guilty.
No, no, guilty, guilty, guilty.
But Jerry, he is twenty four, so ten years makes difference.
Yeah, I know.
But this is like the Honda Civic versus the cars I'm into are fifty years old.
I'm in the girls are, too.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I I'm I was going to go similar.
How though I would have probably presented it in a little bit cleaner way.
However, clean it up, the model train thing.
I thought I delivered.
You did good.
It could have been worse from what you wanted to say.
I know it was clear and way worse.
OK, if my parents had said, hey, you're going to go over to so and so's house.
He's a grown man.
He's got model trains.
You're going to like it.
I would have instantly been like, I don't think I'm going to like it.
It sounds like that's a place I shouldn't go.
Kids playing with model trains of like, hey, you should go over and play with Johnny's
at Johnny's house. He's in the model trains.
I also would have been like, I don't think that's for me.
I don't know why it is the train thing, because if I went and played
with a kid that had slot cars, cool.
That kid's a badass.
That kid's a badass.
He fucks. If I met the kid, I met the kid with slot cars, also has the G.I. Joe.
The aircraft aircraft carrier is talking about.
Right. I bet he has that.
I bet you the kid that plays model trains does not know what G.I. Joe is.
I decided for whatever reason.
I decided a very young age. It's a stigma.
It's a it's I was offered up both.
There was a stop.
There was a crossroads that that I that I was able to take the backpack.
No, fuck the backpack. Super stupid.
Dude, my my dad was my dad was into I hate to say it.
I know what he was into.
He was in the model trains. He liked model trains.
And your dad's all right.
He forced me as he oh, Jesus, say that he forced me to put a to convert
my trundle bed into a model train set as a kid.
And I think to be honest with you, like all the jokes aside,
I think that's what did it for me.
That that's what it's just like burned into my memory.
It's like it's a scar, right?
I can't I couldn't have fucking sleepovers.
Do you want to sleep over?
Guess what? You're sleeping on the floor because dad put a fucking model
train set in my trundle bed that I don't play with.
Yeah, you know, it's like, yeah, sure.
You could put the liquid smoke in it.
It's got like my favorite part is here and you say trundle bed.
But he also had a slot slot car track, which is more fun.
And I was drawn to the slot car because your friends could play the slot
card like the train.
Your friends would come over if they were I knew a kid had a train set.
And so like you go over there and you just sit there.
Well, and like are we coming around in like two more minutes?
Where it's not going to go, but the friend that had the damn slot car race,
like everybody can enjoy your sweaty afterwards.
You know, this is this is a safe space, right?
Break it down. I'm going to I'm going to go.
I'm going to admit some things.
You're admitting some things.
So it's just this is safe.
Yeah, it's a safe for the whole no judgment.
So hard.
Moratorium 100 percent safe on what?
Anything as what I'm about to say, getting used against me later.
Yes, I'll give it to you.
Scouts, honours. Yeah, I'll give it to you because I think if you violate
just between you and me, not the rest of the listeners, that's fine.
But if you violate as a go ahead and there's repercussions.
So you get to say whatever you want and you can have a pumpkin spice latte.
Like your pumpkin spice latte.
You can have one if you want. Yeah, it's about it's about in season.
The model train thing, you're 100 percent right.
This is the slowness right of the thing, and it's not cars.
If you are a diehard into the scale
and the dioramas and creating a entire world.
I think that's cool.
So now now you're starting to get me because now I understand there's a skill set.
It's a whole different.
It's a whole different thing, creating alternate worlds or scale
recreation of San Francisco and having to have interesting choices.
Having to scale, build the now.
Now, no, I'm not done yet.
I'm I'm fixing to blow your mind.
That's worse. That's worse.
I think no, I think there's a talent in creating the finishes
and rebuilding different from nothing.
It's not like they built.
They don't make a bridge set that you buy a bridge.
You got to create it from scratch.
There's also a talent in knitting.
The you know, you know what else is a talent in?
Wildly accurate doll houses and the scale recreation of ornate finishes.
Josh is coming out of houses.
Josh, this is a safe space still.
Josh, I just yeah, that's you said moratorium.
So you can't bring that.
How many houses have you we could talk about it tonight, though?
But I've I've never built a doll house.
I appreciate the skill level.
If you have scale auto enthusiasts, I've went through the models.
If you have the aptitude, the fortitude, these are big words.
The willingness and patience to do all that.
Then maybe hot rod building is for you because it's tedious.
It's it's precise.
It's attention to detail because you're creating something.
That's where I was getting at it.
I don't want I don't want you to buy a set.
Also hook up your choo choo and well and put your little engineer hat on
and make noises.
And that's not what it was.
If you're creating stuff like if you can take a sheet of styrene, right?
And this, yeah, I know things, right?
Build a grain elevator.
Exactly. And and create and do a little airbrush finish.
But this thing's been around for a long time and you're like, oh, my God,
it looks like real, but it's small that I get and I can get behind that.
And I got to say, it was it was never just a loop.
So many softballs never just a slow loop.
All right.
The highlight of my train layout and the homies will vouch for the homies.
The homies.
Bank turn bank.
Can you bank?
No, it's traveling through the country.
Simmer down, J-Dog.
I'm about to put a crazy bow on this.
All right, bring it.
I had a switching yard.
All right, switches.
It's a puzzle.
All right, you got a yard of freight and you got your little locomotive
and you're trying to put a longer train together to get on that main loop.
And you got a.
Time it just right.
You got things going.
All I can say, I'm glad you have grown that because we have no time.
I'll tell you what, here's here's on hot rides.
Let me tell you this.
Like I had a Sega Genesis, right?
I say, Genesis, I think we play back.
Big Sonic, your big Sonic heads.
Now, Road Rash, Road Rash was a super bike like motorcycle motorcycle game.
There was never a scenario in my room where I'm like three fucking buddies
are over, let's pull out the trundle bed and let's all sit Indian style
and watch the fucking train go around had the wrong homies.
No, we're playing.
I mean, we were playing a little Road Rash.
We were watching USA up all night and going to the basement.
In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, like it's out.
That's the same buddies, wasn't it?
It's the same.
I'm just asking.
It's the same buddies.
You don't maybe should have played with trains.
He walked.
It is. Oh, shit.
That was good.
It's standard.
It's standard questions time.
I'm crying.
The standard questions brought to you by HRE.
Nice. The standard in wheels.
See how he did that? That's.
Marketing. I don't know what it's called.
Yes, some good stuff.
I was on it for a couple of years.
HRE. HRE.
Wheels. HRE. No problem.
I was I was on HRA.
You're a vehicle selector.
You're a name tag.
Yeah, which we didn't get in.
Charger, by the way, I was.
I wasn't the only person I know.
I know.
Was that during your?
We wouldn't have been ready anyways,
because our interior guy would.
I mean, were you?
Chassis Choice might have played into it.
But I mean, I'm just saying I heard that was never the thing.
So you're not anymore.
It was 100.
It was 100 percent politics.
Every every bit.
Everybody that runs it and everybody that picks is strictly politics.
I mean, it's 100.
It's just the way it is.
I think you said outside.
Everybody knows.
How they mark did a good job.
He did.
I guarantee all those transmissions came from.
Maybe he just but he sells a lot of transmissions.
It's just it's just the way it is.
His transmissions are the best, right?
You work.
Exactly.
Can't go anywhere else.
I mean, it's the same thing I said when people
went like, oh, you're only picking road.
We just sell a lot of chassis.
Like, and what do we do about it?
It was just, yeah, when his stuff, we we buy from him only
because it's, you know, it's going to be fine.
And because it's him.
Yeah.
You know, he's there.
He's just stand behind everything.
You've got that inside connection.
And it's a personal connection with it.
I blame Mark.
I got on HRA because of Mark and because he's like, oh, you know,
you ought to join.
I we he got us in vehicle selection for one of the banquets
and then one of the cars.
And then he's like, you should join SEMA HRA, you know,
if you're going to be in it.
So I did like a lot of people don't.
They feel like they just take advantage of all that.
But yeah, you got to serve a little bit.
You got to put it back in what you're taking out.
And he's like, you know, you ought to be on the committee.
I'm going to, you know, suggest that you get on there.
And the next thing you know, I'm on.
I'm like, I don't know what the hell I was doing.
But it was fun.
It's it's it's very good.
It is good.
Everybody I still volunteer on it.
Give give a little back.
Yeah, it's a comes a lot.
It's it's it's hard work.
It's it's a full-time job.
It is. If you do it, if you do it right, there's a lot to do.
Standard questions.
First up, favorite car movie.
You know, Hollywood Nights.
Yeah, that doesn't come up in a while or ever.
Has it?
It has come up.
Has it?
Yeah, like six, I think on the list.
I was going to say that, but two lane black tops.
Good. It's weird.
It is weird.
I was going to counter that, though.
Favorite TV show with a car in it.
There was a Tales of the Crip.
You remember that?
I love the Crip.
You remember the one it's got the 55 from two lane black top in it.
And the guy that's the, you know, the villain is Brad Pitt.
He's actually on Tales of the Crip.
Yeah, it's the first like it's like an early Brad Pitt.
I'm going to find that.
Yeah. And so he's got this.
I think it's a cutlass or a chivalral, kind of like from two lane black top.
But he's driving.
Yeah, we should look it up.
Tales of Crip, Brad Pitt.
But anyways, the dude's after Brad Pitt's after this dude's daughter
and he's car racer and he's got this, you know, I think it's a GTO
or Buick or whatever.
But his his father is a to Chicago.
His father is a police officer, but he's on the back.
I call this nasty nugget King of the road.
This is good.
We're getting banged for a copy right right now.
Just keep it up to 30 seconds.
Brad Pitt, right there.
All right.
We're going to have to we're going to have to check that one out, dude.
This is what it's only 12.
It's only one of the best polls.
Hold on.
On this podcast, when it comes to car movies, car TV shows, I had no idea.
We come we come in swinging below down there.
I was hoping you could help me out.
I'm trying to that's right there.
This whole boy supposed to go to the scene.
This must have been what propelled his career fast forward up a little bit.
There's a part when he goes, gets the 55 out of the barn.
Keep going. It's up.
He keeps getting beat by this guy.
But then he realizes like, all right, I'm going to go get the two lane
black top 55.
Yeah, I think as long as we keep our there you go.
Right.
Yeah, there maybe keep the clips under 30 seconds.
Copy right in a problem.
There it is.
Or maybe it's Project X. I don't.
Yes, 57.
Yeah.
I polished your up every six months like clockwork.
Thank you.
You might come back.
So this is why this is my favorite.
Wow, what's the burn?
I want to see if you guys watch this is the thing.
It like puts hair up on your arms when you hear like right there.
OK, there you go.
Is filmed in Alabama.
Oh, yeah.
And it may not be a movie, but 30 minutes.
It's great.
That's a great.
After three years, you know, how many hundreds of thousands
of podcasts, several hundreds of thousands.
That's the first time that that's been pulled.
And that is that's a good poll.
Thank you. It's a really good poll.
Nicely done. Thanks.
Well, do you just a Tony Danza fan?
Or did you like 57?
That was Carl's poll.
That's no, the two lane Hollywood nights.
So Hollywood nights, I love that movie because I feel like it perfectly
encapsulates the hot rod culture that I feel like I missed out on.
Strive to I get I get bummed out sometimes like, damn,
those guys really weren't they live for that every week.
Every Friday night, it was the car crew of the high school doing their thing.
And that just seems I wish I got to live that.
And I sat with Garrett so many nights after work,
hearing him tell his Hollywood night centric stories.
That's true. And it's like, dude, I.
That looks that that was the time to be alive.
And there's just a few scenes in that movie.
It's like, I've had a couple of nights with my boys that are like, man.
Oh, oh, new bar, new bomb turd, new new bombs,
pie wagon, man, the pie wagon, the rail job.
Yeah, we have real job. We have pies.
We have pies. Well, so that you're just an old soul.
That's the thing. Yeah, for sure.
That's the thing that if you're going to find a young kid
that work at your shop, yeah, that's great.
That's a great movie.
Yeah, next up, favorite law enforcement interaction story.
Well, the one with the fucking trains we don't want to hear about
because then we won't be able to we won't be able to air this.
I just ended in an arrest.
I mean, obviously, the charges filed.
I really don't have any cool ones. It hasn't come in.
He's too young. Yeah, that's fine.
And if you don't have one, that's an answer as well.
And I have one. I have a favorite one.
Just none of them are cool.
None of them are drag racing hot rod relate.
I was before I lived in Tennessee.
I lived in Illinois and my dad still lives there.
And I'd make frequent trips from Murfreesboro to Bloomington
to hang out with dad, grandpa, the crew.
And one fourth of July weekend, maybe seven years ago,
I left Tennessee at eight o'clock and man, the guys are going out.
I don't want to miss them before they're too far gone.
I really I need to get home, have a good time on the town.
I want to see I've made this drive plenty of times.
I want to see how short I can make this drive this time.
Yeah, I was clocking like 98 for four hours straight.
And it was going great.
And then on the last leg of Illinois, I get pulled over and he's like,
dude, what are you going so quick to beat a record?
But trying to try to shave an hour, man, honestly,
trying to shave an hour. Music's good.
I'm feeling good.
Check the car. Pick me apart.
I'm so legal. You can't help it.
Except for the 98 part.
And I got a ticket.
What did he write it?
Did he bring it down or did he hit you for 98?
He just hit me for speeding.
Twenty over, 15 over.
Did he get you for the full? No, no, no, no, no, 48 over.
He did not get me for the full.
It was 15 over.
Lucky eight, 18 over speed limit was 70.
I'm not I'm not in the math mode right now.
Right. Yeah, we got lucky. Yeah. Yeah.
And he was 18.
He did you a favor? He.
Fill not so much.
He respected the mission, but he still had to do his job.
And that was all right.
But I appreciated that he didn't hit me harder.
And I still made it home in a pretty dang good timely manner.
So didn't quite shave an hour, but maybe maybe shaved a half hour.
I'm going to tell him for Garrett, since he's not here.
And he would tell this and he'd be like,
I shouldn't tell you the story, but he had a 69 Camaro
and that being he wanted a Z always.
And he was like, so his mom went to the dealership with him.
It was 1970.
And there's this green 69 Camaro with a there's a jade green,
the brighter green with a white stripe on it.
And he pops open the hood and there's a 427 in this car.
And he's like, his mom's like, oh, that seems like a big engine.
I thought you wanted the 302 and whatever.
So he's like, no, no, this will be fine.
We'll get this. So he bought it.
Not knowing later on, it was a fucking copo Camaro that.
Oh, sure. Yeah, that he owned.
And he had this name on the protecto plate
because he was technically like the the first owner was a doctor.
And the car was too fast.
It's Mongoose.
Yeah. So he called the Mongoose is the whole thing.
But anyways, he was being he was on
on the street racing or something.
And he was in there's a cop chasing him.
But a body of his was a tow truck driver in over the
the like the, you know, dispatch said,
we're in pursuit of a green car.
They didn't know what it was.
It was going like 150.
They couldn't catch up with him.
And that was his thing.
But he would like put toggle switches on the tail light.
So he can't break my tricks.
Oh, yeah. So that's like the movie hot.
Yeah. He used to say, you'll see me.
You'll hear me. You won't catch me.
Right. But he's like, now there's helicopters.
So don't even try that.
Yeah. There's always a disclaimer.
Like, don't do this.
Can't get away with that stuff anymore.
Do as I say, not as I do. Right.
What's next? Best piece of advice.
We can go there. Best piece of advice you've ever received.
You know, it probably is from Garrett.
You know, it's like.
Work hard.
If you're doing something like what we do,
like give that customer, no matter what their
financial background is or whatever,
give them their best job that you can do,
you know, make your value.
A daily thing, like strive for the best,
you know, and strive for them and make them happy.
Like that's his dream.
Make a person happy.
Make your customers happy.
And that's, you know, that's
the best thing he could have ever said.
You know, it just keeps things transparent.
Right.
Be upfront and honest.
That's that's his advice to what he tells all of us.
That's not real old, dramatic, but.
I certainly heard him.
I heard that from him more than once.
Yeah.
You know, nothing from your grandfather or anything?
That's not from my grandpa.
It's actually from a friend my age,
who is, he is passionately involved in the AA community.
And he's just like, do it scared.
Do it scared.
Life gets overwhelming.
Life gets scary.
Things are intimidating.
Do it scared.
It's not a reason to back down.
Just do it.
Scared.
That's cool.
That is good.
And for some reason that just really resonated with me.
Like, man, I don't know how I do get to that finish line,
but I'm gonna do it scared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really good.
I'm sure all those kids that are sitting there next to the
dude playing with the trains are doing it scared.
Yeah.
Okay.
Sure thing.
That was like a loaded.
That was so loaded.
I set you up for that.
I just, you know, it was there for the takings.
I mean, it was good advice.
It's been some bangers.
I mean, this in and of itself just highlight real.
I mean, Ellie has got a lot to work with.
Everybody's favorite.
So happy for that.
Last but not least, Sylvester Stallone or Burt Reynolds.
Burt Reynolds.
Stallone's pretty cool.
I mean, like, he's still alive.
He's still doing it.
That's right.
Fucking right.
He's, you know, he's defied.
How many people have used that as the, as the way he's still
here, he probably has more money than what Burt Reynolds
ever, not that that's a driving factor, but he's done well.
I think Stallone's done quite well for himself financially.
Those are some odd things to put in the wind column.
Yeah.
There's not a lot.
It's not like those are two pretty good way.
Raring review.
But he had some great movies.
What's, what's your go to?
What's the best best alone movies?
Yeah.
Just Rambo Rambo Rambo Rambo Rambo Rambo Rambo Rambo.
One, three, four, you know, it's, first one was good.
Yeah, but Burt Reynolds.
Exactly.
The man.
But those, both those guys are really amazing.
You obviously, Burt Reynolds resonated with you.
I only take my hat off for one thing.
I think it's the old soul thing.
You're right.
You got, you got the old soul going on.
It's, there's an age group that just is.
It could be an age thing.
If you're on to Burt.
If he was young punk, he wouldn't have made it
in our shop at all.
Like if he was like, we had a young punk
and he just didn't make it.
And unfortunately, I don't know if we're gonna
ever get more of that, but that was the thing
I was gonna say, like make sure that Logan says,
like if you're a young person, what do you need to do
to get into these shops?
Like what, what do.
Make sacrifices.
Yeah.
It is way bigger than you.
You are not the man.
Be humble, be respectful, learn everything you can
from all these old cats while they're here.
Because the fact that you're in front of them
is enough of an opportunity for you to revere
where you're at.
And if you can't see that, keep stepping.
That's cool.
That's good.
You guys probably, when somebody young comes in,
if they're all ears and they wanna hear what you got
and not dispute or discount or say,
well, I saw this on YouTube and I know what it is.
I mean, that's probably more enticing.
Yeah.
You just, you know, you don't see it a tremendous amount.
And I didn't have the privilege of it.
Like I worked with a lot of old guys that weren't like,
you know, they just didn't wanna give up that information.
It's almost like it was guarded, you know,
and you were more of a, like a nuisance for even asking
that I didn't have that positive experience
with like those old school hot rodders.
Garrett's the same way.
No, he revealed his cards as I was worthy.
He would test my metal before giving me knowledge.
He would make sure like this kid's worth
sharing this with.
And he did that many times, it still does.
Yeah.
You get away with a lot more than I ever did.
I'd be like, these aren't the same people I grew up with.
Yeah, you certainly said.
I do half of this shit, but I've been trouble for that.
Oh my God.
Yeah, I'm all, I mean, I'm all about sharing
like everything that.
That might be our generation though.
That we're more like the hot rod world.
I've had people say that to us like,
you guys are at a car show and you're out to dinner
and you're all got your colors, your different shirts on
and you're all hanging out together.
Like, why aren't you like you guys are the competition?
Like, because our customers like us for what we do
and they're gonna find, so really you're better off to be
like learn from each other and help each other out.
If you guys are ever in Columbus
and you need something from our shop,
we've done a lot of stuff for people who are doing good guys.
Like we broke down, come on in, use our shop,
whatever for free.
It doesn't matter because I think that's just what we've done.
Maybe the older generation was a little more like
cover up their secrets.
Well, that's an interesting topic though,
because with the hot rod community,
that's what I think is the coolest thing about being
in this industry is the relationship you have
with the shops and how willing they are
to share information.
I mean, we've just got such a great network of guys,
you can reach out and you know,
everybody's got their thing that they're really good at
and you can reach out to any of those guys.
You know, like Miranda built,
I'll read like he's a fucking wiring just goer.
The dude is wiring is unbelievable.
So if there's a wiring question, dude, I'll hit him up.
If my knees are hurting or my joints are fucking hurting
and I feel like I'm getting old
and how to deal with it, ring brothers.
Mike and Jim will say, you know, hit them up, right?
That's a, but.
If you want to lift a scale, you don't call Casey.
Yeah, I mean, Casey's just,
Casey's fucking just a wealth of knowledge.
It's unbelievable the shit that that dude, Mark Boller,
like you build this network within this industry
of all these amazing guys that are willing
to share that information.
Cousin Mikey, ask him about like C10, S10 stuff.
He's got all kinds of information.
Yeah, Cousin Mikey's a great resource
for like lowering a factory chassis and why you don't do it
or, you know, why you pay attention
after you've done it to any imperfections in the roads.
It's just a pothole.
Or like a six inch tall manhole cover.
Like a six inch manhole cover.
And, you know, Jesse Greening,
that's another guy you can reach out to him
and he'll tell you all about what also happens
and why it's detrimental to be in the pasture seat
with Cousin Mikey when he does that.
Out where your seatbelt.
And not where your seatbelt,
because you'll go through the fucking windshield
on a mint low mileage S10.
Yeah.
But that is, I think that's what makes our industry great.
It is.
We can share shit.
Yes, the battle stories, you can, the wins.
The wins are the best thing though,
because when you build that network,
the stuff that like you've probably fought battles, right?
On like chasing a fucking ghost and you as well,
that the next guy, it would take him
the same amount of time if not more.
And to be able to share that with somebody
to get him out of trouble is gold, you know?
Yeah, you feel proud about like you can help him out.
Well, yeah, you do, you feel, because you're like,
dude, I mean, I fought that battle.
You're not gonna believe this.
You're not gonna believe your god.
You won't believe what the solution is,
because, and then you, when you share that.
It's gonna sound stupid, but.
Throwing cubic dollars at it and ended up being
this little washer or the wrong way to go on this.
It's not the passenger side headlight wiring.
It's actually the fuel sender.
And the whole the day, like the craziest things
that we've spent so much time.
Especially when it comes in noise,
like when it's a squeak or a thing.
But like, man, it coming from right here.
I'm like, well, hold on.
That doesn't mean anything.
Because it's probably coming from there.
Speaking from experience, it's.
I think our industry lacks.
So that was something when I was in HRA,
like our shops not running businesses the right way.
You know, they'd be like, there's some shops I know,
like, yeah, we bail out once a month,
like once a month, like where do you,
like how do you pay your guys through the week?
You know, like, well, I just feel like it's easier that way.
I'm like, boy, you could get so upside down and stuff.
So it's, it's almost like we have to,
when I was in the HRA, I was wanting to do
like this builder summit where everybody gets together.
And we talk about everything except car building,
like business stuff, like how to get your employees
on 401ks and how to do things to increase our bottom line
and all that kind of stuff.
Because I think like, like most mechanics
are, they're great at what they do.
And they're just terrible at business and stuff.
So it's, it's a, I think a lot of shops
could benefit from that.
Well, that's, you know, you've got Roger Lee
and Troy Light doing, I mean, they're doing the Lord's work
when it comes to that.
And they're putting on the seminar sign up for their class.
You know, they're doing a great job.
Or the HRA, which is $100 a year,
you get to throw it in a bone for them.
But yeah, there's things like that was,
was it's needed in our industry because HRA,
the thing they got to do on the HRA,
when they do these builders panels,
I'm speaking from experience
because I've been around for 25 fucking years.
Yeah.
They got to ask better questions
and these builders got to come out of their shells
and not have everything so guarded.
You gotta be some more honesty.
There's gotta be some more honesty
in answering the questions.
I'm gonna, in that setting, how are you?
I know, it's difficult.
Here's the thing.
It's not this setting.
In that setting, you're getting the political answer.
I know.
That's the thing I don't like that it's,
it's all well meaning.
But it's not the service that it could be
to the listeners or the membership.
There's something.
You want to be an idiot in front of everybody else.
Just be honest.
It's all you have to do.
Be honest, you don't have to be an idiot, just.
You also have to spread the wealth.
Everything doesn't have to be sugar coated.
Josh, don't you think they have to spread the wealth though?
Like not just, you know, Ring Brothers, they've made it.
They're, you know, they're on top of their game.
And so their world might be a little different
than like Charlie's or Cruiser's or something.
Like not, we're all good at what we do.
It's just, there's different perspectives.
What you're saying, they need to have
some different people on, that's you saying that.
I'm not saying that.
I'm not going against the cabal of the HRI.
Josh said everything that HRA is doing is the right way.
You are going against that.
Let's go on the record.
No, no, they're doing the right way.
And it's sometimes, we've tried to get that message out,
like get other people out there.
Cause that's the grassroots builders that have a, you know,
there's a lot of quiet shops that do really well
and they're not out there on the limelight
because they don't, they don't need to be.
In their defense, they've always,
I've just preached to this same choir.
In their defense, they want to have the draw.
They want to be able to put butts in seats, right?
And there's a fear that the diversification
of the builders on the panel won't put butts in the seats.
And I disagree.
There needs to be a, you know, you gotta have a banger.
You gotta have this, you gotta have some honesty.
At the end of the day, if you're given quality information
and you're being honest about things, it's, it's, it's good.
Even the topics though, like you're not gonna,
like we're not gonna sit in a seminar
about how to put an air conditioning system.
And cause we know how to, we've done it a million times.
But if you're gonna sit there and talk about, hmm,
invest 401K in your employees or start up some kind of,
you know, healthcare program to help get the better,
you're gonna get better talent
when you offer more incentives.
How does my shop get to do that?
I'm gonna sit on that conversation
because that's gonna apply more to what's interesting to me.
You know, I know you built 10 different riddler cars
and you want everyone and it's great, but
it doesn't do anything for you.
That doesn't work with all builders.
Cause you've got a lot of super,
like you're not gonna sit in a builder's panel
and listen to Dave Lane talk about that, right?
Dave Lane is a wicked talented builder,
but the motherfucker worked by himself for his entire career.
He's the only 401K.
Yeah, you know, he invested, he invested all the money
wherever he invested.
That's a different animal.
So one K.
To be honest.
I heard he used to charge like the whole week,
if he went on a car show, like he charged from the day
he left his house to the, which is amazing.
It was his time?
Yeah.
He did it well.
He is a unique business model
and also crazy talented and did very well.
And that's something like what we've talked about too,
like maybe our customers don't even know this,
but anyways, like if we're gonna go to the show,
that's part of the job.
You know, like if we're gonna promote your car,
we need to get funded for that.
Yeah, it's that all that stuff gets, you know,
it gets to everybody handles a little different,
but I think what you're talking about,
I honestly think that the thing,
what Roger and Troy are doing is really good for that.
Sure.
Because I don't, you're not always gonna get it from,
when you look at all these builders
and you admire a certain build,
everybody does it a little differently.
I mean, some guy might,
he's building some unbelievable stuff,
but maybe he's doing it behind his house,
you know, in his garage personally,
or he's got one or two dudes.
If you're looking at doing it like as a business,
I don't know that you're gonna get that
as a builder's panel.
They're set up to do different things.
And I think once you, you can wrap your head around
the fact that they are set up to do different things,
it makes more sense and you're,
I know at least me, I'm less frustrated as I used to be,
because the builders, the HRI Builders Panel,
are doing a great job of selling the sex
and selling the lifestyle,
and getting more people interested in it.
It's not gonna answer those hard questions.
Those hard questions and deep dive
is gonna come from Roger.
It's gonna come from Oil and Whiskey,
and it's gonna come from the super podcast.
It's coming to me now.
I think that this is a good platform to bring it together.
Well, that's why the podcast really started
and still exists.
But to bring it, maybe in one for the people
who don't regularly listen and just listen to one.
Oh.
Dude, just give them some advice.
Well, bring in a bunch.
Just run a marathon.
Bring it, bring it them all.
Do it, do it a super.
You know what I find interesting though with this?
And just let it rip.
You guys love doing this stuff.
Like, I mean, like, I'm thinking,
we're gonna get on there.
How many more podcasts are gonna be available?
We should get on there as soon as we can,
because, you know, are they gonna get bored of asking
small little shops like what you guys do?
But I can tell, like, you, the listener,
should understand, like, these guys,
you guys really love doing this.
It's enjoyable to do.
I mean, we love the industry.
We love what's here.
The second that it's not fun, we will not do it anymore.
We're not that, like, kind-hearted
that we're gonna, like, give back to this industry.
This is just for fun.
I don't really sell for it.
It's 100%.
For me, it's not gonna come from the guests.
Like, I always enjoyed the guy.
I feel like when I hang it up,
it's gonna be that I just can't fucking
deal with this guy anymore.
You know, it's gonna be like, that's enough, dude.
Oh, we could quit because of that?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I can't stand being like, this is it.
Right.
I didn't realize that we got a choice for that.
Yeah.
And I'm not social enough to carry it by myself.
No, but, like, you guys have a hell of a schedule,
like, you guys got four.
Four this week.
Yeah, and then you got the road tour coming in, and...
We got five this week.
That's dedication.
That's a busy week.
That's a busy week.
It's a lot of drinking.
But it's a lot of liver damage.
What's even worse is when you think about it,
it's five in three days.
It's not five in five days.
It's five in three days.
Well, when we schedule this, he's like,
oh, you already missed this.
You already missed this day.
Schedule another one.
Yeah, that was only two.
Like, is that crazy?
Dude, this is a big fucking deal.
No, I know.
That's why we're so happy.
But it's just, again, it's just like,
I think it's really cool that you guys,
the energy is amazing.
Dude, it's a cool industry,
and you never know.
Like, we had, last night,
we did Mike Goode from PRI.
And I don't know, I don't know him.
I've never met him.
And, you know, PRI is a car show.
It's...
It's a big deal, yeah.
You don't know what to expect,
but as you get into it,
dude, it is...
Great one.
Really awesome.
I mean, you learn so much.
PRI's trying to really grow.
Like, that's, I know, that's...
It's awesome hearing everybody's back stories,
how they did it, what you can learn from that.
I mean, that's what we hear from listeners
all the time at the car shows.
It's complimentary, yeah.
So-and-so got their start,
and how they went through a lot of the same shit that we did.
And I didn't realize everybody's giving away hours
to get their cars done.
All you guys listening right now in the shop,
on company time, get to fucking work.
That's what we...
Put those hoods down.
We earn the right to drink this.
Take the ear pods out and get to work.
We're getting closer.
But hey, subscribe real quick first.
Yeah, but go ahead and hit that follow
and subscribe button.
We might as well do...
It's a good, perfect, by the way.
We have about 10 more minutes
and we can work through this.
That's a lot.
Make it gone.
All right, y'all keep going.
I gotta use the restroom then.
We're gonna keep going.
Yeah, it's a good time, dude.
It's always interesting to see
what everybody's doing, where everybody came from.
I mean, even you guys have built some badass stuff
and you wonder when you see that barracuda come out,
you're like, dude, where did that come from?
I know.
He's got a crazy mind about stuff.
And sometimes, I will say this,
he's always like, man,
when am I ready to get the credit for some of the stuff?
I mean, he's built some badass shit over the years.
I'm like, we gotta be out there more and more.
It's not always political.
There's some politicalness to this, every industry.
We gotta be honest.
There's always some kind of politicalness of it.
But it's a tough gig.
It's funny though, a lot of our customers
are not driven by award cards.
And we've gone back and say, thank God,
because I've known some shops that have done stuff
just for awards and then the shit they go through
with their customer that, oh, we didn't win the Riddler,
we didn't win Amber Award and all this kind of stuff.
And then it takes the fun out of it, for sure.
It's gotta be tough.
I don't think there's been,
I don't know if there's been any builds or any scenarios
where we've started the build and promised an award.
Right.
You've hinted at, you get into something,
you're like, maybe as the project gets rolling,
you're like, oh, this would be cool
to bring it out for Truck of the Year.
But it's never sit down with the customer on day one
and have an agreement that we're going out
for good guys Truck of the Year and we're going to win it.
I know some shops, so that's what they do.
They just build Riddler cards.
That guy's caring and wanting to do something
for the Riddler and like, yeah, it's not really hard to do.
I mean, we got one we're messing with,
but it's just because we feel like it's the caliper,
it'll be that way, but, and even the customer's like,
if we don't, it's not the end of the world,
if we don't get it, and that's great.
And that's the expectation up front,
because then you just take away the whole dynamics
of this, what we do.
Yeah, you do.
But I think the whole industry's changed.
I don't know that there's, I mean,
there's still guys doing it,
but I don't know how many guys are out there
kicking it off with a Riddler build.
That, I mean, I could see, I'll walk that back
because Grand National Roadster show, I think,
is kind of setting the stage for the future
and like the Sloaniker Award
and America's Most Beautiful Roadster.
There's probably a lot of guys chasing that,
right, a build is starting.
But think about this, is like,
you diminish the grade eight and the Riddler award,
then people are like, hmm, I'm gonna sneak in there
and get one, because it's not as big deal.
Like, it's still a big deal.
Like that old award, I don't care what,
deep in our souls of hot rod and we're like, damn,
if I were in the-
Greetings to the world, you need to brag about something,
you need to say that you won the Riddler,
yeah, two times, but I wish Jesse would go out
and win it in like three years,
rather than win it when he did so many times,
because it's hard to, as much as I like to fuck with him,
he won it a lot in its heyday, which is tough, you know?
Right, but if you still win it-
That's a big win for him.
If you still win it today, it's still,
you're gonna go to the good guy shows,
you're gonna get recognized, like,
oh, this is the grade eight winner
and this is the Riddler car winner and all that stuff.
You're gonna get the press ride.
Yeah, it still does hold some prominence for sure.
People-
Think about this, somebody once told me this,
the guy I built, it's Eddie Denkeber, you know,
that guy, he built the Nickelback car back,
it was when, I think when there was a Silver 57 won
the Riddler, it was, it was a big year.
I think Goldman had a car out there,
there was Denkens, there was the Tux car.
DSC?
Yeah, that's right, they had that.
There was, that was a big year
and everybody was like, I should have won,
I should have won, I should have won.
Yeah, you all should have won, because it was-
Who won it?
It was that 57, it was on a Silver 57.
That's the thing, you can think of all the grade eight winners
and like who won the Riddler though,
like you don't always put that together,
but the point was is like,
people were spending millions of dollars
just to get this one trophy and it's amazing,
like the power that has, even like with SEMA,
you know, people were putting millions of dollars,
hundreds of thousands of hours and dollars
to get a car there and debut it.
For one event, it's crazy.
The landscape's changed, like it's definitely changed
because look at the Ring Brothers Aston Martin right now.
That car hasn't even been, none of us have seen it,
it hasn't been to a show.
That car already has more hype, more prominence,
is you know it's more badass
than almost anything that's been out there.
Sure.
And it's just social media, like it's-
Can't wait to see it.
The reach is there and it doesn't need to,
like I don't know, did it win an award at Monterey,
I don't know.
It's speaking for itself.
Who cares?
It speaks for itself in a way that I have not encountered yet.
Who cares?
It's so there in your face, yeah.
Is that where, you think that's where things
are gonna lead to, where people don't care about awards,
we're just bringing out nice cars.
I think it will.
We're just gonna all be like Kumbaya, everybody wins,
you know.
I think it's always like, you know,
the good guys stuff is cool, like they still do,
I think a great job with street art of the year,
the street machine of the year.
There needs to be a stage to debut in Arizona
and the social media, just the instantaneousness of it.
It's hard to wait six months for good guys, Columbus,
when you can get it out there now
and show all the pictures and.
Right, remember like magazine print,
too bad Josh is not here
because he's old enough to understand this stuff.
It was reading the fucking news,
it was black and white back then.
But seriously, like with a car,
when you get a photo shoot, you weren't around for this,
but when you get a photo shoot.
You weren't even born for this.
I was born in 2001.
Yeah, we just, Garrett's was two years old.
Anyways, the, like you get a magazine shoot,
like by Eric Geisser, and that was our first, you know.
Yeah, and like, but we waited, this was kind of funny,
we did it in the summer,
and then the magazine came out in December of 98,
Street Ride Magazine, and I went to SEMA.
That was my first year going to SEMA.
98? Yeah, just, we were in a shop.
I went out there because we were doing some wheels
with Boyd Coddington, when he was B. Coddington wheels,
one off stuff, and so they're like,
he should come to SEMA and blah, blah, blah,
and you could just go there, it's no big deal.
So we get out there, and then Street Ride Magazine
had our car in it, and so what I do,
I get like a stack of magazines,
and run around all through SEMA,
opening it up to our page of the car,
and like putting it out throughout the whole venue,
like Hot Rod Alley was like two booths, you know,
back then in 98, but like that was the thing,
like print magazine, like print at,
or you know, cars in a magazine, it's moral, you know,
it's there. It was cool, you'll never replace it.
Yeah, pieces like those, instantly on Instagram,
like who cares?
Like I used to go, if you were at the airport,
or Barnes & Noble, or something,
when we were on a cover of something,
I'd pull them all out, and I'd put them front,
at front center, like the whole fucking automotive
magazine rack. Yeah, we did the same thing,
I'd go to the croak, or the grocery store,
like buy stacks, I'd be like, we're in this man,
like stand like, oh, this is us.
Yeah, there's a certain accomplishment with it,
that like you said, it's kind of like immortal.
Immortal. Yeah, it lives on, it lives on.
Yeah, you can't replace that.
It's not gonna be scrolled past.
You're not gonna run into a photo bucket situation
where they just like clear it up.
It still means something, there's just not as many.
I would do that, like when I was a teacher,
I would have some of my students make some parts
for like a build we're doing, like just here, do this,
make this trim piece or whatever, machine or whatever,
and then they'd see it in a magazine or something,
like holy shit, that's forever.
That's gonna, that part of the car that you built,
or you were part of the project, lasts eternally.
You'll be then gone and that car's still around.
So maybe that's what we all kind of resonate to.
Welcome back. Yeah, it's an industry
that lets us all pour ourselves
into something bigger than ourselves.
And maybe that we're all looking for that.
It's just a living that lets us do just that.
It's cool, I mean, it's a unique industry.
It's a cool fucking thing to do,
because what else can a bunch of like solid C students
and derelicts do?
That's a good notoriety across the world.
Exactly, the brainstorm.
Here's a question to ask for now,
like what if you weren't a hot writer,
what would you do, what's another job you would do?
Dude, I've been at, so I did a good guy's interview once.
In the back, they do that like builder thing and to me,
it's just the thing I would love to do.
I feel like just being in a fucking rock and roll band,
there's something about that.
And we talked about that earlier,
about how like the artistry of that is cool,
but being in that setting, it's like all your,
it's just your talent and you're just putting it out there
and there's something just so fucking cool about it that.
There's only three things I've ever wanted to be
in my entire life, besides doing what I'm doing.
I'm being serious.
It's great, I love the delivery.
I've said it before, listeners are gonna understand,
a cowboy, a cop, or in the armed forces.
There was a time I wanted to go on the Coast Guard
until like some other older people told me like,
fuck that, dude.
No, you're not doing the Coast Guard.
You might have to be more badass to be like a serious actor,
not like Coast Guard reserves, dude.
But like a real deal fucking Coast Guard,
dude going out there and battling some of those Cs,
I don't know.
That's a good, top three things you would do
if you weren't in the Coast Guard.
You missed the mark though.
No, I can't do that now.
You're far from any.
No, I, yeah, I, dude, thank you.
I know, it's been my biggest regret.
Tell me, we're gonna, you're not making any friends.
Lifeguard at a pool, maybe.
He's an employee, just let it in.
No, I didn't, well, it turns out when I was younger,
they told me that Cowboy wasn't real.
You can't be a cowboy.
But it turns out, you can be a cowboy, right?
If somebody would have just told me, yeah,
you just can't do it in Georgia.
I could have been a cowboy.
I really, I wanted to be either Marines or Navy.
Yeah, yeah.
There was a time I wanted to go in the Air Force
because I realized all the shit you had to do to fly.
Josh, show them around the table and do this.
It makes you feel any better.
I think about selling out and doing some Navy ranching
twice a week.
You still have it.
I wouldn't tell them about the trains thing,
but I mean, Phil.
Those are cool.
NBA player is not on the table.
Yeah, it's clearly not.
Phil's a lot smarter than all of us,
so he has more options.
Yeah, he has lots more options.
I could be a fighter, be in a rock and roll band like this.
Maybe do some construction, I don't know.
You did, fuck, Stallone's only five, four, two.
You could have been a fucking actor as a fighter.
You could have done so many.
Stallone's only five, four.
He's like five, he's like five, four and a half.
Five, five.
He's five, 10.
He's your fucking height.
He's your height.
He's shorter than me.
I'm five, 11.
Yeah, he looks like a fucking giant next to you.
What's Phil's?
This is a good question.
It is, it's a great question.
Thank you.
It might, we might have to add this.
Oh, it's just standard.
Yeah, dude, it's a good answer though.
This is good.
We'll send it for him just for this, yeah.
I got a couple drastically different.
Barista.
Sorry.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Make a mean hot chocolate.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Chef, chef?
No, that's on there a little bit more of a hobby side
of the grilling, smoking thing.
Really wanna do marine biology for a long time.
I just love that.
Just exploring in the ocean,
never know what's coming next
and so much cool diversity and life down there.
Oh, for sure.
And then racing something,
just the adrenaline and driving.
He's always been the builder,
I've always been the driver.
The wheel man.
Yeah, takes a team, just love pushing something
to the limits and finding the edge,
sometimes going over.
I've thought about this.
Yeah, over the curb in Starbucks.
Yeah, for the dude that can drive anything fast,
can't drive shit slow.
That's a compliment.
I've just never seen anything like it.
I swear, I've used the analogy and I continue to use it
because I've never seen anybody be able to take
a 17 foot long car and put it through a 13 foot long hole
without touching anything.
Literally bend, matter, right?
But just the strick of like, hey, we're just parked,
we can park right there.
We can park right there.
Oh, what in the hell, I heard you saying anything.
You guys are like, oh, shit.
And it's all bullshit.
Do you have my back?
Yeah, just take it as a compliment
because it fills the best when it comes to driving shit fast.
Anything better than anybody I've ever seen in my life
could not give a better compliment.
Especially when, what's crazy is when the chips are down,
like it's ice water in his veins
because the more people watching
and the harder it is, the thing to do,
the fucking more badass he makes it.
That's as big of a compliment.
But also when nobody's looking and it's just like we've,
you get the fucking Audi, the carbon fiber on the front,
it got took out several times parking.
It did.
And I know it's low, but it did happen.
But dude, the amount of times when it's the curb,
the amount of time when it's like,
throw them in the car for the first fucking time
at like a good guy's street machine.
Never been behind the wheel.
Never, it wasn't like, hey.
Seat belt zip tied in.
Yeah.
Like, get zip tied in.
Gets in like, the car's not,
the car at that point, dude,
it's not ready to drive at that level.
Yeah.
You know what I'm telling you,
you're like, dude, give it just fucking give it hell.
Anything I should know.
It's good to go.
Like dude, this, this and this
is probably about all you need to know
and just be like good.
Might not have rear end loop.
And then just.
Now we fought those.
Yeah, just don't.
Wins, you know.
Oh my gosh.
Do you remember the duly hitting that snow drift
when we come around the corner?
And it, I thought I broke my neck.
It stuffed me in the roof.
I remember that one.
This is not.
It should be an Olympic sport.
This is not a dig.
This is as big of a compliment as you can get.
What would you be doing?
I'd be something in an Air Force pilot of some kind.
We've got a few customers or pilots
that live vicariously through them.
They get me in their simulator to fly.
And I'm like, this is awesome.
Like real flying.
Those guys are badass.
That extra access just fucks me up.
I feel like it.
I was super into it.
Top Gun.
Saw Top Gun in the theaters.
86.
I thought it was a fucking cool shit.
So Garrett's brother, Jerry, he,
Kitchen, he was a F4 pilot.
Oh wow.
Yeah, and but it was pre,
he got out before the Gulf War
because he got real, he kind of got religious
and they were like, you need to fly to A-10,
which is, you know, the A-10 Warhawk.
And so he was, yeah, you know, a flyer.
And he's like, I'm, I'm getting too religious.
I don't want to like take a job on like where I strafe people.
So he was a real smart, he's a real smart guy.
He was a aeronautical engineer.
And so he worked with a test company.
And so he ended up getting on as they discharged him
honorably, but then he ended up working for the government
and testing weaponry for the B2.
And we're like, so you went from like killing like,
you know, coming on.
I'm not doing it.
I'm just making the things.
Yeah, but you know, for like, like killing hundreds
of people to like hold countries.
But he doesn't need it.
City, yeah.
He doesn't see it.
Right.
That's exactly right.
The plane thing, the flying thing,
I think coming back to the chilies and Fridays,
I'm gonna bring it back.
Just hang in there.
I'd love to hear.
Lock in.
The correlation.
Lock in.
I feel that that's a younger man's game.
And also things change over time because I remember flying
either chilies got worse or we don't remember it.
And flying has always been bad or turbulence got worse.
Or pilots got worse.
Pilots got worse because I have flown a significant amount
over the last 25 plus years.
And Josh is almost at United Gold status.
Over the, I'm at gold.
Are you?
Bitch, I'm gold.
I am gold.
As of right now, I'm gold.
If I push hard, I can be platinum by the end of the day.
How many miles did it take?
It's a big mile.
Gold in a year is only, it's only 30,000 miles.
I'm about to break it.
You're not gold.
You'd ever signed up for your.
28,000 and some change, dude.
Frontier.
That's total miles ever.
Is that frontier airlines?
Not in one year.
It has to be a year.
Yeah, that's how you keep status.
Whatever.
Are you guys keeping track of what he's doing?
Finish your story.
My point is, it seems like either turbulence is getting worse
or I'm becoming a bigger pussy in it.
Because you're, I remember, yeah, probably so.
We get older, we get a little worse.
Cause there's been, I remember.
Fearful of shit.
I know.
It's not.
I could have been the best bitch.
Yeah, it could be.
It was a valid question.
Probably, yeah.
Probably so.
As we get older, we back.
No, listen, you guys will experience this too.
As you get older, you start feeling,
you know what?
I don't need all that thrill.
As a young, like young,
I don't remember even thinking about it.
Not that it was, I was young and I was like,
oh, fuck it, the plane goes down.
Who cares?
It was like, I just don't, I didn't pay attention.
Or I don't think that you hit as many bumps in the air.
Yeah.
I think the airways are paid.
They need to repay if that shit.
It is bumpy.
You have to admit the last time.
It's more on the landings for me.
That's what I know.
Are they coming in hot?
They're trying to shave some of it.
They used to just tie it.
They put that shit down and nowadays you come down
and it's like dropping.
85% of the landings, it's like, they're about 50 yards up.
I said, I said, cut the fucking throttles.
I tell Carl, I said, we are falling out of the sky,
but it's controlled.
Is it though?
Carl laughs.
They bounce.
I was like, that's a terrible thing to say
while we're still playing.
The second career would have been a dentist.
Really?
Because they guaranteed $300,000 a year.
Oh, they make some fucking money.
Yeah, and you're just like,
it's like you're getting a Dremel tool.
I had a dentist once.
I think I pissed him off.
I don't like people, let alone their mouths.
I don't want to be in somebody's mouth.
We're good with a die grinder or something.
It'd be pretty easy.
Yeah.
Well, so there's a certain admiration
for their skill set and their dexterity.
I got a friend who's a dentist.
And then I go to him and he runs it like a fucking rock star.
Dude, you go in there and it's like fucking club music playing.
He comes out.
Clean your motors.
He's fucking dancing.
He comes in like dancing and he's just really good
with his hands, so you can appreciate the way
he's picking them up.
Sure, sure.
I'm not making any gay references.
No, you aren't.
Where are you?
How are you trying to spin this?
I wouldn't spin anything.
Me and Phil are having a conversation.
This business related.
Canceled.
This is about something different.
Even if this is something that has nothing to do with it.
It's a talent.
It's a skill.
It's a fucking skill set.
This is a story that happened before.
Dentist.
And then maybe third, if I have a smart hedge fund,
like those fuckers make tons of money.
Yeah.
I look back.
You're sort of financially.
You're sort of financially.
Yeah, because I look up like everything.
I've chosen teacher.
Lot round bill.
I mean, no, I mean, I can't say like,
Garrett has done.
I would say like when people say like,
he's done really well with hot rod.
And if you manage your money, right?
Like anything, you know, we're like doctors,
in a sense, billable hours, right?
The more billable hours you do, the more money
your shop's going to make.
So if you have more employees, you have good skilled people,
you can build out more hours, you can take in more jobs.
That's how you increase your bottom line.
I could see day trading to be fun.
Yeah, hell, but I don't know.
It's I don't I love gambling and I'm risk.
It is 100% gambling and I would have no problem with it.
If I had enough knowledge and confidence to be like,
yeah, fuck it, no problem.
But I just have no idea.
You sit there and believe your fucking computer all day.
That's dude gambling like that.
It's like it's like being in Vegas.
If you know, if you halfway knew what you're doing, making money.
It's wonderful all day long, right?
There's that losing part.
Big moves.
I was just looking at like the more like fulfilling.
Oh yeah, I brought it up because he talked about.
Thank you, Jeremy.
Like making money is cool as long as money matters.
Like this money only matters because we are young.
No, no, no, no, we are about them.
Model trains have no money.
That's what I'd like to know.
More money, more model trains, but also.
Was that a big song?
Well, it was.
I don't think so.
He has a Mr. Rogers.
Maybe a diddy song.
There's so many bangers.
Mr. Rogers, Mr. Rogers song.
Hey, Mr. Rogers was a diddy song.
Hell, yeah.
Oh, yeah, Mr. Rogers was cool.
It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
So if it's no money, just fulfillment.
What is it?
I'd love to study some particle physics.
Holy shit.
No, because break it down.
You heard of the double split double split experiment.
No, I've been to Daytona.
It is an experiment.
All right, we're talking.
We're talking electron microscopes.
OK, there are tangible experiments
that prove when you observe this photon,
its properties change based on if it's being observed or not.
All right, this is way above my head.
This is Cambridge shit.
Dude, you're right.
He's not a bourbon, man.
He should have stuck to the beer.
Simmered out.
Should have stuck to the beer.
Yeah, that's that's out there.
It's good.
No, look, is it out?
Is it out there?
No, no, no, I'm interested.
The people that are getting paid way more than us
have proved and wrote theses is that, hey,
atoms know when we're looking at them
and measuring their properties.
So if I could pick a different route,
particle physics, the nature of everything,
the fact that atoms know when we're looking at them,
that's crazy.
The way that ties in the nature.
But you said fulfillment, right?
How's that fulfilling?
You're not.
How's that fulfilling?
Yes, God, I died.
But you're not changing.
But you're not changing anything.
I don't care to change anything.
I just want to know why everything is the way it is.
I get there's some people that they get off on, you know,
that that constant search for for knowledge and the digging.
And I look at it as like, that's the one guy that finds
the book in the back of the library.
And he's the only one that's ever read it.
For what? That's me.
But OK, good.
So you read the book.
Now, you know the knowledge.
It changed fucking nothing.
Great.
But maybe if more people knew the knowledge,
it could change something.
I don't know about atoms and physics and, you know,
all that kind of stuff is going to change anything.
You got people eating Tide Pods on TikTok.
I don't know if it's going to really change.
I still go back to the Tide Pod thing.
That's just my thing, right?
I just go back to also how old you are.
Yeah, it happened like three years ago, four years ago.
Maybe maybe five years ago, pre-COVID,
they were eating Tide Pods, right?
I get the constant search of knowledge,
but you have to search the knowledge
to then solve a world problem.
I'm not trying to solve a world problem.
He's trying to solve a niche.
My own independent search.
Why the fact that we observe anything?
I know what Logan should.
You should have been.
I like to know things for a hobby.
You should have been a professor
because that's what they do is they get grants.
Now, the train thing now would make sense on the professor.
I'm pretty good at writing papers.
That's interesting.
I'll tell you what, I listen to a wild podcast.
Sean Ryan.
OK.
A dude who's getting out there.
He's getting out there.
And the podcast is out there.
It's a dude who is mining.
He set up, his entire company, is set up
that he's mining platinum from space.
And he's basically catching rides on space shuttles
through various entities that go to space.
This is legit.
He has a massive business plan put together.
It's smart, smart fucking dude.
About X amount of dollars that.
Just like a net, like a device.
You know me.
I didn't pay like a shit ton of attention to all that.
He's not physically going on these rides.
Dude, I got the meat.
He's hanging something off of these.
Yeah, you ordered a Cliff Notes.
But it's free platinum out there.
Yeah, people, young dudes with some wild ideas.
The entities.
You had me at the double slits.
And I was going to go with you there.
But then you lost me.
Just say Google it.
You know, if you're bored on the toilet Wednesday night?
Google it.
Double slit.
The theoretical stuff is what gets me, though.
Adams know when you're looking at them.
We're made of Adams.
Yeah, we're all, everything's an Adams of living breathing thing.
It's got a conscience, probably.
What does that mean for the nature of conscience?
We're all made by a higher being.
We're all made by God.
We're all agreed.
So what do you have to know about it?
That's it's a it's an interesting career
path to search things that are already in the Bible.
You're right, because it's probably not tangible.
It's in the Bible.
There's a there's a language barrier, a hardware barrier.
We do not have the hardware to process it.
He's not close enough to the mic, is he?
No, he's not.
That's that's fine, because whether he's
on the mic or on the mic.
Yeah, this is that's interesting.
And this is going to continue to be we're 100%
putting this in standard questions.
Yeah, yeah, courtesy of you.
So that's a good one.
Thank brought to you by yours.
Here's Roger.
Make sure I want to hear that.
I don't need any.
You'll hear it once.
If you keep hearing it, you'll get a bill for it.
I'm not asking for redemption or residuals.
That was that, you know, obviously,
I wasn't a financial wizard.
I accomplished that.
So you guys were kind enough to help us kill this bottle.
Yeah.
And anybody that kills a bottle gets to autograph the bottle.
That's why you see the pile of bottles.
Well, yeah.
If you don't kill a bottle, you don't get to sign the bottle.
But once you kill a bottle and you get to sign the bottle,
that's going up against some.
I can't read it from here, but whoever signed those
was probably pretty important people.
You know, did Mark do that?
No.
Mark is not killed one.
Mark killed one, but we weren't autographing bottles
at that point.
This is only this year.
This is a new thing.
This is a new thing.
And you know how you cannot kill a bottle and sign a bottle
if you're not in the studio in the podcast.
Nope.
You got to be here in person.
When you when I thought I wouldn't think of any way to do this.
Why would you do this?
Why the heck would?
No.
Hi, I'm Colin from Columbus, Ohio, and that's boring.
And I'm drinking.
Hey, Carl, tell us why you called in today.
Well, we want to get on your podcast.
Well, you're on the podcast.
Tell us what you want to talk about.
We got our latest bill coming out now that we do that.
I actually kind of think that would be kind of fun.
Just kind of just kind of shit on anybody who wasn't in person.
Oh, stop.
Then in there, we did.
Yeah.
Yeah.
President of PRI yesterday was via Zoom, so I'm sure he's going to feel really good.
It's all right.
We got we enjoyed having him.
But we've got to we've got to cast a little doubt like we got to get a poke at him.
He did a great job.
He also had the perfect backdrop for a promote promotion.
Not everybody can.
We're going to sign the bottle.
We're going to put it up on the shelf of signed bottles.
That's almost brought a trademark name.
We thought about bringing a pizza to eat that first.
It would have been.
It's been a few of us.
If you buy this twice.
So we had our buddy, Peter Pete, from Pizon's pizza.
Yeah, local customer.
How do you have like four or five pizzas?
I looked online.
I couldn't find one place in town here.
Well, he brought the pizza.
He brought it from his place.
He owns a chain of just some ripper pizza joints.
And him and his his boys came out and they brought they brought the goodness.
They brought the good.
We've had pizza.
We've ate pizza.
Jesse's lobster.
We had pizza.
Jesse's.
We've had lobster here.
Richard Rollins ordered a pizza on the podcast.
Richard ordered.
Richard Rollins ordered his own pizza.
I didn't.
Yeah.
He was like pizza delivery for a year.
Yeah, Richard.
I feel like Richard needs to get his ass out here where it's going to happen.
Doing it in person with Richard is going to be now.
He's he's going to he's going to go after it.
He's going to get after it or we can mobilize you every once in a while.
We hit the road.
We could do it.
We could do it.
Can mobilize to he can't Richard can mobilize in his fucking jet.
One guy versus three guys.
Come on.
Easily.
Let's not.
He's got he's got some cool shit to look at, though.
He's got a cool.
He's got a cool little collection of stuff, of course.
Like guys.
It's been absolutely a fucking blast.
It's been fun.
It's been a great time.
We didn't realize it was going to be this dramatic.
Yeah, it happens.
I expected, you know, it starts as just the kind of standard, like,
where'd you come from?
What'd you do?
But if you want it to the whiskey starts flowing, it'll really be a good time.
It flows.
It helps.
It's good whiskey.
You just got by the way.
Look, it's got a like a it's an Easter egg to talk about.
We got it before we split.
Yeah.
Let's talk about the Nashville.
What is it?
The barrel, the national barrel, single barrel, which there was some
confusion about where it came from 24 proof, but we believe that Phil procured
this locally at 75% chance.
It's locally.
It's from Gold Eagle.
We know that it's sourced.
Pretty sure I got it.
It's a good source.
Can source Kentucky.
That's going to be MGP and pulled bottled by national barrel company.
We did it our way.
Started with three friends who saw marketing, marketing, marketing,
single barrel, bourbon, cast strength, Gold Eagle.
He said 10 year.
It's a 10 year, which is cool.
Barrel number 2926, 124.6 proof.
It is spicy.
But you get these two signed by the two best employees at Garrett Threadshop.
Then how?
The only two here.
Somebody's got to sign Garrett.
I will.
For for Garrett.
Yeah, I will.
Because he's still live and he's he's doing thriving, doing well.
He's driving, doing well.
He's this is a he's watching the hell out of some gun smoke right now.
And I'm so excited.
My man, my man.
That's true.
This is a you draw like an atom or something on there for us.
I sure could.
Yeah, please.
This is going to be a.
It's a buy it.
It's a buy it, but I'm going to go.
This is a buy it to drink with a bunch of friends and go ahead and kill the bottle.
Yeah.
I'm saying that because we did it.
We did it.
But if you were just to pour a glass by yourself, this is a little on the spicy
hot side, if you're going to have one glass, glass number two was better than
glass number one.
Exactly.
I'm going to go on a limb.
We're not like walking out of here sideways.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's we're professionals.
No, no, no.
Just face it.
I mean, it's not like it's the first row.
Yeah, but I this is and there's this, that's not a bad thing about the bourbon.
There's sometimes you just like the first glass.
Oh, I'd like to drink on this.
This is going to be one of those ones.
You need to get through that first one with conversation, not paying attention.
We didn't realize.
You're right.
Exactly.
We didn't realize it was gone.
Okay.
Hey, Kyle, I'm sad.
No, for the record, did I do all right for a 24 year old?
Did you do great?
I don't, I don't think I don't mean the carpet soaking wet from you pouring
them out.
But other than that, is that me pouring me out or is that my piss?
Either way, either way, you did a great job.
This is good.
It's got it's got a lot of flavor.
It is a little hot.
It's reminds me of some of your some of your will it's or your private barrel stuff.
Yeah.
Some of the binder stash stuff is a little bit like that.
It's got there's a lot of goodness.
It's a lot of good.
Now it's getting signed and it's getting put on the wall of infamy.
Dude, I'm going to echo what you said as far as it's, you know, I think we
dropped the review stuff, but it's I'm going to buy it on that.
Was you agree?
I bought it.
Well, you did.
So you did, but you did it on now.
You have to buy another one because that one's got it on a whim.
I think it was the 10 year single barrel that got me.
I got good son and my dad's for checks.
You're supposed to admit that.
I know the statute of limitations like Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio and here.
Guys, it's been absolute blast.
Yeah, we'll see you again next week.
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