S&YE231 - Snail Works Design & FabricationSubie & YOU! · Jun 22, 2026
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Term
trail stuff
They mean taking the cars onto dirt or rough trails instead of just regular roads. It’s the kind of driving where you want the car to handle uneven ground.
Vinyl overlays are stickers made from vinyl that you stick onto a surface. In this case, they’re used to customize parts of the Subaru’s exterior without swapping the whole part.
Rear reflectors are the little reflective pieces on the back of the car that help other drivers see you at night. If you cover them with graphics, you want to make sure they still reflect light.
Tail lights are the lights on the back of the car that turn on when you brake or at night. Any customization should still let them work properly so other drivers can see you.
Engine bay caps are aftermarket covers that dress up visible areas in the engine compartment. They’re often chosen for appearance, and here they’re described as “billeted aluminum,” which is a machined metal finish that tends to look more premium than stamped parts.
Billeted aluminum means the part is cut/machined from a solid chunk of aluminum. It usually looks higher-end and can fit more precisely.
Car
Subaru STI model
STI is Subaru’s performance arm. Saying it was converted into an “STI model” usually means the car was modified to feel more like the higher-performance STI version.
The Subaru WRX is a sporty Subaru that’s built for quick driving. It’s famous for having all-wheel drive and a turbo engine, and it’s the kind of car enthusiasts get excited about.
This is a rare Renault model (Renault Scenic RX4). The host is saying it’s the car they learned to drive stick in, so it matters to their driving story.
The Pontiac Aztek is a crossover-style car with a very unusual, standout design. People mention it because it looks different from most other cars. In the podcast, it’s used as a comparison for another vehicle’s styling.
The Subaru Crosstrek is a small SUV-style car meant for everyday driving. It’s known for being practical and for having features that help keep you safe. It also typically comes with all-wheel drive, which can help on slippery roads.
“Modding” means customizing your car with aftermarket parts instead of leaving it stock. In this case, they’re talking about changes that make a Crosstrek better for rougher roads.
“Off-road-ish” means you’re not doing extreme off-roading, but you want the car to handle dirt roads and rough paths better than stock. It’s usually about mild trail capability.
The Ford F-150 is a big pickup truck made by Ford. Here, it’s just the specific truck the guest’s friend had, which helped them work on car-related projects.
The Crosstrek is a Subaru compact crossover, meaning it’s a small SUV-style car. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as the car the person already had. It’s typically chosen because it’s practical for everyday driving and usually includes all-wheel drive.
An “exhaust” is the pipe system that carries gases out of the engine. “Five inch” means the pipe is about 5 inches wide, which can help the gases flow more easily—though it’s not automatically better without the whole system matching.
A gasket is a thin sealing piece that helps two parts stay sealed together. If the exhaust gasket goes bad, exhaust can leak out where it shouldn’t.
Term
relation brace wheels
They’re talking about upgrading the wheels and doing other front-end changes. Wheels and bumpers can affect how the car looks and how it drives, especially through steering and tire grip.
Term
printer rack
This sounds like they added a roof rack or mounting system. If it’s not sealed correctly, rainwater can get in and cause leaks inside the car.
Sealant is the waterproof glue/seal used to stop leaks. If it’s applied wrong, rain can seep in through the mounting points.
Term
air a pillar trim
The A-pillar is the front support area next to the windshield. The trim is the interior cover there, and they had to hold it to keep water from getting inside.
Term
spider roof rack
A roof rack lets you carry things on top of your car. The “spider” style usually means a particular mounting design, and it often needs sealant so rain water doesn’t leak inside.
The screw threads are the spiral grooves on a bolt. Water can travel along those grooves like it’s following a path, so sealant has to be used where the water would try to go.
Term
water was leaking in
They’re basically troubleshooting a leak by removing the inside roof cover and watching where the water comes in. It helps pinpoint the exact spot instead of guessing.
The Ford F-150 is a large pickup truck. It’s the kind of truck people use for hauling and general driving needs. The podcast is clarifying that the truck mentioned is an F-150, not a specific performance version called a Raptor.
“Cut the bumper” means trimming the front or rear bumper with tools to change how it fits or looks. People do it for clearance or style, but it can be risky if you don’t measure and secure it properly.
Bigger tires (31-inch) can help a car handle rough roads better and also make it look more rugged. But bigger tires take more space, so you usually need other suspension or lift changes to make them fit.
“LT” means the tire is made for heavier-duty use, like light trucks and off-road driving. It’s typically tougher than regular car tires, which helps when you run big 31-inch tires.
Bilstein makes suspension parts like shocks and struts. They’re saying Bilstein’s suspension (B6) is what they used and recommend for this kind of build.
Rally Tech makes aftermarket suspension parts. They’re using Rally Tech one-inch lift springs to raise the car slightly so bigger tires can fit properly.
Wheel spacers are like add-on rings that move your wheels outward. That can help fit bigger tires, but it may also require extra work if the tire still hits something when you turn.
“31s” means tires that are about 31 inches tall. Taller tires can hit the wheel well when you turn, so you may need spacers or trimming to make them fit.
The pinch weld is a factory seam where two metal pieces are folded and welded together. People sometimes trim it to stop a tire from rubbing, but it needs careful re-welding afterward.
If you cut into a welded seam to make room for the tire, you have to weld it back together. Doing it right matters so the car doesn’t rust later.
Term
pin posts
“Pin posts” sounds like small metal mounting points near the wheel area. The point is that there are specific parts of the body you have to work around when making clearance.
A fender liner is the plastic or composite inner cover inside the wheel arch. Removing it can reduce minor rubbing, but in this case the host implies it wasn’t enough—metal trimming was required.
“Dynamic lights” means car lights that aren’t just on or off. They can change how they work (like patterns or behavior) depending on the setup or what the car is doing.
SEMA is a big event for the car aftermarket world—things like custom parts, accessories, and specialty shops. It’s mostly for people who work in the industry, so getting in can help you meet brands and other builders.
Diode Dynamics is a company that makes aftermarket LED car lights. The host is saying they met the brand at SEMA and ended up working with them to sell their lights.
A “torque locker” is a device that helps your car put power to the wheels that have traction. It’s meant to reduce spinning when you’re accelerating. If it doesn’t work reliably, it may be because it wasn’t installed or adjusted correctly.
“Tolerances” are the small, precise clearances that parts are supposed to have when they’re installed. If those clearances are off, the part may not work the way it should. That can cause intermittent or unreliable operation.
A roof rack is a platform on top of the vehicle for carrying gear. The Prinsu version is made for off-road/overlanding use, so it’s built to handle rough roads and extra accessories. It’s a common upgrade for people who travel with lots of stuff.
A skid plate is a protective shield underneath the car. An oil-pan skid plate protects the engine’s oil reservoir from getting hit by rocks or debris off-road. It helps prevent expensive damage when you’re driving on rough trails.
Skid plates are protective panels that keep important parts from getting damaged by rocks or obstacles. Transmission and rear differential skid plates protect the drivetrain parts that sit low under the car. Primitive Racing makes aftermarket versions of these parts.
Trailing arms are part of the suspension that helps control how the wheels move. If they’re adjustable, you can change the suspension geometry to improve how the car handles. Off-road setups use them to better match the car to rough terrain.
An LCA (lower control arm) is a key suspension link that helps hold the wheel in the right position. If it’s adjustable, you can fine-tune how the tires sit on the road. That can improve steering and traction, especially after other modifications.
An axle-back exhaust upgrade changes the mufflers and pipes toward the back of the car. It’s usually done to change sound (and sometimes performance) without doing a full exhaust replacement. The host is saying theirs is an unbranded version.
Nomad 503 Saharas are a specific set of wheels. Wheels aren’t just for looks—on off-road cars they also affect how the tires fit and how tough the setup is. The host likes how these look and likely chose them for their build.
Overlanding means taking a vehicle on long trips, often off the usual roads, and bringing the gear you need to camp and handle problems. It’s why people add things like roof racks and recovery equipment.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a large SUV designed to handle rough roads and long trips. It’s built to be tough and reliable for driving in difficult conditions. That’s why it often comes up when people talk about dependable off-road-capable vehicles.
A winch bumper is a stronger front bumper made so you can mount a winch. A winch helps you pull the car out if you get stuck, and the bumper is designed to support that setup.
Snail Works is a company that sells aftermarket parts for off-road/overlanding builds. Here they’re talking about bumpers and other gear-mounting accessories.
An off-road bumper is a tougher bumper meant for rough driving. It’s designed to handle impacts better and to support recovery gear like winches or tow points.
Tire swing outs are a spare-tire mount that lets the tire swing open like a door. It keeps your spare protected but still easy to grab if you get a flat.
A carbon steering wheel is a steering wheel made with carbon fiber. People like it because it can feel more responsive and it looks more high-end or race-inspired.
Term
five inches taller than a standard one
They’re saying the setup they’re talking about sits about five inches higher than the usual version. When a car is taller, it can change how other parts and accessories fit.
A rear bumper is a structural and protective component at the back of the vehicle, and aftermarket versions are often designed for off-road use. Here, the host specifically calls out the “Snareworks rear bumper” as a favorite modification and ties it to the business’s prototype history.
Rhino 3D is a design program used to model parts on a computer. They used it to help design the kind of smooth, organic shapes they wanted for the car.
SOLIDWORKS is a computer program for designing parts. They’re saying they tried it in school, but their project work leaned more toward Rhino for the kind of shapes they wanted.
This is an off-road bumper design inspired by desert-racing trucks. The “tube style” means it’s made from metal tubes, and it’s usually built to take hits and make it easier to attach things like a hitch or gear.
A hitch is the part you use to tow or attach things to the back of a car. “Integrated” means it’s built into the bumper so it’s stronger and more protected, and it’s easier to use for racks and gear.
Fabrication is the process of making the real part from the design. It usually involves building it with tools like cutting and welding, not just drawing it on a computer.
A render is basically a digital picture or 3D preview of what the part will look like. They’re saying they only had the visual mockup, not the finished bumper on the car yet.
Carbon fiber is a strong, lightweight material used in car parts. It’s often used to make parts lighter and a bit more “premium,” like steering wheels or trim.
Alcantara is a soft, suede-like material used in car interiors. “Perforated leather” just means leather with tiny holes, often to help it feel cooler and more comfortable.
Term
Piper tube
This sounds like a type of metal tubing the fabricator would use for the project. The shop is basically asking what kind of tube/material you plan to use.
DOM tube is a special kind of metal tubing made to be very straight and consistent. Fabricators like it because it’s easier to build with and the parts tend to line up better.
Term
pipe bent
They’re talking about how the metal was bent. One method gives a cleaner, more controlled bend; the other is more likely to distort the metal.
A mandrel bender is a bending tool that supports the inside of a tube while you bend it. That helps the tube keep its shape instead of getting crushed or wavy.
A pipe bender is a tool for bending metal pipe/tube. It may not keep the inside perfectly supported, so the bend can come out less clean than with a mandrel bender.
A roll cage is a metal safety frame inside a car. It helps protect you if the car flips or crashes hard, and it’s usually made from strong metal tubing.
Bumpers are the parts at the front and back of a car meant to take hits. Here, they’re talking about making custom bumpers for cars, not just buying them off a shelf.
End caps are the small pieces that finish off the ends of a bumper. Welding them in place usually means a sturdier, more “built” look than using a simple plastic plug.
Welding means melting/joining parts together so they become one solid piece. The host is saying their older bumpers were made more like metal fabrication than quick plastic assembly.
A plastic end plug is a small plastic piece used to finish the end of a bumper. The host is contrasting it with a more labor-intensive metal-welded construction.
A halo product is something you make partly to make your brand look good and build interest. The host is saying those bumpers were impressive, even if they weren’t the most profitable to produce.
Frame rails are the main metal “backbone” beams under a body-on-frame vehicle. The speaker is saying their bumper was reinforced by connecting it to those beams.
Tie-down spots are places you can hook straps to keep gear from moving. The speaker says their bumper design added real anchor points for securing cargo.
The Toyota 4Runner is a rugged SUV that’s popular for off-roading. Here, the speaker says they bought a new one and started designing aftermarket bumper parts for it.
“Production” here refers to moving a design from prototype/fabrication into repeatable manufacturing for customers. The speaker says their swing-out and front bumper ideas “never made it to production,” meaning they didn’t reach a stage where they could be sold as a consistent product.
CNC manufacturing is a way of making parts using computers to control machines. It helps produce parts accurately and consistently, which matters a lot for car components.
LIVE
Hey, this is Alex, aka Escargo.
You can find me on Instagram at snareworks.us.
You're listening to episode 231 of the Subian U podcast.
If you're listening to this podcast and you're in Arizona, hit me up.
Let's go do some fun trail stuff with the Subarus.
My Instagram handle is Escargo, that's spelled E-S-C-R-G-O.
You can find me there.
You can also find me at snareworks.us.
Hello and welcome to this new episode of the Subian U podcast.
As you heard, I have Alex on and I'm really excited to have him on and it was a great conversation.
He has a cross trek and you will hear why I'm excited that he has a cross trek because we have some similarities.
Also, of course, he's here to talk about Snailworks, but he is another guest that I met in person.
I met him last year at Overland Expo East in Virginia.
That was super cool that I was able to meet him in person and just add to the list of guests that I've met in person that I've had on the podcast.
We have a really great conversation talking about his cross trek and Snailworks.
I'm excited for y'all to check it out and listen to his story because it's actually really cool.
He's done a lot of really cool things with Snailworks and, of course, his cross trek.
But anyway, we'll get into that conversation here in just a bit.
The Subian U podcast is brought to you by Accentric Designs.
For those of you who don't know, Accentric Designs is a small, community-driven business that offers custom-fit vinyl overlays for most Subaru models.
This includes various designs for the rear reflectors, tail lights, and side tail lights.
I also offer fun, detailed designs like the popular fender stripes and stickers.
To find designs for your Subi, head on over to AccentricDesigns.com.
There's always more projects in the works, so be sure to follow at Accentric.designs on Instagram.
As always, thank you so much Accentric Designs for sponsoring the Subian U podcast.
Again, a reminder to the past guests, if you're listening to this, if you would like to get a Subian U podcast decal with your specific episode on it,
you can go to AccentricDesigns.com, just type in podcast or episode, and that decal will come up.
You can designate which episode it is, just put your number in there, and you can order it from Jin.
It helps support her little business, and I appreciate that because I like helping small businesses.
If you want to, go order one, and you can slap it on your car so that you can show off your episode of the podcast.
If you are listening to this on Monday, June 22nd,
I want to let you know that I am headed to Overland Expo P&W this Wednesday the 24th,
and I will be there through the 29th on the following Monday.
Thursday will be the day that we're going to have a trail ride with all of the people that were invited by Subaru of America
for Subaru Base Camp at Overland Expo P&W, so we'll be doing that on Thursday,
and then of course the event will be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, where we'll be at the Expo and being able to explore.
So again, my goal is going to be to get some good like social media videos, you know,
vertical format for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and then I'm also going to be recording long form videos.
And I'm excited to go to Overland Expo P&W, so if you're going to be there, be sure to come by and say hello.
I'll be at the Subaru booth.
Anyway, I'm excited to see who's going to be in the booth this year, like what booth cars are going to be there.
And I'm just excited to go. It's going to be a fun time.
So anyway, I'll get on with some other things.
One of those other things is to check out the Dirt Subbies podcast with my buddy Ben,
who is actually going to be in the same hotel as I am for Overland Expo P&W.
So we're going to get to hang out and really spend some good time together.
So I'm looking forward to that, but go check out the Dirt Subbies podcast.
He's got a lot of great episodes and a lot of great guests.
Also, be sure to check out the Wave podcast with Dave and Patrick.
They are both Subaru technicians, so their episodes get pretty technical,
but they have a lot of really great information in theirs as well.
So be sure to check that out.
Also, this podcast was brought to you by Subaru Gear.
Be sure to go check out SubaruGear.com.
Use the code SUBIENU2026 at checkout to get 20% off a single item or your entire purchase.
It's better if you fill up your cart because if your total is over $50 after the 20% discount,
you'll automatically get free shipping, which definitely helps out.
The other thing that you can find at SubaruGear.com is the badge of ownership.
So if you go to the badge of ownership, you can get your loyalty number,
which tells what number Subaru you were on.
First, second, third, fourth, ninth.
Some people have a lot of Subarus or have owned a lot of Subarus.
You can also get the lifestyle icons as well.
So all of that can be found at SubaruGear.com.
If you're listening to this and you're on your first Subaru, you just bought a Subaru,
you're not sure what that is, go check it out.
The badge of ownership is right there at the top banner, but it displays, you know,
like just the pride that we have in owning a Subaru.
The other sponsor for this podcast, of course, is meleedesignfirm.com.
You can use the code SUBIENU at checkout to get 10% off.
Pretty much anything site-wide.
One of the best things that you can get for your engine, because your engine isn't necessarily that pretty,
are the engine bay caps.
Those really help to enhance the look of your engine bay.
Plus, they're just really cool and they're billeted aluminum.
So they're a nice addition to your engine bay.
But I want to say thank you to all my sponsors.
Thank you to everybody for listening.
We're going to go ahead and get into this conversation now with Alex to hear about
his awesome cross-track and hear all about snailworks.
So let's go ahead and do this.
Welcome, Alex.
Thank you for having me.
You're welcome.
I'm glad you said you're in the intro.
I'm glad you said what your car account was because I was totally drawing a blank.
I'm like, I know he has one, but I couldn't remember it.
And that was like, I actually added that question in after I sent you all the questions
because I'm like, what is this car account like?
For some reason, I just couldn't remember it.
Interesting.
Yeah, I'm just like, I don't know, I've got so much in my mind.
But yeah, the other thing that's cool is like you're another guest that I've actually met in person.
So now I get to have you on the podcast and add you to the list of people I've had in person.
But you've been on the podcast before because I recorded with you at Overland Expo in Virginia back in 2025.
So that was really cool and it was cool to meet you.
Yeah.
That was a very sunny day that we were out.
Yeah.
Yeah, those events are interesting.
It gets pretty hot.
Yeah, but that's a super booth though.
They did a pretty good job with that.
Yeah, it's nice because they've got the owner lounge there that you can go and get out of the sun
and just relax and get some snacks and a drink.
So they did a really good job.
Yeah.
Well, I'm glad I got to sit down with you there and chat a little bit.
Yeah, that was fun.
So I'll start off and ask you the most important question, whether you prefer waffles or pancakes.
And I may have asked you then because I think I was asking people, but I've had so many people on.
I don't remember everybody's answers.
Yeah, I wonder if my answers changed.
I'm going to say pancakes just because I love McGriddle.
Yeah.
So I'm going to say pancakes today.
All right, today.
Yeah, it could change later.
My question is what's your favorite?
Mine is pancakes.
Okay, all right.
I like waffles too, but I mean, I've said this many times, but there's this restaurant in Fort Worth
and it's a vegan restaurant called Spiral Diner and the way that they make their pancakes,
they have like, you know, they're not super thick, but they're not thin.
They're like, they're just perfect and they have a nice crispy edge to them.
And that's like one of my favorite parts.
So this is like the most perfect pancake I think I've ever had.
Interesting.
Yeah.
You like like the thin pizzas, don't you?
You're like a thin pizza.
Yeah.
Do you eat the crust on the pizza?
Yeah.
Do you?
Yeah.
Actually, it depends.
Okay.
Yeah.
Maybe that should be another question.
Crust or no crust?
Pineapple or no pineapple?
Oh, no, no.
I draw the line there.
Come on, man.
Pineapple is so good.
Ask me that.
What?
No, never.
You'll never catch me eating a pineapple pizza.
Oh, it's so good.
A Hawaiian pizza.
Never.
Oh, you're missing out.
Try to once.
Once was enough for me, I think.
Yeah.
People can come at me in the comments, but I stand by it.
Yeah.
No, it's cool.
So like, you know, we'll talk about your cross-track first.
I mean, I know the main thing to talk about is snail works.
But like, as far as your cross-track, like go back and tell me about where your interest
in Subaru came from in the first place.
Yeah.
So that's a pretty interesting one.
I mean, my history with Subaru, I'd say goes pretty far back.
I think my first impression of a Subaru was my dad, he had a really good friend back in
the day that he had a GF wagon in Preza, like the first generation WRX with the mean eye.
That's what they call him, I think.
Okay.
And he like converted it and everything into like sort of an STI model.
That thing was just like really cool.
And it was in the World Rally Blue.
It was just like a really cool car.
And I was back when I was, I grew up in Taiwan.
Oh, nice.
That's when I was still back there.
And I think he had like a, he was like a really good friend of my dad's.
And he influenced my dad to get a Blah by WRX, also World Rally Blue.
And I was in, I was in like elementary school at the time.
I was like second grade, I think.
And I remember just like rolling up to school in that thing.
And it was just like the coolest thing ever.
Yeah.
I was just like, I'm literally the coolest kid on the block.
Yeah.
So that I think cemented it.
And I remember like my, my dad ended up selling that car after just a few years.
I think it was a 06 model, 05, 06, something like that.
And my mom was like devastated that he sold it because she was like, wow, now you're an old person.
That's like a young person car.
Now you're old person.
So, so I've fond memories of that.
Nice.
Yeah. Too bad you weren't able to drive it, you know.
I know.
That's why, that's why I ended up getting a manual Subaru, but not quite the same horsepower.
No, quite a bit different.
So, yeah, your Cross Trek's a manual, which is super cool.
So when I found that out, I was like, yeah, that's awesome because mine is too.
But is the Cross Trek your first Subaru?
It's my first Subaru.
It's not the first car I drove.
Back in Taiwan, I learned how to drive manual in my mom's car.
She also had a manual car.
She had a, people are going to love this one.
It was a Renault Scenic RX4.
It's like the European equivalent of the Pontiac Aztec.
Oh, man.
You got to look it up.
It's like one of the weirdest looking cars.
It was on Top Gear for episode and they just tore that car apart, but that's the car that I learned how to drive it.
How do you spell that?
Scenic, like something, the Scenic view.
But is it Renault, you said?
Yeah, Renault, like the French brand, R-E-N-A-U-L-T.
Oh, gotcha, yeah, yeah, gotcha.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, they actually imported those cars into Taiwan for a bit.
They were really, really unpopular, but if you wanted to be different, you'd go and get Renault, I guess.
Yeah, it was the Scenic, what?
What was the other part of it?
RX-4, yeah, it was a gray one, too.
Oh, man, that's beautiful.
It was called...
I know your base...
Man, I know it.
No, I actually really loved that car.
That car was a lot of my good memories back home or in that car.
It was a five-speed.
All the trim, because it was like really cheap French plastic,
all the trim would just start coming apart at a certain point,
like all the door trim would just start popping off.
But it was fun.
It was a fun car.
Sounds like the...
I remember the old Hyundai excels that we had here were just pieces of crap.
I mean, they were just like...
Yeah.
They would fall apart.
They always had engine problems, because I have an aunt that she had one,
and she was always having problems, and then I had a buddy that had one,
and he was always having problems like they were just such crap cars,
but they were kind of cool.
It was a tiny little hatchback that was a manual, and yeah.
So I guess your dad having the Subaru being manual,
and then your mom having that car being a manual,
was it just like whatever I get is going to have to be a manual?
Yeah, yeah, and I had to...
Yeah, I was like, I got to get a manual car.
It doesn't need to be fast or like...
If anything, I was trying to find the cheapest car in America at the time.
I just started...
Actually, I was at sophomore in college,
and I got into a pretty prestigious school here,
and so my parents were like, all right, well, buy a car,
but choose the cheapest car you could find.
And so one of the cheaper cars at the time that offered a manual
and was practical and was incredibly safe was the Crosstrek.
Yeah.
And I remember going to Patriot Subaru.
It was still called Patriot Subaru at the time,
up in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
And I still remember the guy who sold me the Crosstrek, Pat Kelly.
What a legend.
Oh, nice.
So what year is it?
It's a 21.
Oh, yeah.
I bought a brand new.
Yeah.
That's the same year as mine.
And what trim level?
Base.
Yeah.
That's okay.
Yeah.
I know we talked about that.
So I'm sure we did because mine's a base too.
So both manuals, both 21, both base.
Hey, that's all you need.
Oh, dude, I love it, man.
It doesn't have anything fancy.
A lot of analog stuff still.
No big giant screen.
I love it.
Yeah.
And even though they're both 21s, they're both manuals,
they're both base, yours looks way different than mine.
Very different.
It's a lot higher too.
I bet Tri's very different too.
Probably feels like two different cars.
Yeah.
So when you bought it, did you have any plans or did you even know about modding the Crosstrek?
Did you know that you could mod off-road-ish Subarus?
Because I've had a lot of people on that say when they bought their car,
they had no idea you could even do that with them.
And then they just started finding other accounts online and were like,
oh, you can do that.
And then some people are like, yeah, I already knew about it and I had a list
and this is what I was going to do.
So what's your story with it?
Yeah, that's a good question.
I mean, I knew I wanted to do car design at some point,
starting at the age of five or four,
I just frantically draw cars everywhere.
That's cool.
And my mom was like, oh, you got to go into industrial design at the age of five.
And then somehow she spoke that into existence.
And I got into an industrial design program at RISD, Rhode Island School of Design.
And I remember the first year is just like you do a ton of art school stuff.
But then second year, you get into your department.
And I remember the first day of going into the department,
they were like, if you're here for car design, you can get out now.
Oh my gosh.
I'm going to prove you guys wrong.
And I spent the rest of my time there like, excuse me,
I spent the rest of my time there just sort of trying to prove them wrong
and doing everything in my power to like do projects on cars.
That's funny.
Did you prove them wrong?
Yeah, so I think starting junior year, I had a really good friend.
He had a Ford F-150.
It was like the EcoBoost, like the base trim as well.
And he was doing like a bunch of stuff like like pre-runner stuff to his truck out of New England,
which is like nobody does that out of New England, but he was doing it.
And I was like, this is really weird, but like kind of cool.
And it's like really different than anything I know.
And we started working on a lot of projects together,
just like developing interesting little car parts and stuff.
We had like a CNC shop down in the basement of our department.
We ended up like using the machines and developing new parts.
And one of the last projects we worked on together there was called the FAV.
We called it FAV, which is a future apocalyptic vehicle.
And it was based on the like the bug out movement.
Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah, I think that's what it's called, right?
Where it's like the whole bunker scene where people would like create like these really armored vehicles to like survive anything.
Yeah, Mad Max sounding kind of stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
So we're like really inspired by that or rather he was really inspired by that.
And then that sort of like dripped onto me and then I had the cross track at the time already.
And I was like, I'm not going to mod it.
And then over time he just sort of like chipped away at me and he was like, you got it.
You got to do this. You got to do that.
And and eventually I think he got to me and peer pressured me to like doing really stupid stuff to it.
So what was the first thing you did?
I think the first thing that I like, I think there are a few things that I did that I don't really remember now or they weren't like really significant.
I'd say the first significant thing would be the exhaust that I put on, which was a nameless five inch exhaust.
Yeah.
And I still have that thing on the track right now.
I think like the gasket is like rotting out already, but it was like the first thing that I put on.
Nice.
And how long did you have it before you did anything to it?
I don't know.
Like maybe two months.
Oh, I was expecting a longer period of time.
Yeah.
Two months and he completely chipped away at me and I was like, all right, let's do this.
Right.
We bought everything.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So we put on the exhaust and right after that we ended up getting a relation brace wheels.
I save no money to get a relation race wheels bumper, front bumper, and we put that on.
And then right after that we, I also ended up getting a printer rack at it.
Like a pretty steep discount if I remember correctly.
And we also put that on and he was like, yeah, I know how to put this on and it's going to be fine.
And we dropped the whole headline and everything.
How you usually do it with those refracts and he didn't do the sealant correctly on it.
And so like the car would just continuously leak for like, I don't know, for a year every time.
Oh my gosh.
There was a downpour and we just like, we'd have to hold the air a pillar trim up so that the water wouldn't get into the cabin.
It was really funny.
Dude, I had something similar because whenever, because I got the spider roof rack and I put mine on and the guys that I was talking to, they said, make sure you put plenty of sealant.
And I thought I put a lot.
And I drove from Houston all the way up to Madison, Wisconsin for Subaru Flatfest.
This was in 2022.
And then on my way home, I was driving and it started raining and it was raining pretty hard.
And I think maybe I pulled over in a gas station or I was driving somewhere.
I can't remember exactly how it happened.
I felt something dripping on my legs.
I guess I was wearing shorts and I look over and I'm like, and it was like dripping from the A pillar.
Cause you know, it's like plastic up to a certain point and then it's kind of like some kind of a fabric.
So it was just like pooling in that fabric and then just dripping onto my leg.
And I'm like, what the heck is going on?
And I look over to the passenger side and it was wet over there.
So I pulled into a gas station and then I ended up like looking at the, oh, I went to the back to get paper towels.
Cause I had like shop, shop paper, like the blue shop paper towels.
Cause I was going to like just try to soak up as much of the water that was just standing there.
And when I went to the back, I saw that the back was wet too on those back where the back holes are.
And I was like, what is going on?
This is crazy.
So I soaked up as much of the water, you know, like on that fabric headliner as much as I could.
And then I started driving and then it started getting wet again.
And I'm like, so what was supposed to be like a nine hour drive home turned into a 16 hour drive home?
Because you had to stop and then stuff paper towels into your A pillar.
Well, because part of it was that the, there was this huge, huge storm and I was going Southwest from Arkansas.
And I don't remember like what highway I was on or whatever.
But I was looking at the radar and there was this gigantic storm that was over the path that I needed to go.
And like I was sitting there waiting for it to just like start moving off.
And it's like, it just kept recirculating in the same spot over and over again.
And I'm like, it's not moving.
It's like just staying still and I have to go that way.
So I'm like, I'm just going to go straight South and then like cut over West.
But then the storm eventually started following me.
And what I found out is kind of like with you when it was raining really hard.
That's when it was leaking because at one point I was like, I can't do this anymore.
Like I have to go home because I had to go to work the next day.
And I was driving and it was raining, but it wasn't raining hard and it wasn't leaking when it was raining hard.
So thankfully the drive home was better at that point.
And then I went to my cousin's house the next day.
I was like, dude, after after work, I had to come over and reseal this.
And so I resealed it.
And then the driver's side was still leaking occasionally.
So I resealed that again and ever since it hasn't, but it's scary, man.
It's like, come on.
Did you also have like the nightmares, like the subsequent nightmares where you just like wake up in a cold sweat
and then like you'd be like thinking back on the dream and then the whole dream was just like soggy like headliner.
You know, thankfully I never had any dreams.
And I think it's because I got it fixed so quickly, you know, because like is like I said, as soon as the next day hit on Tuesday,
because my cousin has like a covered driveway and it wasn't raining that, you know, the next day.
But I went over there and I'm like, we got to redo this.
So we redid the whole thing.
And then I put like, I put sealant like inside on the screw threads.
I put it, you know, because I hadn't done that before.
So I just I put a lot more underneath inside, put more outside and yeah, it was.
I was going to ask you if you like, if you put the sealant on the threads the first time, because that's what I did wrong.
I didn't put sealant on the threads.
Yeah.
I put it on the spacer.
Yeah.
And I put a lot on the spacer.
I was like, okay, this is going to be enough.
And then it was enough.
And then I did it again.
I took the whole headliner down, put the roof rack on again and and it was still leaking.
And I was like, okay, something's not right.
So then I like drove around with the headliner down for a bit just to see what was going on whenever like water was leaking in.
And I saw that it was literally like channeling through the threads of the screw.
And I was like, oh, okay.
So yeah, we just like put a bunch of that Excel, whatever it was called sealant in the threads.
And then I think it stopped after that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I did.
Yeah.
The second time I put it on the threads and then just put way more on the outside.
Yeah.
So if you're listening to this and you're about to put on a roof rack, put it on the damn threads.
Yes.
Or you will leak.
Yeah.
And put plenty on the outside too.
Just to make sure.
Because like I put it, I put a lot more around the spacers and like kind of pushed it down and made sure it was kind of smooth and making contact with everything around it so that hopefully the water wouldn't penetrate through that either.
But yeah.
Yeah.
It's, yeah, it was a little scary.
So.
Hey, we survived.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like after, oh, with your bumper, when you first put that, when you put that first bumper on there, I'm guessing you had to cut your front bumper.
Yeah.
And it was.
And was that scary?
Because they're like, now, like if I'm, once I cut this, that's it.
I'm committing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember it being kind of daunting.
And actually it was my friend, the guy with the, keep calling it Raptor.
It's not a Raptor.
It's just a F-150.
He cut the bumper because I was, I was too much of a scaredy cat to do it on my own car.
And I was like, you do it, you do it bro.
And so he did it with like a really like crappy.
Oh my God.
It's funny thinking back now because, you know, like at this point I can, I feel like I can cut these bumpers with my eyes closed.
It was the trouble in like 10 minutes.
I've had so many customers come in and to, you know, just ask me to cut the bumper for them.
All right.
So.
I'm a pro now.
Yeah.
Exactly.
No, but that, that first experience was like, wow, like the first foray into like, you know, cutting up your car.
But then after that, you sort of, you know, everything else sort of just feels a lot less daunting.
So was it pretty jagged the way that he cut it up?
No, I mean, we're both in our school, you know, we're both in our school.
So I think we both knew what we were doing.
That's good.
We're both, you know, nifty with their hands and whatever the saying is.
That's good.
Yeah.
I remember speaking of that though, I bought that bumper with like full intention of buying the rear bumper from Relation Race Wheels.
And by the time I had enough money to buy the rear bumper, it wasn't on their side anymore.
So I like sent them an email and, and they were like, yeah, we're just, we're not making this anymore.
And like, now that I've run my own business for a while, like I fully understand why they discontinued that product.
Yeah.
So like, I mean, can you like go through some of the, I guess the extreme stuff that you've done to your cross-track?
Cause you know, it might be a while to go through all the mods, but.
Sure.
You know, if somebody, I mean, seeing these cars in person is like a totally different game than seeing them online.
Cause you see them online, it's like, oh, they look cool.
And then you see them in person.
It's like, whoa.
All right.
That thing is like super cool.
But yeah.
So like go over some like, I guess the major things that really make it stand out.
Yeah.
I'd say the 31 inch tires are definitely a statement.
I believe if I, if I remember this correctly, it's, well, Joe, Oc turbo Joe, he was the first one to put 31s on a cross-track.
And he did a lot of documentation for that.
And, and I, you know, had a lot, a lot of conversations with him before I did mine, but he was really the one who inspired it.
And I think even to this day, I don't, I don't really know of that many other people who have 31s on a second gen.
But yeah, they're true 31 LT tires, 31 by 10 and a half are 15.
And the way that that they could fit was I had fit.
So I have B6 suspension from Bilstein, which if anyone's considering suspension for their cross-track, I only recommend those.
I don't recommend anything else.
I have one inch lift springs from rally tech.
And then I also have the two and a half inch spacers from rally tech.
And that was enough to sort of fit the 31s without, if I, if I'd never had to turn the steering wheel, then I'd be okay.
But unfortunately, if you've trippin' before, you know, you have to turn the steering wheel at some point.
At some point. Yes.
Unless you're like in the salt planes or, you know, what not.
Yeah. So then you have to go into the wheel well and then you just cut like, I don't know, to the inch and a half off of the pinch weld.
And then just sort of re-weld the seam.
Yeah. That's that's one of your pin posts.
Yeah. Yeah. Cause people were like asking, they were like, oh, you know, did you just like take off the fender liner and then you're good, right?
And I'm like, oh, honey, you know, no, no.
Dude, I mean, your, your car looks like so, I mean, it just looks like a beast with those big tires.
Yeah. It's, I'm looking at the first picture from that post where you show cutting, you know, the wheel wells out.
But I mean, it's just, and again, like seeing it in person was just like, what is this thing?
Man, this is so cool.
Yeah. People like don't know that it's a Subaru, especially when a while back when I had the grill off and then also the rear section was covered.
So you couldn't see a single Subaru badge on the exterior of the car.
And so people had no idea what it was at a first glance.
Yeah. And then you tell them it's a cross-track and they'd be like, what?
You sure?
I'm pretty sure I know what my car is.
Yeah. Hold on. Let me double check.
Yeah. I think cell is.
Yeah.
And it, you know, when you, once you drive it, you're like, oh yeah, this is definitely a cross-track.
Yeah.
And it is slow.
Yeah.
It's okay, man. I mean, that's, you know, the aesthetic look of it is makes up for everything else.
Yeah. Sorry. I got a little, little segway there.
What else? What else do I have on it?
I got a ton of dynamic lights, dynamic or one of the brands I brought on with the business.
They had like a program.
Nice.
Where, you know, you could become a distributor of their products and I applied early on.
I was going to SEMA starting.
This is like two years ago, like the first year.
The first year after starting the business, I applied to get into SEMA because SEMA, if anyone knows, it's like only your, you can only get into SEMA if you're in the industry.
So I was lucky enough to actually apply and get in and a lot of connections that I ended up, you know, end up having today or is because of SEMA.
Yeah.
So I'm sure that was like an incredible opportunity.
Yeah. Yeah.
I just went there to like treat it as a networking event and talk to a bunch of people and diodynamics.
They were one of the guys there and they're like, oh, you're the guy with the crazy cross track.
And I was like, yes, that's me.
Can I sell your lights and also get some discounts?
And they're like, hell yeah.
So that's how it happened.
And I didn't really end up like fully committing to that program.
But yeah, we definitely ran some dynamic lights on quite a few vehicles.
On my vehicle, I think there are like, I don't know, seven lights from them.
Oh, okay. Nice.
Enough.
Yeah.
That's too many.
That's too many.
I have what else?
I recently put on a torque master torque locker.
Oh, very nice.
And yeah, it works like 50% of the time.
I think I did one of the tolerances wrong, so I need to get it redone.
If any of you listening know a good shop in Phoenix to get work done on a cross track, let me know because I no longer have my own shop.
Oh yeah, that's right.
Which we will talk about.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
I'm jumping all over the place here.
No, that's okay.
Let me finish listing off everything I have on here.
I have a Prinsu roof rack.
I have asked for a skid plate for the oil pan.
And then I have a, I believe it's a primitive racing transmission and rear diff skid plates.
Nice.
And then Oxbeam switch panel, a ton of rally tech suspension parts, adjustable trailing arms, adjustable LCAs, obviously a nameless axle back.
And I got Nomad 503 Saharas, one of my favorite looking wheels out there.
Yeah, those are nice.
They're very unique looking.
I don't know that I've seen them anywhere else.
They're really popular with the Cayenne crowds, like the Cayenne, Porsche Cayenne overlanding scene.
They love putting those on or like land cruiser guys, they love putting those on.
It's a really stylish, sort of classic rally inspired looking wheel.
And I've always liked the sort of marketing style of Nomad.
It's really sort of hipster, clean, very California.
And yeah, so early on I messaged them and they're like, yeah, we'll, we can give you a little discount and send you some wheels.
And I was like, all right, sick.
I promise I'll take tons of great photos for you guys.
And I did.
So, so I worked out.
And yeah, I have five of those spare on the rear as well.
And then obviously I have all the snail works, the front hybrid winch bumper.
Snail works and then the rear snail works off-road bumper.
And then also the snail works tire swing outs and also our carbon steering wheel as well.
Oh, nice.
Very nice.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's nice looking.
You got some boxes up there too, still up on the roof.
Yeah, I think I took them off recently.
But yeah, when I shipped the car over here to Phoenix, I took them off because they wouldn't fit on the vehicle.
The guy got really freaked out that the moving guy, he was like, because I told him it was
just a cross-trick and he showed up and he was like, that's not a cross-trick.
And I was like, no, it's a cross-trick.
And heavily modified.
Sorry.
Yeah, it's also like, I guess at this point, like five inches taller than a standard one.
So he was rightfully upset, but we got that sorted out.
But I had to take the roof boxes off.
So not putting those at the moment.
Yeah.
So, I mean, you obviously have some of your own parts on your car, but like, what would
you say is your favorite mod?
And then which mod would you say has been has proved the most useful unless it's the same thing?
Well, my favorite mod would probably be the Snareworks rear bumper.
That bumper that's on my vehicle is the original prototype that I made with my buddy Zach in
his garage, like all those years ago, back when I started the business.
So that we can get more into it, but that that bumper is, it's still, it's not the OM2,
but it's made out of pipe.
And there's a pretty interesting story that goes with that, but I'd have to like tell.
Do you want me to just tell like the how the business started?
Yeah, might as well.
Okay.
I mean, it's kind of what we're here for, but you know, I mean, you obviously own a Subaru
and it's a Cross Trek.
So that's, you know, interesting and fun story.
But I mean, if we jump around, we jump around.
That's, you know,
It's, it's very much, you know, they go hand in hand together.
If I didn't have the Cross Trek, I wouldn't have started the business.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cause I'm, I'm definitely very curious to find out like how it started.
I also want to like find out what it's like, you know, what it was like to, to start a
business and then run a business, you know, and so yeah, let's go, let's go.
Yeah.
Okay.
So going back to the relation race wheels from bumper, I bought that, put it on.
At first I thought it made the car look kind of like a boat, but then it kind of grew on
me over time.
And I was like, I got to get the rear bumper, right?
And so I tried to get the rear bumper as I mentioned, didn't sell it.
And then that point I was sort of out of options.
I was a senior in school, right about to graduate.
And I was just like, all right, maybe we just leave the car as is and we don't do anything
more to it.
So I was like, okay.
And then I graduated and then I was, you know, my restless mind ADHD and everything.
I was like, oh, we can leave it alone.
So I just went into, I think I was using Rhino at the time, Rhino 3D.
I was trying to use SOLIDWORKS in school, but we also did a lot of Rhino in terms of doing
a sub D design work, which is more like fluid organic style design method.
It's more popular for like prototyping, but I was using the program a lot, making my
portfolio at the time.
And I was just like, you know, what if I just designed a rear bumper and just see what it
would look like on the car.
And so I drew up a rear tube style pre runner looking bumper with a hitch integrated into
it, because I was like the original one, I don't think they had a hitch integrated.
And I was like, I really need one if I want to put a rack on there.
And I wanted to add a bit of functionality and, you know, it'd be a better sell that way.
And so I made the design.
I was like, oh, this looks pretty cool.
I put it out online.
I already had the Escargo account live at the time.
And I was just getting like a ton of great feedback from people.
They were like, yeah, you know, like, you know, I also bought a Relation Race Wheels
front bumper and they also discontinued right when I was going to buy the rear.
Are you going to make this?
And I was like, I'm really good with design.
I have no idea, you know, the first thing that comes to like fabrication.
So I did it.
Yeah.
So you had this, did you, you just have the design out there or did you
already have it on your cross-trick?
No, I just had the design.
I just had a render.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
And I made the render look kind of nice with like a faux powder coat finish on it.
Yeah.
And people are like, oh, is this real?
I'm like, unfortunately, no.
Yes and no, but not yet.
Yes and no.
It could be.
It could be.
So I was really just gauging interest at the time.
And the interest was overwhelming to the point where I was just sort of like, okay, we got
to just sort of figure out how to make this thing now.
And sorry, real quick, were you, when you designed that, were you thinking like, I want to create
or start a business with this?
Or were you just like, oh, I'm going to design this and maybe I can just kind of sell it on
the side or something?
I'm like, were you already thinking, let's start a business?
Not necessarily.
I think being in design school, we would just make a lot of things without thinking of the
business end so much.
Yeah.
Like even till this day, I'm still very much focused on the design engineering of things
and the business side has always been, I mean, I enjoy it, but it's not something that
I'm best at.
I'm decent at it, but I much prefer putting my time into designing things and coming up
with creative solutions.
And that's usually where I think my time is best spent.
So whenever I see myself leaning too much into something else like shipping and customer
service and all that, it's important to do when you're running a business, but it also
makes you realize like you're sort of straying a little bit farther away from what you originally
wanted to do.
Kind of like adulting, you know, like I have to do these things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's all part of the business.
They hire other people to do that, people who are more qualified.
And, you know, I just don't think I'm the most qualified person a lot of time to do, you
know, tax stuff or, you know, like, you know, creating marketing material or stuff like
that.
It's just, it's just not what I'm best at.
And, you know, designing stuff for cars, I'm getting ahead of myself again, but it's just
going to be like this.
Design stuff for cars, it's not the most lucrative business in the world.
It's a lot of passion and not a ton of payback.
And so, yeah, it's like you kind of have to operate at a very lean level for a lot of
it.
And so, yeah, I mean, even to, even to this day, I still, it's still a one man team.
All the snailworks is just me running everything.
Okay.
Yeah.
That was going to be my next question.
Is it just you and, and is snailworks like the only business you have?
Like, is that your main source of income is running snailworks?
Or do you?
No.
Okay.
So I started snailworks about six months after college.
Okay.
And so back to the bumper, the original bumper design, I put that out there and people are
like, you got to make it.
And I was like, well, in order for this to be legitimate and for me to actually get to
the point where we produce this bumper, I need a certain amount of money, a certain amount
of capital to like push this forward.
And the way for me to legitimately do that first is to start an LLC.
So I went ahead and started LLC in Rhode Island, which looking back, you know, it was a questionable
decision, but I started it there.
And you know, starting, starting a business is probably the easiest part of the business.
It's incredibly simple.
You go online, there's like, you know, companies that, you know, host all the different procedures
and they'll do it all for you.
And yeah, you know, I have the, the podcast is an LLC.
I did that a long time ago.
And that was like, I remember kind of being intimidated, but then I like, I just did all
the research on how to do it and I was like, oh, this is like actually pretty easy.
Yeah.
It's, as you know, it's, it's really, you just have a certain company.
What do they call it again?
The, the company that you reach out for the LLC to get it.
I'm trying to blank right now.
Yeah.
I don't remember because I did it so long ago.
Yeah.
I'm going to remember in like 30 minutes and I'm just going to randomly say it.
I'm going to burst it on people.
What?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I had one of those services and they started the LLC for me.
And I think it was like all in maybe $350 to start it.
Yeah.
It's not very much.
Yeah.
For all the filings and then you're a legitimate business and then now you got to figure out
how to make money.
Then you have an EIN and everything.
That's right.
Yup.
Yup.
You got to file for, you know, sales per minute and all that fun jazz, but I made it through
all of that and I was like, well, I don't know really how to produce these.
Maybe I can find some other way to get some money in the meantime.
And I had a sort of family friend at the time back in Taiwan and he was selling a lot of
high-end car parts that he was importing from China, a lot of carbon fiber parts.
And he had a huge catalog for pretty much any vehicle under the sun that people were
willing to modify.
And so I went back home to Taiwan and I, you know, sat down for lunch with him and went
through his catalog and a lot of it was just sort of things that I wasn't willing to put
on the store.
Or like I didn't feel like it was at the level that I was trying to promote my stuff to be.
But eventually we got to like, I don't know, page 37 and there was like this like really,
really nice assortment of carbon steering wheels that had, you know, standard weave.
It had a forged, you know, pretty much any style you wanted.
You could direct the actual manufacturer to do any type of colored stitching.
They had Alcantara perforated leather, standard leather, you know, the full gamut.
So I was like, maybe we can, maybe I can carry this.
And he was like, okay, let me know what you need.
And so I started out by just selling a really high end carbon fiber product on my website
and using that to generate a bit of revenue so that I could go ahead and start getting
money from that, but also money from other places so that I could put it into manufacturing
the bumper.
And then so I took the design to a bunch of different manufacturing houses, fabricators
in the New England area at the time.
And I was just sort of shopping around.
And I remember the first time going into a fab shop and showing them the drawing and
they were like, well, you know, is this, are you planning on using Piper tube for this?
And I was like, what's the difference?
And then them like laughing me out of their shop.
You should know this, buddy.
Yeah, well, I didn't know that, you know, tube or pipe, like, you know, the difference
in terms of measurements, you know, piping measured from the ID and tube from the OD.
But you learn quickly in those settings.
And, you know, within a very short amount of time, I was back on business,
back on top of business.
But the main problem at the end was still like pricing was just a little bit too high
from all the shops.
It's incredibly expensive to get any type of prototype made here,
especially one-offs in the States.
So I eventually threw a friend of a friend, found this guy in New Bedford, Massachusetts,
and he said he would do it.
And his name was Zach.
And he was a friend of my friend Joe, Joe XV Adventure,
who I think he's been on the podcast right now.
Yeah, yep.
Good guy.
So Joe recommended him to me and he was like, oh, you should, you should text Zach.
And I texted Zach and I didn't hear back from Zach for about six months.
Oh, my gosh.
Six months later, Zach randomly said, hey, you still want to do that bumper thing?
I was like, sure.
Yeah.
And I was like it.
And I told him all the specifications.
We met a, you know, coffee and I was like, this has to be DOM tube.
It has to be, you know, mangel bent.
It can't be pipe bent.
He was like, okay, okay.
And so we agreed on a time and he was like, come meet me in my shop.
And he gave me an address and I showed up at the location and it was his stepdad's garage.
And I got in.
Yeah, that was his shop, quote unquote.
And I was like, huh, is this going to work out?
And I went in and I was like, so where's your mandrel bender?
And he brings out a pipe bender from Harbor Freight.
And I'm like, oh, buddy, that's, that's not going to work.
But I had all this DOM like bought up ready, ready to be bent.
And he, he was just like, no, we're not going to bend that.
So we ended up using pipe for it.
And so the first prototype bumper that is still on my car today is used pipe that he
bent in his stepdad's backyard garage.
Now as the pipe, that's just solid pipe, right?
What do you mean by that?
I mean, there's no, it's not used because like there's, there's no in, like it's not hollow
or is it hollow?
No, no, pipe, pipe is hollow.
So pipe, the main difference between pipe and tube is that pipe is used as a conduit mostly for,
you know, different types of fluids.
Then tube is mostly a structural material that's used to, you know, for,
for a structural purpose, if you're building, you know, roll cages and whatnot.
Yeah. So I'm going to cut that part out because I sound like an idiot.
No, you shouldn't leave it at this.
This is very educational.
This is very educational because there was a point in, you know, even after I graduated
college, I still didn't know the difference between the two.
And, and I had the humidity issue go to all these shops and, and it fully embarrassed
myself in front of them.
So yeah.
But hey, you know, we all got to start somewhere.
And, and that's also where I guess Zach started.
And, and we had a, had a really long partnership together where, you know, we made that first
bumper and then somehow after that, I made that first bumper.
I took photos of it.
I posted, posted online.
I started getting pre-orders and they were just flooding in.
And I was like, hey, you know, do you want to be my like, sort of,
now I have to make these full time.
Yeah. Yeah.
I was like, can you, can you weld, can you weld these for me?
You know, can you weld like 10 of these for me?
And he was like, sure.
But I need like an actual workspace.
And I'm like, yeah, I absolutely agree with you.
So we ended up finding like this shop in this old Russian guy's basement in Fall River,
Massachusetts.
And I think a rent was like $400 a month.
And it sounds like something out of a movie.
Yeah, it was like.
Let me show you basement.
He really did talk like that.
He's a really sketchy guy.
And I don't, I don't know how we managed to make that work.
But, you know, for the first year and a half of all my sales, all my major sales,
were done in that shop.
We produced all those bumpers, all those swing outs in that tiny little,
I don't know, eight by 20 foot shop in his basement.
Wow.
Rent is due on first, no later.
It was interesting because we would always like try to barter like different services
with him.
So we didn't have to like pay rent.
Like we'd be like, oh, you know, we've, well, this railing for you.
And he'd be like, ah, okay, okay.
Or we like sit down and then listen to like him talk about like his,
his granddaughter troubles.
And then it'd be like, oh, okay, you know, maybe, maybe no rent this month.
And he'd be like, no, you still have to pay rent.
So, but it was, yeah, I mean, it was, it was really good memories,
even though it was like really tough times, just trying to, you know,
make all the numbers work.
But we produced, we produced the first 10 sets of bumpers,
of rear bumpers in that shop.
And I went on, uh, Zach sort of was nice enough to pass on all his fabricator
knowledge onto me.
And within a very short amount of time, I was producing pretty much all the rest of the,
the stuff in the shop, like the, the tire swing outs, um, the, the rest of the bumpers,
the front bumpers, everything was pretty much just me welding the shop.
So, but for a while, yeah.
And was that you doing that?
And then like another job, or were you doing, was that full time at the time?
No, that was me like bumming it full time, like, like just like saving on as much,
as many things as I could, uh, making that work, just sort of hustling to make as many
Subaru cross-trick bumper sales as I could.
And, you know, there, there were a few months that was a little bit tight, but, um,
you know, my, my parents ended up, they were nice enough to help me out a little
a bit throughout that time.
They saw that, you know, I was working towards my dream and building, you know,
actually car stuff.
And they were like, Hey, this is cool.
And so they helped me out a little bit during that time.
So, so thank you mom and dad as always.
Yeah.
I mean, and that's good that they were supportive, you know, because people don't
always get that, you know, a lot of times it's like, No,
you have to go to school and you have to do this.
And this is the career that you're going to take on and doing that.
That's just crazy.
What are you thinking?
Uh, so that's really cool.
Were you living with them at the time and then just going and working at the shop?
Or were you living somewhere else?
No, no, my mom was in Jersey.
Still is in Jersey and my dad's still back in Taiwan, even at the time.
So I was just living in an apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
And I was driving about 40 minutes every morning to my shop in Fall River,
just because those were like the two cheapest places I could find at the time.
Yeah.
And yeah.
And so, but the, the, the perspective I think throughout was like me
trying to build value in myself.
Like all of these things were experiences that I needed to have to add value to me
as a designer and fabricator and someone who was, you know, of worth in the car industry.
Yeah.
So that's how I always looked at it.
And that's how I sort of framed it to everyone around me as well was like,
you know, I'm learning a ton of things.
Even if I'm not making bank here, it's like I'm still every single day I'm learning
something new on the site.
I'm learning something new from, you know, my powder coating guy.
I'm learning something new from Zach.
I'm learning something new online about what I should not be doing when it comes
to, you know, cutting DMM tube, you know, it's, it's a lot of learning on your own.
I think, you know, I was, I was homeschooled starting grade three elementary school all
the way till college.
So that's like, that was like the way I knew how to learn stuff.
Like most of my education was through YouTube and I picked things up really easily that way.
I'm not really good with someone else standing there and teaching me to do something.
But if it's like a YouTube video online, I pick it up really quickly somehow.
So how did you make it through college?
Honestly, it's funny that you say that because my college ended up being very much
YouTube university because it was doing COVID.
So a lot of the classes were off.
And the way that our school worked, RISD, it's very sort of DIY kind of setting where
professors sort of inspire you and you go and figure it out on your own.
And so that worked very well with my style of learning things.
And so I had a very good education there and I became a really good artist there.
And, but afterwards I wanted to become a really good engineer and designer.
And so that's why I committed 100% to doing the snowworks thing.
So I want to go back to the business part from when you started the LLC.
Did you, I mean, did you start it off as snowworks?
Or did you have something else and then like a DBA snowworks?
And then the third question is, or the next question is,
where did you come up with snowworks?
Okay, I'll start with how I came up with snowworks.
And it's actually not I, I had a girlfriend at the time, it's now my ex.
She, I think jokingly said, because my car was already called S Cargo,
and she was like, oh, you know, you should just call it snowworks.
And we were in the coffee shop at the time.
And I was like, that's the dumbest name I've ever heard.
And she was like, no, it's great.
You should use it.
And, and somehow, you know, we broke up and then I started the business.
And I was like, hey, you know, actually that idea that she had, it's, you know,
it's, it's kind of a tongue in cheek sort of doesn't take yourself to seriously kind of name.
And that's how I always viewed the business where it was like, let's, let's have fun.
Let's not take things too seriously.
Yeah, I don't want to have like racing in the name.
I don't, I don't want the font to be like really angled and stuff.
And like, you know, that's not what we're doing here.
We're doing like creative solutions to really niche situations.
So yeah, that's how the name came about.
And I think since day one, since the day that I registered the business, it was snails.
Okay.
And then, like, I guess with, like, where did you just like look up different fonts and try to
find one that seemed to like, that you felt like look the best?
Um, I did a lot of graphic design when it was in school and, and I would like use a lot of
different fonts. And I think the whole thought process in design school is like,
how much can we simplify things? How much can we minimize things to the core of what it is?
Yeah.
And I think I found myself over time just using less and less different fonts.
And at one point, I think everything I did was just some form of modeling.
So I think I kind of modified Helvetica in the end, Helvetica new or Montreal new,
which is another font based off of a different found tree in Montreal.
So those are two very similar styles.
I believe it's that font that I use for snare works is Montreal new, which is very similar to
Okay. So, um, you know, you mentioned earlier that, you know, you're like working on all these
bumpers and everything. And you're like, I'm not making bank. And was when you started it,
when you started getting into it, like, were you looking at it as like, I want to try to
really make money? Or was it like, I want to be able to just do this and enjoy it and bring joy
to people with these bumpers and be able to just make it?
Going back to like the first day of being in my department, and I'm saying, like, if you're here
for car stuff, you should get out. I made it like, like my MO to do car stuff in school.
But even then it wasn't enough, like when I graduated, it wasn't enough things to show in
my portfolio to get a job in the car industry at the time. I was a really great designer,
but I just didn't have enough pieces to show I was a good car designer. So I was like, okay,
well, what do we do in this situation so that I can get to that place? And starting a business on
my own, doing exactly car stuff exactly the way I want to do it, I thought was the sort of shortest
path to success. And I think looking back in many ways, it was, and it's something that I'd
highly recommend to anyone who wants to do it. Fusion 360, the design software, they approached
me last year to do a piece on how I started my business and a huge point. Oh man, that's cool.
Yeah, that was a big moment for me. I was like, all right, we made it. Yeah.
How did they find you? They were probably spying on my design files because it's
all cloud based now, right? You were using it, so here's a customer kind of thing.
Yeah, no, I'm mostly just joking. I think they just found me through my social media stuff,
and I must attack them somewhere. But you know, now with the lack of privacy and all, who knows.
Anyway, they reached out and we did this piece. And the whole point of the piece is that, you know,
in this point where, you know, I know there's a lot of hate for AI out there, especially
by young people, surprisingly. But the truth is that because of AI, I could go ahead and
focus most of my time still on the things that I wanted to focus my time on and sort of outsource
a lot of other things to AI. If it wasn't for AI, I wouldn't have been able to code my first,
you know, custom website with Shopify and set up that whole e-commerce situation on my own.
I wouldn't have been able to figure out a lot of the tax intricacies out there.
And yeah, it was, you know, there was a lot of help from my mom who knows a lot,
you know, more about tax stuff than me, but also a lot of like
AI sort of coming in and be like, oh, actually you're doing this wrong. I was like, okay,
so we got to do it some other way. And so all this is to say, like we live in a time where I feel
like anyone, if you really wanted to, you could start a business and be successful in a relatively
short amount of time because we have so many of these, you know, really advanced pieces of tech
at our disposal. Yeah. So, so now it works like, how many products are you offering now?
So I have two questions first. How many products do you offer now? And then,
how many of the like, because you started off with the rear bumper, like, do you know how many
rear cross-track bumpers you've sold to date? I, so for the rear bumpers, I stopped selling them
about, it's been about a year since I sold the last one. And the reason for that was it just,
it was a lot and a lot of time spent just to produce one bumper. Like the level of intricacy
that I was putting into every single one of these bumpers, it was more than any other company was
offering that, you know, any other company that creates bumpers currently, they weren't putting
nearly as much time into every single individual bumper. And so, like every single, if you look at
the original bumpers that I shipped, the rear bumpers, every single one of those end caps
was welded together. Most of these companies today, they just slap a plastic end plug on there and
then call it a day. And honestly, that's what I offer with my new bumpers now as well. In some
ways, that's, you know, better for certain situations. But you could really tell the level
of detail in those original bumpers. And that was a huge focus for me. And I wouldn't have it any
other way. But at a certain point, I realized that it was second way too much time from other
things. And I wasn't really making that much money from them. They were great halo product.
But I had to stop doing that at a certain point. So if I were to estimate, I don't know,
I made maybe total of 30, 35 of them on my own. Not a huge amount.
Total products that I have. Yeah, that was, yeah, that was, but there was something else
I was going to ask about the rear bumper. Yeah, no, go ahead with the total number of products.
I think I have like 15 or so on the side now, maybe 10, 10 or 15 ended up ended up sort of
shortening the list a little bit. There are certain products that weren't
the profit margins were just not quite there. And so had to sort of chop those for the list.
Okay, yeah, I know what I was going to ask now. So you went to go buy a bumper from somebody else
and you're like, Oh, they're not making it anymore. Did you have anybody or like,
wanted to buy a bumper from you? And you're like, Sorry, I'm not making it anymore.
Do the same thing to somebody else.
That's what I'm saying. Like, I get it now. Like, relation race wheels, if you're listening to
this, I'm sorry, guys, if I was a little bit hostile on that email, I'm sorry, I didn't know
how I would come across. But now I get it, because I get a lot of those emails now. And
honestly, a lot of times today, I don't even necessarily have the, I won't even respond
anymore, just because I get a ton of those emails. Just it's always the same question,
when are the rib bumpers coming back? And yeah, it's with my current work situation,
I don't foresee them coming back for a while. So at the moment, I'm just selling the front
bumpers. We have a bit of a stockpile here in Arizona that I brought with me. And then I have
another stockpile back in Rhode Island with my buddy Zach. So those are the existing ones that
we're selling. And yeah, I totally get it when it comes to, when someone wants to
buy a rear bumper from me now, it really is an awesome product. It costs a lot of money to produce.
And so it's not really economic for me to do them anymore. I would love to keep making them
for people, especially now that they have had all their sort of iterations with additional
channel supports through the frame rails. And I started offering them with
actual tie down spots. And so they got to a point where they're really like,
it was a really well done product. It just, I couldn't sell them anymore. And it's sad because,
you know, I would love to see more of these bumpers on more people's vehicles. Like,
it's really cool whenever I'm driving around and I see another modded cross track out on the
road. I'm like, that's sick, you know, but yeah, at some point, I just, I had to keep my sanity.
Yeah. So you mentioned something a little while ago, because you said,
now you brought those, the front bumpers with you to Arizona or some of them. So why the move
to Arizona? That's a pretty big move. Yeah, it was really big. It really, I think it started,
there were some personal issues that were going on in my life at the time that I don't know if I
can discuss on this podcast, but yeah, they weren't business related necessarily, but I was getting
a little bit stuck in terms of where I was with the business as well. And I needed sort of a change
in scenery. And at the same, around that time, I also had got a Toyota 4Runner,
to a brand new Toyota 4Runner, the new 6Genz, and started developing parts for that. And
I had a rear swing out, double swing out design for that, and I started working on a front bumper.
They never made it to production. Before they even got to production, I had made friends with
this guy, Jeff Westcott over at Westcott Designs, and his manufacturing facility is here in Phoenix,
Arizona. And he sort of offered, he had this big event going on at the time. It was a riggs and
roast in March of this year. And he was like, hey, you should come over and hang out. And I was like,
okay. And so I just happened, I was in Arizona and I showed up and he was like, oh, wow, you actually
showed up. And so we got to talking. Did you drive or fly? I flew over. I know it'd be a long drive,
but yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was too far for that situation. I have made this trip over a few
times in the car. But yeah, in this situation, I just flew over, I rented a Tesla for a weekend,
and I was just hanging around and I stopped by and I was like, oh, wow, you showed up. And he
had really advanced CNC manufacturing capacity in the shop. And they're doing a lot of interesting
stuff for Toyota trucks, Ford trucks. And he was like, hey, I've seen your stuff. If you ever want
to come out here, we got a job for you to head our CNC department. Nice. And I was like, all right.
So I made it back to Rhode Island and I bundled up a few things back home. And I was like, okay,
maybe it's time to make the move. I called him up. I was like, Jeff, you know what,
I think I'm going to take you up on that offer. And he was like, all right, we have a place for
you here whenever you want to head over. And I was like, all right, see you May 1st.
And so nice, packed up all my things and headed over here with my mom. And she helped me move in
to my new spot here. And I've just been running the CNC department for West God Designs for the
past month and a half now. How's that been going? It's very interesting. The whole point really
was to see like manufacturing at a different scale that I was doing. And in a way, I sort of
achieved my goal. I got a really good job in the car industry designing car parts and stuff for cars
and doing really creative things. And so, yeah, it's been great. It's really eye opening to get
to manage a whole CNC shop floor, getting to use the Haas lathe and mills, hands on,
getting to reprogram things, learning a lot. It's very rewarding.
That's good. And so what about your manufacturing for, because you said you have some front bumpers,
but what about like other parts? I mean, are you still doing that on the side right now?
Or is that kind of on hold? What's going on with Snailworks?
So Snailworks is still active. I'm selling the current inventory that I have for bumpers and
I'm probably not going to restock those for a bit. But in terms of all the other smaller items,
like platform mounts, other mounts for the Prince of Racks that I offer in Spider Racks,
like the High Lift and the awnings, those are all going to continue to be on the side for the
foreseeable future. And going forward, it's all going to be smaller items that I'm going to be
making. Because also just like shipping the bumpers just got to a point where it's just like
too much liability. It was kind of crazy. And it was, I don't know, it ended up being like $650
to ship through freight, each bumper. And I was just like, this isn't happening. So
I ended up redesigning the bumper. Yeah, I had to redesign the whole bumper just so it could fit
within like a box that was about four inches smaller in length so that it would fit UPS's
requirements. And so there was a lot of creative thinking in terms of like orienting the parts and
creating a crate that could house the parts and make sure that they wouldn't get damaged during
shipping. And even then, I still, you know, through all the first batch of bumpers that I
ended up sending out there, I think still, there was one, I think I got damaged in shipping and I
ended up, I don't know if I sent her another arm. I think she ended up not opting for it. But yeah,
it's just, you know, it's when you're shipping something that large, it's bound to happen. It
happens at all these companies as well. It's like when you're shipping something that large,
people are tired, you know, they don't, they're not going to, you know,
take really good care of your product. They don't know what's in there or they don't really care
at all. So yeah, they're just going to drop it and stuff and things just going to get effed up.
Yeah. So now you're in Arizona, you're working this job. So what does like the future look like
for snailworks?
Ideally, we would sort of bring manufacturing into one of the, one of the main reasons why I joined
West Coast team is we had sort of a spoken agreement of at a certain point, bringing my
manufacturing into their facility because they are very much a manufacturing,
locally manufactured focused company. Nice. They don't really like to outsource things.
They like to keep it made in the USA, which I really appreciate. So yeah, Jeff and I talked about,
you know, potentially if there's high demand for any of the, you know, bumpers or swing outs,
whatever I'm producing, that those will get manufactured by West Coast designs. But also a
lot of the, my personal designs that I'm going to be making are also going to get sold through
West Coast's channel. So, you know, there's a potential that we end up through West Coast working
on a lot of more Subaru things as well or hosting snailworks products on the West Coast website.
So partnership. There are a lot of possibilities. Yeah. Yeah. So I was looking on your website and
I was looking at the steering wheels because you had mentioned that earlier and it says that
they're sold out. Are you just having, don't have any manufactured right now? Are you still
maybe? I actually have another car right now that I ended up trading in the Forerunner
because I really didn't like that car that much. Surprisingly, everyone gets the new
6 Gen Forerunner and they're like, oh, this is the best Forerunner they've ever made. And
I don't know. I got that car and I just, I bought it for business reasons because it's a new platform
from Toyota. Yeah. There's a huge potential for me to design tons of parts for it. And so that
was the main reason I, my God, it wasn't like a, you know, out of passion or anything. So
I think that I have a pretty objective look towards that car and I think objectively speaking,
it's quite inferior vehicle to the last generation. The legroom in the backseat is
significantly less than the last generation. The way the seats fold down, you can't, you know,
know car camp in it anymore. Oh, that sucks. They reduce the gas tank size. It used to be
like a 20 or like a 18 gallon tank and now it's like, I don't know, something crazy like 14 or
15. Like you only get like 230 miles in a tank. Yeah, it's just really bad. And the gas mileage,
they went to that four sill and, you know, they said, oh, we get all this better gas mileage. And
yeah, it was, it was cool while I had it. You know, it's cool to be able to put 35s on a car
with very little modding, but I just, I wasn't a huge fan of it. And so I got here, I got this job
and I didn't, you know, really have any more time to develop new parts on my own. And I was like,
you know, maybe it's time for something different. So I actually went over to Pinnacle Nissan here
in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I did a key to key swap for a 25 Nissan Z. Oh, oh, man. That's a much
better, that's a much better trade. Oh, man. Yeah, my God, this car is, oh, dude, the speed manual,
it's the performance, the Nissan performance. So it has upgraded brakes and everything. And
man, when you, you know, it pulls in sixth gear. Oh my gosh. All right. I'm booking a flight come
out there because I want to check that out, dude. Yeah, yeah, we'll do a ride, ride through
the Canyon. So it'll be great. Oh, dude, that is so awesome. And those, I love the new design too.
The first time I saw one, I was like, okay, thank you Nissan, you did it justice.
Dude, I think that's so cool. When it first came out, like everyone was sort of on the
fence about the car, they're like, it looks okay. It's on the same platform as the 370.
You know, it's not that great. But, you know, it has the new VR 30 in there, the twin turbo
VR 30. It is actually 400 horsepower. It's like a vastly superior car to the, to the 370. So
I got in one. Originally, I was just going to test drive it. And then the sales guy made me a key
deal. And I was like, all right, you know what, this is what we're doing. So I remember on the,
I think on the sheet for, you know, the purchase price was like one penny or something to go over
to the Z. Yeah. So now you have your high performance manual car. There you go. Here's the
thing though. Now, you know, now when I get back in the cross track, it's just like, man, it is,
it shows a lot of the weaknesses of this car. I mean, it never was intended to be like a performance
vehicle. But yeah, even just the way the manual gearbox is set up, it's an economy gearbox. So
it's, it's what you expect. But it almost feels like I have to relearn how to drive the car now
whenever I get back into it. Yeah. Are you driving the Nissan a lot more than the cross track?
Yeah, I have just because the locker still has some issues that I need to get sorted out. And
there are not a whole lot of shops out here in Arizona that are willing to work on Subaru's.
It's truck counting out here. So, you know, it's really not that common to see
Subaru's in general in Arizona. So yeah, a lot of Ford's, Toyota pickups,
but not a lot of Subaru's, which is a little sad. Hey, but you have a very unique one out there
now. So that's good. I do. I still love it whenever I do drive it. Whenever I'm going like 40
miles per hour on the highway, like people still, you know, pop the window and like give me the
thumbs up. And I'm like, all right, you know, this car is still cool. I know. It's a good feeling.
You know, I mean, like my car isn't as heavily modified as a lot of other ones out there,
but I like the way it looks. And I do have people that will like give me a thumbs up or give me a
nod or something like that. And like, that's such a good feeling. You know, when you, whatever it
is that you, whatever amount of work you put into your car, whatever modifications that make it
different than stock, when you get recognition, that's a really good feeling.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, um, yeah, that's kind of why I got the Z2. It felt like a pretty
special car. And it's also one of those cars where you drive out and people roll down the window and
give you a wave or thumbs up on the highway. Yeah, because it's unique looking too. And
uh, yeah, now you've got two awesome cars. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna,
you know, this is, this is hard to say, but some, some days while I'm here, I, you know,
I think whether or not I'm going to keep the cross-track or not. Oh man, don't say that.
Well, so if you're out there listening to this and you want a really modified
six speed manual cross-tracks, send me a message. Yeah, make me an offer. Make
Do you think though that you will like always own a Subaru at some point, you know, throughout your
life? I don't think that it will be ever present. Well, how should I put it? Like I could foresee
certain points in my life where I don't see a Subaru, but I could also see myself at, you know,
any given point wanting to get another Subaru again. Like I still, at the end of the day,
I was choosing between the Z and the WRX, the new one, the VB one. Yeah. And, and the 400 horsepower
was just too good to say no, but I still have a very, very special place in my heart for the WRX
as we've, you know, spoken about already. So, you know, there's a chance that I go back to that,
or, you know, while I still have the cross-track, I'm obviously gonna enjoy the cross-track, but,
you know, there's a chance that I trade in the Z at some point for a WRX or something and do
like a rally build or something crazy. Yeah. So, one of the questions I always ask is like,
how has owning a Subaru changed your life? And I think you kind of, this whole episode is about
just that. You know, you said earlier, if you didn't have the cross-track, you wouldn't have
snailworks and, and so on and so forth. Yeah. It's like the biggest thing for me not to sell
this car because I see how much this car changed my life. I mean, some of them, my fondest memories
during college, after college, you know, were in this car, you know, going on crazy skiing trips
with my friends or, you know, doing crazy road trips across the states and then into Canada.
And then, you know, there was, there was a point where I roadtripped through Northern Quebec for
about, I don't know, 60 days, Northern Quebec, New Brunswick, PEI, all these places in Canada in
the cross-track and I was sleeping in the back of it for the majority. Wow. That's cool. How many
miles do you have on it? I don't know, like 98 for this point, 98,000. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. It's
not that much. Yeah. Yeah. I've got 146 on mine. Okay. Hey, you live in, you live in Texas, so
that's different. Yeah. I just, I also, I mean, it's the only car I have. Everything, like, everything
is far away and I drive it a lot. You know, I love driving it. Like, I was just thinking yesterday
when I was driving it that, you know, there are people that have had a manual before that no
longer have a manual that would love to have a manual. There are people that have a manual because
like that's what they definitely wanted. But like, I don't ever, for a single moment that I drive my
car, I don't ever take it for granted that I have a manual. And you know, it's, it's like, it's like a,
it's automatic in the sense that when you drive it, you just drive it because you know how to drive
a manual. But like, but I still like enjoy the shifting, you know, I enjoy, and every once in
a while, it'll like really hit me where I'm like, man, this is so cool that I have a manual. Like,
I just, love it so much. And, you know, and it wasn't because like, and well, you know,
you said your, your dad had the Subaru and it was a manual. And so like for me, when I was a kid,
my uncle had a, like a 1985 Toyota pickup and it was a manual. And I remember just
watching him shifting gears. And then my grandpa had like a 75 Bronco that had the, the shifter on
the steering column. And I just like, I remember just watching, you know, being in people's cars
and them shifting gears. And I'm like, it was just so fascinating. And that's, that's where my
passion and desire for having a manual came from.
Yeah. No, I think it's like, it's really special thing if you can like get to own any manual car,
really, I think. Oh yeah. Slow on the fast one. It doesn't really matter. I think, well, actually,
that reminds me, like, I'd say about last year, about a year and a half ago, I had a friend,
a good friend of mine who got a new job where he had to commute to work and he wanted to buy a car.
And he was, he's like us in a sense where he likes, you know, a certain quirky car and really
loves it to death. And, you know, instead of a cross-track, he really loves the Honda element.
And I think in many ways, the Honda element sort of has sort of a similar cult following like the
cross-track or other, you know, super vehicles. I think so too. And yeah. And I was like, yeah,
go for it. And we were looking online on Facebook for deals. And I saw a,
it was a frontal drive element, but it had the five speed manual. And I was like, listen,
if you're getting an older car, you're better off getting the manual. And he was like, dude,
I don't know how to drive a manual. He was like, don't worry about it. I'll teach you. So I literally
took this man in my cross-track to like a mall parking lot and taught this man for two days
straight on how to drive a manual. And he got it. And we went and picked it up. And, you know,
to this day, it's been a year and a half of him driving it around to work and everywhere. And
I'm sure he's a master, you know, gear rower now. And he calls me and he's like, man, you know,
this car is like really special to me. And, you know, to have that experience with my,
one of my really, really great friends to now, you know, have this really special vehicle to him
in his life. And we could bond over it. I thought, you know, it was really cool.
Yeah. And I also remember, I also remember like the desire to want to learn how to drive a manual.
And like my first girlfriend had a VW rabbit and it was a manual. Nice. Yeah. And I remember
like her, she didn't really try to, she kind of, I guess, try to teach me how to drive one. But,
you know, I mean, we're both like 16, you don't really know how to teach somebody how to drive
a manual then. And she hadn't had it for super long. Because she had gotten it for her 16th
birthday. So it's not like she had it for years. And I remember getting in the driver's seat and
trying to like, you know, just drive off in first gear. But I'd never adjusted my seat.
So my legs were kind of squished up, you know, and I kept stalling it and I didn't know why. But
like looking back, I'm like, I wasn't comfortable. My legs were too squished up. Of course I was
going to stall it because I couldn't, you know, I couldn't let it out of gear or let out the clutch
properly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had so many friends who were like comfortable driving autos and they'd
get in my car and then push the seat all the way back as you would in an auto car.
Just like do the Honda lean, you know, in the Civics where you just like lean all the way back
and you're driving like that. And then they would try to reach the clutch and be like,
how do you reach this thing? And I'm like, yeah, you can have your seat like that, buddy.
Yeah, you got to scoot up some, man. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's fun driving them.
Well, we can get into the last segment here where we get to know you a little bit better,
but like, you know, you can like just describe yourself like who is Alex?
Who is Alex? Man, that's a tough one.
I don't know. I'm just, I see myself as a guy who
has a bit of OCD, ADHD and I just, I think what really makes me feel good
about the world is when I can find ways to solve problems in people's lives. I think that's why
kept running Snareworks was, you know, at the end of the day, people would bring me issues
in their life. And I would have the privilege of coming up with a solution and then, you know,
presenting it to them and then for them to see the finished product on their car in their car,
you know, the way they were like, start beaming, they're like, whoa,
that's like part of my car now. And that was just an idea. And now it's a real thing.
And it's actually something that's useful in my life. And it's a, you know, it's a really
great feeling. And I, you know, that's why I design for everything. I ran Snareworks,
I started running Snareworks in 23. And then about a year and a half into that,
I started a furniture design studio on the side as well. That was actually what ended up making
most of the money for me was that because, well, the problem with car parts is, you know,
it's all very proprietary, you know, something is only made for one specific car. It's not a huge
market, but furniture, you know, as long as you like it, you know, you can put it in your home.
There's no, everybody needs furniture for sure. Exactly. So it was a lot easier to push for sales
on those. And it also came from a similar place where I moved into a new apartment and, you know,
everything I saw out there just wasn't cutting it. And I was like, well, how do I solve this problem?
And the problem was that I wanted a type of furniture that didn't exist out there. And so I
started designing it and I had, you know, manufacturing partners at the time that were
willing to make it. And yeah, it was, it's just really satisfying to like have an idea
three in the morning and then, you know, buy, you know, the next day noon, you could potentially
have a fully finished product sitting in your house or on your car. It's really cool.
Yeah. How long did you do that? The furniture? The furniture I'm still, actually, I'm still
doing the furniture right now. If anything, it's sort of become a little bit more leading towards
that just because they're smaller items. It's easier for me to produce them in my current,
you know, situation. And it's easier to ship. They're like less likelihood of, you know,
damages through shipping. And it's, sales are a lot easier to generate through that.
Yeah. So like what kind of pieces of furniture?
I was doing, my early prototypes were mild steel, because that's what I was used to. Most
of the bumpers that I designed were made out of sheet metal, mild steel, HRPO. And, you know,
I had a lot of laser cutting facilities that I was working with. I had a local facility that
could cut stuff very quickly for me. I knew him through college, a really sort of cranky Armenian
guy, but really a sweet man, a sweet, sweet man. And he, he was a lot of tough love and he taught
me a lot of hard lessons, but necessary lessons. And he was one of my manufacturing partners. And
then also Senkut Send was a huge one. They even do CNC now. So yeah, a lot of the stuff that I was
producing or prototyping, I would just send to them and they would get it produced for me. But
really all I had at a certain point was just my computer and a, and a, you know,
Autodesk Fusion subscription. And I figured out how to use the sheet metal
design features in there and also the tube design features and just utilize those 22 there
up most and coordinated really well my manufacturers so that I could just focus on the design most
of the time and really have to really step in only for welding and fitment and stuff like that.
So you're making like chairs and tables or what kind of stuff?
A lot of tables. We had a few stools out there, some custom ones and, but mostly tables are
really popular. I had a design where it was a fully flat pack self-assembleable design where
you needed zero tools. It was all slotted and not together. Yeah. And people are really loving that.
And so to back to the materials, I started with mild steel, ended up doing a lot of aluminum.
The interesting thing with aluminum is, you know, it doesn't rust, which is great,
but it's actually too light as furniture. It's too easy to tip over in certain situations.
There's no, you know, substantial weight to it. And so people are like, you know, what is this?
Even though the material itself costs more than mild steel. So in the end, I sort of, you know,
split in between and went with stainless, which is a bit more expensive, but, you know,
no rust situations and I could keep the sort of bare metal look. And it also had this really
hefty feel to it. And it actually, the spring, you could create like different structures
through laser cutting into your material to create natural spring mechanisms.
And with stainless, it ended up working the best out of all the materials. So
Oh, that's good. Ended up working out well with that. So most of the furniture that I was selling
was stainless. Okay. So do you have like a website for that? Interestingly, I had one.
I discontinued the service because I wasn't generating any sales through the website.
Interestingly, it was all through Etsy. So it's all being sold through Etsy and still is to this
day. Okay. Do you want to share what the Etsy site is or? Yes, it's currently because I'm working
full-time at Escott Designs. I haven't re-listed my listings, but hopefully next month will.
You can find it at Pintu Studio on Etsy. If you just search up PINTU Studio on Etsy,
you can find my store. So hopefully by next month, I'll have all the listings back up.
Nice. What is a favorite memory from your childhood?
I'd say bike packing with my parents. My parents were like the adventurous type and
they were into like traveling on a budget. And so we'd go to a lot of countries and have
very little money on hand. And we'd just bike pack. We'd have a bicycle and then pack like
oortlebes on the side and just ride from the Northmost of Korea to the South Point.
And I think some of my fondest memories were in the towns, in the smaller towns in Korea or in
rural China and just like on my own, just cycling through the road, through the really,
really long stretches of road and just like in my own space, but also in this really crazy,
large, sometimes liminal, almost landscape. That is really cool. Not a lot of people have
those kinds of experiences. No, it's great character development, I think.
So usually I ask, what do you do for a living, but we know that and then
do you have, is that your dream job or do you have a dream job? But it kind of seems like
everything came around full circle and you might be doing your dream job right now or is there
something else still? No, honestly, I feel really grateful that I am, there are days when
works really hard and even back in Snareworks, in the shop in Rhode Island, there were days
where I was just like, oh my god, this is too much and can I do all of this? But I would still
think this is really cool what I'm doing and not a lot of people get to do what I'm doing now.
So I feel really grateful every day and I feel the same way at Westcott. Really long hours,
really long days, but I'm doing something that I always wanted to do. Yeah, that's good. Yeah,
you're doing design and stuff with cars. That's what you, you proved them wrong for sure.
He's like, look where I'm at now. Yeah, I still think about that. Because my original employer
back in school, I had an internship and he was just like, yeah, you're not going to make it as a
designer, which looking back was like a really like, like a shitty thing to say to me. Thanks, man.
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, even to this day, I sometimes think, you know, like sending them
email feel like, yeah, look at me. I made it. Yeah. What is something that makes you want to get
out of bed every day? My alarm clock. No, I'm joking. Getting to drive.
I love driving. I think everything sort of comes back to that. I could, you know, I could be doing
anything in the car industry. I could be taking photos, which I also love doing of cars or,
you know, doing reviews on stuff, which I might do at some point. But ultimately, it's all to
serve a purpose of driving. I love driving. Yeah, I do too. That's why I have 146,000 miles on my
cross-track. Hell yeah. That's what's up. On the original clutch too, which I'm very impressed.
Just shows how good of a manual driver you are. And I don't even take it that easy on it, you
know. It's not like I'm just driving casually every day, you know, just shifting gears nice and
smooth. I get on it sometimes and, you know, I've done a lot of, I've done a lot of like
spinning the tires in mud aggressively, which is how I blew out my viscous coupling. But yeah.
Okay. Those clutches are tough in our cross-tracks. Apparently so. I mean, I'm impressed. But it
kind of scares me because like it's, because it has so many miles, it could potentially like just,
all right buddy, this is it. Because I really wanted, I was thinking about driving to Flagstaff
for Overland Expo because I would have loved to have had my own car out there to go on the
excursion and just to, because nobody gets to see my car. And so, but I was like, I know my car
would make it in every other sense, except for the fact that I was worried my clutch might
go out on the way there or on the way home. And so, that's why-
Well, you weren't feeling any signs of it slipping though, at least not yet, right?
No, but, you know, and I don't know what it feels like when a clutch goes out,
because I've never had one go out on any of, because I've owned two other manual cars and
neither one of the clutches went out on those. So I don't know what it feels like, you know.
I don't know how that happens. So, I mean, I'm sure I will know, but I don't know what that
feels like. I don't know what I'm going to hear, I don't know what I'm going to feel,
I don't know what it's going to do, so- Trust me, you'll feel it, you'll know.
Yeah, I'm sure, yeah, I'm sure I will, but that's like, I just didn't want to risk that. So,
you know, I think it would be cool like maybe next year, because it'd be nice to have a newer
car and still keep this one, of course, and have like another one that's kind of like my trip car,
you know. Are you thinking of that one's also going to be a manual as well?
I don't know, I mean, because I love the Cross Trek so much, like I could see getting a newer
Cross Trek that's an automatic, but like just not getting rid of mine, because I would still have
to be able to drive a manual, but I love a Cross Trek. What about the Outback? You know,
those new Outbacks have really grown on me. Yeah, I mean, I like them too. The only thing like,
the thing I like the most about the Cross Trek is I like that it's small, the Outback just,
it's so big, you know, and I- It's so big. It is, but I- Dude, you live in Texas.
The inside isn't, the inside, the interior is just like immaculous, dude, it's so nice.
Great. Yeah. Have you seen those touchscreens though? Oh, yeah.
So much better. Yeah. Very responsive, and they actually have
tactile buttons down below for AC and stuff, so yeah, very nice. I was thinking for a long time,
like maybe, you know, I had either the Forerunner, the new Forerunner, or the new Outback to choose
for a new platform to design parts, and I went the Forerunner, but still, when I had the Forerunner,
I was like, oh, maybe I should have gone the Outback, because, you know, I saw, you know,
Rob's new Outback that he did with Rallytech, and that thing is seriously cool. Yeah.
Do you, like, were you going off road a lot with your Cross Trek? I mean, is that something that
you really enjoy doing? Yeah, I could talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, because that's why, that was one of the reasons I asked, like, would you see yourself
always owning a Subaru, because if that's something that you enjoy doing, not that you need a
Subaru to do that, there's plenty of other cars to do that, but I just was thinking, like, from
the standpoint of so much of your early memories with cars started with Subaru, you know, you have
a Subaru, you started a business with a Subaru, which by the way, I was going to ask, too, like,
if you ever were crazy enough to sell your Cross Trek, and would you pull off the OG
bumper? What do you mean, OG bumper? Because that's the original... Well, I mean, that's
the original prototype, right? Oh, yes. On your Cross Trek. So, like, if you were to sell your
Cross Trek, would you take the bumper off and be like, I have to keep this because this is where
it all started, this is how it all started, and then just figure something else out for it, you
and you sold the car and you're like, oh my gosh, my prototype is gone. Like, everything that started
this whole thing is somebody else has it now. I just, I wanted to throw that out there to give
you to think about it, because even though it kind of goes, I mean, it does go with the car,
it doesn't have to go with the car. Yeah, I see what you're saying, and it's definitely like
the biggest reason why I haven't sold the car yet, and most likely, I'll wait quite a bit
to sell it if I were going to. Just pull it off and put it up above your couch as artwork or
something, you know? Yeah, that'd be cool. I don't know, maybe I'm just not that much of a
sentimental person. I can be in certain aspects, but I don't know if that would...
Maybe, you know, if you asked me like two years ago, it would be a big thing, but you know,
I guess people move on with certain things as well, and you know, it wouldn't be the worst thing
for someone else to enjoy this car. It's really a remarkable...
I'm getting the tongue twisters as well. It's also like a really remarkable car when you drive it.
Not like anything you've driven before, in a good and a bad way. I mean, it has no sway bars at
all at this point, so the body roll is insane, but to drive one of these cars off-road and just
be flooring it constantly, I mean, if I were to keep it, I would probably want to do a dual
range swap at some point to the car. That's like the only thing I have left that I want to do to it,
but yeah, that's... I thought about... I was talking with Steven at a VB Hatch for a while,
and everyone's seen his post now, but we were talking quite a bit before he made that public,
and it was funny because he would always like, you know, he can't tell nobody about what I'm
working on right now. I'm like, okay, okay, I won't tell. Yeah, but to hear his process of putting
a VB in his cross track was seriously cool and something that I thought about for a really
long time. That's something that I would... At some point, I might still go through with it.
Yeah, I would love to do that because when somebody mentioned that, I was like, I think it may have
been Milton Silver Bullet XV. I think he may have mentioned that, and I'm like, that is something
that I would... I think if I were to get another car and I could just have... I didn't have only
one source of transportation, I would probably seriously look at doing that because I think that
would make it just so much more fun to drive. To be like, I have a cross track, but it's not
slow anymore. That would be so cool. Well, have you spent... Have you driven a VB?
No, I want to. So bad. VBWX. I don't. No, I haven't. I want to. So bad. It's really good.
Yeah. It gets... People hate on the gearbox and that thing, and I honestly love it. I think
it's one of the best... I've heard that from other people too. Yeah. They're all like Toyota
fanboys though. Okay. I mean, because for me, I wouldn't have anything else to compare it to
performance-wise because the only thing I've driven... I mean, I've driven some other manual...
Like I drove... I don't know if you follow audio file, but he has black STI and it's boosted and
stuff. And I drove that, but I wasn't really able to get on it because we were like, there's a lot
of cars and stuff, but it was fun to drive that. And then my buddy, Ryan, who lives here in the
Houston area, he used to go by an anonymous TWRX and now he has a cross-track wilderness, but
his TWRX was like... That thing was like really fast and it was fun to drive.
Was it a VB or a VHSC? I don't know. It was like a 2017 and so...
Okay. So VA, still the last one. But it was... Or maybe it was no... May have been... Yeah,
I think it was 2017, but the car was awesome. It was fun to drive that. And then I drove somebody
else's like out in California. But only one time. It's not like I have a big comparison.
So I think if I were to go drive the new TWRX, I wouldn't be... I wouldn't really have anything to
say about it is in comparison to anything else. I'd probably get in it and be like, oh my gosh,
this is awesome. But that's been a consideration too, to have a TWRX that is... Because it's...
It'd be nice to have four doors and still all-wheel drive, but something that's faster
and fun to drive. That's definitely been a consideration. Yeah. But I have to keep the
cross-track no matter what else I do. Okay. Yeah, you got to hold on to it. Yeah.
All right. So moving on. I asked you what is something that makes you get out of bed every
day? What is something that makes you want to stay in bed? Do I'm scrolling? That happens.
I don't know. It's tough to use these days. It's like I want to be motivated 24 seven,
but they're just so many distractions in life that they drag you down. And I just catch myself
a lot just scrolling on my phone endlessly and I'm like, oh, I should be doing something productive.
And I feel that's kind of a universal issue at this point. Yeah. Last night, I was going to bed
really, really late. But what happens to me is I'll be really, really sleepy. And then I'm like,
okay, I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed. And for whatever reason, taking a shower
wakes me up. And so I went and got in bed. It's a good one. Yeah. I went and got in bed and I was
looking on my phone and I saw like, I keep seeing all of these family feud, you know, funny moments
and stuff. And then I scrolled and then there was like something else from another show and then
something and I was just like scrolling and scrolls. And I was seeing all these things and I'm like,
just, I'm like, you know what? I'm staying up late. I don't need to be staying up late, but I'm
really enjoying this moment seeing all these like old shows with these really funny moments. I'm
laying here laughing in bed. I don't, you know what? So what? Like, yeah, one of these days,
I'm not going to be able to do this. I'm going to enjoy, try to enjoy as many moments
in my life as I can, you know, simple, big, whatever it may be, because why not?
Totally fair. Especially when you have a good feed day, when your feed is blessed.
Yeah. What is something that really scares you?
Ooh. Honestly, not a lot of things scare me in life. Maybe elevators.
Yeah. Yeah. Elevators are scary because like, they will like sometimes fail and they like drop
and I don't know, like as a kid, I would have a lot of dreams of like a drop in an elevator.
Dude. Yeah. Okay. I have had, I can't tell you how many elevator nightmares I've had.
And yeah, it's scary. And it's not, in my dreams, they don't drop or anything. In my dreams,
I can't ever get to the floor that I'm going to, that I'm trying to get to. It'll be like,
let's say I want to get to like the 30th floor of a building, I'll press the 30th floor and then it
goes past the 30th floor and goes like all the way up to the top. And then there's like no roof
or something. And so it's like all open and really weird. And then I try to come back down to the
floor that I need to get off on and it goes past that floor. And so I've had so many dreams like
that. And then like, I'll get off on a different floor and I'm like, okay, I'm just going to take
the stairs. And then like the stairs will be all jacked up or something. Like they'll go down for
a little bit and then the stairs will just be missing or something. It's really weird. It's like,
it's like you can't get to this particular place that you need and want to get to.
I don't know what that means, but I've had countless dreams like that.
Jeez. Well, hey, thanks for adding another scenario to my elevator nightmares.
Hey, you're welcome.
So besides, you know, you're awesome Subaru and now you're awesome Nissan Z,
you know, and then in running a business and doing this new job, like what is something else that
really excites you?
Ooh, I really love cycling. Unfortunately, when I moved out here, I had one of those like
pods moving units. And I stupidly put my road bike in there and I didn't secure properly or
I didn't secure some other stuff properly in there and it got damaged during shipping and
now I don't have a road bike, but now I'm just like, I really miss riding right now. It's really
hot here. So it's probably not a good time to be riding, but yeah, because you're in Phoenix,
right? Yeah, yeah, dude, it's like 118 degrees. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, I remember.
But I hopefully. Now go ahead. No, you go. no, you go. Okay. No, you first.
No, I took my kids out to Arizona like 10 years ago and we visited some friends and flag staff and
then when we were leaving and went into Phoenix, it was like 118 degrees and I was filling up the
car at the gas station before we dropped it off because you know, you got to fill it back up.
And I was, it was like under a canopy and I was like, you know, and of course it's low humidity,
but I'm like, I feel like I'm standing in an oven like this is so hot. That was the hottest
temperature I'd ever been in in my life. It's crazy. Yeah. People don't fully realize how hot it is
until they're here. And then we still somehow endure here. So no, no. Yeah, it's a beautiful
state. It's really, really beautiful. It's really cool. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface
of all the things you can see here, but I'm excited for that. Yeah, you got to go to Flagstaff, man.
It's, it's beautiful if you haven't been before. Yeah, I stopped by when I was driving in here
when I was moving and I was like, oh, this is sick. So yeah, maybe in the winter I can do a few ski
days up there. Yeah, I love the drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff is really nice,
but the drive from Flagstaff back to Phoenix is really beautiful because you're going down in
elevation. So you have this amazing view, like almost the entire drive and like, gosh, I forgot.
I forgot how beautiful it was until I was back up there. So nice. Yeah, it's really cool. I think
the first thing I did when I got the Z was I took like a Canyon drive up to Jerome, just like really
feel the car. And yeah, yeah, it was really spectacular. Is it just a rear wheel drive?
Yes. Yeah, disease are only real drive. Okay. What would be your best bit of advice to give to
someone about anything? Don't think too much about stuff. Even if you know it's going to be
shit. Excuse my French. Just do it anyway. You can cut this part. You can you can delete
me or something. No, even if you know it's going to be shit, do it anyway.
But also like, like also think about things like a lot.
Yeah. Yeah, that was a really roundabout nice thing. Now, what's your bit? I think it makes
sense though. Yeah, what would be your best bit of advice to give to somebody about anything?
If somebody tells you you're never going to make it and you know, designing stuff for cars and
blah, blah, blah, don't believe them. You're going to make it. Yeah, or do I don't know. Like
one thing I figured out is like, you know, there's a way that the universe sort of just
makes things clear to you over time. Yeah. And I think, you know, there could have been a time
where I took my old employer's advice and stopped designing and did something else and I probably
would have been fine doing that too. But I'm glad I chose this path. Yeah. So anything else you
want to add before we wrap it up? Yeah, if you have any product ideas or anything you want to see,
shoot me a text on there and maybe we can make it happen in the future.
Sweet. Well, it was it was great having on Alex, man. I had a lot of fun. And again,
it was great meeting you in person last year at Overland Expo. That always makes it like
just a different experience for me when I've already met somebody. And yeah, it was great
having you on. Thank you, Raph. Yeah, you're welcome. I had a great time. Good. We hope you
have a good night and a good weekend. Thanks, you too. You're welcome. Hello and thank you for
tuning in to another episode of the Subi and you podcast. If you're not doing so already,
go give Alex a follow. Again, his account is scargo. It's E-S-C-R-G-O. That is for his
cross trek. And then for his business, of course, it's snailworks.us. And thank you, Alex, so much
for taking the time to record with me. It was really great talking to you and, you know,
glad to have met you in person and then now have you on the podcast. Also, like he mentioned at
the very beginning of the episode, if you were in Arizona, hit him up. You know, if you're on a
cross trek and get together with him, you know, let him know where you are and let him know if
there are any Subaru activities going on or any trail rides or anything because he's new out there.
And I'm sure he would appreciate people reaching out to him to let him know what's going on and
where to meet up and what places to go to. Again, thank you for tuning in. If you're going to be
at Overland Expo PNW, I hope to see you there. Please come by and say hello. Check out the Subaru
booth. It's going to be awesome and we're going to have a great time. So have a great week. Much
Subi love. Raf. The Subi New Podcast is hosted by Raphael in a closet in Houston, produced by Raphael
in a room next to the closet in Houston and edited by Raphael on a computer in the room next to the
closet in Houston, with music by Luke Ruiz in another room in Houston. You can find the Subi
New Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, and many more.
To support the podcast, please head over to patreon.com slash Subi New Podcast. Once you join,
you will have access to the Discord channel and Discord chats with other patrons.
If you'd like to get in contact with the show, you can find them on Instagram at
SubiNewPodcast, online at SubiNewPodcast.com, or by email, subinewpodcastatgmail.com. That's all for
this week.
About this episode
Alex (Escargo) and the hosts kick off with Subaru Crosstrek build talk, then zoom out to Overland Expo P&W plans and Subaru booth logistics. The conversation shifts into Snail Works Design & Fabrication: how a Crosstrek project helped start the business, the CNC/CAD workflow, and why certain rear bumper designs stopped due to time and shipping costs. Along the way, they cover off-road fitment details like 31-inch tires, plus a long, practical story about roof-rack water leaks and sealing mistakes.
Alex, owner of Snail Works Design & Fabrication joins us today to talk about how the business got started and why, to talk about his Crosstrek, and his recent move to Arizona.
Links from the show, links to sponsors and discount partners, and ways to support the podcast:
