TMCP 623: Don Abenante – Fabricator to YouTube Star – Building And Driving a 1970 Chevelle From Rhode Island To Vegas For SEMA 2025!

The Muscle Car Place online podcast, episode number 623.

This week, YouTuber and former reality TV star Don Abinanti is here, and he's a guy

building cars of his own, his very own cars in Rhode Island on YouTube, and he's going

to drive his 1970 Chevelle with a Coyote engine under the hood from Rhode Island to Las Vegas

for the 2025 SEMA show.

It's like 2700 miles.

He's a featured content creator.

Now he's doing this because he needed a new outlet after becoming sober, and he chose

his Chevelle to climb that mountain of building cars for living because that's the last thing

he and his dad had picked out to do together.

Well, years later, Don has that car and he's built it numerous times, but this time it's

going to help him get to the 2025 SEMA show and live out his dream online.

And I also wanted to get really good at it, but I was scared.

This is the Muscle Car Place online podcast brought to you by National Parts Depot.

This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American muscle cars.

If you're buying, selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you.

Now here's your host, Rob Kibbey.

Yes, indeed I am Rob Kibbey and welcome to the Muscle Car Place podcast.

Well, here we are.

SEMA is just around the corner and I have a very timely story for you about a guy headed

to SEMA in a 70 Chevelle with a coyote under the hood, number one.

That's kind of unique.

Don Abinanti is his name and he has a very unique story.

He was a reality TV star sort of accidentally for a while.

He will share that story.

You know, those shows where like they fall around the crew of people on a boat that wealthy

people own, but everybody's like super good looking.

It's that kind of show that you can Google it.

It's kind of fun.

Well, that was just a stint.

And he was actually on a few reality TV shows of different kinds.

But what he really is now is a fabricator and he's building his fabrication business online

on YouTube and he has gained over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and all he's doing

is building his own cars right now.

He's fab in a really interesting late 50s, early 60s, all wheel drive El Camino, I think.

But what he's on this show about today is he's taken his 70 Chevelle that he got, I think

when he was 15 or 16 years old and he's building it again and he is taking it.

He's driving it from Rhode Island to the SEMA show.

Bernie on the Kibbe and Friends show, he had mentioned the kind of the drive your junk

tour.

I wouldn't say junk here, but it's a builder car.

It's a driver car.

Don will tell you that as well.

But it's a big task.

I think he's got to leave in about a week here.

So there's a lot to do at a short amount of time.

Prior to this interview, I did not know who Don was, but he seems to have a big heart.

And for those of you out there that ever wanted to know if you should build cars for a living

or be on YouTube or be a YouTube star building a car, this will definitely peak your interest.

The fact that he's gained so much online following so quickly, that is remarkable and interesting

to me.

Okay.

So we'll get to that interview here.

It's very fun.

And I wanted to run it right now.

In fact, we've changed the show order of the whole month just around this.

So I thought it would be fun.

He might hear this while he's driving cross country.

Who knows?

In this episode, though, I have sort of a grab bag of things for you.

So I'm in the middle of this month of October here, and I soon have three trips to Vegas

coming up, two in a row, two weekends in a row for Dallas, my son to race a legends

car out at the Boring next to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Then I'll come home for a week.

Then I'll get back on the plane and go right back to Las Vegas for the SEMA show.

Now, Bernie McPartland and I are going, Kirk Hanson is going, Zip Simons from Street Metal

Concepts is going, Danny Giustino is going, forget about it.

Me, Kirk, Bernie, and Zip all have a VRBO.

We're all flying in.

We're headed to the Roadster Shop party Thursday night.

We've got a lot of business meetings set up, a lot of interviews to do.

That SEMA show is going to be jam packed.

It will be entirely different than Dallas's racing efforts.

But I realized I bought three Southwest Airlines flies, you don't direct anywhere you want

to go, popular places.

Well, they fly from Las Vegas to Des Moines, Iowa every day at 12.50 PM, apparently.

And I have bought three one-way tickets only from Vegas to Des Moines coming up here shortly.

I realized when I bought the third one, hey, this is the same flight.

I bought it three times in a row now.

My path out to Vegas has been a different airline every time.

I think on the first trip, we're taking American out there than Southwest Bank.

The second one will take United out there than Southwest Bank.

Then the third one, Delta out there in Southwest Bank.

And the reason for that is because the Southwest tickets were relatively cheap.

And I could burn frequent fire miles on the other three airlines.

So I was trying to do this without spending too much money.

It worked out pretty well.

The only thing that could make it better is if Jeff Allison of Allison Customs, the guy

who built the Chevelle that my Chevelle that went to SEMA, flew one of those.

Now, Jeff is still a captain with Southwest.

I asked him, like, hey, can you fly one?

He said, look, it doesn't really work that way.

But if I can get put a request in in time, I sure will.

And that would be fun.

So hopefully that can happen coming up here.

But what I have for you right now are just a fun grab bag of things, some of

which I've had sitting here for a little bit, trying to figure out what to do with.

And then others that just popped up.

So here's the first one.

This I've had since August.

This is a snippet from Don't Laugh from CNBC, the financial channel.

Bernie, you can put in laughs or crickets here or whatever you want or angry sounds.

CNBC is a finance channel on TV.

They all have their place.

They all have their biases and they all kind of say the same stuff.

You can love it or have it.

I get fed because I probably clicked on one video, but I clicked on one CNBC

automotive video months ago and I get fed their stuff all the time.

And some of it is interesting.

This particular video, I pulled a little clip from a TV show.

I think it's a daily live show called The Squawk Box.

I don't know anything about it.

I don't know who the hosts are.

I don't know who's talking that you're going to hear in here.

They will go to a clip from somebody that I do know about.

But they are at the Monterey car week in August.

And I think they're at the Sotheby's auction.

The guy you're going to hear from is doing a stand up in front of all the

super high end collector cars that are there for sale.

Now, these are Ferraris and Aston Martins and all sorts of high pedigree,

high collector cars.

Then you're going to hear a voice in the middle of this clip.

And that's McKeel Hagerty.

He's the CEO of Hagerty Insurance.

But this is how the other side, the investor side, kind of thinks of the car market.

I've got a point to make here when we get back.

But let me just let you hear it as is without my bias.

Byrne, go ahead and run it, please.

For the biggest gathering of the year, as Andrew mentioned, some of the most

beautiful cars in the world, the most expensive cars in the world, all gathering

here this week.

In fact, more than $400 million worth of cars, about a thousand of these vintage

classic cars rolling across the auction block this week.

And this is the biggest test of the year for a market in classic cars that has

really been in decline for the last three years.

Sales here expected to be down again this year.

You talk to collectors, they blame higher interest rates.

They say all this global uncertainty is affecting it as well.

But the big change right now in classic cars, the big driver and why things

are down a bit is because of this new generation of collectors.

So millennials and Gen Z, they want cars from the 1980s, 90s, even 2000s.

And that has left an oversupply of cars from the 1950s and 60s that were all

loved and collected by the baby boomers.

The newer generations coming in, but literally Gen Xers and millennials,

they're driving the market today.

They're the ones buying cars and they're just interested in a different starting

point. They don't come in here and say, well, I need to go make sure I cover all

the older decades of cars before I collect the ones I really want.

They're starting right off with the cars that they have the greatest preference

for. But guys, the top lot of the week, the star of the week is still one of

these older cars. It's a 1961 Ferrari, California, Spyder, Hardtop, Alloy,

Body. Only eight of these were made.

The estimate on this is over $20 million being sold at Gooding & Company.

And then Larry Ellison's car, it's a car, a McLaren F1 that he actually

bought new back in 1997.

He probably paid around $1 million later sold it.

But his car is coming to auction under sealed bids.

The starting bid for Larry Ellison's used Formula One or F1 car from McLaren,

starting bid of $23 million over at RM Sotheby's, guys.

OK, there you go. Again, that was from CNBC.

The show is Squawk Box.

I don't know who you were hearing from in there other than the Haggerty guy.

They'll go on later to say that values are down on some cars, 20%, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah.

The reason I'm sharing that with you here is just, do you ever think like

the people on the other side of the fence just have it so much better than you?

We all do. It's human nature.

Well, the people on the other side of the fence, they can afford those cars

that think of them maybe as investments first.

Man, they're just missing out on something, aren't they?

The joy of it, the fun of it.

Our cars on this show, I mean, our highest end muscle cars with high pedigree.

I mean, that's like a million bucks.

Our best cars, the top of our market is the entry point to theirs.

I get that. Most of us, yours truly included, are on the lower side of that spectrum.

Cars for us are fun.

They're family members.

They can make us pull our hair out.

They're the ones that we build over and over and over again.

They're the ones that we give to our kids.

And yes, even though some of us don't have cars with family history,

we all know what it's like to chase a fun car and finally get it

and build one that you didn't expect.

I mean, I just share this out there.

So if you think, hey, the people on the other side of the street that have it so good,

I would argue that you have something that they don't.

You have the joy of this.

And you know what? That's worth something.

Let's talk into a buddy today and we're, oh, he said,

hey, I'm going to go to the SEMA show.

I think I'm going to read on Lamborghini, bringing my son for the first time.

I want to do that.

But it's like $500.

And then we both sat there and scratch your head and said, you know what?

My memories just get more and more valuable with age.

That's how these cars are to us.

They're just memories and memory makers.

So don't worry about the other side.

Only worry about how much fun you're having because they probably aren't.

On the flip side, having your car go up 20 times, you know, 20 X and value.

That'd be pretty sweet.

OK, second random topic.

And this is just because I'm into racing right now, because my son's doing it.

But I follow the Dale Jr.

download on an occasional basis.

I like when he has kind of good war stories on.

And I especially like when he has NASCAR leadership on.

Well, he recently had the president of NASCAR on.

And they talked about a myriad of topics,

kind of the business of the sport a little bit.

And that's interesting to me, a change in the point system.

That's interesting to me.

And also about the new car makes coming in NASCAR.

Now, we know Dodge is coming back.

Honda has always been out there, and maybe that'll happen.

But it just makes you wonder, like, you know, most of these people don't make a car,

including Chevrolet.

Chevy doesn't make the Camaro anymore.

Well, Chevy introduced their 2026 entry, a car in Brazil today.

And drum roll, please.

It's the Camaro.

As predicted back in March, this is a little clip I'd like to play for you from the YouTube channel at Break Hard.

He gets full credit for this.

This is him explaining all of this, how it was going to roll out back in March at 2025.

Chevy teams are going to be getting a new body in 2026.

And it'll be an updated version of the current Camaro body.

And I know a lot of you are probably confused.

You're like, Matt, Camaro is not in production anymore.

How are they going to update a version of a car that doesn't even exist?

And well, that's where things get a little bit interesting.

So I talked about this back in March.

I heard about this back in the Daytona 500.

NASCAR rumors, Nostalgia on Instagram talked about it today.

And I know there's not a lot of people, not everybody on Instagram follows me on TikTok.

So maybe they missed it. Totally fine.

But yes, it will be an updated version of the Camaro body, the current Chevy body

that they use, the Chevy Chevy, the ZL1 Chevy, whatever you want to refer to it as this year.

There's no Camaro branding on it.

Be an updated version of that.

Now they're not going to get to go crazy with it.

NASCAR still requires them to work within a box here.

But what I think we're seeing from the Chevrolet side of things, at least

because they don't have any current production sedans out there, whether the Amalbu and Pala.

But I guess you could maybe use the Corvette if you wanted to look ridiculous

and not very good and they don't want to switch to Cadillac.

So what I think they're doing is just viewing NASCAR as a marketing platform for the OEM overall,

not for a specific model, but rather for Chevrolet.

Because at the end of the day, majority of fans that are showing up

at the racetrack aren't showing up in Camaros, they're showing up in Suburbans, Equinox, Silverados,

things like that.

So it's more of a marketing platform for the entire brand versus just one production model.

Toyota is also kind of doing something similar in the Xindy series,

where the current Supra is going out of production,

but they're going to continue to run that body for a few more years

because there's still value in just the Toyota brand

and people are already familiar with that car in the series.

OK, there you go.

Again, that was from Brakehart on YouTube.

He explained that in March.

They just revealed the car officially for NASCAR Brazil.

This is so dumb.

I hate saying this out loud and I know that Dodge and Honda are coming.

And I also know that most Americans don't drive cars.

And I know that under that sheet metal that we have even today,

there's not a production car in there at all.

And there hasn't been for 30 or 40 years, but I kind of hate this.

I want to see my race cars look like the street cars, at least in NASCAR.

If that's National Association for Stock Car Auto Race.

I just want it to be a car.

I want it to look like the real car in the end.

This kind of makes me sick because I think if I get what I want,

I'm going to see SUV bodies driving around that track soon enough.

That's what it means.

It means little Chevy Blazers and little Ford Mach-E-Vs and Toyota Rev fours.

Those are going to be the race cars.

And that will open the door to EVs coming in, certainly.

It's probably inevitable now that that's going to happen.

But nonetheless, I don't dig it when Chevy's out there running a car

that they don't make. Now we're lying.

Lying. Now we're diluting everyone.

Don't make it look like a Camaro.

Just put a sticker on it says Chevy, if that's what you're going to do.

So I share that I might be alone in that opinion.

Maybe most of you would prefer to see the Camaro out there.

Maybe they'll bring it back someday. I doubt it.

This is getting out of hand.

OK, third random topic.

Speaking of EVs from Kelly Blue Book, this article just came out today.

General Motors changes plan to continue the $7,500 EV discount.

General Motors thought it had found a workaround to continue using the federal

government $7,500 electric EV discount until it ended.

It has now clarified it will not offer the program after October

because you can't beat the IRS.

Even if you're a 117 year old company that anchors one of America's

most important industries, General Motors has backtracked on a plan

to continue using the federal government $7,500 EV credit

through the end of the year, even after the program formally ended by the IRS.

Reuters explains GM opted to kill the program after concerns were raised

about it by Republican Senator Bernie Merino of Ohio, a former card dealer

who is active in auto policy, rotor sites, a person briefed on the matter.

GM had come up with a creative plan.

The tax credit program allowed buyers of new electric vehicles

to claim a tax credit of $7,500.

It worked only, only underscore on cars built substantially in North America

using supplies from the US or its major trade partners.

Part of an attempt to build an American EV corner to beat China.

Buyers could use the rebate as a down payment.

GM's financing arm planned to treat itself as the buyer, buying thousands

of EVs sitting on dealer lots and claiming the discount as the buyer.

The company would then lease them to customers at discounted prices.

What that means is GM was going to buy its own cars, get the discount,

then lease you the car and give you that discount as a credit.

It's a clever as hell loop.

It's illegal, apparently.

But the reason I share this is Ford was going to do the same up.

Everybody was going to do this because people were buying those EVs

like hotcakes to get that discount.

Isn't that interesting?

I have a feeling Bob Lutz is probably going to be proven right at some point.

I still have hope that the internal combustion engine will live on

with something like hydrogen instead.

But those tax credits make people do dumb things.

They just don't chase the tax credit.

It's so stupid. OK, that's the end of my random topics.

Final topic before the interview.

Bernie Hugh, the Dallas Kibbey racing intro update.

The millions lose cars fast, loses fast and on the edge of out of control.

Not a big update for you other than good news.

Number one, a rebody of a brand new legends cars in process.

Dallas's old number 13 body will go on a brand new Miller Performance Direct

Legends race car. It'll be OK. It's going to be OK.

There will be no time to shake the car down other than when we go to race

number one in Las Vegas, which is as I record this next week.

So October 17th and 18th, I think are the dates.

It's a Friday, Saturday.

Dallas will race at the Bullring, which is the little speedway outside

of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

And really, the point of this is to shake down the car now,

since we don't have our old car, but to test, to practice, to figure things out.

Then he'll go back a week later, like we'll fly back home,

go to school and work for a week and we'll fly out Wednesday night.

And he will do the asphalt nationals October 26th or the 28th.

That's the real thing.

That's what we're really prepping for.

So the first weekend is really just to test and practice and try stuff.

And then the second one is the real thing.

We follow the other Legends car teams online that kind of go big on stuff like

this and they are out there testing already.

I would assume that several of them, maybe most of them will do exactly

what we're going to do, but this will probably be the biggest

track Dallas has ever driven on, not just in length, but in width.

It's like a three car wide track all the way around.

I mean, it's a lot of maybe more.

It looks huge online, but just Google it.

He's training on iRacing right now, at least he's supposed to be.

Hopefully he's not up there just playing video games or watching YouTube.

But that's all that's left to do at this point.

We don't have anything else to race right now.

The race car will meet us when we get there and that's the gist of it.

So with that said, yes, is the answer to the question that some of you have

asked directly and others have asked indirectly, was this an expensive problem?

Yeah, it was.

There'll be some value left in the old race car that I can get later.

The way that I got this going is I traded in his old dirt car and I used

that to kind of get some funds flowing.

We are certainly not borrowing money.

We had money in reserve just in case and this will use all of it.

That's OK. That's why you have a reserve.

If you would like to do a contribution to the team, that's very kind.

It's very thoughtful.

It is above and beyond.

Feel free.

It will go to the racing fund.

The Venmo for me is at the muscle car place.

That's what it is.

I feel weird asking for money.

But when people offer it, I feel an obligation to tell you how to do it.

You can also order a shirt that does not put as much money in our bank account,

of course, but at least he gets something for it, you know, besides goodwill.

And there are a few shirts left, a couple larges and excels in black.

We've got some sweatshirts left.

I don't know that we've sold any since the last show, but I can attempt

to give you the quick update here.

It looks like we've got two black larges, one black XL, four white larges,

three XL whites, one double X white.

And then we've got one or two of each in a medium

large XL and double XL in a black sweatshirt.

So black t-shirts, white t-shirts and black sweatshirts, whatever we've got left.

We'd love to sell and send to you prior to that race.

So you can wear it and support him online and with posts and stuff like that during his race.

That would be super cool.

Again, you can click the links that are in the show notes.

You can make a contribution to the team or you can buy a shirt or hey, you can do both.

So enjoy either one.

Thank you so much for caring the notes that you guys have sent mean a lot.

Yes, I know I got choked up on the Kibbe and Friends show describing this and what it is.

It's hard, man. All right, burn.

Cue the outro, please.

There you go. That's everything you need to know.

Let's go ahead and start heading to our feature interview before that.

Don't forget, once per month, we do have Mr.

Rick Schmidt from NPD on to talk all things NPD.

But we also talk about business and cars and life in reality and candy and Christmas.

Send in your questions to me, Robert at themusclecarplace.com.

And of course, visit nationalpartsdepot.com to proves for all your muscle car parts needs

because they find this horse they expect the best.

There is a difference and they've got the goods.

Rick absolutely does have a brilliant business mind.

I think that's obvious right now.

I know that you guys really love him.

I do too.

He is a no holds barred guy.

You can send in anything you want.

It is OK.

I do at times reword your questions to help me make a point.

Sometimes I have a theme that I'm trying to get to and your questions help me get there.

So if you don't hear your question exactly as you asked it,

know that I use the topic of it.

And if I had a name in there that I left out, that was never, ever intentional.

But I try to put the names in there when I can.

Definitely do.

And I appreciate you so much sending them.

Again, Robert at themusclecarplace.com.

That's my email.

Send it there.

Alrighty, up next is our feature interview.

This is Don Abinanti.

And I'll just leave the rest for the interview.

Something you will hear in here is that his whole journey,

it really is about overcoming demons and alcoholism.

And that Don and his dad both shared that same problem.

Don is on the redemption side of it.

And now he's chasing that dream of building cars for a living.

Yes, I use that phrase on purpose.

That is from our old podcast show that I did with Dan Kahn.

But it's a fun one.

It's inspiring.

This time of year, I headed to SEMA.

It makes me sentimental for having done this years ago

when I was chasing cars for living as well.

So enjoy.

We're speaking to Don Abinanti.

He's from Rhode Island.

He's a mechanic.

He's a former reality TV star is my understanding.

He is a shop owner.

He's a car builder.

He's pursuing his dream of building cars for a living

with a big effort.

He's currently building his 70 Chevelle

that he is going to, I think, drive from Rhode Island to SEMA 2025.

By my math, that's 2,700-ish miles.

Give or take, right?

So today, we're going to learn his story.

We're going to learn what's working right

about his dream here of pursuing his own shop online for all to see

and why he chose this Chevelle.

A car that I think was something that he and his dad selected initially

and why this is so special to him.

Don, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks for having me.

I appreciate it.

My pleasure.

So Diana from Khan Media had suggested he might be fun.

I said, OK.

So seems good.

The take of Chevelle to SEMA story is something I can relate to.

I have a 64 Chevelle family car.

Dan Khan at Khan Media helped me take that car to SEMA.

So I have a very soft spot already for you.

And then I've started to learn your life story.

Doing what everybody does, the internet stocking.

You're a fun guy to stock.

Very fun, actually.

So, Don, self-intro.

Who are you?

Where are you from?

What do you now do for a living?

My name is Don Abinanti.

I'm from the East Coast.

I'm a little town Rhode Island.

I think we're the small state in the Union.

So you can drive through it in like 15 minutes.

Yeah.

And I'm on the East Coast.

I used to be a mechanical engineer by trade and that I got into all this

is what you see a couple of years ago.

I realized my life wasn't going where I wanted

and I wasn't really following my heart.

Yeah, I dove in.

I really just wanted to create and build

and learn how to do all this stuff.

So I took a huge course to the right

and then jumped right into fabricating

and learning how to do all this.

And I started my shop two years ago.

So this is all kind of new.

You're a mechanical engineer.

So yeah, so I was the mechanical engineer

on like these large tugboats and ships

and they call us engineers,

but we're like the glorified, like really high-end mechanic

that worked on these boats.

I did that for like almost 10 years.

So I take off and go to St. Thomas and St. Martin

and work on these big ships.

We had to do everything from mechanical engineering

to fixing the welding, to diagnosing.

We had to keep the whole thing afloat and rocking and rolling.

So that's kind of where I came from.

Did you start doing this right out of high school?

Yeah, I lucked out.

I went to school to be a diesel mechanic

and then once I did it, I was like, this sucks.

I dude, this is not like my thing.

I was already so invested.

I went to a technical school up north.

And long story short, I ended up working at a pet boy

as my first captain walked in.

His name was Sandy Sunderland.

I was like 19.

He walked in, big bearded guy.

He worked on the ship that I was about to go work on

and he came in and I fixed his old cutlass.

He had like an 80s cutlass with a 305 in it.

I fixed the form.

He gave me some beer.

And he's like, I like you kid.

If you want to come to Newport, I got a job for you.

I thought he liked me, you know?

Like just thought I was a cool dude.

But I ended up going out of Newport, took a chance.

He had 168, three-massage schooner that he was a captain on.

He took me on, gave me a tour

and I got my first engineering job when I was in my 20s.

No kidding.

Yeah, it was like, it's a longer story,

but I just lucked out, he got me on.

And then once I got on that boat for a year,

I realized that I was going to do that.

So I did that for a long time,

just traveling the seas, being a salty pirate,

fixing stuff.

Okay.

So what Diana sent me here, it's all the pressure bio stuff.

It's hard to skip this part.

It says, Don's journey has also included a few stints

on reality TV shows, including Below Deck.

So I Googled Below Deck and like, oh my Lord.

All right.

What a fun guy.

How did you end up on kind of a fun boat show

where everybody's very good looking and good things happen?

I was at a boat show in Florida.

So the Florida was the hub where all these yachts were.

And I was down there and I met the producer, my chance,

this big six foot four guy that was running the show.

And I met him and I just talked to him, how I talked to you.

Like I'm just a big, brutally honest,

and I'll tell you anything.

Like there's no filter on it.

And he's like, I like you, boy.

And then I did the process.

I told him a story about my past.

And he's like, I got it.

So I was like some unknown kid,

but I was doing that job for years.

So I was like a real engineer and I got in there

to thinking that I was going to be the real engineer on the boat.

But that didn't really happen.

That's why I left.

I kind of just realized it wasn't for me.

And I quit like three episodes.

So you were pursuing a TV start of it.

It was just there.

Yeah.

That one happened by chance.

That one just kind of just worked itself out.

But I was stained after that.

I was kind of, as you find out later,

I did another one for Netflix.

And I was scared to do it because of this one.

But that one scared me from TV for a long time

because it was pretty vicious.

I know that you did a few,

but that's the one that kind of stood out.

How many did you do?

What were the names of the other shows?

I did a really awesome one.

It was called Horsepower Wars.

That was based in California.

That was a couple of years ago.

That was fun.

It was $10,000, 10 days, three teams building

the fastest drag car that you can.

That kind of got me into it.

I did that.

And then the one that I'm really proud of

is I just did one for Netflix a year and a half ago,

two years ago.

It was like based off of Pit My Ride.

And I was the weird mechanic on it.

And we built eight cars and eight episodes.

And it was a thrash.

So I did that.

And I was really proud of that one.

I was four months of filming, wide open throttle.

It was the hardest I ever worked.

But I went into it just, yeah, it was a blessing.

It was really cool.

You said you're stained from the first show though.

What do you mean by that?

Like what was the problem after the show?

Oh, the first one?

Yeah.

Did two car shows that I did that you guys will see?

Those are awesome.

One of them was kind of into the drama.

The one on Netflix was very wholesome

because it was for kids.

But that first TV show I did for Bravo,

that stuff is built.

That stuff just causes chaos.

The way they produce it, they put it together.

I'm a soft individual.

I'm very artistic and sensitive.

So me being on a show like that,

nightmare, I heard that they cast people like us

for being really empathetic,

to being almost on our statistics side.

So we clash.

So guys like me, when I went in there,

I was overstimulating like, this is too much.

I don't want to be fighting everybody.

I was like, just leave me alone.

All right.

I'm not going to ignore the fact.

You're a good-looking guy.

You have a nice face.

I can see why you're cast on TV.

Here's something else in your bio that did catch my eye.

So you and your dad, and your dad has passed away.

I think you chose a 70 Chevelle together

prior to his passing.

Is that right?

Yeah.

So the car you'll see behind me, this one right here,

this thing is how I got into all of this.

My old man was going through it and he had some problems.

And I didn't really understand what all that meant

or what it was.

He was into cars.

And I was telling some of your friends out there

that for years and years, my dad wanted to get me into it.

I just never cared.

He would bring me to oval track races to drag racing.

And I just, nothing ever happened.

I don't know when the moment was,

but I was like, early 15 years old,

I was with my dad.

My dad was drinking whiskey.

And we're at a Seaconk Speedway,

which is a circle track up the road.

And it was the pro, I forgot what they call them,

like the midgets, the really big, crazy big block ones

that were going around the corner.

And they're racing and I smelled race fuel.

And it went in my nose.

The first time I guess I resonated with it,

I got the shivers.

I was like, what is that?

I was like, oh, that's C16, boy.

And then I started asking questions.

And then I don't know what happened.

It was like instantaneous, like that smell.

And then me actually starting to appreciate it.

I started to go out more.

And then a couple months later,

I was embarrassed to ask him, but I was like,

can we build a car together?

And he was just, he melted.

He was like, yes.

And he kind of played it all out.

So his favorite car was the 69 Camaro.

He had it when he was a kid and he crashed it.

And he bought, this was the time

when computers were expensive.

So he saved up, he bought a little computer

and we got the internet.

And he's like, look online and tell me what cars you like.

So I was looking at everything.

And I happened to find a red Chevelle.

And I looked at it and it was like a nice pristine one.

He's like, well, you have really good taste,

but those cars are expensive.

So at that moment he asked me, was that what you want to do?

I'm like, yes, I want a 70.

He's like, well, you picked one of the most expensive ones.

My dad was a working man.

He was a diesel mechanic.

And for months, we would look at cars, go check them out.

And like some of them were just beat up too much.

Like one was missing a hole in the floor.

One was missing this, one was crashed.

And then towards the tail end of it, we looked at three.

And this was one of them.

The first two were close.

And at this point, my dad lost his license.

So he lost his license and I took my grandpa's car

and I'm driving the Volvo with my dad in it.

My dad's got two beers in his hand.

He's drinking, we're going up there.

We look at this one and me and my dad fall in love.

He's like, that's it.

We're going to do it.

I forgot how much exactly it was.

It was like 5,800 bucks, something like that.

We were a couple of bucks short, a couple hundred.

And the guy's like, oh, hold it for him.

Long story short, we had it.

We're excited.

And my dad died six or seven days later.

It's kind of a blur.

He was dealing with something that I'd understand.

And he passed.

He was an alcoholic.

But he was the sweetest, most loving guy ever.

I mean, like, I didn't understand it.

Like, I didn't understand if somebody had a problem.

What was that sweet and that loving to me, you know?

And then we died from it.

I still didn't understand it to process it.

I kind of shut everything down.

And I called the guy with the car and I was crying.

And I was like, hey, I have to take the money that we saved

for the car to bury him.

And he goes, cool, I'll hold on to it for him.

And I was like, dude, I work at Burger King.

Like, I don't know how long it's going to take.

He's like, I don't care.

I got plenty of money.

So I held it for a long time.

And it was five or six months.

And I worked at Burger King.

I worked with my shifts.

And then my grandpa came in and my grandpa was tired

of looking at my vision board and the photos

of what motor I wanted.

You know, I didn't know anything about cars back then.

So I was like, I wanted this carburetor, this intake.

I'm going to do this, you know, this Hurshifter.

And I'm going to do these tires and the steely wheels.

And then I had everything laid out.

My grandpa was like, come on, let's go.

My grandpa took it and then he bought it.

And I had the picture of the day that it showed up.

Drove it in, pull it in the driveway.

I took a little Polaroid, like six or seven shots of it.

I had one of you go in my Mollie Watt Pericut going.

You know, I got it.

And then I think how it all really started to get kicking

was my dad's two best friends, these two Kearney brothers

or twins.

They drove it a couple of days later and they beat it.

They had a Hurshifter, two four barrels on it.

It was slow as molasses, probably made 250 horsepower,

the big hole in the floor.

I was like, is it fast?

And they're like, no, it's slow as s***.

I was like, no.

Is it a big block car or was it?

It was a small block car, but it had all the SS trim on it.

I had the SS pedals, I had the SS grill.

I think somebody plucked it out and put a small block in it,

but it was really slow and it was a mess.

So I blew the whole car out within a couple of weeks.

And I remember my dad telling me one thing,

whenever you take a car apart, label the bolts and the baggies.

So I had no clue what I was doing.

A little craftsman tool set, my mom's house in the garage,

and I took the whole car apart, body off, engine out,

and my grandpa was, I've never seen somebody so hot.

He came back, what did you do?

You ruined the car.

And it was a part for two years and I got it together

for my prom.

I got a picture of me going to prom with it, with my date.

And no windshield wipers.

I had drag radials on it.

I had a small block in it with like 10 to one

and it was kind of hopped up.

It went to 12s and I drove it to prom.

And I started from there.

It was just like building it over and over and over and over again.

So I can relate.

How many versions of the car have you built currently?

I mean, it's got a ride deck set up on it.

It's a unique process you're doing now.

It's not a pro touring car, but it's not a drag car.

It's a lot of things.

But it was a drag car at one point.

Or it was a head of drag setup.

Would that be fair?

Yeah.

I went off the deep end or off the rails with all that stuff.

I just kept on going.

So it went from like being a really weird kind of normal car

to like in the 12s, and then I got an 11s,

and I got in the 10s.

And when I got in the 10s,

that was probably the most sponsored I've ever had.

I was a 383 that I put together.

I had a local machine shop building,

and I found a Paxton Obi Supercharger for 400 bucks.

And it was just a head unit.

So it was my kind of my first foray into like fabricating

when I was like 25.

Had a carburetor that sent out to somebody,

got a blow through, had it all adapted.

And then I made like a wacky bracket that was ugly as sin

that held the unit.

I found a special belt, made like a bootleg cog set up for it.

It was gross, but it worked.

The car made 475.

I was like my mid 20s.

Yeah.

I went 1040 at like 128,

which wasn't that fast, but it was fast for me.

And I drove it everywhere.

You know, I had a full interior in it.

Then after that, I went really into it.

And I built a twin turbo small block

that made a thousand horsepower.

There was this local guy.

I wasn't into cars yet.

I wasn't into like building, building.

I was kind of just dabbling.

He was this guy's genius.

He had like Excel DFI, the old school stuff,

crank signal on it.

It was a small block Chevy.

I made a thousand horse.

He built it.

I put it in with a Rossler 400.

That's when I started getting the car in the low nines.

I went 911 at 148.

Then that's where it stopped.

And that's where this kind of took over.

That's how this whole thing started this past year.

So how did we get from your mechanical engineer on boats

and a TV star to not doing that at all

and deciding to try to do your own business here?

I need to tell you that we have a lot of people

who are shop owners that listen to this show.

You'll see a lot of them at the SEMA show as well.

Some of them are also YouTubers as well.

Some of them do it to promote their shop.

Some of it do it because secretly,

they want to be a YouTube star.

They all have a heart of gold too.

Every last one of them.

Which one are you doing?

Are you a YouTube star with a shop?

Or would you consider yourself a builder

and a fabricator who's on YouTube?

That's a good question.

I've realized a couple of things this past year.

So I guess the long story short is,

I guess it's probably a longer answer than you want.

About five years ago,

I realized I was like my old man in a certain way

and I had to make some changes.

My whole life before that,

I was just like a ripped roaring sailor.

I had to kind of just live in life.

My moral compass wasn't really there.

And then when I got sober, everything shifted.

Like I went from thinking that I was like this tough,

really dialed in guy to realizing I was a mess

and I'm just a really sensitive loving character.

And I have this creative side.

When I had this creative side kind of come over,

I was lost because I didn't know how to really express it.

So for part of the process,

like I just knew that I wanted to build and do something.

And I knew I liked cars.

I didn't know like where it went.

I didn't want to just build hot rods.

And I also wanted to get really good at it.

I was scared.

It was this whole tangible thing where it was like,

I didn't know where it was going.

I know something was cooking.

And then I was walking down the street in West Palm one day

and I had this idea.

It's like, I really want to build stuff

that I want to get weird.

And I know I have a long way to go with it.

What I want to build.

I tossed around some ideas.

And then one was this one.

It was this all wheel drive car.

I wanted to build a all wheel drive,

like 2000 horsepower like cruiser

that you can do everything with.

They got multi-tool.

I wasn't so much into the drag racing.

I was like, all right, well, I gotta do a shop

if I want to do that.

And I got a lot to learn.

It immediately lit the afterburners on

and I felt like it gave me a purpose.

I went from being lost.

Okay, well, I have something now that I want to do.

How do I get there?

And to be honest with you,

that process is like what saved my life.

It gave me something to want to learn how to weld,

to want to do that,

to want to learn how to fabricate.

It was scary because I was really behind the curve.

I didn't really have all the skill sets

to do what I'm doing here now.

And I had a long way to go.

But I realized it's kind of where I wanted to go.

So the general idea was,

I hope this answers your question.

I just wanted to build and I wanted to fabricate.

I didn't have any idea of being a good fabricator

or being a YouTuber.

YouTuber wasn't even there.

I didn't think about vlogging.

I just thought about,

I just want to learn how to stick metal together.

I want to learn how to cut tubes.

I want to learn how to bend.

Then I started doing that.

And then the process was slow.

I got a little better.

Did a couple more things.

I started learning like 2D design.

And then what kind of was the catapult for the YouTube thing?

After some years of sub-savariety

and like me starting to do some stuff,

I like just totally,

God's grace,

got fell into this place called Salvage of Savage.

Awesome hot rod shop down in Florida.

They're looking for a fabricator.

I went in there like kind of like,

you know, doing a little bit of this,

do that I can kind of get through.

I can diagnose and fix anything.

But like fabrication wise,

I was still pretty new.

I went in there the first month like,

Hey, we like you.

Do you want to come on for this project?

You'll need for the whole project

that we're building a Tesla powered race truck.

And I was like, yeah, let's do it.

And it was my first time on land.

So I started with them.

And then that is when I felt the power of social media.

And I realized that this is where I belong.

I need to create because they gave me full tilt.

I could use the plasma table.

I was learning how I would go play with the plasma.

Then I would go study 3D design at night.

And I'd wake up in the morning,

go to the gym and then I would like study something else.

And then I worked for them.

And it was just, I felt finally the pieces

were coming together and I went nuts.

Every bit of information I could,

I just took it all in.

So I guess where I was going with this is I felt

being creative and welding and designing

and creating the stuff was where my heart was at.

Then that led to like building that truck,

building some other Cima cars,

getting grafted into the TV show.

And then the producers of the TV show were like,

Hey, idiot, when you get back,

you're building this crazy stuff, start vlogging it.

I was like, yeah.

Because at that point I went all in.

I was learning how to program arduinos.

I was like using linear actuators.

I could cut and design anything on two and 3D space,

3D printing stuff.

My skill set was getting pretty good.

And then the creativity could start matching

what I was building.

So yeah, a long story short,

when I got back two years ago is when I started realizing

I was going to start doing the YouTube thing.

And then I was scary.

And I started doing the YouTube stuff.

And that kind of just took on a whole life of its own.

It's a lot of work.

I mean, it's a feed the beast type of work.

It's far more work than anyone will ever understand or realize.

Are you solo doing all that yourself?

Or do you have a help?

No, so it's just me.

I have my girl or my mom take slow-mo shots for me sometimes.

But I teach them how to do it.

I use it on my phone.

But it all started with a GoPro.

I learned from salvage.

I also learned from the TV show how to frame stuff,

how to move the camera,

like how to start telling the story.

Back in the day, I thought you had to record everything.

I started learning how just taking the pieces of the story.

And then when I started learning how to edit the videos,

I was terrible at it.

And they were so boring.

And then I started realizing what people would do about breath work.

I would watch some of these people.

There's a very extreme way to do it.

There's also a very good way.

But cutting out all the spaces, telling the story correctly,

then I met really good people who are like,

hey, your intros are too long.

Shorten them up.

Your Instagram stuff is not telling the story.

Shorten it up.

And then like, yeah, so I'm still on the journey of figuring.

I haven't figured anything out.

I have like a couple of different modes.

Like one's artistic, the way I really want to do things.

The other one's more of like the maybe the more baby stuff

that gets you in.

And then some of the stuff is more technical.

I'm still learning how my whole stuff flows,

but it turned into something else that I really love.

Like making the videos I love, filming is fun.

But the hard is I just want to create.

I just want to build stuff.

Are all the cars in the shop your creations here?

Do you have any customer cars that you're having to deal with too?

No.

So I started doing this one really slow.

I was doubling.

I was going out to see for weeks at a time, making money,

dumping all the money in tools.

And then for the first two years, it was like a slow process.

Like, you know, I had to go buy this machine.

I had to buy my plasma machine, which was like 25,000.

So I go out to see, give my deposit, come back, and there it was.

Then I had to go buy this, that, and that, and that.

So I started to build up and I put paint in the walls.

Yeah.

Then I went from like no followers to like, you know, 5,000 and then 10,000.

And that was 15.

And then like, it was all me all alone until about six months ago.

And then I started like meeting sponsors and like,

that turned into something else where they're just like, we like you, dude.

And people send me stuff.

And that's been kind of taking the weight off of doing it all on my own.

Like the Chevelle Vibrant Peak Auto came on board,

Auto Metal Direct came on board,

HPT Turbo Chargers, Haltech.

I got teary-eyed when these guys all came on board

because I couldn't do this as quick by myself.

It would take me a year, two years, you know what I mean?

Because I'm still a working man.

What are your plans here with this Chevelle?

So, and the other car you're referring to, I think it's an El Camino.

But the Chevelle, you know, I can see the nose of it right now.

Is that car headed to SEMA?

Yeah.

So this happened like really quick.

So I was building it for the channel and I'll be honest with you,

the El Camino content does really well.

The Chevelle content, even though it's got a really good story,

my heart's in both, right?

So the El Camino, I can get weird and strange

where that could be the little scientist.

The Chevelle is like, I love it.

You know, it's going to be like a cool car

that I was just going to put it back the way it was and have some fun with it.

But Rytec came on board, got that done,

and then I was going to start building the motor.

I realized the motor was blown and I'm like,

well, you know, I got a YouTube channel mouse.

I might get a little strange.

And I wanted to put an old NASCAR motor in it,

but the maintenance on it would be too much and I can't really daily drive.

It would be too insane.

So I started researching all the platforms.

And I never even looked at a Coyote before.

I started deep diving it because I'm an LS guy.

And I was like, man, the mechanical aspect of this thing is really incredible.

The whole thing, the whole platform,

because I never even gave it a glance.

I was always in the big blocks and LS's.

I started reaching out and talking to people about it.

I'm like, oh, yeah, you can do this, do that,

rev it to 9500 and make this and like that.

And I was like, oh, this is like not cheap.

This is like a cheaper way to do a NASCAR motor.

Get the RPM, get the power.

It's only 30 pounds heavier, I think, than a small block.

And that's when the light bulb went off.

Like let's make the Chevelle be able to be the ultimate daily driver.

I could put tons of miles on it.

The car can still go into eights if I change some of the geometry.

And it's got a good suspension so we can tighten it up.

And I think it can actually take an off ramp doing 75.

So that's when I was like, all right,

let's build a cool multi-tool.

It's not going to be a six-second drag car.

It's also not going to be the fastest doosal design's time attack car.

But it's going to be a hammer right in the middle

that I can just show up, change some adjustments,

kind of do it all, go to drag and drive events,

bring it to car shows, and still make 1400 horse.

And that's when I was like, all right, coyote, twin turbo.

Here we go.

Let's light it up.

And then all my sponsors like, let's do it.

And then SEMA came on and like, hey, you want to come here?

And I'm like, yes.

Yes.

Yes, sir, I do.

It happened so quick.

I'm like, I'm nervous now because I've been working on it

for like two and a half months and just full-time this past month.

When do you have to leave?

For those listening, we're recording this on October 8th.

And I mean, SEMA's four weeks, maybe slightly less.

Yeah, I got to be out of here, I think no later than the 26th.

Okay.

And you're driving it all the way across country?

That's the plan.

You have to understand, it's not going to be like a Jet Black Riddler award card.

It's the same color as when I was 15 years old.

I have no intention of painting it.

We're going to put AMD body panels on it, make it straight

because the front was all messed up, make it look like a car.

And then other than that, all the work is underneath.

Like I'll show it to you after.

It's got a whole twin turbo kit, all stainless I made.

It's got this wacky air dam cooler that I made.

Like it's got really cool artistic expression stuff in it.

But the shell is just this old patina dump truck.

I mean, it's doable.

It's hard.

Yeah, it's doable, but I'm going to have to like skip.

That's the problem I'm having.

Like the El Camino, if you see some of my work,

I can put weeks into like brackets and stuff.

My tube work, I could take as long as I want.

And I'm building the foundation up perfect.

But the Chevelle, I got the engine set perfect.

I got the geometry perfect.

And then now everything else above it, like my tube work is going to be perfect.

And like somebody artistic stuff, there's no dash in it.

It was going to be just the Haltech screen, electronics,

like maybe some carbon, two carbon seas.

So I'm a little worried that I'm going to go out there,

maybe get roasted because it is so bare.

But I think if people watch what I'm doing with it,

they'll understand and realize like my spot,

I was talking to Haltech Andrew the other day,

I was like, man, I'm worried, you know,

I don't want people to judge it based on like a Riddler award card.

And he's like, dude, once they found out you drove there,

nobody's going to care.

So I'm kind of in my head about it a little bit

because back in the day, I wouldn't care.

But since it's SEMA, I'm like, man.

Where is it going when you get there?

Do you have a spot inside or are you parking out?

Well, like, what happens then?

Yeah, they got a spot for me somewhere inside.

They got like a new thing they're doing with trying to get,

I believe people who do weird stuff like that, maybe in there.

I'm going to be inside.

That's when the fear caught in.

I was like, but then everybody was telling me,

that's kind of the cool thing too.

You know, you have the top tier Riddler stuff,

the really cool million dollar builds.

And you know, you have that scene where it's like

Bluetooth drive shafts, things that don't work.

We're like a blue collar boy rocking in

with some really cool engineering in a car that's real.

You know, and I think that's what they're trying to showcase.

They're trying to showcase like, listen,

let's get the kids back in it.

Let's show them how fun this can be.

And also put effort into it.

You know, like I'm breaking my back on it.

I'm excited.

I'm excited and nervous.

It's probably the most nervous I've been in a long time.

What do you think your dad would think of this?

Oh, I was talking to my mom about it.

Well, I put a coyote in it.

So I think the first thing he would say is,

boy, what the hell did you do?

I was so disappointed.

Did you, Don?

You're an idiot.

You know, but then I think about the other side of him that,

you know, he was a mechanic and he was a fabricator.

And I think that he would sit back and be like,

man, what are you doing?

Oh, this is cool, man.

You know, I wish I could share it with him.

But looking down, seeing it.

I'm sure he is.

I can tell you that cars at SEMA that are beautiful to look

at are a dime a dozen.

They're better when they have a story and yours does and you do.

You may end up taking a lot of cars to SEMA in your lifetime.

Nothing will mean more than this one, I'm sure.

It's a life changer.

You will never forget this.

Is your wife coming with you?

She is going to meet me out there.

I told her I was a little nervous about being a little too rough.

I got a cage that's tied to the floor pans and the car's kind of tinny.

Yeah.

And I got carbon seats are going to be bolted right to the floor.

So it's going to be like, and I was like, meet me out there.

So I think my buddy Paul's going to drive with me.

And then I'm at the point now where it's like me and all hands on deck.

I work in every day, 18 hours a day.

I take naps from 12 to four in the morning.

I'm going to go.

I'm going for it.

I'm going absolutely wide open.

I'm praying that I can just pull it off and get out.

As long as they get the car in the car is going to be all set very low.

It's going to be a prime mover, like a generator out there.

Just keep it together.

We got new suspension.

Everything else is brand new.

It's going to be got a stock gen two.

We're going to put it out the race motor stock gen two,

put the boost to seven pounds and just done.

When we're done with SEMA, then we'll break it up and get weird,

but I just got to get out there.

Don, you're up sold.

I will follow everything that you're doing here.

I'll be out there.

I look forward to meeting you there and then checking this out.

You probably look a little more tired.

That's for sure.

But I think you have over a hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube.

But if you need one more, where do people go to do that?

Yes.

If you look at my Instagram or my YouTube, it's under my name,

Don Abinanti or Retrofabworks.

Okay. Don, it's been a pleasure.

Congratulations.

These are the best interviews.

I've been doing this for over almost 20 years now,

and stories, stories are the best part about it.

And you have a great one.

It's nice to meet you, Don.

I wish you the very best.

Hey, thank you so much, my friend.

Thank you, Don.

All right. There you go.

I hope he makes it.

I'll bet he does.

I hope he hears his interview on his way out there.

In fact, probably with headphones on,

like the kind that you wear, you know, in the back of a helicopter.

Alrighty.

One more show before I head to Vegas for three trips in a row.

I'll be back next week between now and then.

Hit me up on Facebook or Instagram anytime.

Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter.

You can do all that on the homepage at themusclecarplace.com website.

And as always, don't forget to keep chasing your dreams.

Like, you've let me chase mine.

Thanks, listen, everybody.

Bye-bye.

The muscle car plays.

TMCP 623: Don Abenante – Fabricator to YouTube Star – Building And Driving a 1970 Chevelle From Rhode Island To Vegas For SEMA 2025!

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