TMCP #634: The Ultimate Reunion // How 6 People Who Never Met Built a $400K Chevelle for SEMA on Friendship, Grit, and Faith!
The MuscleCar Place
TMCP #634: The Ultimate Reunion // How 6 People Who Never Met Built a $400K Chevelle for SEMA on Friendship, Grit, and Faith!
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Concept
SEMA 2025
SEMA is a big car parts trade show where companies show off new accessories and gadgets for cars. The 2025 event is the next one happening this year.
Company
Zip Simon's, Street Metal Concepts
Zip Simon's, Street Metal Concepts is a company that makes custom parts and changes to cars so they look cooler or run better.
Brand
Cadillac
Cadillac makes fancy cars that are more expensive and have a lot of luxury features. It’s a well‑known brand from the U.S.
Car
Volkswagen Caddys
The Caddy is a small van that’s great for carrying people or stuff. It’s known for being sturdy and easy to drive, which is why many families and small businesses choose it.
Car
Toyota Prius
The Prius is a car that runs on both gasoline and electricity, which helps you save gas and keep the air cleaner. It’s known for being very dependable and easy to find parts for, so it’s a popular choice for people who want an affordable, green car.
Car
Chevrolet Chevelle
The Chevelle is an old, powerful car from the 1970s that many people collect and restore. It’s famous for its big engine and classic look, which makes it a favorite among car hobbyists.
Company
National Parts Depot
National Parts Depot is a shop that sells parts for old cars, especially muscle cars like the Chevelle.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Camaro is a fast, sporty car that looks like it’s ready for the racetrack. It comes with powerful engines and a sleek design, which is why many people love it for driving fun.
Term
bolt-on
A bolt‑on is a part you can add to your car by just screwing it on, like a spoiler or an aftermarket exhaust.
Part
body mounts
Body mounts are the parts that hold the car’s body to its frame; they keep everything in place and make sure the car stays solid.
Part
radiator support mount
The radiator support mount is the piece that holds the radiator in place so it doesn’t shift or get damaged while driving.
Part
cross weight
Think of a cross weight as a metal bar that holds the front and back parts of a car together, keeping the frame strong when you turn or hit bumps.
Part
A pillar
It’s the side frame that holds up the front window and keeps the car’s roof from collapsing.
Part
firewall
It’s the metal wall that separates the engine area from where you sit, keeping the heat and noise out of the car’s interior.
Part
full chassis
Think of the chassis as the skeleton of a car. It holds everything together and keeps the vehicle stable.
Company
Art Morrison
Art Morrison makes custom frames and parts that can upgrade a car’s handling and look, especially for classic models.
Concept
capsule car
A capsule car is a small, tightly packed vehicle that keeps everything inside it very close together.
Concept
full caged car
A full caged car has a metal frame all around it to keep people safe if something bad happens.
Concept
NASCAR
NASCAR is a big racing league in the U.S. where drivers race cars that look similar to everyday cars but are built for speed.
Part
roll cage
A roll cage is a metal frame inside the car that keeps people safe if the car flips over or crashes.
Part
LS3
The LS3 is a powerful engine made by Chevrolet that can give a car a lot of speed and strength.
Car
RS Chevelle
The RS Chevelle is a sporty version of Chevrolet’s mid‑size car from the 1970s, known for its strong engine and cool look.
Brand
Dodge
Dodge is a car company that makes trucks and muscle cars. It’s part of the Chrysler family.
Concept
Baja makeover
A Baja makeover is when people change a truck or SUV so it can drive in tough desert races. They add big wheels, lift the car up, and put on strong parts to protect it.
Part
rubber parts
These are pieces of rubber that fit into a car to keep things tight and quiet, like the seals around doors or windows.
Part
weather stripping
It’s the strip you see around a car door that keeps wind and water from getting in when you close it.
Brand
Ferrari
Ferrari makes very fast, fancy cars that are expensive and only a few people can own. They’re famous for racing and look very special.
Part
stock harness
A stock harness is the set of wires and plugs that a car comes with straight from the factory. It’s what lets all the electrical parts like lights, radio, and engine sensors work.
Part
chassis harness
A chassis harness is a bundle of wires that runs along the car’s frame, connecting parts like brakes and sensors. People often change it when they build a custom or race car.
Term
camber
It’s how much the wheel leans toward or away from the car when you look at it front to back.
Term
inset wheels
These wheels sit a bit deeper inside the car’s wheel opening, giving a tighter look.
Part
bumper
A bumper is the part of a car that sticks out at the front or back. It helps keep the car safe if it bumps into something.
LIVE
The Muscle Car plays online podcast episode number 634.
This week a very special edition of the show, a very non-traditional episode, just to tide
you over the holiday break before the New Year starts.
This is a roundtable discussion with all of my friends who I built my chouvel with from
2011 to 2013.
Jeff Allison is here, Kirk Hansen is here, Danny Justino is here, Zip Simon is here,
and the producer who joined us during the build of the story, Bernie McPartland, is
here.
We all got together the Thursday night of SEMA this year with a couple of pizzas, some
wings, a few frosty beverages, and I got to ask them all to share their piece of the
puzzle all together.
To my knowledge, we were never once all of us in the same room at the same time until
this recording.
If you have ever dreamed of doing something big, and beyond you, this is what it takes.
I was willing the whole way, you know, I was excited the whole way, I had friends coming
in the shop and helping us, some volunteering, you know, it was trying to do what we wanted
to do and something came over me and we just pushed.
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, I hope you had a merry Christmas everybody and very soon I hope you have a very happy
new year.
This is a very special edition of the show, very non-traditional.
This is just a tidy over that Christmas break before our new season officially starts on
January 9th.
This is a roundtable discussion with all the people who put my chivelle together with me
2011 to 2013.
I dreamt of getting to do something like this one day and one day finally happened this
year at SEMA 2025.
So you'll hear Jeff Allison, Kirk Hansen, Danny Justino, Zip Simons and Bernie McPartland
and you're going to hear who all of these people are, what they did, why they did it
and what it took.
We all won as a result of doing this, but not one of us knew that it would work.
And at the same time, all of us knew that it would work.
We just didn't really know how.
Building my chivelle was probably one of the achievements of a lifetime and after doing
this interview it makes me want to do a whole other one all over again.
I thought, if anything, you needed to know who these men are and get to know them really
well because these are the kind of people you want to associate yourself with.
People that bring more to the table than you, but more specifically people that have a heart
of gold.
Associate yourself with people who have a heart of gold and it rubs off on you too.
Please enjoy.
Kick back.
I don't have anything else here for you.
We'll plan to see you on January 9th.
This is 40 minutes of your life you will never regret giving.
Take care everybody.
See you next year.
Bye-bye.
The Muscle Car Place weekly podcast interview is brought to you by our good friends at
National Parts Depot.
See them through the link at themusclecarplace.com.
Here we are with my long lost family.
We have a unique moment here at SEMA 2025.
The same crew that brought a chivelle here, my chivelle, 12 years ago, mostly at your
expenses, not mine, has all reunited.
For the first time ever in person ever that I know of.
So what I was hoping to do here is introduce all of you and retell the story of how we
met and why we did what we did and then what has come as a result.
This is what we're going to do.
First I'm going to start with some introductions.
So Bernie McPartland producer, say hello Bernie.
Hello Bernie.
As I recall you just worked on audio back then you mean nothing to us.
Hopefully that's still the case.
Okay, great.
Yes, so true.
I've never not liked you more.
All right.
Then we have Zip Simon's, Street Metal Concepts.
Hi.
Thank you.
Zip, you are from what state?
Florida.
And you have not changed state since we did a chivelle project, right?
No change.
Okay.
To your right is who?
Kirk Hansen.
Say hello Kirk.
Why hello?
Kirk, you are now the network director of the Muscle Car Place but when we met you were
not.
What were you then?
I was the marketing director of National Parts Depot.
You were the first guy I made a major sale to.
Yep.
And the only person there who probably cared initially.
I loved it.
You saw the future of digital.
I did.
So I owe you a big thanks for this table here.
You're welcome.
Okay, back to your right here, the man, the myth, the legend, Jeffrey Allison.
Hello.
Jeff Allison of Allison Customs, formerly of Bloomfield, New Mexico and now of.
La Center Washington.
Good luck finding it on a map.
Okay.
It's probably as easy as Bloomfield was.
I don't remember that being easy at all.
Okay, and one more introduction, Danny Giustino.
I even have to laugh.
The Italian stallion, the connector of connectors who right now is dressed like a used car dealer.
But like the most attractive used transmission you've ever bought.
Only Cadillacs.
You're gonna love it.
Yeah, all Caddys.
Only Caddilacs.
Caddilacs and Prius.
No, no, no.
Danny, what's the name of your company was and is?
Muscle Express Incorporated.
Okay, out of what?
Jupiter, Florida.
Jupiter, Florida.
Okay, I'm going to attempt to tell the tale here.
So I started a podcast business by accident.
That was not my business.
I wanted to, I just had to come to Jesus moment.
I didn't want to be an engineer anymore, but I really didn't know what to do.
I did some financial counseling, like as a Dave Ramsey financial counselor and I learned,
I love running my own business and I hated counseling people.
I couldn't emotionally separate from their problems.
So when they told me their baggage, it bothered me.
I couldn't help them because I was too emotionally wrapped up in their problems.
So I sold that business, made a little money and I said, I have enough money to start something.
What should I start?
I don't come from a family of dreamers.
Like nobody I know does the non-traditional thing.
It's just not a thing.
So I ended up hiring a coach and he just said, I don't know what you need to do, but it needs to be in cars.
So I ended up starting a website called the Muscle Car Place to sell cars.
Like a bring a trailer 15 years ago and it didn't work.
It was so hard to get people to list cars, nobody would do it.
But then I started a podcast to promote the website thinking that would be a good idea.
Because I like podcasts and it was early, but I thought it'd be fun.
And it turned out that was just more fun, more interesting to people.
I could sell ads in it.
I knew nothing about radio, but I started doing that.
And as it progressed, I realized that's probably where I belong.
Like I'm not the best driver, I'm certainly not a fabricator, but I can tell stories.
And I definitely like learning other people's stories, like way better than my own.
So I had shared, like I have this 64 Chevelle, I'd love to pro touring it, I'd love to be a race car driver someday want to be.
And I did that business for a year and a half in my basement, part time, you know, with three kids.
And then I decided like, I think I can go full time.
I think this can happen.
So I did that.
And that was January of 2011.
And then I got an email from Jeff Allison of Allison Customs.
I'm sorry guys.
Yeah, what the heck?
I should have called everyone first.
Yeah.
So all of your financial commitments that you're so bitter about probably still to this day are his fault.
So Jeff, what was your amazing offer to me?
Brain dead.
Come on.
Okay.
So I wrote an email saying how much I enjoyed the show and that I was inspired by your commitment to just jump out and try to do something that you were
really interested in but hadn't figured out how to do exactly yet.
And as part of that, I was going to try and do the same thing.
I wanted to take my hobby of building cars and do something more with it.
Didn't know exactly where that was going to go.
But you had talked about your love of this Chevelle and how you would love to rebuild it.
And I volunteered everybody else here at this table's time and money.
That you did not yet know.
I didn't even know they existed.
But in the process of volunteering mine, theirs got invested and it was, hey, why don't you send me your car?
You buy the parts and we'll build it.
As I recall, I did try to do the right thing and say, you don't have to do this and it probably won't work and I can guarantee you nothing.
You probably did.
I mean, you're that kind of person.
But at the same time, I was like, I'm in and you know, as we've had other discussions, my wife, maybe not so much in.
She reminds me often that she is the unsung hero of this whole thing because she's the one who would be like, hey, you need to come in.
It's two o'clock in the morning and you still have to go to work tomorrow.
And I know you're exhausted because you got ready for SEMA and I'll drive you to Vegas so that we can get there right as the car is getting there and help unload it.
But you did sign up and you agree.
I did, but she didn't and I have to get that unsung hero thing in there so I can go home.
One thing that like not at my conscious like is I don't know this business that well, but I do know that this is an upside down thing.
This may or may not work from a return on market because that's all I could offer you is like.
And that's all you did.
So you said, hey, I'll put your name out there.
And that was more than I honestly knew that we would even attempt, you know.
Then you said, I'm an airline pilot.
I'll fly you out here.
Why don't you just meet me.
And I did.
Yeah.
And that was bizarre because I thought, you know, the worst that happens is I end up in a bathtub with my kidneys missing.
Like, you know, right?
That's the worst case scenario.
So it can only be better.
That was our plan B.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If we're not friends, we're going to get your kidneys out tonight.
We instantly were just the, we still say it to each other, the brother from another mother thing like this is meant to be.
Yeah.
I don't know why it's meant to be, but it is meant to be.
We definitely connected, you know, and talking about cars and all the other stuff.
And I think it was, like you said, meant to be, and then, you know, trust on both sides.
You're trusting that your car doesn't just disappear.
And I'm trusting that it's not going to be here for eternity because we can't find a way to finance it.
Sure.
So it was initially just like, they all go like, let's bolt on some stuff and do some stuff.
And the only reason to do this car was because of its family history with my family.
And it was a bad car when you got it.
It was a better car than it was when I got it, but it was my dad's car.
So that's all I really cared about.
So while that project started, then I met Kirk Hansen.
Kirk, I called you because I was trying to sell some ad space and you answered.
And I really don't know what compelled you to even pursue it other than you're a creative.
What was it?
Was that the first podcast I called you?
No, I was listening to the show at the time.
You already knew of it?
Yeah, when we first got connected.
I didn't realize that.
Yeah.
Well, that makes it so much easier.
Yeah, it was.
I enjoyed it.
The Rob Kivvy.
You were, though, a marketing director and a company that's frankly excellent at their X's and O's.
I mean, they still are.
They're still title spots of our show.
Like, they know their nuts and bolts.
They know their market.
They know quality products.
They don't usually go out of their lane for non-traditional marketing, but you talked them into it.
Well, there's a right place and a right time for everything.
And that period of time was when print was a sink and chip.
And there was conversations that I had with Rick that was like, we got to start looking elsewhere.
And that was one of the ones that I pitched among many other options of online advertising.
He enjoyed that one out of the month, out of the list that I gave him.
Well, it started out as a small package and has grown into a longtime partnership.
And I've become very fond of Rick Schmidt.
He's a finished product.
He is his own man.
But a person who was frankly kind of intimidating at first, I would say is somebody whose opinion I really like.
I look forward to him.
And you left National Parts Depot several years later after the Chevelle was done.
You're the reason that it went forward because we sourced a lot of parts through NPD.
And I'll also add through the show, your passion was obviously noticeable.
And I think that's also why Rick was always drawn to it.
It's easy as a marketing director to pitch all these ideas,
but it's hard to find ones that align well with what your vision is and your vision and your passion to our industry
shined above a lot of the other options that we had.
Well, how nice.
You're already heard of those, so we're good here somewhere.
OK, so then throughout the course of just normal operations, Jeff is working on this car.
I had to hold it down to New Mexico for him.
We started to kind of cast the idea of what we wanted to do.
At no point was it a SEMA car ever that was not on our radar.
This was just to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, go do fun stuff.
Then some dude named Danny Giustino contacts me out of nowhere and says, hey, I want to send you a T-shirt.
I don't know why, but that was you, Danny.
You sent me an email and said, hey, I want to send you a T-shirt.
Call me.
Right.
Do you just do that?
No, not to anybody really.
I don't even know how you ended up listening to the show in the first place.
Yeah, I don't know.
I just caught it on the computer one day and listened to a couple of episodes and I go, this guy's so soothing and I love it.
Soothing voice, calm me down.
And we got to send him something.
We got to help him out.
So you are Italian by birth?
You grew up in New York?
In New York.
Yeah.
York is New York.
What got you into putting together cars?
Because you are a Camaro specialist when I met you.
I mean, that's what you're really known for.
Before I walked, I was always looking at cars or sitting behind the steering wheel, hot wheels when they first came out, just always born with it.
You became a friend.
And I mean, just a solid dude, friend of the show, funny Italian guy that lives in Florida, has a lot of stories we will not share on record.
Because he would like to not go to prison before he dies.
I'm a grandfather now.
Yeah, we can't do that.
What was your phrase?
I got a fifth of the glove box and a four on the floor or something like that or a six-shooter under my pocket.
Three on a tree and a fourth in the glove box.
There we go.
That's what it was.
And I remember one night, I was on the patio with my friend Goofy and Robbie Race and Donnie the Don having cigars and bourbon.
And you called me back.
I called you.
You called me back.
And all of a sudden you start talking about vintags and numbers and whatever.
I don't know why, but my friend Ray says, oh, whoa, call me on the payphone, will you?
I'm not suggesting that you would ever restore a car by putting the tag on the other car.
Yeah, I know.
Well, I have my lawyers ready because that's a little racial profiling.
So back to Jeff, we're a solid year into building this car and it's 2012 at this point.
The project has expanded dramatically.
Yes.
So the bolt-on's not going to happen.
You got the body off and you said, this body can't even go back on.
We got it on a lift.
And I think if I remember right, it was like two body mounts, bolts were still in it.
And the rest weren't like, they weren't missing.
They were just rusted solid to the sleeves, but there was nothing attaching them to the body.
So, and I think it was like a radiator support mount and like one rear or something.
I mean, I was like, yeah, you got a good cross weight going thing.
It's almost tied down.
Yeah, there was just, because of where you grew up and where the car lived,
there was no car left underneath.
Yeah.
So it was, Rob, if we're going to put this back together, it's floors and quarters and
floors and quarters.
Part of the A pillar.
It's like, up the firewall and there was so much metal to go that we had a discussion
like, you realize this car is not worth saving.
Oh yeah.
From the standpoint of, we can buy another 64 Chevelle cheaper.
Yeah, definitely.
And we had that conversation like, that's not the point.
I think that's why we're all in business to this day is because there's plenty of people going,
that's not the point.
It's the memories tied to it.
And well, like the grandfather's old acts, if I replaced everything on it,
my still grandfather's like, yes, it is.
I don't know why, but it is.
So I didn't know that it was that bad, but I didn't know what it would open up.
By that point, we thought, well, if Humpty Dumpty's got to be torn apart, now we can
put it back together anyway we want.
This is the time to figure out how to mini tub a 64 Chevelle.
This is the time how to figure out how to move frame rails.
Nobody did this stuff, Jeff.
This was car number one.
There have been a lot of cars that have come since that sure look similar and have taken
a lot of cues from it.
But this was car number one for an early Chevelle to do this kind of stuff.
The only thing that we really didn't do back then that we probably would do today is a full chassis.
It probably was a possibility back then, but it was out of reach.
So if there was one, it was probably like an Art Morrison or something.
Yeah.
And you'd have to buy it.
Oh, yeah.
I don't think any of us know anybody there.
So you know, what I haven't shared is like, there was more money in the car than I,
frankly, could afford.
I found a way to do it, but I had to rely on my friends to do almost ridiculous amounts
of labor that I was never comfortable with.
But you seem to be.
So we just kept going.
Yeah.
We were willing.
Yeah.
I don't think anybody got on board and didn't know what they were looking at.
By the time I'm doing metalwork, there's pictures everywhere.
We all know what's there and what's not there.
And thankfully there's guys like Zip and Danny that can look at stuff and go, yeah,
we might be able to move that a little further forward.
It's hard to do this in a fast forward vision, but go ahead and do that.
It's 2013 now.
So we've got a full caged car, like a capsule car.
It's not tied to the frame, but the interior is done.
And it's this beautiful, like NASCAR, like the style of roll cage.
You fit the pedals to me.
We've got an LS3 in it now.
This is best of the best back in the early days of pro training.
Today this car is fat and heavy and slow.
But back then this was like, holy crap, you might win it all with this car.
Killer forge lines.
And we're looking at a SEMA commitment date of November of 2013.
And Ron Francis wiring said, they'll take the car.
I now know what a big deal it is to get a car in SEMA.
Back then I just thought you could do it.
I got it on my first try.
I didn't know I wouldn't, but was an honor to get.
And then you called and you said, hey, I got a problem.
There's no way I can get the metal finish paint done.
It's not going to happen.
My guy fell through or my guy wasn't available or something like that.
And I said, okay.
And I didn't.
I didn't know you could just back out of SEMA.
You can just call them and say, I can't come.
I didn't know that was a thing.
And not that I would, but like it never occurred to me to do that.
I don't know if I put it on the show or if I just called Danny,
but for some reason I called Danny and said, I need help.
And I really don't know how to get help.
And you said, I know what you need to do.
Well, you gave me the list of stuff that had to be done.
And I'm looking at Ryan that worked for me at the time and I'm going,
this ain't going to happen.
And then I said, I can't do it.
We were just too busy and whatnot.
I says, but I know somebody, some two good guys that are starting out.
I'll give them a call.
And that's what I did.
You had met Zip Simons and Don Indonino,
these two mutual high school buddies of themselves, not of you.
And I don't know how that happened.
Danny and I, I was building a Chevelle, looked up, you know,
this is back in the day when you found a shop to go to and buy parts from.
Muscle Express was very close to where I was.
And so I stopped in and they am looking to buy some quarters.
And, you know, whatever I needed for my Chevelle.
And, and I had like some ideas and Danny thought they were cool.
And I thought that was the coolest thing that this guy thought my ideas were cool.
You know, and he hit it off.
You know, I come back and we chatted up and talking about all this, whatever.
And, you know, and then I ended up moving back up to Orlando area where I was from
before I met my wife and selling the house.
I was like, I'm going to open a shop.
So Danny knew about all my doings.
You know, we came pretty close, honestly.
Yeah.
You know, we worked together on your car.
Like came to your house, did the headliner.
I think I did the seats also.
Right.
And you were making those cool RS Chevelle.
You were the first person that was like affirmed it for me.
You know, they were doing because I wanted to and you were the first person.
I was like, man, that's a cool idea.
And I thought it was cool because you were like more of an old school guy.
And like to accept custom alteration was an honor to me.
No, which fit.
It's like GM designed it.
We put the motor in your car and tree.
And after I sold it, the guy had a oil leak.
And so I warrantied it for him.
Oh, you know, whatever.
Danny told me to call you and say you could paint my car.
Danny had called me.
Okay.
He was like, Hey, I got this opportunity for you.
This guy's got this Chevelle.
All the metal works done needs to be bodywork and painted.
It needs to be at SEMA.
I don't think I had met you or talked to you yet.
And I'm like, no way.
Cause I think he also set a budget.
And I was like, yeah.
Some money.
You know, and the car that had committed to us to have the faith to start my
business on had fallen through.
We were working on my buddy's dodge that truck that he wrecked.
And we were doing a Baja makeover on it.
And I was building, I don't even know if I started building that hot rod yet.
But anyway, you know, I started thinking about it.
And I think we started talking.
We didn't know each other at all.
But like the first time I think we met, I was dropping the car off too.
Right.
You know, I think we had a conversation about it though and some picture
exchanges and looked it over and Don and I looked at the photos and I'm like,
he's got a podcast and that's the newest rage in all the land.
And he needs help.
We need help.
There's probably something that can help us all in this situation with sweat
equity.
Like, yeah, we're going to have to donate a bunch of time.
But I mean, I kind of feel and I think the budget was increased a little bit.
Basically any money I had left.
Right.
Right.
And we're like, all right, you know what?
Let's, you know, and I mean, we accepted it.
This is where it gets interesting.
So I at the time and still do live in Iowa.
Jeff lived in the Northwest corner of New Mexico.
You live basically in Orlando, Florida, thus my problem.
So I think at that time, Jeff, you were upgrading to captain.
We're talking 2013.
There's some logistical nightmare problems to solve.
There was a lot of things going on.
I'm trying to get your car to a point where it could go to a body.
You know, I'm still hammering out sheet metal and trying to get welds done.
And I know Danny called a couple of times like, Hey, there's something I can do.
You sent a bunch of like rubber parts and stuff.
And when, you know, weather stripping.
Yeah.
And so we're like, great.
That means I might be able to get the doors kind of fit right before it was going to go
to anybody shop.
And it was just hours and hours and hours.
And thankfully zip and don were like ready to go, Hey, we are going to take it, put it
together as best you can and get it out here.
This conversation will never do justice to what was accomplished.
Especially the hours that you put behind a wheel with a truck and trailer.
I had a sick truck and a borrowed trailer.
I drove to New Mexico.
With no ramp.
With no ramp.
Loaded onto another trailer and loaded off of that trailer.
Yeah.
I think we did the same thing.
I think I loaded it on my flatbed.
Yeah.
That's how we did it.
We put it on the flatbed and then rolled it into the other.
It was a cargo trailer today.
I call that hot rod.
You do what you got to do to make it happen.
We got it in there, drove it down to Florida, dropped it off.
It was probably in person like while you've seen it all like, no, why did I?
I opened the doors.
I remember the moment vividly.
This was a mistake.
And photographs looks good in the picture and you open the car.
There's a new spoiler on it that I had never seen.
That was pretty much fabbed up, but you had a way to go.
And I was like, oh my God.
So for some reason.
Yes, we can do this.
But you still said yes.
And I'd like to point out you said yes.
I said yes.
I'm happy that I did.
Everybody, you'll never know what it means to me and how much you mean to me, but you took a leap of faith.
And if it worked out, I hope it did.
I couldn't guarantee you that it would or wouldn't.
My hope is just based on what you've told me that some good things have come as a result.
And I'm very thankful for that.
But just getting the paint and body done wasn't enough.
And you had to do, I don't know, years worth of work in 50 days.
53 days.
50 exactly from the day it went to you.
Right.
It may have been because we got it back for a couple of days, right?
After you had it.
Because I remember it was cool because we worked on it 50 days and it was 50 anniversary of Chevelle.
But you guys worked an unhealthy amount.
Yeah.
I mean, we had zero days off.
I was willing the whole way, you know, I was excited the whole way.
I had friends coming in the shop and helping us, some volunteering.
You know, it was trying to do what we wanted to do and something came over me and done.
And we just pushed.
The car I got back was too nice for me.
I remember feeling, oh my Lord, I'm going to hell for this.
This is Ferrari caliber quality.
I thought they were just painting it.
We were in the shop and we're claiming to be a high-end service.
We had to prove it.
First time out of the box, we had to prove it.
We had the opportunity to prove it.
That's how I saw it was this was an opportunity to do everything we needed to do.
Is that car still okay?
Like we broke every rule.
Everything's fine.
What's amazing is we still talk about the depth of color.
I don't know.
You look at a white truck, a white car, nobody ever talks about how nice it looks.
That car, that Chevelle, the paint looks like it's three feet thick.
Like you can reach in, it's mirror finished.
And we were all like, white paint doesn't do this.
I can't believe that has lasted.
I mean, literally, I will not do procedures in this manner.
We followed our process.
But like the stuff didn't probably cure.
It should have died back and needed to get at least buffed again.
But we stripped it, purified the metal, epoxied it.
We did the steps that we should and at a very alarmingly fast rate.
It's surprising.
I like letting everything cure for at least two weeks, primers if I have a chance a month.
Yeah.
Everything said it should not have been the car it is today.
Like if I do it by the book and carefully and allow all the cure times, I will definitely have some crazy problem.
But I picked it up.
I mean, the Dutchman panel was faded in.
The rockers are seemed.
The A pillars, it's usually three pieces now one.
I mean, it's just all this needle stuff that I notice and I take great joy in pointing out to people that sit there and stare and stare and stare and stare and stare.
And I said, are you looking for this?
And I said, yeah, where is it?
I said, it's not there.
They'll usually say, where do I buy this spoiler?
And I say, you do not.
Yeah.
There is one and nobody wants to make a second.
I think I had like a hundred hours of body work on the spoiler.
It was worth it.
Yeah.
I had probably close to maybe not quite a hundred just trying to get to where you got it.
And that's the reality of building cars, custom cars with custom parts and tailored things.
It takes a lot of time.
Thankfully, now we're at the point to where we get paid for most of that time.
You know, I call it our capture rate is gradually increasing over the years, you know, like in the beginning.
Hey, you got to give it away.
I still to this day, I give it away, you know, it's just not as much.
I feel we earned it.
Well, you totally did.
You saved my bacon.
So the return trip.
So the goal was to get from your shop down to Jupiter, Florida to Danny shop to start some assembly.
Right.
To jumpstart where we needed to be to get back to Jeff Allison shop to go to SEMA.
Because Danny, somebody took measurements for headers.
Like we'd been talking to somebody about headers.
Somebody took measurements, ordered up a set of headers, then it ended up with Danny and he's like, Hey, where is this got to go?
And I, okay.
And so I think you guys cut them up after they'd sent you headers.
And then the final headers, I think got sent to me and I'm like, how did they figure how to get these in this opening?
I'm lucky enough to have my guy Jesse for so many years and he could figure things out like that.
And he just makes everything happen.
You picked up the car from zip and you took it down to Jupiter, Florida, Danny.
And then you put the drive train in.
Right.
Drive train and.
Radiator.
Yeah.
Radiator headers and that accumulator you wanted on and.
Do you recall the date you dropped that car off at our shop?
The first time?
Yeah.
I'm checking if I was in July.
All right.
Like I remember this past July going, it's impossible that we got all that done and it was on the floor at SEMA.
Like impossible.
And it was going to run when it got to SEMA, but I had wired it and I had reversed one side of the coil packs.
I had reversed instead of two, four, six, eight.
I had them wired backwards.
Two was at eight and we couldn't figure it out.
And it's two or three o'clock in the morning.
I think she had a harness that had that backwards.
No, no, I had built the harness.
Yeah.
We had taken a stock harness and modified it in a Ron Francis chassis harness and modified that to get everything in the car.
I had just put it on backwards.
This was years ago.
I mean, late nights.
Yeah, it'll get to you.
It was like two or three o'clock in the morning.
We need to leave for SEMA.
Well, we took it from Danny's and Jupiter.
I think back to Zip's for one more thing.
Yeah, I think a little bit of trim or something like that.
Right.
Bruglass, maybe.
It was a very short amount of time.
This trip was special to me because my son Dallas was with me on this trip.
He was either four or five years old.
I saw photos of this.
He probably doesn't remember it, but I sure do.
We started at Danny's place and Danny's wife could not stop mothering him.
We went out to dinner and they got him a hot dog and a balloon helmet.
The balloon guy was there and made him hats and swords and whatever he wanted, he got.
We spent the night at Danny's house and then we wake up and for some reason I went and opened the fridge to get something.
I was like, oh my Lord, is this an Italian kitchen?
There's no end to this refrigerator.
It's normal.
It's like 10 people live there.
I'll just treasure these moments because I got photos with Grandpa Danny.
And then we went up to your place, Zip, and we were just trying to do like one thing.
And I think we got out there like two in the morning.
And then I called...
Was that when your truck got towed?
No, that was a different one.
That was a fun one.
I think I spent the night at your place and like walked out in the morning like...
I hope it was towed because if it wasn't towed, it was stolen.
When did your dad come down?
My dad came down, I think when we were dropping it off.
He was there on the drop.
So I had a Dallas to drop it off and a Dallas to pick it up.
That's all great.
That's great.
Because your dad was our place.
When I came back after SEMA in 2014, my dad helped me bring it home.
It was a big D, little D, big D, and we all got there.
And then in between there was trips with my buddy Aaron,
and we hit a bunch of cows in Colorado.
Spent the night with a Navy Admiral.
I mean, just a bizarre experience.
But we did make it.
We did get to SEMA 2013, and then it was a cover car.
And then it was in a few magazines.
And I mean, people won't understand the impact of that today,
but it is the top of the top, the best of the best.
You're not going to do better.
Jeff, I don't think it was because the magazines, maybe it was,
but you got introduced to another client who had another Chevelle,
went back to SEMA again.
The magazine was kind of like confirmation.
I got that job because Jeremy was a listener to your podcast,
and he was wanting to build a car.
And he called some of the other big shops,
and they're like, it's two years, here's the price.
He's like, I don't want to put all that money up front.
And I don't want it in two years.
He lived in the Philippines at the time for his job
and was going to move to Canada where he was from.
And he didn't want that.
He wanted it in three and a half years.
I'm like, I can probably accommodate you.
Because I work slow.
The magazine kind of got him confirmation
that this is a real place and a real thing.
It solidified a lot of things.
I guess I skipped a part of the story.
So we left Orlando, Florida at two in the morning,
and I called Kirk Hansen on my way,
and I said, I'm super tired.
I need a place to sleep.
And you said, just stop on by.
And you were in Ocala.
So I showed up with my kid at two or three in the morning
in a trailer, and you met me.
And he said, come on in.
You gave me a bedroom.
You gave me some food.
You told us to sleep, and you told us to wake up later.
It's a very commanding relationship,
much like it is now, funny enough.
Things never changed.
Woke up, and you guys had breakfast cooking.
My son watched cartoons with his girls,
and we just had a very nice time to connect.
And I just remember thinking, my god, how lucky I am.
I'm nowhere close to home.
I'm not in a stranger's house at all with a friend.
You sent us out on the road, and you said,
everything's going to be fine.
At that point for you, it totally was.
I was like, well, see you everybody.
See you, buddy.
But we had, what I didn't mention is,
you just didn't let me come to your house.
You said, no, you need to keep this thing under lock and key.
Come to the National Park Depot warehouse.
I'm going to open the back door for you at two in the morning,
and you're going to drive in, and I'll meet you there.
And you did.
You drove me and Dallas to your house in your own car.
At that point, I mean, we're certainly acquaintances,
but you treated me as a family member,
and I never forgot that.
So thank you for that.
So then we had to get to New Mexico from there.
I took Dallas all the way through,
and Dallas, my son, barfed in the back of my truck in Dallas,
the city of Texas.
Hard core.
Just.
I just learned the kids, and you can't put that much candy in them.
Oh, yeah, right.
It just did not work.
Your wife would have told you that.
I did not realize it,
but I was driving through the city of my future producer,
Bernie McPartland.
Actually, I think it was my producer at that point,
but I was trying to haul ass through there,
and I remember talking to Ben Hermans,
trying to get my wheels designed, doing something,
and then I heard my son yack in the back of the truck.
I remember just taking him out,
putting all of his clothes in a bag, throwing him in the bed,
put him back in there in his undies,
and like threw the puke on the ground and kept going.
And that was just the soliloquy of the trip.
Just keep going.
If you just keep going, you will eventually get there.
We got back to New Mexico.
We put the car together in like six days,
or five days or something like that.
Five days.
We pulled some zip simons type math here.
No sleep.
Sam, my wife feels like she's the key right here.
Yeah, because she was keeping us fed.
She was like, hey, you guys need to come get three hours of sleep.
You're not doing any good anymore.
I think she was tired of the noise.
We go to sleep for a few hours and we get up
and we do it all over again.
And it was just...
We have to applaud the wives.
Yeah.
Thank you, Bernie.
We did get to Seema.
My friend Aaron Jaden is another unsung hero in here.
It was his cargo trailer in India and his truck that I was driving.
My truck was going at that point.
He came out.
Aaron's kind of a jack of all trades.
He's an amazing carpenter,
but he could probably build you a rocket to go to the moon.
He's just one of those guys.
And he helped finish out the car.
He and I traded off driving to Vegas because we were too tired to be doing this.
Honestly, it was two, three o'clock in the morning.
We were like, everybody go to bed and you guys got up three, four hours later.
And we had to load the car by hand again because Aaron had built ramps though.
Yeah, he built ramps.
And so we could roll it in and out of that trailer at least,
but it was a project to put them together because they were made out of wood.
Because he's a carpenter.
Exactly.
Jesus was a carpenter.
And a good one.
He showed up and he was all in for help.
You know, just one more brother, I guess, you know, and.
We got it in there.
We got it out.
There's a picture on my phone that I truly love.
It's probably where we can end the story because it all works out great from there.
We knew the car couldn't run.
And, you know, we had the wheel fitment issues and stuff.
And like you said, let's just jack the camber out of it.
We'll get the wheels.
It'll get on the ground.
If I have one regret, like those wheels look so cool because they were inset.
One more inch.
They weren't flat face wheels.
They had a dish to them.
So when we're building Chevelle 2.0, which I'll propose to you later.
Payback sip.
The paid version, I guess.
That car looks so cool.
Jeff was standing there looking at the door that says welcome to SEMA.
We're standing outside just waiting for them to open because we actually got there on time.
Aaron's standing there with his knee in the bumper of the car because we, for some reason,
we wanted to keep it rolling.
I don't think we had a break.
I think there was a transmission in it.
We had tried to get it running the night before.
We just, my electrical snafu and not being aware enough to be able to find it.
Yeah, exactly.
It just said, it just wouldn't start.
We were just done.
We were standing outside waiting to go and said welcome to SEMA and like hot dog.
We made it.
And now 12 years later, I mean, by the way, a car runs great.
It's got 10,000 plus miles on it.
I've ought to cross the bejesus out of it.
I have a picture of you in the car with one wheel off the ground.
And I show that picture of people all the time.
Yeah, it was like two years ago.
That one needs a chassis.
Yeah.
And it needs more front bite.
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all.
The person who gets no credit is the person who produces 15 plus shows a month,
which is Bernie McParlin.
So Bernie, my producer.
It's a pleasure.
I've never had so much fun.
I have had so much fun.
I've never had this much fun in this format.
And I'm so grateful for the chance to work with a great group of guys.
I've had the conversation several times today that this friendship circle would have
never happened outside of this hobby.
And so I'm grateful.
We have this whole little family here.
I really appreciate you because we all had to do this in addition to real life.
Businesses had to keep going.
Kids had to keep getting erased.
Jobs had to keep coming and going.
People had to get sick.
Some people have gone.
But here we still are 12 years later.
I'm looking forward to the next adventure we have together.
I have no idea what it will be, but I'm confident we will.
I just want to add to that too.
The reason we're all here is because you had a voice that you were willing to step out
and let it be heard, right?
Because that's not something that I feel comfortable with or any of us,
but we all heard you and how passionate you were.
So also thank you for stepping out and doing something that most people normally don't do.
True.
I appreciate it.
I don't enjoy compliments.
I prefer to defer.
So again, we're in rare air here and this is where we'll end.
I don't know a lot of people that think like us.
We're kind of dreamers.
And dreamers often fail, but dreamers also go to the moon.
Somebody's got to take the shot, right?
So from me to you, thanks for taking the shot.
So cheers.
Cheers.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Zip, what's your company address?
Street Metal Concepts.
Not your home address.
Info at Street Metal Concepts is our email www.streetmetalconcepts.com
or 407-260-0180, extension one.
Okay.
Jeff, what's yours?
AllisonCustoms.com and 505-330-2174.
Danny, what's yours?
Muscle Express Inc. in Jupiter, Florida.
This will show my age.
800.
323.
3043.
Give us a call.
Parts, service, bills, whatever you need.
And true or false, your email address is with America Online.
I don't even remember.
Oh, my email address, aommuscle13x at aowell.com.
Okay, it's a real thing. Everybody try it.
See you soon at the muscle car place.
About this episode
A heartfelt roundtable reunion at SEMA brings together the team behind a remarkable 64 Chevelle build, reflecting on their journey from concept to completion. Host Rob Kibbey and his friends, including Jeff Allison, Kirk Hansen, Danny Giustino, and Zip Simons, share stories of friendship, grit, and the challenges they faced during the build. The episode highlights the importance of collaboration and the bonds formed through a shared passion for cars, culminating in a stunning reveal at SEMA 2013. Listeners will appreciate the personal anecdotes and the camaraderie that made this project possible.
Original notes
This week we’re doing something a little different, and honestly — something really special. For the first time ever, the original team behind my Chevelle build all sat down together to revisit the journey from 2011–2013. This wasn’t a “sponsored” build or a corporate project. It was a leap of faith between friends who believed we could pull off something big long before we knew how. We started in basements and small shops, fought rust, deadlines, wiring headaches, and fatigue — and somehow ended up rolling into SEMA together.
In this episode you’ll hear Jeff Allison, Danny Giustino, Zip Simons, Kirk Hansen, and producer Bernie all share their side of the story — the wins, the failures, the sleepless nights, the road trips, and the moments we’ll never forget. If you’ve ever dreamed of doing something way beyond your comfort zone, this one is for you. It’s a reminder that passion + good people can move mountains…and cars.
The post TMCP #634: The Ultimate Reunion // How 6 People Who Never Met Built a $400K Chevelle for SEMA on Friendship, Grit, and Faith! first appeared on The Muscle Car Place.
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