Mechanic Converts $400 Rust Bucket Into America's Best Custom Car I Ridiculous Rides
A TENACIOUS mechanic has converted a $400 rust bucket into America's best custom car. JF Launier, 39, spent 22,000 hours and $300,000 pimping out a 1964 Buick Riveria - even remortgaging his parents' house as well as his own to finance the project. But the risk paid off when the finished article - named Rivision - won the Ridler award for America’s most creative and innovative custom car at the 2014 Detroit Autorama. Its value has also jumped with Mr Launier estimating it to be worth at least $1.65m in man-hours alone. Mr Launier runs JF Kustoms in Osoyoos, British Columbia, Canada.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 The car was built over a course of six years, it took 22,000 man hours to build it.
00:06 Just a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
00:08 This fully customized Buick Riviera has been a labor of love for Canadian J.F. Nornier.
00:16 He's been renovating vehicles since the age of 13, but in 2014 this Buick finally earned him the coveted Riddler Award
00:24 for America's most creative and innovative custom car at the Detroit Autorama.
00:30 The project began with a 1964 Riviera, bought from a junkyard for just $400.
00:38 People always ask me why a '64 Riviera, well the long and the short of it is, when I was 21 years old I had a '64 Riviera,
00:45 I sold it to start my first business and I thought to myself, I'm going to have another one of those cars one day.
00:51 I didn't really know I was going to take it this far.
00:54 What followed were countless modifications to the original Buick body.
00:58 A 1971 Riviera roof with its unique shape and sloped rear window was fitted to the 1964 chassis.
01:09 The car was shortened by removing sheet metal from behind the doors and rear wheel openings.
01:14 The front wheel openings were moved forward to make space for a 6.2 litre Chevrolet V8 engine,
01:20 which provides 784 horsepower.
01:23 JF estimates that he spent $300,000 on the project in total.
01:29 The car was built over a course of six years, it took 22,000 man hours to build it.
01:35 It was everything I could afford, it was my parents' house got remortgaged, my house got remortgaged.
01:40 The math's pretty simple, it's 22,000 hours, 75 bucks an hour shop rate, you're looking at a million and a half just in hours.
01:49 JF named the finished car Revision and in 2014 he proved that one man's trash is another man's treasure by winning the Riddler Award.
01:58 But despite his success, JF warns that budding car customisers shouldn't take such projects lightly.
02:05 It was ups and downs, it was always a battle to try to get enough money to buy parts,
02:10 to find enough time in the week to balance family, business and a project of this magnitude.
02:17 I always felt like giving up, there wasn't a day where I didn't feel like it was too much, we'd taken on too much and we'd just gone too far with it.
02:24 Be very prepared, don't just build your first car and think it's going to win, this is our fourth attempt at it.
02:31 You've got to be prepared, you've got to be prepared to give up everything for a long, long time.
02:35 There's no doubt though that he's proud of turning a rust bucket into his most prized possession.
02:42 There are people that love it, there are people that hate it, there's kind of nobody in the middle.
02:47 This car is what I wanted in a race car, this car is what I wanted in a show car and it's beyond that on all aspects.
02:54 I have drag raced the car, I have road raced the car, I have won the biggest award in the world,
02:59 those three have never been put together and I drive my kids to school in it and take the kids for ice cream.
03:04 [Music]