NHRA's Brian Lohnes & HOT ROD Magazine's John McGann take the podcast to Pomona
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Welcome back to the Hot Rod Pod, where it all began.
00:09 Brian Lone's lead broadcaster for the NHRA,
00:11 John McGann, the editor-in-chief of Hot Rod magazine.
00:14 We are joined today by Troy Ladd,
00:16 one of the most influential, forward-looking, and well-known
00:19 hot rod builders in America.
00:21 Owner of Hollywood Hot Rods, he's
00:22 built several Amber-winning cars, America's most beautiful
00:25 roadster.
00:26 We talked to him about firing customers,
00:30 taking criticism from--
00:32 The internet.
00:34 Rivets.
00:34 Right.
00:35 And actually coming from a background where he basically
00:38 is kind of self-taught.
00:40 Enthusiast, was in a totally different line of business,
00:43 starts his own company out of a passion,
00:46 and has turned into a really successful business
00:48 for himself.
00:49 He's talented.
00:49 He's influential.
00:50 He is unfiltered.
00:51 Troy Ladd of Hot Rod Hollywood starts right now.
00:54 Hey, everybody.
00:54 Welcome to this episode of the Hot Rod Pod,
00:56 where it all began.
00:57 Brian Lone's the lead broadcaster for the NHRA,
01:00 John McGann, the editor-in-chief of Hot Rod magazine,
01:02 and Troy Ladd, the founder, the brains, the driving force
01:06 behind Hollywood Hot Rods.
01:07 Thank you.
01:08 Pretty awesome.
01:08 I like that intro.
01:09 That's a great intro.
01:10 How about that?
01:10 Yeah, that's pretty cool.
01:11 You didn't even practice that or anything.
01:12 I didn't even tell him what to say.
01:13 It just came out.
01:14 That's my gift.
01:15 It's my gift.
01:15 I love that.
01:16 He does people's answering machines.
01:17 He's like voicemail.
01:18 Listen, there's a lot of aftermarket companies,
01:20 and I'm telling you to press 1.
01:22 It's awesome.
01:24 It's like the movie phone guy.
01:25 Do you remember that from the '80s?
01:27 Welcome to movie phone.
01:29 It is why I have the career that I have.
01:31 The movie phone guy has no idea the influence
01:33 he's brought upon me.
01:35 He is like your influence in the world of Hot Rod building.
01:37 He was my influence at home yelling into a hairbrush.
01:40 [LAUGHTER]
01:43 But no, man, thank you for coming out here to do this.
01:45 We are at day three of the Hot Rod Power Tour West 2023.
01:48 We're at the historic drag strip.
01:51 Now it is In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip.
01:53 And just really cool to catch up with this particular guy
01:56 on this episode.
01:57 Yeah.
01:58 Troy was the-- actually, if there
02:00 were a pilot to this thing, it was Troy and Chip.
02:03 And--
02:04 Oh, that's right.
02:04 That goes back to the thing we did--
02:06 Yeah, that was neat.
02:07 --beginning of this year in our photo studio
02:09 right after the Grand National Roadshow.
02:10 But obviously, that couldn't be a very good show
02:12 because we didn't have the voice of this gentleman here.
02:14 Oh, that's exactly it.
02:15 So that probably-- that one got pitched.
02:17 The focus group said that the intro was weak.
02:19 And so when the focus group said that, here I am.
02:22 We had Chip and me and Bill Ganaul, but not the voice.
02:27 So what we figured out quickly was
02:30 like when we divided you guys up and got an hour out
02:32 of each of you guys, it was actually even better.
02:35 An hour?
02:35 I got to be here an hour?
02:36 Yes.
02:36 Yeah, it's contractually obligated.
02:38 Somebody get him a contract.
02:40 Yeah, that door's locked, too.
02:43 But no, man.
02:44 And again, it's great to have you in here
02:45 because we've talked to great builders.
02:47 We've talked to Bill.
02:48 We've talked to the Ring brothers.
02:49 And I think that's been a really fun
02:50 theme of these first kind of 12 episodes we've made of the show
02:53 is getting really not just inside the thought process
02:57 and the craftsmanship, but inside the backstories of how
02:59 you created these brands and names for yourselves.
03:02 And the tagline of the show is where it all began.
03:06 And one of the things I think people just land on constantly
03:09 about you is like, well, you had a business plan
03:11 when you started your business.
03:12 Really?
03:12 That's a thing that people say.
03:13 Right.
03:14 It's true.
03:14 That's true.
03:15 But it gets the brakes beaten off of it.
03:17 And to me, the more interesting angle
03:19 is how that business plan actually
03:21 helped sustain you through the last 20 years, which
03:23 has been like this economically and everything else.
03:26 Worthless.
03:26 [LAUGHTER]
03:28 Worthless.
03:30 I think the business plan was just something
03:32 to convince myself to do it.
03:35 And then once I did it, I realized
03:36 that it was nothing like the business plan
03:38 and it was a stupid idea.
03:40 Starting a business is just dumb.
03:44 And I look back and like, again, what
03:48 seemed like a good idea at the time when I look back
03:50 knowing what I know now is like, oh my god,
03:51 you didn't have any money.
03:52 You didn't-- I didn't have a building.
03:54 I didn't have anything.
03:55 And it's like, but I'm going to do this.
03:57 So I mean, I guess I think the takeaway from all of this
04:01 is the reason there was a business plan
04:03 is because this was my hobby.
04:05 This was my passion.
04:07 This was my love.
04:07 So in order for me to step--
04:10 to quit my day job, I needed something to help my brain.
04:13 So I don't want people to think like, oh, he's
04:15 some corporate dude or something.
04:16 It was just passion, hobby that I turned into a business.
04:21 Look, how similar is that to Tom Nelson's story?
04:23 Oh, yeah.
04:23 You know, our episode with Tom Nelson,
04:25 you guys both come out of construction.
04:27 He was a construction guy, right?
04:28 And it really-- it kind of mirrored your image.
04:31 It's neat because Tony Thacker was telling me,
04:33 you weren't-- you started this Hollywood Hot Rods
04:36 on your own, but you were doing something completely different
04:39 before that.
04:39 Yeah, I was a project manager for construction.
04:42 But the interesting key to that is project management
04:45 is managing manpower, money, and material.
04:48 And that's what building cars is, manpower, money, material.
04:51 So it's kind of similar.
04:53 And I feel like, from a business point of view,
04:57 I had a little bit of an advantage
04:58 because at least I could understand how businesses work.
05:02 Where most people that build hot rods,
05:04 they come from the trade end, the hand--
05:06 hand-- workmanship end.
05:08 So you have talent.
05:10 And then you build cars.
05:11 I'm like, well, I build cars so good,
05:13 I'm going to have a business.
05:14 But then you don't know how to run a business.
05:16 You know how to build cars.
05:16 And all of a sudden, there's too many people,
05:18 and maybe there's too much overhead with the space
05:20 you have.
05:20 You were able to cancel some of those variables out.
05:22 Yeah, so it's tough.
05:23 And yeah, I mean, that's kind of the long and short of it.
05:27 But like you said, over the 20 years, it's hard.
05:30 It's still hard.
05:30 It's still hard.
05:31 I mean, sometimes we're just coming up short.
05:36 It's just kind of the way business works.
05:38 Cash flow management is always tough.
05:39 And yeah, so I don't know.
05:43 I can't believe that I was so stupid to quit a real good job
05:48 to do this.
05:49 But now, it's like I've lived an experience,
05:55 like sitting here with you guys.
05:57 And I'm going to go race that track down there
05:59 right after this is done.
06:00 And this is just amazing dream stuff that I get to do.
06:06 And so I've never taken it for granted.
06:08 I've never taken it for granted that I'm living a dream.
06:12 And a lot of times when we talk about this,
06:14 I call it the American dream.
06:15 Because what is the American dream?
06:16 You want to do what you love and make a living at it.
06:19 And that's what I do.
06:20 Yeah, and you deliver a product to people
06:22 who also are getting something that they've
06:24 dreamed of having, right?
06:25 And ultimately, that's the needful circle.
06:27 And that is not only just the thing
06:28 that you've always wanted to do or had wanted to do to move
06:31 into, but the end product is handing somebody this thing
06:34 that they have wanted, whether they conceived it
06:36 in their own head or whether it's something you guys
06:38 conceived that they wanted to own their whole lives.
06:41 And that's so fulfilling, too.
06:42 And one of the reasons I got into car building
06:45 in the first place because I grew up poor
06:47 and I was given a '66 Mustang.
06:49 And so if you don't have any money and your car breaks,
06:51 what do you do?
06:52 You've got to learn how to fix it.
06:53 So I got into it out of necessity
06:55 because I didn't have money.
06:56 So what's kind of cool about doing this for a living
07:00 with customers and their dreams is
07:02 I can create things for them that I still can't afford
07:07 to create for myself.
07:09 But that's really fun because for me,
07:13 it's the thrill of the challenge and the build.
07:17 I think I've noticed that about me a lot.
07:22 Once my car is done, it's not like, hey,
07:24 I'm going to go drive my car.
07:25 It's like, what's the next one?
07:27 I need a new one.
07:28 I need to build a new one.
07:30 And I just kind of realized that about me.
07:31 Some people like the drive.
07:33 Some people like the build.
07:34 I'm kind of more on the build end, I think.
07:39 You talked about the '31 Ford that we covered in Hot Rod.
07:44 And that was a neat thing.
07:46 It's here.
07:47 Yeah, I saw it down there while I
07:48 was trying to find you in the audience or in the crowd.
07:51 But Tony Thacker did those articles.
07:53 And he was telling me how quickly you work.
07:55 Now, that was a car that you built on the weekends.
07:57 Like, basically, you have like a day off.
07:59 Sure, so yeah, in your magazine, you guys
08:02 called it the one day Hot Rod.
08:04 And not because I built it in a day,
08:06 it's because I have Mondays off.
08:09 So I mean, I have the weekends off, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
08:12 Saturday, Sunday, I have to do home stuff.
08:14 So Monday is my clear day.
08:16 So that was the one day I had to work on it.
08:19 So I believe it took 22 Mondays, I think we figured.
08:23 Something like that.
08:25 You started with a frame and a body.
08:27 That's still exceptionally fast.
08:29 It did start with nothing.
08:31 Nothing, nothing.
08:32 It was a naked frame, just rails.
08:35 I had to build the suspension, the chassis, and all that.
08:38 The body was already chopped.
08:39 That was the only thing in my advantage.
08:41 And the engine, I built the engine as well.
08:45 So yeah, that was pretty fast.
08:47 Well, and I would talk to Tony on the phone
08:49 as he was telling me about the different installments.
08:51 And it's like, you had to be there.
08:53 Like, how quickly you work, too.
08:54 Yeah, this is happening.
08:55 So is that part of the construction and the project
08:58 management thing?
08:59 Or is that just kind of like, are you hiring?
09:01 That's just the passion side of it.
09:03 And quite honestly, that car, along with a couple others
09:07 that I did at home during COVID and stuff,
09:10 gave me a revitalized passion.
09:14 I was going to ask you about that.
09:15 How important is it to exercise that muscle for yourself?
09:18 It was huge.
09:19 That car was so huge for me.
09:21 Because the high-end cars and the show cars and all that
09:24 stuff, the light at the end of the tunnel is so far.
09:27 And you get bogged down.
09:29 And it's like, it's hard to explain.
09:33 But like--
09:33 Plotting progress.
09:34 Yeah.
09:35 Yeah.
09:35 It's like, oh, wow, we just spent a week making a bracket.
09:39 And it's like, oh, hooray.
09:41 You know, woo-hoo.
09:42 So-- and I don't work in the shop as much as I used to,
09:49 either.
09:50 I'm like, paperwork and ordering parts and designing stuff
09:52 or whatever.
09:53 So it started to bog down my brain.
09:56 And so that car is like, screw it.
09:58 I can just build this.
10:00 It doesn't have to have paint.
10:02 It doesn't have to be nice.
10:03 It doesn't have to be anything.
10:04 Right.
10:05 So-- and I'm so happy with it.
10:08 And it's rough.
10:10 It's a rough little car.
10:12 I loved seeing it, though, at the Roadster Show.
10:14 It was parked right by Bill Ganahl.
10:17 That was awesome.
10:18 Just for-- I don't know, maybe in my older age,
10:20 since we've--
10:21 in my career, I've accomplished, you know,
10:23 like, Sloniker and Amber, all those things.
10:26 At some point, you start to not have to try so hard.
10:29 Yeah.
10:30 Like, I don't care.
10:31 I thought it was fun to--
10:32 in the Grand National Roadster Show,
10:33 in the middle of where all the America's Most Beautiful
10:36 Roadster cars were exhibited, to put my rusty ass, you know,
10:39 Model A right in the middle.
10:41 Here's the palate cleanser.
10:42 There you go.
10:43 So-- and it got more attention than, like--
10:46 because in our booth, we had some finished cars.
10:48 And we had that one.
10:49 And that one got more attention.
10:50 So it's just fun just to--
10:52 I don't know.
10:53 It's been so good for me.
10:54 And it was great that you guys covered it, too,
10:57 because that wasn't something that I--
11:00 so thankful that you did that.
11:02 Because at first, I was like, this is my thing.
11:04 I want to be left alone.
11:05 It's my Monday to be alone.
11:07 And then I got Tony to deal with.
11:10 I hope Tony watches it.
11:12 I'll make sure he does.
11:14 But then in the end, it was so neat to chronicle
11:20 that little car.
11:20 So it's fun.
11:22 And I still haven't met my goals.
11:23 I have certain goals to meet with it.
11:26 Getting the front tires off the ground was goal number one.
11:29 I did that.
11:30 Nice.
11:30 So I met that goal.
11:31 And I need something in the 10s.
11:33 So we'll see.
11:34 Maybe that's today.
11:35 That could be today.
11:36 Nice air.
11:37 Nice tight racetrack out there.
11:39 But I think in terms of building this car for you
11:42 and the coverage that it got, I think for us,
11:45 and if you're in this industry, and you guys go way back
11:47 and have known each other a long time,
11:49 but how important is it to you to have people understand
11:53 kind of who this guy is?
11:54 As much as you can write the words in the magazine,
11:56 but when his work gets displayed in that natural way,
11:59 it's like, see, this is the guy.
12:00 I think it's incredibly important.
12:02 And I guess what I like, too, is sort of that palate cleansing
12:05 effect that you mentioned.
12:08 I was at the Road to Show a few years ago,
12:10 and you had a car that was on display.
12:11 And I just overheard people in the audience.
12:13 And there's always the armchair quarterbacks about--
12:17 he was complaining about rivets and the styling effect
12:20 that rivets--
12:21 it's like a fad.
12:22 And he was blah, blah, blah about rivets.
12:23 And I was like, I kind of looked at the car.
12:26 But you doing that for yourself, and it was just pure driving.
12:33 This is just a car.
12:34 This is what I want.
12:34 It doesn't need to be fancy.
12:36 I don't have to adorn it.
12:37 So it's like that kind of, I think, shuts down some of that.
12:41 And not that I don't think you're used to criticism
12:44 and hearing all that stuff.
12:46 Not really.
12:46 This is the first I've heard of it.
12:47 Oh, OK.
12:48 Wait, someone doesn't like something I've done?
12:50 I was feeling something.
12:52 I need to go back home.
12:53 All right, well, do you need a minute?
12:54 Do you need a minute?
12:57 But it shows that you're versatile.
13:01 You don't follow a playbook.
13:02 I like that.
13:03 And that was kind of neat about that, too,
13:05 because it was like, if anybody had any preconceived notions,
13:10 like, oh, million dollar cars, all that stuff.
13:13 It's like, oh, yeah, really?
13:15 I do this, too.
13:18 This is where I started, is garage building.
13:20 That's the other thing we're talking about.
13:22 And back to the American dream and stuff.
13:23 It's like, I don't know.
13:25 To me, people shouldn't criticize me for like,
13:30 oh, he's done this or he's done that.
13:31 My point is, you can do that.
13:33 I started with nothing.
13:35 Nothing.
13:36 And this was just a hobby.
13:37 So I always try to spin that on people.
13:39 Like, don't be like jealous or criticized.
13:42 Like, you can do it.
13:43 Yeah, here's the roadmap.
13:44 I've actually laid it out.
13:45 These are the steps.
13:46 You, too, can be a lunatic and follow these steps.
13:48 Ruin your life.
13:52 So yeah, that's funny.
13:52 Because I have heard, like, oh, when you're successful,
13:56 people make stuff up sometimes.
13:58 Like, oh, he had family money.
14:00 Or he had money.
14:01 I had nothing.
14:02 I had nothing.
14:04 So it's-- but over the years, it's just whatever.
14:07 And now that I'm getting old and stuff, I really don't care.
14:10 You know, when you get old, you don't even remember.
14:13 But it's that early point where guys--
14:15 no matter what profession you're in or angle of this industry
14:18 you're in, there are younger guys
14:20 that get swallowed up by the stuff you just talked about.
14:23 If you let that outside noise permeate too deeply
14:27 into what you're doing, you basically
14:29 end up hating all of this and running away from it.
14:31 That's interesting.
14:32 So I came up with this term for, like,
14:36 other people in the hot rod industry that kind of started
14:40 shops and talk a lot of [MUTED]..
14:42 And I call them sad sacks.
14:43 And a sad sack is somebody that's
14:45 so focused on what everyone else is doing that they don't see
14:49 that they could be just as successful
14:51 if they focused on themselves.
14:52 There's so many people like that, like, this guy's got that,
14:55 and that guy's got that.
14:56 And like, you know what?
14:57 If you took that energy and just pushed forward
14:59 and did your own thing, you'd be like that guy.
15:02 And that's something that's interesting.
15:04 Well, and to that end, especially starting
15:07 the shop when you did 20 some years ago--
15:09 21 years ago now, right?
15:10 Yeah, it was 2002.
15:12 Yeah, so 21 years ago.
15:14 That was before social media came up.
15:16 So the criticism you'd get would be letters
15:18 to the editor of Hot Rod or some random dude
15:21 describing something in shop.
15:22 And then all of a sudden, it's like 2008, 2009 hit.
15:25 And now it's some dude in Sheboygan.
15:26 It's just going to burn you to the ground.
15:28 I know, right?
15:29 It's weird.
15:30 But I try not to look at social media.
15:33 That's the healthy way to go.
15:34 That's another thing.
15:35 That's another thing that consumed me.
15:36 I've seen so many people starting
15:38 new shops and a new business.
15:40 And you can see that they're posting on social media
15:43 all throughout the day, like, shouldn't you be working?
15:47 You know, right?
15:47 You have a business to run.
15:49 Yeah, focus on that.
15:50 I mean, there's definitely a use for social media.
15:54 And there's a tool.
15:55 It can be used as a tool.
15:57 But I think people put too much emphasis on it.
16:00 And you need to focus on running your business, the product.
16:03 Yeah.
16:04 How did you physically start Hollywood Hot Rods?
16:06 Did you just start building cars for customers?
16:09 Or did you find the building, like you said,
16:11 with a business plan?
16:13 So I had done the business plan.
16:16 And then so I had it kind of figured out.
16:18 And then I had sent that to a couple of banks
16:22 or somebody would get SBA loan.
16:23 And they all laughed.
16:26 And then--
16:26 What was the reason?
16:27 Just, I mean, is it the risk--
16:28 Do you really want to know?
16:29 I'll tell you.
16:30 Sure, yeah.
16:31 White, non-veteran, male, no experience.
16:35 Those were the things.
16:37 Like, if you could meet one of those other categories--
16:40 Yes, you've done this before?
16:41 No, you hadn't done this before.
16:43 Demographically, just not working.
16:44 Yeah.
16:45 I mean, as unpolitically correct as that sounds,
16:48 that's the truth about how the SBA works.
16:51 So long story short, my friend worked at a bank.
16:54 And then she, or my neighbor, and she gave the business plan
16:57 to their guy.
16:58 And he says, oh, he was the new loan guy.
17:01 So he's like, oh, we'll do it.
17:02 And so--
17:03 That's cool.
17:04 You know, I got--
17:05 this is the part that I was laughing at earlier
17:07 when I think, what an idiot.
17:08 I got $35,000.
17:10 $35,000, that's it.
17:11 Yeah.
17:11 [LAUGHTER]
17:13 Damn.
17:14 To start the shop.
17:15 Yeah.
17:15 And that seemed like a lot of money at the time.
17:17 Sure.
17:17 I had wiped out my own savings and everything, too,
17:21 and some like 401(k).
17:22 But that got me another $15,000.
17:24 So I started with--
17:25 There you go.
17:25 I started with $50,000.
17:27 A cool $50,000.
17:28 Yeah, a cool $50,000.
17:30 So that's how that went down.
17:31 And once that happened, I'm like, oh, crap.
17:33 I got to actually do this thing.
17:35 And so one day, my girlfriend was taking me to Ikea.
17:41 And I hate Ikea.
17:42 I just hate it.
17:43 I was so angry.
17:44 And I was having temper tantrum in the car.
17:46 Like, I don't want to go to stupid Ikea.
17:48 And as we pull off the freeway in Burbank,
17:50 there was a building off the 5 freeway that said for lease.
17:53 And I'm like, hey, let's go look at that.
17:55 So found it, leased it, and just started there.
18:00 I've never had a shop.
18:01 I mean, I had a little playground shop before.
18:05 I shared a shop with Chris Shelton--
18:07 Oh, wow.
18:07 Oh, cool.
18:08 --for many years as well.
18:09 Like, he and I, that just was our little hobby shop.
18:11 That's cool.
18:12 And ironically, all he could afford was the Ikea furniture.
18:15 Yeah, right.
18:17 It still haunts you.
18:19 I went on a crazy shopping spree at Harbor Freight, though.
18:22 Oh, there you go.
18:23 Yeah.
18:24 When you opened up the business.
18:25 Because that was my next question,
18:26 is how do you furnish it?
18:27 You need tools.
18:28 You need toolboxes.
18:29 I literally did go on a shopping spree at Harbor Freight.
18:31 I had a bunch of--
18:32 I had some tools myself as well.
18:33 But it was that-- that's why I was saying earlier,
18:36 like, when I look back, like, oh, that's just--
18:38 it was wrong.
18:39 Everything was wrong.
18:41 You know?
18:41 The old two down to quit analogy, right?
18:43 Was it you and some other person?
18:45 Or when did you bring in--
18:46 when did you start bringing in employees?
18:48 It was just me.
18:49 And then I did have usually one other person.
18:53 My brother came to help for a while for the first year.
18:57 And then I just--
18:57 I got some-- I don't know if you know Ryan Rivers.
19:02 No, I don't.
19:02 Yeah, he worked for Barry White.
19:06 And now he works for Matranga, you know,
19:08 Matranga Collection.
19:09 Anyway, he was one of my first employees.
19:12 And so it was just tough.
19:13 It was usually just me and a guy or a couple guys.
19:15 And then it kind of built up.
19:16 But even to this date, I've never really
19:20 had more than six.
19:21 Yeah, that's a good number.
19:22 Six employees, yeah.
19:23 We were talking about that with some other people, too.
19:24 Which is where most of the people we've talked to
19:26 have landed on.
19:27 Yeah, some of the guys said, that number six
19:29 has come up multiple times.
19:30 Interesting.
19:31 And I think it was Bill Gnau who said it first.
19:33 It was like way too many.
19:34 And he kind of has--
19:35 he pared it back.
19:36 And that was like where he wanted to be at.
19:38 Oh, wow.
19:39 Kind of interesting, actually.
19:40 That's cool information.
19:41 Because one of the things I've always talked about is,
19:43 people, oh, do you want to grow your business?
19:44 Like, no, I do not.
19:45 I do not.
19:46 Right, yeah.
19:47 No, I don't want it.
19:47 I don't want more overhead, more space,
19:50 more-- it's just more headache.
19:51 And then at some point, I call it keeping the art pure.
19:55 Like, then we'll have to do tune-ups and repairs.
19:57 And I don't want to do that.
19:58 We just want to do the cool art stuff.
20:00 God rest his soul, but you end up
20:01 with Boyd Coddington's operation, right?
20:02 And all of a sudden, you get this like manufacturing wing.
20:05 And it's just like it spirals out of control.
20:07 Yeah.
20:07 I just-- that just hasn't been for me.
20:09 I mean, I bought the buildings I'm in now.
20:11 So that helps.
20:12 It's going to help for my future.
20:14 And you kind of do have to think about your future
20:16 at some point and exit strategies.
20:18 But I don't know.
20:19 You know, and this podcast will make me so famous,
20:21 I'll probably--
20:22 Yeah, you're about to ride a rocket.
20:24 [LAUGHTER]
20:25 So that'll--
20:25 [LAUGHTER]
20:28 Side tangent story here, and I hope you remember this.
20:31 So 2008, they made an issue of Hot Rod magazine.
20:34 And the title story was called "Road Thrash."
20:36 We went on this road trip.
20:37 We were on it.
20:38 You had this dude.
20:39 It was like-- it was a T-Bucket.
20:40 It had an inline six in it, Wayne, cross-flow head.
20:43 You had done some work, kind of spruced the thing up.
20:45 Ross Lee--
20:46 Ron Lee.
20:46 Ron Lee.
20:47 It was Ron Lee's car.
20:48 It was a '32.
20:49 '32, yeah.
20:50 And so it had a T5, 5C.
20:51 It was really cool.
20:52 And so Marlon Davis was out on this trip.
20:54 And so there were seven different cars.
20:55 There was like a Bonestock GTO Judge.
20:58 There was a Sissetalia came out of a guy's collection.
21:00 A what?
21:01 Sissetalia.
21:01 It's like this Italian road racing style car.
21:04 It had a Lincoln V8 in it.
21:05 It was awesome.
21:07 There was the car you had.
21:08 There was a couple of Steve Strobe cars.
21:11 I drove the car you're talking about with the Lincoln in it.
21:15 Yes, the little red one.
21:17 Yep, yeah.
21:18 But you were in the passenger seat with Marlon Davis.
21:20 And Marlon was driving the T-Bucket,
21:22 or was driving the Hot Rod.
21:23 And I was in the GTO behind him.
21:25 And Marlon was screaming at the top of his lungs,
21:26 it's getting away from me.
21:27 It's getting away from me.
21:29 And I just remember this.
21:29 You guys pulled over.
21:30 And you assumed control of the automobile.
21:33 But I'll never forget it, because I thought to myself,
21:35 oh, that poor bastard up there.
21:37 I don't know what's going on up there, but it was not good.
21:39 Oh, well, that's funny.
21:40 I don't remember the--
21:42 oh, yeah.
21:43 Those cars aren't always what you think
21:47 they are when you drive them.
21:49 I did-- Road and Track took one of our 32s out.
21:53 And he literally-- little bias ply tires--
21:56 he slid all the way through the intersection at a stop sign.
21:59 And he's like, oh, these don't stop as good as new cars.
22:02 Like, no, they don't.
22:03 No, they don't.
22:05 I just remember riding with you.
22:07 And it was like-- it was the first time I'd ever really
22:09 been on a highway in anything like that.
22:11 And it was like--
22:11 I think it had a transverse spring in the front,
22:13 and the little narrow tires.
22:14 And the only thing I thought about was,
22:16 everything is bigger than this car.
22:18 Everything is bigger.
22:19 These guys are wailing past us.
22:21 And I'm like, you really kind of understand
22:23 your own mortality on the highway in a true traditional
22:26 car like that.
22:27 Yeah, so yeah, open car like that, too.
22:29 You're looking under trucks and things on the freeway.
22:33 It was really neat.
22:34 Yeah, you guys had taken that thing in and kind of--
22:36 I think it had sat a long time.
22:37 You guys kind of--
22:38 Yeah, that was a neat car.
22:39 Because yeah, a straight six with the Wayne Crosswell head
22:41 is pretty unusual, and a 32.
22:43 But good stuff.
22:44 Yeah.
22:45 Yeah, we like weird and unusual things a little bit.
22:47 Weird is good.
22:48 Yeah, totally.
22:49 When we look at the variety of the work that, most notably,
22:52 your shop has put out, it does have a very wide range,
22:55 in terms of you've done some muscle car era stuff,
22:58 or partnerships with different companies.
23:00 And of course, the more traditional
23:01 and the beautiful cars, like '30s, '40s era stuff.
23:05 But talk about that range.
23:07 Because there are some guys that are just too good, right?
23:11 It's too good for them to work with a company on something
23:13 that's outside of what the norm is.
23:14 And that's never been you.
23:16 No.
23:18 I believe that our style transcends through even
23:23 the early and the later stuff.
23:25 I always talk about--
23:26 and one of my talking points about when
23:29 you do things like this is there are probably
23:31 thousands of shops in the United States
23:34 that can build shiny cars.
23:37 But there's only a handful--
23:39 you can probably count on two hands-- that have
23:41 a specific style that you can identify.
23:44 Foose, and Ring Brothers, and Trepanier, and I Believe Us,
23:48 you can kind of go, oh, that looks like a Hollywood Hot
23:51 Rods.
23:51 That looks like a Trepanier.
23:52 So that, as an artist, is the goal.
23:55 Just putting together a shiny car, anybody can do.
23:57 So that's the goal.
23:58 So I do believe that even when we do a different type of car,
24:03 our style still kind of goes through.
24:05 Because I did Power Tour 20--
24:12 oh, probably '15?
24:13 '14 or '15?
24:14 And I took a new Mustang.
24:15 And we actually did a new Mustang for Ford.
24:20 And something that we would totally not do.
24:22 Never touched a new car.
24:24 And I still believe that even that car represented what we do.
24:27 Because it was a convertible that we had built,
24:31 a liftoff, handmade aluminum top.
24:33 Oh, wow.
24:34 Yep, and it had rivets.
24:36 And it was very industrial with mesh and things.
24:39 And so even that's totally something unique for us.
24:44 I think, anyway, that our style can still even go through.
24:49 So I don't know.
24:50 And we just finished a '65 Mustang convertible,
24:54 which is a little different for us, too.
24:56 And our style is kind of subtle elegance.
25:00 I use the word subtle elegance sometimes.
25:02 So that car, we don't change it and make it crazy
25:04 and modify it over the top.
25:06 But we do so much sheet metal changes on the car
25:10 that you don't see that we want to promote the DNA of the car
25:17 and not change it.
25:18 So that's kind of like some of what we do.
25:20 And we always talk about form and function.
25:24 Too, as well, like when we do cars with the rivets or brackets
25:29 or whatever, all that stuff has to have a purpose.
25:32 So even the car that you're talking about,
25:34 the one that he was complaining about also won everything.
25:37 So whatever.
25:38 You can--
25:39 [LAUGHTER]
25:40 That's exaggerating.
25:42 But part of that car was I am aware of the fact
25:46 that if you put a bunch of crap on a car,
25:48 it doesn't make it better.
25:50 So that particular car, if you notice,
25:52 every place there is a polished sheet metal riveted panel
25:56 is because it has a race car theme.
25:58 So anywhere there's a wear area, where latches are,
26:02 where the suspension goes, there's
26:04 a riveted panel to protect the paint, a polished stainless.
26:08 So if you take a concept like that
26:11 and you go completely through the car top to bottom
26:14 and stick to a plan, that makes for a--
26:19 we call it a cohesive design.
26:21 And just to put a point on that, you
26:23 can almost go back to that guy complaining about the rivets
26:26 because he's looking at it thinking that they're simply
26:28 there aesthetically.
26:29 Right.
26:30 So he doesn't-- that guy's not made the leap yet
26:32 to understand that it's there for functionality as well.
26:35 Yeah, and I talked to Dean from Hot Rods by Dean.
26:41 He's out of Arizona.
26:42 And he was asking, he's looking at it, he's like,
26:45 do you think you went too far?
26:48 He asked me.
26:49 And I looked at him and I said, no, I
26:53 don't because everything that is there
26:56 has an actual functional purpose.
26:58 And then I said, do you think I went too far?
27:00 He's like, no, I saw that it had a function.
27:04 But he was just pushing my creative brain to see.
27:08 So yeah.
27:09 While you're building something, are you
27:11 doing that in your own head?
27:12 Like, am I going too far?
27:14 Yeah.
27:16 Yeah, for sure.
27:18 And there's always the logic pattern like, oh,
27:22 this area needs something.
27:26 But what is it?
27:27 I can't just put-- like on the back of that car,
27:30 the hinge area at the top, kind of the sail panel
27:35 and the deck lid, it needed something like, oh, we'll
27:38 make exposed hinges that are stainless with quick release
27:43 pins because it's a race car.
27:44 So everything has quick release pins.
27:46 That is a functional item.
27:48 If it was a race car, because you could pull off your deck
27:50 lid.
27:51 But we can make it cool and shiny so that it adds a detail.
27:55 So there is that process.
27:56 It's basically like editing, right?
28:01 It's like a good writer or an author editing something.
28:04 And you want to use all the words.
28:05 But I mean, over the course of time,
28:08 how much has that evolved for you?
28:09 When you look at some of the earlier stuff,
28:11 has it maintained a level?
28:12 Or is there-- not the things you regret,
28:14 but the things that you're doing now, when you look back,
28:16 you think, OK, at that time in my development,
28:20 I see things differently than I did then.
28:23 I do.
28:23 But a lot of that is more--
28:26 yeah, I mean, yeah, there's been quite a bit of evolution
28:30 over the 20 years.
28:30 And a lot of that is also the fact
28:33 that we have customers that will let us do more stuff now.
28:38 Like in the beginning, even still sometimes,
28:41 we lose so much money by overdoing stuff
28:45 on people's projects.
28:46 And in the beginning, to me, it was a good--
28:50 not a bad decision to lose money.
28:52 But it was a good decision because if I built stuff
28:56 and not charge them for it, it gets it out there.
28:58 And people could see, oh, they built this cool thing.
29:00 So it was more important in the beginning--
29:02 except we still do it a little bit--
29:04 to really present what we want the world to see,
29:07 even if maybe the customer is like,
29:08 I didn't really want to pay that much.
29:10 I guess it's OK.
29:12 So the big evolution is we're able to do things
29:17 that I were not able to do before,
29:20 like that '32 that we're talking about.
29:23 That's called the Gaunt Coupe, by the way.
29:25 If you Google it, it's the Gaunt Coupe.
29:26 Brown '32 Roadster.
29:28 That, I was able to do anything I could possibly
29:33 want on that car.
29:34 And so that was one of the very few cars that we've built
29:37 where when it was done, I left nothing on the table.
29:39 There's no more that could happen here.
29:42 So that was pretty cool.
29:44 And the customer is the one that allowed that.
29:47 He had no direction or opinions on it.
29:52 He's like, you do what you want to do, even down to the paint
29:54 color.
29:54 Wow.
29:55 He's like, you choose what you want to do.
29:57 We talked about that a little bit in our photo studio
29:59 discussion.
30:00 And I thought that was neat, that what's the thought
30:04 process and what's that interaction with the customer
30:07 generally?
30:07 And you said that was the only person who
30:09 has allowed you to do that.
30:11 But is that good?
30:12 Is that bad?
30:13 Do you sometimes--
30:13 It's good.
30:13 In that case, it was good.
30:15 And our biggest car that we've ever built
30:18 is the Mulholland Speedster.
30:20 That one's even better because the customer pushed us further.
30:27 Oh, wow.
30:28 Oh, really?
30:28 Yeah, pushes.
30:29 He like-- I worked with Eric Black to do the original design.
30:35 And then we would go through and like, oh, change this
30:37 and change that.
30:38 But as we're building it, the customer is like, hmm,
30:41 could you make the roof disappear into the trunk
30:45 automatically with the push of a button?
30:48 Like, what?
30:48 Just go ahead and say that again.
30:49 It's slower this time?
30:50 Yeah.
30:52 It's a 36 Packard-ish thing, and you want what to happen?
30:57 And then when he says that, they're like, well,
31:00 from my point of view, it can't have anything modern showing.
31:03 I can't see actuators and stuff.
31:05 Right around these-- yeah, yeah.
31:06 So how do we make that happen and make it look--
31:09 and so that was where he would push.
31:12 I'm like, woo, wow.
31:14 And that was cool.
31:15 I mean, we accomplished that, too.
31:16 It has a whole hideaway automatic roof.
31:19 Oh, yeah, and then once we built it, I built it on Braxton,
31:21 the roof kind of folded in like that, and then the lid closed.
31:24 He's like, no, what if it flipped upside down?
31:27 And then when it flips over, the package tray
31:30 could finish out the Roadster so it
31:31 looks like a perfect Roadster--
31:34 Oh, wow.
31:34 --with the top open--
31:36 Jeez.
31:36 --or gone, hidden.
31:37 Wow, yeah.
31:37 And then when it's up, it looks like a coupe.
31:39 I'm like, oh, wow.
31:40 And that worked.
31:42 That's amazing.
31:43 I mean, I'm just trying to wrap my head around that.
31:45 You, as the-- working with a designer,
31:48 or is this even possible?
31:50 Like, do you tell yourself that there's absolutely
31:52 no way this can happen?
31:53 Or are you just like, let me think about it?
31:55 No.
31:57 Those are fun challenges.
31:58 Because, yeah, and you know, and Eric
32:00 wasn't even involved on that part.
32:02 It was just Bruce, the owner.
32:03 He's like, this is what I want.
32:04 He drew the top and everything.
32:06 So yeah, that was wild.
32:09 And you would laugh at the engineering
32:13 that we would do on that.
32:14 Like, one of the engineering things-- again, this is--
32:17 I like to tell people that think that, oh, fancy hot rod shops.
32:20 It's like, no, we're just garage dudes doing stuff, right?
32:23 Trying to figure it out.
32:24 So like, the roof, the roof, I stuck--
32:27 took the fender off, and we made a one-foot bar
32:30 that would rotate the--
32:32 sorry, not the roof, the decklid.
32:33 OK.
32:33 The decklid.
32:34 Because it's a huge decklid.
32:36 And then put a piece of wood on a bathroom--
32:39 or a piece of wood with a jack on a bathroom scale.
32:43 And then you jack it until it lifts the roof.
32:47 And then that's how many foot--
32:49 foot?
32:49 Yeah.
32:50 Pounds.
32:51 Wow.
32:51 Yeah.
32:52 It takes to lift the roof.
32:54 So then I take that, and I want a 3-inch arm.
32:57 So divide that by 4 for 3 inches.
33:00 Or sorry, multiply.
33:01 Multiply.
33:02 Multiply.
33:02 If it was 100, now we're at 400 on 3 inches.
33:06 But divide by 2.
33:08 So now you're 200.
33:10 And now I need a 200-foot pound solenoid--
33:14 Or actuator.
33:15 Actuator or whatever.
33:16 Yeah.
33:17 And it's like full hillbilly engineering.
33:20 But it works.
33:20 Well, it works.
33:21 And it's beautiful.
33:22 And it's jaw-dropping.
33:23 And then how do you resist the temptation?
33:26 Or is this not even a temptation to go, OK, well, that works?
33:29 I mean, that's one of those things, I think,
33:31 that impresses me about guys like you that
33:33 never fall into these traps.
33:34 But if it's me, I'm like, I'm putting this
33:35 on everything I build in here.
33:36 All right?
33:37 Every door, every hood.
33:40 So how do you avoid falling into those traps?
33:41 Or is that just not your personality?
33:43 You don't want to go down those roads?
33:44 Yeah, I don't really want to.
33:46 People must call and ask for it.
33:47 No?
33:48 No, nobody's asked for a prototype,
33:50 hand-built Coach Bill 36, hackered with a hideaway roof.
33:54 The way people look at stuff, though.
33:56 But even just that roof.
33:58 We've heard from other guys who said
34:00 they built a signature car, and the next phone call
34:02 is, I want that.
34:03 Yeah.
34:04 I mean, I have had people ask a bit.
34:08 But no, I think it's a little--
34:11 I mean, I think if we're building
34:13 bunches of Camaros or something, that may be more likely.
34:17 Because it's bits.
34:18 I mean, it's bespoke, effectively.
34:21 Yeah, I mean, we do lots of 32s, which is nothing like a 36.
34:25 A 36 Ford is different than a Packard.
34:28 There are a little bit of a variety there.
34:30 So I mean, I love that problem-solving stuff.
34:35 It would be a really interesting challenge, especially
34:38 this far into your career, just having
34:40 done so many different things.
34:42 What else can I take on?
34:43 Well, yeah, now we have another next level version of this.
34:48 We're doing a little speedster for the same customer, Bruce,
34:54 with an Offenhauser engine.
34:56 And the whole car folds into a briefcase.
34:58 Yeah.
34:58 Yeah, that's what happens at the end.
35:00 It's like the bimodal, the little briefcase motorcycle.
35:04 So there'll be a lot of challenges.
35:06 We're talking about maybe not doing a frame,
35:08 doing a bulkhead type system.
35:10 Who knows?
35:10 There's a lot of ideas.
35:11 A real monocoque style deal?
35:12 Kind of.
35:12 OK.
35:13 Yeah, and there's some discussion
35:15 about stainless and aluminum.
35:17 And shaping stainless is tough.
35:20 So we'll see.
35:21 We'll see.
35:22 How do you plan to build--
35:24 that sounds like a multi-year project.
35:26 And then how do you keep money, the income coming in?
35:30 You'd have to sort of actively in your head
35:32 schedule different jobs.
35:34 Cash flow is tough.
35:35 Because one of the things that I made a policy of,
35:39 which is a bad policy for me, but good for customers,
35:42 is I only take money for work complete.
35:46 Because every person that's ever had a car built
35:49 has a story how they gave some guy a deposit,
35:52 and their money goes away, and that whole thing.
35:55 So I always tell people how it works.
35:57 I bill the first of the month for work done last month.
36:00 You can look at it.
36:01 You can agree and whatever, and then you pay me.
36:04 So doing it in that manner is hard,
36:07 because I still got to do payroll.
36:10 So it's challenging, I guess, is the short answer,
36:13 is I don't really have a secret.
36:16 It's a little bit of a struggle.
36:17 But I got to stay on top of it.
36:19 But everybody that we work with, I'm
36:21 never have any problems collecting.
36:24 I even have some customers that'll
36:26 come and look at their car, like, have you done my bill yet?
36:28 No, I haven't yet.
36:29 He's like, well, here's $20,000 anyway, just to get ahead.
36:33 Some guys like to stay ahead.
36:34 So maybe the better answer is it's challenging,
36:39 but it's easier with good customers.
36:42 Have you ever had to fire a customer?
36:43 Yes.
36:44 Absolutely.
36:45 Yep.
36:46 Yep.
36:47 Packed all his stuff up, pushed it to the corner,
36:49 took it to the property line.
36:50 Get it out of here?
36:51 Yeah.
36:51 Yeah.
36:52 I mean, it has to.
36:53 It's in the nature of any business.
36:54 Any business, you're going to have the-- what is it?
36:56 They say there's 1% of people that will never be satisfied.
36:58 But I can only imagine, in this process,
37:01 it must come to a point where it's just like,
37:02 this ain't going to work.
37:03 Yeah, he was a crazy person.
37:05 He was literally crazy.
37:06 And red flags are when you got insurance adjusters coming in.
37:09 He's trying to get a free paint job.
37:10 And this is like a Model A body out of a barn.
37:16 And he's calling insurance adjusters.
37:18 And yeah, it got scratched.
37:19 So I needed a free paint job.
37:21 And the insurance guys were like, what?
37:23 Like that.
37:25 Yeah.
37:26 Yeah, he was crazy.
37:29 And luckily, I got out.
37:31 And he would call.
37:32 Like, hey, you can't even call here.
37:34 Like, you can't.
37:35 We don't talk.
37:36 I don't think you quite understand.
37:37 And we got out OK with him.
37:40 And then a month later, I got a call from another shop.
37:44 Like, hey, there's this crazy guy we're doing work for.
37:46 And he's suing us.
37:47 Oh, wow.
37:48 Yeah, would you--
37:49 Wow.
37:49 Would you speak on our behalf?
37:52 I'm like, I'm sorry.
37:54 I don't want to stir--
37:55 You're going to be in this entanglement
37:56 for the rest of your life.
37:57 Yeah, like, no.
37:58 So I politely said no.
38:00 And a month later, another shop called
38:03 and was getting sued by this guy.
38:04 So yeah, I made the--
38:06 that was a good call.
38:08 Professional lawsuit Ponzi scheme car builder guy.
38:12 Totally, yeah.
38:14 How much conversation is there between the shops
38:17 that we mentioned before?
38:18 Like, whether it's you and Troy, how much conversation
38:22 happens in that group?
38:23 And I want to say the cool guys club, but to some degree--
38:26 Did I make the cut?
38:27 Yeah, no, you didn't.
38:28 Awesome.
38:28 That's why you're here.
38:30 But no, I'm interested in that because obviously,
38:34 the work that shops at your level
38:36 and this level of craftsmen do is different.
38:40 Yeah.
38:40 Right?
38:41 And so you must be able to talk about things
38:43 if you do on a different level.
38:44 Yeah, for sure.
38:45 And people have asked me before, like, oh,
38:48 so who's your main competitor?
38:50 And do you talk to other shops?
38:51 Because I'm like, no, there's no competitors, I don't think.
38:55 We do all different things.
38:56 We do our own thing.
38:57 We have our own customer base.
38:58 But guys like that, I really respect.
39:01 Like, Trepanier, I mean, he's my friend.
39:04 And we talk, and he just--
39:06 he does spaceship level stuff sometimes, which is cool.
39:11 I thought when we brought the Packard out,
39:13 that was a spaceship.
39:14 Like, we always talk about it at our shop.
39:15 How do you build a spaceship?
39:16 We want to bring a spaceship to the car show.
39:20 I think Trepanier does that.
39:21 Really good friends with Strope.
39:23 He's just a good guy.
39:24 He's a character.
39:25 He is a character.
39:26 Just such a good--
39:27 Guy needs a haircut, to be honest.
39:28 Guy needs a fricking haircut.
39:29 I love you, Steve, but come on, man.
39:32 Yeah, come on, man.
39:33 We got to do it.
39:35 Maybe we got to sneak up behind him with a pair of clippers.
39:37 I don't know, but it's got to happen.
39:39 He's one of my favorite people.
39:42 Shaporus, when he was alive.
39:45 And for me, a lot of those guys, it was like--
39:51 especially like Shaporus, or Brizio.
39:54 He's kind of like my mentor.
39:56 He was always the guy that I looked up to in this industry.
39:59 Because I always wanted to be like him,
40:01 because he's an example of good guys can finish first.
40:05 Nobody has anything bad to say about him.
40:07 And you never hear drama around Brizio.
40:09 So I wanted to be that guy.
40:11 You know, I want that.
40:12 When I do pictures, I smile.
40:14 Don't do the tough guy pose.
40:16 You know, there's all of this.
40:19 So all of those guys are--
40:22 it's neat to be friends.
40:24 And it's really cool to share secrets--
40:28 not secrets, but things we've accomplished.
40:32 And Trepanier will be like, come here, come here.
40:34 Look at this.
40:35 Look at this.
40:35 You know, his car will be at a car show.
40:37 Come on in here.
40:38 And we're all proud of challenges that we've solved.
40:44 And I think that's healthy.
40:45 And it's neat.
40:48 And it's you each--
40:49 nobody-- I think it's self-confidence.
40:51 All of you have developed careers, and reputations,
40:54 and work, and canons of work that
40:56 allow you to be confident in who you are.
40:58 So you can have these conversations
41:00 and these friendships without having them become
41:02 frenemy rivalry weirdness.
41:05 Yeah, I mean, and there are bad people in our industry, too.
41:08 Don't say.
41:09 Yeah.
41:09 [LAUGHTER]
41:11 And I just-- for me, I just don't talk to those people.
41:16 And it's interesting.
41:19 But I mean, the reality is our whole industry
41:23 is passion-driven, whether it be a builder, or just
41:28 an enthusiast, or magazine guys, or whatever you do.
41:33 You know?
41:33 Yeah.
41:34 No, it's 100% right.
41:36 Undefined.
41:38 Please don't make me answer it.
41:40 Please.
41:40 But I think that passion binds us all together
41:46 in one way or another.
41:48 And there should never be any weirdness between anybody,
41:52 because we're all in it for the same reason.
41:54 So it's certainly not making big money.
41:58 [LAUGHTER]
42:00 That's true.
42:01 But we get to do what we like to do.
42:03 We get to--
42:05 I always talk about quality of life.
42:07 There's more value in quality of life
42:09 of being able to create and do what you love than just money.
42:14 So as long as you pay your rent.
42:15 Right.
42:16 [LAUGHTER]
42:18 Why do you think, culturally, and hot-rodding
42:20 in the aftermarket, we'll never get tired of the shapes
42:23 of Model A's and Coops?
42:26 Why will we never get tired of the shapes?
42:28 Because we see them every day.
42:29 I mean, we get pounded into them.
42:31 But yet, you stop and look at every one of them.
42:33 So why?
42:35 I would say because that's where it all began.
42:39 [LAUGHTER]
42:39 Great.
42:40 I like that.
42:40 See what I did there?
42:41 [LAUGHTER]
42:44 You should have saved that for the last two.
42:46 I know.
42:47 Damn it.
42:47 [LAUGHTER]
42:50 But really, that is where it all started.
42:52 And everything else has sprung from that era of hot-rodding,
42:56 whether it be drag racing or land speed of the '40s and then
43:02 post-war and all that.
43:03 It just kind of never stopped.
43:06 So I would hope that everyone keeps looking at those cars,
43:09 because that's the beginning.
43:09 Well, yeah.
43:09 But it's even transcendent.
43:10 Like, I got two teenage sons.
43:12 And it's like, they are way more apt to stop and look at a Coupe
43:15 or look at something with beautiful compound
43:18 curves from the '40s.
43:19 They'll walk past a lot of muscle cars.
43:20 That really doesn't--
43:21 Me too.
43:21 That doesn't really click them in the same way.
43:23 Well, yeah.
43:24 But to me, it's like, if this thing still
43:26 grabs the attention, a car that was built 100 years
43:29 before this kid was born, he'll stop and look at it
43:31 versus something that we see in the muscle car era.
43:35 It's just weird.
43:36 It's almost like something intrinsic.
43:39 Maybe at this stage of the world,
43:42 those are pretty weird-looking cars.
43:44 Yeah, that's true too.
43:45 I mean, try to reverse your brain into being 15 years old
43:49 or something, and all you know is cell phones and internet
43:52 and Teslas.
43:54 And then you see that.
43:56 That's a pretty wacky-looking thing, if you think about it.
43:58 Maybe I'm just-- just a theory.
44:00 No, it's a good point.
44:01 There are certain shapes too, I think,
44:03 we all recognize, like the 32.4, like a 69 Charger, 67 Mustang.
44:08 Just the shape is so good that I think
44:12 they just do transcend time.
44:15 Yeah, those iconic shapes just--
44:17 I mean, I guess they're iconic for a reason, right?
44:19 So maybe they're still garnering that attention.
44:23 Yeah, and do you ever look at the stuff
44:26 that you have produced and are producing
44:28 and kind of wonder how it will age?
44:31 Do you ever think of things-- and not that you would ever
44:32 build something and how, oh, I wonder what people will think
44:35 of this in 20 years.
44:36 But do you ever consider how certain things will
44:38 be perceived in a decade, 15 years?
44:40 I do.
44:41 I do.
44:41 And I believe that a lot of what we do tries to be timeless.
44:47 We try.
44:48 I mean, back in the '80s when you had Heartbeat Stripe, Pink
44:52 and Fuchsia, you know, Billet Wheel--
44:55 or not even Billet then.
44:57 But that stuff did not age well.
44:59 But if you stick to traditional styles,
45:02 I think traditional styles transcend time.
45:05 And that's what we always talk about, too,
45:06 is we build traditional-styled cars, not necessarily
45:11 traditional cars, if that makes sense.
45:13 Yeah, you mentioned that before.
45:14 Yeah.
45:15 Respect tradition.
45:15 Respect tradition, but not bound by it.
45:17 Because if you built strictly traditional cars,
45:20 you can just open up one of the little magazines
45:22 and then copy it.
45:23 But we like some creative outlet.
45:27 So we try to create something that's
45:30 visually traditional in style, but not necessarily
45:34 the same as anything that's ever been done, if that makes sense.
45:36 And we use European style quite a bit, too,
45:40 in American hot rods.
45:41 So that works as well.
45:44 I've wondered, too, about 3D printing and some
45:47 of this new technology that is available to builders
45:50 that I'd seen, like the Riddler or even the Rotor Show
45:54 and some of the Salonica cars.
45:57 I talked to Scott Sullivan at the show earlier this year.
46:00 And he wasn't critical of the use of 3D printing.
46:04 But it's just the human intervention
46:08 that needs to happen to make it not look like a robot just spit
46:11 out some part.
46:12 And you're not building that kind of-- you're
46:15 not using those kind of parts.
46:17 But you--
46:17 No.
46:18 I mean, I appreciate any technology as a tool.
46:24 But we're not there.
46:26 I mean, we can be.
46:28 But all of the pieces to that 32 are all hand-welded,
46:37 hand-ground.
46:38 So we can make things look like they've been cast.
46:42 We can make things look like other things.
46:44 And I think I talked to Scott Sullivan about that, too.
46:47 You can just draw a bunch of stuff and cut out a bunch of parts
46:50 and then throw it all over your car.
46:51 Does that make it better?
46:53 Not necessarily.
46:55 Can it?
46:56 Sure.
46:57 Depends on how you use it.
46:59 So I think just like anything, no matter what technologies you use,
47:03 there's still a human artistic factor that
47:06 needs to make the car nice or artistic or creative.
47:14 But yeah, I like that stuff.
47:17 One of the things that we do is by the time--
47:20 I think people overuse CNC stuff.
47:22 Because sometimes, if we're making a one-off piece for a car,
47:27 by the time you draw it, code it, cut it, and all that,
47:32 we could have made it.
47:33 Sure, it would take two weeks for a man to do that.
47:37 But it's going to be about the same price as a computer one.
47:40 So I'll opt for the hand art over the computer stuff.
47:47 That's just us.
47:49 Just depends on--
47:51 what are the things like-- what are some of the hills
47:53 that you've yet to climb that you'd like to?
47:56 Ooh, I don't know.
47:58 That's tough.
47:59 It's kind of hard to predict, because I
48:00 don't know what's coming.
48:01 Right, so when the phone rings, there
48:03 are things that are going to come over
48:04 the other end of the phone in the coming years that
48:06 are going to go, yes.
48:08 Yeah, like, oh, that'll be cool.
48:10 That's something that's going to twist my brain up.
48:12 I'm like, oh, I want to do that, because it just
48:14 twisted my brain up.
48:16 I need to solve it.
48:18 And I would imagine--
48:19 we have a project coming up.
48:20 There will be a lot of that.
48:22 So I'm kind of excited about that.
48:25 So that's on the side of just pushing my brain further.
48:29 So what it is, I don't know till it comes.
48:33 Has your customer, demographically,
48:35 the person calling your shop to have a car made,
48:39 changed over the years?
48:40 Or is it the same guy, but he's the same guy--
48:45 but he was 20 years younger when you first opened the business,
48:47 but it's the same guy that was calling you 20 years ago?
48:50 I have a hard time identifying a specific demographic.
48:57 I do.
48:57 I mean, we have a lot of variety.
49:02 And the big show car, that's a certain type of guy.
49:08 That's a guy with a lot of money.
49:10 Yeah, that's a guy with a lot of money.
49:12 But here, Simon Gluckman, he has a little '32 Coupe
49:18 that we put together for him.
49:20 And he drives the living crap out of it.
49:22 He's going to race it.
49:22 And it's been all over the internet and all over
49:24 everywhere.
49:25 And it's just a good-looking hot rod.
49:27 Now, is that some million-dollar show car?
49:28 Heck no.
49:29 It is a driver.
49:30 And I'm happy to be a part of that, you know?
49:34 And especially at this point in my career,
49:37 that car has got more action.
49:38 He's doing more stuff with that car
49:40 than most any of our show cars.
49:42 So there's a place for that.
49:43 And I got another Model A that we're doing with a 409.
49:45 I always wanted to put a 409.
49:47 Oh, cool.
49:47 Oh, that's neat.
49:48 Yeah, I always wanted to do that.
49:50 And so I got a guy that talked into it.
49:53 Finally.
49:54 Well, he wanted a car like mine.
49:56 And he's like, what should the engine be?
49:58 And then we just kind of came up to 409.
50:00 So that'll be fun.
50:01 Super crazy show car?
50:03 Nope.
50:04 Nope.
50:04 Just a cool car with a 409.
50:07 So--
50:08 Do a lot of your customers want show cars?
50:10 Do they want a Riddler or a--
50:12 No.
50:13 --Amber car?
50:13 No, not really.
50:16 Sometimes, like, the Amber cars, they evolve into it,
50:19 which is a bad thing--
50:21 We talked about that.
50:21 --to happen.
50:23 They're so happy with the way their car is going.
50:25 We're going to put this in Amber.
50:27 We should have planned for that.
50:28 And that's-- move the decimal point.
50:32 There's comma shifting, decimal point.
50:34 Yeah, yeah.
50:35 So the Mahon was always intended to make a big splash.
50:42 And it did.
50:43 The little coupe, that was intended to do something.
50:45 And it did.
50:47 So-- but yeah, those are-- there's
50:49 only been a few that really have been focused on winning a show.
50:54 Because I try to tell those guys, don't get caught up
50:56 in all that.
50:57 Like, you've got to enjoy a car.
50:58 The worst thing you can do is for--
51:02 have a build, a whole build process.
51:04 And one of the things that I promote
51:06 is I promote the build, not the end result.
51:08 Like, because this should be fun.
51:10 Like, whatever your job is, when you come to visit me,
51:13 look at your car, we might have lunch.
51:15 We're going to talk about cars.
51:16 We're not going to talk about the build.
51:17 We're not going to talk about that stuff.
51:19 We're going to-- you're going to enjoy this time away
51:22 from your life.
51:23 That's what I think that that should be.
51:26 So we go through this process.
51:28 And then the worst thing you can do
51:30 is for-- enjoy this entire build process.
51:32 And at the very end, he puts it in a show, and it loses.
51:36 And you just ruined the entire journey, the entire--
51:40 and like, I try to talk guys down from that.
51:42 Like, you're going to be sad.
51:44 Like, we just finished your car that you've been dreaming of.
51:47 And you're going to be sad because some judges didn't--
51:49 you know?
51:50 So that's one of the battles.
51:51 Like, we've done multiple AMR cars
51:53 where I'll tell the guys, too.
51:54 Like, if you will only expect a jacket and a good parking spot,
52:01 you can put it in.
52:02 You're a winner already, baby.
52:02 Yeah, yeah.
52:03 That's it.
52:04 But don't get caught up.
52:05 Don't get caught up in it.
52:06 Because then people get sad at the very end of their journey,
52:09 which is not cool.
52:11 How important is it to you to, like,
52:13 when the car you were just talking about that's here,
52:16 race, and that's not the gazillion-dollar show car,
52:18 like, how important is you to let people know, like,
52:20 this is what this car is going to drive like?
52:22 Do you get a lot of customers who are, like,
52:23 don't quite understand what they're maybe getting
52:25 themselves into?
52:26 Or is that important for you?
52:27 Because we talked to the Ring brothers,
52:29 and they talked about how they first
52:30 started building these cars.
52:31 And it's like, is it going to run for 20 miles?
52:34 And now they're really more a dynamic kind
52:36 of pro-touring style.
52:37 But when someone calls up and says, I want this,
52:39 do they really know what they want?
52:41 They many times don't.
52:43 You know, and like, we try to tell them,
52:45 you can't expect a 32 to drive like a Mercedes.
52:48 You know, they're--
52:49 It's not supposed to, man.
52:50 No.
52:51 No.
52:51 Yeah, back to that road and track deal that we did.
52:54 When he asked how much the car cost to build, he's like,
52:59 so it costs that, and there's no power steering,
53:03 and there's no air conditioning?
53:07 I'm like, dude, there's no windows.
53:09 There's no windows.
53:10 You don't get it, yeah.
53:11 Yeah, he's like--
53:12 Yeah, you don't get it.
53:13 The same for you, pal.
53:14 But he's like, it costs that much money,
53:16 and it rides like shit?
53:17 Like, yeah.
53:19 I said, think of it like this.
53:20 It's like a classic, expensive, vintage motorcycle.
53:25 Like, it's going to ride like crap.
53:26 It's going to leak.
53:27 It's going to ride like crap.
53:28 It's going to be hard as hell to start.
53:29 But it's cool.
53:30 So that's hot rodding, you know?
53:31 So I can't seem to get that across to my fiancee either.
53:36 She's just not there.
53:39 Yeah, when I take this, she's like,
53:41 you're going to ride that stinky, rusty, weird-looking
53:47 car?
53:47 She's like, I think I could see the ground through the floor.
53:50 Like, you can?
53:52 Absolutely can.
53:53 She's, you're going to put that on a racetrack?
53:55 That's just stupid.
53:57 You can stay home.
53:59 She's like, oh, I'm not--
54:00 she's never even ridden it.
54:02 She's only seen it from afar.
54:03 I drove it home.
54:04 She's like, oh, really?
54:06 This is where you went on Monday?
54:07 Yeah.
54:08 She's like, oh.
54:10 You put that in the backyard like the neighbors
54:12 are going to see.
54:12 [LAUGHTER]
54:15 But that being said, she likes cars, too.
54:18 Yeah, she does.
54:19 Just not that one.
54:20 Just not that one.
54:21 No, she drives a '57 Corvette that I--
54:23 Nice.
54:24 Like a barn find kind of '57 Corvette with a LS3 and 256.
54:27 But it's probably the second fastest car we own.
54:31 I think it's fast.
54:32 Anyway, but yeah, so she's into it to a point.
54:37 Yeah, right, right.
54:39 No, I always thought that's kind of interesting when you're
54:41 basically handing somebody kind of a time capsule.
54:43 Like, you're getting in this thing
54:44 and you're going to have a really authentic experience.
54:47 If this car has so much DNA in it from 50, 60 years ago,
54:51 that's what it's going to feel like to drive, not
54:53 necessarily, like you said, you're
54:54 not going to be able to jump on your ABS brakes
54:56 to make it from a stoplight and make the thing do
54:58 what it should do.
54:59 Our Hot Rods really are like motorcycles with four wheels,
55:01 really.
55:02 Yeah, they are.
55:04 Well, man, thank you.
55:04 It's great to have you in here and kind of pick your brain
55:07 on a lot of different stuff.
55:08 I think you continue to be one of the great kind of thought
55:11 leaders in this whole industry.
55:12 And the work that comes out of Hollywood Hot Rods
55:14 continues to be the stuff that we all
55:16 want to stare at and kind of break down and analyze.
55:19 And I think the way you've taken us through a lot of that stuff
55:22 is pretty great.
55:23 Yeah, thank you, Troy.
55:24 And thank you for--
55:25 Troy, we're here at Power Tour West.
55:27 Troy brought a group of traditional--
55:29 Yeah, yeah, we're trying to bring Hot Rods back to Hot Rod.
55:32 I appreciate it.
55:33 And you did.
55:34 You helped me out, too, with your build,
55:37 with Tony doing the work.
55:39 I've said that before.
55:40 It's kind of a deficiency on my part.
55:42 I'm more of a muscle car guy.
55:43 So I take over Hot Rod, and I was like,
55:45 I need some old cars in the magazine.
55:47 Just so you know, all of those cars are racing today.
55:51 That's great.
55:51 So thank you for that.
55:52 That's going to be neat.
55:53 You guys having a good time, then?
55:55 I haven't raced yet.
55:56 All right, well--
55:56 I had to do some podcast or something.
55:58 Yeah, we still need to get him in here.
56:00 So look, they have been drag racing at this facility
56:03 since 1952.
56:04 The very first race ever held here was 1952.
56:07 So we're now, what, 71 years post-fact.
56:10 He's 21 years in business with Hollywood Hot Rods,
56:12 and he's an hour behind where he wants
56:14 to be in the drag strips right now.
56:15 So Troy, thank you very much, man.
56:17 It's been awesome.
56:17 Thank you so much.
56:17 Thanks a lot, Troy.
56:18 Always a pleasure.
56:19 That's great.
56:19 That's another episode of the Hot Rod Pod, Where It All Began.
56:23 Make sure you give us a review.
56:24 Give us a great review.
56:26 Leave comments.
56:27 Tell us how good he looks.
56:28 Tell us how dumb I am.
56:29 Tell us how cool Troy is.
56:30 Whatever you want to do, just say something.
56:31 Only positive comments.
56:32 Say something.
56:33 We'll be back soon with more builders, more thought leaders,
56:35 and more industry movers and shakers
56:37 here on the Hot Rod Pod, Where It All Began.
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