What are Rodster^® owners saying about the Rodster^® Street Rod?

A Few Words With LARRY SNELL

Memphis, Tennessee

How easy was it to assemble your Rodster?

It was fairly easy. Instructions were pretty good. I liked it because I was able to change little things I wanted to change as I went along.

What kind of custom touches did you do?

I added an outside dash door so you didn’t have to raise the trunk to put fuel in. I molded all the rockers to the car and the quarter panels to the rockers and front fenders to the rocker moldings. And added a third brakelight on the trunk. I did away with the license plate lights and added my own license plate lights. Nothing really major, I just added a few little things here and there. Filled in the seams and made them look like all one piece.

I heard from Henry that your car is so spectacular that you’re turning down offers to buy it.

Well, I’ve had several people wanting to buy it. I really don’t want to sell it right now. I might possibly sell it later, but I’ve been so busy this summer, I really haven’t had a whole lot of time to drive it. I did drive it from Memphis to North Carolina, back down to Georgia one weekend. Didn’t have any problems out of it. I took the top off and rode up there with the top off. Put the top back on and drove back with the air conditioner on. The S10 I used had cruise control, power windows, power locks, air conditioning… it had everything but a power seat. I added a CD player to it, so it’s got a really good sound system in it.

So it’s pretty civilized…

Yep.

I heard that a guy from ZZ Top wanted to buy it.

Well, I was messing around and scratched it up and I had it down to my friend’s body shop, he’s down the street from my shop, so he could touch it up. It set out in front of his shop – it’s on a major highway. He told me this fella that worked for ZZ Top saw it sitting out front, and had come in asking about it. Called me wanting to know if I wanted to sell it; I told him I didn’t want to sell it right now. Also, one of the casinos down in Mississippi, they’ve got a Cadillac limo all customized. They do a lot of TV and stuff around here locally; they use it for advertisements, an old antique Cadillac limo. They came out a while back to pick up the Cadillac, and saw the little red car. They liked it. I gave them some pictures to carry back down there and show around the casino.

Maybe you can get it some work in commercials or something.

Yeah. I had it out at the Super Chevy Show we had here and Don Garlits saw it, went over to it, walked around it a little bit. I went over to him after I let him look it over. He said, “Is that yours?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “What is it?” I told him what it was. He really liked it. He got in and sat down, “Man, this is comfortable.” He really liked it. [Ed. Note: Larry and his Rodster were featured on the Don Garlits show on cable TV.]

Do you get a lot of , “What is that?” when you’re driving around?

Every stoplight. Just like when we went to North Carolina, they had a traffic jam on 85. It was two hours bumper to bumper -- five miles an hour and sit still. Everybody would come along, “What is it?” A truck driver, he wanted to know, “What is it?” I told him. Well, he immediately got on his radio and he was telling all the other truck drivers wondering the same thing. I had one of Henry’s flyers in the car, so I just walked over to his truck and handed him the flyer and he got back on the radio and was telling everybody up and down the road about it.

That’s some reaction to the car.

Yeah. It’s everywhere you go. Everybody wants to know “What is it?” They love it. It’s different.

Have you done other kits before?

I’ve built all kind of cars; restored old cars, street rods. I’ve been racing cars for years – sprint cars. Late models. Super trucks. I’ve built stuff like that. Race cars, frames and everything. I’ve made trucks out of cars. I did a little Honda 600… Honda 600 was one of the first ones they brought over here and it had a little 2 cylinder air-cooled engine in the front of it. I made like an El Camino out of it. I’ve done stuff like that, but this is the first kit car I’ve ever done. I’ve done like a T buggy (bucket??). I really didn’t like it, but I did build a T buggy.

In 1995, I raced two series with a sprint car and I was gone every weekend, Thursday until Monday. I would leave here and go to the East Coast, from Florida all the way up to North Carolina, you know, traveling all over the country. We won two championships in ’95, so I said, “Okay, I’m going to quit racing.” So I quit, and sort of got bored, didn’t have anything to do. I told my wife, “Well, I think I’ll build me some kind of street rod or some such.” I started looking around. Got on the computer and I was looking at ’32 Fords, roadsters and a few things like that, and I sent off for a few magazines and all. When I was back on the computer looking around, I ran up on the Rodster. Soon as I saw the pictures, I said, “That’s what I want.” I called (my wife) Sharon in; she looked at it. Oh, she loved it. And I got the kids to come in; they saw it; they loved it. I said, “Okay, we’ll build one of them.”

Now, when you say you were racing, were you actually doing the driving?

No, I just built the cars and did all the set-up work and made them go fast.

In some ways, you’re the most important one.

It takes two. Takes a mechanic and a driver. I started back racing this year and we’re leading the points.

That’s cool. What are you involved in now?

Sprint cars again.

That must be wild…

Young boy I’ve known since he was ten years old over here at the local racetrack grew up and started racing. Won a couple of championships at the local track. He’s 24 years old now. He came to me last winter and wanted to know if I could help him. I said, “Sure,” so we started the season off running out of town in the United Sprint Car Series. We took the points lead the second night out and had it ever since. We even started racing sprint cars on asphalt this year.

Do you two have aspirations of going into stock car racing?

Well, I’ve done that. I raced a super truck in Nashville last year.

Is this a NASCAR sanctioned series?

Yeah, NASCAR sanctioned. A friend of mine decided he wanted to try that out. I said, “Let’s try it and see if we like it.” So, we bought a used truck, brought it to the shop, fixed it up, went over there and tried it out. It was fun.

Let me get back to the Rodster here. How many hours would you say you spent on the conversion? Not including the paint job…

That’s hard to say. I just set it in the corner of the shop and I’d go over and I might work on it an hour here and there. And I’d go down some Saturdays and Sunday afternoons and work on it, sort of like in my spare time. I might be caught up at work, I might go over there and mess around with it 30 minutes, then not touch it for a day, and then I’d go back and work on it for a couple of hours, and then I might go back on Saturday and work on it for five hours. I know for a fact that if I took one now and started on it from scratch, I could take one in the shop in the morning, get the saw out and go to work, and I could have it put together in five days. There wouldn’t be any problem with that. I could have it ready to go to the paint shop in five days without any problem.

Wow. Well, you being a professional, you’ve got a different perspective. I was wondering – as far as the level of difficulty – do you think it’s within the realm of the average homebuilder kind of guy?

It would be easy to do back home in the backyard or under the carport. There’s nothing really that difficult about it. The main thing is to measure it. Like Henry’s got in his instructions several times “double-check your measurements.” I compared side to side and I discovered that there was a difference from one side of this S10 I had and the other. It was longer on one side than it was on the other.

Had it been in an accident?

Well, no. Of course, any of them you’re going to find, they probably have done been wrecked here and there. This one was pretty well banged up when I got it. I got to checking some more and I found as much as a half inch difference in some of them from one side to the other. Which, the way you cut it and all, it really doesn’t make much difference. I was just looking at it and I said, “That just don’t look right.” I had all these marks on it, and it didn’t look right. That’s when I started measuring and discovered the one I had was quite a bit different from one side to the other, so I just compensated for it. But as long as you measure everything, it’s… you know everything goes up real easy.

One thing I did do that he didn’t have in the instructions -- when I put the rear clip on to glue it down, I had already put it on and lined it up at the line-up marks, but I went a step further. I drilled some holes in it once I had everything lined up. I drilled these holes for pop rivets. And then, when I put my glue on, I set the rear clip up, and I went ahead and tied it down and put my pop rivets in it. Then I knew it was lined up right. But I went ahead and put the pop rivets in it. I put three or four on each side just to hold everything in place, flush with the strap I had around it. And then I just took a little bit of the filler, went up and sanded everything and filled over the heads of the rivets – like I said, I had them down where they would fit flush. That helped to line everything up a little better. It helped me, anyway. It’s something you don’t have to do – I felt a little more comfortable having it right there like that to hold it exactly in place, so I wouldn’t take a chance on it sliding one way or the other.

Did you do everything, or did you farm out some of the procedures like the paint?

I gutted mine completely. I had the engine, transmission, all the interior, dash, steering, gauges, took the windshield out. I gutted this thing completely; no carpet, no nothing; it was just nothing but a hole.

Why?

I wanted to build it my way. First thing I did was put the lowering kit on it; I lowered it, put the springs on the front. I rebuilt all the front-end bushings. I replaced everything. Then I went to the rear end, and I took the rear end apart, the gear out of the rear end and all. I put all new bearings in it, axle seals, wheel cylinders, brake shoes, all that. I bought a ’97 engine out of a salvage yard with only 1,000 miles on it, and I changed the fuel injection on it to a ’95 model. I had a friend build the transmission for me and I put it back in. The universal joints and the drive shaft… I got the engine set back in it and got it to where it would start. Course, I didn’t have a radiator in it and I just had transmission lines looped on it so the fluid would go wherever… Anyway, I got to where it would crank. Then I went to cutting the rest of it up. Put the body on it.

On the interior, I changed the color. I did the dash and all. I liked a sort of beige. I did the dash and the door panels in a beige color. Bought seats out of a salvage yard out of a ’97 S10 pickup and it’s got a fold-down armrest and a glove box in the armrest, it’s got a little drink cup holder that folds out of the bottom of the seat, and the seats are all fabric. They’re a tan, beige color with some dark lines in them. Well, I went to my friend at the upholstery shop and had him put the inserts in the door panels to make them match the seats. And then he did the carpet for me. I got the seatbelts out of the salvage yard and they matched the seats. But I did the interior – it’s sort of like a light saddle. Actually, the color code calls it beige, but it’s sort of like a light saddle color. Of course, the outside is red.

What kind of red?

I was driving down by the mall and there was a car in front of me at the light and it said “96 Vette” on the license plate and it was red, and I said, “That’s the color I want.” So I called the paint shop and ordered red for a ’96 Vette. I sanded the car and got it ready to paint. I’m a painter myself, but I used this basecoat clearcoat finish. It’s real expensive paint. I’ve got a good friend who’s a painter. I’ve got a body shop around the corner and I do a lot of work for them, so I called them and said, “Can I borrow your paint booth?” and they said, “Sure. When do you want to do it?” So, we got up at 4:30 one morning, went to my shop, drove the car around the corner to his and taped it up, sprayed it; it dried in about ten minutes. I drove it around to my shop and we let it sit there for a day or two, and then we polished it and buffed it.

Was the process of building the Rodster satisfying? Even fun?

Both. I had a fellow come in the shop the other day wanting to buy it. He wanted to trade me this other car and some cash for it. I said no. He had a Studebaker Champion, a ’55 model, a real nice old restored car, but I really didn’t want it. I said, “Nope, I don’t want to do it.” But Sharon says, “Well, if you sell it to him you can always build another one.” I said, “Yup.” We had thought about building another one. But I would do something different if I were going to build another one. I was thinking about actually doing it out of a pickup truck. Using the Rodster stuff on the pickup and make my own bed for it. Of course, that would take awhile. A lot of it would have to be handmade. It would be a lot of work. The cab part and all… that would be easy because I’ve got everything. You know, order the kit and I’ve got everything I need. I’d have to do some cutting – I’d have to make part of the bed -- then cut the fenders off of the rear clip. Take a lot of cutting and measuring. But we thought about doing it. That way, we can drive both of them to the car shows.

It would sure be original.

My brother came by and picked my Rodster up here awhile back. There are several little towns around here. He drove it up… he and the police chief rode around in it for about half a day. They had a ball.

We were coming down the highway, and a car passed me and pulled over and when we came by, they were taking pictures of us.

Do you go to a lot of shows?

I want to, but I haven’t had time this year. I had planned on it, but I’ve been racing so much on the weekends, I haven’t had time. There’s a drive-in over here, Sonic Drive-In, and every Thursday night, they have hundreds of street rods and antiques over there. They’ve called me three or four times wanting me to come over. I just haven’t had a chance to get over there. But, in a couple of weeks, racing season will be over.

What did you think of the overall quality of the kit? The fiberglass parts – hand-laid vs. the cheaper chopper gun stuff?

I’ve worked on all kinds of fiberglass cars. I’ve worked on Corvettes… Of course, these race truck bodies are fiberglass, and the sprint cars have fiberglass bodies. The hood and the nose section is all fiberglass. I’ve messed with fiberglass a lot just with old cars and whatnot through the years. The fiberglass on the Rodster was great to work with. I didn’t have any problems out of it. Just sanded it down good, and it painted up real nice. Had to do very little blocking on it. We primed it -- I think blocked it twice with sandpaper -- and it was ready to paint. It didn’t take a whole lot to get it ready to paint. Like I said, I made work for myself on it when I molded the rocker panels under the door to the steel rocker on the car, the quarter panels and all that. I molded all that together, filled in all the seams. Of course, that gave me some extra sanding to do right there, to round all those edges. But I didn’t have to do that, you know, it would have looked pretty good without doing that. As far as the overall fiberglass, I didn’t have any problems out of it.

How did the parts fit to your donor car?

Excellent. They fit as well as if you went down to a Chevrolet dealer and bought a brand new front fender for a ’96 Chevrolet truck, carried it back to the shop, and molded it on. You’ve got to move it around a little bit and line it up. Once you’ve got it lined up, you tighten it down, glue it down, or whatever, and it’s there. It was as good as anything I’ve ever worked with.

Did all the parts you need come with the kit?

Yeah.

How about the assembly manual – had you bought it before you bought the kit?

No, I didn’t buy the manual first. I saw the kit and I talked to Henry on the telephone about it. There are a lot of kit cars out there. And I’ve seen some of them – I’ve got friends who’ve bought them. Some of them are terrible. I saw this and I loved the looks of it. You can ask Henry, I probably worried him on the phone. I asked him all kinds of questions before I bought the kit. I was just leery of buying a kit, then getting it home and taking it out of the crate, and being disappointed with it. But I’ll tell you what, when we took it out of the crate, I was tickled to death. Got it out and laid it all out there in the shop, me and the guys did, and I was tickled to death with it.

Did you get it on time?

Yep.

And the shipping was okay?

Yep. I liked the way everything came in one box.

They don’t usually?

Oh, no. You usually order something like that and you get a box here and there. Then you’ve got to call them back about stuff that’s been left out and whatnot. But everything came in one crate; it was all there, no damage on it. He had it all packed up real well.

How was dealing with Caroselli Design? Was Henry responsive?

He’s a real nice fellow. I really enjoyed talking to him. Very helpful. I had two or three questions and called him… it was no problem.

As far as the manual, was it clear?

Yep. I guarantee you, my wife could put one together. She could do it! She runs the office at the shop. She could put one together – take her longer than it would me, of course – but she could do it.

Did she help you with the car?

No, she didn’t help me. She’d come back and look every day or two, and see how I was doing on it.

What does she think of the Rodster?

Oh, she loves it. She loves it! I’ve got a 16-year old, and I let her drive it. My oldest daughter, she’s 27. She and her friend carried it out one night, and were riding around in it. They just loved it. My 16-year old drove it about 50 miles across town and back. She came back and said at every street light people were all over her, “What is it? What is it?” It’s so different. You’re riding down the street and they’re rolling down their windows and hollering at you, “What is it?” I’ve got a granddaughter; she loves to go riding in it.

How old is your granddaughter?

She’s six. But she’s crazy about it. It’s just, it’s just, I don’t know, there’s just something about it. It’s something you don’t see every day. It’s just eye-catching. I’ll tell you what I can do – I’ve already proven this – I can take and drive it up in a parking lot, and I can park it right next to a $150,000 car – brand new ‘Vette, customized Mustang, Hemicuda, a Cobra replica, whatever, and people will walk right to this car. They don’t look at the Cobra or whatever I’m parked next to, they walk to this car. They just bypass everything when they see it. It can be sitting right next to a dozen cars around it, it’s the first car they’ll come to. They’ll eventually look at the others, but this is the first car they always come to.

As far as driving it, is the modern drivetrain a real plus?

I’ve got an old Nash. I drove it to work today. It’s got no air conditioning, it’s a standard shift. The old cars are all right for certain occasions, but you can get into one of these and go anywhere you want to go and be comfortable. I’ve got another old car and it’s got mechanical brakes on it. You get over 30 miles per hour in a car and it’s dangerous. The old car looks good, but it’s not user friendly.

Plus you can get parts for this so easily and cheaply.

Any parts store you can get parts for one of these if something happens to it.

How about the handling?

That’s something I changed. I got it put together and I drove it around the corner, and said, “I can’t have this,” because it drove like a truck. I’ve got a friend in the alignment business. He deals with steering, gears, and all that stuff. So I told him I needed a steering box for an S10 pickup with a quicker ratio in it. He called a friend in Texas and they built me one and shipped it up here. Put it in, and then it drove like a go-kart. I loved it. It’s real quick. The S10 actually is a little slow steering. That might not bother some people, but I like the quick responsive steering, sort of like the Corvettes. So, that’s what I’ve got now. Lock-to-lock is half a turn one way to the other, instead of a turn and a half. I told Henry what I had done and I ordered one for him to try on one of his cars, but I don’t know how he liked it. Some people like quick steering, some people like slow steering. I like the quick steering. You feel the road more in it. All you do is turn the steering wheel from 12 o’clock to 9 o’clock or 3 o’clock or whatever, and you turn the corner.

Like a sprint car…

Yeah. With the low profile tires on it, it really gives you a good road feel. Handles real good, I’d say. Just handles great.

How about the ride, as far as comfort?

The seats I have in it are great. On a real, real rough road, it can be a little choppy, but as far as the ride, it’s still comfortable. I was on the interstate running 75, 80 miles per hour, and this particular part of the interstate was real rough. I mean, it was terrible. It got sort of choppy, so I slowed down to about 65 and it smoothed out a little bit after that. Suspension’s a little stiff on it, but it’s nice and smooth on the average road. On smooth roads, man, it’s just like sitting in a chair at home. On an average road, it’s great. It rides as good as my ’96 Silverado. The seats are more comfortable than the seats in my Silverado. I got them out of a salvage yard. They came out of an S10, high-back bucket seats. I guess they were top of the line models, a little more luxury than what comes standard in an S10. It’s real comfortable. Tilt steering wheel… you can pull the steering wheel down, lay the seat back, set the cruise control out on the interstate, and ride.

So you’re having fun with the Rodster?

Oh, we have a ball with it.

Would you recommend it even if the builder were not a mechanical whiz?

Like I said, anybody can do it. My wife could build it. If they can read a tape measure, they can build it. Somebody who really wasn’t into mechanics, if they can read a tape measure, just take the time… the worst thing they could do is get into a hurry. You get into a hurry, you’re going to mess something up, but if you just measure it and stand back and look at what you’re fixing to do, then do it, you’ll be okay. I don’t see where anybody would have any real problems. Henry even tells you what tools to use in the instruction manual. If you’re doing it at home, that’s great. Like I said, I’ve got my shop and I’ve got a lot of specialty tools. Like when I cut the roof off the car, I used a Skilsaw. He didn’t have you using a Skilsaw, he had you using a reciprocating saw, which I’ve got a reciprocating saw, but I didn’t use it. I used a Skilsaw with a metal cutting blade. And then on the quarter panels, to cut those off, I have what they call a plasma cutter. You can write your name in the side of the car with it; it’s like writing with a pencil. And it doesn’t distort the metal or anything. That’s what I used to do my trimming. But I could have used a reciprocating saw. I did use it on a couple of small places, but mainly a Skilsaw and a plasma cutter are all I used to cut everything up and get the old parts off.

How much money do you think you have invested in your Rodster?

I’ll tell you, I went a little overboard. Mine’s brand new, bumper to bumper. Even the wiring harness, I ordered it brand new from the Chevrolet dealer and stuck it in there. The computer, DVCM???, for the engine, I put that in there, a new fuel pump in the gas pump. All the front end bushings and ball joints and spindles and brakes and calipers and brake hoses. I replaced everything. I wanted a new car. I replaced every stinking piece on that car. Put a new windshield in the front. Like I said, I redid all of the interior, the carpet, and all. I had the steering column out; while I had that out, I went ahead and put a deep??? cruise handle in it because the right one wore out in the one I had. I wanted it all to look new. Put a new pad on the brake pedal. I went overboard with it. It’s brand new bumper to bumper. I probably got close to $15,000 in it. I even bought a brand new steering wheel to put on it; put a custom steering wheel on it.

How much did your donor car cost?

Oh, shoot. I think I gave $400 for it…’89 model; I bought it sight unseen. I told everybody I was looking for one. Fellow about 50 miles away, who owned a newspaper, had it. He owns a farm, too. He bought it brand new. I sent a tow truck after it, and the tow truck brought it in, dropped it down on the driveway – man, this thing was rough! The seats were folded down; it had bales of hay thrown up in it, all kinds of garbage thrown up inside it. Bashed in. It was just ugly. (laughs) It had a dent on the front fender, and on the quarter panel, and the windshield was cracked. Anyway, I put a booster battery on it and cranked it, and it cranked right up and ran. It had a rod rattling in the motor, and it was all greasy and nasty. But it’s what I wanted. I didn’t want to go out and pay $4,000 or $5,000 for one because I knew I wanted to make it all brand new.

What do you think about the overall bang for the buck of the Rodster?

Well, I don’t think you can go buy anything else and have the kind of fun with it you can have for the dollar. My oldest daughter’s got an S10 Blazer and I was kidding her, “We’re going to cut yours up and make you one.” My 16 year old, I built her an S10 Blazer and put it in there, 17” wheels and all this, and I didn’t pay more than $200 for it. Had a bad engine in it. I bought it from a customer. It was a little rough, but anyway, I got it running and put the 17” wheels on it, and said, “Well, we’ll order another kit and build another one.” We didn’t get that far, with the racing and all that.

So they want to do the conversion, too?

Shari would, other than she wouldn’t have a backseat for the kids. That’s the only drawback for her. Now, the guys at the shop came up with another idea a while back. They said, “Why don’t we buy a 4-door S10 and make a 4-door Rodster?” So that’s something else we were thinking of. They said we could even put suicide doors on it, where the doors open from the front instead of the back. That’s sorta like the old Lincolns… used to be 4-door convertibles. But I don’t know, it would look pretty neat – a stretched out Rodster with four doors on it. That would give you a backseat. The only thing I’d have to do is cut that hardtop in half and add a section in the middle. That’s the thing about it – a person can let their imagination go on something like this. They can change little things if they want to. If they don’t, you know it’s great without making any changes. But, if you want to, you can. It’s easy to do.

Is yours 2-wheel drive or 4?

Two-wheel.

What kind of engine?

Actually, it’s a ’97 Vortech 4.3. They came out with what they call OBD2 computer system VCM to run the fuel injection engine management on the ’97 engine. It’s too complicated to wire it up, so what I did was change the fuel injection to a ’95 model and used the ’95 VC computer to run the engine. It’s all 50-state emissions legal. That’s all I did – used a ’95 fuel injection on a ’97 engine. The ’97 engine’s got a little more horsepower compared to the early engines. It’s got a balance shaft running through the engine above the camshaft and it makes it real smooth. The early 4.3 Chevrolets had a little annoying vibration to them. I started to put a V8 in it -- and who knows -- I might end up doing it. I think that would be awesome. It’s got all the power in the world – 200-some-odd horsepower. Right now, the V6 has got a lot more horsepower than a 283 Chevrolet V8 had in the late ’60s. You never know, we might get wild one day and pull it back into the shop and take the nose off of it and put a V8 400 small block in it with a blower, cut a hole out of the hood. I think it would look awesome. We might do that one of these days, but probably not, it’s so much fun to drive like it is. If I did that kind of stuff, I’d be stuck. I couldn’t drive it everywhere I’d want to go; it would be just an around the town car. Then I wouldn’t be able to get out and drive it 1800 miles or whatever like a while back.

That’s quite a trip.

I followed the guys pulling the racecar. I pulled the top off and put it in the racecar trailer and we drove up to North Carolina. That was Friday night. Left town on Thursday night. Drove it to Nashville, back down to Atlanta, Georgia and from Atlanta, Georgia, back up through North Carolina. Then we left North Carolina and went back down to Columbus, Georgia, back to Memphis… 1,800 miles that one weekend.

How many total miles do you think you’ve got on it?

Oh, shoot, probably about 3,000 miles.

How long has it been finished?

Oh, I renewed tags for it once. I don’t live but 12 miles to work, so I drive it to work and back home. Drive it to the grocery store on Sunday, which isn’t very far. I guess it’s been finished about a year.

What would you say is the best thing about a Rodster?

I can’t think of a word to describe it. It’s unique.

I was asking what’s the best aspect about the Rodster.

I don’t know. It’s a great car for the time and money you’ve got in it. It’s fun. It’s a great little car. Since I ran up on it on the Internet, I fell in love with it the first time I laid eyes on it. I had it in the back working on it… I’ve got regular customers that came in and they’d ask my wife up front, “How’s the little car coming?” and they had to come back and take a look at it. Even when it was all ugly and had primer on it, fiberglass and sand and dust all over it, they were looking at it and saying, “Man, that’s going to look good when you get through with it.” These are doctors and lawyers and real estate people. Business owners around the neighborhood. They’ve been my customers for years. They love it. I’ve got a major Chevrolet dealership down the street, and I had it parked in front of my business one day, and the parts manager from the Chevrolet dealer calls and he says, “Would it be all right if we came by and looked at the car? Everybody wants to come by and see it.” One of them drove by and… they had heard of us building it and they’d seen it sitting out front, so at lunch, all the mechanics, the body shop guys, and the parts men, they came by off and on all afternoon when they were out test driving and checked it out. They all liked it.

Maybe they’ll have you build one for them…

That’s a possibility.